Heather's Dedication

Thanks to Jill for having the courage to become a full-time author. We're all going to watch you soar!

Jill's Dedication

I dedicate this to my school kids.  They love to hear about my writing and several have their names in these books. Because they'll say to me, “Put me in a book and make me a (fill in the blank)!” Thanks, kids!

Copyright © 2025 by Heather G. Harris and Jilleen Dolbeare.

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

No generative AI will ever be used to write our books, or create our covers! We support human, from our editor and proofreader to our artists and narrator Alyse Gibbs.

Cover design by Christian Bentulan.

Contents

Foreword

1. Chapter 1

2. Chapter 2

3. Chapter 3

4. Chapter 4

5. Chapter 5

6. Chapter 6

7. Chapter 7

8. Chapter 8

9. Chapter 9

10. Chapter 10

11. Chapter 11

12. Chapter 12

13. Chapter 13

14. Chapter 14

15. Chapter 15

16. Chapter 16

17. Chapter 17

18. Chapter 18

19. Chapter 19

20. Chapter 20

21. Chapter 21

22. Chapter 22

23. Chapter 23

24. Chapter 24

25. Chapter 25

26. Chapter 26

27. Chapter 27

28. Chapter 28

29. Chapter 29

30. Chapter 30

31. Chapter 31

32. Chapter 32

33. Chapter 33

34. Chapter 34

35. Chapter 35

36. Chapter 36

37. Chapter 37

38. Chapter 38

39. Chapter 39

40. Chapter 40

41. Chapter 41

42. Chapter 42

43. Chapter 43

44. Chapter 44

45. Chapter 45

46. Chapter 46

Other Works by Heather

Other Works by Jilleen

About the Author - Jilleen

Review Request!

Foreword

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Chapter 1

When I answered the shrill ring of my phone, Gunnar's panicked voice filled my ear. 'Bunny!' There was cacophonous shouting in the background. ‘Get down to the North Harbour. Now!’ he barked. When he spoke next, his voice was entreating. ‘Sidnee, honey, come on now. Calm down.’ He hung up.

My heart gave one hard beat before I threw on my rain jacket and my boots. The North damned Harbour: nothing ever good happened at the North Harbour, and hearing my bestie’s name on Gunnar’s lips, begging like that…

A frisson of fear shuddered down my spine. Sidnee had been struggling to cope since Thomas had been taken by the Knight Stalkers, a black-ops spinoff group of the MIB, and right now it sounded like Gunnar was trying to talk her down from doing something stupid.

I feared the worst.

Fluffy barked at me anxiously. He’d heard everything too, and he was standing by the door ready to go. He was already dressed in his Nomo vest; we’d been getting ready for work when Gunnar had called.

I looked around for my troublesome lynx. Luckily, Shadow was asleep on the sofa and I was happy to leave him that way. Today suddenly didn’t feel like a day to put up with his shenanigans.

Locking the front door behind us, Fluffy and I left the house and ran towards the harbour. I couldn’t use my vampire speed because he couldn’t keep up with that pace for long in dog form, but we were definitely moving faster than was humanly possible.

It was growing dark; the sun had dipped below the horizon and the twilight was deepening. This was Portlock’s busiest time of day when the diurnal and nocturnal folks were both abroad, so the paths and streets were busy as I wound through the congested streets. I didn’t stop to apologise for any necessary shoving – I had more serious concerns.

Worry for Sidnee drove me as we sprinted towards the waterfront. The tide was out so the walk down the ramp was steep, forcing us to slow to a quick walk. Fluffy's sides were heaving as he drew in lungsful of air but, like me, he was concerned about Sidnee.

I squinted ahead, the fading light making it difficult for my eyes to adjust. I could see Gunnar with several people on one of the docks near a boat. There was definitely a situation, but not the one I’d been fearing. Something eased inside me.

The mayor, Mafu Finau, was holding back a strapping man and Gunnar was struggling to hold Sidnee. Fluffy ran ahead of me while I assessed the situation, then I upped my pace to full vamp speed and joined him.

Something bad had happened. Sidnee’s eyes were black and she was seconds away from going full mer. If she finished the transformation, her deadly instincts would kick in – and it looked very much like they were telling her to rip the hulking man in front of her to shreds. That was pretty much a no-no for a police officer, so I had to talk her down.

‘Sidnee!’ I yelled, hoping to break her concentration as she struggled to free herself from Gunnar. Her head whipped around but her eyes remained full midnight. She snarled at me and gnashed her shark teeth. She was a heartbeat from fully transforming, and at that point the situation would go from bad to totally-fucked-up.

‘Bunny, do something, I can’t hold her!’ Gunnar bellowed, panic written large across his face.

I didn’t have time to talk Sidnee down, didn’t have time to entreat my bestie: she needed a shock. I drew back an arm and slapped her across the face with all of my considerable vampire strength.

Her head snapped to the side. When she looked at me, she blinked then her eyes returned to their usual warm brown. ‘Ow,’ she muttered. ‘What the actual fuck, Bunny?’

‘Sorry, Sidnee,’ I apologised. ‘I’m so sorry, but I needed to stop you from transforming.’

She looked around, suddenly seeming to take in the situation, and her shoulders slumped. ‘Oh shit,’ she muttered under her breath.

I turned to face the men. The mayor hadn’t released his charge so I asked calmly, ‘What’s going on here?’

The man in Mafu’s grip lunged forward and I saw that his eyes were also mer black. I took a step backwards out of reach and studied him. No, I didn’t recognise him.

I stared at the mayor. If the guy he was restraining was mer like Sidnee, I couldn’t believe the strength it must be taking to hold him in place. Gunnar had been visibly struggling with Sidnee, but the mayor made controlling this chap look effortless.

Mafu was a big, bulky man, rivalling Gunnar in size, but the man was almost his equal. His hair was dark, though in the harbour lights it had a blue-green tinge to it, and he was dressed in fishing gear like Mafu. They both looked like they’d just walked off a boat after a trip out.

The mayor shook his prisoner. ‘Stop it, you dumbass, or I’ll let her take you to jail.’ His tone was familiar and resigned; he obviously knew the man in his arms, though the edge to his voice said he didn’t especially like him.

‘Stop it,’ I echoed, ‘or I’ll bitch-slap you into next week, too.’

The man snarled at me but moments later his eyes went from full black to dark blue. He appeared to have far greater control over his shift than Sidnee, which made me wonder if he’d started the whole confrontation on purpose.

I studied him. I couldn’t quite place his heritage. Although his skin had a warm brown tone he didn’t appear to be Tongan like the mayor, and he didn’t look like any of the Alaskan natives or Pacific Islanders I’d met. More than likely he was all mer.

Sidnee had some problems with the siren group, especially the other merfolk. Since she was only half mer, they took offence at her parentage – or lack thereof.

‘Who is he?’ I asked Mafu.

He sighed. ‘This particular idiot has the dubious honour of being my son-in-law.’

It wasn’t the first time Mafu had thought about pressing charges against his sticky-fingered son-in-law, so I recalled his name. ‘Svestri Donovan?’ I asked. I pulled out my notepad and wrote the time, date and location at the top of the page then scribbled down the name.

‘Yeah, that’s him,’ Mafu said, when Donovan didn’t answer for himself.

‘What happened? Talk me through it.’

‘I called the Nomo’s office because I caught him trying to take my boat again and I wanted to press charges. And this time, I really can press charges because my daughter has finally come to her senses and decided to divorce this asshole.’

‘She’ll change her mind,’ Donovan smirked. ‘She always does.’

‘Not this time,’ Mafu growled. ‘This time, you’re done. You come near her again and I’ll kill you myself.’

I sighed. ‘Can we not make death threats when the police are present? Or maybe not at all,’ I added belatedly. Mafu gave me a flat look but nodded. ‘Right, go on,’ I continued. ‘What happened?’

‘Sidnee answered the call,’ Mafu explained.

Gunnar had walked Sidnee away from Donovan and she was kneeling now, hugging Fluffy whilst he licked her face repeatedly in an effort to make her laugh. She didn’t laugh but she did dredge up a small smile from somewhere just for him. The tightness in me eased a little more, although her smile didn’t reach her – now thankfully brown – eyes.

Mafu continued. ‘I hauled him off my boat and told him to stay put. When I saw the Nomo SUV arrive, I turned away. I don’t know what was said between them because I was checking the boat over. Next thing I knew, there was shouting and Sidnee and Donovan were swinging at each other. I couldn’t let him hit that tiny little thing – plus she’s an officer – but before I could pull him back she had him on the boards with her hands around his throat.’

He looked at me, his eyes serious. ‘I honestly thought she was going to kill him. He has superior size and weight, yet somehow she got the drop on him.’

That would be the academy training; nowadays Sidnee could kick butt and take names.

‘She fucking cheated,’ Donovan snarled. ‘I would have beaten her in a fair fight.’

‘You tell yourself that,’ Mafu said to his son-in-law. ‘Anyway, Gunnar got here shortly after the throwdown and he called you. We managed to pull Sidnee off Donovan, but we were at a stalemate. Each of us took one of them but it was like wrestling with the tide.’

It hadn’t looked like wrestling with the tide: Mafu had looked comfortable holding Donovan back and I wondered if it was a well-practised move. How often did he feel the need to restrain his son-in-law – and what the hell did his daughter think about it all?

‘Are you in control of yourself now, Donovan?’ I asked the huge man. He grunted but nodded. ‘All right. Let him go, Mafu.’

Mafu released him and Donovan rolled his shoulders to work out the painful knots from the protracted hold. I let him have a moment or two to get his head straight then said, ‘Tell me in your own words what happened.’

His expression was haughty and condescending. He hadn’t had the same sneer when he’d looked at Gunnar so either he had a vamp problem or a woman problem. Given that he’d started things with Sidnee, I was betting on the latter.

‘That half-breed bitch tried to arrest me! I didn’t do anything wrong. I have a right to touch this boat.’

‘Not anymore, you fucking don’t,’ Mafu snarled.

‘This isn’t your boat,’ I interceded before things could kick off again. ‘Regardless of your relationship with its owner, attempting to take it without permission is stealing. And in these parts, we think stealing is wrong. If I ask Officer Fletcher what happened, will I get the same answer?’

According to Mafu’s account, Sidnee had used rather more than reasonable force. If I arrested Donovan for attempted theft he’d likely bring a counter case against her, and right now she couldn’t handle that. We needed this whole thing to go away, no questions asked.

‘I didn’t do anything wrong,’ Donovan repeated stubbornly.

‘Yeah? So why were you wrestling on the dock?’

‘She just came at me!’

‘Was she holding handcuffs at the time?’ I asked pointedly.

He became sullen. ‘Maybe.’

I sighed. ‘Alright, how about this? Both of you go home, and don’t call us again unless something is really stolen. Got it?’

They both nodded, Mafu begrudgingly. As Donovan stalked off he glared at me and sent a venomous look at Sidnee. I’d have to warn her to watch her back because he hadn’t liked her getting the best of him. That sort of thing was emasculating, and men like him couldn’t cope with that.

I watched the two men skirt around Gunnar and Sidnee, avoiding Fluffy who bared his teeth and stood protectively between the two parties. Mafu collected a wheelbarrow full of his gear and pushed it up the ramp.

I joined Sidnee, who looked pale and solemn; any smile about Fluffy’s antics had long since faded. ‘What happened?’ I asked quietly as I pulled her in for a hug.

She took a shaky breath in the crook of my neck before squeezing me and stepping back. ‘The usual,’ she sighed. ‘I talked to him about the call and when I told him I’d have to take him in for questioning, he started in on the whole half-breed stuff. He’s said it to me a million times, but I just… ’ Her voice broke. ‘I lost it, Bunny. I finally lost my temper.’ Her eyes were wide with panic and remorse. ‘I–I think I really would have killed him if Gunnar hadn’t pulled me off.’

Gunnar and I exchanged glances. Sidnee hadn’t been coping in Thomas’s absence, and I wasn’t surprised. When the MIB had kidnapped Connor I’d been in pieces – and that was only for a few hours. I don’t think I’d have functioned at all if he’d been taken from me for any longer and I hadn’t known if he was dead or alive. Two weeks was a long time to wait and worry.

Sidnee had insisted on coming in to work, but now…? It was fast becoming clear that she was a liability that we couldn’t afford.

She was hanging on by her fingernails and all we could do was pretend we couldn’t see the blood.

Chapter 2

Sidnee went home and I started my shift a little early. I didn’t mind in the slightest; I just wanted life to get easier for her. I wanted to find Thomas before she imploded, but we had absolutely nothing to go on. Gunnar had already reached out to his MIB contact but waiting for them to find out something felt like torture. I wasn’t good at waiting; I was good at doing.

As I collapsed on my desk chair, Fluffy laid his head on my lap and gave me puppy eyes. Sidnee wasn’t the only one I was concerned about. I’d sent Fluffy to his first counselling appointment and since then he’d steadfastly refused to shift back to Reggie. I was at a complete loss. The counsellor had told me to be patient; while my boy was working out his shit, he just needed my unconditional love.

I wasn’t all that good at expressing my feelings – a leftover from a cold childhood – but I did my best. ‘I love you,’ I said and gave him an ear scruffle. ‘You know that, right?’ He licked my hand. ‘You know you can talk to me anytime? About anything.’

He huffed a breath and lay down on his bed with his back to me. Oh-kay. He didn’t want to talk. ‘Sorry,’ I murmured. ‘I don’t mean to push. I just want to help.’

His tail wagged once, though he didn’t turn to face me. I felt very much like I was in the doghouse.

I checked my messages and took a couple of calls, neither of them urgent. Before I could start on the paperwork for today’s fiasco, Gunnar bellowed from his office, ‘Bunny, come back here!’

‘Yes, boss,’ I called and pushed away from my desk.

I knocked on the doorjamb then let myself in. Gunnar was leaning back in his chair, scrubbing his hands over his face and scratching his beard. He was worried – and he wasn’t the only one.

‘Is this about Sidnee?’ I asked as I sat down opposite him.

He shook his head. ‘Kind of. Patkotak.’

Excitement stiffened my spine. ‘Did you hear something?’ I asked a little breathlessly.

‘No – and that’s the point.’ He sighed. ‘After that FUBAR situation with Sidnee, I reached out to my contacts again. They’ve still got nothing.’ His chair creaked ominously as he leaned forward. As he stared at me, his blue eyes stood out in sharp contrast to the dark circles of worry around them. ‘Nothing useful anyway.’

He paused, weighing up how much to tell me and I saw the ‘screw it’ thought cross his face as he decided to divulge all. ‘Apparently there was a sighting of Thomas a few days ago, but when they arrived there was no sign of him. I’m not going to tell Sidnee. I don’t want to get her hopes up. Even if it was him, they’ll have moved him on by now.’

‘But if it was him that means he’s still alive.’ I bit my lip. ‘Are you sure we shouldn’t tell Sidnee that much at least?’

‘Tell her what? That Thomas was sighted locally but he was gone before we could do anything about it? No.’ He sighed. ‘And what if it wasn’t him? False sightings and reports happen all the time, you know that.’

Annoyingly, I did. I focused on one aspect of what he’d said. ‘How locally?’ I demanded.

He grimaced. ‘Anchorage.’

My heart leapt. ‘We could go—’

‘No,’ he interrupted me. ‘The Knight Stalkers are using MIB bases and MIB resources, so we have to wait for my connections to do their thing. Some of them are fairly senior and they’re passing on top-secret information because they think it’s the right thing to do. I don’t want to compromise them. If we go to the wrong site, guns blazing, we could make an enemy of the MIB. And Portlock can’t afford to have any more heat – we’re already the last-chance saloon.’

My shoulders slumped. Logically I knew he was right, but my heart wasn’t logical and I wanted Thomas home safe. If he hadn’t tried to help us that day in the mine, he’d be snuggling with Sidnee and whispering sweet nothings in her ear; instead, he was who knew where.

Thomas had once been an MIB agent, so perhaps someone was working to protect him and pulling strings? I didn’t care how or why they did it if they kept him safe because so far the Knight Stalkers had shown no hesitation in killing supernats. I wondered if it was only Thomas’s status as a human that kept him breathing. For now.

Gunnar continued, ‘If we don’t get him back soon, I don’t know what’ll happen to Sidnee. This is as bad as it was when she joined us after her parents had died. She was volatile then but now she has a badge, too. It’s a bad combination.’

We both knew that he was thinking about benching her but doing that would probably break her even more and there was only so much she could take. ‘I’m worried too,’ I said. ‘When you called I was afraid that Sidnee was going to do something stupid.’

His grizzled expression softened and he reached across the desk to pat my hand. ‘Sorry to have scared you, kiddo.’

‘It’s okay.’ I twisted my hand to squeeze his back. ‘She’s okay. That’s all that matters.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Thomas is the most capable human I know,’ I went on. ‘He’s been in the MIB as an operative and he can handle himself. I’d be surprised if he hasn’t got a plan to escape. He’s probably just waiting for the right moment.’ I prayed with all my might that my words were true.

Gunnar nodded. ‘He’s a tough son of a bitch with a level head on his shoulders. If he’s made himself useful they won’t dispose of him – not yet, anyway. We’ve got time to find him. But I’m worried about Sid. She’s blaming herself because Chris took him.’

‘I know.’

I heard someone come into the office and stood up to go back to reception, but before I’d gone through the door Connor was standing next to me. He’d used vampire speed – and that told me something was very, very wrong. ‘What is it?’ I asked quickly, my stomach tensing in anticipation of whatever bad news was about to fall from his lips.

‘A teenage girl is missing. A vampire. Kate Robertson.’

‘How long has she been gone?’ Gunnar asked.

‘A couple of hours max.’ Connor’s expression was grim. ‘There’s some suggestion she’s been kidnapped.’

Gunnar’s phone rang and he frowned as he looked at the caller’s name. ‘I have to take this, it’s Liv.’

‘I’ll go on without you and take Fluffy,’ I said quickly as his phone blared again. ‘I can ride with Connor and leave you the SUV.’

Gunnar nodded brusquely. ‘I’ll follow on when I can. Keep me in the loop.’

‘You got it,’ I promised. I followed Connor out of Gunnar’s office, leaving him to grapple with the problematic necromancer.

I grabbed the trusty black duffel bag and called Fluffy. ‘We’ve got a case. Let’s go.’ No longer looking despondent, he leapt to his feet. Maybe we all just needed to keep busy then it wouldn’t feel like the world was falling down around our ears.

Connor led the way to his truck, tension visibly crawling through his frame. ‘Hey,’ I said softly. ‘What am I missing? Is this girl someone you care about? I know you care about all of your people but is she someone special?’

‘I’ve never met her, but yeah,’ he admitted. ‘She’s special. She’s the daughter of one of my father’s former lieutenants.’

I couldn’t stop the grimace that twisted my face. Connor's father was Hamish MacKenzie, the King of all of the vampires in the USA, and he was about as warm and fuzzy as a tax audit. The last thing we wanted was to be on his radar, but I had a sinking feeling that this case was going to put us smack dab in the middle of it.

Chapter 3

Connor drove like a madman, his speed and recklessness giving me a true picture of the depth of his stress. His hands were so tight on the steering wheel that I feared he’d rip the whole thing off. ‘Talk to me,’ I entreated him.

‘They called him first,’ he said tightly.

Ah. That was not good. I knew instantly which him he meant: his father. Connor hadn’t said much about his dad, but what he’d let slip hadn’t been positive. He’d told me that if his father found out about my hybrid status, killing me would be the nicest of my possible fates.

I licked my suddenly dry lips. ‘Your father will want to supervise the search?’

He snorted. ‘No, he’s too important to do that. But he’s given me forty-eight hours to find her or else he’ll be coming to Portlock to discuss my … failure.’

The way he spat out the last word made me think it was one that his father had used often with him. He’d also told me that Hamish MacKenzie didn’t shy away from corporal punishment. As stoic as Connor usually was, I could see a quiver in his locked arms and I wasn’t sure if the tremor was born from anger or fear. When I searched his face, my stomach dropped. It wasn’t anger.

Connor was the most fearless person I’d met. If he was scared… The thought chilled me to the bone. ‘It’ll be okay,’ I reassured him. ‘We’ll find her.’

Through gritted teeth he ground out, ‘He. Can’t. Come. Here. Not ever.’

The ten-mile drive ramped up my anxiety even further. We didn’t turn into Kamluck, as I’d expected but a road just before it. The truck lugged us up the mountain until we arrived at a large home with huge picture windows, framed by an ostentatiously manicured lawn complete with topiary. Vampires were understandably wary about windows and sunlight unless they had money to burn on installing and maintaining daylight charms. The huge windows were a statement of wealth.

Living in a house like this was a boast to all and sundry that the occupants had charms that were top of the range. I recognised the type straight away: I’d grown up with parents with the same attitude: Look at all the stuff I have, aren’t I marvellous? They’d never learned the lesson that it wasn’t stuff that made life rich but love, family and friends. I might be poor by their standards but I was richer than them by far.

I studied the house and its ornate gardens. They were flashing their cash, yet their obvious wealth hadn’t come from logging. If the kidnapped girl’s dad had worked for King MacKenzie, his wealth had been built on blood and bones.

‘You said former lieutenant, but the way you said it was off. Do you think he still works for your dad?’ I asked Connor as he turned off the engine.

‘Officially? No. Unofficially? Definitely. I expect he writes a weekly report on me, though we avoid each other like the plague. We’ve never gotten on. Robertson is a bully and an asshole. I made it clear when he arrived in Portlock that this is my town and I’d take none of his bullshit. After that, I only had to visit him once to rap his knuckles.’

‘Then how does he report about what you’re doing?’

Connor grimaced. ‘No doubt he has someone local feeding him information.’

Someone Connor might even trust. ‘That sucks.’

‘Yeah. It does.’

‘Okay, so tell me about him. Forewarned is forearmed.’

Connor’s voice was mechanical as he rattled off the details like he was giving a military report. ‘Cobalt Robertson. Wife: Faye Robertson. One child: a daughter, Kate Robertson.’ His tone was clipped, precise, emotionless.

‘Kate has been taken?’

‘Yes.’

‘How old is she?’

‘Sixteen.’

I grimaced. That was a shitty age to be kidnapped – not that there was a good one. Still, I’d seen some horrible things happen to girls at that age, both in the club scene in London and here in Portlock. Sixteen was a vulnerable age, an age where you thought you knew better than your parents and you were close enough to adulthood to feel invincible. And you were terrifyingly wrong.

‘Anything else I need to know?’ I asked as calmly as I could. Connor needed my calm now more than ever.

‘Don’t trust them.’

I nodded: this wasn’t my first rodeo. Fluffy and I slid out of the truck and I slung the black duffel over my shoulder. As we walked to the front door and knocked, I hoped for all our sakes that we’d find their daughter quickly.

The parents were tall and impossibly thin, with the kind of leanness that hinted at a vampire’s superior metabolism. Both had identical white-blond hair, as if they’d coordinated down to the last follicle, and I wondered whether it was natural or came from a box. Cobalt’s was neatly trimmed while Faye wore hers long with the kind of perfectly symmetrical waves that suggested curlers rather than genetics.

Considering their daughter was missing, neither of them appeared visibly distressed. They looked like the worst kind of high-ranking politicians: polished to perfection on the outside, corrupt on the inside.

‘This is Officer Bunny Barrington,’ Connor introduced me crisply. ‘This is Cobalt and Faye Robertson.’

Cobalt? Who named their baby that? And more importantly, in what century? Since I’d come to Alaska, my name had started to sound tame and almost civilised.

Robertson looked to be in his early thirties but his eyes said otherwise; they said old. He was all firm jaw and stiff upper lip. My mother would have approved of him – which naturally earned him a black mark from me.

Faye was clasping her hands tightly in front of her, her knuckles white, suggesting she was stopping herself from wringing them in despair. Okay, so there was some emotion there, which was a relief. They looked colder than ice, and with a daughter missing you’d have expected some heat, some panic, some worry, something.

They led me into a sitting room, magazine perfect and just as soulless. I couldn’t help but compare it to Gunnar and Sigrid’s home, which was so full of love and warmth and dotted with trinkets and photos of Stan and Sidnee. In this house a blanket was draped artfully over one arm of the sofa, the folds just so. The paintings were of flowers and complemented the grey tone of the walls perfectly. There was nothing personal, no trainers kicked off in a corner, no tablet or half-finished homework. No sign that Kate existed.

Connor sat next to me on the cream sofa and the Robertsons took the identical one opposite. ‘Can I get you a drink?’ Faye offered coolly, as if we were there on a social engagement rather than to discuss their sixteen-year-old daughter’s disappearance.

I pulled out my notepad and wrote down the time, date and location. Underneath I wrote Cobalt Robertson and Faye Robertson. ‘No, thank you,’ I responded briskly. If they wanted businesslike, I could do that all day long. ‘Can I have Kate’s full name and date of birth, please?’

Faye provided the details. ‘Thank you,’ I said. ‘Do you have a recent photograph of her?’

She went to a large wooden sideboard and retrieved a school photo of Kate from one of the drawers. Their daughter had the same blonde hair as her parents – maybe it was genetic then – and pale, almost translucent skin. Her smile looked warm, if a little staged, but it was a school photo so what would you expect?

‘I’ll return this after I’ve made a copy for our files,’ I promised. ‘When did you first notice that Kate was missing?’

Faye started to speak but Cobalt interrupted her. ‘Two hours ago,’ he said firmly. ‘But we think she was taken last night.’

‘Where was she?’

‘The girls were upstairs in Kate’s room,’ Faye answered.

‘Girls?’ I asked. ‘Plural?’

‘Yes. Kate had her best friend sleeping over, a shifter girl from school.’

‘Can I talk to this other girl?’ I asked.

She looked confused. ‘No, both girls are missing.’

I looked at Connor, who appeared as surprised as I was. He glared at Cobalt, whose eyes had hardened even further.

Ah: the other girl was disposable, whereas his daughter was not.

Chapter 4

I struggled to keep my composure as my irritation with the two pristine vampires threatened to bubble over. They hadn’t even reported the other girl as missing. Unbelievable. ‘What’s her name and who are her parents?’ I snapped.

Cobalt Robertson stood up. ‘We don’t have time for this. Come with me. I’ll take you to Kate’s room.’

I stayed in my seat, pen poised, then looked at Faye and raised an eyebrow. ‘Her name,’ I repeated, my voice harsh. ‘Her parents.’

Faye flushed and looked at Cobalt before she answered me. ‘Her name is Celestine but she goes by Essie. Essie Kaleak. She’s sixteen, like Kate. They’re best friends.’

‘And Essie’s parents?’

‘Frederick and Lilith – Lily – Kaleak. Essie lives with her mom – her dad is out of the picture and doesn’t live in town. I don’t know anything about that.’

‘Contact details?’ I asked.

Faye gave me Lily’s mobile number and her address, which I made a show of noting down even though they were already burned into my memory. ‘What happened?’ I asked.

‘We’ll show you,’ Robertson snarled.

‘I want your impressions before we go into the scene,’ I explained with a patience I didn’t feel. ‘Have you noticed anything out of place, stolen, broken, anything like that?’

They looked at each other, then shook their heads. The beat of hesitation told me they were almost certainly lying but I didn’t know why. If nothing was broken, stolen or out of place, what made them think the girls had been kidnapped? And why weren’t they more forthcoming with the details?

‘Follow me,’ Mr Robertson demanded once more. I knew he was upset but he was a real asshole. I wanted to refuse out of sheer cussedness but this wasn’t about me and my stubborn streak a mile wide. It was about Kate. I stood and followed him.

The couple led me through their tastefully decorated home. Everything was neat, tidy and in place; it felt like a show home where no one actually lived that we were touring with an estate agent.

We headed upstairs into the second room on the right. I pulled on gloves and passed a pair to Connor as Cobalt opened the door and ushered us inside. He glared at Fluffy but kept any objections to the dog’s presence to himself. He and his wife stayed in the doorway, but I assumed they’d already thoroughly disturbed the scene. ‘Did you enter the room earlier?’ I asked, just to be sure.

‘Of course,’ Faye said. ‘I searched for them in case they were playing hide and seek or something.’ The girls were sixteen, not six, so hide and seek wasn’t a likely scenario. I didn’t say anything though; she had to be overwrought even if she wasn’t showing it.

I carefully scanned the room. Like the rest of the house it appeared untouched, barely lived in. It was spacious, with built-in shelving, a desk for Kate to work at, a walk-in closet and an en-suite so big it was nearly the size of my entire house.

I’d been a teenage girl not that long ago and this room felt all wrong. There were no makeup or hair products cluttering the bathroom; the bed linen was unwrinkled, the desk free of school books, and not a single item of clothing was out of place. Either Kate was a neat freak or the room had been tidied. The scent of lemon was dancing on the air so my money was on the latter.

Incredulity filled me and I whirled around to face her parents. ‘You had the room cleaned?’ I asked, anger seeping into my voice.

Cobalt continued to look pugnacious and ground his teeth audibly, but at least Faye had the decency to look abashed. ‘The maid came in and cleaned before we knew the girls were missing.’ She was fidgeting, unable to keep her hands still.

I shook my head in despair; they’d wiped away any clues I could have found. I hoped the maid was a terrible cleaner because otherwise this search was going to be pointless.

I eyeballed Faye. ‘Did you notice anything missing – Kate’s clothes, her phone, or anything else she would take out with her? What about the things Essie brought for the sleepover?’

She looked nonplussed. ‘No, I–I haven’t looked. With the window ajar, we just knew she’d – they’d – been taken. Kate knew to keep the windows closed because our ward system is anchored around them. She would never leave it open like we found it.’

‘Which wards do you have?’ I asked.

‘Ones to prevent intrusion into the house. Someone can only enter if one of us allows it.’ Cobalt’s voice was clipped.

‘Or Kate?’

‘Yes,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘Or Kate. It’s clear the girls opened the window for some fresh air, enabling someone to get in and snatch them.’

Faye pressed her lips together. She clearly disagreed that the girls would be so reckless.

‘If the girls didn’t open the window themselves, how hard would it have been to breach the wards and open it?’ I asked.

‘It would have required blood,’ Cobalt said tightly. ‘A sacrifice.’

‘A necromancer could break it?’

‘Yes, but no one else. And Liv and I have an … understanding. She wouldn’t lower our wards – and she’s the only necromancer in town.’

She was? I hadn’t realised that. I pressed, ‘So which is it? Either the girls left the window open or Liv broke the wards.’

‘They’ve been taken!’ Faye wailed. ‘Kate would never leave the window open!’

Cobalt grimaced. ‘Another necromancer could have come from out of town,’ he suggested. ‘Or the girls opened the window. Teenagers can be reckless.’ He wasn’t wrong, but even so the strength of the wards, and their subsequent failure, tallied more with the kidnap column.

‘Come with me,’ I instructed Faye and led her to Kate’s walk-in wardrobe. ‘Let’s see if you can see any clothing missing.’

My eyes widened at the colour co-ordinated spread of outfits. Whoever their maid was, she wasn’t a slouch. They looked like they’d been sorted by a professional organiser; at least that should make it easier to determine if anything had gone.

Biting her lip, Faye looked around. ‘The clothes she was wearing last night are gone. She was dressed in jeans and a medium-blue sweatshirt with a faded “Portlock Daze” logo on it, and matching ankle-high XtraTufs.’ She grimaced at the mention of the unfashionable – yet oh-so-practical – footwear.

‘What was Essie wearing?’

She shrugged. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t remember. Something similar, but I think her sweatshirt was a dusty pink. I can’t recollect a logo or anything. Sorry.’

Not everyone had my observation skills but Faye’s lack of awareness of her child’s friend struck me as uncaring. I hoped Essie’s mum could give us a better description.

‘Phones?’ I demanded.

‘Kate has the latest iPhone with a bright-purple cover. I haven’t seen it. I don’t know about Essie’s phone, but she definitely had one.’

‘Did Kate carry a purse or a bag of some kind?’ No point asking about Essie; Faye clearly didn’t recall much about her. I’d noted the lack of a backpack or bag in the room. Both girls were in school so they had to have something for their laptops and books.

‘Yes, Kate has an old leather messenger bag she bought at the black market. She loves that hideous thing.’

Even the teenagers of this town knew more about the black market than I did. Typical. ‘Colour?’

‘Black, but faded and cracked.’

‘Have you seen it in the house?’

Faye shook her head. ‘No.’

I assumed that each girl had their own bag with them, since I saw nothing in Kate’s room that indicated that Essie had even been there. That tipped their disappearance back into the ‘potential runaway’ column a little.

I broached my next question gently. ‘Could the girls be out for fun? Have you overheard them talking about a party or something they’d sneak out to? Music, concerts, that sort of thing?’

‘No, Kate would never run away like that! She knows we’d let her do anything she wanted so long as we knew where she was. And as I’ve told you … the window was open and our wards were down.’

Yeah, and that was the kicker – but the girls could have opened the window and climbed out themselves. Still, my gut said they’d been taken even though I didn’t know why I’d reached that conclusion.

I opened the window and looked down. It was large enough to step out of, and a vampire and shifter could easily make the two-storey jump. ‘Does Kate have a daylight charm?’ I asked. It wasn’t considered polite to ask but, if you knew someone was a vampire and you saw them in the daylight, it wasn’t hard to extrapolate. I assumed she had one but I needed to know for sure. If someone had taken her and she didn’t… One slip-up and goodbye Kate.

‘Yes, of course,’ Faye murmured, but she clutched the pearls around her neck and looked at the door to see if her husband could hear us. Luckily, Connor was keeping him busy with questions. She continued, her voice low. ‘It’s a small ring she wears on her right middle finger. It’s silver with a small sapphire.’

I nodded, committing every detail to memory. ‘Do you have a tracking app on Kate’s phone?’

Most parents did, especially in families like ours. As a rebellious teen, I’d learned how to beat the system: leave the official phone behind and take a second one that my parents didn’t know about. Maybe Kate had done the same; with this level of wealth getting an untraceable burner wouldn’t be hard, especially if she had connections to the black market. Hopefully, she didn’t have that kind of imagination.

‘No. We didn’t need one. We trust her,’ her mother said.

Oh boy. You could trust your kid all you liked but that didn’t mean they weren’t getting up to all kinds of things behind your back. They were teenagers and that’s what they did – pushed boundaries, figuring themselves out and testing the world on their own terms. My mum would’ve sworn I was an angel … right up until I left home to be a waitress and moved into a dingy tower block with peeling paint, dodgy plumbing and neighbours who held all-night arguments through the walls.

When I looked at Connor, he gave a slight nod to indicate he was done with Cobalt Robertson. I released Faye from my questioning and she rejoined her husband. ‘Please get me the maid’s contact information because I’ll need to speak to her,’ I instructed her. ‘We’ll need to go over this room with a fine-toothed comb, so keep everyone out.’

‘Of course. I’ll get you Jesse’s details,’ Faye promised.

The Robertsons left us alone and I turned to Fluffy. ‘Okay, boy, this one is all on you because we’ve got nothing so far. Fingers crossed for some strange scents lingering under all this fresh lemon.’

He set his nose to the floor but his eyes looked as dubious as I felt. The chances of finding clues after a maid had been through were slim to none, which meant our chances of finding the girls alive were also decreasing.

The clock was ticking. I feared that if Fluffy couldn’t sniff something out, we’d be trading search warrants for body bags.

Chapter 5

I found a discarded sock under the bed, so the maid wasn’t infallible. Still, with every speck of dust gone it was probably just a fluke.

Fluffy buried his nose in Kate’s bed and had a good snuffle, so I hoped he’d at least got her scent. Knowing what he was looking for, he sniffed around the room. At one point he whined, but until he shifted to Reggie I’d have no idea what that meant.

The room had been hoovered, dusted and polished; all the clothes and other teenage knickknacks were in their proper spaces. It was a completely sterile environment and there were no clues, which was depressing and worrying in equal measure.

I bagged the sock, but I knew that more likely than not it was just a miss from the cleaner. Kate’s laptop was still there so I took that as well; maybe if she had been planning to escape, the information would be on her hard drive, though the broken wards suggested this was more than a teenage lark. When I checked in with Kate’s parents, neither of them knew her password.

We did a cursory search through the rest of the house, checking other points of ingress and exit, but the maid had done a thorough job and Fluffy didn’t whine again. Next, Connor and I looked around the outside of the property, checking under and around the window itself, but we found nothing of note.

I texted Gunnar to update him and let him know that we had not one but two missing girls, then Connor, Fluffy and I set out for the Kaleak residence to check if the girls were there. If they weren’t, I needed to question Essie’s mum, Lily.

The house wasn’t far away and still at this end of town, but in a much more modest area. The building itself was a slightly frazzled-looking bungalow. We pulled up and knocked. The door was answered by a woman who looked like she’d been punched in the gut. Her face was blotchy from crying. ‘Faye Robertson just called me,’ she started. ‘They’re not here. The girls aren’t here!’

‘I’m so sorry, Mrs Kaleak. May we come in?’ I asked.

Lip wobbling and clutching at her chest, she nodded and ushered us into a neat living area. It was tidy, compact and lived in, a bit worn around the edges but loved. There were pictures of Essie on every wall.

‘I’m sorry to question you at a time like this,’ I started, ‘but we need as much information as possible.’

‘Of course. I’ll tell you whatever you need to know.’

‘Thank you. Can I take Celestine’s full name and date of birth?’ I pulled out my pad to take notes. ‘What can you tell me about the events leading up to the disappearance?’ I asked, keeping my tone efficient and businesslike.

One of the things the academy had taught me was the importance of appearing calm, even if you were quietly freaking out inside. It felt harsh to present an impersonal façade but Lily didn’t need a friend right now, she needed someone she could trust to find her daughter. And even without the threat of Connor’s dad hanging over us, I’d be doing everything possible to find Kate and Essie.

‘Essie – erm, Celestine – came home from school with Kate. She goes to night school with her. I work the night shift at the hospital and that way we can spend time together during the day.’

I nodded. A supernatural town ran by different rules than a human one; having two different sessions at the schools kept all the various types of residents happy. ‘What did the girls do before the sleepover?’

‘They went to Essie’s room. I don’t know exactly what they did, but they were planning a sleepover at Kate’s so I imagine Essie was packing her backpack. When they came out, Essie had it slung over her shoulder.’

‘Did they go straight out to Kate’s?’

‘No, they went into the kitchen and took some snacks to eat later. Faye doesn’t believe in letting Kate consume too much sugar so she sneaks it when she can.’

Despite everything Faye had said, Kate was used to going behind her parents’ backs to get what she wanted. Snacks were a minor infraction – but could they have led to a more serious one? Sneaking out to a concert, maybe?

‘What was Essie wearing?’

‘Oh … she had on a pink sweatshirt with jeans, and her brown XtraTufs were rolled down to show the red fish pattern inside.’

‘Any logos visible on the jumper?’

‘Yes – it’s her favourite sweatshirt.’ Lily gestured to her chest and drew out the pattern. ‘It has a square picture in the middle with salmon in a circle around a picture of fishing boats. The top half says Alaska, and the bottom says five salmon – ten names.’

‘What about her backpack?’

‘It’s the one the school issues with the school laptop. Black and grey. No logos.’

‘Does she have a phone?’

‘Yes, of course. It’s the latest iPhone. She has a bright pink case for it and a couple of stickers of ravens. She loves ravens.’

‘Do you have a tracking app on her phone?’

‘Oh my God, yes!’ She brightened as hope sparked. ‘Why didn’t I think of that? I’m an absolute mess.’ She instantly pulled out her phone to check.

My heart gave a solid thunk as she unlocked it and found the correct app. Maybe this case would be over before it even started.

Lily’s face crumpled. ‘Oh God,’ she whimpered. ‘It isn’t transmitting.’

‘Is that normal for her? Do you think she turned it off?’

‘No,’ she whispered, eyes wide with renewed fear. ‘She never turns it off because she tracks me, too. When you’re two women alone in the world, it pays to know where the other is. It’s never, ever not worked.’

Until now.

I felt awful for her but I maintained my professional face even as hers crumpled with despair. I cleared my throat; the quicker we were done, the sooner she could break down properly in private. ‘The Robertsons said Essie’s a shifter. Forgive me for asking but what exactly do you shift into?’

‘No offence taken – Essie’s safety means more to me than some stupid cultural practice. She’s always been special. Her father is Inuit and he’s a raven shifter. My family is from your neck of the woods – I’m a red fox shifter. However, for some reason Essie is something else. She’s a tizheruk.’

My face was blank. I had no idea what a tizheruk was.

Lily realised that a beat later. ‘Sorry, you’re British, aren’t you? You won’t know a damned thing about local folklore. Um … a tizheruk is like an Inuit sea serpent. They’re incredibly rare – I think they only see one pop up every two or three generations. Like I say, Essie is special.’

I’d look them up later or ask Connor about them. ‘Do you have a recent photo of her?’

‘Of course.’ Lily pulled out her phone again. ‘I’ve got one from a few days ago. If you give me your number, I’ll text it to you.’

When she forwarded the picture, I glanced at it. It showed a pretty native girl with thick dark hair cut shoulder length. She was in a car park – it looked like the one by the hardware store – and she was laughing.

‘If you don’t mind,’ I said gently, ‘we’d like to examine her room and anywhere else the girls were yesterday.’

‘Yes, of course. Anything.’

Connor and I donned gloves again and, with Fluffy’s help, spent the next hour searching. Like in Kate’s room nothing stood out, but at least Fluffy had the opportunity to bury his nose in some of Essie’s discarded clothes. Hopefully he’d now recognise both girls’ scents.

