One Grave at a Time (Night Huntress #6)(36)

“Well,” I said at last. “Let’s see who they are and what they want.”

The words barely left my lips before Bones muttered, “Bloody hell.” For a split second, I was confused. But then above the collage of voices in my mind, I heard a new one, chanting a single line over and over.

Fifteen minutes can save you fifteen percent . . .

Madigan was out there, too.





Sixteen



I walked out of the cave with Bones at my side. Tyler brought up the rear, holding both pet carriers. The sight that greeted us was over a dozen automatic weapons pointed in our direction, Chris on his knees off to the far right side, a helmeted soldier pressing a gun to his cheek.

And I told him it would be too dangerous to wait in the cave, I thought irreverently.

After that initial glance, I didn’t look at the ring of soldiers anymore. My gaze was all for the stony-faced “operations consultant,” who had the agitated form of my uncle flying over him.

“Madigan found the cave by reading one of your old reports back when Dave died,” Don said. “I tried to warn you that he was coming, but the cave felt like it was blocked, and something burned me whenever I tried to fly near the RV where Justina was!”

I didn’t let any of my inner groan escape my lips. Of course. The RVs had sage lit in them, Chris couldn’t see Don to pass the message along, and my uncle was too new a ghost to withstand all the combined ingredients from the trap. I’d told him where I was in case of an emergency, but what I was doing prevented him from getting to me.

“What a nice surprise,” I said to the group at large, fixing a false smile on my face. “Don’t tell me—I forgot someone’s birthday, and this is the party police come to correct my oversight, right?”

Madigan came forward, but not close enough to stand in his soldier’s line of fire, I noted. Contempt curled around the fury in Bones’s emotions, but I fought against a snort. For all his talk about reading extensive reports on the undead, didn’t he know that many Master vampires could fly? Bones and I had endless miles of open space above our heads now that we were outside of the cave. Aside from looking showy, the guns pointed at us were as much of a threat as harsh language.

“Crawfield,” Madigan began.

“Russell,” I interrupted him, smiling sweetly. “I know you’re a stickler for facts, so I wanted to remind you of that one before you got it wrong in your future report.”

His features darkened with anger, but I didn’t care. He was the one who’d arranged to have a barrage of weapons pointed at us for no reason whatsoever, so politeness had already gone out the window. If not for my mother and the two RVs full of people with way too much information on what we’d been doing here, I wouldn’t even wait around to hear why Dickhead had come. Bones could carry Chris and Tyler. I could grab my mother, and we could fly out of here. Madigan would never know what we were doing here because it was like a maze in the cave. Even after two weeks, Chris and the others still needed Bones or me to guide them to the trap, or they’d get lost.

But we did have two RVs full of people, and I could tell from the guards’ thoughts that they were staring down a line of automatic weapons right now just like we were. Flying away while carrying Chris, Dexter, Tyler, the pet carriers, and two of those? Bones could probably handle it, but that was a bit beyond my skill level.

“What’s in the cave, Russell?” Madigan asked with heavy sarcasm.

I shrugged. “Rocks. Lots of ’em.”

“Don’t patronize me.” His voice lowered to a hiss. “What else is in the cave?”

I looked him straight in the eye and spoke one word.

“Mud.”

Madigan’s thoughts erupted into a slew of curses before he regained control and barricaded them behind the car insurance jingle that had to be what hell played for elevator music.

“You don’t want to do that, mate,” Bones said. His tone was soft, but each word was edged in ice. “She cares about protecting everyone your toy soldiers are holding hostage enough to ignore those insults. I don’t. Think anything like that at her again, and I’ll kill you here and now.”

Madigan’s scoff was uneasy. “Any attack on me—”

“Is the same as an attack on the United States itself,” Bones finished, still in that deadly calm manner. “Heard you the first time—and didn’t give a shite then, either.”

Madigan eyed Bones for another tense, extended moment before turning his attention back to me.

“We know you’re up to something in the cave, and we know it has to do with ghosts. It’ll be easier on everyone if you tell me what it is, but even if you don’t, I’ll find out.”

Not if I can help it. “I told you the last time I saw you; I’m doing a favor for a friend’s paranoid client. She thinks this cave is haunted by old Indian spirits or something. I told her I’d have professionals check it out, so here we are.”

“Swears Tecumseh, Crazy Horse, and Geronimo are holed up in there. Bitch is crazy, but her checks clear,” Tyler added.

Madigan looked over at Chris, who had sweat dripping down his face even though it was chilly with the early-evening breeze.

“Is that what you were doing in there?”

Chris didn’t look at me or Bones, but he knew we were watching him. His thoughts raced, wondering who he should be more afraid of: the man commanding the soldier who had a gun pressed to his head or the two vampires fifty feet away.