Page 25 of Tragic Ink
Chapter 9
Huddledinside the alcove of a large outcropping of rocks, I shivered for an hour before Ethan alerted me through our bond that someone was coming up the dirt road. A moment later, headlights came into view. I tensed, ready to run if necessary. Park Ranger Rusty Higgins patrolled the woods around town every night, although he should have been in wolf form instead of driving. I’d been lucky to avoid him so far, and I couldn’t afford to be found by him now. Rhys had said he would come, and I had no doubt he would keep his promise, but in the meantime, I was exposed. Cold. Without a single form of defense if whoever was doing all this found me first. I had no doubt now that someone out there was trying to screw with me. Not kill me. They could have done that already. No, instead they wanted to ruin me first. And so far, they were doing a damned good job of it,too.
The headlights swung sideways as a truck pulled into the visitor lot down the hill from where I’d hidden. The base of the great falls was a popular hiking meetup for tourists and even locals. Not at two in the morning,though.
The headlights swung away, and I finally got a look at the vehicle from my vantage point. A sigh escaped me, interrupted by the shuddering of my body. Ethan swooped low enough that Rhys ducked as he got out. It seemed I wasn’t the only impatient one out heretonight.
“Gwen?” Rhys called quietly as he started up thehill.
I pushed to my feet and slid out into the open. Rhys breathed out when he spotted me, his shoulders relaxing as he closed the distance between us and gathered me into hisarms.
“I was so damn worried. Are you all right?” he asked, wrapping his arms around me and rubbinghard.
Some of my shivering subsided. “I’m okay,” I said in a voice that was nowhere nearconvincing.
“Come on. Let’s get you warm andsafe.”
I didn’t argue as he led the way back to the truck. In fact, I didn’t say a word as he tucked me inside, spreading a blanket over me before blasting the heat as high as it would go. I sat back to let him shut the door, but he paused, browcreasing.
“Your hawk... I’d like to leave him up there for a while to help scout our way. Is thatokay?”
Ethan practically screamed at me mentally, and I nodded, a wry smile tipping one side of my numbed lips. “I think you two are on the sameside.”
“Good.” Rhys shut the door and walked around, climbing inside. When he reached across the space and grabbed me, I jumped. He ignored that as he slid me across the bench seat until my thigh was pressed tightly againsthis.
“What are you doing?” I asked, though I didn’t protest the contact. I already felt warmer than I hadbefore.
“Warming you up for one thing,” he said, tucking the blanket carefully around me. “And doing a little to help restore my ownsanity.”
“What are you talkingabout?”
“I was out of my mind for the last hour,” he admitted. “Terrified I’d get here and you’d be gone... orworse.”
“Did you find Walter?” Iasked.
“No, I didn’t see anyone else, and the cops are... there’ll be a fullinvestigation.”
I nodded, still too numbed to think too hard aboutthat.
“I don’t understand why Walter would have wanted to use his tattoo on innocent people,” Rhyssaid.
“He’s not exactly the world’s most cheerful person,” Iadmitted.
Rhys shook his head. “Still. Why get it in the first place? A hellhound is a pretty aggressive choice,right?”
I shrugged. “He said he was worried about his safety on the job. He worked for Waste Management and said he frequently had to outrun aggressive dogs and that he’d once stumbled on a bear digging through someone’strash.”
“Yeah, I guess I could see that,” Rhyssaid.
We were silent for a minute. “Maybe it was someone else,” I saidquietly.
Rhys turned to me so quickly, I knew he’d been considering the same thing. “You think someone else activated it? Is that evenpossible?”
I didn’t know what to think, but that didn’t change the fact that the hellhound had been here and done some real harm. “Sure, I mean, with the right magic, anything’s possible, right?” I shrugged. “All I know is someone wanted to hurt innocent humans and they used my tattoo to do it.Again.”
Rhys bit his lip. “Gwen, we’re going to figure this out. It’s going to beokay.”
I nodded, my eyes stinging with tears. “Rhys, I... Thankyou.”
