“A’ghreal. I am so sorry for your loss.” Taeral reached up between the seats and took her hand.
She jerked it away. “Don’t,” she said. “I’m sorry. But get used to not touching me. If anything happens to you, either of you…I can’t lose you,” she whispered. “Please.”
“Of course,” he said in a strained voice.
I gripped the wheel hard enough to turn my knuckles white. I’d still help them, for Sadie’s sake—but I already hated her family. In my opinion, they were even worse than Milus Dei.
No one could hurt you more than the people you were supposed to love.
CHAPTER 14
It was going on four in the morning when we arrived at the town of Elk Heights, Pennsylvania—Population 1395, Home of the Famous Elkhorn Jack Lodge and Cider Press, according to the welcome sign. Must’ve passed fifty cow pastures on the way into the valley between two mountains, where the town sprawled from base to base.
I pulled the van over on the shoulder of the main road, just after the Famous Elkhorn Jack sign. Sadie and Taeral had been drifting in and out for the past hour, but they both came around when I stopped. “We there?” Sadie slurred.
“Looks that way.”
“Why’d we stop?”
I smirked. “Because my GPS couldn’t find the nearest secret mountain bunker.”
“Oh.” She straightened in the seat and looked around. “God, I never thought I’d come back to this place,” she murmured. “What a nightmare. And now I have to tell them about Mom...”
“That was not your fault,” Taeral said.
“It doesn’t matter. They’re not going to see it that way. I mean, would you?” She laced her hands together tightly. “That stuff Milus Dei injected me with...I wasn’t strong enough to fight it. I killed her. No hesitation.”
“Didn’t you say they used something on you that suppressed your human side?” I said. “That means it wasn’t really you. How could you have fought that?”
Her jaw clenched. “I’m a born werewolf. I’m supposed to have control,” she said. “Look, let’s just get this over with. You’re gonna keep on this road for a while. I’ll tell you when to turn.”
I shrugged and put the van in gear. I recognized that change-the-subject tone—I’d used it myself plenty of times.
The town populated itself around us as I headed further in. Sparse houses, their windows still dark at this early morning hour, got closer together. Patches of trees and fields gave way to fences and sidewalks. Street lamps gradually replaced the light of the approaching-full moon.
Looking at it reminded me that I should charge my moonstone as soon as possible. I’d recently learned that the clear crystal pendant I’d worn for years, a gift from a stranger, had been Daoin’s once. The stone was found only in Arcadia, the Fae realm, and was used to absorb moonlight and enhance magic.
Not that I knew what the hell to do with the thing, besides make it glow. But it had helped save me more than once.
Side streets became more frequent as we hit the heart of the town and what apparently passed as the commercial district. Stores and churches lined both sides of the road, in what almost looked to be equal numbers. This town must’ve really enjoyed going to church. I counted at least ten of them on the main street alone, and spotted a few more steeples down side roads.
It wasn’t long before the buildings started spacing out again. When I stopped at an all-way stop sign just before a long stretch of fields ahead, I caught a glimpse of a police car sitting dark and silent off the side of the crossroad to the right, about fifty feet back.
As I moved through the intersection, headlights snapped on, and the red-and-blue flickered into the night.
“Oh, shit,” I muttered. “We’re about to have company.”
“What is it?” Taeral said.
“Cops.”
I pulled over, and Sadie stared with faint horror into the side view mirror at the pulsing lights behind us. “What if it’s them?” she said. “I mean, they were running the cops in New York. What if they got to them here?”
“Whatever Milus Dei is doing out here, they couldn’t have infiltrated the cops already,” I said. “They’ve only been here a few days, tops. Let’s just find out what he wants. Maybe I have a tail light out or something.” I glanced at the mirror. The cop was taking his sweet time—he hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet.
Taeral made a frustrated sound. “We should not take the risk.”
“What do you want to do, kill the guy?” I said.
“Yes.”
