Chapter 17

Brigid watched Carwyn work, watched him move deliberately at the front of their company, his bare feet dug into the soil and his hands reaching down every so often to feel the earth, as if the scent of Summer Mackenzie might live in the ground itself.

"What's he doing?" Ross leaned over and spoke to her.

"I don't know," Brigid said. "You're an earth vampire, aren't you?"

"I can't smell things through the ground though, can I?"

"Are you over a thousand years old?" Brigid asked.

Ross's eyes went wide. "No, ma'am, I am not." He looked at Carwyn with more consideration. "Has he ever done anything—?"

"Yes." She glanced at Ross. "He's found people, and he's lost people. He lost a son. They kept him on concrete. Carwyn couldn't find him in time."

The pain of Ioan's loss still haunted Brigid many nights. When she'd been a child, Ioan and his mate Deirdre had been her protectors. She'd thought they were invincible. Ioan's death had left wounds in Brigid and Carwyn's lives that still hadn't healed.

She saw Carwyn lift his head, turn, then turn again. He frowned and then sprang up to the edge of the creek bank a moment before a mountain lion leaped from the trees.

"Oh fuck!" Brigid yelled, drawing her weapon. "Baojia!"

"I see it." The soldier's voice came from the other side of the creek, where he was already positioned to shoot. "Carwyn, move out of the—"

"No!" Carwyn yelled. "We're in her territory."

He batted the lion back as if it were a house cat, crouching down and spreading his arms wide, giving himself the appearance of a predator far larger than he actually was. "Come now, my lovely. We're just passing through."

Even human predators like vampires could be shocked by their animal counterparts. Brigid had seen a massive Russian vampire freeze like a Popsicle in the face of a grizzly bear.

She kept her muzzle trained on the mountain lion. "Carwyn, what do you want to do?"

He waved at Brigid. "Everyone up! Put the gun away, darling girl. Move to the other side of the creek and give her a wide berth. Be calm, but move quickly."

The animal screamed into the night, snarling with curled lips as Carwyn circled it, trying to keep its attention. Brigid backed away and slowly climbed to the opposite bank, but she kept her eyes on Carwyn.

"See that waterfall in the distance?" He kept his voice even. "Everyone head toward that and just keep moving. Ignore us."

"Carwyn, I have a sight on her." Baojia was on the opposite bank, a rifle pointed at the mountain lion.

"Look at her," Carwyn said. "And put the gun down. She's got babies nearby. That's the only reason she's being this aggressive. Get out of here and she'll leave us alone."

Brigid was the first to lead the team up the creek, nudging Natalie, Ross, and Jamie up the rocky waterway as Baojia and his team moved up behind them.

All the while, Carwyn distracted the cat from them, circling her and moving in hypnotic fashion as her high-pitched snarls turned into growly vocalizations that nearly sounded like pathetic complaints.

"There we are," Carwyn said soothingly. "See? They're all leaving. Bad vampires. I imagine we smell all wrong, don't we, love?"

Brigid backed away, but she still kept her gun trained on the animal. She had plenty of respect for nature, but there were many mountain lions in the world and there was precisely one Carwyn. She'd sooner fly a helicopter to the moon than let a single scratch come to his head.

"Brigid, darling?"

"Yes?"

Carwyn didn't take his eyes off the lion. "Put the .45 away, my love. I know what it sounds like when you holster it; please put it away."

Brigid smoothly slid her 1911 revolver in her waist holster while palming a 9mm compact from an inside pocket of her jacket. "Okay. She's not backing away."

"I'll be the one to do that." The minute he took a step back, the lion screamed again. "Oh yes," Carwyn said soothingly. "You're very deadly."

"Stop playing with the big cat," Brigid said through gritted teeth. "It is not a pet, you madman."

"I'm not saying it is," he said. "But you can't say that her reasons aren't justified."

The farther he stepped back, the lower her snarls became until the only signs of aggression that Brigid saw were curled lips and long fangs.

"See?" Carwyn said, nearly caught up with the rest of the group. "She's just a protective mother."

