“You can’t blame me,” she shouted. “You can’t. I told him not to eat those cookies. I told him!”
Grimshaw hurried to the cell in the back of the station and returned with Rodney Roash.
“You!” Ellen Wilson spit when she saw Roash. “You couldn’t even do one little thing, could you?”
Roash looked confused. “I don’t . . .”
“Put her in the cell,” Grimshaw said.
“You can’t!” Ellen Wilson yelled. “I have to make sure that stupid boy eats his macaroni and cheese.”
Ilya started to step back. He was needed for a hunt.
Julian looked at Ilya and said quietly, “Ask your secret friend to go to The Jumble and keep an eye on things. And tell your people to keep an eye on your fosterlings.”
“Natasha is already taking care of Lara,” Ilya replied. But what about Kira? Would she be another casualty, or was she Viktor’s ally? If she was . . .
<Stavros,> he called. <You’re needed at The Jumble.>
<Already on my way there,> Stavros replied. <Hunters are gathering around the lake.>
Not good.
“Julian?” Grimshaw said as he returned to the front room.
Ilya turned his attention back to the trouble right in front of him.
“The Wilson boy was dead when we arrived,” Julian replied. “Some kind of poison from the look of things, mixed into the cookies. They were intended for the neighbor’s dog.” He closed his eyes for a moment. “You should inquire about missing children near the towns where Ellen or Richard Cardosa lived. You should also ask about runaways in those towns because I don’t think Theodore was Ellen Wilson’s biological son. She said she acquired him.”
Ilya stiffened as Julian’s comment about keeping an eye on the Sanguinati fosterlings made a different kind of sense. “She stole that human boy?”
Julian nodded. “That’s my guess. And he wasn’t the first. She admitted that she had sent her ‘monstrosities’ to the cabins, and they killed the wrong man. I think she sent those boys out there to kill Richard Cardosa, her perceived rival.” His mobile phone buzzed. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket and answered. “Hello?”
Ilya couldn’t hear what was said, but the thin white scar on Farrow’s left cheek faded as his face lost all color.
Julian ended the call. “That was Michael Stern. Vicki got a call from Kira saying Aggie was hurt and needed help. She went tearing out to find them and only told Michael where she was going because she literally ran into him when she dashed out the door.”
“Crap!” Grimshaw said. “I told her to stay put.”
“Someone used a friend to bait the trap. Did you really expect Vicki to sit still and wait for you?”
<Stavros,> Ilya called. <Have you reached The Jumble? Victoria is in danger.>
For a moment, there was no answer. Then the problem solver said, <I know.>
CHAPTER 86
Vicki
Moonsday, Novembros 5
I didn’t run into the lake, and I wasn’t standing on the road. Hopefully that meant I was dashing in the right direction to find Aggie and Kira before something else found the two of them. How we were supposed to get back to safety before that something found the three of us was anyone’s guess, because I had no clue.
But I had sand. I surely did. And that’s what I would tell Grimshaw when he started yelling at me for not following orders and staying inside. I would not have an anxiety meltdown because a large man with official cop doodads on his belt was yelling at me. I would tell him I had sand and went out to save my friends.
Would Ilya represent me if Grimshaw arrested me for not obeying orders? Which I wasn’t required to do because I didn’t work for him, so phooey on orders. Wayne Grimshaw was not the boss of me!
I stopped walking and wondered how long I’d been having this argument with myself, because now that I looked around, I had to admit that running off to find Aggie and Kira by myself had been foolish, especially since I’d left my mobile phone on my desk and couldn’t call for help. And I had to admit that I really was in trouble, starting with being lost on my own property. Again.
CHAPTER 87
Aggie
Moonsday, Novembros 5
Hard to think. Hard to move. But she could listen, and that’s what she would do. She would listen—and she would stay alive long enough to tell someone what she’d heard.
“Where is she?” Viktor’s voice. Angry.
“I don’t know!” Kira, the traitor, sounding upset. “I told her where to find us. She should be here!”
“He’ll be disappointed in you.” Viktor sounded pleased about that.
Who would be disappointed? Was there another traitor?
Sound. Someone walking through leaves.
Aggie turned her head just enough to look, to see, to remember.
Walking boots. Jeans. Muddy green coat.
This was the enemy the traitors obeyed. What had Kira called him? Professor.
Aggie couldn’t attack and kill the enemy, but she hoped she lived long enough to peck out one of his eyes.
CHAPTER 88
Ilya
Moonsday, Novembros 5
Bloodhunter.>
Now it comes, Ilya thought as he and Grimshaw sped toward The Jumble. <Fire?>
<The last human who is staying in your cabins is missing. Twister and I are heading toward The Jumble from the direction of the cabins. Air and Fog are riding up from the main house after a human told Cougar that Vicki ran off to find Kira and Aggie.>
Kira. A willing betrayer of her own kind? Or a puppet that a human had used?
<We are not the only ones looking for Vicki,> Fire said. <There are many hunters in the woods today.>
<Understood.> Ilya didn’t ask for details. He would be told soon enough.
“We’re going to get there too late,” Grimshaw said. “That’s why you insisted that Julian stay in the village.”
“Yes,” Ilya said. “Whatever is going to happen will be done before we arrive, and he doesn’t need to see . . .” Then he considered what Fire had said. <Aiden? Why is everyone looking for Victoria?>
When Fire told him, relief flooded through him. He smiled and turned to Grimshaw. “We may not be too late after all.”