One Grave at a Time nh-6

by Jeaniene Frost

  “But if we have the women,” I mused, “then Mr. No One Else Will Do would come to us to try and get them. Or he’d send his accomplice for the same purpose.”

  Bones nodded. “And then, either way, we’d get our chance to nab Kramer or the accomplice. In any event, the women would be safer with us than on their own.”

  Safer, but not safe. I heaved a mental sigh. Nothing I could do about that. Once they’d been targeted by Kramer, they wouldn’t be truly safe until the Inquisitor was rotting in a trap somewhere. We might be able to protect them this Halloween, but the ghost had proven to be more than deadly in his noncorporeal form, too. Even if we returned those women safe and sound to their homes on November 1, with strict instructions to keep sage burning at all times, they had to leave sometime. And when they did, Kramer could poof up and poltergeist them to kingdom come.

  If we didn’t find a way to trap Kramer—which would be damn hard even if he did come right to our door—we could be saving these women on Halloween only to have them murdered in a different way later, and the same pattern would repeat the year, and the next, and the next . . .

  I heaved an actual sigh this time, fixing Bones with a tired, jaded look. “We might need to see Marie.”

  Bones’s face became as hard as granite. “No.”

  “Who’s Marie?” Tyler wondered. I’d said that last part loud enough for him to catch it.

  I mimed “wait” at him and lowered my voice again, trying to convince Bones that an audience with a woman who’d been both ally and adversary in the past was worth trying.

  “Probably no one in the world knows more about ghosts and the afterlife than the ghoul queen of New Orleans. What if there’s a spell that could boot Kramer right off this plane of existence?”

  “Then Marie would want too much in return for it, not to mention practicing black magic is against vampire law,” was his immediate reply.

  “Since when did you worry about being law-abiding?” I scoffed.

  His dark gaze was steady. “Since I fell in love with you and assumed Mastership of a line. If it was proven that we practiced black magic—and I don’t trust Marie not to mention it—the Law Guardians could sentence us to death. That’s a chance I’m not willing to take, Kitten.”

  I disagreed that Marie would tattle on us, but I remembered all too well how lethally efficient Law Guardians were when it came to death sentences. I’d briefly been under one of those, and only some quick thinking combined with misdirection had prevented my head from parting company with my shoulders less than five minutes after a Law Guardian pronounced that sentence.

  The only other way Marie could help us would be to give me another wineglass full of her blood, but for me to admit that my Remnant-summoning powers had run their course held its own set of unacceptable consequences.

  Damn. Back to square one: trying to catch someone who was made of air and for all intents and purposes, immortal. You don’t have a chance in hell, an insidious inner voice whispered.

  Fuck you; pessimism never helped anyone, I told it.

  “All right,” I said, forcing a smile. “We concentrate on finding the women and let Kramer or his accomplice come to us once we do.”

  And if they do, that relentless inner voice continued to taunt, you’re going to need a helluva lot more than burning sage to save the day.

  Yeah, I knew that, too. But I’d resolved to believe that things would work out, and that was what I was going to do.

  Twenty-two

  On October 14, while all of us were in the family room watching a movie to break up the monotony of more fruitless waiting, my new cell phone finally vibrated with a text. I almost leapt up from the couch to read it, praying it wouldn’t be a wrong number, then let out a whoop.

  “Elisabeth sent over an address! Let’s move.”

  Bones was already on his feet, Spade and Denise following suit, but Ian shot me a piqued look.

  “You don’t mean all of us, do you? The movie’s not over.”

  “You’ve seen this one before,” I replied in disbelief.

  He shrugged. “Watching Snape make fun of Harry is my favorite part.”

  “Let him stay,” Bones stated. “He can watch over Tyler while we’re gone. You can rouse yourself to do that if need be, right, mate?”

  Ian’s mouth curled at the heavy irony in Bones’s voice. “Probably.”

