Chapter 9

S ure enough, Pink Panic rested in a small clearing at a sharp angle with her doors thrown wide open.

Keys hung from the ignition, but the engine wouldn’t turn over when I tried it. Dead battery? No clicking or ticking sounds. Nothing. No Tameka. No Keshawn. No sign of how they got here or where they had gone either. Just insects and night birds calling.

Badb hopped on the passenger seat and pecked at the seat belt buckle.

Checking with Kierce, I verified, “That’s where she found the string?”

Her caw confirmed it before he could, and I scratched the top of her head in thanks.

A quick search of the interior netted me a wrinkled brochure for Grandview Women’s Club, but that was it. I tucked it into my pocket to research later.

“There are no signs of a struggle.” Kierce examined the rear of the truck. “I don’t smell blood either.”

Unlike Tameka and Keshawn, my dismount wasn’t athletic or elegant. More of a slow slide then a plop.

As I began my own investigation of the exterior, I was struck by an impossible realization.

“There are no scratches on the wrapper. There’s no way a truck this size reached this point without a mark on it.” I smoothed my hand down the truck’s flank. “There’s a local witch—Fifi Dern—who does odd jobs for The Body Shop. The Suarez brothers introduced me to her years ago. She’s the one who cast the spell on the wagon to keep the interior and exterior spotless. I’m sure she’ll answer a few hypotheticals as a professional courtesy. She ought to be able to tell us whether a witch is responsible.”

While it was fresh on my mind, I fired off a text to her. “Has Badb located any of the other vehicles?”

“No.” He waited a beat, and then she took flight. “She’s going to search farther out.”

We had already gone a long way from the pit, and where Carter knew where to find us.

“I’ll text Carter and…” I mimed throttling Badb. “I keep forgetting her phone is busted.”

“She called you earlier to set up the meeting at Mallow,” he reminded me.

“She borrowed that phone, but I can try.” I hit redial. “Um, hello. I’m looking for Carter.”

“One moment,” Officer Kim said, and I made a mental note it was her number.

A gruff voice growled across the line a heartbeat later. “Yeah.”

“Badb found Pink Panic. I’m going to drop a pin so you can see it for yourself.”

“You don’t sound upset, so I assume no remains were with the truck.”

“Thank God, no. There was nothing else here.”

“Wait for me.” Carter exhaled. “I’ll be there in ten.”

Off in the distance, Badb cried out, and Kierce’s eyes flashed silver as they spoke.

“She found a car.” Muscles fluttered along the underside of his jaw. “It’s occupied.”

The combination of the mundane phrase and his grim expression gave me chills.

“I have to go.” I had a gut feeling it was better for us to see the scene before the 514 got there and restricted our access. “We’re heading deeper.”

“Frankie—”

After ending the call, I pocketed my phone. “Let’s get a look around before the others arrive.”

With another loaner caught up in yet another of the 514’s cases, I had to beat them on scene and perform my own search before the officers began second-guessing Carter’s decision to give us lanyards.

“All right.” Kierce guided us in, using Badb’s directions. “Do you feel that?”

“No?” As soon as I stepped even with him, an oily sensation swamped my senses. “Make that a yes.”

A thicket awaited us, one Badb was careful to sail over, not letting a feather brush so much as a leaf.

Unfortunately, Kierce and I didn’t have that option. We had to wade through, much to my belly’s dislike.

“This is like where Ankou planted his tree but ten times worse.” I rubbed my tender stomach, but it didn’t help. “Do you think it’s been here?”

“I’m not sure, but death magic was present not long ago.” His eyes tightened at their corners. “A large amount of it to be this potent.”

Once we breached the tangled vines and bushes, we found a late-model SUV with its driver door open.

The smell hit me within six feet of the vehicle, and I braced myself to discover the source.

A mutilated body, more bone than flesh, slumped across the front seats with an arm thrown out as if to grab the passenger door handle. Tattered remnants of clothing led me to believe the victim had been female. “She was… eaten .”

An animal had done this, of that there was no doubt. But had it killed her or scavenged her remains? The truck had been empty, so what happened here? Had the Ezells escaped before whatever did this got them? Had this woman not survived the transition from road to forest and the smell lured in predators? Only forensics could tell us that.

As if I knew anything about forensic science I didn’t learn from watching crime documentaries.

“Badb has found another vehicle,” Kierce said into the quiet.

“The driver?”

“The car is empty.”

“Thank God.” I dropped a pin on this location and sent it to Carter. “Let’s go.”

