Page 72 of Caretaker

Chapter Twenty-Four

I was worried about Silverlight.

Worried, rather, about being without her. That she might be lost to me. What if she drilled herself so far away I’d never find her? What if that was what she wanted?

The demon who’d possessed her, once upon a time, had probably thought she would belong to him forever. Maybe he’d believed she wanted to be his. Then she’d been taken and when he’d discovered her once again, she’d been more than happy to try to kill him.

So maybe she wanted to get away from me, as well.

With Silverlight, I could destroy the enemy. I could defend myself. I could be victorious in a fight. I could kill.

Not because I was a badass, but because she was.

Without Silverlight, what was I, really?

But before such thinking could get me into trouble, I straightened my shoulders and lifted my chin. I was a bloodhunter. That’s what I was. Silverlight gave me the advantage, and that was an indisputable fact. But I was a bloodhunter, with or without her. “I am a badass.” I glared at Alejandro when he turned to look at me.

“Of course you are,” he agreed.

I yanked my cell phone from my pocket. I should have called the judge sooner, but I’d wanted to make sure Madalyn was still there. That they hadn’t spirited her off the island again, or worse, thrown her into Lake Crane to drown.

But she was there, on the island, and I needed the judge to come and tear the place apart. I needed him to give me Angus.

Neither Clayton nor Al said anything, but I could feel their worry. Things could go to hell in a hurry and none of us wanted to be stranded on Byrd Island when they did. Especially not Clayton. When supernaturals stepped foot on the island, they were taking a risk. If they were found there, they became the property of the island.

Finders, keepers…

The judge answered immediately, his voice tight with expectation. “You found her?”

“I did.” I kept my voice calm. “I haven’t reached her yet, but she’s here. You have to hurry.”

“Where are you?”

“On Byrd Island. They have her on the island, Judge. I don’t know what they’re doing with her, but—”

“They found out,” he murmured, his voice cold and rusty and full of death and realization. “I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all.”

Then he was gone.

They found out…

What had they found out?

I shook my head and continued following Madalyn’s trail.

I realized five minutes later that I wasn’t following Madalyn’s scent—I’d been unconsciously following the vampire’s fog trail that drifted along the ground.

But her scent was still there, and I shifted my attention from the vampire to the woman immediately. Seconds later, I realized why I’d been so caught up in the fog trail.

The vampire on the island was Amias Sato.

Part of me had known it the second I’d spotted his trail, but I’d been too distracted to grasp it. As soon as I understood the master was there, I felt the familiar, reflexive rage, but it was almost immediately buried beneath an avalanche of relief.

Amias would do anything to keep me alive. He would have my back.

So why was he not showing himself?

Clayton slipped from the shadows to walk beside me. He held an electroshock baton in one hand and a gun in the other. I didn’t ask if he’d taken them from an already dead guard or if he’d killed one himself.