Dead of Night (19 page)

“Then I think he might be like him,” he said. “Part vampire. That's why I can't track him.”

“Then he won't change completely until he takes a human life,” I said. “But he doesn't know that. He doesn't even realize he's turning into a vampire. He thinks he's becoming an immortal, and that I can finish some ancient Egyptian ritual to give him eternal life.”

Trick came over to us. “You okay?”

“I just need a minute.” As I rested, I told him and the sheriff what I'd seen in the vision. To Yamah, I said, “The tunnels were different than the ones the Ravens had built. They were smaller and more narrow, and rougher stone. I didn't see any lights.”

The sheriff looked puzzled. “There aren't any tunnels like that that I know of.”

“You have tunnels?” Gray asked.

“It's a long story,” I told him. “I don't think these were under a building, not with those roots I saw hanging down from the ceiling. They might be somewhere in the woods, or under a garden.”

“Who built the tunnels that you do know exist?” Trick asked Yamah.

“That was all done before I was born,” the sheriff said. “One of the Ravens' people used to be a miner before he joined the circus and became a clown. He managed all the construction.”

“That was Stanas,” I said. “Jesse told me about him.” I stood up. “The Jester's Maze. Stanas lived out there for years by himself. He must have built his own tunnels under it.”

The sheriff looked skeptical now. “Why would he do that, Miss Youngblood?”

“To hide his treasure,” I said, feeling more sure of my theory now. “No one has ever solved the maze, right? Maybe that's because he built part of it underground.”

“That's where we should start searching,” Trick said.

“Good luck with that,” the sheriff said. “That maze covers at least five hundred acres, and most of that is woods.”

“We have until midnight,” I said. “We have to try.”

Nineteen

W
hat had seemed like such a good idea at the cemetery started looking hopeless as soon as we arrived at the entrance to the maze. Jesse had brought me there at night, so I hadn't been able to see just how overgrown and wild the land was. From the gates it looked like a jungle.

“The Ravens closed it to the public a few years back because of folks getting lost out there,” Yamah warned as he unlocked the gates. “You should be all right if you keep your horses on the walkways, but don't take the one that veers off toward the lake. I can tell you that's a dead end.”

“You tried to solve the maze, Sheriff?” I asked.

“Everyone is young and foolish at some time in their life, Miss Youngblood. I was no exception.” He looked out at the horizon. “You've got about ten hours before the sun sets. Once you've found the entrance he's using, assuming there is one, mark it and come back.” He unclipped his handheld and offered it to Gray. “Use the emergency channel if you get into trouble.”

Trick brought some granola bars and water bottles, and packed them in our saddle bags. “I'd feel better if you'd stay here and let me take Sali out.”

“What do you think, Sal?” I bent forward and pretended to listen. “She says you're too heavy to carry around for ten hours.”

He gazed up at me. “Whether or not you find this tunnel entrance, I want you two back here before dark.”

“We'll be careful.”

I let Gray take the lead as we rode into the gardens and followed the path to the walkways. The wood creaked under Flash's hooves, making him skitter for a moment before Gray reined him in.

I looked at both walkways, but neither looked particularly promising. “Which one should we take first?”

“The left.”

He sounded so definite I rode up alongside him. “Are you holding out on me?”

“It's the way you solve a maze,” he said. “You keep going to the left.”

“Have you ever done this?” I asked as we left the gardens and entered the woods.

“I read about mazes in a book.”

I ducked my head to avoid a tangle of Spanish moss. “I mean hunting vampires.”

He gave me a narrow look. “Why do you want to know?”

I tapped my temple. “I can't remember anything, so I'd like to know what to expect.”

He hunched his shoulders. “Trick never let me track them.”

I chuckled. “You should never lie. You completely suck at it.”

“I tried a few times on my own,” he finally admitted. “There's always more than one, and I thought if I took out a nest we could stay somewhere. I found one in California.”

I remembered how fast we'd packed up and left that state. “What happened?”

“I found out why Trick didn't want me tracking them alone.” His expression grew bleak. “They were living in this cavern in the mountains. They'd fixed it up like the inside of a house, with furniture and carpets and stuff. I found them sleeping in beds, like real people.”

My eyes widened. “You went into the cave and
looked
at them?”

“I had to be sure.”

“You
are
an idiot.” I sighed. “So what did you do? Stake them in their sleep?”

