Beneath a Darkening Moon (32 page)

Someone needed to oust her dad, she thought sourly, and start getting some common sense back into the community. Then maybe a kid like Denny wouldn’t have been forced to use such a dangerous place.

“The struggle started inside the cave,” she said, her gaze following the scuff marks, “and continued out here.”

He nodded and pointed to an area where the soil was darker. “The amount of blood here indicates this
might be where she tore at his genitals. I’ll need to get a sample to be sure.”

She took some photos first, then handed him bags and gloves before heading into the cave. She paused in the entrance, allowing her eyes time to adjust before moving inside. There was more evidence of a struggle, though the drier soil had failed to catch any worthwhile prints. There was no clothing, meaning Candy had come back here to clean up after being spooked by the hiker.

Which definitely suggested the frenzy
wasn’t
all-consuming. So did that mean Candy had become so accustomed to the attacks that she could, to some extent, control them?

She didn’t know. As far as she knew, they’d never had trouble with blood frenzies in Ripple Creek. Nor did they want it now. While the reservation didn’t survive on the tourist dollar, there were some residents who did—not to mention that any attack by a wolf on a human tended to affect all the reservations.

She collected soil samples from several small areas that looked to be soaked by fluid of some kind, carefully numbering and recording each one. As she rose to leave, a glint caught her eye. She walked over to the corner and brushed aside the dirt. The glint turned out to be a small, rose-shaped pendant.

Exactly the same as the one Candy had been wearing.

And, just maybe, a link back to Rosehall.

“Bingo,” she said softly, bagging the necklace and tagging the area before moving out of the cave.

“What have you found?” Cade had moved to an
area sheltered by overhanging rocks, but he looked around as she appeared.

“A possible connection to Candy.” She showed him the necklace. “She was wearing one like this when I talked to her this morning.”

“It gives us a reason to pick her up, at least.” He rose. “I’ve found several pieces of human tissue scattered about, but not enough to account for what the boy is missing.”

God
. Bile rose, and she closed her eyes, fighting it. “She’s had more than enough time to clean up.”

“Maybe she didn’t need to.” He cupped a hand to her cheek, and gently brushed his thumb across her rain-wet lips. “Have you ever seen a wolf in a frenzy?”

“No, and it’s not something I ever want to witness, thank you very much.”

“I have.” His dark eyes were distant. Troubled. “Five years ago. It took half a dozen of us to bring him down, and none of us walked away unscathed.” He moved his hand and showed her his palm. Though she’d noticed the pale, ragged scar stretching from one side to the other, she’d never gotten around to asking him about it. “I was lucky. Some of them lost fingers, hands, and even a whole arm. He tore and ate whatever he could get hold of.”

She swallowed back bile. “No wonder humans are scared of us.”

“Even wolves should fear those who are in a frenzy. Believe me, sanity takes a backseat, and blood and flesh is all they want. And they’re not picky whose.”

Her phone rang—a shrill sound in the wet wildness
of the storm. She started, her heart leaping into overdrive.

Cade grinned, then leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her lips, his mouth like a furnace against hers. “Getting a little jumpy, aren’t you?”

“Can you blame me?” She stepped back and answered the phone.

It was Kel. “I just got a call from a couple doing the Fitness Freaks tour.”

Savannah ran a hand across her face. Fitness Freaks was a hiking group that ran guided tours along the intermediate Red Mountain trail, and Kel regularly got rescue calls from hikers who weren’t as fit as they thought they were. “Tell them I haven’t got anyone to spare to pick up hikers who’ve changed their mind. They’re going to have to come back down under their own steam this time.”

“This didn’t come from either of the organizers, but from a couple of hikers who’d dropped a little behind. They said it sounds as if something is attacking the main group. There’s a whole lot of screaming and snarling.”

Oh, fuck
 … “On my way. And call the paramedics out, too, Kel.”

She hung up and looked at Cade. “Sounds like Candy’s still in the frenzy. There’s a tour group being attacked not far from here.”

“Then we’d better get there. Fast.”

She nodded, slung the camera over her shoulder, and followed him back down the mountain. “Are we going to need help?”

