And we’re still no closer to locating Eilidh, puzzling out what is pursuing her, or how it figures in with this stone ring.
Mark kneels next to one of the stones and traces the symbols with his fingers. “Perhaps the ring is part of a ritual they conducted here?”
“What was the moon phase the night she saw the thing?” John asks as he thumbs through information on his tablet. “Standing stones were frequently aligned to solstices and equinoxes. Maybe it’s a moon phase trigger?”
I dig out my phone and look. “Night of the full moon.”
“Do we know any of the other times she saw the thing?” Mark asks.
“No.” I walk through the center of the ring of stones and…
I drop to my hands and knees and lower my face, until it’s nearly at the ground.
It’s as if I can smell the faintest traces of…something.
Not her, but…somethingodd.
Something maybe not of this world.
Gooseflesh rises all over my body, and that’s damn sure something that hasn’t happened for well over a thousand years.
“What is it, sir?” Mark asks.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.” I stand and look up at the waning moon.
Give me your secrets, damn you.
Before dawn the next morning, I am safely in my estate in Scotland and falling asleep in a bed I never dreamed I’d ever sleep in alone again.
Not once I met Eilidh.
Still no sign of her, and I’m trying to convince myself it’s just because she’sthatgood at staying hidden, and not because something’s happened to her.
No record of either of her passports being used to leave the country. No record of her on any flights, or trains, or buses.
Nothing.
Like she’s disappeared from the face of the planet. She could give classes on it. Even the former CIA spook who’s joined Garrett’s pack gave her disappearing skills high praise.
Maybe, once I find her, one of her “things” she can do is give new vampires lessons on how to stay off the grid.
I, on the other hand, am going to give her onehellof a fucking spanking when I finally get my hands on her again.
Then I’m going to spend an entire night with her tied up and squirming under my hands and making her beg to come.
Then another spanking.
Ihaveto believe she’s safe. If I allow my mind to drift to dark places, it’s too easy to sink into depression, and I don’t want to do that.
Ineedher to be safe.
I needher.
Kylie and her hacker friends have started sorting through traffic camera images in and around Albuquerque, trying to use image recognition software to see if they can find her license plate in any images to get a hint of what direction she headed.
But it’s a big fucking country.
We have flags out for the two phone numbers we know about—the one she used to use and the one she made the two phone calls on. No doubt she had more than one burner with her and switched phones as soon as she knew Lucius had already spoken to both of the people she called.
