Boneyard (The Thaumaturge Series Book 2) (29 page)

“I’m fine,” I repeated, but I was in no hurry for him to take his hands off me.  “I just passed out.”

He tilted his head. “Passed out? Why? Where?”

Fuck. It was always the details.

“Chad called me for a resurrection,” I said and his eyebrows flew up. “Don’t be mad.”

“Ebron,” he started, a glint in his eye, but I interrupted.

“There was a car accident. On Saturday night. One injury, two fatalities. It was too much, too soon, and I passed out.” I stopped and swallowed hard. “It was Danielle, Leo. Dahlia’s daughter.”

He blinked once. “Dahlia’s daughter?”

“Yeah, she was in the accident. And I couldn’t just...”

Leo took one look at my face and pulled me back into a hug.

“Hey,” he said softly in my ear. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out.”

I nodded against his shoulder.

“So Chad took you to the hospital?” Leo asked incredulously. “Because you passed out?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Well. No. They just—they put me in one of the ambulances. It was already there.”

Under my hands, Leo went stiff. He didn’t pull back right away. For a second, he just stood still, his chin hooked over my shoulder. Then carefully, he withdrew and held me by my shoulders.

“Ebron,” he said calmly. “Who is 'they'?”

About a million possible answers flashed through my head, like drawings on a flip book. My natural instinct to lie was so strong, it even extended to Leo—the one person who would have understood.

“The paramedics,” I said, jerking up my chin. “And police. Probably some firemen too, I don’t know.”

He stared at me for a dozen quick beats of my thundering heart. Then, quietly, “You told the EMTs. Just like how Chad wanted.”

“I didn’t really t
ell
them,” I hedged. “It was more... showing.”

Leo jerked away violently and stepped back against the tables, the drooping digitalis brushing his shoulder.

“Ebron,” he growled. “Are you
immune
to
instruction
?”

I scoffed. “What did you expect me to do? Let them die because you have me on house arrest?”

“Who. The. Fuck. CARES!” Leo shouted and I took a step away from his rage. He followed, stalking after me, his eyes flashing gold. My heart leapt into my throat as he backed me up until my shoulder blades pressed against the exposed brick wall.

“I don’t give a fuck if a couple of human teenagers die,” he snarled, right in my face. I eyed his fangs and a shiver went through me that had nothing to do with fear. His nostrils flared and he took a shaky breath.

“Ebron,” he sighed, and took a step back. “This is the worst thing you could have done. When I told you to lay low, it’s because it was
important.
”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “But I had to. Leo, Danielle—”

“No,” he said. “You didn’t. Because people die every day, in horrible and undignified ways. I’m sorry that your friend’s daughter got hurt, but you can’t stop every bad thing from happening. Now how many people know, huh? How many people saw you?”

“I don’t know,” I said, looking away from his intense gaze. “A dozen or more. But Diana said that she would take care of it.”

He scoffed. “What’s she going to do? Keep them quiet by
asking them
? 'Cause humans are so obedient.” He gestured to me with exaggerated grandeur. “Enter, exhibit A.”

“I wasn’t going to let them die,” I insisted, flicking my eyes to him. “I couldn’t... not after—I
help
people, Leo.”

His eyes roamed over my face, studying me intently. “After Corvin, you mean,” he said finally. “You’re still stuck on that.”

“Yes, that,” I snapped. “That whole murderer thing. I know it’s no big deal to you, but I fucking
killed
him, and—”

“And you think you owe the universe lives, because you took one?”

We faced each other, so much between us that I couldn’t name. With a sigh, Leo cupped my jaw and pulled me in for a soft kiss.

“I know you think you’re helping,” he murmured. “But you have to stop. I am begging you, Ebron. I’m genuinely worried that someone—something—will notice you. That lawyer has already talked to you. You have to stop. Okay? Promise me, Ebron.”

Oops. Now how could I tell him about Weber visiting me in the hospital? Obviously I had to keep
that
under wraps. What was one more lie, after all?

“I can’t stop entirely,” I protested. “I need the money.”

“I know,” he said and sighed. “But please. Just cool it for a while. Let things calm down. Take a break. At any rate, it sounds like you need one.”

I nodded, pressing my forehead against his.

“And now you have to go,” he added, stepping back and leaving me to falter.

“Huh?”

