Grave Dance (13 page)

He’d helped me move Falin upstairs, and while I didn’t think he’d been any great help to the man other than that, I could feel the debt between us, and feel the fact that I
had
to do what he’d asked. I sighed. It wasn’t like staying in the guest room was a bad option—it certainly was more appealing than the floor, which was what I’d been planning, but I would have liked to be closer at hand if Falin needed but I would have liked to be closer at hand if Falin needed anything during the night. Now I didn’t have the option.

I grabbed a pair of shorts and a sleeveless top and then headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. When I emerged, Caleb was stil waiting for me, PC dozing in his arms.

I made one more stop by the bed to tuck Falin in as much as possible with him lying on top of the unmade comforter.

If you ignored al the blood, he looked almost peaceful, as if he were just sleeping. “You real y think he’s that dangerous?”

“Al, I don’t think. I know. And he has the blood on his hands to prove it.”

Chapter 12

I
woke with a jolt and slammed into the mattress a moment later as if I’d jumped in my sleep. My eyes snapped open and I blinked at the chaotic swirl of colors fil ing the darkness.

Something was wrong.

I snapped my shields closed and sat up, brushing aside the comforter as I moved. A comforter with a stiff, lacy trim.

My comforter doesn’t have lace trim.

But I wasn’t in my room or my bed—I was in Caleb’s guest room. The glowing red numbers on the clock beside the bed told me it was 3:49 a.m.
Is that it? Is it just the
unfamiliar room?

No. There was something else wrong.

I blinked, trying to figure out what felt off. The air hummed with the familiar resonance of the Glen—the neighborhoods surrounding the Magic Quarter, where most of Nekros’s witches and fae lived—and the grave essence reaching from the nearest graveyard felt the same as it always did.

Then I realized the issue was as much what I
wasn’t
feeling as what I
was
. I felt the magic in the Glen, and not the sheltering buzz of Caleb’s wards.

Why are the wards down?

I didn’t know, but I was going to find out.

Sliding out of bed, I padded as silently as possible across the room, but I wasn’t familiar with the layout and the moonlight streaming through the closed blinds wasn’t nearly enough to il uminate anything. I stubbed my toe against a box—Caleb used the room for storage—and cursed under box—Caleb used the room for storage—and cursed under my breath. PC’s tags clinked softly as he lifted his head, trying to decide where I was going.

“Stay,” I whispered in the general direction of the bed, but I heard his paws land on the hardwood a moment later.

I reached out, feeling along the wal until my fingers traced over the light switch. Then I blinked in the sudden glow of fluorescent lighting.

I hadn’t brought my boots downstairs, but I’d dropped my dagger in my purse and that was on the nightstand. I dug out the dagger and unsheathed it. I hoped I wouldn’t need it, but the wards going down in the middle of the night was seriously suspicious. Besides, if I didn’t take the dagger, I’d feel like that ditzy blonde in every horror movie who goes out unarmed to check on strange noises. Nothing ends wel for those girls.

I crept across the room, cringing as the floorboards creaked under my bare feet. Of course, I’d turned on the light, so it wasn’t like I was being super stealthy. The oblivious dog trailing me didn’t help either.

Opening the door a crack, I peeked into the hal beyond.

My vision being what it was, I couldn’t see anything but the pil ar of light escaping the guest room. I opened the door wider, and a shadow crossed the doorway.

I threw a hand over my mouth to strangle the sound that tried to escape my lips and jumped back, away from the door.

“Al, you okay?”

Caleb.

I pul ed the door open wider. Like me, Caleb must have woken when the wards fel , because the light pouring from my room revealed light green skin and dark, pupil-less eyes. Caleb never walked around without his glamour intact. In one hand he held a mal et, and in the other a vial containing a spel that pricked at my senses, so it probably did something real y nasty if released.

“What happened?” I asked as I joined him in the hal .

“What happened?” I asked as I joined him in the hal .

He shook his head. “Not sure yet. The wards were taken down from the inside. You want me to hazard a guess at who might have done that?” His whispered words were sharp, leaving no doubt whom he was referring to: Falin.

I couldn’t think of any reason Falin would dismantle the wards. He was unconscious when last I’d seen him, and even if he did wake, it wasn’t like the wards prevented him from leaving. I opened my mouth to say as much and then snapped it closed again. Now wasn’t the time to argue.

“Stay here,” Caleb whispered as he crept along the hal way.

That was a good suggestion. Unfortunately, I wasn’t taking it. I closed PC in the bedroom, and then, clutching the dagger tight, I fol owed Caleb.

Someone had turned the lights on in the front of the house, which was good for my eyes but probably not the best sign, since we’d turned them off after we’d finished the movie we’d watched before bed and I’d said good night to Caleb and Hol y. Caleb motioned me to wait as he opened the door to the den. He stepped inside and then gave a sharp hiss. I fol owed a moment later.

