Rituals (Cainsville 5)

I wobbled from the car, and I was sure I'd be stiff in the morning, but otherwise I seemed fine.

The car had slid onto the shoulder and struck a rock. It wasn't a big rock. Just enough to stop the Jag and set off the air bags, which left the car non-drivable.

"You'll need to call for a tow," I said.

He took out his cell phone. "No service."

"Naturally." I checked mine. "Same."

"I should hope so, considering we're with the same provider--the one Ricky set us up with. Which I've noticed has substandard coverage. I'm sure it has unlimited texts and calling, which is a benefit...to you two."

"Um, the guy replaced our ruined cell phones after we both almost drowned, and you're complaining?"

"No." He looked at his phone again. "Not exactly."

"Get a new provider if you don't like that one. Right now, we have a disabled car in the middle of nowhere. On an empty road. With a winter storm whipping up. Can you see any sign of..." I squinted against the endless white. "Anything?"

"No."

"All right. Come on, Lloe. We're going for a walk."

She sat on the roadside.

"Yes, I know," I said. "It's snowing. It's cold. You haven't eaten enough to 'need' a walk. But we really don't have a choice."

She lay down.

"Lloergan," Gabriel said firmly. "We are leaving. If you wish to remain here, you may." He opened the door. "It will be warmer in there. I'll turn on the emergency flashers."

"How much of that do you think she understands?"

His look said it didn't matter--the point was that he had explained, and if she lacked the mental capacity to comprehend, that was hardly his fault.

I waved Lloergan toward the open car door. "Go on. We won't be long."

She laid her head on her paws. Gabriel closed the door and started walking away. Lloe rose, growling.

"I think she's telling us not to leave," I said. "She did warn us that something was about to run across the road. Did you see what it was?"

Gabriel looked around as if--like me--he'd forgotten all about the cause of the accident.

"I presumed a deer," he said, "but I couldn't tell."

"This strikes me as a little too familiar."

"If you mean the last time we were run off the road, I believe you'd swerved to avoid one of those." He waved at Lloergan.

"Yes, but that didn't cause me to drive your car off the embankment." The hound had been a warning, one that came too late for me to avoid getting run off the road by a killer.

I continued, "Something darted in front of the car after Lloergan warned us. It disappeared, but not before we went off the shoulder. Now we're stranded on an empty road in a snowstorm, forced to go looking for help."

"An omen, then. We're supposed to search for something."

"Or it's a trap. But the possibility we're stranded here by accident is about zero."

He peered into the falling snow. Then he turned to the hound. "If there's something out there that bothers you, this car isn't going to protect us. We need to find out what it is."

Lloergan grumbled and glowered at Gabriel. She walked over and nudged his leg, n