seat. “I will accompany you.”
“Me, too.” Collier hopped in the back. He had not Dalvahni speed, but he moved with surprising agility for a man his age. “Might need my contrabulator.”
Grim hesitated. A wise warrior knew when to ask for help. His hubris had placed Sassy in danger once. It would not do so again.
“Very well,” Grim said. “Onward to Sassy, and tarry not.”
Grim gripped the steering wheel and Mea plunged down the road like a wild stallion. They zoomed past the startled occupants of several vehicles and reached the paved byway in short order. A large black truck blocked the entrance to the highway.
Mea squealed to a halt, engine snarling in annoyance.
Evan jumped out of the truck. “Saw the smoke from town. Is the Lollipop okay?”
“No,” Grim said. “Move your conveyance.”
“Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
“The witch has kidnapped Sassy,” Grim ground out.
“What?” Evan’s forehead bulged and his eyes turned black. “Ebban kill witch.”
“Stop that and get out of the way,” Grim snapped. “I tire of your antics.”
“Sorry.”
With a visible effort, Evan controlled himself. Climbing in his truck, he moved his vehicle. Mea squealed onto the highway in a cloud of dust.
“I am no expert on human machines, but there is something peculiar about this automobile,” Duncan said. “Almost it seems . . . sentient. Care to explain, Grim?”
“No.”
“Something odd about that feller in the truck, too,” Mr. Collier said from the backseat. “Did you see the way his head swelled up like a punkin?”
Grim made no answer. His will and thoughts were focused on getting to Sassy. Damn this infuriating mode of transport. Mea moved swiftly, but no human machine could match the speed of the Dalvahni. If he but had some inkling of Sassy whereabouts, he could be at her side in a trice.
Instead, he must trust Mea to find her before it was . . .
His mind balked. No, he was not too late.
“He’s following us, you know, that feller,” Collier said. “We got us a convoy.”
Grim glanced in the mirror. Sure enough, Evan’s truck was close behind.
“Kehv’s toenails,” Grim muttered.
Snuffling and whining, Mea left the highway and turned onto a road that ran through the woods beside the river.
“Listen to that engine,” Collier said. “Reminds me of one of my old hunting dogs.”
Mea turned down a narrow dirt track.
Collier leaned over the front seat. “We’re headed for the old McKenna place. What in the world made you come out here?”
The human thought he was driving. He had no idea Mea was acting on her own.
“A . . . er . . . hunch,” Grim said.
Mea hummed down the dirt road. She wound a mile or so from the river and turned into a short, grassy drive that ended at a wide metal gate. Beyond the gate, cultivated fields stretched to a copse of trees in the distance.
“Huh,” Collier said. “Wonder who’s farming this place? To my knowledge, hasn’t been a McKenna working this land since the fifties.”
The rutted, weed choked path continued on the other side of the gate. The gate was locked. The car whined and pushed her nose against the metal grill.
Sassy was in there. Grim was sure of it. So was Mea.
Grim blew the gate off the hinges with a lift of his hand. Mea charged through the opening and bumped down the furrowed trail.
Evan rumbled after them in his truck.
They passed a barn that held farm equipment.
“We’re cl-o-o-se,” Collier stammered, jarred by the rough ride. “Con-tra-bu-la-a-tor’s hu-humming.”
Mea sped up, bouncing faster over the rough track. They were indeed close. Grim’s vision narrowed, and his muscles twitched with eagerness. He would find Sassy, and she would be unharmed.
If she were not, the world would bleed.
They reached the stand of trees. Beyond it, they found a small weed-choked clearing. Mea purred into the open space and stopped, trembling. Evan rumbled up and parked beside them. In the center of the plot of land stood a dilapidated cabin. The metal roof of the structure was rusted, the unpainted walls pocked with gaping holes, like missing teeth in the skull of some decaying beast. A small front porch drooped from the front of the house. A towering oak provided shade at the back of the property. Beneath the oak were three small headstones.
All these things Grim noted and filed away with a warrior’s practiced eye for his surroundings. His attention was riveted on the vehicle next to the sagging porch.
The vehicle belonged to Eddie Furr; Grim recognized the dented blue truck from the