What the hell?
I mouthed as I gaped at the room beyond.

The front door of the house stood wide open and dozens of ravens fil ed the room. The inky black birds had gathered on every available surface. Four perched on the flatpanel TV, their talons scratching against the plastic. At least a dozen sat on the back of the couch, and more were on the coffee table and on the end tables.

They stared at us with beady black eyes. Every last one of them.

“Uh, Caleb?”

“I have no idea,” he said, his whisper so quiet I barely heard him.

Another raven swooped through the open front door. It screeched, wings flapping as it drew near, and I jumped aside. The bird landed on the doorframe we’d passed aside. The bird landed on the doorframe we’d passed when we entered, and I backed farther away as a second raven joined the first. Crap, we would have to walk under the birds to get to the back of the house. Two more ravens flew into the room.

“This is like that Hitchcock movie,” I said, taking another slow step away from the birds. They were blocking access to the front door and the door to the hal , but there were no birds between us and the door to the garage Caleb used as a workshop or the door beside it, which led to the stairs to my loft. I backed toward those doors, trying to keep an eye on al the ravens. The birds continued to stare. “They’re giving me the creeps. Aren’t they big for birds?”

“That’s an understatement.” Caleb shifted his grip on his mal et. “I guess we cal animal control? We should probably wake Hol y and get a hotel room for the rest of the night.”

Yeah, except how were we supposed to reach Hol y?

And what had attracted the birds into the house in the first place? This couldn’t be normal. I reached out with my senses, looking for a spel or charm that would have attracted the birds. What I found was seriously not what I expected.

“Oh, crap.”

Caleb turned halfway around, but he never looked away from the ravens. “What?”

“Those aren’t birds. They’re constructs.”

Chapter 13

C
onstructs. Just like the cu sith in the Quarter. I opened my shields, already knowing what I’d find. In my second sight, the ravens vanished, becoming instead misty shapes surrounding a nasty clump of twisting magic. I snapped my shields closed again.

“We have to get out of here,” I whispered, reaching behind me for the doorknob to the stairwel . We could escape out through my room and then circle around to the back door to get Hol y. My hand landed on the knob, and I twisted it quickly.

It didn’t turn.

Damn it!
We never locked the doors to the stairs, but Caleb had insisted since Falin was staying upstairs. I fumbled with the lock, final y having to turn my back on the birds to unlock the door. I twisted the knob again, jerking the door, but it just shuddered.

“The bolt lock too?” I asked, my voice raising with a mix of exasperation and panic.

“Alex,” Caleb hissed, and as if my name were some sort of signal, the ravens screeched.

The room fil ed with the sound of wings beating the air, the roar almost loud enough to block out the screeching.

The birds dove forward just as I threw the lock.

“Get down,” Caleb yel ed and shoved me back toward the wal .

The ravens swooped at us, shiny black talons flashing and sharp beaks thrusting forward menacingly. Caleb uncorked his vial with his teeth and threw it at the nearest bird. A hazy green miasma exploded around the raven. It bird. A hazy green miasma exploded around the raven. It gave a sharp croak of a cry and then dropped. Caleb kicked it aside, but two more had already taken its place.

He swung his mal et. The sound of bones snapping made me cringe, even though I knew the birds weren’t real. But this bird didn’t fal . Caleb’s death blow smashed its rib cage and it vanished, a smal copper coin hitting the carpet a moment later.

Neither one of us had time to be amazed because there were more birds, so many more birds, to take the first’s place. They swooped at us, talons extended.

I lashed out with my dagger, hitting one of the ravens in the wing. It went down, but didn’t vanish. Climbing to its feet, the raven spread its uninjured wing wide and rushed me, its head darting as it lunged at my leg.
Damn. You
have to hit to kill.

Another raven dove for me, its talons aimed at my eyes. I ducked, and it got a claw ful of my hair instead, pul ing a clump out by the roots. I yelped, but the grounded raven was stil coming for me. I jabbed with my dagger again.

This time the bird vanished.

“There are too many of them,” I yel ed over the roar of wings as I scrambled to my feet.

“You have a suggestion?” Caleb asked, never pausing as he swung his mal et, knocking birds out of the air.

I didn’t.

Somewhere beside me a door opened, and I spun around. Falin staggered into the room, one arm pressed against his injured side but a large dagger clutched in his other hand.

“Get out of here,” I yel ed as soon as I saw him.

He didn’t retreat. His icy gaze took in the situation in one quick glance, and then landed on me. He hobbled forward, his breathing hard, pained, but the dagger in his hand cut through the air effortlessly. With every twitch of his wrist a bird vanished on his blade so that smal copper disks lined his path as he made his way toward me. It would have been his path as he made his way toward me. It would have been something to watch, if I hadn’t been fighting off the damn ravens myself.

