How to Rattle an Undead Couple (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 9)

by Hailey Edwards

  A third vampire threw himself against Linus while his attention was divided, and Linus brought up his knee, sending the vampire sprawling. The crime against his mother carried a death sentence, and Linus passed judgment with a sweep of his blade against the tender skin of the vampire’s throat.

  The fourth vampire howled as Corbin rode it down, his fangs buried in its throat.

  The three necromancers, or so Linus assumed, witnessed the berserker rage without flinching.

  “Who are you?” Linus demanded of the trio, who wore glamour to conceal their faces. “Show yourselves.”

  Rather than answer, they joined hands and began a low chant that caused sigils on their arms to glow. The reverberation in their unified voice matched the one he had overheard at the rental. This, whoever hid beneath the glamour, was who Leisha had conspired with to kill his mother.

  Snarling, Corbin launched himself at the woman in the center, teeth snapping at her throat.

  A wall of magic sprung up around the trio, a ward they must have set prior to Linus exiting the office. Corbin hit it and bounced off, smacking his skull against the floor. Blood matted his hair and covered his face, but Linus couldn’t tell if any belonged to him.

  “I won’t ask again.” Linus prowled over then crouched to examine their circle. “Confess, or you will die.”

  The trio remained silent within their protective bubble while Linus singled out its weakness.

  “Corbin.” He waited until the Deathless vampire grunted. “We need to contain at least one of them.”

  A feral growl was his only answer as Corbin got to his feet and began circling the women.

  The front door burst open, providing all the distraction he required to shatter their ward with brute magical force. The percussive blast knocked the women down, and Hood, boots crunching over glass and splintered wood, captured the eldest woman while Corbin took the centermost one and Linus the youngest.

  “They smell the same.” Hood sneezed. “They’re identical. How is that possible?”

  The answer was simple once Linus thought about who else was involved. “Two are illusions.”

  The flawless work was beyond even Leisha’s skills, and few necromancers alive could boast that talent.

  “The maiden and the mother,” Corbin growled. “The crone is real.”

  After swiping on sigils to bind the maiden’s wrists and ankles, Linus did the same for the mother, freeing up Corbin to help should the crone not be what she appeared beneath the magic.

  “Hold her tight.” Linus brought out his modified pen. “This will strip the magic off her.”

  For him to see beneath all the layers of magic, he would have to erase all traces of power. That would have included the bindings, had he used them, and they couldn’t afford to let her get free when they were almost out of time before the true Scion Woolworth entered the world.

  Drawing a sigil on her forehead, he let it do its work. The illusions encasing her proved more stubborn than he had anticipated, and he wished for Grier to help him. He had grown used to her as his partner, and he missed her skill as well as her company.

  As the magic unraveled, a weathered face was revealed, and he fell into stunned silence. “The last time I saw you, you were on your way to Davenport Prison.”

  Abayomi Balewa, the former Grande Dame, and the woman who had sentenced teenage Grier to Atramentous without the benefit of a trial, glared up at him with loathing twisting her features.

  Though his expression remained hidden behind a mask, he burned with hatred for this woman.

  “This explains the tie to the Marchands,” Hood said. “Eloise helped her raise her vampire army.”

  Furious at being dethroned, Abayomi had lashed out at Linus’s mother by banding together with Eloise, who was heartbroken over the loss of her sister, to raise an army of fledgling vampires they unleased during a ball at Lawson Manor.

  All that prevented the night from becoming a bloodbath was Lacroix stepping in to enthrall the fledglings until they could be dealt with. Without him, the loss of life would have been incalculable.

  Eloise, posing as Angie Dearborn, had acted as Abayomi’s assistant in the resuscitations.

  Legally, she had done nothing wrong in assisting Abayomi, and she had been absent during the attack.

  To prevent the start of a blood feud between the Marchands and the Woolworths, Grier let Eloise go without so much as a slap on the wrist for her involvement, though Eloise maintained that a debt remained between them since Grier had survived the Marchands thus far.

