Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers) (19 page)

He tried to keep the pace slow and steady but he had finally
reached the limit of his endurance. He rocked into her harder and faster,
thrusting himself in all the way to his balls. And somehow in the middle of it
she picked up his rhythm and pushed back, moving in cadence with him, her body
actually demanding more and more of him.

Logan gritted his teeth, hanging onto his control by a
thread. He was right at the tipping point, icy heat clawing up his spine and
his balls contracting as if in a vise. He pounded harder into Rebecca’s hot,
welcoming rectum, her tight walls gripping him with viselike force.

“Now!” he shouted. “Come with me now.”

They exploded together, his cock pulsing inside the latex,
Rebecca’s body quaking with his own. The shuddering was so intense he wondered
if his bones would break, and still he came and came and came. At some point he
felt Rebecca going limp in his grasp, collapsing onto the pillows beneath her.
He eased from her hot channel, tugged away the pillows and arranged her on the
bed.

Rolling to his feet, he padded to the bathroom, disposed of
the condom and washed his hands. Then he took a washcloth, soaked it in warm
water and brought it back to the bedroom. With infinite care he bathed every
inch of Rebecca’s cunt and the cleft between her buttocks before returning the
washcloth to the bathroom.

“I worked you pretty hard,” he said as he kneaded the
muscles in her arms and thighs, using his thumbs just so at the pressure
points.

“I’ll give you a month to stop that.” She hummed her satisfaction.

He grinned as he worked his way the length of her body then
back again to the nape of her neck. Finally he spooned her against him and
pulled the covers up over them, tucking her head beneath his chin. He stroked
damp curls away from her face.

“Well,” he told her. “I think I’m finally warm enough now.”

Her soft chuckle reverberated through her body.

“I would certainly hope so.”

Rebecca opened one eye when she felt Logan slide out of bed.

“It’s still dark out? Where are you going?”

“I want to help the hands check the herd and make sure that
pasture is secure before we get started today.” He pulled the covers up and
tucked them in around her. “Go back to sleep. It’s way too early to get up
unless you have to.”

“I’m surprised you have the strength to get up at all,” she
teased in a sleepy voice.

He licked the shell of her ear. “Ah, but us shifters find
sex energizing. Go on. You can catch at least another hour. I’ll set the alarm
for you.”

When she opened her eyes again—roused by the alarm’s
insistent bell—sunlight was pouring in through the window. She stretched
luxuriously, reveling in the residual soreness in the secret places of her
body. And immediately was aroused as she remembered exactly why they were sore.

She lingered in the shower, eyes closed, imagining Logan’s
hands on her body as she soaped and lathered herself, especially when she
bathed her pussy and the cleft of her buttocks. She probably would have
languished there forever, images of the previous night running through her
head, if her conscience hadn’t prodded her to get out and get dressed.

Eve Turner had a new pot of coffee going when Rebecca made
it into the kitchen. The air was redolent with delicious aromas and the
foreman’s wife was busy stirring something at the stove.

Rebecca sniffed the air. “Cinnamon. Please tell me those are
homemade cinnamon buns.”

Eve laughed. “My secret recipe. I try to make them most
mornings in the winter. They seem to have magic thermal warmers built in.”

“They certainly can use them today.” She peeked at the
thermometer hanging outside the big kitchen window and shivered. “You’d think
growing up in Maine I’d be used to it.”

Eve laughed. “I think bitter cold is just something you
tolerate. You never really get used to it.”

“Logan still out with the herd?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes but he and John will be in any minute. He just hollered
from the barn to say they were feeding the horses and then they were through.”

Logan had shown Rebecca his communications setup the first
day. A small base unit was tucked into a corner of the counter in the kitchen.
Every hand out riding the fence, herding the cattle or working in the barn
carried a small radio unit hooked to his belt.

“Sometimes in the winter the snow can get as high as twenty
feet,” he told her. “And when you get a wind with it you can’t see your hand in
front of your face. You can get buried in a drift between here and the barn
door. Same thing out on the range. This way we can stay in touch with everyone
all the time. Know exactly where they are. And if they need help.”

“That’s a great idea.”

Even as she spoke the radio crackled to life again.

“Eve? Did Rebecca get out of bed yet?”

Rebecca grinned at the older woman. “Are you implying that
I’m lazy?”

She heard Logan laugh. “Actually I was thinking—” He stopped
speaking suddenly, as if he’d forgotten Eve could hear him. She heard him clear
his throat. “I was thinking you might need some rest considering all that’s
been going on.”

She swallowed a laugh. “I’m fine. Out of bed and waiting for
you to get in here so we can eat.”

