How to Break an Undead Heart (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 3)

by Hailey Edwards

  There was no hesitation, no deliberation. “No.”

  Moonlight glinted off a wide blade as it completed its arc, and the man’s head rolled to a stop against the car door. His disintegration was a slow, pathetic thing. He was new. Still juicy. Only the cast-iron stomach that came standard on necromancers kept me from spewing my hot chocolate.

  “Frederick,” Ernestine wailed. “You killed him.”

  “You almost killed one of mine,” Linus snapped. “You would have returned her to her cage.”

  “The Master wouldn’t have harmed her.” She protested the second charge, knowing there was no wiggling out of the first. “She is his. We were doing as we were told.”

  “Grier belongs to no one.”

  Metal sang, and a second head joined the first. This one crumbled until the vampire was dust.

  A distant part of my brain noted I had been wrong about them being siblings. Their deaths proved that much. Whatever game they had played with each other had been set into motion centuries apart, and it was done.

  A familiar apparition peeled from the hem of the roiling cloak, and Cletus drifted over to me, running his skeletal knuckles across the wound on my cheek. Linus trailed him, the blanket of night sky unraveling as he approached, and knelt at my window, ducking until his forearms mashed into gravel, and we made eye contact.

  “Thank Hecate,” he breathed. “I got here as fast as I could, but I thought for certain I would be too late.”

  “Linus,” I murmured, giving my eyes permission to close. “What are you?”

  All the blood had rushed to my head, drumming in my ears. That’s the only reason why I thought he replied yours.

  Eleven

  Suffocating pressure on my chest forced my eyes open, and I woke gasping for breath. “Meiko?” The hand I swatted the cat with weighed five hundred pounds. “Get off me. I can’t breathe.”

  A heartbeat later, a nude woman stretched out beside me, her cheek propped on her fist. “My bad.”

  “Why are you always naked?” I sucked down gulps of sweet oxygen. “Don’t you own any clothes?”

  “I am how you imagine me to be.” She walked her fingers up my arm, and I noticed I had been stripped down to my underwear. “At least give me lingerie. Something pink and lacy.” She popped my bra strap. “I can Google it on your phone if you’ve never seen sexy underwear. Clearly, you’ve never worn any.”

  The snap radiated pain throughout my tender shoulder. For a second, I wondered why it hurt, but then I recalled the seat belt clenching taut. Quick as a blink, the wreck exploded with crystalline clarity in my mind.

  “Neely.” I shoved upright, wincing. “Where’s Neely?”

  “Relax.” She pushed me back down then slapped me in the face with Boaz’s oversized T-shirt. “And put this on.”

  “Where is my friend?” I shouted at her smug face. “I have to see him.”

  “He’s at the human hospital where humans belong.” Her rounded ears twitched like they wanted to flatten but couldn’t in this form. None too gently, she yanked the shirt over my head. “He’s got a broken nose, a fractured rib, and bruising, but that’s it.” She bared her teeth. “What does it matter if he dies today or in, what, five years? Humans are short-lived and—”

  Body screaming from the strain, I fisted a clump of her hair and flung her off the bed. The expected thump of impact took longer than I anticipated, and that’s when I grasped the situation.

  This was Linus’s bed, up in the loft, and I had tossed her down into the living room.

  “Meiko?” I eased onto the floor then crawled to the edge and peered over. “Are you okay?”

  A cat stood where the woman must have hit, fur standing upright over every inch of her, but she had landed on her feet. Ears pinned back, she slinked off, tails whipping through the air.

  A wash of tingles over my skin had me eyeballing the door before it opened, and Linus entered with a stout vampire beside him. She wore scrubs a size too small, and a crossbody bag bumped against her hip when she walked. Her nostrils flared, scenting blood, and her gaze swung up to meet mine.

  “What are you doing out of bed?” Linus strode forward, hand outstretched as if I were in danger of falling and he planned on catching me. “Are you hurt?”

  “I, uh—” I raked my frizzy hair from my eyes, “—accidentally tossed your cat out of the loft.”

  Meiko chose that moment to yowl piteously, and he glanced between us. “I see.”

