Secrets of Skin and Stone

by Wendy Laine

  Dick nodded. “I’ll take your money.”

  Perfect. I loved working with reasonable people who understood a man’s need to not be in debt. It’d also give Piper some space for when she found out about my great-uncle killing her dog—for whatever reason he did. If she wanted nothing to do with me after that, I wouldn’t blame her.

  I could feel Piper staring at me—in addition to the rest of Hidden Creek. I smoothed out my forehead. Sure, I was hiding stuff from her, but it was for her own good, as she’d know soon enough.

  “My dad will be here in a few hours,” I said to Piper.

  “He can stay in the house in the guest room,” Piper‘s mom said. “It just doesn’t seem right to have you in the house what with you dating Piper.”

  Piper groaned. “Mama!”

  I fought a smile. I wasn’t sure what she was about. We were standing side-by-side and holding hands. I was holding her hand in front of her mom. In some states, we’d have been halfway married at this point.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” I said.

  Her mom nodded and glanced around. “How about we head home? You must be hungry.”

  Mrs. Devon knew the magic words. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for her cooking.

  A portion of the house’s roof collapsed—causing a collective gasp from everybody outside the fence—except Piper who shouted, “I knew it!”

  Before we left, I went to my aunt and leaned across the fence. “Keep Critch in his room until my dad arrives,” I whispered. “Even if you have to lock him in there. Keep him there.”

  My aunt looked guilty rather than surprised. “Why?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t want to say it out loud, let alone with the crowd around us. “Promise me?”

  She frowned.

  “Promise me, Aunt Jess. I told my dad you’d do it. Don’t make me a liar.”

  “Jack agreed?” she asked.

  I nodded.

  “Fine then. I’ll lock him in. He’ll hate it. He’ll rail, and he has a filthy mouth when he’s in a rage. Maybe I’ll send the girls to stay with friends til Jack arrives. It’d be better anyway. Better for everybody. Time to bring things to light.” I had a feeling we’d end the day wishing they’d stayed the hell in the dark and kept quiet.

  …

  Three hours later, I was sitting on the Devons’ front porch watching the road for my dad.

  Piper dropped down next to me. “Are you going to explain to me what’s going on?”

  “It’ll be obvious soon enough,” I said, taking her hand. When it was obvious, she wouldn’t want anything to do with me. I might as well enjoy these final moments.

  She sighed and looked up at the dimming sky. “Full moon tonight.”

  I went still. “Is it?” A whole lot of the rituals Dad had come across involved the full moon. He wasn’t sure how much was superstition and how much was legitimate since he didn’t even think it could work. Not that he was willing to let Critch find out. Damn. Hard to believe it’d come to this.

  “Yes. I have it on my desk calendar.” She cleared her throat. “Are you mad at me?”

  Her words broke my concentration on the road, and I turned to her. “Mad? Why would I be mad?”

  “On account of what Mama said about us dating? I never told her we were dating.”

  I blinked slowly and continued staring at the burned house ahead. We were holding hands. Didn’t that mean something to Piper?

  “Do you not want to be dating me?” Crap, I’d asked a question. There was no way she’d answer. No way in hell.

  “Do you wanna be dating me?” she asked, biting her lower lip.

  “Yes. I thought we were dating—for as long as I’m here.”

  “I’m not sure if you can call what we’ve done dating.”

  “I tried to take you out to lunch, but you left me high and dry. I tried to take you skinny dipping, but you were having none of it.”

  The look she gave me would have turned anything less than a gargoyle to stone.

  “Maybe tomorrow we could go on a date,” she said. “So, we can officially call it dating.”

  “We could do that.” I could see a decent amount of misunderstandings in our future, such as it was. She saw more layers than anybody could even imagine. “Also, after we start dating, we’re exclusive. We’re just dating each other.”

  She nodded. “For as long you’re here.” It sounded so much worse when she said it. Like the clock was ticking. Maybe it was and hopefully the next few hours didn’t ruin everything. “What were the police wanting at your place?”

  “They found out how the fire started. Somebody put a broken bottle end in the window, and it lit a bunch of rags that were stuffed around the gas valve behind the oven. They lit up when the sun hit the bottle.”

