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“So you want to go off-roading in the Appalachians in a Continental at 4:30 in the morning?” Nelson verified slowly.
“Want to prove this is more than some old wives’ tales?” Nox challenged.
“Whatever we find will probably be worthless without a warrant.”
“Not to us, Nelson!” Nox whispered excitedly. “I’m not worried about making a case and neither are you. You want to know if and how the MacCrorys were involved and their boots were our best way of finding out. According to Boyle, Ma MacCrory says they were rubbish and her men were at home all night. Let’s see if your instincts were right. My money’s on you and that she’s lying, but we won’t know unless we take a look.”
Nelson flicked another antacid into his mouth. “Fine. We’ll take a look. But we aren’t going within five hundred feet of that place. Do you hear me?”
“Loud and clear!” Nox nodded and held up both thumbs, determined to be on his best behavior. The last thing he wanted was to stress Nelson out more or get him into deeper trouble with his superiors. “I just want to make up for yesterday and salvage this trip if we can.”
Nox’s plan backfired pretty quickly and he found himself pondering the consequences of his intentions again as the Continental crept around an overgrown bend on a mist-shrouded dirt road. The drive had been incredibly rough once they turned off Main Street and onto a narrow, winding rural highway, and headed deep into the forest.
Nelson cut off the headlights and steered the car off the road and into a gap between two mountain laurel shrubs. “We have to go the rest of the way on foot,” he said, sighing wearily before throwing his door open and getting out. He left his coat hanging behind the driver’s seat as he went around the back and opened the trunk.
“We’re still about a quarter of a mile away.” Nox had his phone out as he hurried to join Nelson and pointed at the blue dot on the map.
“I don’t want them to hear us coming and there’s no telling what their security looks like. Look at where we are.” Nelson gestured around them, then reached into the trunk and unlocked a hard black briefcase. “The kind of people who live out here like their privacy and they don’t appreciate unexpected visitors,” he explained as he traded the pistol in his holster for a bigger pistol, then secured another holster and gun around his right ankle.
“But we’re just here to get a look, right?” Nox confirmed, but his druid senses were tingling. “Maybe we should wait until we have a warrant and backup.”
“Not unless I have something bigger to go on than old wives’ tales,” Nelson said as he lowered the hood and gave it a firm shove to close it quietly. “Let’s see if my instincts were right.”
“I was hoping you would take it as a dare, but I’m regretting that now,” Nox admitted, following Nelson around the driver’s side of the car.
“Enough to stay behind me and do exactly as I say?” Nelson asked. He raised a brow at Nox dubiously as he reached into the car for his coat and pulled it on. “I’m about to trespass on a remote compound in hillbilly country with nothing but a magickal anthropologist as backup. Every fiber of my being tells me that this is a terrible idea but I can’t leave you here because the…Nox alarm in my head starts screaming and my body begins to boil.” He buttoned his coat and gave his forehead a hard, petulant flick. “You ever dream that you’re lost and up to your neck in cold, wet, angry earth?”
“Angry?” Nox shook his head, jogging to keep up as Nelson crouched and rushed into the woods in the direction of the MacCrorys’ place.
“That’s what I have to deal with now. My head and my body feel like they’re going to explode from the sound and the heat and when I go to sleep, you try to drown me in dirt if I’m not right by your side. And it’s a little like dying whenever we’re apart because I get sick and feel lost without you.”
“Whoa!” Nox looked up at Nelson instead of watching where he was going and tripped on a root.
Nelson turned and caught Nox. “Please be careful,” he whispered, his hand locked around Nox’s elbow.
“Sorry.” Nox swayed closer, drawn to the warmth radiating from Nelson and the smell of his simple soap and starched suit. “I’m sorry about everything and I mean it when I say you’re perfect, Nelson.”
Nelson’s brows pulled together, but he lowered his head and cautiously touched his lips to Nox’s. “Thank you, but could we talk about this after we’ve finished trespassing?” He nodded over Nox’s shoulder.
Nox turned and hissed at a sign nailed to a tree warning that trespassers would be shot on sight. “Lead the way!” Nox gave him a jaunty salute, earning his second mini smile of the morning from Nelson.
“Watch your step,” Nelson murmured as he held back a low, heavy branch and pointed at a pair of rusted metal jaws in the brush to their right.
“Was that a bear trap?” Nox asked in horror, earning a tight nod from Nelson.
“I’ve seen a few of them.” He paused when they reached a break in the trees and a small, rugged pasture and pointed at a dilapidated barn in the distance.
A crooked doublewide with a sinking roof and boarded-up windows was surrounded by crumpled, hollow automobile shells that had been spray-painted with warnings and threats. But it was the massive, faded swirls and antlers painted on the side of the barn that stole Nox’s breath and made his blood run cold.
“You see it too?” Nelson asked out of the side of his mouth.
Nox nodded. “I, too, see a triskelion with stag horns.”
“I thought I might have been hallucinating due to stress and lack of sleep.”
“What if you took a vacation after this?” Nox asked hopefully, turning to Nelson. “I am deeply concerned about the number of antacids you consume and the amount of stress you’ve been under.”
Nelson let out a frustrated huff as his eyes swept upwards. “It’s interesting that you would choose now and this location to share your concerns, seeing as it was your idea to swing by and snoop on the MacCrorys.”