“You have to go,” he repeated. “Now. We’re going to take care of, you know, them,” he jerked his chin towards the closed bathroom door. “And you really, really can’t be around for it.”

I stared at him. “Right now? Is he here?”

“He’s waiting.  I smelled you in here, but he’s waiting and you need to go.”

“What are you going to do?” I couldn’t help but ask. “What is he?”
“Don’t—” he started but a slow tapping on the back door cut him off.

We both whipped our heads towards the door.

“Shit,” Leo whispered. He didn’t move, his eyes going wide.

“Leo?” I reached for him. Under my hand, his frozen muscles felt like steel.

“He can’t see you,” Leo whispered. He turned and looked at me, then whipped his head back as another slow, heavy knock rattled the door.

My mind raced as my heart ratcheted up to a galloping speed. Leo moved then, grabbing my shoulders and hauling me towards the front of the shop. I struggled uselessly, opening my mouth to tell him to stop, to wait,
wait, just one fucking second
, when the door creaked open behind us.

“Vampire,” that brittle, low voice uncurled like a skeletal hand. “You’ve kept me waiting.”

With a snarl, Leo shoved me behind him. I stumbled, grabbing Leo’s arm for balance. When I righted myself, I looked over Leo’s shoulder and saw the monster.

The thing standing creeping through the door had a passing resemblance to a human. As in, it was human-shaped, with the right number of arms and legs. But there the resemblance to humans ended and leaned more toward—
God, I shuddered
—bats and insects and corpses. The thing’s arms dangled too far down its spindly legs and all its limbs bent all wrong. Its stomach bloated out in a round little ball, grotesque upon such an emaciated figure, like the abdomen of a spider. Gray mottled skin stretched over the protruding bones and its face, Christ, its face...

It had no lips. A mouth, but no lips. Just a sharp black hole below a mound of scars that may have once been a nose. Like the mouth of a lamprey. The eyes sunk in, like a corpse, but they were huge, like an insect. They bulged and rolled, pupil-less and shiny. No ears, no hair. Its head was a dome jerking on a thin, sagging neck.

It wore no clothes, naked in the same way a plucked chicken was naked, raw and bare.
Something
hung between its legs, withered and gray, but it had no sense of sexuality about it. It was about as sensual as a piece of beef jerky.

“Christ, fuck, what the—” I recoiled, grabbing Leo’s shoulders and shamelessly used him as a shield. The thing seemed to track my movements. Its head tilted, the skin of its neck folding like the waddle of a turkey.

“I asked you to wait outside,” Leo growled. He remained poised, his body taut and tense under my hands.

“You took too long,” the thing replied, the words hissing through its teeth.

“My apologies,” Leo said shortly. “Please wait outside.”

The thing didn’t reply. Its opaque eyes blinked once and then it took a long, deliberate sniff.

“Your pet reeks of blood,” it said and a shiver went through me.

“Leo,” I whispered. Leo’s head twitched back towards me and he growled again.

“Wait outside,” Leo repeated.

The thing took another look at me, its buggy eyes unblinking now, and then it turned abruptly and shambled through the door. It had to duck under the doorframe, its limbs folding and unfolding in a scurry that reminded me uncomfortably of beetles.

“Holy shit,” I breathed when it was gone. “Leo, what the fuck was that?”

“That was a Namordo,” Leo said with a sigh. He sagged and crossed the room to peek out the door. I trailed after him, but he herded me back towards the front.

“You go,” he said, pushing me hard enough that I stumbled. I just stared at him, wide-eyed, my brain unwilling to process the horror it had just witnessed.

“A Namordo,” I repeated.

Leo shifted on his feet, glancing anxiously towards the door. He made a weird, distressed, trilling noise and moved close to me again, pressing his hand to my back. The pressure was enough to keep me moving towards the front of the shop.

“Yes. A Namordo. A flesh-eater. They’re not common.”

“Thank fuck for that,” I said. “A flesh-eater? What are you going—” My eyes widened and I scrambled back from him in disbelief. “Leo, you can’t be serious.
This
is your solution?”

He didn’t flinch. “It’s the best I can do, Ebron. There will be nothing left behind. Not a trace; I’ll see to that. No bodies, no crime.”

“But the police have already seen Morgan’s body!” I cried.

“I’ve already destroyed all the files.”

“You did... what?” I looked at him in alarm, feeling more and more like I was wildly spinning down a bottomless pit of mind-fuckery.

