Page 81 of Spark
“Maybe it’s nothing,” Chris said, frowning. “But I have a bad feeling about this. Let’s go and see if we can catch up with her. If everything’s kosher, she won’t even have to know that we were there.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Wolf Rock Park
Monday, June 25
When Sophie spotted the sign for the Wolf Rock Public Access Area, she turned off the highway and bumped slowly down the long, sloping unpaved driveway that led down from the raised highway embankment.
The driveway quickly became a narrow, rutted lane that vanished into a dense grove of cottonwood and willow trees right next to the river. She drove forward, and quickly left the bright sunlight, finding herself in a deeply-shaded grove.
Just as she remembered from her river float date with Matt, there was a small gravel parking lot in the middle of the grove, with picnic tables and a boat ramp leading down into the river.
There were only two cars in the lot: a single old pickup truck painted a faded blue, and a medium-sized Toyota SUV. Fishing and boating were popular with locals and visitors alike, so Sophie was surprised to see that not more people were around in the middle of a sunny summer day.
She spotted Sven, who was sitting on one of the picnic tables. He smiled and waved cheerfully when he saw her drive in.
She parked next to the blue pickup and walked over to him.
“Hi Sven!” she said, trying to force herself to sound upbeat despite the black cloud of depression hanging over her. “What have you got for me?”
“Not those photos I promised you,” he said. His smile vanished abruptly, and his blue eyes went cold.
Shock hit Sophie like a bucket of ice water. “I'm sorry, what?”
“See, I’ve been thinking about what you said the other day, and I just feel that it's wrong for an Ordinary like you to be poking her nose into pack business. Even worse, you’ve gotten Mary Jacobsen and Annika all riled up. They came around and asked me a bunch of questions about Laura and the wedding. I didn’t appreciate being interrogated by a couple of young female pups like them, especially for something that was done and settled a long time ago.”
“W-what do you want from me?” Sophie took an instinctive step backwards from the picnic table and the suddenly-scary old man who sat there.
“I want you to stop asking questions about Laura and Silvio. It won’t bring Laura back, and you’re stirring up a lot of bad memories and bad feelings in my pack and among the Ornelas family.”
Sophie took another step backwards. Sven hadn’t moved, hadn’t even threatened her, but every part of her was screaming that she was in danger.
Run away!
Shifters, even old ones, were faster and stronger than Ordinary humans. She needed to keep him talking until she put enough distance between them to make a run for her car. “But don’t you think it’s important to find out the truth about what happened? Won’t that help the bad feelings?”
He scowled.
She added quickly, “Look, I think that it’s important that you get to tell your side of the story. I promise that my article will be fair when it describes what happened at Laura’s wedding and the weeks leading up to it.”
Sven shook his head, pursing his mouth in a regretful expression. “See, Sophie, this isn’t aboutfair. It’s about making sure that the past stays in the past. I handled old Ken Jacobsen just fine, and I'm sure that I can convince Bill to order Mary and Annika to drop their investigation…as long asyou’renot poking around and telling everyone that Laura is the one haunting that hotel.”
At this point, Sophie’s heart was pounding like crazy.
“O—okay. I’ll reconsider the focus of my article,” she lied as she continued to retreat to her car. “Mythtrust Newsis more interested in the ghost angle than the true crime part of the story, anyway.”
She prayed that she was far enough away from him now that his super-senses wouldn’t be able to tell that she was lying.
Sven shakes his head, then smiled. Not the gentle, benevolent smile he’d used previously. This smile was predatory. “Yeah, but that’s the problem. See, if you can actually see andtalkto Laura’s spirit, then this will never go away. I think it’s better if you never write that article at all… because of a tragic accident where you and your shiny new car ended up crashing on your way to talk to me.”
Sophie turned to run.
And realized that Sven hadn’t come to the Wolf Rock picnic area alone.
Behind her, Sven laughed. “Sophie, have you met my daughters?”
Two huge snarling wolves, one black and one pale gray, stood between Sophie and her car. Their golden eyes blazed and deep growls rumbled from their parted jaws.
