Kissed by Ice(22)

I heard the others following me, but I was completely focused on the task at hand. Like a bloodhound, the Darkness inside me eagerly hunted down each little glowing drop of blood. I had no idea why my vision saw the drops as luminescent. The blood itself was long dried even in the humid air of the tropical island. But whatever it was, the Darkness was pulling at the leash, eager to chase it down.

I finally stumbled out onto a narrow dirt road just wide enough for a car to squeeze between the trees on either side. The trail of blood drops stopped. "Damnit," I snarled under my breath. The Darkness snarled something worse. I mentally told it to shut up. It sulked.

"What is it?" Kabita asked, pushing her way out onto the road, her breathing heavy, Haakon hot on her tail. She glanced up and down the road as if expecting a vamp to come charging out of the night.

"The trail ends here," I told her. "He must have gotten into a car." It was the only thing that explained the abrupt end of his trail.

"We'll never find him." Kabita was clearly not thrilled with the idea. "If he got in a car, he could be miles away."

"Maybe not," Haakon said.

We both stared at him. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"There may be a way to track him." He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a plastic bag shaped like a walkie-talkie. He ripped open the sealed packaging and pulled out a satellite phone.

"Nifty," Kabita said as Haakon began pressing buttons. "I should get you one of those." She shot me a sideways glance. "Then you'd have no excuse not to answer my calls."

"Hey, the last time I was underground," I snapped. "Pretty sure those things don't work in tunnels."

She just gave me The Look, which I ignored. We both turned our attention to Haakon, who was barking orders into the sat phone in a language I didn't recognize. It sounded vaguely European. I'd bet it was a Scandinavian language. Maybe his mother tongue, whatever that was. Norwegian or Swedish maybe. What language had Vikings spoken, anyway? I was going to have to look that up.

"All right," Haakon said as he hung up. "Let's go." He started walking down the road toward the dark mountains looming in the distance.

"Why that way?" I trotted along behind, trying to keep up with his damn long-legged stride.

"This is the way the car went."

"And how do you know that?"

"I've got my sources."

Kabita and I exchanged looks. I glanced up at the sky. "Let me guess. You've got somebody who can access satellite images."

He raised an eyebrow. "So, you're not just a pretty face."

"Don't be an ass. You know what I am."

He smiled a little at that. "As you know what I am, I imagine."

"Eddie told me," I admitted. "But I probably would have figured it out."

"Eventually," Kabita said dryly. I shot her a dirty look.

Haakon said nothing, but there were definite signs of a smirk as we continued down the road. Or rather, he continued walking. Kabita and I were closer to a jog. I subtly tapped into the Darkness, channeling just enough to keep me from getting tired. Oddly enough, it cooperated without throwing much of a snit. My, my, what a cooperative little superpower.

I wanted to ask Haakon about the whole Sunwalker thing. The only Sunwalker I'd ever met was Jack—well, and supposedly me, but I liked to ignore that little factoid—and the only thing I knew about them was what little Jack had told me. And what I'd learned from my dreams and Eddie's sentient book. Maybe Haakon would know more or at least be willing to share. I also had a lot of questions about the whole Viking thing. Because, frankly, Vikings were awesome. But first, we had a vampire to stake.





Chapter Nine



It felt like days later, but was probably only about an hour, when we finally reached the edge of civilization. Low houses gleamed white in the moonlight, their windows like dark, empty eyes. There were no streetlights, only the occasional security light left burning over a garage or front door. A dog barked sleepily nearby, answered by another. I heard what I could have sworn sounded like a goat. Other than that, it was nothing but us and the crickets.

The dirt road turned to gravel and finally pavement. Although the asphalt was so pitted and scarred, "paved" could only be used in the loosest sense of the word. The houses grew closer together and eventually the odd streetlight sprung up here and there, though half of them were out. Finally we found ourselves standing in the middle of a village. Well, village was maybe too enthusiastic. They didn't even have a traffic light. Just a beat-up stop sign where two roads converged with a shop on one corner and a cafe/bar on another.