Page 73 of Touched By Moonlight

Movement to our left made us turn. Several feet away, a white specter floated among the trees and then took on the shape of a littlegirl.

“Carmen!” he yelled. “It’s okay, sweetheart, come here. We aren’t mad atyou.”

Sobbing, the figure tookoff.

“Stay here,” the alphaordered.

Grayson headed off through the woods. But a tingle rushed down my spine. He was chasing a phantom, nothing more. I had seen that spectral energy and knew something had diverted him in order to throw him off Carmen’strail.

That something couldn’t distract me, however. I followed the pathway a little further and saw exactly what I needed tofind.

Faint traces of a pink aura threaded with bright yellow.Carmen.

Following the trail, I headed deeper into the woods. Every few feet, the pink and yellow energy glowed on the leaves on thetrail.

Carmen was following something. An animal, perhaps. She did live withwolves.

The further away I drew from pack land, the darker the forest became. Fresh scents of earth and woods became tainted with a trace of pungent rot, as if this section of forest was filled withdeath.

Not a place to interest a child. Why had Carmen comehere?

Stopping a minute I closed my eyes, let a little of my Fae power surge. Not the destructive abilities, but the magick used to see throughspells.

When I opened my eyes, I could see a faint green glow on the path, signature of a Fae. Ancient Fae magick, and quiteold.

Maybe a Fae who was no longer present, but their glamourremained.

Instead of the pungent smell and the creepy vines tangling overhead in the trees to form a dark canopy, bright rose bushes lined thepathway.

Pink roses, like the ones we had planted in the secretgarden.

I bent down, touched the traces of Carmen’s residual aura energy, and closed my eyes. I saw Carmen in my mind’seye.

I watched the girl follow the pathway through the woods, enchanted by the trail of rose petals strewn on the dirt. The pathway ended in a small clearing in the darkforest.

Red, pink and white flowering plants ringed the enclosure. A white trellis strewn with the same fuchsia roses that lured the girl here sat in the middle, a swing below it. Green vines marched up and down the roses holding the swing to thestructure.

She had fallen asleep in this glen, and had awakened. Suddenly the tableau changed, and turnedugly.

I turned to call Grayson, warn him and summon help. But even as I yelled his name, I knew it might be toolate.

So I ran toward the glen, hoping I wasn’t too late to saveCarmen.