One Grave at a Time (Night Huntress #6)(54)

We left the car at the end of a cornfield, and Bones flew us the rest of the way with the explanation that ghosts couldn’t follow after about the half-mile height marker. Now that he mentioned it, I realized Fabian and every other ghost I’d seen had always kept pretty close to buildings or the ground when they traveled, unless they were hitchhiking on an airplane or something similar. Bones had us as high as Lisa could take without it being too cold or oxygen depleted. At that height, it would be harder to spot us against the clear morning sky, but Bones had packed a light blue sheet that we wrapped around us for even better camouflage. Maybe when I got more used to flying, I’d treat it with the same thoroughness he did, but for now, I was still doing well if I didn’t crash when I landed.

Once we got Lisa settled and explained all about Kramer, her story turned out to be eerily similar to Francine’s. She was divorced, no siblings, and while her father was still alive, he was in poor health in a nursing home. She’d also had a recent string of bad luck, like losing her well-paying job several months ago because of company downsizing and her house going into the early stages of foreclosure. Working two part-time jobs hadn’t been enough to pay her mortgage, and working at all cut off her unemployment. Add in a botched robbery where her cat was killed, and Lisa’s friends thought her claims of something invisible attacking her at home were a clear case of stress manifesting in the form of paranoid delusions.

Lisa seemed glad to meet Francine even though she was sickened to hear that the appartition who’d tormented her was doing the same thing to other women. Still, I understood why it was a relief for Lisa to meet someone who not only believed her but who knew exactly what she’d been through.

The same went for Francine. All the empathy Bones and I could give wasn’t the same as what Francine got when she spoke to Lisa. They were survivors of a battle that we could try to imagine but hadn’t lived through like they had, so our understanding was limited.

After we’d answered all her questions, Bones went next door to update the rest of our group, and I escorted Lisa upstairs to Francine’s room, where there was another bed and a clean outfit waiting for her. Later, I’d order both of them some new clothes, but for now, I left them alone. Francine had only slept a few hours, and Lisa looked like she needed a nice long rest, too. I didn’t imagine either of them had had a decent sleep since Kramer targeted them, but with sage burning on their nightstands, two pets capable of sounding a warning, and two vampires here to protect them—plus two more nearby—they were as safe as they were going to get.

Tyler wandered into the kitchen, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a sleeveless shirt. From the faint creases on his cheek, he’d just rolled out of bed. Since staying with us the past few weeks, Tyler’s schedule of when he was awake and when he slept had drastically altered.

“M’n,” he mumbled, though it was after two o’clock in the afternoon. “Want some coffee?”

I drank it with him to be sociable, but I’d never liked the stuff even before Bones’s blood became my beverage of choice.

“Not this time. We haven’t been to bed since yesterday morning, so we’re about to catch a few hours’ sleep. Oh, and we have a new guest.”

A wide grin slid across his face. “You found another of the women already?”

Tyler had fallen asleep before we got Lisa’s information, and instead of waking him when we left, we’d just had my mother come to watch over him and Francine. I grinned back, feeling more lighthearted than I had in a while.

“Her name is Lisa, and she’s upstairs with Francine.”

Tyler stuck his fist out, and I touched it with mine. “Nice work, kitty cat.”

“I didn’t do it alone,” I protested, but I was pleased by the compliment.

At last, we were making headway. Elisabeth and Fabian were still trying to track Kramer to determine who the final target was, but in the meantime, we didn’t have to sit on our hands and watch the days ominously count down on the calendar. Police reports weren’t the only way we could search for the last woman. We could check recent burials in pet cemeteries, veterinary offices, animal cremation companies, hell, even county records of rabies vaccinations to help narrow down our list. Somewhere in that mix had to be a trail leading to her.

Upstairs, Dexter let out a half whine, half bark. From somewhere else in the town house, Helsing meowed. Tyler and I both tensed. I yanked some sage from my pants pockets and had it lit before Bones came bursting back into the town house.

“Where is he?” he demanded, holding a handful of burning sage aloft.

“I don’t know,” I whispered, charging up the stairs to Francine and Lisa’s room. God, what if Kramer was in there now, hurting those women after I’d just told them they were finally safe!

“Cat!” a male voice called from outside the town house.

I froze in the act of flinging open their bedroom door. I knew that voice, and while it belonged to a ghost, it wasn’t any of the ones I’d expected.

A door’s banging open only punctuated the effect of Spade’s words. “Cat, your uncle’s in the yard.”





Twenty-five



I muttered an apology to Francine and Lisa for barging into their room and ran back down the stairs almost as fast as I’d climbed up them.

“Charles, wait inside with the women,” Bones muttered, brushing by Spade to go outside. I did the same, dropping my sage into the nearest candle on the way out.