“Crap!” Grimshaw said. “I told her to stay put.”
“Someone used a friend to bait the trap. Did you really expect Vicki to sit still and wait for you?”
<Stavros,> Ilya called. <Have you reached The Jumble? Victoria is in danger.>
For a moment, there was no answer. Then the problem solver said, <I know.>
CHAPTER 86
Vicki
Moonsday, Novembros 5
I didn’t run into the lake, and I wasn’t standing on the road. Hopefully that meant I was dashing in the right direction to find Aggie and Kira before something else found the two of them. How we were supposed to get back to safety before that something found the three of us was anyone’s guess, because I had no clue.
But I had sand. I surely did. And that’s what I would tell Grimshaw when he started yelling at me for not following orders and staying inside. I would not have an anxiety meltdown because a large man with official cop doodads on his belt was yelling at me. I would tell him I had sand and went out to save my friends.
Would Ilya represent me if Grimshaw arrested me for not obeying orders? Which I wasn’t required to do because I didn’t work for him, so phooey on orders. Wayne Grimshaw was not the boss of me!
I stopped walking and wondered how long I’d been having this argument with myself, because now that I looked around, I had to admit that running off to find Aggie and Kira by myself had been foolish, especially since I’d left my mobile phone on my desk and couldn’t call for help. And I had to admit that I really was in trouble, starting with being lost on my own property. Again.
CHAPTER 87
Aggie
Moonsday, Novembros 5
Hard to think. Hard to move. But she could listen, and that’s what she would do. She would listen—and she would stay alive long enough to tell someone what she’d heard.
“Where is she?” Viktor’s voice. Angry.
“I don’t know!” Kira, the traitor, sounding upset. “I told her where to find us. She should be here!”
“He’ll be disappointed in you.” Viktor sounded pleased about that.
Who would be disappointed? Was there another traitor?
Sound. Someone walking through leaves.
Aggie turned her head just enough to look, to see, to remember.
Walking boots. Jeans. Muddy green coat.
This was the enemy the traitors obeyed. What had Kira called him? Professor.
Aggie couldn’t attack and kill the enemy, but she hoped she lived long enough to peck out one of his eyes.
CHAPTER 88
Ilya
Moonsday, Novembros 5
<Bloodhunter.>
Now it comes, Ilya thought as he and Grimshaw sped toward The Jumble. <Fire?>
<The last human who is staying in your cabins is missing. Twister and I are heading toward The Jumble from the direction of the cabins. Air and Fog are riding up from the main house after a human told Cougar that Vicki ran off to find Kira and Aggie.>
Kira. A willing betrayer of her own kind? Or a puppet that a human had used?
<We are not the only ones looking for Vicki,> Fire said. <There are many hunters in the woods today.>
<Understood.> Ilya didn’t ask for details. He would be told soon enough.
“We’re going to get there too late,” Grimshaw said. “That’s why you insisted that Julian stay in the village.”
“Yes,” Ilya said. “Whatever is going to happen will be done before we arrive, and he doesn’t need to see . . .” Then he considered what Fire had said. <Aiden? Why is everyone looking for Victoria?>
When Fire told him, relief flooded through him. He smiled and turned to Grimshaw. “We may not be too late after all.”
“Why is that?” Grimshaw said, spraying gravel as he turned into the access road for The Jumble.
“Because Victoria must have followed the directions she was given and gotten lost.”
CHAPTER 89
Vicki
Moonsday, Novembros 5
Crap. Crappity crap crap.
Well, I did find a clearing, but I think I also found the septic tank for the main house and the lake cabins.
If I headed north from here, I should be heading for the Mill Creek Cabins and should reach the clearing where Kira said she and Aggie would be waiting.
Okeydokey.
Which way was north?
Finally!
I saw Aggie on the ground and ran to her.
“What happened?” I asked as Kira rushed toward me and grabbed my wrist, burrowing under sweater and coat sleeves to touch bare skin.
“I did like you, but you kept getting in the way,” Kira said.
Natasha told me Sanguinati were often in their smoke form when they extracted blood from prey. Biting someone was more personal, more intimate. She also said the advantage of feeding in their smoke form was that the prey didn’t notice the loss of blood.
She was soooo wrong.
Or maybe Kira was still too young to have sufficient skill, because I sure noticed the sudden drop in blood pressure as she fed off me.
I staggered. She released my wrist and grabbed my hair as she tried to pour the contents of a small bottle into my mouth.
Being Sanguinati, she was strong. But I had sand. I surely did.
I also had a healthy fear that if I was injured and survived, I would be given another transfusion of Grimshaw blood. Who knew what traits I would acquire from another dose of Grimshaw?
I knocked the bottle out of Kira’s hand. Some of the liquid went down my throat as I choked and coughed and shoved her away from me. I fell on my hands and knees, too dizzy to stand. I was in trouble. So was Aggie, who looked terribly hurt, with her neck all bloody. But I started to feel good and just didn’t care what was going to happen next, except to think it would be pretty interesting.
I didn’t think blood loss would make you feel good, so my vote was drugs. Yep, probably drugs, since I swallowed some of the stuff in that small bottle.
“Adequate, Kira, but not stellar work,” a male voice said.
I looked up and saw the muddy green coat first. Crappity crap crap. Then I looked at the face.
“Richard Cardosa,” he said pleasantly. “Not that you’ll remember.”
Why not? Oh. I was going to be the next dead donkey. Phooey.
Just a point of information? A drug that is supposed to make you feel good cannot compete with terror. Terror will sober you right up. Or leave you gibbering. It’s pretty much fifty-fifty.
For me, there was a moment of clarity as I stared at this man with the cruel smile and the eager look in his eyes—as I stared at Viktor, who stepped up beside him and looked just as cruel, just as eager. I had no chance of getting away from them, let alone getting Aggie somewhere safe. But I could give these killers and deceivers a moment of uneasiness. Maybe even a lifetime of looking over their shoulders.
I got to my feet and was proud that I didn’t just fall over and land on Aggie. Then I said in my best “I got sand” voice, “Crowbones is gonna gitcha.”
That’s when things got weird.
CHAPTER 90
Moonsday, Novembros 5
She followed the scent of contamination or the whispers of other hunters or whatever it was that only she could sense—and he followed her until she touched his arm.