Chapter 2

Carwyn ap Bryn flexed his hand at the top of the steering wheel as his large converted van wound up the twisting coastal road, heading for a remote research outpost on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Curling fog raced past their headlights as the road narrowed and traced the Pacific bluffs.

"How much longer?" Brigid asked.

"Maybe an hour or so." He glanced at his wife and vampire mate. "Did you feed already?"

"I did." She nodded toward their small kitchen. "Had myself a pint of the preserved blood in the cooler."

"Good." At over a thousand years old, Carwyn only needed to feed deeply once or twice a month, but Brigid was barely a decade old; her need for human blood was more regular than his.

Brigid looked over her shoulder. "This caravan was a grand idea, old man."

"Every so often I come up with one."

"So you've reached your quota for the year then?"

He reached over and pinched his woman's thigh. "Minx."

"Mountain."

He flexed his shoulders. "And?"

They had spent nearly six months in Southern California, floating from one friend's house to another's and waiting for their van to be customized.

They weren't the typical couple for van life. He, a broadly built earth vampire with flaming red hair and a habit of making himself even more conspicuous by wearing garish Hawaiian shirts, and she, a small, black-haired pixie with a suspicious expression and a penchant for firearms and ripped black clothing.

They didn't exactly blend in at most campgrounds.

Then again, Carwyn had spent over a thousand years figuring out what set humans at ease, and Brigid had been human roughly ten years ago, so blending in was easier for them than it was for others.

To secure the van, they'd built alarms, light-safe shutters, and hiding places into the vehicle along with a false door on the bottom of the caravan where Carwyn could escape in emergencies, tunneling under the ground to safety should danger approach.

Brigid's special requests mostly involved various gun safes built into discreet corners.

She was staring at an old-fashioned road atlas as Carwyn steered the van. "This area all the way up here" —she pointed at a dense green splotch— "this is where we're going?"

"Eventually."

She looked up. "No roads?"

Carwyn smiled. "A few small ones. No highway. They call it the Lost Coast. The road engineers got to that part of the Pacific Coast when they were building the highway and decided it was too rugged to build the interstate, so they diverted the route inland. Now there are only a few local roads going through that part of the forest to some isolated towns."

While most people considered San Francisco Northern California, the city lay just a little over halfway up the state that stretched along the western North American coast. Above it, the vast and often wild reaches of the Pacific Coast Range stretched into Oregon, blanketed by a network of protected forests, small towns, and river valleys.

"You love that, don't you?" Brigid was a fire vampire, so she preferred cities where electricity was plentiful and her surroundings weren't overly flammable.

Carwyn's amnis belonged to the earth, which meant not only did he draw his energy from the ground, he delighted in wild, untouched places. "Yes, I do love that."

"How dry is it?"

"Not dry. In fact, it's nicely foggy, especially this time of the year."

"Thank the Lord," Brigid said. "Last thing I need is a forest fire on my conscience."

Carwyn smiled. "I believe you're safe in that. I know you prefer the city, but don't you think it's right and fair there are places in the world where Mother Nature has told humans to kindly fuck off?"

Brigid pursed her lips. "Only five percent of the ocean has been explored."

"Now you sound like a water vampire, bragging like that."

The corner of her mouth turned up. "I won't remind Baojia if the subject comes up."

"Please don't."

They were going to "visit" a couple of old friends, though Carwyn already knew their friends harbored ulterior motives for the invitation.

Baojia was a water vampire who'd been born a couple of centuries before in mainland China but had lived most of his immortal life in California. He was currently the security chief for Katya Grigorieva, the water vampire who was in charge of Northern California and most of the Pacific Northwest. Baojia was also married to an old friend of Carwyn's who'd been mortal up until a few years ago. They had two delightfully feral children that Carwyn loved to spoil and then hand back to their parents.

Brigid wasn't keen on most children until they were tall enough that she could look them in the eye, but she was fond of Baojia's mate, Natalie Ellis, so she humored the little ones. Up until her turning, Natalie had been an investigative reporter for a newspaper in San Francisco, but daylight and her new diet were proving to be challenges while maintaining a byline. Natalie was unemployed at the moment, though hoping she'd eventually be able to return.

Brigid and Natalie both had Irish roots, hot tempers, and a passion for helping those who couldn't help themselves, which was why Natalie had called Brigid the week before.

