Void(97)

“Who’s crypt?” I asked.

“Ben Dover’s.”

I frowned. “Who’s that?”

A shadow cast along the gravestones, giving the cemetery an even creepier feel.

“He was a very prominent fixture in society. Right alongside Dixie Normus.”

I furrowed my brow. “I’ve never heard of Dix...oh my gods, you perv.” I smacked him playfully on the arm, and he tipped his head back and laughed.

“I thought you said you didn’t like funny business?”

He shot me a devious wink. “That would be incredibly boring.”

“You could never be boring, Hyde Marr.”

He grinned over at me, flashing his bright teeth that seemed even whiter against his tanned skin. “Come on, it’s just up here.”

I looked ahead as we rounded the path and saw a stone crypt. When Hyde pushed open the small door, I stopped in my tracks. “Uhh, I’m not going in there.”

Hyde laughed. “I’m a necromancer. I’m basically an insurance policy in a cemetery. The dead won’t hurt you as long as I’m around.”

I blew out a breath, incredulous that I was about to willingly walk into a crypt. This place gave me the heebie jeebies. “If this is all some elaborate bully prank to get me locked inside, I swear to gods, I will murder you in your undead sleep.”

“Threat received,” he answered with a nod as if he wasn’t surprised at all. Then he leaned in close, barely letting his lips brush against the curve of my ear. “But for the record, I enjoy being inside of you way too much you lock you anywhere except inside my bedroom.”

I gulped. “Oh. Good then.” I breezed past him into the crypt, pretending like my heart wasn’t trying to jumpstart my libido.

It was just as damp and cool inside as I expected. There was a musty smell that made me gag the moment it hit my nose. Whoever was laid to rest here had obviously died a long time ago, but the smell of death was still in the air. On the ground was a concrete coffin. It wasn’t particularly ornate or beautiful. Simple in nature, this crypt looked more like a cage than something to honor whoever was buried here.

“Help me, will you?” Hyde asked before bracing his hands on the lid. I swallowed fearful bile that kept rising up my throat, questioning if this was a good idea. “Oh, come on. Don’t tell me you’re scared. The dead are harmless...mostly. And this is just a pile of bones...for now.”

That statement did not make me feel better.

Not one to be called a coward, I moved over to him and placed my hands on the lid and pushed, helping him slide it half way open. A foul scent hit my nose the moment the airlocked tomb was opened, and I had to hold my arm over my mouth to stop the vomit rising up in my throat.

Inside the coffin was a skeleton. Mold, grime, and powdery remnants of decayed flesh clung to its bones, and it was in a white lace dress, frayed from the years. “Yikes. I think she’s too dead, even for you, necro.”

He scoffed. “Haven’t you learned by now how badass I am?” Hyde asked. “Now admittedly, I haven’t actually done what I’m about to try to do with someone so...well, dead. Anyone over a century old typically drains the life right out of me. Pun intended. But the real tricky part is bringing back their consciousness. Not many of my kind can do anything except raise mindless zombies. But I’ve been practicing,” he said with a wink before nudging me with his elbow. “Fair warning, at best, you’ll have about ten minutes before she’s gone again.”

“Before who’s gone?” I insisted.

Hyde looked over at me with an eager glint in his silver eye. “Emilia Dupree. The last female Void before you.”





Chapter 25





My mouth was still open in shock when Hyde stretched out his hands and held them over the skeleton. I didn’t even have time to tell him no. Instead, I watched with trepidation as the red magic poured from his fingertips and wrapped around the disintegrating bones.

His necromancer power made it rise in the air, rotating slightly before us. I took an unconscious step back, watching as the bones started to reattach, and the skin began to regrow. Hyde’s hands started shaking as he poured more magic out, and within seconds, the bones were gone from view completely, all of them covered with stringy muscles and sallow, stretched skin that was the color of old milk. Feet, calves, hips, stomach, chest, arms, head, the woman slowly filled out from a scaffolding of cartilage to a porcelain zombie.

She continued to hang in the air, her lace dress barely connected with a mixture of dangling threads and spider webs. It was a haunting display that was equally beautiful and terrifying. I was so busy watching her that I hadn’t noticed how much Hyde started wavering or his skin growing impossibly pale. I turned to look at him the moment Emilia took her first breath, and I watched in horror as his cheeks hollowed and his eyes rolled back.

“Hyde!” I screamed, rushing to his side. I tried to catch him, but I was too slow. His head hit the stone floor and blood oozed out from the gash. “Oh, shit,” I cursed. I reached down and yanked my combat boot off before ripping the sock from my foot and pressing it to the wound to stop the bleeding. “What did you do, you crazy necro?” I chastised him, shaking him slightly, but he didn’t wake up.

“Oh, that’s quite a lot of blood, isn’t it?” a voice asked, sounding like rusted metal blowing in the wind. I snapped my head over to the coffin and swallowed a scream at the woman sitting there. Her clothes were so worn I could see her body through the holes in them. Her bright blue eyes were the color of the ocean, and her nose was tiny.