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I don’t tell her that I know where Catina’s family is, or that every muscle in my body is strung tight with the thought that she may have gone back to them because of me. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she’s here in town, where she was while they were away, wherever that is. “Aleah, this is Master Botosoni. I’m sorry to bother you so early in the morning, but Catina is missing. I’m wondering if you know where she lives or where I might find her?”
I wait for long minutes, so long that I don’t think she’s going to answer me until she finally does. She speaks professionally, but there’s no missing the undertones of condensation in that voice of hers. “I shouldn’t tell you anything after what happened. Why do you want to find her?”
So, she knows. Catina confided in her friend, which means that she either talked with her or gave her a ride somewhere. “We had a parting of ways, and I was wrong about her. I need to find her because I’m worried that she may have tried to go back to her parents. In all honesty, I’m hoping that you’ll tell me I’m wrong, and that she’s sound asleep, somewhere right in the city, maybe your apartment?”
She sighs. “I wish that were the case, but she was in a hurry to get to the base of the mountain range. I dropped her off just off the mountain access road. Her family is apparently camped out a little past there, and she’s worried about them getting attacked by rogues and shifters who apparently aren’t far away from that area.”
A sickening feeling floods my chest, causing my heart to beat with unprecedented dread and fear for her very life because if the rogues did not take her family last night, they will certainly be on the hunt for a good meal come dark. If I know where she is, I can still get to her first. “Where? I need to know exactly where you dropped her. What did you see?”
I can barely process as she recalls and rattles off the landmarks they drove by until Catina told Aleah to stop. Now I know exactly where they are in relation to the base and the creek that runs along its eastern edge. At first dusk, I’ll get to her way before the rogues, of that I have no doubt. They are creatures of habit if anything, and later in the night, before a long sleep is what sustains all of us vampires the best. “Thank you, Aleah. I’ll find her and make things right.”
“You better, because if anything happens to her, I will never forgive you.”
My voice softens, knowing she’s worried about the person I love. “I’ll find her, and everything will be okay.” At least I hope everything that I say is true.
I crawl back into bed with renewed hope that things can be fixed, but not holding my breath, because if I were Catina, I wouldn’t want anything to do with me after I completely withdrew from her without a word. Didn’t bother to ask her why she said the things she said or anything. Nothing, just gave her the cold, silent treatment and flirted with someone who means nothing to me in front of her, just hoping to hurt her a fraction of how I thought she hurt me.
After hours of tossing and thinking of her, sleep finally drags me under. But it draws me into a never-ending dream of Catina in all manners of undress, taunting me with her beauty and innocence, and in the next minute, turning to a nightmare of her being attacked by rogues and shifters who want to tear her limb from limb in order to get to the stones.
I’m ill rested when I wake, and the only thing that gives me solace is that I know right where she is and can transport there in a very short while, the minute dusk settles, far before the feeding frenzy of the rogues will begin.
At least that’s what I’m hedging on while I count down the minutes before I can safely transport and be with her again.
Chapter 19
Catina
The minute the car stops, I hop out and wave to Aleah as she turns around to head back into town. I tug the zipper on my jacket up as high as it can go and pull the drawstring on the hood tightly in an attempt to ward off the cold that blows off of the mountain range and into the valley below.
A long narrow valley that stretches for miles and miles, connecting different parts of the country in some common way. The frozen sticks and old growth crunch underfoot as I make my way toward the area in the near distance where my parents typically camp.
My mind begins to swirl again with that same feeling coming over me—one of doom, omen, and promise all rolled together; one that I cannot seem to escape no matter how hard I try of late.
It doesn’t take long before I smell the familiar scent of the campfire logs and the scent of Gramma’s soaps. She may not be with us anymore, but she taught Mamma every one of her secrets before passing from this earth. When times are hard, we can always rely on the income those bring in from the women in the cities we pass with money to spend who want to smell good for their men.
My brother steps out from behind a tree. “What are you doing up so early?” I ask him.
He scowls at me, ignoring my question but zipping up his pants as though that should tell me all I need to know, and it does. More than enough. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be getting ready for the auction instead of sneaking up on people this early in the morning?”
I took off so fast. All I could think of was getting here to warn them of the dangers of the rogues and the shifters that I did not give one minute of thought to what I would tell them about me, or the auction and why I suddenly no longer need to stay at the club instead of coming home with them until the show on Friday. “It’s a long story. I have to go back, but there’s a fight brewing between the pureblooded vampires and the rogue vampires and shifters that they use as soldiers. It's going to be bloody and brutal. I’ve had a vision about it, and it wasn’t pretty. I came to warn you and the others. You’re far too close. They will smell you and want to make a meal of you.”
His eyes narrow to little slits. “You telling the truth?”
I give him my best indignant glare. “Yes, I am. Why else would I risk life and limb to come out at this time of the day?”
He grunts. “Then we better get back to the camp and tell Pappa. He’s not going to be too happy about moving things again; we just got everything unloaded and set up for the week.”
I follow behind him, his one step to my two until we come upon the campsite and the tents that are set up around the fire. A large one for Pappa and Mamma, and a large one for the boys. “I see they didn’t even bother setting my tent up for me?”
He grunts again. “Just as well. You won’t be staying. Let’s make sure Pappa knows about the rogues and the shifters, and then you need to get your skinny ass back to the club. What if Botosoni finds out you’re gone and starts asking questions?” His face turns beet red, probably some from emotion and a lot from the cold. “I swear, if you cause us to lose that auction money.”
I step up my pace, trying to keep up as he stalks toward the camp. “I can stay here until Friday, really,” I tell him, racking my brain as we get closer and closer for a reason that sounds plausible when not hours ago, I made it sound dire that I stay at the club until after Friday.
My brother doesn’t answer but when we get to camp, he unzips my parents’ tent just a slit. “Pappa, you need to come out here and hear what Catina has to tell you.”
Pappa comes out pulling a heavy shirt on over his long john-like shirt, his hair still tossed over the side of his head. He finishes buttoning his shirt, standing in boots that are not yet even tied. “This better be good,” he says, as my brothers’ tent unzips, and they come out to listen to what I have to say.
“Rogue vampires and shifters are camped not too far away. They will come for you tonight, for pure blood. They’re not the vampires that we know; they’re what the purebloods call rogues. They still attack and drink the blood of their victims, and they will smell you, us.”
