Fields of Blood (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 2) (10 page)

“I’d have to agree with that,” Taeral said in dry tones.

I had to assume she meant the full moon. Last month she’d gone away for a few days when the moon shone its brightest. No explanation, except that she didn’t want to be near anyone who would prefer to stay alive.

“So anyway,” she said. “Instead of breaking it off with him like my family wanted me to, I told him the truth. And he, understandably, freaked out and avoided me. But a few days later, he found me in town—and said he was okay with it. That he was scared, but he still wanted to make it work. Because he loved me.”

She stopped talking, and I thought she wouldn’t go on. But then she said, “I told my pack that Michael knew, and I was going to marry him. They were furious. They insisted I had to turn him, make him a werewolf. I refused. Turned weres have a lot harder time with control, and I wasn’t going to do that to him.” She closed her eyes and flinched. “So they killed him.”

“Jesus Christ,” I said roughly. “They just flat-out murdered him?”

“Yes, and not just him. They killed his whole family—his parents, his younger sister. In case he’d told any of them.” A dark look settled on her face. “My father, my brother, my uncle and cousin. One for each human, so none of them could get away. They killed them in their beds, and they burned the house down.” She shuddered. “Marlon, my brother…he took Michael. Told me he begged for his family’s lives. And for mine. He knew he was going to die, and he begged my brother not to hurt me.”

“
A’ghreal
. I am so sorry for your loss.” Taeral reached up between the seats and took her hand.

She jerked it away. “Don’t,” she said. “I’m sorry. But get used to not touching me. If anything happens to you, either of you…I can’t lose you,” she whispered. “Please.”

“Of course,” he said in a strained voice.

I gripped the wheel hard enough to turn my knuckles white. I’d still help them, for Sadie’s sake—but I already hated her family. In my opinion, they were even worse than Milus Dei.

No one could hurt you more than the people you were supposed to love.

C
HAPTER 14

I
t was going on four in the morning when we arrived at the town of Elk Heights, Pennsylvania—Population 1395, Home of the Famous Elkhorn Jack Lodge and Cider Press, according to the welcome sign. Must’ve passed fifty cow pastures on the way into the valley between two mountains, where the town sprawled from base to base.

I pulled the van over on the shoulder of the main road, just after the Famous Elkhorn Jack sign. Sadie and Taeral had been drifting in and out for the past hour, but they both came around when I stopped. “We there?” Sadie slurred.

“Looks that way.”

“Why’d we stop?”

I smirked. “Because my GPS couldn’t find the nearest secret mountain bunker.”

“Oh.” She straightened in the seat and looked around. “God, I never thought I’d come back to this place,” she murmured. “What a nightmare. And now I have to tell them about Mom...”

“That was not your fault,” Taeral said.

“It doesn’t matter. They’re not going to see it that way. I mean, would you?” She laced her hands together tightly. “That stuff Milus Dei injected me with...I wasn’t strong enough to fight it. I killed her. No hesitation.”

“Didn’t you say they used something on you that suppressed your human side?” I said. “That means it wasn’t really you. How could you have fought that?”

Her jaw clenched. “I’m a born werewolf. I’m supposed to have control,” she said. “Look, let’s just get this over with. You’re gonna keep on this road for a while. I’ll tell you when to turn.”

I shrugged and put the van in gear. I recognized that change-the-subject tone—I’d used it myself plenty of times.

The town populated itself around us as I headed further in. Sparse houses, their windows still dark at this early morning hour, got closer together. Patches of trees and fields gave way to fences and sidewalks. Street lamps gradually replaced the light of the approaching-full moon.

Looking at it reminded me that I should charge my moonstone as soon as possible. I’d recently learned that the clear crystal pendant I’d worn for years, a gift from a stranger, had been Daoin’s once. The stone was found only in Arcadia, the Fae realm, and was used to absorb moonlight and enhance magic.

