Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers)

by Holt, Desiree

  Logan moved into the field of vision again. “We’re going to have Ben work with a sketch artist, guys. Ric, we’ll transmit it to you as soon as we have it so you can compare it to the photos you’ve got.”

  Rebecca stuck her head in next to Logan’s. “Logan’s going to send you all the pictures from the crime scene. We wondered if you can take all the information we’re sending you along with what Greg Mattison sent and run the new predictability program. We’d like to be able to trap this creature before we’re looking at victim number three.”

  “I’ll do my best,” Ric assured her. Already the excitement of delving into uncharted electronic waters was curling through him. “Send everything on through.”

  He watched as Logan turned his head and conversed in quiet tones with Ben Crater, wondering what was going on. He saw Ben nod, then Logan turned to face them again.

  “We have another piece of information that we hope gives us an advantage here too. Ben is a shifter.”

  Ric could almost feel the excitement in the room behind him. A shifter himself, he knew the advantages one had in hunting the devil beast.

  Behind him Mark Guitron broke into a laugh. “We certainly keep finding them, don’t we?”

  His wife, who he’d met when he was hunting the devil beast in south Texas, was a shifter as well as Clint Beltaire, Sophia’s new husband who’d come back from Maine with her. Now it seemed Logan and Rebecca had hooked up with one in Montana.

  Logan gave them a crooked grin. “Like goes to like, as they say.”

  Rebecca gave his arm a light pinch. “Not always. Ask my sister. Ask Dakota.”

  “Kids?” Ric broke in. “Let’s focus here. Ben, if you’re willing to help us you know you’ll be a valuable addition. You can hunt at night and in places that humans can’t.”

  Ben moved so Ric could see him and nodded. “I’ll give it my best shot.”

  “We’re headed to the sheriff’s office for a closed-door meeting,” Rebecca said. “Logan’s going to send you everything he has first. After the meeting he and Ben will map out a plan for tonight.”

  “Let me know if you want the bird up there.”

  Ric was the team’s pilot. At each of the previous cases he’d flown to the site so when a probable kill site was identified he could keep an eye on it from the air. When at last the beast appeared in the open he used the chopper to herd the beast. A sharpshooter from the team always rode with him, ready to take down the devil beast from the air. Assisted, of course, by armed hunters on the ground. Only once had they been able to prevent kill number three, not a record they were proud of.

  “Get us some possible locations and we may ask you to haul ass up here to give us some air surveillance. Tanner out.”

  The screen went dark. In what seemed only seconds the sound of the alarm let them know Logan’s email had arrived. Ric opened it on the surface keyboard in front of him and swiped the pictures so they appeared on the giant monitor.

  “Holy shit,” someone breathed as they looked at the photos of Jade Robinson’s body.

  They had all seen victims of the devil beast before but that didn’t make it any easier to look at the ravaged body displayed on the screen.

  For a long moment, as Ric displayed photo after photo, the only sound heard in the room was the soft whisper of breathing.

  “Okay,” Dante said, breaking into the silence. “Let’s get the fuck to work and take this sucker down.”

  “And keep trying to find where some maniac is breeding them,” Jonah added. “Let’s not forget this is our ultimate goal.”

  “And sooner rather than later,” Dante added. “Ric? What do you need us to do?”

  * * * * *

  “That’s some team you’ve got there, Tanner.” Ben drained the last of the cold drink Rebecca had given him. “From what I could see on this end they all look meaner than hell. Even the women.”

  Logan grunted. “Every one of us on the team has lost a family member or loved one to the Chupacabra, and found the body or bodies. It’s a nightmare you never forget, believe me.”

  “I know what I saw this morning,” Ben told him. “And that woman wasn’t even anyone I know. So what’s next?”

  “We need to get going to Danvers’ office for that meeting,” Rebecca reminded them.

