Secrets of Skin and Stone

by Wendy Laine

  Crash! Crap, he was shattering and destroying everything in his sister’s room.

  “Stay here.” I transformed back to get a better look. Hovering isn’t easy with wings as long as mine, but I was up there long enough to see Hank had trashed most of his sister’s room. I landed right as a few fiends decided to approach us.

  “Fiends. Stay put.”

  I pulled the fiends in and ripped out their hearts, rather than wait for them to get closer. I usually waited for them to come to me, but not with Piper here. Everything was different with Piper—including hunting.

  I transformed back, shaking out my arms and legs. Having Piper near me made for an adrenaline rush due to worrying over her.

  “Wow.” Her eyes were wide.

  I tried to suppress my grin. The approval in her eyes…well, it wasn’t bad. “He’s up there shredding all her pillows.” I gestured at the window.

  “That makes sense. He’s angry ‘cause she’s dead.”

  “I don’t think that was really her choice.”

  “That’s not the point. It’s like you said with your ferret—it feels like you ought to be able to blame somebody or something when you feel out of control.”

  I watched her as she scrutinized the window. She could see into people’s heads better than anybody I’d ever met.

  Hank snarled and hurled something against the wall. Glass shattered.

  “He didn’t do it,” she whispered. “He wouldn’t have hurt Trina.”

  I was more concerned about the stuff done to Piper than the murder. Nothing could stop Trina from being dead, and it might have nothing to do with Jester’s death, or the stupid fool playing with dark arts, but it just might. And Hank was a spiteful little hothead.

  Piper tilted her head. “I don’t think he did the other stuff, either.”

  “Jester?”

  “Any of it. He’s got too much of a temper for anything with a long-term pay-off—or anything that’d require cleaning up after. And I’m telling you, when I asked him about Jester, he wasn’t expecting it. He’d have expected me to suspect him, and the fact that he didn’t expect it means that I shouldn’t suspect him.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “Are you crossing him off your list so there’s only eight?”

  She nodded decisively.

  Huh. I believed her. Her ability to read people gave her this edge I couldn’t argue away. It was interesting that people around town had given her credit for things she hadn’t done, but no one underestimated Piper. Her brain was a little, well, badass.

  “Are we crossing off Jared?” I asked.

  She tilted her head. “He might have done everything up until now. Though I don’t think he’s smart enough or any more cool-headed than Hank.”

  Also, she’d be down to an odd number again.

  “I think I need to make another list. A list of names for those two categories at the end of my previous list.”

  “One was unknown enemy. By definition, you shouldn’t be able to make a list of unknown people.”

  She shot me a dark look. “It’d be a longer list for sure—maybe a couple dozen names, but I could do it. But you’d have to tell me everything. Everything, Gris. Don’t think I don’t know you’re holding things back.”

  I’d contacted my dad for him to get a list of dark crafts that might use hearts and the bones of a Watcher—especially crafts that might heighten the energy of fiends. Giving Piper any more information might put her in danger while she investigated the list. She had a limited awareness of how dangerous some of these players were. “I’ll think about it.”

  The thud of his feet on the stairs was enough warning for me to grab her and swoop us both into the tree. Hank slammed through the back door and trudged down the street.

  Piper squinted after him.

  “Where’s he going?” I asked. It was fairly late for him to be wandering off in a fury.

  “To my house. Otherwise, he would’ve taken his truck. Mine is the only one farther up this street that you’d walk to.” She said it matter-of-factly—Piper and her badass brain.

  “Fine then, you stay here, and I’ll go see what he’s doing.”

  “In the tree? You’re leaving me in the dark? In a tree? You can’t be serious, Gris.”

  “You’re a Southern girl—you like trees. Besides, you’ll be safe up here. It’s got a nice wide trunk. Just hold still.”

  “What if he wants to talk to me?”

  “As pissed as he is? I’ll head him off and tell him to screw himself.” He wasn’t getting anywhere near Piper.