  “Hello, Grier.” The doctor approached the stairs. “I’m Dr. Daria Schmidt. I practice out of Gershwin Memorial Hospital, but Scion Lawson convinced me to make a house call.”

  “Oh good.” I sat upright, folding my legs in lotus position until the room stopped wobbling. “I need to check the status on my friend. He was driving when the accident occurred.”

  “I just left Mr. Torres.” Her smile was warm, her lips held tight to hide her fangs. “He’s stable. His nose has been reset, his ribs wrapped, and his boo-boos kissed by a handsome lawyer.”

  “You were his doctor?” Shock made me borderline rude, but vampire doctors didn’t waste time on human patients. “I apologize for my surprise.”

  After winking, she cut her eyes to Linus. “Mr. Lawson was very persuasive.”

  “I bet.” His checkbook could persuade most anyone of anything. “How many zeroes did it take to convince you to treat a human patient?”

  Linus stared me down. Up. Whatever. “Grier.”

  Schmidt guffawed, her feelings clearly not bruised. “Enough I almost ran out of fingers before I ran out of zeroes.”

  “Send me the bill,” I demanded. “Whatever it cost, I’ll pay it.”

  Linus developed a sudden case of selective hearing that tempted me to ask Schmidt to examine him.

  “I’ll come up to you,” she said. “Could you get back in bed, please?”

  “Sure thing.” I grunted as I unfolded my limbs. “Just a sec.”

  Schmidt climbed into the loft while I rallied my battered legs into cooperating with me.

  After setting down her supplies, she opened her arms, preparing to scoop me up and carry me. Her blue scrubs were a long way from pink satin and lace, but a vampire coming at me with arms extended kicked my hindbrain into high gear. I started backing away, not stopping even when my palms hit the edge.

  “Step away from her,” Linus commanded an instant before an icy hand clamped down on my wrist. He balanced with half his body on the stairs, half in the loft, and my back pressed flush to his chest. “Grier, I need you to calm down.” He traded his initial grip for pinning an arm around my waist. “Daria isn’t going to hurt you. She won’t touch you if you don’t want her to.” His cool breath tickled my ear. “I can find someone else.”

  “I’m the best doctor in the city,” she said defensively.

  “I was…” I couldn’t get out the words. They got stuck in my throat. “I was…”

  “She spent five years in Atramentous,” Linus told her, which wasn’t what I had been about to confess at all. But, her being a vampire, I understood why he wouldn’t want her to know about Volkov’s—or the Master’s—interest in me. “A vampire abused her.” Truth told on an angle. “This was a mistake.”

  “You got me the best.” I found my voice. “It’s what you do.” I inched forward. “Her being a vampire was secondary to you.” I cast her an apologetic glance. “I meant no offense.”

  “You’re Grier Woolworth,” she said, dumbfounded. “I should have put it together sooner when Linus Lawson requested me to treat his friend Grier, but it’s been a long night.”

  A deadly calm settled across Linus’s features, and the memory of a black tattered cape tickled the back of my mind. “Will that be a problem, Doctor?”

  “My clan is pro-Coalition, so that’s a no.” She leaned against the wall, as far from me as she could get, while I crawled back on the bed, Linus at my side. “I have no interest in political jockeying. Whatever this nonsense movement is selling, I
’m not buying.”

  Once I situated myself against the pillows, I waved her over to me, feeling slightly ridiculous to have her at my beck and call. “Do you have a name for the clans splintering from the Undead Coalition?”

  “No.” She proceeded with caution, moving slowly so as not to spook me. “I didn’t watch the news when I was human, and that hasn’t changed. Any particular reason why you’re asking?”

  “No.” Her no-nonsense attitude helped me relax. “Living in Savannah, so close to the Lyceum, you hear things and wonder. That’s all.”

  Her noncommittal noise told me she knew there was more to it, but also that she was smart enough not to investigate. Letting the matter drop, she confirmed her story that politics wasn’t her bailiwick.

  Some girls have all the luck.

  “Can you lift your shirt, please?”

  I peeked at Linus, but he had already turned his back.

