Winter's Touch (Immortal Touch Series) (10 page)
Read Winter's Touch (Immortal Touch Series) Online
Authors: Allie Gail
“
Wait a second!
” she called after him, but it was no use. She was yelling at a bolted door. An antique alarm clock was the closest thing within reach and as a result it bore the brunt of her petulance, flying across the room to shatter against the solid wood. She fumed when she heard the chuckle from the other side.
Pompous ass!
Half an hour later, wrapped once again in the bathrobe since the clothes she’d arrived in were nowhere to be found, Eva reclined on the window seat and gazed helplessly from behind cold steel bars at the endless expanse of forest. For all practical purposes, she was cut off from the world. There was no telling how far the nearest neighbor was, no way of knowing how far she’d have to hike to find help. Would Julian be able to track her easily? She couldn’t begin to guess how deep the core of his abilities reached.
Clearly
at
some
point he’d have to leave. He couldn’t stay here all the time, could he? Didn’t he have a job or a business of some sort to run? Normal everyday duties to attend to? He couldn’t spend his life shut up in this house. She couldn’t be guarded
all
the time. And even if there was no accessible way out, surely there had to be a phone or computer around someplace. Some means of communicating with the outside world.
I
nevitably there would be an occasion when the perfect opportunity would present itself, and she planned to be ready. Ready and waiting.
Lainie
came up before long with a breakfast tray, taking a few moments to cheerfully jot down Eva’s clothing sizes on a scrap of paper before departing for whatever town must be nearby. The woman’s displaced motherliness was perplexing. It was disturbing how she could be so sweet and genial, all the while turning a blind eye to the horrors surrounding her. Even so, Eva didn’t have it in her to assault the elderly woman, no matter how dire the situation. Besides, it would likely be a pointless endeavor. No doubt the front door would still be locked.
Then again, the windows downstairs weren’t barred
...
N
oticing her alert regard of the open bedroom door, the woman reached for her arm as if to detain her. “Best put that out o’ yer head, child.”
“What do you mean?”
“What ye’re thinkin’ - it will ne’er work.”
“
How do you know? Are you planning to stop me?” She made the sarcasm in her voice apparent, and immediately felt a twinge of guilt for having spoken so rudely. Unhinged or not, the woman was her elder and it felt wrong to snap at her. Blame her upbringing. Crazily she wondered what the proper etiquette was when dealing with abductors. The idea made her want to laugh out loud...or cry. She wasn’t really sure which.
Lainie didn’t seem bothered by it.
“He won’t let ye leave. If ye try it, ye’re just askin’ for trouble. He knows yer every move and trust me, ye don’t want to be angerin’ him.”
“You could
help
me, you know. If you wanted to.”
With a troubled look, Lainie shook her gray head and said in a low voice, “I’ll do all I can to help ye, lamb.
Believe me, I will. But ye
must
trust me. Runnin’ from him is useless. Ye cannae escape that way, and I fear what he’ll do to ye for tryin’. I don’t wish to see ye hurt. Listen to what I tell ye. Give it some time. It’ll all come out right in the end if ye just have some patience.”
Patience.
Okay, so maybe she had a point. Going off half-cocked without a plan was probably not the best idea, especially considering what she was dealing with. But could Lainie really be trusted? It could be that she wasn’t deranged after all - maybe she was just a victim of circumstance, like Eva herself. Caught up in a situation beyond her control.
Whatever the case, she had no intention of remaining
in this house to have her life slowly drained from her body. Somehow, somewhere, there had to be a way out. And she would find it.
~
*~*~
F
ive days passed before she saw her chance.
Five days of solitary confinement in that blasted room. By now she knew every square inch of it.
Lainie had let her out of the bedroom to browse through the library. Poring over the vast selection of books, Eva pretended to be too absorbed in them to pay much attention when the woman excused herself to check on a load of laundry. Actually, it was just the break she’d been looking for.
Julian was nowhere
in sight. She’d seen him only fleetingly since their night together. His appetite satisfied, she no longer appeared to interest him - a fact that could very well work to her advantage.
Dressed in jeans, a
cashmere sweater and Timberlands purchased by Lainie - who either had impeccable taste or a really good personal shopper - she tiptoed quietly downstairs. No time to return to her room for a jacket. According to the chatty woman, the temperature outside was lower than normal for mid-October, but Eva wasn’t worried about that. She could endure it if it meant freedom. With any luck, the windows wouldn’t have alarms on them and she could climb out unnoticed.
So far, so good. Nobody around. And just in case
...
Holding her breath, she
carefully tried the door.
No
freaking way.
Just like that,
it swung open to usher in a rush of cold air. Temporarily anchored to the floor in disbelief, she inhaled deeply, savoring the taste of sweet liberation. Someone had really slipped up. So this was it - the chance she’d been waiting for. Time to move, and fast.
Run
!
Having no
clear-cut idea which way was best, she bolted straight ahead down the rough dirt road. The shortest distance between two points was a straight line, right? This was the way they’d come in, so it had to be a way out as well.
Her hair streamed behind her as her feet
practically flew, dodging washed-out potholes, leaping like an antelope over a fallen pine tree branch, hiking boots thumping on the hard ground. The sound echoed in her head. A quick look over her shoulder reassured her that nobody was following, and she wanted to laugh with joy.
Poor Lainie should’ve bought me strappy high heels instead. Didn’t see this coming, did she...