“I broke into the police department,” Leo replied calmly. “I destroyed all the files and the evidence. When Morgan’s body is gone, it will be like she was never here.”

“How did you—just... how?”

Leo smirked at me. “Who’s a terrible vampire now?”

“But people will still remember! The cops who found her, the medical examiner. And what about Corvin’s mom? I found out who she is, Leo. She’s one of my customers. I know her. She’s not going to stop looking for him. People don’t just forget.”

“Yes,” he said. “They do. Well, maybe not Corvin’s mom, but she can look forever—she’ll never find him. Now you have to go. I’ll take care of the bodies and this will all be over. Isn’t that what you want?”

I just gaped at him, stunned into horrified silence. Leo waited, and when I still couldn’t string two words together to express my disgust and revulsion, he nodded once sharply and pushed me, more gently this time.

“I’ll talk to you later,” he said, moving in the opposite direction, towards the back door.

“No,” I said.

He glanced back at me, raising an eyebrow at my tone.

“No,” I repeated. “I’m staying.”

I lifted a hand to stem whatever refusal he was going to throw at me.

“Not negotiable,” I said. “This is my shop.”

“I don’t want you around him,” Leo snapped.

“He’s already seen me. I’m staying.”

Leo glared at me, all gold eyes and fury, but I lifted my chin and stared him down.

“Fine,” Leo sighed. “But not a word about... you know. What you can do.”

I scoffed. “I don’t really foresee a lot of conversation with that thing.”

“Under the circumstances, I feel like I have to point it out.”

I opened my mouth, ready to call him an asshole, but we both looked down at my pocket as it suddenly emitted the first strains of “I fought the law” by the Bobby Fuller Four.

“It’s Chad,” I said, digging into my jeans.

Leo glowered at me, shooting nervous little glances towards the alley. I hesitated with my thumb poised over the screen.

“Should I answer?” I asked.

“Probably not,” Leo said hotly.

I swiped anyway, and put the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

“Ebron, hi, it’s Chad.”

“Oh,” I said, struggling to sound nonchalant and not reedy and tense. “Hi.”

“I’m right outside your shop: come let me in.”

“W-what?” That definitely came out too high pitched to be casual.

“Yeah, your truck’s still here, open up, c’mon, it’s freezing.”

“Um,” I took the phone away from my face and looked to Leo. He was already shaking his head.

“No!” he hissed. “Fuck, Ebron!”

“Ugh,” I stammered. “Just a sec, Chad.”

I pressed the phone against my chest to muffle my voice. “He’s at the front door—”

“I can hear it! Don’t let him in!” Leo grimaced, like he was in physical pain. “Get rid of him, Ebron!”

“He’ll be suspicious if I don’t—”

“He’ll be dead if you do!” Leo grabbed my arm and spun me, giving me a shove towards the front. “The Namordo is right out back! Do you know what I had to do to get him here without anyone seeing us? Get rid of the fucking cop!”

The walk through my dim store felt long, each footfall echoing and loud. I walked past the large butcher block counter, wiped clean now and free from any evidence that just shy of two weeks ago, a dead girl named Aubrey had been stretched out there. She’d been eviscerated, her guts spilling out the ruin of her belly. In my head, it seemed like it had all started with her.

Chad’s silhouette made a black shadow through the glass window. He tapped on the glass as I approached, but I couldn’t make out his face. I couldn’t tell if those were friendly, hey-buddy taps, or I’m-here-to-haul-you-off-to-the-clink taps. When I got up close to the door, he gave me a smile through the window, his shoulders all huddled up against the swirling snow.

I unlocked the door and stepped back to let him in, but was careful to put myself between him and the rest of the shop.

“Hey, buddy,” he said tiredly. He pulled his hat off his head and shook snow off his close-cropped hair.

“Chad, hi,” I said. “What’s up?”

“I just wanted to check on you,” he said and shuffled his feet a bit. “And to thank you for... you know.”

“Oh,” I said, surprised. “I’m fine. Thanks.”

“Are you sure? I mean, that was just—I never seen anything like that and you—”

“I’m fine,” I repeated softly and then, to my absolute and utter horror, my chest tightened and tears leaked down the corners of my eyes. I gasped out a stuttery sob.

“Ebron, are you...” Chad grabbed my shoulder in a rough squeeze. He shook it gently and I snuffed at my runny rose with the back of my sleeve.