Victoria Nelson - Blood Trail Part 14

Henry was about to point out that Toronto wasn't that long a drive and that the Royal Canadian OperaCompany, while not Vienna, definitely had its moments when he had a sudden vision of wer at the theater and blanched. "Where is everyone?" he asked instead.

"Tag and Sky ..."

Stuart and Nadine,Henry translated.

"... are out hunting, in spite of protests from your Ms. Nelson. You saw the exit of the terrible trio. Colin is at work, and my other two are ..."

The descant rose above the tenor solo, wrapping the notes almost sideways to each other.

"... in the living room with their heads between the speakers. They got a couple of old recordings from the doctor today, obscure companies that aren't out yet on CD." He scratched at the mat of red hair on his chest and frowned. "Personally, I think the tenor is a little sharp."

"Why the doctor? Was someone hurt?"

"Everyone is fine." Vicki's voice came from behind him, from the door leading to the bathroom, and her tone added,so far. Henry turned as she continued. "I needed to talk to him to make sure he wasn't the killer."

"And are you sure."

"Quite. It's not him, it's not Colin's partner, andit's not the game warden. Unfortunately, at least another thirty-seven people regularly go wandering through the woods with high-powered binoculars and it could be any one of them. Not to mention an unknown number of nature photographers whose names I don't have yet."

Henry raised a brow and smiled. "Sounds like you've had a productive day."Vicki snorted. "I've had a day," she amended, shoving her gla.s.ses back up her nose. "I'm not really any closer to finding out whodid do it. And Stuart and Nadine have gone for a little nocturnal hike." Her opinion of that dripped off her voice.

"They're hunters, they. ..."

"They can hunt at the local supermarket until this is over," she snapped. "Like the rest of us."

"They aren't like the rest of us," Henry reminded her. "You can't judge them by. ..."

"Leave it! I've had just about as much of that observation as I can take." She sighed at his expression and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I'm just a little frustrated by illogical behavior. Can we go somewhere and talk?"

"Outside?"

She scowled. "It's dark, I won't be able to see, and besides, outside is crawling with bugs. What about my room?"

"What about mine?" While it wasn't large, his was the only room in the house with a door that could be bolted from the inside. If they began in his room, they wouldn't have to move later when it came time to feed. He felt her blood calling him and the plate he still held snapped between his hands. "Oh, h.e.l.l.

Donald, I'm sorry."

Donald only shrugged, a suspiciously knowing smile lurking around the edges of his mouth. "Don't worry about it. We're kinda hard on dishes around here anyway."

Giving thanks that his nature no longer allowed himto blush - his fair Tudor coloring had been the curse of his short life - Henry dropped both halves of the plate in the garbage and turned once again to Vicki.

For a change, he found her expression unreadable. "Shall we?" he asked, taking refuge in formality.Scalloped gla.s.s light fixtures illuminated the stairs and the upper hall in the original section of the house but the wer, who could see almost as well in the dark, hadn't bothered extending them down the hall of the addition.

Vicki swore and stopped dead at the edge of the twilight. "Maybe my room is better after all. ..."

Henry tucked her arm in his and pulled her gently forward. "It isn't far," he said soothingly.

"Don't patronize me," she snapped. "I'm going blind, not senile."

But her fingers tightened against the bend of his elbow and Henry could feel the tension in her step.

The bare forty watt bulb hanging from the center of Henry's closet - it was gross exaggeration to call it a room - threw enough light for Vicki to see Henry's face but the piled junk held shadows layered upon shadows. Dragging his pillow up behind her back, she leaned against the far wall and watched him bolt the door.

He could scent the beginning of her desire.

Slowly, he turned, hunger rising.

"So." She kicked off her sandals and scratched at a mosquito bite.Nothing like taking care of one itch to distract you from another. "Sit down and I'll tell you about my day."

He sat. There wasn't much else he could do.

"... and that's the suspect list as it stands right now.""You really believe it could be one of these birdwatchers?"

"Or the photographers. h.e.l.l, I'd rather it was Carl Biehn or his slimy nephew than some lone hiker we'll never track down."

"You don't think it was Mr. Biehn."

"Get real. He's a nice guy." She sighed. "Course, I have been wrong before and I haven't taken him off the list. Mind you, at this point, I've only got three people who I have taken off the list."

"I don't believe that." Henry picked up the bare leg stretched out on the cot beside him and began kneading her calf, digging his thumbs deep behind the muscle and then rolling it between his palms.