Pressure tightened my shoulders. We’d searched both homes and we still didn’t have a single damned lead. This was all kinds of not good.

Chapter 6

Connor walked me to his truck and opened the door for me like the gentleman he was. Before I climbed in, I looked at him. ‘I have nothing, Connor. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find these girls in two days,’ I confessed.

He nodded. ‘I know, but it’s not your fault. You focus on the case and I’ll prepare for if the worst happens.’

‘What will happen? If your father comes here, I mean?’

He looked grim. ‘There’s a strong chance he’ll try and seize Portlock for his own.’

‘You mean take control of it from you?’

‘No, I mean he might try and subjugate everyone in the territory.’

I blinked. ‘Everyone? Not just the vampires? I can’t imagine Liv taking that well.’

A slow grin crossed his face. ‘That would be the one up side – I’d love to see those two square up.’ He paused. ‘It would probably be apocalyptic.’

‘We don’t want that.’ My floppy heart gave a hard beat at the thought. ‘All right, we have to stop him from coming here or even thinking about Portlock in the first place.’

‘The beast and the barrier have always fascinated him – he just needs an excuse. If the worst happens, I can travel to him instead and stop him coming near this place. I can distract him.’

‘What does that mean? You’d have to leave Portlock?’ A tight knot formed low in my stomach.

Connor’s face was dark and his eyes were shadowed. ‘Let’s not borrow trouble. Come on, I’ll take you to the office.’

I climbed slowly into his truck. The drive to the office was silent, both of us lost in our own doom-laden thoughts. When we pulled up and I hopped out he looked out at me, tension in every line of his body. ‘I’ve gotta go, Doe. Be safe, I’ll talk to you later.’ He gave me a brisk kiss and sped off, leaving me looking unhappily at his tailgate.

I needed to focus: I’d deal with Connor’s dad if and when he came to town. Right now, my priority was Kate and Essie. And if I found them and that prevented Connor’s dad from strolling in? All the better. I squared my shoulders and strode into the office.

April was manning the reception desk. Today her shoulder-length red hair was plaited, allowing only a flash of her few grey strands. She looked up and a welcoming smile crossed her lightly lined face.

‘Hey, April.’ I gave the bear matriarch a quick wave.

‘Hi, Bunny! How are you doing?’

‘I’m okay, but we’ve caught a case – two kidnapped girls. One of them is a shifter – Essie Kaleak. Do you know her? She’s a tizheruk.’

April shook her head. ‘I tend to stick to land shifters,’ she admitted. ‘Though we run together sometimes. I know her mom in passing. Fox shifter, right?’

‘Right.’

‘I’ll reach out,’ April murmured, her eyes full of sympathy. ‘I can arrange some meals for her.’

‘I doubt she’ll eat much.’

‘She might not want to but she has to. Us shifters use a lot of energy, even in human form and she needs to keep up her calories. I’ll drop by when I’m off shift.’

‘You know what, why don’t you go now? I’ll hold the fort.’

‘Are you sure? Gunnar has stepped out.’

‘Absolutely. You go and do your good Samaritan thing.’

She gave me a warm hug, all soft flannel and quiet strength. ‘You’re one of the good ones,’ she murmured as she let me go.

I smiled awkwardly as she bustled out of the office. I was terrible at accepting compliments.

Alone with Fluffy, I fixed my gaze on him. ‘I need to talk to you as Reggie. I need to know what you sniffed out at the girls’ homes.’

He whined and looked away, but moments later he stiffened and then Reggie was standing in front of me. If anything he seemed younger than the first time I’d seen him, perhaps because I had a better idea of what he’d gone through. He was still a gangly teen, all limbs and big feet, and his shoulders were so hunched as to be almost concave. My heart ached at the sight of him so unsure and vulnerable. He looked like a puppy that still needed to grow into his paws.

As always, he was dressed in black jeans, black T-shirt and a black leather jacket covered with colourful patches. I’d cut his hair during one of his shifts so it looked less shaggy and more well-kept. The hair tie I’d given him never seemed to survive the shift so I pulled off the spare band I carried on my wrist and held it out. He took it from me and tied his hair back almost defiantly.

There was something belligerent in his eyes; he was waiting for me to ask about his counselling, about why he’d spent a solid week as a dog, but I didn’t. He didn’t need me prodding into whatever was ailing him right now, he needed unadulterated, unconditional love.

‘Hey.’ I stepped up to him and clung on to him. As I held him, his shoulders slowly dropped. Before the hug could become awkward, I gently kissed him on the temple and stepped back. ‘Talk to me about the scents,’ I said.

He looked me in the eye, a rare occurrence. ‘At the Robertson’s I could smell the family, the girls and I think the maid. There were some older scents but the most recent one, before the maid overlaid everything, wasn’t one of the usual ones in the house. I smelled it at the other girl's place too, but only near the back kitchen window.’ He licked his lips. ‘I think someone had been watching both houses and was in Kate’s room.’ His eyes were serious. ‘I–I’m pretty sure they were kidnapped.’

My heart thudded. That the scent was also around Essie’s home suggested it was a premeditated crime rather than an opportunistic or impulsive one. ‘Have you smelled that scent before?’

He shook his head. Well, at least that ruled out Chris Jubatus being here and kidnapping kids again. ‘Was there anything else you noticed that we missed?’

He shook his head again. ‘No.’

‘Thanks, Reggie.’ I hesitated a moment. ‘Do you want to talk about counselling?’

In answer he shifted back to Fluffy and I cursed myself for pushing him. I scruffed his ears. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pressure you. I’m just worried about you.’

He gave a short bark and laid down on his bed. I hated seeing my friend so depressed. Whatever had come up at counselling had really set him back but I hoped he’d continue to go.

I wrote up my report, listing everything I’d collected and noted at both girls’ homes: it was a depressingly short list. I sighed as I put the items I’d brought back with me in a box to go to the lab.

I hesitated as I picked up the laptop. By the time it was sent off and unlocked by our tech experts, Connor’s dad’s deadline would have passed. Was there someone in town who could open it for me? I needed some out-of-the-box thinking on this one.

The door dinged and Lisa from The Supernat Sentinel came in, all five-foot-nothing of her. Her hair was currently black and purple and there was a shaved patch on one side of her head. Her nose was studded. ‘Fanged Flopsy,’ she greeted me with a grin.

I sighed. ‘I could kill you for that one, you know. It’s stuck.’

Her grin widened. ‘Yeah, isn’t it great?’

‘It’s really not.’

She sobered. ‘I’m here about Kate Robertson and Essie Kaleak.’

‘I can’t tell you anything,’ I said firmly. ‘The investigation is ongoing.’

‘But do you think other girls are at risk?’

Unsure how to answer, I hesitated. There was nothing to suggest this was a serial kidnapper but I didn’t want to reassure the townspeople and have someone else snatched because I’d lulled them into complacency.

‘I really can’t comment, Lisa,’ I said firmly. ‘The investigation is in its infancy.’

‘Well, with or without your comments, the story is prepped to be today’s headline.’ She paused. ‘So expect calls.’

I’d be happy to take calls on this one. So far we had precisely fuck all, so if someone had a tip I’d be happy to listen.

‘Give them this number to call if they’ve seen anything,’ I said, giving her the office tip-line number.

Lisa winced. ‘Oh boy, you really don’t have anything, huh?’

‘Nice to see you, Lisa.’ I ushered her out of the office and she went off grumbling.

I hoped that someone would call. Without information, we were dead in the water. And I feared Essie and Kate might meet the same fate.

Chapter 7

I had nothing. I was stuck with a forty-eight-hour deadline, two lost girls and no clues. Time was a huge factor in a kidnapping case; the longer it took me to find them, the more likely the girls would be moved or killed. And if the kidnappers took them out of Portlock, my chances of finding them dwindled from slim to none.

I needed to look at this from another angle. Why had they been taken? Could it be another MIB plot? Those fuckers had been looking for vampires to experiment on with the fisheye drug and they’d gone through a lot of victims since fisheye was fatal to us. I swallowed hard at the thought because if this was the MIB, Kate could already be dead. But why would they want Essie? Shifters responded well to fisheye; in fact, the MIB pricks had even commented that they didn’t need more shifters. Surely Essie being taken made it less likely to be them?

Was it an opportunistic crime? But if Faye was to be believed, someone had lowered the wards on the house, which told me that a degree of planning had been involved. Ugh. I was going round in circles.

I rang Liv. ‘What?’ she answered grumpily.

‘Hey, Liv, how are you?’

‘What?’ she repeated.

I guessed we weren’t doing small talk today. ‘Two girls have been kidnapped and only a necromancer could have broken through the wards on the house.’

‘And you’re what? Ringing to ask me nicely if I kidnapped them?’ She actually sounded amused, which I took as a good sign.

‘No,’ I hastened to reassure her. That had been partly the reason for my call, but she didn’t need to know that. ‘I’m just checking you haven’t got any necromancer buddies visiting you.’

‘I have no necromancer buddies,’ she said and hung up.

Well, that was fun. I scribbled a note to April asking her to look for more girls who’d gone missing, although there hadn’t been any since I’d joined the Nomo’s office unless Gunnar had dealt with one while I was at the academy. Either way, I needed to know; if I had nothing fresh to work on maybe a cold case or two could help us.

I was about to get Fluffy and go for a walk to clear my head when the phone – Wilson – rang.

‘Officer Barrington,’ I answered.

‘Bunny? It’s Ernie. Could you come to the hardware store? I have a situation,’ he said it quietly, clearly not wanting the ‘situation’ to hear him calling for backup.

‘Absolutely. I’m on my way,’ I promised.

I hung up and picked up the black duffel bag that contained every type of magical restraint under the sun. I wasn’t sure what I’d be dealing with since Ernie hadn’t been in a position to tell me.

I looked at my canine companion. ‘Come on, Fluffy, you can come with me. You might even get to bite someone.’ He perked up and gave me a single bark. I grinned. ‘That’s my boy. Let’s go.’

I locked up the office then we broke into an easy jog. Gruff on the outside and warm on the inside, Ernie had a special place in my heart. He cared more than he showed – and he made a brilliant chai latte. He was also quite old, and this wasn’t the first time he’d called for backup. I’d first met him after Frank, the drunken bear shifter, had started trouble; that was also the first time I met Stan when he was squaring up to Connor. It felt like a lifetime ago, but in a good way.

I pulled myself out of my nostalgic thoughts as I approached the hardware store and walked in through the glass front door. Ernie was at the counter where he served coffee and chai. A large man was in his face, shouting, pushing at his chest. Ernie wasn’t reacting; he was far smaller than the goliath who was prodding at him and he was using the counter to keep some distance between them.

Just as I reached them, the man took a swipe at Ernie who thankfully ducked out of the way. I realised the big man was drunk; I could smell the booze on his breath. This time though, it wasn’t Frank but Svestri Donovan, the mayor’s son-in-law. Son of a bitch, he just couldn’t help himself: that guy brought trouble wherever he rolled.

I pulled the magic-cancelling cuffs out of my back pocket to prevent him from shifting, then twisted his loose arm from behind whilst simultaneously kicking the back of his knees. He collapsed like a felled tree and I cuffed him as soon as he was on the ground. He yelled and tried to fight me but my knee was in his back and I had a healthy dose of supernat strength, so he failed miserably. I had the upper hand – and his hands, too.

‘Stop it,’ I barked. ‘You’re making things worse for yourself.’

He’d been on the cusp of shifting and going full mer – but the moment the magic-cancelling cuffs snapped around his wrists they drained the supernat right out of him ... and his consciousness, too. He lay as still as a beached whale.

‘What happened, Ernie?’ I asked.

‘Donovan came in raving, trying to buy shells. I wouldn’t sell them to him – he’s obviously intoxicated.’ His mouth pressed into a grim line. ‘Bunny, he kept saying he was going to kill that half-breed bitch – and we both know who he means by that.’

Sidnee. Fuck. ‘I’ll make sure he gets a nice uncomfortable place to sleep it off in. Are you pressing charges? I saw him throw a punch at you.’

Ernie grimaced. ‘He’s the mayor’s son-in-law. There’s no love lost between them, but I don’t want to add to Mafu’s troubles. Hit Svestri with public drunkenness and that will be good enough for me.’

‘If you’re sure?’

He nodded briskly. ‘I am.’

‘All right. Well, in that case… Any chance I could get a couple of chai lattes before I leave with the rubbish?’

He flashed me a grin. ‘Sure thing. On the house.’

Donovan was out for the count; even with my vampire strength, carrying him, my duffel and the lattes would be next to impossible. ‘Make it three?’ I asked Ernie.

‘You got it.’

I looked at Fluffy. ‘I need a spare pair of hands. Can you help, Reggie?’ I deliberately used his human name as I entreated him to help me. A beat later, Reggie was standing where Fluffy had been.

‘Huh,’ Ernie said, eyes wide as he looked up from the coffee machine.

Oops, I’d better make introductions. ‘Ernie, this is Reggie. Reggie, meet Ernie properly.’

Reggie gave Ernie a shy twist of his mouth that barely counted as a smile, though he kept his eyes on the floor, then he shouldered my black bag of goodies and waited for the chai latte I’d low-key bribed him with.

While Ernie made the drinks, I carefully searched Donovan to make sure he had no weapons or contraband on him. He had his wallet and his phone and that was it. The phone case was noteworthy because it had a fake plastic turd on it. Like, who does that? It was gross and it would take up way more room in your pocket.

When they were ready, Reggie carried the three glorious lattes in a cardboard carrier whilst I shouldered Donovan in a fireman’s lift. Even with my strength he was heavy, though totally manageable. Still, the walk back to the station felt significantly longer than the jog to the store had been.

As we walked down the street, Reggie moved close to me for reassurance; he was almost on my heels, the way he’d have been as Fluffy. He scanned the area around us with the kind of hyper-vigilance I associated with trauma, though I noted that his gaze faltered and lingered on an attractive young male about his own age and his pupils widened. Hmm. I didn’t draw attention to it but filed it away for discussion on a good day.

Back at the office, I tossed Donovan into the magic-cancelling cell, uncuffed him and left him to sleep off whatever cocktail of arrogance and poor decisions he’d downed.

When I rang Sigrid, she answered right away. ‘Hey, Bunny! How are you?’ Her voice was warm and welcoming and instantly brought a smile to my face.

‘I’m okay. I have a drunk in the cell but I need to pop over to visit Sidnee.’ My friend needed to be warned that Donovan was quite literally gunning for her. ‘Can you monitor him remotely?’

‘I’ll come in,’ she said after a moment’s thought. ‘I just finished baking a pie – I’ll bring in a slice for you.’

‘I love you!’ I blurted, making her laugh.

‘I love you, too. And yes, I’m well aware that food is your love language. I’ll be there in ten.’

‘Perfect.’

I used those few minutes to complete Donovan’s paperwork. When I looked up, Reggie was gone and Fluffy was in his place. Damn it! Ah well, at least he’d drunk his chai latte right down to the dregs.

Before I had the chance to say anything, the door dinged and Sigrid came in carrying a Tupperware. ‘Hey, Bunny.’ She greeted me with a hug and thrust the box at me. ‘There’s enough pie for Sidnee, too.’

‘You’re a goddess among women.’

She smiled and blushed. ‘I don’t know about that but I do like taking care of my girls. Go on now. Fluffy and I will hold the fort.’ She crossed to Fluffy’s bed to give him lots of love and affection in the form he would accept. My heart ached.

‘I won’t be long,’ I promised.

‘You take your time. I’ve got this.’ She winked.

‘Thanks, Sig.’ With the pie clutched to my chest, I went to track down Sidnee.

Chapter 8

Tracking Sidnee down was super-easy because she was at home. I could see soft lighting inside and hoped that meant she was still awake. We frequently met for my lunch hour but she tended to hit the hay straight afterwards.

I knocked loudly. When she opened the door, I took a good long look at her. Her face was blotchy, her eyes bloodshot and red; she’d clearly been crying her eyes out. ‘Hey, love, I brought you a chai latte.’ I held it out. ‘It’s a little cool. You might need to zap it in the microwave.’

‘Thanks.’ She took it and offered me a wobbly smile. ‘No Fluffy?’ she asked, looking around me.

‘He’s at the office with Sig. She came over with pie.’ I held out the Tupperware box and she gave a small squeal.

‘Mixed wild berries! My favourite. Come on in – you’re doubly welcome now.’

I followed her through to the kitchen and she quickly heated a blood bag for me before warming the pie. I was so grateful to have a friend like her. She’d taken her nod from Sigrid and started storing blood in her house so I’d never be without it. I was so blessed with my friends.

When the pie was piping hot she added a generous squirt of cream and no words were spoken for a good five minutes while we devoured our sharp-and-sweet treat. Sigrid had balanced the ingredients perfectly and it was heavenly.

Back in the living room, I fiddled with one of the cushions as I tried to work out how to broach the subject of Donovan’s threat. ‘Have you heard anything about Thomas?’ Sidnee asked before I begin.

I debated how truthful I should be. I knew Gunnar didn’t want to get her hopes up … but I couldn’t lie to her face. ‘Gunnar said there was a potential sighting but Thomas was moved soon afterwards.’

Her hands tightened into the sofa cushion and her eyes flashed black. ‘Where?’

All right, now I was going to lie to her face. If I told her Anchorage, she’d be on the next plane out with Edgy and it wouldn’t do her – or Thomas – any good. ‘We don’t know.’

She breathed out heavily and it was like her spine went with it; she virtually folded in on herself. I needed to distract with something else – anything else.

‘I need your help,’ I said hastily. ‘We have two missing sixteen-year-old girls, Kate and Essie, a vampire and a shifter. I have no leads, no clues, nothing. They were taken from a sleepover at Kate’s house – and it turns out that Kate’s dad is here to spy on Connor. Hamish MacKenzie has given us forty-eight hours to find Kate or he’s coming to Portlock. Connor is freaking out – he’s trying not to let me see how much, but he totally is. We do not want his father here.’

Sidnee sat up, spine restored. A good case would keep her mind off her heartbreak for a while. I knew I wouldn’t be able to get over it if it were Connor who’d been taken but staying busy was all I had to offer.

‘I have one of the girls’ laptops,’ I went on, ‘but if I send it to the lab it could be weeks until we get anything off it. Do you know anyone in town who can break into it?’

She sat up even straighter and gave a tiny bounce. ‘Yes! I arrested a hacker a while back. I’ve used her a couple of times since then and in exchange … well, we lost the arrest paperwork. She wasn’t doing anything malicious – she hacked into the school database and changed her friend’s grade from an F to an A. It drew attention because it was such a meteoric turn around, but nowadays she’s more sensible.’

‘As in she doesn’t change grades?’

Sidnee smiled. ‘As in now she changes them to a C. It’s way less noticeable.’

I snorted. Okay, this hacker wasn’t exactly Knight Stalker level of evil.

‘Let me text her – she won’t answer a call,’ Sidnee said.

A wave of relief washed over me. The laptop might be the only clue we had and I prayed it could be unlocked so we’d find a damned lead.

When she was done, Sidnee set the phone down in between us on the couch so we could watch it light up when the reply came. ‘Feel like going to lunch afterwards?’ I pointed to the phone.

‘We just ate pie!’

‘So?’

She shook her head, but before she could turn me down her tummy gave a loud rumble.

‘Sidnee, you’ve had two weeks of pure anxiety and I can tell you’ve already lost a tonne of weight – and you didn’t have much to lose in the first place! You need to eat and keep up your strength.’ Merpeople, like shifters, burned through calories like nobody's business even in human form, and my friend needed to eat often and a lot. In the sea she’d eat high-fat marine life, and on land it took a lot of human food to equal that.

She looked down at the phone but the screen remained dark. ‘Fine.’

'Great.’ Then, because I had to, I blurted, ‘I arrested that prick Donovan from earlier. He started something at the hardware store.’

‘Good.’ She looked pleased.

‘I can’t keep him for long since the only thing I have him on is public drunkenness. But you should know that he went in to buy ammo. According to Ernie, Donovan said he was going to kill you.’

Her eyes went mer black again. ‘Not if I get him first,’ she snarled around a mouthful of incredibly sharp teeth.

‘Sidnee, honey, hold it together,’ I begged as a chill ran down my spine. I’d need to keep a closer eye on her; this loss of control made me afraid for her.

Her eyes went back to soft brown. ‘He’s threatened me before,’ she confessed.

Anger surged through me. ‘What? Why? What’s his problem?’

She shrugged. ‘Anti-half breeds, I guess.’

‘But he’s married to Mafu’s daughter and she’s not mer!’ I protested. ‘If they have kids, they won’t be full-blooded mer.’

My friend grimaced. ‘When he’s in his cups, he says he won’t be procreating with her. He’ll trade her in for a sexier mer model when the time is right.’

I gasped. ‘That’s horrendous. No wonder Mafu hates him. You reckon he’s heard that bullshit?’

‘Oh yeah. If I’ve heard it, so has he.’

I winced. No wonder Mafu was always bringing BS charges against his son-in-law. What an arsehole. ‘If he’s making threats on your life when he isn’t pissed out of his mind, that changes things. You really don’t know what his issue is?’

‘We went out for like a minute before he started dating the mayor’s daughter,’ she huffed. ‘We didn’t even sleep together before he became abusive and I cut him loose. He thinks he’s God’s gift to women and he didn’t take the rejection well. Apparently I’m the one that got away. He’s been tormenting me ever since, calling me names, hinting that I’m a whore, spreading it around that I’m a half-breed. He’s got the mer population to hate me even more, if that’s possible.’

She sank deeper into the cushions. Despair and loneliness dripped from her and she angrily dashed away a tear that told me how hurt she was. My heart ached for her. Sidnee was such a good person that I didn’t understand how anyone could hate her.

The phone between us lit up and Sidnee grabbed it, grateful to have something else to focus on. She read the message and said, ‘She’ll look at it but we need to take it to her now. She’ll meet us at the diner.’

‘Perfect, we’ll collect the laptop from the office, take it to her and then eat. Let’s go!’

Chapter 9

The hacker looked about our age, mid-twenties at most. Her bright pink hair was gathered in a messy bun, she was wearing a black leather jacket that looked like it was four sizes too big, ripped jeans and the ubiquitous fishing boots. She scowled at me as she took the laptop. ‘My usual fee,’ she said.

‘I’ll give it to you once you have something for us,’ Sidnee told her.

‘Cash.’

Sidnee sighed. ‘I know.’

The woman left with the computer but without another word. ‘She was super chatty,’ I said sarcastically as we sat down at our usual booth. ‘What’s the usual fee?’

She shrugged. ‘For this, she charges a flat five hundred. I’ll take it out of petty cash.’

It sounded cheap to me – but then I had zero computer-hacking skills. ‘Are you just having her open it or do anything else?’

‘Open it and scan for anything fishy, like any plans Kate had to take off with her bestie, weird comments on posts in her social media – anything off. She’s good with that kind of stuff.’

I nodded. It sounded like the hacker would save us time and that was something that was in short supply.

The harried waitress came and we ordered our usual: burgers. As I’d predicted, once Sidnee took that first bite she was instantly ravenous. She inhaled her food and even picked at my fries when I was done.

She dunked a fry in ketchup, studiously not looking at me as she said with quiet desperation, ‘I’ve gotta find him, Bunny.’

I didn’t need to ask who she was talking about because she thought about Thomas every waking moment. As I looked at her and she finally met my gaze, I knew with total clarity that if we didn’t find Thomas she would never get over this.

Sidnee stared at me intensely, her eyes harder than normal. Shit – I wasn’t sure she’d get over this even if we did find Thomas. She seemed to be in such a dark place and I wished I could take away some of her pain but I couldn’t; this wasn’t the kind of problem that was halved if it was shared.

I reached over to squeeze her fingers. ‘I know, and you will. We will. This is Thomas we’re talking about and he can take care of himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if he took all the Knight Stalkers down from the inside then charged back here with their heads on pikes.’

She smiled, only because she knew I wanted her to.

‘The second we learn anything about his location, I’ll go with you,’ I continued. 'You know that, right? We’ll Rambo the hell out of the Knight Stalkers to get to him.’

‘Yeah. Thanks, Bunny. You’re the best friend a girl could have.’

‘Back at you, Sid.’

I walked her home then stopped at my own house to pick up Shadow because I hated leaving him home alone for too long. His barking mrrow greeted me as I slid the key in the lock: one pissed-off cat – check. With some yowling, I managed to bundle him into his pram and headed back to the office.

When I arrived, a dog-hair-covered Sigrid excused herself to go home for an early night with Gunnar. I thanked her profusely for coming out. Nothing had happened in my absence; our jailbird was snoring like a freight train.

The rest of the night was quiet bar the snoring; even so, worry about Kate and Essie clawed my guts, not to mention the threat of Connor’s dad’s imminent arrival. I did have an idea about something I could do after my shift, however.

As soon as April arrived to look after Donovan, I packed up my animal companions and headed to the store for a dozen doughnuts. Perhaps Matilda could help me. She could access every spot in Portlock because of her ability to walk through the earth like we did the air, and I’d happily take her all the doughnuts in town if she could help me find the girls.

I drove the long road to the Chrome mine. The dwarves had been busy: the front structure was completely cleared and I was impressed to see that building work had already started. That was insane in just two weeks, but apparently they didn’t believe in hanging around. I left my pets in the car and took the doughnuts up the side of the mountain away from the construction site.

At the place where we’d met before, I did my hag-summoning routine. ‘Matilda, Matilda, Matilda!’ I called out. I hadn’t seen her since our run-in with the Knight Stalkers, and my conscience pricked with discomfort. I should have checked on her sooner, not just when I needed something from her. Ugh: that was a total Mum move.

I stood there as the sun rose. Nothing. I sat on a rock and called again. Finally, I shouted, ‘Hey! Matilda, Matilda, Matilda – I brought sugar snacks!’

She rose from the earth in front of me. Her arms were folded and her face was dialled to ‘not happy’. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me. ‘Rabbit Girl not nice to Matilda.’

Oh boy. ‘I brought you doughnuts,’ I said weakly.

‘No visit many days.’

My guilt deepened. She was right to be mad. In my defence I blurted out, ‘I’ve been worrying about my friend. I’m sorry. But you can visit me, too.’

She cocked her head. ‘Let Matilda into home?’

I might regret the offer – I really didn’t need any holes in my floor – but my Portlock friends had welcomed me with open arms and I was determined to reciprocate. ‘Yes. You are welcome to come for tea any time.’

She nodded and the scowl slipped from her sharp features to be replaced by a beatific – if metallic – smile as she thrust out her hands for the bakery box. I passed it over. She sat on the ground near me and devoured the doughnuts one after another in rapid succession.

‘Matilda, a bad thing happened in town. Two teenage girls were kidnapped – taken away. A vampire girl and a shifter. Have you noticed anything odd? Seen two girls together where they shouldn’t be?’

She polished off the last doughnut and licked her long fingers, steel talons and all. She shrugged. ‘No girls. Matilda look if Rabbit Girl wants.’

‘I’d really appreciate it.’ Then, because I didn’t know if she was a sight hunter or a smell hunter, I showed her the girls’ pictures on my phone.

‘One vampire?’

‘Yes, one of the girls is a vampire.’

‘Matilda find. Matilda like vampire.’

I was so glad she’d married one and liked me; that might help everyone in the long run. ‘You’re a good friend, Matilda.’

‘Friend?’ she whispered, and I wondered if I’d just put my foot in it again.

‘Of course!’ I answered firmly.

She beamed and I shivered at the sight of her needle-sharp metal teeth. I was glad to call her a friend – I definitely didn’t want to be her enemy. She could crush me where I was sitting without using those teeth and claws; she was an earth elemental, strong as rock and as persistent as a mudslide. As far as I knew, she could command the earth to rise up and swallow me whole and that was not the way I wanted to go.

I stood. ‘I have to go, but I’ll come back tomorrow. I’ll bring more doughnuts.’

Matilda shook her head. ‘No, not here. Meet at…’ She held out her hand and the earth rose to form a perfect replica of the Kamluck logging offices. Her powers were amazing.

‘Okay, I’ll see you there. About the same time?’

She nodded and sank back into the earth. She certainly knew how to make a cool exit.

Chapter 10

Happily, both pets were inside my car when I returned to it because with Shadow that was always a gamble. The windows had only just been replaced so I was glad to see that my feline had left them that way. I doubted the Nomo’s insurance would welcome another claim so soon after the last one.

Once inside the vehicle, I dialled Connor. He picked up almost instantly. ‘Any news?’

I quickly told him about the hacker and my meeting with Matilda.

‘I have every vampire in this town searching,’ he said. ‘I even called that lazy-ass bear to get his people looking.’

From his voice I could tell how stressed he was; he was worried about the girls but his anxiety over his dad was clear as well. Even so, his words made me smile. Connor and Stan had come a long way. Connor might call Stan lazy, but when the chips were down he trusted the bear-shifter to have his back.

‘I’m glad he’s helping out,’ I said. ‘I should get all the groups looking.’ I yawned; I was running on empty. ‘I’ll call Liv and Calliope when I get home.’

‘I’m sorry to put more on you, Bunny. The sun is up and I know you’ve worked a full shift. I hope Matilda or that hacker have something for us soon.’

‘Me too.’ I paused. ‘Connor? We will find Kate and Essie. It might take the whole town, but missing kids should be enough for people to set aside their differences and work together. We are going to find them.’ I believed that with all of my heart. What I wasn’t so sure about was when, and in what state.

‘I hope so.’ He sounded beyond weary. He’d been working all night as well and would probably continue into the day. He took his job as vampire leader very seriously; regardless of his dad’s threat hanging over him, he’d work himself to the bone for one of his missing vampires.

‘You need to rest too,’ I cajoled lightly.

‘Don’t worry about me, I’m fine. Now, tuck yourself in and dream of me.’

I laughed. ‘I’ll wait until I’m home, but after that you know I will.’

‘Good. I’ve gotta go. Love you.’

‘Love you, too,’ I said, but he’d already cut the call.

I decided to ring Liv while I was travelling home. ‘Hi, Bunny,’ she answered, and this time her tone was surprisingly warm.

‘Hey,’ I responded cautiously. ‘How are you?’

‘I’m all right,’ she said, sounding upbeat. ‘Gunnar rang me earlier.’

‘He did?’

‘He asked me to arrange for Sally to scry for the girls.’ As head of the magic users, Sally fell under Liv’s protection.

I blinked. ‘He did?’ Dammit: why hadn’t I thought of that? ‘Well? How did it go?’ I asked.

‘Not too badly. We can tell they’re still in Portlock though we couldn’t get a more precise location. Sally said their images were dark, like they were in a cave or somewhere with no natural light. They were moving, though, so they’re still alive.’

Relief washed over me; finally we had something to work with. The girls hadn’t been taken away and they were somewhere with no light. I knew from recent experience that there were a number of local caves and mine shafts that could account for what Sally had seen. This was an honest-to-goodness lead.

‘That’s such a relief. Thanks so much Liv.’

‘You’re welcome,’ she said. ‘Got to run.’

‘Okay. Speak soon.’

She hung up and I dialled Calliope. She didn’t have any new information but she promised she’d get her people to join the search and focus on dark areas.

In case Sally hadn’t updated Gunnar, I texted him and Sidnee the latest news and that Calliope, Stan, Connor and their people had joined the search.

When I finally arrived home, the brief surge of adrenaline had faded leaving me even more tired than before. Daylight exhaustion was crushing down on me and bed was calling my name. I was done resisting.

The phone jarred me awake. I rolled over to grab it just as Shadow decided to use me for pouncing practice. He landed squarely on my gut, forcing the air from me in an ooof. At around ten kilos, he was no featherweight.

When I answered the phone, my voice was still breathy. ‘Bunny,’ I croaked.

‘Oh sorry!’ April said. ‘You sound half-asleep. I thought for sure you’d be up by now. I didn’t mean to wake you. I know your shift doesn’t start for an hour yet, but I thought you’d want the heads up that Donovan is loose and prowling.’

‘Thanks for letting me know. Don’t worry about waking me – I should have been up already. I was so tired I slept through my alarm. I expect that’s what Shadow was trying to tell me when he pounced on me.’

‘That rascal,’ she said, affectionately. She adored the lynx. ‘Your drunk and disorderly just got bailed by his wife.’

‘Okay, no problem. Given his relationship to the mayor, I didn’t expect he’d stay put for long.’ I sighed. ‘He’s a total wanker, though.’

April laughed. ‘He sure is. He’s been nothing but trouble. I can’t believe that Haavale has stayed with him.’

‘That’s the mayor’s daughter?’

‘Yeah. I hope she wakes up and divorces the creep before they have any children.’

Mafu had said Haavale was divorcing Donovan, but the arsehole had seemed confident it wouldn’t actually happen. Then I remembered what Sidnee had told me; it sounded like divorce was on the cards whether Haavale wanted it or not.

‘Some people have to learn things the hard way,’ I murmured. Me included; I’d dated and fooled around with a string of creeps, and the last one had turned me vamp against my will. I hoped the mayor’s daughter followed through with her threat. Maybe then she’d find a new man as lovely as Connor. I’d so lucked out with him.

‘Anyway, I’ll be in at the usual time,’ I promised. ‘Is Sidnee there?’

‘She just left. She said something about a computer.’

I sat up straight. Had the hacker come through? ‘Thanks, April,’ I said hurriedly, then hung up to check my texts. Sure enough I had two from Sidnee.

The first one said, Going to the diner, meeting my hacker friend.

The second one added, Got a lead. Call me.

I texted back, Where are you? I’m coming, then leapt out of bed. I fed my animals, took the fastest shower ever and didn’t even bother with a cup of tea – I just hurriedly warmed a cup of blood. I checked my phone the second I was ready to leave. Office, Sidnee had replied.

I grabbed my four-legged friends and headed to work at double-speed. When I burst in, Sidnee was standing by my desk with Kate’s laptop pressed to her chest. She was nearly dancing with the need to tell me what she’d found out.

I didn’t even wait to get close to her: I just pulled a Gunnar and bellowed, ‘What did she find?’ As I let Shadow out of his pram, I demanded, ‘Well?’

‘There was nothing on socials or in her email.’

My heart sank. We needed a lead – something other than darkness, dammit. ‘However…’ Sidnee began.

My heart thumped hard. I leaned forward. ‘Yes?’

‘There were odd emails and comments on Kate’s social media from someone asking her friends where she and Essie would be, and when. Kate’s a smart kid – she got creeped out and blocked the guy, someone called Scott Evans. My hacker friend, Pynk, tried to trace him but the account was a bogus one, set up just that week presumably to stalk the girls.’

I shuddered. Definitely a pre-meditated snatch, then, rather than an impulsive decision. ‘Did she tell her parents about Evans?’

Sidnee sighed. ‘I haven’t managed to speak to the parents yet.’

‘Ugh, tell me we’ve got something.’

‘Pynk tracked his IP or whatever – I didn’t understand all the technical chatter. Bogus account or not, the messages definitely originated in town.’

‘Can she get any closer than that?’

‘South end of town, but nothing more precise. He was using a VPN. But it tells us he probably isn’t MIB. Pynk said the security wasn’t difficult to get through so it’s definitely not government related. He’s just a creep – but a local one.’

The MIB had used the mine tunnels and there were plenty of caves around; ruling them out as suspects actually helped. We weren’t dealing with a pro here but an amateur – and amateurs made mistakes. When he made his next one, we’d be waiting.

I just had to pray it happened soon.

Chapter 11

I called our local pilot, Edgy, to make sure he ran any future trips and passenger rosters past me until further notice. No flights were to go out without Nomo approval.

‘What about the boats?’ Sidnee asked.

I grimaced. ‘You’re right.’ Not only could a boat take the girls away, but the bowels of a boat could be pitch black just like Sally had seen. The girls might be being held prisoner in a hold.

After a moment’s hesitation, I called Stan. ‘Hey, Bunny!’ he answered, sounding cheerful.

‘Hey. I know you’ve been helping with the search for the missing girls but there’s been a suggestion they could be being held on a boat. Can you and your people search all the boats in the harbour? I’m talking about the holds, not a cabin or wheelhouse. Sally said the girls were somewhere pitch dark.’

There was a long pause. ‘It’s going to cause issues if my guys think I’m accusing them of kidnapping,’ he said finally.

‘We don’t even know for certain that the girls have been kidnapped – they could have run away and hidden.’ Why they would have done that, I didn’t know; Pynk had found nothing on Kate’s laptop to suggest that had happened. But if the way to get these fishermen to let Stan search their boats was to suggest the girls were runaways, I was fine with that.

‘Okay.’ His tone was grave. ‘I can roll with that.’

In the background a baby cried. ‘You at Anissa’s?’ I asked, being nosey.

‘Yeah.’

‘Hmm. Can she help the search at all? In case the girls are being hidden from view magically?’

‘Hold on.’ He put me on mute while he spoke to the shaman. Moments later he came back on the line. ‘She says Liv is your best bet – she can smash through most illusion spells.’

Of course she could. Liv was going to love hearing from me again – and by now the pleasure of speaking to Gunnar would have worn off, leaving her grumpy and combative.

‘Okay, tell Anissa thanks,’ I said. ‘I’ll ask Liv to help. Sally said the girls were in the southern part of town, so start with the boats in the South Harbour.’

‘You got it. Give me an hour.’

‘Thanks. I owe you.’

‘No you don’t. Essie is a shifter. We’re on it,’ he said grimly. ‘See you, Bunny.’

Feeling better because I was actually doing something, I rang Liv. ‘Three calls in two days,’ she said when she picked up. ‘I feel so popular.’ Her tone was dry.

‘You’re my favourite necromancer in town,’ I started.

She snorted. ‘I’m the only necromancer in town.’

‘That must be lonely.’

‘We’re a rare breed,’ she said simply. ‘So how can I help you?’

I explained the situation and added a bit of flattery, telling her that Anissa had said she was the only one powerful enough to help us. ‘Well,’ she said, clearly preening, ‘I suppose I can help. I’ve nearly finished embalming Mr Stoniak. Give me an hour.’

‘Perfect. Stan’ll meet you at the South Harbour.’

She grunted and hung up. Some days I thought she was warming to me, other days not so much. Liv was a law unto herself.

Since I was calling prickly people, I decided to tackle another one. I took a deep breath and called the mine supervisor, Leif Ericsson. ‘What?’ he answered tersely.

Since he was dispensing with the niceties, I took the same approach. ‘A vampire and a shifter are missing. Sixteen-year-old girls. We have reason to believe they are confined somewhere dark.’

‘And you’re accusing us?’ he snapped.

‘No, not at all. But I’d like you to check the mines.’

‘Lady, do you have any idea how big these mines are? We’re talking at least a week of crawling around in the dark – and you may recall that we’re knee-deep in reconstruction from that last little disaster,’ he sneered.

‘I do recall,’ I said tersely. ‘I was there pulling bodies from the rubble, scraping every drop of blood from the earth so that you could give them their final rest.’

There was a beat of silence. ‘That you were,’ Leif said finally. ‘Fine. We’ll look for them.’ He hung up.

I blew out a breath; that could have gone better but, then again, it could have gone a lot worse. I rested Wilson back in his cradle.

‘Fun call?’ Sidnee asked.

‘Leif Ericsson. He said he’d help look for the girls.’

Gunnar ambled into the office. ‘Ladies,’ he greeted us.

Sidnee went to hug him, which gave us all pause. They had a complicated relationship, but at work she always kept things professional; that she needed a hug spoke volumes about her mental state. The mystery of the girls’ disappearance might be distracting her a little but it was clear she was still desperately lost. I hated seeing her like that.

Gunnar and I exchanged concerned looks over the top of her head. We needed to find Thomas – but we had to find the girls, too. I felt torn but at least the girls’ case was fresh and, more importantly, it was here. I had to focus on what I could control and right now that was the search for the missing kids.

‘It was a good idea to get Sally to scry the girls,’ I said to Gunnar. ‘I’m annoyed I didn’t think of it.’

‘You’re not used to magic being your go-to option. Besides, Sally isn’t always here and she definitely isn’t always available. She’s a great scryer but it takes a lot of energy and it’s often a one-time deal. She won’t be able to check for the girls again for a few days. If I made her bite at the akpik too soon, it might have been a wasted nibble.’ His tone was regretful and I knew that he was thinking that he’d moved too early.

‘Not at all,’ I interjected. ‘We know now that the girls are somewhere local and somewhere dark.’

I explained what Connor, Stan and Liv and I had cooked up between us. With the ships and the plane locked down, the kidnapper couldn’t get the girls out of town unless he dragged them through the barrier, and after the recent deaths most people were now wary of crossing it. Even the hunters who regularly trotted through it were hesitating, and the barrier protestors had been noticeably quieter of late.

I told Gunnar I was planning on meeting Matilda later that day at Kamluck. The slight tightening of his jaw told me he wasn’t enamoured of the idea, but his lack of objection told me he knew it was a good one whether he liked it or not.

‘I’ll go help Liv and Stan,’ Sidnee declared. ‘My mer eyes can see in the dark far better than most. I can make sure they don’t miss anything.’

‘Good idea,’ Gunnar rumbled. ‘Bunny, you want to question the parents again? Make sure they haven’t had a ransom request they haven’t told us about?’

‘Sure.’ I filled him in on Pynk and her findings. ‘I’ll question the Robertsons about Kate’s internet stalker as well. I’ll take Fluffy – he can try again now the lemon smell will have cleared and he’s had a proper whiff of Essie. Hopefully he’ll pick up the same trail he found at her place somewhere at the Robertson’s house.’

