Page 36 of Glow

He figured that he and Liam could work up a plausible piece of fake folklore to explain the Dover Demon’s relocation. While he didn’t want to call attention to Dan and suffer an onslaught of media and curiosity seekers, sightings were bound to happen, and it would be best to have an answer ready when they did.

With his official work done, Quinn headed for the last known location of the most recently missing hiker. The police had already scoured the area and left without any public conclusions. From what Quinn knew of the situation, robbery or kidnapping seemed unlikely, and the man had no obvious reasons for wanting to run away.

The police hadn’t ruled out an attack by normal predators like a bear or wolf, but with no bodies, they couldn’t be sure. The sudden uptick in missing people meant that something dangerous and unusual was going on. The park issued warnings for campers and hikers not to go out alone, to always have a phone or walkie-talkie, and to let someone know where they were going.

Quinn wished he could talk to ghosts as well as gather the vibe of the nature spirits around him, but he was grateful for his gift even with its limitations.

He paused on the trail where the energies felt particularly strong, closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and focused his concentration. Quinn visualized opening his mind to pick up on the resonance, and while it didn’t display images, it did convey tone.

Usually, the nature spirits were peaceful unless a storm was brewing. Now and then they gave Quinn early warning that something was going to go wrong, like a forest fire or a flood, before the other clues manifested.

Today, the energy felt jangled and uneasy. Whatever had happened here hadn’t been natural, and it had upset the balance. The spirits had an angry resonance, something Quinn rarely felt. He had a clear sense of warning, even if the nature daemons didn’t use words to communicate.

Concerned, Quinn released the energies with thankfulness and a blessing and moved a distance down the trail, away from where the hiker had vanished. Once again, he opened himself to the spirits and waited, trying to validate the impression he received earlier.

Here, Quinn didn’t sense the same disquiet as before, although he had probably traveled less than a mile from his first reading. That reinforced his opinion that whatever had happened to the missing hiker had left a stain behind that altered the natural vibrations.

While he didn’t doubt that would gradually clear, he marked the place in his mind and resolved to ask Jeffries about having a witch come out to release the negativity, just in case.

Might not hurt to bring a medium along, in case the hikers really are dead. Maybe their ghosts can help us figure out what happened, he thought.

Quinn repeated the exercise two more times, at a place where someone else had last been seen and then a neutral spot. The impressions were the same, confirming that whatever took the hikers was probably not natural, and neither wild animals nor human criminals.

Was it the wurm? Quinn felt torn between his duty to keep park visitors safe and not wanting to lose credibility with a hard-to-believe warning.

No pictures. Few sightings. No trail of flattened trees and vegetation. Missing hikers but no savaged bodies left behind. Not even any strange droppings.

Is it a ghost? Only sometimes corporeal and otherwise not? If it’s magic, then our normal ways of tracking and stopping a dangerous animal probably won’t work.

I can’t shut down the park on a rumor, and I don’t want to ruin people’s vacations by scaring them out of their wits. But I’ll hate myself if anyone gets hurt because I didn’t do something to prevent it.

Quinn resolved to discuss the options with Liam and Jeffries to see if a supernatural level of protection could do what normal precautions could not, and sent them both emails suggesting a meeting to discuss options.

His watch beeped, reminding him it was time to return and get ready for his date with Dan. Although Quinn remained vigilant on his return walk, he didn’t spot anything out of the ordinary. While he had noticed that regular animals were quieter or absent near the sites where the attacks had occurred, the forest hummed with its normal level of activity elsewhere, and he heard the scuttling of animals in the brush and songs of birds overhead.

That boded well for the woods to recover, but first they had to find what caused the disappearances and put a stop to it before more people got hurt.

Quinn took a shower to wash away the sweat of his trek, tossed his ranger uniform into the wash, and picked a nice shirt and dressier-than-usual jeans. He resolutely pushed worries aside and did his best to focus on seeing Dan again, hearing about his day, and exploring more sexy times after supper.

Dan was already at the restaurant when Quinn arrived, and Quinn smiled thinking that his date was perhaps equally eager. “You look very nice.” He took in Dan from head to toe. Dan’s collared shirt, nice jeans, and sporty loafers looked preppy-casual and suited him.

“So do you.” Dan returned the once-over. “Let’s eat, I’m hungry.”

Quinn felt his mood lighten just from having Dan nearby.

“What’s good here?” Dan asked as they looked over the menu.

“Pretty much everything,” Quinn replied. “At least, everything I’ve ordered. They specialize in home cooking, so larger portions, not fancy, but very satisfying. Been around for a long time, so they’re doing something right.”

Quinn settled on the beef roast, while Dan chose a pasta dish. Quinn reached over and took Dan’s hand once the server left.

“How was your day?” he asked. Dan didn’t look like he had slept well.

“Still trying to figure everything out,” Dan confessed. “Frustrated that we haven’t been able to find the bounty hunter, and worried about that dragon people are talking about. There’s too much going on, and I feel like I’m somehow smack dab in the middle.”

He paused. “And the move-in is delayed because of a water leak, so I’ll be at the hotel a while longer. At least they hinted that they might adjust the first month’s rent when I pointed out that hotel stays aren’t free.”

“Sorry about the delay,” Quinn said. “I hope it gets fixed soon.”