As much as I wanted to poke around, I couldn’t with my stomach so tender. I didn’t want to vomit on an active crime scene and ruin any evidence that might help us pinpoint what had done this. I was a chicken for rushing away with the first excuse I could find clutched tight in both hands, but I didn’t care.

The carnage wasn’t the problem. I was a necromancer. I had seen and done worse. No. Blood, meat, and bone didn’t bother me. Selfish fear for my own skin coated my spine with cold sweat. I was terrified that I had done it again, enabled someone to hijack a loaner that I had failed in my duty to protect.

And, if I bungled that, how much more of my life would come tumbling down? How could I provide for my family if claims of gross negligence ruined my reputation, forcing me to shut down my side of the business? Demigodhood was nice and all, but it didn’t pay the bills.

Once we cleared the thicket, saliva quit flooding my mouth, and I could swallow again. “You’ve seen this kind of thing a lot, haven’t you?”

The scene had affected him, but there was a certain grave acceptance in his posture and expression that told me this was merely the latest in a never-ending line of deaths he had been called upon to witness.

“Death has been my life for as long as I can remember.”

“Dis Pater could probably help with that.”

“This doesn’t have to be your fight, Frankie.” His voice rang hollow. “But he has made it mine.”

“When Tameka and Keshawn disappeared with my loaner, it became my task.” I hadn’t wanted to get in bed with the 514 again, but here I was, fluffing my pillow. “They weren’t with the truck. Keshawn might still be alive.” I longed to practice my primal scream. “Camaro was meant to return to her family at the end of her contract. I don’t want to explain to her mother how I let a soul hijack her daughter’s body and then lost it in the woods the next state over.”

Business troubles from the dybbuk consuming my clients’ souls was bad enough, but I couldn’t do my job without loaners. If word got around that I was losing bodies to runaway clients, I would either have an overflow of repos who didn’t fear the consequences, or I would never book another lease. And I wouldn’t deserve to either if I couldn’t temper the effects of my actions.

“Besides.” I touched his arm. “You’ve done this alone for long enough, don’t you think?”

His next step faltered, and he caught himself with a palm against a nearby tree.

“What better way to learn my powers,” I reasoned, “than by receiving on-the-job training?”

“You’re the daughter of a god. These tasks are beneath you.”

“I’m not afraid of getting my hands dirty.” I forced myself to breathe. “I have to accept the changes within me. And I will. I’ll try, anyway. But I’m never going to be Dis Pater. I’m not going to have minions I keep in cages or dispatch on missions I’m too lazy to oversee for myself.”

“You’re young.” He sounded infinitely sad. “Your views might change over time.”

“I hate to tell you this, but Matty is in a similar boat to me. After his body dies, he’s essentially immortal. Just trapped on the dream plane. A dryad can live as long as the tree they bond to, but there’s precedence for dryads slipping into a new tree before the old one dies.” Necromancers tended to live for around five centuries, so Matty and I had always worried about leaving Josie behind. “She’s not fully dryad either. There’s no predicting her lifespan.” I wouldn’t quit until I found a way to keep us all together. “That means there will always be someone there to tell me when I have my head up my ass. Siblings aren’t afraid to point out your failures, weaknesses, mistakes, if you have food stuck in your teeth, or much of anything. I think it’s safe to say that I’ll enter my eternity with a boot print on my butt.”

“When you look into that future filled with your loved ones, do you see me?”

A breath caught in my throat, the unexpected question tilting the ground beneath my feet before the world righted itself again. “There’s room in the big picture for you, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Content with that response, he didn’t press for more details, and I was glad. I had no idea what today, or tomorrow, would bring. I couldn’t promise either to anyone until I got my situation under control. And if my sister killed me for dying, then I would be really and truly dead and the future wouldn’t matter either way.

Damn it.

Even in the comfort of my own mind, I feared my sister’s wrath more than beginning this new life.

Matty had always known his physical body would decline over time until only his soul remained, and the downside to his immortal half-life were the restrictions placed on him. We could visit him in our dreams, though. I would take that in a heartbeat over never seeing him or hearing his laugh again.

But I figured I would live a few hundred years, doing the necromancy thing, and then die.

Instead of a new five-year plan, I had to think bigger. More like five decades or five centuries.

“Good.” He took my hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed my knuckles. “I’m glad.”