‘That’s smart. You both keep the radios on,’ Gunnar ordered. ‘Let’s keep communication open. I’ll man the fort and dig deeper into any other reports of missing girls. April has already started pulling folders for me. But you let me know if either of you need back up and I’ll roll out before you can say “save me, boss”.’

I gave him the smile he expected but Sidnee didn’t. He went on, ‘The drunk has been dispensed with, yes?’

‘Yeah,’ I confirmed. ‘Mafu’s daughter picked him up this morning.’

‘So we all know what we’re doing. Let’s get this case moving.’

‘Yes, boss!’ I offered a cheeky salute but even that sass didn’t put a smile on Sidnee’s face. My worry deepened.

One problem at a time. I had to focus on the girls. Thomas could handle himself. Probably.

Chapter 12

I was secretly pleased when Faye Robertson opened the door because her dour husband had seemed less than co-operative. Then again, he’d been a lieutenant to the vampire King of the US; no doubt, he felt he could deal with the matter without the interference of local bumpkin cops.

Faye’s perfect blonde hair was less coiffured today and thrown back in a simple pony tail. ‘Officer…’ she squinted at me ‘…Rodent? Is everything okay? Did you find her?’ She looked on edge as if she hadn’t slept.

I never thought I’d see the day where Fanged Flopsy seemed a better option but I’d take it over Officer Rodent any time. I shook my head. ‘It’s Bunny, and sorry, no. I have some more questions. May I come in?’

She deflated. ‘Of course. My husband is out – but anything you need.’ She ushered me into the sitting room, gestured at a chair and took the one opposite.

‘We managed to extract some information from Kate’s laptop. It looks like she was being tracked – she was contacted on several platforms by someone called Scott Evans whom she subsequently blocked. Did she mention this?’

Faye looked dismayed. ‘No, she didn’t say anything.’ Her crossed legs started to shake as her foot bopped up and down.

‘Do you know of anyone who showed more than a regular interest in her?’

‘No. Nothing like that.’

‘Have you had any messages since she disappeared? Anyone demanding ransom?’

Her eyes shifted. ‘Um, no.’

She was lying: I’d bet my whole month’s salary they’d had some kind of contact from the kidnappers. ‘What about your husband?’ I asked. ‘Has he heard anything?’

She shook her head and pressed her lips together.

I cursed mentally, but when I spoke I tried to keep the annoyance out of my voice. ‘Listen, if someone told you not to get the police involved, they’re just trying to control you. The best chance you have of getting Kate home safe is through co-operating with the Nomo’s office.’

She met my eyes and for a moment I thought she would confess to something, but then she shook her head again. I wasn’t going to get any more out of her: she’d decided I wasn’t Kate’s best chance. I needed to prove that she was wrong.

‘Do you mind if I have my dog sniff around some more? He caught a scent at Essie’s house and I want to see if he gets the same one here.’

She bit her lip uncertainly. ‘My husband has called in his own team,’ she blurted out. ‘But I don’t see what harm it will do.’ She stood and pointedly walked me to the door. The interview was over.

I let Fluffy out of the SUV. When we walked back into the property, Faye was making herself a gin and tonic and she ignored us as we went slowly from room to room. Fluffy never pointed once to indicate he’d sniffed anything worthwhile. Dammit.

As we let ourselves out I murmured, ‘So it was a no-go on the house?’ Fluffy gave a distinct shake of his head. ‘Okay. Let’s see if you catch the same trail here that you found at Essie’s.’

He barked once and his tail wagged fiercely: he was ready to go. Together we walked the perimeter of the house, Fluffy’s nose to the ground. I could tell he was taking his time – we really needed a lead and he knew it. We were thirty hours down on Hamish MacKenzie’s forty-eight-hour deadline.

Fluffy slowed even more as we approached the area beneath Kate’s window, sweeping methodically back and forth as if he were determined to smell every single blade of grass. As he sniffed, I eyeballed the distance to the window. Both girls were supernat and could have jumped to the ground without a problem, but how had the kidnapper gotten them out?

I checked around the foot of the building again but there were no indentations from a ladder. Had a magic user floated them out?

Fluffy barked. ‘You found the trail?’ I asked excitedly. His tail wagged. ‘Can you follow it?’

In answer he put his head to the ground again and led us through the manicured gardens to the woods behind the property. As far as I could tell there was no trail to follow, though I bet Thomas could have read a half-bent blade of grass and told me in which direction the kidnappers had taken the girls. That made my heart hurt: we needed someone with his own skillset to find Thomas.

I kept scanning for tracks as we moved further into the wood. Fluffy’s nose was still to the ground when he stopped abruptly and barked excitedly. I looked down and saw that he’d found footprints in an area of soft mud: one set was large and deep, the other smaller and lighter.

I photographed them both, then carefully held my foot in the air above each track to judge its size. The first one had to be that of a large man, but the second was smaller than mine. Maybe one of the girls’?

They were next to the deep tread of a quad bike. I looked at Fluffy. ‘We need to get some wheels.’ The Nomo’s SUV couldn’t follow a quad bike in this terrain. I needed a like-for-like vehicle – and I knew that Kamluck kept an off-roading option for scouting out new logging sites.

I rang Connor; it was handy having a mate who ran a local company. He answered after two rings. ‘Any news?’ he asked instantly and I felt his desperation.

‘I have a lead. Can I borrow a quad bike?’

Silence. ‘A four-wheeler?’ he asked as he mentally translated my English-ism. ‘Umm, sure. Have you ever driven one?’

I hadn’t, but how hard could it be? ‘Nope.’

He grunted. ‘You need someone to show you, and it can’t be me no matter how much I wish I could come to you right now.’ The yearning in his voice melted my heart.

I tried to reassure him. ‘It’s fine. I have Fluffy with me.’

A sigh. ‘Fluffy has never driven a four-wheeler either.’

‘He might have done!’ I looked down at my dog, ‘Have you driven a quad bike? As Reggie, I mean?’ Fluffy cocked his head before giving it a shake. Damn. ‘Okay, he hasn’t driven one – but Reggie was a biker. How different is a quad bike to a motorbike?’

‘It’s different,’ Connor said drily. ‘He can’t teach you if he hasn’t ridden one. Okay, I have an idea, a two-birds-one-stone thing. I’ll send Parker. He knows what to do, plus he needs to spend some time with you. He’s struggling.’

I bit my lip. I had accidentally created a blood slave when I’d tried to save a young vampire's life after the Chrome mine exploded. I hadn’t meant to do it, but the end result was the same: Parker would do whatever I ordered. Instantly, no matter if it went against his own wishes or his own morality.

Even worse, Parker had once been a pain in Connor’s butt but now he wanted to achieve nothing more in life than to please me and, by extension, my mate. The worshipful adoration when he looked at me made me feel downright uncomfortable. Connor and I had kept the whole thing secret because a vampire in thrall to me was a dead giveaway that I was a hybrid. And if that came out? I was toast.

‘Isn’t it best for him to stay away from me? Maybe it’ll fade away with some distance?’ I asked hopefully.

Connor sighed. ‘I wish it would but it doesn’t work that way. Come to Kamluck. I’ll have Parker and two four-wheelers ready for you.’

‘All right, I’m on my way,’ I said grumpily.

‘I’ll load them on a Kamluck trailer so you can hitch it to your SUV.’

‘Great, thank you!’

‘Be careful, Bunny.’

‘I always am.’

Silence.

‘I mostly am,’ I amended.

‘You rarely are,’ he corrected with a snort. ‘I’ll see you soon.’

We hung up and I looked down at my dog, ‘Well, Fluff, we’re about to have a very interesting adventure. Are you sure Reggie wouldn’t want to learn to drive a quad bike?’ I asked, hoping the chance to do something different would coax him to shift.

Fluffy barked and looked ahead, an obvious no. I sighed. ‘Some day, pup.’

He huffed. So did I.

We headed to Kamluck. Finally, I felt like I had a direction. We were one step closer to finding the girls.

Chapter 13

Even though it was only a short distance to Kamluck from the Robertson’s house, Connor was true to his word: Parker and a trailer with two quad bikes were sitting in front of his office. He must have cracked his whip hard and fast. The thought temporarily derailed my thinking. Mind out of the gutter, Bunny!

I climbed out of the SUV and offered the vampire a reserved smile; I didn’t want to encourage him any more than necessary. As his eyes met mine, he lit up with a brilliant smile. He inhaled deeply, like he’d been struggling to breathe and someone had hooked him up with gas and air. Ugh. Connor had been right.

Just seeing Parker told me how much he needed to spend more time in my presence. I felt sick; I’d never meant for this to happen. ‘I’m sorry.’ The words slipped out before I could censor them.

‘For what?’ Parker asked. ‘You’re brilliant. You have nothing to apologise for. Ever.’

I winced. ‘I’m sorry I saved you the way I did.’ Letting him drink my blood had been the issue; any other vamp, and he’d have been fine, but with my hybrid status I’d created my own blood slave. It was one of the reasons why hybrids were outlawed. Yay me.

‘I would have died without you,’ he said passionately. ‘You saved my life. Please don’t apologise for that. Please don’t be upset.’ He looked anxious.

‘I’m not upset,’ I reassured him hastily. ‘I just didn’t intend to … do what I did. How are you getting on working at Kamluck rather than at the mine?’

‘I like it. Connor tells me how you’re doing.’

I winced. This was not making me feel better. Time for a subject change. ‘Can you help me attach the trailer?’

He brightened. ‘I would love to help you!’

Oh boy.

Parker helped me attach the trailer and I concentrated hard, memorising everything he did. It looked simple, though lining up the hitches and stuff was a bit of a pain. Luckily, after my second try Parker just picked up the trailer and set it down on my hitch. ‘Vampire strength rocks,’ I noted.

Parked grinned. ‘A human could have done that too – the trailer’s super light.’ He gestured to the SUV. ‘You want to drive, or shall I? It can be tricky with a trailer.’

‘I’ll do it,’ I said instantly. A moment later I added, ‘But can you help teach me if we get stuck?’

‘Sure thing.’ He beamed, looking delighted at the idea that he might be able to help me. Ugh.

We climbed in and I started the engine. Turning to him before I moved off, I blurted, ‘Is it better for you? Spending time with me?’

‘Much,’ he admitted. ‘It causes me physical discomfort to be apart from you for long.’

I cringed. ‘I didn’t realise it was that bad.’

He shrugged, like his pain was of no importance. ‘I don’t wish to inconvenience you.’

‘You must!’ I insisted. ‘Next time you feel any discomfort at all, I want you to come and find me.’

He nodded. ‘I believe it wouldn’t hurt if I could see you a couple of times a week.’

‘We can manage that.’ I mentally added ‘see Parker regularly” to my to-do list. Some days the list felt never ending. Nobody warns you how tough adulthood can be: showering, doing laundry, cooking for yourself – so many chores just to survive. Add in pets, a boyfriend and an accidental blood slave, and my dance card felt very full.

I turned my attention back to the SUV and we motored off slowly. As we came to a junction, I slowed to a stop. Parker coached me through it. ‘When you pull out, start slowly and carefully build up speed. Remember to swing out a bit when you turn – and watch your mirrors.’

My hands were sweaty on the wheel but I followed his directions to the letter and then we were back on the main road. I could feel the slight hesitation in the vehicle that indicated I was pulling more weight than usual but there were no mishaps and soon it was time to turn onto the road to the Robertson’s house.

‘Signal, slow down and make the turn slowly,’ Parker instructed. ‘Don’t forget to swing wide again.’

Thankfully there was no one around. I swung out and made sure the trailer didn’t go off the road on the turn; my heart gave a solid thump, but before I knew it we were heading down the road. Who knew driving with a trailer was so stressful? I’d look at the fishermen pulling their boats with more respect in the future. Badasses, every one of them.

We pulled into the Robertson’s driveway and I parked up with relief. I hadn’t told Faye what I was planning, and I saw the curtain on the front window twitch a little. I didn’t go to the house to explain: I was pretty sure in this instance that it would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Parker unloaded the machines and showed me the basics. The quad bikes had power steering and were automatic rather than manual, which made controlling them a lot easier. He told me to take it easy on the petrol and, after a couple of minutes, I felt like I was getting the hang of it.

Fluffy guided us across the grass to the woods where we’d seen the tracks. Funnily enough, he hadn’t wanted to ride with me; in fact he’d sent me a very distrustful glance as if he doubted my competence. Still, having his nose to the ground would be helpful if we lost the tracks for some reason.

We followed the kidnapper’s quad-bike trail for what felt like a mile or maybe even two. There only appeared to be a single track; this wasn’t a well-used hunters’ trail, just an arsehole busting through the woods to steal two girls.

It ended at a dirt road where no doubt the quad bike had been loaded onto a trailer. I made Fluffy sniff this way and that but he lowered his head and looked morose. The trail had ended here.

Despair rose in me. Dammit, I’d been hoping the tracks would lead us directly to the girls. The chances of finding them before the clock ran out were shrinking by the hour.

‘Well, that’s it,’ Parker said, and Fluffy yipped agreement. Too many vehicles had passed by. The kidnapper had simply driven down the dirt road to the highway and on to town. Fuck.

I managed a smile for my vampire helper. ‘Thanks, Parker. I really appreciate your help with this.’

‘You know I’ll do anything for you.’

The statement was simple – and devastating. ‘I know, but I don’t want you to feel you’ve lost your free will.’

He nodded. ‘That just shows that you really are the most wonderful person in the world. If I have to be bound to anyone, I’m glad it’s you.’

He was delusional. I wasn’t anyone special, just a vamp fumbling along and trying to do some good. I’d taken everything from him and he was thanking me for it. ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said yet again.

From what Connor had told me, Parker had been violent, and prone to fights and bragging before I’d saved him. With my donation of my blood, I’d changed him fundamentally. He wasn’t the man he once was and it was all my fault.

He shook his head. ‘Don’t be sorry. I’m much happier now than I ever was before. I was so dissatisfied. Now I find great joy in helping you.’

I sent him a watery smile. The stress was getting to me, that was all. I was tired.

We rode back to the Robertson’s house and loaded the quads back on the trailer. This time I let Parker drive us to Kamluck – I’d proved to myself that I could do it but that didn’t mean I’d enjoyed it, and life was too short to do shit you hated. Okay, as a vampire I would probably have a very long life but, either way, I asked Parker to drive.

At Kamluck we unhitched the trailer and I went to the office to see if Connor was around. I needed to see him like I needed to breathe. I’d missed him last night – and the night before.

He was at his desk. His hair was sticking out at odd angles, which meant he’d been running his fingers through it. As he looked up and met my eyes, he gave a warm smile then stood and closed the distance between us to press his lips to mine like he needed them to survive. God knows, I did.

I pressed against him and gave a happy sigh when we finally parted.

‘All right?’ he asked me softly. His eyes showed the strain he was under. He was clearly run ragged, and the threat from his dad was hanging over him.

I smiled. ‘Better than you, I reckon.’ I jostled his hip.

‘I’m all right.’

‘Liar.’

‘Any leads?’ He tried – and failed – to keep his tone casual.

‘No. The kidnapper probably met up with a truck so we lost the trail. That was close to the main road, so they could have gone anywhere.’

Connor closed his eyes. ‘Fuck,’ he breathed.

‘Sorry.’

‘Not your fault, you’re doing everything you can. You can’t follow leads that aren’t there.’

I nodded, but doubt was twisting in my gut. I could remember everything but I didn’t know if I’d noticed the right thing.

Chapter 14

When I arrived back at the station, Gunnar bellowed, ‘Bunny, get your ass in here!’ Feeling deflated, I dragged myself into his office. I hated the fact that we were spinning our wheels so hard and getting absolutely nowhere.

Gunnar’s tone had been short: was I about to get my first dressing down from my usually jocular boss? I was working hard but maybe he thought I was being as useless as I felt.

He smiled when I entered, putting me slightly more at ease. He didn’t think I was totally shit, then. ‘We had an interesting call on the tip line while you were out.’

I perked up. ‘Yeah?’ I asked hopefully.

‘Yeah. A woman said she escaped a prostitution ring here in Portlock two years ago. Wants to talk.’

My heart gave a hard, floppy beat. A prostitution ring? If that was what had snatched Kate and Essie, I felt sick at what the girls could be going through right now. Even so, my adrenaline surged; this could be an actual clue.

Gunnar continued, ‘With all that she’s been through, she said she’ll only talk to a female officer.’

Totally understandable. ‘Did she leave her contact info?’

‘No. She said she’d meet a female officer at the public bench on the walking trail by the South Harbour. It’s busy enough that she knows no one could snatch her from there – including us.’

I felt sad that the poor woman would even think that we’d try and grab her against her will. Still, not everyone was raised to trust the police. ‘When does she want to meet?’

He grimaced. ‘That’s the bummer. She wants to meet at seven in the morning, after your shift has ended. It’s when the trail is busiest so she feels most safe.’

‘We’re cops all the time, not just when we’re on shift.’ It was another thing drilled into us at the academy. We had to hold ourselves to a higher standard than others; our actions at all times were a reflection on the state troopers. ‘You know I don’t mind working late. I don’t want to miss this lead.’ Nor did I want to palm the task off on Sidnee.

Gunnar’s eyes were warm. ‘Proud of you, Bunny Rabbit.’

My heart soared. ‘Thank you,’ I replied awkwardly, still not quite used to compliments despite Connor’s best efforts. ‘It’s not like you could ask Sidnee,’ I added softly. She had enough on her plate and she was a bit of a wild card at the moment.

‘No. She’s not herself right now.’ He tugged at his beard. ‘I’m worried about her.’

‘Me too. Don’t worry about this meeting. I’ve got it, boss.’

‘I know you do. We’re going to get the girls back.’

I nodded and Gunnar turned back to his computer screen, dismissing me. Lucky for me, it was paperwork time; I hated paperwork but Gunnar hated it more.

I recorded my latest efforts and allocated a fee to be paid to Kamluck for its equipment and the use of an employee. By the time I was nearly finished, April had stumbled in for her shift. Today she was rocking a messy bun that told me she’d snoozed her alarm one too many times.

My shift was almost over but I was far from done. I had my meeting with Matilda then the clandestine encounter with a poor girl who had been sex-trafficked.

‘How are you?’ I yawned as I asked April.

‘I’m good. I visited Lily Kaleak yesterday to offer some moral support. The other shifters have rallied round her and so many are out searching.’ Her pride in her people showed. ‘Stan is doing an amazing job co-ordinating everything.’

‘He is,’ I agreed, grateful the Nomo’s office had one less task to deal with. We didn’t have the manpower for such a big search, but in those circumstances it was customary for the Nomo to rely on the vampires and shifters.

The phone rang and April answered it while I finished my paperwork. A moment later she put the call through to me. ‘Cobalt Robertson,’ she mouthed.

I nodded and pushed the button to release the hold. ‘Officer Barrington.’

‘It’s Cobalt Robertson,’ the vampire started stiffly.

‘Mr Robertson, I can assure you that we are taking every step—’

‘I’m not calling for an update.’ He interrupted me, his tone harsh. ‘I don’t know why MacKenzie insisted on calling the Nomo. This is a vampire issue.’

‘It is clearly not,’ I said firmly. ‘Essie was also taken.’

‘Collateral,’ he grunted. ‘I’m bringing in my own team of experts. Stay out of their way. And for the record, I don’t appreciate you talking to my wife without me present. I also did not give the Nomo’s office permission to search my grounds.’

I reeled back in my chair. Some people were unbelievable – I was looking for his daughter. ‘I was granted permission by your wife. We were following a trail left by the kidnapper,’ I started hotly.

‘I’ll be making a formal complaint to the council.’ He hung up.

What an utter wanker. I was sure the council would be as confused by Cobalt Robertson’s attitude as I was; I was more worried about what he’d say to Connor’s dad. Our forty-eight hours were nearly up, and the thought of Hamish MacKenzie coming here was enough to slide cold fingers of fear down my spine. Connor was trying to contain his emotions but it was obvious he viewed his father as a threat both to Portlock and to himself.

‘I gather that wasn’t good news?’ April asked.

‘Not good,’ I agreed grimly. ‘But certainly interesting. Did you ever think a parent with a missing child would be angry that I'm doing my job?’

Her nose wrinkled. ‘Not unless they’re hiding something.’

‘That’s what I think too. Time to do a deep dive on Cobalt Robertson.’

‘I’m happy to help with that.’ She smirked. ‘He’s always swanning around town with his nose in the air. He’s definitely got skeletons in his closet.’

‘Then dig them up for me, April.’

‘You got it. And talking of deep dives, Gunnar and I searched back five years on missing girls. Found a couple but they seemed to be resolved so I’m not sure if they help or not. I’ve collated our findings.’ She handed me a couple of printed pages. ‘I sent them to your email as well.’

‘Thanks.’ I put them on the top of my ‘to-do’ stack for when I was back in the office. For now, I had to pick up some doughnuts for Matilda. Meeting the hag without sugary treats would be a rookie error.

I left Fluffy and Shadow with April and went to the bakery. Matilda was meeting me in the carpark at Kamluck and I’d forgotten to warn Connor to make sure the area was clear. I called his office from the car: Bluetooth was a miracle. How the hell did it work? It was close to magic – not just Bluetooth but phones in general. You took one voice and you connected with someone else who somehow sent back their voice instantly. Total witchcraft. Maybe one day I’d read a textbook and demystify the process– but today was not that day.

My call was answered promptly. ‘Kamluck. Connor speaking.’

‘Hey. It’s me.’

‘You called the office phone,’ Connor said in surprise.

‘I needed to make sure someone picked up. I’m meeting Matilda in your car park – could you make sure the area is clear? I don’t want to spook her.’

‘Sure. Anything for you.’ He sounded distracted although his answer was spot on.

‘What’s wrong?’ I asked.

He hesitated and I knew I wouldn’t want to hear what he had to say. ‘We’ll talk after you’re done with Matilda.’

I definitely wouldn’t want to hear what he had to say. I rubbed my arms to tame the goosebumps. ‘Okay, but you’re making me nervous.’

‘Well, that makes two of us,’ he said drily. ‘See you soon.’ He hung up.

I wished Fluffy was with me; heck, even Shadow would have been a comfort at that moment. I loved my sweet kitty but he was downright terrifying most of the time; even so, I needed every ally I could get.

That thought reminded me just how many others were already helping. The town had rallied to find these girls but we all knew that the longer they were missing, the slimmer their chances of survival were.

Time was against us and we were running out of it fast.

Chapter 15

I turned onto the Kamluck road with my bakery box. As Connor had promised, the car park was deserted. I parked up, climbed out and held out the box of doughnuts like it was Baby Simba in The Lion King.

I did a last check to make sure no one was near then called, ‘Matilda, Matilda, Matilda!’

In response, she rose up from the car park like a disgruntled mole. Her fine, twig-like hair shed gravel as she ascended, and she twitched her long pointed ears to free them of dust.

Her eyes flashed with delight as she spotted the pink box in my hands and she snatched it from me as if it held a vital organ that would save her life. Her steel fingernails shredded the cardboard like lethal knives. Yeesh. I stepped back a little.

She devoured the doughnuts in less than a minute and handed back the box, which now resembled hamster’s bedding. Unsure what to do with it, I held the shreds in my hand while we talked.

After licking her metallic fingernails clean of sugar, she huffed, ‘Matilda no find vampire girl and friend.’

My heart sank. I’d really been hoping for something more. The girls were being kept somewhere dark and I’d so hoped that meant a cave system that Matilda could find in a heartbeat.

‘Need more time,’ she said when she saw my dismay. ‘More places to search. Just searched here, but nothing.’

I perked up as I realised I hadn’t told her the results of Sally’s scrying. I was spinning too many plates. ‘If it helps, the kidnappers were traced to the south end of town. And the girls were somewhere dark.’

She looked at me. ‘Dark is Matilda’s friend. Matilda look. Will find.’

‘Do you know where I live?’ I asked her suddenly. I’d invited her to my house but hadn’t told her where it was. ‘So you can tell me what you find.’

She cocked her head. ‘Can find Rabbit Girl.’

Oh-kay. That wasn’t weird at all. ‘Matilda, how do you find people?’

She shrugged and some more dirt and gravel fell from her animal-skin dress. ‘I know Rabbit Girl, can find anywhere.’

Well, that was clear as mud. I hoped she could find the girls, too, but she didn’t know them like she knew me. I’d shown her their photos so I had to hope it would be enough. ‘If you find them, please come to my house.’

‘Matilda come. Also, come in for … tea?’

I smiled. ‘Yes, you are welcome to visit. We can have tea and biscuits.’ I’d better buy a whole case of them; Matilda’s sweet tooth was insatiable.

She gave a bright smile full of needle-like teeth then sank into the dirt and was gone, not leaving a single trace to indicate she’d ever been there. If she wanted to, she could become one helluva thief.

I dumped the shredded bakery box in Kamluck’s bear-proof bin then dragged myself to Connor’s office, bracing myself for whatever he was going to tell me. When I opened the door, he was on the phone. He held up a finger and I stepped back so it looked like I wasn’t eavesdropping, but my sharpened vampire hearing meant I still heard the call. It wasn’t very exciting: for once, it was actually a call about lumber.

Connor finished and moved towards me. The pull of our bond was intense and I also moved forward without thinking until I was in his arms. We kissed – but before it became too heated, he pulled back. He ran a hand through his hair and his curls tumbled.

‘All right, hit me. What has you so freaked out?’ I asked.

He sat back down and I took the chair across from him. ‘My father isn’t coming.’

My breath caught and I sat up straighter. ‘That’s great news!’

I spoke too soon because he was shaking his head. ‘Robertson has requested help from some of his old colleagues and Dad agreed. He’s sending one of his deadliest teams here.’

My stomach sank. ‘Deadly doesn’t sound good.’

‘It isn’t,’ he agreed grimly. ‘They pretty much have a 100% success rate for any task they’re given. Failure isn’t an option – they’ll do anything my father commands them, at any cost. They’re fanatically loyal and they all have daylight charms so there’s no respite from them. Next to Father coming here personally, this is the worst thing that can happen. My father and his men once destroyed a whole paranormal town. Just murdered everyone in it. Women, men, children.’

'Why?' I whispered. Though there could be no justification.

'They slighted him. Refused him entry. He's not a man that takes "no" well.'

He studied his desk, not meeting my eyes. He clearly didn’t want to say the next words. ‘We can’t let them know about your status, Bunny. They’ll have you in cuffs before you can say “illegal hybrid”.’ Finally he looked up at me. ‘I’m working with some of the magic users to get a charm to muffle your heartbeat because that’s your biggest tell, but it’s not ready yet. Until it is, you have to stay away from me – and them – until they leave town.’

‘I can act like a normal vampire,’ I argued. ‘No one suspects me here.’

He sighed. ‘They don’t suspect you because they don’t know about hybrids. This group does, and they’ll recognise the signs – your reluctance to drink blood, your heartbeat. Dammit, Bunny. You're my father’s ultimate prize. He’d…’ He trailed off.

My mate was clearly scared – and that scared me shitless. In all the times I’d known Connor, in all the danger we’d faced together, never once had he looked so pale-faced with fear. And it was worse because it wasn’t fear for himself but for me. That served me a dollop of guilt so thick that I nearly choked on it. ‘I’m sorry,’ I said softly.

He reached across the desk for my hand. ‘It’s not your fault. You have nothing to be sorry about.’

I licked my lips. ‘Connor, I’m the lead investigator so I can’t avoid this team. If they’re working for the Robertsons, they’ll want to get up to speed with the Nomo’s office, and we can’t afford to piss off your father any more than you can.’

‘Sidnee will have to take over when they’re here.’

‘Sidnee is a mess right now. She’s unstable. I can’t believe she hasn’t taken off to look for Thomas yet, but she will as soon as she gets a clearer idea of his location. The only thing stopping her from going right now is that we have no idea where he is.’

Connor leapt to his feet and started pacing behind his desk. ‘Then Gunnar will have to deal with them. Heck, April can – anyone but you. Bunny, I can’t say this enough. Avoid them like the plague because for you they’re just as deadly.’ He turned to me. ‘Promise me.’

‘I’ll do what I can to avoid them, but I won’t compromise the case for my own safety.’ This was my job: I had two missing girls to find and I couldn’t – wouldn’t – back off now.

‘That’s not enough,’ he ground out. ‘You’re more important than them.’

‘To you, sure, but not to their parents and their families.’

Every muscle under his shirt was rippling with the tension. He slammed his hands down on his desk and leaned over it. ‘I can’t protect you from them.’

Familiar heat rose in my veins, scorching me from within. I pushed it down hastily before I set his office on fire but it was still roaring through me, stirring my anger. ‘You don’t need to protect me,’ I shot back. ‘I protect myself.’ Before I could say something I’d regret, I stormed out. I was nobody’s damsel and he should know that about me. He should trust me.

Something crashed behind me as I slammed the door. Part of me wanted to scream, part of me wanted to cry, and another part wanted to burn something to the ground. No fires, Bunny. That would definitely give away your hybrid status.

I stalked across the car park and climbed in my SUV. I’d fired up the engine and was starting to pull out when Connor ran up to the driver’s side door. I stopped and rolled down the window. ‘What?’ I snapped.

He was still visibly upset and I spotted blood on his knuckles. He was panting even though technically he didn’t have to breathe. He looked at me entreatingly. ‘Don’t leave me like this. Please.’

That simple plea ripped the anger out of me in an instant.

‘I’m scared,’ he whispered.

I knew just how much it had cost him to admit that to me.

‘I know, baby.’ I reached out to stroke his face and he leaned into my touch. ‘It’ll be okay. Have faith in me, in us.’

‘I do,’ he said desperately. ‘But fear is stronger than faith.’

‘It’s not – I promise you that love will beat fear every time. If we give in to fear, then we’ve already lost. You have to know that everything will be okay. Live it, breathe it. Come on, say it with me: “everything will be okay”.’

He swallowed hard. ‘Everything will be okay.’

‘It will be,’ I promised. Suddenly I knew exactly how he was feeling because in that moment I knew I would do anything to protect him. Which made me a big fat hypocrite. He didn’t need my protection any more than I needed his, and yet he had it anyway. And he always would for as long as my undead heart continued to beat.

Which, if his father got his hands on me, might not be for long.

Chapter 16

Despite my assurances to Connor, I was still tense as I drove away and I struggled to get my mind back into work mode. It had been a really long day, I was already well past the end of my shift, and I wasn’t done yet. I checked the time. I needed to hurry to make my next appointment, so I put my foot to the floor and let the SUV roar forward.

I pulled off the road near the walking trail at the waterfront. There wasn’t a car park nearby but there was a grass verge that would have to do. I parked, checked that my badge was clear on my belt and headed off. It was about a quarter-mile walk to the bench, and as I walked I felt some of the tension leave me. There was a lot to be said for fresh air and exercise.

Since it was still early in the morning, the people walking and jogging the trail were most likely human. At least I didn’t need to worry about the incoming vampire team just yet – Connor would let me know when they landed.

I pushed them from my mind as I spotted a young woman sitting on the bench. Her shoulders were hunched and she was looking around nervously. I approached slowly, giving her plenty of time to spot the badge, then I lifted a hand in greeting so she wouldn’t freak out.

‘Hi.’ I smiled warmly. ‘I’m Officer Barrington.’ I sat next to her so we were at eye level. She was all kinds of jittery and I didn’t blame her. ‘I go by Bunny,’ I added, trying to set her at ease. ‘I know it’s a bit unusual – but then again, so am I.’

She gave a wan smile but looked ready to bolt. ‘Is it a nickname?’ she asked quietly.

I decided to pull out an oldie but goodie, a nice low-stress explanation; she didn’t need me joking about government experiments.

‘When I was little, I thought the Easter Bunny was cool so I spent several months hopping around and wearing a headband with bunny ears. The name stuck,’ I shrugged with a ‘what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it?’ smile.

Her smile this time was a little more relaxed. I needed to build a rapport with her so I admitted, ‘I know a thing or two about having your life hijacked. Not exactly what you went through … but I was turned into a vampire without my consent.’

She gasped, her eyes wide. ‘That’s awful.’

‘It was really scary at the time,’ I confessed, ‘but I’m working through it.’

‘You’re very brave.’

‘And so are you to be sitting on this bench with me because you know two other girls might be in the same trouble you once were.’

Her eyes filled with tears. ‘I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t come forward.’ She bit her lip then blurted, ‘Two years ago, two men grabbed me off the street and shoved me into the back of a van.’ Her jaw clenched and she brushed a tear from her cheek. ‘They held me in an underground bunker for a few days.’

My heart leapt. An underground bunker absolutely fit Sally’s profile.

‘I didn’t have any way of keeping time but it felt like days. They took anything I had that could be tracked – my watch, my laptop, my phone.’ She leaned forward with her arms around her belly to comfort herself. ‘I was pretty heavily drugged, but I know that I was taken to Homer by boat and then in another van to Anchorage. Then I was put in a building with some other girls. We were used as prostitutes.’

I wanted to reach out and hug her but I held off, knowing full well that might not be welcome. I studied her. She was still so young – I guessed she wasn’t even twenty yet. Her story seemed to have stalled so I prodded gently, ‘How did you get away?’

She swallowed. ‘I think there was a police bust or something. I never saw them, but the john I was with panicked and left the door open. I ran onto the street in full daylight and stopped the first woman I saw. She was kind – she took me to her house, fed and clothed me and helped me get home. She wasn’t supernat, but she gave me enough money to buy my tickets.’

My faith in humanity increased a little. There were so many good people in the world; the douchebags just shouted louder, that was all.

‘Do you mind if I ask how old you are?’ I asked gently.

She shook her head. ‘I don’t mind. I’m eighteen.’

Fucking hell. She was sixteen when she was taken, the same age as Kate and Essie. There were too many similarities to ignore. ‘I’m so sorry this happened to you,’ I said. ‘Can you describe the men that grabbed you?’

‘Not very well. They shoved a hood over my head, but before that I had the sense of them. One was tall and thin, the other tall and bulky. I’m just a hearth witch and I’m basically human in strength – and I don’t have active spells beyond making bread rise quickly. I was an easy target. I was walking home after play practice at school but it was late and no one was around. They must have known my schedule and that I lived alone with my mom.’

Another tick in the column. Essie lived with her mum, too.

The girl was tensing up again. Dark thoughts danced across her face and I saw guilt amongst them. This time I couldn’t have stopped myself if I’d tried. I placed a hand gently on her arm. ‘It wasn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong. You should have been safe in your own town.’

She looked at me gratefully. ‘I carry pepper spray and spells now, just in case.’

I nodded. ‘That’s a good idea. I’m sorry to ask more questions, but can you recall anything about the van?’

‘No. It was dark and I didn’t even see them coming. I was using headphones and didn’t hear the engine. The van was black, dark blue, or dark green, something like that. Definitely not white. I didn’t make note of the license plate or anything.’

‘Most people wouldn’t have. It was dark and it happened quickly. Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything at all?’

She looked down at her feet. ‘I don’t know if this helps, but the other girls told me the men target supernats, mostly weaker ones they can control with spells or muscle. They choose supernats because we don’t carry human STDs.’

My stomach clenched. When I found these scumbags, someone had better hold me back because they were sick fucks. Sixteen-year-olds? Not that any age made it okay but these girls were kids. I prayed we’d find Kate and Essie before someone touched them.

‘I’m going to catch these bastards,’ I reassured her. ‘I’m so sorry about everything that happened to you.’ I gave her my card. ‘Would you call me if you think of anything else, anything at all?’

She nodded and her eyes filled with tears again. She was just a scared kid, one who had been traumatised, used and cheated of her childhood innocence. ‘Can I walk you somewhere?’ I asked.

She shook her head and squared her shoulders. A determined look settled on her face. ‘I’m in public, people are around and I have my pepper spray. I’m doing better being at outside alone. Mum says I can’t let them win.’

‘She’s a wise woman. She’s been supporting you?’

‘Yeah, of course.’

I was glad that she felt that way. I didn’t have the same relationship with my mother; I was pretty certain that if I’d been deflowered at a young age – with or without my permission – she would have disowned me. Perhaps I was being unfair, but Mum had shoved me under a bus to try and force my magic to manifest, so perhaps I wasn’t.

I watched the young woman walk away until I couldn’t see her anymore. My mind kept replaying the conversation because it had raised a question: if the sex ring wanted weak supernat girls, why the hell had they taken Kate and Essie? One was a rare vampire from a two-parent family and the other was a powerful shifter, albeit with a single mum. Neither of them fitted the MO perfectly but my gut said the same group was responsible.

I just had to hope that I’d closed the harbour down in time and they hadn’t already escaped our net.

Chapter 17

I drove to the Nomo’s office on autopilot; despite the rush of the recent discoveries, the daylight exhaustion was crushing me hard. I needed to type up some notes and then I could crash.

I had just opened the car door when my phone rang: Connor. ‘Bunny!’ His tone was desperate. ‘They’re here.’

‘Who?’ My tired brain connected the dots before he answered: the vamp soldiers had arrived in town. Fuck!

‘My father’s men. They’re headed to the Nomo’s office. If you’re there, leave now!’

‘On it,’ I promised. I cut the call and looked around quickly but I couldn’t see any interlopers: they hadn’t arrived yet. I’d grab Fluffy and Shadow and go home. I could write my report from there.

I peered carefully into the main office before I went inside but there was only April sitting at her desk. I hurried in and plonked Shadow into his pram. ‘Fluffy, we need to sneak out. Now!’ He yipped and moved close to my heels.

I turned to our stalwart receptionist, ‘April, some vampires are on their way here. Refer them to Gunnar or Sidnee but don’t mention me! I’ll text you more details, but they can’t see me.’

Her expression was grave. ‘Got it. I’ve got your back.’

I blew her a kiss. ‘I know you have!’

I opened the front door and checked both ways. The coast was still clear so I hurried out, pushing the pram. As I reached the end of the block, three large men dressed in black combat gear passed me. Luckily they ignored me: I must have looked like a normal mum with a child and a dog and I wasn’t worth a second look. The cat pram had mesh around it so most people assumed it contained a baby, not a ten-kilo lynx.

I breathed out and hurried home. Once I was safely inside, I texted April to tell her what was happening and what she should say, then forwarded the same message to Sidnee and Gunnar. Next, I called Connor.

‘Did you see them? Are you alright?’ he asked, the second he picked up.

‘I passed them on the street but they didn’t look at me twice.’

After a second, he said, ‘Good. That’s good.’

‘Now what? I’m the lead on this case. I could have a call any minute and then I’d have to go out.’

‘You can’t! You’ve got to trust your team. These men can’t know about you, Bunny.’

‘I feel like I’m in the dark here, Connor, and that’s not a nice feeling.’

I heard him pass a hand over his face; the stubble made a distinct sound to my vampire ears. ‘We should talk face to face but I can’t risk it until I can give them the slip. One of them is visibly on me, which means at least one other will be shadowing me unseen. They’re always in pairs. I’ve gotta go – a car just pulled up. Keep in touch via text as much as possible – those can’t be overheard.’

‘Got it. I love you.’

‘I love you too, Doe. So much.’ He hung up. I wished those words had been spoken from a place of affection rather than grim determination.

After that conversation I felt even more weary, but I forced myself to type up the notes from my conversation with the young woman. I sent in the report and asked April to look into any residents with a known background of pimping, sexual assault or violence towards women.

Portlock was a last-chance destination, which meant we’d have a depressing volume of suspects but we could narrow them down by focusing on anyone who had access to a van – either their own or through work.

I asked April to ask our contact at the DMV; it wouldn’t be quick, but at least it felt like we were making progress. Finally I asked if we could access any housing records where the properties had some sort of bunker. Between all of those searches, surely we’d be able to pinpoint where the girls had been taken?

Feeling optimistic, I fed my animals and turned on the kettle for a much-needed mug of tea. I plonked a cup of blood in the microwave and sat down at my table to stare into space for a while. My body was exhausted but my brain wasn’t quite ready to stop.

Text messages popped up on my phone to acknowledge my warnings. Damn: I’d been out of the loop for all of ten minutes and I was already itching. I had serious FOMO. I drank my blood and prepped my tea. Then I paced.

We had a prostitution ring operating out of Portlock. I had no idea how many people were involved, but according to the woman I’d met one was tall and thin and one was big and bulky. I knew Kate and Essie were hidden somewhere in the south end of town, most likely in a bunker. If they were being held by the same criminals, they’d be transported to Homer or Anchorage, probably by boat. We had stopped the commercial boats but there were still private boats to worry about.

I was still baffled as to why Kate and Essie had been taken. Neither girl was magically weak, like my young lady had said the others had been, so what was the reason that these two in particular had been selected? I needed a link.

I knew a big guy had taken the girls from the Robertson’s house because of the size of the footprints I’d found, but there were tonnes of big guys in town. Shifters ran large. And how many different kidnappers did we have in Portlock? Besides the MIB and their black ops groups, how many creeps did we have? Sure, it was the place where paranormals ended up when they’d run out of better options, but the population was only slightly over 3,000. It had to be the same ring.

Maybe Kate had been targeted not because of what she was, but who she was. Was someone deliberately poking the Vampire King of America? Did that explain his fiery response? It might also explain why he’d immediately sent in a crack team, not to mention the lack of communication between the Nomo and the Robertsons. And did the Robertsons know more than they were letting on? I’d had the sense that Faye was lying to me: was she just concealing the fact that they’d brought in help, or was it more than that?

I texted Connor. Could it be that the kidnappers wanted Kate Robertson because of who she was? Someone trying to get your dad’s attention?

