Circle of Fire (10 page)

M
ADDIE FROWNED AND GLANCED AT HER WATCH
. J
ON WAS
nearly an hour late—though why she was surprised, she wasn’t entirely sure.

She picked up her milkshake and idly pushed the straw back and forth across the caramel froth. She’d been an idiot yet again. She’d stared into Jon’s bright blue eyes and believed the truth she saw there.

Only the apparent truth always hid deceit. She’d learned that lesson the hard way during the six long years of her marriage. What on earth made her think Jon would keep his promise when it was so obvious he didn’t want her around?

A waitress brushed past her, bumping against her arm. As the woman apologized, Maddie glanced up and felt her heart almost jump into her mouth. Hank stood in the café’s entrance, looking around.

Had he followed her, or was it just coincidence that led them to the same place? She had no way of knowing and no way of finding out, short of asking him. And something told her
that
wouldn’t be a wise move.

He stepped forward and she ducked her head, praying he didn’t see her. After this morning, she wanted
as little as possible to do with him. The man was spooky.

His footsteps moved away from her. She sipped her milkshake and glanced furtively sideways, trying to see where he went.

He stopped in front of a table on the far side of the small restaurant. She wished she could see whom he was meeting, but the width of his body blocked her view. It might be just a friend or a relation, but the way his shoulders were hunched and his head bowed told her this wasn’t so.

She could remember standing that way herself over the years. He spoke to someone he loved and yet feared.

Maddie frowned at the thought. Why did she keep thinking back to her marriage? The past was coming up too much lately; she was seeing reminders everywhere. Why couldn’t she just forget it and get on with her life?

Because the past has shaped my present, and given me no life at all
. She closed her eyes against the sudden insight. While the life she’d been leading might hold no excitement, it was safe. It was all she could ask for these days. And all she deserved.

Hank looked like he was arguing with the person in the booth. He made a short, sharp gesture with his hand that spoke of denial, then he shifted slightly. For an instant, Maddie found herself staring into a woman’s eyes—eyes that were as dark as the sky at midnight.

Relief surged through her. For some odd reason, she’d half expected the woman to have the same chilling green gaze as the cat.

The woman rose, and Hank stepped back. Maddie was surprised to see that the woman was short. Somehow, Hank’s manner had made her expect someone much taller, someone with a more commanding presence. The woman walked toward the exit, and the provocative sway of her hips turned the head of every man in the café.

Would it have turned Jon’s? Maddie smiled at the thought. He might be a loner emotionally, but she didn’t see him as a loner
physically
. The man was too comfortable around women.

Hank followed the woman toward the door. Maddie ducked her head, hoping he would walk right on by.

But the sound of his footsteps hesitated, then headed in her direction. She took a deep, calming breath and glanced up.

Straight into Hank’s suspicious brown gaze.

J
ON SHIFTED SHAPE AS HE NEARED THE GROUND, BUT HIS
legs were trembling with exhaustion and wouldn’t hold his weight. He stumbled forward, then collapsed, landing on his hands and knees. He stayed there, gulping in great gasps of air as sweat dripped from his forehead and pooled in the dirt near his fingers.

Maybe this was why he couldn’t remember much about last night. He’d blocked out the fact that it damn well hurt to shapeshift.

It was a good ten minutes before he felt strong enough to move. He climbed slowly to his feet and wiped the sweat from his face. Despite the morning’s
late hour, the small park was quiet. From beyond the line of trees came the steady sound of traffic—it had to be the freeway that bypassed most of Taurin Bay; the traffic was too steady to be anything else. His destination lay to the left—Taurin Bay’s quiet heart.

He brushed the dirt from his hands and jeans, then walked through the cedars. Shops came into view, and outside one, a phone booth. It reminded him that he’d yet to call his boss. He dug several coins out of his pocket and crossed the road, heading toward it.

The phone was answered on the second ring. “About time you checked in, cowboy.”

The edge in her usually gentle voice told him she’d been worried. “Sorry, Seline. Someone in this town knew why I was here—they tried to get rid of me.”

