Page 55 of Investigation of a Quest

But the witch remained silent.

“Answer me, damn you!” Bel shouted, her anger at being taken yet again overcoming her fear. “What do you want with me?”

The witch didn’t answer, but this time she moved, stepping out from behind the chair. Her form slipped into the light, and the moment Bel’s eyes fell on the familiar features, her blood froze in her veins. The witch’s face. She knew this woman, and it was the last person she’d expected to step out of the darkness.

“Have you found her?” Olivia burst through the cabin door, stopping short when she noticed Eamon, Ewan, and Griffin staring at her from Bel’s small living room. “Are you sure the witches took her?”

“Magic’s all over the woods, and there’s a sign of a fight,” Eamon answered. When he realized Bel wasn’t wearing her necklace, he called the trio, and Olivia was the last to arrive.

“A fight?” She almost tripped, but Ewan grabbed her to keep her from spilling across the floor. “What do they want with her? The killings are over. The men who disturbed the temple ruins are dead. Why do they want Bel?”

“I don’t know,” Eamon said, ordering his body not to tremble as he stood before the people Bel trusted the most because he’d failed her. He’d failed them all.

“I don’t know,” he repeated. “I thought we were facing a coven war, but we’re not. We’re dealing with something that can hide from me, and I haven’t seen that since…” Eamon choked on his words, his voice stumbling over his pain, and if not for Cerberus pressing his head against his calf, he would’ve crumbled before the trio.

“I haven’t experienced this since Isobel’s first case here in Bajka. That killer… that witch is the reason she’s scarred. The reason I gave her those scars.” He met Griffin’s shocked eyes. By their expressions, Olivia and Ewan knew the truth about Bel’s throat, but Griffin didn’t, and involuntary or not, he took a step backward.

“And if we’re up against power like that, she isn’t safe,” Eamon continued. “None of us are safe.”

“Why would she go outside if witches were fighting?” Unlike the men, Olivia didn’t care to hide her tears. “Just last night, she made me swear to be careful. She told me to call Ewan and stick close to him.” Olivia grabbed her ex-boyfriend’s hand as if she didn’t realize what she was doing. “She made me promise, so why did she leave her house? Why was she so reckless?”

“She didn’t do it on purpose,” Eamon said. “Cerberus used his doggy door to sneak into my house this morning. I think he got loose in the storm and got lost since he didn’t find his way to me until four a.m.”

“Got lost?” Olivia gawked at the pitbull. “That doesn’t sound like him.”

“I think the witch knew she couldn’t trick Isobel, so she went after Cerberus,” Eamon said. “She probably lured him outside, and with the weather, Isobel panicked that he would get hurt.”

“Wouldn’t Emerson have guessed that it was a trap?” Griffin asked.

“No.” Eamon turned around and picked up the tiny terrier hiding in Cerberus’ bed. “This dog has been following Cerberus around since last night, and his front leg is broken… I think the witch broke it. After the flying monkeys, Isobel wouldn’t fall for another magic trick, so she didn’t play one. She found this dog and snapped his bones, but she was careful not to use a spell to hurt him. She did it the old-fashioned way—brute force so that I wouldn’t notice magic on his fur. My guess is Cerberus saw this terrier in the yard but smelled the witch as she dropped him off. It probably confused him into believing this little guy was the threat, so he bolted the minute Isobel let him outside.”

“The witch broke his leg?” Olivia’s fingers found her trembling lips, and then she surged forward.

“I think so,” Eamon whispered. “So it wasn’t a trap to Isobel. It was real. An injured dog in the rain, and a lost Cerberus. I would’ve run into the woods too.”

“So would I.” Olivia stroked the terrier’s head, and the black dog leaned into her touch. “He’s scraggly and too skinny. I don’t think he belongs to anyone. That witch found a scared and helpless pup and broke his leg. If she can do that to an animal, what will she do to Bel?”

“I don’t want to find out.” This time, Eamon didn’t bother hiding the tremor in his voice. “It’s why I called you three. I need help.”

“Do you want me to shift and search the woods?” Ewan asked.

“Shift?” Griffin’s gaze flashed between the men. The sheriff never wished to learn the full truth. He’d preferred to live in the grey, and Eamon had tried to respect his wishes. He had no desire to be so delicate now.

“Start at the attack site and circle your way out,” he said before Ewan could answer the sheriff. “Whoever took her used magic to cover their tracks, but there has to be a trace some⁠—”

Eamon shoved the injured dog at Olivia mid-word and exploded outside, Ewan hard on his heels. The men surged through the rain, teeth bared and bloodlust at the ready as the mortals scrambled to follow, but Eamon didn’t wait for them. He’d sensed her later than he should have. She was almost at the cabin, and his canines ached to sink into her neck and drink her witch’s blood dry. He would make her end slow, though. This witch would suffer unbearable agony. Maybe when she finally longed for death, she would confess where she’d taken Bel.

Eamon bent his knees, readying his powerful form for the violence, but a familiar figure stumbled out of the trees. He skidded to a stop as the witch he’d chased away from every crime scene dragged her bleeding and battered body across the flooded grass. She was at death’s doorstep, her shattered bones jutting out of her skin in some places, and flesh peeling away from her muscles in others. She was a putrid display of carnage, and with the strength draining from her body, she glanced up at the dhampir and extended a hand full of broken fingers.

“Please,” she gasped as she reached for him. “Please help me.”

She collapsed just as the plea left her tongue, and before Eamon registered what he was doing, he lunged forward and caught her mangled body.

“A police officer. That’s how you lured Leo Craven out of his apartment without a forced entry or a struggle.” Betrayal boiled into rage, and Bel was glad she was tied to a chair. It didn’t matter that she was facing a murderous witch. She would’ve launched her very human body at their traitor.

“People always trust the badge,” Dorothy said. “You did.”

“You crossed the line,” Bel growled. “The dhampir who owns this town might have let you live if you’d left after punishing the men who disturbed your temple, but he won’t forgive your taking me. He will come for me. He won’t stop until he finds me, and he will kill you for this.”