Page 61 of Don't Bite the Director
Another minute passed, and that light too went out.
“Shit,” Saiden cursed, pushing open the car door. He stalked over to an electric panel beside the gate and pulled it open. He jabbed at a few buttons until a mechanical whirring cut through the hauntingly silent night. Slowly, the gate started to slide open.
“If you had a code why not use it from the start?” she asked when he returned.
“It’s an emergency override,” he replied, easing the car forward down the drive. “If you open the gate using that code, then it won’t shut again. It’s a manual fail safe in case something goes horribly wrong. The doors open, and the system locks them so our human employees can’t be trapped inside.”
A tremor ran through Cora’s body. She placed a hand on Saiden’s arm and looked up at him. “We’re not in any danger here, are we?”
His expression gave nothing away, no hint of the severity of the situation beyond that touch of concern carving deep frown lines. “Nothing immediate,” he replied. “I would know if that were the case. There might be a valid reason for everything, but I wouldn’t be good at my job if I didn’t take every potential threat seriously.”
“Okay,” she said, sinking back into the seat, her heart beating faster than a hummingbird’s. She should have asked more questions about his threat awareness ability. Like whether or not it included people around him.
Saiden pulled the car up to the main building and cut the engine.The entire place was dark, not a single flicker of light in sight. Maybe it was all just a power outage?
Yeah, right, like she hadn’t seen enough horror movies to recognize the wide-open front door for what it really was.
“Saiden, what’s going on,” she asked, trying to hide the wobble of fear in her voice. She was a horror film director, damnit. She ate fear for breakfast.
His eyes darted from the home to the grounds just beyond. “I’m not sure,” he replied.
She wondered just how much more he could see with his vamp vision. Whatever he saw, he clearly didn’t like because he handed her the keys.
“Listen to me, Cora. I want you to lock the doors and keep the engine running. If you hear anything other than me telling you it’s safe, I want you to get out of here. Drive into town, and hide somewhere near a lot of people. I’ll come find you when everything is clear.”
She blinked at him. “How will you know where I am?”
“I can smell you a mile away, Cora. I’ll find you. I said you were safe with me, and I meant it.” He paused for a second as if debating, then leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. The kiss was fast and intense and over before Cora even knew what happened.
Then Saiden was gone, vanished into the night.
She stared out into the dark around her, wondering if she should be worried that she might never see him again.
Cora raised a finger to her swollen lips, still able to feel him there, and allowed his last words to run through her mind.
I said you were safe with me.
Only she wasn’t with him now.
It was that thought that was still rolling through her brain a minute later when the car door was yanked open, and something clubbed herover the head.
Shit, she thought as an inky blackness rolled over her vision.
Why do I never remember to lock the doors?
Chapter thirty-seven
Saiden
He took on nests of rogue vampires without hesitation. He put himself into the most dangerous of situations on a near daily basis, and not once did he feel the slightest whisper of fear.
Because he’d never had anything to lose before.
Saiden crept stealthily through the halls, keeping his threat awareness on high alert. Three to four seconds was all the warning he normally got, but for a vampire it was more than enough time to avoid most attacks. With his ears straining for the slightest sound, he searched for anything to indicate the presence of his family or the intruders.
Nothing. Which meant either the house was empty, or everyone inside was already unconscious.
Or dead.
