Lone Wolf (11 page)

“As my condition began to show, I went into hiding. Brigid warned me against everyone. It hadn’t taken long for my initial giddy happiness to be replaced by worry, terror and suspicion.”

Haltingly, she told him of the poisonous words Brigid had used. She’d painted a clear picture, using the fears of a woman who’d never thought she’d ever be a mother, to make her afraid of everything and everyone around her.

“She was isolating you. I think even then, she meant to get her hands on the baby.”

She glanced up at him through her lashes. The tenderness she saw in his face stunned her.

“I was so naive, so trusting. Because her vision had led her to the truth of my pregnancy, I trusted what else she told me she’d seen.”

“She duped you, Marika.”

“I was a fool. I can see that now. But I was so stunned by the miracle of my pregnancy, I believed her and let her help me.” When all along, she could have found Beck and had their child with him by her side. How much they’d both lost because of Brigid’s poisonous lies.

Eyes filling with tears, she turned away, covering her face with her hands, alone in her pain.

He pulled the truck over to the side of the road and pulled her into his arms. He simply held her, smoothing her hair and murmuring sounds of comfort.

Then he spoke four words that made the tears start anew.
“You’re no longer alone.”

As she struggled for composure, she knew a sense of overwhelming gratitude for the fact that fate had seen fit to bring them back together. Relief that this man, Anton Beck, had been the one to father her daughter—correction,
their
daughter.

And, even though she hadn’t told him everything yet, for the first time since she’d learned Dani had been taken, Marika felt hope.

As he held the woman he’d once believed was his mate, Beck realized he still didn’t have all the answers he needed.

“But you got away from Brigid, obviously. When and how?”

Sniffling, she gave him a watery smile and wiped at her still-streaming eyes with the back of her hand. “Brigid had business in Europe. She left me with a member of her inner circle, believing my trust and respect for her was so strong that I’d never leave. And I probably wouldn’t have, had not her lieutenant made clear his contempt for me.”

“Because you were pregnant?”

“Not just that, but because I carried a mixed-race child. I’d sullied my vampire blood, mixing it with that of a shifter.” She gave him a sideways glance, full of concern. “He called you a dog.”

“I’ve been called worse,” he said mildly. “Did he attempt to hurt you?”

“Not directly. I think he was too afraid of Brigid for that. But he tried to make me hurt myself, to harm my own baby.” Fury and disbelief mingled in her voice. “But his magic wasn’t strong enough. No magic is strong enough to make me do that.”

“How? Did he use spells against you?”

“I think so. He hammered at me with words, too, and tried to use his own kind of logic to convince me. I realized then that many vampires—no, most vampires—would never accept my baby, our baby. So I ran. From all of them. I went into hiding and even Brigid couldn’t find me.”

“How did you escape? Even with him badgering you, using his magic, you were still able to flee?”

She lifted her chin, a flash of pride shining in her eyes. “I convinced him that I believed the truth of his words, that he was right, that his magic had worked on me. I told him I needed privacy to make myself abort. Fool that he was, he believed me. He let me go into the mountains alone.”

“See, I told you that you have strong magic.”

“Whatever. He let me go and I ran.”

“I’m sure Brigid dealt with him harshly.”

“No doubt.” This definitely didn’t trouble her. “And even though I didn’t know if he was working on behalf of Brigid or just a maniac who happened to be in her employ, because even Brigid couldn’t keep me safe, I made sure I stayed hidden.”

“She couldn’t use her magic to find you? Maybe this Brigid isn’t as powerful as she made it seem.”

“No. Just like she can’t use her magic to find Dani.” She frowned, looking thoughtful. “And therein lies the flaw of your theory. If Brigid
is
the one after Dani, then she has many allies. Why would she need us or Addie’s sister to use against us?”

“Unless…” He swallowed. If they were to no longer hide the truth, he had to throw at her any and all possibilities. “Unless Addie and Dani somehow escaped.”

She pressed her lips together. “Do you think that’s possible?”

“Why else would Brigid still be searching for them? I mean, if she captured them in the first place, she already knows where they are, right?”

“What about all the other children? Especially the one who they captured with the parents?”

“Again, we only have Brigid’s word on that. There’s no proof that these other children even exist.”

Their gazes locked. He saw the moment she realized the truth. “She’s playing us?”

Before he could respond, she answered herself.

“Of course she is.” Anger vibrated in her voice. “That’s how she operates. Nothing is ever straightforward. It’s all games and lies.”

He waited, knowing the larger implication would sink in eventually.

A second later her eyes widened. “But that would mean Dani is…”

“Safe.” He took her hand. “But on the run, trying to hide from everyone who’s trying to find her. And since Brigid has her own small army, that’s a lot of vampires.”

