As Ian sets his phone down and turns to face me, I can tell something is wrong. A moment before he was blushing adorably, but now his face is unhealthily pale.
"What is it?" I ask, lifting myself and crawling forward to sit on the edge of the bed. "Bad news?"
"You could say that," he says, coming to sit beside me. He lets out a long breath, scrubbing his hands over the stubble covering his lower face and jaw, and then leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Somehow, in the time it took us to fool around, 'Detective Hunter' tracked down Raven Wheeler's boyfriend, and got the name of the person who called her home."
"Who?" I ask.
"Inez. He said...it was Inez."
"Wait...what?" I struggle to understand. Sure, her 'memory loss' story was suspicious, but she'd seemed as genuinely freaked out as the rest of us.
"It makes sense," Ian says. His voice has a dull tone and he stares at the floor between his knees, unblinking. "If seven Shifters have to die, it makes sense the Walkers would prefer they be strangers and outcasts—folk with few connections, who no one will miss."
He sighs, studying the pattern in the blue and white carpet under the bed.
"Inez didn't invite me here on account of some open-armed, bear-folk community ethos," he goes on. "She invited me here to kill me."
"But you have lots of friends," I argue. "They'd come looking for you, right?"
"Maybe," he allows, "but Inez doesn't know that. She only knows what I told her in the few emails we exchanged: that I don't have any close family anymore, and that...that I was having a hard time after losing my dad."
"And...all the other deaths looked like...suicides," I say quietly, "except for Raven."
"I've been thinking about that," he says. "I think maybe it was meant to look like that, too. Maybe we interrupted Inez's plan, finding the car when we did."
"What plan?"
"I don't know," he shrugs. "But probably something more solid than 'I don't remember where I was for a week.'"
"What do we do now?" I ask, unable to hide the nervous tremble in my voice. "Do you think the Walkers are all in on it?"
"I guess we'll find out," he says, getting to his feet with another sigh. "Pack your things. We need to be ready to run. I'll text Carlos, too. Tell him to get his and Toni's stuff in my truck."
He stands and grabs his phone, tapping out a quick message while I pull on my clothes and throw my few possessions in my pack. I feel a tiny, nonsensical twinge of jealousy when the little 'swoosh' sound announces the text is sent.
I've never had a phone, and once I get some money it's the first thing I plan to buy. That way, Ian can send me messages.
With our things packed, we leave our room and descend the stairs to the first level. The lodge is creepily quiet. Up until I got my private tour of the basement, I'd thought it was charming—in its own rustic, earthbound way. Now I'd rather stay at the Overlook Hotel.
Outside, there's no sign of the others—or of a tow-truck. The silence of the landscape impresses me with the remoteness of this place, and of how far we are from any kind of help.
"Shit," Ian swears. "I was hoping Toni and Carlos would be out here already. I'd rather wait outside."
"What should we do?" I ask.
"Play it cool," he says. "Act like everything's fine. Maybe it will be."
He doesn't sound convinced.
As we approach the Walkers' house, I feel a nervous tension coiling like metal bands around my chest and resist the urge to reach for Ian's hand. He must see some small motion in the corner of his eye, though, and reaches for me instead, his fingers closing with reassuring firmness around mine.
"Deep breath," he says, leading by example. "We'll be okay."
I wish I had so much confidence—or that he had less. Running away and sending help from a distance is starting to sound like a pretty good idea right now.
It seems even better when we reach the steps of the low deck in front of the house and Inez steps through the door with Elliot and Sofia at her back, a shotgun in her hands. She holds it across her chest, barrel pointed down, and smiles when she sees us.
"There you are," she says. "We was just comin' to look for you."
Ian stands very still at my side, his hand still holding mine. "The tow-truck?" he asks, his voice impressively even.
"Not here yet," Inez says. "In fact, I thought maybe we'd better go an' check the road. Make sure there's not some kind of blockage. Why don't you come along with us, Ian? If there's a tree down, we could use the extra pair of strong arms."
First, Ian only has one strong arm right now. Second, I'm pretty sure 'don't follow the lady with the shotgun into the woods' is right up there with 'don't believe the windowless van is really full of puppies and candy.'
"I think we'd better stay here," Ian replies. "If you find the truck and send him on, we'll be here to meet him."
Inez doesn't say anything for a moment, and Elliot and Sofia stand like statues at her back, as though waiting for some cue.
Very slowly, she raises the gun and aims it at us, her mask of a friendly expression slipping to reveal something far colder beneath.
"Looks like the gig's up, then, eh?" she says. "You were s'posed to be the easy one, too. Stranger shows up in town, stranger disappears. No one's the wiser. Instead, you brought company. Witnesses. Problems. Fortunately, I've always been good at solving problems. That's why my grandad chose me to be a Keeper, after all."
"Keeper?" Ian repeats, maybe trying to keep her talking. It doesn't work.
"This ain't story-time, boy," Inez snaps, dark eyes flashing. "It's time to finish this and be done with it. You think I like killing folk? Well I don't. You'll be the last, I can promise you that."