“I did warn you that they might,” she replied, almost crossly.

So she had. He just hadn’t expected the attack to come within the first two hours of his arrival. “I need you to do some checking for me.”

“What?”

He heard the soft rustle of paper and could imagine her ferreting through the huge mound of documents on her desk, searching for a pencil to make notes—which she really didn’t need. Despite her age, Seline had an incredible memory.

“The Hank Stewart we have on file is not the same man that’s currently working at the inn. Might be worth checking whether any unidentified bodies have been found in the area recently. You might also check to see if he’s purchased any other properties in the area.”

“You think this Hank is responsible for the attack on you?”

“Bit of a coincidence, otherwise. I never actually met him the day I checked in, so how he knew I was here for anything more than a vacation is beyond me. But he’s not the brains behind the operation—I know that much.”

“Old magic is the key, cowboy. And old magic has ways and means of finding out information.”

“Gee, doesn’t that make everything so much clearer,” he said sarcastically.

“If you’re not careful, boy, I’ll come down there and slap that smartness from your mouth.”

He grinned. Seline was half his height and twig-slender, but she could be a fearsome old bird when she wanted. And he had no doubt that she’d do as she threatened.

“Anything else?” she continued.

“Shapeshifters. I need to know if there are any known to be in this area. I’ve seen one, at least, but I need to know her human identity.”

“Will do.” She hesitated, then added, “You okay? I had this feeling you were in trouble.”

“I was, but I found help.” Help he didn’t really want. He glanced at his watch. If he didn’t hurry, he’d be late for his meeting with her.

“Well, be careful, cowboy. You could lose more than you bargained for on this one.”

Alarms rang in his mind. He had an odd feeling Seline wasn’t talking about the job, but something more personal. “I’m always careful, Seline.”

Her laugh was a high-sounding cackle. “I know.
That’s what will make your fall all the more delicious. I’ll be in touch.”

She hung up before he could question her further. He swore and slammed the receiver back into place. Sometimes the old witch’s tendency to speak in riddles was more than a little annoying.

It took him ten minutes to walk up to where he’d left his truck, only to discover it had indeed been towed away. He wasted nearly another hour finding the police station, filling in forms, and paying the fine.

He glanced at his watch as he climbed into the driver’s seat and swore again. He still had to buy a jacket and some other clothes, and it was already well past the time he had said he’d meet Maddie.

He just had to hope she didn’t get sick of waiting and go off alone. There was a lot of strength in Maddie, despite her fears.

When he finally pulled into the café’s small parking lot, he was relieved to see her truck was still parked there. But sitting right next to it, in an unfamiliar dark blue Ford, was a man he recognized. Terry Mackenzie.

He’d known the FBI agent was involved with the investigation into the sixteen disappearances, but he was the last person Jon had expected or wanted to see in Taurin Bay.

He half thought about driving past and parking around the corner, out of Mack’s sight, but at that instant the man looked up. Jon smiled grimly. Some days you just couldn’t win. He parked the truck and climbed out, approaching the car cautiously. While Jon had worked on several of the same cases as the
agent over the last ten years, their relationship was neither professional nor personal. Jon trusted the man with his life, but not with his secrets.

The car door opened, and the big man levered himself out with an awkwardness Jon knew was highly deceptive. Mack might look overweight, but he was fast when it mattered.

“Well, well.” The big man’s hard gray eyes watched him carefully, as if ready to pounce given the slightest provocation. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“About to say the same thing myself.” Jon crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder against the outside wall of the restaurant. He knew there was nothing casual about this meeting. There never was with Mack.

Mack unhurriedly opened a pack of cigarettes and pulled one out. “Weren’t you in Atlanta last week?”

He nodded. Another missing child had turned up. Another murder yet to be solved. “I met your partner there.”

“So I heard.” Mack lit his cigarette and puffed on it thoughtfully. “Find any clues yourself?”

“No.” As usual, the only sign of injury had been the small wound on the kid’s wrist—a cut so small it might have been missed. Only there wasn’t a drop of blood left in the child’s veins. But Mack knew that; he would have seen the same coroner’s reports that Jon had.