Not that I knew what the hell to do with the thing, besides make it glow. But it had helped save me more than once.

Side streets became more frequent as we hit the heart of the town and what apparently passed as the commercial district. Stores and churches lined both sides of the road, in what almost looked to be equal numbers. This town must’ve really enjoyed going to church. I counted at least ten of them on the main street alone, and spotted a few more steeples down side roads.

It wasn’t long before the buildings started spacing out again. When I stopped at an all-way stop sign just before a long stretch of fields ahead, I caught a glimpse of a police car sitting dark and silent off the side of the crossroad to the right, about fifty feet back.

As I moved through the intersection, headlights snapped on, and the red-and-blue flickered into the night.

“Oh, shit,” I muttered. “We’re about to have company.”

“What is it?” Taeral said.

“Cops.”

I pulled over, and Sadie stared with faint horror into the side view mirror at the pulsing lights behind us. “What if it’s them?” she said. “I mean, they were running the cops in New York. What if they got to them here?”

“Whatever Milus Dei is doing out here, they couldn’t have infiltrated the cops already,” I said. “They’ve only been here a few days, tops. Let’s just find out what he wants. Maybe I have a tail light out or something.” I glanced at the mirror. The cop was taking his sweet time—he hadn’t even gotten out of the car yet.

Taeral made a frustrated sound. “We should not take the risk.”

“What do you want to do, kill the guy?” I said.

“Yes.”

“No!” Christ, it was bad enough killing actual bad guys. I wasn’t going to murder some small-town cop, probably making a routine traffic stop, just because there was a remote chance he might be Milus Dei. By that reasoning, we might as well kill every human we met, just in case. “We wait and see what he wants,” I said.

“And if he is Milus Dei?” Taeral drawled. “What is your plan then, brother?”

I sighed. “Well, we’ve got the guns in one of those bags,” I said. No one questioned that. I’d kept a few that we’d taken from the dead guys left in the Hive. Figured we’d probably need them out here. “Just…make that the last resort, okay?”

Sadie gave a tight nod, and Taeral huffed an irritated breath.

Finally, the driver’s side door of the cop car opened and a figure in a trooper-style hat got out to approach the van slowly. I lowered my window, watching in the mirror for any sign of aggression or attack. There was a hand near the gun, but no move was made to draw it. Then the figure reached the window.

She was a woman. Early forties, watchful features and sharp eyes. Khaki uniform with a star on the breast pocket, and
Sheriff Gormann
stitched beneath it. Not just a deputy, then.

The actual sheriff pulling people over was not a good sign.

“License and registration please, sir,” she said, her gaze traveling as much as she could see inside the van before settling on me, unblinking. Now her hand rested on the gun at her hip—casual, but ready. The
please
had been less polite wait-and-see, more firm command.

She wasn’t Milus Dei, but she was looking for something specific. And whatever it was, she suspected she’d found it.

“Is there a problem, Officer?” I said as I reached for my wallet, feeling like the world’s biggest cliché. But I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“License and registration,” she repeated.

Damn. Something had definitely roused her suspicions, but I had no idea what. I knew the best approach was to say as little as possible, and wait until she started asking questions. So I handed her my license, and then the registration from the band beneath the driver’s side visor.

“Sit tight. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” the sheriff said, and walked away.

I didn’t let out my breath until she’d climbed back in her cruiser. “This isn’t right,” I said. “Sheriffs don’t handle traffic stops personally. Something must’ve happened in this town. Maybe she just stopped me because she didn’t recognize the vehicle.”

Taeral adjusted his seat on the floor, sliding a little further back. “Perhaps we should leave now, before she returns,” he said.

“She has my license. I need that,” I said. “Besides, everything’s clean. We just have to wait for her to run it. I’m sure she’ll let us go.”

“Not necessarily.” Sadie watched the mirror as if she expected a war to break out behind us. “Small-town cops don’t like letting people go. Especially strangers. If something did happen here, and we have anything that might tie into it, she’ll probably hold us.”