  “I know,” Logan said. “And we’re already running a little behind. Ben, can you join us for dinner tonight? I think we need to plan a little night reconnaissance and I think we’ll do better if we run together.”

  “I agree. Two sets of eyes are better than one.”

  “The beast may not be out since it satisfied its current bloodthirst, but we might find out where its cave is.”

  Ben lifted his eyebrows. “Cave?”

  Logan nodded. “Like I told Rance and his men, it always finds a cave to hide in, someplace not easily spotted. It’s got a great sense of self-preservation.”

  “And it seems to be getting better at it. As if whoever is breeding these creatures has developed a high level of artificial intelligence to implant in its brain.”

  “Holy fucking shit.” Ben rubbed his face. “Let’s hope not. All right then. Let’s get this meeting over with. I’ll go home and feed my horse, make sure he’s settled for the night and get back here. What time?”

  Rebecca looked at Logan. “Seven?”

  He nodded. “My foreman’s wife takes care of breakfast for everyone but since I’ve been gone so much I don’t expect her to prepare dinner. I’ll grill some steaks and throw together a salad. That work for you?”

  Ben nodded. “Thanks. Nice to be eating a meal for a change with someone I don’t have to pretend with.”

  “Afterward we can plan our run. I know this area well so we can map it out. Okay, let’s get going.”

  Chapter Eleven

  The beast awoke from its daylong nap and stretched. The cave—actually nothing more than a large hollowed-out area in the rock face of a hill—was large enough to suit its purpose. There was enough room to stretch out comfortably and the way the entrance was narrowed and angled it was almost invisible to the casual eye. Concealment was important. The creature had been aware of that since it was first sent outside of the concrete home where it had been formed.

  Its thirst for blood slaked for the moment, its body was as much at rest as it was able to be. But after a long sleep its belly still needed food of some kind. Sliding out of the cave, it paused on the rocky snow-covered ground to survey the area once more. Last night on the way back to the cave the beast had encountered an animal that even a fearless creature like itself knew to run from. It was an enormous black mass, covered in thick fur and rising to a towering height. Its roar shook the very snow from the mountains and the devil beast morphed to make a hasty retreat. Even with limited intelligence it knew not to tangle with something that gigantic and fierce.

  It had also come across some smaller four-footed creatures, much like the one it had slain before its first human prey so recently. But four-footed creatures didn’t satisfy the Chupacabra nearly as much as the blood of the two-footed ones. It could satisfy a mild hunger with the flesh but the blood did nothing to slake the always-growing ravaging thirst.

  But at the moment it needed something to subdue the ache in its belly. Movement just to the right caught its attention as two small brown creatures darted through the snow. If it had been human it would have known these were marmots, some of the smallest wildlife to inhabit the mountains of Montana. With incredible speed the beast pounced, trapped the animal with its front claws and in moments reduced it to nothing more than bones and fur.

  Temporarily satisfied, it decided it would explore the area. Its speed was so great it could cover a wide range as it looked to catch one or two more animals before going back into the cave to sleep. And await the awakening again of the terrible burning thirst for the blood of the two-legged prey.

  * * * * *

  The meeting at the sheriff’s office was solemn. If any of the men sitting aro
und the table had harbored any doubts about what Logan and Rebecca had told them, those misgivings were long gone. The expressions on their faces were an equal mixture of revulsion and fear—fear that they wouldn’t be able to catch the devil beast before it struck again. Fear that they might encounter it themselves.

  All the photos were spread out on the table, the ones Rebecca and Logan had brought as well as those taken at the scene of the ranger’s death and today at Jade Robinson’s. Danvers had tacked a map of the county on the wall and marked the places of the two killings with red pushpins.

  “You’re sure it won’t go outside the county lines for its next kill?” he asked.

  Logan shook his head. “It hasn’t up until now. Of course with this abomination I guess we can’t be sure of anything. All I can do is go on past experience.”

