Page 82 of Bishop's Flight
“Go to the bathroom. Get in the shower and turn the water on. Soak yourself. Your clothes, your hair, everything. Is there a fan?”
Lucas scrambled to his feet. “Yeah.”
“Turn it on and leave it on.” Brigid’s eyes never left the door. She could hear something approaching, and the faint scent of ash that pricked her nose told her a familiar vampire was walking toward them.
“Maybe I could kill a vampire.” Lucas stood in front of her, his thin body shaking. “If I had to.” Lucas walked away and slammed the door to the bathroom. “I’m shutting the door, locking it, and turning on the fan and the water.”
“Good lad.” Brigid waited for the door to open with a crash or a bang, but a faint tap and a creaking hinge was the only warning before a familiar pale face peeped through the door.
“Brigid.” Zasha Sokholov smiled. “It’s been too long.”
Twenty-Five
Carwyn, Bernard, and three humans walked down the broad dock, the humans in front of them armed and checking to the right and the left as they made their way to the covered slip where the “foreign” couple was staying.
They passed a large warehouse and smaller boat slips on the left, and then the first row of uncovered houseboat moorings was on their left with more on the right, cozied up to the main dock closest to shore.
“How big was their houseboat?” Carwyn asked quietly.
“The old man didn’t know.”
They passed the second row of moorings, and in the distance, Carwyn could see a few lights dotting houseboat windows.
The third branch of the dock stretched out to the left and into the darkness of the lake at night, the moonless night made more profound by the soaring metal roofs that sheltered the watercraft on the third row of boat slips.
“Here.” Bernard turned left and started down the walkway, moving at human speed as his eyes darted right and left. “Their houseboat is on the right side.”
There were a few ordinary humans sitting out on the decks now that the day had cooled to night, enjoying the desert breeze and the warm, dry air off the shore.
“Three down on the right,” Bernard whispered.
Carwyn heard the proclamation as if it were a bomb. “She’s not here.”
“We have to look.”
He could feel her in his chest, her blood mingled with his. “Fine, but she’s not here. I can’t feel her.”
Bernard stopped at the slip that the store owner had mentioned. In the darkness, the glowing white walls reflected the hint of light from the low lights that marked the walkways.
The houseboat’s name wasDesert Breeze, and it looked like a rental. There was generic furniture on the back deck, little clutter or anything personal, and two bikes were tied up to the storage box nailed to the dock.
“Hello,Desert Breeze,” Bernard called. “Authorities from the Callville Bay harbormaster. We’d like to ask you some questions.”
Carwyn heard feet moving on the deck, and a tall, thin couple came walking from the front.
Brigid was not here. He couldn’t feel her, and if his mate were aboard this boat, there would be no way to fool his amnis.
“Hello?” A polite male voice came from the darkness. “Hello, we are renting this boat for the week. I’m Jan de Haag, and this is my partner Mina. Is there a problem, Officer?”
Bernard didn’t correct them. In his dark clothing and vest, he looked like an officer. “I’m sorry to disturb you. We’re searching the docks. There’s a fifteen-year-old boy who has gone missing, and we’ve been given information that he may be in the area.”
Carwyn could see the two people clearly. They were Dutch from their names, but he saw no sign of deception on their faces.
“That is very troubling. I am so sorry,” the woman named Mina said. “We haven’t seen any boys on their own. There was a family who rented the boat in the slip over there.” She pointed down the row and to the right. “But he was clearly in their family. There were three children. I didn’t notice anything strange or dangerous.” She looked at Jan. “Did you?”
“No.” He frowned and shook his head. “They left to go upriver yesterday.”
“And you’ve been here the whole week?” Carwyn asked. “You don’t take the boat out at all?”