  “Eloise escaped unscathed.” Linus stared at Abayomi. “That’s why you targeted her, isn’t it?”

  The former Grande Dame didn’t answer. Her fervent gaze had slid past his shoulder to where Corbin and Adelaide carried his mother from the office on their way out to Moby.

  Hope brightened Abayomi’s eyes. “Is she dead?”

  “No.” Linus took great relief in that. “She’s not.”

  “There is no justice in this world.” Rage wet her cheeks with tears. “She ruined my life.”

  “You ruined your own life.” Linus exhaled softly. “I don’t doubt Mother’s hand offered the match to your gasoline, but you could have refused her. You could have reported her to the authorities if you suspected her of wrongdoing. You could have done any number of things aside from raising an army and striking not only the Grande Dame at her own home, but the Society as a whole.”

  Hood rose to his feet, bringing her with him. “How did you escape from prison?”

  “Another inmate offered to help me in exchange for delivering a package.”

  The world wasn’t big enough to hold two such coincidences. “The box you left on our porch?”

  A direct accusation, one she accepted with the finality of prey caught in a trap closing around it.

  The amount of glamour in play, paired with Woolly’s confusion over the delivery driver, convinced him a vampire hadn’t left the gift, but a necromancer posing as one. Abayomi herself had left the parcel on the porch, no doubt a condition of her debt to the good Samaritan who helped her escape.

  “Yes.” She measured him with her stare. “He didn’t tell me what was in it.”

  “Did he give you his name?” Linus pressed. “Can you describe him?”

  “He occupied the cell next to mine.” Her confessions came quicker now, as the time for judgment drew near. “We talked when the quiet stretched for too long, but we never met. I didn’t see his face, and he didn’t see mine. There was a wall between us.”

  Linus regarded her with healthy skepticism. “Yet he knew who you were?”

  “He overheard the guards use my name.”

  “This unnamed savior didn’t wish to escape with you?”

  “He told me his time was coming.” Her brow puckered. “He was willing to help me first.”

  “Load her in the van.” Linus prioritized their wounded over Abayomi’s interrogation. “We need to go.”

  A full-fledged interrogation would have to wait. There was no time left to get to the bottom of it all here and now, and they were too exposed in any case.

  Corbin swept his gaze over the carnage. “Do you want me to call the cleaners?”

  “Wait just a moment.” Linus gave the store time to empty before facing him. “Are you steady?”

  “This is normal.” Corbin flinched away from the word. “For me.”

  Berserkers, those afflicted with rage-induced frenzies of violence, were a documented occurrence across all predatory species, but Linus had never met one. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “I’m being monitored.” His smile didn’t make it to his eyes. “I’m not a danger to others.”

  All of a sudden, the gag order on him made more sense. To an extent. For it to be effective, it must apply to all his duties, not only the ones performed for the Grande Dame. Whoever handed down the order, it had an ironclad grip on Corbin. He must have agreed, despite Grier’s misgivings, to keep his berserker st
atus, and whatever else his monitoring entailed, quiet.

  “What about to yourself?”

  “So far, so good.”

  The mixture of shame and guilt reminded Linus of his early days learning to control his powers.

  “Come on.” As dawn seeped through the windows, Linus clasped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go home.”

  Fourteen

  Thanks to Cletus, I had a good idea of what had gone down at the lingerie shop, but I wanted a firsthand account from Linus. An inmate connected enough to walk out of his prison, or help others escape, had me twitchy with nerves wondering what might be unleashed on us next.

  Call me cynical, but I had my doubts we would find this mysterious angel of mercy until he wanted to be found.

  Guards could be bought, and anyone with that much pull had the money to pay.

  Woolly flicked the curtains when Moby angled into the drive, the wash of headlights strobing the wall in front of me.

  “Finally.” Lethe got to her feet and stretched. “He gets to have all the fun.”

