Naomi sharpened her gaze, her eyes suddenly dancing. “If you’d like, I can spread rumors of your strength among the vampires. I still have a few contacts. Vampires love to gossip. They live for drama and it might help us.”
Rourke chuckled. “I like your style, Naomi. Do whatever you see fit. I’m willing to do just about anything to keep the odds in our favor. Having the supernatural community renew their gossip about me might be a good thing.”
Naomi nodded as she peered out at the scenery flying by. Ray must have been going at least eighty. I knew she would do whatever it took to keep all of us safe, just like Rourke, and she took her part seriously. I had no doubt she could come up with a tale that would paint Rourke as a fierce beast who could rip your throat out while you were still talking.
“When we get to the airboat place,” I said, nudging Naomi out of her thoughts with the toe of my shoe, “I’m going to send you out ahead of us. I told my father you’d be arriving before us to get the coordinates. He said the place is warded from humans, but since you’ve already seen them, I’m sure you can find them again.”
“Oui, I will do that,” Naomi answered. “Are you going to wait for the wolf boys to join us before we depart? Or are we going to leave them to meet us later?”
“The ‘wolf boys’?” I chortled, tossing back my head. “Now, that’s something you don’t hear every day.”
“Well”—Naomi blushed, shrugging—“they are always together, those two. It will be easier to find a name that works for both of them. You refer to Ray and myself as ‘the vamps,’ and I agree, it’s easier to group us together, so ‘wolf boys’ is the equivalent for me.”
“I like it. And, Naomi, I think you’re developing a sense of humor, and funny looks good on you. Let me check in with Tyler now so we can plan ahead. Gimme a second.” I held up a finger.
Tyler, are you there? I called.
Yep, he said. We’re about an hour from a city called Homestead. We made good time. Where are you?
Not sure yet. We’re not near any town at the moment. But before we discuss that, I need to let you know I made contact with Dad. He’s fine and the plan is to meet up soon. I hope you’re close. If you are, we’ll wait. Once we get to the airboat place, I’ll let you know our exact location.
Glad you got in touch with Dad. I couldn’t get through no matter how hard I tried. What’s going on with them and the fracture pack? I hope they wiped those assholes off the face of the planet.
Dad said they’ve kept the Made wolves in check, but it sounds like there’s trouble with the priestess. Apparently she’s not in it for the money.
Tyler let out a low whistle in his mind. If she’s not doing it for payment, she’s doing it for—
Power.
Well, fuck.
The airboat place consisted of a few run-down shacks and a couple of cheesed-off backwater guides. They were both dressed in plaid shirts, dirty jeans, big-billed hats, and nasty scowls.
“See, we brought your baby back in perfect condition, no harm, no foul,” Marcy chirped as she jumped out of the pickup. “Now, what I want is for you to show my friend here how to operate the boat we just purchased.” She gestured to Rourke, and both men took a step back as he jumped down from the flatbed.
Rourke grinned and flashed his teeth, pushing his advantage. “I’m a quick learner, boys.” Both guides didn’t move an inch for a few beats.
I was still in the back, but Naomi had taken to the sky to wait for the wolf boys with extra clothes in hand. I walked to the edge of the truck and glanced down the long dock where the airboats were kept. The one we’d purchased was parked at the end, sitting on top of a big wooden platform that sloped downward on either side. The boat looked as though it’d served a long, battered life in the Glades. Two seats were set higher, right in front of the gigantic propeller fan. They were clearly the drivers’ seats. Then there were two rows of passenger seats in front of them. Even from a distance I could see that the benches were covered with peeling red and white striped vinyl. The airboat looked like it could hold about ten people.
The taller of the guides followed my gaze out to the boat. “There ain’t nothin’ in these parts habitable, so I don’t know what you’re looking to find. Ain’t no boats on the channels we don’t know about, neither.” He ambled forward, spitting on the ground. “But if you come to investigate the missin’ folk, that’s something altogether different. Some gone missin’ in this neck of the swamp for a good few years now. Lowlife people, who most don’t care nothin’ about. Trappers mostly. No family to miss ’em. Regular folk blame the meth, but we know there’s more to it than that. Guides who’ve been travelin’ ’round here the longest know there’s a place deep in ’em Glades where things just ain’t right.” He pinned his stare on me. “You coming to see about that?”
I appraised him before I answered. He wasn’t well educated, but he’d been around about a thousand blocks and would likely pick up on a lie. “Yes,” I said. “We’re coming to take a look into that.” I wasn’t surprised humans would pick up on the negative energy after being exposed to it for so long. If the priestesses had been here for a hundred years, like my father had guessed, it was bound to have some residual consequences.
The shorter guide came within a few feet of Ray before he stopped. “He’s right. Things just ain’t right ’round here. So I guess they hired a fancy police officer from up in the north to come down here and do their dirty work, huh?” He pronounced police like “pole-eece.” “So you just gonna set it all to rights, then?”
Ray stared at the guy so hard, he finally shied away, shuffling his feet as he went. But I had to give him credit, he lasted a lot longer than a regular human would. He must have been slightly off or he never would’ve approached Ray in the first place. “Something like that,” Ray grumbled, crossing his arms. “But in order for me to ‘set things to right,’ I need you to tell me everything you know about these disappearances, got it? Leave nothing out. The more info we have, the better chance we have to catch these bastards. Let’s go have a nice chat while the other boys figure out the boat.” The short guide trailed after Ray, who was already peppering him with questions in a typical cop fashion.
The tall guide turned to Rourke. “I’ll show you how to run the boat. It ain’t too hard.” They walked out to the end of the dock.
Marcy strode up to me, grinning.
“What?” I asked.
“This is going to be one heck of an adventure, isn’t it?” Her eyes were gleaming. “The last one I had—being kidnapped by the sorcerers—was scary and hellish, but it did bring out one good thing.”
“And what’s that?”
“My thirst for adrenaline.”