“Then why are you here?”

Why was
Mack
here? There was no such thing as a coincidence where the FBI agent was concerned. “Maybe I’m just taking a break.”

Mack exhaled a long plume of smoke. “Yeah. And I just might sprout wings and fly.”

His gaze narrowed. Had Mack been digging around? Though where he would look for such information, Jon couldn’t even begin to guess. It wasn’t the sort of thing kept in any official records
he
knew of.

“What can I do for you, Mack?”

“You know another kid went missing a week ago.”

Jon nodded. He wasn’t about to tell the big man about Maddie’s nephew. He had a feeling she didn’t want to get involved with cops—of any variety.

“Well, this time they’ve taken two.” Mack reached inside his jacket and pulled out a photo. “Have you seen this woman around?”

It was Maddie standing beside a lanky kid who could have easily been her son. Evan, obviously. She looked different, he thought, staring at the photo. It was Maddie as she should be. Happy and laughing. He studied it a moment longer, then handed the photo back to Mack. “Why do you expect me to know every pretty lady in the district?”

Mack smiled.
A shark with a dental problem
, Jon thought.

“The woman seemed to know about the disappearance before it happened, then went missing shortly after. The kid’s father is the local detective, and he’s raising a hell of a stink. He seems to think she knows more than she was telling. It just might be the break we’re looking for.”

Maddie was in deep trouble. And though it would have been easy to let Mack grab her and haul her in
for questioning, it wasn’t fair. Not when she’d saved his life. He owed her more respect than that.

“What has all this got to do with me?” he asked casually.

Mack took a final puff on the cigarette, then threw it on the ground and crushed it under his heel. “I want to know what you know, Barnett.” His cold gaze fixed onto Jon’s. “We know you’ve recently started working on this case at the request of the parents of several missing kids. We know you work for the Damask Circle, a supposedly charitable, worldwide organization. Yet you, and others, curiously turn up to investigate the more bizarre police cases—and often get there before the police do. I want to know why you’re in Taurin Bay, and what you know about the kids that have gone missing.”

Jon smiled grimly. Mack had obviously been doing some research into the Circle. Professional, or personal curiosity? “I don’t know much.” And wasn’t that the damn truth!

“So tell me what you do have, then.”

He had nothing to lose by doing so. Besides, it was always better to keep on the FBI’s good side. Things got dangerous when you didn’t.

“Whoever is taking these kids is using them for some sort of ritual that’s performed on the night of the new moon. If we don’t find them before then, we won’t find them alive.”

“Why Taurin Bay?”

Because an old witch told me the evil was centered on this area—for now
. But Mack was not likely to believe that Seline, the president of the Damask Circle,
was anything more than the harmless old lady she appeared.

“The bodies of four of the kids currently missing have turned up in nearby areas,” Jon added. “The nick on the wrist, the lack of blood—it’s all exactly the same as the five that were found in California last year.” And the six in Nevada before that. Though the killers had been active in Oregon for close on six months, how long they’d remain here was anyone’s guess. But if history was anything to go by, they’d soon move their operations to another state. Which meant they
had
to be stopped soon. “Taurin Bay is the one thing all the recent disappearances have in common—they were all at school camps here sometime within the last year.”

“Interesting,” Mack drawled softly. “We’ve just found another body.”

Jon stood up straight. “One of the missing kids?”

The big man nodded. “Found him up on Saddle Mountain.”

The same area where Jon had been shot. “Which kid?”

“Samuels. The kid was only missing for a month.”

“What did the autopsy results say?”

Mack studied him for a moment, then drawled, “The state of decomposition suggests he’d been dead for about three weeks.”

Which made sense, given the kid had been snatched before last month’s new moon. What was surprising was the fact that he’d been found so soon. Previously, the bodies of the missing kids hadn’t turned up until months later. “They’re getting careless,” Jon commented softly.

“Or getting ready to leave the area and just don’t care how quickly we find the bodies anymore.”