“Dad! Cassidy was just trying to help!” Keagan shouted. I heard his feet hit the gravel as he jumped out of the truck.
“I know,” Logan rasped. His voice was thick and wet, and I realized belatedly that he was crying. He buried his face in my shoulder as his own broad shoulders shook, and his grip around my waist tightened. My feet still hadn’t touched ground as he held me in his arms, and like my feet, my mind was failing to find its purchase, trying to decide if Logan was trying to squeeze the life from me or hug me.
He was panting something between the silent sobs that racked his big body, and that’s when I finally knew he was hugging me. I could just decipher the rough mantra of him repeating over and over again, “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.”
I tried to pull back to see his face, but he only buried his face deeper into the curve of my neck. His tears had soaked my shirt.
Keagan was suddenly next to us. I felt one of Logan’s arms leave me to encircle his son, but my perch against Logan’s chest didn’t slip, even with only one of his arms holding me.
“I’m sorry for pulling Keagan out of school,” I wheezed through the pressure around my lungs. “I was trying to help. To confirm if Colin had left with William and Douglas last night. I thought maybe we could still find Colin.”
“You thought right,” Logan said.
I stiffened in his arm. “They found Colin?”
Logan shook his head. “They found his hat.”
My hopes deflated. “I’m so sorry.”
“He’s still out there. They haven’t found his—” Logan couldn’t finish his sentence, but I knew what he was about to say.
They haven’t found his body.
“He’s still out there,” I repeated his words back to him, the only words I had, which were both a comfort and a curse. They hadn’t found his body, but the sun was setting. Unless they found him soon, he’d still be out there after dark with the vampires and the same murderer that had killed his brothers.
Logan nodded. He set me on my feet. The splintering protest of my hip stabbed down my leg as it bore weight. I gritted my teeth against the pain and concentrated on the plan I’d developed on the drive back from the police station.
“I need to ask you for a favor, Logan.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What is it?”
“I need you to take Keagan and Ronnie to Walker’s fallout shelter below the house and protect them tonight.”
Logan shook his head. “I can’t stay there tonight. I need to join the search. I need to help find Colin.”
“I’m coming with you,” Keagan interjected.
“You’re staying here,” Logan said, his tone low and pained and brooking no argument.
“I can’t stay here tonight, either. I need to help!”
“I can’t lose all my sons in one night!” Logan bellowed. “You are to stay here and stay safe until sunrise!”
Keagan snapped his lips shut, the worry and grief etching his face deeper than his years. I glanced at Logan, but I couldn’t look at him without seeing the indelible impression of his sons’ features in his own face.
I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “You’re right that Keagan should stay here, but he needs you to stay here, too.”
“Colin needs me, and right now, he’s the one in danger. I need you to stay here with Keagan and Ronnie.” This time he leaned forward, his whisper intense and urgent. “Keagan can’t protect himself and Ronnie. They need you. Please.”
I looked down at my own petite frame and laughed. “I’d just be another liability, worse than Ronnie.”
“I can hear you,” Ronnie said from behind Logan, her hands on her hips.
“Don’t play dumb.” Logan ignored Ronnie, his expression like stone. “I’ve heard of your abilities. You can control vampires like they can control us. You can entrance their minds.”
I crossed my arms. “Walker told you about his time with me in the city.”
He nodded. “What you lack physically you make up in mental strength. He asked you to stay here tonight to protect Ronnie and Keagan, and I’m asking you to do the same.”
“I can’t. I have business to take care of tonight.” I pursed my lips, deciding how much to divulge. “You know that vampires can twist evidence, right? Make people forget they were attacked. Make people think they saw only shadows when really they saw vampires.”
“Of course. They’d do anything to hide their existence from humans.”
“The evidence they’re twisting is pointing at me, and I need to fix it before I’m blamed for these murders.”
“You’re being blamed for these murders?”
“Not yet, but I need to keep it that way.”
