“Very well,” Eleriss said. “We will check to see if the cave is there and if it is the one we seek. If so, we will return with your payment.”
Jakatra muttered something in his own tongue.
Eleriss made an upward motion with his hand that wasn’t familiar to me, but the gesture had a placating feel, and Jakatra desisted. Once again, I wondered what their relationship was. In the beginning, I’d assumed Jakatra was in charge, but perhaps they were equals, or maybe Eleriss was even the leader. I’d believe Jakatra was the bodyguard if someone suggested it. Despite the shared hotel room with the single bed, I’d never gotten the lovers vibe from them.
It didn’t look like they were going to stick around to explain anything to me. They revved up the motorcycles again. This time, Simon and I stepped aside, and the riders tore out of the parking lot. As soon as they disappeared from sight, I pulled out my phone and called Autumn.
She answered on the first ring with, “They after me?”
“I hope we convinced them to prioritize something else,” I said, “but you should get out of town anyway.” It crossed my mind to tell her to toss that blood in a garbage can somewhere and distance herself from the danger, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. I wanted to see the results from the DNA sequencer. I hoped I’d bought her the time she needed to run the sample, and that I wasn’t endangering her further.
“Working on it. Had to take that vet tech home first.”
“Are you still with Temi?” I asked.
“She dropped me at my car and drove off. She said she’s heading back to get you two.”
“Good. Thanks. Keep in touch, will you?”
“Yeah, yeah, I gotta go if I’m going to get out of here.”
“Wait, what’d you tell that vet tech anyway?”
“That secret government agents were trying to keep me from discovering The Truth and sharing it with the public,” Autumn said.
“And he bought that?”
“He was wearing an old X-Files T-shirt under his lab coat. Of course he bought it. He’s convinced that monster out there is an alien. He was even talking about this blog that’d been posting pictures of it... Know anything about that?” An engine rumbled to life—she must be ready to drive out of town.
“Not a thing,” I said innocently. “Stay safe on your trip.”
“I will. Later.”
When I hung up, Simon was watching me, his eyebrows elevated.
“Our ride is on its way, and your blog entries are becoming famous,” I said.
“Things are looking up.”
“For the moment. Did you really find a cave, or did you send those two on a fool’s errand? Because if it’s the latter, they’re going to be irked when they catch up with us again.”
“I found a cave,” Simon said.
“Oh, good. Maybe they’ll be too busy exploring it to think about their blood for a while.”
“That was my plan.” His smirk was on the smug side.
“Too bad we can’t follow them again. I’d love to see a secret cave that nobody else has been in for a long time, if ever.” Though I’d be even more intrigued if there were signs of prehistoric habitation. The Hassayampa River cavates had been interesting, and I certainly planned to write an article on them, but what else might we find in a subterranean cavern beneath Prescott? Something cool enough to get me an invitation to write for one of the big archaeology magazines? “Enh, perhaps it’s just as well that we can’t follow them,” I said. “Our predator keeps showing up wherever they go.”
“Not until night fall though, and that’s a long ways off.” Simon arched his eyebrows. “As for the rest, why can’t we follow them?”
“Uh, did you miss their comment about booby-trapping the trail?”
“No, but there’s that lovely little kayak rental place on the other side of the lake...”
Nine by Night: A Multi-Author Urban Fantasy Bundle of Kickass Heroines, Adventure, Magic
CHAPTER 21
Like most of the other businesses in town, the kayak rental place was closed. While Simon tried the handles on the equipment lockers, I observed the scenery across the water, wondering if Eleriss and Jakatra were already out there, burning holes in rocks. Ducks floated in the shallows near the wetlands end of the lake, calm and undisturbed. I took that for a promising sign. At the other end of the lake, lumpy gray mounds of granite rose, the ancient bedrock eroded by wind and water. I’d called the mounds boulders, because I lacked a better word, but many of the formations would dwarf the buildings downtown and some loomed tall enough to entice eagles to roost on the tops.