Can’t talk. Will think. It’s possible.

Damn, his dad’s goons must be in his office.

I had two working theories: one, a prostitution ring; two, a fuck-you to Connor’s dad. Both felt like they fit but my gut said we were looking at door number one. Even so, Cobalt Robertson was acting shady as hell and he was pinging my radar hard. I couldn’t see him kidnapping his own daughter and his rage had seemed genuine, as had his disgust at having to talk to the Nomo’s office. But something was off there.

I texted April. Did you find anything juicy on Cobalt Robertson?

Her reply was almost immediate. Not a damn thing. He doesn’t seem to have existed before Kate was born. Vampires try to fly off the radar, but his lack of a past is shady. I sent out the search to a PI friend. Used petty cash. BTW, your goons have left now.

Was there any petty cash left? I only half-joked.

There was but it’s all gone now. We’re buying our own lunches, coffee and tea this month.

Thanks, April. Let me know what you get.

I will. Gotta go. Sidnee just came in.

I decided I’d try to sleep; daytime was hitting me hard and I needed my strength and a shit tonne of mental clarity. I drank my tea, changed and climbed into bed. I didn’t think I’d sleep with all the things running through my head, but I hit the pillow like I’d been knocked out.

Chapter 18

I shot out of bed. At first, I thought it was a dream that had sent my floppy heart pounding with two solid beats but it was my phone. If there was one thing I hated about this job, it was the regularity with which I was woken by my damned phone.

I scrambled around and swiped to answer. ‘Bunny – uh, Officer Barrington here.’

‘Bunny!’ It was Sidnee and her breath was coming in short gasps: she was panicking. ‘I need you, now! I sent my coordinates to your phone! This is sooo bad. I went mer, and I don’t remember, and there’s so much blood.’ She started sobbing desperately.

‘I’m on my way, honey. Everything is going to be okay!’

‘Hurry,’ she sobbed and hung up.

Fuck, fuck, FUCK! My heart gave another solid kerthunk before I sprang out of bed and threw on my clothes. I checked the coordinates as I pulled on my boots: her location was miles away. I’d need to get the SUV if it was at the station. This was getting ridiculous; I needed my own car but getting one had been low priority because I liked walking everywhere. Now it had moved up. My best friend needed me now, and I couldn’t get there. Not for the first time, I wished I could teleport like a banshee.

‘Sidnee is in trouble!’ I hollered at the animals as I tore through the house.

Shadow slipped out through my legs as I opened the front door. I swore loudly, but I didn’t have time to shove him back inside or get his pram. Just this once, I’d have to trust him to follow us. If any of his recent escapades had taught me anything about my cat, it was that he could absolutely look after himself. If he separated from us he’d do it deliberately and he’d come back when he was ready.

Shadow seemed to sense the urgency because for once he didn’t cavort and gambol around but kept pace with me and Fluffy.

When we arrived at the car park, the SUV wasn’t there – but luckily Sidnee’s car was. As usual, she’d left her car keys on the front nearside wheel in case of an emergency. Gunnar’s truck wasn’t in the car park, so either he was on a call, with Sidnee or on his way to her, or at home. I hoped he was already with Sidnee because she’d been scared.

I rang him as I drove but my call went straight to voicemail. I left him a message with the GPS co-ordinates, telling him to get there immediately if he could.

Following the GPS on my phone, I pulled onto a dirt road and headed into the forest to the edge of the barrier. Crap, don’t let it be a breach. We jolted along a track that narrowed and grew more overgrown with every turn; soon it was barely wide enough for Sidnee’s small car. It looked like a quad-bike trail.

A quad bike? My blood ran cold. Had Sid found the girls’ kidnappers?

When I saw Gunnar’s truck and a group of people ahead, I felt a wave of relief. Everything would be okay if Gunnar was there.

After releasing my pets, I jogged into the melee. There were seven people. Gunnar’s bulk was hiding some of them, I didn’t recognise the three I could see – and I couldn’t see Sidnee.

When I reached them, I took it all in. Three men in black combat gear: the vamps. Connor was going to be so mad at me – but Sidnee came first. I’d have to deal with any fallout afterwards.

The rest of the group consisted of Gunnar, two young girls and Sidnee, who was looking down at something in horror. I took a few quick snaps on my phone before anyone focused on me; maybe I could get some intel on the vampire men, run their images through our database. At least then I’d know who I was dealing with.

I pocketed the phone and stepped around Gunnar so I could see what they were all looking at. A pulverised dead body. Fuuuuuck.

‘Who have we got?’ I asked Gunnar.

‘Svestri Donovan, the mayor’s son-in-law.’

Sidnee was shaking and staring at her blood-covered hands, which were encased in magic-cancelling cuffs. This was so bad. Fluffy ran up to her and leaned against her legs to offer silent support.

‘Why is Sidnee cuffed?’ I asked, but then I took in the scene. Donovan was crumpled on the ground with his head bashed in, his features unrecognizable. Close by was a large metal object, a piece of logging equipment that must have weighed between 200 and 250 kilos. I shuddered.

Gunnar handed me a wallet – sure enough, it was Donovan’s – then gestured to a phone that lay in the grass a few meters away. Same poop case: it was Donovan’s phone. Dammit all to hell.

‘You can’t think Sidnee did this?’ I asked incredulously. I didn’t try to keep my voice down, and even if I had the vamp coterie would still have heard me.

Gunnar looked sick. He didn’t believe it but the presence of the three deadly vampires in combat gear told us that we had outside witnesses. If we didn’t take her in, they would.

And she looked guilty as hell.

I focused on the two girls that the vampires were questioning. My shoulders slumped when I realised they weren’t Kate and Essie but two other young women of a similar age. They were wearing green and purple jumpers, not blue and pink, and they looked like identical twins. Both were petite with long dark hair and a warm skin tone; I was betting they were native.

‘Who are the girls?’ I whispered to Gunnar.

‘Cadence and Casiah Lopez from the Tlingit tribe. They spoke to me for a moment, gave me their names and said Donovan snatched them. After that they fell silent – they’re in shock. We need to get them treated at the hospital before we question them any more.’

Shadow approached the two girls, but rather than getting close he stopped about two metres away and hissed at them. Warmth flooded my cheeks at his embarrassing behaviour and I prayed the vampires wouldn’t notice.

‘Shadow!’ I scolded. ‘Get back over here.’ I didn’t expect him to obey but to my surprise he strolled back and stood at my side.

Gunnar frowned at him before turning back to the dead body. ‘Apparently this bastard took them right off the sidewalk by the school. They’re only sixteen.’

‘What a prick!’ My heart gave another pound.

It looked like we’d found one of Kate and Essie’s kidnappers. Donovan was tall and bulky and I’d bet any money it was his footprint I’d found in the earth at the Robertson’s house. I could take a print from his shoes and prove it. Now we needed to find his skinnier companion – and the girls. Did Donovan have a bunker on his property?

Excitement thrummed through me. I couldn’t pretend to be upset at Donovan’s death; he had kidnapped Cadence and Casiah and who knew how many other young girls?

Gunnar growled, ‘Donovan was stupid, too. One of the girls called the Nomo’s office – he must have missed her phone when he snatched them. Sidnee tracked the call to this area. I’ve no idea where those three goons came from but I’m considering arresting them for interfering with a crime scene.’ He knew full well that the vampires could hear him and he wasn’t modulating his voice for anyone. Let the pissing contest begin.

I shook my head. ‘I wouldn’t do that,’ I advised in a low voice. ‘They’re here courtesy of King MacKenzie.’

‘Shit.’ He yanked on his beard.

‘Remember my message?’ I hinted subtly, not wanting to say anything more that the vamps might hear. ‘I’ll take Sidnee back to the office and process her as sensitively as I can. Can you deal with the body, and the girls?’

‘I’ve got it. The ambulance is already on its way. I’ll take the photos and start processing the scene.’

‘And I’ll take the Nomo vehicle. We can collect Sidnee’s car when we come back to search the area.’

‘All right. Get out of here, both of you.’ His voice was gruff but his eyes were concerned.

With Sidnee in tow, I left the goons, Gunnar, the body and the girls. Luckily, apart from a quick glance my way, the vampires were too occupied to take much notice.

‘I don’t remember,’ Sidnee said softly as I put her in the back of the vehicle and fastened her seatbelt. ‘I don’t know what happened.’ Fluffy jumped in and laid his head in her lap. Crying softly, she rested her cuffed hands on him.

‘It’s going to be okay,’ I promised, although at that moment I couldn’t see how. That hunk of metal had been heavy, but Sidnee was incredibly strong in mer form. She’d been teetering on the edge for two weeks and Donovan had said he was going to kill her – maybe we could argue self-defence, or defence of a third party. Hopefully the girls would shed some light on what had happened – and with any luck Gunnar would find a weapon on Donovan to support our case.

Sidnee was quiet. Shadow climbed onto the front seat and put his huge furry paws on the dash to look out. He gave a single barking mrrow and a kitty huff at the scene, then looked back at me as though he were telling me something. Finally he settled in the front seat like he owned it. I buckled up and turned the SUV around.

‘I remember seeing the girls,’ Sidnee said softly. ‘They were tied up and they were crying. I remember going towards them and I felt so damned angry at whoever had done that to them. I felt myself just… The next thing I remember, I was standing over the body, with blood on my hands.’

‘Any idea how it got there?’

‘I don’t remember. I would have checked to see if he was dead.’ She met my eyes in the rear-view mirror. ‘That has to be it.’

I nodded encouragingly. ‘And then?’

‘I think I untied the girls.’

‘Right. Did you question them?’

‘No, not really. I’d just gotten their names when those three vamps showed up. They started accusing me, and I panicked and called you and Gunnar.’

‘When you got the call from the girls, did it come through the main office line?’

‘Yeah.’

Great. If the vamps had turned up at the location before Gunnar or me, it looked like they’d already put a tap on the phone or a bug in the office.

‘Gunnar will handle it,’ Sidnee said softly. ‘Everything will be okay.’ But her tone wasn’t convincing.

‘Yeah.’ I met her gaze. ‘I’m sorry, sweetheart, but you’ll have to go in the magic-cancelling cell for now. We have to follow protocol to a T so nobody accuses us of tampering with evidence.’

‘I know, Bunny.’ She sighed and I watched her sink back into the seat. She looked out of the window as the trees flashed by.

I wanted to scream, mostly because I wasn’t sure if my bestie really had murdered Donovan. Her mer side was currently unbalanced, and she had the strength, the rage and – even worse – a past with the dead guy. Most importantly, she’d been protecting two young girls who’d been tied up. If she’d acted in their defence, it was a lawful killing and we were all good; we just needed the girls to confirm it and we could let Sidnee go.

I was concerned about her lack of memory. I’d arrested a bunch of perps who’d said they couldn’t remember what had happened but this was the first time I believed it. And that worried me.

Another thought struck me as we reached the tarmacked road. I knew why the scene had pulled at me. Andrew Kamluck, a logger in the 1930s, and the one whom Connor had named his logging company for, had started the furore about the beast beyond the barrier. He’d been murdered in the exact same way as the mayor’s waste-of-space son-in-law: bashed over the head with an impossibly heavy piece of logging equipment.

I shivered. I’d been afraid of a barrier breach and the body was right at the edge of it.

Maybe this wasn’t as simple as Sidnee killing a kidnapper; maybe the beast had sneaked in.

Chapter 19

I had to search my best friend before putting her in the cell and, worst of all, I had to call Sigrid to let her know what was going on. Since she monitored the cells on CCTV and supplied the meals to those we incarcerated, she’d know soon enough what had happened to Sidnee and she didn’t deserve to find out by logging on remotely.

I explained briefly, expecting her to be furious with me for locking up Sidnee, but her tone was compassionate. ‘That must have been hard for you – it’s a lot to deal with. I have faith in Sidnee – she’d never have hurt someone who was unarmed. Donovan must have gone for her or the girls first.’ She spoke with such certainty that something in me eased.

‘I know you and Gunnar will get to the heart of this,’ she went on. ‘She’ll be free before we know it. Tell Sidnee I’ll make her favourite dinner then I’ll come and sit with her. You’ll find the real killer, Bunny. Sidnee will be exonerated. Everything will be okay.’

‘Yeah, it’ll be fine,’ I agreed. I felt better after talking to her: I always did. Sigrid was right. Sidnee didn’t kill Donovan – or if she did it was self-defence – I’d prove it and I’d find Kate and Essie. Hopefully Cadence and Casiah would shine a light on the whole affair as soon as they got over their shock.

Feeling restless after I’d completed the paperwork, I picked up the report April had printed out on missing girls – and went cold. There in black and white were Cadence and Casiah’s names. They’d been reported missing all right … but seven years ago.

I dragged up the memory of meeting them and that itch in my brain finally snapped into sharp relief. The girls hadn’t cast any shadows. Not a flicker.

A cold ripple crawled down my spine and my heart juddered. When I yanked out my phone and pulled up the photo I’d taken, my breath caught. Where the twins had been standing was nothing but a shaft of brilliant light as if the sun had burned a hole through the image. There was no sign of the girls, not even a blur; it was as if they’d never been there.

I called Gunnar and when he answered I blurted, ‘Cadence and Casiah are ghosts!’

‘Yeah.’ His voice was heavy. ‘I figured that out when they spoke in unison, told me “let us rest”, then disappeared. Gave me the heebie-jeebies.’

‘Holy fuck!’

‘Indeed. Luckily the vamps had gone to update Robertson so they didn’t see it happen, but we won’t be able to keep a lid on it for long.’

I frowned. ‘What did the girls say about the murder? What did they see?’ We couldn’t prepare a statement from ghosts that would help in a courtroom, but at least it might give us something.

‘They positively identified Donovan as the one that kidnapped them and fed them some MREs.’ MREs were Meals Ready to Eat, military ration packs. ‘They said a tall skinny one was also involved but he was always masked – they said he scared them most and he did bad things to them. I didn’t press as to what because I thought I’d have more time to question them.’

I closed my eyes; it was so hard to hear shit like that.

Gunnar continued, ‘Cadence was a weak fire witch, Casiah was a weak water witch. Both were easy targets.’

‘Gunnar, they were kidnapped seven years ago. So how the hell did they call Sidnee?’

‘They didn’t,’ he confirmed gruffly. ‘I used Donovan’s fingerprint to unlock his cell phone. The call to the Nomo’s office was made from that.’

‘So a young female rang the Nomo’s office, summoned us and then ran?’

He’d reached the same conclusion. ‘That’s the person who really killed Donovan.’

‘We have to hope so. It makes sense. Sidnee was thrown when she arrived at the scene by finding two girls tied up, and it made her flip out and mer up. Then she found the body and calmed down as her training kicked in. She checked for a pulse, got blood on her hands and called us.’

‘It fits. Now we just need to prove it.’

‘If Donovan was one of the kidnappers…’

‘Then we’re looking at Kate and Essie,’ he concluded softly. ‘Girls who had reason to harm him.’

‘Bingo. And hopefully that means they’re free somewhere.’

‘You think they’ll run home?’ Gunnar asked.

‘I don’t know. If they killed someone, maybe they’d run the other way,’ I suggested.

‘The barrier,’ he concluded grimly.

‘Yeah, maybe. But this is all conjecture.’

‘It’s a damned good working theory. I’m nearly back at the office. We’ll question Sidnee together, then go back to the scene and see if we can’t locate a bunker nearby.’

‘We can’t rule out the beast,’ I pointed out. ‘Same MO as the Kamluck killing.’

‘Yeah. We need to check out the barrier. I’ll call Liv – she can meet us at the site and check it. See you in five.’

Things were finally cooking. Sidnee’s situation wasn’t great but I was starting to feel confident that we’d get on top of it, and soon. In the meantime I just needed to avoid the vamp team. Easy.

I used my five minutes before Gunnar bustled in to text a long update to Connor. I missed hearing his voice, but he was right that calling wasn’t sensible. It was a credit to my mate that his first response was: Is Sidnee okay?

She will be, I replied.

I have the king’s team hounding me. Stay away. I’ll get the heartbeat suppressing charm to you later on today.

My shoulders eased: that would help massively. I could avoid screwing up my face in a moue of distaste when I chugged my blood, but there was nothing I could do about my damned heartbeat.

I think they’re bugging the office or have a tap on our phone, I warned Connor. They got to the scene too quickly.

Standard MO, he replied. Be careful what you say in there.

Got it. Stay safe.

You too.

I had a feeling it would be easier said than done. For both of us.

Chapter 20

Gunnar was frowning when he walked into the office. ‘I don’t remember this case, and I can’t believe I’d forget two missing girls.’

He leaned on my desk as he double-checked the date and it groaned under his weight. Suddenly he snapped his fingers. ‘I know why! That’s when Sigrid and I went to the Philippines and picked up Sidnee. Thomas was filling in for me.’

Thomas? We couldn’t ask him about it since he was missing. What a shit show.

We pulled out the files but the notes were sparse: names, addresses and parents, a rough note of Cadence and Casiah’s last-known movements and the clothing they were wearing. Thomas had listed some of their friends that he’d questioned. There had been a singing contest in Anchorage and the girls had really wanted to take part despite their parents saying no. The theory was that they’d skipped town to go there, though no signs had been found of them in Anchorage despite posters and news bulletins.

‘I’ll get Sidnee,’ I suggested. ‘We need to talk to her on the record.’

Gunnar grimaced. ‘Yeah.’

I went into the back and unlocked her jail cell. ‘How are you holding up?’

‘I’ve been better,’ she admitted.

‘We need to interview you formally,’ I said apologetically. She held out her wrists but I shook my head. ‘I am not cuffing my best friend. Come on.’

‘Thanks,’ she whispered.

In the interview room, Gunnar and I sat on one side of the desk and Sidnee on the other. ‘Well,’ she said, trying for some levity, ‘I don’t like being on this side of the desk.’

We smiled at her weak attempt at humour. ‘It’s going to be okay,’ I repeated for what felt like the millionth time.

I read Sidnee her rights because I sure as hell wasn’t making Gunnar do it. His eyes flicked to her bare wrists and he gave a solemn nod of approval. At least we were all on the same page.

Once she was Mirandized and the camera was on, I asked her about the girls. She gave me an odd look. ‘What about them? Didn’t you interview them?’

I shook my head. ‘Just tell me what you remember about them.’

‘One of them called the Nomo’s office and I went to find them. They didn’t know their location so they stayed on the line while I triangulated the call.’

‘Did they identify themselves when they called?’ I asked.

‘No – but it was a young female and she sounded distressed.’

Gunnar grunted. ‘Okay. What happened when you arrived?’

Sidnee chewed on her lip. ‘I saw the girls first – they were sitting on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs. They told me their names – Cadence and Casiah Lopez – and said they’d been kidnapped. They were so young that my blood just kind of boiled.’

She swallowed hard. ‘Next thing I know, I’m standing over a body and my hands have blood on them. I’ve been thinking about it all morning. I don’t think I could have lifted that metal rig even in mer form.’

Gunnar nodded. ‘I’m inclined to agree. Even I couldn’t move it.’

‘Did you untie the girls’ hands?’ I asked casually.

Sidnee blinked several times. ‘I must have done because they were standing with their hands free later,’ she said finally. ‘But I honestly don’t remember doing it.’ She swallowed hard. ‘Did they see what happened? Do they know if I murdered Donovan?’

That hit me in the gut. ‘Even if you did kill him – and I’m not saying you did – there were extenuating circumstances. You could have been acting in self-defence or in defence of the twins.’

‘Right. But what did the girls say?’

Gunnar and I exchanged glances. ‘Not a whole lot,’ he rumbled. ‘And then they disappeared. They were ghosts, Sid.’

Her mouth dropped open. ‘What?’

‘They were the ghosts of Cadence and Casiah who were kidnapped about seven years ago,’ Gunnar went on. ‘Something must have gone wrong. Their spirits are still trapped in the area where they died.’

‘But – they called me!’

‘Donovan’s phone was used to call you.’

She stilled, making the same connection we had. ‘His killer called me.’

‘We think so,’ Gunnar agreed. ‘We’re going to get you out of this mess, but for now, you need to hold tight until we find whoever did kill Donovan.’

We ran through what had happened again from start to finish but Sidnee couldn’t add anything new. Finally we took her back to her cell where Sigrid was waiting with something that smelled divine. We left them to talk and returned to Gunnar’s office.

For a long moment we sat in heavy silence, both of us crushed under the weight of things that neither of us wanted to admit aloud. ‘Maybe Aoife could help us?’ I said suddenly. ‘Maybe she could track down the spirits of the girls?’

‘Worth a shot. Summon her,’ Gunnar replied.

I nodded. I reached out and called, ‘Aoife Sullivan!’

When I’d called Aoife for help with the resident poltergeist on Sitka, it had taken a while before she responded. This time her response was swift: the air turned icy, a wind blew through our hair – and she appeared next to the desk. ‘Hey, Aoife, it’s good to see you,’ I said.

She had a sour look on her face and her hands were on her hips, as if I’d torn her away from something super important. What could I have possibly pulled her away from? She was dead! As a banshee, I knew she had a duty to scream for the dead of her line, but it couldn’t be that big of a job.

She opened her mouth and Gunnar and I cringed, expecting the banshee scream. She saw us and carefully modulated her tone. ‘I was watching a show with my mom.’ Despite it being quieter, her voice still pierced through to the bone. It was impossible to escape a banshee’s voice, even when she was trying to be gentle.

‘Sorry for interrupting but we need your help.’ I explained about Cadence and Casiah and showed her their photos from seven years ago. ‘Is there any way you can contact their spirits?’

She shrugged. ‘I’ll look.’

‘Thank you.’

Her tone wasn’t overly optimistic but I was grateful she’d at least try to find the girls.

Aoife – and the chill in the air – faded away.

Chapter 21

Gunnar and I returned to the scene of the crime. Donovan had been transported to the morgue and my boss had taped off a wide area for us to search. If only Thomas had been with us, he could have tracked the direction Donovan had arrived from in a heartbeat – and surely that would lead to the bunker I’d been told about. Cadence and Casiah had mentioned a bunker to Gunnar, too.

April had promised to work overtime and was logging in remotely to check our systems for Donovan’s known associates. He had a rap sheet as long as my arm but a lot of the charges had been made by the mayor and then dropped; very few had actually stuck. Still, he had dings for assault and arson and that painted a picture of a man with violent urges.

We called Liv and she grudgingly agreed to meet us at the co-ordinates we gave her. To be safe, we dropped off Fluffy and Shadow at my house; Liv had a covetous nature and her eyes gleamed too much when she looked at my lynx. She was trying her best to reform the harsher edges of her character, but placing Shadow in front of her would be like waving a bag of cocaine at a crack addict: it would neither be fair nor a good idea.

We still had a couple of daylight hours so Gunnar and I spread out, combing the scene methodically for anything he’d missed on his first hasty pass. I couldn’t stop thinking about the body. Obviously Donovan had been a piece of work – but he’d been killed just like Andrew Kamluck at the edge of the barrier. I’d even have gone so far as to wager that the rusting logging equipment used to pulverise Donovan was the very same equipment used to kill Kamluck. Was it a coincidence or a warning?

‘Gunnar, the murder, the weapon—’

He interrupted me. ‘The MO is exactly like Andrew Kamluck? Yeah, I saw the similarities too.’

‘Do you think this is related?’

‘I don’t know, but we can’t afford to ignore it. I’m hoping Liv will tell us the barrier is as sound as ever then we can rule it out as a coincidence.’

He was right. I definitely preferred the coincidence option over the ‘oh-shit-the-beast-is-here-after-a-breach’ one.

We heard the roar of a powerful engine first and the woman who emerged from the car was no less fierce. Liv strolled over like she was walking a catwalk rather than a muddy trail. Dressed in a suit and heels, she gave no sign that her poor outfit choice was a problem.

‘I have been run ragged searching boat after boat and Mafu hasn’t even bothered to turn up. That mayor of ours is a disgrace! I am tired. I am worked to the bone, my energy reserves and patience are low, and more boats await me when we are done here. So whatever you need, you best make it quick.’

Hello to you, too, Liv.

‘What do you need?’ she asked, looking at Gunnar. She’d come for him; despite all that had gone on between them, I suspected she always would, though she was finally learning to live with the fact that he had no time for anyone but his wife.

‘We’ve had a murder and the deceased was killed in the same manner as Andrew Kamluck – and I mean exactly like Kamluck, maybe even using the same murder weapon. I thought it prudent to get you here to check for a breach in the barrier.’ That was the most Gunnar had said to Liv since the incident.

Her eyes widened slightly, though otherwise she remained completely still. If poker were a team sport, I’d want her on my side.

‘Since we reset the barrier it’s been working without incident,’ she huffed, as if she were affronted by the suggestion that it could have malfunctioned. Nevertheless, she started carefully scanning the woods around us. I got it: I’d been doing the same.

Gunnar merely stared at her and waited.

‘Fine.’ She lifted her arms, threw back her head and closed her eyes.

I felt a faint tugging in my guts and knew she was using her magic. It wasn’t a strong feeling this time so I didn’t need to back away. Finally her arms dropped and she opened her eyes. ‘The barrier is as sound as ever – I see no holes, no tears. Nothing but perfection.’ A smug smile played at her lips.

Gunnar nodded and turned his back on her. Right: it was up to me to be the diplomatic one. I guessed we were doing dour cop, good cop. ‘Thanks so much for coming, Liv.’ I was genuinely grateful, though it struck me that thanking her might count as some kind of fae-style debt. Like the fairy folk – if they were real – Liv’s help always came with a price. Hopefully this time it would only be an invoice.

‘Hey, Liv, before you go… Did you sense anything, umm, dead?’ I figured it didn’t hurt to ask if she was aware of Cadence and Casiah; she was a necromancer, after all.

She gave me a measured look. ‘Death surrounds us.’

‘I meant recently. Can you tell us anything about the scene?’

Her eyes bored into mine. ‘The body has been removed. There is a dead fox over there, and rodents and dead plant matter.’ She waved her hand over the earth. ‘Death is everywhere, all of the time.’

‘We're looking for two girls’ bodies,’ I explained. ‘Twins. They were kidnapped seven years ago and we saw their spirits around here.’

She shook her head. ‘I can sense recent death because the power lingers, but after a death the corpse turns into something else and joins the great seething mass of regeneration.’

I supposed that made sense. Liv raised her nose even higher. ‘Now, can I go or do you want me to bill you for another hour?’ There she was. No longer mystical, just cold, hard Liv.

‘That’ll be all,’ I said. ‘Thanks again.’

She glanced towards Gunnar and I saw a flash of longing before she pushed it down, then she stomped to her car. He was back to ignoring her and I guessed she was growing tired of acting contrite. That probably meant a higher bill, but there we go.

I sighed and turned back to the job at hand. We wanted to gather all we could before I called Matilda because her mole-like rupture from the ground wasn’t the best way to preserve evidence. Unfortunately I didn’t have any doughnuts as an offering, only a collection of tea biscuits I’d grabbed from my stash in the break room.

We collected the little we could find, which was almost nothing. I photographed a few tracks and picked up some hair, anything that might have fingerprints, and swabbed blood from the murder weapon.

Moving the hunk of metal was incredibly hard, even for Gunnar. He managed to lift it a few inches off the ground with a lot of huffing and puffing, but it was way beyond his ability to use it as a weapon. There was no way Sidnee could have used it to kill Donovan.

If Sidnee and Gunnar couldn’t shift it, then who the hell could?

We spent some time looking for Donovan’s mode of transport. He couldn’t have walked all the way up here and the blood splatter told us he’d been killed here. He could have been drugged, dumped and then had his head bashed in – but then the blood splatter wouldn’t be so great.

It seemed more likely that Donovan had been here for his own nefarious purposes and there’d been an altercation, perhaps with the skinny one in the crew or maybe there were other scumbags involved in the sex-trafficking ring. Either way, we’d know more after Donovan’s autopsy.

We also needed to inform his wife and question her.

‘Where’s his rig?’ Gunnar finally asked in frustration.

‘It’s not here,’ I sighed – but then some tracks caught my eye. ‘Look!’ I rushed over to them: quad-bike tracks. ‘I’d bet money someone else was with him and they killed him, then they left using his quad bike!’ I mentally pulled up a picture of the tracks I’d seen at the Robertson’s house. ‘Same tracks as the ones I found at the Robertsons,’ I confirmed.

He did a slow turn. ‘Why here, though?’ he asked. ‘There’s nothing here.’

‘Nothing we’re seeing. It’s time to call the earthy calvary. I’m going to call Matilda.’

Gunnar frowned. ‘The hag is not trustworthy or safe.’

I shrugged. ‘I trust her.’ I was amazed to find that I did. She had no reason to lie to us and she was a girl after my own heart, willing to work for snacks. Even so, I knew I’d never feel wholly safe with her; she was an apex predator, not to mention rather odd, and she had her own motives that didn’t necessarily match those of the humanoid races.

‘Well, I don’t have a better idea,’ Gunnar admitted.

We secured everything in the SUV and I retrieved my bag of biscuits. ‘Matilda, Matilda, Matilda.’ I summoned the hag and waited with bated breath to see if she would come.

Chapter 22

Matilda must have been close by because she rose from the earth only a few seconds later, smelling of loam and shaking off pebbles and mud. ‘Rabbit Girl,’ she greeted me happily.

‘Hey, Matilda.’ I thrust the bag of biscuits at her. She raised it and looked at it; it wasn’t her usual box and she wasn’t quite sure what to do.

She surprised me when she licked the bag. I tried not to laugh but carefully reached over and opened the ziplock for her. She sniffed, reached into it and popped a biscuit in her mouth. After that the feeding frenzy began.

I tucked the empty bag in my pocket when she handed it back to me; like the box, it had been shredded. I needed to start bringing her treats in wooden boxes or something she wouldn’t destroy. But even with the cost of the treats she was the cheapest help ever, especially compared to Liv who was sure to send us an unholy bill.

She patted her tummy. ‘Dwarves bring Matilda sweet treats too,’ she said. ‘Nice. Why Matilda bigger?’

Her tummy was noticeably rounded these days. I did not want to be the one to tell the elemental that she was fat. ‘Erm, lots of sweet treats make you bigger,’ I admitted.

She brightened. ‘Matilda biggest hag ever!’

I opened my mouth and closed it. I had nothing.

Pleased with herself, she raised her pointed nose into the air. ‘Blood,’ she muttered a moment later.

I was impressed. With the deluge of rain, even I couldn’t smell blood anymore – and I was a vampire. ‘Yes, you’re right. We found a murdered man right here.’ I pointed down at where Donovan’s body had been.

‘Not man.’ She surprised me again; her nose was better than a dog’s.

‘No,’ I admitted. ‘He was a merman.’

She nodded. ‘Smell fishy.’ She crinkled her nose.

I wanted to laugh; I guessed she didn’t like fish. ‘Matilda, we’re looking for Kate and Essie in this area. Have you seen them? Smelled them?’

She shook her head. The movement seemed stiff and unnatural, like that was the way she knew we communicated and she was trying to emulate it. Her shoulders moved slightly with the gesture and clumps of mud fell off her.

‘Have you looked around here yet?’ I asked.

‘Matilda look but only find two dead girls. Their skulls.’

I swallowed hard. There might well be a reason why Cadence and Casiah’s spirits were anchored here. ‘Can you show us where you saw them?’

‘Matilda show.’ She sank into the earth before I could ask her to walk. I sighed.

Moments later, she and two skeletons rose to the surface on the other side of the metal logging equipment. After seven years in the earth the flesh was long gone, but some scraps of clothing and their rubber boots remained. There was enough for me to see the bodies’ small stature and a hint of green and purple: the girls’ sweatshirts.

Gunnar and I stared silently at them for a long time. It was hard to see those skeletons and know for certain that the girls had been dead for all this time. I looked at Matilda. ‘Thank you.’

She cocked her head; she could sense my emotions but didn’t fully understand them. ‘Bones Rabbit Girl family?’ she asked hesitantly. She understood missing and mourning family.

I shook my head. ‘No, it’s just that they were so young.’

I could tell from her scrunched-up face she didn’t understand why that would be upsetting. ‘Young things die,’ she said.

‘Yes, but these ones had help.’ I cleared my throat and shifted into business mode. ‘Matilda, was there anything else around the girls? Any objects that didn’t belong in the earth?’ Thomas’s brief notes had said both girls had their school bags and their phones when they went missing.

I wondered what had gone wrong that the twins had ended up dead and buried rather than shipped off to Anchorage. Perhaps they’d fought or had a bad reaction to whatever the kidnappers had drugged them with. Either way, it seemed likely the kidnappers would have disposed of their belongings as coldly as they had disposed of the girls themselves.

Matilda sank down into the earth once more; moments later she came back with a purple backpack and a smashed phone. She gave the items to me. I hefted the dirt-covered backpack. ‘Thank you. Nothing else? Another one of these?’

She shook her head. ‘Not here.’

I wondered what had happened to the other one. According to Thomas’s notes, Cadence’s backpack had been pink and Casiah’s was purple. It looked like Svestri Donovan’s wife wasn’t the only one who’d get a death notification today. Sometimes my job sucked, but the twins’ parents deserved closure. At least now they’d have something to bury and maybe the girls’ spirits would finally rest. My heart ached for them all.

‘Thanks, Matilda, I’m so grateful – you’ve been a real help,’ I said. ‘One of the girls mentioned an underground bunker. Is there anything like that here?’

Once again, the hag disappeared. She was gone far longer this time – it was ten minutes before she reappeared. ‘Not here.’

My heart sank; I’d been so sure the bunker would be nearby. ‘Never mind. Thanks for looking.’

‘Matilda will look more for vamp girl,’ she promised then sank from sight. Say what you liked about her, she was a good person and a hard worker.

Gunnar and I loaded our stuff. He opened two body bags and we carefully put the remains in them, then he took the SUV and headed to the morgue whilst I returned to the office in Sidnee’s car to fill out the paperwork.

When he returned, we’d notify the families together. Svestri Donovan’s wife was first up, and since she was Mafu’s daughter I wondered how strong she was. Whatever he was, Mafu was incredibly strong. I’d seen that first hand.

Perhaps he could have lifted the equipment.

Chapter 23

Aoife startled me while I was waiting for Gunnar to come back. I felt the cold wind again and turned to see her floating in the middle of the room. ‘I couldn’t find any girls.’ Her voice jabbed through me.

‘None?’ I asked.

She shook her head and relief swept through me. The fact that Essie and Kate couldn’t be found in the spiritual realm made me hope they were still firmly in the land of the living. ‘Thanks, Aoife. You’ve been a great help.’

She nodded, knowing I didn’t cope well with her voice.

‘Are you doing alright?’ I asked.

She rolled her eyes and disappeared. Okay: she was probably fine but it sucked that she was stuck in the full throes of teenage existential angst. She’d never had the opportunity to know herself as an adult and now she never would because she was frozen into the mindset in which she’d died. I’d been through a lot in the last five years – a heck of a lot – and I was a far better person for it. I wished that she could have had that personal growth.

Gunnar pulled up outside the office and honked once to summon me. As I hustled outside and climbed into the SUV, I gave him Aoife’s terse report. ‘Let’s hope that’s good news,’ he murmured.

‘Yeah.’

Given the number of times he’d arrested Svestri Donovan, it was no surprise that Gunnar knew the way to his home. The Donovans lived at the caravan park. I’d only been there once before, searching for answers on my first murder case. It felt like a lifetime ago.

Unlike the other caravan I’d visited, this one was on a different row, double in width and much newer. In the driveway was a brand new Ford Bronco Raptor, a very expensive vehicle. We’d have to search it if Haavale gave us permission or get a warrant. The vehicle hadn’t been found at the crime scene so we didn’t have an automatic right to examine it.

Even though Donovan was the victim, Cadence and Casiah had positively identified him as one of their kidnappers. Procedurally, though, we had no statement from them, which made things murky, especially as any statement Gunnar or I put in might look like we were making up shit to free Sidnee. We needed more evidence before we brought it to the council. I hoped we’d find some here. A girl could dream.

When Gunnar knocked, the door was opened by a beautiful Tongan woman with long dark hair and a shade too much make-up. The smell of food wafted out of the house. She frowned at us. ‘Gunnar?’ She looked at me with no recognition. ‘Is everything alright?’

‘Haavale.’ Gunnar nodded at me. ‘This is Officer Barrington.’ He shifted uncomfortably. ‘Can we come in?’

She blinked. ‘I guess.’ She held out the door and we went inside to her small but neat lounge. It looked freshly cleaned.

‘Why don’t you take a seat?’ Gunnar suggested. She swallowed hard and sat, tensed for bad news. He cleared his throat. ‘We regret to inform you that your husband is dead.’

Stunned, she sank back into the cushions though she didn’t appear to be particularly cut up by the revelation. Everyone processed things differently and not everyone wailed and sobbed at a death notification – but if anything the emotion that flittered across her face looked like relief. ‘What happened?’ she asked finally.

‘He had extensive head and facial injuries. We’ll know more after an autopsy.’

She nodded slowly. ‘Not an accident then.’

‘No, not an accident,’ I said softly. ‘Do you mind if we do a brief search of the premises?’

She wrapped her arms around her waist. ‘You do that. I haven’t got anything to hide.’

Gunnar and I pulled on some gloves. Luckily, Haavale believed in minimalism and there wasn’t much to search. Plenty of clothes hung in the wardrobes, and there was a neat and tidy bathroom with no unusual medication in the cabinet. The spare room was full of guitars and vinyl. There was nothing to indicate that Svestri had ever done anything untoward – but there was the expensive car on the drive. You didn’t get that on a fisherman’s salary.

When we were done searching the caravan I asked, ‘Would you mind if we looked in the car?’

She sighed. ‘Sure, why not?’ She passed Gunnar the keys.

‘Can we call someone for you?’ Gunnar asked.

Haavale took a shaky breath. ‘My parents – would you do that for me? Call them, I mean?’

‘Sure,’ Gunnar replied. ‘We’re heading there next so we’ll let them know what’s happened.’

She sniffed. ‘My dad will be so happy,’ she said bitterly then burst into sobs.

Gunnar looked helpless, so I sat next to her and hugged her. ‘Do you have someone close by I can get for you right now? A friend?’

‘Yeah,’ she managed between sniffs. ‘My best friend lives next door. Her name is Angie.’

‘Which direction? I’ll fetch her.’ She pointed and I gave her another squeeze before releasing her and going to find Angie.

A curvy woman with shoulder-length brown hair answered when I knocked at the door. ‘Angie?’

‘Yeah? Who’s asking?’

‘I’m Officer Bunny Barrington with the Nomo’s office.’

‘Bunny?’ she snorted. ‘Your mama have a tryst with Bugs?’

‘Something like that. Listen, your friend Haavale has just had some bad news. She asked me—’

She pushed past me before I finished, hurried to Haavale’s caravan and let herself in.

Gunnar came out a moment later, unlocked the fancy vehicle and we searched it. It was a top-of-the-line model, very much at odds with the static caravan, large as it was.

It was pristine and there wasn’t a speck of lint to be found. Annoyingly, there wasn’t a contract for the hire of a quad bike or anything else incriminating: no massive coils of rope and rolls of duct-tape, nothing that said, ‘I am an evil kidnapper.’ That sucked because we really needed to get something on this asshole that would help us free Sidnee.

Donovan hadn’t been carrying any weapons when his body was found, which weakened any claim of self-defence, but he was a strong and violent man. As a full mer, he was a weapon in his own right as Stan had once so arrogantly claimed to be.

When Gunnar sighed heavily, I knew his thoughts were mirroring mine. ‘Nothing. God damn it.’ He thumped the dash angrily.

Rather than disturb the new widow further, he closed the door, locked the car and posted the keys through the door. Our work here was done – for now.

Gunnar was in the passenger seat so I climbed in the driver’s side. Clearly, he had a plan and that didn’t include him driving right now. He passed me the SUV’s keys wordlessly and I started the engine and pointed us towards Mafu’s home. It sucked that the mayor was our main suspect other than Sidnee, but we had to go where the evidence took us. Mafu was strong as hell and had plenty of reason to despise his sticky-fingered son-in-law.

‘I guess we’d better get a warrant for the mayor’s house,’ I said.

‘Yeah – and it’s not going to be easy. I’ll have to call Stan and get either Liv or Calliope to sign it. Without Thomas, and with the mayor a suspect and Connor under surveillance, we’re running out of council members.’

He started phoning while I drove. Calliope didn’t answer, so he bit the bullet and spoke to Liv once more. I was worried his grip on the phone might crush it but he looked relieved when he hung up. ‘Liv and Stan will sign off on it.’

‘Great,’ I said, though it didn’t feel great. I hadn’t had a tonne of interaction with Mafu, but when the chips were down he’d come with us into the mine; getting a warrant to search his home felt duplicitous, and shitty. Half of me wanted him to have a solid alibi and half of me didn’t because that would put Sidnee one step closer to being free. Ugh, I was a bad person.

I’d half-expected Mafu’s home to be palatial because of his position, but I recalled that once he’d said he had to fish when everyone else was holding out for a higher price from the local fish plants, so maybe that meant money was tight. I wondered if he was still supporting Haavale financially.

When Gunnar directed me to a modest council home, I was a little taken aback. Maybe the mayor’s office came with accommodation.

Another Tongan woman answered the door. I assumed she was Mafu’s wife because she looked like she was early forties and she was in a bathrobe as though she were heading to bed. It was dark, but not that late by supernat terms.

‘Mrs Finau, sorry to bother you,’ Gunnar said.