Logan glanced alternately at the woods and back at me. “I can’t sit here and do nothing while Colin’s out there. I’ll go crazy.”
“I can’t risk another murder tonight, linking me to this case. I’ll be arrested.”
“We don’t need either of you,” Keagan said tightly. “If we stay in the fallout shelter all night, we’ll be fine. That’s what the basement is designed for, isn’t it? The entire house could collapse on top of us, but the fallout shelter would keep us safe.”
Logan pursed his lip, his gaze unwavering. “How long will you be?”
“How long will it take to find Colin?” I countered.
He looked taken aback. “As long as it takes.”
I nodded. “Exactly.”
Logan blew out a long, deep breath and then faced Keagan squarely. “You are to lock yourself in the fallout shelter and not leave until dawn. Agreed?”
Keagan nodded.
I turned to Ronnie. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You shouldn’t leave after dark alone,” she whispered.
I raised my eyebrows. “Are you going to come with me?”
She balled her hands into fists. “You don’t know me. You don’t understand.”
“I know enough to know that you’re going to watch me leave, like you’ve watched Walker leave a hundred times, to face Bex alone.” I whispered. “You can’t hide inside your entire life, Ronnie. You have to fight for it.”
“Like you’re letting me fight for mine?” Keagan cut in.
Logan glared hotly at me before answering. “That’s different,” he told Keagan. “I can’t focus on finding Colin if I’m worried about you.”
Keagan locked eyes with his father for a long moment. “You’re going to find Colin.”
“You’re damn right I am.”
Keagan’s face turned to stone, just like his father’s. “What if he’s already dead, like William and Douglas?”
Logan swallowed. His lips trembled this time when he spoke, but his voice was steady. “I’m going to find him.”
Keagan nodded, understanding all too well what his father meant. Dead or alive, Logan planned on finding his son. Tonight would be a long night for Logan and the officers as they combed the woods, searching and praying to find Colin, and an even longer night for Keagan and Ronnie as they bunkered here at the house, waiting and praying for everyone’s safe return. I thought of my plans for the night and cringed inwardly.
Tonight would be a long night for everyone.
Chapter 10
I silvered up on jewelry, donned my leather coat despite the mild weather, and took the liberty of borrowing Walker’s truck again. Public transportation wasn’t an option here in the woods. God, I missed the city. Walker’s truck was my only option; without streetlights, the trees, insects, and dense solitude—that horrible, unshakable itch that you were not alone yet completely on your own—were worse than street bums, muggers, and traffic. I wasn’t repeating that experience, so until taxis were once again a viable option or until Walker was present to stop me, his truck was mine to borrow.
Navigating the woods was easier this time since full dark hadn’t descended. Maybe I could finish my business with Bex and join Ronnie and Keagan
in the fallout shelter without Walker being the wiser, but I doubted it. If my plan worked, I’d find the murderer and maybe Colin, too, so Walker would know I’d confronted Bex on my own.
If my plan failed, however, Walker and Logan might be planning a search party for me next.
I parked the truck in the woods where we’d parked Walker’s motorcycle last night for dinner with Bex and finished the trek to her coven on foot. Even with the sun’s rays penetrating between the trees, the coven’s entrance was well hidden. Shadows from the ledge’s rocky overhang blended with moss and stone, covering the cave’s mouth. Someone unfamiliar with the area would likely pass and allow the cave to exist unnoticed, but I knew where to look. I recognized the chafed bark where Walker had secured the rappel rigging. I remembered the jut of the overhang and the tilted angle of the cave’s mouth. The stones that had given way when Rene had yanked me into the cave exposed a patch of dirt in an otherwise stone-lined entrance, so I recognized the coven despite its seclusion.
A green-tinted, reflective light blinked at me from beneath the shadows of the stone overhang. Just one light blinked instead of two, but I didn’t need the reminder of her injury to recognize who was lying in wait, staring at me from the far side of the cave’s opening.
