Fields of Blood (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 2) by Sonya Bateman Page A

here,” Sadie said. “We’re going to visit my family, out on Run Hill Road.”
    The sheriff leaned aside and looked at her. “The Nesbitts?”
    “No, the Laurents.”
    Suddenly, Sheriff Gormann was a lot friendlier—but still unhappy. “You must be Michelle, then. They mentioned you’d be coming into town soon.”
    “Yes, that’s right,” Sadie said.
    I managed to relax. For now, we were off the hook. I could see it in the sheriff’s eyes.
    Now I just hoped she didn’t ask for “Michelle’s” ID.
    “Sheriff Regina Gormann. Nice to meet you and your…friend,” the sheriff said. “I’m so sorry about your brother going missing, Miss Laurent. Let your parents know that we’re doing everything we can to find him, and the others.”
    The shock on Sadie’s face lasted only a few seconds before she made it disappear. “Thank you, Sheriff,” she said, managing to sound upset. “I’ll be sure to tell them.”
    “Sorry about stopping you.” Her features pinched with worry, and for the first time I realized the woman looked exhausted. “We’ve had at least ten people go missing in less than a month, including your brother, and a few witnesses reported seeing a black van around. I’ve got to check everything.”
    I nodded, fighting to prevent my own shock from showing. Ten people in a month was a hell of a lot of disappearances, especially for a small town like this. “We understand, ma’am,” I said. “Thank you.”
    “You drive safe now, Mr. Black. Miss Laurent.” The sheriff bowed her head, touched the brim of her hat and walked back to the waiting squad car.
    I put the window up. “Nice move,” I said to Sadie. “But damn. What’s with all the missing people around here?”
    “I don’t know…but I don’t like it,” she said. “We need to get going. The turnoff’s not far from here.”
    As I pulled slowly onto the road, Taeral said, “It cannot be Milus Dei, if this has been happening for a month.”
    “Right,” I said, though I was starting to doubt that conclusion. Another coincidence—the surviving members of Milus Dei just happened to head straight for Nowheresville, Pennsylvania, which just happened to be the home of a pack of werewolves. Something they’d already known, since they immediately targeted Sadie’s sister. “Maybe your family knows what’s going on,” I said to Sadie.
    “Yeah. Maybe.” She didn’t sound convinced, either.
    Before long, Sadie directed me to turn left onto a road called Lacy Peak View. The road narrowed as I drove along, and eventually ended in a wide, gravel-paved turnaround that held two half-length, rusted blue buses with LACY PEAK SHUTTLE painted along the sides—barely legible beneath the dust and mud splashed up to the darkened windows.
    The dead kid, Leo, had mentioned them taking a shuttle into the mountains. This must’ve been the plan.
    “There’s the trail.” Sadie pointed across the turnaround to a packed-dirt path that headed up at a steep angle between rock walls. Small trees and scraggly bushes growing from natural shelves along the sides hung over the corridor, painting black shadows in the moonlight, and a pair of massive evergreens stood on either side of the entrance like silent sentries.
    I rolled the van to the start of the path and stopped. “You know those horror movies where a bunch of people get lost in some remote location, and then a crazy slasher chases them through the woods for an hour?” I said. “This looks exactly like that.”
    “We’ll be fine,” Sadie said. “Just go.”
    “If you say so,” I mumbled, glancing in the rear view mirror. No crazy slashers—but I saw the wash of a pair of headlights slowing down as a vehicle rolled past the turnoff from the main road. Maybe it was the sheriff, still on the prowl for mysterious black vans.
    If it was, I really hoped she didn’t come down here. Sadie had said we were going to someplace called Run Hill Road, and this definitely wasn’t the right