Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) (17 page)

I clenched my fists, trying to breathe through the agony.
“God, Tink. Please
stop
.”

Not yet.
Her voice was molten lava, searing my skull.
You can take more.

Will cried, “What’s…their…deal?”

I couldn’t even answer him. My jaw had locked shut. All I
could do was ride out the wave of power swelling inside my body.

“What do we do?” Johnson murmured, a thousand miles away.

“There’s nothing we
can
do. So we wait it out,” Mike
answered, kneeling at my side, but light years from me.

Because I wasn’t there with them. My body was, but I’d been
carried somewhere else, to a place exploding with stars. “Tink…where...?”

Shhh. You’re home, wielder. Almost there.

Then the pain fell away, like I’d been entombed in clay and
had finally broken free. My eyelids popped open. Mike was leaning over me,
concern lining his forehead. He let out a breath. “Your eyes are yellow.”

“Yep,” I said, standing up. Good smells here in the woods
behind Will’s house. It was part of a state park where I’d camped with Mike
often. My sensitive nose wasn’t having trouble, deep in the green. Aspen, pine,
mulch and earth, all of it was a comfort in the midst of the crazy spin-up job
Tink had done.

“Prêt pour la bataille?” Will asked, his eyes narrowed.

I shrugged. “No, I’m not hungry. You?”

“Wait, I said…” He let out a sigh. “Why is it that I speak
French without thinking about it when you jerks are around, and when I want to
impress Penn, I can’t make it work?”

Tink giggled in my head, a giddy, angry little sprite.
Oh,
I just love that about him. He’s so close to his fathers, and has no idea.

“Don’t freak me out, not now,” I told her. “We’ve got a job
coming.”

We’d made camp in the center of the woods, off the regular
trails and away from the main camping area. If monsters—Bears, most
likely—showed up, drawn by the knives’ power, we wanted to be far away from
other people. Just before the eclipse started, we’d hiked deeper in, to the clearing
where Will and I had found our first She-Bear during those early hunts. An old
haunt seemed like the best place to set up.

The night grew cold and the stars became brighter as the
moon faded into totality. Mike and I crouched in the brush on the west side of
the clearing, while Johnson and Will took the east side.

I closed my eyes to listen to the sounds of the forest. A
raccoon chattered softly and I could hear its little claws rasp against the
bark of an aspen tree behind me. Something larger, a doe from the smell of it,
crept through the brush to nibble at leaves. The crunch of its teeth gave me a
shudder. Enhanced hearing sounded great on paper, but I never could get used to
the reality.

The eclipse wore on…and on. Totality would last for fifty-eight
minutes. We waited a half-hour without a hit. The forest creatures were still
out and about like nothing strange was going on.

Mike risked using the walkie-talkies Mr. Cruessan had bought
for us. “Anything?”

“Nothing,” Johnson whispered back. “Will says he doesn’t
sense any activity.”

“Me either,” I said. “Something’s…wrong.”

Tink let out a little growl of frustration.
Where are
they? If I boosted you up and they no-show, I will be exceptionally peeved.

“Didn’t you say their signatures or whatever were muted?” I
asked. “Think they’re hiding from us?”

Maybe. But I sense nothing out here. Not one single dark
brother.

Talk about a waste of time. Did we really get all dressed up
with nowhere to go on this thing?

We waited out the entire eclipse, until my eyes faded back
to their normal dark blue, and not a single monster showed.

“That was anti-climactic.” Will massaged his neck as he and
Johnson met us in the clearing. “All that pain, and we don’t get to dance.”

“Yeah.” I turned to Uncle Mike. “Should we just go back to
camp and set up a guard?”

He looked totally perplexed. “Guess so. I wonder what
happened with Ramirez and Jorge, in Peru…did their monsters no show, too?”

“Be good to find out,” Johnson said.

When we hiked back to the tents. I told Will I’d take first
watch and settled in by a small campfire, keeping both my eyes and my senses
open. But the night wore on, and at dawn, all I had to show for my trouble was
a headache from bleeding off Tink’s magic.

“What a bust,” Will said, clambering out of his tent. “Think
we should stay out here a few days, just in case? Maybe they got the time
wrong, or are waiting us out to see if we get bored and leave.”