Bex was the only vampire I knew who could tolerate the shadows of darkness before the sun had fully set.
I stopped in front of her, the cave between us. “Hello, Bex.”
“Cassidy.” Her voice purred from the darkness, but I could only see the solitary green tint of her reflective eye. Otherwise, her body was completely shrouded in shadow. “I hadn’t expected the pleasure of your company so soon after your last visit.”
“I hadn’t expected to visit so soon, either.” I fingered the can of silver nitrate in my pocket, triple checking that the trigger was unlocked and ready to spray. “To be honest, I would’ve preferred that last night be both my first and last visit to your coven.”
“It pains me to hear you say such things,” Bex said, the blatant sarcasm in her voice oddly comforting. “We are still allies, are we not?” she asked.
I narrowed my eyes on that one reflective orb in the darkness. I couldn’t discern her from the shadows. I couldn’t see her expression or read her posture, and her voice revealed nothing. Did she still fear losing Dominic as an ally, or was she searching for a reason to break the truce?
I decided to err on the side of caution. “Dominic desires you as an ally. He sent me here to mend the ties between you. Since you are his ally, you are my ally.”
“Ally by default,” Bex laughed, and the melodic loveliness of her voice was like the brush of a feather against the inside of my skull. It made my skin tingle and raised goose bumps along my nape. “I like that.”
“I’d prefer to think of it as ally by loyalty, but to each her own.”
I caught a movement in the shadows that might have been her head nodding. “I regret how we left things between us after such a pleasant dinner.”
Pleasant dinner, I thought dismally. I’d hate to discover what she considered unpleasant. Although, truth be told, before Walker had refused her blood, before she’d strangled me, and before he’d shot her in the eye, concussed his head, and seized, we all would have left physically well and relatively unscathed.
But that’s not how dinner had ended.
“I regret how things ended, too.” And I won’t forget, I thought, but I kept that part to myself. “How’s your eye?”
“That wasn’t your fault. Walker was only protecting you. I won’t hold my injury against y’all, I assure you.”
How gracious of you, I thought, but I bit my lip and kept that to myself, too. My sarcasm would only get me into trouble, as usual, and my agenda only involved getting out of trouble.
I inclined my head, like Bex had done, but it didn’t escape my notice that in addition to being “gracious,” she’d avoided answering my question. Removing the silver spear from her eye probably hadn’t gone well.
“How is your throat?” she asked. “I see it’s still bruised.”
I touched my throat instinctively. “I’ll live.”
“I apologize for attacking you. Let me know if there’s anything I may do to right that wrong and prove to you that I’m the loyal ally Lysander expects of me.”
I pursed my lips. This was too easy. She was speaking very formally and deliberately, like Dominic, and I wondered if her formality was for my benefit, like her skinny jeans and cowboy boots were for Walker. No one suspected an enemy in friend’s clothing, but she didn’t know that Dominic wasn’t my friend.
“Actually, there is something you can do, and if you help me, I’d consider a clean slate between us,” I said. I’d never consider a clean slate—I wasn’t Dominic’s loyal servant and she wasn’t my ally, by default or otherwise—but she didn’t need to know that.
“Anything for Lysander’s loyal night blood,” she said, her voice a low, rattling purr.
She knows, I thought, and then I banished the thought as deeply and behind as many silver fortified walls in my mind as possible. If she was anything like Dominic, and God knew she was likely stronger, she could read my thoughts if she tried. Unless I slipped, unless I thought the very thing I didn’t want her to know, there was no way for her to know my deal with Dominic.
I took a deep, fortifying breath and gripped the silver nitrate spray a little tighter. “I need you to choose me over one of your own vampires in a gesture of loyalty.”
“And how do you intend for me to do that?”
“Give up the vampire responsible for the murders of Lydia Bowser, Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar, and the McDunnell brothers, and make the humans think that the case is solved.”