  “I’m not going?” Tyler sounded disappointed, but his thoughts indicated otherwise. Ian, watching over me? Finally, this situation’s looking up!

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, Tyler, you’re staying here with Ian. Try not to let it upset you too much.”

  It won’t, he thought, but said, “I’ll manage,” so mildly that Bones let out a snort.

  I went to the refrigerator and grabbed multiple packets of sage, handing them out to Spade, Denise, and Bones. It felt weird to be loading up on plants instead of silver before a potentially dangerous situation.

  My mother marched over, holding out her hand with a challenging glint in her eye. “You’re not expecting me to stay behind, too, are you?”

  “Um . . .” I hedged.

  Actually, I had, thinking that Tyler would do better with my mom here to protect him if by chance Kramer showed up. Hell, if the ghost attacked during the climactic scene with Snape, Harry, and Dumbledore, Ian might not even stop watching the movie to heal any mortal injuries the medium received.

  “Tyler would feel safer with both of you,” I began.

  “The hell I would,” Tyler cut me off, glaring. Cock-blocker! rang across my mind.

  If I’d still been human, my cheeks would’ve been flaming. I’d been called a lot of names in my day, but never that one before.

  “Fine,” I gritted out, hoping Tyler’s horniness wouldn’t end up being the death of him. “Mom, you’re coming. Here’s some sage.”

  She took it almost in surprise, like she’d been expecting me to argue. I wanted to, but between Tyler’s mental berating and the fact that I didn’t want to leave my mother with only Ian to protect her if Kramer showed up, kept me quiet.

  Next I passed out lighters until everyone had several. Then I went to get the final protection against a possible spectral attack: Helsing, who gave me a baleful look when I hustled him into his carrier.

  Sage, lighters, and a pissed-off kitty might not look like the most conventional ghost-busting arsenal, but so far, they’d proven to be the most effective.

  Elisabeth and Fabian flew into our car even before Bones had it in park.

  “You must hurry, he just left!” she said, her accent even thicker with her agitation.

  “Which apartment?” I asked.

  She pointed at the left-hand corner of the building. “One of the top ones.”

  Bones’s brows went up. “You don’t know the number?”

  “It’s difficult to get such details while trying to remain unseen,” Fabian replied, rallying to Elisabeth’s defense.

  “How many can there be?” I asked Bones, with a philosophical shrug.

  He got out of the car. “Appears we’re going to find out. Charles,” he said, as Spade pulled up alongside us, “stay here and keep some sage burning. With luck, we’ll be right back. Fabian, Elisabeth, keep a lookout for Kramer in case the sod returns while we’re here.”

  “What about me?” my mother asked from the backseat.

  “You’re staying with the car,” I told her as I got out, hefting the pet carrier along with me. “No offense, Mom, but your people skills suck.”

  She huffed in indignation. Bones flashed me an appreciative grin that she couldn’t see.

  “Keep it running, Justina. We may need you to fetch us in a hurry,” he said, his tone very bland.

  That explanation mollified her until she thought it through, which didn’t happen until we were already up the second flight of stairs of the apartment building.

  “You can run faster than that!” I heard her shout from across the parking lot.

  Spade�
��s reply was swallowed up by sounds from the occupants in the building, but I caught the hint of his laughter, which meant he’d belted it out without restraint.

  “She’s got to be steaming,” I noted in amusement.

  Bones’s smile was shameless. “How regrettable.”

  We climbed the last flight of stairs to the third floor. Several apartments were clustered in the general area Elisabeth had indicated. Because it was right around dinnertime, it sounded like all of them were occupied, too. No narrowing it down that way.

  “Well, how do you want to do this?” I asked. “Pretend to be Neighborhood Watch members reporting a rash of car vandalisms, or a sweepstakes clearinghouse with a big check?” That would at least get fewer doors slammed in our faces. Maybe.

  “Give me a moment,” Bones murmured. He closed his eyes and his aura flared, filling the air with invisible currents. After several seconds, he pointed at the two doors in the far corner without opening his eyes.