  I surged off the branch before she had more time to argue. She’d be safe on that upper branch from human critters and fiends. After the short flight, I dropped onto Piper’s roof and flattened against it. With the night wrapped around me, Hank had no idea somebody was watching his every move. He stood at the fence. Fifteen minutes passed. He just sat there. His gaze searching the windows on the house.

  Maybe he did want to talk to Piper, but he wasn’t sure which window was hers. If that was true, he also hadn’t killed her dog and stood beneath her window with blood on his shoes or put the sacks in her room.

  Shoot, he’d been a good suspect, too.

  But Piper had discounted him—and Piper could read people.

  Kicking the fence, he muttered, “Stupid girl.”

  Who?

  Trina?

  Piper?

  Another five minutes went by. Piper was likely pissed with me by now. Maybe I shouldn’t have left her in that tree.

  Just as I was considering going back to get her, Hank picked up a rock and hurled it at Piper’s car window. Crack. Damn. I heard her parents waking up inside right as Hank bolted. I bolted, too—right back to Piper. Her parents would check on their daughter after somebody had smashed her car’s window.

  “Gris,” she hissed with narrowed eyes when I reached her.

  “We gotta go. Hank broke one of your car windows, and your parents will wonder where you are.” I hauled her into my arms.

  “There were bugs in that tree,” Piper muttered. “I think it had a real nasty infestation going on, and you left me so high up I couldn’t get down.”

  I thought of trying to hush her down but she was in full-on ranting Piper mode so I shielded us with shadows instead. We touched down outside her window. All of the lights were on in the house, and I could hear somebody in the front room’s closet, probably her dad dragging on shoes to investigate. Her mom knocked on Piper’s bedroom door and called her name right as I boosted her through the window.

  “Bugs. Lots of bugs,” Piper whispered. “I’m gonna need to take a couple dozen showers just to get the feel of them off my feet.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She pointed at me with a finger that promised this conversation wasn’t over.

  Ducking down, I listened from below her window as she unlocked the door. “I’m fine, Mama. It was probably someone throwing a rock at my car…again.”

  “You’re okay?”

  “I’m fine. I‘m gonna go take a shower,” she answered.

  “In the middle of the night?”

  “Yeah, well, I had this nightmare I had bugs crawling all over me ‘cause some idiot had left me stranded in a tree for over a half an hour.”

  “That’s a very odd dream, Pips. You’re sure you’re fine?”

  “In my hair! They were crawling in my hair and over my feet! My whole body itches. My arms! My legs! I swear they’re still crawling all over me.”

  “Well, if you’re sure you’re okay,” her mom replied.

  “Plus, it was dirty in the tree. The bark had dirt all over it along with the bugs.”

  “Ew. Can we stop talking about this? You’re about to give me nightmares. I might need to take a shower after listening to you.”

  I smothered a laugh as her mom walked off. The door opened, and her dad came out, carrying a shotgun. I built a black shadow wall around me as I flattened myself against the house. Even if he looke
d this way, he wouldn’t see me.

  Her mom’s silhouette fell across the porch in front of the open door. “Piper said it was one of the windows on her car again.”

  Her dad swore, but went in that direction.

  Above me, Piper‘s window slid open. She hung her head out and whispered, “Thank you for taking me out tonight,” as her eyes searched for me. Her polite tone was at war with her petulant one.

  Easing up on the darkness cloaking me, I touched her cheek while trying not to smile. “You’re very welcome, Piper.”

  Growling, she looped a hand around my neck and dragged me forward to kiss me.

  “Now, fly out of here before they catch you,” she whispered.

  Fly out of here? I flew as far as her roof and lay down on it. Eventually, the house quieted down again. By my estimation, Piper’s shower was at least a half an hour long. She was good and clean by the time she opened her window and called my name.

  I hung my torso off her roof. “Hey, sweetheart, you clean yet?”

  She grinned. The scent of apples from her shampoo hung in the air around her. Yeah, I couldn’t get any closer when she smelled this edible.

