Grave Dance (Alex Craft, #2)(45)

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?”