“Great.” We couldn’t afford spending a few hours in some backwoods police station while the locals investigated. Sadie and I might pass, but I doubted Taeral had any form of identification that would stand up to even a cursory check. “Any suggestions? That don’t involve shooting her?” I added in case Taeral thought that was still on the table.

Sadie cleared her throat. “I guess I’ll have to play the hometown card,” she said. “Whatever I say, don’t disagree with me. Got it?”

We both got it.

The wait was a bit longer than the first time, but Sheriff Gormann eventually returned to the window and handed my paperwork back. Her face was still guarded and expressionless. “You’re coming from New York City, Mr. Black?” she said.

I nodded. “That’s right,” I said as I replaced my license.

“What brings you through Elk Heights?”

“I grew up here,” Sadie said. “We’re going to visit my family, out on Run Hill Road.”

The sheriff leaned aside and looked at her. “The Nesbitts?”

“No, the Laurents.”

Suddenly, Sheriff Gormann was a lot friendlier—but still unhappy. “You must be Michelle, then. They mentioned you’d be coming into town soon.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Sadie said.

I managed to relax. For now, we were off the hook. I could see it in the sheriff’s eyes.

Now I just hoped she didn’t ask for “Michelle’s” ID.

“Sheriff Regina Gormann. Nice to meet you and your…friend,” the sheriff said. “I’m so sorry about your brother going missing, Miss Laurent. Let your parents know that we’re doing everything we can to find him, and the others.”

The shock on Sadie’s face lasted only a few seconds before she made it disappear. “Thank you, Sheriff,” she said, managing to sound upset. “I’ll be sure to tell them.”

“Sorry about stopping you.” Her features pinched with worry, and for the first time I realized the woman looked exhausted. “We’ve had at least ten people go missing in less than a month, including your brother, and a few witnesses reported seeing a black van around. I’ve got to check everything.”

I nodded, fighting to prevent my own shock from showing. Ten people in a month was a hell of a lot of disappearances, especially for a small town like this. “We understand, ma’am,” I said. “Thank you.”

“You drive safe now, Mr. Black. Miss Laurent.” The sheriff bowed her head, touched the brim of her hat and walked back to the waiting squad car.

I put the window up. “Nice move,” I said to Sadie. “But damn. What’s with all the missing people around here?”

“I don’t know…but I don’t like it,” she said. “We need to get going. The turnoff’s not far from here.”

As I pulled slowly onto the road, Taeral said, “It cannot be Milus Dei, if this has been happening for a month.”

“Right,” I said, though I was starting to doubt that conclusion. Another coincidence—the surviving members of Milus Dei just happened to head straight for Nowheresville, Pennsylvania, which just happened to be the home of a pack of werewolves. Something they’d already known, since they immediately targeted Sadie’s sister. “Maybe your family knows what’s going on,” I said to Sadie.

“Yeah. Maybe.” She didn’t sound convinced, either.

Before long, Sadie directed me to turn left onto a road called Lacy Peak View. The road narrowed as I drove along, and eventually ended in a wide, gravel-paved turnaround that held two half-length, rusted blue buses with LACY PEAK SHUTTLE painted along the sides—barely legible beneath the dust and mud splashed up to the darkened windows.

The dead kid, Leo, had mentioned them taking a shuttle into the mountains. This must’ve been the plan.

“There’s the trail.” Sadie pointed across the turnaround to a packed-dirt path that headed up at a steep angle between rock walls. Small trees and scraggly bushes growing from natural shelves along the sides hung over the corridor, painting black shadows in the moonlight, and a pair of massive evergreens stood on either side of the entrance like silent sentries.

I rolled the van to the start of the path and stopped. “You know those horror movies where a bunch of people get lost in some remote location, and then a crazy slasher chases them through the woods for an hour?” I said. “This looks exactly like that.”