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"Is this so?" Grégoire asked Shaddock

The tall, craggy-faced vamp looked at me in surprise In spite ofoire focused on e you--when this parley is over, you will find this culprit and bring her toshot through elina was so dead But if I disagreed, Derek would be given the job; Derek would bring him Evil Evie without a qualm, and when she died, the spell she had snared her sisters in would iiven a lot over the years, but turning her sister over to the va to find a way out, I nodded

Grégoire stared me down--quite a feat for a va forLike bow? I narrowedto--

"You may set your minions on the financial search," he said His words were clipped but there was an a Maybe he did I texted Evangelina’s particulars to Reach, uy when I could afford hiround on her With what Reach charged vamps for info, he could plan a trip to the Cayht I watched the proceedings in Grégoire’s hotel suite, dressed in jeans and boots and drinking tea by the potful to stay awake The remnant of the hurricane crashed outside the s The hired help was juaze, obviously re I had done in the last twenty-four hours that a human couldn’t It was sad, and likely to be a proble I could do about it I wasn’t human I never had been, despite the ti to deal with it, so Derek and his er worry was how I could convince Molly that her eldest sister was doing black hts over her I wasn’t certain about any of the particulars I knew only one thing Evangelina had to be dealt with Somehow

By dawn, I was beyond exhausted Back in my room, I showered, dressed in a pair of boy-shorts undies and a tank, and curled into thethe thick comforter over me Rain pounded at theWind pulsed like the cold breath of the devil

I was about to close my eyes on the world when I remembered to check the Weather Channel so I could adjust security considerations for the rain Instead, the TV ca announcer was saying, "claiah National Forest that had been attacked by predators The teenaged hiker claimed that the site was an old one with the remains of at least two people, located in a deep declivity with a narrow feeder creek at the bottoh that the sheriff department and park service has sent out searchers So far, however, park rangers have not found the site, and soation was soer drean for the Pisgah National Forest, rain sla a spray with its force The voice-over said, "This latest ruesome death is said to be older than the previously discovered campsites, but isn’t far from the campsite at Paint Rock In each of these cases, the campers were all killed"

Adrenaline tried to spurt into my system, but instead of increased heart rate, I felt only dispirited apprehension, the anxiety like a sore tooth rather than a raging fight or flight response

The TV camera shot expanded to reveal the entrance to the park, and focused in on a group of drenched backpackers, ere clearly leaving The shot changed again to a close-up of three twenty-so for theer any ti I ever faced out west, and I used to cairl said, "Yeah, we’re outta here My parents said if I didn’t leave, they’d co me home"

The announcer caested that ca sure that every camper who stays understands the risks They had already instituted a check-in system for every hiker and camper, every day, and the nu Until thecreatures are trapped and destroyed, the tourist dollars in Bunco"

I , I rolled out of bed and to my feet So much for sleep today As I dressed, rain and wind beat at the s Oh goody A hunt in the middle of a hurricane I didn’t have that onna suck

It didn’t take much to obtain Grizzard’s permission to join the hunt The sheriff looked worn and wan and beaten, his body odor tellingon adrenaline, caffeine, and not iven me permission to join if I’d shown up dressed in a chicken suit, he was that tired and that worried He gave me his personal cell phone number and a GPS unit and waved nored the teenaged hiker’s directions and started down the mountain at a different incline frootten confused getting back to the park path, but the stench of his fear and the putrid scent of old blood and rotten le I hadn’t expected to be hiking in the rain on this gig and hadn’t sentahead to the hotel Torrents of water cascaded fro directly downunder my breath This is Leo’s fault Totally Leo’s fault And Bruiser’s Yeah His fault too

It took h the woods and mud and laurel thickets until I hit olf scent It overlay the reek of fetid, disintegrating bodies and took ore and parts of three bodies Maybe four The camp was so strewn it was hard to tell hat The tent was in shreds; scavengers had been at the site, dragging things around; belongings were scattered I nal and called Grizzard, giving hi to the kill-site

The rain , and not just because the ground wasdownin fast on top of the dying hurricane, changing temps into early fall The storm had washed all the scents downhill to meet the feeder creek the campers had pitched their tents beside The creek was now a rushing torrent clogged with trash, brush, and body parts, the roar a violent white noise that drowned out every other sound

I had seen a lot of gore inI had seen, a sensory overload, further complicated by the scent pattern The wolves had been herethe older one like open wounds, infected and dying And, of course, the grindylow had paid the place a visit, leaving his fishy trace I learned one i--the woman killed here had been a witch, like Itty Bitty No coincidence

I crossed ainst the cold, but, despiteintounder the partial protection of a big-leafed Royal Paulownia tree, I studied the site I didn’t knoas driving the wolves beyond revenge and sickness The level of violence hereall the campers, even the one woman, in an attack that appeared frenzied and irrational, even for olves I looked out over the ca to see it froe Violence Bloodlust

Beast huffed and senther tail There was e, and I chuckled, despite ht atpack No purpose but bloodlust

That made sense, so I worked the timeline backward Jail, the loss of their pack, then the full moon, had h new to ot to the mountains The attack site with the dead couple on the bank of the French Broad had been the second The pieces began to click together like do into a pattern When the wolves finished with the caained control, and bit the squatter at the abandoned house, leaving him alive The attack on Itty Bitty, the first site I’d seen, had been the fourth attack, and the place where the three women had all been bitten but left alive, was the last and ht just otten smarter

If the wolves hadat all I needed to track them back to where they had shifted to wolf and then back to hu with the dropping teainst a rock face, protected from the rain, and found olf tracks By the smell and the number of tracks, they had slept here in wolf forain and, for another hour, growing colder, wetter, andcold, under the unreliable protection of the Royal Paulownia, waiting for the searchers to findnowhere With the rain, I wasn’t going to be able to track on this one, not without a better nose than I had in hu to shift in front of hu overdown a steep incline, led by the sheriff I sroup behind hionna like this Not at all "Hey, sheriff," I called out "You like cats?"