Chapter 10

Fully a half hour later, Brigid was relaxing by the fire, whirling a pocket of flames in a slow, steady circle with Bj?rn staring at her. She'd managed to find some gum in her pack, a precaution she only took when she felt stifled by the control fire forced on her. Between the spearmint in her mouth and the fire tickling her fingertips, she was more relaxed than she had been in days and her mind was starting to clear.

"There has to be something more going on," she told Carwyn when he returned from checking out the cabin.

"What do you mean?" Carwyn sat next to her, and Ross sat across the fire. "Cabin's excellent by the way. Room's secure. Jamie said something about taking a sofa and saving human strength."

"That's good," Ross said. "He pushes himself keeping up with us."

"We're not talking about a serial killer," Brigid said. "People have been stolen, not killed. You don't steal people without a reason."

Ross nodded slowly. "Go on."

"Living captives are a liability," Brigid said. "From a security standpoint, they're the worst possible leverage. You have to keep them healthy but hidden. You have to feed them, shelter them, keep them secure. Daniel was injured, but they kept him. Logically, it would have made far more sense to kill him and leave him to be found. Or kill him and hide the body in a place where it wouldn't be found if you cared about subterfuge."

"Captives are a lot of work," Carwyn said. "What makes the risk worth it?"

"Money?" Brigid shrugged. "I can't think of anything else right now."

"Whoever took Summer can't be after money," Ross said. "The Mackenzies aren't puttin' on any airs. We're a big clan and a strong one, but we're not rich. Most of our people live pretty simple, and all our humans have day jobs."

"So Daniel?" Carwyn asked. "Daniel's family is extremely wealthy."

"But as far as we know, they haven't received a ransom demand," Brigid said. "So why else would you take a human?"

"Some folks," Bj?rn muttered, "just wrong in the head."

The swift silence that descended told Brigid that the others had the same thought.

"We can't discount a twisted mind." Brigid had been a victim of abuse by her stepfather. She knew that abusers didn't have to have a reason to victimize others. They justified everything in their own sick minds. "But this is an awful lot of trouble to go to to grab victims if you're just looking for a sick thrill."

Carwyn cocked his head. "I hadn't thought about that. It's isolated. It's remote. It takes work to grab people from these areas."

"Hell," Ross said. "If ya just wanted to steal a person, you'd have better luck at a Walmart on the interstate."

"Exactly," Brigid said. "If they'd grabbed a random human from a parking lot, they could be on the road and in another state before that person was reported missing."

Ross picked up a stick and pulled out a hunting knife. "Maybe" —he started whittling— "whatever reason they got, they need people who are a little stronger."

Brigid nodded and met Ross's gaze. "I think that's exactly it. They're looking for young, fit people who can survive in adverse conditions. People exactly like Summer."

"Who though?" Carwyn asked. "And why?"

She mulled over their suspects. "Ernesto—"

"Can't see him going to all this trouble," Carwyn said. "And this isn't his style."

"The Sokolovs?" Brigid threw out.

"This is their style, but it's also… complicated."

"True," Brigid said. "Subtlety isn't exactly their wheelhouse. They'd be the ones grabbing people from Walmart."

Ross said, "Me and Jamie are not holdin' out on you. We got our rivals, but we can't think of anyone who'd go after Summer this way."

"So we're back at square one." Brigid looked at the house and saw Natalie walk out on the porch. She marched down the steps, carrying what looked like a tablet or a notebook, and she stomped straight up to Bj?rn.

Bj?rn frowned and looked up from stirring the stew. "Can I help you?"

She opened the notebook and showed something to him. "You drew this?"

Bj?rn nodded. "I do a bit of sketching. I been watching that trailer for a while."

She flipped through a few more pages. "And this man?"

"That un's a vampire like you. Do you know him?"

Natalie snapped the notebook shut. "He can't be."

Brigid stood. "Natalie, what it is?"

She sat on one of the logs that encircled the fire and held the notebook to her chest. "I'm seeing ghosts."

Brigid shot a look toward Carwyn. "What's that mean?"

Natalie flipped the notebook over and started paging through. "So okay. Bj?rn watches the trailer in the woods where we're going tomorrow night…"

"I know how to stay hidden," Bj?rn muttered. "Not a hardship."

"We know all that," Brigid said. "And?"

"There's someone who shouldn't be there." She flipped to the page she'd shown Bj?rn. "This man—this vampire—Baojia and I know him."

The drawing was sketched in black and white, but the man's features looked European, and he had distinct scars on both sides of his mouth.

"His name is Ivan," Natalie said. "He was an enforcer for the vampire cartel that ran northern Mexico, the one who was taking the human girls and testing the elixir on them."

"Fuck," Brigid said. "I remember that. Don't know that I ever saw him though."

"We could never tie him directly to the girls. He used his lieutenants, so they were the ones we took out, and he was too high up in the cartel to push it."

"Elixir is dead," Carwyn said. "There's no reason Ivan would be taking people for that anymore."

"Or there's something else going on." Ross's expression was grim. "Some other drug or experiment. That would explain why they want healthy people."

"If this man was working for the cartel in Mexico," Brigid said, "why would he be up here? How could he even be operating without Baojia knowing he was around?"

"Good question," Grigor said from the porch. "Tomorrow night we must find these people, extract the truth from them, and find the humans they've taken."

"As soon as I can get signal again, I'm calling Baojia," Natalie said. "If Ivan is in Northern California, I guarantee it's not with Katya's permission."