"How long have these two young people been missing?" Carwyn asked.

"I'm not sure. Less than a month."

"Less than a month." Carwyn frowned. "Hopefully far less than that."

"People go missing all the time," Brigid said. "Some people want to be lost. Not that I'm worried Natalie would waste our time, but I do wonder what makes this girl special enough to have caught the attention of Katya's security chief."

Carwyn reached for her hand and squeezed her knuckles. "I suppose we'll find out, won't we?"

Carwyn looked at the picture in the file Baojia handed him. With her fair skin, freckles, and dark red curls, the young woman could pass for Carwyn's younger sister or any one of his massive human clan spread across the world.

"Her name is Summer Marianne Mackenzie." Natalie spoke from across the kitchen table, her wispy red hair pulled up into a messy bun. In jogging pants and a T-shirt, she'd dressed for family and not official company. "She's been missing for two weeks."

Carwyn could hear the waves crashing in the distance as he handed the picture of the freckle-faced woman to Brigid.

Natalie and Baojia's converted farmhouse overlooked the ocean but was set back from the cliffs, and the evening fog filled the air with the scent of salt, cypress, and dried kelp. It was a pungent smell but not unwelcome to an earth vampire. Carwyn was naturally suspicious of any place that didn't have a distinctive smell.

"Jaysus." Brigid stared at the girl's picture. "She looks like one of yours, doesn't she?"

Natalie smiled. "I had the same thought. Redheads are getting rarer these days. She could be related to either of us."

He stared at the girl's picture. "Lots of Celtic blood in Appalachia." He let out a long breath and turned to Natalie. "Someone's missing her, I think."

Natalie nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, they are."

Carwyn had always felt brotherly toward Natalie, whom he'd met when she was still a girl in university, and now he felt it even more strongly as the woman had been sired by an earth vampire.

Baojia sat next to his wife and put a hand on her back. "Summer's family has immortal connections. That's why we called you."

"Her father and mother are frantic," Natalie said. "And her extended family is convinced there's foul play involved."

Brigid set the file down and leaned her elbows on the table. "So they called Katya? They must be somebodies then."

Baojia nodded. "She's under the aegis of the Mackenzies on the East Coast."

"The Mackenzies?" Carwyn sat up straight. "Logan Mackenzie's brood?"

Baojia nodded.

"Mackenzie?" Brigid turned to him. "Are they related to Cathy?"

"Aye, and I'll be sending a message to her before dawn. She'll murder me otherwise." Cathy Mackenzie was Carwyn's daughter-in-law, mated to a son in Scotland. "We'll help, Baojia. No questions asked. The girl is family."

Brigid put her hand on his arm. "Actually, please ignore that. We need to ask a lot of questions."

"Fine, in an investigative sense, yes." Carwyn added, "Lots of questions."

"I knew we could count on you two." Natalie smiled and put her hands around a bright blue mug.

"What was she doing all the way out west?" Brigid asked.

Natalie sipped her tea. "Summer has been studying forestry at a university in Seattle for the past three years, so she's not a stranger to the area."

Brigid opened the file again and started taking notes in a notebook she'd pulled from her back pocket. "She's been in Katya's territory for quite a while then."

"Yes." Baojia was mainly in charge of California, but Katya's territory stretched from Seattle down to San Francisco, and any vampire or human under vampire aegis would be required to make their presence known.

Baojia continued. "I checked the records at the office after her family called. I never met her, but Summer has traveled in California a lot, mostly for vacation. She's an experienced hiker, backpacker, and hunter. This trail she took shouldn't have been an issue for her even if she was with a less experienced hiker."

Carwyn asked, "Has she ever had any run-ins with our lot? Does she hang out at vampire places or—?"

"According to her father, she sticks to human companions unless they're family. He trained her to be cautious of vampires. But she always follows protocol when she's here. Alerts my office, keeps us updated if she stays longer than planned. Which is why when Logan Mackenzie reached out to Katya, I took it seriously."

Brigid was taking notes as they talked. "What were her plans for this trip?"

"Summer said she and her boyfriend—no immortal connections—would be hiking the northern leg of the Lost Coast Trail for around a week and then heading back to Washington a couple of days after that."

"And that was two weeks ago?"