“No!” Christ, it was bad enough killing actual bad guys. I wasn’t going to murder some small-town cop, probably making a routine traffic stop, just because there was a remote chance he might be Milus Dei. By that reasoning, we might as well kill every human we met, just in case. “We wait and see what he wants,” I said.
“And if he is Milus Dei?” Taeral drawled. “What is your plan then, brother?”
I sighed. “Well, we’ve got the guns in one of those bags,” I said. No one questioned that. I’d kept a few that we’d taken from the dead guys left in the Hive. Figured we’d probably need them out here. “Just…make that the last resort, okay?”
Sadie gave a tight nod, and Taeral huffed an irritated breath.
Finally, the driver’s side door of the cop car opened and a figure in a trooper-style hat got out to approach the van slowly. I lowered my window, watching in the mirror for any sign of aggression or attack. There was a hand near the gun, but no move was made to draw it. Then the figure reached the window.
She was a woman. Early forties, watchful features and sharp eyes. Khaki uniform with a star on the breast pocket, and Sheriff Gormann stitched beneath it. Not just a deputy, then.
The actual sheriff pulling people over was not a good sign.
“License and registration please, sir,” she said, her gaze traveling as much as she could see inside the van before settling on me, unblinking. Now her hand rested on the gun at her hip—casual, but ready. The please had been less polite wait-and-see, more firm command.
She wasn’t Milus Dei, but she was looking for something specific. And whatever it was, she suspected she’d found it.
“Is there a problem, Officer?” I said as I reached for my wallet, feeling like the world’s biggest cliché. But I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“License and registration,” she repeated.
Damn. Something had definitely roused her suspicions, but I had no idea what. I knew the best approach was to say as little as possible, and wait until she started asking questions. So I handed her my license, and then the registration from the band beneath the driver’s side visor.
“Sit tight. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” the sheriff said, and walked away.
I didn’t let out my breath until she’d climbed back in her cruiser. “This isn’t right,” I said. “Sheriffs don’t handle traffic stops personally. Something must’ve happened in this town. Maybe she just stopped me because she didn’t recognize the vehicle.”
Taeral adjusted his seat on the floor, sliding a little further back. “Perhaps we should leave now, before she returns,” he said.
“She has my license. I need that,” I said. “Besides, everything’s clean. We just have to wait for her to run it. I’m sure she’ll let us go.”
“Not necessarily.” Sadie watched the mirror as if she expected a war to break out behind us. “Small-town cops don’t like letting people go. Especially strangers. If something did happen here, and we have anything that might tie into it, she’ll probably hold us.”
“Great.” We couldn’t afford spending a few hours in some backwoods police station while the locals investigated. Sadie and I might pass, but I doubted Taeral had any form of identification that would stand up to even a cursory check. “Any suggestions? That don’t involve shooting her?” I added in case Taeral thought that was still on the table.
Sadie cleared her throat. “I guess I’ll have to pla
y the hometown card,” she said. “Whatever I say, don’t disagree with me. Got it?”
We both got it.
The wait was a bit longer than the first time, but Sheriff Gormann eventually returned to the window and handed my paperwork back. Her face was still guarded and expressionless. “You’re coming from New York City, Mr. Black?” she said.
I nodded. “That’s right,” I said as I replaced my license.
“What brings you through Elk Heights?”
“I grew up here,” Sadie said. “We’re going to visit my family, out on Run Hill Road.”
The sheriff leaned aside and looked at her. “The Nesbitts?”
“No, the Laurents.”
Suddenly, Sheriff Gormann was a lot friendlier—but still unhappy. “You must be Michelle, then. They mentioned you’d be coming into town soon.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Sadie said.
I managed to relax. For now, we were off the hook. I could see it in the sheriff’s eyes.
Now I just hoped she didn’t ask for “Michelle’s” ID.
