We didn’t know that. The strongest might not be enough for this. But I said, “Yes, they will, they’ll be fine, we just have to do our part now.”
It’s not like we had a choice.
A dozen miles later he glanced at the rearview mirror, glanced again, then took a brief look over his shoulder to the road behind. I turned to see what he was looking at.
&nb
sp; Some distance behind us, visible on the straightaways, I made out a car, a big, dark SUV, driving without its headlights on.
“We’re being followed?” I said, disbelieving.
“Apparently.”
“What do we do?”
“Frankly, I’m more worried about what’s in front of us.” What the others had set us to do, and what they were fighting Ashtoreth to give us time to do.
I didn’t want to think about what was happening with them right now.
Ben bent over the steering wheel, his focus ahead.
The big SUV kept following us. Another henchman of Roman’s? The Men in Black? Who was it? Maybe just a coincidence? Not bloody likely. We kept ahead of them, so maybe Ben was right. We didn’t have worry to spare.
Ben saw the sign for the turnoff to the West Thumb basin before I did, so he was already yanking the wheel hard, tires squealing on pavement, before I had a chance to call a warning.
West Thumb was another cluster of geysers like the Norris Basin, but this one butted right up against the shore of the lake. There must have been something about it that made casting the spell easier for Roman. Or it might have offered the easiest access, with paved roads and convenient parking. Nice.
After dark, the lot was empty, and Ben screeched the Jeep to a stop, not bothering with something as prosaic as parking between the painted lines. In a second he was out of the driver’s seat and had the back open, digging through Cormac’s stash of weapons for stakes and spray bottles of holy water. I looked behind us for that black SUV, but didn’t see it. It had followed us all the way down the road, but didn’t come into the parking lot behind us.
“Whatever he’s doing, it’ll be by the shore, I think,” I said.
“Then we’ll follow it until we find him,” he said.
“Thank you,” I said, out of the blue.
“We’re in this together. All the way.” Pure statement of fact. His expression was open and unastonished. Very practical. Ben the lawyer, doing what needed to be done.
We trotted to the boardwalk and dirt paths that led past a collection of hot springs to the shore of the lake. Like at Norris, these springs were quiet; no geysers boiled or sprayed. Our wolves were close, feeding strength to our legs, our long strides. Our senses pushed out, taking in the air, listening for the least little sound, anything that would give a clue as to what might happen next. We were hunting. We were also being hunted. It was a strange feeling. Exhilarating, too. This was for everything. Couldn’t rest, couldn’t slack off, not for a second.
We moved a few paces away from each other, covering more ground, Ben looking right, me looking left, toward the water. No Roman, but no other bad guys, either. I pulled ahead and turned all my attention forward, looking for Roman, determined to find him before it was too late.
The trees gave way to an open plain of chalky white dust and sand, a scoured area where mineral-laden geysers and hot springs had washed over the earth and into the lake. The lake was pewter colored, stretching to a blur of hills on the opposite side. The shore curved and bent in the shape of an inlet. Bits of forest survived, and we continued into the next clump of trees. As far as I could tell, we were still within the range of the marked spot on the map. Still no Roman.
“Anything?” Ben called. We were loping together, the way it should be, me and my mate on the hunt.
It didn’t last.
At first, I thought the wind came off the water. It blasted hard enough to make me stumble, and my reflexes recognized it before I did. A moment later the smell of brimstone came.
“Ben!” I screamed in warning.
He pulled up short and turned on his flashlight. The beam of light blazed around him. She appeared in a whirlwind of choking white dust. The light stopped her briefly, which was good, because she had a spear in hand and had been reared back in the start of an attack. She dropped to both feet—between us, separating us—and took stock.
If Ashtoreth was here, what had happened back at the Norris Basin? Did this mean she had finished there? What had happened to my friends? I almost called out to her, demanding to know what she had done to Cormac and the others.
Instead, Ben yelled at me. “Go! Kitty, go, keep looking!” He had his Glock in hand. I hadn’t even known he’d had it.
“Ben!” I screamed again, because I had to. He didn’t spare me a glance. He couldn’t. All his attention was on the demon and her next attack. He aimed and fired; she stumbled back. But a bullet wouldn’t kill her.