Chapter 36

Tracking

Toys are the greatest inspiration for me. People never really grow up. They just get bigger adult bodies. And they really want to continue to play: -Doug Taylor

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

They left the car in a rutted track and started to walk through the forest proper.

"You are sure you know where you are going?" Emily was following Floyd who was walking quickly.

He crouched down and put his fingers to the forest floor and looked around at Prentiss. "Yes princess. I'm sure."

It was a trap and Floyd knew it. Taki could have easily stopped him tracking like this but he had pulled back enough to allow Floyd to find his way there. He had no idea what was going to happen when he got there, but he was sure that dear Emily was going to come in handy. The snow was patchy here where it had reached the ground easier in some places than others…and occasionally they heard the crash of snow falling where it had built up on the branches and leaves and slowly slid off and down to the ground.

She had a strange urge to walk next to Floyd and so stood next to him as he crouched and smelt the cold wintery air. As he stood she allowed her arm to lightly brush against his and as he started to walk, she followed.

"You should have your hands seen to."

"They are healing."

"Your fingers are broken Floyd. You need them checked."

"I drove us here didn't I?"

"Yes…..but….."

"No 'buts' Emily. You are here to help me retrieve Reid."

She nodded and let her hand brush against Floyds as they walked. Gradually Floyd began to out pace her and she with a small sigh was walking behind him again. She didn't mind too much it gave her the chance to watch the way he walked. Long sure strides always with so much purpose. The way he held his arms at his side but never touching his body – the way his hips moved and the way he carried his shoulders – no wonder Reid – if Reid was that way inclined – couldn't resist him. 'Not a problem for you though Em – you are made of stronger stuff than Reid.'

"Floyd – do you know how far we need to travel?"

He stopped and turned to her. "The longer we stand around chatting the longer it's going to take." He turned back again but didn't move. She watched his still back and the way his shoulders moved slightly with each breath. She watched as he tucked his hair behind his ears and before she knew what she was doing she was right behind him. Her hand touching lightly on his shoulder.

"Floyd." Again he turned. Only this time he was so close that their noses almost touched.

"Emily – I'm sorry. Maybe later – I need to find Spence." He winked at her and turned again.

For Floyd that was the final catch. He had her. Now she would do what he told her. Sweet stupid little whore.

Prentiss stood and watched him for a few seconds before running off behind him again.

-o-o-o-

A new murder scene. A group of guys this time. Five of them out in a small lodge used by hunters. It was brought to the attention of the BAU because of the condition of the bodies. Each had been torn and it looked as though parts of them were missing. The CSU was out there now dusting for prints. If this had been Floyd then at least they had a general location. Derek and Aaron began their drive out there and asked for the rangers to be on the scene. Hotch suspected they were going to need trackers. They needed to be quick. Hotch looked grim and pale faced as he sat shot gun to Morgan's insane light flashing horn blasting driving.

"Morgan – you need to calm down. We will be of no help to anyone if you have an accident."

"It's going to start snowing again. We need to get there and get the rangers out before it's too late." A fist thumped the steering wheel.

"We will get there in time. Just calm Morgan."

Derek took some deep breaths and attempted to get the images of Reid being beaten by Floyd out of his head. "I've seen the bruises Hotch. I have seen what he does to Reid. Why does he keep going back to him?"

"We can ask him that ourselves. But Floyd is going to get locked up for a long time Morgan. We can be sure of that at least. He won't be able to do this to anyone else."

"Prentiss. You think he has Prentiss?"

Hotch didn't reply he just turned and looked out of the side window.

Derek finally slowed down when the hit the roads leading up to the forest and eventually to the hunting lodge. Something had been through and cleared most of the snow off the roads and though this was good for them getting there quickly if they had left by car they would never be able to track them now. Hotch let out a long sigh as the lodge came into sight.

It was a lovely view. A big clearing with a small building set almost square in the middle. The land around it was deep with new white snow. There was a small huddle of cars and a coroners van was sitting in a circular area which had been cleared of snow. Morgan pulled up next to one of the CSI's car's and looked at Hotch.

"I'll go check out the body bags."

Hotch didn't say anything. He thought if he did his voice would give away too much of the fear he was feeling and as Morgan volunteered the job of making sure Reid wasn't amongst the bodies he didn't have to ask him to do it. Hotch wanted to talk to the rangers and CSI's about any evidence found at the scene that could indicate if Floyd and Reid had been there. They both slipped from the vehicle. Aaron going in one direction towards the lodge and Derek off towards the coroner's van.