After a half-hearted attempt to drag it out of his grip, Vicki left her leg where it was. "Believe what?"

"That you've been wrong before."

"Yeah. Well. It happens ..." She had to swallow before she could answer. "... occasionally."

Henry knew he could have her now, she'd made her point and would be willing. More than willing - the tiny room all but vibrated to the pounding of her heart. He wrapped iron control around his hunger.

"So." Slapping her lightly on the bottom of the foot, he laid her leg aside. "What did you want me to do?"

Her eyes snapped open and her brows drew down.

Henry waited, his expression one of polite interest.

For a heartbeat, Vicki teetered between anger and amus.e.m.e.nt. Amus.e.m.e.nt won and she grinned.

"You can stake out that tree I found. What wind there is - and there's b.u.g.g.e.r all air moving that I can tell - has changed again so that it's off the fields. If someone shows up with a .30 caliber rifle waiting for a target, grab him and it's case over."

"All right." He began to rise, but she swung her leg across his lap, barring his way.

"Hold it right there ... and don't raise that eyebrow at me. We keep this up much longer and we'll end up ripping each other's clothes off in the kitchen and embarra.s.sing ourselves. I don't want that to happen, this is one of my favorite T-s.h.i.+rts. Now that we've both exhibited control over our baser natures, what do you say we call it a draw and get on with things?"

"Fair enough." He held out his hand, intending to scoop her up into his arms in the best romantic tradition, but instead found himself yanked down hard against her mouth.

They didn't rip the T-s.h.i.+rt, but they did stretch it a little.

At the end, he took control and when his teeth broke through the skin of her wrist, she cried out, digging the fingers of her free hand hard into his shoulder. She kept moving as he drank and only stilled as he licked the wound clean, the coagulant in his saliva sealing the tiny puncture.

"That was ... amazing," she sighed a moment later, her breath warm against the top of his head.

"Thank you." The salty smell of her skin filled nose and throat and lungs. "I was pretty amazed myself."

He squirmed around until he could see her face. "Tell me, do you always make love with your gla.s.ses on?"

She grinned and pushed them higher with an unsteady finger. "Only the first time. After that, I can rely onmemory. And for some things, I have a phenomenal memory." She moved, just to feel him move against her. "Are you always this cool?"

"Lower body temperature. Do you mind?"

"It's August and we're in a closet with no ventilation. What do you think?" Her fingernails traced intricate patterns along his spine. "You feel great. This feels great."

"Feels great," he echoed, "but I've got to go." He said it gently, as he sat up, one hand trailing along the slick length of her body. "The nights are short and if you want me to solve this case for you. ..."

"For the wer," she corrected, yawning, too mellow to react to his smart-a.s.s comment. "Sure, go ahead, eat and run." She s.n.a.t.c.hed her foot back, away from his grab, and watched him dress. "When can we do this again?"

"Not for a while. The blood has to renew."

"You couldn't have taken more than a few mouthfuls; how long is a while?"

Tucking his s.h.i.+rt into his jeans, he leaned down and kissed her, sucking for a moment on her lower lip.

"We have lots of time."

"Maybe you do," she muttered, "but I'll be dead in sixty, seventy years tops and I don't want to waste any more of it."

Police Constable Barry Wu glanced over at his partner and wished he knew what the h.e.l.l was going on.

Whatever had been bothering Colin for the last few weeks, getting under his skin and twisting, bothered him no longer - which was great, a depressed werewolf was not the most pleasant companion in a patrol car - but Colin still wouldn't say what the problem had been and Barry didn't like that. If Colin was in some kind of trouble, he should be the first to know. They were partners, for Chrissakes. "So." He peered up and down Fellner Avenue as they crossed the intersection; it looked quiet. "Everything's allright now?"

Colin sighed. "Like I told you at the beginning of s.h.i.+ft, we're working on it. I'll tell you what's happening the moment Stuart releases me."

Stuart had proven d.a.m.ned elusive this afternoon, but Colin had every intention of tracking the pack leader down the moment he got off s.h.i.+ft and laying Vicki's conclusions before him. Now that loyalties no longer pulled him in two directions, the sooner he could talk this whole thing over with Barry the better.

"But it's about me?" Barry prodded.

"No, I told you, not anymore."

"But itwas about me?"

"Listen, can you just trust me until tomorrow night? I swear, I'll be able to tell you everything by then."

"Tomorrow night?"

"Yeah."

