The Baby Of The White Tiger (BWWM Shifter Romance) (6 page)

“
I know. It may be hard to hear you right now. I’m going to turn the water on.”

“
I will listen to the water beat down on your body and wish that I was in its place.” He knew immediately how badly placed his joke was. Dom sighed and turned the water on, not answering his comment. He had been trying to make her laugh, but it was obvious that in the state of mind that she was in, there was no use trying to get her to laugh. He listened to her shower; the rushing water prevented them from hearing each other. He didn’t say a word, but hoped that the cleansing water would help ease her pain long enough for her to reach his side. Once she was there he would be able to protect her. He thought about seeing her again, holding her in his arms. He hoped that she was feeling the same thing.

He heard the water stop. “Are you feeling any better?”

“I think that I am. I’m ready to get back on the road.”

“
Make sure you have a map.” Gregor warned her. “You should buy one before you leave.”

“
Thank you for reminding me. I don’t have a GPS built into my car.”

“
There might be one on the phone if it’s a smart phone, but if you lose reception it isn’t going to work very well.”

Dom nodded and then realized that he couldn’t see the motion. “I’ll take care of it. I’ve got to get dressed then get back on the road. I should let you go.”

“Make sure you try to eat something soon. You need to keep your strength up.”

“
I’ll try. I promise.” She ended the call and finished dressing. Eager to get underway, needing to be with someone as soon as possible.

Chapter6

Dom knew that she had to go north, but wasn’t exactly sure how to get to Oklahoma City. She had showered and changed already, bought something to eat to bring with her and was ready to get moving once again. She reached down to one of the smart phones and opened up a GPS application. She typed in her destination and waited for her route to load. In her purse, she found a car charger for the phone and she plugged it in, knowing that the phone would die soon. Sighing, she started the car and pulled onto the street carefully following the direction that her phone told her. “I’ve had better days.” She groaned, frustrated with the turns her life had taken her. “I have no idea how I’m going to make lemonade out of these lemons.”

It was a long dark drive in the desert in the dead of night. She drove through Alamogordo and turned onto the road that led into the mountains. It didn’t take her long to realize that on curvy mountain roads, headlights didn’t do a whole lot of good. She couldn’t see around the next bend as she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. She had a long time on the highway and couldn’t afford to fall asleep at the wheel. “Stay awake, Dom. You have to get away.” She was talking to herself as she turned on the radio to find only static. She sighed in frustration and reached between the seats to pull out her CD case. She didn’t really check to see which album she had in her hand, but immediately placed it into the stereo. The slumbering words of Billie Holliday rang through the car, soothing her pained nerves.

She was instantly transported to a better place, somewhere where she wasn’t alone. Somewhere where her life hadn’t been turned upside down, for a moment she was safe in her house with her grandmother cooking in the kitchen. It didn’t take long for everything to come flooding back. She was alone, on the run from vampires because she had become the mate of a were-tiger that was supposed to negotiate a peace between rival shifter clans. Her home had been nearly destroyed and a friend had lost her life defending her. The world felt like it was falling apart at the seams.

Dom tapped her foot as she put the cruise control on. She started to sing along to the song, enjoying the memories the song brought her back into. Her grandmother had played Billie Holiday for her as a child, when she had been sick or sad the crooning scratchy voice would always make her feel just a little bit more comfortable. She gave herself over to the song, singing along and trying to change her life back to the way it was before.

As she drove, she tried to think about anything but the situation she had found herself in. She was just about two months pregnant and it seemed like everything was going crazy. This child hadn’t even been brought into the world and already his world had been filled with adventure. Every moment of her life since she had met Gregor had been filled with changes. Dominique wasn’t entirely sure she liked the changes yet, but now wasn’t a time to make a decision like that. She should wait until it ended, but there was a problem with that plan. She didn’t know how this was going to end, but she hoped that her child would make it through. She sent up a silent prayer, hoping that everything would go uneventfully from here on out, but when the headlights started to shine brightly in her rear-view mirror she instinctively knew that her wish was not going to come true. They were on a long stretch of empty highway. There was no one around to get help from and the car rode her bumper.

The car could have passed her, but it didn’t. It stayed behind her, his headlights nearly blinding her through her rear view until she remembered to shift it up just a bit to stop the light from shining directly into her eyes. She changed lanes, hoping to let the car ahead of her, but it followed her, closely mimicking her lane change. It worried her immensely, but she knew that she had to get some place safe. She started to speed up, knowing that there was a town in less than ten miles from her current location. She just had to make it. “This car wasn’t built for speed.” Dom cursed under her breath. She kept going forward, knowing that at this point she only had one option. She had to get to the town; she just hoped that her pursuer wasn’t going to do something drastic before she could get to safety.

Another mile passed. The car continued to follow her but wasn’t taking any action yet. Still it felt ominous. Dom was starting to get a little bit of hope, but it wasn’t going to last. The car behind her started to speed up. She tried to keep up, but it was obvious that the car behind her had more power. There was no way that she could stop him. She shifted lanes again, slowing down by tapping the brakes as she moved, hoping to get behind the vehicle. It worked and she felt a little better, knowing that the car was ahead of her and would be there for a little while. She hoped that the maneuver would by her enough time to get to the next town. The other car shifted in front of her, slamming down the brakes.

As the red lights shone into her eyes she felt the panic get a thousand times worse. She slammed on her brakes as well, trying to swerve around the car. Her vehicle skimmed the guardrail, a horrible grinding sound accompanying the sparks that were lighting up the dark. The noise was horrifying and deafening, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She was on the side of a mountain and she didn’t have anyplace safe.