"SSA Hotchner." And a wave of his badge got him inside the lodge.

The CSI explained to the best of their understanding what had happened. Two UnSubs had been here – that much they were sure of – and they both left on foot towards the forest. Two sets of prints going in one direction, but maybe not together. They left from different exits but the join and carry on. No they hadn't followed they were leaving that to the rangers who in turn were waiting for the Feds.

He walked around the place taking in the things in the room. No violence inside the place. Everything neat and in order- he had been expecting blood up the walls and sprayed over the floors, but there was nothing. The one bedroom didn't look like it had been used, but there were cheroot butts thrown on the now long dead fire laying cold in the grate. It was all the evidence Hotch needed that Floyd had been here – and he hadn't been alone and the fact that there were no signs of a struggle of any kind was a small relief to him.

Morgan came and stood next to Hotch. "He wasn't amongst them, but damn, what he did to those guys."

Hotch turned to look at him. "We need to go with the rangers and see how far we can track them.

There were three rangers who were going out with them and so the five of them began to walk out into the new snow towards the forest ahead of them. The ranger pointed out how one person seemed to be walking with purpose and the other walking slower. He doubted that they had been together at the time. The footprints in the snow didn't over lap. One set beside the other.

They all stopped at the same time and just looked. There had been a very slight bump in the way the snow had drifted and it wasn't until that bump was behind them that they could see the disturbance in the snow.

At a slower pace now the five walked cautiously forwards being aware of where they were treading and looking out for anything else 'not right'. The five stood and looked at the scene before them.

The ground had been upset. The snow was messed and one of the sets of footprints seemed to go forward and then double back.

The lead ranger spoke. "He walked backwards. Walked into the tree-line and then walked backwards to this point."

"Obviously someone was attacked." Morgan was thinking to himself. "The person who retreated was attacked by someone in the forest and not the other set of footprints."

"I should think so, but there isn't a third set."

"He was attacked in the forest and backed out again. There are blood spots on the snow."

"And the second set of prints just watched? And where is he now? Why isn't there another set of prints of him leaving again?"

The rangers were looking closely at the tracks. "Person one – walked to the forest then backed out again injured. He fell here. Person two came along later – he stood here for a while but didn't move. The imprints are deeper and then he walked into the forest in the direction Person one had gone originally. The only thing we don't know is how Person one got up and walked away leaving no prints."

"Unless he was carried." Morgan piped up again.

"Not by Person two – the tracks which carry on are at the same depth as previous to this one where he stood for a while."

Hotch was rubbing his sore hands together. The pain killers were wearing off now and the pain was excruciating but he wasn't going to let it show. He had a job to do. He had his agent to bring home safely. "Can we carry on then? Morgan call the CSU - I want photos of all of this before it melts and I need to know whose blood that is."

Morgan made a quick call over to the other team and then followed Hotch and the rangers into the edges of the forest. They were standing around again looking confused.

"I don't know how to explain it." The ranger took his hat off and pushed some stray strands of hair off his face and then replaced the hat.

"What's wrong?" Morgan's voice behind Hotch.

Hotch indicated the strip of snow across their path. "Blood trail but no foot prints."

"Unless he was being carried by some mother of a gigantic eagle I can't account for it. I can't even say if he was walking or being carried."

Hotch gave the ranger a hard look. He wasn't finding this slightly amusing and didn't like the fact that his agent was bleeding and not leaving footprints behind.

"The other set of prints? Where are they now?"

The ranger shook his head. "Obviously he didn't follow this far."

Usually things began to fall into place the closer you got to the target – but this was getting more confusing. "The other set are Floyd. He went a different way and ended up somehow at Rossi's place. He will be back and this time he will be with Prentiss – this means Reid is out there somewhere with someone who had to carry him and who leaves no footprints in the snow…."

He had that horrible feeling that they were being dragged into a trap and there would be no escaping once they had reached a certain point. "We need to carry on. The other tracks we know where they go. This lot we don't."

"Trail." The ranger muttered. "No tracks to follow – this is just a blood trail and when the blood stops then we will be stuck."

And this was probably one of the only times Aaron ever wished Floyd was with them.

