“It’s a big country,” she said, mostly to convince herself. She’d given their route considerable thought while she’d thrown her belongings together. Mr. Sotiris. . . . No. No more “Mister.” She’d only used it because he’d insisted on the formality, but she no longer had to do what he asked, no longer had to grant him the respect he so obviously didn’t deserve. He’d imprisoned Dragan in stone. That much was indisputable. Maybe it hadn’t been the thousand years Dragan had spoken of, but his statue had been in that dark room for at least the three years she’d lived in the house. And now the statue lay in pieces—and she sure as hell hadn’t taken a mallet to it—while Dragan sat next to her. Improbable as it seemed, that much of his story seemed to hold up. And knowing Sotiris, she was far more willing to give her warrior the benefit of the doubt.
Two things she definitely knew for sure, however. Sotiris was on his way from Manhattan, and he’d be furious when he discovered them gone, and what they’d taken with them. He wouldn’t storm around like a child, however. His anger was a much more focused thing. He’d start looking for them, most likely by calling up one of his personal flunkies to run a search. Their first action would be to try to hack the GPS in her SUV. For all she knew, Sotiris had already tried. It would be like him. He wasn’t a big believer in trust. But it didn’t matter, because she could disable the GPS with a single switch which she’d installed soon after she got the SUV. That had been to keep her parents from tracking her whereabouts in grad school, but she’d never uninstalled it.
While she reached under the dash to take care of that, she began to work on their escape plan. Sotiris was intelligent and ruthless, but he was also misogynistic. He went to great pains to pretend otherwise, but while he was certain of his superiority over everyone, he was especially so when it came to her, since she was not only female, but much younger. That confidence would lead him to assume he could out-think her, and that would be a mistake. She was sure he knew and could do many things she couldn’t, but she had her talents, too.
Since he’d be driving up from Manhattan, he’d assume she’d run away from him, which meant north toward Canada. That wasn’t a bad plan, except that she’d never been farther into Canada than across the pedestrian bridge in Niagara Falls, which wasn’t going to help. So she pulled up a map on the navigation system. She was a visual person and needed to see where they were going.
Dragan remained quiet, but he watched everything she did with an absolute focus that made her suspect he’d be able to duplicate every move, whether he understood the technology or not.
“Right,” she said, entering her chosen route. “We’ll go north to I-390—” She tapped on the map, so he could see what she meant. “—follow Lake Erie to Cleveland, then cut back south to Cuyahoga. It’s a big tourist spot—lots of travelers,” she explained. “Tourists mean plenty of motels and coffee shops. I doubt Sotiris has ever been there, but I can’t see him chasing us down in his own car, either. He’ll hire someone to do it, but their initial information will come from him. I’m betting he’ll assume I’ll make a straight run north, to the border. He probably has connections enough to tell him if we take any of the main crossings into Canada. They all have cameras now. Pictures of everyone. But by then, we’ll be well south. At least I hope so.”
Dragan nodded. “I don’t know your roads, but what I understand of your escape route makes sense.”
Maeve felt a rush of pleasure at his approval. What a geek, Mae, she chided. Her pleasure had nothing to do with his looks, or not much. It was just who she was, the girl who’d read too many fantasies, participated in too many role-playing games in high school. That person was tha-rilled that a serious warrior like Dragan approved of her strategy. Even if it was just a matter of mapping a route on her nav system.
“Do you have a final destination in mind? Friends or allies in the south?” he asked.
She nodded as she backed out of the garage, wanting to get on the road as soon as possible. “I have family in Tennessee, but we won’t be going there. Sotiris can locate my family too easily, and I don’t want them involved in this.” She exhaled an anxious breath and decided. “I think Florida’s our best bet.” She widened the map, so he could see the state. “I heard Sotiris growling on the phone once about hating Florida, because some asshole—his word, not mine—lived there and the whole state reeked of him. I didn’t know what he was talking about then, but now. . . . Could Sotiris sense his enemies’ magic over a distance like that if they were powerful enough?”
He nodded thoughtfully. “It’s possible, though the other person would have to be more than commonly powerful, and that’s rare. It could be nothing more than a strong witch. One of my brothers was the son of an extremely powerful dark witch. Sotiris could sense someone like that over great distances, especially if he entered her home territory. The same would apply for certain vampires. Do you have them in this world? Vampires?”
She glanced at him in surprise. “Vampires? Well, yeah, but I’ve never met one or anything. They’re mostly in gossip magazines with all the beautiful people. But witches? I’m not sure about those. I’ve never read about anything like that, and believe me, the stuff I read would definitely include it.”
“Perhaps they don’t exist in your world, then. But they did in mine.”
She winced. “On the other hand, I never believed sorcerers were real either. I just thought Sotiris was rich and weird, which isn’t all that unusual. But now, there’s you, so I’m willing to suspend my disbelief, as they say, to include the possibility of”—She had to take a long breath before saying it. —“sorcery. Magic.” She made a face. “You’d think I’d be happier about that, but somehow I’m not. Too late, I guess.
“Anyway,” she said, rushing ahead, “the presence of whoever it is that made Sotiris avoid Florida, might make it the safest place for us. That’s about 1000 miles to the northern part of the state. Could be even farther if we can track down your Nicodemus, but we’ll figure that out as we go. Right now, if you add our detour through Cleveland to throw Sotiris off the trail, we’re looking at close to 1400 miles. Maybe more if we take some backroads to confuse things even further. And that’s way too far to drive in a single day. I’m thinking at least 3 days, especially since you can’t drive.”
“Yet,” he added.
“Yet,” she agreed in exasperation. “What do you think about the plan?”
“I think it’s always good to seek out potential allies among your enemy’s enemies. And as this Florida is also a goodly distance, you can teach me to operate your carriage as we travel.”