  “She’s in one of those units.”

  “And you know that because you can somehow use the Force now?” I asked, trying to limit the dubiousness in my tone.

  He opened his eyes, tapping the side of his head. “By listening. You’re probably tuning everyone’s thoughts out, but I’m focusing in on them. A very traumatized woman is behind one of those doors, and I’ll wager it’s because Kramer just left.”

  That was what I got for doubting him. Bones was right that I’d pulled my mental shields up high and tight against the barrage of thoughts coming from the apartments, but in doing so, I’d neglected an important tool in finding our target.

  “Good thing you’re here. That’s far too practical to have occurred to me,” I added wryly.

  He stilled my hand as I was about to knock on the door labeled “B.”

  “Don’t berate yourself. I did the same thing when I first acquired this power, but I’ve had it much longer, so my response to it has changed. You’re not used to it yet, but you will be, then accessing it will be second nature to you also.”

  Maybe, but it wasn’t even my power to begin with. If I stopped drinking from him, that mind-reading ability, like every other borrowed power, would soon be gone. Bleakness briefly threaded through me. In many ways, I was an imposter, my significant strength and skills just the product of a supernatural dietary quirk. Without the capacity to siphon powers through feeding, I probably wouldn’t be any more bad-ass than my mother. Would the real Red Reaper please stand up?

  Then I pushed those thoughts aside and rapped on the door. I could have my personal identity crisis later, when someone else’s life wasn’t on the line. If anyone deserved a pity party, it was the woman we were here to collect, and from the muffled sob on the other side of this door, it seemed I was about to meet her.

  “Who is it?” a strained voice called out. Can’t handle dealing with anyone right now followed on the heels of that, discernible even through my mental barrier.

  “We just moved in,” I said, trying to sound friendly. “I found this cat wandering around, and I was wondering if you’d recognize who his owner is.”

  Seemed more plausible than my other ideas considering I was standing here with a cat carrier. The door cracked open, security chain still engaged. Cautious, good for her, but no dead bolt or chain could keep out what was after her. I caught a glimpse of matted blond hair framing a tear-stained face before I held up the carrier, showing her a glimpse of my kitty.

  “Wait a second,” she mumbled. The door’s closing coincided with the slide of the chain being removed. She opened it more fully this time, peering at Helsing.

  “Haven’t seen him here before,” she began.

  Emerald blazed forth from Bones’s eyes, bright as a traffic light. As quick as she could gasp, she was caught in their depths, mutely stepping back when Bones told her to let us inside.

  I closed the door behind us, wincing when I saw the destruction in her apartment. Her couch was overturned, lamps and tables smashed, kitchen cabinets half-torn from their hinges, and multiple pieces of broken dishes littered the floor. Either this was Kramer’s work, or she had real issues with her temper.

  “Who did this?” Bones asked, still holding her gaze.

  Anguish skipped across her expression. “I don’t know his name. I can’t even see him unless he wants me to.”

  That was enough confirmation for me, but Bones asked her one more question. “How long has he been coming to you?”

  “Over three weeks,” she whispered.

  I exchanged a grim glance with Bones. That was earlier than we’d expected. If Kramer had started terrorizing his intended victims at the end of September, it made sense that he’d already picked out his accomplice. It only stood to benefit Kramer if his dirty little helper was familiar with where he’d be kidnapping the women from, after all. And if Kramer was covering his tracks well enough that it had taken Elisabeth over five weeks to find the first of the three women, would she be able to find the other two in just seventeen days?

  “Don’t be afraid, but you need to come with us,” I told her.

  A single tear slipped down her cheek, but she made no protest when I started leading her toward the door. Bones stopped me, gesturing toward what I assumed was her bedroom.

  “Let her collect a few things, and make sure she takes what’s most precious to her. Those will help her feel more comfortable later. I’ll get some sage burning just in case.”

  Leave it to Bones to know how to make a girl feel better, even under the most stressful circumstances.

