Blood Winter (30 page)

Either way, how the hell was Max going to defeat the two of them together?

The key was to figure out just what this creature thought she had done and then figure out how to appease it. Maybe she could persuade it to take its mood out on her and leave Horngate and the rest of her family alone.

If she couldn’t figure out how to kill it first. Or disable it somehow.

She grimaced. It would probably be easier to drink the ocean. All the same, it wasn’t like she had a choice. Or time to spare.

Collecting herself, she picked her destination and stepped out of the abyss.

T
HOR AND ALEXANDER TRUDGED SLOWLY IN A
broad zigzagging pattern across the golf course. They had begun at the country-club parking lot, hoping that they would cross Tris’s trail. The snow was blinding, and the dips and hills of the course made for fifteen-foot snowdrifts, sometimes even deeper.

They were having precious little luck. There simply was nothing to smell. Suddenly, Thor gave a shout. Alexander slogged through the snow toward Thor’s voice. He dropped down into a sand trap, the snow coming up to his waist. He swore and pushed forward. Strong as he was, the soft snow was as close to quicksand as Montana could make, and the going was very slow. How had Tris and her companions made it? The snow wouldn’t have been quite as deep, but it would still have been treacherous.

“Over here!” Thor called again, and Alexander closed the distance between them.

The blond Blade was soaking wet, and snow clung to him like cotton candy. He stood in a copse where the snow was only knee-deep. His cheeks were flushed rosy, and he was smiling.

“They blazed a trail for us. Tris must’ve figured someone would come bird-dogging her and didn’t want us getting lost.”

Alexander caught the scent now. Blood. There was a patch of it on the tree about shoulder height. It was not much bigger than a quarter, as if someone had cut a finger and purposefully smeared it there.

“Look for more,” he ordered.

The two men found three more patches leading in a line. They pointed back toward Reserve Street.

They hiked across the golf course, following the direction of the blood. In each copse they passed, they found another set of blood patches. There were two different donors. Alexander did not recognize either one. They had to be the soldiers, Liam and Bambi. At least they weren’t stupid.

They crossed Post Siding Road into the other half of the golf course. The small company of Horngaters had angled east. They kept to the golf course, no doubt figuring it was safer than encountering the people who might be inhabiting the strip mall that ran beside it.

“They can’t have gotten much farther,” Thor said. “There are five of them. Two are middle-aged women and one a middle-aged man. They can’t have passed here that long ago. They only had a few hours’ head start on us, and I know we covered that ground a hell of a lot faster than they could have.”

Alexander nodded. He had come to the same conclusion. “I wish this damned snow would stop,” he said.

“No, you don’t,” Thor said. “Snow works more for us than against us. The enemy can’t see us or smell us. They’re likely hunkered down and don’t think we’ll come for them until this lets up.”

It made sense.

“So where would they go?” Thor mused.

“If it were me, I would head for somewhere quiet. A house, maybe. A lot of them are deserted, but with two armed and trained men, they could take someplace where people were living. They could get information, dry clothes, and whatever else they needed.”

Thor nodded. “So which house?”

“There is not much on this side of Reserve for a while, but across the street behind the businesses is a big neighborhood. That is the most likely place.”

They crossed Reserve near a gutted jewelry store. Its windows were broken out, and a lot of its wood had been peeled away before someone set fire to it. Now it was just a shell. Alexander could smell cooking meat, and his mouth watered. He reached into his vest pocket and took out a power bar. He tore it open and ate it, then two more in quick succession. That was all he had. Max had eaten the rest. Thor followed suit. Slogging through the snow on the golf course had taken a lot of energy out of both of them.

The neighborhood was a long triangular wedge between Reserve Street and the mall. The two Blades started at the closest point and methodically zigzagged along the streets, looking for the blood trail or some other sign that the Horngate group was nearby.

“Wait,” Alexander said, putting a hand up. It was the faintest whiff of the two soldiers. Faint, but he had no doubts. “This way.”

He followed the scent for a block along the street. He turned through a yard and tripped. He turned his fall into a roll.

“Tree stump,” Thor said in a low voice. “Cut recently.”

“Easy firewood,” Alexander said, turning back to find the scent trail. He did not bother brushing himself off. The snow stuck to him, lending him camouflage in the ghost night.

They passed between two houses. On the other side was the one they were looking for. It was neatly tucked away, with a long driveway leading out to the road. A large yard surrounded it on three sides, giving it an air of privacy. Smoke came from its chimney, and with it the delicious scent of cooking meat.

“Do we knock?” Thor asked.

“It is probably a good way to get shot,” Alexander said. “I would rather go in quietly. Check the perimeter, and see if you can find a good way inside.”

Thor went left, and Alexander went right. There was a porch along the front of the house, but all of the windows on the bottom floor were covered with corrugated steel. Another piece had been hung over the front door as extra protection. Alexander continued around to the back. There was a deck on the upper floor. Thor stood beneath it.

“The place is sealed tight. Best chance is up there. It’s at the back of the house. They might not hear us breaking the lock.”

The little house backed up on a two-story duplex. The place looked deserted. Alexander climbed up to the second floor across from the deck and jumped over. The heavy blanket of snow on the deck muffled his landing. A moment later, Thor joined him.

A corrugated-steel door covered the sliding glass doors. There was no latch on the outside, and the metal door was fastened tightly. Even the hinges were inside, out of reach. There was no room for so much as a fingertip between the wall of the house and the steel.

“Right about now, it would be handy to have Max here. She could use that lockpicking voodoo of hers and just walk on in, no fuss, no muss,” Thor mused.

