Even undead, she’s still a smart one, Dawn thought.
When Lilly scraped her nails down the glass, Dawn shuddered, and it was as if the dragon’s blood was laughing at her disgust.
Dawn realized that Kiko had crept away from her, and that Costin wasn’t nearby, either. So what should she do? Move and take a chance that it would scare Lilly off?
After what seemed like an hour—even though it wasn’t—Dawn saw what her two partners had in mind.
Kiko had sneaked up on the deck, a taser in one hand, handcuffs in another, and a revolver holster hanging from the small belt around his hips. She suspected Costin was right there with him.
Didn’t they remember what Meratoliage keepers could do, even when they weren’t undead? They’d almost killed her and Costin during the final showdown in London. They’d planted booby traps around the dragon, but the keepers themselves were fast, strong. So well-trained that they could put even a vampire hunter to shame.
As Kiko crept up on Lilly, Dawn actually thought about trying to resurrect her dormant psychokinetic powers to help him, but there was a layer of glass between her and the keeper. Plus, she didn’t even know if she could summon enough anger for the powers to work—they never did without the rage.
She almost laughed. Great. The one time she needed her stain to enhance the anger and it was in happy mode.
Dawn could’ve sworn that one of Lilly’s eyebrows had lifted, ever so slightly, as if she’d caught wind of Kiko and Costin behind her.
But it didn’t matter, because Costin had obviously flown forward, pushing Lilly against the glass even more as Kiko lifted the taser.
Lilly’s hands slid up the glass, then over her head. A surrender?
Dawn couldn’t tell by looking at the undead face, but just as rapid as a blink, Lilly had fallen to her knees, and Kiko ran over to slap the cuffs around her wrists.
Through the window, he nodded for Dawn to open the door, and she did.
When they dragged her inside, slamming the door closed and locking it, Dawn could tell Costin was wrapped around Lilly’s body, controlling her movements as he rolled her over the carpet. Her bound wrists were still over her head, and she was making a groaning sound that somehow resembled speech.
“She’s trying to talk,” Dawn said.
Kiko had his taser pulled, pointing it down at Lilly, who’d been released by Costin and was staring straight up at the ceiling as she made those moans.
“Let her talk then,” Kiko said, a gleam in his eyes.
*
Lilly hadn’t put up any kind of fight as they bound her to a chair, strapping her ankles to the legs and keeping her cuffed while roping her upright to the back.
Dawn shrugged out of her jacket, tossed it on the sofa, and sat opposite her. She couldn’t stop herself from being fascinated by the way the girl looked; she’d been a pretty thing before, Dawn supposed, but she’d been warped into something from a Fangoria cover now. Even worse, she actually resembled Dawn’s dad on the night she’d found him lying still in a bed, his own mouth opened just like Lilly’s, his skin shriveled after Eva had sucked most of the life out of him.
Dawn shook off the image of what her mother had done as Lilly made those pathetic undead sounds again, her mouth working slightly as she tried to articulate something.
“She’s still trying to talk,” Dawn said to Costin, who’d positioned himself behind Lilly, in case she tried to pull a fast one on them.
After a moment of consideration, he called for Kiko.
He had gone into the next room with Natalia, and the murmur of their conversation hadn’t been lost on Dawn. But at Costin’s summons, he entered. Natalia was right behind him, looking none too happy.
“Did you find something on her we missed?” Kiko asked, standing next to Lilly’s chair.
“She’s free of weapons,” Dawn said. “Lilly’s trying to communicate something. We’re not sure if she’s giving herself up to us or setting us up for a trap.”
“Why did she not spring this trap earlier then?” Costin asked. “She and the old men had the opportunity.”
“Maybe,” Kiko said, assessing Lilly, who assessed him right back with those eyes, “she’s delaying us here because the rest of the Meratoliages are on their way to snag Dawn.”
