No one said anything for a moment. The whistling wind was the only thing making a sound until Costin meandered away, toward the house.
Jonah shot Dawn an unreadable glance, then followed Costin.
As Dawn began to walk in with Kiko, Natalia hesitated, then donned a glove and gingerly picked up the chain as she stood, kicking sand over the blood. After putting on his own glove, Kiko backtracked to help her, taking the chain from her, and with his other hand, holding hers.
Dawn didn’t follow them inside at first. She just surveyed the upset sand.
Was Kiko right? Did the Meratoliages want to get her into their custody and then pull the dragon out of her?
Once inside, they all headed for the dark-wooded library. Years ago, a research room like this would’ve been lined with computers and charts that mapped vampire lairs and places where victims had been murdered, but now it looked like any other affluent man’s room of leisure, with actual books and the scent of leather dominating.
Jonah assumed a spot by the beach-view window, as if taking watch. Kiko and Natalia sat in wingback chairs near a minibar.
Dawn stayed standing as Costin lingered next to her.
She spoke. “If the Meratoliages are responsible for this, they’re persistent.”
Costin’s tone soothed her. “The keepers of the dragon. We should have known that their loyalty to him would not end in London.”
“And they’re using dark magic,” Dawn said. “We know that they practiced it before, and it probably led them to knowing that Dracul the dragon didn’t perish so much as find a new place to rest now.”
And that place was in her.
Funny. For over a century, the dragon had been stowed away by one of the Undergrounds while put into the custody of two Meratoliage bodyguards in London. Dracul had been only about fifty years away from gathering enough strength to rise and command the Underground sub-masters who were supposed to be collecting enough vampire armies to support a world takeover. But Dawn and Company had put a crimp on that shit.
However, the Meratoliages were obviously not done being the dragon’s custodes.
Kiko rubbed his forehead. “At least it’s all making more sense now. The family was performing a ritual at that bonfire—probably somewhere nearby if they’re as efficient as I think they are. Part of the ritual included raising up three experienced custodians. What I don’t understand is—”
“I understand,” Natalia said softly.
Every gaze turned to her.
“During our vision,” she said, “the word ‘retire’ kept coming to me. We already know from London that keepers could be retired, and that only two of them were activated at all times for body guarding duty. This causes me to wonder if tonight’s custodes were, in a sense, unretired through a ritual. After all, wouldn’t Lilly have been punished for losing the dragon on her watch? And was retirement a punishment?”
“If her body stayed in one piece through that Underground explosion,” Dawn said.
Even so, Natalia’s thoughts made sense if you coupled her theory with the images that the psychics had gotten of a coma. Retirement didn’t sound fun.
But you know what was? This. Figuring things out again, just like in the old days. A swarm of accomplishment was making Dawn hold back a smile. Even better, the dragon blood was absolutely cringing inside of her, as if it was huddled in a corner of her body, watching to see if she was going to rise to tonight’s challenge.
Hell, yeah, dragon—don’t you know it.
Jonah turned away from the window, his dark hair disheveled. “So tonight’s ritual was all about resurrection, is that it?”
Kiko and Natalia had both fixed their gazes on Dawn, and she knew what they were mulling over even before they said it.
“Are you all focusing on me now?” she asked.
Natalia nodded in her solemn way, and Kiko shrugged, as if saying, Told you that you weren’t going to be getting the Yay! Cinderella version.
“You think,” Dawn said, “that when the Meratoliages were raising their version of the undead, I got caught up in their summoning, too?”
Costin’s voice shook her. She hadn’t realized he was so close. “Your soul stain, Dawn. If the Meratoliages raised the dragon, perhaps their ritual affected what was near him, as well, and that would be the darkness in your core.”
Dawn almost laughed. So the “undead” part of her had been caught in the midnight-hour crossfire? Good thing for happy accidents.
But...What about when Samhain was over? Would this magic be null and void, bringing her back to where she’d been before?
