Unmarked Graves Read online

  “Maybe so, but her CR-V is brand-new — it has less than five thousand miles on it.”

  “Still — ”

  “I know. I called Triple-A, and they came out and took a look. As far as they could tell, there was nothing wrong with the car.”

  “That’s not the same as having a mechanic check it out,” Will said, although he got the feeling that maybe he was protesting a little too much. It wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility to have a brand-new vehicle die on you…but it also wasn’t very likely, either.

  “I know, and Audrey said it was no big deal, that I should just call a Lyft and that she’d have the car towed to the dealership when the service department opened the next morning. And so I called a Lyft…only to have the driver cancel on me.”

  That uncomfortable crawling sensation revisited the back of Will’s neck, only this time, it had begun to inch its way down his spine. “Let me guess — car trouble?”

  “Exactly. Which could also have been a coincidence, so I called another car — an Uber this time — only to have them cancel as well.”

  “More car trouble?”

  “No,” Michael replied, sounding more troubled than ever. “The driver got in a minor fender-bender on the way over to the house. I suppose some people would call that coincidence as well, but I didn’t want to take any more risks, especially with innocent people’s safety.”

  For a moment, Will could only sit there, phone pressed against his ear, as he did his best to process what his friend had just told him. “So, you’re saying…what? That the demons are somehow trying to prevent you from leaving Tucson?”

  “It sure looks that way. I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but as far as I can tell, they want to make sure that you and Rosemary are on your own.”

  Not the kind of news Will wanted to hear. Although he knew he would have done nothing less than his best to ensure Rosemary’s safety, he supposed he’d always kept in the back of his mind the thought that if the situation got too bad, he could reach out to Michael for help. After all, he was only over in Arizona, not halfway around the world.

  Now, though, it sounded as if that particular contingency plan wasn’t something he could rely on. He pulled in a breath and said, “We’ll manage.”

  “I’m not sure you realize what you’re up against — ”

  “Well, you yourself just said that we were in uncharted territory, so it’s not as if you know for sure, either,” Will said reasonably. He was glad he sounded reasonable, that he was using what he liked to think of as his calm minister’s voice, unruffled, certain that God would help him see a way through to a reasonable solution, even if he couldn’t quite guess what that solution might be. “Besides, we just might have a secret weapon the demons don’t even know about.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Briefly, he described what had happened to Rosemary when she returned to the Glendale house, what she had done to ward off Caleb’s attack. He ended with, “She honestly doesn’t quite know how it happened, either, but she obviously has powers that none of us suspected. I don’t know where Caleb is now or how he reacted to the way she defended herself, although I have a feeling he might be reevaluating whether it’s wise to confront her openly again.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Michael said. “This definitely changes things, though. And it makes me feel a little better about the two of you being on your own.”

  While he certainly didn’t expect Rosemary to bear the brunt of any demonic attack, Will privately agreed that the situation maybe wasn’t quite as desperate as it appeared at first glance. Then again, he didn’t know how reliable those magnified powers of hers even were. Maybe the next thing they needed to do was see how easily she could control them.

  “We’ll be fine,” he said, and realized he truly did believe that assertion. “You and Audrey need to take care of yourselves. Besides, it’s entirely possible that Caleb and the people behind him aren’t going to do anything else. After all, on the surface, it looks as though they’ve won.”

  “For the time being,” Michael said darkly. “I’m still working on tracking down where he might be. And actually, I think I’m going to have my research guy, Fred Peñasco, contact you directly with his findings, whatever those are. If the demons really are watching Audrey and me that closely, then it’s probably better if I stay out of the loop.”

  On the surface, that sounded like a good idea, although Will thought they must be paying pretty close attention to him and Rosemary as well. He said as much, and Michael let out a breath of frustration.

  “True, but they have more reason to be wary of Rosemary, I think. I was able to dispel Belial, even on his home turf at that estate in Connecticut, because he was still a pure demon and had to abide by the rules of possession and exorcism. These hybrids we’re dealing with now — the cambions and their quarter-demon children — are an entirely different story. I mean, my house has all kinds of wards on it…the demons that went after Audrey’s home never touched us at my place…but Caleb Lockwood apparently walked in there without any trouble at all. And that means my arsenal isn’t going to be nearly as effective as I’d hoped.”

  Damn. Will supposed he should have thought of that, but more pressing matters had occupied his attention for the last day and a half. Yes, that disturbing piece of evidence definitely suggested that what had worked for them in the past wasn’t going to help at all in their current situation.

  “Right,” he said slowly. “Then yes, have Fred get in touch with me as soon as he has any information that he thinks might help.”

  “I will. Just…be careful.”

  Will didn’t know how well he’d be able to follow that particular piece of advice, not when he and his friend seemed to have reached a tacit understanding that these demons — or cambions, or whatever you wanted to call them — needed to be confronted on their home turf. If they’d simply minded their own business, well, he might have been willing to live and let live, since he’d always believed that each individual should be judged by their own actions, their own merits. It wasn’t Caleb’s fault that his grandfather had been a demon, and if he’d done his best to repudiate that part of his heritage and live a good life, then Will would have lauded him for his actions.