“Not to mention shifters,” she responded, squeezing his hand hard. “That’s the one flaw. This theory with Brigid as the bad guy doesn’t account for the involvement of so many shifters.”

“Actually, it does. I’ve said before that they might be trying to help Dani, to keep her from Brigid.”

Marika nodded. “Either way, we’ve got to find them.”

He pulled out his cell. “We’re nearly at Alpine. Let me give Addie’s sister a call on the off chance Brigid was lying about capturing her.”

Punching in the phone number, he listened for a moment before closing the phone. “No answer. But I know where she lives. We’ll just drop in on her unannounced.”

He put the truck in Drive, and they pulled back out onto the road. A few minutes later, they reached the outskirts of Alpine. He turned into a residential area, then onto a dead-end street. The houses at the end backed up to the endless grasslands of the high desert.

They pulled up in front of an unassuming frame house that had been painted the same khaki color as the dried lawn.

Killing the engine, he sniffed the air. “Something’s wrong.”

“I sense it, too.” Slowly, she got out of the truck, studying the house. “Nothing looks out of place. I’ll go around back while you ring the doorbell.”

But before she could even start, a woman came out of the pink stucco house next door.

“Are you looking for Annabelle?” The short Hispanic woman walked over, studying them with bright eyes. “You’re the second group of people to come here in as many days. But you’re too late. Annabelle passed away two weeks ago. What’s really weird is that we couldn’t find her sister, Addie, even to come to the funeral.”

“Really.” Beck and Marika exchanged a look, no doubt thinking the same thing. Had Annabelle really died or was she now a fledgling vampire?

“Who made the arrangements then? I though Addie was the only family Annabelle had.”

“She was.” The woman shrugged, pushing her dark hair out of her face. “But everything had been prearranged, from the casket to the burial plot. Even the tombstone was ordered in advance.” Thanking the woman, Beck walked back to the truck, while Marika stayed behind to scope out the premises.

“Sounds like Brigid got another ally,” Beck commented.

As he opened the door to get in the truck, a loud cry nearly knocked him to his knees.
Mama. Want Mama.

W
ithout even thinking, he fired back. “Dani?”

Nice man. Where Mama?

“Here. With me. Close.”

Talk to her. Want Mama. Now.

Great. Now what? One little white lie and look where it had gotten him.

Dani started to cry.

While he stuttered around, trying to send soothing words, the crying stopped as Dani apparently found her own form of comfort.
Huh? Cookie?

Apparently she was talking to someone else, someone with her, wherever she was.

A thought occurred to him. If he could get a conversation going between Dani and her com pan ion— Addie, maybe—he might be able to get a clue as to where she was being held.

“Is Addie with you?”

No answer. He tried again, afraid he’d lost contact. “Dani, is Addie near you?”

Finally, with all the cranky petulance of an exhausted two-year-old, she answered back.
Yup. Why?

Heart pounding, he sent, “Ask Addie where you are.”

Immediate suspicion.
Why?

“Maybe I can bring your mama to you.”

Addie!
she yelled. “Man wants to know where are we?”

While he couldn’t hear Addie’s response, he could get Dani to repeat it.

But his daughter was ahead of him. She parroted Addie’s words back to him.
She dunno. Near water tower.

Great. Near a water tower. There was one of those in every town.

“Dani, ask her how far to town. I need the name of the town.”

Want Mama.
Without waiting for him to respond, she started to cry again, the anguished wail of an exhausted two-year-old.

Wishing he was able to comfort her, his stomach twisted. “Dani, Dani. If you can tell me where you are, I can bring your mama to you.”

Like twisting the handle on a faucet, her tears instantly vanished.
I’m in a house.

“Good.” He kept his tone soothing. “But there are lots of houses. I need to know what city.”

No city,
she replied promptly.
Farm. Lots of dogs.

“Dogs? Or wolves?”

Her childish giggle had him smiling in return.
They go arooo, arooo at the moon.

Wolves then. Fine. What had he expected? Both Marika and Brigid said shifters had grabbed her.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “No boo-boos?”

Hungry. Want geranium. And Mama. Want Mama. Find me.

She wanted a flower? He hurried to answer before she had time to start crying again.

“I’m working on that, honey. I’ll find you a geranium, and your mama is with me. But I need your help. I’m trying to find out where you are. Ask Addie what town you’re in.”

Huh?

“Ask Addie.”

Cold.
Then she made an exaggerated sound of teeth chattering.

“Dani, please. Ask Addie where you are.”

Silence again. As the silence stretched on, he told himself quiet was better than crying. As long as Dani stayed connected.

“Dani?” Soft-voiced, he tried to coax her.

