Thunder Moon (Nightcreature 8)

“I have no interest in anyone but you.”

I dragged my gaze from his muscles to his face. He was serious.

“When this is done, if we’re both still standing, we’re going to have a long, long talk about the future,” he said.

With that he got into the vehicle, and I was left to ponder his words and fight a growing fear. Because he’d said “if” and reminded me that one or both of us could die.

I wasn’t afraid of dying, even before the wolf that could be my great-grandmother had come trotting through my life, solidifying my belief in the great beyond. But Ian’s words revealed a new wrinkle.

I was downright terrified that he might.

Chapter 33

I kept that fear to myself. Ian couldn’t stop searching for the Raven Mocker any more than I could.

Driving around the last curve before we reached Lake Bluff, I cast an absent glance toward the trailer park nestled in the shade of a hill. Then I hit the brakes so hard, we skidded on the gravel as I turned into the drive.

“Grace, what the—?” Ian stopped when he saw what I had.

A squad car parked next to a dingy, tiny trailer, a crowd gathering. Cal earnestly speaking to several of the people.

Together we got out of the truck.

“Who saw her last?” Cal asked as we approached.

“She went to town to see—” The man, whom I identified as Jarvis Trillion, a regular at both the Watering Hole and my jail after he’d been at the Watering Hole, pointed. “Him. That newfangled, fairy doctor.”

“Fairy?” Ian sounded both confused and a little pissed.

“Well, you do wear a feather in your hair,” I said. “In certain circles, like this one, you’re just asking for it.”

Ian’s hand lifted, brushing the eagle feather, and Jarvis sneered, “What’d you do with Katrine, asswipe?”

Cal cleared his throat. “No need for that, Jarvis.”

Jarvis scowled, but he knew better than to screw with Cal. Cal ate guys like him for a midnight snack. Or was that Chuck Norris?

I motioned for my deputy to join us away from the others. “Why didn’t you call me?”

“You told me to handle things. That you’d be working with Doc.”

“I didn’t mean that you shouldn’t call me if another dead body showed up.”

“Who’s dead?”

“Katrine?”

“Where’d you get that?”

“You’re here.”

“And that leads you to think she’s dead? Sheesh, Grace, talk about ghoulish. Katrine’s missing. Didn’t show up to open the Watering Hole this morning, and the regulars got antsy. Came to roust her.” He lifted one shoulder, then lowered it. “She h

ad the only set of keys to get in the place. When she wasn’t here, they called me.”

“You checked her trailer?”

“No sign of her. Nothing knocked over. No blood. No note. Her suitcase is in the closet, and so are her clothes, but her car’s gone.” His gaze switched to Ian and cooled. “Jarvis said she went to see you.”