I pulled out my phone again. Aiden might be able to follow my scent, but given the wind, I wasn’t about to take a chance. I really didn’t like the feel of this situation.
We continued on for another ten minutes, and I suddenly realized we were heading for Kalimna Park—the forest where I’d found the teenage victim of a vampire. The man ahead might be under the spell of a lesser-known type of vampire, but I seriously hoped the outcome of this hunt would be very different to that other.
The road ended in a T-intersection. The stranger hesitated, staring at the forest on the other side of the road for several minutes, and then turned right, heading up the hill on a no through road.
I paused at the corner, waiting until he’d reached the top before crossing over to the park side of the road, then continuing on. Dusk was closing in, but at least the odd silence had given way to the sounds of a normal evening—people talking, TVs blaring, kids screaming, and, in the forest itself, small rodents skittering away from my approach.
I reached the top of the hill. My quarry was nowhere in sight.
I swore and quickly looked around; how could anyone so brightly dressed disappear so quickly? Had he gone into the house? Or into the forest?
I eyed the latter uneasily. The last thing I wanted to do was traipse through the scrub in growing darkness. Not only was it possible that the Manananggal was now mobile, but it might very well be a damn trap.
I glanced back to the house. It was a rectangular-shaped, flat-roofed brick building that had been painted white. A large carport was attached to one side, with a small Honda parked underneath. There were no lights on in the house and no indication—
A scream cut across the rest of that thought.
A scream that was high-pitched and filled with agony.
The scream of someone staring into the eyes of death.
Chapter Ten
It hadn’t come from the house.
It had come from the goddamn forest.
I held still against the instinctive urge to rush headlong into the forest after the colorful stranger.
Maybe once, I might have done exactly that, but I’d come too close to death far too many times now to do anything without taking at least some additional precautions.
I sent Aiden and Monty a quick text and then pulled a packet of salt from my backpack. Once I’d raised a containment spell around my fingers—and crossed all things that it was strong enough to at least temporarily contain the Manananggal—I went in.
The screams cut off as abruptly as they’d started, but there was no sense of death, only a thick wave of satisfaction.
Trepidation stirred across my skin, and my steps slowed. This was a trap, and while I had no idea what the Manananggal intended, I wasn’t about to run headfirst into it.
The spell threads rolling across my fingertips provided just enough light for me to pick my way through the trees. Leaves crunched under each step, and the sound seemed extraordinarily loud in the expectant hush that once again held the forest.
I swallowed heavily, though it did nothing to ease the dryness in my throat, and kept following the vague wisps of terror that now stained the wind.
The sense of expectation grew stronger. I slowed even further, my gaze searching the growing darkness, looking for the creature that was out there somewhere.
Leaves crunched behind me. My heart leapt and I raised my hand as I swung around, the spell buzzing angrily around my fingertips.
It wasn’t the Manananggal. It was Aiden and Monty.
I took a deep, very relieved breath and lowered my hand.
Aiden’s gaze scanned me, and some of the tension in his body slipped away. “I smelled blood and thought it was yours. Very happy to see it’s not.”
“How far away is the scent?”
“About a hundred meters.”
“The Manananggal’s also close,” Monty said. “Her magic itches at my skin.”
“Any idea just what that magic might be doing?” I turned and kept following the twin scents of terror and anticipation, my pace quicker than before. Caution might still be needed, but at least I didn’t have to deal with this thing alone.
“No,” Monty said. “But at least the thickness of the canopy prevents her from dive bombing us.”
“I think the chances of her dive bombing us are far less likely than her casting another—”
I cut off the rest as another scream rent the air. The hairs at the nape of my neck rose in response—not so much at the sheer force of agony and suffering evident within that scream, but because it was undoubtedly the Manananggal’s way of directing our action.
She didn’t want me walking through the trees. She wanted me rushing headlong through them.
Me. Not Monty, not Aiden. Me.
The insight had me stopping abruptly.
“Problem?” Aiden said, voice soft but edged.
“You could say that.” I scanned the darkness, looking for the creature even though I was well aware I wouldn’t see her until she wanted to be seen. “The Manananggal knows I’m here. It’s waiting for me.”
“How?” Aiden said, at the same time that Monty said, “Her blood.”
I nodded. “Using her blood to track her has somehow allowed her to gather far too much information about me. We’ll need to split up.”
“While her awareness of you is unfortunate,” Monty said, “I don’t think that’s a very good idea.”
“We have no other choice. She’s torturing that poor guy in an effort to make me rush headlong into whatever trap she has waiting ahead. She’s got my measure—”
“She might have the measure of your regular magic,” Monty cut in, “but not the wild.”
“I can’t use the wild magic willy-nilly, and I certainly can’t use it to kill.”
Another scream. The Manananggal was desperate to keep me moving. Fear stirred, but I thrust it down. The wild magic had already proven that it could protect me against
