In the Dead of Cold by Allie Quinn Page B

arms and legs.
    “Call Mr. M.,” Milo instructed. “Bart’s close by. And don’t try to approach her.”
    “Thanks for the warning.” Jacob punched the screen of his cell phone.
    Milo headed toward the lobby door. James was right behind him.
    “So Bart’s controlling her?”
    “Yes.”
    “Knowing what she can do, I have half a mind to let her go to him.”
    Milo, with his hand on the door handle, paused and gave him a sideways look.
    “Okay, so forget I said that. It was just a passing thought. How do you want to do this?” James went on. “We know she has the ability to probably toss us thirty or forty feet.”
    “You’re going to distract her while I grab her.”
    “Oh, thanks a lot. How about you distract her, since that will be the guy who gets slammed aside?”
    “It has to be you to distract her.”
    “How about we do rock, paper, scissors, and the loser of two out of three distracts her?” James suggested.
    Under different circumstances, Milo would have laughed and agreed. “Sorry, buddy, no time. You have to distract her. Otherwise, you won’t know what to do once you grab her. And you’ll still get slammed. Then neither one of us will be able to grab her.”
    James let out something that sounded like a growl. “Fine.”
    Milo pulled the door open, and they raced out into the cold.
    Milo sniffed the air, and he thought he caught a whiff of Bart’s scent, perhaps two miles away, northwest in a grove of pines. Yet he couldn’t be certain. It had been more than a hundred years since he’d been this close to Bart. Then Bart’s dark, evil essence touched Milo. There could be no denying he was near. Where was the sentinel for that area?
    Milo let James get ahead.
    Jane reached the other side of the parking lot and moved toward the gate at the end of Moonlight Lane, the winding road leading to the resort. A rustic iron picket fence denoted the perimeter of the main resort buildings. Vampires couldn’t enter a building or establishment without being invited in. Because the perimeter fence was gated, it required the same invitation as the walls of the buildings. Bart couldn’t get past the gates or into the compound without being invited in—which, of course, he wasn’t. And Jane had to leave by way of the gate at the end of the lane.
    “Ms. Smyth! Jane!” James called out.
    She either didn’t hear him or she ignored his call or she was so far under Bart’s spell she couldn’t be reached. She kept moving at her clipped pace. The wind blew up her skirt, shifted it, and Milo got a glimpse of her sweet, curvy ass tucked into sexy aqua panties.
    Milo worked to stay in James’s shadow and tried to ignore the tightening in his gut. He couldn’t afford to be distracted. He hoped that when Bart commanded Jane to use her energy on James, he would be close enough to grab her without Bart knowing he was there. But if he sensed Bart’s closeness, Bart no doubt sensed his too.
    That was why Milo and James had to be faster than Bart.
    As they reached Jane, James doubled over with an “oof!” as if someone punched him hard in the stomach. Then he was off his feet and landing in the snow a few yards away.
    Not a half second later, Milo grabbed Jane. Her arms were cold beneath his hands. Working quickly and as gently as he could, he turned her around to face him and pulled her into his embrace. “Listen to my voice, Jane. Can you hear me?”
    He felt her energy gather, felt it move through her. It was strong enough to send a tingle into his fingers where he touched her arms, and was like a brush of warm wind against his face. Like an electric current, it sizzled through him. He held her tighter.
    “Jane, listen to me! Listen to my voice!”
    Her energy shoved at him.
    Like a strange dance, they stumbled in the deep snow, but he locked his arms around her and refused to let her go.
    “Look at me!”
    She met his gaze, but her eyes were dark and vacant.
    The lights were on, but nobody was home. Except