My enchanted dagger buzzed merrily in my hand as I jabbed at the birds. I could feel it making suggestions in my muscles, trying to guide my arm, and I let it, but even with the dagger’s help, most of my jabs injured rather than dispel ed. Frustrated, I dropped my shields. I aimed for the knot of magic in the hazy forms instead of body parts, and the birds exploded into mist around my blade.

“Where did they come from?” Falin yel ed, more ravens dissolving as his dagger struck true again and again.

Caleb’s mal et took out two birds with one massive swing. “Like you don’t know.”

“Guys,” I huffed, but didn’t say anything else. My chest burned, my breathing came hard, and my arm ached from continual motion, but more birds poured in through the open front door.

A figure appeared in my peripheral vision. I swung around, anticipating seeing whoever had set the constructs on us. Instead I came face-to-face with Death.

His dark eyes went wide, as if he was surprised to see me, and in my own shock, I didn’t notice one of the birds diving close until it was inches from me. Death’s hand shot out, his fingers jabbing into the bird. He jerked, and the bird vanished. It didn’t dissolve like the ones Caleb, Falin, and I kil ed, but al trace that it had existed disappeared—except the disk that fel to the ground.

“You always have to interfere, don’t you?” said a voice behind him, and we both turned as a soul col ector—

dressed for a rave, in a bright orange tube top and a pair of white PVC hip-huggers—stepped forward.

She shook her head in disapproval, making her long dreadlocks swish. Then she strol ed forward, slashing through the birds with her orange talonlike nails. Another reaper, wearing al gray, fol owed close behind her, swinging his silver skul –topped cane through the birds.

swinging his silver skul –topped cane through the birds.

“Welcome to the party,” I muttered, aiming my own dagger at a construct that dove too close.

“Alex, down!” Falin yel ed, and a large hand slammed into my back, shoving me toward the floor.

I rol ed as hit I the ground, but with Caleb and Falin on one side and the col ectors on the other, I didn’t have anywhere to go. My rol ended with me on my back, staring straight up as three groups of ravens descended from different directions, al diving for the spot where I’d been.

Not that they stood a chance against the three col ectors and two fae. I covered my head as a shower of spel ed disks rained over me.

Then there was silence.

I pushed myself off the floor and looked around. The front door stil hung open, but no more dark shapes swooped through it. I clutched my dagger, waiting, watching, sure the reprieve would break at any moment. I think we al were.

But nothing happened, and I final y released the breath I’d been holding.

Caleb immediately rounded on Falin. “What did you do?”

“They weren’t after me,” Falin said, wincing and leaning against the wal . Fresh red blood dripped over his gloved hand where he pressed it against his side.

“Leave him alone,” I told Caleb as I stepped forward to help Falin. He needed to sit down, and I didn’t care what Caleb said—he needed a healer.

A hand on my arm stopped me, and I turned, ready to lay into Caleb for being overprotective. But it wasn’t Caleb; it was Death, and the look on his face kil ed any protest I might have raised.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, his hazel eyes scanning my face, my neck, my shoulders. He brushed aside my hair as if searching for any injury it might have hidden.

“I’m fine.” And I owed him and the other col ectors a debt of gratitude for that. We’d have been overwhelmed if they hadn’t appeared.

hadn’t appeared.

My gaze moved past him and I saw the other two col ectors gathering the mist hanging in the air from the vanished ravens. It dissipated slowly as they reached out again and again.
Souls. How creepy is it that we’ve been
trudging through souls?
Not that the stuff looked like a person or a creature. Most souls I’d seen outside of a body stil looked like, wel , the original body.

“How does a soul turn into mist?”

“Not any way natural,” Death said, running his hands down my arms.

The raver-col ector glared at him.
Guess he wasn’t
supposed to tell me that.
It wasn’t as if “not any way natural” told me much.

Death ignored her. “You’re sure you’re not hurt? Not one of those creatures touched you? Not even a scratch?”

I frowned, looking down at myself. “I don’t think so.” I hadn’t exactly had time to take stock yet, but I didn’t feel hurt. “Nothing serious, surely.”

“Alex, who are you talking to?” Caleb asked, stepping forward at the same time Death brushed my top up so he could search my waist and back. Caleb stopped. “Anyone else seeing her clothes move on their own?”

Falin nodded. “Yeah, she’s not alone,” he said, and I swear he glared at the space near where Death stood, as if jealous.

Not that he had any right to be. Stil , I brushed my shirt back in place and stepped away from Death’s searching hands.

“I’m fine,” I said again.

“Alex, those were carriers. As little as a scratch would transfer their spel .”

I blanched, staring at Death.
Crap.
I was pretty sure I wasn’t hurt, but the others?

I turned but didn’t have time to say anything before the col ector in gray stepped forward. His cane shot out, the silver skul ornament pressing into Death’s chest not in a silver skul ornament pressing into Death’s chest not in a blow but more a cautionary block.

