16. CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 16
Grayson
The central square was scraped free of snow, but the curbs were lined with the dirty stuff, nothing like the clean, white snow we’d made into snow angels—was that only a few days ago? The shops were open and crowded, but as the air changed, as word spread through the various pack bonds, men and women filtered out onto the sidewalks, moving in hesitant streams.
The Alpha of Sentinel Falls… the Dread Lord…
Here…
Death… hunting.
The men from Carmag stood stiff and watchful. The women from Sentinel Falls pushed to the front, came closer. Reached out to touch my arm. Touch Mace. As if making sure we were alive. Their hands pressed against pack marks; chins tipped with respect. Voices raised against the hushed silence. Everyone waiting, waiting… Fallon was there, shoving through the crowd, breaking into a run.
She hit with her full weight, and to hell with protocol between alphas. I wrapped my arms around her, breathed in the familiar scent. Mace stood close to my side, tense and vibrating. We’d both noticed Fallon’s limp when she’d dashed across the square. Her leg hadn’t healed when it should have, after all this time. The pain registering on her face was a brief wince before, stoic, she forced it back.
“Gray,” she said against my chest, then growled my name again, her fingers clenching around my arms. “You gods-damned scared the shit out of me.”
Because I hadn’t answered her summons, the desperate messages on my cell. I’d been out of range for both the cell and our mental link.
“I’m here.” All I could manage. My arms spasmed around her; Fallon rarely trembled.
She held on a moment longer. “We haven’t found her.”
I smoothed the blonde hair spilling across Fallon’s eyes, and ordered through the pack bond, Tell me what you know.
Ago’s here. Even her mental voice shook. She dashed a look toward Mace. His expression was as grim as mine. Two kids killed a hybrid five miles out of town. Hit it with their car. We’ve seen the camera feeds. Noa was here, in the square, when the news broke. She walked Hattie home, and then… we lost her.
You identified Ago through the cameras?
Fallon glanced at Mace, since he’d asked. Facial identification verified it. Her attention flew back to me. Four hybrids with him. She was running past the old docks, out of camera range, so we tracked by scent. Hers disappeared at the Claw, but Ago… the hybrids kept searching along the riverbank.
Had she fucking jumped? Into a frigid current, cold enough to kill a human this time of year?
Which direction?
They searched toward the north.
Upstream? How was that possible?
Several miles, Fallon insisted. Then they backtracked. Hybrids and Ago only.
They hadn’t found her.
I focused on the details to keep myself sane. I’d brought this on myself by sending Noa here when she wanted to stay with me. But I’d wanted her to be gods-damned safe because life at the Refuge was too fucking risky with the hybrids running around.
And I’d sent her right into Ago’s fucking arms.
Fallon stiffened, pulled away as Anson strode into the square, flanked by his rangers, some of whom had raced down from the Refuge with Mace. I’d been back in Sentinel Falls when Fallon’s call came through, meeting with elders after strengthening the wards along our eastern boundary. The news had come close to stopping my heart. Noa was missing, and I’d violate every fucking agreement I had with Anson to find her.
A wave of aggression rolled from the Alpha of Carmag. I cared little for his show of dominance. I wasn’t here to usurp Anson’s power, or his position. I was here as a gods-damned male who was looking for his mate—his missing mate—whom Anson swore to protect.
He’d failed, and the animosity that simmered between us grew heated and volatile, a mix of distrust that would not end well.
Anson held out his hand, gripped my forearm when I extended mine. “Alpha,” he said stiffly.
“What the fuck, Anson?” Thunder rolled through the distant sky when no storm was in sight. “You gave your word.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Our resources are yours. We’ll find her.”
Rage heated into something that made it difficult to think. “Find the gods-damned vampire, Anson. The hybrids.”
Before they found her!
I’d seen victims after hybrids were done, and as each minute ticked by with no word through our mate bond, no tug on that tether between us, images of Noa facing those hell-creatures alone had me wanting to puke my guts out.
Not that Ago would kill her—no, the alternative would be far worse. Levi had filled me in on the bargain Noa made with Barend. To save them all, she’d agreed to let the vampires turn her. Become a weapon, a monster strong enough to defeat Amal. She hadn’t meant it, intended to buy time, destroy Ago, and I hadn’t found the right way to ask her about it.
When she came to me, to comfort the wolf, to heal us… I’d wanted to give her only love and beauty in return. A life where we made snow wolves with children and shared a meal because having her back from that dangerous void had been a gift. She’d burned herself out trying to help me. Knowing I could take care of her, see her smile, hear her laugh—I’d come to treasure those experiences. Wanted to give them to her for the rest of our lives.
“We’ve pieced together her movements,” Anson said. Noa had been at the archive with Laura, doing what I’d asked, reading Amal’s journal and looking for some advantage. They’d found a runic drawing. Noa left the archive, met with a woman selling spells in the Farmer’s Market. She was trying to track down the meaning, but she left, entered the square while the authorities were dealing with the car accident. She’d walked Hattie home, protective of everyone except herself. Ago had picked up her trail by then, started hunting.