  “Just checking. Good night.”

  Because I couldn’t resist, I said, “Good night and don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Then a moment later, I was justified in adding, “Don’t profane.” The window closed slowly. Life was good. Life with Piper was real good.

  Then, life got bad. Real bad.

  My new phone shivered on vibrate right as I heard her settle into her bed. I pulled it out and answered the call.

  “You want the bad news or the even worse news first?” Dad asked.

  “Neither.”

  “I did some digging on the Beaumonts. Not only was Silas Beaumont killed in that house, but a couple decades later, Silas’s nephew, Theodore, comes to stay in that same house. Now, old Silas had a niece living there, from a different sister, and the niece and nephew didn’t necessarily get along. He tried to kick her out. She stood her ground.”

  “This would be Tawna?”

  “Yes. Tawna turns up pregnant—which would have been grounds to kick her out back in that day as she wasn’t married. But before she’s tossed out on her ear, another animal attack kills Theodore Beaumont in that same house. Only this time, there were footprints walking away from the house. The police weren’t sure if it was made to look like an animal attack or if it really was. So, two deaths in that house. First one, fiends most likely. Second, who knows.”

  “What happened to Tawna? Do you know if that was Critch’s kid?” I asked.

  “She disappeared that night. Never heard from again though she might’ve changed her name. It’s possible when she had a child, the line might’ve continued—I don’t know that we’ve nailed down that aspect of the birthright…whether they have to be born before their predecessor died. Obviously, if the baby was Critch’s, our birthright didn’t go that way.”

  “So, I’m living in a murder house. And I’m guessing the even worse news is that there are rites using Watcher bones?”

  “There are, and the previous presence of the Beaumonts means people in Hidden Creek might not be as blind to our history as we might’ve thought…or wanted. Knowledge might’ve been passed down through families, and we didn’t immerse ourselves in the dark sides of our gift. I have no idea what to do with another Watcher’s bones, other than to bury them again. I’m emailing you what I’ve found.”

  That ought to make for some cheery reading. “So somebody might know more about me than I know about me?”

  “Yep. Watch your back. If they need the bones of a Watcher for a ritual—they might want something fresher than old Silas. His ‘best by’ date may have passed, but I’m obviously not familiar with ‘101 Uses for Gargoyle Bones.’ Be careful. I’ll be there soon.”

  After saying good-bye, I hung up. That had killed the night. It couldn’t get any worse than that. I was living in a murder house, I couldn’t seem to handle going solo on a job, and I might have my bones stolen right out of my body for a dark ritual.

  I learned four things during that long night.

  First, it can always get worse.

  Second, Piper might draw in fiends, with or without curse sacks. If I wasn’t constantly trying to soothe her sleep, she tossed and turned all night. Fiends kept coming, drawn by the intensity of her emotional thoughts.

  The third thing I realized was that sleepwalking was creepy as hell. When Piper walked out the front door with her eyes wide open, it took me some time to figure out she wasn’t ignoring my questions on purpose. She walked out to stand by the fence while I was scouring my brain for everything I’d ever heard about sleepwalkers.

  Everything I’d ever read referred to routine activities, but this didn’t seem to be part of her routine during the day.

  Her eyes were wide open. I’d always imagined sleepwalking to be something people did with their eyes closed and involved short walks. Piper stood out by the road for fifteen minutes, shifting from side-to-side. I kept saying her name, hoping she’d snap out of it, but she just stood there, eyes glazed, staring. In a person whose every movement was extra deliberate and controlled, this was so out of character that it was downright scary.

  Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and guided her back to her own room. She climbed through the window and into bed. Her eyes closed as I tucked the blankets around her. I thought, Finally, she’s gone back to sleep before realizing how ridiculous that was. She’d never been awake.

  I found a third sack below her nightstand when I decided to check—a third sack that I’d swear couldn’t have been there when we’d looked before. I’d checked under her nightstand. I had. I wasn’t about to mention it to her—just in case I’d missed it.