What the hell?
She stopped almost in her tracks, a difficult feat considering the speed at which she’d been sprinting. Skidding, her hair flew forward into her line of vision and she frantically pushed it back, never taking her eyes off the obstacle in her path.
It was a
dog.
Which meant
...somewhere nearby, there had to be another house then, right? The home belonging to the owner of the dog, the German Shepherd that sat in the middle of the road curiously examining her, shaggy gray head tilted slightly to one side.
“He
re, boy,” she said softly, offering a hand.
Lowering his head, the dog bared his teeth and growled.
Oh, hell’s
bells!
“It’s okay, baby.
It’s okay.” Eva squatted on her heels, hoping to earn the animal’s trust. She kept one hand out, averting her eyes in an effort to concede to the dog’s show of dominance.
From behind her came
a faint rustle.
No!
Her head snapped around, and she didn’t know whether to be relieved or alarmed. It wasn’t Julian but another dog, a carbon copy of the one in front of her, approaching from the rear with his head lowered aggressively.
She
straightened, helplessly looking from one dog to the other, uncertain how to proceed from here. There was no
time
for this! Damn it all, where was their owner?
Going back was not an option.
She took a step forward.
The first dog
bounded towards her, snarling viciously. She scrunched her eyes shut and held her arms in front of her face, bracing for the attack.
Nothing.
She opened her eyes.
Now
seated directly in front of her, the dog had resumed his former stance, peering up at her expectantly as if waiting for her to scratch his ears or reward him with a treat.
Hesitantly
she reached out and touched the thick fur. He licked her hand, then nudged it with his head to encourage another pat so she stroked his head while he closed his eyes rapturously.
“You want to come with me? Huh, boy?
Come on, let’s go for a walk.” Eva carefully took a step forward, and watched with amazement as the dog’s disposition snapped immediately back into defensive mode. He growled again, fur bristling.
She could have cried.
Taking a few steps backward, she was surprised when the dogs ignored her, panting happily as if they hadn’t a care in the world. But when she attempted once more to move forward they both came at her, gnashing their teeth and barking ferociously.
“You aren’t going to let me leave, are you?” She might have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
She’d made the mistake of underestimating him. Julian was a lot of things, but he was no fool. Lainie was right - running was useless.
The shaggy dogs followed her all the way back to the house, one flanking each side of her, baring their sharp teeth at
her every attempt to head in any direction other than the vampire’s home.
He was relaxing on the
front deck, legs stretched out before him, leisurely sipping a glass of Pinot Noir.
Black eyes twinkling, he smiled
slyly. “Did you have a nice walk?”
She glared at him. The dogs retreated to the forest, their duty done.
“I suppose those are
your
dogs.”
“On the contrary, my dear.
Those were gray wolves.
Canis lupus Linnaeus.
Not many left in this area, which is a shame. They’re really quite beautiful, aren’t they?”
“Those were
wolves
?” She turned to see if she could still catch a glimpse of them, but they had disappeared into the trees.
“Mm. Endangered species, you know. However, there
are
more than just those two. I wouldn’t go wandering off again if I were you.”
“You sent them after me, didn’t you?”
He gestured to the empty spot beside him on the teak patio bench. “Come join me. Would you like some wine?”
“What I’d
like
to do is take that bottle and lay it across...”
“I understand. You’re restless.
In need of some fresh air and sunshine. At any rate I suppose it isn’t necessary to keep you shut up in that room any longer. You may have free rein of the house from now on. Just stay out of the woods, Red Riding Hood.”
Relenting,
Eva joined him on the bench. It was pointless. Completely pointless. As far as he was concerned she was his possession, his toy, and he’d play with her until she broke. The question was, how long would it take for her to break?
He
refilled his glass, watching her out of the corner of his eye. “Won’t you have some? It’s very good.”
“No.”
“Really, Eva, your resistance is becoming tiresome. Why can’t you just relax and enjoy yourself? Look around you. This place is a paradise. Why do you think I came here?”
“
Geographic isolation?”
“You miss the point. You have to learn to
appreciate life.”
“Coming from
you
, that must be the most ironic statement ever made!” She crossed her arms and slouched backwards, scowling.
“Oh, stop your pouting. It’s unbecoming.” With a smirk, he polished off his glass of wine. “Why don’t you run upstairs and fetch a coat, then we
’ll go for a walk. Since you seem so keen for exercise.”
The proposal took her by surprise. Going someplace, even with
him
, was preferable to staying locked in that tiresome room all afternoon. With this in mind she dashed upstairs to hastily retrieve a cream-colored parka. The coat looked expensive, as did all the other items her closet and dresser had been filled with. It struck her as odd that he would spend what must have been a small fortune on her wardrobe.
Very
odd. Especially considering she rarely left her room.
Rejoining him on the deck,
she reluctantly took the arm that was offered her. It was on the tip of her tongue to snap at him,
aren’t you just the gentleman!
But she thought better of it. Sarcasm was apt to land her back upstairs.
They strolled down a footpath into the woods
behind the house, in the opposite direction she’d taken in her sprint for freedom. The wolves were nowhere in sight. The temperature was in the upper thirties and a chill wind scattered the dead autumn leaves about. The cold air in her lungs was invigorating, instilling within her much-needed energy. Had the situation been different, she’d have been deliriously happy on a day as gorgeous as this one.
