We pulled into a parking lot in front of a funeral home, which was directly beside a cemetery that stretched as far as the eye could see. Tombstones rose out of mist, hovering in the air like ghosts refusing to rest.
“Out,” he snapped.
“What … why?”
“Because you’re going to see what happens when you walk the streets alone at night in Portland right now.” He didn’t wait for me to respond. He was at my door, opening it. “And I need to see who the other two dead vampires are.”
I sat there. “I don’t need to see?—”
“I’m not leaving you alone. So, you can climb out or I can carry you out, the choice is yours, Amelia.”
“That’s not really a choice.”
Something brewed in Karson’s eyes. Something that looked a lot like it wouldn’t end well for me if I continued to sit here. I gritted my teeth and climbed out of the car.
“You’re such an ass sometimes,” I muttered before I could stop the words tumbling out.
He gave me a look that would stop a siren’s song. “I know it’s nearly impossible for you, but do try not to antagonise me further. I’m in no mood for it right now.”
“And I’m not in the mood to see dead bodies, but here we are.”
“And I wasn’t in the mood to venture out tonight.” His tone filled with sarcasm. “But here we arebecause of a poor choice by you.”
I definitely lost that one.
I trailed up the steps behind Karson as he pounded on the door. I folded my arms. “Who told you where I was?”
“I have eyes and ears everywhere, very little goes unnoticed, so if you are planning to sneak out again, I’d strongly advise you to reconsider.”
Karson thumped the door again.
A male grumbled, “Alright, alright.”
A light came on, and I blinked against the onslaught of brightness. The door creaked partly open. A man with balding hair, wearing a brown dressing gown, peered out. He adjusted thin-rimmed spectacles up his nose and frowned. “What on the gods’ earth has you in such a flap?”
“You have bodies I need to see.” Karson didn’t wait for the man to agree. He pushed the door open and shouldered past him, stepping into a long hallway. I followed them inside.
The portly man tightened the sash around his waist and hurried to get past Karson. “I have about thirty bodies, which ones are you wanting to view at such a god-awful hour.”
“Two vampires. They would have come in together. Have you cremated them yet?”
“No, I’ve been busy. I was going to do it later this morning.” He led us down a corridor to some stairs. Ahead, there was nothing but darkness.
My body grew taut and my heart rate picked up as faint, indiscernible voices, like distant radios, spoke all at once, and ringing echoed around the darkest edges of my head. There wasnothing good in basements, nothing good in darkness, nothing but terror and pain.
Karson glanced at me out of the corner of his eye and slowed until I was at his side. Fluorescent globes flicked on automatically as we went, the burst of white blinding me doing little to slow my heart.
“Witch or vampire cause their murders?” Karson asked, his voice distant against the incessant noises in my head.
“They used a blade to the heart to disable them, then severed their heads.”
“Witch, then?”
I swallowed.
The man raised his wiry brows and shrugged. “Who knows these days. Deaths are messy from all fronts.” He opened a door to a cold, gray room and held it open for us to walk through. White sheets covered two bodies on metal tables. Small body freezers filled the entire back wall. I shivered and halted just inside the door. It swung shut, sealing us in. My body went from chilled to freezing.
The man walked to the table and peeled the sheet back. The vampire was a female, her severed head resting above where her neck was hacked off. Hacked seemed right—her neck was a pulped pile of jagged flesh. Her mouth hung in an O shape, as if she had died screaming. Her skin was so gray it looked like someone had rubbed her face in charcoal.