“Maybe,” I said, standing slowly. My feet tingled as blood flowed
to them. “I’m gonna sleep now, no matter what we decide.”

After scarfing down a cold, store-bought cinnamon roll, I
crashed out on my sleeping bag. The tent, warmed by the early morning sun, made
a nice cocoon for a good, long nap.

Too bad my phone rang about two hours in. “’Lo?”

“Oh, did I wake you?”

Ella sounded kind of worried and that shook the cobwebs from
my brain. “Just a nap. I was up all night.”

“I’m sorry. I should’ve thought of that…was it awful out
there?”

“No. Weirdest thing ever—the entire night was quiet.”

“Really? Huh. That kind of makes sense, actually.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Probably better if you read it for yourself. I’m sending
you a link.”

A text beeped and I pulled it up. “A newspaper article?”

“From Missoula. You’ll want to see this, I promise.”

That didn’t sound good. I put Ella on speaker and pulled up
the article. “Two women found dead on University of Montana campus, suspected
grizzly attack…oh, God. Yeah, I needed to see this. Baby, I have to go.”

“Totally understand. You have somewhere else to be. Keep
safe, okay?”

“We’ll try. I’ll call when I can. Love you.”

I hung up and crawled out of the tent. “Guys, we need to
pack up and hit the road. Now.”

“What’s up?” Uncle Mike asked. He was drinking coffee out of
a battered metal mug and dark circles ringed his eyes.

“Two female students were found dead on the campus of
University of Montana this morning.” I met Will’s concerned stare. “The article
said authorities thought it was a grizzly bear attack but the brutality of the
wounds weren’t totally consistent.”

“This time of year? They’re usually getting ready to
hibernate, not out mauling humans.” Uncle Mike stood and kicked dirt onto the
campfire. “We need to go up there.”

“What about Mamie?” I asked. “Should I call her and tell her
to drive to Helena to meet Mom?”

“We’ll call her from the road, but it’s probably safer for
her to stay in her dorm until we arrive,” Johnson said, cramming stuff into his
backpack. “If we decide it’s too dangerous, I’ll drive her out of town. She
doesn’t need to go alone.”

All I could do was hope we weren’t too late.

* * *

The phone rang and rang, finally rolling into voice mail.
“No answer,” I told everyone.

“Maybe she went for breakfast?” Will asked.

“When have you ever seen Mamie without her phone?” I let out
a jerky breath. “I’ll try again in a few minutes, though. Just in case.”

But there was no answer in a few minutes, or ten minutes
after that. No return texts, or even an email, saying she was away from her
phone. As time passed, the tension in the car grew more and more desperate.

Johnson drove his rented pickup about twenty over the speed
limit, but we were three hundred miles away. It’d be afternoon before we got
there. Still, he changed lanes and closed gaps every chance he got.

“Captain, I know we’re in a rush, but we need to get there
in one piece,” I told him.

“Mamie’s in trouble. And I passed anti-terrorist driving
school the same as everyone else, so let me do my thing,” he said. “Just keep
your seatbelt on.”

I grunted, but tightened my seatbelt anyway. His
protectiveness of my sister was part of the reason I respected him—if he wanted
to drive crazy, so be it.

We rolled into Missoula around two, thanks to Johnson’s lead
foot and only one quick stop for gas. Campus was a lot quieter than I
remembered. Was that because it was the weekend and the football team was out
of town for the first game of the season, or were students on lockdown?

We pulled up to Turner Hall, Mamie’s all-girl dorm, and all
the doors were shut tight. The bad feeling in my gut increased.

“Do we want to start here?” I asked.

“If someone will let us in, I think so,” Uncle Mike said.

We unfolded ourselves from the truck, stiff from being
cooped up in the car for so long. The front door was thick, with only a small,
reinforced window and a card reader for entry. I buzzed the button for the
Residence Assistant. A moment later, a girl in pajamas showed up, rubbing her
eyes. She punched a button on the intercom. “Yeah?”

“I’m Mamie Archer’s brother,” I told her. “We’ve been trying
to reach her and she hasn’t answered. After the trouble last night, we want to
check on her.”

The RA peered at all four of us and raised an eyebrow. “You
look like cops.”