“We have the woman in custody for questioning,” Anson added. “She’s not cooperating.”
“Where?”
“I’ll take you.”
Mace already knew what to do. I nodded my agreement. He left with a contingent of Refuge men, heading for the Claw. Anson sent an order of his own, and the Carmag rangers joined the search.
I should be grateful, but I was empty. Only the rage simmered. The female was in an interrogation room spelled against magic of any kind, sitting on a hard metal chair with her hands folded on the dull silver metal table. The overhead lights were stark.
Despite Anson’s spells, I felt her power when I entered the room. Dark Gemini Witch power, a seer who had no doubt already foreseen this moment and the moment after, as this farce played out. Her eyes glittered with knowledge, as if to say, I am here only because my message is for you and no other.
I scraped back an empty chair and sat down. Pulled in the power that thrummed through my veins in reaction to hers. “You have my condolences for the loss of your sisters.”
“We foresaw the danger but were unable to prevent it.”
“Amal is a powerful enemy,” I agreed. This female was the messenger. For her, being here, being in the Farmer’s Market when Noa passed by, even having the horrid Bone Woman effigies on her table that caused Noa to pause, turn back, ask questions… every step revealed the arrogance of seers, the repellent expediency.
They rarely wasted time or cared about the outcomes they’d already foreseen.
“You have a message for me?”
“Dread Lord. Wolf.” Her eyelids fluttered, on the verge of a trance state. “You cannot change your path.”
I leaned back. “What path is that?”
“One we foresaw for you. What we did not see… then… has come to pass. She will leave, wolf… and you must let her go.”
I breathed in, clamped down on the rage building. “I don’t fucking see it that way.”
“You are blind to it. But you will see the truth at the end. See it when she does not want you to see. Reach her when she needs you the most. Trust her in the abyss and she will bring you both back.”
Agony ripped through me, as if the witch plunged a knife to cleave my heart apart. The darkness rising in my head writhed with power. I pushed the chair back, unsteady as I stood.
The woman smiled. “Do you believe in fate?” she purred. “Because fate believes in you. Do not disappoint, wolf.”
“What was that about?” Fallon demanded, as I left the interrogation room and stalked down the hall.
“Fucking seers.” I’d had my fill. “Any news?”
As if in answer, her cell buzzed. She held the phone to her ear, tipped it down and punched the speaker function. “Say again?”
“We found a cave. A coat Noa was wearing.” An unknown male’s voice. I guessed it was a Carmag ranger. “Mace went inside. He found blood, but the cave is empty.”
Fallon snapped, “On our way.”
“Look for the sentry. Three miles north.”
It took us longer because I slowed the pace for Fallon, although she threw me angry glances meant to strip the skin from my body. The muscles in my back were tight. Blood , and empty —the only two words that mattered. Whose blood? And was this what the witch predicted—Noa, needing to leave? Seeing it when she didn’t want me to see? Trusting her in the abyss?
Did that mean she would become one of Barend’s creations?
My chest heaved with a controlled breath. Anson was searching the cave, and as we walked, new details filtered through the pack bond. No blood on Noa’s coat. Tons of old clothing, dishes, evidence of a river nymph living there—which explained why Ago had searched upstream. A nymph was aiding Noa.
Heat from a natural hot spring warmed the cave. From the dishes, the food lying about, at least two people had been living there. Possibly three, with Noa’s coat being found. The evidence was inconclusive—other than the strong reek of hybrids. And Ago. Their combined scents contaminated the scene enough to make details hard to separate out from the chaos.
But Ago had found the cave. Had Noa been there when he did? Was that why blood from a nymph coated the rocks? Because the nymph had resisted?
And the blood inside the cave?
First impression from Anson was that most of the blood belonged to a vampire—he had a medical testing kit for the field. Old blood, he said. The fresh blood belonged to a nymph. Impossible to tell if she survived, although the blood smears led to the river, and once submerged, her wounds would start to heal.
We approached the cave, had to wade through icy water and climb over rocks to reach the opening. For a heartbeat, I couldn’t push past the haze of anger—fuck, I couldn’t breathe when every breath filled me with her sweet scent. Noa. She’d been here. In this muggy dark, pulled from the icy water by a river nymph—friendly?
Fallon was glancing around. The light was dim, but then brightened from the dozens of candles burning in niches. A pool of clear, aqua-tinted water wafted plumes of steam that beaded my skin. I swiped them away. Scanned the haphazard piles of clothes and blankets—gods, did a fucking packrat live here? Some nymphs were collectors, easily bribed by a pretty bauble or a piece of cloth.