“Sheriff Regina Gormann. Nice to meet you and your…friend,” the sheriff said. “I’m so sorry about your brother going missing, Miss Laurent. Let your parents know that we’re doing everything we can to find him, and the others.”
The shock on Sadie’s face lasted only a few seconds before she made it disappear. “Thank you, Sheriff,” she said, managing to sound upset. “I’ll be sure to tell them.”
“Sorry about stopping you.” Her features pinched with worry, and for the first time I realized the woman looked exhausted. “We’ve had at least ten people go missing in less than a month, including your brother, and a few witnesses reported seeing a black van around. I’ve got to check everything.”
I nodded, fighting to prevent my own shock from showing. Ten people in a month was a hell of a lot of disappearances, especially for a small town like this. “We understand, ma’am,” I said. “Thank you.”
“You drive safe now, Mr. Black. Miss Laurent.” The sheriff bowed her head, touched the brim of her hat and walked back to the waiting squad car.
I put the window up. “Nice move,” I said to Sadie. “But damn. What’s with all the missing people around here?”
“I don’t know…but I don’t like it,” she said. “We need to get going. The turnoff’s not far from here.”
As I pulled slowly onto the road, Taeral said, “It cannot be Milus Dei, if this has been happening for a month.”
“Right,” I said, though I was starting to doubt that conclusion. Another coincidence—the surviving members of Milus Dei just happened to head straight for Nowheresville, Pennsylvania, which just happened to be the home of a pack of werewolves. Something they’d already known, since they immediately targeted Sadie’s sister. “Maybe your family knows what’s going on,” I said to Sadie.
“Yeah. Maybe.” She didn’t sound convinced, either.
Before long, Sadie directed me to turn left onto a road called Lacy Peak View. The road narrowed as I drove along, and eventually ended in a wide, gravel-paved turnaround that held two half-length, rusted blue buses with LACY PEAK SHUTTLE painted along the sides—barely legible beneath the dust and mud splashed up to the darkened windows.
The dead kid, Leo, had mentioned them taking a shuttle into the mountains. This must’ve been the plan.
“There’s the trail.” Sadie pointed across the turnaround to a packed-dirt path that headed up at a steep angle between rock walls. Small trees and scraggly bushes growing from natural shelves along the sides hung over the corridor, painting black shadows in the moonlight, and a pair of massive evergreens stood on either side of the entrance like silent sentries.
I rolled the van to the start of the path and stopped. “You know those horror movies where a bunch of people get lost in some remote location, and then a crazy slasher chases them through the woods for an hour?” I said. “This looks exactly like that.”
“We’ll be fine,” Sadie said. “Just go.”
“If you say so,” I mumbled, glancing in the rear view mirror. No crazy slashers—but I saw the wash of a pair of headlights slowing down as a vehicle rolled past the turnoff from the main road. Maybe it was the sheriff, still on the prowl for mysterious black vans.
If it was, I really hoped she didn’t come down here. Sadie had said we were going to someplace called Run Hill Road, and this definitely wasn’t the right way there. I still didn’t think Sheriff Gormann had completely bought our story—and all she had to do was check with the Laurents, whoever they were.
I had my foot on the brake, ready to shift into gear, when a bright flash of light exploded from the path, momentarily erasing shadows and blazing through the pine branches like white fire.
“Oh my God,” Sadie half-whispered. “The moonstaff. They wouldn’t—”
Something howled. The long, hungry sound shivered down my spine.
Sadie grabbed for the door handle. “Stay here. I’ll handle them,” she said angrily, popping the door to jump out and slam it shut before Taeral or I could protest.
That was when I noticed the silent column of shapes pouring out of the path. Tall and loping and furry, moving impossibly fast. One of the shapes launched itself from the ground and sailed through the air.
And a werewolf landed on my hood.
CHAPTER 15
Metal crunched and buckled with the impact of the werewolf’s leap. It crouched in front of the windshield, gold eyes glittering and muzzle wrinkled in a silent snarl to show long ivory fangs.