Costin said, “All of our dormant outside cameras are operational now, not merely the few that were active before. Just interview this Meratoliage as best as you can, Kiko, then out she goes.”
Lilly twisted her mouth in a sort of frown...except ghoul style.
As for Kiko, he looked like a kid at a birthday party with a big old present in front of him. Riding skin was far more effective than getting a read on dead objects, such as a chain or even blood. What stunned Dawn, though, was that Natalia took a stand next to him as if she was going to add her own psychic powers.
If you can’t beat them, join them?
“Wait!” said a man’s voice from the foyer.
It was Jonah and, as he entered the room, he trailed a hand against the wall, as if that was keeping him balanced.
“What’re you doing out of bed?” Dawn asked.
“No way I’m gonna miss this.” He dropped into a wingback chair and settled in for the show, the bandage around his head giving him a wounded yet jaunty air.
Whatever.
“Now that we have an audience,” Dawn said to Kiko and Natalia, “let’s get this rolling.”
“Costin?” Kiko asked.
“I have her under control,” he said from behind Lilly.
Kiko kept his gaze on the keeper’s blank face as he touched her neck, right above her dark collar and below her light brown hair.
Natalia joined him, resting her hand on his.
They both closed their eyes, and when their heads violently dipped at the same time, Dawn got out of her chair, her adrenaline on alert.
“It is fine, Dawn,” Costin whispered, his voice traveling through the room.
Her heart was beating so fast that it felt like a bunch of popping gears. She’d never seen Kiko and Natalia go into a trance this quickly.
And when their bodies began to shake, the dragon inside Dawn did the same.
“We should stop them,” she said, glancing at Jonah, who was on the edge of his seat. Then she sought Costin. “This doesn’t look right.”
But nobody—not even her—made a move to halt the reading.
Not until both Kiko and Natalia reared back their heads and let out screams that cut the night in half.
SEVEN
The Other Woman
As the screams reverberated through the room, Dawn surged forward to yank Kiko and Natalia away from the keeper.
But then the couple pulled in huge breaths and widened their eyes, just as if they were seeing something important.
Dawn grabbed Natalia, cutting her connection. The woman was breathing heavily, clinging to Dawn’s shirt as they both watched Kiko settle into a calmer posture, his mouth still open from that scream.
He looked like Lilly with that open mouth.
“He is fine,” Costin said from his position behind the keeper. “He will finish this.”
She helped Natalia to a chair, sitting her down. Her face was paler than when she’d laid hands on Lilly.
Dawn was about to ask what Natalia had seen while riding Kiko’s skin, but then Kiko raised up both of his hands, disconnecting from the Meratoliage, taking a calm step backward before he closed his mouth all the way.
“Kiko?” Natalia asked.
The most persistent psychic in the world was reaching out again, toward Lilly’s pale-skinned neck.
Dawn rested a hand on Natalia’s shoulder, keeping her sitting down as Kiko resumed the interview.
“Where is your family holding that bonfire tonight?” he asked, and by his smooth tone of voice, you’d think he was casually asking a waitress where the john was in a restaurant.
A jagged pause split the room as they waited for him to divine an answer
from Lilly.
He shook his head, closing his eyes, continuing the interview. “And how many family members are there?”
The Meratoliage never moved. She just kept silent-screaming with that horrifyingly open mouth, and Dawn kept trying not to compare it with her dad’s face on that terrible night in London when her mom had nearly sucked the life out of him.
Then, another Kiko question. “What is your family planning to do to Dawn?”
As if this last thought burned him, he hauled in air through his teeth, then disconnected from Lilly again, holding his fingers as if they’d been blistered.
“Holy shit storm,” he whispered, and Natalia finally stood, going over to him, cupping his face and looking into his eyes.
Jonah was the first to ask, “How is he?”
Natalia’s tone was ice-cold. “Do any of you truly care?”
Okay. Dawn was going to let that comment go. This was a highly emotional moment, and she’d had a few of those over the years herself.