“Probably.” He had his phone out even as he answered her question.

“What about tranquilizer darts?”

“The last guy I mentioned? He took half a dozen darts and still managed to mutilate three people before he went down.” He paused to talk into the phone, rattling out commands in a sharp voice.

Great
. Just what they needed—to be going after a mad wolf armed only with darts that might have little or no effect.

Ronan and Steve looked around as they came out of the trees.

“What’s up?” Ronan stood.

“There’s a tour group being attacked on the Red Mountain trail. We think it’s Candy, so you’d better come with us.” She glanced at Steve. “You stay here and wait for the doc.”

“Hart, our forensics guy, is on his way here,” Cade said, as he shoved the phone back into his pocket. “Trista and Anton will meet us up there.”

“We can’t afford to wait for them.”

Cade glanced at her. “No. You have those tranquilizer guns in your trucks?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go get the bitch.”

D
ESPITE THE WEATHER
, the scent of blood seemed to hang in the air, thick and rich and ripe, which, Cade thought wearily, meant it was truly bad up ahead. He rubbed a hand across his jaw and half-wished they could have done something, anything, to prevent this tragedy. Attacks like this didn’t do the reservations any favors, especially since it was human habit to blame all wolves for the actions of a few. They’d
be paying for this for years, economically—though Candy herself would pay with her life. There was no such thing as a second chance for a wolf found guilty of murdering a human.

He shut the truck door and flipped up the collar of his coat as he stared up the trail. There was no sound other than the howl of the wind and the drumming of the rain. Not even from the two white-faced women who emerged from the cover of several pines and ran toward them.

The oldest of the two didn’t stop until she’d hit him full on. He grunted in surprise and automatically wrapped his arms around her. Her entire body shook, and her skin was icy. The other woman stopped several paces away, a haunted, almost vacant look in her eyes. Exposure, combined with shock. Their first priority had to be getting them warm. He glanced at Savannah and raised an eyebrow. She nodded at his unasked question and moved back to the truck.

“It’s all right, ma’am,” he said, briskly but gently rubbing the back of the woman hugging him tight. “Can you tell me what happened?”

“You’ve got to help them. Please.” Her voice was muffled by his chest and little more than a hoarse, shaky whisper.

The strong scent of blood, and the fact that there was no screaming or howling coming from the trail ahead, suggested it was already far too late. And he knew from past experience that it was better to sneak up on a wolf in a frenzy than to jump right in.

He grimaced, and tried to keep his voice calm as he said, “Ma’am, we need to know what happened.”

“A big cream wolf just came out of nowhere and attacked
us. It was crazy, just tearing and biting and … oh God.” She started to cry softly.

He gently squeezed her shoulder, feeling awkward and knowing such gestures offered little in the way of comfort. He doubted anything would right now. “How long has it been quiet?”

“I don’t know,” she said, alternating between hiccupping and crying. “Not long. A minute, maybe more. God, you’ve got to hurry. Please.”

Then she broke down completely, her sobs shaking her body and his. Savannah approached, wrapping a blanket around the woman’s shoulders before gently prying her away. He couldn’t help heaving a sigh of relief. He hated clingy women. He always had—which was probably why he’d fallen so hard for Savannah. Then he stopped the thought cold. Now was not the time for such things.

He glanced at the second woman and touched her arm. Her flesh was almost blue, her eyes vacant and jaw slack. “Ma’am?” he said softly.

No response. “Ma’am,” he said, a little louder this time. “We need to ask some questions.”

Savannah came back with another waterproof blanket and wrapped it around the woman’s shoulders. There was no reaction.

Vannah glanced at him. “You want me to prod her telepathically?”

He hesitated. Technically, he should be the one doing it, since such intrusions were in his purview while they could get her into serious trouble. But they couldn’t let this drag on. They had to know what to expect and get up there before Candy finished gorging
herself and moved on. And Vannah was obviously a far stronger psychic than he. He nodded.

Vannah placed her fingers on either side of the woman’s cheeks and narrowed her eyes. A whisper of energy teased his mind, and then her thoughts were in his head, a distant echo of the force she used on the woman.

Ma’am, we need to know how many people were in your group
.