"Eleven days now," he said. "They were supposed to reach Shelter Cove eleven days ago. Had a shuttle all arranged to take them back to their vehicle at the start of the trail and everything. They didn't show."

Carwyn's instincts prickled. "And the shuttle driver didn't report it?"

"She did," Natalie said. "According to her, she called into the King Range station and told the ranger on duty. That's where they would have filed a wilderness permit before they left. You have to make reservations so the trail doesn't get crowded."

"And?"

"They're treating them like lost hikers at this point. They sent search parties out—especially once the boy's family got involved—but it's wild country." Baojia shrugged. "People go missing and are never found. It's not even that unusual."

"She's young," Brigid said. "And you said she's with her boyfriend? Any chance they could have just run off?"

Baojia handed over another, much thicker, file. "Daniel Ramiro Uriarte is the son of Pablo Uriarte and Isabel Delgado; he's also one of the heirs of Uriarte International. They're one of the top building supply conglomerates in Mexico. If you've stayed at a luxury resort in Puerto Vallarta or Tulum—"

Carwyn muttered, "It's on the bucket list."

"—you've likely stayed in a hotel they've built," Baojia continued. "His family is also making a lot of noise. Their head of security, Ignacio Valero, is up in Shelter Cove right now. Has a private plane at his disposal. He's met with the Coast Guard and the search-and-rescue authorities in Humboldt County. Luckily, Daniel's family hasn't offered a reward yet, so we have a little time before the woods are crawling with humans."

Carwyn asked, "Will they offer a reward?"

Baojia nodded. "They're rich. Like, ridiculously wealthy for humans. If the kid doesn't show up within a few days, they're going to offer enough of a reward to have every man and woman in those mountains out in the forest looking for their kid."

Brigid looked up. "And the girl?"

Baojia pressed his lips together. "Let's just say she's not their priority."

"I think they blame Summer for their son going missing," Natalie said. "Just don't bring her up if you need to talk to them."

"Probably not necessary," Brigid muttered. "How long do we have?"

"Until they start blasting the reward money?" Baojia shook his head. "There's no way of knowing. I have a guy in the Coast Guard, but rich people aren't used to taking orders from government agencies, so they're likely to do whatever they want."

"We need to get up there and start asking questions before the reward money is publicized." Brigid slapped the file closed. "How long does it take to get to this Shelter Cove place?"

Baojia leaned on the table. "Along the coast road? Around five or six hours in daylight, likely an hour or so longer at night just to be cautious on the roads. If we take the highway, around four."

"So we take the highway," Brigid said. "We can get there before dawn if we leave now."

Baojia frowned, and Carwyn asked, "What?"

"Summer and Daniel flew into San Francisco, drove up the coast all the way to the mouth of the Mattole River, and parked their car there before they started on the trail."

"So they went up the coast road," Carwyn said. "Took the scenic route." He looked at Brigid. "So if we want to retrace their steps, we should go the long way."

Brigid groaned. "Which means we can't start until tomorrow night."

Carwyn threw his arm around her shoulder. "Come now, Brigid, it won't kill you to rest a little. Plenty of time tomorrow night to interrogate the humans."

"Besides." Natalie flashed her fangs. "If you stay tonight, you can go hunting with me."

Brigid looked at Baojia. "Please tell me she's not going after elephant seals; it's a truly disturbing mental image."

"Deer," Baojia said. "Thank God there are plenty in the hills, because with a newborn, elephant seals are probably not as safe as they should be."

"Deer?" Carwyn felt his night turning decidedly more positive. "I do love a good deer stalk, Nat. I'm in."

"Good." Natalie rose and grabbed Carwyn's hand. "You two boring bloodsuckers can just hang out here and drink vampire juice boxes while Carwyn and I eat fresh."

"Juice boxes?" Carwyn frowned.

"That's what she calls blood bags." Baojia rose. "Brigid, you want some coffee while we go over these maps? I've been looking at missing-person reports from Humboldt and Mendocino Counties too. There might be something there."

"Yeah, definitely." She was already shuffling papers. "I made a note to look back about three years on those."

"I requested five."

"Perfect."

"Boring!" Natalie blew her husband a kiss and headed for the door. "See ya, city slickers."

Baojia turned and shouted, "You grew up in Oakland!"

Carwyn laughed and followed Natalie, craving the smell of ocean air and the taste of fresh blood.