When the Dead Come Home

by B. L. Brunnemer

  “Do you really believe it’s Dylan?” he asked.

  I hesitated. Did I believe it, no, but it was too much of a coincidence not to acknowledge. “It was the first name to came to mind.” I turned and leaned against the counter. “He lost his mom already. He is desperate to keep his dad…” I shrugged. “It fits.”

  He nodded solemnly. “Then we’ll need proof before we move forward.”

  I nodded.

  “Which means, we need someone close to him to watch him,” Miles said.

  “Well, yeah. I guess.” What was he getting at?

  “We need to get Jake to spy on him,” he stated.

  Weight seemed to crash down on my shoulders. “You want me to tell him? Then get him to spy on one of his best friends?”

  He nodded. “It’s the only way to know for sure.”

  I shook my head, stunned. “What is going on with you?”

  Miles’ eyes met mine, but all I could focus on were the bags hanging under them and the difference in him over the last month. “You aren’t sleeping.”

  “There’s too much to worry about.” He stepped back and headed into his room.

  “Oh, no, you’re not getting off that easy. What is going on?” I followed him into his room. “You’re tracking us without telling us. You’re disappearing and you won’t tell us what you’re doing, and then there’s the whole thing with your dad’s papers.”

  “Lexie…” He turned around and faced me.

  “Don’t Lexie me, I want an answer.” I held up a finger. “Tell me something. One thing.”

  He sighed. His shoulders sagged as he went to the desk and picked up a notebook. He crossed the room and handed it to me. “This is what I’ve been working on with Lucy.”

  I opened the book and found drawings and writing. It was a schematic. “You’re trying to design a staff that uses alchemical components?” I looked up at him, confused.

  He nodded. “Things in town are getting worse. And with the magic users probably behind most of it…” He met my gaze. “It occurred to me that the guys and I only have our shields. That we were, well, as Isaac put it, cannon fodder.”

  I looked down at the schematic again. “You designed a staff?”

  “Lucy has potions that can duplicate spells. So,”–he shrugged–“why not weapons that use alchemical components and have a similar effect?”

  I gaped up at him. Out of anything he could have said, this was out of left field. “Do they work?”

  “We don’t know yet,” he admitted. “I only showed them to Lucy last night. She says they should work.”

  I smiled up at him. “That’s amazing, Miles. Why didn’t you tell me?”

  He shrugged as he went back to his desk and put down the notebook. “I guess I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

  I was still smiling when he turned back to me. “That’s why you’ve been so quiet?”

  He slid his hands into his pockets.

  I shook my head as relief swamped me. It all seemed so ridiculous now. “I’m sorry, Miles. I shouldn’t have thought…” I met his gaze. “I should trust in us more than I have been.”

  “It’s not like I haven’t been giving you reason to doubt me.” He began to tap his fingers in his pocket. “When something is on my mind, I tend to stop talking.”

  I simply waited for him to tell me.

  “My father is in town,” he admitted. “I met him at the diner this morning.”

  I focused on him. “Why?”

  “It’s not important.” He met my eyes. “What is, is that he gave me the number to my mother’s satellite phone.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “He knows where she is?”

  He nodded. “And he also had the USB with the video of him assaulting her.”

  My pulse picked up. “He had the video your mom blackmailed him with?”

  “Yes.” His lips pressed together as he looked down at his hands. “I don’t know if I should call the number or not.”

  My brow drew together. “If you called you could talk to her.”

  His eyes met mine. “Or it could keep ringing and never be answered.”

  “Oh.” The lightbulb finally went on. “You think he…”

  “Him, or the people after him.” He pulled a crumpled card from his pocket. “I don’t know if I want to know.”

  I reached out and took his other hand.

  His fingers squeezed mine gently. “If you don’t know if you want to know, then don’t call.”

  His gaze snapped to mine. “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe you aren’t ready to know.” I half shrugged. “And when you are, you’ll call.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “You don’t think I should know if she’s dead or alive?”