  He turned on his tablet and scanned through documents until he found what he wanted. “Here are the maps of the two counties in Texas and the one in Maine that we tracked. Ric Garza, our team computer honcho, marked the spots of the attacks. You can pretty much see for yourself it stays within a concentric area.”

  He handed the tablet to Rebecca who passed it to the man next to her. They all studied it as it made its way around the table.

  “Why do you suppose it stays within those boundaries?” Ford Randolph asked.

  Logan shrugged. “No telling why it does anything. Best guess is the artificial intelligence it works off of. We think they’re programmed to stay within a certain area.”

  “But why?” This from Doug Hayward. “Why not let it just free roam and kill randomly?”

  Rebecca leaned forward. “Again, we don’t really have an answer.” She wet her lips and tightened her fingers together. “Best guess? And that’s all it is. Maybe whoever is creating these monsters wants to breed enough of them to release in numerous areas at the same time, each programmed to kill within that area.”

  “Jesus Christ.” The whisper came from Greg Mattison but Logan knew exactly how he felt. “Whoever is doing this is truly insane.”

  “No shit,” Logan agreed. And that scared him even more than the creature itself.

  For the next twenty minutes they all absorbed the information and made plans. Rance Danvers gave assignments to his detectives and scheduled patrols to cover the entire county. Logan emailed the maps from his tablet to everyone else’s as well as all the photos he fed into the photostream.

  “Don’t wake people up,” he cautioned. “If you see a light on stop and tell them we have some marauding animals and they should be careful about going outside and keep a gun handy at all times. But make a note of any location that looks isolated yet still provides cover for the beast to hide as it approaches.”

  “That’s what we’ve been able to figure out it’s been doing,” Rebecca added. “It has some innate sense or is programmed with one to conceal itself until the last possible moment.”

  When everyone was up to speed on the material, Logan rose and walked to the map on the wall. Picking up a pen, he drew a triangle that went from his ranch to Ben’s place to the point where the ranger’s body had been found.

  “Ben and I will take this area,” he said. “It makes sense because both our places form perfect points on the triangle. We know the terrain and it will be easier for us to search.”

  “That’s a lot of area for just the two of you to cover,” Greg Mattison pointed out. “And it will be dark soon.”

  “Not a problem. I’ve hunted at night before. Got it taken care of. While you all are checking on people who need to be warned and looking for signs of the beast around those folks, we’ll be looking for the creature’s hidey-hole.”

  And searching in a manner I can’t even begin to explain to you.

  Danvers frowned. “Are you sure it’s safe for you to be out in the dark? What if it attacks you?”

  “It won’t.” Logan shook his head. “Ben’s horse scared it away, for one thing. It apparently doesn’t like large animals. And we’ll both be prepared.”

  That’s putting it mildly.

  “If we don’t get anywhere tonight,” Rebecca put in, “we have other options. Ric Garza is just waiting for us to tell him to bring the team’s helicopter up here and go hunting from the air.”

  “If we can just get a line on it tonight,” Logan added, “then I might go ahead and have Ric fly up right away. See if we can chase it.”

  “Okay, okay.” Danvers sat back. “You know what you’re doing and I have to admit I don’t.” He looked around the room. “You all just make sure you’re real careful out there, okay?”

  They all nodded and muttered their agreement. No one wanted to take any chance here, that was for sure.

  “I’ll see you at your place around seven,” Ben said as he walked outside with Logan and Rebecca.

  “Perfect.” Logan shook hands with him. “We’ll make sure to feed you well. We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  * * * * *

  Logan spread out the map on the table where the three of them had just finished dinner. It was a smaller version of the one on the wall in Danvers’ office, not as detailed but useful for their needs. He drew the triangle again from his ranch to the first kill site to Ben’s ranch and back.

  “Okay.” He tossed the pen down on the table. “If we leave from here we can cover at least part of the area tonight. Inside this triangle is a landmass of about ninety square miles. Pure wolves can cover thirty-five miles in a day but we know shifters are twice as fast as that. So here’s what I suggest. Leave from here, head to the top point of the triangle and get as far as we can.”

