“I spoke to the sheriff. He was trying to find out if the two hunters had enemies that could have done this.”
“Listen.” Neil’s eyes were piercing as they looked at him. “No human being did that, I can promise you.”
“Did you have the game warden out here?”
“Absolutely. But there was nothing for him to do. He couldn’t identify what kind of animal made the kill and you can’t just go around shooting animals indiscriminately because you think they did something.”
Jonah knew that perhaps more than either Neil Washington or Dakota Furcal. His own pack had been decimated because of just such insanity. Biting back a comment, he pressed a button to turn on his camera.
I wonder what he’d think if he saw me shift?
He began snapping pictures of the area, crouching low to get shots of the ground, then of the surrounding area. He’d send them back to the office and let the team put them up on the screen and compare them with the photos from other kill sites. But like this place here, he wasn’t even sure what they should look for. When he looked up, Dakota was standing rigidly beside the mule, hands clenched into fists as her sides and a strange look on her face. Neil Washington didn’t seem to notice. His gaze was fixed on Jonah and what he was doing.
Jonah put the camera away, walked over to the mule and took Dakota’s hand. It was ice cold. He had to mentally restrain himself from pulling her into his arms.
“I’ve got what I want. Let’s go back.”
Dakota just stood there, unmoving.
“Girl, are you all right?” Neil came up on the other side of her.
“She’s fine,” Jonah said. “But we need to get back.”
He helped Dakota into the four-wheeler, buckled her seat belt, then climbed in behind her. He could tell Neil Washington wanted to say more but he simply clenched his jaw and got in behind the wheel.
“I’ll be checking on you,” he told Dakota when they stopped back at his garage. He looked at Jonah. “Don’t make me hurt you, okay?”
“No worries there.”
Jonah drove the ATV back to Dakota’s, following the trail he’d memorized on the trip up. At the cabin he lifted Dakota in his arms and carried her into the house, placing her on the bed and pulling the quilt over her. The sun was beginning to set and there was a late afternoon chill in the air that didn’t help the cold engulfing her body.
“Don’t move.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m going to build a fire.”
She just looked at him as if he were a stranger, her eyes seeing nothing. Jonah was beginning to feel a chill himself. Apparently Dakota had laid a fire that morning in preparation for the evening because there was already kindling and paper in the grate. He pulled one of the long matches from the holder beside the fireplace, struck it on the stone and lit the paper. As soon as it flared he took some of the wood in the basket and placed it crossways, waiting until the blaze took full life.
Dakota still hadn’t moved and his concern for her was growing. Stripping off his clothes he tossed them onto a chair. Next came hers and then he climbed into bed next to her, pulling her body tight against his.
“I’ll warm you,” he murmured. “I’ll chase away this chill, whatever it is.”
Whatever it was, it was damn strange. Something had invaded her from that place on Neil Washington’s property. He’d learned from the gossip he overheard in town that Dakota had certain skills she’d inherited from her mother. That was why people bought her potions and salves. But he had a feeling it also meant she could sense things most people couldn’t. Something evil had reached out to her and he needed to chase it away.
He whispered soft words to her as he rubbed his hands over her body. Her skin, so warm when they’d made love before, was cold and tight, as if she’d been deep frozen and was trying to thaw out. Desperate to break through the chill gripping her, paralyzing her, he turned her to face him and pressed his mouth to hers.
Her lips were cool, as if she’d brushed ice cubes over them, but the moment he slipped his tongue inside he felt the chill in her body begin to dissipate. He licked the roof of her mouth and tasted the slick inner flesh, over and over until he felt her small tongue begin to stir in response. Throwing one leg over both of hers he pressed the thickness of his cock against her mound, using his leg to draw her tight against him, infusing her with his heat.
And suddenly it became more about lust and less about body heat. His need for her rose up like a hungry animal, one he had to mentally leash lest he frighten her with his rampant desire. This was a time for restraint, for control.
His hands stroked her back for a long time, fingers dancing along her spine then down to trace the fullness of her buttocks. The fire warmed the room, weaving a cloak of heat around them and he tried to infuse that heat into her. When she moaned into his mouth and moved against him his heart finally unclenched, tension easing from his body.