  “You’re saying I’m not fun?”

  “Tuck in your bottom lip before you trip over it.” She flicked her wrist at me. “You know what I mean.”

  Footsteps pounded up the stairs, and Linus swept into the room with relief stark on his face.

  “We found them,” he said, coming to my side of the bed to kneel before me. “They’re both safe.”

  The news had already been delivered via wraith, but I got the sense he needed to say the words as much as I needed to hear them from him.

  “Our healer is set up two doors down,” Lethe volunteered, “in the suite prepared for your mother.”

  “Thank you.” Linus curved his lips in amusement at Lethe. “Do you have room for another guest?”

  “The more the merrier.” She cackled. “I’ll help Hood get the invalids situated, then we’ll escort Abayomi to her new accommodations.”

  Uncertain how I felt having my mother-in-law stay down the hall from us, I focused on being grateful she was alive.

  “Go shower,” Lethe ordered Linus on her way out. “You’re bloody and stinky.”

  “Lethe.”

  “Your eyes and your nose work fine.” She stuck out her tongue. “Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking it.”

  I was definitely a bad influence.

  I really had to work on that before LJ mastered his fine motor skills.

  “You’ve stayed up past your bedtime.” Linus rose to stand over me. “I’ll shower, and then we’ll go to sleep.”

  “Are you sure?” Surprise jolted through me. “You don’t want to sit with your mother?”

  “She’s safe, and she’s with the healer.” He smiled his littlest smile, the one that melted my heart into a puddle of goo. “I want to enjoy the final hours of being a couple with you before we become a family.”

  The water turned on in the shower, and steam poured into the bedroom as Woolly got things ready.

  After collecting a pair of pajamas, he entered the bathroom and shut the door.

  As if sensing the turn of my thoughts, Cletus appeared at my shoulder, and Woolly’s presence drifted to the wall behind our headboard. Alone with what remained of the two women who had each been my mother, one by birth and one by choice, I unburdened myself before Linus returned.

  “Not gonna lie,” I told them. “I’m so nervous I’m sick, and I stopped barfing after the first trimester.”

  Moaning a gentle reprimand, Cletus brushed his cool knuckles across my cheek how Maud used to do.

  Not to be outdone, Woolly embraced me in a swirl of warm air that tickled my hair across my cheeks. The hug was welcome, but I wished my mom was here in the flesh. I didn’t want to go through this on my own. Not just the delivery, but the aftermath.

  I had no idea how to raise a child. Sheesh. I was a walking, talking cautionary tale.

  I don’t know how long I lay there, talking out my worries, fears, and banishing the worst of my jitters before Linus emerged from the bathroom in a cloud of peppermint-scented steam.

  What can I say?

  That first trimester was horrible. I took relief wherever I could find it. Peppermint helped. A lot. So much we started bathing with peppermint bodywash and washing our hair with peppermint shampoo in addition to carrying pocketsful of the stuff I was still finding in random outfits.

  Basically, Woolworth House had smelled like the North Pole for the last nine months.

  Good thing no one was expecting me to fit down a chimney here at the end.

  “What would you think of having the procedure done here?”

  “What?” I jerked my head toward Linus. “How?”

  “You often choose to forget that we’re both rather well off.” He prowled to me, and my heart rate leapt. “I can have the necessities brought over from the carriage house.”

  “Wait.” I held up my hand. “What do you mean brought over from the carriage house?”

  The old house groaned around us, a pitiful sound, and the curtains flipped as if she were hiding her face.

  “Your mother wanted to be there for you when you became a mother.” He rested a hand on the nearest wall. “We had hoped, early on, for a natural birth.”

  “With a lot of drugs.”

  “With all the drugs,” he agreed. “I bought the necessities, with Dr. Roger’s guidance, and stored them.”

  Tears threatened, of course, but I kept a stiff upper lip. “Did you plan on telling me any of this or…?”

