Page 28 of Caretaker

Chapter Ten

“He’s full of shit,” Shane said. He didn’t resist when I moved out of his arms.

I understood how he felt. It was the same way I’d felt when Amias had told me he was my master. “Right,” I said, scornfully. “What an asshole. Forget about it and let’s get to work. We’ve wasted too much time as it is.”

But I’d died, even if only for a few seconds, and things had changed. I was feeling just a little off my game. I squeezed my fists, then reached down to caress the comfort of Silverlight’s sheath. I’d be fine. Everything would be fine.

Sure it would.

Shane didn’t argue. He opened his mouth to ask if perhaps I didn’t need to go home and rest, after what I’d been through—I saw it in his eyes. I also saw the exact second he realized he was coddling me. Protecting me. Worried about me.

He slammed his mouth shut, started the truck, and got us back on the road. “You have her scent?” he asked, a few minutes later.

I nodded. “It’s like an echo in my mind. Continuous and loud. She’s different because her blood is pure.”

“It fucked you up.”

“Yes. But if I come across another clean human, I don’t think it’ll happen again. It was just the initial shock.” I slid to my window, lifted my nose to the wind, and closed my eyes.

Madalyn’s scent rose above all the others, riding on the heavy fresh scent of looming rain, the melancholic scent of freshly cut grass and backyard grilling, the wafting sweetness of date night perfume, and the sharpness of alcohol from the Old River bar two blocks over.

My ability was growing stronger.

“Take me to the judge’s house,” I told Shane. “We’ll start there.”

When we arrived on the street in front of Bennett’s house, I got out of the truck and stood in the street, turning in circles, drawing in her scent.

“We need to go around,” I told Shane. “I think she was taken from the back of the property.”

The fog trails, thick and colorful only a few months ago, had begun to dwindle and thin. They were the leavings of vampires, and the vampires were dying. The decline in the trails gave me a moment’s sadness, for reasons I didn’t quite understand.

Maybe because I found joy in hunting the vampires. Maybe because despite everything the humans were taught, vampires were a natural part of our world. They belonged there.

But that night, I was not after vampires, and the fog trails didn’t matter anyway.

“She’s here somewhere,” I murmured, as Shane parked by the gates at the back of the house. “She hasn’t left Red Valley. Her scent is too strong. Too…alive.”

He said nothing, just rested Betty the shotgun across his shoulder and watched our backs.

And out of nowhere, panic hit. I leaned forward, my hands on my knees, my heart bursting from my chest. I couldn’t breathe. “God, Shane.”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me around. “What?”

I shook my head and pressed my palm against my chest, as though I might be able to slow my galloping heart. “Panic attack.”

I was familiar with panic attacks, but each time I had one, I was sure that this was the time I was dying. This was the time I was really having a heart attack.

“I’ll call for paramedics.” He whipped his phone from his pocket and was punching in the numbers when I stopped him.

“I died tonight,” I said. “What kind of person dies and then goes on like nothing happened? I died, Shane. I mean, I was gone, right?”

He sighed and slid his phone back into his pocket. “Baby hunter, we’re not normal people. Shit happens. Get used to it. Regular shit won’t happen to you, and you have to stop reacting like it does. That’s how it is.”

He was right. I needed to let go of the old Trinity. She’d died when she’d been attacked by infected vampires on Thanksgiving Day. I needed to let her go.

I was a bloodhunter. I drew that knowledge around my shoulders like an invisible cape, took a few minutes to let it warm me, and then I nodded. “I’m good.”

My heart still beat a little too fast, fear lingered in the back of my mind, and my stomach was so tight it hurt, but I would do my work and eventually…