‘Hello, Gunnar,’ she said pleasantly. ‘How can I help you this evening?’

‘Can we come inside?’

Her reaction was instantaneous. ‘Mafu?’ she asked, eyes wide in panic. ‘Haavale?’

‘No!’ Gunnar exclaimed and then moderated his tone. ‘No, but I’m sorry to inform you that your son-in-law Svestri has been found dead.’

‘Oh thank God,’ she breathed. She realised a beat later what that sounded like. ‘I mean I’m just relieved you’re not here to tell me that Mafu or Haavale are dead.’ She fidgeted uncomfortably.

‘How would you characterise your relationship with your son-in-law?’ I asked.

She bit her lip. ‘Honestly? I disliked him. He treated Haavale like dirt. When she said she was going to divorce him, I cracked open a bottle of prosecco. She promised this time she’d follow through with it and I believed that she would. She’d caught him out in a lie – he’d said he was working when he wasn’t. She knew he was stepping out on her even though he denied it.’

Looking pleased, she pursed her lips. ‘Mafu and I said we’d help her fund the divorce.’ She brightened ‘Though I guess now she’ll get the double-wide, no questions asked.’ Then she grimaced. ‘Divorce or not, she’ll be upset. She’s so kind hearted.’ She grabbed her car keys.

‘Mrs. Finau,’ Gunnar said, ‘we need to speak to your husband. Is he here?’

‘No, he left hours ago. Said he had to work on the boat.’

‘In the dark?’ I asked, surprised.

‘No, he left in the early hours of the morning. He must be on his way back by now –I’ll leave him a note.’ She scribbled something on the back of an envelope and left it on the side for her husband to find when he came home.

Gunnar cleared his throat. ‘While you’re out, may we search the premises?’

Mrs Finau’s eyes narrowed. ‘Oh wow! One of us is a suspect?’ She folded her arms and glared. ‘Shame on you! Sigrid will be furious when I tell her what you accused us of!’

‘I haven’t—’ Gunnar started.

‘Might as well have!’ she said sharply. ‘So no, you do not have my permission. You come back with a warrant.’ She pointedly slammed the door shut behind her and walked out to her car, nose in the air.

There we went, making friends again.

We watched as she headed out, then we did the same. ‘South Harbour?’ I asked. If Mafu was on his boat, that was where he’d be.

‘Yup,’ Gunnar replied.

I drove quickly, both of us feeling pressure to break this case. We had Essie and Kate who knew where. And Sidnee? Well, Sidnee was sitting in jail.

We pulled into the docks and looked around but Mafu’s vehicle wasn’t in the car park. Gunnar and I looked at each other, both thinking the same thing: it wasn’t a good sign for the mayor, but maybe it was a good one for Sidnee.

Chapter 24

Mafu’s boat was bobbing in the water but there was no one nearby. We looked around the outside of it but without a warrant that was all we could do. No mayor to be found.

A cranky-looking Liv came over. ‘Where the hell is he?’ she demanded, gesturing to the boat. ‘He’s been ducking out all day, hiding from his responsibilities, making me search his fishing fleet.’

‘We don’t know,’ I admitted.

‘Well, you’ve got the warrant – go search.’

‘You’ve agreed to sign a warrant,’ Gunnar rumbled. ‘We haven’t actually got one yet.’

‘Such a stickler,’ she muttered and climbed aboard.

‘Liv!’ he shouted. ‘Get back here! We have no legal authority here, anything you find—’

‘Oh hush! I’m not the law here.’

‘You’re a council member and held to the same standards!’ Gunnar’s voice was icy. ‘If you recall you are not above the law.’

Liv ignored him and ducked inside the cabin. Visibly torn, we waited, Gunnar was so mad I wouldn’t have been surprised to see steam coming out of his ears but, like me, he waited to see what Liv would find rather than stopping her. Yeah … this was why you shouldn’t investigate a case involving someone you were close to. Gunnar and I were breaking rules but it was for Sidnee, and I couldn’t bring myself to feel bad about it.

Eventually Liv came back out. ‘No Mafu, no girls tied up in the hold. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am done. I’ve been here, there and everywhere, everyone’s little lackey,’ she harrumphed. ‘I’ll sign the warrant tomorrow. I’m going home and I’m going to have aerobic sex with my masseuse, Dimitri.’ She gave me a weird look I couldn’t decipher.

‘That’s too much information,’ I muttered.

She winked. ‘No information is ever “too much”, darling.’ She sauntered off. She must have been feeling tired because not once did she mention her bill.

Gunnar pulled out his phone and called Mafu. No answer. He pressed his lips together. ‘This isn’t looking great for him.’

‘No, but Haavale was leaving Donovan. Why kill him?’

‘You heard her mom. They’d been planning to support her financially but now they won’t need to.’

I winced. ‘Good point. Do you want to stake out his house?’

He thought about it then shook his head. ‘No. Let’s inform the Lopez family that we’ve finally found their daughters. We can try back at Mafu’s later.’

‘You mind if we pick up Fluffy on the way? He’s been home alone for a long while.’

‘Sure thing.’ Gunnar paused. ‘How is Reggie doing?’

I sighed. ‘Not great. I’m not sure if therapy is helping.’

‘They say it gets worse before it gets better. You’ve just gotta ride the storm.’

‘I guess so.’

We collected Fluffy before heading over to the Lopez’s home. It was a square, two-storey house typical of the area, complete with a porch and a detached garage. I’d called ahead to check they were in but hadn’t said why we were calling.

The door promptly opened after only one knock. I’d brought Fluffy because he could be a comfort to people if they appreciated a dog – and Haavale’s tears were fresh in my mind. ‘Mrs Lopez?’ I asked.

‘Yes?’

‘I’m Bunny Barrington, an officer with the Nomo’s office. This is Gunnar Johansen, the Nomo. I called ahead.’

‘Yes,’ she said. She started wringing her hands. ‘You’d better come in.’ She stood back. ‘My husband will be here in a minute. Do you mind if we wait for him?’

‘Not at all,’ Gunnar said softly.

Her eyes filled with tears: she already knew what we’d come to say. Fluffy padded over and laid his head on her lap. Almost without conscious thought, she raised her hand and started to stroke him.

We sat in painful silence, waiting for Mr Lopez so we could tell them the awful truth together. Finally he walked in, breathless like he’d been running. Where the mum was petite and blonde, her husband was dark and stocky. The girls favoured both parents: dark like Dad and petite like Mum.

Mr Lopez stood in front of us, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He pulled off his cap and twisted it in his hands. ‘You found their bodies,’ he stated.

I swallowed and nodded. ‘Yes, we believe so. I’m sorry. We’ve found remains which we believe are your daughters. They were wearing the same jumpers your daughters were said to be wearing at the time of their disappearance, and they were found with what we believe is Casiah’s backpack.’

Mr Lopez sat heavily on the couch next to his wife. He looked more relieved than devastated. ‘Thank you for giving us closure,’ he murmured. ‘When will we get the girls back so we can bury them properly?’

‘There’ll have to be a forensic examination, but assuming it doesn’t throw up any red flags they’ll be given back to you within two weeks,’ Gunnar assured them.

Mr Lopez closed his eyes. ‘We knew, you see, the second it happened. It was like a rubber band tightened around our hearts. The feeling of loss nearly destroyed us.’ He looked up at me.

I didn’t know what to say. Their grief and loss was palpable.

Mrs Lopez threaded her fingers through her husband’s. Tears were falling freely from her eyes but she didn’t sob, didn’t wail. I suspected she’d already done that many a time over the years. ‘We just need them to be put to rest,’ she managed.

‘Of course.’ I thought back to the girls’ last words: let us rest. I understood. Years of not knowing for sure, of not having the bodies, nothing physical to mourn; it had to be torture for their parents.

We asked some questions about the disappearance and the time between then and now, but their answers were the same as the ones we had on file. The couple seemed open and honest; after speaking with them, I was absolutely sure they’d had nothing to do with the girls going missing. Besides, we had no reason not to believe the twins’ ghosts and they had pointed the finger firmly at Donovan.

After Mr and Mrs Lopez agreed to the autopsies, we left. We’d have to send the bodies out for a forensic autopsy because the morgue here wasn’t that specialised, but the staff would arrange a transfer to Anchorage.

We drove back to the office and this time I sat in the back with Fluffy. Mrs Lopez wasn’t the only one in need of comfort. Today had been a real shitter and it wasn’t looking up.

‘I can drop you home,’ Gunnar offered. ‘You must be beat. You got woken in daylight.’

‘No, it’s fine. I want to see this through. The girls are still missing and Sidnee is in jail. I can forego a few more hours’ sleep.’

‘You’re a good person, Bunny Barrington, and a damned fine officer. I knew you would be.’

My eyes filled with tears. ‘Thanks, boss.’

We said nothing more as both of us processed our thoughts. We’d run down a lot of leads but death notifications were hard on a good day – and this was very far from being a good one.

No matter what I said to Gunnar, I was beat. In more ways than one.

Chapter 25

Back at the office, April had gone home but Sigrid was still in the cell with Sidnee. When I peeked in, Sid was asleep curled up against her foster mum.

Okay? I mouthed at Sigrid. She smiled and gave a slight nod. She didn’t want to jiggle while she was being used as a pillow. I blew her a kiss and left her to her cuddles.

I found Gunnar in the evidence locker and pulled on a fresh set of gloves as he unzipped the backpack. It was sad to see school things from a girl long gone; her future had lain before her and it had been taken from her.

There were notebooks, an algebra book, a library book – a teen romance – and a laptop. The moisture had gotten to the computer and the books so they were mouldering, but I cracked open the stiffer cover of the math book and could see that Casiah had written her name in it. The computer was probably a lost cause but I put it in with the broken phone and Donovan’s phone to go to the lab.

At least the backpack verified the identity of one of the girls, not that we’d had any doubt.

I’d just settled back into my desk after preparing everything for the plane when the door opened and in strolled one of the vampire king’s men in his black combat gear. Fuck! I pretended to be answering my mobile phone, stood up and hurried through to the back. Hopefully he hadn’t had time to focus on my traitorously thundering heart.

Fluffy, bless him, picked up on the issue instantly and started to bark to cover the sound of my heartbeat. It was so rare for Fluffy to bark that Gunnar came out of his office to see what the fuss was about; my dog would sometimes give a yip, a growl or some playful howls, but he rarely barked with intent like he was doing now.

I continued walking to the back and shut the door into the cells behind me. With the heavy door closed, the king's man wouldn’t be able to hear me speak, let alone catch the subtle, occasional beat of my heart.

The noise had woken Sidnee and she was sitting up, yawning. ‘Sorry,’ I apologised as I went into the magic-cancelling cell and shut the door. It felt distinctly odd to realise I couldn’t access the flame within me; only then did I realise how used I’d become to its constant, reassuring presence.

‘What’s going on?’ Sid asked curiously. Since I was hiding out and it might take some time for the vamp to leave, I told her about Connor’s dad’s people and that I was avoiding them. Sidnee and Sigrid didn’t know I was a hybrid, but they knew about my experience with the British Vampire King and that I’d go to great lengths to avoid any of the vampire monarchy.

Although I was concerned they might have bugged the office, there was no way they could have bugged in here because you needed a key to enter and someone had been in the office at all times. They could easily have planted a bug in reception but not in here.

‘What else have you been doing?’ Sidnee asked. I gave her a rundown of what we’d found out about the girls. By the end, she looked disheartened. ‘No real clues, huh?’

She was right, though I still held out hope that the lab would get something off the dead electronics. I also didn’t have an official cause of death for the girls: there hadn’t been anything visible, no obvious broken bones, but we’d tried to touch them as little as possible and the bodies were decayed down to bones.

‘That poor family.’ Sigrid’s eyes were wide with sympathy.

‘They’re devastated, but I think they’re relieved that the girls have been found. Now they can mourn properly.’

Sidnee asked quietly, ‘Anything further on Svestri?’

I shook my head. ‘Too soon, but I know you didn’t do it. We all do.’ I paused. ‘Any chance you remember something new?’

‘I’ve done nothing but replay it all in my mind, but no. Sorry.’ She looked miserable, and Sigrid stroked her hand comfortingly.

‘Any weird smells or sounds? Anything else you noticed?’

Sidnee shook her head and pulled her knees up to her chest to wrap herself tighter in the cocoon of her arms. She rested her chin on her knees. ‘What about Mafu?’ she asked suddenly.

I shook my head. ‘There was no evidence he was there,’ I said carefully. ‘But we couldn’t find him when we informed the family of the loss.’

‘He wasn’t home?’

‘We don’t know. We went to his boat but he wasn’t there either. We’ve no idea where he is. We’re going back later.’

Sigrid’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Patrice must be beside herself.’

Assuming Patrice was Mrs Finau, I nodded. ‘Yeah. She was a little … combative.’

‘I’m not surprised,’ Sigrid said. ‘So would I be if you accused my husband of murder.’

Sidnee was looking brighter. ‘This is good for me though, right? Mafu and his son-in-law were constantly bickering and I’ve heard Mafu threaten to kill him more than once. So have most of the town. Plus the mayor is a weird supernat and I’m not sure of his abilities. He could have teleported or had natural camouflage and that’s why I didn’t see him.’ She was grasping at straws.

‘What is he?’ I asked. I flashed back to our battle with the Knight Stalkers at the Reef Mine. The mayor had morphed into something I couldn’t identify; his bare skin had looked like tree bark and he’d grown in size. The staff he’d carried many times into the council chambers had extended and a billow of fog had come over him to hide his form. ‘Did you see any fog?’ I asked Sidnee abruptly.

She shook her head. ‘Maybe a little at the tops of the trees. Why?’

‘Because the mayor can summon it to hide himself. I remember that from our last battle.’

‘It’s weak as far as evidence goes,’ she said softly.

Sigrid interjected, ‘He’s a Toa.’

‘What’s that?’ I asked.

She shrugged. ‘Some kind of Tongan demi-god.’

That didn’t help much, not until I could research Tongan folklore, which was way down on my to-do list. But a demi-god? That was interesting. Maybe extreme strength was part of his powers? ‘As soon as we find him, you bet your ass we’re bringing him in for questioning.’

Sidnee smiled gratefully. ‘Thanks, Bunny.’

If there was one positive to come out of this whole mess, it was that Sidnee wasn’t currently freaking out about Thomas; she was too busy looking at her own dilemma – but what a shitty silver lining that was.

Just then Gunnar walked in. ‘The coast is clear.’ He looked at his wife and Sidnee and smiled softly. ‘Hey, ladies.’

‘Hey, Gunnar.’ Sid sent him a smile.

‘How are you holding up, kid?’

‘I’m okay,’ she said, though her smile was strained. ‘I know you’re on it.’

‘We are indeed. Mind if I steal Bunny away?’

‘No, you guys get back to work!’ She mimed cracking a whip. ‘I have Sigrid for moral support.’

‘That you do,’ Sigrid murmured.

I got to my feet and Gunnar let me out of the cell. After one last look at the women in my life, I followed him to his office and sat down opposite him. He had steepled his hands and his expression was dialled to ‘not happy’. Oh boy.

‘What did the king’s man want?’ I asked.

He looked grim. ‘To talk to the vampire officer.’

Shit.

Chapter 26

My mouth went dry. ‘Me? Why did he want to talk to me?’ Had he heard my heartbeat before I’d scuttled away? Surely not, or he’d have stormed in. I chewed my lip as I struggled to calm down.

Of course the vampire king’s people would want to check up on the only vampire police officer in the Nomo’s office. Technically, I was one of the king’s … I wasn’t sure of the word. Constituents didn’t work with the monarchy, especially a true monarchy. Serf? No, too feudal. Peasant? Nope, that didn’t work. Bitch? Yeah, the vampire king probably thought I was one of his bitches. I snickered at the thought.

Gunnar stared at me. ‘You doing okay there, Bunny Rabbit?’

I shook my head and took a deep breath: I was definitely punchy. Dodging these creeps and hiding out was not my style and I was only doing it because Connor had asked me to. I wondered how he was getting on with the heartbeat charm because the sooner I got that, the better. And how was he coping with his father’s men stalking him? It had to be horrible knowing his every sneeze was being reported back.

‘Everything will be okay,’ Gunnar reassured me softly. ‘We’re going to find Kate and Essie, clear Sidnee, and those interfering vamps will leave.’

To be fair, they hadn’t really interfered that much so far. Yes, they’d popped up at the crime scene, but as far as I knew that was the worst they’d done and no one had complained about them.

Gunnar continued, ‘To answer your question, they want to work with you on this case.’ His jaw tightened. ‘They’ve made it clear that they would prefer to work with their own people.’

‘Racists,’ I huffed, enraged on his behalf. ‘You’re twice the officer I am!’

He smiled. ‘I have twice the experience, sure, but you’re chasing my tail feathers. You’re good at this, Bunny – you follow the evidence even if it makes you feel sick. And I’m proud of you for that.’

‘But if the evidence points at Sidnee, what are we going to do?’

He sighed and scrubbed at his face. ‘It won’t. But if it does, we paint a picture of her instability, her vulnerability. We get evidence of Donovan’s bullying. We find evidence that he was one of the men who kidnapped Cadence and Casiah – and maybe even killed them. We paint a picture of a very dark man and then we ask for the council’s mercy, even if Sidnee didn’t kill him in self-defence.’

I hated that Gunnar had clearly been thinking about this. ‘What did you tell the vamps?’ I asked.

‘That because one of my officers was currently out of commission, you were extremely busy and I had no idea if – or when – you’d be able to speak with them. But that will only hold them off for a hot minute, so we need a better plan than you going out one door as they come in another. They’ve identified you now and they saw you at the scene and put two and two together. If you flee a third time, they’ll realise there’s a reason you’re running.’ He looked at me. ‘And that will be bad.’

He wasn’t wrong. I swallowed, hard, then pulled out my phone and texted Connor. How’s the charm coming along?

I got an almost immediate response. Liv’s working on it now. I miss you. Xx

My eyebrows shot up. Liv?! So much for hot sex with a masseuse called Dimitri – she’d run off to finish my charm.

She had looked at me a little weirdly but I’d assumed it was just Liv being Liv. She must have known the charm was for me. I bit my lip; during her long life she must have come across a hybrid or two and she’d know why I needed to hide my heartbeat. Bugger. Of all the people I wanted to know my secrets, Liv was at the bottom of the list.

‘Were those men planning on coming back soon?’ I asked Gunnar.

‘I doubt it. I said you were out chasing a lead.’

‘Good. I need to finish examining the list of missing girls that April gave me. Maybe something in it will point to a clue – a common area they went missing in, or something like that.’

‘Go for it. I’ll get the search warrants prepared for Mafu’s property, including his boat.’

I nodded and stood. As I did so, an application to join Portlock caught my eye from someone called Lynnae Bran, a necromancer. For Liv’s sake, I hoped the council decided to let her in but applications were low on all of our list of priorities right now. Lynnae had better be good at waiting.

I sat at my desk and scruffled Fluffy’s head. ‘Are you okay?’ I asked. He wagged his tail. ‘Okay. Keep an ear out for those vamps. Bark if you hear them coming and I’ll scarper as quickly as I can.’ He wagged his tail again and I turned my attention back to April’s list.

The information made me frown. The dates weren’t consistent, but two girls a year had been going missing in Portlock for at least eight years. April’s list didn’t go back any further; I’d ask her to expand the search when she got in.

Although two girls had always gone missing, they hadn’t disappeared in pairs; Cadence, Casiah, Essie and Kate seemed to be the exceptions to the pattern. With what I’d learned from my mystery woman, I wondered if some sleazy bastard had put in a request for twins – but why had Kate and Essie been taken together?

I’d been assuming Kate was the target but Essie was an incredibly rare form of shifter: a tizheruk. I needed to dig further into what that was. Her mum had said it was an Inuit sea serpent; that didn’t sound appealing to me, but different strokes for different folks.

I checked the previous year first. The girls who’d disappeared had been in foster care. They’d been reported missing by the school and it was assumed they’d run away because they’d done it before. When an anonymous caller had said they’d been seen heading out on a small fishing boat, the case had been moved to the State Troopers in Anchorage to pick up.

Two years ago, another two girls had gone missing: one of them had to be the girl I’d interviewed. I quickly identified her from her school yearbook photo. Her name was Darcy Clark and I already knew what had happened to her. I was pleased to see that she now had a job in our local library; for someone who’d been through some shit, the calmness of the stacks was the perfect location..

The other girl from that year had been reported missing by her single mum. Again, she was a known runaway and the file was sent to the State Troopers.

The pattern repeated: girls being reported as runaways and their files turned over to the authorities outside Portlock. It was possible some had run away – Portlock was a small place and kids could sneak out on fishing boats to seek adventure. If they were brave enough – and wanted to risk the beast beyond – they could escape to Seldovia or Nanwalek, native villages on the other side of the mountains. There had been roads before they’d been allowed to revert to nature when Portlock went from a ghost town to a hidden supernatural town about seventy-five years ago. Getting out of the barrier from Portlock was easy enough, but getting back in was much harder – it had to be to keep the beast out. You had to know the keyed phrase to return.

Although the other towns weren’t protected by the barrier, no one in those villages had reported attacks by our beast. I wondered why it had chosen Portlock. It could be terrain or something else, or maybe other villages were better at keeping out the unwanted.

I spent the next few hours on the phone, doing my best to speak to all the parents without raising their hopes that their kids had been found. Every time they answered, I heard that thread of hope and just as quickly I heard it die. I was beginning to despise missing person’s cases.

My phone beeped, Interrupting me. It was a message from Connor. We need to meet. Now.

Chapter 27

Connor texted me a location where we could meet. I hoped the charm was ready because I was more than ready to speak to the vampires stalking my town.

My house was on the way, so I stopped to feed and collect Shadow. He’d been cooped up all day and I didn’t want to leave him a second longer. Wrestling him into his Nomo’s vest proved tricky, but when I told him I’d leave him at home if he didn’t put it on he stopped resisting.

He curled up in the backseat, still visibly annoyed. ‘The vest is for your own protection,’ I said. He ignored me. Typical cat.

It was a couple of miles to the fork in the road that Connor had described and I dutifully turned left onto a muddy track. The barrier was invisible but anyone could feel it if they were close enough, and most old roads that went to it were marked with a sign. Sure enough, I soon encountered the one Connor had mentioned: Barrier 15 feet ahead. Do not cross.

I pulled up by it and waited. Rain started to mist the windows and I cranked up the heat.

I was surreptitiously watching Fluffy in the rear-view mirror. He’d gone into a doggy-depression mode; his head was between his front paws and his ears were loose rather than erect like a German Shepherd’s should be. Shadow had curled up against him, and I had to hope that helped; at the very least, Fluffy must feel the love. I hoped so, anyway.

I sighed. I was failing to help my friend. I decided to take Fluffy to his next appointment whether he wanted to go or not; he could be Fluffy through it all if he wanted, but he needed to listen to what the counsellor said. I’d call her and see what she advised.

I heard Connor’s truck straining up the hill. He pulled up in front of me, jogged over to my car in the drizzle and climbed into the passenger seat. ‘Hey, love,’ I greeted him.

For a vampire, he looked like shit. He’d lost weight and his eyes were almost bruised, like he hadn’t slept for days. His hair was more unruly than normal, and his flannel shirt was rumpled and wrinkled as though he’d been wearing it for several days in a row. But he still smelled like Connor: rich, evergreen forest and bergamot.

He looked at me like he’d been in the desert for three days and I was water, then he lunged for me over the console and we kissed. Flames licked up my middle and I actually brushed a hand down my shirt to make sure I hadn’t literally set the car on fire. Nope, just the hottest kiss ever.

Fluffy’s pointed ‘get-a-room’ bark was the only thing that forced us apart. Then Shadow climbed through from the back and batted Connor’s hand in a demand to be petted. ‘Hey, bud,’ he said. He looked at Fluffy. ‘Brute, how are you doing?’ Fluffy wagged his tail and looked a little less fed up.

‘How are you doing?’ I asked Connor pointedly.

He sighed. ‘It’s not easy keeping my father’s men out of your way and still having them do something that won’t make them suspicious.’

‘Yeah, I imagine. What are you having them do?’

‘Sending them on leads, nothing special, but keeping them at my end of town as much as I can.’

I reached over and brushed a wayward curl off his forehead.

‘Look, I called you here for this.’ He held up a pendant. It was another emerald stone with a silver loop to add it to my necklace.

‘The charm! Thank goodness!’

He grinned. ‘I figured you must be hating ducking and diving by now. Liv’s worked really hard on it. It should hide your heartbeat and make you appear a little more vampirish than you do – especially when you blush. It’ll hide all signs of that too.’

He helped me unhook the chain around my neck that held my daylight charm and Nana’s triskele and slipped the additional charm onto it. I fussed with my shirt, letting the charms settle inside it. Their weight was a quiet comfort against my skin.

‘Woah, that’s freaky,’ Connor commented and Fluffy barked in agreement. Shadow came closer, padded over my lap and looked at me oddly.

‘What? What’s wrong?’

Connor shook his head and pointed at the rear-view mirror. I adjusted it so I could see my reflection; I still looked like me, just a shade paler and with no pink flush to my cheeks. I hadn’t realised I had that blush until it wasn’t there anymore. Huh. Being hybrid had saved me a fortune on makeup.

‘Did you just say I was freaky?’ I sassed. ‘Because I still look the same, just a little paler.’

‘I said that was freaky, not you! And it’s because I can’t hear your heartbeat anymore. I’ve sort of grown to love it – the occasional kerthunk is kind of reassuring.’

‘Aw, that’s cute. How come you never noticed it before we dated?’

‘I never thought to listen for one because I knew you were a vamp.’ He shrugged. ‘Most of the time I’m trying not to listen for heartbeats because they’re so loud and fast in humans. If you didn’t learn to tune them out, you’d get overwhelmed. It’s good you’ve been with other people when you’ve run into my father’s men – they wouldn’t think to listen for a singular slow heartbeat – but if you were alone with them they’d definitely notice. With this charm, you should be able to meet with them without fear.’

‘Which is great because Gunnar said if I disappear a third time they’ll get suspicious.’ I kissed his cheek. ‘This is awesome, thank you.’ I fingered the charm through my shirt. ‘Do you trust Liv with something like this?’

He grimaced. ‘We didn’t have much of a choice. Her magic is far more consistent with a vampire’s since she’s used to dealing with the undead. Besides, she owed me a favour.’ His mouth tightened. ‘I think she already knows or at least suspects your nature. We didn’t lose anything by getting the charm from her.’

‘True. I wonder what she killed to make it.’ My stomach felt a bit queasy at the idea.

‘She’s a necromancer but she isn’t cruel to her offerings.’

‘I know – I’m just getting over the ick factor.’

He grinned. ‘For a vampire, you have a huge bleeding heart.’

I scoffed, ‘I’m not a true vampire, so… ’

‘Well, now you look and sound like one, so no drinking blood in front of these guys with your nose plugged.’ He wagged a finger jokingly at me, making me smile.

‘Got it.’

He was leaning in to kiss me again when his phone rang. He mumbled ‘for fuck’s sake’ then he swiped it open. ‘MacKenzie.’

I heard a gruff voice on the other end say, ‘Found something. Will send you co-ordinates.’

‘Fine.’ Connor hung up and grimaced. ‘You’d better come too. That was Dominic Reams, the captain of my father’s guard.’

His phone vibrated with the coordinates and he forwarded them to me. ‘I’ll meet you there. Give me a five-minute start – we don’t want to arrive together.’ He paused. ‘Just be careful, okay? Reams is nearly as bad as my father.’ Given that Connor despised his father, that was not encouraging.

Feeling morose, I watched him leave. I didn’t like the idea of hiding our relationship, but it made sense. No doubt they knew we were together but they might not know how close we were, and it would be best to keep it that way.

While I was giving Connor his five minutes, I rang Gunnar to update him and sent him the location I was going to in case everything went sideways.

I didn’t feel warm and fuzzy about the idea of taking Shadow and Fluffy with me to meet the vamps, but neither did I want to delay arriving. The men hadn’t rung the Nomo’s office; they were being careful not to disrespect Connor, but the same attitude didn’t apply to us. If I wasn’t quick, they’d rampage through the scene and destroy the evidence I’d need.

With impatience skittering through me, I started my engine and followed Connor. Maybe we were about to get a lead that would finally crack the whole case wide open.

Chapter 28

I didn’t recognise the GPS coordinates Connor had texted to me so I turned on the navigation app. Before we were even halfway there, Shadow was curled up on the seat asleep. No point in wasting good nap time, I guessed.

We arrived in fifteen minutes and I parked next to Connor’s Kamluck truck and two large SUVs that also had the company logo. He must have supplied his dad’s men with transport, which made sense since car rentals in Portlock were rare. And I’d bet he had a tracker on them too, because he was wily like that. Everyone was tracking everyone – the absurdity of it all made me shake my head.

‘Stay here,’ I said to my four-legged friends. ‘Please,’ I added to Shadow. Even so, I rolled down the window enough that he could get out; if he really wanted out no amount of glass would stop him but he would wreck the Nomo’s SUV again. I just had to hope my order to stay there meant something. I snorted at the thought. Yeah, right.

I grabbed the black duffel bag from the boot and joined the cluster of men, giving them a professional nod in greeting. The leader, a tall bulky man with dark hair, dark eyes and – I suspected – an even darker soul, looked at me with too much interest. ‘Elizabeth Octavia Barrington, I assume? You’re a difficult woman to find.’

‘Bunny,’ I corrected. ‘Only my mum calls me Elizabeth.’

One of the other men snickered. ‘Bunny? What kind of a name is that?’

I shrugged. ‘“Psychotic Little Murdering Goblin” doesn’t roll off the tongue in the same way.’

They all blinked, not sure if I was joking. Good, let them wonder if I was a bit crazy.

I studied the men. They were noticeably uniform in size, dressed in black fatigues and carrying sidearms. Vampires were usually lean, thanks to our high-burning metabolism, but these were unusually solid and muscular. I wondered if they'd been taking steroids to bulk themselves up.

‘Barrington,’ Connor said gruffly to me, ‘these are three members of the Vampire King of America’s personal fighting force.’ He gestured to the leader. ‘This is Captain Reams.’ He pointed to the others. ‘Sergeant Malpas, and Corporal Clements.’

I nodded to them. Connor’s terse introduction made me feel like I probably shouldn’t call him Connor, but calling him Mr MacKenzie felt weird. I figured I’d try not to call him anything then I couldn’t balls this up.

Reams held out a hand and I took it before quickly releasing his cold flesh. I repeated the gesture with the other two. Looked like we were being friendly. I’d play nice for as long as they did.

No one commented that they could hear my heartbeat or accused me of being a hybrid, so everything was going swimmingly so far. ‘What did you discover, gentlemen?’ I asked.

The captain pointed at the ground about six feet away. ‘After we saw the four-wheeler tracks at Mr Robertson’s home, we’ve looked for corresponding ones. It’s taken a while – there are a lot in use in this area – but not all tires are the same. We’ve found the same tracks and they’re fresh. It looks like someone dropped a trailer here and took off on the machine. The tracks brought us to this.’

His eyes glittered with satisfaction, and there was a hint of the braggart about him: look what I found and you didn’t. If he wanted a pissing match, he’d be disappointed because I didn’t give a fuck who found what. He could keep the glory; all I cared about was finding the girls alive and unharmed.

Reams moved to the side and I saw the hidden door of a bunker. My heart leapt. ‘Have you gone inside?’

Reams grimaced. ‘No. We called Mr MacKenzie, as he’d told us to if we made a significant find.’ And I bet that chafed. They had to walk the line of not pissing Connor off and, by extension, his father.

‘Good.’ I tried to sound calm. Beneath the charm, my heart gave a kerthunk but no one batted an eyelid. It was holding. ‘If this is related to the case and not just a local hunter’s set up, we don’t want any evidence disturbed. Don’t touch anything.’ I wasn’t stupid enough to try and prevent them from going down into the bunker but I could try and minimise their impact.

Reams looked annoyed but didn’t object.

I started taking photos of the area. Brush had been removed from in front of the door and a metal cover was set into a concrete block that poked up above the ground three feet. It looked well maintained and oiled – this place was definitely being used. I photographed the opening.

When I was done, Reams had one of the men break off the chain and padlock with a crowbar. Connor opened the cover and I peered in. My heart leapt again: right behind the door was a black and grey backpack just like Essie’s mum had described. Bingo!

Excitement gripped me and I looked wide-eyed at Connor. I dug out some fresh gloves from my trusty black bag – but before I could move forward, there was a mrrow and Shadow ran past me into the darkness.

‘For fuck’s sake, Shadow!’ I yelled after my lynx. ‘I told you to stay in the damned car.’ Well, the cat was out of the bag now – or more accurately, the SUV. No point in freaking out. Hopefully the other vamps just thought I was a weird cat lady who couldn’t bear to be separated from her feline fur baby.

Ignoring Shadow’s shenanigans for the moment, I opened the backpack. It was definitely a school bag – it had the school’s address inside and a number to call if it were lost. There was a laptop, some books, though no clothes or snacks like Essie’s mother had guessed she’d packed. It wasn’t very full, so some items might already have been removed. I opened a notebook and saw ‘Essie Kaleak’ inscribed on the top of a math assignment. Yes!

I looked at Connor excitedly and he smiled back. ‘This bag belongs to Essie Kaleak,’ I said to the other men then, in case they were too focused on Kate to recognise the name I added, ‘The shifter who was kidnapped with Kate Robertson.’

Their faces gave away nothing: no relief, no excitement. Nothing. Tough crowd. Maybe they should play poker with Liv.

I opened a large plastic bag and deposited the backpack inside it then took my heavy-duty Maglite and pointed it into the bunker. Metal stairs descended into the dark. They were steep – but at the bottom they opened up into a room.

There was a bunk bed on one wall and metal shelves bolted to the opposite one. There was a bucket for waste and one of those large, orange water coolers for water. The smell from the waste bucket was pretty overwhelming and I had to concentrate on breathing shallowly through my mouth rather than my nose.

Though the girls had clearly been here, they were long gone. I took yet more photographs. This was the bunker in which Darcy Clark had been held in; her initials had been scrawled on the wall with a black pen with ‘woz here’ after them. I wondered if she’d done it in a fit of teenage boredom or if she’d been trying to leave a clue for the police.

The shelves held packaged rations. I looked around for something in which to keep blood for Kate but I couldn’t see a cooler box or a fridge; either the kidnappers brought it to her or they expected her to drink from her friend.

I shuddered at the thought.

‘They’ve moved them or the girls escaped,’ I mused aloud. The beds were rumpled as if they’d been slept in and the girls' pyjamas were scattered around as though they’d dressed in a hurry.

I looked for Shadow; he had to be here somewhere, but I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him since he’d run past me. I checked under the beds, behind us, under the stairs … no cat.

Connor must have seen the panic in my eyes because he started to search, too. When we couldn’t find him, logic dictated what had happened. ‘There has to be another exit. Shadow can’t pass through solid concrete,’ I said, though in truth, I wasn’t positive that was the case. I’d seen Shadow do a lot of weird shit.

Finally the vamps joined in the search and it was Clements who found the hidden passage. He pulled the bunk beds forward and beneath them was a metal plate bolted to the concrete. The metal had been pulled back from one corner and a tuft of silver lynx fur was caught on the sharp edge.

I bent closer. The gap was just wide enough for a slight woman to slip through, but what caught my attention was a shimmering scale, purple and blue like oil on water. I carefully sealed it into an evidence bag. Was Essie’s sea-serpent form purple and blue? Had she assumed that form to slither through, or to get the strength to pull up the metal plate? Maybe they hadn’t been moved … maybe they had escaped. If so, the girl who’d called Donovan’s phone really could have been Kate or Essie.

‘Looks like the girls found a way out of this room,’ I said. Nobody said anything but the men pulled the beds across the room so we could stand in front of the metal plate. I could fit through the hole but there was no way any of the men could.

‘Help me enlarge this hole,’ Connor ordered the men.

I hastily took some more photographs before they altered the scene then stepped back as far as I could in the small room. The four men pulled the plate hard enough to pop a second bolt and bent the metal far enough back so we could all fit through the hole.

I shone my Maglite down into the darkness and saw another staircase going downwards.

We started downwards with me in the lead. The first thing that struck me was the stench: it had been disgusting in the other room but it gradually increased in intensity as we descended. At the bottom, although everything was made of concrete, water had seeped in and we were standing in about an inch of putrid water. If Shadow was down here, he’d be having a kitty hissy fit about his wet paws.

The cement changed to a corrugated metal tube; the sort used for underground drainage. I glanced back: Connor was on my heels, the men just behind him. We ducked and moved forward. We seemed to move forward a long distance and I grew increasingly nervous, though concern for the girls rather than Shadow was driving me. Shadow could look after himself.

Finally, a familiar barking mrrow made me gasp with relief. My lynx was up ahead. ‘Shadow!’ I called out. ‘Where are you?’

‘Mrrow!’

I followed his voice.

The stench was growing stronger and it was one I knew: it was the scent of death and putrefaction. Maybe the girls hadn’t escaped at all and whatever awaited us wasn’t a rescue mission but a body recovery.

The ground gradually rose, the culvert pipe ended, the passage became cement again and we stepped out of the water. There were metal doors here; I’d seen similar ones at the mine where the Knight Stalkers had set up a base. This place might have originally been built as a bomb shelter; that’s exactly what this section looked like – a World War Two relic, all concrete walls and claustrophobic charm.

I had no idea where this section would open up but there were stairs at the end of the space, similar to the ones where we’d entered. This section had two rooms and the main one had an arched metal door that appeared to be much newer, though it squealed badly when we opened it; it needed a serious application of grease to the hinges.

I half-expected to find the girls behind the door but the room was empty of everything but cobwebs, dust and old radio equipment. On the other side of the room was another, older looking door that was partially open

That was where the stench was emanating from. Oh boy.

I wrinkled my nose and went to open the door even though I really didn’t want to because I didn’t want to see Kate and Essie’s young corpses on the other side. It was ridiculously heavy and the hinges rusted, and even with my vampire strength I barely moved it. Connor came to help, and then Malpass.

Finally the door opened wide enough for us to squeeze through. I could hear Shadow breathing; at least there was one living thing to rescue.

I’d been worried I’d find two dead girls but the room held old supplies and food from the 1940s or 50s. Something – or someone – had been through it recently, and by recently I meant within the last few years. Dry goods and tins had been torn open and scattered across the room. The stench was a foul mix of spoiled food and the mould that had well and truly taken hold of the room. I shone my light around, searching for a clue as to where the girls had gone.

Shadow appeared from behind a stack of metal barrels carrying what looked like a human leg bone in his mouth … complete with shoe.

That was the grossest-ever cat present.

Chapter 29

‘Drop that!’ I shouted, but Shadow wasn’t Fluffy so he blithely came up to my feet and then he dropped it. Ewwww. He looked up at me and mrrowed proudly. He’d brought me a gift. Lucky me.

I felt Connor’s hand rest on the small of my back and my stress level dropped a little for the first time since I’d met him and his father’s men. He didn’t keep it there long, just enough to reassure me, and he made sure his touch was obscured by his body.

We squatted down to examine what Shadow had found. ‘Look at that shoe,’ I said.

‘Definitely a man’s.’

‘Yeah, but how old? That style isn’t recent.’

‘No, it’s old,’ Connor replied. ‘Maybe from the 1940s? That would be my guess.’

I resisted the urge to ask him what he’d been wearing in the 1940s. I rarely felt the age gap between us but moments like this reminded me that Connor had a wealth of experience that I hadn’t shared and never would.

Shadow lay down next to the bones. It looked like he’d grasped the entire leg; the only thing holding the joints together was a few leathery strips of desiccated flesh. I stood up and peered behind the barrels. The rest of the body had to be back there, right?

It wasn’t. Had someone tossed a random leg back there like some kind of pirate's leftovers? Maybe this was a pirate's idea of tidying up. As I shone my light around, I noticed that one barrel had been knocked over and its lid was off. I peered inside and immediately wished I hadn’t because inside it was the remainder of the body.

I recoiled and at the same time, my mind went into overdrive. Supernats lived a long time – could this also be the work of the person who had taken Kate and Essie? Had he been a serial killer before moving into the sex slave industry? But surely that didn’t make sense. Didn’t serial killers usually escalate their crimes, not dial them down to make a bit of extra cash.

I looked at the six other barrels and my stomach lurched. ‘Do you think ... ?’

Connor frowned. ‘Only one way to find out.’

The barrels had rusty metal buckles sealing the lids. He chose one, popped off the buckle, glanced inside – and instantly recoiled. ‘Yep. We got another one.’

Each barrel contained a corpse. Nothing had been done to preserve them and air must have seeped in the containers; the bodies were mostly desiccated and there wasn’t much left but bones and dried tissue.

I took more pictures but these crimes weren’t my focus; they couldn’t be. These deaths were way before my time; besides, the dead could wait for us to hunt down their killers and lay them to rest. First we had to find Essie and Kate … while they were still alive.

Once we’d seen enough, we walked back into the main room. In one corner a metal ladder led upwards. I really hoped that the girls had gone up it escaped – but where the heck were they?

Connor went up first and I held the light so he could unlatch the metal hatch above the ladder. It wasn’t complicated like the hidden door at the mine: this was old school with just a wheel holding it closed. Connor twisted it and slowly opened the hatch. Light flooded in and I gratefully breathed in fresh air. He looked around then climbed up and opened the aperture wide for the rest of us to come out.