Barry maneuvered the car around the corner onto Ashland Avenue; on hot summer nights, gangs of kids often hung out around the Arena and the police liked to keep an eye on the place. "All right, sheep-f.u.c.ker. I can wait."

Colin's lip curled. "You're lucky you're driving."

Barry grinned. "I wouldn't have said it if I hadn't been. ..."

Henry stood for a moment, staring into the woods, one hand resting on the top rail of the cedar fence. In high summer, the woods seethed with life, with hunters and hunted, far too many for him to separate one from the other. He sensed no human lives near but couldn't be sure if that was due to their absence or to the masking of the smaller lives around them.

Had it been a mistake to feed?he wondered. Hunger would have increased his sensitivity to the presence of blood.Mind you, he admitted, smiling at the memory of Vicki moving beneath him,in the end, I don't think I had much choice.

In the past, when he stayed with the wer for longer than three days and it became imperative to feed, he'd drive into London for a couple of hours and hire a prost.i.tute. He didn't mind paying occasionally - spread over time it was still cheaper than buying groceries. Upon a moment's reflection, he decided not to share that thought with Vicki.

The fence was barely a barrier, and a moment later he moved shadow silent through the trees, following the trail Vicki had laid that morning. A small creature crossed his path, then, catching the scent of so large a predator, froze, its heart beating like a trip-hammer. He heard it scurry away once he'd pa.s.sed and wished it G.o.dspeed; the odds were good it wouldn't survive the night. The wer had come this way, probably on the hunt, but not lately as the spoor had faded to hints and that only where the forest floor retained some dampness.

He ducked under a branch and plucked free a single golden-brown hair from the twig that had captured it.

Vicki hadn't done too well in the woods, the evidence of that was all around him - a faint signature of her blood marked much of the trail. Coming as she did from a world of steel and gla.s.s, he supposed this was hardly surprising. Tucking the hair safely in his pocket, he continued along her path, allowing his mind to wander with her memory while he walked.

He hadn't intended to come out tonight, but he hadn't been able to sleep so he took that as a sign.

Settling back in the tree, drawing in deep breaths of the warm, pine-scented air, he brushed away a rivulet of sweat and squinted at the sky. The stars were a hundred thousand gleaming jewels and the waning moon basked in reflected glory. There would be light enough. Below and behind him, some large creature blundered about. Perhaps a cow or sheep had wandered into the conservation area from one of the nearby farms. It didn't matter. Now that the wind had changed, his interest lay in the pale rectangles of field beyond the woods. They would come to check the sheep and he would be waiting.

With the barrel of his rifle braced against a convenient limb, he laid his cheek gently against the b.u.t.t and flicked on the receiver of his night scope. He'd ordered the simplest infrared scope from a Bushnell catalog back in early summer, when he'd first known what he had to do. It had cost him more than he could really afford, but the money had been well spent. Nor did he begrudge the continuing outlay for lithium batteries, replaced before every mission. A man is only as good as his equipment - his old sergeant had made sure every man he commanded remembered that.

Under the cross hairs, the ghostly outline of trees began to show, punctuated here and there by the dim red heat signatures of small animals. Without bothering to turn on the emitter, he scanned both fields, registering nothing more than the sheep. The sheep wereinnocent. They had no control over the masters they had. Then he came back to the trees.

Theyhunted the conservation area on occasion. He knew it. Perhaps tonightthey would hunt and he would. ...

He frowned at a flash of red between two trees. Showing too dim for the size, he had no idea what it might be. Moving slowly, silently, he flicked on the emitter, playing the beam of infrared light over the area. Although the naked eye could see no difference, his scope brightened as if he'd turned on a high-powered red flashlight.

The creature he'd scanned should be. ...

With an effort, Henry brought himself back to the woods. It was infinitely pleasanter replaying the earlier part of the night, but he knew he must be getting close to the pine. He lifted his head to scan the treetops ...

... and snapped it back snarling as a beam of red light raked across his eyes.

"Holy s.h.i.+t!" Mark Williams raised his uncle's shotgun in trembling hands. He didn't know what that was.

He didn't care. He'd had nightmares about things like that, the kind of nightmares that jerked you awake sweating, scrabbling for the light, desperately trying to push back the darkness.

It didn't look human. It didn't look safe.

He pulled the trigger.

The buckshot had spread enough that it did little real damage when it hit, tracing a pattern of holes down the outside of his right hip and thigh. The light had been an annoyance. This was an attack.