Once Bitten (Shadow Guild: The Rebel #1)(42)

Mac groaned. “Let’s make it quick.”

I nodded, turning back to the body. “This is the worst.”

“Worse than going to prison?”

“Not worse than that.” I moved on autopilot, my mind screaming in horror as I stared at the sewn-up Y-shaped incision on the man’s chest.

Nope. There was no time to freak out, and even less time to wimp out.

I sucked in a breath, spun around, and found some tools on a side table. A pair of scissors beckoned, and I grabbed them, along with a clamp-like thing. I swapped out my leather gloves for some medical ones, working on autopilot.

I returned to the body and cut the stitches, then peeled the skin back.

“Oh, I’m going to faint.” Mac sidled farther back.

I growled at Mac. “Don’t brag. Not all of us have the luxury of passing out.”

“I’ll buy you a drink after this.”

“A big one,” I muttered, and considered the next gruesome task before me.

The inside of the man looked like a mess, but not in the way I’d anticipated. Instead of a jumble of organs, I found a handful of plastic bags stuffed in beneath the ribs like the world’s goriest weekly shop. If I wanted to know what was missing, I’d have to open the bags and pray that I still remembered something from biology class.

“Damn it,” I whispered, and removed the breastbone.

With my squeamish assistant standing well away from the corpse, I opened the bags and took my best guess at what I was seeing. The intestines were easy enough, as were the lungs and kidneys. Finally, by process of elimination, I realized what was missing.

“It’s the heart,” I said, willing my stomach not to give up the fight. If I puked on him, I would have to kill myself. I certainly couldn’t continue living with that visual seared behind my eyes.

Hang on.

A weird burn mark distracted me from the disgusting thoughts. “What’s this?”

“Don’t make me look up close.”

“Suck it up and get over here.”

She groaned and joined me. We both stared into the chest cavity at the spot where the man’s heart had once been. A symbol had been burned inside--three stars, overlapping.

“That was created by magic,” Mac said.

“It has to be what the Devil sent me here to find.” I frowned at it. “Is it the same as the necromancer’s mark?”

“I don’t think so. But why does he know so much about this murder?”

“That’s what I want to know.” I stripped off one of the gloves and yanked my mobile from my pocket, taking a picture. I got a few from different angles, but it was too dark.

I turned on the flash and took another picture.

A faint rumbling sounded, and I frowned. “Do you hear that?”

“Yeah, it’s coming from—”

Black smoke billowed from the man’s chest, rising straight from the symbol that had been burned into his flesh.

I jumped backward, but it was too late. The smoke wrapped around me, squeezing my limbs tight. “Mac!”

“I feel it, too.” Her face was pinched tight with pain. “Hard to breathe.”

I gasped, trying to get enough air into my lungs. Prickles raced over my skin like spiders. “What’s happening?”

“Magic.” She groaned, then said, “Curse them, Hecate. Oh, so mighty shall you be.”

“What?”

“The witches.” Her voice sounded even more squeezed.

Oh! The prank she’d played on them. The bust of Hecate that she’d poured a potion on should be screaming now. Thank fates, because this spell was making me start to feel weak.

“How will they find us?” It took all my strength to speak.

“If I don’t respond, they’ll use a locater charm.”

“Respond?”

A voice sounded from the amulet around Mac’s neck. “You clever bitch, Mac! Where are you? Stop this cursed thing right now!”

I could hear Hecate shrieking in the background like a horror movie victim. It was so loud that any nearby guards might hear.

I struggled against the magic that bound me, sucking more strength from me with every second. My vision was starting to blur and my legs to tremble.

“I can’t answer them,” Mac said. “Not without touching the charm.”

Shit, shit, shit.

I tried to hobble to her, hoping I could press my forehead against the charm. Or maybe fall against her.

Instead, I toppled over onto the ground, hitting it so hard that my vision went black for a moment. Footsteps sounded from the floor above. Or maybe that was my imagination.

Were guards coming?

Was I going to be discovered here, next to the torn-open body of the victim?

Fear chilled my skin.

“My, my, what have we here?” A feminine voice sounded from my left.

Out of the corner of my eye, I barely caught sight of Coraline. She stood in a cloud of pink light, somehow projecting her form into the morgue. Her dark hair was streaked with green that matched the brilliant emerald of her eyes. She tapped her foot, staring at us. “Got yourself into quite a pickle, Mac.”

“Get us out of here, and I’ll tell you the code to shut her up.”

“Oh, you will, all right.” Coraline raised her hands and began to chant. Magic sparked around her palms, and a faint white light surrounded Mac and me.