He broke the kiss and trailed his lips down one soft cheek and across the line of her jaw. When his mouth reach the sensitive spot where her slender neck joined her body he bit down gently and felt her shiver in his arms. He licked the spot where his teeth had touched the skin and trailed his tongue to the hollow of her throat, where her pulse now beat strongly.
“Better?” He breathed the word against her skin.
“Mmm,” she sighed and thrust her cunt against him.
Later, when she was back to herself, he’d ask her what happened back at Washington’s place. But not now. Not when he was so hungry for her he had to deliberately slow himself down.
He lowered his head to her breasts and took one rigid nipple into his mouth. Rolling the hard point around, he pressed it to the roof of his mouth with his tongue. Dakota moaned again and arched into him. Her hands, which had rested lightly on his shoulder, tightened as he worked her nipple, clutching at him as if for support.
He took his time with her, licking and nipping, moving his mouth over her as if he was tasting an epicurean treat. Her skin had warmed and now was like liquid velvet, supple and welcoming. Her little sounds of pleasure made his balls tighten and his cock flex against the softness of her. He’d started this to drive the chill out of her body and shock her back into awareness. Now he wanted to infuse her with his heat and drive himself inside her, losing herself in her silky wetness.
He shifted position to give himself better access to her, his hands holding her as he slid lower on her body until his mouth hovered over the muskiness of her cunt. Urging her to her back, he nudged her thighs apart and placed an open-mouthed kiss on the glistening folds of her pussy. A low sound of pleasure rolled from her throat at his touch, repeating when he ran the tip of his tongue over her sensitive clit.
His fingers pressed into the flesh of her ass as he lifted her closer to him, the better to devour her. His tongue tasted every inch of her cunt, plunging into her hot depths, lapping at the lips, nipping at the tip of her clit. When her nails dug into his skin and her hips bucked against him he gave up trying to hold back. Grabbing the condom he’d dropped onto the table beside the bed, he sheathed himself and drove into her, tilting her hips so he achieved maximum penetration.
Oh, god!
Just like before it was like sticking his dick into bottled lightning. Shock waves rolled through him and if possible his cock swelled even more inside her. She raised her eyes to his and he swore he could look into them and see clear to her soul. How was it possible to make this kind of connection with someone so quickly? She wasn’t a shifter. He’d have known by her scent. So how could this happen?
Then he stopped thinking and let his body take over.
Dakota wrapped her legs around him, her heels digging into the small of his back, her head thrown back as he thrust into her again and again. The familiar tingle raced up his spine and into his balls. His control was getting away from him. Reaching between them he found Dakota’s swollen clit and rubbed it with his thumb, watching her face, gauging her response. When he felt the first tremors in the walls of her cunt he exploded, taking her over the edge with him.
She spasmed around him, bathing him in her velvety liquid heat, her inner muscles grasping and squeezing his cock as he spurted again and again. When he collapsed forward, catching his weight on his forearms, Dakota’s body was fiery hot and his own was dripping with sweat. From start to finish their coupling had taken less than ten minutes but the explosion rivaled a fireworks celebration. Every bit of energy had drained from his body and he was sure his heart would pound its way out of his chest.
When he could finally catch his breath, he slipped from her wet grasp and went to dispose of the condom. Then he slid back beneath the quilt with her and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her against him. Her breathing was still choppy and she was still shivering, but not from a chill. Rather from the aftereffects of the intensity of what had just happened between them. They lay there quietly while the fire crackled and sparked and cast its warmth throughout the cabin.
“Can I ask you something?” He kept his voice purposely low and even.
Dakota stiffened in his arms. “About what?”
“Had you been to the spot at Neil Washington’s before today?”
“You mean where the men and the deer were…killed?”
“Yeah. That place.”
She shook her head. “No. Unlike a lot of other people, I didn’t have a sense of morbid curiosity about it. Why?”
He ignored sideways dig at him. “The minute you stepped onto the ground where the slaughter had taken place you froze. You looked as if something had taken hold of you. Something you sensed there.”
She was silent for so long he was afraid she wasn’t going to answer him. He tightened his hold on her, trying to assure her with his body that whatever she said was okay.
“This isn’t a pass-fail,” he told her. “You just scared me with what happened. And you were still chilled when we got back here. I had to warm you up in a hurry.”
Her laugh was strained. “You did a good job.”
“So?” he prompted. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“You won’t just chalk it up to some crazy Native American mysticism or hoodoo?” Anxiety edged her tone of voice.
