Page 23

23

“Got him,” Bolin said from the bed in the back of the van as we headed away from Mom’s property. “He’s moving fast.”

Jasmine sat in the passenger seat while I drove faster than recommended on the dirt road, the snow making it sketchier than usual. At least the Roadtrek had good shock absorbers, something Duncan had probably upgraded, the same as the tires. Treasure hunting wasn’t always done on paved streets, after all. I was glad we didn’t have to slow down much for the potholes. I had no idea how great of a range the tracking device had, but even if it had worked from across the world, I would still have felt tense with urgency. It could fall off the locket at any time.

“Heading north,” Bolin added.

“This road doesn’t go north, does it?” Jasmine waved toward the route ahead.

“No. I think we have to go all the way out to the highway and head east, then turn north.” At least we could gain ground on him once we reached pavement. As a bipedfuris, he would be fast but not sixty-miles-per-hour fast .

“Do we have a plan for if it works?” Jasmine asked. “And he leads us to those guys?”

“I have a pocket full of potions and bath bombs.”

Bolin made an aggrieved noise. “Orbs of Entanglement.”

“But the sword and grenades are still missing, right?” Jasmine peered into the glovebox but only found the tools and cassette tape.

“Duncan might have some weapons in the back if you want to search.” I didn’t take my eyes from the road. When the dirt ended and we turned onto asphalt, I picked up speed. “I figure we’ll have to go to fur-and-fangs at some point.”

“Uh,” Bolin said, “I don’t have that option.”

“I hope you have a pocketful of potions,” I told him.

“I have… some .”

“Aren’t you going to beat people with your violin?” Jasmine looked back at Bolin. She’d made that comment earlier but couldn’t know why he’d really brought it.

“No. That’s for, uhm. I’m going to play us some battle music to get us in the mood.”

“Oh, yeah?” She sounded curious. “Now might be a good time for that.”

“I’ll start when I don’t need to watch the tracking app so closely. And when you’re not— I mean, it’s easier if you’re not looking back at me.”

Jasmine snorted. “Shy, huh?”

She looked forward.

“Didn’t you do recitals in front of an audience?” I asked Bolin. “You said something about singing at church too.”

“Yes. I don’t have stage fright. It’s… something else.”

Girl fright. I didn’t say that out loud.

“He’s still heading north,” Bolin said. “He’s already past Lake Stevens. ”

“Does it look like he’s paralleling Highway Nine?” I wondered which of the addresses on the list Radomir was staying at.

It was hard to imagine him and his thugs living in the windowless mushroom building outside of Deming, and we hadn’t seen evidence of another residence. That was the only address that had been that far north though.

“For now, yes.”

“Good. We’ll be there soon.” I clenched the wheel, annoyed that we’d entered a more populated area, and I had to slow for traffic. And was that a light ahead? I cursed. Duncan didn’t have to deal with this.

The image of a bipedfuris stopping because a red traffic light dangled from a tree branch deep in the woods only briefly amused me. Mostly, I bared my teeth in frustration.

“Didn’t your mom ever tell you that your face will get stuck like that if you hold that pissed-off expression?” Jasmine asked lightly, though she eyed me with concern.

Maybe my driving was alarming my passengers. The light turned green, and I forced myself to loosen my grip on the wheel.

“No,” I replied. “As a good werewolf, my mother encouraged fearsome expressions. To scare one’s enemies.”

“That was less fearsome and more I-can-barely-hold-my-pee-any-longer.”

“That disturbs enemies too.”

“Especially when you’re in their lair?”

“Absolutely.”

Finally, we turned onto the highway. I floored it.

“Are you worried about the police at all?” Bolin had taken his violin out of its case, but that didn’t keep him from creeping close enough to eye the dashboard.

“Yeah, but not for speeding.” I didn’t mention the previous night’s debacle.

Bolin slid his phone, the map with the GPS tracker location open on it, into a holder that Duncan had attached to the dash. I could see the dot moving, still paralleling the highway, though it was much farther north than we were. Before long, Duncan would be even with that mushroom farm.

“You’d better play something soothing,” Jasmine told Bolin, probably noting my expression again.

“I was thinking of ‘Ride of the Valkyries.’”

“Maybe save that for right before the storming,” she said. “I’m prescribing relaxing and mellow music.”

Even focused on the road, I saw Bolin’s grimace. Maybe twenty-something guys didn’t do mellow.

“I had to play ‘The Lark Ascending’ for a recital once. It’s sleepy, boring, and fifteen minutes long. Not only did it threaten to put me into a coma, but it was so long that the grandpas in the back row kept leaving to go to the bathroom.”

“We don’t want a song that encourages that. Not until we’re in the villain’s lair.” Jasmine smirked at me.

“Funny.” I shot her a glare, then said, “Play the Valkyrie thing.”

“Okay.”

Reminded of Bolin’s original reason for bringing his violin, I added, “Or rap. My niece likes rap.”

“Oh, really?” he asked as if that were new information.

“Not violin rap,” Jasmine said. “That’s not even a thing, is it?”

“That sounds like a challenge, Bolin.” I glanced at him, hoping he appreciated my help in setting him up to fulfill his dreams. Or maybe his schemes.

As he sat on the bed to play, he gave me a discreet thumbs-up. Soon, notes flowed from the back of the van.

