Undead for a Day (7 page)

At the bottom of the stairs, Kiko was waiting for them. They’d already caught him up on the latest news while they’d driven back here with Jonah: Costin had found that the big hacienda by the pool on the Barker place had been deserted. They’d figured that the Barker family, along with other Meratoliages, might be on the second property near Carlsbad that Kalin had flown off to investigate, but she hadn’t returned to report in yet.

“I was thinking,” Kiko said. “Do you reckon the sideburned
custode
went to the Barker property to lay down and die? It was probably the nearest Meratoliage safe place.”

Dawn began to walk ahead of the others. Her body felt lighter without the weapons she’d set aside when they’d walked into the house. “I was actually wondering the same thing.”

“It was as if he retired himself,” Costin said, “so I would say your theory is likely.”

Kiko whistled. “That old man still had a lot of gas in him, didn’t he? After getting gutted by a rock, he still made it miles away.”

“They can move like the dickens,” Dawn said, laughing a little, maybe out of respect for the enemy. Or maybe because laughing cushioned the act of killing.

Kiko was staring at her. “Something really did happen to you at midnight.”

“You’re just coming around to that conclusion?”

“It takes some getting used to.”

“Kiko, if something hadn’t truly changed in my composition, you’d probably be talking to the dragon right now.” She was pretty sure the monster’s blood would’ve taken her over, body and soul, after tonight’s kill.

They cut through the family room, with its lion legged coffee table, Gothic wooden book stand, and monastery hardwood bench.

Kiko jumped up and onto one of the French floral upholstery sofas, settling in for a good sit, but Dawn kept on her feet.

“Costin and I need to get back on the road.” She gestured toward the sliding glass door that led to the beach-side deck as Costin waited next to her.

He said, “We should wait for Kalin to return and provide a report about the Carlsbad property.”

He was right, dammit.

Kiko swallowed, and Dawn knew that he was dying to butt in.

“Your poker face still sucks,” she said.

“What can I say? I really don’t like the thought of you going out there again.”

“Costin will be there with me.”

He skimmed her hair, which was banded in a low ponytail. It felt like a supportive gesture, but she knew that someone as careful as Costin was no doubt agreeing with Kiko about letting her go out there with the dragon inside of her.

“You know about Samhain, right, Dawn?” Kik asked.

What a strange question. “Sure. It marks the official end of summer. It’s a Celtic festival. A feast of the dead. And it used to be that groups would dress up as spirits of the dead so they could walk around on this night unmolested by the spirits—they thought they would blend in with them. They’d go from door to door, pretending to be beggars, and if someone who answered the door didn’t give them a generous ‘treat,’ there’d be bad luck on that house. The group might play a trick on them, too, just to emphasize the message that you shouldn’t piss off the ancestors that they represented.” Dawn shrugged. “Costin and Jonah caught me up on all that before we left earlier for the first Barker property.”

“So you know that this is a night when the dead have power over the living.”

Don’t they always?
she thought.

“I guess you’re making one of your roundabout points, Kik,” she said. “Do you think the Meratoliages harnessed some dead spirits along with the undead keepers or something? Or do you think they have some kind of army of dead-men-walking surprises waiting for me and the dragon at that bonfire?”

“I’m not ruling anything out. I just wondered if you’re taking this too lightly. Cause of the lack of soul stain and all.”

She took that under consideration, but deep down, she suspected this was just another argument he was using for her to stay inside until sunlight. Actually, it sounded so unlike the old gung-ho Kiko that she couldn’t help commenting on it.

“Once upon a time,” she said, “you would’ve been out the door with me first. I don’t know how many Meratoliages are gathered at that bonfire you saw in your visions, but I’d like to take out every threat I can while it’s possible.”

Before sunrise.

Before there might be terrible consequences once again for her being able to kill.

Kiko stayed quiet, and she turned away from him, toward the sliding glass door. Outside, the sky was still dark, silvered by a veil of moonlight, almost as if there was a layer protecting the last of the night.

As she lingered there, she wished Kalin would get her spirit derriere back ASAP...

She thought she saw something on some rocks to the right.