“What was that?” Marika came around the truck, eyeing him curiously. “I thought I heard…”

Skidding to a stop, she stared. Disappointment showed in her expression as she faced Beck. “There’s no one here. Where you talking to yourself? Or…?”

“Dani,” he told her. “I was talking to Dani.”

Quickly, she moved to take his arm, peering up into his face. “Is she all right?”

“Yes.” He relayed the short conversation. “I don’t get why she wanted a flower, though.”

She gave him a sad smile. “She wanted her favorite snack, not a flower. She loves nectarines, but for some reason she calls them geraniums.”

“Now it makes sense.” He touched her arm lightly, offering a measure of comfort. “But you heard something. What was it?”

“An echo. Maybe your voice, maybe someone else’s, I’m not sure. But not Dani’s.”

“Maybe you’re tapping in to—”

“No.” She sounded so desolate, he gathered her into his arms.

“But you heard something.”

“You, speaking out loud.”

“But I wasn’t. The entire conversation occurred in my head, silently. If you heard voices, then you
were
tapping in.”

“Do you think?” Hope blazed in her eyes, lending spots of color to her normally pale cheeks.

He kissed her then, a gentle kiss on her cheek. “More than just think.
I know.
You have strong power. I don’t know why it’s blocked, but it’s there. You heard Dani once and you can do it again. Just give it time.”

“Time? What about Dani? Where did she go?”

“I don’t know. If we can just get her to give us a few more hints to help us find her.”

“Then let’s try to contact her again.”

“We can try, but like I told you, it seems to be some thing she has to instigate. Let’s give it a few minutes, then we’ll try again. She mentioned a water tower. That’s a starting point, at least.”

Her long lashes swept down to cover her eyes as she considered his words. Finally, she nodded and, for the second time in as many hours, Marika wept.

Empathizing completely, he held her while she cried. For people like them, letting hope in required more than a simple act of faith. Doing so felt like major surgery, opening both body and soul, exposing everything to the capricious whim of the elements.

Since Marika was brave enough to try, he wondered if he ever would gather that much courage, or if he’d permanently remain closed off, shut down and blunted.

When her sobs finally subsided, she pushed out of his arms, avoiding his gaze. Annabelle’s neighbor stared, still watching them from her front lawn.

“There’s a water tower in Marfa, by the jail. We can start there.”

Moving in unison, they got in the truck and headed out. Before long they were speeding down U.S. 67, skirting the beautiful Paisano Peak and Twin Peaks, on their way to Marfa.

“If we kept going south toward Presidio, we could be in Mexico in a few hours,” he told her, more to break the silence than anything else.

“She’s not in Mexico.”

Curious, he glanced at her. “How do you know?”

“Because Dani understands Spanish. I taught her myself. She would have mimicked something, probably in Spanish, if she was surrounded by non-English speakers.”

“This entire area is full of Spanish speakers,” he said. “I doubt there’s much difference on the other side of the border.”

“True. But I really don’t think she’s in Mexico.”

Impatient, he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “We’ve got to find her before Brigid does.”

“We are still assuming Brigid is our enemy.”

He sighed. “What’s it going to take to convince you?”

“Look, I tend to agree with you that Brigid has something to do with this. But I don’t believe she took Dani. She wants her now, true, but she didn’t kidnap her.”

“What are you basing this theory on?”

“Because she’s still involved. If she had Dani she wouldn’t waste time messing with us. She wouldn’t need to.”

“Good point. So she’s still hunting Dani, too. Which brings us to why.”

“Why?” Marika stared at him. “What do you mean?”

“Valid points, but you’re leaving out the most important one. Dani. In order for her to be valuable to Brigid, she’s got to have her own kind of magic. Does she?”

Marika bit her bottom lip, considering. “If she does, it hasn’t manifested itself yet. And she wouldn’t know how to use it once it does. Honestly, I don’t think it’s that simple. If Brigid is involved, she’s not acting alone. There are others.”

“Maybe.” He was willing to concede this point. “But think of what she did back there and you have to wonder. If others are involved, are they acting of their own free will?”

They reached Marfa, appearing on the flat landscape like an oasis in the desert. With its squat, brick buildings and sparse trees, Marfa looked like any other dusty, small west Texas town. U.S. 67 became Highland Drive and they turned left, parking in front of the El Paisano Hotel.

“This will be a good starting point.”

“Yes.” She glanced out her window at the heat making shimmering waves from the parking lot. “I assume you want to walk?”

“Will the temperature bother you?”

“No. But why not use the car?”

“We can learn more on foot, talk to people, hear the sounds. Plus, my sense of smell is really strong. On foot I can utilize that. I still remember Dani’s scent.”

“You do?”