“I didn't have any stakes,” he muttered. “What? I'd never killed anyone. I just wanted to keep them from finding us. So I dragged in some brush and set it on fire, but the smoke woke them up.”

I winced. “Oh, no.”

“I thought they were just mindless monsters. But they're not.” He glanced at me. “They had fire extinguishers.”

It was almost funny—almost. “Which they used to put out the fire.”

“Yeah, right before two of them jumped me.” Absently he touched his shoulder. “I ran out of the cave with both of them on my back, which was the only thing that saved me.” At my frown, he said, “The sun was still up.”

“Did it kill them?”

“Yeah, but before I could get them off me they set my shirt on fire. Burned it right off my back.” He shifted in the saddle. “Flash got me home, but I was pretty crispy. Trick had to take me to the hospital.”

Suddenly I felt indignant. “Why don't I remember any of this?”

“One of the vamps from the cave tracked me back to our place that night.” His voice grew defensive. “I didn't know they could do that, either. Trick never told me anything about them.”

I took a deep breath. “I killed that one, too, I suppose?”

He nodded. “We left California the next day, and I promised Trick I'd never try to track them again.”

“Until he made you try to track Jesse,” I added helpfully. “What was the point of that, anyway?”

“It was when you got into all that trouble for stealing my truck,” Gray said. “At first Trick thought the guy you helped was a vampire, and he made you do it.”

I glared at him. “Why would I help a vampire?”

“That's what I said,” he told me. “He didn't believe me until I told him there was no scent trail, only a bunch of tracks out by that old place across the road. I also found some stuff inside the house, like you'd been meeting him there in secret for a while. That really drove him crazy.”

Jesse and I had met several times at the Ravenovs' abandoned manor house, and he'd always lit candles in the windows. Once he'd spread an old quilt on the floor and treated me to a midnight feast. We'd cleaned up the food before we'd left, but we hadn't taken the quilt with us.

“Oh, my god.” I laughed. “I wasn't having sex with him in there, you idiot. We had a picnic. It was totally innocent.”

Now he looked uncomfortable. “I don't need any details of what you've done with that guy.”

“His name is Jesse, and not that it's any of your business, but we haven't done anything.” I saw the relief on his face. “Aside from some hand-holding, hugging and, oh yes, some pretty fantastic kissing.”

He cringed a little. “I told you, I don't want to know.”

I laughed. “Grim, I love Jesse. As in, forever and always. We may not be doing it right now, but eventually it's going to happen.”

“So then you get pregnant like Mom, and have to run away with him and hide and be scared all time?” He sounded disgusted. “After everything we've been through, how could you do that to your own kid?”

“I don't know,” I said. “How could you join the football team just to impress Tiffany Beck? Speaking of which, how could you let Trick take that away from you?”

His face reddened, and for a moment I thought he was going to yell at me. Then his shoulders slumped. “She never wanted to be with me. I was just a rebound boyfriend. I knew that the night Boone got shot.”

“But you still blame me for it,” I pointed out. “That's why you've treated me like trash since Halloween. I broke up your big romance, and ended your football career, and ruined your life.” When he started to say something, I held up my hand. “There's just one problem with your grudge. I didn't do any of that. Trick did.”

“Yeah, but he did it to protect you,” Gray insisted. “Didn't you ever wonder why this happened? Why this guy kept chasing after you? He's almost a vampire, and vampires can't stay away from us, Cat. It's part of being a Van Helsing. We're like irresistible to them.”

“So you think the only reason Jesse cares about me is because I'm a vampire magnet.” I nodded. “Of course, that makes perfect sense. Except that he's not a vampire, I'm not a Van Helsing, and actually I chased him first.”

He gave me a pitying look. “That's the other part of the Van Helsing thing.”

“What?”

“We're attracted to them, too. I didn't want to disobey
Trick and go to that cavern in California.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I
had
to go.”

We spent the next three hours following the twists and turns of Stanas's maze, but we never found a hatch or an outbuilding or anything that might provide access to an underground tunnel the way the hatches in the shops in town did for the Ravens' tunnels. After hitting several dead ends and having to backtrack, it seemed pretty hopeless.

We did find a small, pretty lake, and stopped there to water and rest the horses. I didn't feel like talking, and Gray seemed fine with that.

I took a granola bar and a bottle of water out of the saddlebag and went to sit under an oak tree. Although the day hadn't warmed up, the sun was bright, and I'd forgotten to put on some sunscreen before I'd left the house. I'd have to borrow Gray's ball cap or I'd be slathering on the sunburn ointment tonight.