Shadow wasn’t pleased with the ladder and even less pleased when I slung him over my shoulder. Luckily Connor grabbed him once I was in reach and hauled him up. The cat gave a grumbling sound but he kept his claws to himself.

Once I was outside, I looked around. We were still in the forest. It was dark and the sound of rain through the trees hid any other sounds besides us. I shone my light on the ground around us looking for signs that the girls had escaped but there were neither human nor vehicle tracks. The ground was deep in forest detritus and any marks, unless made in the last half hour, were invisible to my untrained eyes. Not for the first time I wished Thomas was with us; he could track a fish through a river.

We searched the area with flashlights but saw nothing. The rain had been falling steadily for hours and the wind was blowing a hooley, so any scent trail was also long gone. A truly remarkable dog might have been able to pick up something but this was beyond Fluffy’s talents. He could cope with light drizzle but not a downpour like this.

I looked at my cat. He had all sorts of weird skills. ‘Shadow, can you find the girls?’ I asked.

He looked up at the sound of his name but didn’t move. No surprise there. Bodies that had been dead for eighty years, sure, but living girls? Nah.

I sighed. The thought of leaving the girls out in this weather made me feel sick but we couldn’t organise a search party in the dark in a storm. I just had to hope they’d been smart enough to find shelter, avoid their captors and look for help. I couldn’t stop thinking about the call Sidnee had taken at the Nomo’s office from a young, unidentified female. The idea that they’d tried to do exactly that wouldn’t leave me.

‘I’ll get the search and rescue people on this, but first I need to get back to the vehicles and call it in,’ I said, though the truth was that ‘the search and rescue people’ were usually Gunnar, Thomas, Fluffy and me.

I turned to the king’s men. ‘Thank you for your assistance, gentlemen.’ The dismissal was clear and Reams’ eyes flashed with anger. Connor jerked his head to underline my order and the three vampires melted away using their supernatural speed to get out of the rain and back to their cars.

That left Connor and I alone in the pouring rain. Nothing said romance like hanging out in a storm after finding several dead bodies; still, it was good to have a moment together.

Connor laced his fingers through mine and we walked slowly back to our vehicles. The other Kamluck trucks had already gone when we arrived. I put Shadow back into the SUV so I didn’t have to keep hold of him and gave Fluffy a chastening look for letting his lynx friend go and not even barking in warning.

Connor tugged me away from the vehicles in case they’d been bugged. ‘The girls have to be out here somewhere,’ I said.

‘I agree. Let’s hope they’ve managed to evade their captors.’

‘Yeah.’ I paused. ‘But not hearing from them isn’t a good sign.’

He sighed. ‘No, it’s not. Let’s hope that’s because they’ve not got access to a cell.’

‘But I think they did have,’ I said softly. ‘I think they used Donovan’s mobile to call the Nomo’s office but something spooked them and they left before help could arrive.’

‘The beast?’

‘Maybe, though Liv said the barrier was fully operational. But yeah, I’ve been thinking that the girls may have witnessed Donovan’s murder.’

Connor stilled. ‘If they did, they could be the key to freeing Sidnee.’

‘The thought had occurred to me,’ I admitted.

He ran a hand through his hair and I smiled. His hair was wet from the rain, as was mine, so his curls were tighter and laid flat against his skull. I wanted to run both my hands through them … but when we were in the warmth of his shower. I sighed again. There would be no fun and games until the king’s goons had gone. Connor was too stressed and I wasn’t feeling all kittens and sunshine either.

‘Your father’s men don’t seem so bad,’ I noted.

He snorted. ‘Don’t be fooled. Reams would be torturing people for answers right now if I didn’t keep him on a short leash.’

‘Yeesh.’

‘They’re staying back and they’re watching. Everything they see or suspect will be reported to my father. We have to be careful.’

‘Well, they can’t see us now,’ I said and laced my arms around his neck.

‘No,’ he agreed and pressed his lips to mine. What do you know? A kiss in the rain is romantic.

We pulled apart reluctantly. ‘I have to go. I want eyes on Reams as much as possible and John doesn’t have the authority to keep them in their place.’

‘How is John?’ I asked. John had helped me escape from London and I owed him everything. He’d recently lost his wife, and he was still finding his new normal.

‘Good. He’s doing well – best hire I ever made.’ He kissed me again. ‘I gotta go. Keep yourself safe.’

‘Back at you.’

He gave me a wry smile and slid into his truck. He was off to keep the king’s goons busy – and I had a plan that involved a certain hag.

The rain had washed away any scent a canine could track but a hag tracked by something entirely different.

Chapter 30

I called Gunnar and updated him on everything I’d found and everything I suspected. My gut said that the girls were key to freeing Sidnee and I told him as much. I’d put crime scene tape around the bunker, but we’d have to go back together later to do a proper forensic overhaul. Without Gunnar’s help, it would take hours and hours.

‘Things are cooking,’ he said approvingly. ‘I’m meeting Mafu at his house for questioning shortly. I’ll speak to him then join you at the site.’

‘You got it. I’m going to drop Shadow and Fluffy home and run to the store to buy some baked goods for Matilda. I’ll summon her near the bunker – hopefully she can track the girls even in this weather.’

‘Good idea. Keep me in the loop,’ Gunnar rang off.

I dropped my four-legged friends home, gave them food and fresh water, and went to the shop. Annoyingly, the store was out of fresh bakery doughnuts so I bought two boxes of pre-packaged ones instead, one chocolate and the other coated in icing sugar. I hadn’t tried them on Matilda yet, but she didn’t seem overly picky as long as her treats were sweet.

I drove back to the site and hoofed it overland to the bunker’s entrance. I took Essie’s backpack with me, still wrapped in its protective plastic bag. If the hag did need a scent, I had one to give her.

Grasping my treats in my hands, I put the backpack at my feet and called for the hag. As before, she didn’t take long to appear. ‘Hey, Matilda,’ I smiled at her.

She focused on the boxes in my hands and I passed her the first one. She sniffed, examined the slightly different boxes then took a chocolate doughnut. Within seconds, she’d devoured the rest. ‘Good sugar snack,’ she said when she was done. ‘More?’ she asked, eyeing the second box.

Icing sugar drifted down when she lifted a pastry to her mouth and she frowned. ‘Is sand?’ she asked, as though I were giving her something bad.

‘No!’ I reassured her hastily. ‘It's sugar. Taste!’

She licked the white stuff then devoured the rest of the doughnut like she hadn’t eaten in years. ‘Matilda want only this sugar snack,’ she announced, jabbing her claws emphatically at the empty box.

That could be a problem. We had a fairly consistent supply of pastries made by the store, but getting the manufactured pre-packaged kind in such a remote place as Portlock was not a certainty. ‘I’ll try. It can be difficult to find this one.’

She stared at me as she handed back the empty boxes. At least she hadn’t shredded them. I crumpled them and tucked them in my pocket. ‘Matilda, the girls – including the vampire girl – were kept here in this cement box.’

She wrinkled her nose and looked at the metal door. ‘Vampire girl in there?’ she pointed.

‘No, not anymore. It looks like they escaped – I think they’re in the forest.’ I opened the plastic bag containing the backpack. ‘This belonged to the girl who isn’t a vampire – she’s a sea serpent.’

Matilda bared her teeth. ‘No like water.’

‘It’s fine, you don’t have to go in the water. But do you think you could find the girls from this?’

She gave the backpack a tentative poke with a long metal fingernail. When it didn’t react, she leaned in and sniffed it, then she licked it. I wasn’t expecting that but I held back in my inner ‘eww’.

Once she was done, I put the backpack in the plastic bag and resealed it – now with added hag spit. Yes, I’d contaminated the evidence a smidge, but did I care? No, I did not. Sidnee had been in a cell for entirely too long and even with Sigrid keeping her company, I was not happy with the current situation.

Matilda sniffed the air, her pointed, mouse-like nose twitching. ‘Smell serpent girl,’ she confirmed. She sniffed around the door then sank into the earth and disappeared from view.

Dammit! I’d expected her to take me with her like she had in the mines. It was my fault for not clarifying what I wanted.

Luckily, she was back just as suddenly as she left. She danced a bit on her dirt-encrusted feet. ‘Girls that way.’ She pointed into the depths of the forest. It wasn’t the way we’d come when we’d returned from the opposite end of the tunnel and I grinned in triumph; this might be a real lead.

‘Rabbit Girl pleased with Matilda?’

‘So pleased! Thank you! You’re wonderful. Can you show me where they went?’

She nodded, turned and trotted into the trees. Her strange shape gave her a twisted, lurching gait, but she was fast and I had to jog to keep up. We ran for what felt like miles, though we didn’t pass through the barrier so it couldn’t have been that far. Matilda stopped a couple of times to sniff, then corrected her course and off we went again.

After a while, I realised we’d turned back towards town. Had the girls played it safe and gone home or headed to the Nomo’s office? But surely if they had, Gunnar would’ve called me by now.

Matilda stuck to the trail as it darted this way and that. Finally, it wound back towards the barrier and she pointed through it. ‘Girls went out there. Matilda no go.’

A shiver ran through me. I didn’t want to go either. ‘Matilda, why won’t you go there? Beyond the barrier I mean?’

She cocked her head at me. ‘Matilda told Rabbit Girl. Sdonalyasna live there. Kill Matilda husband long ago.’ Her voice was agitated and she was clicking her metal nails together.

‘You did tell me. It’s fine, you don’t have to go. I’ll go.’

Matilda squinted at me then put her hands on her hips and shook her head. ‘Rabbit Girl no go.’

‘I’ll be fine, I’ve gone out there before.’

She shook her head again. ‘Will die,’ she sorrowfully, then sank into the earth and disappeared.

Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Tilly. I rubbed my hands up and down my arms. Brash as I’d been with Matilda, there was no way I was going through the barrier alone. I was determined to find the girls, but I wasn’t suicidal.

I needed a team – and I had a couple of poor bastards in mind.

Chapter 31

I felt terrible about leaving Kate and Essie alone even for another minute, but failing to prepare was preparing to fail. Kate must need blood desperately by now – if she hadn’t already succumbed to feeding on her friend – and they could both be hurt. I needed to get a proper team together with supplies rather than rushing in half-cocked like I might once have done.

I jogged back to my SUV, thinking over and over about the girls. There was no doubt in my mind that they’d chosen to go through the barrier, rather than go home – and that was telling.

I stumbled on uneven ground and my heart thunked. I was soaked through, exhausted and the sun was coming up. I hadn’t slept in at least a day and it was showing. I slowed to a walk: better to arrive safely than with a broken leg. Needing to do something while I walked, I called Gunnar. He could start making preparations.

‘Bunny.’

‘Gunnar, hey. Matilda and I tracked the girls.’

I heard his chair squeak as he sat up and paid attention. ‘And?’

‘They went beyond the barrier,’ I said grimly.

Gunnar went through a whole litany of swear words. He had as much desire to go beyond the barrier as I did, but missing kids added a bunch of pressure for us to do exactly that. If we didn’t go, we didn’t deserve our badges.

He sighed. ‘I wish Thomas was here.'

‘Me too. How did it go with Mafu?’

Gunnar’s tone was grim. ‘About as well as you’d expect. Protesting his innocence and furious about being questioned. He let me search his house briefly but there were no red flags. I didn’t want to push it. We need him on our side.’

‘Hopefully we’ll find the girls and they’ll shed some light on Donovan’s death.’ Right now we had Sidnee and Mafu in our crosshairs but I suspected it was someone else who had done the deed.

I’d done some research on tizheruks and the one thing every account had in common was a mention of their incredible strength. I’d seen the state of the metal in the bunker and the single colourful scale. At first, I’d dismissed Essie as Donovan’s killer because, according to my research, she was some sort of giant sea serpent with a wolf’s head, but the metal had been twisted, pulled back and there had been no teeth marks on it. One of the depictions had shown the tizheruk with webbed hands, almost dragon-like, but without wings.

If all of that information was accurate, Essie could have easily picked up the 200-kilo metal equipment and swung it at her kidnapper – Donovan. That would give the girls a reason not to return home: they were scared Essie would be arrested for killing him.

I forced my sluggish brain to think about the rescue party. ‘I don’t want to take Connor,’ I asserted. ‘He’s got enough on his plate.’ Not to mention a host of goons following him whom I didn’t want along for the ride. ‘Stan,’ I suggested instead.

‘Yeah,’ Gunnar rumbled. ‘He’ll come with us.’ I could hear him scratching his beard. He was thinking or worrying, or both.

‘How’s Sidnee holding up?’ I asked.

‘She’s all right. Sig hasn’t left her side apart from cooking some meals in our lousy office kitchen.’

‘She works miracles.’

‘She does,’ he agreed warmly. ‘Okay, so me, you and Stan. Fluffy? Shadow?’

I didn’t want to risk either of them. ‘I’ll give them the choice,’ I said unhappily. Both had proved invaluable on the other side of the barrier but I hated the idea of putting them in danger.

Gunnar broke into my thoughts ‘I’m not authorizing any of us to go until the sun is a little higher. You and I both need to grab some Zs. I’ll speak to Stan and line everything up. Let’s meet at the co-ordinates you gave me in three hours.’

‘All right,’ I agreed wearily.

‘Go home. Get some rest.’

‘On it,’ I promised.

I drove straight home, said hey to Fluffy and Shadow and zonked out. Hard.

I was woken by Shadow licking my face with his rough tongue. Next to me my phone alarm was blaring, but I’d been so out of it I hadn’t even stirred.

‘Thanks, bud,’ I yawned. I splashed some water on my face and dressed; there was no need to shower because after a minute beyond the barrier I’d be drenched in nervous sweat.

I loaded up supplies, weapons and my four-legged companions. Both had wanted to join the expedition, for which I was both grateful and nervous. They would be an asset but I hated putting them in danger.

Fluffy was wearing his Nomo vest, but I didn’t bother with Shadow’s; if something happened, he’d end up melting it off himself anyway. When we were packed and ready, we headed off to the rendezvous point.

Stan was already waiting when we arrived, and I was surprised to see he’d brought Anissa. I looked at him questioningly through the windshield but he just shrugged. I frowned: Anissa had a baby at home and she didn’t need to be put in danger. The woman she called her mother, who was really her grandmother, was ageing rapidly. If the worst happened, she couldn’t raise Anissa’s daughter on her own and I did not want that on my conscience.

Once we were out of the vehicle, I arrowed in on him. ‘Why did you bring Anissa?’ I hissed. ‘It’s incredibly dangerous. We can’t guarantee anyone's safety.’

He gave me a wry look. ‘Have you tried telling her what to do? I told her where I was going and she insisted on coming. Said she’d had a premonition.’

Anissa levelled a somewhat terrifying glare at me. ‘I’m a grown woman. I make my own decisions.’

That was me told, but even so I couldn’t resist one last objection. ‘But what about your daughter?’

‘I’ll return and raise her,’ she said confidently. ‘I wouldn’t be here if the spirits hadn’t told me I’d be safe.’

I eyed her curiously. ‘Did they say the rest of us would return safely as well?’

She gave an apologetic shrug. ‘They only spoke about me.’

Great, just great. We had spirits out there that could predict our next steps and they only cared about one of us. God, save me from nepotism!

I nodded. ‘All right, you’re in – but on your own head be it.’

‘It’s such a beautiful head,’ Stan said to Anissa, making me grin. He’d flirt at the gates of hell if he could.

Anissa smiled back at him. ‘Thank you.’

‘I’m glad you were reassured by the spirits,’ I said. ‘Nothing we’re about to do is safe, but Essie and Kate are in grave danger. The beast … well, it’s terrifying. All we can do is hope we don’t encounter it and that the girls have survived it, too.’

Gunnar parked up. ‘Well, you all look suitably sombre,’ he said as he joined us. He echoed my words. ‘This is incredibly dangerous, Anissa. Are you sure you want to come?’

She smiled wryly. ‘Want to? No. But I’ve been told I need to go, so nothing you can say will deter me. I know what we face.’

‘You don’t know it until you face it,’ Gunnar warned. ‘Not truly.’ But he turned from her, done trying to dissuade her. If she wanted to come then we’d accept all the help we could get to find the girls. The more eyes we had, the better chance we stood of finding them and getting out with our limbs intact.

One by one we pushed through the barrier; it was like pressing through invisible tar. On the other side, hope flickered like a candle … and death stalked us all.

Chapter 32

After the weird gelatinous feeling of moving through the magical bulwark, the other side was the same forest and we were on the same road, though it was more overgrown and felt somehow darker. Perhaps I was imagining that; suffice to say I didn’t feel warm and cosy about being there.

There was a break in the trees ahead of us. Fluffy sniffed around for a moment then found the girls’ tracks. They were so obvious that even I could have found them, though the rain, which had now stopped, had already started to wear them away. We could follow them by sight for a while, but even so Fluffy took the lead.

Thanks to Gunnar’s insistence that we wait for the sun to move higher, it was now beaming down on us. It was still cool; in fact, without the cloud cover it was colder than when it was raining. I shivered. Since I’d become a vampire, cold didn’t affect me in the same way so probably it was from nerves, but I was ready to pretend it was the cold. Yup, I was just chilly, not scared out of my mind.

I wished Connor was with me.

Next to me Shadow was in his happy place, darting around, running forward, sniffing stuff, eating grass, running back. He flopped down at one point and rolled. It was reassuring because his antics meant that the beast wasn’t near. He was being normal – well, as normal as he could be.

Suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end; some sixth-sense told me we were being followed. I put it down to paranoia and tried to ignore it. Shadow was happy, so the beast wasn’t stalking us and contemplating ripping us apart. Absolutely not. But no matter how much I tried to convince myself, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being observed.

When the tracks finally disappeared Fluffy pressed his nose to the ground, every inch of him vibrating with alertness. Although some rain had fallen since the girls had come this way, he could still pick up their scent. After a few hundred yards, he stopped and pointed away from the path. He waited for us to reach him then he went off piste.

This wasn’t the same spot we’d gone beyond in the past so nothing looked familiar and that twisted my nerves still tighter. The waterlogged peatland was scattered with trees and thickets. Although winter had stripped bare some of the undergrowth, clumps of alder and dead grass were still thick and tangled. Every step forward was a battle that slowed our progress.

Fluffy could have pushed through much faster than us but he paused regularly, not wanting us to fall behind. Shadow was following him, though he was still mucking around. I kept my eye on him because I knew he’d sense the beast long before we would, but he continued to look unconcerned.

When we hit the swamp, low boggy ground not unlike the moors back home, Fluffy veered into another patch of alders and disappeared. My heart gave a floppy beat and I rushed forward, but he’d only gone down a bank that wasn’t visible because of the scrub. Once I approached the edge, I saw him; he had locked onto the girls’ trail and was oblivious to everything else around him.

Shadow was in full pleasure mode and bumped him with his shoulder. Fluffy, who was in full business mode, gave a little growl. My lynx was romping around like this was a great adventure; he was wholly comfortable beyond the barrier, more relaxed and playful than when he was at home. I’d found him here and clearly some part of him still identified this place as home, far more than the council house in which we resided. Had I done right by bringing him to Portlock?

I waved everyone over to the bank which Fluffy had descended. Stan, ever the gentleman, helped Anissa and me down the three-foot drop so we wouldn’t land in the mud, then jumped down after us. Gunnar jumped down as well, ignoring the younger man’s offer of assistance.

I continued to watch my animal companions – and when Shadow suddenly froze and put his ears back, my heart sank. I held up a hand and pointed to him. Gunnar knew what that meant as well as I did, and he immediately raised his shotgun and started scanning our surroundings. I undid the snap on my service pistol and gripped the handle. My mostly undead heart gave another kerthunk.

Fluffy whined as he also noticed Shadow’s tension, then he stuck his nose in the air and started sniffing. He gave me a confused look; apparently he didn’t smell anything. He’d been close to the beast before and he knew its scent, so either it wasn’t around or it was far enough away for him not to catch its smell on the air.

I could do far away, the further the better; Australia would be good. But far away or not, I knew how fast the beast could move; far away could become very close in a terrifyingly short period of time.

I caught up with Fluffy and whispered, ‘If the beast is a distance away, we have time to find the girls. Focus. Where are they?’

He flicked an ear in my direction then trotted on. We’d gone barely twenty feet when he stopped beside a hollow on the hillside and pointed with his paw. When I got close enough, I saw a hole. It looked like water had undermined the tree roots and created a space just big enough for two teenage girls to curl up and hide in.

Fluffy stood in front of the hole and whined pointedly. When I leaned down and looked inside, two terrified faces looked out at me. The girls.

Relief rushed through me. ‘Kate and Essie?’ I asked, more to reassure them that I knew who they were rather than to confirm their identity. They both resembled the photos I’d seen of them, albeit they were now pale, gaunt and a total mess. They’d been through the mill.

They nodded, still looking terrified.

‘We’re here to take you home,’ I promised. By tacit agreement, Stan and Gunnar stayed back, guns up and ready. Anissa was also scanning our surroundings, a new tension visible in her shoulders.

Essie was closest to the entrance. She whispered, ‘We can’t, it’s out there.’

I nodded. ‘I know. That’s why we have to hurry. Come out and let’s get back inside the barrier as fast as we can.’ I reached out a hand; Essie stared at it for a long time before turning to Kate and raising her eyebrows.

‘What other choice do we have?’ Kate whispered to her. ‘If we stay out here, the beast gets us. We’re just going to have to deal.’

‘All right. If you’re sure,’ Essie murmured back. The girls hugged, fear etched into every line of their bodies as they clung to each other. I grimaced; they seemed to be almost as scared of going back to Portlock as they were of staying here and facing the beast.

Essie took a couple of seconds to collect herself then crawled out. Kate followed. Both girls were grubby and wet. They looked miserable, and I couldn’t blame them, but I didn’t take the time to reassure them that everything would be okay. Time was of the essence and we were still in danger. Everything might not be okay.

Fluffy took point again and we followed, first Anissa and me, then the girls and then Stan and Gunnar bringing up the rear with their shotguns.

Anissa had something in her hands that I couldn’t see. Now that the girls were with us, she started to chant. I wasn’t entirely sure what she was doing because I didn’t sense non-witch magic in the same way, but I could feel something, like the pressure in the air before a storm.

Shadow bumped against my legs and I glanced down at him. His ears were pinned and he was checking the brush to my right. My tension amped up another level. Anissa’s chanting grew louder though I couldn’t make out what she was saying because it was in her own native language – Sugpiaq. Her voice rose and I heard a thread of fear in it, but though her voice warbled her chanting didn’t falter.

She moved the object in her hands in slow circles: it was bone white, maybe a tiny figure, an amulet or a stone. It didn’t matter what the fuck it was if it kept us safe.

The pressure increased and my head felt like it was being held in a vice. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation but I gritted my teeth and bore it.

‘Bunny!’ Gunnar yelled and I whirled around.

He’d stopped and was aiming his shotgun into the brush where Shadow had been staring moments ago. Boom! He fired a shot and pumped in the next shell. His stance was tense but his face was calm; he was a man who faced his fears head on.

Shadow yowled – an entreating call or a warning? I didn’t know because he spoke in his own language.

An answering scream came from the brush and my hair stood on end. I still couldn’t see anything. No smoke, no glowing eyes, no form. Where the fuck was the beast? I couldn’t flame-grill air.

‘Get to the barrier,’ Anissa gasped between chants. ‘I can’t hold it!’

I wasn’t sure what it was, but I believed she was holding us in some sort of protective bubble, which was why the beast wasn’t rushing us. That was its usual MO – it wasn’t a coy monster but a very much in-your-face one.

We didn’t need any more encouragement. ‘Run, girls!’ I barked and they sprinted away. Despite her fear, Kate was smart: she didn’t use vampire speed and pull away from Anissa because she also realised that Anissa was holding something protective over us.

I pulled my service weapon as I ran, ready to offer Gunnar and Stan more cover. The men were still fixed. ‘MOVE!’ I roared at them. ‘Anissa has a shield over us and you need to stay inside it!’ I had no idea what would happen if we stepped out of it. ‘I’ll cover you!’ I hollered. ‘RUN!’

The men turned their backs on the brush that was shaking and moving even though there wasn’t a breath of wind. I shot into the bushes and heard an enraged snarl. Had I found my mark? That feeling of pressure had disappeared completely so we had to be outside Anissa’s protective bubble – and that was all kinds of not good.

The bush ran towards me and I saw the moment it transformed from green leaves to swirls of deadly smoke. The leaves blackened and fell, and malevolent red eyes met my own.

Fuck. My cowardly heart quivered but I kept my feet rooted as I shot again. The men were nearly level with me. ‘Get to the girls!’ I ordered. ‘Get them home.’

‘Bunny—’ Gunnar started, as if he were going to argue.

‘I’ll be on your heels,’ I barked. ‘Your duty is to those kids!’

He swore, blistering the air black and blue, but he and Stan ran past me.

I summoned the heat within me. The beast wanted to dance? Then I’d introduce him to a great tune: ‘Great Balls of Fire’. I let my fear rise and channelled it, spooling the heat, then I holstered my gun and extended my hands, jetting flames from my fingertips like some sort of vampire flamethrower.

‘What the fuck?’ I heard Stan shout behind me.

Oops. Hopefully the girls were far enough away not to have seen my fiery act, but I’d have some explaining to do to Stan.

Ahead of me, Anissa screamed. I risked taking my eyes off the beast long enough to see her drop like a stone. ‘Anissa!’ Stan shouted, putting on an extra burst of speed. He pounded towards her, picked her up and the object she’d been holding, and tossed her over his shoulder with zero effort. ‘Move!’ he cajoled the girls, and they started running again with Fluffy at their heels.

Shadow, however, had about-turned. He was growing in size and leaping towards me. ‘No!’ I shouted at him. ‘Get back!’ Being a cat, he blithely ignored me and continued moving forward, putting himself between me and the beast.

Whatever protection Anissa had given us was long gone and the beast was free to come after us with all that it had. Fear swamped me. All that stood between it and us was my cantankerous cat. ‘Shadow!’ I shouted again.

And that was when something burst from the trees and headed right for me.

Chapter 33

Parker exploded from the trees in a blur of motion and I gaped as he tore towards me. He tackled me and hoisted me into a fireman’s hold before my brain caught up. I was too shocked to do more than dangle.

It was full sunlight. Connor must have given Parker a daylight charm – but what the fuck was Parker doing here beyond the barrier.

My brain fired again and I screamed for my lynx. ‘Shadow! Come on!’ I begged. Shadow was fierce and strong and he had some crazy skills, but he was nowhere near full grown. There was no way he could match the beast in size. It would kill him if he didn’t escape.

Parker’s speed took us to the others in no time. We were so close to the barrier now. Stan was ushering the girls up to it and whispering the words that would take them safely through it. He looked up and saw Parker. ‘Who the hell is this?’

‘It doesn’t matter now!’ Gunnar barked. ‘Go through!’ He picked up Fluffy by his Nomo’s vest and flung him bodily through the barrier.

Stan looked at me for a beat, worry in his eyes. ‘I’m fine!’ I yelled. ‘Go through!’

He went, carrying an unconscious Annisa slung over his shoulder like I was slung over Parker’s. I was feeling distinctly grumpy about being treated like a sack of potatoes but there wasn’t time to fuss. Shadow had listened and was heading our way – but he wasn’t alone. A terrifying, writhing mass of shadow and smoke was chasing him, howling and yowling its outrage.

‘Turn me around!’ I shouted at Parker. ‘Point me at the beast!’

He obeyed – he didn’t have a choice – and positioned me like I was a rocket launcher on his shoulder. If I’d been thinking straight, I’d have told him to put me the fuck down but no; I gathered my flames instead and summoned the fire that was roaring in my blood. I blasted it again at the monster, aiming high so Shadow would be unscathed.

A wall of fire erupted, forcing the beast to slow. It snarled and skidded back, buying Shadow precious seconds as he charged toward us.

That was all he needed. My super-sized lynx kicked into a final burst of speed, a streak of fur and muscle, and in a heartbeat he’d joined us.

I slumped against Parker. ‘Get us out of here!’ I ordered. Parker murmured the words that allowed us to cross and we pushed through the now-malleable barrier with my large lynx in tow.

We stumbled out on the other side with a pop. As he moseyed out, cool as a cucumber, Shadow regained his smaller stature and his smoky coat. He sat down and started delicately licking a paw.

‘Put me down!’ I groused at Parker and he obediently set me on my feet.

The beast’s shrieking, a chorus of fury and madness, was still tearing through the air. It was pacing along the barrier; a seething mass of smoke and glowing red eyes, it was straight from my nightmares yet sickeningly real.

Its howls scraped my jangled nerves as it pounded the barrier. My heart gave one panicked kerthunk but the barrier held. Defeated for now, the monster spun with unnatural grace and slipped into the trees, leaving behind an acrid tang and a terrified silence.

I had never been happier to know that the barrier was solid; I might even kiss Liv next time I saw her.

‘Fuuuuck,’ Stan said. Then, now that the danger had passed, he focused on Parker. ‘Now seriously, who the fuck is this?’

I’d had time to come up with a small fib, which I suspected wasn’t a fib at all. ‘This is Parker. Connor has him on bodyguard duty for me.’

Kate and Essie were huddling together. Kate’s curious eyes settled on me. ‘You’re Prince Connor’s mate.’ I nodded, even though it wasn’t a question. ‘But Joe Parker hates Connor,’ she went on. ‘Why would Connor assign him as your bodyguard?’

Great. Why did the girl have to be so damned smart? And Parker wasn’t Parker’s first name? Huh. ‘He’s had a change of heart,’ I said vaguely.

‘Prince Connor has given him a daylight charm.’ Kate was still frowning. ‘You don’t give those out like candy.’

I wished she’d shut up. I’d just rescued her, for God’s sake; could she stop with the ‘making trouble for me’ routine? My glare must have been a little too fierce because she shrank back.

‘Sorry,’ she muttered, casting her eyes down.

And now I felt shitty because I’d glared at a girl who’d just gone through a tonne of trauma, and I was an absolute bitch for making her feel bad right now. ‘No, it’s fine. Enough about me, let’s get you somewhere safe.’

‘Are you taking me home?’ Kate asked, and a shiver ran through her.

‘To the station,’ Gunnar confirmed, glancing at me because he’d seen it too. ‘We’ll talk some more before we do anything else.’

‘You won’t contact her parents?’ Essie was clinging to her friend.

‘Not yet,’ I said slowly. ‘Not if you don’t want us to.’

‘I don’t,’ Kate whispered. Suspicions made my belly clench for her; I knew something was off about Cobalt Robertson, but what exactly was it? If he’d abused this girl, I’d stake him through his black heart myself.

‘Let’s get you in the vehicle,’ I said as I guided them to the Nomo SUV. They looked nervously at us as though we were going to cuff them. I shook my head. ‘You’re safe now. You’re the victims in all of this. Come on, let’s get you warm and comfortable.’

They walked slowly to the SUV and I ushered them onto the back seat. Fluffy joined them; frankly, he was a better comfort than anything I could offer.

Kate cuddled into him and moments later Shadow jumped onto Essie, making her ‘oof’ in surprise at his weight. Even so, she smiled and started petting the purring feline. I guessed she was a cat person.

I turned back to Stan and Anissa. ‘Is she okay?’ I asked softly, gesturing to the unconscious shaman.

‘I’m fine,’ she huffed. Okay, she wasn’t actually unconscious, but she still had her eyes closed and was being cuddled into Stan’s chest.

‘She’s worn out,’ Stan said gruffly. ‘I’m taking her home.’

‘Sure. Thanks so much for coming – both of you. Anissa, thank you for whatever the hell you did. You kept us all safe no matter what your spirits said about the rest of us surviving.’

A smile touched her lips and she forced her eyes open enough to wink at me. Then she yawned and her eyes slid closed as she snuggled into her polar-bear beau. Stan cradled her to the safety of his truck, put on her seat belt and tenderly tucked a blanket around her. Awww, he was so in love. I grinned at the thought.

He met my eyes as he walked around to his side of the truck. Thank you, I mouthed. He smiled, nodded then heaved himself into the driving seat, started the engine and drove off.

‘I’ll meet you at the station,’ Gunnar promised. ‘Don’t question the girls, just let them settle.’

‘You got it.’

Copying Stan, I grabbed a couple of emergency blankets for the girls; they had to be in shock after all they’d gone though. I wrapped them up, then opened my rucksack and gave Kate several bags of blood.

‘Oh my God,’ she said as she snatched them. ‘Thank you!’ She took the straw I offered and pierced the first bag, draining like it was a carton of fruit juice. She did the same with the second bag, her shoulders slumping with relief as her hunger was sated. I passed both girls bottles of water and a bag of biscuits then closed the door again.

Gunnar called Sigrid from his truck to let her know he’d survived going beyond the barrier, and I used the moment to speak quietly to Parker. I waved him further from the trucks, putting enough distance between us so that even supernatural ears couldn’t hear us. ‘You were following me,’ I accused in a low voice.

‘Yes,’ he admitted simply. ‘I need to keep you safe.’

‘I can keep myself safe!’ I hissed.

‘I saw.’ His tone was pure admiration. ‘You can wield fire. It’s amazing.’

Oh crikey. ‘Don’t tell anyone,’ I ordered.

‘Not a soul,’ he agreed easily.

I didn’t need his agreement – my order was enough. That thought pricked my conscience. ‘Don’t tell Connor about this,’ I said firmly. ‘Not until I’ve had a chance to speak to him myself.’

‘You got it.’

‘You should go. You want a lift to town?’

‘No. I’ll run. That way, Kate will ask you fewer questions.’

The way he said her name sounded familiar. ‘You know her?’

‘A little. I know her father more.’

‘What sort of man is he?’ I asked.

‘He’s not a man,’ he replied softly. ‘He’s a vampire, a deadly vampire, the type that enjoys drinking from the jugular, likes the spray of hot blood and the struggles of his prey.’ He paused. ‘We were … cut from the same cloth.’ He looked at me. ‘I’m sorry for that.’

When I’d saved Parker, something deep within him had shifted. He wasn’t the same person now and he no longer revelled in the hunt. Now remorse lived in his eyes, clear and unmistakeable. ‘It’s okay,’ I comforted him. ‘We all make mistakes. No one is beyond redemption.’

‘I think perhaps Cobalt Robertson is,’ he murmured.

I nodded. ‘Okay. I’m on my guard.’

‘I’m on your guard too.’ He winked before melting into the forest as quickly as he’d arrived.

Great, just great. That was all I needed: another witness as I bumbled my way through life. Still, it was hard to feel anything but grateful for his help. My fire would certainly have made the beast pause but I’d been bracing myself to do a last stand to make sure everyone else survived. Because of Parker my heart would pump its odd beat a while longer.

In the moment when I was sure I’d die, I’d regretted not having spoken to my mum. When she’d visited we’d started the process of building a bridge between us, but since she’d left I’d stopped all my efforts. Now I found I wanted to remedy that. Yes, she’d let me down in so many ways but nothing would stop her being the only mother I’d ever have.

I climbed into the Nomo’s SUV and peered into Gunnar’s truck. He was still on the phone so I waited for him to finish – I assumed he was still talking to Sigrid. When he hung up and fired up his engine, I let him go first. As I followed him back to the station, my mind slipped into autopilot as I jiggled all the pieces of the puzzle together. I tried to get them to fit but failed; I felt like I was still missing something essential.

The ride back was silent. The girls were huddled together, hands on warm fur, eyes on nothing. Words weren’t what they needed right now; comfort came with soft paws.

I hope it helped. They’d need every ounce of strength for what came next: reliving their horrific ordeal for the record.

Chapter 34

Back at the office, I led the girls into the heart of the station and sat Essie at my desk and Kate next to her. ‘More blood?’ I asked Kate.

‘Please,’ she replied gratefully, still clinging to the blanket I’d wrapped around her.

‘Hot chocolate?’ I asked and they both nodded eagerly.

Gunnar sat with them while I made a hot chocolate for everyone – myself and him included. The girls weren’t the only ones who were shocky. I went to town and added marshmallows and cream to the velvety goodness. While I was in the small kitchen, Sigrid joined me. She looked tired, but she still dredged up a smile.

‘Hey, you okay?’ I asked her.

‘That’s my line,’ she teased, brushing a few strands that had wriggled loose from my braid behind my ear. With thoughts of my own mother so near the surface, that maternal gesture made my eyes burn. Whatever happened with Mum, I hoped I’d always have Sig.

‘How are you holding up, love?’ she asked.

‘Better now we’ve found the girls. I’m hoping they’ll have some answers for us.’

‘Have you told Connor they’re safe?’

I bit my lip. ‘Not yet,’ I admitted. ‘There’s something going on with Kate and her dad. I don’t want to tip our hand that she’s safe until we know what it is. I don’t want the king’s men rushing in and questioning her – or worse, whisking her off.’

She studied me. ‘Did you tell Connor you went beyond?’

I flinched. ‘Not exactly.’

Sigrid sighed. ‘He loves you. He’s going to be upset that you left him in the dark.’

He was going to be livid and I wouldn’t blame him one bit, but his father’s men were stalking him, listening to his calls, bugging his car. I couldn’t risk them finding out and interfering. We needed to get to the truth for the girls’ sake – and for Sidnee’s.

I sighed. ‘I know.’

Sigrid hugged me then helped me carry the hot chocolate into the other room. I picked up a mug of warmed blood for Kate too and juggled the drinks in my hands.

‘This is my wife, Sigrid,’ Gunnar introduced her as she walked in. ‘This is Kate and Essie.’

‘Nice to meet you, girls.’ She handed them each a mug. ‘I’m sorry for all you’ve been through.’

Kate’s eyes filled with tears. ‘Thanks.’ Essie nodded wordlessly, but I saw her swallow hard.

When our cups were empty, Gunnar and I exchanged glances. ‘We’ll need to interview you separately,’ he said gently. ‘Who wants to go first?’

‘I will,’ Kate murmured.

Essie’s shoulders slumped. ‘Tell them the truth – the whole truth.’ Kate nodded, though she looked terrified.

‘Everything will be okay,’ Sigrid reassured them. ‘Gunnar and Bunny are good people. They’ll do right by you.’

‘Even if the evidence doesn’t point our way?’ Kate asked bitterly.

To my surprise, Sigrid winked. ‘Evidence can go missing.’

I gaped a little before closing my mouth with a clack. Well, that answered that question: it looked like there were no limits to what Sigrid would do to free Sidnee. I expected Gunnar to protest but his eyes were already on mine, solemn and guarded. And that answered that question: like Sigrid, he was ready to play fast and loose with the rules.

The question was: was I? I knew the answer before I’d finished asking the question. Of course I would. I’d already thought about staking Cobalt Robertson. Justice came in many forms.

Kate followed us into the interview room and we started recording. Gunnar quietly read her the Miranda rights then said, ‘You have the right to an attorney. As you are sixteen, you should also be questioned with your parents present but you’ve asked not to have them here. Do you understand that you can ask for another adult to be present on your behalf?’

‘I don’t have anyone else,’ she said bitterly, wrapping her arms around herself.

‘I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through,’ I said. And because I knew her parents were somehow at the heart of this, I continued, ‘My parents kept something big from me and I only found out about it recently. It changed everything for me.’

She swallowed hard. ‘Have you spoken to them?’

‘My mother, a little. My father, not at all.’

‘Was it his fault?’

I shrugged. ‘It was both of them, I think. But my mum … she seems contrite. She wants to build bridges.’ I pressed my lips together. ‘My mum wants to be a part of my life, but my dad … he wants to control it.’ It was hard to speak about it, hard to remember the look on Mum’s face when she told me that he had been responsible for getting me turned.

‘Same,’ she whispered, looking frightened. ‘My dad has always been super strict. He’s never told me that he loves me, he never hugs me. He’s old and he comes from a time when children should be seen and not heard.’

Her bottom lip wobbled. ‘As a born vampire, I’m super rare. I’m supposed to be precious.’ She shook her head. ‘I think he hates me. I’ve told myself he cared in his own way, but at best I’m an inconvenience, a force that divides Mum’s attention and takes her away from him.’

A tear slipped down her cheek. ‘I should have known something was up when he brought me and Essie cookies because I’m not allowed sweet treats – Mum’s always worrying about holes in my fangs. But he brought us cookies and I was so happy.’ She was sobbing now in earnest.

My heart ached for her and for myself. The situation hurt because it was so like my own. I stood up and went to cuddle her. ‘It’s not your fault,’ I said fiercely. ‘Something is wrong with him if you’re not enough.’

She cried her heart out and I held her through the storm. Finally she swiped at her cheeks. ‘The cookies contained some sort of sedative that knocked us out, fast. When we came to, we were in a bunker. The idiots didn’t cuff us and we were desperate to escape. After what felt like ages in total darkness, my vampire sight spotted a weird patch on the wall. It was a metal plate.

‘Tall and Skinny kept coming to check on us, to leer at us, and we were scared. When we were next alone, Essie shifted to use her strength as a tizheruk to pry open the plate. It led to a way out, but one of the kidnappers saw us as we climbed out and he chased us. We were so terrified – he said he’d shoot us if we didn’t stop.’

She swallowed hard. ‘Essie … she found something heavy, some metal or whatever, and before he could shoot us … she hit him over the head with it.’ Her lip trembled. ‘We didn’t expect him to die. We just thought she’d knock him out. But his head just crumpled like a melon.’

She bit her lip. ‘Essie didn’t mean to kill him. It was self-defence. We found his phone and checked where we were on Google Maps then called for the Nomo to come and hung up. Only when we searched his body there was no gun. He’d been bluffing the whole time and Essie had killed a defenceless man.’