“Great,” came back the reply. “I see Ben’s truck pulling up
the driveway right now so the timing’s perfect.”

Fifteen minutes later everyone was seated at the table
digging into what Rebecca could only call a fabulous breakfast. There was
little conversation, everyone’s focus on the food in front of them. Finally
there wasn’t a scrap left on any of the platters. Eve had brewed a fresh pot of
coffee and now she refilled everyone’s mugs.

“Thanks.” Ben lifted his in a toast to her. “I think that’s
the best meal I’ve had since I moved here.”

When everything was cleared away, when John had gone back
outside and Eve had left to go to the house she and John shared, Logan got out
his tablet and the familiar files and spread everything out on the table.

“Okay.” Using a red pen, he indicated within the triangle
he’d drawn the area they’d covered the night before. “We’ve been over this part
and didn’t even find the possibility of a hiding place.”

“But we found what was left of those two marmots,” Ben
reminded him. “So the thing at least came that far into this space.”

“Marmots?” Rebecca looked at Logan. “You didn’t say anything
about that. So you did find a trace of it.”

“Only that it had been there. But it was long gone by the
time we went out to run. And we didn’t find any trace of a hidey-hole for it.”

Her gaze flipped from one man to the other. “So you’re going
out during the day. Do you think it’s safe?”

“First,” Logan said, “we’re going to the sheriff’s office
and see if any of his people found anything overnight. And also check into
what’s going on with the sketch artist we talked about.”

Rebecca smoothed a stray hair back from her face. “I’m still
not sure what you think that will accomplish. We have the pictures of the
carcasses—bodies—whatever you want to call them. Aren’t they horrific enough?”

Logan poured himself a fresh cup of coffee. “When I emailed
the team about it they thought it was a good idea. Stafford especially is
interested in any deviations from the bodies we already have. Any changes in
the visible structure.”

Rebecca shivered. “God forbid. Isn’t what we’ve seen
horrible enough?”

“Yes. But the more information we get, the closer we might
get to finding who is breeding these things and where. Something that will give
away the geography.” He rubbed his neck. “I know that sounds farfetched, but no
more so than this whole ball of wax is anyway.”

“You’re right. So what can I do today?”

“Let’s hook up with the team first and see if Ric’s fancy
new software has come up with anything. Then I’ll call Danvers, check on the
sketch artist and after that we’ll make some decisions.”

Rebecca moved aside so Logan could set up his laptop on the
table and boot it up. She hitched her chair around to be close enough so she
could not only see the screen but be seen when she spoke. She gestured for Ben
to do the same.

In seconds Ric Garza’s face appeared on the screen. The
picture captured some of the team seated behind Ric and she caught just a
glimpse of what she’d learned they called the war room.

“
Hola, compadres.”
Ric gave him a tired grin.
“Anything new up there? I hope not.”

“Ben and Logan did a run last night,” Rebecca told him,
leaning over Logan’s shoulder. “They found what was left of two very small
animals but that was all.”

“No hiding places,” Logan added. “We covered the bottom half
of a triangle I sketched out and at least eliminated some areas.”

“We’re going out again today.” Ben leaned a little more into
the camera’s range of vision. “Since you guys tell me this thing can be either
diurnal or nocturnal I guess we might as well take advantage of daylight.”

Jonah Grey moved in behind Ric. “Save some time to run at
night again. That’s always been our most productive time. Use the daylight to
keep warning people.”

Rebecca saw the look of sadness on Logan’s face and realized
he was thinking of Jade.

“Fat lot of good that does us,” he spat out, then drew in a
breath and let it out. “Okay,
jefe
, what have you got for us?”

“Some things that I think will narrow your search for the next
target.”

Today Ric was using the standard keyboard since no one in
Logan’s dining room could see the big screens in the war room and he needed to
get the graphics and charts up on Logan’s computer. His fingers danced rapidly
over the keys.

“Just sent you an email with some attachments. Open them up,
then we’ll talk.”

Logan opened the email and three pairs of eyes watched as
each attachment appeared. One was a map of the county, much like the one in
Rance Danvers’ office, with red dots where the bodies had been found. Sprinkled
in the area around them were other dots in green. And finally, spread out over
the county were tiny arrows in bright blue. The other two attachments were
charts, which Logan minimized for the moment.

“Okay, what am I looking at?” Logan asked.

“I ran everything through that new probability software,
feeding in the counties where the last three series of killings occurred, the
locations of the bodies in each and the spots where the beast was finally
captured and killed. Using that information I was able to predict some likely
areas for the third victim. Those are the green dots.”

