Charlaine Harris - Must Love Hellhounds

“And this is the reason Miss Blake was taken,” Maggie realized. “And it’s why they haven’t asked for a ransom. What can she do?”

She hadn’t really expected an answer. And she didn’t anticipate the ease with which Blake delivered it.

“She locates things,” he said. “Items, not people.”

That took a second to sink in. Once it did, Maggie frowned. “Then it could be anyone, looking for anything.”

“No. It has to be someone with resources, access to information, and organized. To begin, they knew she was on holiday in America.”

Maggie nodded. Yes, she’d have used the same opportunity-the target was alone and on foreign soil. “But not military. They wouldn’t be heading down the interstate in an RV. Probably not a vampire, because he wouldn’t need James to take Miss Blake, and he can’t drive during the day.”

“And there are at least two of them. Katherine was on the road when James was in New York last night.” His long fingers tapped against his knees, and a thoughtful expression creased his brow. “It could be a demon driving, if James was the one who drugged her.”

“You think it was a demon? We’ve got to call in the Guardians, then.”

Blake turned his head, met her eyes. Using her vision, she realized, to know where to focus his.

“No,” he said.

“We can’t go up against-”

“A demon has to follow the Rules-no hurting humans, no denying their free will-so he can’t do anything to us. If he’s got vampires with him, we only move in to find Katherine during the day. James is our biggest concern, and Guardians wouldn’t be able to do anything to him , because they’ve got to follow the Rules, too.” Blake paused. “And we’ve got Sir Pup.”

Which meant, Maggie guessed, that even though Ames-Beaumont worked closely with the Guardians, he hadn’t told them about his family… and he didn’t want to risk them finding out.

“Does anyone else know what you can do? What others in your family can do?”

“No one except Savi. A few others who’ve married into the family. Uncle Colin has kept it that way for two hundred years.”

Successfully? Maggie doubted that. Human nature was human nature; even someone like Ames-Beaumont couldn’t squash it. “No one has put it to use? Either for money, or for the government?”

“Some of us have put it to use. We just don’t tell anyone we’re doing it. As for the money, no one in the family needs it.” Blake leaned his head back, closed his eyes. “They’ve stopped. It’s dark. She can’t see much. Trees. A few small fires.”

“A campground?” When he nodded, Maggie said, “We can catch up while they’re stopped. Or at least get closer.”

“That’s-” Blake cut himself off, sat up straight. “They opened the door. There’s James. And another man, standing behind him. Tall, dark hair. The wanker looks right out of GQ.”

Blake flinched, once.

“The bloody bastard James drugged her. She’s out again.”

Around midnight, Maggie began alternating between a fixed stare at the highway and skipping her gaze around the interior of the car and searching the sides of the dark highway, all the while blinking rapidly. Her vision hadn’t been in such a hyperactive mode since they’d left the Brooklyn street.

She was keeping herself awake, Geoff realized.

“We’ll stop,” he said. “You’re knackered.” And so was he, despite the nap he’d taken earlier.

“I’m on West Coast time. I can go longer.”

“How early this morning did you get the e-mail?” Her silence told him it was very early. “We’ll get a hotel room.”

“Mr. Blake, I thought you’d never ask.”

Geoff smiled, but damn if he didn’t wish that he could see her face at that moment. She’d been overruled, yet was responding with humor. She’d held firm when he’d pressed for classified details about her orders to kill James. She was a woman he desperately wanted to know better.

And he might as well throw his cards on the table. “You only joke because you assume I don’t think about you that way, Maggie. You’re wrong.”

That apparently surprised her, because she didn’t reply-but he watched where her focus went: to his hands. She was a hands woman. And, remembering how her gaze had lingered on his bare stomach when he’d been handcuffed, and later, when he’d changed his clothing, he amended it to a hands and abs woman.

Her silence extended. She was looking at the road again, mostly. She glanced at the rearview mirror, once; Sir Pup lifted one of his heads and returned her gaze. The hellhound might appear lazy, Geoff thought, but was completely alert. Then her gaze returned to his hands, darted up to his mouth, and remained there until Geoff began to smile. Her attention flew back to the road.

He’d given her something to think about. And-thank God-she seemed to be thinking about it.

Unfortunately, he also had to push the issue in a direction that, if taken the wrong way, might spark her resistance. “And we are to share a room tonight.”

But, no-Maggie didn’t mistake him. “You don’t trust me,” she said.

“I don’t trust you to not try resolving this on your own. If we’re in separate rooms, you’ll likely run off in the middle of the night and attempt to find Katherine alone.”

“If we are in the same room, what’s to stop me from hand-cuffing you to the bed and leaving?”

Sir Pup pushed one of his heads between the seats again, his ears pricked forward. Unease crawled over Geoff’s skin until he heard the jingle of metal.

Maggie looked down and gave a short laugh when she spotted the handcuffs that had landed in her lap. “He thinks it’s funny,” she said. “And maybe even a good idea.”

In Geoff’s opinion, every good idea that involved Maggie and handcuffs wouldn’t include Sir Pup. “Would he let you handcuff me and leave?”

“I don’t know. He follows directions, but interprets them how he likes. If Mr. Ames-Beaumont told him to protect you-and Sir Pup agreed that you were safer handcuffed to a bed and away from James-he might not bite off my head for it.”

Geoff tried to see Maggie through the hellhound again, but had to pull out when the three perspectives pushed his vision into a nauseating spin. She was scratching Sir Pup’s ears, and his eyes were glowing with a soft red light.

Would the hellhound really hurt her? Or had the threat earlier been for show? Geoff had no doubt that his uncle had given Sir Pup orders to protect him-but the hellhound also apparently had a mind of his own. Like Maggie.

Suddenly, he liked the hellhound much better.

“Can you see through animals, Mr. Blake?”

“No.” It wasn’t a lie. Sir Pup couldn’t be included among normal animals, and Geoff had never seen through any dog, horse, or cat.

“Just through people?”

“Yes. And no more ‘Mr. Blake.’ I am not your employer.”

“Yes, sir.” She was smiling; he caught the edge of her reflection in the rearview mirror. “I plan to shower with my eyes closed, Mr. Geoffrey.”

“Right.” Geoff sighed. “And now I wish doubly that you hadn’t found out the truth.”

Blake took the first shower while Maggie set up her computer and called San Francisco on her encrypted line.

To her relief, Savi was the one who answered it. Though Maggie liked Ames-Beaumont, she loved the young vampire he intended to marry. Maggie had never met anyone like Savi-who was as genuine as Savi. In her profession, that quality had been hard to come by, and Maggie adored her for it.

Not that she would ever be so unprofessional as to admit it.

After a few friendly inquiries about Maggie’s and Blake’s status, Savi got to work. Within minutes, all of the files Maggie had requested were being downloaded to her computer. She engaged the speakerphone so that she could use both hands to type; in the background, she could hear Savi’s fingers flying at super-speed over her own keyboard.