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Lauren laughed. “I love you too, mom. I’ll stay in touch, and you do the same.” She looked at Nathan and Mordecai. “Ya’ll aren’t as bad about keeping secrets as you used to be, but sometimes you still do. I’ll be pissed at you both if you’re holding stuff back I should know.”
“We don’t know a whole lot, so there isn’t much to hold back,” Nathan told her. “I’ll see to it you have the Drake report, though, in case there’s something we neglected to tell you.”
“Thank you.”
Once Lauren and her men were gone, Ryan took a step away from the wall he’d been leaning against. I hadn’t forgotten about him, but his intention had been to fade away from everyone’s cognizance.
“If there’s anything I can do to help keep Lauren safe, please let me know. Also, you all have to know the Concilio will be within their rights to demand she be tested. I can help with that, too.”
“She’s a human with magical skills, and not a supernatural,” Nathan told him. “The Concilio can fuck themselves as far as Lauren is concerned.”
“Thank you for the offer,” Kirsten told Ryan. “We’re going to hold the line at her being a human with magical skills, but should it come to it, any help you can provide will be appreciated.”
The slayer nodded to Kirsten and turned to me. “In the interests of working together, I’m offering to let you go with me on a scouting trip. There’ve been rumors in the North Georgia area about a bigfoot-type creature tearing animals up in the woods, leaving body parts around with bite marks from a huge mouth, and claw marks that are inches apart, denoting a large creature. The tales are morphing into descriptions of a huge wolf man.”
“Where in North Georgia?”
“Rock Springs area. Go through Chickamauga Battlefield and keep going.”
“I’d think the assholes cooking meth would be more of a danger than a wild wolfman in that area. Give me ten minutes to change clothes. I assume I’m driving?”
Ryan usually left his vehicle miles away from the property when he snuck in. We always made him walk back to it, rather than giving him a ride, but it looked like he was getting one today.
“I’d like to come as well,” Marco said from beside me. Ryan had invited me because of the wolfman rumors, but this was Marco’s territory, too, so it made sense he’d want to know what was going on. Plus, having a vampire with us would greatly simplify finding and then resolving the issue.
“Thank you,” I told him. “You’ll be a big help.”
Chapter 8
Marco
I’d stayed at Homewood rather than heading out to one of my properties so I’d be close at hand if I could assist with locating Lauren. I hadn’t been in the control room long, helping brainstorm where else a search party could look, when Lauren had shown up.
With my slate cleared for the evening, it worked for me to go on this scouting trip.
After centuries of protecting my people from the slayers as best I could, I would be uncomfortable driving with Ryan in the vehicle, so I let Cora drive us while I sat in the backseat, and Ryan sat up front with her. I didn’t want the slayer behind me. He’d been around the coterie for about two years, and I trusted him to a point, but that was asking too much.
Kirsten bought a 1982 Ford Bronco back when we were all paranoid about our cars being hacked, and Cora chose to drive it. It had a new engine and transmission, but the body and interior hadn’t been upgraded, so we’d blend right in once we hit the North Georgia region we were headed.
We traveled down the mountain, through downtown Chattanooga, and finally down Rossville Boulevard, and Cora pointed out landmarks. “There’s a fun escape room a few blocks that way.” She pointed off to the right. “Believe it or not, but if you turn down that road, there’s an organic farming community about a mile down it.” A half mile later, she pointed to the left. “We traced a stolen car to that chop shop once, and it’s still open as fuck, right out in the open for all to see! Oh, and that’s the McDonalds Angelica ran to for help, when she was abducted and managed to escape her captors.” A mile later, she pointed to the left to a little mom-and-pop place. “That restaurant has the best biscuits ever. I don’t know what they do to make them so good. Oh man, the shoe store closed! That antique store used to be great, but the original owner died and one of the kids took over, and everything’s overpriced now. I have no idea how they stay in business.”
And so it went until we reached the battlefield, where Ryan picked up with commentary, telling me where I would turn if I was going to Snodgrass Hill, to the tower, or where I could park and hike if I wanted to come into the back of the bikers’ neighborhood.
“No,” Cora said. “Don’t do that. Fuck, they have every kind of security system you can imagine on their neighborhood, not to mention the fact they physically patrol it as well. I’ve been invited twice, once for a birthday party and once for a wedding. I’d never try to go in without an invitation.”
“My job is to do just that,” Ryan said. “And if one of them went rogue, you’d sneak in if it meant saving lives.”
Cora shook her head. “If one of them goes rogue, his brothers will take care of him. Now, if a crazy wizard makes them all go rogue, then yeah, we’d have to storm in and take them all out, but that wouldn’t be sneaking in.”
Ryan directed her to turn left about ten minutes after we’d left the national park, and it was mostly pleasant country backroads, but we’d occasionally happen upon something frighteningly redneck and destitute. Ancient trailers with duct tape holding plastic over the windows, and old houses that looked like they might crumble to the ground any minute. Not every house looked as if it wasn’t habitable, maybe one out of thirty. Mostly, the houses were thousand-ish square feet homes in good repair with neatly mowed lawns. People scratching out a living for themselves and their families, in all likelihood.
The farther we traveled, the fewer houses we saw, and the bigger percentage of them looked like something from a horror movie.
Or a documentary on Appalachia.
When I saw that we were in the general area we’d been headed, I told Cora, “Slow down a little, please, so I can scan some minds.”
Ryan was locked down so I couldn’t read him, and yet I still sensed disapproval from him.
