Winter Prey

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Back in the cabin, Caleb watched the byplay between Kymbria and her mother. He supposed he needed to politely take his leave, so the two women could talk in private. No way would Kymbria's mother talk frankly in front of someone she had just met. Yet he couldn't stifle the vague thought Niona had more reason for making her unannounced visit here than just missing her daughter.

"Excuse me for a minute," Kymbria said. "I'm going to make sure I haven't forgotten anything important." She walked toward her bedroom, giving Caleb at least a slight window of opportunity to question her mother. Did she do it on purpose?

"We need to get on the road, sweetheart," Niona reminded Kymbria.

"I won't be long." She shut the bedroom door behind her.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Caleb asked.

Niona shook her head and browsed the living room, fluffing two throw pillows on the sofa, straightening one of the eight-by-ten framed pictures on the fireplace mantle. She wandered to the front window and pulled up the slatted blind they'd closed after Hjak left. She was obviously distancing herself from him, blocking any chance he could probe her knowledge of this situation. Caleb considered giving up and taking his leave, but he wanted to include Kymbria in his goodbye.

"Is that where the windigo left Le - the man who did work for us? Inside that yellow circle?" Niona asked, surprising Caleb. He'd obviously misjudged her desire to talk about the windigo.

Her hesitation at naming the man puzzled Caleb, until he recalled that one of their customs was not speaking a dead person's name. Kymbria's mother must be very close to the Old Ways practiced by her tribe, despite not living in close contact with her people.

"Hjak left the crime scene tape there," Caleb said. "He didn't think his techs would be able to find any evidence, but...frankly," he continued on an exhale of breath, "I don't think he's going to call anyone out to even look at that area, now that the body's missing."

The Native American woman faced him directly. "There's something I need to know. Kymbria asked me if I felt this entity was more dangerous to her and me than to others in the area. She had a reason for asking that."

"It won't matter now," Caleb answered evasively, although she hadn't framed a question. Even though this was Kymbria's mother, he felt uncomfortable discussing her more or less behind her back. "You'll both be gone in a few minutes."

"It might matter," Niona said sternly. "Tell me what's different this time."

"I wasn't here forty years ago," Caleb pointed out. "I can't know what's different, beyond the fact that this thing woke a month earlier than the history of it indicates."

Niona re-closed the blind and sat in one of the chairs on the enclosed porch, motioning for Caleb to take the other one. With a sigh, he complied. She wasn't going to let this lie. Had he been in her shoes, worried about someone he loved, he would also do whatever necessary. He should have done that back in Colorado.

"Kymbria told me about your wife and son. You have my deepest condolences. Yet what makes you think you might have a chance to defeat our windigo?"

Caleb repeated a little of what he'd already told Kymbria, that he'd been raised in a family that supported the belief in the paranormal and had been investigating that world for a long while now.

Niona asked, "Are you aware of this monster when it comes near you?"

"Kymbria - " Caleb shut his mouth and considered his next words, disgusted that he'd let that slip. Niona's sharp gaze indicated she'd picked up on it.