I snorted. ‘He was far from defenceless.’ I’d seen him in a full rage, swinging at Sidnee and at Ernie. ‘And you believed he had a gun, believed he would kill you. That’s still self-defence, honey.’

Gunnar nodded. ‘She’s right.’

Kate slumped back in her chair. ‘Essie’s not going to jail?’

‘No, little lady,’ Gunnar murmured. ‘She’s not.’

She closed her eyes; relief painted over her features. ‘That’s good. That’s something.’

‘Your dad drugged you. He’s part of this,’ I said softly. ‘Is your mum too?’

She hesitated. ‘I don’t know,’ she said finally. ‘I really hope not, but … she loves him. If she had to choose between him and me, I think she’d choose him.’ She shook her head. ‘When I was nine, I found a backpack in Dad’s room, a pink one. I thought it was a gift for me and I was so excited. Since it was going to be mine, I looked through it. It had school books inside and a girl’s name – Casiah.’

She chewed her thumbnail. ‘I ran back to my room but I think he knew that I’d seen it because later that evening he gave me a lecture on privacy and what would happen to me if I didn’t respect his.’

Now she was visibly trembling. ‘For a while I thought he had another family, a secret one, and that I had a half-sister somewhere and one day I’d meet her. But when I started high school, I asked around discreetly about a girl called Casiah – it isn’t exactly a common name. That’s when I found out she’d gone missing – but I still thought she was Dad’s illegitimate child right up until the time we met her ghost.’

Shuddering, she went on. ‘Essie and I were waiting for the Nomo like we’d decided, but then we saw the twins. They must have been killed near where we were kept because their spirits were stuck there. The big guy’s death woke them – he’d kidnapped them, too. And that’s when I finally put it together.’ She closed her eyes. ‘The dosed cookies weren’t my father’s first kidnapping … he’d kidnapped other girls.

‘Essie had killed the big guy and my dad was evil. That’s when we decided it was better for both of us if we just ran – we’d rather face a hypothetical beast than a real one. Only the beast beyond was real too.’ Her eyes were wide and she was breathing too quickly, in danger of hyperventilating.

I didn’t point out that, as a vampire, she didn’t need to breathe; instead I pushed her head between her legs. ‘Breathe slowly,’ I instructed. ‘Everything is going to be okay. You won’t have to live with him again.’ I looked at Gunnar and he nodded solemnly.

We would keep her from Cobalt Robertson. We would arrest him and throw away the key.

Chapter 35

Essie told the same story as Kate, almost without variation. We reassured her we wouldn’t be pressing charges against her for Donovan’s murder.

She told us a little more about the squalid conditions they’d been kept in and about the other guy who’d come to check on them. When he visited, he always had a headlamp and used it to look at them, running the light up and down their bodies. Essie told us that he was tall, slim, brown-haired and always armed.

‘He sneered at us,’ she said quietly. ‘He was brave while he was carrying his guns.’ She swallowed hard. ‘He scared me the most, even more than the big guy. Skinny’s guns were always cocked and loaded, one in each hand so we couldn’t rush him. You could see he was just itching to hurt us. He wanted us to put a step wrong. He … he taunted us. He said that we’d fetch a far higher price because we were virgins, and that was all that was stopping him from “tasting our wares”.’ Fear bloomed in her eyes as she relived the moment.

‘We won’t let him touch you,’ Gunnar vowed. ‘Can you tell us anything else about him?’

‘I think his name was Bob. He spoke about himself in the third person like a total whack job. “Just give Bob a reason…” he’d say.’

Next to me Gunnar froze, tension and rage in every line of his body. ‘Did he touch you?’ he asked tightly.

‘No … but he wanted to. After I’d killed the big guy, some twin girls appeared just like that.’ She clicked her fingers. ‘They were ghosts. They said the skinny one had raped and killed them. Kate freaked out because she was scared they meant her dad, but I think it was Bob. He had this hungry look in his eyes ... ’ She shuddered. ‘I’m going to need so much therapy.’

‘We can help you with that,’ I promised. ‘We know some good local therapists.’

‘What’s going to happen to Kate?’ she asked in a small voice. ‘Her dad drugged us. We know he’s involved in all of this, even though he didn’t visit the bunker.’

‘We need to find out if Kate’s mum is involved,’ I said.

Now it made sense why Cobalt Robertson hadn’t wanted us involved, why he’d been angry about us searching the property and the grounds. He couldn’t stop Connor from summoning us without raising a shit tonne of questions, but he’d done his best to suggest the girls had run away or that a third-party necromancer had sneaked into town to disrupt the wards. I suspected he’d opened the window himself because there had been no ladder marks or footprints under the window, nothing to suggest the kidnappers had used that as a point of ingress or exit. Robertson had probably let the kidnappers in through the front door. The total betrayal of Kate’s trust made my heart hurt for her.

‘For now, we’ll keep Kate in protective custody,’ Gunnar promised Essie. ‘She’ll be safe.’

It was a broad promise and I suddenly wondered what the true purpose of the king’s men was. If Cobalt Robertson was part of this, why would he summon other vampires to come in and investigate? He’d want to hush it all up.

I thought about Connor’s chilling words, that Reams would normally be torturing people by this point. Had Reams and his team been summoned not because the girls were taken but because Cobalt had lost evidence that could point back at himself? And if that was true … was Connor’s dad involved in the sex trafficking? Were Reams and his crew loyal to Cobalt Robertson because he was the king’s lieutenant, or were they loyal to the king himself? How high did this go?

I frowned. If the men weren’t here to find the girls, why had they found the bunker? That didn’t make sense. Maybe Robertson hadn’t summoned them at all; born vampires were incredibly rare, maybe the king truly had sent the men to find Kate.

I turned it over in my mind until I forced myself back to the here and now, with Essie. ‘Do you want us to contact your mum?’ I asked her. I was learning about not making assumptions.

Essie’s relief was evident. ‘Yes, please.’ Her eyes filled with tears. She’d been so brave, but the thought of her mum coming to find her had weakened her last reserves.

‘I’ll call now,’ I promised and left the interview room to do just that.

‘Lily Kaleak.’ Essie’s mum answered the phone a few seconds after it started ringing.

‘It’s Bunny Barrington from the Nomo’s office.’

‘Yes?’ Her voice wobbled with hope.

‘Are you alone?’

‘Yes.’ Dread had crept in her tone.

‘We’ve found the girls and they’re safe and sound,’ I said quickly.

‘Oh, thank God,’ she said, and promptly burst into tears.

I let her cry herself out. When the sobs lessened I said, ‘Kate isn’t ready to go home. Can you come straight to the office? Please don’t tell anyone they’ve been found, including Kate’s parents.’

‘Poor Kate,’ she said softly. ‘I won’t tell a soul.’

‘Why poor Kate?’ I asked.

‘Essie’s dad may be absent, but I’d prefer that to him being here and treating her like that asshole treats Kate.’

‘Do you suspect abuse?’

‘Physical? No. Emotional? He’s an ice sculpture in a tuxedo. I’m not sure his heart ever functioned, even back when it was beating.’ She sounded bitter. ‘I smother that girl in love every chance I get.’

I thought of Sigrid, who did the same to me. ‘She appreciates it,’ I said, my voice cracking. This whole case was too close to home for me and I was struggling to be objective. The parallels were too great with my own dysfunctional family.

‘I was in the shower when you called and I still have suds in my hair. I’ll be with you as soon as I can. Tell Essie I’m coming for her.’

‘I will,’ I promised.

When I went back into the interview room, Essie gave a watery smile. My heart ached when she slipped an arm around her bestie to comfort her. No one was coming for Kate. Not yet, anyway.

We left the girls at my desk with Sigrid, Fluffy and Shadow while Gunnar and I went to tell Sidnee she was officially off the hook for Donovan’s murder.

Dull-eyed and weary, Sidnee looked up from her cell floor. ‘Great news,’ Gunnar said with a smile. ‘You’re free to go! One of the girls confessed. You didn’t kill Donovan.’

She burst into relieved tears. When the cell door was open we bundled together, the three of us hugging with happiness. She’d been through so much, and she’d been so brave.

In the other room, Fluffy barked twice before falling silent. It was odd for him to bark but perhaps he hadn’t reacted well to Mrs Kaleak’s arrival. Foxes and dogs didn’t get on, right?

‘Are you okay?’ I asked my bestie softly.

‘No,’ she said in all honesty. ‘I’m an absolute wreck.’ She sniffed and tried to rein in her tears.

‘That’s understandable,’ Gunnar said. ‘But in time this too will pass.’ He said the words like he’d said them to her before, like he was quoting someone.

Her lips tipped up in a small smile and she nodded against his shoulder. ‘I know, I know. But I’m not sure how much more I can bear. Where’s Thomas, Gunnar?’

Gunnar shook his head. ‘I don’t know and that’s the truth. He was seen in Anchorage. He’s near, and if I know him even a jot he’s fighting to get back to you.’

‘I’ll go to Anchorage,’ she said fiercely.

‘And do what?’ he asked softly.

‘I don’t know! But I can’t do nothing for one second more!’

The cell door clanged shut behind us and we all whirled round. Captain Reams was smirking at us. ‘You’ll do nothing for a few moments longer.’ He held up the key to the cell door tauntingly.

Dismay washed over me. We’d rescued Kate and now Robertson’s men had her and Essie. And Sigrid, Fluffy and Shadow!

I pulled out my phone to call for Connor, but my signal was completely gone. Reams winked at me. ‘We’re not rookies, Jessica Rabbit.’

‘Fuck you!’ I spat back.

‘Maybe later,’ he said mildly.

‘If you harm one hair on anyone’s head, I will rip you to pieces!’ I snarled. Luckily, I stopped myself before I threatened to burn him to ashes. No giving away my hybrid self, even at the height of panic.

Reams looked amused. ‘This has been fun but I’ve got some lovely ladies to question. Do be good, won’t you?’

As he sauntered out, Gunnar let out a roar of rage that shook the building. It didn’t help. We were stuck in our own jail cell – the kind that stripped the magic right out of you.

We were well and truly fucked. And Reams hadn’t even taken us out on a date.

Chapter 36

I closed my eyes and tried desperately to think. Connor and I were mated and that was something that transcended mere magic between us. I turned my attention inward and reached inside myself, my knees nearly buckling when I found the fragile thread of our nascent soul bond.

I reached out to it and shoved all my panic down that link – every desperate, screaming thought – then prayed like hell that he’d get my SOS.

Nothing rebounded back and I got no sense that he’d felt me, but somehow I knew that he had. Connor would be on his way to me now, come what may. I just hoped he’d get here in time; if Reams was here to clear up Cobalt’s mess, then Kate was in real danger. She had no time to wait for Connor’s arrival.

‘Try to open the door,’ I urged Gunnar. ‘Maybe your lock-opening thing will still work!’

Gunnar tried using his usual magic mojo but that ability had been ripped from him as surely as my fire had been torn from me.

‘Well, finesse didn’t work,’ I said grimly. ‘Let’s try brute force. On three, run at the door. One. Two. Three!’ All three of us hit the cell door with everything we had, but though it clanged it didn’t so much as budge. Fucksticks.

‘I’m sorry,’ Sidnee sniffed. ‘This is my fault.’

‘In what world is this your fault?’ I snapped. ‘This is Reams’ fault and no one else’s.’

‘It’s a little mine,’ Gunnar growled. ‘I left the key in the lock in my haste to get in.’

‘How about we divvy up the blame when we’re out of the cell?’ I bit out.

I was still wracking my brains for some way to defibrillate my magic when Shadow padded in. ‘Mrrow,’ he said, his tone condescending.

‘Oh my God,’ I whispered. ‘You beautiful cat. I’ll feed you salmon for a week if you can get us out of here.’ Reams and his men had clearly dismissed him as a mere cat and let him wander away – but Shadow was far from an ordinary feline.

With a supremely cattish air of smugness, he let the shadow lift from his fur and sent it drifting towards the lock. His acidic whatever-the-fuck-it-was hovered over the lock, and in moments molten metal was dripping to the floor.

Gunnar pushed open the door. We all froze as it let out a loud screech but no one came to investigate. What could they possibly be doing that made them ignore such a loud noise? Nothing good, that was for sure.

We crept into the weapons store and each grabbed two guns and ammo, then strapped on our Kevlar and magic-enforced vests. Before you go into a life-and-death struggle, you weapon up. Look at me, being all sensible.

Armed and dangerous, we burst into the back office and took in the scene. Connor, Margrave, Parker and John were pointing guns at Reams, Malpas and Clements. The problem was that Reams had his hand around Sigrid’s throat, Malpas had his fangs at Essie’s throat and Clements was holding a knife to Kate’s throat.

‘This isn’t going to end well,’ I said into the silence.

Reams took in our arrival and our weapons, did some calculations and grimaced. ‘We have what we came for. Let us walk out of here and we’ll leave Portlock immediately.’

‘And if we don’t?’ Gunnar challenged him.

‘Then we’ll see who dies first,’ he said simply.

‘You’re not leaving with either of the girls!’ I barked.

Reams blinked. ‘We’re not here for them,’ he said finally. ‘You let us go, you keep the girls. Everyone lives. Win, win.’

He wasn’t here for the girls? Then what the fuck was he here for? ‘You’re here on Robertson’s orders, right?’ I asked in confusion.

Reams said nothing. ‘Answer her!’ Connor ordered.

Reams’ jaw tightened. ‘You know whose orders I follow, Your Highness.’ His tone was mocking and he’d made his point. He followed Hamish MacKenzie’s orders, not Connor’s and not Cobalt Robertson’s.

Connor glowered. ‘I do – and yet, the numbers are very much on my side here. Tell me, Reams, why should I let you walk out of here alive? You locked up my mate.’

‘I didn’t harm her. Here she is, free as a bird. Or a bunny.’ He winked at me and Connor growled at his obvious disrespect. ‘If you don’t let us leave,’ Reams continued, ‘then innocent blood will be spilled. And we all know how Connor MacKenzie feels about that.’ There was no attempt to hide his disdain.

Ugh. Now that he’d suggested Connor was weak, he wouldn’t – or couldn’t – back down. So I backed down for him. ‘Let them go,’ I pleaded. ‘Please. I don’t want the girls to get hurt. They’ve been through enough.’

Connor’s jaw was rigid but he gave a sharp nod and he and his men raised their weapons slightly. The vampires moved towards the door, keeping their hostages close until they reached the exit, then they shoved the girls at us using their bodies to block any pursuit. They needn’t have bothered: Connor had agreed to let the men go as long as they kept their end of the bargain and they had. He wouldn’t renege on his word.

Now that the situation was less threatening, my mind started working. If the vampire king hadn’t sent them here for Kate … then why the hell had he sent them?

Chapter 37

We had a hectic few minutes while we checked over the girls and Gunnar clutched Sigrid, but everyone was okay. Shaken, but okay.

‘I’m sorry you all had to go through that,’ I said. ‘Especially you two girls after all you’ve been through already. I’m astonished by your bravery.’

Essie sniffed. ‘I didn’t feel brave, I was just terrified. I wanted to shift and rip them into little pieces, but I was so scared that they’d hurt Kate or Sigrid before I could get to them. And I couldn’t get the big guy out of my head. The way his head just … squished like a berry.’ Oh boy, poor Essie.

Lily Kaleak bundled into the Nomo’s office, her still-wet hair tied back in a hasty bun. ‘Mom!’ Essie flung herself at her mother and both Kaleaks burst into tears.

‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Sigrid murmured to no one in particular.

‘I’ll come with you,’ Gunnar stood.

‘I’m alright, Bam Bam.’

‘You may be,’ he replied gruffly, ‘but I’m not. Forgive me while I follow you around like a lamb.’

Her smile was like the sun coming up. ‘Follow me wherever you like.’

‘To the ends of the earth,’ he promised.

The depth of their love made my eyes fill with tears. There was something so deep and true and honest about it, and they never shied away from letting their feelings for each other show, no matter the company.

It was a contrast to Connor and me because Connor frequently had his ‘leader’ hat on, and I had my ‘officer’ hat on. Two professionals, doing a job, all the while burning for each other but not letting it show. Even now, Connor hadn’t crossed the distance to me. I knew it wasn’t for lack of emotion – if anything it was the opposite. He didn’t trust himself to come close enough to touch me or he wouldn’t stop. He’d drag me away and make sure I knew exactly how loved I was. And because I did know, I smiled at him across the room.

I pulled my eyes from him with effort and turned to Kate. ‘What did they want with you?’

She looked confused. ‘I don’t really know but they asked a lot about the beast beyond the barrier.’

‘The beast?’ Connor frowned. ‘Why would they ask you that?’

‘Because we ran beyond,’ she confessed to her leader, eyes on the ground.

‘You…?’ He trailed off and stared at me. ‘You followed her beyond.’ It wasn’t a question but I nodded all the same.

His nostrils flared and his fists clenched. Whoops. Connor’s emotions were firmly dialled to somewhere between not happy and very pissed off. Well, he’d have to deal with it. My job was saving people and if that meant going beyond, I’d do it. I raised my chin defiantly.

‘Who did you take with you?’ he asked tightly.

‘Gunnar, Fluffy, Shadow, Stan and Anissa.’

‘Anissa?’ He muttered in surprise. ‘I could have sent others to help.’

‘Without Reams finding out?’ I asked dubiously. ‘I doubt it. And besides, it turned out we had Parker too, we just didn’t know it until he flung me over his shoulder and ran me bodily back through the barrier.’

Connor glared at Parker. ‘And you didn’t mention this because…?’

Parker flushed. ‘Ah…’

‘I told him not to,’ I interceded. ‘I couldn’t risk Reams and his team finding out. I’m sorry, Connor, I really am, but we found the girls and we all got out safely. It’s done now and we have bigger concerns, like why Reams gives two shits about the beast.’

Essie and her mum had calmed down and both women were listening to the conversation.

A sudden inspiration hit me. These girls were local so maybe they knew more than me. Beast legends had to be rife around Portlock. I’d heard stories: some said it was a nantinaq, a kind of Bigfoot; others swore it was a Kushtaka, an otterman. But none of the speculation ever mentioned anything about the big cat I swore that I’d seen. Plus there was the link to Shadow with his smoky – well, shadows.

‘Have you girls heard the term “Sdonalyasna”?’ I asked, carefully repeating Matilda’s term for the beast. Neither of them seemed to recognise the word and they both shook their heads. Damn. Maybe Matilda was losing it, or maybe it was a hag word. Although I didn’t think hags had their own language, anything was possible.

‘Why did you run beyond the barrier?’ Lily asked Essie, horrified. ‘What were you thinking?’

Essie blanched.

‘With all the protests and stuff, we weren’t sure if the beast was real,’ Kate admitted. ‘It seemed like a good idea to risk a possible beast versus a real one.’

‘Who was the real beast?’ Lily asked.

‘My dad,’ Kate admitted and started crying.

Lily bundled her into her arms along with Essie. ‘Oh my lovely girl,’ she murmured to Kate. ‘I’m sorry. Everything will be okay.’

Connor frowned. ‘What am I missing here?’

Aware of Lily’s listening ears, I gave a brief version of the girls’ story. I hit the main points, namely that Robertson had drugged the girls and had definitely been involved in the kidnapping of other girls in the past. He was either involved in a sex trafficking ring or, knowing his arrogance, running the whole thing. Robertson had been working with Donovan and at least one other guy, known as Bob.

We needed to arrest Robertson, find out if Kate’s mum was in on it, then locate and arrest his other accomplice. The problem was that I was operating on a one-hour nap and I could hardly think. Adrenaline had taken it out of me, not just from our excursion beyond the barrier but because of getting captured and the subsequent standoff. I was swaying on my feet – and I wasn’t the only one.

‘We need to guard Kate,’ I managed. ‘Then we need to find Bob and move in fast on him and Cobalt, preferably at the same time.’

Connor turned to Kate. ‘Would you feel comfortable at my home? Bunny and I will be there, too.’

She blinked. ‘Sure.’

‘Okay. Kate comes with us. In fact,’ he eyed the Kaleaks, ‘you two should come as well, until we’ve arrested all the guilty parties.’

Lily bit her lip but nodded. ‘Okay, if you have room.’

‘Of course.’ Connor’s house was massive and had a number of guest rooms.

‘I’ll wait for April,’ Gunnar said. ‘She’s due in shortly. I’ll get her started on identifying a ‘Bob’ who is associated with Donovan. Let’s all get some rest – say six hours down time –then reconvene here to get this shit done.’ It was rare for Gunnar to swear in front of civilians; that he had let the expletive pass showed how tired he was. I felt the same.

The girls were safe, Sidnee was off the hook, and for the first time in days we could relax. All we had to do now was tidy things up. How hard could that be?

Chapter 38

Once everyone was fed and settled in the guest rooms – and Fluffy and Shadow were content – Connor and I hit the hay. I was beyond tired but when the bedroom door shut behind me, Connor’s eyes locked on me with the intensity of a heat-seeking missile. I suddenly found I had a second wind.

He stalked towards me, his intent clear. ‘I hated being apart from you,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Let’s agree to never do that again.’

I started to agree but then he was upon me, his hands buried in my hair and pulling me close for a kiss that was hot and demanding in all the right ways. When he finally eased back, he rested his forehead against mine as if he needed to touch me at all times.

‘Missed you,’ he breathed.

‘Missed you, too,’ I admitted. ‘So much.’ And I really had. It had been so hard not even talking on the phone. And yes, I’d missed his flesh against mine too. When I started to unfasten his plaid shirt, his eyes darkened in anticipation. He reached for me and we lost ourselves in each other.

As we lay together afterwards, basking in the glow of finally being together again, my exhaustion came back with a vengeance. Before I could even murmur goodnight, I tumbled into a dream-filled sleep.

I dreamed of the beast beyond but it wasn’t a nightmare as my dreams about the beast usually were. It was a bright sunny day and I was in a clearing near the top of the mountain, near the cliff the beast had once chased us over, yet there were no remnants of my fear and terror. Instead I felt content. I was surrounded by grass and flowers, birds were singing and a gentle breeze was caressing my skin as I raised my face to the sun.

A lynx approached me. At first I thought it was Shadow because it had the same smoky coat, but this feline was huge. Perhaps one day Shadow would grow this big, too, but I knew in my bones that this cat wasn’t mine.

It approached me and morphed into the largest nantinaq I’d ever imagined, over fourteen feet tall. Even then fear proved elusive and I felt only a mild curiosity. The towering nantinaq spoke to me with a high piping voice like a bird. ‘Nush'et ghen.’

I frowned and was opening my mouth to explain that I didn’t know what that meant when I was ripped from my dream by the siren call of my damned mobile phone.

As I sat bolt upright, the fear came. What the hell? My floppy heart gave a hard, sharp beat. My phone rang again and I glanced over to make sure that Connor was still asleep, but he was already gone.

I looked at the screen and swiped to take the call. ‘Gunnar,’ I mumbled, my voice cracking from sleep.

‘Bunny Rabbit,’ he greeted me, sounding warm and amused. ‘Are you planning on coming in today or…?’

I looked down at my phone screen, registered the time, swore and jumped out of bed. ‘Oh my gosh! Sorry, Gunnar! I didn’t know it was so late. I slept through my alarm. I’ll be there in forty minutes.’

‘It’s not like you haven’t clocked enough overtime,’ he said. ‘But things have progressed and I want your two cents.’

‘You’ll have them,’ I promised. ‘See you shortly.’ I ended the call and darted into the kitchen to turn on the kettle and feed my four-legged friends, only to see they’d already been fed. There was a note from Connor on the kitchen counter.

Food in microwave. I’ve already fed Fluffy and Shadow. Sorry about leaving while you were sleeping. Love you. xx

I smiled and opened the microwave to find a breakfast sandwich that was still warm. I took it out, replaced it with a cup of blood and turned on the kettle. I drank the blood, ate my sandwich gratefully and poured the water to let my tea steep in a thermos while I hurriedly showered and dressed. Finally, I called my furry companions and we hauled arse to the station.

As I opened the door, my phone peeped to remind me that Reggie had his next counselling appointment in half an hour. I sighed. It was terrible timing. I glanced down at Fluffy. Should I try and talk to him beforehand or just take him to the appointment?

I settled him and Shadow then knocked on the door jamb to Gunnar’s office. ‘I’m really sorry but I’ve got to drop Fl— Reggie off for his counselling appointment.’

Gunnar huffed a breath and tugged on his beard. ‘It can’t be helped. Deliver the boy then hurry your cottontail back here.’ He’d really upped the ante on the bunny jokes. I’d have stomped on that one, but he was already cutting me some slack so I let it slide.

‘Thanks. I won’t be long!’ I promised. I rushed out, grabbed Fluffy’s lead and put him in the Nomo vehicle. As I started the engine I said, ‘I’m sorry, Fluffy, but Reggie has a counselling appointment.’ I stared my dog in the eyes from the rearview mirror. He whined and lay down.

‘Sorry, buddy, but you’ve got to face it. This is going to be hard until it’s not. I know you can do it – you need to do it. You’re a werewolf, not a dog.’

He didn’t make a sound – but when I turned into the car park at the clinic, Reggie was sitting in the back seat. I smiled. ‘Hey, it’s good to see you.’ He didn’t reply.

‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to spring it on you like this but I forgot to give you a reminder.’ Still no response. ‘You’ve got a key, right? Do you want to walk home or do you want me to pick you up when you’re done?’ It would be hard to wrangle more time off but I’d do it; Gunnar would forgive me and Reggie needed to know that I had his back.

He gave me a flat stare, looking like the teenager he was, then opened the SUV door and stormed into the clinic. I rolled down the window. ‘I guess I’ll meet you at home then!’

I half-expected a middle-finger salute but he merely hunched his shoulders and kept on walking. I hated feeling like the bad guy but I knew this would help him. He just needed to stick with it.

While I was watching him walk in, I took the opportunity to call my mum. Her phone went straight to voicemail – time zones were a pain in the ass – so I left a breezy message to say I was just checking in.

When Reggie was safely inside the building, I gunned it back to the office to see what had hit the fan while I was asleep.

Spoiler: colossal piles of poop.

Chapter 39

I strode into Gunnar’s office and sat opposite him. ‘Sorry about that. Bring me up to date.’

He sent me a wry smile. ‘Unlike you, I struggled to sleep so I decided to go back to the bunker and process the scene. My interest was piqued when I found some old comms. The place was a military mobile communications unit, SCR-299. The fact that it was military got me real curious about the contents of the barrels. You weren’t kidding about the smell, were you? Anyway, I opened them up and bagged up the remains. They’ll have to go to Anchorage for a forensic examination but the scraps of clothing that were left were definitely military.’

He leaned forward. ‘Whoever killed them hid the bodies and that got me wondering why. When I got back to the office, I dug out some old maps and property records. The bunker isn’t technically on Cobalt Robertson’s land but the tunnel leading to it is. That area used to be a military post but when the soldiers stationed there mysteriously died, they closed up shop. No replacements, no questions. Robertson picked up the land for a steal back in the 1940s.’

‘You think he killed some soldiers to get some cheap land? What an asshole. That’s another nail in his coffin. Have we got a warrant for a search and arrest?’

Gunnar gave a satisfied smile. ‘That’s why I woke you. Liv, Calliope and Mafu signed the warrant. We’re good to go.’

‘Why didn’t you ask Connor to sign?’ I asked. ‘After all, it’s one of his people.’

He grimaced. ‘That’s why I didn’t ask him – I don’t want to put him in a sticky situation with his father. Connor would deal with some issues like this himself but with Robertson being an old favourite of his father’s, it’s better if we get our hands dirty.’

April burst into the office. ‘I’ve got a live one!’ She waved some papers. ‘Robert Sampson, aka Bob. He looks like a real piece of work and he is definitely living beyond his documented means. He has one helluva truck.’

Gunnar froze. ‘Sampson,’ he growled. ‘That piece of shit!’

‘Is he a regular offender?’ I asked. I hadn’t heard the name before but maybe he’d been on his best behaviour – until he’d kidnapped Kate and Essie, that is.

‘On paper he’s been in the clear for the last decade,’ April said, ‘but my gut says he’s our kidnapper. He’s tall and skinny, like the girls said, and he has a tonne of guns. The registered truck at his last known address is an F-150 Raptor R that retails at over $100k, which is way too much for him to have on a fisherman’s salary! Something definitely smells fishy – and it’s not the fish he catches.’

I grinned. ‘You enjoyed that, didn’t you?’

She beamed back. ‘I sure did.’ She winked at me and spun out of Gunnar’s office, humming a tune as she went. I laughed at her antics. April had become the glue that held this office together; she was far more than just an admin assistant.

‘Okay, Bob Sampson. This is good.’ I looked at Gunnar. ‘You want to fry him before we tackle Cobalt Robertson?’

Gunnar looked unhappy. ‘I’ve got history with Sampson. Many moons ago, before Sig and I got married, she was dating someone pretty seriously. I’d had my eye on her for a while and she was friendly with me, but she wasn’t interested.’

I could hardly believe that because Sig and Gunnar had the kind of deep, abiding love that was the stuff of fairy tales, the kind I hoped Connor and I would grow into one day when the carnal lust faded. Real soulmates, not just fated but tried and true.

Gunnar wasn’t looking at me, which was good, because I was definitely gaping at him. I closed my mouth. ‘Right. Go on.’

‘So this guy is dirty, real dirty, but Sig couldn’t see it and I couldn’t get her to believe me. Like a lot of people that come to Portlock, he was on his last strike. Most who end up here are repentant and turn their lives around. He wasn’t changing but he was hiding it really well.’

I interrupted, ‘What was he into?’

‘Drugs, violence. He’d fled because supposedly he’d killed someone, but it wasn’t ever proven.’ He grimaced. ‘He also had domestic violence issues. He made out like he’d left all his darkness behind him, that he was a changed man. He played Sig – you know what she’s like. She thinks no one is beyond saving and he cashed in on her kind heart. Eventually Sampson proposed to her and she accepted.’

I must have made a shocked noise because he nodded, then leaned back in his chair, his fingers steepled. ‘That’s when he couldn’t keep his true colours from her anymore.’ His voice was tight. ‘She annoyed him one day – turned him down when he wanted sex – and he punched her. Broke her nose.’

I gasped.

‘She split from him then and there, set up a spell to keep him away from her, and that was that. Despite my best efforts, like a lot of domestic violence victims she refused to press charges. I started going around to check on her make sure she was okay. One evening – later than I usually stopped by – I heard screaming.’

He looked at me wryly. ‘I smashed through her door and burst in. It turned out she was having a nightmare. I woke her, and well…’ He flushed. ‘She kissed me. After that, I was a goner. I tried to take things slow but there was no stopping our love. We got married six months later and neither of us have any regrets.’ His eyes were soft with nostalgia.

He cleared his throat. ‘I’ve avoided dealing with Sampson – I don’t trust myself. In his defence, losing Sig seemed to be the wake-up call he needed and he appeared to clean up his act. He married someone else and she’s never complained about violence, at least not to the Nomo’s office.’

He grimaced. ‘I’ve always wondered if he just got better at hiding it once he knew I was waiting for him to screw up – but then I thought it was just me being biased. And like Sig says, everyone deserves a second chance.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘But not a third. If Sampson is our guy, then that’s it.’

We called Lily; she and the girls were still happily ensconced at Connor’s watching his ridiculously big TV. We told her we were sending a picture of a suspect to her phone; could either girl identify him as the skinny kidnapper?

I snapped a photo of Bob Sampson from his file and sent it to Lily. She had us on speakerphone, so we all heard Kate gasp, ‘It’s him!’

‘Definitely,’ Essie agreed.

‘I’m going to draw up a statement for each of you confirming he is one of the men who took you,’ I said. ‘Once you’ve signed them, we’ll get a warrant for his arrest. You stay at Connor’s. I’ll be around with the statements within the hour.’ We rang off.

‘You start the statements,’ Gunnar said. ‘I’ll start the warrant for his arrest.’

As I stood to leave, I asked, ‘How’s Sidnee?’

‘She came home with us. I won’t lie – she’s still shaky. I’ve given her a couple days off to recover.’

‘She’s been through a lot. Any more news about Thomas?’

Gunnar sighed. ‘No. I hit up my contact again this morning and they promised that they’re digging.’

We all wanted Thomas home safe, and the longer he was away the more I wondered if we’d ever see him again.

Chapter 40

When the paperwork was complete, it was time to pick up Bob and see what he had to say for himself. Remembering his threats and the fear on the girls’ faces, I really hoped he’d try to resist arrest.

He lived in a ramshackle house down by the water. It was on stilts, like a lot of houses near the coastline, and it looked like it was a few months away from being condemned. Part of the original wooden walkway had rotted away and a wooden pallet had been thrown down to make the house accessible.

I looked at it dubiously. ‘Gunnar, this place is a death trap.’

He shook his head. ‘Can you imagine Sig here?’

I imagined that if Sig had married this guy the house wouldn’t have looked like this, but I kept my mouth shut.

In stark contrast, the top-of-the-range truck on the driveway was gleaming. It was easy to see where Bob spent his money.

I knocked on the door and a middle-aged woman opened it. She didn’t smile or greet us, just looked at our badges and hollered over her shoulder, ‘Bob, it’s for you.’ She obviously knew what sort of man she’d married.

Heavy steps pounded down a dark hallway and Bob appeared. ‘Out of the way, Karen,’ he groused. She sent him a sour look, but moved,

Like Gunnar, Bob was tall though he was a lot thinner. My boss had a bit of a beer belly even though the remainder of his bulk was solid muscle but in contrast Bob was full scarecrow. He had long greasy hair and a bushy, dirty beard, and he smelled of body odour, greasy food and cigarettes. His vest and jogging bottoms were stained and dirty.

He looked at the two of us then focused on Gunnar. ‘What do you want?’ he snarled.

‘Robert Sampson, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Kate Robertson and Essie Kaleak.’ Gunnar didn’t even try to hide his satisfaction.

Bob shifted his weight to bolt but I moved first. I grabbed his arm, twisted it behind his back and drove him down to the ground in one fluid motion. He hit it with a grunt, the wind knocked out of him. Before he could recover, I unhooked the magic-cancelling cuffs and secured them around his wrists.

Gunnar beamed at me. ‘The academy was good for you.’

‘Except for the whole poltergeist situation,’ I pointed out.

‘Even that. You really found your feet there. I’m proud of you.’

‘Aww,’ Bob mocked from the ground. ‘How sweet.’

‘Give me an excuse to kick you and I’ll take it,’ I said lightly. He wisely fell silent.

We hauled him to his feet, secured him in the Nomo’s vehicle then went back to search his property. His wife, Karen, was in their bedroom packing a suitcase. She looked up when we walked in. ‘I’m taking this opportunity to leave his sorry ass,’ she said quietly.

‘He’ll be gone a while,’ Gunnar reassured her. ‘You can take your time.’

Karen’s hands stilled on her clothes. ‘He killed Donovan, didn’t he?’

Gunnar swerved the question. ‘Did your husband know Donovan well?’

She snorted. ‘He spent more time with that asshole than with me. They were always drinking and carousing together, talking in code and snickering at me like I was too stupid to understand what they were saying.’

‘What were they saying?’ I asked.

‘Like I said, they spoke in code, talking about “going hunting” and “securing the game”.’ She snorted. ‘Neither one of them has hunted properly a day in their life. Donovan was mer and he ate fish rather than meat.’ Her tone indicated this was the height of madness.

‘What do you think they were talking about?’ I pushed.

‘I figured drugs, but then Donovan got his head bashed in and Bob’s been real freaked out. I figured he did it.’

‘He didn’t kill Donovan,’ I admitted. I didn’t mention that, according to their ghosts, he’d killed Cadence and Casiah. ‘He’s been kidnapping girls.’

Her hand rushed to her throat: she would have clutched her pearls if she’d had any. ‘Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Did he…?’ She bit her lip. ‘What did he do to them?’

‘As far as we can tell, he sold them. He was part of a sex trafficking ring.’

She closed her eyes and crossed herself. ‘Holy hell. I’m done! I’m outta here and I ain’t looking back. I’m going home to Chicago and I’m gonna pretend real hard I don’t know jack about anything supernatural. I’m gonna be a boring-ass human for the rest of my life, and I’m gonna be grateful for it, too.’ She started packing her clothes now in earnest.

‘Does your husband have a quad bike?’ I asked.

‘A what?’

‘A four-wheeler,’ Gunnar translated.

‘Oh sure. It’s out back. He’s got this shed, real private – I’m not allowed in. I’d bet good money whatever you’re lookin’ for is in there.’

‘You didn’t ever peek?’ I asked. I couldn’t understand that, I would totally have peeked.

‘Nah. It wasn’t worth catching a beating over.’

‘He hit you?’ I asked sharply. ‘Will you press charges?’

‘You certain you got the bastard on the kidnapping?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then no, I don’t need that in my life. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to pack and book a plane to get the hell out of here.’

Her comment reminded me that I still needed to give Edgy the all-clear to resume normal flights now the girls were safe. I texted him quickly then Gunnar and I donned gloves to search the residence.

It was a sad-sack place with few luxuries and hardly any basic amenities. Karen wasn’t a homemaker and I couldn’t blame her – I wouldn’t want to make a home with that asshole either. The cooker was rusty and takeout boxes were stacked on every surface. An old metal tray still had the remnants of some cookies baked onto it, so we bagged it. I’d bet any money that testing those found us our drugged cookies that Cobalt had fed his daughter.

Besides the tray we found nothing of interest in the property, but in the shed – which magically opened all by itself with a little help from Gunnar – we struck gold. There was rope and duct tape, military ration packs and a couple of potion bottles.

‘MREs,’ Gunnar grunted, pointing at the ration pack. ‘These are what they fed Essie.’

‘And the potions?’

He read one of the labels. ‘This one is an illegal memory-wiping potion. Just having it in your possession is an automatic sentence.’ He read the back of the bottle. ‘It says it wipes a half hour to an hour, depending on the supernat you give it to. Humans could lose up to half a day. This is the sort of shit rapists use. It’s a recent purchase – it’s still got over a year of shelf life. The instructions say it just needs to be inhaled, not even ingested.’

‘Don’t drop it!’ I said sharply. Gunnar sent me a flat look and carefully sealed the bottle in an evidence bag. ‘Sidnee’s memory loss…’ I started. I’d assumed she couldn’t remember because of trauma, but maybe there was more to it than that? Someone had ridden the quad bike home. Had Bob happened on the scene at the same time as Sidnee, freaked out and fled on it?

‘Yeah,’ Gunnar agreed grimly. ‘I reckon he used it on her and left while she was disorientated.’ He picked up another bottle. ‘This one is a standard potion for those struggling to get to sleep.’

‘It may be standard, but I’m betting that’s what was in those cookies.’

‘I wouldn’t take that bet,’ he rumbled. ‘We’ve got him dead to rights.’ His smile was wide; Gunnar had been waiting a long time for this, but Bob’s day of reckoning had finally come.

Chapter 41

When the going got tough, the tough got going. Bob was not tough and he didn’t rise to the challenge; he crumpled like a poorly cooked soufflé.

Much to our delight, he sang like a canary. He said Donovan had broached the subject one night about a little side hustle and the next day had taken him on a job. Bob claimed he didn’t know what was going on – but by then Donovan was shoving the girl in the van and Bob was driving off, supposedly an unwitting accomplice.

I didn’t buy it at all but I didn’t need to, not yet. We told Bob he’d been ID’d and the only chance he had of a commuted sentence was to co-operate. That was when he told us about Cobalt Robertson, that he was the boss, the one with connections in Anchorage to move the girls. Robertson got the order for one type of supernatural or another and they sourced it. Sometimes it was a local girl, sometimes they went further afield to other supernat towns.

Bob was just the muscle, he said. Just a hired hand. He didn’t do anything wrong; he was only following orders. He made me feel sick to my stomach.

‘And what about Cadence and Casiah?’ I demanded, when I couldn’t take his shit anymore. ‘What’s your excuse for raping and killing them? Was that under orders too?’

He licked his lips. ‘I think I want a lawyer.’

We pushed back from the interview table and stood. ‘Sure. We’ll get right on that,’ Gunnar said flatly. ‘In the meantime, make yourself real comfy in your cell.’

I marched out to the office and almost missed my step when I found Sidnee there in uniform complete with badge. ‘Hey!’ I rushed to her and hugged her. ‘You’re supposed to be off duty.’

She snorted. ‘There is no off duty in this place.’ It was hard to argue with that. She sighed. ‘I’m going crazy. Give me something to focus on that isn’t me or Thomas.’

‘All right. How about coming with me to arrest Cobalt Robertson?’

She grinned. ‘Now you’re talking. That’s the exact shit I need.’

Gunnar emerged. ‘Good to see you looking fighting fit, Sidnee.’ He turned to our admin queen. ‘April, great work on spotting Bob amongst all the other reprobates Donovan spent time with. You were bang on the money.’

April beamed. ‘Thanks, boss!’

‘We got him in the tank. Are you okay to stay a while longer while we bring him a friend to keep him company?’

‘My husband is out late today, but I can get the kids to come here to do their homework.’

‘That would be great, but if you do need to leave just tag in Sigrid. This shouldn’t take us long.’

‘Do you mind if we drop Shadow home first?’ I asked Gunnar. Plus, I wanted to check in on Reggie post-counselling.

‘No problem.’

