Wolf Tracks - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,64
be at night.
She stayed in the car but sent her magical senses out, probing delicately at the land around her, moving outward, toward the feed mill. What she found was not reassuring. There was the black ward, all right. She could feel its malevolence all around the area, but it was concentrated on the main building, which was off to one side of the property. The feed mill itself didn’t seem to be within the ward. Curious, she probed farther.
There were others in her family better suited to this kind of work, but even with her minimal traditional magic skills, she was able to discern that there was a presence in the main building, and she’d bet the feed mill had been very deliberately left out of the ward. Why? If the young wolves used the place for their obstacle course, it would be a honey of a trap to catch them.
Helen knew, all of a sudden, why Calum had disappeared. Even before her magical senses brushed past his terrified presence within the walls of the old feed mill, she knew what she was going to find. He was there! Definitely there. Imprisoned.
She had to tell Jim, and she had to get to the boy. She could feel how low his magical reserves were. He was near death and so very scared. Poor kid. She had to help him. First, though, she had to get the word out.
She called Joe and told him what she had discovered in as few words as possible as she got out of the car. She didn’t wait for his questions. She just told him to hurry getting over here, and ended the call. Tucking her cellphone into her pocket and arming herself with a bundle of lavender she’d put in her purse after her afternoon in the B&B’s garden, she headed out after Jim.
Chapter Fifteen
Jim was able to follow a scent trail he could only assume belonged to Calum all the way through the maze of the abandoned part of the feed mill. Where things got tricky was the area where the black ward began. In this case, it looked like whoever had laid this ward had deliberately excluded the part of the mill used by the teens for the obstacle course. It was only at the point where they left the dilapidated silos and entered the sturdier structure of the building that the ward ran through the path.
Jim hesitated. The ward was likely set in such a way that he could enter here, but he wasn’t altogether certain he would be able to get out again. This enemy had baited their trap for the pups, but would it also catch him, if he crossed over that boundary? He wasn’t sure, but the possibility was real.
Of course, folks knew where Jim was, and if he didn’t surface to report his findings in a reasonable time, they’d come looking. Plus, Helen was out there. She’d call the cavalry if he didn’t come back soon. The kid, though… The kid couldn’t wait. Jim had to take the chance and go in to help that teen who’d been caught all too long in this tangled web of deceit.
Black magic. It made Jim’s skin crawl. Hidden magic. Unseen and deceptive. He held his breath and crossed over the barrier. As he’d thought, it sprang up behind him, the trap sprung. No matter. He’d deal with that later, on the way out. Right now, he had to find the boy.
Jim picked up the scent trail once the barrier was behind him. The boy had come this way on his own, but then, another scent intruded. Someone had intercepted Calum, and there were signs of a scuffle. Jim proceeded cautiously, lest there be some kind of physical traps set to catch whoever came this way. He picked up another scent. This one he knew from the warehouse in West Virginia.
Bingo. He’d found his man. Buford—or whatever his real name was—had been here no less than a few hours ago. Jim followed the mingled scents until he came to a door. Pausing to listen, he didn’t hear anything that would tell him what was behind the door. There was just one way to find out without specialized equipment he didn’t have on him.
Jim readied himself for what he might find and opened the door. A quick visual scan of the room showed it was empty, except for a large crate of the kind people kept dogs or other large animals in.