other for a moment. Finally, he broke the silence. “What do you mean?”
“When everything was black and it seemed like I was being ripped apart, it felt as though someone was trying to force his way into my mind. It only lasted a few seconds, but I definitely felt it.”
He clasped her shoulders, bending slightly to ensure eye contact. “You’re absolutely certain the connection was with a male?”
She nodded.
Under vampiric law, forcing one’s way into another’s mind was tantamount to rape. The invasion and fear she’d experienced had left her shaken.
“Listen to me.” Varik gently placed both hands to the sides of her face. Tightly controlled anger made his body vibrate against hers and the blood-bond buzzed in the back of her mind like a swarm of angry bees. “I will find the son of a bitch who did this, and I’ll rip his fucking head off.”
“There’s more.”
“Tell me.”
“I’m not even sure it’s part of the vision. It doesn’t make sense, but just before I woke up, I saw my father.”
“You saw Bernard?”
“Yes.” Alex took a deep breath before continuing. “He was with a woman and they were kissing. I couldn’t see her face but it was definitely not my mother.”
Varik released her but remained silent.
“Like I said, it doesn’t make sense.”
He wrapped her in his arms and held her. “No, it doesn’t, but we’ll figure it out.”
She nodded against his chest, unable to speak past the maelstrom of emotions that swirled within her.
He pulled back and his lips found hers while his voice whispered in her mind. I love you, and I won’t let anything happen to you.
She broke the kiss and stroked his cheek with her hand. “I know,” she murmured. “But you shouldn’t promise something you can’t deliver.”
“Alex—”
“We should follow Freddy and Reyes to the lab.” She moved away. “We have a lot of work to do if we’re going to catch this Dollmaker of yours.”
Varik looked for a moment as if he would protest, and then simply nodded and pressed the button on his key ring to unlock the Corvette’s doors.
Alex sank into the cool interior and was grateful when he started the engine and turned on the heater. Her thoughts ran in circles—recalling images of the dead girl, bits of the strange chants she’d heard, and the sensation of being pulled apart.
Anxiety gnawed at her spine. But was the source of her anxiety what she’d experienced or the brief glimpse of her father kissing another woman?
As Varik sped down the highway and into the heart of Jefferson, Alex watched trees give way to houses and single-story commercial buildings and realized she didn’t know.
Tasha eased her sedan through the minefield of dry potholes and ruts that comprised the driveway of Coone’s Pull-n-Go Salvage Yard. A chain-link fence topped with rows of barbed wire enclosed the yard but didn’t hide away the hundreds of derelict cars, trucks, motorcycles, and farm equipment scattered across what had once been several acres of pastureland. She parked beside a small single-wide mobile home that had seen better days and tried not to twist her ankle among the many ruts when she stepped from the vehicle.
“You the police?” an older man with a bushy gray beard asked from the mobile home’s porch. He adjusted the band on a grease-stained cap before using it to cover an equally unruly patch of matching hair on his head.
She flashed her badge as she rounded the front of her sedan. “Lieutenant Tasha Lockwood.” The edge of a deep pothole gave way and she had to catch herself on the hood of her car to keep from falling.
“Watch your step there,” the man said. “Some of them holes could break a leg if you fell right.”
“You should do something about that.”
The man shrugged. “Don’t do no good. First gulley washer that comes through and they’re back.”
Tasha reached the porch’s steps and stood on the lowest, still looking up at him. “Are you Mr. Coone?”
“Last time I checked.”
“Are you the one who called in to report a suspicious vehicle?”
“Nope. That was my son, Buddy.”
“Is he here?”
The elder Coone pointed toward the yard and the sound of an approaching vehicle.
Tasha turned to see an all-terrain version of a golf cart speeding in their direction. The cart bounced over holes and kicked up a plume of reddish dust behind it. The morning’s rain hadn’t affected this part of the county and the dust cloud overtook the vehicle. The driver stopped beside the porch and dust settled on everything in its