  I looked up at him and stroked his jaw with my fingertips. “I think that knowing she is dead would hurt. And knowing she’s alive but not here would hurt. And unless you’re ready to deal with it, you’ll gain nothing from learning the truth.”

  He blinked and looked down at my hand in his. His shoulders were tense as he let out a deep breath. “You’re right. There are things we can change here, but this isn’t one of them.”

  I wrapped my free arm around his neck and hugged him close. “I’m sorry.”

  His arm slipped around me, bringing me in close.

  Wintergreen filled my lungs as part of me let go. Miles wasn’t rethinking us. He was just distracted. Relief left me holding him a little tighter.

  Eventually, I pulled back and met his gaze. “Get some sleep, okay?” I said.

  He nodded, his lips still pressed together.

  I left him in his room and headed downstairs.

  Lucy

  * * *

  The pounding on the door had me hustling out of the bathroom in a hotel robe, still dripping from the shower.

  “Hold on, hold on.” I muttered. What could be so important that Miles would be pounding on my door?

  I jerked the door open. My heart leapt into my throat.

  Jadis was there. Flanked by two of her goons. She smiled smugly. “Let’s have a chat.”

  Lexie

  I left Hades with the guys and headed out to the café. Riley was already there. I took a deep breath and crossed the parking lot to her table on the patio. Her face lifted from her phone to spot me. I took the seat across from her.

  The scent of coffee beans wafted over the breeze. The clink of mugs was louder than it should have been.

  “Jake said I was being judgy,” she said first.

  “And do you agree, or do you think I’m still trying to get to Zeke through the others?” I asked directly. I wasn’t going to waste my time to save a relationship if Riley couldn’t understand that I’d never do that.

  She chewed on her lower lip. “I’m not sure.”

  Well, that was something at least.

  “There’re already rumors you’re dating Asher, Isaac and Ethan.” She shook her head. “It’s only a matter of time before people realize…”

  “That they’re all true?” I smirked.

  She snorted. “Yeah.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Imagine all that indignation.”

  She didn’t laugh, instead she shook her head. “You make jokes, but it’s going to be bad. People are going to harass you and the guys.”

  “I’m aware, and so are they.” I sighed. “We have all discussed this and we know what we’re in for.”

  She looked at me stunned. “And you’re signing up for it?”

  “For a chance to be with the men I love, yeah.” I half shrugged. “I don’t get how that is so hard to grasp.”

  She leaned forward. “Tell me honestly. Are you really in love with all of them?”

  I met her gaze. “Yeah.” How often did I have to repeat this to her before it would sink in?

  She shook her head slowly. “I… don’t understand how that is possible.”

  “Do you have to understand it?” I tilted my head to the side.

  Riley
looked down at the table. Her eyes unfocused. “I guess not.” Her eyes refocused on me. “I guess I could just be supportive.” She paused for a heartbeat. “Tramp.”

  I grinned. “Prude.”

  “Whore.”

  “Jealous?”

  We dissolved into laughter.

  It was dark by the time we were walking back to our cars, still laughing about a surprise that Ryan had fumbled for her birthday. Two streaks shot out from the tree line. Riley only had time to scream before the world went dark.

  * * *

  Head throbbing, a sound brought me to the surface. Drip, drip, drip.

  “Wake up!”

  I blinked hard. Hmm?

  “You need to wake up!” The man’s voice moved through my ear.

  I blinked, trying to see who was talking. Dirt. I was on wet, moldy dirt. And no one was near me. I wrinkled my nose at the stench and tried to move, only to realize I couldn’t. My chest seized as I struggled against the ropes that were biting into my wrists behind my back.

  Laughter had me freezing.

  “She’s awake.” Jadis’ voice made my blood run cold. Fear crawled up my throat, choking off any hope I had of screaming.

