Give Up the Ghost: The Nightwatch Series Book 2

by Cassidy, Debbie

  “Humans don’t know about us,” Candy said. “This makes no sense.”

  “He felt human in the vision, but he may have been one of the tainted.”

  “Maybe.” Candy frowned. “But why hurt another supe, and someone as harmless as Monty?”

  My mind was whirring, and the puzzle pieces were slotting into place.

  Someone had killed a feyblood and made it look like a wolf attack. But why? To frame the Prime pack? To draw them out to investigate …

  “Oh, God. Oh, fucking God.”

  “What?” Kris stepped closer, and then his mouth parted as he caught on to my train of thought.

  “It’s a trap.” We spoke at the same time.

  I had no idea why someone would create a trap like that. What did they hope to gain?

  “We have to warn the Prime pack.” Kris pulled out his phone, held it up, and then cursed. “No signal.”

  I began to crunch back the way we’d come. “Let’s get to the road. We can call them from there.”

  We hit the road twenty minutes later. Kris dialed Rich and began to pace with the phone to his ear.

  Long seconds ticked by, and then he ended the call. “Shit. He’s not picking up. Which means they’re probably already in their wolf form.”

  “Do we know where the body was found?” Candy asked. “Maybe we can track them, find them, and warn them.”

  Right now would be a great time to have Henri on board. I opened my mouth to suggest it, but Kris was already off, cutting through the forest on the opposite side of the track we’d come from.

  “There were coordinates on the back of the photograph.” He held up his phone. “I have a map of the woods. As long as reception holds out, this app should work.”

  Ten minutes passed as we weaved through the trees.

  “Almost there,” Kris called back.

  My senses were on alert for any wolfy sounds. The Prime pack had to be close surely, and then Kris’s bellow cut the air. A moment before he hit the ground.

  “Kris!” I fell to the ground beside him, and then the coppery-sweet tang of blood hit the back of my nose.

  Black iron claws dug into his leg.

  “Shit.” He grabbed the metal and tugged to open the trap.

  It took both of us to free his leg, and his jeans were immediately soaked through with blood. I breathed through my mouth to avoid the bloodlust. What was this? Supernatural blood didn’t usually have this effect on me.

  “Daemon blood.” Kris sucked in a breath as I helped him up. “It can have a powerful effect on Nightbloods. Sorry, I should heal in a few moments.”

  He leaned against me for balance as we waited. But the stench was growing stronger.

  “You’re not healing.”

  “No.” Kris winced. “I think … I think the trap was coated with …” His eyes rolled back in his head, and his full weight slumped against me.

  The bitter undertone hit me then—some type of poison. I hauled Kris up onto my shoulders in a fireman’s lift.

  “We have to get him back to the mansion. Now. Can you drive?”

  Candy nodded.

  “Good. Keep up.”

  I broke into a sprint with Candy close behind. I could hear Kris’s pulse slowing down. Oh, God, please let us make it back to the mansion in time. Please let Lark be awake and able to help.

  * * *

  Candy brought the car to a halt at the gates, and I leaped out and hammered on the iron railings.

  Killion appeared several meters away. His nostrils flared, and then he broke into a run. He yanked open the gates and rushed past me to the car. Kris was in his arms in a blink, and then the hellhound was sprinting toward the house.

  With a quick glance in Candy’s direction, I followed.

  The doors were wide open, and a commotion drifted out of the lounge—Jay’s raised voice and another lower one.

  Lark?

  Lark crouched by the sofa where Killion had laid Kris, spectacles perched on the end of his nose. My body tensed in fear because this was the face that had attacked me. The face of the monster that had ripped out human hearts with glee. But then he looked up, and the monster wasn’t there. His eyes were soft and kind.

  “Can you tell us what happened?” he asked.

  The voice was different. It was softer and hesitant, and the inflection was more rounded.

  The tension in my core eased. “There was a bear trap, and his leg got caught. He isn’t healing, and he passed out. I think the trap may have been coated with a toxin.”