The granola bar tasted like ground-up cardboard, but I kept chewing and washed it down with the water. Jesse had told me that no one had ever solved the maze; my vision had been too vague to provide any clues. Gray couldn't pick up any scent trail. We weren't going to find anyone or anything out here. I had to start thinking about Plan B.

I knew my brothers were probably thinking about staging some kind of ambush in the park, or having me summon my cats to jump the vampire there. He wouldn't be stupid enough to bring his hostages with him, of course. If we did that I'd be safe, but we'd never find the missing girls.

Jesse and I could do it.

If I let the vampire take me, I could use my bond with Jesse to lead him to the underground vault. He could rescue the girls while my cats and I held off the vampire. When they were safely out of there, then I could order my cats to finish it.

Stop dressing it up with pretty words
,
my sullen conscience said.
You're going to have to kill him. Just like you killed the others. It's the only way to stop him and you know it.

A wide shadow fell across me, and I looked up at Gray.

“I checked in with the sheriff,” he said, hooking the handheld back onto his belt. “You ready?”

I am never going to be ready for this
,
I thought, but I nodded and got up.

Flash didn't want to stop grazing, so I rode Sali around the lake while we waited for Gray to get him situated. That was when I saw a flash of something moving fast through the trees about a quarter mile away—too big to be a person—and heard the faint, rushing sound of leaves thrashing and branches snapping.

“Grayson.” When he looked at me, I pointed in the direction of the movement. “There's something over there.”

He peered. “Deer.”

“It's too big.” Too fast to be a bear, too, I thought, and then I caught a flash of gleaming red. “It can't be.”

Sali shuffled under me as her head turned to watch the blurry movement.

“Gray,” I yelled. “It's Rika.”

“Hang on,” he called back.

“No time.” I took off after her, jumping the walkway and crossing the clearing between the lake and the tree line. I got within sight of the Arabian's churning flanks and peered at the swell of her belly. From the bulge in her side she hadn't foaled yet, but she was close.

Sali suddenly veered away from a big tangle of dead brush into the trees and skidded to avoid slamming both of us into the blackened trunk of a fallen pine that blocked our path. For a split second I was smothered in wilted, spade-shaped leaves and then something yanked me out of the saddle and threw me to the ground.

I landed on my side, hard, and felt the air whoosh out of my nose and mouth as the impact knocked it out of my lungs. Somehow I remembered to tuck and roll to avoid Sali's hooves as she fought to free herself from the tangle of dead vines that had unseated me. Dirt pelted my face and I turned my face away to protect my eyes.

Sali tore free and skittered away from me, pounding the ground as she headed back to the clearing. I lifted my head to see her running in a wide circle, whinnying so frantically it sounded as if she were screaming.

“Catlyn.”

I wanted to yell for my brother, but my lungs weren't cooperating. My head spun as I tried to push myself up and quickly discovered why that wasn't going to work. When I'd rolled the vines we'd ridden into had wrapped around me, and now cocooned my arms and legs.

I'd definitely need Gray's help, so I focused on what I could do, which was catch my breath. When I got enough air in me, I called out, “I'm over here.”

A grunting, snuffling sound answered me.

I looked over at the brush Sali had swerved around, and saw a big dark shadow moving in the center of it. Something was in there, something that had spooked her, and now it was coming toward me.

I struggled against the vines, freeing one of my hands and pulling at the tangle around my legs. The brush shivered and then shook as something squat and dark and ugly emerged.

It had small, beady eyes, and huge, pointed tusks. It also didn't like seeing me laying there trussed up like a Christmas turkey.

I stopped moving. “Hey,” I said softly. “Are you the one who went to market, or the one who stayed home?”

The wild boar pawed the ground, and the brush behind it rustled as two smaller versions looked out at me before retreating.

“What cute babies.” I hadn't just riled a boar in the wild, I'd riled one who was a mother with young to protect. “I know you're probably not going to buy this, but I would never hurt them.”

The boar lowered her head to gouge the ground with her tusks, and then uttered a furious squeal as she charged me.

“Hey.” Gray rode between me and the mother boar and threw his water bottle, nailing her on the head. That, and Flash rearing up over her, convinced the boar to turn tail and run the other way.

“Stay down,” my brother said before he and Flash chased the boar and her piglets across the clearing and into the trees.