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He opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment, a low, whining growl came from the back of the van. Caleb turned around in his seat and saw the two hounds, Diablo and Satan through a metal grill.

“Are they really hellhounds?” he asked.

Catrin nodded.

“Actually, for that matter, what is a hellhound? Where did they come from?”

Catrin grinned. “Presumably from Hell, but we don’t know. They were an anonymous gift to Regan around forty years ago. No doubt from an old admirer.”

Caleb went still at the words. An old admirer? Could it be coincidence?

“You really don’t know who they came from?”

Catrin cast him a glance, her eyebrows drawn together in a frown. “Regan said they must have been a gift from our mother, but she’s always denied it.”

“You know my father is working with someone. Someone he claims has feelings for Regan?”

“Beware an old lover,” Catrin murmured. “Of course.”

“Regan told me she’d been in love once a long time ago.”

“She did?”

“Hmm, she told me she’d killed him. What do you know about it?”

“Not much. It was before I was born, and Regan won’t talk about it.” She glanced at him. “Though she’s obviously talked to you.”

“I think it was more a warning than a sharing of past memories.”

“She’s scared.”

A flicker of surprise ran through him. “Scared of what?”

“She falls in love one time, he betrays her, and she kills him. Hardly a happy-ever-after ending and unlikely to make her want to risk it again. But she does care for you, Caleb.”

“It won’t matter if we don’t find her.”

“We’ll find her.”

They were silent for the rest of the drive. After around an hour, Catrin pulled up at the side of the road and turned to Caleb.

“This is as far as we can go. Regan told me your father gave her instructions to come here and she’d be met. She told me to bring the hounds to track her. Come on, let’s get them out.”

It was late afternoon, and the light was fading. Caleb climbed out of the van and looked around, praying to see something that would give him an idea where Regan had gone. To the right lay open farmland, but on the left was a thick wooded area. As he watched, a herd of deer ran out from the cover of the trees, racing across the open ground.

He would bet his father was in there somewhere, and he turned impatiently. Catrin moved to the back of the van and opened it. Instantly, the hounds whined. Caleb came around to watch as she unfastened their chains and the huge animals leapt down. She handed one of the leashes to Caleb. “That’s Satan,” she said.

Caleb stroked the huge head and watched as the hound sniffed the air, nostrils flaring red, tongue flicking out. It let out a small yelp and put its nose down to the ground. Growling low in its throat, it tugged on the leash, then glanced back at Caleb as if to say let’s go.

Looked like they had the scent.

∞∞∞

There was an awful lot that could go terribly wrong with this plan.

The thought occurred to Regan as the huge half-wolf, half-man creature tossed her over his shoulder. She dangled upside-down as he headed off into the forest. At least she presumed they were heading into the forest. She couldn’t actually see from this position, but she could sense the trees around them, smell the resin from the pines. And with a gag in her mouth and her nose squashed against the coarse fur of the were-creature’s broad back, she was struggling to breathe. Unfortunately, with her hands tied behind her, there was little she could do about it.

Despite all this, and whatever Caleb might think—and she was certain his thoughts would be far from complimentary—she knew what she was doing. They needed to discover who was behind this, and to do that, she needed Ethan to think he had Regan exactly where he wanted her.