Teenagers, playing around on the beach during Halloween?

She wandered closer to the door, just to get a better look, and what she saw took her aback for a second.

It seemed that, all this time, Lilly Meratoliage had been standing on the rocks, staring at the house as if she had been waiting for Dawn to see her. She made for a disturbing sight, too, with her light brown hair blowing in the breeze, her black-clad body tense, her mouth gaped open and her eerie white eyes like two moons themselves.

Dawn put a hand on her revolver holster. “Looks like one of the Meratoliages decided to come to us, and it looks like she doesn’t have those nunchucks this time.”

Kiko rushed off the sofa to see. Costin came up behind her, his essence lightly pressing on her good shoulder.

“What is her plan, I wonder?” he asked.

Dawn made eye contact with Lilly—if eyes are what you’d call those two pale things in the girl’s face. “She obviously knows we’re in here, and either she’s going to attack the house—and I’ll bet she’s done a security check since she’s a keeper and all—or she’s hoping I’ll be rattled enough to come out and confront her.”

“Whatever it is,” Costin whispered, “you know it could be a trap.”

Dawn glanced behind her, as if she could see him. All she could discern, though, was air, thick and disturbing and full of an energy that had the power to drill through her.

When she turned back around, Lilly was gone.

“You gotta be kidding,” she said.

Kiko was already on it, nearly pressed against the window. “She hustled off the rocks to the right.”

Dawn thought about going up to the second floor for a more comprehensive view, but she took one more gander out the glass, getting as close as Kiko was to it.

Just then, Lilly darted in front of her, pasting her body against the glass, imitating Dawn’s shape.

Although she’d startled, Dawn didn’t let herself fully jerk away from the door. She didn’t let herself be scared of this girl, either, even though the dragon’s blood was tapping inside of her, probably because one of its most recent keepers was so damned close.

Or maybe he was ticked off at Lilly for failing to protect him.

Either way, Dawn didn’t move.

“What now?” she whispered. She was still face-to-face with Lilly, eye-to-horrifying-eye. This close, she could see the small red veins in the girl’s eyes from the strain of rolling them back in her head. She could see inside her maw of a mouth as it stayed in that eternally damned scream. She could see the mud that the girl had packed into the stake hole that Dawn had inflicted earlier.

Even undead, she’s still a smart one
, Dawn thought.

When Lilly scraped her nails down the glass, Dawn shuddered, and it was as if the dragon’s blood was laughing at her disgust.

Dawn realized that Kiko had crept away from her, and that Costin wasn’t nearby, either. So what should
she
do? Move and take a chance that it would scare Lilly off?

After what seemed like an hour—even though it wasn’t—Dawn saw what her two partners had in mind.

Kiko had sneaked up on the deck, a taser in one hand, handcuffs in another, and a revolver holster hanging from the small belt around his hips. She suspected Costin was right there with him.

Didn’t they remember what Meratoliage keepers could do, even when they weren’t undead? They’d almost killed her and Costin during the final showdown in London. They’d planted booby traps around the dragon, but the keepers themselves were fast, strong. So well-trained that they could put even a vampire hunter to shame.

As Kiko crept up on Lilly, Dawn actually thought about trying to resurrect her dormant psychokinetic powers to help him, but there was a layer of glass between her and the keeper. Plus, she didn’t even know if she could summon enough anger for the powers to work—they never did without the rage.

She almost laughed. Great. The one time she needed her stain to enhance the anger and it was in happy mode.

Dawn could’ve sworn that one of Lilly’s eyebrows had lifted, ever so slightly, as if she’d caught wind of Kiko and Costin behind her.

But it didn’t matter, because Costin had obviously flown forward, pushing Lilly against the glass even more as Kiko lifted the taser.

Lilly’s hands slid up the glass, then over her head. A surrender?

Dawn couldn’t tell by looking at the undead face, but just as rapid as a blink, Lilly had fallen to her knees, and Kiko ran over to slap the cuffs around her wrists.

Through the window, he nodded for Dawn to open the door, and she did.