When Carwyn reached her side, Brigid finally put the 9mm away, keeping her eyes on the snarling cat. After a few tail-twitching moments, the mountain lion slinked away into the underbrush and Brigid heard a collective sigh rise from the group.

"Well, that was fun." Carwyn pushed back toward the front of the group.

They kept moving deliberately, walking along the top of the creek until well past the mountain lion's range. Near the base of a waterfall, Carwyn climbed back into the river.

"Carwyn?"

He froze just as he passed a large outcropping of rocks that reached into the creek, then fell to his knees and put his face to the ground.

"Carwyn, what is it?" Brigid knelt next to him and saw traces of blood in the soil. "Daniel?"

"Yes."

Ross knelt next to Carwyn and breathed in deeply. "I smell it too." He looked up at the crashing water falling over the granite rocks. "That's a sixty-degree angle at least."

"He must have been banged up on the rocks," Carwyn said. "Managed to get to this bank and rest for a while."

"Daniel fell all the way down?" Natalie said. "That waterfall has to be twelve feet at least. And he was already beaten up."

They made their way back up the side of the creek, but it took some time for the human members of the team. The rocks were unstable, and Jamie fell twice, nearly twisting his ankle between two boulders.

Past the crest of the waterfall, the creek continued on a gentle uphill slope, disappearing into the trees as it branched off to the left.

"I've got her now," Carwyn said. "This way." He moved more swiftly, clambering over the rocks and keeping to the center of the creek.

Brigid didn't understand why they were walking through the water if Carwyn had her scent. "Why aren't we following her trail?"

"I want to make sure she didn't cross the river to try to lose vampires and detour through the forest on the other side."

Jamie noticed a spot where a tumble of rocks was disturbed. "Look at that. That exposed dirt is fresh. Looks like Daniel tried to climb up here maybe."

"Blood on the rocks." Brigid could see the drops now. "He was beaten badly to still be bleeding like this."

Jamie turned his face downstream. "Whoever beat him up musta figured he was dead and left him." A touch of wonder colored his voice. "He managed to get into the waterway and follow it all the way down without drowning."

Ross put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "He's tough. She wouldn't have been with him if he wasn't."

Baojia's face was grim. "The current would have done a lot of the work, but it would have banged him up even more. It's a miracle that kid's alive."

Brigid ignored them and kept her eyes on Carwyn. It wasn't that she didn't care about Daniel, but the boy was safe in Santa Rosa and Carwyn had Summer's trail.

Carwyn was walking forward, leaving the group behind him. "We're close. I don't want to lose her scent."

A hush settled over the group and they began to hike again, the earth vampires clambering along the rocks with no effort while the others struggled to keep any more rocks from shifting.

Brigid heard a bird trill overhead.

Baojia put a hand over his mouth and answered the soft call. A moment later, Daxa the wind vampire landed on a smooth slab of granite that overlooked the waterway.

"Farm," she whispered and pointed over her shoulder. "Made up of about fifteen scattered fields, all covered with camouflage netting. There are cabins around the largest area. Something that smells like a communal bath and kitchen area in that section too."

"Here!" Carwyn knelt down, his face in the rocks before he looked up and his eyes narrowed. "She ran from that direction." He pointed upstream toward a dense wall of forest.

"Yes," Daxa said. "The farm is right in the middle of those trees. Maybe two kilometers away? There's a path that leads down to the river and several others that lead in circles. It's designed to get people lost."

"She was here." Carwyn turned in circles. "I was… Everything overlapped. I smell her there" —he pointed at the forest— "but she was here."

Baojia nodded. "Anyone else?"

"Humans," Carwyn said. "Multiple humans."

"Guards maybe?"

Daxa nodded. "Does anyone have paper?"

Jamie reached for his backpack and slung it to the ground, grabbing a large map he'd picked up in Redway. "You can draw on this one."

"Okay." Daxa knelt down and drew with quick, precise strokes in black marker. "Here's where we are, and here's the bridge you just passed…"

Carwyn was still lost in tracking Summer's scent, and Brigid followed Carwyn. He backtracked to the creek bed beyond the bridge and knelt down.

"What are you seeing?" Brigid said.

