Unmarked Graves

by Christine Pope

  This time, she thought she could actually feel it as well, like the soothing warmth of the sun against her skin, bright and pure and utterly welcome. As Will had said, she suddenly understood there was no reason to be frightened of it, because as strange as this might seem to her at the moment, she was only summoning an energy that had lived within her for her entire life. Now at last she was able to use it as it had been meant to be utilized.

  Once she was done speaking the words of the charm, she lowered her hands and glanced around again. Nothing seemed materially different — well, except for Will staring at her with something like awe in his expression.

  “Don’t you dare look at me like that,” she said, the edge to her voice effectively dispelling whatever effects of the invocation might have still lingered in the space. “I’m still me.”

  At once, he nodded and came over to her. She didn’t notice any hesitation as he took her in his arms, held her close. Yes, that was better. In Will’s embrace, she still felt like Rosemary, not some strange creature who’d emerged to take her place.

  “Of course, you’re still you,” he told her. One hand moved over her curls, tender but not hesitant at all. “But you’re also amazing.”

  Since he held her close, she couldn’t exactly shrug. That was all right, though; she couldn’t think of anywhere she’d rather be than in his arms. “Well, I’ll admit that looked kind of impressive. But I don’t know whether it actually did anything.”

  He pressed his lips against the top of her head, then pulled away so he could gaze down into her face. However, he held on to her hands, as if he understood that she needed him to maintain some kind of physical contact in order to reassure her that his feelings hadn’t changed…despite the way she’d displayed her powers just a moment earlier.

  Mouth quirking a little, he said, “I suppose if we’re not attacked by demons, then we’ll know the wards are working.”

  “We weren’t attacked by demons before,” she pointed out, and he chuckled.

  “True. But still — ”

  He was interrupted by a loud ring from his back pocket.

  “Your butt’s ringing,” Rosemary said, grinning despite herself.

  “I can let it go to voicemail.”

  The thought was tempting, but with everything that was going on, she guessed it probably wasn’t a good idea to ignore what might be an important phone call. “No, you’d better answer it. Maybe it’s Michael.”

  That argument seemed to convince him, because Will let go of one of her hands so he could reach into his pocket and extract the phone. He frowned as he looked down at the screen. “It’s not Michael — I don’t recognize the number.”

  In which case it might be a better idea to allow the call to slide over to voicemail. Rosemary’s own phone got spammed so often that she never answered it unless the call was coming from a number in her contacts list.

  However, apparently Will wasn’t quite as cautious, because he shrugged and swiped the screen to accept the incoming call. “Will Gordon.” He was quiet for a few seconds, and then an expression of surprise passed over his face. “Oh, hello, Fred. Yes, Michael told me he planned to get in touch with you and set it up so we could communicate directly.” Another pause, during which Will’s brows drew together in a frown, although he remained silent as he appeared to listen to what the other man was saying.

  Rosemary didn’t know who “Fred” was, although clearly, he had to be a friend of Michael’s…maybe his mysterious “source,” the person who was so skilled at digging up information other people wanted to remain buried. She went ahead and let go of Will’s other hand, since it seemed as though he might be on the phone for a while, and sat down on the couch. Now that she was sitting, she could sense how rubbery her legs felt, as if she’d gone for a hard run. It seemed that summoning the white light and casting a protection charm took more energy than she’d imagined.

  Will continued to stand where he was, his frown deepening as he listened to Fred talk. Whatever the call was about, clearly, it had to be important. At last, though, he said, “I understand. You can text the information to this number, and Rosemary and I will discuss it and get back to you. Thank you for letting me know.”

  As she watched, he touched his finger to the screen to end the call, and then slid the phone back into his pocket. His frown didn’t go away, though; if anything, it only intensified.

  “What was that about?” she asked, since it didn’t seem as if he was about to volunteer any information.

  “That was Fred Peñasco — Michael’s data guy,” Will replied, thus confirming her theory as to the caller’s identity. “Strange thing, though.”

  “What was strange?”

  He came over and sat down next to her, then laid a hand on top of hers. Rosemary could feel warmth flow through her at his touch, at the casual way he’d reached over to her, no hesitation, just a desire to reaffirm their closeness. If he was at all put off by the power she’d displayed a few moments earlier, she never would have been able to guess by looking at him.

  “Well,” he said, “I knew Michael was going to pass my contact info along to Fred, so I wasn’t that surprised by the call. No, what’s strange is that Fred said he’d tried to call me three times today before this, and the calls kept getting dropped.”

  “Maybe he lives somewhere with bad reception,” she suggested, but Will shook his head.

  “No, he specifically mentioned that he’s in a suburban area where he routinely gets at least four bars, so the problem wasn’t on his end. He said he was about to give up and go through Michael again, only he thought he’d give it one last try. This time, the call came through.”

  “And…?” she prompted, wondering what was so significant about that. After all, cell phones and cell service could be extremely unreliable, no matter where you were or which carrier you used.

  “It came through only a minute or so after you warded this house,” Will said. “Maybe it’s just coincidence, but I somehow doubt that.”