  But he’d lied to Rosemary, had launched a vicious attack at Will…had tried to hurt her as well. The only reason they’d both survived was that her own strange talents had managed to assert themselves to protect the two of them. Because of his actions, Caleb had forfeited any opportunity for leniency.

  If this fight had to go to him…well, then, so be it.

  Chapter 7

  It cost Rosemary nearly thirty bucks to get her car out of the parking structure, but at least it hadn’t been towed. A little adventure like that would have set her back hundreds of dollars and cost her an enormous amount of time — if she’d even been able to get the car out of the impound yard on a Sunday.

  But that worst-case scenario hadn’t materialized, so she gave her mother a relieved hug and thanked her again for driving her over to Pasadena, and said she’d give her a call when she had a chance.

  “Things might be a little crazy for the next few days,” Rosemary said. “I should probably call Izzy and CeeCee and let them know there’s a good chance I’ll have to take some time off. And I hate doing that, because I know Celeste needs as much spare time as possible to get Tyler’s costume done for all the Halloween events coming up, but — ”

  “It’s fine,” her mother cut in, but gently; it seemed clear enough that the interruption was born from a desire to prevent her daughter from tying herself up in knots rather than because she had a habit of interrupting people in the middle of a sentence. “I can cover your shifts at the store if necessary. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Mom, you don’t have to do that,” Rosemary protested. Yes, her mother had pitched in a few times in the past, like when both Rosemary and Isabel caught the flu in the same week, but she didn’t want her mother to
think she viewed her as an easy way to get out of work.

  “I know I don’t have to,” Glynis said. “I offered. It’s fine. Hopefully, I won’t have to do much inventory, because my back isn’t really up to hauling heavy boxes of books around, but otherwise, I’d be happy to help out.”

  A wave of relief washed over Rosemary. Smiling, she said, “No, we got our big shipment from Llewellyn Press last week, and we’re not expecting anything like that again until closer to Christmas. And the small bits of inventory that do need to be handled, Izzy or CeeCee can take care of.”

  “Then it sounds like we’re all settled. I’ll just assume you won’t be going in tomorrow, and then the rest of the week we can play by ear.”

  There was no way to truly express her gratitude, so Rosemary settled for hugging her mother once again. “I’ll keep in touch,” she promised. “Now, though, I should get back. Will seems okay, but — ”

  “But he got a nasty knock on the head yesterday,” Glynis finished for her. “I completely understand. You go and look after him.” She paused, a faint smile playing around her lips. “He seems like a very fine man.”

  “He is,” Rosemary said, and decided she’d better leave it there. Oh, of course, she was happy to hear that her mother approved of Will, but she didn’t want to risk waxing too rhapsodic for fear she might give away just how much space he now occupied in her heart and mind. Whatever this thing was between them, she could already tell it went far beyond physical attraction, although she knew that was a part of it as well. No, it was more that he accepted her for who she was, crazy psychic talents and everything else. So many of the men she’d dated in the past would have pulled a disappearing act the minute they heard about the crazy stunt she’d performed at Colin’s house in Glendale.

  Actually, she thought then, if you want to be really honest, you know they would have bailed much earlier than that…like when you first mentioned seeing a ghost.

  No, paragons of courage those guys definitely were not.

  Will was cut from different cloth — although she wanted to wince inwardly at that unintended pun. It said something that she didn’t even care whether he was a member of the clergy, although if someone had asked her even a month ago if she’d ever consider dating a minister, her answer would have been an emphatic no.

  Not that they were dating. They were…well, she didn’t know for sure what they were doing. Being together, working together. That was certainly far more significant than sharing a few meals in restaurants or going to a movie or a concert together.

  Then again, she thought it might be nice to do something so terribly mundane with him. A movie sounded like a wonderful change of pace.

  She doubted there would be any movies in their near future, however.

  To forestall any further discussion on the subject of William Gordon, Rosemary said goodbye to her mother and then climbed into her little green Fiat, which seemed almost like a toy car after Will’s ferocious Challenger. However, she felt much safer in her own vehicle, since she knew exactly what it was capable of and didn’t have to worry about an enormous 350-horsepower engine getting the better of her.

  No, the Fiat carried her quietly back to Michael’s house, where she pulled into the garage with a sense of relief. Maybe they wouldn’t be staying here, but at least the place was familiar. There was something to be said for familiarity.

  When she came into the kitchen, she saw Will hovering there, trying to appear as though he hadn’t just been looking out the window to reassure himself that it really was her coming up the stairs on the back stoop. His expression was troubled.

  “What the matter?” she asked, dropping her purse on the table by the window. “Does your head hurt? Are you feeling nauseated?”

  “No to both of those questions,” he replied, making an off-hand gesture, as if to brush away the minor concern of his physical health. “I just talked to Michael, and he has some pretty troubling evidence that the demons — or the part-demon cambions, to be more precise — have been interfering with him to prevent him from coming out here to California to lend a hand.”

  Rosemary wasn’t sure which part of that comment she should unpack first. She stared up at Will and felt a frown crease her forehead, and decided to attack the easier bit first. “I wasn’t aware he was even planning to come to California.”

