Page 107 of The Tracker's Revenge

What? No!It wasn’t possible.

“It’s nearly sacrilegious that the old and once-powerful alpha of the legendary Knight pack was never properly buried, don’t you think?”

I shook my head. “What did you do?

“You didn’t think we would let him take the secret of the dagger’s location to the grave?”

As she said the wordwe, Stephen Erickson walked into the room, wearing a smile that stretched from ear to ear.

Stephen is here?!

Real. This is real.

The more time passed, the more certain I became. This was no trance, no magic-induced hallucination.

“Even the dead talk when one asks the right question,” Mekare finished, giving Stephen a sidelong glance.

“And talk he did.” Stephen held up the silver dagger with its jade handle. “Jake thought he was so smart pretending he had the dagger, but we knew the old man had hidden it. That greedy bastard, so out of his league.”

They both laughed. God, they’d caused that chaos at the funeral home in order to prevent Walter’s burial. It had all been a diversion.

A choking sensation took hold of me at the sight of the dagger in Stephen’s hand.

No, it can’t be.

“Now,” Mekare laid a hand on Stephen’s arm, “if she could just take us to Damien’s elixir, we would have everything we need, right, love?”

“Right,” Stephen said, giving her a smile that spoke of bedroom secrets between them.

I threw up a little inside my own mouth just at the thought of the two together. They were both despicable, and people like them had no business doing the ugly together. They should have enough sense not to risk bringing offspring into the world. Nothing short of abominable could result from their union. Gremlins would be nothing compared to the kids these two would produce.

The witch took the dagger from Stephen and, giving it a dexterous twirl, made it disappear. “So...” she came closer, “exactly where do you bank?”

I retreated a step, trying to reach the window, but I ran into another barrier.

Mekare waved a finger in my direction, then twirled it around. “Tsk, tsk,the force field goes all around, silly. Otherwise, what would be the point?”

“Why do you want it?” I asked, struggling to understand.

Were they really afraid that Damien’s single leftover cure could be used to make more? That would surely mess up their rhabo distribution, killing the goose with the golden eggs.

“We just do,” Mekare said. “So now, tell us where to find it, or we’ll get the location out of you.”

I clamped my mouth shut and just stared at them, letting my hatred show in full force.

Stephen let out a tired sigh. “I wish the trick with the tears had worked.”

I frowned. What was he talking about?

“Me too,” Mekare said. “But all I saw while she was in her trance was... chaos. I couldn’t root out one useful piece of information out of her head, except for general details about her friend and beau. That little communication method of taps and signs you two have is pathetic. In fact, the entire way your tracking skills work is pathetic.”

Oh, the bitch!She’d invaded my mind.

That dirty feeling from earlier returned, a nasty sensation that I didn’t think a hundred showers and ten lobotomies could get rid of. At least her attempt had failed. She hadn’t counted on the messed-up way my powers work. EvenIhad trouble deciphering all the smells, sounds, and sights sometimes. No way anyone but me could make sense out of that turmoil.

I thought back to all the things I’d sensed and realized that the reason I’d seen Prince Kalyll was that Mekare had been looking for the elixir’s hiding place. But what about Em? Why had she come up? It would take me forever to figure out exactly what had happened though some things were starting to make sense. She had used the tears to search my mind and to track us to the cabin. I was sure she got there before Jake and Eric got back and played the charade of running away and helping me out of the trance in hopes of learning the cure’s hidden place. But what of Rosalina and Blaze? Where were they?

My train of thought was interrupted by a sudden irritated exclamation from the witch.