He cringed a little. “I told you, I don’t want to know.”
I laughed. “Grim, I love Jesse. As in, forever and always. We may not be doing it right now, but eventually it’s going to happen.”
“So then you get pregnant like Mom, and have to run away with him and hide and be scared all time?” He sounded disgusted. “After everything we’ve been through, how could you do that to your own kid?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “How could you join the football team just to impress Tiffany Beck? Speaking of which, how could you let Trick take that away from you?”
His face reddened, and for a moment I thought he was going to yell at me. Then his shoulders slumped. “She never wanted to be with me. I was just a rebound boyfriend. I knew that the night Boone got shot.”
“But you still blame me for it,” I pointed out. “That’s why you’ve treated me like trash since Halloween. I broke up your big romance, and ended your football career, and ruined your life.” When he started to say something, I held up my hand. “There’s just one problem with your grudge. I didn’t do any of that. Trick did.”
“Yeah, but he did it to protect you,” Gray insisted. “Didn’t you ever wonder why this happened? Why this guy kept chasing after you? He’s almost a vampire, and vampires can’t stay away from us, Cat. It’s part of being a Van Helsing. We’re like irresistible to them.”
“So you think the only reason Jesse cares about me is because I’m a vampire magnet.” I nodded. “Of course, that makes perfect sense. Except that he’s not a vampire, I’m not a Van Helsing, and actually I chased him first.”
He gave me a pitying look. “That’s the other part of the Van Helsing thing.”
“What?”
“We’re attracted to them, too. I didn’t want to disobey Trick and go to that cavern in California.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I had to go.”
We spent the next three hours following the twists and turns of Stanas’s maze, but we never found a hatch or an outbuilding or anything that might provide access to an underground tunnel the way the hatches in the shops in town did for the Ravens’ tunnels. After hitting several dead ends and having to backtrack, it seemed pretty hopeless.
We did find a small, pretty lake, and stopped there to water and rest the horses. I didn’t feel like talking, and Gray seemed fine with that.
I took a granola bar and a bottle of water out of the saddlebag and went to sit under an oak tree. Although the day hadn’t warmed up, the sun was bright, and I’d forgotten to put on some sunscreen before I’d left the house. I’d have to borrow Gray’s ball cap or I’d be slathering on the sunburn ointment tonight.
The granola bar tasted like ground-up cardboard, but I kept chewing and washed it down with the water. Jesse had told me that no one had ever solved the maze; my vision had been too vague to provide any clues. Gray couldn’t pick up any scent trail. We weren’t going to find anyone or anything out here. I had to start thinking about Plan B.
I knew my brothers were probably thinking about staging some kind of ambush in the park, or having me summon my cats to jump the vampire there. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to bring his hostages with him, of course. If we did that I’d be safe, but we’d never find the missing girls.
Jesse and I could do it.
If I let the vampire take me, I could use my bond with Jesse to lead him to the underground vault. He could rescue the girls while my cats and I held off the vampire. When they were safely out of there, then I could order my cats to finish it.
Stop dressing it up with pretty words, my sullen conscience said. You’re going to have to kill him. Just like you killed the others. It’s the only way to stop him and you know it.
A wide shadow fell across me, and I looked up at Gray.
“I checked in with the sheriff,” he said, hooking the handheld back onto his belt. “You ready?”
I am never going to be ready for this, I thought, but I nodded and got up.
Flash didn’t want to stop grazing, so I rode Sali around the lake while we waited for Gray to get him situated. That was when I saw a flash of something moving fast through the trees about a quarter mile away—too big to be a person—and heard the faint, rushing sound of leaves thrashing and branches snapping.
“Grayson.” When he looked at me, I pointed in the direction of the movement. “There’s something over there.”
He peered. “Deer.”
“It’s too big.” Too fast to be a bear, too, I thought, and then I caught a flash of gleaming red. “It can’t be.”
Sali shuffled under me as her head turned to watch the blurry movement.
“Gray,” I yelled. “It’s Rika.”
“Hang on,” he called back.
“No time.” I took off after her, jumping the walkway and crossing the clearing between the lake and the tree line. I got within sight of the Arabian’s churning flanks and peered at the swell of her belly. From the bulge in her side she hadn’t foaled yet, but she was close.