“Shit.” Ben leaned at an angle to get a better look. “So
many of them?”

Ric nodded. “Six. That’s as much as I’ve been able to narrow
it for the moment. What I’d like for you to do is get me some photos of houses
in those locations and we’ll analyze them here. See if we can refine your
target a little more.”

“I can do that,” Rebecca said. She looked at Logan. “Do you
think one of the deputies would drive me around to do this?”

“I’m sure Greg will,” he told her. “He’s got a particular
interest in this.”

She remembered then that Logan’s sister-in-law had been
Greg’s sister. This was definitely personal for him.

“Or I can do it,” Ben put in. “Once I’m done with the sketch
artist I’ll have time available.”

Logan shook his head. “You and I are going to do some
daylight hunting, buddy. I’ve got two snowmobiles ready to go.”

Ben frowned. “Won’t that scare off the beast?”

“We used them in Maine,” Rebecca said. “And I’m not sure
anything can scare it, except large animals.”

Ben looked at Logan. “Maybe we should use the horses.”

“We’ll talk about it.” He turned back to the screen. “Can
you help us with this, Ric? Does that fancy software have a way to predict
where this thing might be hiding? It sure would make our search easier.”

Ric nodded. “Somewhat. This software is unbelievable. I was
able to feed the topography of the area into it and see what it came up with.
That’s what the blue arrows are.”

The three of them studied the map then Logan clicked a
command and sent the document to his wireless printer.

“There’s a copy for each of us,” he told them. “Ric? Text or
call me if you come up with anything else. Or if Craig’s scientists discover
anything new in the bodies they’re autopsying that might give us a hand here.”

“I’ll do it. We’re still running all the databases to see if
there are any new items about kills anywhere else. Maybe something that got
written off as something else.”

“Good. We’ll be in touch.”

“Stay safe.”

The screen went blank.

Rebecca looked at the two men. “That map shows a lot of
possibilities where the beast could be hiding.”

Ben grimaced. “No shit.” He slid a glance at Rebecca.

She laughed. “The last thing you have to worry about is
watching your language in front of me. Believe me. Logan? Why don’t you call
Sheriff Danvers and see what’s up with the sketch artist? Then we can make some
plans.”

* * * * *

Why are they bringing a kid in to handle this? She’ll
have nightmares for weeks.

That was the first thing Ben Crater thought when Rance
Danvers introduced him to Randi, the sketch artist who’d come down from
Kalispell. In jeans, a University of Montana sweatshirt and a ponytail she
looked about eighteen years old. When the sheriff told them she was almost
thirty Ben had a hard time believing it.

She caught him staring at her and grinned.

“I get that look a lot.” Her words had an impish tone.

Ben blinked and heat crept up his cheeks. “Sorry. It’s just,
you don’t look…” His words trailed off.

“Old enough?” She laughed. “My whole family’s like that.
Good genes.” Then her face sobered. “No problem. Whatever you need I can put it
together for you.” She turned to the sheriff. “Where do you want me to work?
The conference room?”

“I’d say that’s the best place,” Danvers answered. “Out of
the line of traffic.”

He set them up with coffee and closed the door. Once they
began to work, once Randi started asking him questions, all thoughts of a
teenager fled from his brain. This woman knew her business.

As she pulled details from his memory and the image began to
take shape the terror of the moment engulfed him again. Terror and
stupefaction. He still had a hard time believing what he’d seen was real. And
that he remembered it in such detail.

Who am I kidding? I’ll never forget one single feature or
aspect.

As she continued to click her mouse and work her program on
her computer Randi’s skin paled, but she kept drawing, kept asking questions,
forged ahead with the sketch.

By the time she finished creating the drawing her perkiness
had long disappeared and Ben just hoped she didn’t faint from fright. Adding
the color had been the capper, producing an image to terrify even the strongest
person.

Now he leaned back in the chair and drained the last of the
liquid in the disposable cup he was holding. He didn’t know if the caustic
taste in his mouth came from Rance Danvers’ battery-acid coffee or from looking
at the finished sketch on the computer screen in front of him. Logan Tanner had
been right when he called the thing a devil beast.

“You actually saw this?” she asked as she continued to move
her mouse over the picture, refining it here and there. “I mean, in the flesh?
Or whatever it’s made of?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” He crumpled the coffee cup and tossed
it in the nearby trash basket. “I think my heart actually stopped beating, and
after Afghanistan and Iraq it takes a lot to frighten me.”

“I thought I’d seen everything but holy crap. This is like
something out of a science fiction movie.”