Cops? What kind of cops showed up wearing GORE-TEX, looking
like they’d been sleeping outside? I pulled out my driver’s license and held it
up to the window. “Here’s my ID.”

“Okay, yeah. She’s mentioned you.” There was a buzz and a
clank, and the door opened. “I can only let two of you in. Room’s 319.”

Uncle Mike came with me, leaving Johnson and Will to keep
watch outside. I took the stairs two at a time to the third floor, dodging a
few girls walking down the hall. A third came out of the bathroom, wearing
nothing but a towel, and squealed when we passed by. I was too focused on finding
my sister to apologize…or take a peek.

Mamie’s room was locked when we reached the door, but I
didn’t wait for the RA. I drew my knife from its sheath and slid the blade
between the door and the jamb. It took a little pressure, but the blade sliced
through the metal and the door popped open.

I slipped inside quietly, praying I didn’t find her
unconscious or hurt. Instead, I found a room that was typical Mamie: super
clean, organized and plainly furnished. The only bright color in the room was
the quilt Mom had given her when she moved into the dorms. Her twin bed was
neatly made and all her books were stacked in precise rows on her bookshelves.
Alphabetized by author name, of course. Even her closet appeared undisturbed,
with clothes carefully hung and shoes lined up on the top shelf.

Uncle Mike finished checking out her laptop on her desk.
“It’s like she didn’t sleep here last night.”

“Or left very early this morning.”

“If that were the case, surely she would’ve gotten our
messages,” he said, giving me a look. “Did the papers name the two dead girls?”

My heart stopped beating for a moment. “I…didn’t think to
look.”

But now, I couldn’t pull the article fast enough, cursing
when I fumbled my phone not once, but twice, in my haste. “Okay, here…Dawn
Cleburn and Carly Preston.” I sagged against Mamie’s closet door. “Not her.”

Uncle Mike’s serious expression didn’t soften. “We need to
talk to her RA.”

We went downstairs to find her sitting at a table in the
common room, eating a bowl of cereal and reading on her iPad. Still in her
pajamas.

“Young lady,” Uncle Mike said in his most Colonel Tannen
commanding tone. “Do you know of a Dawn Cleburn or Carly Preston?”

The RA’s face blanched. “They weren’t in my hall, but I
heard…I heard they were killed last night.”

Suddenly getting Mike’s line of questioning, I asked, “Did
Mamie hang out with either of them?”

Tears filled her eyes. “They were in astronomy together.
Mamie said something about having to go to the observatory to watch the eclipse
last night for a paper she was working on. Oh, God…” She looked between us,
almost pleading. “Please, tell me she wasn’t with them.”

Mike punched the wall in frustration. “We don’t know, but
we’ll find out.”

We didn’t stay to answer any of the RA’s questions. Instead,
I hustled outside. “Mamie’s missing. And she knew the two dead girls.”

“Shit,” Will whispered.

I forced my panic into the back of my mind. I had to treat
finding Mamie like a job, otherwise, I’d go insane. “We need to take a good
long look around.”

Johnson was already at the window, scanning the hilly
campus. “Lots of places to hide out here.”

“Too many,” Uncle Mike said. “I’m going to stick around
here, ask questions and see if I can find out anything pertinent. Besides, if
she comes back, someone needs to be here.”

I knew, deep down, Mamie wasn’t coming back to the dorm, but
hope never hurt. “We’ll check in soon.”

Johnson, Will and I took off. The police had cordoned off
the area where the girls were found, so we couldn’t get close, but the second I
came within a fifty yards of the spot, I shuddered with a sudden chill. We were
on the outskirts of campus, near a wooded area at the base of a small mountain.
A large “M” had been erected on the side of the mountain, the logo for the
university. I took a few steps toward the trees, but Tink stopped me.

There’s death here,
she hissed.
The taint of
darkness is all around this place. The dark brothers were definitely here.

“I can feel it,” I muttered. “This place reeks of monsters.”

Will took a long look at the mountain, then pulled out his
phone. A few minutes later, his head snapped up. “Things just got weirder.”

“Why?” I asked, backing away from the caution tape and
trying not to barf. Something about the area had punched all my triggers is a
big way. Much worse than usual.

He pointed at the mountain. “That’s Mount Sentinel.”