Undaunted

by HELEN HARDT

  No. The word came to me quickly. He knew it was here, but that was all he knew.

  The body—the shell—was no longer him. He had no connection to it now. Did I? I was still a live body. A body that had come from his. Could that be what was pulling me?

  “Damn,” River said. “I haven’t seen any areas where the grass is disturbed so far. We’re looking for a needle in a haystack here, man.”

  “Seems that way,” I replied.

  “Let’s split up. We’ll cover more ground. Text me if you find anything. Keep your phone only on vibrate.”

  “Got you.” I turned off my ringer and set off down another part of the cemetery.

  More vaults, some kept up nicely, others in need of major repairs. Some with ornate designs topped with statues, others plain and dull.

  Dante.

  No. Not now. Not her. I should have stayed with River.

  Follow me.

  Like hell I will.

  Then, like a bolt of lightning, a wave of peace swept over me. A calmness I’d known only when—

  An unseen force drew my gaze upward. On top of a silvery-gray vault sat a woman I hadn’t seen since I was three years old. Her dark hair flowed over her shoulders, and she wore a white gown that came to her knees.

  A hospital gown.

  “Mom?”

  She had died in the hospital, giving birth to Emilia.

  The image smiled but said nothing. Why was she here? My father had said she was no longer able to come to this plane.

  “Mom?” I said again in a whisper. “I…see you. Can you help me? Can you show us where Dad’s body is?”

  Chills swept over me, but they were good chills this time. I felt only peace from them.

  My mother wasn’t buried in this cemetery. She’d been laid to rest in a smaller graveyard outside the city along with my grandmother and aunt. So why was she here? And why could I see her?

  My thoughts raced to my father. Would he be able to communicate with her if he were here?

  “Don’t go away!” I whispered urgently to my mother’s ghost. I turned and hurried back to the entrance. “Dad? Dad? Where are you?”

  Nothing.

  The guard sat, mesmerized, still at his post. Still under my father’s glamour.

  But where was my father?

  “Dad?” I whispered again. “I need you.”

  He appeared before me instantly, making me jerk backward and nearly lose my footing.

  “What is it?”

  “Mom. She’s here. Inside the cemetery.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  “Apparently not. She’s here, but she won’t talk to me. Come on. I’ll show you.”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I can’t leave the perimeter. If I do, we risk someone coming along and disturbing you and River while you work. Get this done, Dante.”

  “We haven’t found you—er…your body, yet.”

  “Move along then. It’s here somewhere.”

  “But I—”

  “Dante! This is important. Take care of it.”

  “But Mom—”

  “I can’t help you with that. I’m sorry. I’m going back out to check the perimeter.”

  I sighed. Perhaps I hadn’t seen anything. Perhaps it was only my imagination playing tricks on me.

  No. She’d been real. Well, as real as a ghost could be.

  I retraced my steps back to where I’d seen my mother.

  Yes, she was still there, sitting atop the vault, but this time she was pointing.

  “Mom?”

  No reply, so I followed where she was pointing. The vaults were high, so it was impossible to see what she might be gesturing to, but I turned and followed the direction she was giving me.

  I had to zigzag around, but I was determined to make it where she wanted me to go.

  On my way, I found River. “This way,” I said.

  “I’ve been over that way.”

  “Trust me.”

  He shrugged. “Okay. We’ve covered a lot of ground and haven’t found shit. Maybe you’re on to something.”

  I didn’t try to explain that my mother’s ghost was leading me. He wouldn’t believe me anyway. Or maybe he would, but I was too anxious to find what my mother was pointing me toward. As we ducked around a stately pyramid tomb, I lifted my eyebrows.

  A large white dog sat on top of a small grassy area.

  I nudged River. “What’s that dog doing in here?”

  River walked forward a few steps and then stopped abruptly.

  “That’s no dog, Dante. That’s a wolf.”

  Chapter Three

  Erin

  A couple of blues were talking to Logan. Detectives hadn’t been called in yet, and Jay was off tonight anyway.

  So was River, who, at this very moment, was most likely digging up a body in St. Louis Cemetery along with Dante.

  I had to trust that Dante knew what he was doing. With a body, he could file a death certificate and begin the probate of his father’s estate. I understood the necessity of what he was doing. Didn’t mean I liked it.

  I hated it.

  Totally hated it.

  I itched to be there with him to look after him, but realistically I knew I’d be more of a handicap, especially with a gang of vampires trying to find me. Vampires were nocturnal, and though I had nothing to base my assumption on other than old myth, I figured they might be hanging around a graveyard.

  Chills speared through me.

  A gang of vampires was after me.

  So unreal.

  Dante would protect me with his life. I was sure of it. But he was only one vampire—one who’d been held against his will long enough that he never finished high school.

  I closed my eyes.

  Still so much I didn’t know about this man I adored, this man I needed, ached for.

  I needed him so badly, and at the moment, fear for him raced through me like a combat plane twisting and turning to avoid being shot down.

  “Erin!”

  I opened my eyes. Dale and Renee, two of the other nurses, stood in front of me.

  “Are you all right?” Dale asked. “You seemed almost catatonic.”