You have no idea what strange hoodoo really is.
“No. Dakota, if you knew me better, you’d know I have no preconceived notions about anything. I just want to know what spooked you.”
“All right.” She pressed a little closer to him. “You know I told you I don’t believe in the legend of the Chupacabra. And I still don’t. I think. But…there was something there. I can’t explain it exactly, but it was some kind of aura. Real malevolence. As if hell had opened up and scorched the earth. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
Jonah tightened his hold on her. He understood what she was saying all too well. “Yes, I do. This beast I’m hunting could easily have escaped from the bowels of hell. I no more believe a bobcat or coyote killed those hunters than I believe any of the excuses for other killings. And a bobcat didn’t kill the two dogs in Eagle Pass, either.”
She shivered. “I had the terrible feeling something had reached out and invaded my soul with a bloodthirsty wickedness. I felt it, Jonah. Whatever it is, it was there.”
He kissed her forehead. “I agree. The amazing thing is, whatever we’re dealing with leaves little or no physical evidence other than the dead bodies.”
“My grandfather would say it’s my Native American mysticism coming into flower.” She shivered. “I’ve tried to avoid any of that my entire life. I’d hate to think I have no control over it.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” He pressed soft kisses on her skin.
You may have thought you were avoiding it, but it’s there all the same. I just have to help you control it.
“Have you been working on this story long?” she asked.
Since my heart was ripped out.
“For a while. It may end up being a series of articles. Not just one. Listen. I have to send those pictures I took back to my office.”
“I have a satellite connection for my television hookup and also for internet if you need it.”
“No, thanks anyway. I’ve got a satellite phone that I can hook my camera up to and send from. But I’d better do it now.”
With a sigh she pushed away and sat up. “No problem. You can do it while I fix us something to eat before we starve to death.” She grinned at him. “We’re using up a lot of energy.”
Chapter Five
Donna Perkins thought living alone on a small farm was okay unless you needed some heavy lifting done. At the moment that was at the top of her to-do list. Even at fifty-four she didn’t mind the hard work her truck garden required. In the growing season she hired kids after school, and sometimes border crossers looking for under-the-table money. She planted, reaped, sold and then rented a machine to plow the fields under until the next year.
But now the barn that housed her two milk cows and assorted machinery needed some repairs she couldn’t do herself. And she wasn’t about to hook up with some man who’d steal her money and property just to get handy labor. Not after all the trouble she’d gone to creating how the townspeople saw her.
She watched the man approach from the road, the breeze kicking up dust around his feet. She didn’t trust what he might have in mind. Men always thought they could take advantage of a woman alone. Perhaps that was why she kept her rifle cradled loosely in her arms, both a symbol and a warning.
He was fairly ugly and appeared to be very thin, but as he drew closer she could see his bones were roped with hard muscle. Stringy brown hair brushed the collar of the plaid shirt that, along with his jeans had seen better days. His work boots looked as if they’d walked a million miles.
Donna stood on the porch, watching carefully. When he reached the edge of the driveway she shifted the position of the rifle.
“That’s far enough. This thing is loaded and I’m not afraid to use it.”
The man stopped and held out his hands, palms up. “I’m just looking for a bite to eat and some water. I’ll be happy to do chores for it.”
Donna was a veteran of run-ins with wandering strangers. Most of them she ran off with a blast or two of the shotgun. But this one didn’t look as if he’d crawled over the border and she really, really needed a strong pair of hands. “What’s left you out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“I guess you won’t believe me, but I got in a fight with the guy I was riding with and he dumped me out onto the road. I’m trying to get to Eagle Pass. Thought maybe I could find work there and get some bucks together.”
He was close enough now for her to get a good look at his face. It didn’t look any better up close than it had at a distance. Strange amber-colored eyes looked out from an angular face distinguished by high cheekbones, a broad forehead and a sharp nose. For some reason, his face looked as if it had been put together with pieces that didn’t quite match.
But he didn’t give off the sense of danger Donna had found with so many others. And as long as she kept her rifle loaded and handy she knew she could take care of herself. Besides, she figured it was a sign from the fates that he showed up just when she was praying for help.
“There’s a hose in the barn.” She tipped her head in that direction. “I’ll make you a sandwich and bring it out here on the porch. After you fill your belly, we’ll talk. I need some work done around here. You game for that?”