Unwilling to think about it, she said, “I was wondering if I should call Frank to ask him if his soul stain was affected, but we know Jonah hasn’t felt a change.”
Jonah chuffed, strolling away from the window, looking fairly bad-ass in his dark clothes and hunter belt. Dawn had to admit it.
“Unlike you,” he said, “I haven’t got psychic anger issues. Or a dragon in my side. Your soul stain is a whole lot more destructive than mine or your dad’s.”
At the second mention of Frank, everyone seemed to want to end all the talk. And why not? Frank had gotten most of the life sucked out of him by Dawn’s mom after Eva had been changed into an unnamable creature by the could-be demon, and Frank had never recovered. He was a fortysomething man in the body of a ninety-year-old, taken care of by the last of the ghostly Friends who had fought the vampires with the team. Breisi had loved him, so Eva had drained her of life force, too, leaving her as weak as a tiny gust of wind. Frank and she stayed side by side now, their love the only thing keeping Breisi from going into the afterlife for ultimate peace, something all the spirit Friends had earned.
No, Dawn thought. She wouldn’t be bothering Frank or Breisi about tonight’s relatively small problem.
“So,” Jonah said, rubbing his hands together. “What’s the next step? I vote that we go out there and find Lilly and her buddy before they come back here.”
“Seconded,” Dawn said without thinking.
Costin nudged her.
“What?” she asked. “You really think I’m going to wait around like a sitting duck?”
“Think about this, Dawn.”
“I am thinking. And, truthfully, I’m sick of hanging around, just thinking.” She rested a hand on the hilt of her machete. “I’ve missed being out there, and...Well, stop looking so horrified, everyone. You’ve missed it, too, no matter how much danger we used to get in to.”
Kiko swallowed and tried not to meet his wife’s gaze, but Natalia was no dummy. Her eyes filled with sadness, and she tightened her jaw.
Costin sighed, just like Dawn knew he would. Then he said, “You have a false sense of security because of what that ritual did to your stain. It is safer here.”
She turned to him, even though he was nothing but charged air. “You’re wrong. I’ve got no sense of security. But I’d love to get some by hunting down where the Meratoliages might be waiting for me and get them first. I might’ve forgotten a few things about hunting, but I’ll never forget how valuable the element of surprise is. We can even wake up Kalin early from her portrait. She wouldn’t mind coming out with us.”
Jonah rolled his eyes. Kalin was the only remaining Friend besides Breisi, but she was a spitfire who was in such love with Jonah that she refused to move on to the afterlife. Jonah, who actually felt a little guilt about leading her on in the past, had agreed to have Kalin emerge from her home portrait every six months to visit him. It was the only relationship he seemed capable of kinda-sorta committing to.
Jonah said, “If we really need Kalin, then I suppose bringing her out is a good idea.”
A team player. Mostly.
Kiko didn’t comment on Jonah’s lack of enthusiasm, instead saying, “Did anyone ever stop to think that Dawn might not be the only target here? Sure, she’s got the dragon in her, but what about Costin? Don’t you think the Meratoliages might like to get a shot at him since he was the on
e who was taking out all the masters?”
Why did it sound like Kiko was only echoing what Natalia might’ve told him?
It struck Dawn that, nowadays, he was a husband first and a hunter last. Already, she missed him.
She started walking toward the room’s exit. “I also vote that Costin stay in this house with Jonah.”
Jonah opened his mouth to argue, but Dawn held up a hand.
“If you take him inside your body and guard him, our enemies might have a harder time getting to him.”
Costin’s voice sounded like thunder, stopping Dawn in her tracks.
“And what if the dragon was improved by the Meratoliage ritual?” he asked. “What if he has the power to move more quickly than ever, once Samhain is over and the soul stain goes back to its darkness?”
What if it never does go back to its darkness? Dawn thought. And, damn, wasn’t she optimistic?
Costin added, “How will your stain be protected from the dragon’s blood then, if you are away from me?”
