"She's not here," Glory said, biting back a soft sob. "She hasn't been for months."
"I know, kvietka," he whispered, pressing a kiss to her temple. His heart ached for her. For the fear and dismay she felt.
"Where is she?"
"I do not know. But it is possible the others have learned something. We go back now."
"Yes," she nodded, seeing the sense in it, clinging to the logic like a lifeline. "We'll go back."
He led her away from the wreckage of her former home. And he ached to shift, just as he knew that she did as well. He needed the primal beat of it. The simpler, instinctive synthesis of pain and frustration. But it was too risky. They didn't know what lurked in the woods and they couldn't risk it. So they walked side by side, his hand like a warm hug over hers.
"Emin, what does 'kvietka' mean?" she asked eventually, when the edge of the woods lightened their horizon, and they were almost back to where they'd parked the van.
He looked around, knelt and plucked a small purple blossom from where it crept up a mossy log. One of summer's last soldiers before the first snow came and wiped it all away. He held it out to her, placed it in her hand like a gift. "It means flower."
She tucked it behind her ear and followed her love back to civilization.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
An hour later, all of them were huddled around a campfire. They'd set up the tents and their sleeping bags. Maxim was in the process of cooking sausages over the fire.
Dora, meanwhile, was pouring a medicinal dose of whiskey in a cup for each person. Emin had just finished telling them all what they'd found at Glory's home cave.
"Well. Danil and I found some shit out today," Dora said, handing Glory a glass and making sure she tipped it back first. She plunked down in Danil's lap and looked positively wrecked at the news she had to deliver.
Danil stroked a hand over his wife’s back and took over. Sometimes there was too much burden on his Dora. She was strong and sure and tough. But still, sometimes there was too much burden.
"Ms. Gunderson," Danil started, taking over for Dora. "This is the woman who called in the tip in the first place. She says that she's spent a lot of time in the woods. And I believe her. She's very, uh, woodsy."
"He means she's a flippin’ hippy," Dora clarified. "With the ratty hair and B.O. to prove it."
"I know her," Glory said, her eyes still watering from the sting of the whiskey. "She walks in the woods often. I used to see her a lot. But I never knew she'd see me."
"Well, she did. Your mother, too. She knew there were at least two tigers living here. And she knew when you were gone and the number dwindled to one. And," Danil braced himself for the hard part, "she noticed when about seven months ago, the other tiger disappeared as well."
"Seven months ago was when Glory escaped Navuka," Emin said, his eyes narrowing.
"And they realize they need new tiger shifter to torture," Anton filled in the blanks from across the fire. "So they come back here and take her.”
Glory stiffened beside Emin, turning her face into his shoulder. It was too much to imagine that happening to her mother.
"We found some things, too," AJ said, glancing between Anton and Maxim. They both nodded for her to go on.
"We explored where Glory had said she was originally captured. And there wasn't much there to see. But about a mile away, Anton caught the scent; there's a cinder block building.”
"A lab?" Dora asked.
"I think no," Anton replied. "It was too small. Smelled different."
"We could smell an animal in there, though. A lot like Glory." Maxim paused, flipped the food on the fire. "We think they might be holding your mother there."
Glory gripped Emin's hand. "Holding her? Why?"
Dora stood up to pace. "Lots of possibilities. They could have realized that they didn't want the hassle of transporting her to Spokane, the way they did with you. And that was right around the time you destroyed the lab there, Glorious. So maybe they legitimately don't have another place to keep the shifters they are working on. Or maybe they're doing a different kind of experiment now and they don't need all that equipment that they used to."
"Or they knew Glory would come back for her mother." Emin's voice was dark and pained.
"They were right, then. In that case," Glory said, standing as well.
"You think it's a trap?" Maxim asked Emin. "To get Glory?"
"It makes sense," Danil said. "They obviously have a vested interest in the shifters they've already performed experiments on." His eyes flicked over the white in Anton's hair. It wasn't lost on any of them that Navuka was operating in the same part of the world where Anton was currently living. They all knew they were biding their time before they came after him. The Malashoviks were just hoping to destroy the organization before that ever happened.