Jory Strong: Dakotah's Reading

His trail led back to the clearing, his shape changing to that of a human, his scent one both Dakotah and the wolf would recognize again. The wolf yielded its form, accepting that it couldn’t hunt for its mate on four legs, but the change of shape didn’t reduce its determination to find the male who had claimed it.

Growling, the wolf slunk into the dark recesses where it was forced to hide, reduced to prey instead of living as it was meant to live, as a predator. But even in the darkness of its prison, the wolf’s conviction was strong. It had found its mate and they would be together again.

Dakotah stopped at the trailer only long enough to shed her damp clothes and put on a drier version of the same outfit before leaving again. A smile formed on her lips when she spotted the carnival owner trying to slip away from his trailer, a man intent on not being noticed.

Too bad.

She resisted the urge to yell Roy’s name, preferring instead to move to his side in the lifting fog. “Hot date?” she asked, catching him near the carousel.

Roy stopped, turning, enabling her to look down into his ancient, wrinkled face. She was curious despite herself as she remembered Helki’s cackled, He’s got a couple of lady friends in this town. He’ll be catting around all night and most of the morning.

“Age is all in the mind,” he said, his dark eyes gleaming with amusement, his laugh an echo of the fortune-teller’s as he tapped his forehead with a gnarled finger. “You don’t need pills and potions with the ladies if you know how to give them what they want.”

“Then you know what I want?”

Roy’s hand reached out and she stiffened automatically, bracing against the contact, willing to accept it even though she preferred not to be touched. Preferred to remain as separate as possible—except during those times when the need for sex became an itch that had to be scratched by someone other than herself.

Understanding flickered in Roy’s eyes, along with a hint of something else—knowledge, the same glimmer Dakotah had seen in Helki’s expression as she studied the tarot cards of Dakotah’s reading. “Stay another day.”

“I can’t,” Dakotah said. Knowing as soon as she said it that it was absolutely true. She could feel the change in the wolf. She was aware of its intention to find the large male and she couldn’t allow that to happen.

It had taken her too long to master that part of herself. She couldn’t risk losing control of it, though realization had slowly overtaken her as she’d returned to the carnival. The wolf in the woods was like none of the supernatural beings Victor Hale had sent after her. The wolf in the woods held traces of the same alien scent she’d encountered before. On Fane Mercier. And on the man who’d clamed Sarael.

The wolf stirred, savoring its future victory as Helki’s words moved through Dakotah’s mind. You will see Sarael sooner than you might think and be a part of her world for more years than you can imagine. But Dakotah pushed the prediction aside. She had no room for hope or sentiment. “I need to head out,” she said, focusing on the carnival owner.

He nodded and pulled a wad of bills from his pocket as if expecting things to unfold just as they had.

Domino found the Believer named Byrd in a hotel room littered with liquor bottles and condoms. It had been a tedious task monitoring Byrd’s activities, staying close enough to the Believer so that he could reinforce his commands periodically and gather information. But the sacrifice had been worth it. This trip alone—which had led to the deaths of several dozens of their enemy—had made the investment of Domino’s time worthwhile. And yet he was more than happy to see it end.

Left to his own devices, Byrd was a rapist. A man who enjoyed breaking into houses and defiling the women within before stealing their money and jewelry. Domino’s compulsions had kept the Believer from returning to his preferred forms of entertainment, but it required constant monitoring and Domino could no longer afford to do it or to take the risk that Byrd would slip his mental leash.

With a grimace, Domino kicked the sagging hotel bed. Repeating the action until Byrd opened bleary, reddened eyes, only to be immediately trapped in obsidian ones. “Where are the others?” Domino asked, an often repeated question when he dealt with the Believer.

Byrd’s body twitched, as though he was trying to turn his head and look for his companions. “Must have gone after the girl.”

Domino tensed, flashing back to the night Matteo had joined as he and Fane hunted. They’d first heard the Believers were after a female on that night. The confession coming from someone who claimed to have overheard it. But with each of their enemy questioned and then destroyed, no one else knew anything about her. And so Domino had come to believe there was no intended victim—though he had little doubt a woman would be taken and raped.

“What girl?” he asked, cursing himself for not hunting Byrd immediately after learning about the woman. But he’d been distracted by other matters—Sarael’s escape from Matteo. Fane’s conversion from dhampir to vampire. His own hunting, complicated by the closeness of the change and the distraction of Dakotah.

A growl escaped, a low rumble from the wolf at the reminder of the woman it considered its mate. Domino grimaced, suppressing that part of his nature. “What girl?” he asked again, his gaze boring into Byrd’s. The Hunger waking, sliding irritably underneath his skin.

“A girl Chuck’s been looking for. He said she was hotter than the whores we brought back last night. He got the go-ahead this morning to pick her up.” Byrd licked his lips as his hand moved to his crotch, his smile widening. “We’re going to have a good time tonight. As long as we deliver her alive, we can do anything we want with her.”

The Hunger became a roar and Domino fought to keep his fangs from descending until after he’d gained all the useful information he could. It would be a pleasure to kill tonight, to sate The Hunger completely with not only blood but a life.

“Where are you taking the girl?”

Byrd’s eyes went blank. “Chuck didn’t say. Maybe back to Atlantic City.”

“To those Chuck reports to?”

“I don’t know for sure. Maybe not. I heard Chuck talking on his phone about money. Half for finding her. Half for delivering her.”

“What’s the woman’s name?”

“Something weird. The name of a state.”

Rage ripped through Domino. “Dakotah?”

Recognition turned Byrd’s mouth upward in a smile that was his last. The word yeah forever trapped on his lips as Domino struck with savage fury, easily subduing the larger, heavier man as he drove his fangs into the Believer’s neck.

It was over too quickly, too painlessly, as far as Domino was concerned. The meal too rushed and the hunt unsatisfying. But there was no time to waste or play. No time even to enjoy the blood which sated The Hunger even as The Heat grew more demanding.

Dakotah was aware of the two men almost as soon as she left the carnival. What few belongings she valued were packed in a knapsack that was slung casually over one shoulder so it wouldn’t become a leash to hold her with. Her hands were buried in her jacket pockets, each caressing a knife hidden there—the handles black and the blades clean, though both had been covered in blood many times.

She cursed herself for not going the night before. For not blowing off her pay and leaving when her gut told her to.

Irritation moved along her spine. At herself. At the old fortune-teller. At the wolf—her own and the big male.

Even though she was in control, her body didn’t feel as though it was completely hers. She felt edgy, restless beyond needing to run. She felt like she was in heat and it pissed her off.