Five

five

Kris

Because I did have gun training, I was officially part of the hunt tonight. Now granted, I didn’t have a ton of experience, but this seemed like a way to get more. Probably not the best way, but a way.

Which might be why my husband kept strapping weapons onto me. Or trying to.

“What about one teensy, weensy dagger—”

“Does the teensy, weensy dagger effectively cut bone?”

“Uh, well, jury’s out on that one. I’ve never tried it.”

I gave Zhen a speaking look. “Don’t you normally come at this thing with a cleaver?”

“Pretty much. Ooh!” He snapped his fingers. “That’s what you were getting at, you want something larger—”

“No, Zhen, that’s not what I was getting at.” I had to remember that, for him, weapons were toys. Really cool toys that either made noise or cut things. “I have a gun, a huge LED light, and two huodou . What more do I actually need? Not what you want me to have, but need.”

His lip popped out in a pout. Seriously, the pout was real.

I gave up and stuck a leg out. “Strap a dagger to me if it makes you feel better.”

Pout disappeared like a magic trick. Poof, gone! “Okay!”

I watched him grab something that was decidedly not the dagger he’d originally offered, but instead something that looked like one of those pro chef meat cleavers, and thought about protesting. But it would only result in another pout, and really, if it made him less stressed about me coming tonight? Then I’d wear a cleaver on my thigh. No big deal.

Zhen was in camo pants tucked into black boots, a black tank, and about five thousand weapons strapped to every part of him. He’d put his hair up in a tighter man bun, probably to make sure it stayed out of his eyes. I loved how he’d gotten ready in five minutes flat but lingered on me.

A few knocks on the door to our room distracted Zhen.

“Come on in, we’re naked!” Zhen called out.

Jake laughed before pushing the door open. “That joke never gets old. Hey, Kris, you’re looking sharp.”

“Just about ready,” I admitted. “I’ve got a bit of work to do in about ten minutes, mostly to help Boss with a Zoom call, but then I can go.”

“Sure. It’ll take us another hour to get fully prepped. Speaking of…” Jake focused on Zhen, who had finally finished strapping me in. He could’ve been Zhen’s twin with the same camo pants, boots, tank top, and a million weapons. Although his were more guns than blades. “I have an idea.”

“A good idea?”

“Consider the source, man.”

“That’s fair. Hit me.”

Yeah, these two were old friends, all right. Their back-and-forth sounded almost scripted.

Jake’s grin was unholy with wicked delight. “So, Sheriff told me they’ve got a blow-up sex doll in their uncollected evidence room. Case is long closed, they have no idea what to do with it. He’s offered to let us have it to use as bait. What if we blow that thing up and then smear it with, like, pig’s blood or something?”

Zhen made appreciative ooh ing sounds.

“I think it’s a good idea.” I glanced between them as I spoke. “Definitely better than one of us getting too close to the water at night. I’m saying this right now, though—you’re not borrowing any of my clothes to put on it.”

Jake gave me a questioning look, his brows pulled together. “Why would we need to put clothes on it?”

“Because there’s kids in this town?” I could not believe I had to point out the obvious, but there I sat. Pointing out the obvious. “You’re really going to cart around a blown-up sex doll covered in blood and just hope no minor sees you in the process?”

“Uh…”

Zhen snorted. “She’s got you there. Besides, the plastic on the doll might not take blood very well. Better to have clothing to soak it up. Let’s go grab the doll, see if we can find something to throw over it, and check the local butcher for blood.”

“Works for me.”

A single kiss from Zhen and then he was out the door, following Jake. I was relieved that I had some quiet for making my call. Jake was naturally a loud speaker, so even when he tried to be quiet, he wasn’t.

I connected Boss up virtually to her Zoom call, then sat in to make sure there weren’t any technical issues. Plus, I took notes on what the client wanted for their deceased son’s spouse. The usual. The client ended the call first after making a deposit payment, but Boss lingered.

She looked a little tired behind those bright red glasses, her hair up in a messy bun as if she couldn’t be bothered with it. I felt like I saw more white in her greying hair today, but maybe it was just the screen making it look that way. “ How is it going over there ?”

“Good so far.” I kicked back in the reclining chair near the window. “The boys are out grabbing a sex doll—it was donated by the sheriff’s department—and some other things to dress it up as bait for tonight. From the account we have, this seems to be a juvenile Bloody Bones, so they’re confident they can take it.”

She nodded, not at all alarmed. She’d likely heard of Zhen doing worse over the years. “ Good, good. I knew he’d have it in hand. But how is your bond doing ?”

“All over the fucking map.” I sighed, still irritated by this. “If there’s a common denominator, I don’t see it.”