“Do you think that wise?” he asked, his eyes on Death, who glared at him in return.

Whatever passed between them made Death look away.

“We’re done here,” the raver said, and true to her word the soul mist was gone.

Death looked at the gray man again, who crossed his arms over his chest, his cane tapping impatiently on his thigh. Then he turned to me. His eyes swept over me again, as if he stil was not confident I hadn’t been hurt. He reached out, his hand cupping my face. His thumb traced over my cheekbone and for a moment I thought he was going to say something more.

He didn’t.

He leaned forward and his lips brushed against mine, a ghost of a kiss that made my entire body react to the almost electric feel of his skin against mine. Then he vanished, the raver and the gray man disappearing a heartbeat later. I stared at the space where he’d been and touched my lips, stil feeling the gentle warmth of his mouth.

I was breathless again—but not from the fight.

Now is seriously not the time.

I let my hand drop and turned. Both Caleb and Falin stared at me.
At least they aren’t fighting with each other.
I wiped my suddenly damp palms on the front of my shorts, fumbling with my dagger awkwardly as I did so.

“I, uh . . .” I shook my head. It was Falin’s ice blue stare more than Caleb’s that got to me. I swal owed and tried again. “Are you hurt? I mean, more than you were when you got here? Apparently the birds were carrying a spel that would transfer with as little as a scratch.” I stopped and pressed my fingers to my mouth again, but this time in alarm. “Oh, crap—Hol y.”

“I don’t think she woke for the fight. She should be fine,”

Caleb said, but he was already moving toward her bedroom as he spoke.

bedroom as he spoke.

I wasn’t so much worried about tonight’s fight as I was about the fact that she’d been injured by the cu sith in the Quarter. I had no doubt the raven constructs had been sent by the same person, and if they were carrying a spel , had the cu sith been as wel ?

I darted around Caleb as I sprinted down the hal . I reached Hol y’s door a moment before he did, and I threw it open.

Hol y wasn’t inside.

I hadn’t closed my shields, so the comforter pooled at the end of Hol y’s bed looked both faded and rotted and whole with a vibrant geometric pattern. The sheets had obviously been slept on, and unlike me, Hol y made her bed. Always.

So she’d been here, but the bed stood empty now.

I whirled around. Caleb’s worried, wide-eyed expression matched mine as we made a quick search of her room.

The windows were closed, there was no sign of a struggle, and the outfit she’d planned to wear tomorrow was set out on her dresser. The only thing wrong with the room was the fact that Hol y wasn’t in it.

“Here,” Falin cal ed from the front room and both Caleb and I took off at a run.

I heard PC barking as I passed the guest room, but I didn’t pause to let him out. He was safe in there.

When we reached the living room, we found Falin leaning heavily against the doorframe. He pointed at something in the front yard and we rushed past him.

A figure lay crumpled in the middle of the lawn, red hair fanning around her head and her bare knees tucked to her chest.
Holly.

I col apsed in the grass beside her. I didn’t see any blood, any injury, but the way she was lying could have covered it. I groped for her throat.

“She has a pulse,” I said as Caleb dropped to his knees beside me.

He reached for her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open.

He reached for her shoulder and her eyes fluttered open.

She gasped, her hands jerking toward her chest as if she were pul ing a sheet over herself.

“Caleb?” She blinked, sitting up. “And Alex? Okay, guys, real y, I don’t need nursemaids. I’m fine. I—” She stopped and looked around for the first time. “Uh, why am I outside?”

I shared a glance with Caleb before saying, “You don’t remember coming out here?”

“No.” She frowned. “Should I? Was I sleepwalking?”

Good question. I hoped that was it, but the sinking feeling in my stomach was pretty sure nothing as mundane as sleepwalking could explain what had happened.

“Let’s get you inside and see if we can’t work this out,”

Caleb said, helping Hol y to her feet.

She wore only an oversized T-shirt, and she smoothed it self-consciously where the hem hit high on her thighs.

Caleb and I shepherded her past Falin and through the front door, and then settled her onto the couch. While Caleb fetched her a drink, I retrieved my phone.

Tamara’s phone went to voice mail the first time I cal ed. I hung up and tried again. This time she picked up on the fourth ring.

“Alex, it’s four thirty in the morning. You better have a good reason for getting me out of bed.”

Unfortunately, I did.

“Tam, can you get over here. I think Hol y’s been spel ed.”

Tamara lived only a few streets away—almost al the practicing witches in Nekros lived in the Glen—so her car rol ed into the driveway less than fifteen minutes later. By then, Caleb had run a ful diagnostic on the house wards and traced al the magical signatures. Hol y had been the one who disabled the wards, and no one had entered the house and no unfamiliar magic had brushed the wards before she’d taken them down.