  “I intended to discuss it with you, but then Dr. Rogers determined you would require a C-section. I didn’t see the point in mentioning it after that.” He sat beside me, all minty and delicious. “However, I didn’t liquidate the equipment.”

  “Of course you didn’t.”

  Contingency plans made him feel more in control of the uncontrollable, so I didn’t fuss at him too much.

  “There is additional equipment I would need to source, but I doubt it would be difficult given the proper monetary motivation to transform one of the lower rooms into a temporary OR.” He held still, waiting to learn if he had been in the wrong. That fragileness about someone so strong made it impossible for me to hold anything against him. “It’s your choice.”

  Given I had just been basking in the love of my mother and adoptive mother, wishing they could both be present for the birth, I didn’t have to think about it. “Let’s do this.”

  “Are you certain?” He kept his distance. “We can still go to the clinic.”

  “Can you imagine Woolly hearing LJ’s first cries?” I couldn’t stem the tide, and my eyes sprung leaks. “Plus, it would be safer for us all to stay behind Woolly’s wards until we get to the bottom of this Abayomi mess.”

  A ripple of fear skittered through me to imagine our son caught up in this vendetta or used as leverage.

  “I’ll make the arrangements.” Linus made as if to stand, but I caught his wrist. “Yes?”

  “Stay with me.” I kept hold of him. “I don’t mind the noise.”

  “Let me get my laptop.” He escaped my clutches, gathered his electronics, then settled in with his back against the headboard. “Get some rest.”

  “I’ll do my best.” I snuggled into my pillow, but I kept my hand on his thigh. “Night.”

  Expecting to struggle, I prepared to count sheep, but I was out before I pictured the first fluffy butt.

  Fifteen

  The procedure went off without a hitch, and I was forever grateful to have a husband able to use magic to heal the worst of my wounds so I didn’t have to suffer the irrational fear of my guts falling out when I stood for the first time post-op.

  Okay, so the fear was still there.

  Irrational, remember?

  But I felt better having smooth skin rather than a line of staples down my abdomen.

  “Where’s LJ?” I drifted on a pleasant, drugged haze. “Where’s LJ?”

  “You’ve been asking that for five minutes straight.” Let
he stepped into view. “Linus went to get him.”

  “Oh good.”

  I counted the swirling light fixtures overhead. Must have been a billion of the suckers.

  Drugs were amazing.

  “Where’s LJ?” I pinpointed Lethe. “Where’s LJ?”

  “Goddess,” she muttered. “Linus.”

  “We’re here,” he said from far away. “Let me get his binkie.”

  “I’ll get his binkie.” Lethe turned to go. “You snap Grier out of it. Or back into it. Whatever.”

  The wait for him to circle around to where I could see them dragged for approximately ten forevers.

  Linus never failed to take my breath away, but the sight of our son in his arms swelled my heart behind my ribs until I worried they might crack.

  “He’s gorgeous,” I breathed as Linus laid him across my chest. “Even more beautiful than the last time I saw him.”

  A thin swirl of dark auburn hair clung to his tiny scalp, and he stared up at me with bright blue eyes.

  “How are you, little man?” I kissed his forehead and breathed in his baby smell. “Did you miss me?”

  “I’m going to purge the remaining drugs from your system,” Linus informed me. “All right?”

  “The high had to end sometime.” I noted his amusement. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You’ve been in and out of it for the better part of two days. You kept begging for more drugs, so Lethe started feeding you Pez and telling you they were Valium.”

  “That little…” I caught up with what he was saying. “Two days? LJ was born like thirty minutes ago.”

  “There were…complications.” Linus turned paler than Oscar on a good day. “You lost a lot of blood.”

  “I don’t remember.” I traced LJ’s features with my fingertip. “He’s been motherless for two days?”

  “You woke almost every hour on the hour and asked for him, so no. You may not remember, but he’s spent plenty of supervised quality time with you.”

  “Supervised?” I cocked an eyebrow. “I’m not going to hurt my child.”