  “I’m sorry. No. I’m fine.”

  “Are you sure? We heard you’re the one who found Dr. Crown tied up in that supply closet.”

  “Guilty,” I said.

  “The poor thing,” Dale said. “He looks like someone messed him up pretty badly. Did he tell you where he’d been?”

  “No. He doesn’t remember much. My guess is he was drugged with something.”

  “This is all too scary,” Renee said. “I’ve been talking to my boyfriend, and we agree I should find another job. I was ready to walk out of here a few nights ago.”

  “No, please,” I said. “We need you. Lucy has taken a few nights off, so we’re going to be really shorthanded.”

  Renee sighed. “All right. Until Lucy gets back. Where did she go, anyway?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. She said something about a family emergency.”

  “She didn’t tell you what it was? I thought you two didn’t have any secrets.” Dale giggled.

  Yeah, I’d thought that too.

  I’d been wrong.

  Either she’d had sex with River in his car and didn’t tell me, or she was a—

  Stop it, Erin!

  “Lucy doesn’t tell me everything.”

  “Did she tell you she fucked Dr. Crown?”

  My eyebrows flew up. “No. She told me she absolutely did not.”

  “Oh.” Dale giggled again. “That’s not what I heard.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, when the sirens wailed. I had more important things to do than worry whether Lucy had lied to me yet again. Dale was a bigger hospital gossip than Steve was, so I had to factor that in as well.

  I assisted with a heart attack and then with a drug overdose. Both of them pulled through, thank goodness. I wasn’t sure I could handle losing a patient tonight.r />
  Dante was never far from my mind, even when I was working. I compartmentalized as well as I could because my patients deserved my very best. Still, the unstoppable worry nagged at me.

  Because we were so shorthanded, Logan had scrubbed up and was assisting. Dr. Thomas must have been desperate, because in my opinion, Logan wasn’t in any condition to practice medicine.

  He worked swiftly, though, despite his injuries, and didn’t make any mistakes that I could ascertain. Somehow his glasses had returned as well. What happened hadn’t taken away any of his skills as a physician. Whatever personal things had occurred between us, or between him and Lucy, he was still a very good doctor, and we needed him.

  When we finally got a break, he joined me at one of the sinks to wash up.

  “You doing okay?” I asked.

  “Like riding a bike,” he said.

  “How did you find your glasses?”

  “I keep an extra pair in my locker.”

  “Oh.” I wiped my hands dry with a paper towel. “What do the police think? Can they figure out who did this to you?”

  He shrugged. “They still haven’t found the two girls who disappeared. The one with the supposed ruptured appendix and the one with the heart transplant. I figured they’d turn up again, like Cynthia North and that other woman from the free clinic did.”

  “I think we all did,” I agreed. “They still might.”

  He shook his head soberly. “I don’t remember a lot about what happened to me, but one thing I feel certain about. Those girls won’t be returned.”

  “Were they with you?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Then how can you— Never mind.” Now wasn’t the time to interrogate him, but I’d certainly tell Jay and the other detectives about his cryptic comments. “Did you have a doctor look at you, to make sure you weren’t…violated in any way?”

  “Erin, I wasn’t violated. Other than getting the shit kicked out of me, which is a violation, yes, but probably not what you’re talking about.”

  “Still, don’t you think…”

  “When I get around to it.” He walked off in a huff.

  For a nerd, Logan was acting awfully macho. I didn’t particularly like this new arrogant side of him. But how would I know what it was like to be held captive against my will for several days?

  And Dante…

  Dante had been held for years.

  So much I didn’t know.

  I couldn’t ponder much longer though. I still had a few hours on the clock, and another ambulance was arriving.

  Chapter Four

  Dante

  “No way,” I said. “What would a wolf be doing here in the city? That’s a—” I was about to say “white German shepherd,” but something was off. The animal was white, but the snout wasn’t quite right. It was a wolf.

  “I don’t know why it’s here, but that’s definitely a wolf.” He approached with caution. “Here, boy. Come here.”

  The wolf stood and turned toward River, giving me a side view.

  “Riv, that’s not a boy. It’s a girl.”

  “Quiet, Dante. Don’t freak her out.” He held out his hand tentatively. “Hey, girl. We won’t hurt you.”

  “My mother was pointing to her,” I said.

  River twisted his neck to meet my gaze. “What?”

  “No time to explain. I saw my mother’s ghost sitting on top of one of the vaults.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I wish I were. But I saw her, man. She acted differently than my dad. She didn’t talk or anything. Just pointed over here, to where the…wolf is sitting.”

  “Hmm. Maybe this is where Uncle Jules is. But we have to get her to move first.” He slanted slightly forward. “Come on, girl. We’re not going to hurt you.”

  “I don’t think she’s worried about us hurting her.”

  “She’s no bigger than a large dog,” River replied.

  “But she’s not a dog. She’s a wolf. A wild animal.”

  River turned on his flashlight.

  “You might spook her,” I said.

  “How else are we supposed to know if this is where your dad is? We have to see if the sod has been disturbed.”

  “It has to be. Why would my mother point to a wolf? She had to be pointing to my dad’s body.”