Bex laughed, but this time, the sound was grating. “How do you expect me to give up one of my own vampires to the humans without exposing our existence?”
“I’ve witnessed Dominic’s skills firsthand when he wants to rearrange a murder, and I know you possess those same skills. You can kill the vampire as you see fit, arrange the scene so he looks human, and convince the officers in charge of this case that they found and killed him while he resisted arrest.”
Bex smiled. I could just discern the whites of her teeth against the darkness of her lips. “Very clever. Every time our paths cross, I admire Lysander’s taste.”
I tensed. Her tone didn’t match her complimentary words. “Thank you.”
“There’s one problem.”
I raised my eyebrows. “And that is?”
“As I’ve told you repeatedly, I don’t know who’s responsible for the murders.”
“Yes, so you’ve said, repeatedly, but saying something a second and third and fourth time doesn’t make it any more believable than the first.”
“I give you my word,” Bex said solemnly. Her voice was so genuine and pressing, urging me to believe her, that I was stunned by her callous ability to lie.
Dominic certainly had a forked tongue, but when he wanted me to take him at his word, he swore by the sun. The sun was a final and certain death for him, like the passage of time was for me, and that was how we knew the other would keep their word.
I narrowed my eyes on Bex. “Swear to me that you don’t know who is committing these murders. Swear by the sun.”
“Where did you learn that phrase?” Bex asked. Her voice hitched on a strangely pitched note. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she sounded frightened.
“Will you or will you not swear by the sun that you don’t know the vampire responsible for the murders?”
Bex’s voice tipped low and breathy. “You don’t know what you’re asking of me.”
“I know exactly what I’m asking of you, but you won’t swear because you can’t. You know who’s responsible for the murders, and you’re twisting the evidence so the police focus on me and not your vampire,” I accused.
“That’s ridiculous,” Bex scoffed. “If my vampires were responsible for these m
urders, I’d execute them and create a scene to pacify the humans, just like you’ve asked. It’s how our existence has remained a secret all these years, by eliminating any and all threats to our coven, even if the threat is the coven itself.”
“I know. That’s what you should do, but it’s not what you’re doing this time.”
Bex barked a laugh from the back of her throat. “I’ve executed members of my own coven to enforce the sanctity of our secret, and I’d do it again if I knew who was responsible for the murders. But I don’t.”
“Yes, you do,” I insisted, “and you’re using the murders to get rid of me without breaking your alliance with Dominic.”
“As if you’re more important than the protection of my coven.” I caught the flash of Bex’s smile again. “Why would I want to get rid of you?”
“Because in our short acquaintance, Walker is more in love with me than he will ever be with you.”
Bex growled. The rattling hiss vibrated like an impact tremor; pebbles jumped and danced on the stone overhang. She stepped out of the darkness, and without the impenetrable pitch of the overhang, I could see her expression. It took every ounce of willpower and courage I could muster to hold my ground.
She hadn’t bothered transforming into the irresistible country belle that she’d postured for Walker. She hadn’t bothered transforming at all. Her ears were long and pointed, and her nose was flattened and flared to tips at each nostril. Her hands were sharp, long, skeletal-like talons. Her legs, which were once lean and perfect in skinny jeans and cowboy boots, were still lean, but the knees bent backward in those bat-like hind legs that made me queasy.
I swallowed. Worse than her transformed ears and nose and talons, even worse than her legs, was her eye. She only had one. The other eye, the one that Walker had speared with the silver watch hand, was just a bloody socket in the otherwise smooth perfection of her face.
She should have been able to heal the eyeball and placed it back in the socket after removing the silver broadhead—with a little blood and saliva, I’d witnessed Dominic heal devastating injuries—but whether she’d been unable or unwilling, she didn’t have a left eyeball. The muscles twitched in the socket as her remaining eye shifted over my expression. I tried to keep the revulsion I felt from showing in my face, but I must have failed because Bex smiled.
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