A Job From Hell (Ancient Legends #1)

thought she
wanted out. We should’ve brought cuffs and a gag.”
    Clare frowned. “What’s wrong with you,
Blake? This is a rescue mission, not a kidnapping.”
    Blake shrugged and stepped aside. For a
moment, I was stunned to find myself free to move. I opened my mouth to scream,
then closed it when Clare gave me a tight hug whispering in my ear, “Us girls
have to stick together, right?”
    Didn’t look like she harbored any murderous
thoughts. The other guy turned and I recognized Devon. He helped the vampires
now?
    My fluttering heart calmed down a little. Whatever
was going on, Devon seemed to be leading the whole operation. But could I trust
him? I punched him in the arm. “You have some nerve, Shadow boy. Telling me I’m
crazy for dating a vampire, and here you are with a bloodsucker all over you.” I
let out a huff. “Guys and their double standards. How long have you been dating
Clare, you hypocrite?” Devon shot Clare a questioning look.
    “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Clare said. “Let’s
get out of here.”
    “No.” I stood my ground. “Aidan wants to
kill me.”
    Clare wrapped her arms around me, pulling
me forward. “That’s nonsense, silly. Now, stay quiet. If they notice us, we’re
all dead.”
    I turned to Devon. He truly cared about my
welfare. Out of the bunch, he was the only one I was willing to believe. “I
thought you said Aidan was the bad one and the Shadows the good ones.”
    Devon smiled, face flickering like bad
reception on TV. “You couldn’t pay me a million dollars to live here in Freak
Ville. Deidre’s a nutcase.”
    They sure liked to change their alliances. My
gut feeling told me to trust them, but then again it was the same gut feeling
that advised me to take the housekeeper job, and that had been a bad move.
    “Ready?” Clare asked. When I nodded, she
motioned the others to move. Devon shot me a lazy grin. Something moved beneath
his slightly tanned skin, stretching and flickering for a few moments. It
disappeared as quickly as it started, but I couldn’t stop staring at him as he
led us through the corridors, halting to sniff the air at every turn.
Eventually, he signaled us to stop and stay put. Drawing a deep breath, he
turned a corner with Blake on his tracks.
    “Going out?” a male voice asked, followed
by a groan and the hard thud of someone dropping to the floor.
    This was getting stranger by the minute,
double standards all the way. Either Devon was a traitor, or he had a mission
to fulfill. He’d been preaching the peacekeeping of Shadow Land, and less than
a day later he whacked someone over the head. Why agree to a deal with me when
he was clearly helping the vampires to get me out?
    “What’re we doing?” I whispered to Clare as
Devon’s head appeared around the corner. Clare just shrugged and pulled me
forward, glancing behind her as if to ensure no one was following.
    The door stood wide open; a strong gust of
wind whipped against my skin as I followed Clare out into the night. I couldn’t
help but picture Mel Gibson in Braveheart , shouting “FREEDOM” at the top of his lungs.
    “We need to be fast,” Blake said, elbowing
Devon. “You’re a big fan of races, so show us what you’ve got.” In a fluent
motion, Blake draped me over his shoulder like I weighed nothing, knocking the
breath out of me.
    The trees blurred to a continuous line of
darkness as we sprinted past, branches hitting and scratching my arms. Hanging
upside down, I held on to Blake’s waist, fighting the nausea rising inside my
stomach. Several times I thought I heard voices calling my name, but when I
held my breath to listen, all I could hear was the howling of the wind.
    A few minutes later, Blake stopped and put me
down next to Clare. I peered around, dizzy from the bumpy ride, mumbling, “I
hope you get a speeding ticket.” The forest stretched around us as far as I
could see. It didn’t look different from the woods I’d visited in my childhood
when camping with my parents. If it weren’t for the bad weather and the scary
vampires, I could’ve been in Cornwall.
    Devon—his face flickering again like
a light bulb going on and off—reached us a few seconds later. The
flickering thing stopped, and I gasped. It wasn’t Devon standing before me, but
a tall, large guy about my age, clad in ragged clothes and gleaming red eyes. He
looked like a relative of Cass’s. How could I’ve been so stupid and fall for
their trick? I screamed at the top of