Affliction (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) - Laurell K. Hamilton Page 0,91

we are?’

It was an excellent question. ‘Great question, wish I had a great answer, but I honestly don’t know. They just all are.’

‘I don’t mean to complain, but you are supposed to be the expert and so far I’m not hearing a lot of expertise.’

‘The attack isn’t like anything I’ve seen. It’s not even like the bodies in the morgue, except for the bite marks, but even there it’s not the same. Those bodies had one bite apiece. They both died of an infection, a weird infection, but still that’s what killed them. Henry Crawford didn’t die of a disease, not even a supernatural one. I can tell you it wasn’t shapeshifters because the bite marks aren’t animal teeth; they look human. A flesh-eating zombie could take chunks, but they eat the body, too. I’m seeing at least two different bite radiuses, and that’s without getting down close to the bites. Flesh-eating zombies are solitary. They don’t work together.’

‘Don’t ghouls run in packs?’ Horton asked.

I nodded. ‘Yeah, but they are tied to the cemetery that contains their graves. It’s very rare for them to be able to go outside those boundaries and usually requires some sort of necromancy, or spell, something.’

‘But if ghouls could travel out this far, could they do this?’ Al asked it.

I looked back at the body and thought about it. ‘They could, but again, they usually eat the body. It’s food for them just like for the flesh eater. This wasn’t done for food.’

‘How do you know that?’ Al asked.

‘Because they didn’t eat enough of him.’

‘What if they ate the other Henry and just tortured Henry senior?’ Horton asked.

I thought about it and finally said, ‘Ghouls have no gaze or mind control of any kind. How did they kidnap or lure away the two men without giving them time to call out?’

‘Vampires have mind control,’ Horton said.

‘Yes, but they don’t eat flesh. At a glance I don’t see fangs, just human teeth marks, or humanlike teeth.’

‘What has humanlike teeth and could do this?’

I sighed, and it was too deep a breath. I could smell that the body was already beginning to smell bad, like meat that’s gone past its expiration date. I shouldn’t have been able to smell it that strongly yet. Had my bonding with Nathaniel’s leopard given me better sensitivity to smells? I sort of hoped not, because I wasn’t sure it would be an asset in my job.

‘There are a lot of things that are more folklore-based that have humanlike teeth and attack people,’ Horton suggested.

‘Like what?’ Al asked.

I shook my head. ‘Honestly, this doesn’t remind me of anything in myth or folklore. If I think of something that would kill like this I’ll share, but nothing springs to mind. I’m sorry, I really am, and I’m not used to coming up this empty.’

‘You helped us find Henry, that’s something,’ Al said.

Horton agreed. He looked past me and said, ‘Your other men are coming this way. Maybe it’s time for you to go check on Mike and his family?’

Nicky was coming this way with Nathaniel gliding at his side, the leash almost dragging the ground between them. Ares said, ‘I motioned Nicky over, Anita.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘Because I think I see tracks, but if I’m concentrating on reading the ground I can’t guard you.’

‘There are tracks all over here,’ Horton said.

‘It’s a popular camping and hiking area,’ Al added.

‘Barefoot hiking?’ Ares asked.

The two men looked at each other.

Nicky and Nathaniel had caught up with us. Ares explained what he was doing and Nicky went on alert, watching out into the darkened woods. Ares knelt down, resting on the balls of his feet, staring intently at the ground near us. He pulled a flashlight from one of the pockets on his vest. He shone it on the ground and began to work his way to the edge of the woods on the far left side of the clearing, if you were facing away from the body. He walked slowly, going to the crowd periodically as he moved back toward us.

‘The barefoot print is paired with one that looks like boots. The impression is heavier coming into the clearing and lighter going out.’

‘You think they carried his body in,’ I said.

‘Yes.’

‘Can you track them back?’ Horton asked.

‘The prints are less clear in the trees. There’s more dirt here. I can tell you the direction they came and went, but it’s going to be almost impossible on this surface in the dark. And if the other Crawford