Jasmine cocked her head, probably trying to recognize a familiar song. As Bolin had promised, it was challenging from just the beats—the violin version of the beats.

I eyed the GPS map as he started singing—or rather, rapping.

“Oh,” Jasmine said with delight. “That’s what that is. 50 Cent. ‘ In da Club.’” She clapped her hands together and started singing to the music.

I watched the dot on the map and decided this was the weirdest army anyone had ever gone into battle with. Maybe I would leave Bolin and Jasmine in the van.

Fat snowflakes hit the windshield. The sky had grown darker. Enough traffic had traveled on the highway that the lanes remained free of snow, but it blanketed the forests and farmlands that we passed. This wasn’t the best weather for storming a villain’s lair.

“He’s going past Deming,” I murmured, though nobody heard me.

The violin and the singing had gotten loud as Bolin and Jasmine shared their enthusiasm for the song. When it ended, they shifted to ‘P.I.M.P.’ and other rap songs I couldn’t name. I was almost relieved when my phone rang.

Austin’s number popped up. As I thumbed the screen to answer, I noticed the date—Christmas Eve—and wondered if he was calling again to invite me up in the morning. We were more than halfway there now. I snorted, imagining his reaction if I brought this strange crew to his friend’s cabin. But my amusement evaporated when I noticed that Duncan had angled to the northeast. Toward the little town of Maple Falls.

A coincidence? All along, I’d been worried that Radomir was up to something in the same area where my son was vacationing.

“Hey, Austin.” I waved for the singers to pause for a minute. “What’s?—”

“Mom, we’re in trouble,” my son blurted before I could finish the question.

“Did you hit another tree?” I asked, though my stomach knotted, certain something far worse had happened.

“No.” He was whispering.

“What happened?” I also caught myself whispering .

Was there someone there with him? Someone he didn’t want to hear the call?

Jasmine and Bolin fell silent and watched me—and listened.

Austin didn’t answer.

What the hell was going on? It couldn’t be anything minor. He was a grown-up now. He wouldn’t call his mother over something small.

“Austin?” I struggled to keep my voice calm. My fingers tightened on the wheel again.

“Where is he?” Jasmine whispered. “At your apartment?”

I shook my head. “A cabin near Maple Falls. Either that or he’s up snowboarding at Baker right now.” The fresh powder would make that appealing, but it was late enough in the day that they might have finished up and returned. “Where are you, Austin?” I asked into the phone again. “What’s wrong?”

The line went dead.

“Shit.”

“We’re about to pass the address for the mushroom farm.” Jasmine pointed at the GPS on Bolin’s phone. Our dot—Duncan—was well past the area and had continued to the northeast.

Worry for my son made me want to abandon our quest to get the control device. Duncan shouldn’t be in any immediate danger. But Austin…

I tried calling him back, but he didn’t answer.

“You’re doing a good job of freaking your mom out,” I told the phone with a scowl.

A text popped up. It was from Austin but contained only an address. A Maple Falls address.

Did he want me to drive up and rescue him from trouble? If burglars had broken in or some other crime was being committed, wouldn’t he have called the police instead of his mother? He didn’t know that I was a werewolf and had any power. I’d done my best all during his childhood to ensure that .

Watching the highway and not slowing down, I pasted the address into my phone’s map program. I’d already decided to divert from chasing Duncan to find Austin.

“Looks like it’s north of town by… whatever that lake is called. Silver Lake.”

“Town?” Jasmine asked. “Doesn’t Maple Falls just have a tiny grocery store and a gas station? It’s even smaller than Deming.”

I shrugged. I hadn’t been up that way in ages.

“Population two hundred forty-seven,” she read off her phone.

“That ought to make it easy to find Austin then.” Which I was determined to do.

Again, I called him back. Again, he didn’t answer. Had a kidnapper or robber taken his phone? Or hurt him so that he couldn’t answer?

“Do you think someone forced him to call you?” Bolin asked.

Jasmine looked over at me.

“I don’t know,” I said.

I hadn’t thought that, but I immediately latched onto the idea. That made more sense than my eighteen-year-old son calling his mom for help that didn’t involve cooking, cleaning, or laundry.

“But… I need to go there and figure out what’s happening.”

“Yeah.” Bolin put his violin away.

Too bad. I needed some battle music now.

I took the turn for Maple Falls. Even though this was the main route through the area, the weather had caused people to retreat, and there was little traffic as twilight descended. Now, the snow stuck to the road as well as the ground.

I kept glancing at the phone for another call or more texts. To say I was a distracted driver was an understatement, but I couldn’t help it. At least the traffic map didn’t show any accidents ahead. Fifteen minutes, and we would be there.

“Uhm.” Bolin took my phone from my grip.

At first, I thought it was because he objected to me fiddling with it while I was driving, but he didn’t comment on that. He held the screen up so that it was side-by-side to his phone which was still tucked in the dashboard holder.

“If the GPS tracker is still on him,” Bolin said, “Duncan is right in that area.”

“As a bipedfuris,” Jasmine whispered.

Fresh fear swept into me. What if Radomir knew all about my son and his current location? What if he’d commanded Duncan to attack Austin?

I drove faster, hardly caring when the tires slipped on the snowy pavement and we skidded onto the shoulder. Bolin scrambled to find a secure spot in the back, and Jasmine gripped the oh-shit handle.

“We’re fine,” I said. “It’ll be fine.”

But would it?