“Of course.” As if he could ever forget his own daughter’s scent. The moment he’d first smelled her, that moment of wonder and shock would stay with him forever.

They got out of the car and began walking.

Finally, after roaming Marfa for a few hours, frequenting every café and store, including El Cheapo Liquor, and describing their little girl to endless strangers, they had to admit defeat. No one came forward and claimed to have seen her.

As dusk gathered in the wide-open sky, they sat at an outdoor table at Squeeze Marfa, a small, health-conscious café across from the Presidio County courthouse, and sipped smoothies. Even though darkness had not yet descended, most of the shops had already closed, and the street was deserted. In the past ten minutes, not a single car had driven by.

Pale streamers of pink and orange streaked across the sky. A man could get used to a place like this, Beck thought. During the day he’d seen a sign that had proclaimed that the town’s population, at 2,400 people, was exactly half of its altitude of 4,800 feet. It was a quirky place, built with a west Texas rancher’s sensibilities. A rancher town combined with a New Age, almost California, feel.

“I like Marfa,” he said, speaking his thoughts out loud.

“Me, too. I always have. But Dani’s not here.” Marika rested her chin on her hands, playing with her straw and stirring her smoothy.

He hated that she sounded so dejected. Reaching across the table, he covered her hand with his. “Let’s try again to contact her.”

Her startled gaze flew to his. “Do you think we can? I thought you said—”

“I know what I said, that’s she’s always the one to initiate contact. That’s true, but on the other hand, I’ve only tried that one time to reach her. Let’s make the attempt again. Together. Maybe with your magic to boost me, we’ll have better luck.”

This time, she didn’t protest his comments about her magic. Instead, eyes blazing, she nodded and curled her long, elegant fingers around his. “Okay. You start.”

Her touch made him dizzy. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes. Exhaling, he sent his mind out, both concentrating and searching. Using mental imagery, he pictured an airplane, a fighter jet, speeding like a bullet into the midst of a thunderstorm, lights blinking, undaunted. A search-and-rescue mission. Hounds knew, he’d done enough of those during his career as a Protector.

“Dani?” Mentally, he shouted her name. Marika squeezed his hand, as though lending him strength.

“Dani?” He tried again.

They waited.

No response.

He tried once more, a sliver of desperation sparking his energy. “Dani?”

Nothing. Nothing but silence.

Now Marika gripped his hand so tightly it ached. The rawness of her pain transmitted to him through her touch.

“You try,” he told her.

As if startled, she looked at him. “I don’t know how,” she admitted.

“Neither did I. Just concentrate as hard as you can.” Intertwining his fingers with hers, he gave her his most reassuring smile. “Try to find her.”

Swallowing, she lifted her chin. “Okay.” Closing her eyes, she went absolutely, utterly still.

Unbelievably, he felt the touch of her mind as she sent out one word, one name.
Dani.

“Dani,” she whispered out loud, her voice raw. “Please answer. I love you and miss you. Where are you, baby?”

Again, only silence. But Marika refused to give up.

Over and over, she silently cried out their daughter’s name, seeking, searching, until finally…

Mama!
So much joy in that youthful cry.

MAMA!
The childish scream echoed in their minds.
Mama, Mama, Mama! Mama, where are you?

“Looking for you, Dani-girl.” Marika blinked, visibly holding back tears. “Baby, you’ve got to help Mama find you, okay?”

Throat tight, Beck glanced at her, admiring how she struggled to maintain her composure, obviously not wanting her little girl to hear her break down.

“Dani, ask Addie where you are?”

Okay dokey. Addie? Mama want to know where we are.

A brief pause, while Dani clearly listened, then,
Mama, Addie says to tell you she’s keeping me safe.

Safe was good, but not enough. Beck squeezed Marika’s hand. “Ask her again.”

Marika nodded. “Ask Addie what town?”

Mama come. Mama come now.
Dani sounded petulant.
I want you, Mama. Why won’t you come?

“I’m trying, baby girl.” Marika’s voice broke. A silver tear streaked its way down her cheek, splashing onto the back of Beck’s hand. “But I can’t get there if I can’t find you.”

Mama lost?
Dani seemed to find this amusing. Her bright, childish laughter rang out like a perfect bell.
You funny, Mama.

“Dani, we need to know how to get there,” Beck said. “Please ask Addie and tell your mother.”

Who man, Mama?
Voice sounding suspicious, Dani seemed to pull back into herself. “Is he…friend?”

Sniffing, Marika struggled to regain her composure. “Yes, honey. Beck is…a friend. He’s trying to help me find you.”

I hide, Mommy. I hide good.
Satisfaction rang in the little girl’s voice.
Even the dogs can’t find me.