CHAPTER TWO: INTO THE DARK FOREST
1247 Words
Reece Blackstone stomped across the forest. His heavy boots hit the mulched leaves, and each crunch angered him. Maybe he should have shifted into his wolf to look around, but that wouldn’t help him if he did find something.
How was he supposed to help anyone if he was nude? If he was a wolf? A kidnapped victim didn’t want to be found by a naked man in the middle of the woods. Or a wolf. That would only make the whole rescuing thing harder.
Not that Reece believed he would find the missing woman in the woods. Her scent was nowhere to be sniffed, and he was pretty sure he would find a body. Again. It would be the tenth, and he was getting really sick and tired of finding dead bodies. Dead bodies meant sad families, and sad
families meant people crying in his office.
There was nothing worse than a sobbing person—except a dead person. Reece never knew what to do when someone—one of his clients—
cried. He didn’t do comfort. He didn’t do kind words. It simply wasn’t part of his genetic makeup.
Maybe if he was a different kind of wolf with a different kind of history, he could pat a weeping spouse on the shoulder and offer some mundane comment of “They’re in a better place.”
Reece hated that line.
How many times had he heard it when his parents were killed? If he had a nickel for each time, he would be a very rich man, and he wouldn’t have to keep up with his PI business.
He liked his job just fine before, but in the last few weeks, there’d been an uptick in missing persons, and these missing persons had a knack for being found in the woods drained of all their blood.
These humans were clearly the victims of a killer, but there was nothing he could say to the very human families.
“Hey, listen, your wife was killed by a vampire.” That wouldn’t exactly go over well with most people who firmly believed that vampires were the stuff of myths and nightmares.
Reece didn’t have that luxury. As a wolf shifter, he knew there were things in the world that were way worse than a man who could shift into an animal at will.
Vampires were such creatures.
Unlike shifters and other creatures that weren’t supposed to exist, vampires killed without thinking of the consequences. They hunted to survive and feed, but they also hunted for the sport. Sure, Reece did the same, but his prey were deer, rabbits, and other woodland creatures that were part of the food chain.
Humans weren’t meant to be food, and he was quickly running out of excuses to give.
“Did you find anything?” Sheriff Nero asked, coming through a thick patch of trees.
“No,” Reece growled. “I’m guessing by your tone that you didn’t find anything either.”
“Big fat nada,” Nero replied, stuffing his hands in his hair. “I don’t get it. Her scent led us here. How can it just vanish?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“It doesn’t feel like the other disappearances,” the other wolf shifter commented.
“No, it sure doesn’t. Her scent should be here. She didn’t just grow wings and fly away.”
“Do vampires fly?” Nero shuddered in disgust. He hated vamps almost as much as Reece.
“We don’t know she was taken by a vampire,” Reece said. “Not until we find her body.”
“All the others were drained dry,” Nero argued. “Right, but you said yourself this feels different.”
“Probably because this vamp can fly,” the sheriff crossed his arms. “Some can do that, can’t they?”
“I’ve got no clue. From my research, I haven’t found any real sources that agree on that.”
“Well, sure. Sources on vampires are all one hundred percent accurate.” Nero clicked his tongue. “Why does it have to be a creature steeped in mythology? It makes chasing ’em that much harder.”
“You’re telling me,” Reece grumbled.
Nero winced and clapped a hand on his friend’s back. “Sorry, man. I’m an insensitive ass sometimes.”
“It’s fine. I don’t expect everyone to know or remember that my parents were killed by a vampire.” Even after all these years, it hurt Reece to speak those words out loud.
Maybe it would hurt less if he had gotten revenge on the vamps who’d murdered his mother and father. Maybe if he had justice, it wouldn’t be so hard to think about chipper and sunny Wendy and stoic, but funny, Carter Blackstone.
His parents were good people who were taken from him much too soon. He had barely gotten to know his parents as a ten-year-old before his aunt told him they were gone.
Gone to a better place.
Even as a kid, Reece couldn’t understand why death was seen as a better place. His parents weren’t with him, and he thought that was the best place for them. For him too.
“I should get back to the office,” Nero sighed. “Maybe we need to regroup. Maybe she was taken to a different part of the forest.”
“What? Do you think the vamp is smart enough to create a false lead?” Nero shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they’re getting smarter.”
“Sure as s**t hope you’re wrong. The last thing we need are smarter vamps.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Nero turned back, only to stop when he realized Reece wasn’t following behind him. “You good, man?”
Reece shook his head. “Something’s not right here.”
“I know. But standing in the middle of the forest trying to sniff every last branch won’t help.”
He heaved a heavy sigh. “You’re probably right.” “She’s probably already—”
“I know,” he snapped.
“I guess this is another case that you won’t get paid for. One that’ll make it all that harder for me to keep my job.”
“No one likes to be told there is no hope,” Reece agreed. “I don’t mind not getting paid, though.”
“Well, sure. It’s not like you have bills to pay or anything.”
Reece raised a brow and followed behind Nero. “I might have bills to pay, but I can’t ask clients to pay me when all I can offer them is the certainty that their loved one has died.”
“At least you’re not a town official with an election to win,” Nero joked. His attempt to lighten the mood fell flat.
This was the tenth disappearance in as many weeks, but this was the first time the trace went cold. Reece was so frustrated, he wanted to punch a tree. He was a wolf, for f**k’s sake! He’d been on this woman’s trail since the day after she vanished. He should’ve been able to find her with little to no problem.
Whoever this killer vamp was, they were good. Too good. He was going to have to think outside the box for this one.
Especially if he wanted to find Farrah Johnson alive.
- Writer