  “Come on, we’re going to pack real quick,” I told her, making sure I said it with the brights on in my gaze. “Don’t forget to take whatever has the most sentimental value to you.”

  “I can’t,” she said, another tear trickling down her cheek.

  “Sure you can,” I murmured encouragingly. Then, after another glance at the carpet, I picked her up. Otherwise, her bare feet would be shredded with all the broken glass. From the coppery scent wafting off her, she had some cuts on her feet from letting us in. Why hadn’t she put on shoes before answering the door?

  Once we were in her bedroom, which was as trashed as the rest of the apartment, I had my answer.

  “Bastard,” I whispered with a fresh surge of loathing.

  From the looks of her closet, Kramer had destroyed all her clothing. Suits, dresses, blouses, pants . . . you couldn’t tell them apart from the piles of shredded fabric. Dresser drawers were overturned, more haphazard pieces of fabric spilled out of them. He’d even split apart her shoes.

  “I don’t have anything left that matters to me. He broke it all,” she said, the words more heartrending because of the acceptance in her tone.

  Anger made my hands tremble. Since he died, Kramer no longer had the ability to rip women from their homes, taking them away to a pitiless prison. So to make up for that, he turned their homes into their prisons. This woman—and I still didn’t know her name—wouldn’t even be able to leave her apartment unless she wore that robe as an outfit.

  “Don’t worry, we’re taking you to a safe place,” I promised her, picking her up again.

  I’d cleared the bedroom door when Helsing let out an extended snarl.

  Twenty-three

  Bones was in front of me in a blink, holding two fistfuls of burning sage. I held the woman with one arm and tried to reach for my own sage stash with the other, but then something heavy slammed into the back of my head hard enough to make me lose my balance. Bones whirled, grabbing us both and backing us into the wall, his body and that barrier a protective shield from any additional attacks.

  “Door,” I muttered, seeing over his shoulder what I’d been brained with this time. “Fucker hit me with the bedroom door!”

  “Get out,” an enraged voice hissed.

  Blood wet my hair before the wound closed on itself, but that initial flash of dizziness was gone, leaving me good and mad. That only increased when all the broken dishes became airborne and thudded i
nto Bones’s body like glass knives.

  The woman didn’t scream, but she made a horrible keening noise, squeezing her eyes shut. “No, no, no,” she began to chant.

  I managed to free my arms from the tight wedge Bones had us in enough to pull out some sage and light it. In the time it took me to do that, Kramer had blasted the couch into Bones. I felt his pain flaring along my subconscious as the impact drove those glass shards farther into his back, but Bones just braced himself, absorbing the blow without shifting his weight even an inch. Then he shot the unseen ghost a feral grin.

  “Is that all you’ve got?”

  Kramer howled in fury, outing his position even though he hadn’t manifested in appearance yet. I took aim and threw, using enough force that the sage went all the way across the room. Another howl sounded, pained this time, making me smile with vicious satisfaction. I pelted another handful in that direction, but Kramer must have moved, because the only sounds that followed were rattling from the cabinet doors he ripped off and began to chuck at us. One of them hit Helsing’s carrier, making my cat screech, but it was made of sturdy material and protected him from the impact.

  “Kitty,” I urged Bones, still pinned too tightly to the wall to get him myself.

  Bones didn’t move, but he stared at the carrier, his aura sparking like he’d just set off invisible fireworks. The carrier slid across the wall, pushing past the wood and glass in its path, until it was close enough for Bones to hook his foot around it and tuck it under the shelter of our legs.

  I didn’t have time to admire the use of his power before pounding began on the apartment door, followed by a woman’s voice yelling, “This is too much, Francine. I’m calling the police this time!” Then Elisabeth burst through one of the walls, Fabian following closely behind her.

  “Kramer,” she shouted. “Where are you, schmutz?”

  Air swirled in tight circles near the kitchen, growing darker, until the tall, thin form of the Inquisitor appeared.