Chapter 57 - Traced
Eventine Mundelein, wolven, sat on a bench inside a tactical tent, drank hot coffee and read investigative notes.
At the opposite end of the tent, two patrol officers rested on cots, and the rest of the team was outside preparing for the day’s mission.
They’d been set up in temporary headquarters at the base of Morning Bluff for two days, searching for Canyon and Timber, plus Conri Bloom.
This was the third day Canyon and Timber were missing, and the fifth day for Conri.
Canyon and Timber had been up Morning Bluff investigating the foxen witch Abigail White and the possible One True Mate Sage White, and Conri?
They had no leads on him, but common sense told them the disappearances were linked.
Harlan, her handsome wolven mate, opened a door flap and came in. He kissed her on the cheek and nuzzled her hair, then whispered in her ear, “Sergeant, you need me to do anything?”
“Love me,” she murmured, grabbing him around his neck and pulling him close.
Eventine stood and gathered her things. “Let’s go.”
Harlan strolled to the other end of the tent and kicked the legs of the cots, growling at the patrol officers, “Nap time’s over.
” He watched the males until they were up, then he opened the door flap for Eventine.
She smiled and patted his chest as she passed him, then made her way out into the sunshine.
Cold air greeted her, but no snow yet. All around them, sixty-foot-high White Pine trees towered, blocking the sun.
They were broken up into two teams. Mac was leading Team A, with his mate Rogue riding shotgun, plus Beckett and Cerise and two patrol officers following.
Eventine was leading team B with Harlan driving, Crew, Dahlia, and two patrol officers following.
Trevor stood on a boulder near their grouping of vehicles, with their team milling about. When he saw her, he raised a hand to her and called out to everyone.
“Gather ‘round.”
Rogue came toward her, wearing jeans and a blue and white SPD jacket, an SPD cap pulled low over her head, her hair pulled back in a ponytail. “You hear that?” she asked.
Eventine listened. “Hear what?”
Rogue shook her head, grimacing. “Something far away… calling my name.”
Eventine listened for several moments but still heard nothing but the wind in the trees and the cars driving by on the lower road. “I don’t hear it.”
Rogue nodded and wandered off toward Beckett’s truck, where Cerise was sitting in the driver’s seat and Beckett was in the back, one booted foot up on the toolbox, his eyes on Trevor.
Trevor held an image of Canyon’s truck and an image of Conri’s truck over his head, speaking for the benefit of the new batch of patrol officers who had just come on shift.
“We’re still looking for Canyon and Timber, and also for Conri.
Their phones are all gone from the network—untraceable, but last known inputs had each of them near this spot right here.
Our search up the bluff yesterday turned up nothing, no houses, no foxen, no Morning Wood Inn, and no clues, but we have new information and we’re going off-road as soon as the ATVs arrive. ”
Wade yelled from the open window of a vehicle. “The witch wants war!”
Harlan growled, and the patrol officers did, too. Eventine stayed quiet. She didn’t know what to think. She watched Rogue and Cerise, who were paying Trevor no attention at all. Instead, Rogue pointed up the bluff, and Cerise nodded, lifting her hand in the same direction.
Trevor held up his hands. “We don’t know what’s happened and we’re not assuming anything.”
Wade opened the car door, got out, and sauntered close to Trevor, looking ready to fight. A vehicle drove past and everyone’s head swiveled to see it, but all the heads swiveled back to Trevor and Wade when they saw it was a minivan filled with kids.
Eventine, however, couldn’t look away. Not knowing why, she sprinted through the trees to the road and whipped her coffee at the van. The cup hit the van. Dark liquid splattered, and some sort of visual camouflage slipped off, revealing a truck with Conri Bloom behind the wheel.
From behind her, Wade swore and Trevor shouted. Vehicles roared to life. Eventine ran back to her vehicle and jumped in the passenger seat. Harlan gunned the engine to life and peeled out onto the road.
Trevor’s voice filled their heads. Change of plans. Team B is following Conri. Team A, he’s got a tail. Find it.
Trevor repeated the message over the radio.
A chorus of acknowledgements filled the radio channel. Eventine smiled at her mate and he smiled back.
Love you, he said in ruhi, his eyes on the road, his hands on the steering wheel.
Love you more, she said, her eyes on the back of Conri’s head.
Harlan chuckled, like that wasn’t possible.
Conri turned toward town, and they followed.