  I had to have missed it. There was no way somebody had climbed into her room again.

  I was gonna make sure Piper was good and safe in the future—even if I had to stick to her like glue and stay in her room every night. If I had to be around her all the time, well, Hidden Creek wasn’t all bad, and eventually she was going to college somewhere.

  Though, the sleepwalking was definitely a bucket of ice on my raging hormones. She barely blinked. It was unnatural.

  The fourth thing I learned from that night was, by far, the most disturbing. It outranked finding out how creepy sleepwalking is.

  Somebody had buried a jar of the same ingredients found in the curse sacks. It was on the Devon’s property, dragging in fiends. They’d congregated around the mound of dirt and dove, licking at it. I’d had to kill them even as I was digging. I kept putting the shovel down, transforming, and picking up the shovel the moment their hearts had sunk through my fingers. The newly dug hole and its size ought to have tipped me off to what I was digging up. I gagged when I turned up Jester’s remains. Some sicko had used his grave to bury the jar, and it looked like they’d taken his teeth.

  This monster had desecrated a grave after slaughtering a dog to plant a curse jar and take the dog’s teeth. Another grave. A new grave. It seemed more disgusting to me than the other grave I’d spent time in. I was spending far too much time in graves. What in the hell, Hidden Creek?

  This linked things up. The dog and the curse sacks and the fiends. Tossing something you’d found on a “black magic” website into your enemy’s room was one thing, but once you dug up a dog’s corpse to plant one…no, you knew what you were doing. I was out of my league. I’d dealt with loads of fiends. I’d visited fiend-plagued rest homes, where death hung like a constant specter in addition to the wispy monsters I hunted. Fiends screeched down the halls at nights there and the bedeviled shouted and shrieked. This was more disturbing than that.

  This person was strong and malicious, and some of that focus on Piper had begun before I arrived.

  Why?

  Was she just an easy target, or had she actually done something to draw it?

  When I climbed into the shower at the first rays of dawn, scrubbing the dirt of g
rave-digging from under my nails, I just plain wanted to forget the whole night. I tried to force my mind back to flying with Piper, but as I crawled into bed, my last thought was of Jester’s souring body as I’d uncovered it. I’d been commanding the darkness since I was a child, but, now, my mind was full of it, bedeviled by my own visions.

  …

  I went to the diner again and ordered the Piper Special. Everything about Piper was growing on me. Well, not the sleepwalking thing, but I shouldn’t hold that against her. If she was awake and doing it to aggravate me, that would be one thing, but she couldn’t help it. She just…did it.

  After I’d finished my burger, I ordered another one. I’d killed eight fiends the previous night in addition to the flying and the shoveling.

  Actually, I wouldn’t be able to eat another peanut butter burger if I kept thinking about the shoveling. I should’ve ordered Piper’s burger with creamy peanut butter instead of crunchy. The sound of me chewing brought to mind the sound of that shoveling. Lucky for my stomach, I was hungry enough I’d be able to work past the texture.

  Dick delivered this burger personally. “How is she?”

  “She’s better.” She was, somewhat. She was doing better with this whole thing with Jester anyway, and that was probably what Dick was asking about.

  “Heard you’re around there a lot. Her parents are decent folk. They wouldn’t let you sniff around her if you were a total perv.”

  “I reckon I’ll take that as a compliment, sir.” What did one say to that?

  Dick wiped his hands in his apron and shouted, “Tony, take the grill,” as he sat down across from me. “I mentioned before that Piper worked for me last year. She’s real special.”

  “I think so. I like her a lot.”

  “I can tell.” He snorted a laugh. “I caught you looking at her legs on the way in here.”

  I nearly choked on the bite of burger I’d taken. He’d seen that, huh?

  Dick waved that away. “It’s fine. You‘re interested in her in every which way, not like these other losers around here. I was glad she never took them up on it, and I’d warned them I’d spit in their food if they tried anything.”