“ It occurred to me that stress could also be a factor .”

Huh. Now why didn’t I think of that? “You make a really good point. It probably is.”

“ Have you noticed whether you’re stressed or not when your bond starts acting up ?”

“Uhh…to be honest, I’m not sure if that’s consistent. The bond kind of stresses both of us out on a regular basis because we have to accommodate it so much. And it could be Zhen’s stressing when I’m chill, but he just hasn’t said anything.”

“ True, both of your moods need to factor in. Hmm, why don’t you talk to him about this and see if tracking that helps in any way ?”

“I mean, we have nothing to lose, so I’m sure he’d agree. Any luck on your end?”

“ Nothing yet, sorry, honey .” She sighed wearily and took her glasses off before massaging her nose. “ My eyes are tired. I’m going to rest. I’ll call you later .”

“Sure. Night.”

I heard suspicious noises coming from next door, so I shut the laptop and slid out, popping into Jake’s room. Sure enough, they were back. The sex doll was magically pumped already—I suspected they’d borrowed a gas station’s air pump—and it was an ugly thing. Men could get off on using this? Uhh…okay…this might become one of those things I wished I didn’t know.

“Kris, we found a Dollar General not far from here,” Jake informed me happily while whipping things out of bright yellow plastic bags. “We got a wig, a dress, and a cheap kid’s fishing pole so we can dangle it away from us.”

“I’m good with that, but how are you going to get the wig to stay on?”

He pulled out another thing from the bag with a sound of victory. “Double-sided tape!”

“Ah, good, that should work.”

I didn’t know what else would, honestly, as the plastic on the doll was slippery and its head wasn’t exactly shaped right. It had seen better days. Kind of tragic it would meet its end with a scum-sucking pond monster.

With a shrug, I took tape and such from him and started working on applying the wig. I didn’t think a Bloody Bones would care if their victim had hair or not, but I also recognized it wasn’t the point. The boys had a new toy to play with.

“Oh, and we named her!” Zhen’s expression was pure mischief.

Case in point.

“Uh-huh,” I deadpanned as I got more tape on the “skin,” shaking my head. “And what did you name her?”

“Sǐ Yú.”

I stopped dead so I could crane my neck around to where he was getting the doll’s back buttons done up. “As in Sǐ Yú Yǎn ?”

He laughed in delight. “I knew you’d get it!”

“Explain it to me,” Jake begged. “He told me the name, then busted out laughing, and I can’t speak Chinese to save my life.”

I rolled my eyes—Zhen was ridiculous—but complied. “Basically the phrase means ‘dead fish eye.’ Kind of like our American phrase of dead behind the eyes.”

“Ohhh.” Then Jake laughed. “That’s perfect, man! She really is dead behind the eyes.”

“I know, right? I can’t think of a better name for her.”

They were totally, totally playing. Well, I wouldn’t begrudge them the fun.

We finished putting the wig and dress on Sǐ Yú, who honestly looked even creepier with it all on. At least she wouldn’t scandalize some poor mom, though. Then I carted her down to the car while the guys got the heavier equipment, and we loaded up. Only after we arrived did we pour the blood all over the cheap dress. No sense in doing it before and getting blood everywhere, and the fresher scent would hopefully attract our Bloody Bones.

We had a smidgeon of light still out as the sun steadily set—enough for us to scout out a good area to set me up, not to mention Sǐ Yú.

I wasn’t sure if it was a deer blind or the remains of an old playhouse-slash-fort thing, but there was a small wooden platform built into one of the larger oak trees, plus a few nailed- in boards to act like a makeshift ladder. I did not trust the boards—those nails were past rusted—so Zhen gave me a boost up. Only then did I get the LED light on and set so it cast general illumination over the whole pond area. It was square, with a handle on it, so it set up perfectly without much fussing on my part.

I let the guys pick their spots and called, “Guo?”

He materialized at the base of the tree, looking up at me. He did not look happy. His massive bottom lip was pushed into a pout, both ears flat to his head. His black fur was more bristled, especially along the spine.

“I do not like you being here,” he informed me, his voice rough, like he ate brimstone for every meal. “There is much evil in this place.”

“Trust me, we know. We’re here to hunt it because it nearly killed three kids.”

He frowned deeper, his golden eyes going almost umber. “The young should be off-limits.”

“I agree wholeheartedly. Anyway, I’m safely up here and out of harm’s way. Can you scout the area and see if you can smell it? Or if there’s anything else aside from the Bloody Bones in this area we should be aware of?”

“I can. Do not move.”

“Roger that.”

Guo immediately sped off. And now we waited.