He was talking about their daily cleansing—every sunrise, when he came into her, pushing the dragon back from the soul stain.
She lifted her chin. “What’s worse at this point? Lilly and her sidekick getting a hold of me and bringing me back to the Meratoliages for their ritual, or my soul stain joining with the dragon if this spell wears off at sunrise?”
No one had an answer. No one but her.
“I’m gonna take care of this before it takes care of me.”
As she went on the move, Costin whooshed in front of her.
“You promised not to kill anymore, Dawn.”
She had an answer for that, too. “I know, I know. Killing always excited the dragon and my soul stain anger, and that was a lethal combination. But things changed at the stroke of midnight tonight, Costin, remember? No more raging anger.” At least for now.
“Do you want to kill?” he asked.
The force of his question took her aback, but everyone else in the room was staring at her with the same query in their gazes. Even Jonah.
Although he seemed to be daring her to get back in touch with her wild side instead.
Did she want to kill, now that she might be able to with her soul stain in limbo and her anger in check?
When she thought about it, there was no guilt about the act of killing—not when it came to the Meratoliages, who would tear her apart to get at the dragon and would unleash his evil on the world. For the first time in a long time, without the shadow of the stain on her, Dawn knew without a doubt who she was and what she was meant to do in life.
Costin hovered, and Dawn was ready to argue even more.
But then his voice took on a resigned determination. “Then where you go, I go.”
And he flew out of the room.
Jonah walked out after him, sending Dawn an isn’t-this-just-like-old-times? glance.
That left her with Kiko and Natalia.
“Well,” his wife said, rising from her chair and smoothing down her plaid skirt.
Dawn realized that, in Natalia’s haste to get here in the middle of the night, she had put that skirt on backward, with the zipper in front. It seemed Natalia had just realized it, too, but she didn’t correct it.
She looked at Kiko once more, then went to the door. Before she left, she touched Dawn’s arm with her bare hand. She’d been about to say something, but she paused.
“You really do feel different,” she said, tilting her head in wonder and maybe even some bewilderment.
Then, still wrinkling her brow, she left, too.
Idly, Kiko kicked his feet as he stayed in his chair. As usual, his boots seemed too big for his body.
“Say it,” Dawn told him.
He cussed under his breath, then went for it. “I need to sit this one out, Dawn.”
Shocker. “You don’t need to explain why.”
“I want to. It’s just that...” He blushed. Sweet Hubby Kiko. “Natalia and I have been talking about starting a family.”
Years ago, Dawn would’ve laughed for days at the image of Kiko holding a baby as far away from his body as possible as it cried and dirtied its diapers.
But now...?
Not at all.
She went over to him, bent to a knee, then hugged him close. He embraced her in return, hard, then patted her on the back as if she needed it.
And maybe she did, because so much had changed.
Except maybe nothing had at all, in the end.
“You be careful,” he said. “I’ll stay here with Natalia to run communications.”
“Just as one last hurrah?” she asked, her throat tight.
“Right,” Kiko said. “Hopefully one last hurrah is all we’ll need for us to take care of these guys forever.”
FIVE
The Return
Dawn drove her and Costin’s black RAV4 out of their garage and down the moon-washed, shore-lined road. He had already suggested their first destination—a possible location for where the Meratoliage family might be holding their bonfire ritual. The property was close enough to Costin’s house so that travel wouldn’t have been difficult for the reanimated keepers, but far enough to keep the family hidden from the public.
Costin, whose topaz eyes shone out of Jonah’s body, looked up from the glowing computer tablet they were using. When he was in residence in Jonah, Jonah’s voice became Costin’s. It would’ve been enough to give anyone else a freak-out, but Dawn was well used to it by now.
“Head toward Olivenhain.” He’d done a quick search back at the house for any relatives who might be connected to the Meratoliages and had come up with two candidates, one an upscale rural community to the east, the other up north off the 5 freeway.