Brigid was surprised to find she actually missed their van. An hour before dawn, she was secured in one of Grigor's rooms, which was really just a slightly nicer cave dug into the hill with a floor lined in cheap carpet and a shared bathroom down the hall. The walls were only lightly plastered, and she could feel the chill of ocean fog drenching the air.

Carwyn would be thrilled.

The bed, on the positive side, was enormous, fitting the giant vampire who had become their unexpected host. Natalie had taken the other bedroom while Ross was more than happy to dig his own cave in an area that wouldn't disturb the redwood roots. Jamie was sacked out and snoring in the den, and Brigid had no idea where Grigor was, but she was beginning to suspect Katya's father really was a Sasquatch.

She was looking through her notebook when Carwyn returned from the shower.

"Brilliantly refreshing," he said. "While I do give five stars for the size of the bed, the bath facilities may knock the review down a peg or two."

The corner of her mouth turned up. "Am I to assume that ‘brilliantly refreshing' means the water has a slight chill?"

"Oh yes," Carwyn said, his Welsh accent getting stronger the closer he got to sleep. "Ice-cold might be closer to reality."

She looked up from her notebook. "Did you expect Bigfoot to have a water heater?"

He glanced at the kerosene lamps that lit their room. "Actually, this is far more civilized than I gave Bigfoot credit for. Perhaps five stars are in order."

She tossed her notebook to the side and opened her arms. "Come here, ya fine one. I can warm you up."

His eyebrows shot up and he dove into bed, tossing aside the towel that had been wrapped around his hips. "Tell me what you had in mind."

Brigid was laughing before he managed to tug her shirt off. "You're such a beast."

"We're in the forest." He was already working on her pants. "That seems appropriate, doesn't it?"

"You're just excited about having a real bed to play in." She closed her eyes, put her arms around his neck, and spread her hands wide, drawing heat to her palms and warming his skin, which was icy from the shower.

She slid her palms over the broad span of his shoulders as his mouth found a particular spot behind her ear that Carwyn knew she loved. Her legs, now blessedly free of pants, rose and wrapped around his hips.

Anywhere their bodies touched, heat bloomed. Mouth to neck. Hand to shoulder. Thigh to hip.

Brigid arched her back when Carwyn found her small breast with his mouth and tasted it with the patience of a starving man. One hand gripped her wrist over her head, holding her down, as the other teased between her legs, threatening to drive her insane with sensual hunger.

"Yes," she whispered. "There."

"Like this?" He moved his hand, teasing her.

She pounded her fist on his shoulder. "Don't you dare!" She'd almost been at climax.

Carwyn's laugh was pure evil. "I'm still cold in several key places, darling Brigid. I can't have you losing your fire too soon."

Brigid narrowed her eyes, wrested her wrist from his grasp, and spread both hands on his backside. Then she heated her hands so hot and so fast he yelped and burst into laughter, trying to wriggle away.

"Mercy, Brigid!" He was choking on laughter. "Damn you, woman."

She let his butt go with a warning pinch. "Don't tease a vampire about her orgasm. Especially when she's in a real bed for the first time in over a week."

"Oh, love." He scooted up to her and pressed kisses along her jaw. "I'm sorry. You're right, I deserved a burned arse."

"I didn't actually burn you, did I?" She sat up and tried to look, but he flipped her forward and onto her knees, then quickly scooted under her and spread her legs.

"There now, let's try this angle, shall we?" He pulled her hips down over his mouth and feasted.

Brigid nearly fell on her face. "Oh fuck me."

He lifted her up a second so he could speak. "That is definitely the idea."

"It's a good one." Her eyes rolled back. "A very good one."

In a few short minutes, Brigid was screaming his name and gasping for release. She pounded on the bed, a headache already threatening.

It was a peculiar quirk that none of her female friends had ever mentioned or complained about, but when Brigid came very hard, it was as if all the blood in her immortal body rushed south and she came away with a blinding headache. It was the only time she ever felt that particularly human pain anymore.

Carwyn flipped her over and scooted up, wiping a hand across his mouth. "Headache good?"

"Dear God." She covered her eyes, a wave of sharp pain rolling over her temples. "Give it a second and it'll pass."

"I'd love to know if this happens to other vampires, but as you're my first long-term sexual partner in roughly a thousand years, I can't really offer any insight."

"Right. Not something they cover at the Vatican Office of Immortal Clergy then." Her husband had been a Catholic priest for most of his vampire life. Sometimes the learning curve was thrown off for both of them.

The wave of pain in her temples passed, and Brigid was left with a euphoric high, her amnis dancing in her body like effervescent bubbles in a glass of champagne.

"Jaysus." She reached for him. "That was on another level. You really are a beast."

"Grrrr." He pretended to bite her hip. His fangs were out, scraping the skin and raising light red marks.

Brigid's own fangs dropped. She wanted his teeth in her. She wanted all of him in her. "Come here."

"Feeling better?" He got on all fours and crawled up her body, caging her with his massive arms and legs.

"Feeling…" She reached down and closed her hand over him. "…a need."

He lowered himself, met her mouth in a luxurious kiss, and whispered, "We can't have that."

She kept her eyes locked on his as he slid into her, the intimate connection of their eyes as vital as the link between their bodies.

"I adore you," she whispered.

His expression melted into softness, even as he moved his hard body in hers. "My life." He kissed her forehead. "My wife."

She pressed her face to his chest and buried herself in his scent and the rhythm of his body with hers. Before he came, he flipped them over, letting her straddle him as he reached for his climax.

"Teeth." His jaw was clenched. "Give them to me."

She leaned forward, put her arms around his shoulders, and sank her fangs deep into his neck.

Carwyn roared, and the ground shook around them as he came.