Jaz Parks 5 - One More Bite

others. From the look on Vayl’s face he couldn’t feel any intense human emotions either. And Jack showed no more than mild interest in the entire exercise. With Albert staying in the hall to watch, we entered the room carefully. Vayl led, throwing frost ahead of him so thick I could see my breath before I’d taken a single step.

How, with a laptop feeding him camera shots, had Cole not seen them coming?

Scidair, my mind replied as it noted the upset chair. The quarter-sized spot of blood on the floor next to it. The wad of gum that had fallen out of his mouth at some point during the kidnap.

Or killing?

No. Hell no! I’d have known! I’d have felt him—pass! Right? Geez, where do you go when you can’t stand being inside your hysterical head one more second? Some girls find a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. Some shop. I warm my hand on the butt of my gun and sink into my own center. It’s not quite the shelter it used to be. Cracks have opened and the floor’s developed a big rusty spot, but it still does the job most of the time.

Vayl pointed to himself, jabbed a finger back toward Floraidh’s room. Then he gestured for me to take Jack and check out Dormal’s place. We met back in the hide less than fifteen seconds later, where Albert had at least had the presence of mind not to touch anything.

“She’s not in there,” I whispered. “Although I’m pretty sure we tripped whatever magical alarms they’ve woven over their rooms. I felt them zap as soon as we crossed the thresholds.”

Vayl shrugged it off. His expression said now was not the time to be timid. “Floraidh has left as well. She keeps a shrine to Samos behind that screen.”

“Okay, that’s pathetic.”

“I have not even begun. Besides pictures and ticket stubs she also has hair snippets, fingernail clippings, and a used condom.”

“Ick!” I watched Jack sniff at the bloodstain. My first instinct was to shove his nose away from the spot. His desire to take in that aspect of Cole’s scent grossed me out. Until I gave it a second thought.

He didn’t get that I might disapprove of his behavior. He was in dog mode, pointing on odors that stood out because, for one reason or another, they interested him. Maybe that’s how I needed to view Floraidh. Not as a woman who’d loved Samos enough to keep souvenirs of their time together. But as a Scidairan who needed bits of him in order to cast a spell that would  .  .  .  what? You can’t raise a man from the dead when he’s got no body to raise.

Unless you steal yourself another one.

Shit!

They must’ve been planning this for a while. And Cole probabeAndze=ly hadn’t even been the original target. But Floraidh had been forced to step up her timetable for some reason. Gather diamonds to fend off ghosts who would interfere because, why? Was Samos stuck somewhere in the Thin? And was it the shades’ job to make sure he didn’t come back? If Brude was Satan’s Enforcer, maybe he was sheltering Samos. Or trying to distract us so nobody could keep him from returning. But, then, why the need for the diamonds?

Didn’t matter. She’d manipulated Humphrey into handing over the goods. Taken Cole. And if we didn’t find them soon Samos would return.

We did a quick check of the hallway. Kinda redundant, since we knew it went nowhere but past the rooms we’d already searched.

“They can’t be that far ahead of us,” I fumed. “We just heard Cole’s voice!”

“You stay here and keep searching,” said Vayl. “Albert, go downstairs and keep watch over their car. At least we will know if they try to leave by the lane.”

“Should we”—I didn’t want to ask. It hurt to consider cutting Cole out of our loop. But if it would help in the end— “Should we tune the party line to a different frequency?”

“We would be assuming Floraidh and Dormal had found his receiver and understood its significance,” said Vayl. “Am I stating the situation correctly?”

“I’d say that about sums it up.”

He gave it a moment’s thought. “No. At worst I believe they will think it another one of our ghost-reaching gadgets. And anything that might help us find him faster is worth the risk.”

They took off, leaving me spinning in the hall, trying to decide if the Scidairans had taken Cole to the attic. Was there an attic? If so, would a coven perform wicked rites there while the guests slept two floors below? I don’t think so.

We’d closed the fourth-floor doors. Now I opened them wide. Went back into the linen closet where Jack lay, looking despondent, by the wrecked chair.

I crouched beside him. “What do you think?” I asked as he looked up at me with his expressive black eyes. “Can you help me find Cole?”

I heard his tail thump against the floor before I saw it wagging out of the corner of my eye. “Okay then.” I caught the end of his leash. “Have another sniff.” I directed his attention to the blood. Then we spent some time with the chair. When I couldn’t stand the delay any longer I said, “Got it?”

A straight-up perk of the ears told me he’d decided the game was on. I led him into the hall. Knelt down beside him. Said, “Where’s Cole? Where’d he go? Let’s find him, okay? Let’s go play with Cole!”

He sniffed around, with me repeating the command long enough that Vayl had rejoined us by the time Jack reached the wall at the hall’s end. The one with the cute little table holding our camera. Ducking under the table, Jack began to scratch.

I looked at Vayl. “I should’ve known better. My dog sucks at trailing. The last time we were home I accidentally dropped a hot dog on the floor while I was cooking supper one night. And despite the fact that he ee fks was sitting beside me at the time I still had to show him where it landed.”