  Lark was already at work, tearing away the jeans to get to the leg. “Jay, grab my medical kit from the lab.”

  They had a lab?

  Jay shot off.

  Kris was growing paler by the minute.

  “Shit.” Lark gently prodded the skin around the wound. “I can stop the bleeding, but he’ll need a transfusion to help nullify the effects of the toxin.”

  “You know what it is?”

  “Yes. It’s odorless until it gets into the bloodstream, but then the smell is unmistakable.”

  “That bitter smell?”

  “That’s right. It’s wolfsbane.”

  Shit, shit, shit. Wolfsbane was deadly to moonkissed. “Kris isn’t moonkissed.”

  “Contrary to popular misinformation, wolfsbane is a toxic substance to most creatures, supes and humans alike. It just happens to work fastest on moonkissed and daemons. Well, we’re seeing the effects right now.”

  “But you have an antidote?” Candy asked. Her gaze raked over Kris, eyes wide and wet. “You can save him?”

  Jay ran back in with a green medical kit and handed it to Lark.

  “There is no specific antidote, and with daemon physiology, I don’t know. I have some atropine and activated charcoal I can use. Has it been less than an hour since he was contaminated?”

  “Yes,” Candy blurted.

  “Then let me get to work.” He opened the bag and began removing items. “Get Killion. I’m going to need his blood.”

  It was my turn to take a jog. Leaving Candy hovering by the mantel, her hand over her mouth, eyes filled with tears, I ran around the side of the house and down the path to Killion’s cottage.

  He appeared in the doorway before I could reach the hut.

  “Kris?” He was positively vibrating with agitation.

  “We need your blood.” I turned back to the main house, not waiting to see if he followed because the intention was clear in his ember eyes.

  * * *

  I dialed Mai and paced the entryway. Kris was stable for now. They were monitoring his pulse and blood pressure, and that was all they could do. Killion was attached to a drip, which was feeding Kris.

  Lark had this.

  He worked with single-minded determination, and there was nothing of the shimmer man in his body language. There was no need to be afraid. Still, I found myself watching him closely. It would take time to adjust to the fact he wasn’t the monster who’d killed all those humans.

  The important thing was that Kris was being taken care of. But the pack was still out there. They were in danger.

  Mai finally picked up. “Hey.” Her voice was breathy. “Sorry, we just broke up a very public tussle between a civilian moonkissed and a Nightblood in the local supermarket. Henri’s just grabbing the video footage for disposal.”

  “Mai, you guys need to meet me on the southeast entrance to Greendon forest now.”

  “The dead human case?”

  “Not human, feyblood, and not a wolf kill. This is a setup, and the Prime pack is in danger. I’ll fill you in once you get there.”

  “On our way.” She hung up.

  Jay joined me in the entranceway. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”

  “We have no choice. There could be more traps out there. The pack could be hurt, dying even.”

  “We don’t know what this man wants,” Jay reminded me. “Or if he’s working alone.”

  “I know.”

&
nbsp; “I’m coming with you,” Candy said. “I have friends in the forest. Friends like Celeste, who can help us.”

  “Good because I need someone to drive me.”

  Jay looked torn, like he wanted to say something. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. Was he going to offer to come too? Lark was back, so surely Jay could get over his trauma and come out with us now?

  “Be safe and check in every hour,” he said. He turned back to the lounge, where Lark was standing in the doorway.

  The weaver frowned and then looked to me. “Once you get back, once this is all sorted, we need to talk.”

  “Lark,” Jay snapped.

  “No, Jay. It’s time.”

  I wanted to ask more questions, to push the subject, but we were on a clock and time was running out, if it hadn’t already.

  “Come on.” I grabbed Candy’s hand and tugged her out the door.

  I had a pack of Prime moonkissed to save.

  Chapter Eight

  Henri and Mai were already at the slip road that led to the forest when we pulled up. Henri was leaning against the passenger side of the van, but he pushed off and strode toward me as I exited our ride.

