“Somehow I don’t think that’s it.” Schuyler couldn’t take her eyes off the triglyph. The symbol had a hypnotic, lulling effect, which was only broken by the sound of footsteps. “That’s Ghedi. Let’s not tell him about this until we find out what he knows.”
Jack nodded and pointed his torch toward the cave entrance to help guide the way. The priest was breathing heavily when he reached them. “Did you find her?” he asked, looking around nervously.
“No. We should go. If she’s not here, we have to let her family know,” Jack replied.
Ghedi looked relieved, and they began their upward climb.
“Wait.” Schuyler stopped. She’d heard something familiar—a small silent whimpering in the distance, the sound of muted anguish from one who is suffering. “There.” She ran into the deepest recess of the cave, toward a small crouched figure, bound and shackled in the dark.
“MariElena,” Schuyler whispered. She crouched down and put a hand on the girl’s brow. Hot. Burning. Hopefully it was a fever from exposure, and nothing else.
The girl stirred and whimpered again.
The priest crossed himself and knelt down next to her.
“Do you know where you are?” Schuyler asked in Italian.
“In the cavern,” MariElena replied without opening her eyes. “Near the dried-up creek.”
Jack took off his jacket and put it around the young girl’s shoulders. “Do you know why you are here?” he asked.
“They brought me here,” she answered dully.
“Who were they?” Schuyler asked. “What did they do to you?”
In answer, MariElena shuddered involuntarily as if having a seizure.
Schuyler held the girl in her arms and continued to soothe her. “It’s all right, it’s all right,” she whispered. “You’re going to be okay. You’re safe now.”
But the girl only shook her head and shut her lips tight.
“There now,” Ghedi said, placing a cool handkerchief on her feverish brow.
Schuyler prodded her with the glom, took the chance to look into the girl’s memories. The boyfriend had driven her out of town and into the mountains. He had taken her straight into the forest. Then there was nothing. Mist and vapor. The girl had woken to find herself bound in the cave.
Jack cut off the bonds and helped the girl to her feet. Schuyler took her right shoulder. The girl staggered and swayed between them, then fell to a faint.
“Here, let me help,” Ghedi said, rushing to MariElena’s side.
Things happened too quickly after that, because the next thing Schuyler knew, the priest was holding a ivory-handled knife against the girl’s throat.
“What are you doing?” Schuyler cried, reaching toward the priest and the girl, as Jack came at them from behind.
“What I am meant to do,” Ghedi said, holding the girl, who was now as limp as a rag doll in his arms, the glittering blade pressed at her jugular. MariElena’s thin blouse fluttered against her neck, and as it did, Schuyler caught a glimpse of the triglyph again. This time it was branded on the girl’s chest. The interlocking circles. The animal. Lucifer’s sigil. It glowed in the dark like a beacon.
Schuyler was focusing on sending a powerful compulsion to stop the priest when she was hit by an unexpected blow that sent her crashing against the stone walls. It did not come from Ghedi, who looked momentarily confused. It came from someone or something else.
“Schuyler!” Jack’s anguished cry echoed through the cavern.
I’m okay, she wanted to send, but found she could not. She could not move, she could not speak, she was paralyzed in every sense. She struggled to find a way out of her bondage—but this spell was not as easy as Iggy’s. There were traces of dark magic in it, forbidden workings that made her bindings as solid as rock.
Unlike the ragtag company of farmers searching for a missing daughter, this was an ambush by a vampire with a vampire’s speed and strength.
“Come quietly or your girl will make a pretty bonfire,” the vampire told Jack, holding out Venator rope and motioning for Jack to tie his wrists with it. In his other hand he held a torch burning with the Black Fire.
No! Schuyler sent, finding her voice in the twilight even though she was still completely immobilized.
Why are you doing this? Do you work for the Countess?
I don’t work for anybody. I’m not in any Coven. This is all for me.
So it had come to this, Schuyler realized. Mimi had placed a bounty on Jack’s life, and the vampire was out to collect.
Please! No! We have money—we can pay you. Let me pay you for his life. Please! Schuyler sent.
Sorry, missy. But I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to pay as much as Mimi Force.
The bounty hunter shuffled up toward Schuyler, and she could see his feral, drawn face hovering over hers.