  “Calm down, or you won’t live through this.” The voice slipped through my head again with a calm that helped me take a deep breath.

  Hands grabbed me and forced me up to my knees, giving me my first real look at my surroundings. The room was filthy. Plants grew here and there, mushrooms popping up through the sludge. Two circles spray painted on the dirt, symbols in between. Five candles at the corners of the pentagram. The scent of sandalwood permeated the room. My adrenal system kicked into overdrive. Just like Rory described. Fuck! “They’re going to kill me!”

  “No shit. We’re already moving through the building, but it’s rigged to give an alarm. It’s slow going. Where are you?”

  I didn’t know how to send a telepathic message, but I gave it a shot. “Basement. Dirt floor. Hurry.”

  “Stall them.”

  Five people watched me take in the room. Jadis and a couple of witches I recognized from New Orleans were grinning like maniacal hyenas. Movement drew my eye. A figure with a bona fide black silk cloak was working at an altar. Something about the figure was familiar. The set of the shoulders… I’d seen them in the Veil. It was that fucker! “Where are we?”

  “Who knew you had such a poor memory.” Jadis grinned as she moved forward to the edge of the painted lines around me. “I was told you had quite an interesting experience here before.”

  I examined the room again, only this time I noticed the small metal doors on the left wall. A morgue with a dirt floor? There was only one place it could be. “The abandoned hospital.”

  The cloaked figure stopped crushing something.

  “Good guess. Our new member started here.” Jadis moved to stand beside the cloaked figure at the altar. “And here is where you’ll die.”

  My throat tightened. You’re not dead yet, Lexie, think! “Go fuck yourself.”

  Jadis’ chuckle was like a chime. Light and full of joy. “Oh, I’m going to miss that wit.”

  I glanced around trying to find a way to stall or escape only to realize what wasn’t there. Or who. “Where’s Riley?”

  Jadis came to stand at the edge of the lines again and beamed. “She was going to be left in the parking lot but, well, when a master vampire asks for her instead of a cash payment, you don’t argue.”

  My stomach knotted as my chest grew hot. “They took her?”

  “Quite a deal if you ask me,” she said proudly, as if she got a great deal on a fridge.

  “You sold her?” I bit out, pulling against the rope and the grip of the fucker behind me.

  “Yes.”

  I eyed her. “What happened to you, Jadis? Did mommy and daddy not give you enough attention or were you born this way? You just sold a person. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  A chuckle rumbled through my head. “That’s one way to buy time, get the bitch to talk about herself.”

  “She really enjoys it. That and bragging about how smart she is,” I tried to send back.

  “Don’t force it, just think. I’m in your head holding the link. Just stay alive.”

  I stopped worrying about it and focused on Jadis since she’d been ranting for a minute or so now.

  “ —little shit. I’m still amazed a nobody like you would be given the honor of working in the Veil.” She shook her head. “It’s unbelievable.”

  I started laughing. “You think it’s an honor?” I could hardly contain myself. “Oh, you’re an idiot.”

  “That kind of energy is beyond your understanding. All mankind’s understanding to be honest.” She licked her lips, her spine straight as the lines of her face filled with… determination. “You touched the universal energy that created the world—”

  I grinned. “And I made a foghorn alarm out of it.”

  She scowled at me. I tried not to laugh in her face again. Help was coming. I could stall. “Who are you?”

  “My client would prefer to remain anonymous for now,” he sent back, the warmth from the voice gone.

  Meanwhile, Jadis seemed to be coming to the end of her rant. “—ungrateful little thing.”

  “That’s me,” I chirped.

  There was a laugh in my head and over my head. Jadis’ glare shot to the man holding me in place. Face furious, she gestured to the center of the circle.

  The man holding me forced me to my feet. I stomped on his foot, tried to head butt him, but he held fast long enough to knock his boot into the back of my knees, dropping me to the dirt in the center of the circle.

