“Cool.” He slaps me five, and the grease from his hand gets transferred to mine. “I’ve got Mia crawling all over my ass. I guess I’ll give her a call and let her know I’mfree.”
“What are you doing with her, anyway?” I try to hide the fact that I want to punch him for it. Mia is just as much my little sister as she is Skyla’s. There’s no way I want this guy sniffing around her—as if that’s the only thing he’ll be doing. “You can get any girl you want at Host.Legalgirls—emphasis on the legal.” There. Feed his ego and see how far that getsyou.
“You don’t think I know that?” He winces, and those bushy brows frame his face just the way Dr. Booth’s do. “But chicks like Mia, dude, they’re clingers. They get one taste of the goods”—he clutches onto his dick and shakes it—“and they can’t getenough.”
“Shit,” I hiss under my breath as I try to maintain my composure. “You’d better get going before I shove you into one of these drawers. You’re not to touch her. You gotthat?”
“You got it, chief.” He tips his head back as he ducks out of the kitchen. “Don’t bother venturing out back. Heard some noises earlier. I think we got a pack of coyotes. I’ve already scared them off once tonight.” The slam of the front door echoes around the room like agunshot.
For a second, I consider giving Skyla the heads-up about Rev, but the boys pop into my head. Crap. I should probably shoot her a quick text and let her know where I am. I know she wanted me to pick up the boys for her, and I feel bad. She’s probably already home with them, nursing or begging them to go to sleep. I know two things about our boys for sure—they’re boob men, and they like to burn the candle at both ends. Those kids do not understand the concept of a solid eight. I know it’s making Skyla insane. I’ve tried to help out, stay over, but for the most part, she gives me the boot each and everytime.
I head to the refrigeration unit and check out the temps. A chilly thirty-eight degrees should keep all of the guests at the Oliver Inn crisp for the night. Just as I’m about to kill the lights, a pronounced thump comes from somewhere deep inside thewalls.
A mean shiver runs through me. That was no coyote. I head out through the back door, and the fog welcomes me with an icy embrace. The cemetery is covered in a blanket of white as the fog lifts her skirt and dances over thegravestones.
“Anybody out here?” That was no animal. It was a solid wallop against the side of the building. I follow the walkway around the structure until I come upon the mausoleum. The moon hangs low, barely visible through the dense plumes bursting through the air like powder. It’s a magical kind of night, and if I wasn’t standing in a glorified body farm, it might even be beautiful—hell, it is beautiful. This is exactly the kind of night I wish I could share withSkyla.
A muted bang comes from the left, and my heart stops oncommand.
“Holy shit.” My muscles freeze as a paralyzing fear gripsme.
I’m not afraid of the dark. I’m not afraid of the cemetery—at least not under normal conditions. But I’ll admit that being here on my own, well after hours, is beginning to edge on mynerves.
Those Spectators of Wesley’s come to mind, and I usher them right back out. I can take them if I have to. But the idea of wrestling with a brain hungry corpse ties my stomach up inknots.
“Anybody out there?” My voice thunders through the mist and comes back to me as a haunting echo. “Shit.” I head over to the mausoleum and stand still at the mouth of that cavernous marble entry. There are bodies interred on the outside in what is aptly named the Hall of Heavens. And, of course, there is the oversized structure itself, a two-story building that contains thousands of bodies of yesteryear that have been lounging here far longer than my family has owned the place. The Hallowed Hall. No offense to my father, but I’ve always thought it smells like rot inhere.
Rump,thump!
“Hello?” My heart detonates time and time again, deafening me from the inside. My blood runs cold at what that sound might be. Definitely coming from the Hall of Heavens. I head over and stagger my way slowly down the first row with its dull metal plaques gleaming under the stage lights we installed a few years back in hopes to deter any freaks that might want to confiscate a body for the hell ofit.
A sonic boom goes off from the left, shaking the metal vases hanging loosely in theircouplets.
Crap. Exploding body perhaps? Dad filled me in on the phenomenon one year after he came back from a casket convention. He assured me it would never get hot enough on Paragon to insight such a messy spectacle, but then, humans are comprised of enough gases to cause even the most caustic explosion whether they’re dead or alive. Case in point, both Drake and EthanLandon.
Nevertheless, my father, being the precautionary gentleman he is, made sure all crypts were connected with a meager ventilation and drainage system. Yes, drainage. Corpses have a way of leaking even after being embalmed to the hilt. The air vents help the gases escape, thus sidestepping the exploding casket scenario, and the drainage system helps with seepage and leakage. Barron Oliver—Senior—has all of his cryptic basescovered.
Of all the bodies buried in this mausoleum, I personally have only known one. I come across Kate Winston’s marker and place my hand over her name. Kate and I grew up together. I’ll always remember her as the sweet little blonde who told bad jokes and would go out of her way to make you smile. Back in high school, Kate was accidentally beheaded during a school-sponsored ski trip. It just so happened that it was Skyla’s ski that brought on that tragedy. Hell, it was probably Demetri working on Chloe’s command. Demetri is her supervising spirit bitch, and it wouldn’t surprise me if she had him hacking the heads off anyone she deemed fit. And by deemed fit, I mean pissed her off. Chloe is so easy to piss off, it’s shocking half the island still has their headsattached.
About a year after Kate was killed, Chloe thought best to pull the poor girl’s corpse from the morgue and took her detached head to homecoming where Kate’s main apex was hurled over the field like a football. It was a thing of horror as only Chloe could produce. Chloe is a thing of horror, which is exactly why I’m so damn alarmed that Skyla has anything to do withher.
Thump! Thump!Thump!
Kate’s marker jumps beneath me, and I retract my hand as if from afire.
“Fuck!” I roar as I jump back ten feet. I stalk over to the crypt once again that’s housing my old friend, her beheaded body, albeit her head set in its traditionallocation.
I pull out my phone and text Logan.Morgue. Now!That meager phrase will have to do. I shove the phone back where it came from and head to the marker that’s bowed from thepressure.
“Oh shit.” I grunt as my hand runs over the deformed metal. It’s at least an eighth of an inchthick.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!Thump!
The walls, the ground shakes with the racket as the sound gets louder, far more severe, and the façade of the structure begins to crumble. I waste no time. Instead, I run like hell back into the kitchen and reach for the tool bag underneath the sink until I come up with acrowbar.
“Holy hell.” I run back toward the thundering clatter that has the entire cemetery under siege with its persistent banging, it’s jackhammer-likeaggression.
“Enough!” I roar to no one in particular as I attempt to flick the marker off Kate’s grave. The ground rattles beneath my feet. The loud continual booming deafens me as I struggle to ease the pressure of whatever the hell is goingon.