  “You’re healing well,” she said as she started my exam. “I don’t see any wounds consistent with the blood on your face, throat, and hand.” She checked with Linus. “I assume that’s your work?”

  “Yes.” Using touch to guide himself down, he sat on the floor at the foot of the bed. The ceiling was too low for him to stand without bending. “I treated her while the EMTs worked on Mr. Torres.”

  “I almost feel bad for taking your money.” She put away her supplies then winked at me, not looking sorry at all. “She’s bruised and tender. She’s going to be sore for a few days, so make sure she takes it easy. Light exercise is okay, but nothing strenuous.” She pulled down my shirt then slung her bag over her shoulder. “You can give her another pass in the morning if she needs it, but you’ve repaired any major damage. Her body can handle it from here.” Edging past Linus, she nodded to us. “I’ll let myself out.”

  We watched her go, neither of us speaking until the door shut behind her.

  Linus cocked his head to one side. “Are you decent?”

  Swaddled in Boaz’s shirt, I was as decent as I was getting. “Yeah.”

  He twisted around, seeming to finally notice Meiko’s choice of nightgown for me. A frown gathered across his forehead before he caught my look and erased the telling lines. “Do you want me to call anyone for you?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “Odette most likely knows. She’s good at gleaning me in other people’s futures. Woolly would demand I come home. Amelie will tell Boaz, and I…” I toyed with the hem of my—his—shirt. “I don’t want them to worry.”

  As much as I had enjoyed Boaz rushing home to check on me, I was tired of bonding with him over near-death experiences. Part of me wondered if I would have heard from him at all if not for my jaw. Sure, he had seemed like his flirty self during his visit, but how much of that was reflex?

  Relationships were built on communication. That much I knew. So, was this the point where I told him I deserved more? Or was that being too needy? Would the wrong word send him running? Clearly, something had him eyeballing a new pair of sneakers. Why else would he avoid me?

  Linus nodded like he understood the things I hadn’t said. “I called Mathew.”

  I blanked on the name. “Oh?”

  Not fooled for a minute, Linus chuckled under his breath. “He’ll want to spar with you to gauge your skill level. On Dr. Schmidt’s recommendation, I’ve invited him to Savannah next week rather than facilitating a meeting on this trip.”

  Oh, yeah. Mathew. The self-defense instructor. “That makes sense.”

  He scanned my face as if my capitulation surprised him. “Are you up for answering a few questions?”

  “Sure.” I curled on my side to see him better. “Fire away.”

  “Did you see your attackers?”

  What did it matter since he had killed them both? “Yes.” I picked at a wrinkle in the cover. “I met them in the elevator on my way down. They got spooked when I mentioned I was your guest and fled when Hubert used my title. I was going to tell you about them tonight but…” I rubbed my face. “After everything, it’s hard for me to tell if I’m overreacting or if my paranoia is justified. I misjudged them. I should have brought them up when you called.”

  “They were reckless.” Linus wrapped a hand around one wrist and pulled until he could see my face. “This wasn’t your fault. We had no reason to think they would risk harming you to capture you.”

  “What changed?” A memory of the knife in Ernestine’s hand winked in my mind’s eye. “They weren’t gentle about getting what they wanted.”

  Linus studied me, waiting for a reaction. “How much did you see?”

  “I saw their heads separated from their bodies.”

  Lips twisting, he grimaced. “I wish you hadn’t.”

  “You saved me.”

  “You give yourself too little credit.” He lifted his hands, exposing reddened skin blistered up to his elbows. “You were holding your own.”

  “Goddess.” I leveraged up onto my elbow. “What happened?”

  “Your sigil happened.” He twisted them to and fro as he examined the damage. “I tried to pull you out, but you set a ward inside the car.” He made fists then flattened them, watching the skin flex. “It took me fifteen minutes to break it, and I’m convinced it only failed then because you smudged a line to let me in.”

  “What sigil did I use?” Trauma had softened those edges to a comforting blur. “I’ll have to remember it for next time.”

  “I have no idea.” He huffed out a laugh, a surprised sound. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Where will they take Neely’s car?” I wondered. “Do you think we could get a picture before they do whatever they do to it?”