Kiko gently took Natalia’s hands in his, smiling up at her. He blew out a breath, and it was only when he walked to the sofa and plopped down on it that Dawn realized his short legs must’ve been shaking.
All the while, Lilly kept sitting in that chair like a grotesque doll that someone had brought home from the most fucked-up carnival ever.
“Well, that was intense.” Kiko pushed some blond hair away from his forehead with a trembling hand. “You know how Natalia and I told you about the coma-feeling we got off of that other keeper’s blood and chain? It was worse with this one. Natalia and I will never need to wonder what it’s like to be buried alive.”
Dawn couldn’t even imagine. Thank God she wasn’t a psychic.
Kiko went on. “First, there was fire...the explosion from the London Underground when it was destroyed. Lilly here got burned, and I could feel it all over my skin.”
It was obvious that Natalia had felt this much, too, when she’d been joined with Kiko for the reading. Dawn could just about see the trauma in her faraway gaze.
“Tell them about the tuner.” Natalia looked at the rest of them. “Lilly started to talk to us in her mind, and she told us about a special instrument the Meratoliages use.”
“That’s right,” Kiko said. “The device fits over a person’s head, and from what I can tell, this tuner’s part magic, part technology, part psychic tool. Every keeper carries one unless they’re retired. It’s what gives them all the history of the family, plus it enhances the skills a custode needed to guard the dragon. A tuner actually activates a keeper and—”
“Deactivates them,” Natalia finished.
Dawn gestured toward Lilly. “So this is what happens to a keeper who’s deactivated?”
Kiko nodded. “And you know what else? It seems like they can only bring a keeper out of retirement on Samhain.”
Trying to fit the information together, Dawn said, “Samhain is when the dead rise and walk the earth, right? So is retirement another word for a keeper’s death?”
Natalia’s accent was thick. “It is worse than death.”
Oh.
Dawn looked at Lilly again, and a thud of pity got to her.
“You know what it’s like to be afraid of the dark?” Kiko asked. “That’s what it feels like to be retired. You’re shoved into a small mental space, and you can’t move. You can hardly even think.”
Natalia’s voice was barely audible when she added, “For me, it felt as if I was a child in the dead of night, lying in bed, feeling for the first time what it must be like to fall into a void.”
Dawn knew about voids. But tonight she also knew what it was like to leave one behind.
Costin spoke. “You questioned Lilly about the Meratoliages’ location.”
Kiko leaned his head back against the sofa, as if glad to leave behind the part about retirement. Natalia was clearly still in the throes of it, though. Even from the start, when she’d signed on to work with them in London, Dawn had known she was more sensitive than most people. Even more than Kiko.
“That part wasn’t so clear to me,” he said. “I’m still not so sure where the Meratoliages are having that bonfire.”
Damn. “Do we know how many family members are at the bonfire?”
“Twenty,” Kiko said. “Ten men, ten women.”
Ouch. “Can we assume from what we already know about keepers that the men could’ve been put aside as active custodes because of the family heart defect? Can we guess that they’re not going to be strong fighters?”
“Not necessarily,” Kiko said. “I know those men are weaponed up. Same with the women, even though they’re only the family ‘breeders’.”
Dawn glanced at Lilly, who was as still as a pet rock. They already knew that this girl with the misshapen mouth and grotesque eyes had been out of the ordinary for a keeper. The few records they had found on the Meratoliages’ estate had documented lines and lines of male custodes with only the occasional female chosen for duty.
Jonah chimed in. “Aren’t the women good at the dark arts in that family? I say they’re the ones to worry about.”
Kiko had his eyes closed, as if he was sifting through what Lilly had given him. “There’s a Meratoliage at the bonfire who’s the most valuable of them all. She’s leading this ritual. Her name is...Amber. Yeah, Amber.”