When she recovered she reached into her purse, hoping that there would be a gun or some sort of rocket launcher hidden in one of the pockets. What she found was a disappointment. She pulled out a wooden stake. “What is this, a joke?” She asked herself the question, there was no one there who could answer her and she gripped the weapon, knowing that she didn’t have a whole lot of other options. “I’m not trained for this.” She groaned as she focused on keeping her car on the road.

The other vehicle appeared to have slowed down a little, giving her some space while it prepared for its next strike. She hoped that it would be the last she saw of it, but knew that it wasn’t going to be the case. She was going to have to do something. The other car came along side her. She looked over, but couldn’t see through the tinted windows. It was just too dark to be able to see anything. She cursed again as she saw his car inch closer to hers. She was being forced over to the side of the road. He was trying to stop her car but didn’t seem to want to hurt her. For a brief moment she wondered if it would be safer if she pulled over and tried to fight her attacker hand to hand, but remembering that the man was more than likely a vampire made her decide against it.

She slammed on her brakes and swerved over behind the vehicle. She hoped that this was going to work, but couldn’t make any guarantees. She risked it anyway, not seeing any other way to solve this quickly. She sped up, trying to put her pursuer on the defensive, but he seemed to be much more collected than she was. He tapped his brakes, rapidly slowing down; playing chicken with her. She cursed again, not knowing what she was going to do. She slowed down as well, trying to find a way to get around the other vehicle, but it had moved to the center of the road, blocking her path. This wasn’t looking good and it certainly didn’t look like she was going to make it to the next town unless something changed.

She prayed that another car would come from the opposite direction, giving her some time to reach safety, but it wasn’t in the cards. The vehicle continued to slow and Dom backed off a little bit. She needed to give the car in front of her some space, but it didn’t help. Once she had given the aggressor some space, he slammed on his brakes, swerving and blocking the entire road. Dominique could barely stop in time.

In a flash, the other driver had left their car. Dom identified it as an older model mustang shining a beautiful cherry red in her headlights. She didn’t have time to appreciate the beautiful vehicle however because her window was in the process of shattering. She tried to duck, to cover her face with her hands, but she didn’t have the time before the vampire’s arm shot into the car and grabbed her wrist. She felt the familiar tugging in her musculature and joint. That arm had already been grabbed and pulled by a vampire previously. It ached, and she could feel the ripping and tearing of the tendons in her arm. She knew that it would take time to heal. It hurt, but she forced the pain out of her mind. She had to focus on how to get away, if she couldn’t she didn’t know if she was going to survive.

She slipped the stake into her waistband covering it with her shirt as she was pulled out of the car. She knew that she was only going to get one shot at this and she had to wait until the last moment. He pulled her out of the car through the broken window. She could feel the shattered glass ripping into the flesh.

The vampire inhaled strongly, enjoying the smell of her blood. “It’s too bad I’m under orders not to have a late snack.” He placed her on her feet. “Are you going to walk or am I going to have to carry you to the car?” His voice was growling and angry, he didn’t like the thought that she had almost gotten the better of him.

She wanted to spit in his face, but knew that it wouldn’t help her situation at all. “I’ll walk.” Her voice held anger. She didn’t know how she was going to do it, but she couldn’t let herself get taken. She had to do something, but was waiting for the right moment. It was hard to force herself to wait, hoping that something was going to happen in order to change her life. The window for the right moments was closing quickly as he escorted her to his vehicle. He brought her around to the passenger’s side as lights started to show around the corner. The vampire looked up distracted, peering to see if they were going to have company. It might make his job a little more difficult if there were witnesses.

Dom took that moment to rip the stake out of her pants and thrust it into her captor’s chest. It was the first time that she had ever taken a life. She saw the car turn off of the highway before he could stumble onto the scene. The vampire’s eyes widened in surprise, shining bright red in the headlights. It was the moment just before his body fell limp that she would remember for the rest of her life. She had connected with his heart, she knew what that she had to do it, but it didn’t feel nice. She hadn’t really done anything like this before.

She stood in the center of the road shaking for a long moment. She knew that she had to make some decisions. Which car would be best for her to take? She didn’t know what to do. She stood there, unsure of the entire situation. She looked at the body at her feet and knew that no matter how much pain she was in, she couldn’t leave it in the center of the road. She dragged him off of the road, leaving him by the edge of the cliff. Then she climbed into the mustang, still shaking as she pulled it over to the side of the road. She thought that it would be best if she took the mustang, but wasn’t ready to let go of her car. She climbed into her seat and started the engine. The smoking was immediate. She pulled the car over to the side of the road behind the mustang and popped the hood open. The diagnosis was clear as soon as the smoke cleared. “Damn it.” She cursed again. It felt like she had been cursing a lot more than usual lately. “There’s a hole in the radiator.” She hadn’t seen him punch through the front of her car, but he must have found the time when she came to pull her out of the car.

That made her decision for her. She had to keep moving. She grabbed her bag and purse out of her car. Stopping for a moment to make sure that she had her CD case, she looked at the phone. Opening the contacts she could see that there was an in case of emergency number that was labeled. I.C.E. She smiled, and sent out a text with the closest mile marker. Telling whoever was on the other end of the line that she had to leave her car behind, but would continue heading to meet up with Gregor. She had just climbed behind the driver’s seat of the mustang when she received a response. She looked at the screen and read the response. “We’ll take care of it. Keep moving.” It comforted her to know that there was someone on the other end of the line. She informed them of the vampire and they said not to worry. She started the engine and was on the move again. She worried that she had just stolen a car, but knew that she had some extenuating circumstances. The mustang had a nice stereo so she put on her CD, Billie Holliday once again and started to drive over the mountains. The encounter with the vampire had given her a strange solemn source of energy. Her mind raced over her situation as she drove, her mind forcing itself over the same thoughts, over and over they flowed through her head, running into each other and causing confusion. “Just keep going.” She ordered herself to focus on the road.