  Ben nodded. “We can check along the way where the snow has mounded and iced over. Would it find an ice cave to hide in? Or carve one out?”

  “It did in Maine. That’s the only other northern area we’ve investigated. The other two cases were in south Texas so that wasn’t a factor. So good point. And we need to be alert. It’s not on any kind of a schedule. It’s killed during daylight hours and at night. It seeks out its prey, stakes it out and attacks when its sensors—or whatever it’s got—tell it the time is right. If we spot it we have a better chance to elude it in wolf form than human.”

  “Which is why the night runs, right?” Ben’s laugh was dry. “We couldn’t exactly head out as wolves during the daylight hours.” He sobered. “And if we find its hiding place?”

  “Then we mark the spot, I call Ric Garza to bring the big helo up here and we go hunting.”

  Ben pushed back from the table. “Then let’s get to it.” He stopped, looked at Rebecca and back at Logan. “If you two don’t mind I think I’ll undress out on the porch.”

  Logan laughed. “No problem. I’m not too fond of having my mate look at naked men other than me.”

  Ben left his jacket inside but walked out onto the porch in his jeans and sweatshirt. Logan closed the door after him and turned to Rebecca, putting his hands on her shoulders.

  “I’d tell you not to wait up but I know you will.”

  “Of course I will.” She searched his face. “We have to find this creature, Logan. Maybe this time when we kill it the scientists can get some new information from the body. Something that will tell us what geographic area it comes from. And how it gets here and all the other places.”

  “We’re going to do our best, honey. You know that.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face to his chest. “I never thought I’d be saying this but I’m really glad you have the ability to shift. It gives you an extra edge in hunting the beast.”

  He cupped her chin and tilted her face up to him. “When I get home I might turn into a beast of a different kind.”

  Her smile reached deep inside him. “I hope so.” She hugged him again then stepped away. “Now go and do what you have to. And come home safe.”

  “Always.” He kissed her mouth hard, then quickly undressed.

  Rebecca stood by, taking his clothes, folding them, placing them on a chair. She watched
him intently as he gathered himself and willed his body to change. And when the wolf stood next to her she threaded her fingers in the fur at his neck and placed a kiss on his head.

  Then she opened the door and he joined Ben, now a graceful russet-brown wolf, waiting by the steps.

  The night was clear and crisp, the stars like jewels against the velvet of the sky. The moon tonight was three-quarters and bright, bathing the crystalline snow in its light. Logan paused for a moment to take in a deep breath. He’d gotten used to Texas and begun to feel comfortable at Desolation Ranch, but this was home. This was what he loved. He hoped they found whatever fucking maniac was behind this soon so he could go back to his life.

  As if an invisible signal passed between them, they leaped off the porch together and began racing across the landscape. Logan took the lead until they were through the pasture close to the house where he’d had his cattle moved. He wasn’t taking any chances with them until this beast was caught. Maybe it had stayed away from large animals until now but there was always a first time.

  The two wolves sprinted over the snow-covered ground, legs stretching out gracefully as they ate up the miles. They kept a significant distance between them as they dashed through the gigantic ponderosa pines and headed toward the foothills of the mountains—enough space so they could visually check a larger area but still sense each other’s presence.

  Part of Logan’s property was fenced, providing enclosed pastureland for the cattle, and part of it was open. The wolves easily leaped the fences, racing into the open. At one point they passed the line shack that the hands used when they were caught in a storm or sometimes just to get in out of the rain when they were riding the fence line.

  The two wolves skirted it in a wide circle but nothing seemed amiss. Although the little cabin stood in a scattering of trees there really wasn’t sufficient cover for anyone or anything to hide. Logan rose on his hind legs to look in the windows but the place was empty. After a few moments they were on their way again.