I circled the cave, picking up on the heavy, moldy scents, the energies, a talent that the dread lord status enhanced. Beyond what Anson’s technology detected. What gritted my teeth was Ago’s scent, his glee filling my nose, fueling the fury burning lines of fire along my spine.
Focus! Don’t fall apart like a fucking asshole.
“The coat is Noa’s,” Anson said, reminding me he was present. “And these clothes match what she was wearing on camera.”
With the toe of her boot, Fallon nudged the discarded jeans and shirt. I wasn’t sure what she was looking for.
“Still wet,” she confirmed.
But if the clothes were wet, it meant Noa hadn’t been out of them long enough for the material to dry, although even with the warmth from the hot spring, too much moisture remained in the air. I doubted anything would dry. The next best thing to living in water, I supposed, if you were a river nymph who collected shiny human things, items that wouldn’t last if they were submerged.
I bared my teeth. Turned in a slow circle, looking around, trying to picture Noa here, nearly drowned from the river. Terrified. Surrounded by a rummage sale and vampire blood.
Anson’s rangers had lined up against the walls, waiting for whatever was about to erupt between me and their alpha. Drama whores, worse than the females.
But we were away from the curious, the ordinary wolves who expected decorum from their alphas.
Gone was the need for pretense and courtesy, while the air shimmered with competing energies.
Who knew what the hell would go down between an alpha who had failed, and another alpha who was about to exact vengeance?
Mace sensed the growing danger, or else he was all in with me, because he stood braced, while Fallon took a step, angled herself between me and Anson.
“Cut the crap,” she said to both of us.
“He has every fucking right,” Mace ground out, stepping over Noa’s wet jeans. “Anson failed —”
“Breathe in,” Fallon ordered. Mace snorted.
Anson shifted his weight and glared at Mace, eyes blazing. “You got a problem, fecking spit it out.”
“My problem— man —is that we sent Noa here to be safe .” Mace’s canines flashed. “Not hunted, half-drowned in a river trying to get away. Not holed up in this cave from packrat hell—”
Fallon snarled. “Will you fucking stop with the cock show and breathe?”
A muscle riffled in my jaw. My glance moved from Anson, over Mace, and ended up on Fallon. Her fury tightened every muscle in her face. She was rubbing at her weakened thigh, a spitting, wet cat, angry because we weren’t listening.
What was she getting at? It sure as fuck wasn’t about breathing in to calm down.
One of Anson’s rangers stepped forward, an electronic tablet in his hand. He pointed to the data blinking on the screen. “I found a reading for silver in the blood sample.”
“Which sample,” Anson snapped.
“Vampire. Mixed with some wicked magic.”
“What the hell is silver mixed with magic doing here?” Mace murmured.
My question exactly. That mixture was used to nullify a vampire’s power. I dampened the dominance raging through my veins because anger fueled it. Along with all the protective shit Noa always aroused, shit I secretly treasured, wanting to avenge her, puff out my chest with satisfaction like a stupid teenager caught in his first crush. Those feelings, while irreverent, resonated in my heart, and I cherished them. Cherished the ability to feel them, when for years, I’d been numb.
But I was missing something.
Fallon was prowling, her head tipped as if following some elusive scent.
Breathe in…
Fallon asked Anson, “Have your goons checked every inch of this cave, or did they stop after this room?”
A quick flick of Anson’s mouth and I knew the order had been sent. Two soldiers peeled off the wall and went in one direction. Another pair did the same, but took a different route.
Fallon shook her head. Wrinkled her nose. “Don’t you smell it?” She took a step toward a nest of blankets. “Here.”
I was vaguely aware of moving closer to the blankets tumbled in a pile. The blood scent was stronger because I saw dark smears on the drab wool and a discarded shirt. But when I breathed in…
No, I didn’t dare jump to that conclusion.
Fallon was staring as if she was afraid to ask. “Is it possible?”
Through the pack bond, she added, Set said the smoke is always red.
And every witness had reported black smoke when Julien…
Two men came racing back. They’d found a back entrance. An escape route. In a world that treated the odd ones the way this world did, no species built safe houses without hidden exits—more than one.
We raced along the slick cave floor, following the flow of cold air, and emerged into the opal light of afternoon.
A stark emptiness flowed through my gut. Because Noa’s scent was fresh, desperate. In the snow, I read the tracks. Two, one leaving dragged footprints. Then more prints, paws from racing hybrids. Another set from someone with two feet, boots.
“I know where she’s going,” Mace said.
Because we were within sight of the Alpha’s Woods. Where two passages would lead into Sentinel Falls. And a third passage after that, leading to the house of memories.
Passages Noa sensed and used.
Passages Ago would discover if he tracked her. Followed her footprints until they disappeared.
Would he find the second passage opening? Only Sentinel Falls wolves could push through the magic. No one else. But if one of Ago’s hybrids had come from our pack… someone Mosbach hated enough to sell…
I broke into a run.