“Zack and Kaitlyn have exchanged blood, much as you and I have done. There is a bond between them now. Zack thinks he can follow it to our daughter.”
Elena looked at Zack. It pained him to see the hope shining in her eyes.
“Be careful,” she murmured as Drake kissed her cheek. “Both of you.”
“So,” Drake said. “How do we do this?”
Zack shrugged. “Beats the hell out of me. Just hang on to my arm and I’ll see if I can connect with Kaitlyn.”
Drake nodded curtly, then grasped Zack’s forearm.
Zack closed his eyes, opened his senses, and concentrated on Katy’s whereabouts. He formed a picture of her in his mind, felt the link between them interlock.
Katy?
Zack?
We’re coming for you. I need you to invite me into wherever you are.
Come to me, Zack. Your presence is welcome.
You’d better include your father. He’s with me.
Drake Sherrad, she said, her voice rising with excitement, you are also welcome.
Okay, darlin’, hopefully we’ll see you soon.
Hurry!
Zack glanced at Sherrad. “Hang on. Here we go.” It was an experience that could not be described, the sense of moving through time and space at an incredible speed. Zack’s vision blurred, the sound of air rushing past rang in his ears.
The abrupt sensation of motion was jarring.
Zack glanced at the small, two-story house located on a patch of dead grass. A six-foot chain-link fence surrounded the yard. There were bars on the windows, a security screen on the front door. The house was dark save for a light in one of the upstairs windows.
“Apparently her invitation was not sufficient,” Sherrad remarked.
“So it seems. I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way.”
“Fine by me,” Sherrad said.
Zack moved closer to the fence, his senses probing the interior of the house. “I don’t sense any vampires inside, just Katy and a man and a woman.”
Drake sniffed the air. “Nadiya has been here recently.”
Zack nodded. Hers was a smell he wouldn’t soon forget. “Let’s go.” He didn’t wait for a reply, simply vaulted over the fence. No sooner had he reached the other side than an enormous Rottweiler came charging toward him from the backyard.
In an instant, Zack transformed himself into a wolf and growled in the dog’s face. With a sharp whine, the Rott tucked its tail between its legs and ran back the way it had come.
Grinning, Zack assumed his own form once again.
“Impressive,” Drake remarked.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t think your pu**ycat would have any effect.”
“Let us find Kaitlyn, shall we?”
Choking back his laughter, Zack strode up to the front door and knocked. He could feel Sherrad’s gaze burning an angry hole in his back.
When there was no answer, Zack knocked again. Three minutes later, a middle-aged man wearing a pair of worn jeans and a flannel shirt opened the door. He looked harmless enough, until they saw the doublebarreled shotgun in his hands.
“He’s a drone,” Sherrad said quietly.
“What the hell’s a drone?”
“A human whose mind has been tampered with. Have you never made one?”
“Hell, no. Have you?”
“From time to time. Nadiya has left him in charge of Kaitlyn. No doubt she has ordered him to kill anyone who tries to enter the house.”
Zack glanced past the man to the woman who had come up behind him. She was about the same age as the man. She also carried a shotgun. It was a ludicrous picture, the short, rotund rosy-cheeked woman wearing a long blue flannel nightgown and carrying a shotgun that was almost taller than she was.
Zack looked sideways at Sherrad. “So, what do we do now?”
“See if we can override Nadiya’s compulsion.” Summoning his preternatural power, Drake stared into the man’s eyes. “You will forget whatever Nadiya Korzha has told you,” he said firmly. “Whatever threats she has made are no longer in force. Do you understand?”
The man lifted the shotgun and leveled it at Sherrad’s chest. “Go away or I will kill you.”
“Uh, I don’t think it’s working,” Zack muttered.
The man eared back the hammer on the shotgun. Unless the gun was loaded with silver and penetrated Drake’s heart, the blast would be painful and messy, but not fatal.
Sherrad was little more than a blur as he reached forward and wrested the gun from the man’s hand, then choked him into unconsciousness.
“Maybe you’ll have better luck with the woman,” Zack said dryly.
“Maybe you will shut up,” Drake growled.
“Maybe I’d have better luck.”
“Be my guest.”
“Excuse me, madam,” Zack said. “May I have a word with you?”
She looked momentarily confused, then nodded.
“My name is Zack and I’ve come to tell you that you don’t have to be afraid of Nadiya anymore. I’m releasing you from her spell. Do you understand?”
“What spell?”
“Nadiya is a sorceress and she put a spell on you. But it isn’t effective any longer. So why don’t you put the gun down and take care of your husband?”
She glanced at the man sprawled facedown on the floor, then looked up at Zack.
“He needs help. If you invite me in, I’ll help you carry him to bed.”
The woman stared at her husband, and at the gun in her hands as if she had never seen either one before and then, with a sob, she lowered the weapon and dropped to her knees beside her husband.
When she looked up at Zack again, her eyes were clear. “Please, come in and help us.”
Zack looked over his shoulder at Sherrad and smiled smugly.
“Don’t say a word,” Drake warned.
There was a shimmer of power as Zack stepped inside. It always amazed him that something as innocuous as a threshold had the power to keep him outside. He didn’t know why it was so, but it was.
When he started past the woman, she grabbed his pant leg. “My husband . . .”
“I’ll be right back, I promise. Why don’t you get him a drink of water?”
He didn’t wait for a reply. Opening his vampiric senses once again, he followed the blood link through a door that led down into a basement. Kaitlyn’s scent was strong here, and then he saw her, sitting on a filthy mattress.
“Kaitlyn!” Sherrad hurried past Zack and enfolded his daughter in his arms. “Are you all right?”