He shouldn’t be able to hear her. The fact that he could meant this thing between them went far deeper than he’d presumed.

God, it was so damn frustrating that he just couldn’t grab her and talk to her.
Really
talk to her—get out in the open all she was feeling, all he was feeling. Get the past and future sorted out.

But there was Candy, and the humans, and somewhere in Ripple Creek a madwoman intent on making them pay for their so-called crimes of the past.

He had to think about that—to ensure they both survived—before he did anything else.

The woman came to life, jumping like a terrified rabbit as she stuttered, “Five … six including Marion, the guide. Please.” She grabbed Savannah’s jacket with her free hand, her knuckles so white they looked almost luminescent in the gloom. “Please help them. My sister—”

“We’ll go find them,” Savannah said, her voice rock steady, soothing, even though she gave him a hopeless sort of look that made him want to wrap his arms around her and protect her from the madness up ahead. She eased the woman’s grip from her coat
and added, “But you need to get into the truck with your friend and lock the door. Do you understand?”

The woman nodded, but she didn’t move. Savannah gently guided her toward the truck and helped her inside.

“Humans,” Ronan said, anger in his voice as he handed Cade a tranquilizer gun. “Not wolves. It’s going to be a bloodbath up there.”

“Yes.” No wolf, or group of wolves, for that matter, could have hoped to protect a group of humans against a wolf in bloodlust. And dart guns were going to be next to useless if Candy was still in the frenzy. Still, they had no other option but to go on. The rangers didn’t carry proper weapons, and his team hadn’t arrived with the silver bullets yet. He raised the small dart gun and checked to make sure it was ready to fire. Two darts. Not nearly enough if this went down badly. He glanced at Vannah as she returned. “Ready?”

Her face was pale, her green eyes determined. “No. But let’s go anyway.”

He smiled. His woman had a lot of courage; there was no doubt about that. “Spread out. That way she can go for only one of us at a time.”

She nodded and headed to the left edge of the trail. He headed down the middle, because it was the most dangerous and he was the only one with any real experience against a wolf in frenzy. Ronan took the right-hand side.

They splashed through the wind and the rain, quickly reaching a sweeping bend that arced around to the right. At the end of it, in the middle of the road, amongst the mud and the puddles, lay the bloody,
broken bodies of the hiking group. Not even whole bodies. Just parts.

And standing beside them, still consuming the warm flesh, was a cream-colored wolf. She didn’t even seem to notice them, though she surely would have smelled them, if not heard them. Maybe the need to consume flesh was greater than the need to flee. He’d seen it happen many a time.

He quickly raised the weapon and fired his two darts. He heard the soft reports to his left and right as Vannah and Ronan fired their weapons simultaneously. The metal-tipped darts hit the wolf in a small cluster right in the middle of her chest. She howled—a sharp sound of fury and pain—and bared bloodstained canines at them. But she didn’t move, and that in itself indicated the frenzy was still under control. She had done this to these people because she’d wanted to, not because she
had
to.

“Candy Jackson, you’re under arrest for—”

Before Vannah had the chance to finish, the cream wolf attacked. Not him, as he’d expected, but Vannah.

“Watch out,” he warned, and threw the spent weapon at the lunging wolf, hoping to distract her even as he sprang to intercept her. But Vannah was faster. In the blink of an eye, she’d shifted shape and launched herself at the cream wolf. They hit in midair with bone-jarring force and tumbled to the ground, snarling and snapping and tearing at each other. Crimson stripes appeared along Vannah’s golden hide, and fear and anger surged through him. Cursing softly, he shifted shape and lunged into the fray, snapping at Candy’s back legs in an attempt to hamstring her.

As he and Vannah attacked from the back and the front, Ronan’s russet-colored form hit Candy from the side, knocking her off her feet. Vannah pounced, locking her jaws around the cream wolf’s exposed neck, a low warning rumbling up her throat.

Candy stilled instantly. Vannah had her jaws locked around the wolf’s most vulnerable spot, and she could so easily rip the other wolf’s throat apart. Cade had no idea how she was resisting the temptation, especially given the bloody mess that lay behind them.