When they dragged her inside, slamming the door closed and locking it, Dawn could tell Costin was wrapped around Lilly’s body, controlling her movements as he rolled her over the carpet. Her bound wrists were still over her head, and she was making a groaning sound that somehow resembled speech.

“She’s trying to talk,” Dawn said.

Kiko had his taser pulled, pointing it down at Lilly, who’d been released by Costin and was staring straight up at the ceiling as she made those moans.

“Let her talk then,” Kiko said, a gleam in his eyes.

*

Lilly hadn’t put up any kind of fight as they bound her to a chair, strapping her ankles to the legs and keeping her cuffed while roping her upright to the back.

Dawn shrugged out of her jacket, tossed it on the sofa, and sat opposite her. She couldn’t stop herself from being fascinated by the way the girl looked; she’d been a pretty thing before, Dawn supposed, but she’d been warped into something from a
Fangoria
cover now. Even worse, she actually resembled Dawn’s dad on the night she’d found him lying still in a bed, his own mouth opened just like Lilly’s, his skin shriveled after Eva had sucked most of the life out of him.

Dawn shook off the image of what her mother had done as Lilly made those pathetic undead sounds again, her mouth working slightly as she tried to articulate something.

“She’s still trying to talk,” Dawn said to Costin, who’d positioned himself behind Lilly, in case she tried to pull a fast one on them.

After a moment of consideration, he called for Kiko.

He had gone into the next room with Natalia, and the murmur of their conversation hadn’t been lost on Dawn. But at Costin’s summons, he entered. Natalia was right behind him, looking none too happy.

“Did you find something on her we missed?” Kiko asked, standing next to Lilly’s chair.

“She’s free of weapons,” Dawn said. “Lilly’s trying to communicate something. We’re not sure if she’s giving herself up to us or setting us up for a trap.”

“Why did she not spring this trap earlier then?” Costin asked. “She and the old men had the opportunity.”

“Maybe,” Kiko said, assessing Lilly, who assessed him right back with those eyes, “she’s delaying us here because the rest of the Meratoliages are on their way to snag Dawn.”

Costin said, “All of our dormant outside cameras are operational now, not merely the few that were active before. Just interview this Meratoliage as best as you can, Kiko, then out she goes.”

Lilly twisted her mouth in a sort of frown...except ghoul style.

As for Kiko, he looked like a kid at a birthday party with a big old present in front of him. Riding skin was far more effective than getting a read on dead objects, such as a chain or even blood. What stunned Dawn, though, was that Natalia took a stand next to him as if she was going to add her own psychic powers.

If you can’t beat them, join them?

“Wait!” said a man’s voice from the foyer.

It was Jonah and, as he entered the room, he trailed a hand against the wall, as if that was keeping him balanced.

“What’re you doing out of bed?” Dawn asked.

“No way I’m gonna miss this.” He dropped into a wingback chair and settled in for the show, the bandage around his head giving him a wounded yet jaunty air.

Whatever.

“Now that we have an audience,” Dawn said to Kiko and Natalia, “let’s get this rolling.”

“Costin?” Kiko asked.

“I have her under control,” he said from behind Lilly.

Kiko kept his gaze on the keeper’s blank face as he touched her neck, right above her dark collar and below her light brown hair.

Natalia joined him, resting her hand on his.

They both closed their eyes, and when their heads violently dipped at the same time, Dawn got out of her chair, her adrenaline on alert.

“It is fine, Dawn,” Costin whispered, his voice traveling through the room.

Her heart was beating so fast that it felt like a bunch of popping gears. She’d never seen Kiko and Natalia go into a trance this quickly.

And when their bodies began to shake, the dragon inside Dawn did the same.

“We should stop them,” she said, glancing at Jonah, who was on the edge of his seat. Then she sought Costin. “This doesn’t look right.”

But nobody—not even her—made a move to halt the reading.

Not until both Kiko and Natalia reared back their heads and let out screams that cut the night in half.

The Other Woman

As the screams reverberated through the room, Dawn surged forward to yank Kiko and Natalia away from the keeper.

But then the couple pulled in huge breaths and widened their eyes, just as if they were seeing something important.