Chapter 19

“Well, what do you know, Atlas is a mouthpiece,” Edwin said dryly from the driver’s seat of our van.

“He’s Kaster’s vein, after all,” Padma said from behind us. “But I didn’t realize Kaster was mute.”

“And that trick with the voice…” I shuddered against my leather seat.

“I wonder if he was born that way,” Merry said. “Oooh, we should have asked him about what Gunther said. The client thing…”

“Because clients pay.” Padma said what we’d all been thinking.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Gunther is taking payment,” Edwin said, taking a left at the intersection. “It would explain all the unsolved cases dumped in our filing room.”

“Unpaid cases, you mean,” Padma added.

I suspected just that. “You think Kaster knows?”

“I doubt it,” Padma said. “From what I’ve heard about him, he’s a lethal bastard who’ll cut down anyone who fucks with his team, but he’s also fair. But heck, I don’t know him personally, so that could all be bullshit. For all we know, he’s the mastermind behind it all.”

“It’s hard to imagine him not knowing what’s going on under his nose,” Edwin said.

All fair points. “Atlas did say Kaster had authorized them taking over the Order offices…Speaking of Atlas…You think he knows?”

“Doubtful,” Padma said. “He only joined the division a few months ago, after…after the fire.”

There was silence in the van for a few moments, just the drone of the engine and the flash of streetlights washing over us as we passed.

“We should say something,” Merry said finally. “If he doesn’t know about the client thing, then he should, and if he knows, then…he should know that we know that he knows.”

“Damn, Merry, you make my head ache,” Edwin said good-naturedly.

But Merry was right. “We’ll tell him…as soon as we deliver his operative.”

“We could tell that Wayne vamp,” Edwin suggested.

“I don’t like his face,” Merry said with a shiver. “He has liar’s eyes.”

I had no idea what that meant, but if her gut was saying no, then we’d go with it. “Okay, so no Wayne, just Atlas.”

I glanced in the side mirror at the car tailing us—a reluctant Wayne in the driver’s seat. “Sangualex has some nice wheels.”

“Yeah,” Edwin said wistfully.

“I should have added a new van to our list of demands.”

“I’m sure there’ll be more favors called in,” Padma said bitterly.

I had a feeling she wasn’t all in with this ghoul interruptus mission. Working for the Sangualex had cost her team their lives. “If you didn’t want to do this, you should have said so back at the office.” I twisted in my seat to look at her. “We all need to be on board for shit like this, Padma. I would have told him to go fuck himself if you didn’t want in.”

“What? And give up the chance of an expensive coffee machine?” She snorted, a smile tugging at her lips. “No. I’m good. I just…I fucking hate them.”

I sat back in my seat and met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “It’s like a barrel of rotten apples. There’s got to be a few that aren’t spoiled.”

“Rot infects,” she countered.

“Also true. Dammit, woman.” She cracked a proper smile, and I sent her one back via the mirror. “No one is going to take advantage of us again, I swear it. From now on, we don’t work for the Sangualex, we work with them, and only on our terms.”

“Deal,” Merry said from the backseat.

“You got it,” Edwin agreed.

I met Padma’s eyes in the mirror again, waiting.

She locked eyes with me, her smile lingering. “Whatever you say, boss.”

And that would have to do. For now.

Lakeview cemetery was seton a rise within view of an actual lake. Bordered by ivy-choked stone walls, the only entrance and exit was via a heavy wrought iron gate set between two stone pillars topped with twin Raven statues. The site looked more like an estate than a place to bury the dead.

“I’m surprised the vampires dealt with a case here,” Edwin said. “They hate hallowed ground.”

A door slammed behind us, and Wayne joined us a moment later, hands in his pockets, a sulky downturn to his lips. He was a whip-thin male with a receding hairline and knives for cheekbones.

“Let’s hurry this up. I’ll show you where the ghoul is, check on Charlie, and then I’m out of here.” He strode forward, shoulders hunched, muttering under his breath as he crossed the threshold.

We followed him onto the path that wound through the cemetery like a silver ribbon. Headstones and mausoleums dotted the grounds, some hidden behind bramble and bush, others pushing free of the stonework to reach for the sky.

The place felt abandoned and lost. “Doesn’t anyone come here?”

“Everyone who knew anyone buried here is probably dead,” Merry said. “This is the oldest cemetery in Dracul territory and the only one in Old Town. The others are modern and in New Town. Humans are no longer buried here.”

“It’ll be lively soon enough,” Wayne said from up ahead. “Rising year brings all the specters out.”

“What do you mean?”

“The ghosts. You’ll be able to see them soon enough. Something happens at rising that allows them to manifest easier. You’ll see people salting their doorways and windowsills. You best do the same lest you want an invasion.”

Ghosts? Great.

“But the ghouls live here now?” Edwin pressed.

“Yeah,” Wayne said.

He didn’t elaborate. “So why did they take your officer? What were you doing here?”

”We got a call from what we thought was a human reporting an attack in the cemetery. Once we got here, there was no human, just a bunch of ghouls. There was an altercation, and they took Charlie. We had to retreat to avoid getting bit.”

We followed the path round, deeper into the grounds where trees spread their canopies to block out the moon, and through a stone arch into a clearing where a huge ornate mausoleum was housed. A young girl sat outside, reading—back propped against the wall, legs out in front of her and crossed at the ankle. She looked up as we approached.

“Where is he?” Wayne demanded. “Where’s Charlie?”

The girl closed her book, set it neatly on the ground, then stood. She was small, and she looked human, but on closer inspection, her skin had a grayish tinge to it, and the tips of her fingers were black.