  For a second or two, she could only stare at him. The numbers began to add up, and she ventured, “So, you think the demons were somehow blocking Fred’s call from coming through, and then when the wards went up, they couldn’t interfere anymore?”

  “Yes,” he said simply.

  As theories went, she didn’t quite know what to make of that one. All right, the timing was a little suspicious, but she honestly thought it had to be a coincidence. Could demons even interfere with cell phone transmissions?

  She would have liked to reassure herself that no, of course they couldn’t, but then she recalled how they’d also reportedly messed with Audrey’s car — and had somehow caused an accident so the Uber driver who was going to take Michael to the airport had to cancel the booking. If all that was true, then she realized there was an awful lot they could interfere with…if that interference suited their purposes.

  “Why wouldn’t they want Fred to contact you?” she asked at last.

  Will gave her a weary smile. “Because he had information to pass along that they wouldn’t want us to have.”

  “What information?”

  His hand tightened on hers. “He thinks he’s located where the cambions and their children have been living. If Colin Turner’s footage hasn’t been destroyed yet, that’s where it has to be.”

  Rosemary stared at him, her mouth dry. Deep inside, she’d hoped this might all be over, that with the footage gone and Caleb dead, there wasn’t anything either she or Will could do.

  Now, though, she realized they still had a long ways to go.

  Chapter 11

  Indiana. Of course. Caleb had told her he was from Indiana. Rosemary had assumed that statement was a lie, along with pretty much everything else that had come out of his mouth, but apparently, he’d been telling her the truth about his origins. Most likely, he hadn’t seen the harm, since he’d never been specific about the exact town. Indiana was much, much smaller than California, but even so, it would have be
en difficult to track down his origins without a little more information.

  But Fred had done it, because that was what Fred did. Rosemary realized Will was staring at her, clearly expecting some sort of a response, and so she cleared her throat and said, “How did he figure that out?”

  Will’s shoulders lifted slightly. “He didn’t go into the details. I suppose it doesn’t really matter. The important thing is that he says the Lockwoods — and the six other families descended from the original trustees — are still there. Prominent members of the community, from the way Fred was talking.”

  Of course, they were. They’d been put in place as doctors and lawyers and bankers and other members of the top tier in the area. No doubt their wealth had increased through the years, just as Belial’s own fortune had. Rosemary didn’t know much about small Midwest towns, but she knew enough from living and running a business in Glendora — a smallish place with families who’d been there for several generations — that it could be pretty hard to insinuate yourself into that sort of milieu. She and Will would stick out like sore thumbs.

  That thought made her pause. Crazy how she’d immediately leapt to the idea of them going there to find the footage, even though he hadn’t even suggested such a thing. And yet…that was the logical next step, wasn’t it? Michael wasn’t about to leave Audrey alone in Tucson, not with the demons clearly waiting to pounce.

  “When do we leave?” she asked.

  Will’s eyes widened. “I didn’t say we were going to Indiana.”

  “You didn’t have to.” Her fingers tightened on his. “Who else is going to go after the footage, especially with the demons working to keep Michael in Tucson?”

  Will didn’t answer right away. His mouth was tight, and she wondered if his head was hurting him again. “No one, I suppose.”

  The last thing she wanted was to push him into an adventure he didn’t want. Hell, she didn’t know whether she was terribly keen to go chasing off to Greencastle, Indiana, of all places, to run right smack into a den of demons. All right, half- and quarter-demons, but still.

  “If you’re not feeling well enough, then maybe Michael — ” she ventured, but Will wouldn’t let her get any farther than that.

  “Michael has his own problems to deal with,” he cut in. “In their own way, he and Audrey are under siege just as much as we are. Or possibly worse, since it seems you have greater powers that can be brought to bear against our enemies.”

  “Maybe,” Rosemary returned, not caring how dubious she sounded. Yes, it was clear enough she had talents that most people didn’t, but those powers didn’t make her invincible. She hadn’t even been able to prevent Caleb from getting away with the hard drive. If she was that ineffective against even a single quarter-demon, how in the world was she supposed to prevail when surrounded by a whole town full of them?

  All right, that was probably a bit of an exaggeration. Even if the original demons had been pretty fruitful and had multiplied at rates greater than the general population, she didn’t think they could have taken over a whole town in just a couple of generations. Still, they were probably pretty thick on the ground, all of them with their own powers. Caleb on his own had been scary enough; she really didn’t want to think about what it would be like to take on forty or fifty or even a hundred part-demons just like him.

  “Anyway,” Will went on, “I feel much improved, and I’m sure I’ll only be that much better tomorrow.”

  “That’s when you want to go?” In a way, heading out to Indiana would be easy enough, since she’d already packed her things to come here to Will’s. It wasn’t as though she’d have to go back to Michael’s house and get a bunch of personal items for the trip.

  “If at all possible. It’s already getting late in the day, so I don’t think trying to leave now would give us much of an advantage.” He hesitated there, and then gave her another one of those tired but charming smiles. “Besides, I’m not going to lie — I could definitely use a real night’s sleep in my own bed before we go off to vanquish demons.”