“Uh, Taeral—”
It was all I got out before the werewolf threw a fist at the windshield, and shattered it.
“Shit!” I scrambled over the seat. The wolf’s growl chased me as it crawled through the broken glass, over the steering wheel.
In the back, I found Taeral dumping one of the bags we’d brought on the floor. “Where are the weapons?” he shouted.
“No time! We’ve got company, now.”
He cut a glance at the front and swept an arm out. “À dionadth,” he said.
The air behind the seats rippled like a desert mirage, seconds before the werewolf lunged. The snarling beast smashed into nothing with a startled yelp. Shaking its head, it roared and reared back to slash at the unseen barrier.
“What the hell is that?” I said, remembering I’d seen him do it once before at Milus Dei headquarters in New York. I didn’t have time to ask about it then.
“A shield. Help me find the guns.”
I grabbed the nearest bag, shaking my head. “They’re werewolves,” I said as I yanked the zipper open. “Bullets don’t stop them. Unless they’re silver.”
“They’ll slow them down.”
“Shouldn’t we let Sadie—”
Something smashed into the side of the van, hard enough to dent the wall and rock it up on two wheels.
“Right,” I said. “Slowing them down is good.”
A long beat of silence made me look back. The glass-smashing werewolf was gone. I really wished I could believe that was a good sign.
Before I could dump the bag I held, there was a tortured shriek of metal from the back of the van as one of the doors was ripped off the hinges. A massive paw battered the other door, folding it like an accordion.
Two wolves jumped in, grabbed Taeral and dragged him out.
Okay, I wasn’t going to find the guns in time. Change of plans. I half-turned, headed for the front where the fangs and claws weren’t—only to collide abruptly with the invisible shield I’d managed to forget about.
When I turned back, I was face to face with the werewolf who’d landed on the van.
I hadn’t even heard it coming.
It grinned and grabbed my throat. The grip was like steel, choking the breath from me. I grabbed the arm with both hands and tried to force it away, but it was like pushing on cement.
My blades. I had two of them in my jacket—and I knew werewolves could bleed.
The wolf dragged
me toward outside, and I thrust a hand in my pocket. My vision dimmed with the lack of air, and dizziness threatened to spin me unconscious. My fingers brushed a handle.
As I gripped the curved dagger Taeral had given me, the wolf jumped out of the van and lifted me by the throat. Its lips curled in a wicked, toothy smile.
I pulled the knife and plunged the blade through its forearm.
The wolf let out a pained roar. Its grip relaxed, and I dropped to the ground. As I scrambled to my feet, gasping for breath, I saw three of them batting Taeral’s limp body around like a volleyball.
Two more of them were hauling an unconscious Sadie up the mountain path, into the shadows.
Then a dark shape knocked me to the ground, pinning my shoulders with massive paws.
A growling face loomed inches from mine. Teeth snapped a whisper from my throat. The second werewolf pulled back, grinning—and made a rumbling, liquid sound that was almost a laugh.
The one I’d stabbed crouched next to me, the dagger still in its arm. Grinning like its pack buddy. It grabbed the knife handle, pulled the blade free with a snarl and stared at the runes carved into the metal.
Its gold eyes narrowed on me. “Fae,” it rumbled, glancing at the wolf who still pinned me down. Then it pitched the knife away and straightened. “Kill it.”
“Whoa, wait a minute!” I tried to buck free, but the second werewolf didn’t budge. “We’re Sadie’s friends,” I said breathlessly. “We came to help.”
The first werewolf glared down at me. “Hurt it. Then kill it.”
Before I could say anything else, the second werewolf hauled me up and threw me.
I smashed into the side of the van at about mach two. Pain filled the world, forming a dazzling curtain across my vision. It cleared just in time to see a furred hand grab my shirt and yank me forward—and to feel claws rake burning gashes across my gut.
Fields of Blood (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 2) Page 7
