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She promptly added another one. “Did he tell you about the attack at the house?”
“The what?”
“No, don’t say anything. Just listen. I told him about this earlier, but his daylight self doesn’t need to know.”
He glanced at Dominique, who seemed lost in his own thoughts, then froze in his seat when Cassidy said, “Early this morning, two of Esteban’s vampires tracked Natalia down at Dominique’s house. It didn’t end well.”
“Sam?” was the first thing out of Jackson’s mouth.
“She’s shaken up, but unharmed. So is Étienne.” Cassidy relayed the fractured and harrowing details Samantha had shared of the supernatural bloodbath that had taken place. Jackson was stunned speechless by the revelation that his gentle, peace-loving sister had been in the middle of that. “It gets worse.” He couldn’t imagine how until Cassidy told him about Ryan, Esteban’s compelled spy. “Natalia wasn’t the only one he reported on, Jack. Esteban knows you’re coming.”
Not sure if he could keep his face neutral, Jackson turned to stare out his side window. A gray chill settled on his shoulders. This explained vampire Dominique’s cageyness earlier. They were both walking into a trap, their only advantage being knowledge of its existence and two RCMP patrols.
“Do they know where you are?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted with a trace of apprehension. “We told no one about the hotel we’re in, but we’re planning to be out all day today. And tonight, we’ll have Isao and his crew. We should be okay. But listen. That’s not why I called. There is something else he doesn’t know about yet.” Jackson heard her draw a shaky breath. “Dominique’s sister is missing. Geneviève left Saint Barthélemy for France three days ago to attend a funeral for someone who turned out to be alive and well. She never got there.”
32
Wilderness
“Iamhungry,”Dominiquesaid the moment Jackson got off the phone. “And not for blood.”
Nothing about his demeanor betrayed that he had heard a word of what Cassidy had shared with Jackson or her last request before terminating the call. “Take care of him for me, Jack.”
With a small sigh, Jackson nodded and started the car. It was going to be a long day.
The first place they found serving at this hour was the Lost Moose Café, which was part of a two-hose gas station and had a distinct last-century, lost-in-the-woods feel. They pulled in, along with their armed escort, and parked near a muddy pickup truck and two camper trailers.
Compelled to accept every request from Jackson as if it were their own idea, the officers settled in another booth and ordered heaping plates of breakfast, fortifying themselves for the day’s challenges. They were Jackson’s secret weapon. No one knew about them, not even Cassidy, certainly not Esteban. Less certain was whether Esteban would know to expect Jackson and Dominique during the day or not.
The day-walking vampire laid into a plate of scrambled eggs with all the trimmings as though he hadn’t eaten in a week. For once, he didn’t complain about the taste and only glared at Jackson when he explained what would happen to all that food come sundown.
Jackson knew denial when he saw it. Maybe a touch of fear, too. He wasn’t about to add to it with Cassidy’s suspicion that Geneviève might be in the clutches of Adilla’s minions.
According to the map Dominique had marked up, the entrance to the mine Adilla had converted into a summer lair was only an hour ahead. An hour was too soon, the sun nowhere near high enough. They had to wait.
Jackson drove into the closest town, Banff, and took Dominique shopping. The picturesque resort town nestled at the base of a fog-shrouded Mount Rundle was cluttered with stores catering to outdoor enthusiasts and wealthy tourists. By the time he was done, they both cut dashing figures in sturdy trekking boots, convertible pants, hiking shirts, and utility vests. They were the personification of rugged outdoorsmen—even if one of them looked like he should strut the outfit down a Paris runway rather than a Canadian sidewalk.
“We need to look like we belong here,” Jackson explained. “Their daytime security people will expect city-types or tourists. Dressed like this, we should be able to BS our way past them.”
“You do this often? This BS thing?”
Jackson grimaced and scratched his chin, which was overdue for a shave. “It’s my secret superpower.”
They met their RCMP escorts in the agreed-upon location outside town and followed the 4x4 over the winding roads while the SUV brought up the rear. The passing landscape seemed to hold Dominique transfixed. A granite cliff towered to their right, while a glacier-fed river rushed to their left, and on the far bank, an unbroken blanket of evergreens sloped up to disappear into soggy gray mists. The smooth street snaking through it all and humming with traffic felt like an invader rather than a permanent fixture of infrastructure. But it beat tramping through the wilderness, Jackson thought, and hoped the road would take them all the way to their destination.
It didn’t.
Just past noon, their escort slowed and turned by a plain brown sign marking the entrance to a campground. For several minutes they serpentined up the side of a mountain, engine gears grinding. Then, just as Jackson spied the first outposts of camp sites up ahead, the RCMP truck turned again, this time onto a muddy access road heading back down and barely wide enough for one vehicle. Gravel popped under their tires and the suspension swayed wildly over the uneven ruts.
“Are you sure this is where we want to go?” Dominique asked when the “Private Property: Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted” sign went by. It was bright red and impossible to miss.
“Very sure,” Jackson said, setting his jaw. “Somewhere down there, a couple of hundred vampires are sleeping. The defenses are only going to get tighter from here on.”
He felt Dominique’s eyes on him, almost heard him thinking, too. “Don’t doubt yourself, Nick. There is nothing here that can hurt you.”
“Because I am immortal?” Only a slight scoff this time.
