“You must be awful stupid comin’ around these parts, girl—even with a Vampire at your side.” A loud voice snapped.

A woman came into view, emerging from where she blended in with the forest line. Her skin was as dark as the bark that covered each tree, but that was where the similarities ended. She swayed her round hips gracefully as she approached the bike, her full lips curled back in a fearless sneer. She stopped five feet away, standing on the dual yellow lines that split the road in two. The leather jacket she wore glittered under the moon, mirroring the light in her dark eyes.

For a single fleeting moment, I wondered if they were oblivious to who we were. The miniscule dash of hope fizzled out when the woman spoke a second time.

“And don’t expect me to call you Queen, you ain’t no friend of me or mines.”

Though I didn’t dare take my eyes off the Vampire, I could see in my peripherals that she wasn’t the only one venturing from the forest to stand in the road. In all, I counted f