He nodded, studying her with those weird amber eyes.
“What’s your name?”
“Fred.”
“Fred what?” she asked.
“Fred’s all I use,” he answered. “What should I call you?”
“Mrs. Perkins.” She shifted the shotgun. “Or the lady with the firepower. Either one works.”
He tilted his head. “Where’s Mr. Perkins? How come he ain’t doing the work?”
“That’s none of your business.” She clipped her words. “All you need to know is he won’t be around to bother you if you do good work. No go on and get a drink. I’ll fix your food.”
There hadn’t ever been a Mr. Perkins, but he didn’t have to know that. She’d left Eagle Pass after high school, figuring there had to be something else out there in the world besides this godforsaken outpost. But life just hadn’t worked out for her. When her father was killed in an explosion she came home to help her mother. Two years later her mother died of a heart attack and Donna inherited the farm.
To prevent the scathing remarks from the good people of Eagle Pass, none of whom had ever given her the time of day, she’d invented a fictional husband who’d been killed in a car accident. Now nobody bothered her and they all felt sad for poor Donna who’d lost her whole family.
Screw them.
She watched Fred head toward the barn and went inside to build him a sandwich. She kept the rifle next to her, as she often did, working quickly and efficiently. When she carried a paper plate with a thick sandwich and chips out to the porch he was already standing there waiting for her, his face an unreadable mask.
She handed him the plate and a glass filled with iced tea. “You can eat out here or in the barn. When you’re done, I have work that needs doing in the barn. Hard work. You interested?”
Light flared in the amber eyes for a moment. “Yes. I’m interested. I guess you’re talking about the roof and the big doors.”
Donna nodded. “Needs a man, much as I hate to admit it.”
“I’ll take a better look at it. He started to walk back toward the barn.
“Come talk to me after you eat and tell me how long you think it would take to do it,” she called after him.
He nodded and kept on walking.
For a moment a chill skittered over her spine, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. Wrapping her arms around herself, Donna walked back into the kitchen. She’d keep the shotgun at the ready, all the locks tight at night, and get Fred out of here as soon as possible.
* * * * *
Sophia was on the schedule monitoring communications when Jonah’s email came in.
“Hey, guys.” She leaned forward in her chair, her tall, lithe figure tense with excitement. “Come see this. Jonah sent pictures of the kill site in Maverick County.”
The others left what they were doing. Everyone was in the big room except for Dante Martello, former Chicago homicide detective, who was spending his required daily hour on the shooting range. They watched while Sophia tapped her monitor with her finger to open the email, then brushed each photo to pop it up on the big screen. Stafford had equipped the headquarters with surface computers, the latest in technology where all you had to do was brush your finger over something to open it and display it.
As soon as the six photos appeared, Ric Garza sat down at the computer beside her, located the photos of other sites they’d stored and put them up on the big screen for comparison.
“Too bad he couldn’t get the photos right away,” Ric commented, “before the scene was disturbed.”
“Yeah, but at least it’s still marked off,” Sam Brody pointed out.
“Not from animals,” Garza said. “I don’t think anyone’s told them yet not to go inside roped off areas. If they can jump or leap, that’s all they need.”
“But you’re missing one thing.” Ric moved closer to the big screen. “Do you notice one thing they all have in common?”
“What, that they’re all in isolated areas?”
Ric shook his head. “That, too. Stafford’s wife and daughter were waiting at a campsite for him. Jonah’s fiancée was out in the backyard of their somewhat isolated house. The others, more of the same. But there’s something else.”
“I see it, too.” Sophia’s voice was suddenly excited. “Nothing’s disturbed.”
Sam frowned. “I don’t get it.”
“See?” Ric moved his hand from one photo to the next. “Once the site was cleared, nothing touched it. Forget about the people. There are wild animals all over these places but no prints made by any of them.”
“I see what he means.” Logan Tanner, the ex-sheriff from Montana, moved in closer. “You’d expect animal tracks all over the place, but they seem to have avoided it like the plague.”
“Animals know when something evil has desecrated a place,” Garza said.
Anyone other than the people in that room might have disagreed with him, but Night Seekers knew the existence of that evil. It was far more real than most people wanted to admit.
“I can see how it accesses these places,” Sophia said. “Even the hunting preserve. I’m sure it can leap the fences. But…”
“But how does it get away without anyone seeing it or leaving a trace?” Sam finished for her?