  Whereas she wouldn’t be sleeping in her own bed, but the one in Will’s guest room. Actually, it wasn’t really “her” bed at Michael’s place, either, and so she figured she could handle the guest room bed here without too much trouble. Anyway, she was tired enough after getting barely two hours’ worth of sleep the night before that she figured she could probably fall asleep on a rock.

  “We’ll do that, then,” she said. “I’ll let Isabel know that I may not be in to work this whole week, and we’ll just see how it goes from there.”

  As Rosemary spoke, though, she experienced a small twinge of regret mixed with worry. It was one thing to take off a day, or maybe two. But being away for a week would be placing an undue burden on her sisters, even if their mother came in to lend a hand and carry some of the load. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be much of an alternative. There was no one else who could take on the task of going to Greencastle and handling its attendant demons.

  Despite those misgivings, she also knew she couldn’t let worries like that prevent her from doing what needed to be done. If it turned out that the footage had been destroyed, well, she and Will would figure out what to do next. Something inside her told her it still existed, though. Just a small certainty, enough to let her know they wouldn’t be embarking on a fool’s errand. This wasn’t about helping Caleb — that ship had sailed as soon as his true identity had been revealed — but about making sure the world knew the truth about the demons. Michael and Audrey wanted that, and Rosemary had to believe Colin had wanted it as well, or Madeline Nash wouldn’t have worked so hard to get her message across to the one person she’d thought could help.

  No, if she walked away now, Rosemary would be letting all of them down. Whether or not her strange talents would be up to such a confrontation, she had no idea, but she had to try.

  “That sounds like a good idea,” Will said. He’d probably noticed the way she’d sat there and stewed over their plan of action, but had decided not to comment on it. “Why don’t you go ahead and call your sister about covering for you at the store, and I’ll go online and see about booking us a flight and a hotel.”

  Those practical considerations made her give him a very straight look. “Do you need any help with that? Last-minute airfare can be expensive, and — ”

  “It’s all right, Rosemary,” he interrupted, but gently, as though he wanted to make sure she knew he appreciated her concern. “I have some reserves I can tap into for this sort of thing. If it ends up being a problem, I’ll let you know.”

  She supposed she’d have to be content with that. Arguing the point would only make it sound as if she didn’t trust him to accurately represent his finances to her. However, she also vowed silently that she would find a way to reimburse him for at least her half of the expenses, if not more. That was only fair; her savings account was pretty plump, since her day-to-day cost of living tended to be pretty minimal.

  “All right,” she said. “I’ll go ahead and call Isabel.”

  “And I’ll see what I can find for airfare and accommodations.”

  He got up from the couch and headed down the hallway to his office, while she also left the living room and went into the kitchen, which was where she’d left her purse. When she activated her phone, she was glad to see she hadn’t missed any calls or texts. Not that she’d been expecting any, but she still had the fear lurking at the back of her mind that Detective Phillips might contact her at any moment to haul her in for questioning.

  If that was his plan, he didn’t appear ready to execute it late on a Sunday afternoon. Rosemary was able to get in touch with Isabel and let her know that she had to go out of town unexpectedly. Of course, her sister started to ask questions, but Rosemary only said that she hoped it would only take a day or so and that she should be back in California by the end of the week — and definitely in time for all the Halloween celebrations the week after that.

  “But you’re
not coming to dinner tonight?” Isabel inquired, and Rosemary couldn’t help giving an inner wince. With everything that had been going on, she’d completely forgotten about the McGuire Sunday dinner. Then again, she guessed her mother already knew she wouldn’t be attending, or she might have reminded her daughter about it when they went to retrieve her Fiat from the parking garage.

  “No, I’ll have to skip this week,” Rosemary said. “But I think Mom already knew I wouldn’t be going, so it shouldn’t be too big a deal.”

  “Sure,” Isabel responded. She hesitated before adding, “Maybe next week you can bring Will to meet everyone.”

  That seemed a little early to be introducing him to the family…but was it? After all, he’d already met her mother. And while Isabel seemed to have been glad that Rosemary had been taking things slowly with Caleb, she didn’t appear to exhibit that same reluctance when it came to Will Gordon.

  “I’ll see,” Rosemary replied, figuring that was about the best she could do, given the circumstances. “But I think he’d like that.”

  “All right,” Isabel said. “Wherever you’re going…be careful.”

  That was all she said, but Rosemary understood. Maybe she wasn’t seeing darkness on the horizon as she had when Caleb was in the picture, but her sister still seemed to sense that Rosemary wasn’t jetting off for some pleasure trip to Tahiti.

  “I will,” she promised. “And I’ll be in touch just as soon as I know when I’ll be back at work.”

  “It’s not a problem. Mom already said she was willing to pitch in if necessary. But you take care.”

  “I will.”

  They ended the call there, and Rosemary put her phone back in her purse. She left the kitchen and went into the office, where Will sat in the desk chair with his laptop open in front of him as he scrolled through a couple of travel sites. He looked up as she entered and pointed at a chair placed over by one of the bookcases.