Free Brush With Death by E.J. Stevens Page B

asked.
    “Yeah, I think so,” she said.  “The battery looks like it
has a full charge.”
    “Good, put your phone in your bag, or a pocket, and start
riding toward the park entrance,” I said.  “We’ll meet you there.”
    “Thanks Emma,” she said.
    “Any time,” I said.
    And I meant it.  Yuki was my best friend.  Our recent fighting
seemed foolish now that she was in danger.  When we got through all of this, we
were due for a long talk and lots of soy ice cream.
    The phone grew muffled and quiet as Yuki tucked it away and
started bicycling.  I turned to Katie, who was waiting excitedly beside Gordy,
and handed her the phone.
    “Katie, keep that line open,” I said.  “And please try to keep
listening in case Yuki tries to tell us something.  I need my hands free to
drive.”
    I grabbed my keys, but Gordy put his hand on my arm stopping
me from rushing to my car.
    “Wait, is Yuki in trouble?” he asked.
    “I don’t know,” I said.  “I hope not.  But she found a human
skull out in a remote section of Wakefield Park and she’s pretty freaked out.”
    “Eep!” Katie squeaked.
    “I promised Yuki that we’d drive out to the park entrance
and meet her there,” I said.
    Gordy stepped back and I raced down the stone library steps,
with Gordy and Katie struggling to keep up.  Katie put my phone to her ear as
she ran and gave me a thumbs-up.  Apparently the phone was working and there
were no signs of trouble.
    We all piled into my car and I took a deep breath.  Yuki
better be okay.  Night was falling and there was no telling what creepy things
were out in those woods.
    I was struck with a terrible thought.
    What if the body Yuki found belonged to one of the Grabber’s
victims?  The police never found Rose Peterson.  Yuki may have unwittingly
discovered the site of one of the Grabber’s body dumps.  And if he’d used that
location successfully before, what was to keep him from returning to the spot
and using it again?
     

Chapter 27
Calvin
     
    D riving to the
outskirts of town turned up nothing.  Every time I saw a flash of long dark
hair or black clothing my heart would race, but it was never Yuki.  There was
no sign of Yuki anywhere.  All of her usual haunts had been checked, now I was
just clutching at smoke in a windstorm. 
    I turned west at Shaw’s Creek, truck bouncing as I drove
across the old covered bridge.  As soon as I crossed to the opposite
embankment, my arm started itching like fire ants marched beneath the skin.
    For the first time since Emma’s phone call, I smiled.  Yuki
and I had matching tattoos, hers was on her ankle, but my tattoo was on my
arm—right where the itching and tingling had begun.  Our tattoos were more than
a symbol of our love.  They were evidence of the bond between werewolf mates.
    The fact that Yuki wasn’t a werewolf was unusual, but it
didn’t weaken our bond.  Spirit ink, blended during a full moon, contained the
essence of werewolf ancestors who chose to aid the chosen couple.  Those
spirits came to me now, causing the itching beneath the skin, strengthening my
link to my mate.
    Yuki must be nearby.
    I used the first designated pull over, an empty picnic spot,
to move my truck off the narrow road.  I stopped scratching at my arm and
closed my eyes, reaching out with my wolf spirit.  Setting my hands on my
thighs, palms facing upward, I breathed in deeply through my nose and out
through my mouth.
    My wolf spirit seemed eager to heed my call, and with a nod
in my mind’s eye, leapt to meet my request.  In spirit form my wolf has no
physical substance and could run, literally, through the forest, unimpeded by
trees and tangled undergrowth. 
    Just as I began to worry how far my wolf spirit could travel
from my body, it stopped in its tracks.
    There.
    It was faint, but I could sense Yuki’s presence to the North
West.  That was strange, even for Yuki.  There’s not much out in that direction
and, without a car, it was a long