Tracks covered the ground where he’d fought the vampires. Shay’s footprints were there too, and another set, off to the side. Larger, a boot, square-toed, probably size eleven. Someone had followed her. She said the intruder in Scotland wore square-toed boots. Cody found his gun lying on the ground where Shay had dropped it before running after the vampire. He followed the sweet scent and saw the square-toed footprints leading away from the fight. The impression was deeper there. The man who followed Shay had gained more than a hundred pounds, or he was carrying something. Behind the tree where Cody had fallen, he found a white handkerchief. He picked it up and sniffed. Chloroform.

***

It took all Shay’s willpower not to move or cry out. She let her eyes shut. She heard him move closer, heard something drop onto the table near her head. His hand brushed over her breast, and panic bubbled inside her. Keep your head. Panic will get you killed. Calm. Calm. Maybe he would think she was unconscious. An unconscious victim wouldn’t be as much fun. She blanked her mind, focusing only on her heartbeat, hard and fast, like a drum. When it slowed, she let her mind go, let the smells of the cabin and Mr. Ellis’s breath fade, released the brush of his hand on her body and the memory of the shiny scalpel in his hand. The lake shimmered before her. It was smooth. Tranquil. No wind today. She dug deeper into her mind. A boy and a girl stood on the shore, looking out across the water. They were skipping stones.

“Mine went farther than yours,” Shay said, planting her hands on her hips.

“Did not.” Cody grinned at her, tossing a flat, smooth rock into the air and catching it with the other hand.

“Did too.” Shay chose another one and flicked her wrist, skipping it across the lake, sending out a wave with each plink. “There. Six skips. Top that.”

He grinned again and tossed his rock. It made eight skips before the water swallowed it. He laughed and stuck out his tongue. Because he’d already turned thirteen, he thought he was better at everything.

“I quit.” Shay flung the rest of her rocks at him, harder than she meant. She had been emotional lately. Nina said it had to do with becoming a woman. Puberty, she said. Shay didn’t want anything to do with puberty. She didn’t want to bleed and grow boobs. She wanted to ride her bike and play in the woods with Cody.

He covered his mouth, and when he removed his hand, blood trickled down his lips.

“I’m sorry, Cody. I didn’t mean to hit you.”

He wiped the blood on his shirt—his mom would clobber him for that—and the anger left his eyes. He brushed a tear from her cheek and gave her a bloody smile, revealing a chipped bottom tooth and split lip. “Aye. I know you didn’t, pip-squeak.” He dumped the rest of the rocks from his pocket and ran his knuckles over her head. “Come on, let’s get home and clean it up before Mom and Nina get back. Maybe they won’t notice it.”

The other voice crept back in, and something sharp pricked her chest. It was all she could do not to scream. “Sleep now, my pretty,” Ellis said above her lips, his breath reeking of onions and evil. “But not too long. I’ve waited too long for this game to begin.”

She waited until the door closed and his steps faded, and then she waited a few seconds more. She opened one eye, then the other, letting out her breath in a soft sob. He wouldn’t believe she was sleeping for much longer, and then he would come back and kill her. The cut on her chest was proof of that.

She pulled again, working at the ropes until her wrists burned. She’d always been good with ropes. The MacBains spent hours teaching her all about knots, how to tie them, how to get out of them. She felt one give. Turning her head, she saw the scalpel on the table. If she could reach it. She worked at the ropes again, her wrist raw, and gritted her teeth when blood trickled down her arm. The minutes passed like hours before she loosened one rope enough to get her arm free. She strained to reach the scalpel. Her fingers touched the tip. Not enough. A little farther. She stretched until her bones felt like they would pop. She had it.

She attacked the ropes on her other wrist, cutting herself in her haste, sat up, and freed her feet.

She removed the gag and stood. Her body ached, her head throbbed, and blood ran from both wrists. Stumbling with numbness, she grabbed her clothes from the chair, dressed, and picked up the scalpel. She eased to the window and peeked out. It was night, but the moon was brilliant. From its position in the sky, Shay thought it must be around midnight. She couldn’t be more than a couple of hours from the cabin. Was she on Skyline Drive? Was Cody looking for her? Was he even alive? She turned the lock and tried to open the window. It was old, painted shut. Using the scalpel, she cut at the sealed joint and tried again. It creaked opened an inch. She laid the scalpel on the windowsill and pushed harder. It opened more, squeaking noisily. She heard footsteps in the next room and gave the window a final desperate shove. It opened, and she stuck her head out.

The door banged open. “What are you doing!” Ellis screamed.

Shay shimmied her upper body through. Ellis grabbed her feet, cursing, and tried to drag her back in. His nails dug into her ankles. She kicked and twisted. He grunted, and his grip slipped. She scraped through and dropped onto the ground. She grabbed the scalpel that had fallen and looked around. They were in the woods. A car was parked in front of the cabin. Shay ran toward the vehicle and she heard a door slam behind her. Ellis jumped off the cabin porch and charged, pointing a gun at her head.

***

Marcas’s helicopter passed overhead as the warriors regrouped in the parking lot near the cabin. The tracks had led there, and the old man at the lodge remembered hearing a car speed away at about the same time Cody had been knocked out. It was unlikely that Shay was still in the area; the kidnapper had probably gotten as far away as possible, but there was a possibility that it wasn’t a kidnapping. Cody swallowed. Whoever had her may have wanted her dead. They’d reported both Shay and Renee missing, so the cops were on the lookout as well. Sam’s crew was concentrating on the area around Luray Caverns, where the warriors hadn’t found any sign of Renee, but they’d been attacked by vampires. Sam didn’t know that.

