With cautionary glances back and forth, the two made their way across the street and into the wooded glade. They did not find their exact exit from their arrival, so they instead dove headlong through the brush in between the trees. They shoulder rolled up into a crouching position.
All was still; there was nothing moving, save for them and the traffic that they had just left. They were alone for now. William looked at Nicolas and the scout stared right back at him. Neither of them had ever gotten into the Whyte Plain by themselves and now they were here, knowing an entrance was nearby, with no way to access it.
Nicolas asked, “Now what Will? You know it’s only a matter of time before those vampires catch up with us. We have to find a way out of here or we’re as good as dead.”
William looked up and down the trees, he was aware of the circumstances. “I know Nick just give me a second to think. There has to be a way out of here.”
He looked around the clearing letting his eye adjust and he tried to focus on what was there.
“What are you staring at?”
He had no idea and said as much.
“Well, we can’t just sit here.” Nicolas leaned against a tree with a heavy sigh, “All that time and training just to end up here, the only safety is a place we can’t reach and we have nowhere to go.” Nicolas slid down the tree to lie on the ground and stare up at the sky.
There was a bitter truth to that statement that William just wasn’t quite ready to give in to. He crouched down on the ground and felt the grass. He listened to the sounds of the city and he inhaled the scent of the trees. There had to be a way. He stood up. Nicolas was now lying on the grass looking up at the night sky. He was remaining quiet, for now. William left him and slowly walked around the little clearing. He couldn’t feel anything different in the air or the trees as he walked.
He knew that if they couldn’t get to the Whyte Plain, they would have to travel on foot. It took him and Aceso a week or more to reach the Mountain. Here in L.A. they were farther than that. He knew that L.A. to Mt. Shasta was about six hundred miles, anywhere between eight and half to ten hours driving. On foot even in werewolf form it would take weeks. Especially since Nicolas didn’t share in the pack bond and he would grow tired faster than William would.
The pack bond would allow Aceso to know where he was at least. After a day or two the City would realize something had gone wrong and come and get them. They would have to. The only thing was that he and Nicolas would have to stay hidden and away from those vampires. They may be happy with their Elder prize and forget about them entirely. This was probably the case, otherwise at least one or two vampires would have been sent to follow them. Still, something told him that every moment they spent in the city was another moment where they could also be captured.
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“Nicolas, we have to leave.”
“No shit asshole,” Nicolas said propping himself up on his elbows.
William ignored him and walked along the interior of the clearing. He wasn’t sure which way to go but they had to find some place safe to wait everything out for a few days. Aceso would come and get them back home. Waiting here was not the best thing, but it was better than just blindly heading north and hoping they didn’t get arrested for flagrancy somewhere.
“We can’t get to the Whyte Plain, so we’re going to have wait for someone to come and get us.”
Nicolas scoffed, “Really? And how do you suppose that we do that? I don’t have any money, do you? How are we going to hide out for a few days? Here? In this tiny patch of woods, in the middle of LA? Yeah, nobody would ever think to look for us here. What else you got, fearless leader?”
William almost shifted just to beat his ass. It would be gratifying to wipe that smug look off his face, but his points were still valid. They couldn’t get a hotel room and they couldn’t stay here. Then he looked upward. The sliver of the new moon was still visible in the night sky. The morning would be coming soon. Even Nicolas would be able to follow the sun east. East was where they had to go.
“We have to go east.”
Nicolas got to his feet. “Wait a minute what do you mean; ‘we have to go east.’ That’s pretty vague, man.”
“It might be vague, but east is the way to the desert outside the city. If we can get outside the city, we’ll be relatively safe. We can live in the desert; we can’t live here.” He took a deep breath, “Besides if you’re right, and I think you are, those vampires will still be looking for us. If we stay here in their backyard we’ll be found, sooner or later.”
Nicolas slowly nodded his head, “OK, but we have to wait till sunrise, they won’t be able to follow us then and we can move without people looking at us weird…so long as we don’t accidently stumble through South Compton. If we get within twenty miles of that place, two white guys walking down the street, we’ll be lucky to avoid being shot.”
That was something William hadn’t even considered. There were places here that they were and were not allowed to go. The people here knew those areas, they didn’t. The vampires and whoever helped them would be looking for things out of the ordinary. Maybe that’s why they were caught at that records’ building. Who goes to a records building in the middle of the night?
“You’re right. We’ll be careful and we’ll find a map as soon as possible. Then we get out of the city, OK?”
Nicolas looked skyward and shook his head. “Well, I can’t ever say my life has been boring. Yeah, whatever you say. Let’s get to the desert.”
William looked skyward again and he swore that the stars were starting to dim, of course that might have been wishful thinking as well. He and Nicolas made their way out of the small copse of trees and jumped onto the sidewalk.
This was the most dangerous way to travel, but he hoped that if they stayed calm and walked like they had nothing to hide, maybe prying eyes would overlook them; it was easy to hide in plain sight when you were just two of eighteen million.