Undead for a Day (6 page)

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.”

Inside of Dawn, the dragon gave a tiny hop, as if he was overjoyed at the thought of getting near his former keepers.

As the car’s GPS revealed that they were closing in on their destination, Dawn pulled off the deserted road, shutting off their headlights. She jerked her chin toward a long driveway that wound up and over a hill. Black fencing surrounded the property.

“Doesn’t look too imposing,” she said.

Costin turned to her, and her heart stopped in her chest, just as it did whenever that topaz gaze caught hers.

“Let us find out just how imposing.”

He put his hand on top of hers, and she didn’t even mind that, technically, it was Jonah’s hand. All she could feel was the spirit she loved as much as she’d ever been able to love anyone.

But tonight, she felt even more than a tentative emotion. She felt a little explosion around her heart, as if it might break into pieces, but in a good way. In a way that made her stomach flip-flop and her chest feel all gooey and sentimental.

She grasped his hand, entwining her fingers with his, just before Kiko’s voice came back on.

“Good luck.”

“Thanks, Kik,” Dawn whispered.

As he shut down communication, she kept looking at Costin. Her chest squeezed together, and she knew it was her heart again.

“Not to get all mushy,” she said, “but...”

Costin leaned toward her and kissed her for the first time in Jonah’s body, and her pulse seized. Even the dragon froze in her, as if having no idea how to react.

But her stain? It melted a little, just as she did.

After a heart-spinning moment, he pulled away from her.

“I am sorry for that.”

“What, kissing me?”

“In Jonah’s body.”

She hadn’t minded. Actually, she wanted more. Spirit sex was awesome, but every once in a while, she did miss old school petting and making out with a guy.

Not if it’d be with Jonah, though. Good God, never with Jonah.

Costin gazed out the windshield, a smile ghosting his lips. “That was a whim.”

“And you’re not given to whims. I know.”

Her lips tingled as they got out of the car, both of them adjusting the weapons on their belts, in their holsters. They made sure that the button-sized locators that tracked their position were attached to their jackets. She tried not to think about what Jonah might be thinking as Costin controlled his body.

God, he’d probably be smugging it up in there.

They avoided the driveway while stalking the fence line up the hill, which was gnarled by the shadows of bared branches from the trees that dotted the autumn-dry grass.

She wasn’t out of shape—she jogged and still worked out daily—but the high surge of adrenaline in her was making her breathless. Also, there was that bite wound on her shoulder. Only the old healing gel tempered the dull pain of it to a faint sting.

When they got to the top of the hill, they saw a grand hacienda mansion near the bottom. A massive lagoon-like swimming pool shined with the glow of the moon, competing with yellow light that smeared out of the house’s windows.

They had a wide view of the property, but there was no hint of a bonfire. Or even a teenager’s crazy Halloween party.

“Looks like we might’ve missed it,” she whispered to Costin.

He kept looking around, and she, again, remembered keenly that he was once a soldier under Vlad Tepes’ command before he’d become a crusading spirit.

“I will cover the area.” Then, just like that, his body slumped, and she knew that Costin had separated from Jonah.

Immediately, Jonah himself straightened, just as she felt Costin breeze by her, caressing her as he flew down the hill toward the house.

“So we meet again.” When Jonah spoke in his own voice it was in a whisper. And, yup, there was some smugness there. He’d liked that kiss between her and Costin.

What a perv.

“So we’ll just wait for him?” Dawn asked.

“I’d rather—”

It came out of nowhere and, at first, Dawn didn’t know what hit Jonah.

Whatever it was, he jerked, put a hand to his temple, then widened his blue eyes as he pulled that hand away.

Blood decorated his fingers and trickled from his head where a tiny hammer thing was embedded.

She hit the ground, landing on her belly, then lunged for a nearby tree, drawing a knife from her belt.

Fifteen feet away, there was another tree, and she saw something slink behind it.

Jonah was flat on the ground now, one of his hands stretched toward her. His fingers were moving, as if to show her that he was alive.

“Stunned,” he whispered before closing his eyes.

She surveyed the field, her heart beating in her ears. Her enemy was behind the nearest tree, but was there a second Meratoliage, if that’s who they were dealing with?

Breathing in and out, she positioned herself behind her tree, then raised the hand that had the knife in it. She waited.

Waited.

When she saw a shape peek out from behind the other trunk, she chucked the knife, and it whooshed through the air, spinning toward the shadowed attacker, who jumped back behind its own tree.

Had the blade stabbed him or her?

Dawn got out her machete. On her right side, the dragon seemed to be pumping his fist, rooting against her.

