Free Matt Archer: Bloodlines (Matt Archer #4) by Kendra C. Highley Page B

a quick smile. Maybe if we found Ayax’s family, or a safe
place for him to live, he’d be okay. Dat, though…he was like me. He’d seen too
much and he’d never be able to forget. Too young to bottle up the fear to fuel
his anger, the pain had hollowed him out.
    Me? I really wanted to lay waste to some monsters right now.
    Dad appeared at my side. “Who’s this?”
    “We found a cage full of kids in one of the outer buildings.
Potential sacrifices, I guess.”
    His face turned to stone, something so strong and
unbreakable I pitied anyone who crossed him. “We found some skeletons buried in
a shallow grave at the edge of the compound.”
    “Of what?” I asked.
    Dad glanced at Elske. “More children. They’ve
been…experimenting out here.”
    Tink growled in my head. We have to stop them. They don’t
have any idea what they’ve done.
    “What have they done?” I asked her, ignoring Dad’s
raised eyebrow.
    Called things they cannot control. Opened the rift so
wide that things they never wished to see will come to this world. She
seethed, her anger heating my blood and bringing sweat to my forehead. They
escalated the war, Matt. And there will be no stopping it until he is ready.
    “The Shadow Man.”
    Yes. He waits for the right time.
    I wanted to say something brave, like “we’ll be ready.” But
the words died in my throat and all I felt was fear. My nightmares would come
true: Mamie would scream in the dark, and I would be powerless to stop it.
    No, I couldn’t go there. I had a job to do—that’s what I
needed to focus on. “Find anything else, Dad?”
    He’d been watching me this whole time, and I had a feeling
my internal conversation had played across my face. His eyes bored into mine.
“A clue. Just one.”
    My heart jolted. “We have a lead?”
    His smile was hard, crafty. He held up a tiny piece of paper
that had been folded into almost nothing. “Carrie is still alive. And she wants
us to find her.”
    Maybe there was hope for Will after all. “When can we
leave?”
    “We need to go back to camp and check in,” Mike said, coming
up behind Dad. “Then we’ll put together a small team to lead the search.”
    Right, we might need gas for the Humvee, food and water.
Either way, I was done with this place. “We ready for the bonfire,
then?”
    “I found some kerosene in their pantry and hosed down the
main building,” Dad said. “All we need is a match.”
    Dorland had handed his kids off to Lanningham and unpacked a
flame-thrower. Were they really going to let me use it? This was kind of sick
and wrong, but my stomach leapt at thought because Uncle Mike’s standing orders
were to keep Will and me away from anything with more punch than a basic rifle.
    The incident with a can of Axe body spray had only convinced
him he was right.
    Dorland settled the tank on my shoulders and showed me how
to light it up. “Aim careful,” he said. “Best place would be straight into the
door that leads to the main hallway. And don’t stand too close. Based on the
fumes, I think Officer Archer flooded the place with kerosene. Don’t want it to
flame back on you.”
    My hands shook as I crossed the compound. Once I was even
with the doorway, I sent a silent word of apology to all the kids—and
adults—I’d failed over the last few years. Cleansing this place of whatever
hoodoo these witches brought would be for them.
    I clicked off the safety and squeezed the igniter.
    And I didn’t stop until the damned building’s roof caved in.
     
    * * *
     
    We arrived at camp an hour after dawn, beat down tired and
crammed into the Humvee like a pack of donuts in shrink wrap. Everyone in the
back had to hold a kid, and I wasn’t the only one ready for breakfast and a
rest. My clothes smelled scorched…or maybe those were my eyebrows. I’d gotten a
little carried away with the flamethrower.
    Mike had taken one look at the raging blaze I’d started and
reinstated his ban on letting me use incendiary