  “It’s at an impound. Neely needs to speak with his insurance company. They’ll have to come out and take pictures before it’s scrapped.” He reached behind himself and produced his phone. “Is this what you had in mind?”

  “You’re sneaky.” I accepted the phone when he tossed it and traced the lines of the sigils with a fingertip. It resonated, even though I had no memory of drawing it. “I should have known you couldn’t pass up the opportunity.”

  “I couldn’t risk leaving it behind.” He leaned against the nearest wall, making it easier for me to see him from this angle, and stretched out his long legs. “I took photos in case you wanted them, and I burned out the rest of the design.”

  Fire was a good, if absolutely destructive way to negate magic. Water was best, but it wouldn’t wash blood out of fabric, and we couldn’t risk leaving behind stains.

  “The photos are for me, huh?” I couldn’t resist teasing him. “I’m sure you haven’t doodled the design or backed these up for your own records.”

  The promise of a grin fluttered along his lips. “I might have sketched it once or twice while waiting on Dr. Schmidt to finish her rounds.”

  “That’s what I thought.” I took the opportunity to forward the images to my cell, and I heard a distant ping announcing its success. “Ah. My phone lives on.”

  “It fell out of your jeans when I removed your…” Ears bright red, he rubbed the sting from them. “I had to see how extensive your injuries were before I could repair them.”

  “I understand.” His flush seemed to be spreading into my cheeks. “I trust you not to take advantage.”

  Trust must have been the magic word. The sound of it snapped his gaze back to mine, and a desperate hope transformed his navy eyes to blackened pools of endless longing before he tucked away his emotions.

  I had told the truth. I trusted him.

  I trusted Linus Lawson.

  That faith in him might damn me, but… He had saved me. He kept saving me.

  He was not the man I’d thought he would be. He was not his mother’s creature. I had seen his dizzying array of masks, one for every occasion, and I had peeked beneath them.

  He wasn’t a stranger to me any longer. He was Linus. He was…my friend.

  “I put it on the counter in the kitchen.” He jerked his chi
n toward the living room. “I can fetch it if you like.”

  “Is that wise with Meiko padding around?” I was only half joking when I asked, “She won’t accidentally knock it into the garbage disposal, will she?”

  His mouth opened, but then he turned his head. “Paws off her phone, Meiko.”

  A pissy yowl echoed up to us. I wondered if the notification had captured her attention, and if we had headed her off before she could act. “We haven’t covered dual familiars in our lessons. When were you going to tell me about her?

  He tipped his head back. “Never?”

  “Taking on a second familiar, a sentient one, that has to be rare.”

  “It is,” he agreed. “Both the act and her breed.”

  “You didn’t think I would ever come here to see her?”

  He angled his face toward me. “Was I wrong?”

  “Odds were slim before you started tutoring me, yeah, but I like to think we’ll keep in touch after this.”

  His eyes drifted closed. “I like to think that too.”

  Taking a moment, I studied his profile and pronounced him exhausted. “How did you come by her?”

  “A student of mine lost his childhood familiar to cancer. His girlfriend, a vampire, procured what promised to be a rare and powerful replacement.” Laughter moved through his shoulders. “Imagine her surprise when she visited his dorm and found a naked woman curled around him while he slept.”

  Incoherent noises fell out of my mouth. “Meiko told me she shows people what they expect.”

  “Meiko lies. It’s a hobby of hers.” He linked his hands at his navel. “Her kind tend toward mischief, and she enjoys a vicious sense of humor. Her favorite pastime is watching sparks fly, and she knows a beautiful, naked woman in bed with a man in a committed relationship will do the trick every time.”

  From where I sat, she was lucky no one had snatched a knot in her tail yet. “So why manifest in your bed when I arrived?”

  “To embarrass you? To annoy me?” He cracked open his eyes. “The possibilities are endless.”

  Shock and awe made sense unless he’d told her to expect us. In that case, she knew he was bringing a guest home with him. More than a guest, she had anticipated me. That meant her exhibition was calculated to gauge my reaction. She wanted to see if I would pass or fail her test. After years of watching him draw me, she must have wondered if I was equally drawn to him.