They’d summoned Kalin out of her painted Friend portrait already, and after she’d made a fuss over Jonah, cooing and whirling around him and whispering sweet nothings to him in her cockney-accented spirit voice, he’d told her that this wasn’t about a reunion.
She’d accepted his remoteness without argument. Kalin was a pain in the ass, but she’d always been a hunter, first and foremost, and she had obeyed Costin’s request to fly up to the second Meratoliage property near Carlsbad.
Dawn pulled their vehicle onto the 5, where only a few cars filled the lanes with their lonely headlights. She still wasn’t sure that bringing Costin along had been a good idea. On hunts, he’d always used a vampire team to uncover the Undergrounds before emerging from hiding to face off with and put down that particular master. But, back then, he had been powerful, with a psychic talent called Awareness.
Now he was a tamer version of the spiritual warrior she’d known, and she wasn’t sure how he would match up with the monsters that waited outside of her body.
“Are we sure about Olivenhain?” she asked. “I don’t know if a bonfire would go over well there.”
“This address is located in the richer part of the community, where people can shelter horses and have room to move.”
“But it has a dark-sky policy.” A quick computer search had told them that light pollution in Olivenhain was limited, so a bonfire might be noticed pretty quickly.
Costin set the computer pad on his body’s lap. “A thorough check of the property and we will move on.”
She agreed. This was the closest of their two options, after all.
He touched the Bluetooth device on his ear, then said, “Kiko has more information for us.”
“Put him on.”
Costin accessed the vehicle’s speakerphone button. Back in the old days, they would’ve been driving a tricked-out vamp hunting mobile with all sorts of high-tech devices that would’ve probably even allowed Kiko to come onto a screen. Now? Not so much.
“I’m checking out this family we got a hit on,” Kiko said over the phone line. “Obviously, we’re dealing with Americans who’re related to the Meratoliages. It looks like a few of their outcasts—men with heart problems, mostly—came over from the Mother Country years and years
ago and did some settling over here.”
In the past, these distant family members would’ve been of little use to the London Meratoliages who guarded the dragon. But now that brood had no doubt traveled out here to stay with their Yankee relatives for Samhain so they could be close to Dawn for the ritual.
“Might as well have family branches all over the world,” Dawn said. “Just like a good chain store.”
Kiko laughed. “DeathMart.”
“Or,” Dawn said, “Dragonbucks. Their coffee has a bite to it.”
Even Costin smiled in Jonah’s body, but Dawn wondered if it was because she was reminding him of what she’d been like before the soul stain had really kicked in, back when she’d joined the team in Hollywood.
She turned off the 5, onto their exit. “Anyway. What about this American branch, Kik?”
“Last name is Barker, and they own the properties you and Kalin are checking out. And get this—they have a kid who must sneak onto Facebook all the time. He’s making things easy.”
“I love carelessness. Hunting is so much easier when we’ve got that on our side.”
“All that Meratoliage inbreeding had to end up in some stupidity.”
From what they’d found out in London, the Meratoliages partnered with their own bloodline, so as to keep their family pure. That and some hardcore dark magic had evidently resulted in what they were dealing with now.
A cult, Dawn thought. And two unretired ninja-like keepers on the loose.
She drove on a grass-lined road past a dimly lit gas station, taking a right into a wooded area as Costin asked, “And what does Facebook say about the family, Kiko?”
“Well, this Barker kid keeps talking about a raging party they’re going to have tonight for Halloween,” Kiko said.
“AKA a ritual with a bonfire?” Dawn asked, perking up.
Inside her, the dragon’s blood shriveled that much more. Hah.
“No, no bonfires mentioned. And the kid doesn’t even say if the party’s on his family’s property or not. But I did a little more research, and I saw that the Barkers do live on several acres, so it’d be the perfect place to have a private soiree with some visiting family who likes to wear evil robes in their spare time.”
Undead for a Day Page 4
