Broken Bonds (Lizzie Grace 3)

ed at the top of his head. “Trust me, you get used to it after the first hundred pages or so.”

“I’d rather just watch the movies.” He got out his phone and hit the record button. “Ready when you are.”

I took a deep breath to center my energy and then sat cross-legged behind the hunter and placed my hands either side of his head. Almost immediately, information and images stirred. “His name is Bryan Browning and he’s been at the pub,” I said. “His brothers weren’t there. He met a woman and left with her.”

“Address? Description?” Aiden asked.

I paused and chased down the appropriate memory reel. “She’s working out of a small house just outside Kangaroo Flat.” I gave him the address and then added, “She’s white, has dyed blonde hair, and brown eyes.”

“A prostitute?”

“Yes.” I reached deeper. “Hale—the middle brother—has gone back into the reservation to snare their next target. The other brother—” I paused as the information slipped from my grasp. I chased after it, but it kept fragmenting and I had an odd sense of uncertainty. “Either he isn’t sure what the oldest—Shaun—is doing or, for whatever reason, that particular memory is fading faster than the others.”

“How many trackers do they have in total? Is it only the ten they bought from the witch or is there more? And can you grab any idea where in the reservation Hale has gone?”

I frowned as I continued to sort through the various memories in an effort to find the right information. It was rather like searching through a library catalog—a very random, ill-organized, and rapidly fading catalog. Bryan obviously wasn’t the one who’d been sleeping in the tidiest of the three bedrooms. After a moment, I found a breakfast memory.

“They have seven viable trackers left, and one inert. The thread we found on the first victim rendered that one useless.”

“We found seven in the cabin, so that means Hale has one tracker with him.”

I dove deeper into the breakfast memory. “Kingstone was discussed, but I can’t be sure whether that’s the next target area.”

“Do they have more than one vehicle?” Aiden commented. “Because the red one is now in the carport.”

I tried to find some sort of answer but there were simply too many conflicting images to be sure which was the right one. Bryan, it seemed, was something of a car nut and had a sideline in modding cars for resale.

“I can’t find that information, sorry.” I removed my fingers and took another deep breath. Weariness pulsed through my brain, but it wasn’t as fierce as it normally was—I guessed because this death, and his memories, were both far fresher than any of the previous times. “That’s really all I can get.”

“It’s still far more than we had a few minutes ago.” Aiden put his phone away and then squatted beside me. “Are you okay?”

“Surprisingly, yes.” I’d need food and Panadol, but at least I could still function.

He studied me through slightly narrowed eyes. “I’m still thinking you shouldn’t drain—”

“Aiden, as you’ve already said, we need to stop these people before they kill someone else.”

“Yes, but—”

“I’m fine.” I reached out and placed my hand over his. “I appreciate your concern but spelling doesn’t take it out of me anywhere near as fiercely as reading the dead.”

“As long as you’re sure—”

“And I am.”

“Then do what you need to do, and I’ll go talk to Jack.” He hooked his hand under my elbow, helped me rise, and then kissed me tenderly. “The minute you start feeling like shit let me know. Kingstone isn’t huge and given we have access to Hale’s clothing, we can hunt him down the old-fashioned way, using scent and sight.”

My way would be quicker and we both knew it. But I nodded and walked back into the cabin. Once I’d retrieved the bracelets, I sat back down at the table and tipped them out of their evidence bags, carefully sorting through them until I found the strongest resonance. Then, with only the slightest tremor of unease at the thought of performing this sort of magic without the benefit of a protection spell, I unpicked the bracelet’s layers to reveal the controlling thread and wound my reversal spell around it. I also attempted to ease the friction between the two, but only time would tell if I was successful or not.

My head was pounding by the time I’d finished tying off the spell threads. I pushed to my feet and walked down to the bathroom to see if the men had painkillers stored there. Luck was with me. Once I’d washed down a couple with water, I placed the new tracking bracelet into the silk bag, tucked the tracker Aiden had given me into one evidence bag, shoved all the others back into another, and headed out.

A screen had been placed around the hunter’s body, and while there were now a few curious onlookers from the other cabins, they were all keeping their distance. Jack was talking to Mrs. Allan and there were two uniformed officers taping off the area.

“Aiden’s waiting in his truck,” Jack said, as I approached. “Good luck catching the other two.”

I nodded and held out the evidence bag holding the other bracelets. “Do you want these?”

He hesitated. “Yes, but don’t you need—”