  His face was etched with concern. “What happened? Where’s Kris?”

  Candy joined us, smoothing back tendrils of her pink hair that had come loose from its tie. “He’s hurt, but Lark is taking care of him.”

  “Lark’s awake?” Mai asked.

  “Yeah, he is.” I headed for the side of the van and yanked open the doors. “Thank God he was, or Kris would be a goner.” I studied the weapons selection in the wire box behind the passenger seat. My dagger didn’t feel like enough tonight. I grabbed a metallic baseball bat.

  “Kat?” Henri’s hand fell on my shoulder. “What happened?”

  I grabbed another bat and handed it to Candy. “The murder victim was feyblood, the killer was human, possibly tainted, and we believe the Prime pack is a target. Kris got snapped by a poisoned bear trap. We need to get to the pack and get them out of the forest.”

  “It might be too late,” Candy said.

  “We don’t know that.” I handed Henri the envelope with the pictures. “Coordinates are on the back.” I hoisted the bat onto my shoulder and set off toward the forest. “Look for traps.”

  Mai jogged to catch up to me. “How bad is Kris?”

  “Stable, thanks to Lark.”

  She took a shuddering breath. “He’s awake, and he’s okay?”

  “Yeah, Mai. You got a second chance.”

  She took a shuddering breath. “Nothing can happen between us. He’s a weaver and they have laws against their kind sexually fraternizing outside of the weaver bloodlines.”

  “You think anyone gives a shit what you two get up to out here in the middle of nowhere? Trust me, the weavers in the Nightwatch get up to their fair share of fraternizing.”

  “And then they go back to Mirage Hills, the bosom of their weaver families, and marry a weaver. Starting something with Lark is asking for pain.” She took another shuddering breath. “We can’t be anything more than friends.”

  The trees closed in around us, and Henri took the lead, his powerful body moving carefully along the barely-there pathways. The flora was thick here, and the moonlight was scarce—thank goodness for my night vision.

  Candy made up the rear, but she moved so silently I had to keep glancing over my shoulder to check she was still there.

  “Nymph stealth mode,” she said. “Works best when close to nature.”

  That could come in handy.

  The trees thinned, and then we were in a clearing. A battered tent, a ring of stones containing the remnants of a fire, a torn sleeping bag, and an overturned backpack made up the scene. The body was gone, but there was police tape around the area. The coppery tang of blood still lingered in the air.

  This was where Monty had been killed.

  Candy sucked in a sharp breath. “Oh, God. He was so scared.” She crouched and touched the earth. “He was so alone and so confused.” She blinked, and tears spilled down her cheeks. “So much pain. He didn’t deserve this …”

  Mai helped her up. “We’re going to find the person who did this.”

  Henri walked carefully around the cordoned-off area and then crouched by a tree. “Paw tracks. Wolf.” He stood and walked a little way farther. “Here and here too. The Prime pack was here.”

  “We need to track them,” Candy said.

  Mai handed Candy her whip. “Here, hold this until I need it.” She looked to me. “I’m going to shift and track. Stay close and keep your eyes peeled for traps.” Her body shimmered, and then a red fox was standing in her place. My gaze shot to her tail, but the area was blurred as if the tail was moving super-fast. It was impossible to make out. Her eyes flashed green, and I swear she grinned cheekily at me. But then she was off, and we had no option but to follow.

  Henri fell into step beside me, his arm brushing mine. “I should have been with you.”

  I resisted the impulse to press closer to him. “You can’t be with me all the time.”

  “Yes, I can. That’s the whole reason I was created.” His tone was terse. “Jay will just have to deal with the fact that my place is at your side.”

  There was no point arguing with him because there was no doubt that we worked best when we were together. We operated fluidly, finishing each other’s thoughts. He was my second brain, and I was his, and having him beside me just felt right.