Sali suddenly veered away from a big tangle of dead brush into the trees and skidded to avoid slamming both of us into the blackened trunk of a fallen pine that blocked our path. For a split second I was smothered in wilted, spade-shaped leaves and then something yanked me out of the saddle and threw me to the ground.
I landed on my side, hard, and felt the air whoosh out of my nose and mouth as the impact knocked it out of my lungs. Somehow I remembered to tuck and roll to avoid Sali’s hooves as she fought to free herself from the tangle of dead vines that had unseated me. Dirt pelted my face and I turned my face away to protect my eyes.
Sali tore free and skittered away from me, pounding the ground as she headed back to the clearing. I lifted my head to see her running in a wide circle, whinnying so frantically it sounded as if she were screaming.
“Catlyn.”
I wanted to yell for my brother, but my lungs weren’t cooperating. My head spun as I tried to push myself up and quickly discovered why that wasn’t going to work. When I’d rolled the vines we’d ridden into had wrapped around me, and now cocooned my arms and legs.
I’d definitely need Gray’s help, so I focused on what I could do, which was catch my breath. When I got enough air in me, I called out, “I’m over here.”
A grunting, snuffling sound answered me.
I looked over at the brush Sali had swerved around, and saw a big dark shadow moving in the center of it. Something was in there, something that had spooked her, and now it was coming toward me.
I struggled against the vines, freeing one of my hands and pulling at the tangle around my legs. The brush shivered and then shook as something squat and dark and ugly emerged.
It had small, beady eyes, and huge, pointed tusks. It also didn’t like seeing me laying there trussed up like a Christmas turkey.
I stopped moving. “Hey,” I said softly. “Are you the one who went to market, or the one who stayed home?”
The wild boar pawed the ground, and the brush behind it rustled as two smaller versions looked out at me before retreating.
“What cute babies.” I hadn’t just riled a boar in the wild, I’d riled one who was a mother with young to protect. “I know you’re probably not going to buy this, but I would never hurt them.”
The boar lowered her head to gouge the ground with her tusks, and then uttered a furious squeal as she charged me.
“Hey.” Gray rode between me and the mother boar and threw his water bottle, nailing her on the head. That, and Flash rearing up over her, convinced the boar to turn tail and run the other way.
“Stay down,” my brother said before he and Flash chased the boar and her piglets across the clearing and into the trees.
Sali came back to stand guard over me until Gray returned, but by then I knew I hadn’t broken anything.
“What’s the damage?” he asked as he helped me to my feet.
“My hip’s bruised, but it’s not bad.” I gazed over to the last spot I’d seen Rika, but there was no sign of her now. “What is that blockheaded mare doing all the way out here?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care.” He helped me mount Sali. “We’re heading back.”
“I’m okay.”
“I’m not. You were ten feet away from being gored.” He pulled a piece of vine from my jacket. “And this could have snapped your neck.” He threw it down and scanned the clearing. “We’re not going to find them out here, not like this. Not before sunset.”
My hip throbbed in agreement with him. “All right, we’ll head back. At least we found Rika.” I looked out at the trees. “Sort of.”
Twenty
As soon as Trick saw me riding up to the entrance to the maze he frowned, and of course Gray had to immediately tell him about my fall and the boar.
“I knew this was a bad idea.” Trick made me dismount, and began to check my eyes and ears. When I protested, he said, “Hold still. You could have a concussion.”
“I didn’t hit my head, and it was bad luck,” I assured him. “Sali scented the boar in time to avoid running over her and the babies. It could have been a lot worse.”
I still had to demonstrate that all my limbs were working before he quit doctoring me, and even then he wasn’t happy.
“You’re limping,” he said. “We should get that hip x-rayed.”
I patted it, hiding a wince. “It’s sore, not broken.”
“You don’t have nine lives, Catlyn,” he grated. “You only get one.”
“Don’t yell at me, because I do have some good news.” I told him about spotting Rika out in the maze. “From what I saw she hasn’t foaled yet, but her side is swollen. She’s got to be close.” I glanced back at the maze.
“Don’t even think about it,” Trick said. “Horses have been foaling in the wild for thousands of years. She can handle it.”