  “Not necessarily. She could have been warning us about the wolf.”

  “In which case,” I said, “you shouldn’t be freaking her out with the flashlight.”

  “Good point.” His light disappeared. “Don’t need it anyway, with all the ambient light reflecting in. I think she’s fine, though. She hasn’t attacked us yet, has she?”

  “True.” The wolf didn’t appear at all vicious. If she’d fed recently, she’d have no reason why she’d attack us…unless she perceived us as a threat.

  “If she was going to attack us, she’d have done it by now.”

  “Yeah, you’re probably right.” I eyed her. She was a beautiful animal. Nearly snow white. “Wait.”

  “What?”

  “She’s white.”

  “Yeah? So what?”

  “She’s an arctic wolf.”

  “Yeah? So what?” River said again.

  “An arctic wolf is a subspecies of the gray wolf, and it’s native to the Queen Elizabeth Islands up north. How the hell did she get here?”

  “I don’t know. And why do you know that, anyway?”

  “I paid attention in high school. I used to want to be a doctor, remember? I needed good grades to get into college and med school.”

  “Yeah. Right. You still can, you know.”

  “No, I can’t. Not now.”

  “Dante—”

  “Now’s not the time, Riv.” The last thing I needed was to get emotional and have River feeling sorry for me. Not anytime, and especially not in the middle of the night while we were trespassing in a graveyard. “What I want to know is, what is an arctic wolf doing in a cemetery in New Orleans?”

  River shook his head. “You got me.”

  The wolf still appeared docile. “Hey, girl,” I said, approaching.

  “You stopped me when I tried that.”

  “I know. But this is my father we’re looking for, and I need to see if he’s here.” I tentatively eyed the perimeter of the ground where the wolf stood.

  The grassy area looked the same as all the other areas we’d seen. If it had been disturbed recently, I sure couldn’t tell. I walked slowly forward. I needed to get behind the wolf so I could examine the rest of the area. “Easy, girl,” I said softly.

  No reaction from the animal.

  “That’s a good girl. We’re not here to bother you. We just need— Ow!” An icy sword speared the back of my neck. “Shit, Dad. What is it?”

  “He’s not here,” River said, his voice a low whisper, “but I felt that too.”

  A low snarl percolated from the wolf’s throat.

  “So did she, apparently,” I said.

  She didn’t move from her place on the grass, but she turned her head slightly to the right. I followed the wolf’s gaze, but nothing seemed out of place. I took advantage of her distraction and moved forward to check the rest of the area.

  Again, nothing seemed out of place. Just to make sure, I fired up my flashlight and shined it over the entire area, edge to edge. If this sod had been disturbed, it wasn’t giving anything away.

  “Damn!” I whispered urgently. The ice pick had lanced into my neck again. “What is that?”

  The wolf cocked her ears, tilting her head slightly, and then she jumped seemingly into thin air.

  Away from us.

  “Quick, Riv,” I said. “Let’s check this area out better.” The rays from our flashlights dueled like lightsabers as we quickly looked at the entire grassy area where the wolf had been.

  “Nothing,” I said. “Do you see anything?”

  “Nope. Looks like a dead end. If we couldn’t see it with vamp night vision, I don’t k
now why we thought flashlights would help.” He looked around. “Where do you think she went?”

  “I have no idea. I’m just as glad she’s gone, though.”

  “She seemed friendly enough.”

  “That just means she wasn’t hungry. I paid attention in school, remember? Wolves will attack if they need to eat, just like any carnivorous wild animal.”

  A faint growl drifted across the air.

  “Did you hear that?” River asked.

  “Yeah. She’s still around. It boggles my mind. How did a white wolf get here?”

  “Maybe she escaped from the zoo,” River said.

  “Yeah, maybe. Are there wolves at Audubon Zoo?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t been to the zoo in ten years, at least.”

  “Ha! Neither have I.”

  “Oh. Sorry.”

  Another snarl made its way to my ears.

  “Maybe she is hungry,” River said. “Sounds like she’s found a meal.”

  “As long as it wasn’t us. We should probably get out of here before she decides she’s hungrier than she realized.”

  River patted his ribs. “I’m packing. I’ll take her out before she can do anything to us.”

  “Ah,” I said. “No wonder you weren’t frightened when you saw her.”

  “You really think I’d come to a cemetery at night unarmed?”

  “You can’t kill ghosts with a gun, Riv.”

  “Ghosts weren’t my concern. I know Uncle Jules said he’d keep everyone out, but—”

  Amidst the snarls, a low scream ripped through the air.

  My stomach dropped. The wolf was not attacking another animal. She was mangling a person. Most likely a man.

  “We should help, Riv,” I whispered urgently.

  “Yeah, let’s go.”

  We hurried toward the sounds.

  Growling. Gnashing of teeth. More screams. Shit! She was going to tear whomever it was apart.

  Then a high-pitched yelp sailed across the air, followed by soft canine whimpers.

  River turned. “Sounds like she’s hurt.”

  The whimper got progressively louder as we edged farther to the other end of the graveyard. The sound changed from whimper to…weeping?

  River drew out his pistol while I shined the flashlight.