***Stephanie***
The ruins were eerily quiet as they made their way past all the empty houses to the entrance to the tunnel, but Cooper was gripping her hand firmly in his, and she took comfort from just that small connection between them. Sebastian’s visit had left her unsettled and afraid, but Cooper seemed confident that everything would work out even if she wasn’t, and he knew more about clans than she did. She’d have to put her trust in him and hope that they’d be able to stop Sebastian from telling the world about what they’d found.
“What do you think he’s going to do?” she finally asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer. “He wouldn’t tell everyone about this, would he?”
Cooper shook his head. “No, I think he’ll go straight to his grandfather,” he said. “I don’t know what they’ll do then; they can’t just come charging in here and claim possession. Technically, all of this belongs to the college right now.”
“Ownership of something like this can get a little muddy, but you’re right, and for the moment, I have control of the site,” she said, then sighed. “But that doesn’t do us much good if word gets out about what’s here.”
“No, it doesn’t,” he said, stopping to turn the lights off, a thoughtful look on his face. “He doesn’t have any proof.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, following him into the tunnel.
“Sebastian doesn’t have any proof of what he saw, he didn’t take any pictures, and he was alone when he came in,” he said. “If he starts blabbing about what he saw, we’ll just claim that he’s lying to try and start trouble, and we’ll come up with a good reason to keep him out.”
“That should buy us some time to figure out how to keep the crypt hidden,” she said, taking a deep breath of fresh air when they emerged from the gap in the rock. “I don’t want to have to destroy it, Cooper, that would be a horrible thing to have to do.”
He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, then sighed, “I don’t want that either, but I don’t know what else to do,” he said. “Before Sebastian knew about it, I thought we might be able to find another solution. Now I’m beginning to think we don’t have any other choice.”
“We have to make sure he doesn’t get inside again, and I don’t trust that security company anymore,” she said, pointing to the SUV that was still idling in the parking lot. “After you drop me off at the hotel, I’m going to come back here and spend the night. Tomorrow, I’ll see if I can find a few volunteers to help out until I can get another security company in here.”
“You’re not staying here alone, that’s just asking for trouble,” Cooper said. “I’ll stay with you, and maybe I can talk the guys into helping out too, but we’ll have to tell them what's going on.”
She looked over at him. “Are they all…” the words trailed off.
He nodded. “That’s what brought us all together at first,” he said. “But now it’s more than that, they’re like family, they’ll help, and we can trust them.”
“Then it sounds like we have a plan, or at least the beginnings of a plan,” she said, waiting while Cooper opened her door, then let him help her into the truck. “I just hope we can figure out a way to save the crypt without destroying it.”
She watched out the window on the short drive to the fraternity house, thinking how differently the night was going to turn out from the plans they’d made on the way home. Now instead of a romantic night with the man she was falling in love with, she would be sleeping in a drafty cave, eating cold food out of a can, and trying not to get too filthy. But the crypt was too important to leave it unprotected and she wouldn’t be alone. Cooper would be with her and anytime she was with him everything felt a little bit better.
Hattie was just putting dinner on the table when they walked in the back door. “Well, look at that, you’re right on time, and I made plenty,” she said. “Take off your coats, come sit down, and tell us about your trip while we eat. How is your grandmother?”
The warmth of the kitchen, the excellent food, and the companionship around the table helped thaw that chill that had settled over her. She found that she genuinely liked Cooper’s friends and discovered a shared love of books with Emily and a mutual interest in vintage clothes with Abby. It was nice to think about something else for a while, but as the meal began to come to a close, Cooper started to fill everyone in on everything that had happened over the last few days.
There was a stunned silence around the table, then a barrage of questions that they did their best to answer, before another silence. “Well, I’ll be happy to help, but I really think you should call Marcus,” Jackson said. “This is something the council should know about.”
“I was planning on doing that, I just haven’t had time,” Cooper said. “I think we need to make sure the crypt is safe first. If Sebastian gets in there again, we might not be able to stop him.”
“I agree,” Gabe said. “Tomorrow is soon enough to call him. Do you want some company tonight? I’d be happy to hang out with you.”
“I think we’ll be all right, but maybe you could take a shift tomorrow night,” Cooper said. “I was hoping you all might pitch in; it shouldn’t be for long.”
By the time they got up from the table, they’d worked out a schedule for the next couple of days, and Stephanie was feeling a little more confident. “It’s nice not to feel so alone in this,” she said. “I’m glad we told them. It doesn’t seem so scary now.”
“I’m lucky to have such great friends,” he said. “Now let’s go find some camping gear. We’ve got an entire shed full of it out back. We may be roughing it, but we’re going to do it in style.”
CHAPTER 20
***COOPER***
Cooper rolled over in the sleeping bag, expecting to find Stephanie sleeping beside him, but all he found was cold air and an empty pillow. Sitting up, he looked around the room and then saw a tiny shaft of light coming from the open door to the crypt, and he wasn’t all that surprised to find that’s where she’d gone. He knew that she was still trying to come to grips with everything she’d learned over the last few days, and having to protect the secrets in the crypt on top of that had put a heavy load on her.
Slipping out of the sleeping bag, he saw her coat in the corner and grabbed it after putting on his own, then headed down the stone steps to find her and bring her back to bed. When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw her right where he thought she’d be, standing in front of the mural, her arms wrapped around herself, staring up at the vivid paintings. There was a smile on her face, and he wondered what she was thinking as he walked up behind her, but didn’t want to interrupt, happy just to be close to her.
After draping her coat over her shoulders, he put his arms around Stephanie and pulled her up against his chest, and nuzzled her neck, enjoying her unique smell. She turned in hisarms, stretched up on her tip-toes, and gave him a kiss, then turned back to the mural with a contented sigh.
“I’m sorry if I woke you. I was worried the light might bother you,” she said, looking up at him over her shoulder. “I couldn’t sleep, so I’ve been down here memorizing as much as I can of the mural just in case, we’re the last people to ever see it.”
