This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5)(49)

I repeated that to Fabian, still feeling weird over how he seemed to wait for me to say the same thing before reacting to it. Now I knew how Sigourney Weaver’s character must have felt in Galaxy Quest. “Computer, do we have a beryllium sphere on board?” I muttered under my breath.

“What’s that?” Bones asked.

“Nothing.”

“I will return to Dave now. It shouldn’t be hard to locate him. He said he wouldn’t change hotels again until I came back,” Fabian said.

I stared at him, wishing I could give him a hug goodbye and once more hating how everything I said hijacked his free will. “This won’t be for long,” I told him, brushing my hand over his face even though it went right through him.

An incandescent palm covered my hand, no weight or pressure in the gesture.

“I will not fail you,” Fabian said, and then he disappeared from sight.

I stared at the spot where he’d been with a sort of grim resolve. Damned if I’d fail him, either. I would find a way to give Fabian his free will back, beat Apollyon without martyring myself—which would also get the ghoul hit men off my tail—and then talk some sense into my senselessly stubborn family.

I just had no idea how I’d do all those things.

“Don’t fret, Kitten,” Bones said quietly. “In addition to knowing how to keep most ghosts from flocking to you, we might have had another spot of good luck. I checked my mobile, and Timmie texted me this morning. Thinks a large nest of Apollyon’s ghouls might be gathered in Memphis, according to curious events his sources reported to him.”

That was good news. It just sucked that we needed to nab one of Apollyon’s minions now more than ever, but according to the headless ghoul from the hotel, they’d vamoose at the first sight of me. Too bad I couldn’t clone myself and have Fake Cat be a decoy somewhere else, making the ghouls feel safe, while the real me snuck up behind them. That would solve a lot of problems, but as cloning had only been accomplished scientifically with sheep, to my knowledge, I was shit out of luck.

Still, a modification of the same thing wasn’t totally far-fetched. Maybe one of Don’s scientists could design a replica of my face and we’d slap it on a woman of similar height and build. It worked in movies, after all . . .

“Of course!” I said, feeling a renewed surge of optimism as another idea struck me. “We’ll call Dave and tell him where Timmie’s got a nibble on the ghouls, plus I have to tell him Fabian’s on his way back. We’ll send Ed and Scratch to Memphis, too. Between the three of them, someone has to run into A-hole’s minions before too long. Then we need to test out this garlic and weed combination to make sure it’s enough to keep the majority of ghosts at bay. Once we know that, we’re heading to Memphis, too.”

His brow arched. “You sound like you have a plan, luv.”

“Yes I do,” I said, the wheels continuing to spin in my mind. “Part one involves me drinking your blood again. I’ll need all the power I can get. As for part two . . . well, I’ll need to make a couple phone calls.”





Chapter Twenty

Baron Charles DeMortimer, who went by Spade so he’d never forget that he was once referred to by the tool an overseer had assigned him, was Bones’s best friend. They’d known each other over two centuries, ever since they were human prisoners at a New South Wales penal colony. Right now, I was pretty sure their long history was the only reason Spade hadn’t gone for my throat at first sight of me. The look he threw me when Bones glanced away said loud and clear that he was fantasizing about throttling me.

“I’m so glad you called!” Denise, my best friend, said as she hugged me. “I’m thrilled to finally be able to help you out for once.”

Over her shoulder, Spade glowered at me again when Bones turned away to see if they’d brought any more bags with them. I ignored that, squeezing Denise in return while marveling at her new strength. It reinforced my opinion that this was our best course of action, even though it might take Spade a few years to forgive me for suggesting it. He and Denise had just gotten married recently, and he was very protective of her.

So was I, and if Denise were still human, she wouldn’t be here now. But she wasn’t really human anymore. A demon made sure of that when he branded Denise with his essence a few months back. Now that the demon was dead, what he’d done to her could never be undone, which made Denise perhaps the most indestructible person on the planet. Hell, if I cut her head off right now, the only result would be a big mess on the floor until another one grew back.

That wasn’t the only incredible thing Denise could do, which was why I’d asked them to come. I linked arms with her as we went into the living room, letting out a short laugh as Denise said, “Not to be rude right off, Cat, but . . . why do you smell like you bathed in garlic?”

“Just be glad your nose isn’t strong enough to get a whiff of the weed, too,” I replied wryly. “It’s a, uh, homemade remedy to keep a certain unwanted element away from me.”

“You’ll keep quite a lot of elements away from you with that particular aroma,” Spade said, wrinkling his nose with such refined distaste that it was like getting a glimpse of him when he was an eighteenth-century nobleman.

“Yeah, well, good thing I’m not trying to pick up vampires anymore, what with my new stinky perfume,” I said, hiding a smile. Spade must be really ticked at me. Normally his innate chivalrousness would have him replying with a gallant lie about how garlic was all the new rage for fragrances, or that the cloud of weed wafting from me really brought out the shine in my hair.