-o-o-o-

He couldn't feel anything.

At first the pain in the back of his neck was so bad he thought he would pass out, but that was not something he was willing to give Taki the pleasure of. He wasn't as weak as this mad guy thought he was. He could cope with this pain. Just push it away – let someone else have it for a while. The coldness had stopped the pain in his torn foot and right now he was concentrating on the teeth which he was carefully trying to put back into place with his tongue. Some were broken. He could feel a couple of stumps where teeth used to be but his upper front teeth seemed to be mainly intact. Just loose. The whole shape of his jaw though felt wrong and he still couldn't breathe through his nose. He knew why Taki had done this. It was to keep Floyd away. It was all part of 'breaking the other kid's toy' game Taki was playing and so far he was doing a stand up job of it, but he was a long way from the place Taki thought he was.

He had stopped bleeding. That was something to be grateful for although he would have smiled if his mouth wasn't so mashed – when he was bleeding it was the only warm part of his body.

Spencer didn't hear Taki arrive at his side. He felt warm fingers draw a line down his back. He wanted to scream and tell him to leave him alone. He was doing what he was told. He hadn't moved. He had kept his head down, so why was he tormenting him like this?

Now it seemed to Spencer that Taki was behind him and the finger was drawing a wiggly line down his back and then over the fabric of the thing he had tied around his waist.

"I can see what that animal sees in you."

The hands moved away again and now Spencer could see the feet in front of him.

"There is something missing though. I'm not sure what it is."

Reid felt hands on his shoulders. The fingers gripped tightly onto his skinny shoulders digging into his skin.

"Look at me."

He had been told not to look. Spencer didn't move.

"Look at me."

Still he remained still.

"Can you hear me? Or are you just ignorant. Look at me."

A deep sigh as Reid moved his head up to look at Taki who was smiling back down at him.

Again the pain didn't last long Taki knocked back the few teeth Spencer had managed to try to straighten but mostly the damage was to his nose. He would have fallen into the snow if Taki hadn't been holding on so tightly to him. His arms shook as he started to take the weight again when his tormenter slowly removed his hands.

"Told you not to look at me Spencer. That was very stupid. You won't do that again will you? Keep your face down. No one wants to see that mess."

Amongst the fresh blood dripping onto the snow were hot tears of frustration and pain and blood and drool mixed with snot. All he could do was again try to push the pain away and give it to someone else as he rocked gently and swayed and tried to keep still and do as he was told.

-o-o-o-

She saw his walk suddenly change. He had tensed up. She watched Floyd run his broken fingers through his hair and then stop. His hands were back at his sides again but he had begun to sway.

"Emily." His voice sounded muffled and odd. She ran forward to see what was wrong. He had his head down and all she could see was blood dripping into the snow they were walking on. She put a hand on his arm….

"Let me help…What do you need?"

He shook his head sending a spray of blood over the forest floor. "We need to hurry." Now he tipped his head back and pinched on the bridge of his nose. He felt the blood sliding down the back of his throat. The best part of these damned nose bleeds….the taste of blood. Floyd waited for it to stop and then he turned to look at Emily who had dried blood encrusted under her nose. He placed a thumb against her lips. "Let me sort that out for you."

At first Emily resisted. The last thing she wanted was Floyd's mouth on her. She didn't know where it'd been though she could take a darn good guess. Floyd sucked and licked at Emily's mouth and then moved up making strange groaning sounds from deep inside. Emily put he hands on Floyd's shoulders and for a little while tried to push him away, but she didn't resist for long. Flanders slowly licked and sucked away the blood of Emily's face and her hands dropped and took hold of Floyd's hips pulling him in a bit closer. She knew this was wrong. She knew this was against everything and she thought Floyd was gay, but right now with that deep smell drifting up her nose and the feel of Flanders mouth which had moved now and was working its way to her neck and along the line of her jaw and down her neck…His hands moved over her shoulders and down her back where he kept one hand on the small of her back and the other he moved to her arse. Yes she had breast….Yes she was lacking in other places but Emily had a nice arse…and after all that's all he was really after – but later….not time now….for now he just had to be sure that Emily would die for him, and he was pretty sure he had her hooked completely.

He pushed her gently away from him.

"Emily – we need to hurry – we are almost there."

She wiped a hand across her sticky licked and sucked face and nodded.