It was still daylight, hours before the local vampires would show up at the address to attack the invading vampires. More unmarked cars and a few Highway Patrol cars drove into the deep, abandoned lot. A big SWAT vehicle, the shape of a bread truck, but heavier, bounced up the rutted drive. The bigwigs were gathering for the operation.
All across Knoxville and neighboring counties, Homeland Security and FEMA were on alert. The governor’s office was flying in an observer. The public had been notified that an unspecified threat had been detected and citizens were being asked to stay off the streets.
I thought about Mud. About my family. About leaving Mud with Esther. I’d had no other sensible choice. I’d just left my sisters there, together, protected by Jedidiah as best he could.If there was a major earthquake, no place in Knoxville except the heart of Soulwood would be safer than a compound full of hillbillies, supplies, and weapons.
I tossed my faded pink blanket over my shoulder and tied the laces of my field boots. I was going to read the land and see what I could see. And my cat-man was going with me. “That’s close enough, Nell, sugar.”
I stopped, the weeds up to my knees, beggar-lice all over my jeans, along with a few ticks. Beggar-lice were traveling seeds, hitching a ride on any convenient cloth or pelt or fur. I flicked them and the bloodsuckers away. “They’re vampires, cat-boy. With the exception of Godfrey, who would have to slather sunscreen all over himself to step outside, they’re asleep.”
“The witch might be awake. Demons never sleep.”
“Sure they do,” I said, before I thought.
“And you know that how?”
Oops.I didn’t answer, suddenly concentrating on a particularly insolent little tick who seemed to like denim. “I love every creature on God’s earth, except ticks and roaches,” I said. “Why can’t ticks drain roaches and roaches eat ticks? That would be perfect, don’t you think?”
Occam’s voice dropped, all silky and dangerous. “Did you read the land alone? Go looking for a demon?Alone?”
“I was on Soulwood. I was safe.” But even I could hear the defiance in my voice.
“When I’m hunting on Soulwood, you’re there to protect me,” Occam said. “I’m not trying to protect thelittle woman. I’m watching my partner’s back, not trying to keep you from doing your job. When an evil is in the land and you read the land, you need backup.”
Stubbornness welled up in me, not wanting to give in so easily, but... but, Occam wasn’t talking about being dominant over me. He was talking about being my equal, aboutmutualdependence. Feeling guilty, I said, “Yes. I did it alone.” I scowled up at him. “I promise not to do it again.” Occam raised his mismatched eyebrows in disbelief. I turned away and stomped off through the brush. It grew thick and green right up to the road, which I crossed to trees on the far side. The shade was deep here and the soil loamy enough for thereto be a springhead nearby. I was on the same side of the road as the house where Jason was supposed to be, assuming he was still with the vampires. “Stupid man,” I grumbled.
“Say again, Ingram?” he said to my back, a hint of laughter in his voice.Ingram. NotNell, sugar. He had heard me perfectly with his cat hearing.
I positioned the pink blanket on the slightly damp soil and sat on it. Touched a single fingertip to the ground, glanced once at Occam, and dropped deep and fast, like plunging a knife blade into the dirt. I was mad at my partner but still trusted him to have my back.
I didn’t look for the demon or the circle, but I knew they were both there. I could feel the filth in the earth at the livestock center, like used motor oil mixed with clotted blood and grains of rotted wood and rat feces. It was a nauseating sensation and I stayed away.
Closer to me, partially overwhelmed by the sensation of the demon, maybe three hundred feet ahead, I felt... maggots. Thousands and thousands of maggots. They were all over the property but mostly on the left side of the house, in the basement. Avoiding thehedges, using the smallest hint of power, I eased my attention up through the gravel and the concrete of the slab foundation, trying to see how many vampires there were. I couldn’t get close enough, but I hesitated, feeling something familiar. I pressed up just a bit. And touched wood in the walls. Local wood. The house had been built with local wood and I could feel through it, into the house. And I felt maggots. True-dead vampires. Undead vampires. Vamps in cages. Blood. Lots of blood. Rotting flesh.
Gagging, I heaved my mind away from the house. Accidently dragged myself through a mound of freshly turned earth. More rotting flesh. Human. I yanked away from the fresh graves. Seven of them. I wrenched myself out of the land and wriggled my cell from my pocket with shaking fingers. Called JoJo.
She answered with, “Ingram. Where are you? You and Occam aren’t with the others.”
“Looking for Jason. How many humans lived at the lair?”
“Five family members and two full-time help. The estate is forty acres of horse pasture and timber. The Blounts are aquiet, unassuming millionaire family who made their fortune in railroads and coal.”
“Were.”
“Huh? Were what?”
I said, “I just found seven graves.”
•••
“Drink some water, Nell, sugar. You don’t breathe enough when you’re underground, and you might not know it, but you ain’t exactly yourself for a while after you read the earth.”
“What kinda ‘not myself’?”
He put a bottle of water in my hand and bent over me as if to speak quietly. Instead I felt him clip the leaves in my hairline. No need to advertise I wasn’t human to the local LEOs.
Chagrined, I said, “Oh. The leafy kind.”
Occam chuckled quietly, as he worked to slice through a vine on my thumb. “And the grouchy kind. And the bossy kind.”