"But you need seven," Ian says. "I'd only be the sixth."
She nods. "You'll be the last I kill, save one. A Keeper's always the seventh. It's only fair. Now move."
She jerks the gun, and I tense reflexively, ready to use everything I have to take on my full demon-form. She sees my slight motion and raises the gun a little higher, but keeps it on Ian.
"You think you're faster than a spray of bullets?" she asks, eyes on me. "Make a move and we'll find out."
"Please," Ian interrupts, reaching his arm across my chest and pushing me slightly behind him, "don't hurt Sam. He's innocent. Carlos and his aunt, too. Please let them go."
"Don't worry 'bout them. The woman's unconscious, along with the rest of my family. Once this is done, they'll all 'wake up' together and wonder what happened. Later they'll find you an' me. They'll figure that 'death-bringer' must've got to us both, and that'll be the end of it. At least for another forty-nine years. As for the boys...well, they'll simply be 'disappeared'. A mystery."
"I'm begging you," Ian pleads, at last losing the calm tone he'd maintained so far and sounding more desperate and afraid. "Please, don't hurt them."
"I don't want to," Inez says, "though I thought I'd have to for a while. In fact, I thought I did. Your boy seemed pretty dead when I left him in the lake. Harder to kill than he looks, I guess."
Ian makes an angry sound deep in his chest, a bear-like moan of rage, and the muscles in his back and shoulders bunch with barely contained energy. I hold on to his arm and Inez shakes her head.
"I'd've tried again, but then your meddling Slayer friend provided a better solution. She was followed here, you see, though she didn't know it."
She stops, and Sofia and Elliot move aside to let two more people emerge from the dark interior of the house.
Pax and Roman, Karin's 'hounds,' who I'd thought I'd seen the last of the night I rode away in Ian's truck. Fear erupts anew in my chest as the familiar sight of Pax's hard-lined tan face and spiky blond hair, and Roman's sallow, hollow-eyed visage summon bad memories like a swarm of bats rising from hell. I shrink against Ian, strength sapped by sudden panic and shock.
"Your little lover's in high demand, it seems," Inez says, still keeping her eyes on Ian. "Sofia caught these two snooping around while we had him...contained. When they explained what they were after, I was only too happy to oblige."
"You're insane if you think I'll let you take Sam," Ian growls, and I see the shadow of his bear-shape ready to burst forth in full fury, but Inez just nods.
"That's your choice. You can die now, or you can die later, but I will put a hole through you both if either of you attempts to Shift."
She swings the barrel of the shotgun towards me just a little, and Ian goes still.
"I'd rather die with Ian than go with them," I say, pressing myself a little closer to Ian's side. "Go ahead, shoot us. Have fun cleaning up the mess."
"What about your friend?" Inez asks. "Are you willing to condemn him too?"
At her words, a final set of figures emerge from the house—all the players on the stage. One is Carlos, awake but looking strangely docile and dazed, the other is a tall man with pale skin, long white hair, and inky black eyes.
"Hello, little Sama," Karin says. "You didn't really think you could escape me, did you? I own you—body...and soul, remember?"
"The hell? Who the fuck do you think you are?" Ian snarls.
"I am Karinius Locke," he says, in the deep voice that still haunts my dreams, and gives Ian a mocking bow. "And I suppose I ought to thank you for taking such good care of my...wayward property."
"You—" Ian starts forward and I see Inez's finger twitch against the trigger. I grab his arm and hold him back, then slip between him and Inez.
"You made a mistake," I say, going for cocky but sounding frightened and desperate instead. "Karin won't let you hurt me, and I won't let you hurt Ian. As for Carlos," I shrug. "Take him. I don't care."
If we get out of this, we can rescue him later.
To my surprise, Karin merely smiles.
"I would indeed be loathe to lose you, Sama," he says. "But this is not my domain, and I yield to those who hold the power here. Of course, I would prefer to bring you safely home with me; but if I cannot, then I will see you destroyed. Better that than let you fall into...other hands. As for this one," he glances at Carlos, "he seems promising, but..."
He shrugs, and Elliot moves to stand at Carlos's back, the thick blade of a hunting knife poised against his bare throat.
Inez smiles, but it's tired and humorless, and her eyes are dull. I don't know why she's doing this, but I believe she told the truth when she said she didn't enjoy it.
"So, what'll it be?" she asks. "Leave a mess, or leave in peace?"
"Sam," Ian whispers at my back. "Go with them—with Carlos. At least you'll be alive. Please. At least let me know you'll be okay."
He doesn't understand. I'd rather be dead than be Karin's slave again. But I understand him. He wants to see me walk away unhurt, even if it is in chains.
I'll give him that, but only because Karin's possessiveness and greed have given me an idea. Not much of one, but maybe something that will give us—Ian and Carlos at least—a chance. I just hope whatever Inez plans to do will take a bit of time.
"Fine, Master Karinius," I say, dropping slowly to a kneel and not having to try very hard at all to sound defeated, "take me home."