Alexander knew his friend said it to needle him. It worked. He might not feel emotionally connected with her anymore, but he
was
worried. Where was she? Had she gotten herself captured yet?

“I guess we will have to do it the old-fashioned way,” Alexander said to Thor.

“Which would be?”

“Brute strength and ingenuity.” He took out a knife and wedged the tip under the steel. He hammered the pommel with the palm of his hand, driving it under with a screech of metal that made him wince. He did the same lower down, giving them two levers to pry open the door.

“Careful not to break the knives,” he cautioned as Thor readied himself to pull up on the two hilts. “We only need enough room to get a grip underneath.”

A moment later, Alexander was able to slide his fingers beneath the steel. He pulled it back. It was anchored in place by three sliding locks, the kind found in horse stalls. He tugged, and the first one broke away from the wood where it was fastened. He moved his hands down and repeated the process on the next two. The door swung free at last, exposing another door, this one made of wood with insulation stapled to it.

It did not take much to push it open, the wood splintering away from the lock. Inside was the master bedroom. The bed was mounded with blankets to keep out the cold. Homemade oil lamps in canning jars sat on the nightstands and the dresser. A bathroom connected to the room on one side. The door was closed, but Alexander could smell the stench of waste. No doubt they had to collect it and dump it. Plumbing had failed when the electricity did.

Thor swung the two panels shut behind them. The inner door wanted to hang open. He hooked his foot around the bench at the foot of the bed and pulled it over to hold it closed.

Alexander resheathed one of the knives, keeping the other in his hand. The two padded softly out into the hallway. Alexander could smell the five Horngate folks and three others.

They edged to the top of the stairs. The vantage point showed them the front door and a few feet of tiled hallway off to the right. Thor lifted a questioning brow at Alexander. He understood the question. Try a silent approach down the stairs and hope they were not immediately seen or heard, or jump down into the foyer and go for a blitz attack, hoping they could take out any enemies before they could react?

Alexander put a finger across his lips and pointed down the stairs. With any luck, the Horngaters had control of the situation. If not, he did not want to get them shot.

He went down first, testing each step to avoid squeaking. Midway down, he crouched behind the banister. Opposite him was a broad archway into a living room. A fire was roaring in the fireplace, and a number of people were gathered around it. Tris was standing beside Geoff and looking down at someone in an overstuffed chair. Doris was sitting in a corner of the couch. It had been pulled close to the fire. She was wrapped up in a heavy comforter and drinking some sort of soup, by the smell of it.

Alexander could not see the two soldiers. They were out of sight behind the wall or in another room.

“Where would this Sterling take them?” Tris was asking. “Please,” she added, her voice choking. Geoff Brewer put an arm around her shoulder. Both stared intently down into the chair.

A man’s weary voice replied. “I just don’t know. Things have really split apart. It’s been all I can do to keep the kids safe and fed and warm. Please. Don’t hurt them.”

Tris threw up her hands in exasperation. “I told you. We aren’t here to hurt you or your family. We just need some clothes, a place to warm up, a little food, and some information.”

Thor crept down to join Alexander.

“Well?” he whispered, so softly that nobody but Alexander might hear him.

Alexander jerked his head and went to the bottom of the stairs, crossing to stand just outside the door. He crouched down and peered into the room. One of the soldiers was within. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, with short copper-colored hair and a ruddy face. He was standing by a window, the interior wood-and-insulation door wide open. He alternated between watching the group by the fire and looking outside through a peephole drilled into the steel. He held a .45 at the ready.

Alexander looked over his shoulder at Thor. He held up one finger and pointed through the wall at the window.

Thor’s brows went up in a silent question.
Where’s the other one?

Alexander shrugged, then straightened. There was no point wasting any more time. The two soldiers were on Horngate’s side. Hopefully they would not shoot first and ask questions later.

Alexander edged to the doorway and knocked on the wall. Everyone jerked and stared. The soldier at the window brought his gun level, sighting in on Alexander’s chest. Thor stepped around him to fill up the rest of the doorway.

“It’s okay, Liam,” Tris said, staring at the two Blades with a combination of relief and nervousness. “They belong to us. The dark one is Alexander, and the other is Thor,” she said. “They are Shadowblades like Max.”

The soldier came forward, extending a hand. “Name’s Liam.”

The two Blades shook.

“Max mentioned you,” Alexander said.

“Is she here, too?” Tris asked, trying to see behind them.

Alexander shook his head. “No.”

Something in the way he said it made her frown. She stared hard at him. She did not look that much like Max, except for that tough-as-nails attitude. Her hair was long, the gold-blond strands graying. She wore it in a braid down her back. She was in her forties now; her slender body had turned soft around the middle, and her dark eyes were bracketed with crow’s feet.

“Have you found Kyle and the kids?” she asked.

Alexander shook his head. “Not yet.”

She scowled. “Then what are you doing
here
?”

“Finding you,” he said mildly, his gaze skewering her. “It seems Max had some concerns about your safety.”

She flushed. “I wasn’t going to sit on my hands waiting. That bastard is going to kill them. He said he would torture them. We all saw what he was capable of.”

Alexander did not answer. His gaze darted behind her, where another door had swung quietly open. The man standing there could only be Bambi. His black hair was cut short, and stubble darkened his jaw. His gray eyes were flat as they flicked across the scene. His .45 was half raised.

“What’s going on?” he asked Liam.

“Max sent some company,” came the gravelly reply.

Bambi lowered his gun. “So the blood trail worked.”