  “Dylan, don’t do this,” I pleaded, my heart slamming in my throat. “I can’t stall anymore!”

  The cloaked figure went still with his back still to me.

  “At the stairs, stay alive.”

  “The Veil is already open,” I stated, my panicked mind throwing anything that might work at me.

  “Oh, well. Our new member closed it before, he can do it again.” Jadis smiled as she went to him and took the blade off the altar, then put it in his hand.

  “But can he?” I asked, my mouth dry.

  The man behind me grabbed my jaw and force me to look at the ceiling. Tears filled my eyes as the figure turned into the light. I expected to see the face of my ex. Only I didn’t. It was a mask. A black full-face mask. My breathing grew shaky. He stepped closer.

  “Hurry!” I struggled harder against the grip and got nothing but bruises. Not that they would matter in a minute. “You chicken shit! You can’t even face me as you slit my throat.”

  “If you have any tricks up your sleeve, now’s the time.”

  “It’s a onetime only kind of deal.”

  “Get it ready.”

  The cloaked person towered over me and placed the cold, sharp blade to my throat as I let my panic and fear bubble up in me. Something washed over my mind, adding to it. Making me begin to shake.

  “The cookies for your dad are done, Dylan,” I whispered as that panic turned solid and built with the fear that the voice sent to me.

  The blade pulled away. But he didn’t answer.

  “Now would be a good time!” I sent. “They’re at Miles’ house right now,” I rasped. No one was here. There was no sound. I must be insane and desperate. It was my imagination.

  I was going to die. That solid heat pushed at my control. I needed time…

  “I loved you,” I confessed, my heart aching. “Why didn’t you just tell me? We could have found another way to save him.”

  For a moment, I thought I had gotten through to him. A gloved knuckle brushed the tears from my face then buried in the front of my hair, his palm resting on my forehead as he held me in place by my hair. Tears began to fall faster.

  “We’re at the door, do your one shot and we’ll take them out.”

  The blade moved back to my throat. About fucking time! That pressure was ready to go. “Go fu
ck yourself!” I let it fly.

  A loud boom thundered through the room as it filled with a flash of light. Everything was thrown back from me, leaving me crumpled in the dirt. Something crashed. My stomach rolled as people began shouting Latin, and gunfire turned the basement into an ear-splitting hell. I closed my eyes and was sick over and over. A hard body covered mine. My hands were finally free. Something hit us. A familiar voice grunted a curse.

  By the time I was done being sick it was over. My ears rang as the weight disappeared. I pried open my lids to look up into a pair of pretty mis-matched eyes. One hazel and the other a steel blue. An instant later, my pounding head had me curling up in agony. Arms moved around me and lifted me out of the dirt into a warm lap. He began carefully using the sleeve of his black shirt to clean the blood from my face.

  “Here,” another familiar voice said.

  Something far softer was pressed to my nose. I struggled to bring up my hand to hold it to my face. He didn’t let it go.

  “You’re safe now,” he whispered.

  “You owe me a favor, Delaney,” Miles’ father stated. A favor? Huh?

  “Riley,” I groaned, fighting off the darkness trying to take me under.

  “Liam, actually,” the voice from my head said out loud.

  “No.” I opened my eyes enough to peek up at him. “The vampires took her.”

  “We’ll find her.” Miles’ father came into view over Liam’s shoulder. “I give you my word.”

  Even knowing he was there, my eyelids dropped and I sank into the warm scent of musk.

  Miles

  Barely holding onto my control, I didn’t even knock on the door before I burst into Rory’s house. Lexie was on the couch, unconscious and covered in dirt. Someone I barely recognized was laying a blanket over her. One of the men from the diner…

  I went straight to her, almost knocking him out of my way. “What the fuck did he do to her?” I knelt beside her and immediately began searching her for injuries.

  “Saved her life,” he sighed. “Jadis and her crew had her trussed up with a blade to her throat. We barely got there in time.”