“Yes.” She leaned forward to study the photos again. “Exactly. It’s almost as if it…dematerializes.”
Ric slid a glance at her. “In the case of this devil beast, nothing is impossible.”
The people standing there all looked at each other. The thread of fear winding through the room gripped all of them.
“Well.” Tanner was the first to speak again. “We all know whatever it is, it isn’t human, nor is it a normal animal. That’s a given. So anything is possible. But the last of the reports on the cases we were involved in just came in on my computer. I’ll print them out and distribute them. We’ll each take something we didn’t work on and give it fresh eyes. Let’s see if there are any new leads we can chase down.”
* * * * *
Donna walked out into the yard, the shotgun in its familiar position in her arms, fingers on the trigger and trigger guard at the ready. The position might look casual but she’d perfected it over the years. The weapon was like an extension of her body. She could aim and fire in less than two seconds. She practiced and counted it off—One Mississippi, Two Mississippi.
Even when she had the rare delivery, like the fertilizer due to arrive tomorrow, she always carried the gun with her. Delivery men were used to seeing it by now and never did anything to startle her.
She looked up at Fred on the barn roof, hammering new boards and shingles into place. He’d taken off his shirt in the hot sun. She could see the same ropey muscles laid over ribs that were actually visible. Something about the way he was built made her shiver, then she mentally shook herself. He was just another ugly man, maybe worse than others she’d seen, but that was all. And she didn’t have to get near him.
She waited for a long moment until he spotted her and stopped hammering.
“I guess you won’t finish today,” she called up to him.
He shook his head. “Roof’s in bad shape. Doors, too.”
“Okay. You can bed down in one of the empty stalls in the barn. There’s good clean hay you can fill it with.”
He shaded his eyes with a hand. “You ain’t got a bed I can use?”
Her body tightened. “No one goes into that house but me.”
He stared down at her for a long moment, then shrugged and picked up his hammer again.
“I’ll leave your supper on the porch,” she called and turned back to the house. The day had turned unseasonably hot but for a moment she felt a chill creep up her back, as if something otherworldly had slipped into her presence. Deliberately she shook it off and hurried inside.
* * * * *
Jonah hadn’t realized how hungry he was until Dakota put a bowl of vegetable soup in front of him with thick slabs of homemade bread. Just the aromas made his mouth water. He’d pulled on his jeans but left his shirt at the foot of the bed. He’d have been happy if Dakota had decided to eat naked, but she’d pulled on a long t-shirt that just skimmed the tops of her thighs. When she stretched up to reach dishes in the cabinet the shirt rode up just enough for him to see the luscious rounded bottom of her ass and make his cock harden against the denim of his jeans.
Maybe sitting across from her naked wouldn’t be the best idea after all.
But even in the t-shirt she was an unconscious temptress. Every time she leaned forward to dip up her soup with her spoon her breasts pushed against the soft knit material and the tips of her nipples practically stared at him. At one point he nearly missed his mouth with the spoon and Dakota burst into laughter.
“Are you always this horny?” she wanted to know.
Jonah spewed a mouthful of soup into his bowl. “Excuse me?”
She grinned, a smile half lusty, half shy. “You haven’t taken your eyes off my breasts since we sat down at the table. Is it me, or are you just overly obsessed with that part of a woman’s anatomy?”
He hadn’t realized how obviously he’d been staring, almost trying to see through the fabric as he remembered how those ripe, luscious globes had felt in his hands, tasted in his mouth. He hadn’t felt this fixated on a woman since…
No. I won’t go there.
And he really didn’t want to. For the first time in two years he actually felt alive again. Had felt something more in sex than just a physical release. On the one hand he felt almost disloyal, as if he was betraying Jenna in some way. On the other, he was happy to discover that he wasn’t dead yet. That there was more to life for him than just breathing. Still, he had a mission, one he couldn’t wander away from, and he needed to remember that.
“Jonah?”
He shook himself mentally. Dakota was speaking to him and obviously expecting some kind of response from him.
“I’m sorry. What was the question?”
She laughed again, a soft musical sound that made his cock flex and his balls tingle. Jesus, everything about this woman was turning him on.
“Never mind. Just eat your soup. I’ll take your fascination as a compliment.” She ate two more spoonfuls. “Can I ask you something?”