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were facing the road
out of the cul-de-sac, she put the car into Drive. “Aiden, I, um, I have n-no
idea what to do.”
    “Just make it fast.” His voice was rough, his
expression focused as he started to roll down his window.
    Taking a deep breath, Olivia gripped the wheel with
both hands and floored the gas pedal. The back wheels made a god-awful noise,
searching for traction, and then the car finally lurched forward, tearing down
the moonlit road. A scraping, sinister howl sounded from somewhere in the
darkness up ahead, and she shivered, praying she wasn’t going to throw up from
the churning rush of adrenaline and fear.
    “What are you doing?” she asked when Aiden turned
around, reaching into the backseat.
    “Putting Jamie’s blanket and pillow over her head. The
Marker will protect her from the Casus’s claws and fangs, but she could be cut
by the glass if any of the windows get shattered. That’s why I’m covering her
up.”
    “Oh, God,” she groaned, feeling as if she’d slipped
into some kind of horrific action movie that had been horribly miscast,
terrified she would make a mistake that could cost Jamie her life. “Please keep
her safe,” she whispered under her breath. “Please, please, please keep her
safe.”
    Continuing to send up the quiet prayer, Olivia flicked
on the high beams and glanced over to see Aiden watching her with a kind of
confused expression on his rugged face, as if he couldn’t quite understand what
she was doing. “What?” she asked, sinking her teeth into her trembling lower
lip.
    “You really care about her, don’t you?” It was obvious
from his tone that the idea surprised him.
    “Of course I do,” she snapped. Then, in a calmer
voice, she said, “Why do you find that so hard to believe?”
    He shrugged his broad shoulders, looking as if he was
almost embarrassed as he turned his attention back to the road. “I just don’t
think a lot of humans feel that way about our kind.”
    “You mean I shouldn’t love her because she isn’t
human? That’s ridiculous. I couldn’t care less if she’s human or Merrick, a
mermaid or a fluffy little bunny rabbit.”
    “You’d be surprised by some people, then,” he
muttered. “Not everyone feels the same way.”
    Anger made her voice hard. “Then they’re jerks. And
brainless ones at that.”
    “Can’t argue with you there,” he drawled in a husky
slide of words, and from the corner of her eye she could see his mouth curve
with a wicked, endearingly lopsided grin.
    The howls suddenly came again, sounding considerably
closer, and Olivia gripped the wheel tighter, silently cursing the damn road
for being so long. Funny how it had never seemed that way before, and now it
felt as if it stretched out forever, like an endless pathway leading straight
into hell.
    “You see anything big and ugly and gray, hit it,”
Aiden instructed her in a low voice. “Just try to avoid a tall guy with auburn
hair, and one whose hair is short and black, if you see them. They’re with me.”
    “Both Watchmen?” she asked, wincing as she took the
next curve too fast and the wheels screeched in protest.
    “The redhead is. His name’s Kellan. The other’s a
human, but Noah’s fighting with us against the Casus.”
    Looking over his shoulder, he reached back and patted
Jamie’s leg, his voice raised so that he could be heard over the roaring engine
and the guttural howls. “Jamie, baby, I need you to cover your ears, okay?”
    Olivia steered them around the next bend in the road,
and without any warning, the first monster came out of the woods, charging the
car head-on. The impact as it slammed onto the hood reminded her of the time
she’d been rear-ended on the interstate by a drunk driver, the jolt slamming
through Olivia’s body hard enough to make her bones rattle. Claws screeched
against the metal hood as the beast struggled to hold on, the nightmarish sound
making her want to scream with terror, though she refused to give