  Mai came to a stop, her nose in the air, and then she turned in a circle and veered left. The metallic smell of blood hit me just before we entered another clearing. Mai was in human form now, standing frozen in the middle of a moonlit area. I followed her line of sight and bit back a gag.

  “Tainted,” Mai said, pointing to the dismembered leg. “Moonkissed.” She pointed to the hand.

  Where was the rest? A body lay on its front a meter to the left.

  Mai stepped closer and sniffed the air. “Not moonkissed.”

  “So, the pack has been this way, and one of them has lost a hand?”

  “It’s a clean cut,” Henri said, studying the hand. “Sword probably.”

  “But the leg is chewed off,” Mai added.

  I took a shuddering breath. “So, there was a tussle here.” I approached the body of the tainted human and used my boot to turn him over. Dark hair. Dark staring eyes.

  “Shit.”

  “What is it?” Henri asked.

  “This isn’t the guy from the vision Celeste showed me. That guy was blond.”

  “Then he wasn’t working alone,” Henri surmised.

  “Makes sense. You wouldn’t go up against the Prime pack alone.”

  “Which begs the question—”

  “How many tainted are we dealing with?” I finished his sentence.

  Candy was looking from Henri to me. “What now?”

  Mai was doing a circuit of the clearing. “I can’t pick up the scent. It stops here.”

  I followed her to the other side of the clearing. “How is that possible?”

  She stood hands on hips. “I don’t know.”

  “Magic.” Candy crouched with her hand pressed to the ground. “They used it here on this earth.” She nodded as if confirming something to herself and then crawled across the ground and stopped in the center of the clearing. “They were standing right here when the magic happened.” She pointed to the ground by her knees.

  The ground was littered with fallen, partly decomposing leaves and covered in moss and bracken. I used my foot to move the forest debris about, and the tip of my boot went white.

  “Ash.” I crouched and touched the ground. “And chalk.”

  “Weaver tools,” Mai said softly.

  “They have a weaver?” Henri’s jaw tensed. “Who the fuck are these people?”

  Chalk and ash plus a weaver meant a port spell. But unlike the major ports that were dotted around the country and could transport the user hundreds of miles
in a blink, these minor ports could only take you a short distance. The users could have jumped from this clearing to anywhere within a mile radius. But then they could have jumped again from their new location. The forest was a thousand acres, so we had to hope they were still on the land. But it was a slim chance.

  Shit, we were stuck. “We need Lark. We can’t follow them through this jump spot without him.”

  Mai was already on her phone. She spoke quickly and then hung up. “He’s on his way, but it’ll take at least twenty minutes for him to drive down. I’ll head back to the road and bring him here. Stay put.”

  She shifted to fox form and bounded off.

  Candy slumped to the ground, her back to the tree she’d been communing with. “Well, that explains why I didn’t see the intruders coming into town. They have a weaver. They were probably masked.”

  But who was this they? Who the fuck would go after the Prime pack like this? The pack was seven strong, original moonkissed. They were older than sin, and yet, a tainted had managed to wrangle them? It made no sense.

  “Everything about this is wrong.” I paced, keeping my gaze off the leg and the hand that lay on opposite sides of the clearing. They had to have known someone would investigate, so why leave clues? “Why didn’t they take the hand and the body of their fallen comrade.”

  “Maybe they were in a rush?” Henri suggested. But there was no conviction in his tone. He was merely playing the devil’s advocate.

  I shook my head. “Nah, they have a weaver and the ability to jump. It would have taken them less than a minute to gather the evidence and take it with them.”

  Henri locked gazes with me, and we spoke at the same time. “Unless they wanted us to find it.”

  “Bastards.” The voice came from the tree line. “Lying bastards.”

  I was instantly on alert, bat at the ready, but Henri and Candy didn’t move. In fact, they were looking at me as if I’d grown another head.

  I stared at the man who’d just stepped into the clearing. Dark-haired, dark-eyed, and extremely incorporeal.

  I groaned. “A ghost.”

  “Where?” Henri scanned the trees.