The Immortal Hunter(5)

"Since the restaurant. I waited a long time there for you," he informed them, and then added grimly, "I hope not too long."

"What do you mean you waited a long time?" Decker asked suspiciously. "How did you even know we were around?"

"Because I arranged it," Nicholas said as if that should be obvious. "Why do you think I let Grant see me when we both happened to stop at the same gas station?"

"Are you saying you wanted us to come find you?" Decker asked.

"Yes." His mouth twisted down when Decker didn't hide his disbelief, and he added, "When I saw Grant I realized that his seeing me might not be a bad thing, so I walked over to say hello. I knew that when he reported the sighting Lucian would send a couple teams up to hunt me." Nicholas paused and then continued with displeasure, "I just didn't realize you guys had gotten so lax in your job. You should have been able to track me down by the day before yesterday. I left a clear enough trail. And still I had to wait for two days for you to show up."

"Grant didn't report the sighting. He didn't know you were rogue. It was only blind luck that he mentioned you this morning," Justin explained, the defensive note to his words making Decker scowl. They had nothing to prove to the man.

Nicholas narrowed his eyes at this news, and then sighed and nodded.

"Then I can't blame you if these girls die," he muttered unhappily, and shook his head. "It will be my . own fault for waiting."

"What girls?" Decker asked. "And why would you want to be found?"

"Because I got on to-and have been following-a nest of nasty rogues. By the time I spotted Grant I'd realized I was going to need help bringing them down. Running into him at the gas station seemed almost fortuitous. At least, it did when I thought he'd turn my ass in," he added bitterly, and then berated himself. "I shouldn't have counted on his reporting me, I should have called it in. Those girls would still be happy and oblivious otherwise." Nicholas paused and then said solemnly, "These are some really bad ones, Decker."

"Aren't all rogues bad?" Justin asked dubiously.

"I guess they are," Nicholas said, a weary note to his voice, and then he continued, "But there's bad, and then there's real demon seed-slaughter the innocent, roll around in their blood for the hell of it, and laugh while you're doing it sickos."

"Jesus," Justin breathed.

Decker eyed Nicholas narrowly. "Are you trying to tell me that you're still hunting rogues even though you're rogue now yourself? Why would you do that?"

"It's hard to kick old habits," Nicholas said bitterly. He shifted impatiently. "Now, I've explained enough. We have to get moving before they start in on these two."

"Just a minute," Decker snapped as Nicholas lowered his hands and turned away to start up the side of the van. "We're not going anywhere, and who are these two girls you keep talking about?"

Nicholas glanced back over his shoulder to say, "They're the two girls these rogues took from the grocery store parking lot before you guys showed up at the restaurant. Once they grabbed the girls, I couldn't wait anymore for backup. Fortunately, you showed up just as I was heading out and followed. Now we can-"

"How do you know they took two girls at the grocery store?" Decker interrupted. "The restaurant where we caught up to you is well away from-"

"Jesus," Nicholas interrupted impatiently. "We don't have time for this now. Can't you hear them screaming?"

Decker opened his mouth to insist that Nicholas explain, but paused as he became aware of the panicked shrieks coming from ahead. Either it had just started or he'd been concentrating so hard on what Nicholas was saying, he'd blocked it out. He was hearing it now, though, and once heard, those desperate, bloodcurdling screams couldn't be ignored... nor could the cruel male laughter that nearly drowned it out.

"Shoot me in the back if you want to," Nicholas snapped. "But I've seen what those bastards do, and I can't just stand here explaining while they cut up those women." He then whirled and charged ahead, crashing into the trees.

"Do I shoot him?" Justin asked, his gun aimed at Nicholas's quickly disappearing back.

Decker ground his teeth together and then shook his head as another scream resounded. "Not yet," he snapped, and broke into a run after his cousin, aware that Justin was hard on his heels.

Dani peered over Stephanie's shoulder at the "no signal" message on her phone, snapped it shut, slid it back into her pocket, and hugged the young girl close, whispering, "It's going to be okay, Stephi."

It was a lie, one to make them both feel better, but Stephanie wouldn't let the lie stand. Arms tightening around her waist, the teenager sobbed, "No, it's not."

Heart clenching at the despair in her voice, Dani twisted her head around to glance at the man who stood behind her. Tall and skinny, with long, lank blond hair, he'd been left to stand guard over them while the others had gathered wood, built a fire, and attended other unknown duties. He watched them with a concentration that gave her the creeps, and most of his attention, she noted worriedly, was on Stephanie.

Dani tightened her arms protectively around her sister and then glanced warily toward the others as they returned one after another. Appearing out of the darkness like pale specters, they stepped into the circle of light cast by the fire, five men all so similar in looks to the first that they must be related. Some were empty-handed and simply took seats on the logs placed in a square around the fire pit. The others dropped what wood they had found next to the fire and joined them so that two sat on each of the three logs facing Dani and Stephanie. Firelight flickered over their faces, the shadows and light licking at them like the flames of hell as they watched Dani and Stephanie, cats eyeing a pair of juicy mice. Dani managed to withstand their silent inspection for a moment, but then blurted, "What are you going to do with us?"