Craven Manor(31)

Daniel felt physically sick. He rubbed sweaty palms against his jeans. “The house isn’t abandoned. I met the owner, and he really lives here. Please, you can’t let him find you.”

For a second, his cousin’s cockiness wavered. Then Kyle glanced along the hallway, and the smug grin was back in place. “Bull. No one lives here. It looks like something out of a kids’ Halloween attraction with all of its spiders and broken furniture.”

“I’m telling the truth.” Another step. He was close enough to smell the hint of alcohol hanging around Kyle. “We had dinner. Bran told me about the house; he’s one of the original family’s descendants. This is theft, and I know you’re not a thief. Please, just leave. You’ll get me fired—or jailed.”

“I always thought you were a sneak, Dan.” Kyle adjusted the satchel as his lips twisted into a grimace. “Always looking for a leg up. Always trying to find something to squeeze out of people. I bet you’ve been selling stuff out of this house yourself, haven’t you? That’s where all your money came from. It’s not some weird old geezer who hired you to trim his garden. You found an empty house, decided to take the loot for yourself, and cooked up some cock-and-bull story to throw me off the scent. And I wouldn’t have ever figured it out if I hadn’t followed you.”

Kyle hadn’t shown such a level of meanness in months, not since the last time he’d spent a weekend binge drinking. Daniel studied his cousin’s stance and saw it was slightly off-centre. Kyle wasn’t completely wasted, but he hadn’t come to the mansion sober, either.

“You seriously followed me?”

“Psheah, last night. You were drunk off your ass and staggering all over the place, so I thought I’d keep an eye on you and make sure you got home okay. Only thing is you got lost in that stupid forest. It took me ages to find my way out again.”

I thought I heard leaves crunching. I can’t believe he stalked me here. It can’t have been from altruism, either—otherwise he would have walked alongside me. Which means he followed me to find out where the house was.

Daniel climbed the last two steps and took Kyle’s arm. “You need to get out of here before Bran finds you. And you need to leave me and my job alone.”

Kyle’s face was expressionless. For a second, Daniel thought he might comply with the demands. Then he threw his body weight into Daniel and charged him into the nearest wall.

Daniel’s skull hit the red wallpaper, and he heard a crack. Pain shot through his head, sparking from the back and into the left temple. His vision turned blurry, and he barely noticed that the wind had been forced out of him as he crumpled to the floor.

“Tell me where it is,” Kyle hissed. He knelt at Daniel’s side and ran his hand over his hair in a mock caress. Daniel tried to recoil, but Kyle fixed on a fistful of hair and tightened his grip until the pain multiplied.

“Stop—”

“The gold coins, Daniel. Same as the one you were flaunting last night. I know there has to be more of them.”

“Not—no—” He tried to roll onto his back, but Kyle’s grip kept his head planted into the decayed rug. Dust filled his nose and stung his eyes. “I don’t—Bran gave them to me—”

“You’re a pathetic liar, Dan.” Kyle pushed away.

Daniel lifted a hand to his head. It felt as though someone had started a fire that licked across his skull. When he took his fingers away, he saw a smear of red on them.

Kyle had stopped at the top of the landing and was staring down the stone pathway opposite. His eyes narrowed as he glanced up and down the tar-black door at its end. “What’s through there?”

“Don’t.”

His cousin’s lips curled into a crooked smile. “They wouldn’t lock it if there wasn’t something valuable inside, right? Hang tight, buddy. This won’t take long.”

Daniel rocked to his knees. His vision blurred, and he planted a hand on the wall beside himself to keep steady. “Kyle, no! I won’t forgive you for this!”

“Sure you will. I’ll split the loot fifty-fifty with you. How about that?” Kyle’s sing-song voice floated down the hallway. Daniel heard a heavy metallic clang that sounded like a boot hitting one of the rusted bolts. “It’s more than you did for me.”

“Stop! We can’t open that door.” He tried to get his feet underneath himself, but they collapsed and plunged him back to the carpet. The fire across his head burnt. He heard a second heavy clang followed by a third and what sounded like broken metal being thrown aside.

As Daniel tried to blink the blurred lights out of his eyes, he became aware that he wasn’t alone. A presence had entered the hallway behind him. It was something that was intended to be felt rather than seen, and its strength was enough to send a shudder through him. He instinctively knew who it was. Bran. Daniel tried to stand again. “Kyle! Get out, damn you!”

A fourth clang and a muffled curse came from the tower door. Something moved past Daniel. It looked like a shadow flitting across his fuzzy vision, and it disappeared down the stone passageway before he could fix on it.

Kyle choked then screamed. It was a horrific noise. Daniel fought the vertigo as he tried to reach his cousin. He staggered into the wall but managed to remain upright.

There was movement. Something tall and dark wrenched his cousin out of the hallway. Daniel had a half-second impression of Kyle’s face, contorted in shock and fear, as he grappled with the arms around his neck. They passed Daniel in a flash and disappeared through one of the open bedroom doorways. Daniel lurched after them, but the door slammed in his face. “Kyle!”