for it and Olsen.”
“Keep it on our network,” Clay advised. “We don’t want humans confronting him.”
“That will greatly reduce its efficiency,” Asa pointed out. “There are more teams in the area but…”
As predicted, those teams were happy to let Black Hat’s black witch take on the rogue black witch solo.
“He’s right.” I sided with Clay. “We don’t want to give him an excuse to further involve humans.”
Asa took his calls outside, as if privacy was an issue, but I bet the smell was tweaking his sensitive nose.
“He’s going to run to his safe place.” Clay surveyed the area one last time. “We find that, we find clues.”
“Let’s hope we get lucky with the APB.” I exited the trailer. “Otherwise, we might lose him.”
There were days between the discovery of his victims and his search for new ones. We were in the lull.
“He was already hunting.” I filled my lungs with fresh air. “He might have his first victim chosen.”
I moseyed over to Asa to see if he had made any progress while Clay reported the crime to the Bureau, which would further complicate the situation between the director and the enraged trolls.
“Are you sure?” Asa paced a tight line. “Yes.” He came to sudden halt. “Give me the address.”
Ending the call, Asa tapped his phone against his chin. “We have a lead.”
“You don’t look thrilled about it.” I was of the opinion any lead was a good lead. “What’s the deal?”
“Olsen owned a tract of land about an hour from here. It’s a thirty-acre forested spread.”
And that, friends, was where he had invested his money. “His hunting grounds.”
A troll could only ape human for so long before instinct demanded he obey his nature.
Plus, they required room to spread out their caches. Thirty acres was plenty for that.
“The copycat couldn’t afford to compound the mistakes he already made. He would have performed an inventory on the troll’s belongings before committing to that identity. A remote tract of land might have been the tipping point in Olsen’s favor.” Asa put away his cell. “There’s no record of a structure on the property, but I’m sure Olsen had a small cabin, or even a cave, for when he hunted in inclement weather. Trolls don’t fare well in the cold.”
“This could be it.” A wave of nerves and nausea tangled in my gut. “Do we call for backup?”
“He’s on alert thanks to our visit.” Asa hummed. “We should take our chances before he bolts.”
“I’m good with that.” I wanted this over and done. I wanted to go home. To Colby. “Let’s do it.”
“Don’t I get a vote?” Clay stomped over to us. “I have opinions too.”
“We were waiting on you to make it unanimous.” I patted his arm. “Well? What do you think?”
“I agree with Ace,” he grumped. “If we don’t want to lose him, we have to move.”
“All righty then.” I got in the SUV, checked my phone, then settled in. “You have the address?”
Asa tapped the side of his head then fed the information to his phone’s GPS for the quickest route.
The best of all possible outcomes was the copycat had yet to take his first victim for his next piece.
The churn in my gut warned me not to get my hopes up, but it also reminded me what I had done to the man responsible for inspiring this killer. Nerves weren’t all to blame for my upset stomach. Hunger was a yawning void within me that hadn’t been filled in too long.
This killer was ruthless, powerful, merciless.
His heart would taste…delicious.
13
The address wasn’t hard to find. There was a mailbox and everything. That led me to trust Clay was right about his hunch we would find some form of troll-friendly accommodations on the property. Where, we had no idea. And the farther we trekked, the deeper into the killer’s territory we roamed. If he was using this property to hold his victims, he would know the area well. He could be watching us from higher ground right now, which blasted chills down my arms.
Up to this point, I had felt relatively safe with Asa and Clay for backup, given my diminished state.
But hunting this killer in his habitat? Without my mantle of power, I was afraid. For us all.
“We can’t afford to waste much more time.” Clay broke the silence of the past hour with what we must all be thinking. “Assuming the killer came here after we visited him, he could have taken what he needed and bolted last night.”
“We don’t