Interesting, how Lilly was just giving up all this information out of the kindness of her dislocated heart. “You also asked how the family was planning to get the dragon out of me. Any answers there?”
At this, the dragon’s blood slammed against Dawn’s right side. She started at the force of the malcontent.
Everyone glanced at her, and she held up a hand. “It’s okay. Since there’s no soul stain to feed on tonight, someone’s just a little eager at the thought of escaping me.”
Lilly emitted one of those zombie-moans again, but all eyes went to Kiko, waiting for him to answer Dawn’s question about how the Meratoliages were going to pull the dragon out of her.
“You really want to hear this?” Kiko asked.
“No. But I always manage to live through the bad news, anyway.”
“Yeah, you sure do.” He gave her a look that only war buddies could understand, but then something like concern took its place. “The Mertoliages are gonna do what any good surgeon would to extract something out of a body, Dawn.”
It didn’t need any more elaboration than that.
*
After everyone had gone their own ways—Jonah back to his bed for more rest, Kiko to the computers, Costin still watching Lilly in her chair—Dawn had sought some privacy in her room, with its sedate white walls and sheer aqua blue curtains. She wanted to figure out the wisest course of action now that they knew what the Meratoliages had in mind.
If they went into their enemy’s territory, all guns blazing, there was a chance that the team could wipe away part of the Meratoliage family tonight—most importantly, the one named Amber.
Their leader.
In short, Dawn thought of it this way: If you had the opportunity to take out someone who was about to unleash great evil in the world—like Hitler, say, or a megalomaniac like the dragon—would you do it at any cost? And would you do it before you knew they were probably going to flee as soon as Samhain was over?
The answer was a huge duh. But the problem was that Dawn, herself, was carrying that evil within her, and if she went to the people who wanted it more than anything, she’d be putting a dangerous entity right in front of the Meratoliages and daring them to take it. And even if she would’ve bet donuts to dollars in the past that she and the team could best twenty enemies—some of them even practiced in the dark arts—she wasn’t so sure about that now, with her side lacking the spirit Friends, plus their hunting skills being so rusty.
Maybe it would be smart to just stay here, sheltered, with cameras acting as a lookout until sunup. But next Samhain, would she and her loved ones have to go through all this again?
W
ould she always be hiding?
Dawn was still thinking it over when Natalia knocked on her open door, then wandered inside.
Her plaid skirt was wrinkled, as if she’d been clenching at it, and her already-wild curls were escaping the band in her hair, one by one.
“May I talk to you?” she asked.
Dawn could pretty much guess what this was about, but she nodded, anyway, motioning for Natalia to take a seat on the bed.
She didn’t. Obviously, she was too anxious to relax.
“I have a favor to ask of you,” she said.
“You want me to persuade Kik to stay out of the thick of this if we confront the Meratoliages.”
Natalia smiled wanly. “Maybe you’re the one who’s psychic.”
Dawn leaned back against the wall, her gaze trained on a painting that depicted a serene wash of water running down the canvas. It was supposed to calm her soul stain, but it’d never quite done the trick. “If I was psychic, I’d know whether to run or stay.”
“It’s not an easy decision. But I hope the one I’m asking you to make is...”
“Easier?” Dawn crossed her arm over her chest, absently resting her hand on her shoulder—the one that’d been bitten earlier in the night. Maybe she just needed to feel a little pain to remind her of the exponential amount that could be in store for anyone who came with her if she confronted the Meratoliages.
Natalia seemed to think that Dawn was being stubborn, and her tone tightened. “I cannot compete with this, Dawn. It’s almost as if Kiko has a first love, and she’s not me.”
Dawn’s hand fell from her shoulder. “What’re you saying?”
“I’m not accusing you of anything. Please understand that. But long before I came into Kiko’s life, he was infatuated with hunting. And you’re a part of that for him. I know you need help tonight, but if you could encourage him to stay in the background as much as he can...”
Undead for a Day Page 6