  “I don’t think he was…until you and I had our little altercation with Caleb Lockwood.” Will took a step toward her, then hesitated, as though unsure whether she would welcome any contact right then.

  Well, she needed to put that particular worry to bed. She closed up the space between them and took his hands in hers. At once, his fingers tightened their grasp, showing her that he was very glad she’d reached out to him. “So, what happened?”

  “It sounds like they somehow managed to tamper with Audrey’s car — and also caused the Uber driver who was coming to take Michael to the airport to have an accident.”

  Could demons even do that? Well, obviously they could; Michael wouldn’t have told Will he thought they were responsible unless he was pretty damn sure of that fact. She swallowed, a chill running through her that didn’t have much to do with the gray skies which currently shrouded Southern California. “What did he do?”

  “Well, he decided it was probably not a good idea to come out here.” Will gave her fingers a squeeze and then let go, but only so he could stand a little farther away in order to get a good look at her face. “It means we’re on our own.”

  “It’s all right,” she said immediately, without even stopping to think whether it was actually all right. But then, she couldn’t feel frightened with Will standing next to her like this, even though she knew she probably should be. “We survived our encounter with Caleb, and now we know a lot more about the sorts of powers he controls. Not that I really think he’s going to come after us. You yourself said he had what he wanted, so what would be the point?”

  “I’d like to think that,” Will said, but the worry in his clear gray eyes told her he wasn’t precisely sanguine on the subject. “However, I also think it’s probably a good idea to learn a little bit more about the powers you control. You saved us back at that house, but you still don’t know exactly how.”

  No, she didn’t. In fact, she’d done her best not to think about how she’d summoned that shield of glowing light, or the way she’d used her mind to lift that panel of drywall as if it was nothing, because to do otherwise was to admit to herself that there were hidden aspects to her brain that were pretty damn frightening.

  “Do we have to talk about that now?” she asked, knowing how desperate she sounded.

  “Not right this second,” he said gently, and she allowed herself an inner sigh of relief. “It’s probably better if you get your things together, now that your car has been taken care of. That way, we’ll be over at my place whenever Detective Phillips contacts you. He didn’t call while you were out getting your car, did he?”

  She shook her head. “No, I haven’t heard from him yet. I’m not sure what that means. But you’re right — give me a few minutes, and I’ll pack my stuff.”

  “Take as long as you need.”

  That was generous of him, but Rosemary figured there wasn’t much point in dilly-dallying. Already she was cataloging the items of clothing she would pack — mostly jeans and T-shirts and a few nice tops and sweaters, maybe a skirt just in case they decided to go out to eat or something. There wasn’t much point in bringing along any of her wilder Stevie Nicks getups…not because she was worried about how Will would react to them, but mostly because they weren’t exactly practical for anything that required much physical activity.

  She sent him an encouraging smile and hurried upstairs, where she got out her overnight bag and a smaller matching tote, and filled them with enough clothing and toiletries to keep her going for at least three or four days. Anything more than that, and she’d have to come back here to restock, but she figured that was a safe amount to get her start
ed. After all, she really didn’t have any idea how long this whole mess with the demons was going to continue. For all she knew, they might never be able to resolve the matter.

  Well, that may not be all bad, she thought as she shoved a third pair of flats into her bag and told herself she needed to stop there; she couldn’t bring all the items she wanted, no matter how hard she tried to cram everything in. Actually, it sounds like kind of a sneaky way to move in with Will without ever actually discussing it.

  And that, she realized, was absolutely crazy. Yes, she wanted matters to progress with Will, wanted to see where all this might end up, but a few kisses and some fairly intense shared experiences were not exactly a solid basis for deciding to move in with a person. In fact, she’d never been all that interested in living with someone, had always found it better when she and the guys she’d been seeing could go their separate ways at the end of the evening. Now, though…now she was fiercely glad that circumstances had forced her and Will together. She wanted to spend this time with him, even if she was a little afraid about what was going to come next.

  Only one way to find out, she supposed.

  Rosemary zipped both of her bags shut and then took them downstairs. Will had sat down in the family room, facing toward the television, although he hadn’t turned it on. She couldn’t tell for sure, since he’d turned toward her as soon as she paused in the doorway, but she had a feeling he’d had his eyes closed and was probably trying to rest while she packed.

  However, she didn’t see any signs of pain or fatigue in his face as he stood up and came over to her. “All set?” he asked.

  “I think so,” she responded. “And even if I’ve forgotten something, it’s not as if it’s a big deal to come back here and get it.”

  “True.”

  They went to the front door, where she paused to enter the “away” code for the alarm system. As it started beeping, they both headed outside, with Will waiting on the porch while she closed the door and locked it behind her. Since it was a chilly day, the windows were all shut anyway, and she’d locked the back door as she came in from the garage. The house was about as secure as she could make it, but Rosemary couldn’t quite get rid of a little niggling doubt at the back of her mind. Was she doing the right thing by going over to Will’s house? If something happened to Michael’s place while she was gone, she knew she’d never forgive herself.