"She was in the water," he said. "She'd run ahead maybe? Or followed Daniel? The scents overlap; maybe he followed her? But she crawled up here." He looked at the bridge. "Maybe thinking this road would lead to a town nearby."

"I think this road goes quite a ways before it hits anything important."

"But she wouldn't have known that. She would have thought…" He stood and crawled up the bank, paused at the road, then followed his nose across the bridge and down the asphalt a little bit. "Her scent ends here. Abruptly."

Brigid surveyed the scene. A girl running down a creek, knowing what kind of predators she was dealing with. She'd try to throw off scent and get some space. Then she climbs up from the creek at the bridge. Why?

"Do you think there was a car passing?" Brigid asked. "Why else would she have left the water? She knew how vampires track; the water was a safer bet."

"She could have been injured, decided the road was a better option than the waterfall."

Brigid came to stand by Carwyn. "If a car picked her up, she could be safe already."

He frowned. "Who's to say that whoever picked her up was friendly?" He glanced at Ross and Jamie, who had followed them. "You heard what the fishermen said last night. They don't use this road because the locals don't want outsiders up here."

Summer was an outsider. To anyone looking to protect an illicit farm, she'd have been a liability, kidnapped girl or not.

She took Carwyn by the shoulders. "Do you still smell her? Is her scent alive? Recent?"

"Yes. She's not far." He pointed at the trees. "Summer is somewhere in those woods."

"Then let's keep going to the farm." Brigid looked at Ross. "As of right now, it's still our best lead."

They joined the others, who were looking at the rough sketch Daxa had drawn. Brigid could tell that Jamie and Ross were about ready to storm the farm and to hell with any consequences. Brigid wasn't so sure that was the wrong idea. Then again, Ross and Jamie had one goal, and Baojia had another. They wanted their daughter and niece; Baojia needed to catch Ivan.

"We have humans with us." Ross nodded toward his brother. "Why don't we let them take the farm during the day? No vampires; less risk."

"But more guards," Baojia said. "And we need to get Ivan."

"We need to fucking get my niece out of there," Ross growled. "I don't give a fuck about your—"

"Both goals are important." Brigid stepped between the glaring men. "Ross, for Summer's long-term safety, it would be better if Ivan was eliminated, correct?"

Jamie and Ross exchanged a look.

"I can keep my daughter safe," Jamie said.

"And keep her a prisoner on Mackenzie land?" Brigid asked softly. "Is that really the kind of life she'd want?" She looked at Baojia. "I understand that the minute Summer is rescued, Ivan knows he's a target and we'll have to move fast, but we don't know what condition any of these humans are in. Daxa said there are multiple cabins; we can assume more humans are being kept in them. We don't know their status; some might not be able to wait. These are innocent people, and we need to remove them from danger as soon as possible."

"I agree," Baojia said. "But catching Ivan means saving future victims too. He's a rogue right now; fair game to anyone. The minute he senses that he's a target, he'll abandon everything, scamper off, and find protection from someone powerful. He has the money and the connections to do it."

"So we need to plan this carefully," Carwyn said. "It might be possible to get Summer out—clearly she already tried to escape once—while leaving the other humans there. Just until we can catch Ivan."

Brigid racked her brain, trying to figure out how they could rescue all the kidnapped humans while still leaving Ivan clueless that he'd been found out.

She had nothing.

Baojia was right, and Brigid understood where he was coming from. When he and Natalie had confronted Ivan before, the Russian had been under the protection of a powerful vampire cartel, so killing him would have had major consequences and possibly thrown off the balance of power in Southern California and Northern Mexico. Baojia'd had to let the predator loose.

But that had left Ivan free to continue victimizing people, killing unknown numbers under the nose of human and vampire authorities.

Now they had a chance to stop a serial predator, but only with careful planning. Planning that didn't take into account the desperate, instinctive need of a father to save his daughter.

There. Brigid smiled. "Got it."

Carwyn turned to her. "Got what?"

That was it. Make it about a father rescuing a daughter. Make it personal.

"We can get Summer out tomorrow," Brigid said. "And we can get Ivan. I have an idea."