We trudged together to the car, hand in hand, but Badb was right. There were no signs of a struggle, no body, and no blood. There was nothing to indicate foul play had met this driver, but I did find a burner phone in the glovebox. The victim had made one call. I snapped a picture of the number then returned the cell to where I found it.

“This car has minor scratches.” I walked a circle around the vehicle. “Nothing like it would get if someone drove it this far in. Not that you could. There’s not enough space between the trees.”

The minor cosmetic damage must have been present prior to the driver’s abduction.

“There were deep gouges on the SUV.”

Ashamed to admit it, I told him, “I didn’t notice.”

Panic had run away with my thoughts before they could settle on anything useful.

“I should return. Make a more thorough examination.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You can wait here with Badb or?—”

Had he sensed man or beast in our vicinity, he never would have made the offer, but I wasn’t interested.

“Ha. Ha. Ha. No. That’s how you get killed in horror movies. I’ll stick with you.”

“Are you sure you want to revisit the scene?”

As much as I didn’t want the answer to be yes, I had to ask, “Can we dispel the magic?”

“Not today.” He jerked his chin, indicating the sky, soft with pinks and purples. “You haven’t slept. Your body is still burning through the dregs of the…lust dirt…but it’s like a sugar high. You’ll crash eventually. You need to be somewhere safe when that happens, or with someone you trust. You’ll be helpless.”

“What?” I balked at the news. “You’re just now telling me?”

“I hoped to use it as a teachable moment. I thought if I waited for you to notice the drag, especially after your expenditure at Bonaventure, that you could begin learning your limits.” His mouth twitched. “But it appears your limitations outstrip mine. You’re not tired at all, are you?”

“No.” As I examined how I felt, really paid attention to my body, surprise painted a frown across my face. The answer was good . “I’ve been awake nearly twenty-four hours, and I’m still perky.”

“I caution you now because of what we found. You must remain alert in the presence of a predator.”

“Okay.” I hoped this wasn’t a don’t think about a pink elephant situation. “I’ll let you know if I start drifting off.”

With a tight nod, we returned to the previous site. We lucked out, coming at the scene upwind from the smell. Able to focus past the rank scent, I paid attention to the details I hadn’t absorbed last time. The gouges in the driver side door Kierce mentioned, as if the creature had opened the SUV like a can of tuna. Plastic on the door curled into shavings. Fabric on the seat spewed foam and springs where the beast clawed at the material to drag the body partway out the door for easier consumption.

Viewed from this angle, I decided the victim hadn’t been reaching for the opposite door handle.

As the creature tugged her from behind the wheel, she must have tipped sideways into the front passenger seat. The drag marks indicated her arms had been drawn up over her head while it feasted.

This time, rather than snoop around, I left the examination of the SUV’s contents to Carter’s people.

“Are you up for a lesson?”

As fast as this situation was spinning out of control, I was glad for a solid task to latch onto. “Sure.”

The appraisal he swept over me confirmed I hadn’t sold my eagerness to learn, but I was too nauseated.

“Use your senses to identify the edge of the death magic where it seeps into healthy earth.”

As far as assignments go, it was a light one. He read my struggle to keep from tossing my cookies and let me off easy, allowing me to drift along the perimeter without wading any deeper into the cloying power saturating the area.

“Okay.” I shook out my arms. “This is where the gross sensation begins.”

Eyes half shut, I navigated a circle, keeping to the outside edge of the darkness.

“Good.” Kierce beamed like I had performed a miracle instead of trying not to hurl. “Now do it again.”

“You think the first time was beginner’s luck?” As I began retracing my path, I detected a spark of power. Lighter, brighter. Its cold burn cleansed me, and the nausea eased. “Are you doing this?”

That same pride wreathed his features. “Define this .”

“Oh, so that’s how you want to play it.” I huffed at his teachable moment. “There’s a trail of light energy. It’s containing the death magic. I think. Almost like a ward.” I squinted at him. “Did you use me to map it for you?”

“This was your doing.”

“Magic doesn’t just happen.” I finished my circuit. “How am I responsible?”

“The darkness recoiled from where you stepped earlier, but it returned in seconds.”

“A circular path gave it nowhere to retreat but into itself.” I made a guess. “The second lap anchored it?”

A ward set in place by my footsteps caused me to trip over my own feet with numb comprehension.

“That was my hypothesis, yes, and it appears you’ve proven it true.”

A faint wave of dizziness struck me, and I leaned against a tree to catch my balance.

“Frankie?”

Exhaustion weighted my limbs, dragging me down. “I’m fine…”