“You can have your man back,” she said. “Once you find Lomax.”

“Who’s Lomax?” Edwin asked.

“He’s nobody,” Wayne sneered. “A flesh-eating nuisance that’s better off?—”

“I’d watch what you say,” the girl said. “Considering we flesh-eating nuisances have your man.”

“You don’t eat vamps,” Wayne said smugly.

“No. But we could use a chew toy.”

She was a ghoul? This young girl who couldn’t be more than eighteen? I’d never seen a ghoul before, but I’d read about them, flesh-eating entities that took dead bodies as hosts. They were supposed to be decaying, awful-looking monsters, but this girl didn’t look dead.

I had questions, and maybe once we wrapped this up, I’d be able to ask them, but first— “Hi, my name’s Orina. I’m with the Order. I’m not sure what’s happening here. I was told you took Charlie…Can I ask why? I mean, it’s obviously not for food.” Fuck, did they eat people? If they ate people, then I might have to put them down…

She fixed her dishwater eyes on me. “Ask him. Ask him how many times we’ve called in to chase our case. Lomax, our leader, is gone. Missing for almost two weeks, and they’ve done nothing to find him.”

So they’d taken Charlie to force their hand. “Wayne?”

“You’re in line, okay? There are other cases that need?—”

I turned on him. “Whoa, you don’t put a missing persons on hold. You act on it. Immediately. You did the same thing to the Diago case on Raffleton, leaving us nothing to work with.”

“We have a system.”

“Oh? You mean the one where the people who pay get priority?”

He sucked in his cheeks, eyes narrowing to slits. “How dare you make such accusations?”

“Fuck this, and fuck you, Wayne. You can tell Kaster the deal is off. I don’t work with crooked officers.”

I turned to leave.

“Wait!” Wayne said. “You can’t do this. You can’t just leave him. You took the job. You said?—”

I spun on my heel to face him. “And what vow did you take when you joined the Sangualex, huh?”

He flinched. “Please help him. You can take the Lomax case. I’ll transfer the files. I’ll even help but…please, get Charlie back.”

He looked genuinely upset; the hard-nosed asshole of earlier was gone. “What the fuck is going on, Wayne?”

He shook his head. “Stay out of it. Trust me. It’s safer that way.”

“Is Kaster involved? Atlas?”

“I don’t know. No one knows, and tattlers go missing.” He was warning us, not threatening. “Look, you have your Order offices back. You have a chance to do good. I swear to you, help me now, and I’ll make sure I forward you the urgent cases that we don’t have time to deal with.”

There was something very rotten at the Sangualex, but it couldn’t be my problem to fix it. This, however, right now, I could deal with.

“Fine.” I strode back to the mausoleum where the girl was waiting, book clutched to her chest now, looking less confident and much younger than a moment ago.

“Give the vamp back and the Order will work your case.”

Her gaze flicked between Wayne and me. “How can I trust you?”

I shrugged. “What have you got to lose aside from a chew toy?”

She seemed to consider this for a moment, then gave me a nod. “Okay. Wait here.”

Like I was going to follow her into a creepy-ass mausoleum.

“Two weeks is a long time,” Padma pointed out. “Trail will be cold. Again.” She shot Wayne the side-eye.

He had the grace to look ashamed.

The girl returned dragging a vamp out by the scruff of the neck. He was gagged, hands bound, but seemed otherwise unharmed.

“Here.” She shoved him at us.

Charlie stumbled into Wayne’s arms, and the two vamps hugged before Wayne led him away.

“You’d better keep your part of the deal,” she said to me, lip curling as she tried to look menacing.

“How old are you? I mean you look eighteen, but you might be much older. I don’t know enough about ghouls to tell.”

She crossed her arms. “Seventeen.”

“You mean the body you’re inhabiting is seventeen…or was before she died,” Edwin corrected.

She frowned. “This is my body. I was born with it.”

“You’re a born ghoul?” Padma asked. “How is this possible?”

She shrugged. “I dunno. It just is. It’s nothing new. There are quite a few of us actually. Lomax too. He’s my…my boyfriend.” Her bottom lip quivered. “I fancied chicken, and so he went to Blissmore Market to the butchers to get me some, but he never came back.”

“You eat chicken?” Edwin asked.

She made a sound of exasperation. “No one eats people anymore. Gosh, do you not know anything?”

Obviously not. “Do you have a photo of Lomax?”

She dipped into her pocket and drew out a Polaroid snap. “It’s my favorite one of him, so I want it back.”

Lomax was a dark-haired youth with grayish skin and dishwater eyes and a dimple. Cute.

“Please find him.” Her eyes welled. “I need him back.”

I tucked the photo into my pocket. “I’m not gonna sugarcoat this. Two weeks is a long time. The trail will be cold, but I can promise you that we will do everything in our power to find him. I just can’t promise you that we will, or that if we do, you’ll like what we find.”

She nodded, dislodging tears. “I know. I know. I just…I need to know what happened to him, because if he could have come home…then he would have.”

“Okay,” Edwin said, pulling a notepad from his pocket. “What was he wearing the day he went missing?”

Ten minutes later, we were back at the van. Wayne and Charlie were gone. Whether Wayne kept his part of the deal or not was something we’d have to wait and see.

“There are way too many missing persons cases,” Merry said softly.

“Yeah, I know,” Padma replied.

“How the heck are we going to find out what happened to any of these people?” Edwin asked.

I climbed into the van. “We’ll do what we can. But I think…I think we’re definitely going to need some mystical help.” And if Micah couldn’t get it to us, then I knew someone who might be able to pull some strings.