Asshole
.

The shape behind the other tree didn’t show itself again. Should she get out her revolver, too? And if she used it, was it worth the attention a bullet would draw?

Would bullets even work on a Meratoliage?

They had seemed human enough in London. Superhuman, yes, but still killable.

She’d be taking a huge chance, hoping that the act of killing wouldn’t trigger her buried anger impulses.

Blowing out a breath, she got back down on her stomach, crawling on the ground. When she passed Jonah, she touched his hand.

He weakly ran his finger over hers, and that was good enough.

Dammit, where was Costin?

Inch by agonizing inch, she neared the other tree. Breath by sharp breath, she got ready to kill if she had to, and the dragon seemed eager for her to do it.

Finally, she got to the trunk, coming as close as she dared, raising her machete—

With a burst of energy, she sprang around the tree, finding the other old Meratoliage man—the sideburned one who’d landed on the rock—lying on his back, his stomach wound a big dark mark where his black shirt was torn.

Dawn choked back a gag when she saw what her knife had done to him.

Part of his sideburn on one side of his face was missing, just as if she’d scalped him, and he was bleeding profusely.

But the blinking whites of his eyes showed her that he was still conscious. So did the movement of his hand, which reached for what looked to be another little hammer that he’d been waiting to hurl at her.

She jumped at him, tossing the hammer away before he could get to it, and pinning him to the ground with her legs and hands, putting all her money on the hope that Costin had already found Lilly so she wouldn’t surprise Dawn, too.

“What do you want from us?” Dawn asked him, her tone gritty.

The old man worked his open mouth around words that weren’t coming out. Instead, a choking sound croaked from his throat.

Couldn’t he talk?

She peered into his blank eyes, which were darting back and forth in the moonlight, like milky marbles rolling around.

Inside her, the dragon rolled, too, as if in utter joy at being so close to a source of pain. It was almost as if her passenger was even trying to get to the
custode
, just as the monster had tried to get to her soul stain a million times before.

That’s when Dawn knew how much this undead thing in front of her was hurting, how miserable it must be while in the throes of death.

As the keeper bled from his stomach, his head, and as he kept making those terrible animal sounds, Dawn wondered where Lilly was, and if she had brought her partner here to friendly territory so he could die in peace.

But did these creatures think at all? Or did they just obey ritualistic commands?

The thing before her started to cough up blood, and when he fixed his moony gaze on her, she thought that maybe he wasn’t so blank.

Agony. That was all she saw.

She took hold of the knife she had thrown and brought it back over. Then, before she could think too hard, she did what any compassionate human being would do for something in pain.

She slit his throat, cleanly and quickly.

Then she braced herself for the demented rush of angry happiness to consume her soul stain, just as it used to before tonight. She waited for another so-called beauty mark to burn into the left side of her face, along with all the other black marks she wore.

But none of that happened. Even the dragon wasn’t responding gleefully, as she thought he would.

She shut the
custode’s
eyes, then, like a good hunter, took her machete, aimed for his neck, and made sure this supernatural creature wouldn’t come back to hunt them anymore.

The Plan

Jonah had refused to go to the ER, so Dawn and Costin had taken him back to the beach house instead.

He’d also insisted that they continue looking for the Meratoliages, even without him.

“I’ll be fine here.” He was reclining in his bed and waving Dawn off as Costin hovered near the ceiling, inspecting him. Natalia sat at his side, playing nurse, already cleaning his head wound and wrapping a bandage around it. “Score one for the Gipper, okay?”

Dawn didn’t know whether she wanted to roll her eyes or laugh at his lame joke. “Part of recovering is resting your mouth, you know.”

“Will do, Cap’n.” He saluted her the best he could before closing his eyes and letting Natalia do her work.

This time Dawn did roll her eyes as she headed for the staircase to the lower floor. Through a window, she could see that the sky was still dark—a few hours until sunup.

Costin’s voice buzzed her ear. “Jonah will be fine, but I am more concerned about you.”

“Me? I’m right as rain.”

He must’ve detected some kind of catch in her tone.

“You only did what you needed to do,” he said.

Things had been too hectic before now to really discuss the death of the sideburned keeper. She wished they were still hectic.

“I’ve done mercy killings before,” she said. “During hunts.”

“Did it affect your stain tonight?”

“Are you asking if there’s a weight in me? Anger that needs more feeding? An impulse to use my psychokinetic powers to rip apart bodies again? No.” Hallelujah. She might’ve even said that her soul stain was gone for good, if she didn’t know better.