The lights were on in my house when we stopped outside. I picked up my cat, ignored his protesting yowls and went inside. Reggie was sitting on the sofa with the TV off. I must have looked shocked, because he looked up and said gruffly, ‘I promised the counsellor I’d be Reggie for twenty-four hours.’

I put Shadow down and he immediately went to Reggie and jumped on his lap. Reggie ran his fingers through the lynx’s silky fur. ‘Hey, bud,’ he murmured, his eyes softening. The cat started to knead his legs, purring loudly. Reggie leaned down and planted a kiss on his head then looked up at me. At least Shadow had given me enough time to rearrange my face to what I hoped was my usual, non-shocked expression.

‘That’s cool,’ I squeaked. Trying to think of something neutral that wouldn’t drive him back to being Fluffy, I asked, ‘Are you hungry?’

‘Not really.’

I bit my lip. ‘I’m heading out for an arrest. You want me to make you a cup of tea and find you some biscuits before I go?’

He opened his mouth to tell me no but then changed his mind. ‘Sure,’ he said and I shot him a grateful smile. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do about Reggie but giving tea and biscuits to someone upset came as naturally as breathing.

I made a quick brew and put five biscuits on a plate, fanned out like a flower. It made me think of my mum but I immediately quashed the thought. I’d call her later when Reggie – her main victim – wasn’t in front of me. ‘Here,’ I said, as I set the biscuits down.

‘Thanks, Bunny.’ He paused. ‘Who are you arresting?’

‘Cobalt Robertson. He’s the ringleader behind the kidnapping.’

Reggie shook his head in disbelief. ‘Why take his own daughter?’

‘The working theory is that he resents her having so much of her mother’s attention.’

‘What a wanker,’ he murmured. ‘I’d like to come with you to the arrest.’

‘As Reggie?’ I asked, surprised.

‘As Fluffy,’ he countered.

‘You promised twenty-four hours, Reggie. It hasn’t even been three.’

He sighed. ‘Fine. Whatever. I’ll stay here and have tea and biscuits.’ His tone was resentful and my heart hurt. I was failing him; I was not Sigrid or Gunnar and I knew nothing about helping hurt kids, other than remembering what had helped me.

I went over and hugged him. Doing my best to channel Gunnar I said, ‘Thank you for wanting to help. I’m proud of you.’

He clung to me for a long moment. ‘Thanks,’ he said, but his voice wobbled and his eyes were overly bright. He cleared his throat. ‘I’m going to stay here and watch a film.’ He hesitated. ‘If you want to stay the night at Connor’s, I can look after Shadow.’

‘Of course you can. Thanks for the offer – I’ll let you know. I promised Shadow salmon for a week, so make sure to indulge him if I stay out.’

He scruffed the purring cat under the chin. ‘I will. Bunny?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Be careful out there.’

‘I will be,’ I promised. ‘I’ll be as careful as if the royal family were travelling in the same vehicle.’

He snorted. ‘No, you won’t, but text me when the dust has settled.’ He lifted his phone to show me he still had it and to prove it was charged.

If I texted and got nothing back, I’d know why: he’d be running on his paws again playing ghost. No opposable thumbs, no messages, just radio silence and the ever-increasing gulf between us. I hoped I’d get a reply.

Chapter 42

When I slid into the SUV, neither Gunnar nor Sidnee mentioned how long I’d been in the house, but as we moved off Gunnar asked, ‘How’s he doing?’

I shook my head. ‘Not great. I don’t know what to do.’

‘Just keep on loving him and everything else will fall into place,’ he advised gently.

With Fluffy at the forefront of my mind, I thought about his contribution to the Robertson’s case, and how angry Cobalt had been when I’d rocked up with my dog. Knowing what I knew now, it was no wonder he’d been so freaked out.

That thought made me pull out my phone and dial the Robertson’s maid, Jesse. Having an eidetic memory had been a curse for much of my life, but for an officer of the law it was awesome. I didn’t need to sift through paperwork to find her number, I already knew it by heart.

I’d interviewed Jesse briefly but I hadn’t thought to ask if she’d been called in on a day she didn’t normally work: I hadn’t asked if she’d come in specially to clean on the day the girls went missing.

‘Jesse?’ I asked, once she answered.

‘Yes, who’s calling?’

‘It’s Officer Barrington. I’m calling about the day Kate disappeared.’

‘Sure. How can I help?’

‘You came in and cleaned – was it a day you normally worked or were you called in specially?’

She was quiet for a beat. ‘Mr Robertson called me in. I usually work two days a week but he was upset about the state of the house, said it was a mess and he wanted the whole place cleaned. I didn’t mind – he paid me extra.’

‘Does he do that often? Call you in for extra days?’

‘Not often, but I’ve done it a few times before. He always pays me those shifts in cash, which is handy.’

‘Do you recall anything else?’ It didn’t hurt to ask.

‘Now that you mention it, there were some muddy footprints in the entryway and I’m not sure, but I think that the window in Kate’s room was definitely open a crack – but that could have been the day before, during my normal scheduled clean.’

‘That’s fine. If you think of anything else, please call me.’

‘I will.’

Gunnar looked at me in the rear-view mirror and quirked an eyebrow in question. ‘The maid,’ I confirmed. ‘Mr Robertson called her in for an extra shift after the girls had been kidnapped.’

‘He was getting rid of the evidence,’ Sidnee murmured. ‘What a cold bastard.’

‘It’s all stacking up against him but we want him wrapped up tighter than a mummy,’ Gunnar said. ‘King MacKenzie is going to seize on the flimsiest reason to cast doubt on our case and free the bastard.’

The thought of Robertson going free burned. ‘You think he will?’

Gunnar snorted. ‘Oh yes. Whatever he did to piss off the king and earn babysitting duty here, it won’t be enough for Hamish MacKenzie to risk his secrets being exposed. He’ll hire a fancy lawyer for Mr Robertson. We can’t put a step wrong.’ No pressure, then.

When we arrived at the Robertson’s house, we all gaped. The drive was full of cars and trucks. ‘What the hell?’ I exclaimed. ‘Connor’s truck is here.’

‘And Margrave’s.’ Gunnar pointed at another truck. He turned to me, his eyes soft. ‘Now Bunny, don’t get mad…’

I folded my arms. ‘That’s never the best start to a sentence.’

Sidnee squeezed my arm. ‘Honey, Connor is taking matters into his own hands.’

I blinked, not quite following. ‘Talk to me like I’m dumb.’

‘As the head of the vampires, he's within his rights to step in when one of his own wrongs another, or if a vampire damages the reputation of the rest. It's part of his role as their leader.’

‘Think of all the scuffles Stan deals with,’ Gunnar pointed out. ‘It’s no different.’

‘Except here, we’re the law.’

‘We are,’ Gunnar agreed. ‘But sometimes human laws are treated more like guidelines, and today is one of those days. Connor is trying Robertson in the vampire court.’

I stared at him. ‘You said that if Connor took matters into his own hands, he’d risk pissing off his father.’

‘He must have an ace up his sleeve. Connor isn’t stupid, he wouldn’t risk his father’s wrath.’

He was right: Connor was smart and logical, and he genuinely feared his father. If he was trying Robertson in the vampire court, he had a plan. I just wished it didn’t sting so much that he hadn’t told me what it was.

We let ourselves in. There was a whole graveyard of vampires in the pristine lounge; I didn’t know what the collective term was for vamps but that seemed appropriate, particularly with all of the faces around me looking about as cheery as the dead.

Faye Robertson was slumped at her husband’s feet, sobbing into her hands. Cobalt Robertson was sitting on a dining-room chair. A pristine white cloth had been placed over his dining table. If it hadn’t been for the silver chains around his wrists, he’d have looked like he was sitting down to a civilised dinner but I could see his flesh burning and bubbling under the silver. That had to hurt, but it was hard to dredge up any sympathy knowing how many families this man had destroyed.

Connor was standing nearby. When our eyes met, shock swept through me. Gone were the jeans and plaid shirt I was used to; instead he was wearing a sleek black suit and a matching black shirt.

But what truly stunned me was the gold crown resting on his forehead.

Knowing Connor was a prince was one thing. But seeing it? Seeing it in the way he carried himself as if the crown had always been his? That was different.

My mate was a prince – and just now his blue eyes were glacier cold.

Chapter 43

Connor spoke into the silence. ‘What felicitous timing. The vampire court welcomes the Nomo to observe our justice.’

That was clear enough: a polite warning to sit down, shut up and not to interfere. Gunnar took a chair and sat. Gritting my teeth I did the same, as did Sidnee.

Connor turned his attention back to Mr Robertson. ‘Who is in the barrels and why did you kill them?’

Robertson gritted his teeth but answered. ‘I wanted the land and I wanted it cheap. The beast had scared away almost everyone and I was going to get it for pennies. But the military had a listening post at the edge of the property. They stopped the land from being sold until they were done with it.’

Connor raised an eyebrow. ‘Killing soldiers wouldn’t stop a military operation.’

‘No, but the people they’d stationed there were already spooked. They’d asked repeatedly to be pulled out, said there was no useful intel and that they were being stalked by some kind of terrifying native monster. If it looked like they’d deserted, the army wouldn’t send anyone else. The war was basically over, and it was true that they hadn’t intercepted anything useful. Hell, they were probably only months away from being pulled out anyway. I just speeded up the process.’

‘Why the barrels?’

‘No one discovered them for eighty years, did they?’ Robertson sneered. ‘The military wasn’t sending anyone to a beast-infested area for one meagre mobile listening station. Once they realised their people were gone, they released the land and I took it.’

‘Who were they?’

Robertson shrugged as best as he could against his restraints. ‘I don’t know their names, nor do I care. Four worked the post, two were civilian pilots who brought in their supplies.’

The military had to have records. Hopefully we could identify the bodies and give the families the closure they deserved.

For our benefit, Connor said, ‘Cobalt Robertson is being tried for the murders of those contained within the barrels, but also for arranging and facilitating the kidnapping of a number of girls over the years. We searched this property and found a safe with innumerable items taken from victims over the years. These will be given to the Nomo’s office, together with the logs of order requests and their subsequent fulfilment.’

‘Is it clear where the girls were taken?’ I asked, unable to help myself.

‘For their first destination, yes.’ Connor paused. ‘Some of the requests specified virgins. Once that was no longer the case, the girls may have been sold on or killed.’

I swallowed hard.

‘Again, the vampire court will offer our full assistance in tracking down the individuals taken by one of ours.’

‘We’re grateful for that,’ Gunnar said. ‘Thank you, Prince Connor.’ Connor nodded abruptly.

‘When do the records start?’ I asked.

‘They span the last decade.’ Connor’s voice was grim. He turned pointedly to Cobalt Robertson and the woman sobbing at his feet. ‘I find you guilty of all crimes laid at your door.’

Faye wailed and clung to her husband’s feet. ‘He’s innocent!’ she sobbed. ‘He has to be. He’s been set up! He would never have taken Kate!’

Connor studied her, his face a cool mask that revealed nothing. ‘Your daughter was recovered safely yesterday but she specifically asked to be kept away from her father. She confirmed that he fed her and her friend Essie cookies laced with a sleeping potion. He disrupted his own wards and opened the window to make it look like the girls had been taken that way. In truth, they were taken through the house and out the front door with your husband’s knowledge, assistance and blessing.’

Faye released her husband’s leg. For the first time, she really looked at him. ‘Did you do it? Did you steal our daughter away?’ He didn’t answer and that was answer enough. She crawled away from him.

I thought I might as well help Connor’s case since we were on the same side. I looked at Faye. ‘Your maid, Jesse, confirmed that she was contacted by your husband to clean in addition to her usual hours. She wiped away muddy footprints in your hallway. He facilitated the kidnapping and hid the evidence afterwards.’

Faye trembled. ‘He gave me a cookie, too – said I deserved a sweet treat. I slept like the dead. I blamed myself for not waking when they were taken… ’ She shook her head in disbelief as she stared at her husband. ‘You drugged me and took our child.’ She pressed her lips together. ‘I welcome your justice, Prince Connor. However it falls.’

He nodded once then his eyes flashed. ‘Everyone out while I deliberate. The Nomo’s office may remain, as will Parker, John and Margrave.’

The other occupants of the room filed out like they were in a trance. I’d seen Connor compel a crowd before and it was as eerie now as it had been then.

When everyone else had gone, Connor sat next to Cobalt Robertson. ‘I’ve hated you for a long time,’ he said conversationally. ‘When you were assigned here, I had my closest friend, Juan, break into your house and find the old books that you kept for Dad. It took a few tries with Liv in tow to get past the wards and to raise them again without alerting you, but we managed it. Juan stole the books, copied them and returned them. You never knew that they were touched. Do you know why we did that?’

Robertson swallowed hard but shook his head.

‘Because we created some more books. Special books. Ones that looked exactly the same except for one thing.’

‘What?’ Robertson asked with dread.

Connor smiled. ‘We altered the books so it looked like you’d cooked them. When Dad wants to talk to me about your death, I’ll hand them over and explain that you’d been stealing from him for years.’

‘I would never have dared! I would never steal from your father!’

‘You and I both know that,’ Connor said. ‘But my dear father is always ready to believe the worst of people. Instead of being angry at me for killing one of his favourites, he will reward me. He will be pleased at the proof that his son isn’t soft. It will prove to him that he was right to send you here for whatever imagined insult you supposedly gave him. I’m going to end you,’ he went on calmly, ‘and not a soul will weep for you. Not your wife, not your daughter – and certainly not Hamish MacKenzie.’

Hatred poured from Robertson’s eyes. ‘You little fucking bastard. I should have killed you during your conclave.’

‘Yes,’ Connor agreed. ‘You should have.’ He turned to John. ‘Gag him.’ John pulled out a roll of duct tape, bit some off and smoothed it over Robertson’s lips. Connor looked at me. ‘You don’t have to stay for this.’

‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘I do.’

His eyes glimmered with regret but, respecting my decision, he nodded. ‘Get everyone back in, Parker.’

Parker opened the door and called in the other vampires to witness what was to follow. ‘Sit,’ Connor ordered when they had all filed in. They all sat instantly, wherever they were. ‘I do not often rule by fang and fear. That is not our way here. We live together and work together in harmony. But I am not oblivious to those within our ranks who believe I am not firm enough.’ His eyes landed on Parker, who flushed.

‘Let us set such concerns aside. I am many things but soft is not one of them.’ He held a hand out to Margrave, who bowed low and passed over a sheathed sword.

Oh my goodness. A freaking sword! Had we gone back in time? This was some medieval shit.

Connor drew the silvery blade from the scabbard. As I saw his hands redden, I realised the blade and its pommel were made of silver. ‘Cobalt Robertson, you have been tried and you have been found guilty. For bringing all of vampiredom into disrepute, I sentence you to death.’

Connor swung back the silver blade and struck with such brutal force that he not only severed Robertson’s head clean from his shoulders but also sliced straight through the back of the ornate wooden dining chair that Robertson was tied to. The impact echoed around the room, a wet crunch followed by the sharp crack of splintering wood.

There was no fountain of blood, only a steady, macabre spill, like wine poured out so it could breathe. As Connor pulled the blade free with a yank, blood sprayed off his sword; dark crimson splatters painted the white linen tablecloth, the porcelain dishes and the wall behind him.

Faye Robertson screamed, a high, broken wail that shattered the tense stillness. Maybe Connor was wrong: it seemed that Faye would weep over her husband, no matter how much of an asshole he turned out to be.

Robertson’s head hit the floor with a dull, meaty thud, his eyes wide open in shock, mouth still taped over. No last words for him. His body, secured to the chair with chains, remained where it was. The bloody stump was weeping blood but there was no arterial spray because the bastard didn’t have a pumping heart; he hadn’t had one for several centuries.

Connor stood over the carnage, blade still dripping, breathing slowly and steadily. ‘Justice is done,’ he said coldly to the assembly, then wiped the sword clean on a lace doily like it was just another Tuesday.

I looked at my mate and wondered if I knew him at all.

Chapter 44

The vampires were responsible for documenting and clearing the scene. I didn’t have chance to speak to Connor because he was awash in a sea of sycophantic brethren, all eyeing his crown with poorly disguised greed or lust. They were praising his actions and the women were fluttering their eyelashes. I trusted Connor, I truly did, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want to bitch-slap the fluttering flirty females into next week.

To save me from needing to arrest myself, I urged Gunnar and Sidnee back to the SUV. ‘Well,’ I said into the silence. ‘That was different.’

‘You okay?’ Sidnee asked softly.

I thought about it. ‘I mostly am,’ I said finally. ‘It’s not like I haven’t seen Connor kill people before… But the ceremony, the trappings … that was all new. And I wished he’d spoken to me about what he intended. He rolled away this morning and left me a note – he was too cowardly to face me and discuss it like an adult. So, yeah, we’ll be having words.’

‘Have them later,’ Gunnar said tightly. ‘I got a message when we were in there. My contact has eyes on Thomas.’

‘Oh thank God!’ The words exploded out of Sidnee.

‘What happened?’ I asked Gunnar. ‘What do we know?’

‘Not much,’ he groused. ‘Just that there was some kind of fight in a corridor and my man caught sight of Thomas before he was hustled away. He’ll try and determine which floor he’s being held on and in which cell, then we’ll be good to go.’

‘“Some kind of fight”?’ I grinned. ‘That’s Thomas, all right.’

Sidnee was beaming, hope shining in her eyes for the first time in far too long. ‘That means he’s fine and causing problems like he always does!’ She gave a little bounce on the seat, a flash of her old self.

We drove to the office and processed the paperwork for a council trial for Bob Sampson. He wasn’t getting out on bail; the only place he was going to was jail. We were all on tenterhooks, waiting to hear more about Thomas so it was hard to concentrate on anything else, but I managed to finish the admin and send it all to the council.

Sidnee’s legs were jiggling with the effort of stopping herself from running into the street and trying to find Thomas, wherever he was. It was only a lack of location that stopped her from barrelling out and making bad decisions.

Finally Gunnar summoned us. ‘I’ve got Thomas’s location,’ he announced, triumphantly.

Sidnee sank onto a chair looking pale at the thought that her hopes might finally be coming true. If we didn’t find Thomas this time, it would destroy her.

‘I’m getting together a crew and we’re going to get him,’ Gunnar announced.

‘We’re on the crew, right?’ I asked, though my tone said he’d better not try to stop us.

Gunnar laughed. ‘Obviously. We’ll leave at seven – we need time for my contact to extract himself so we can go in guns blazing. Besides, that gives us an hour to get ready. Stan is preparing the boats and gathering the people on my list. We need to gear up and join them.’

‘Thank you,’ was all Sidnee could mutter. ‘You’re sure he’s … you know, alive?’

‘I am. I just got confirmation.’

Relief left her as limp as a wet noodle and she closed her eyes for a moment. ‘Good. That’s good.’ She blew out a long breath.

Gunnar stood and stretched his back. ‘Okay, let’s get our gear and head out to join the others.’

Sigrid had taken over watching Sampson for April, but I noted she hadn’t gone anywhere near the cell. As she watched Gunnar pull on his vest and weapons, she pulled him close. ‘Come home safe, Bam Bam.’

‘Always. I love you, Sig.’

‘And I you.’

Their declaration had me thinking of Connor. He wouldn’t be best pleased when he learned I’d gone to rescue Thomas without a ta-ta, but I wasn’t best pleased he’d sneaked out at dawn to summon a vampire court to try my suspect, so I figured we were square. I put on my vest, my rain gear, and loaded up every weapon I could use confidently.

In all of our excitement, we’d forgotten to ask Gunnar where they’d found Thomas, though apparently it was somewhere we needed a boat to access ‘Where are we going?’ I asked.

He looked grim. ‘Elizabeth Island.’

I groaned. ‘Not my favourite place. Why would they go back there? They know about the kushtaka, plus it’s so near to us. Why would they think we wouldn’t find them?’

‘They know we don’t have enough personnel to search the area. Luckily, we don’t need to because we have GPS co-ordinates from my MIB contact.’ Gunnar sounded satisfied. We were being underestimated and we would use that to our fullest advantage.

Gunnar grinned. ‘I’m pretty sure that between you and Aoife, that kushtaka is either dead or he’ll be licking his wounds for years. We should be safe enough from it.’

I groaned. ‘You just had to say it, didn’t you?’ He snickered.

Sidnee ignored our banter. She was dressed to the nines in weapons and as tense as bow-string. I dialled back the humour. ‘We need a better warning system for these fuckers,’ I mumbled. ‘Elizabeth Island is only five miles away.’

Gunnar nodded. ‘Yup. Something else to add to our to-do list.’ I heard the implication loud and clear: our to-do list was already far too long to ever complete. He hefted a huge duffle bag full of guns over his shoulder and headed for the SUV.

With all our problems with the Knight Stalkers and the MIB, we probably needed a whole team with helicopters, drones and armed men. Naturally, we had none of those – but we had heart and a malevolent mermaid, so I reckoned we’d be fine.

‘Grab the other bags,’ Gunnar ordered and I shouldered the one closest to me, noticing its heft. I could handle it, but it was larger than me so it was unwieldy. Sidnee collected the last bag and we loaded up.

When we carried our gear down the ramp at the North Harbour, Stan was already there with a hodgepodge of supernatural help. He’d brought Mads, his second and April’s husband, together with a couple of large, tough-looking shifters. He’d also enlisted Calliope and Soapy, who had brought a few more sirens. To my surprise, Connor was there, too, accompanied by John and a handful of vampires I recognised from the gathering I’d just left.

He was looking at me and he was none too happy that I hadn’t let him know about this adventure. Well, see how he liked it. He closed the distance between us. ‘Doe,’ he barked.

The snarky part of me wanted to reply with ‘Prince Connor’, but that would be bitchy so I didn’t. Instead I said, ‘You left.’ He pressed his lips together but I went on before he could speak. ‘You left to kill my suspect.’

‘My subject,’ he corrected.

‘You could have told me,’ I said and all of my hurt leaked into my voice.

His eyes softened. ‘I wasn’t sure what I was going to do,’ he admitted. ‘But when I found those trophies… Doe, there were so many.’ He closed his eyes. ‘Girls from other towns as well. I just saw red.’

I understood that, I really did. ‘When I realised what sort of man he was, I vowed that if he’d abused Kate I’d stake him myself.’ He stared at me. ‘There’s all sorts of justice, Connor and I don’t begrudge you yours. I just wished you’d spoken to me about it.’

‘Bunny—’

‘We don’t have time for this now,’ I said firmly. ‘We can’t face the MIB with our heads up our arses.’

He looked amused. ‘Such a colourful phrase. But you’re right, of course.’

A thought occurred to me. ‘One last thing … what will happen to Kate and Faye?’

‘Nothing. They can stay in the house in Portlock for as long as they want. Neither of them knew anything about Cobalt’s activities. If they remain, they’ll be part of my vampires and I’ll watch out for them.’

He ran his hands through his curls. His forearms were covered by his rain gear but I looked at them as his movement showed a patch of plaid flannel shirt. He’d taken the time to remove the suit. The smart shirt had looked good but the plaid did something inappropriate to my insides.

He looked at me, his eyes burning. ‘Don’t use that look with me, Doe, or we’ll be staying behind and Thomas will be on his own.’

I smiled as I teased, ‘We can’t have that so I’ll try not to look at you.’

He growled and pulled me in close. The duffel got in the way and I dropped it carefully to the ground then we drew together with the intense pull of two electromagnets. I lifted my lips towards his – but before they could touch, Gunnar bellowed, ‘Lovebirds! Let’s go!’

We parted reluctantly our eyes silently promising ‘later’.

Armed to the teeth, we loaded into four fishing boats, started out of the harbour and into Port Chatham Bay.

Chapter 45

I felt the tug as we passed through the barrier, then we increased our speed; once clear of the bay, it was open throttle to Elizabeth Island. We had no idea what kind of resistance we’d meet or how many Knight Stalkers would be there.

Gunnar had told me that the Knight Stalkers were relocating here, but that could mean a full garrison or a few men holding down the location until their foot soldiers arrived. Our intel had helpfully started and ended with: ‘They’re there with Thomas.’

Our spy had now left the vicinity and we were on our own; he didn’t want to risk his neck by being there when we arrived – he couldn’t wear a red rose in his pocket to proclaim he was our inside man. If he stayed, he’d be as dead as the next MIB agent and, for obvious reasons, he was keen to avoid that. I could relate; I was keen to avoid that, too.

Halfway across the water, Gunnar yelled for Sidnee, Connor and me to join him in the wheelhouse. ‘What’s up boss?’ Sidnee asked anxiously, eyes darting out front and at the instruments. From the look on her face, she was terrified he had bad news.

Gunnar did indeed look grim. ‘Stan radioed and said they’ve spotted a boat up ahead. Be on alert, weapons up – there may be a fight coming.’

Stan had slowed so we could line up with him to maintain a united front. I could see our allies on the other boats preparing themselves. As a polar bear, Stan could swim well – he was a marine mammal after all – but he was sticking to his human skin since he was piloting his boat. Mads was wearing a vest and had a large rifle; he was also in human form and not a Kodiak brown bear. The other bear shifters were also fully armed; they’d shift if they had to but for now guns gave us far better range than claws.

Soapy and Calliope watched, looking unconcerned. Soapy was wearing a pair of stretchy athletic shorts and looked ready to shift into his salmon shark form and dive in if needed. The other water shifters were also ready if a water battle started.

I wasn’t worried about Calliope because she was a water dragon, a Scylla. She was completely and utterly terrifying and I was glad she was on our side, particularly as she liked chomping off the heads of her enemies.

John and Margrave were geared up on the last boat with some vampires Connor had brought – Parker’s absence was conspicuous – and a few other water shifters that Calliope trusted. This time we weren’t letting Chris Jubatus get away just because he was a water shifter; Calliope was here to out-supernat him. She wasn’t going to let any water shifter, least of all a selkie, outclass her.

I could see the boat: a black Zodiac, military, like the ones the Knight Stalkers had used to escape at the Reef Mine. This was it – we were going into battle again. At least there was only one boat, but how many soldiers were on board?

I put my rifle to my shoulder. Sidnee did the same, then dropped her gun as if it burned. ‘Stop!’ she yelled. ‘Don’t shoot!’

I lowered my weapon but kept it ready. ‘Why the hell not?’ I demanded.

‘It’s Thomas!’ Sidnee shifted and was over the side of our boat before I could stop her. She hadn’t bothered to take off her clothes, so she could kiss them goodbye. I hoped they weren’t her favourites.

I ran back inside the wheelhouse. ‘It’s Thomas!’ I yelled to Gunnar. ‘Tell the other boats not to shoot!’ Gunnar pulled out the radio as I darted back outside and stood hand in hand with Connor. We watched Sidnee breaking through the waves, leaping and diving all the way to Thomas’s boat.

As we slowed to a stop near the Zodiac, Sidnee leapt out of the water and landed – human and very naked. No doubt that was the kind of welcome home Thomas had been dreaming about. She hugged him and frantically peppered his face with kisses. His joyful laugh carried over the water as he hugged his mermaid to his chest.

I asked Gunnar to pull up alongside and tossed Sidnee some spare men’s clothes that were baggy as hell, but it was better than her remaining in her birthday suit. Everyone was politely looking away, but we still had to watch for the enemy and having a naked mermaid distract the team didn’t seem like the best way to avoid getting shot.

Thomas looked tired, dirty and dishevelled and he was wearing ill-fitting black combat gear. Since that was pretty much what he’d been wearing when he was abducted, I wondered what had happened to his own clothes. I looked forward to hearing his story when we were further away from the enemy. And after sleep. Lots more sleep.

Thomas and Sidnee joined Connor and I on Gunnar’s boat and we tied up the Zodiac to tow it back. ‘It’s so good to see you, Thomas,’ I greeted him. ‘We’ve all missed you.’

‘Yeah?’ He seemed surprised that anyone other than Sidnee might care for him.

Connor held out a hand. ‘Yeah. Good to see you, Patkotak.’ Thomas took it and they shook.

I turned to Gunnar. ‘We’re all here, fixing for a fight, ’ I said slowly. ‘Should we continue to Elizabeth Island and clear the Knight Stalkers out before they become entrenched?’

Thomas gave a slow grin, the kind that had an edge of mischief. The kind of grin that made you think, uh-oh, what have you done now?

‘What did you do, my friend?’ Gunnar asked, hands on his hips.

Thomas shrugged. ‘I promise there’ll be nothing left to clean out. In about…’ he checked his waterproof watch ‘…ten sec—’

KABOOM! The concussion hit us first, followed by a series of waves that lifted the boats and slammed them back down.

‘I might have rigged their ship to blow,’ Thomas finished. ‘Guess I was a little off on my timing. There shoulda been eight more seconds.’ He shrugged nonchalantly. ‘I was working under pressure.’

Calliope called Gunnar on the radio and said she and her team were going to check the wreckage. Stan volunteered to do the same but Gunnar wanted to return to town to get Thomas checked at the hospital. Despite his stoic façade, Thomas’s body spoke of his exhaustion and I’d seen a wince or two that he’d tried to hide from Sidnee. He was safe, but he wasn’t without injuries, no matter how blasé he was trying to appear.

‘Sit down,’ I said, gently pushing him towards the bench by the table. He sat and Sidnee squeezed in next to him, wrapped her arms around one of his and laid her head on his shoulder. I smiled; I hoped Thomas was prepared to have a mermaid limpet on his person for the next few weeks until she adjusted to the idea that he was safe again.

‘What happened, Thomas?’ she mumbled into his shoulder. ‘We looked everywhere for you. Gunnar had his MIB contacts searching.’

I wondered if he’d answer but he surprised me by replying straight away. ‘They hauled me from place to place, tried to recruit me to the Knight Stalkers. I kept slipping away. They moved us several times because I kept exposing them. They were arguing amongst themselves and some of them decided their best bet was to execute me. I didn’t agree. When they came back near Portlock, I took my chance.’

That was more than I thought we’d get – Thomas was notoriously close-lipped. It was also exactly what I imagined he would do. I had some serious hero worship going on for my favourite human; he was a force to be reckoned with, and I was glad the Knight Stalkers had learned that the hard way.

Sidnee whispered something into his ear and his colour rose. Whatever she’d said, he looked happy and leaned into her. I guess he’d found his true purpose in life – when he wasn’t busy blowing up black-ops groups.

Gunnar cleared his throat. ‘So, you blew up their boat. What else?’

Thomas straightened up. ‘Not much. They’d only just begun setting up camp. I'm sure a few escaped the explosion, but hopefully it will discourage them from returning. If not, we’ll be ready to hand them their asses again.’

I looked at Sidnee and hoped she’d forgive me for bringing up He-Who-Should-Not-Be-Breathing. ‘Did you see Chris Jubatus?’

Sidnee stiffened and glared at me, but we needed to know. At the moment he was Portlock’s enemy number one, though admittedly when I went through the barrier that was the beast. Portlock’s enemies liked to revolve so we never got bored.

‘I saw Jubatus at the Reef Mine. He cracked me a good one over the head, and I assume it was him who took me. He’s the one who’s been trying to turn me to work for the Knight Stalkers. Unfortunately, he didn’t come on this trip and as far as I know he’s still at large.’ He shrugged. ‘I’d have changed that if I could, but I never got the chance.’

Jubatus was as slippery and dangerous as the Steller sea lion he shifted into. I hated that he’d got away. Again.

We made it back to the harbour in what felt like record time, mainly because we were riding high on our ‘rescue’. It was laughable really: we’d finally found Thomas and gone to his rescue, only to find him rescuing himself – and blowing up the enemy as he did so.

The only ones who’d needed rescuing were his captors, and it turned out we weren’t so interested in that.

Chapter 46

Despite his protests, Thomas was checked over by a medic. He had some impressive bruises from his many beatings; his captors had healed his bones so they could continue torturing him. Such charmers. He was also dehydrated and starved, but time would heal his injuries and Sidnee would happily remedy the rest so he was discharged.

By the time we’d finished at the hospital, Calliope and the others had returned. Gunnar decided that since we weren’t exterminating the Knight Stalkers, we’d better deal with another foe instead.

We had Stan, Calliope and Connor to hand, so we summoned Mafu and Liv and tried Bob Sampson. His lawyer squawked a lot, but the evidence against Sampson was substantial and it was no surprise when he was found guilty and sentenced to jail. Since we’d been all but sure of the outcome, the prison plane was already waiting for him.

I waited to see the outcome of the trial but once the case over I was ready to go home and sleep for a week. Despite Reggie’s offer to look after Shadow, all I wanted was my own four walls. Connor drove me home, neither of us quite ready to talk about all that had transpired.

When I put the key in the lock, I felt a pang of disappointment to see Fluffy rather than Reggie. I wondered how many of his twenty-four hours he’d managed. ‘Hey, buddies,’ I greeted him and Shadow. ‘We got Thomas back!’

Fluffy got off the sofa and wagged around Connor and I with such obvious joy that it made me smile. Happiness came to him so easily in this form that it was no wonder he preferred it. We’d have to help him find joy in his human form. Maybe I could make a list. If Matilda was anything to go by, vast quantities of doughnuts should be on it, but maybe I could add in other things people loved, like a good book, music and maybe a spot of soothing gardening. I would do anything to help Reggie find his two feet.

Connor and I fed everyone – including ourselves – then left the cat and dog watching TV together and retreated to my bedroom.

I sat on the bed and faced him. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Thomas’s rescue. I thought you’d be busy wrapping up things at the Robertson’s house.’

He shrugged. ‘That’s what lackeys are for.’

I snorted. ‘Don’t let John hear you call him that.’

He smiled a little and then it faded. ‘It wasn’t just Thomas’s rescue you kept from me. You didn’t tell me you were going beyond the barrier.’

‘I know, but you had Reams and his team breathing down your neck.’ I frowned. ‘Which reminds me, if they weren’t here for the girls what on earth were they here for?’

Connor looked sombre. ‘I’ve been thinking about that. I asked some of the vamps who’d talked with them and every single one said Reams’ men brought up the beast and the barrier at least once in conversation.’

‘The girls were a cover story,’ I breathed. ‘They came here to gather intel.’

‘And they got it,’ he said grimly. ‘They got first-hand accounts from the girls – and then they left.’

I bit my lip. ‘They work for your father. What do you think it means?’

His jaw was tight. ‘I think it means he’s planning to visit. His security team came ahead to assess the potential threats.’

I felt a bit faint at the thought. ‘That’s not good.’

‘No, it’s not.’

‘What are we going to do?’

‘I’m not giving him Portlock, not now, not ever.’ He took a deep breath and braced himself. ‘I think … I think I might have to kill him.’

I stared at my mate for a long moment. He was braced for recriminations, for me to recoil and tell him he was a monster but instead, I gave him what I’d longed for my whole life: full, unconditional support.

‘You did look good with the crown,’ I said, and slowly Connor smiled. It was like the sun rising – but behind that smile was steel.

His father hadn’t just sent spies. He’d sent a message. A threat.

We needed to send one back. I wondered if we could courier a decapitated head?

More will be coming soon, in The Vampire and the Case of the Ghastly Golem(Pre-Order now!), but in the meantime, how about a sneak peek into Thomas Patktak's head? See his escape through his eyes! Grab your free bonus scene here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/sr9dir7omo

Other Works by Heather

The Witchlight Magical Mysteries Series with Ella Stone

Secrets of the Frostbound Cottage– Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Secrets of the Forgotten Heir – Book 1,

Secrets of the Deadly Nightshades – Book 2; and

Secrets of the Eternal Flame – Book 3.

The Portlock Paranormal Detective Series with Jilleen Dolbeare

The Vampire and the Case of her Dastardly Death - Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

The Vampire and the Case of the Wayward Werewolf – Book 1,

The Vampire and the Case of the Secretive Siren – Book 2,

The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee – Book 3,

The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine – Book 4,

The Vampire and the Case of the Perilous Poltergeist – Book 5,

The Vampire and the Case of the Cozy Christmas – Book 5.5,

The Vampire and the Case of the Hellacious Hag – Book 6,

The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid – Book 7; and

The Vampire and the Case of the Ghastly Golem – Book 8.

The Other Realm Universe:

The Other Realm series

Glimmer of Dragons- Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Glimmer of The Other- Book 1,

Glimmer of Hope- Book 2,

Glimmer of Christmas – Book 2.5 (a Christmas tale),

Glimmer of Death – Book 3,

Glimmer of Deception – Book 4,

It is recommended that you read The Other Wolf books 1 to 3 before continuing with:

Challenge of the Court– Book 5,

Betrayal of the Court– Book 6; and

Revival of the Court– Book 7.

The Other Wolf Series

Defender of The Pack– Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Protection of the Pack– Book 1,

Guardians of the Pack– Book 2,

Saviour of The Pack– Book 3,

Awakening of the Pack – Book 4,

Resurgence of the Pack – Book 5; and

Ascension of the Pack – Book 6.

The Other Witch Series

Rune of the Witch – Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Hex of the Witch– Book 1,

Coven of the Witch;– Book 2,

Familiar of the Witch– Book 3; and

Destiny of the Witch – Book 4.

The Other Detective Series

Frustrated Justice – Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Veiled Justice – Book 1,

Mystic Justice – Book 2,

Arcane Justice – Book 3; and

Savage Justice – Book 4

About The Author – Heather

About Heather

Heather is an urban fantasy writer and mum. She was born and raised near Windsor, which gave her the misguided impression that she was close to royalty in some way. She is not, though she once got a letter from Queen Elizabeth II's lady-in-waiting.

Heather went to university in Liverpool, where she took up skydiving and met her future husband. When she’s not running around after her children, she’s plotting her next book and daydreaming about vampires, dragons and kick-ass heroines.

Heather is a book lover who grew up reading Brian Jacques and Anne McCaffrey. She loves to travel and once spent a month in Thailand. She vows to return.

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Stay in Touch

Heather has been working hard on a bunch of cool things, including a new and shiny website which you'll love. Check it out at www.heathergharris.com.

If you want to hear about all Heather's latest releases – subscribe to her newsletter for news, fun and freebies. Subscribe at Heather's website www.heathergharris.com/subscribe.

Contact Info: www.heathergharris.com

Email: HeatherGHarrisAuthor@gmail.com

Social Media

Heather can also be found on a host of social medias including her Facebook Page, her Facebook Reader Group, Goodreads, Bookbub and Instagram.

If you get a chance, please do follow Heather on Amazon!

Reviews

Reviews feed Heather's soul. She'd really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to review her books on Amazon, Bookbub, or Goodreads and say hello.

Other Works by Jilleen

The Paranormal Portlock Detective Series with Heather G Harris

The Vampire and the Case of Her Dastardly Death: Book 0.5(a prequel story), and

The Vampire and the Case of the Wayward Werewolf: Book 1,

The Vampire and the Case of the Secretive Siren: Book 2,

The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee: Book 3,

The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine: Book 4

The Vampire and the Case of the Perilous Poltergeist: Book 5,

The Vampire and the Case of the Cozy Christmas: Book 5.5,

The Vampire and the Case of the Hellacious Hag: Book 6, and

The Vampire and the Case of the Malevolent Mermaid: Book 7; and

The Vampire and the Case of the Ghastly Golem: Book 8.

The Magical Bounty Hunter's Guild Series:

The Bounty Hunter and the Spirit Wolf: Book 0.5 (a prequel story)

The Splintered Magic Series:

Splintercat: Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Splintered Magic: Book 1,

Splintered Veil: Book 2,

Splintered Fate: Book 3,

Splintered Haven: Book 4,

Splintered Secret: Book 5; and

Splintered Destiny: Book 6.

The Splintered Realms Series:

Borrowed Magic: Book 0.5 (a prequel story)

Borrowed Amulet: Book 1,

Borrowed Chaos: Book 2, and

Borrowed Trouble: Book 3.

The Shadow Winged Chronicles:

Shadow Lair: Book 0.5 (a prequel story),

Shadow Winged: Book 1,

Shadow Wolf: Book 1.5,

Shadow Strife: Book 2 ,

Shadow Witch: Book 2.5; and

Shadow War: Book 3.

About the Author - Jilleen

About Jilleen

Jilleen Dolbeare writes urban fantasy and paranormal women’s fiction. She loves stories with strong women, adventure, and humor, with a side helping of myth and folklore.

While living in the Arctic, she learned to keep her stakes sharp for the 67 days of night. She talks to the ravens that follow her when she takes long walks with her cats in their stroller, and she’s learned how to keep the wolves at bay.

Jilleen lives with her husband and two hungry cats in Alaska where she also discovered her love and admiration of the Alaska Native peoples and their folklore.

Stay in Touch

Jill can be reached through her website https://jilleendolbeareauthor.com/

Jill has also just joined Patreon! What is Patreon? It's a subscription service that allows you to support Jilleen AND read her books way before anyone else! For a small monthly fee you could be reading Jill's next book, on a weekly chapter-by-chapter basis (in its roughest draft form!) in the next week or two.

If you're too impatient to wait until Jilleen's next release, then Patreon is made for you!

Social Media

Jill can be found on a host of social media sites so track her down at https://linktr.ee/gypjet.

Review Request!

Wow! You finished the book. Go you!

Thanks for reading it. We appreciate it! Please, please, please consider leaving an honest review. Love it or hate it, authors can only sell books if they get reviews. If we don’t sell books, Jill can’t afford cat food. If Jill can’t buy cat food, the little bastards will scavenge her sad, broken body. Then there will be no more books. Jill's kitties have sunken cheeks and swollen tummies and can’t wait to eat Jill. Please help by leaving that review! (Heather has a dog, so she probably won't be eaten, but she'd really like Jill to live, so… please review).

If you're a reviewer, you have our eternal gratitude.