Buffers were helping out here and in Leesburg. Shay could be anywhere. No one had any idea where to look. If the vampires had her, she could be in another country by now.

“According to what that vampire said, we know they had been looking for her,” Cody said, accepting the drink Bree handed him. Faelan had tried to keep her away, but she insisted on coming. “But I just don’t see vampires driving and using chloroform. This feels human.” He hadn’t told them what he saw Shay do. He still wasn’t sure what he had seen, but he hoped he hadn’t been dreaming. It was of some comfort to know that she had skills to protect herself, although not enough to keep her from being kidnapped.

“Those things we fought at Luray Caverns didn’t feel human. They felt like freight trains going at warp speed,” Brodie said, rubbing his back.

“Shay was lured away from the house by a man claiming to have Renee,” Lach said. “If he was a vampire, then the vampires have Renee too. What the hell do they want? They already have our book.”

Duncan slid a dirk into his boot. “Maybe one of them didn’t get the message to call off the search.”

Bree frowned. “How did they know where she was and where she was going?”

“If vampires use chloroform, maybe they use bugs too,” Brodie said. “We know they were in Nina’s house. Could’ve been eavesdropping on us the whole time. Or maybe they can read minds.”

“I wish I’d known those SOBs who attacked me were vampires,” Jamie said, his face drawn with worry. “We would’ve had a different battle plan.”

“It’s not your fault. I’m the one who didn’t protect her,” Cody said.

“The fault’s mine,” Ronan said. “The female vampire outside Renee’s shop said something about watching him. They’ve probably been tracking me all this time. That blond vampire wasn’t surprised to see me. He knew who I was.”

“But he got here before you did,” Lach said.

“Probably figured out where I was going. Who knows what they’re capable of? From what little I’ve learned, I suspect they’re not only strong, but well funded.”

“That’s comforting,” Lach said. “A bunch of well-funded, invisible vampires.”

“Who might be able to read minds,” Brodie added. “Now we know how he got past the locks. Damn things can probably float right through keyholes.”

“We don’t even know how to fight them,” Jamie said, “other than cutting off their heads or piercing their hearts. Do they come out only at night? Do they die in sunlight? We know demons, how they operate. How do we fight what we don’t know?”

“I’ve been trying to find someone who knows about them,” Ronan said. “All I’m getting are quacks and wannabes. We need to capture one of the vampires.”

Sorcha pushed the button releasing her sword blade. “Lop off their heads. End of story.”

“Good thing you’re not in charge of gathering intel. You’d just kill everything in sight,” Duncan said.

“It works,” Sorcha said.

Bree handed out bottles of water as the warriors made one final weapons check. “I’m going to look into some old legends. If these things exist, there must be a record of them somewhere.”

Lach’s phone rang. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Any call this late must be related to the search. Cody felt hope rising. Someone had found her, or at least spotted something that would give them a location.

Cody was watching his brother and saw Lach’s face pale. He met Cody’s gaze and quickly looked away. “I see.”

“Who’s on the phone?” Cody demanded.

Lach nodded. “Okay. We’re on the way.”

“Who was that?” Cody’s voice sounded like it came from a barrel.

Lach’s jaw clenched. He met Cody’s gaze, but his eyes were flat.

Denial balled up in Cody’s throat, but he knew what was coming. “Spit it out.”

“Two of the buffers just found a body.”

Chapter 12

Cody’s chest ached; he tried to drag in a breath. “Where?” His voice cracked.

“Just below one of the scenic overlooks,” Lach said.

Cody walked a few paces before his legs gave out. The numbness faded, and he doubled over, unable to breathe. He leaned against a tree, staring at the path leading to the cabin, and remembered making love to Shay, holding her, learning about the baby. For nine years he had faced every sunrise not knowing that he’d lost a son, and now, before he could even wrap his head around it, he’d lost her too. He straightened with a wounded roar and punched the tree. The skin on his knuckles split, but the pain felt good, dulling the ache in his heart.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned.

Jamie stood there, his eyes as ravaged as Cody’s fist. “We need to go.”

Marcas drove them to the scene. “Let me do it,” he said as they reached the site where the two men waited.

Cody opened the car door. “No, I have to. I’d rather you waited here.” He didn’t include Jamie. Mate mark or not, he understood Jamie’s need to know.

Lach put his hand on Cody’s arm and squeezed.

“She’s just over there,” one of the buffers said, flashing his light toward a low mound. “She was covered by leaves. We tried not to touch anything.” Cody recognized him but didn’t know his name. He turned on his flashlight and climbed down toward the spot. He heard Jamie’s uneven breathing behind him.

Leaves had been piled over the body, but a foot was exposed. Cody jerked the light away, feeling the lump in his throat grow bigger. He remembered Shay sitting next to him at the lake, legs long and tanned, laughing as he buried her toes in the sand. Pink polish. She always wore pink. She wriggled them free before he finished, her eyes glistening with laughter, and he started all over again, while she tried to swat him away. Her eyes always glistened when she laughed. And when she cried. He made her cry too. Not that day, but later.

Jamie stood on the other side of the mound, his shoulders heavy with grief. He looked up and met Cody’s eyes, and a bond was forged between the two men. He held the light just off the body, because it felt intrusive to let it hit her full in the face. Jamie’s beam joined his. Steeling his jaw, Cody squatted and gently brushed aside the leaves, too numb to care that he was corrupting a crime scene. Blond hair. God, he was going to be sick. He brushed away a few more leaves, trying not to hit her face. Delicate forehead, with a gaping cut across the center, brows a shade darker than her hair, closed eyes. The lump in his throat was choking him. His phone rang, and he grabbed it so he could escape. “Hello?” The line crackled with static.