Winter Prey

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Caleb slowly woke, realizing he was huddled under the comforter, his nose and ears freezing. Damn, the fire must have gone out again. But...he wasn't at his rented cabin. Last night, he'd -

He threw back the covers and surged to his feet, his fear and foreboding pushing the slight headache to the back of his mind . The front door stood wide open, an icy breeze infiltrating the room. What the hell...?

"Nodinens!" he yelled. Had the elderly woman already gone out, not shutting the door completely so the noise wouldn't wake him? "Nodinens!"

He grabbed the robe and shrugged into it as he rushed toward her bedroom door. At first, he knocked, and when she didn't respond, pounded. Finally he shoved the door open and stared into the small room. He didn't bother to scan around. Straight in front of him was her bed, a bed that she'd definitely slept in but was now missing its bed clothing.

"No. God, no," he whispered. Even if the disarrayed bed hadn't told its own story, the smell in here behind the closed door did. The same smell he'd experienced at the wreck, lingering so strong that he suppressed the urge to gag.

He inched forward, hand on his consecrated cross. The thing could still be here, or at least nearby. The smell hadn't dissipated much. The reason he hadn't noticed it in the living room was the breeze through the open door. Even as he moved forward, though, the odor began to disperse, replaced by the icy air. He should have closed the front door. His feet were freezing now, even on the carpeted floor.

Then he saw it - a brown, greasy clump marring the pristine white sheet. Hair from the monster. Had it deliberately left it? Why? Nodinens wasn't Marten Clan. He remembered what she had said the day they met at Amber's. Nodinens was Pike Clan. Had all their research and warnings to those they identified been in vain? Had they been on the wrong path all along?

He didn't have time to think about that now. Without touching the glob on the bed - he couldn't have stomached that - he rushed back into the living room for his sat-phone. His cold fingers fumbled the numbers the first try, but he got Hjak on the next one.

"It's got Nodinens," he told the sheriff without preamble. "She's gone, and I know it's the windigo. He left a sign, a clump of his hair. And his smell."

"Huh? Wha...Jesus Christ. McCoy? Is that you? Listen, man, I just woke up after about two hours sleep. I - "

"Get over here, Hjak," Caleb interrupted. "I'm not kidding. The windigo has Nodinens."

This time Hjak's voice was more alert. "God, I hope you're wrong," he said, and Caleb could hear him stirring, moving around. "Is that where you're at? Her house?"

"I stayed here last night. We worked on the genealogy stuff until late. The goddamn windigo came right in here while I slept!"

"Look, I've got to get some clothes on. Make some calls. Get my people and Gagewin's over there. Are you sure that thing's gone?"

"Hell, no. It could be waiting for me to stick my head out the door!" He rubbed a hand down his face as his hangover headache descended. "Look, Hjak, I'm sorry. I didn't meant to blow up at you. But it doesn't make sense. Nodinens isn't Marten Clan, she's Pike."

"Keep your head inside until I can get there, McCoy. I'll make the contacts I need on the radio while I'm on my way."

"Can I do anything? Call anyone?"

"Just get some coffee on," Hjak said before he disconnected.

Caleb laid his sat-phone down, then shoved his feet into the slippers Nodinens had given him. He wrapped the comforter around him as he strode toward the door. Damn, he felt like he had when he was waiting under the tree yesterday after that beast had left, freezing cold from both the temperature and an inner bitterness that defied words.

He stared outside, admittedly apprehensive at the possibility he would see the windigo there, waiting for him to find it, that wonderful elderly woman clutched in its grasp, a snarl of victory on its demonic face. An inch or so of new snow had fallen during the night, covering both his vehicle and the truck Nodinens drove. Had anyone...anything...other than a windigo walked over it, there would have been tracks. Nothing marred the beauty laid out before him, a beauty that was in direct opposition to the evil that had been here.

The thing came right in here while I was sleeping. It carried Nodinens off without me even being aware it was that close. If I hadn't worn my cross to bed....

Due to her clan status, Nodinens must have been confident the beast wouldn't bother her. He hadn't noticed a spirit bundle around her neck when she stuck her head out her bedroom door last night.

Why did the windigo take the bed blankets with it? It never worried about its prey freezing to death before. God, did it mean to keep Nodinens alive for some reason? Oh, god, did the fact that I stayed with Nodinens have anything to do with it taking her? Did my being here put her in danger?

As much as he wanted to charge out there and chase down the windigo, thrash through the wilderness until he rescued Nodinens, such an act would be foolhardy, as well as utterly brainless. He needed to wait for help.

No one's ever been able to track this monster, Caleb reminded himself.

"But there's always a first time," he whispered. "We will find it this time! God, we have to!"

He bowed his head in a brief entreaty for Nodinens to stay alive until they could rescue her, then shut the door and headed into the kitchen. Hjak wasn't the only one who needed coffee this morning. As he passed the couch, his sat-phone rang where he'd thrown it on the mattress. He swiped it up and, without checking caller id, answered as he continued through the room.

"Caleb?" Kymbria's voice.

God, should he tell her or wait?

"How's Keoman?" he asked instead.

"The same," she replied. "I know I'm probably just bothering you, but I wondered if there'd been any word at all on the people the windigo has taken."

Something in her voice told him there was more to her question than her concern for her people.

"We're no closer to finding the thing's lair," he said. "Did you get Niona to talk."

"Yes," she whispered. "I don't think she told me everything, though, just the lore passed down about this monster. Stuff Adam told her a long time ago. I need to tell you, and it's a long story. Do you have time right now?"

"As a matter of fact -"

The siren sounded in the distance, and Caleb cursed under his breath. It grew louder, heading straight for the house. Damn Hjak. Why was he running the siren full blast? But Caleb knew. If the windigo was still lying in wait, Hjak hoped the siren would scare it off.

"What is that, Caleb?" Kymbria's voice rose. "It sounds like...it is. It's a police siren. What are they doing at my cabin?"

"I'm not there, Kymbria. I spent the night with Nodinens."

"Then why...what...? Caleb, what's going on?"

He gritted his teeth and said, "The windigo has her. It came right in here and took her."

For a long moment, all he could hear was dead silence. Then Kymbria said, "I'll be there as quickly as I can make the drive."

"No! Damn it, listen. There's nothing you can do here."

"There might be," she said, her tone a mixture of dread and enigma.

"No, there's not. Listen to me - "

But he was talking to dead air.

Hjak burst through the front door as if the devil itself were after him and slammed it behind him. Caleb laid down his sat-phone and turned on the tap to fill the coffeepot.