Free Fire Storm by Ally Shields

room is right next door.”
    He nodded. “Yeah.”
    “What about the other guards and staff?”
    “Nobody saw or heard anything.”
    She pictured the blood and disarray in Andreas’s room. “Why didn’t you hear the fight?”
    “I can’t explain it.”
    But she had been talking more to herself than Samuel. With his lycanthrope hearing, the weretiger should have noticed such a violent event. The lack of sound was more than strange. “It had to be a spell placed on the entire household.”
    Teleportation, and now a silence spell. A sorcerer had to be behind this. Was it possible he or she was working with the vampire elders?
    “OK, thanks.” She started to turn away but swung back. He needed her to say it. “Samuel, this wasn’t your fault. Now, come on, let’s see if we can find him.” She strode across the lawn toward the nearest building with Samuel staying beside her. “If someone’s taken Andreas, we need something to show us where they’ve gone.”
    An hour later, as they completed their circle of the nearby area, he led her to a grove of fig trees still laden with their distinctive leaves and the last crop of the year. The sweet, fruity smell drifted around them. He pointed to a matted area in the grass, and they crouched down to inspect it. “This is the place I was telling you about. The only thing our people have found.”
    “Someone has been here, watching the house.” Ari ran her hands over the disturbed ground.
    “Maybe,” Samuel admitted, “but it looks more like an animal has nested here. A local dog or wild fox, maybe.” He sniffed the air. “Strange I don’t notice a distinctive scent.”
    “A vixen.” She said it with assurance. “A werefox vixen. I can feel her Otherworld scent clinging to the grass and soil, even though she’s attempted to hide her presence by spraying with some kind of masking agent.”
    “Geez. Is that what’s making me want to sneeze?” He rubbed his nose, stood and backed away. “You think she was spying on us?”
    “Don’t you? There’s a reason they’re called snoops-for-hire.” Damned sneaky creatures. Ari got to her feet and vented her frustration on a chunk of dirt by kicking it out of her way. “Is there a pack near here?”
    “Fifteen or twenty miles. They avoid my family’s hunting area.”
    “Let’s go visiting. Do you have a vehicle that isn’t being used in the searches?”
    “Got a truck.”
    Five minutes later, Ari smiled and climbed into the vintage pickup that stopped beside her and backfired. Its light green paint was liberally sprinkled with patches of rust. “Where on earth did you find this?”
    “It belongs to the overseer,” Samuel said. “I thought it would be a better choice than Andreas’s silver Maserati.”
    “Good thinking.” Andreas’s taste wasn’t always geared toward blending into the local landscape. She searched for the seat belt. “No seat belt?”
    Samuel grinned. “Just hang on. It’s the bumps that’ll get you.”
    She quickly found out what he meant when he took off down the back roads, winding through short cuts that were barely more than well-beaten paths. Finally he pulled the truck over to the side of a narrow lane. Ari coughed, wiping dust from her eyes. The region had been unusually dry, and the fall heat and dust billowed through the open windows. The cranks were missing, but that didn’t matter as the glass had been broken out long ago.
    “Beppe suggested we walk from here. To give the foxes time to get used to the idea of visitors.”
    Word would spread quickly. Ari’s neck already prickled with awareness. They were being watched. She climbed out, giving the foxes plenty of time to assess their arrival while she brushed off her dusty jeans and T-shirt. When she straightened, Samuel turned toward the east, leading the way. They hadn’t gone more than fifty yards when a male figure appeared ahead, and they stopped to wait for him to reach them. Ari sensed the fox pack filtering