  “What kind of a person would do that?” Piper‘s green eyes were as wide as I’d ever seen them. “They tried to blow up the house.”

  “They tried to kill me.”

  “They couldn’t have known you’d be asleep in there.”

  “People know, Piper. Either Danny has told them stuff about me, or they already knew.” Especially the ones who were related to me. They knew better than most, I’d imagine.

  “I can’t figure out who’d do all these things. My dog, the grave, Trina and her boyfriend, your house…it seems like too much for any one person.”

  “Maybe it’s not just one person.” It had to be. It had to all be Critch—though I couldn’t see him digging up the grave, the more I thought on it. He might want to, but he didn’t seem strong enough anymore. Maybe he’d tricked Danny into doing it for him.

  She turned to stare at me. Danny wasn’t wrong. She did like to stare, and it was unnerving. I leaned over and kissed her. She kissed me back for a second, her lips softening against mine, and then she pushed back and looked all around.

  “Gris! We’re out where anybody can see us.”

  I smiled.

  A door slammed.

  We both looked up and across the way as Critch left the house, heading toward the barn, casting furtive looks around.

  “Hell. Aunt Jess was supposed to keep him in.”

  What was he carrying? Could he do whatever ritual without actually killing me or having me present?

  Piper followed my gaze. “Wait, that’s not why you have me steering clear of Critch, is it? You don’t really believe he’s responsible for Jester’s death, do you?”

  I got to my feet.

  “Gris, he wasn’t on my list for a reason. I can tell you a lot of what happened—couldn’t be Critch.” She got to her feet, too.

  “You can’t underestimate him, and, technically, he’d fit into your unknown enemy category. He might—”

  Shaking her head, she interrupted me. “No. The one thing I never do is underestimate somebody’s ability to be harmful. Critch definitely didn’t kill Jester. One hundred percent sure.”

  “He might be stronger than he looks. He used to be a Watcher.”

  Squinting, she considered that before shaking her head again. “I don’t think he’s strong enough, but I won’t swear to it. It’s Jester’s barking. He barked at whoever came after him. He never barked at Critch. Ever. Even when Critch brought a bone for him out to the porch. I think Jester recognized that it’d unsettle your great-uncle and stop Critch from petting him. Dogs can sense that. On the other hand, Jester didn’t much care for Danny or Hank. I figured, with Hank, that maybe he had the right idea. Dogs are smart, Gris. They know who’s dangerous and who’s not. I just imagine that might’ve been overridden by food.” Her eyes narrowed further. “That had to be how it was done.”

  “I need to go after him—Critch, I mean,” I said. “You’re sure it’s a full moon?”

  “Of course I am. I’m also sure Critch didn’t kill Jester.”

  “Maybe he’s responsible for dragging in fiends and other folks around him were just…inspired by the bedeviling.” Maybe either Danny or my uncle were involved and doing some of this.
Maybe Danny had killed the dog. “I’d still see him as accountable for all that’s happened if that’s the case. As a Watcher, Critch knew the consequences.” I started across the yard. “Stay here.”

  She didn’t stay. Following me, Piper said, “Okay, so the fire was almost certainly Critch. He’s the most logical suspect. There’s a certain craftiness to it that fits his personality. He didn’t just soak the area in gasoline and light a match—no, he set it all up cleverly to distance himself from getting his hands dirty. That’s not to say the house fire had anything to do with you.”

  I blinked. “Well, why—”

  She interrupted again, which was just as well because I’d been about to ask her a question. “Critch hated that house. He used to stare at it from across the way with this strange look on his face. If I had to swear, I’d think he loathed it.”

  “He does have some history with that house.” I stopped at the gate and turned to her. “You really do need to stay here.”

  “If you think I’m not going with you, you’re dumber than I thought.”

  I frowned at her.

  She frowned right back.

  “Piper, this is dangerous.”

  “It’s not your great-uncle. Trust the list, Gris. Lists don’t lie. And, no matter what, I’m coming with you.”

  I grabbed her shoulders. “Even if you’re right and he didn’t kill Jester, there’s a whole lot that’s happened besides that.”

  She cupped my face. “Gris, if killing Jester was to bedevil me and everything else is associated with fiends, aside from the fire, it’s all the same person or persons. It’s all about who wins if we lose. If you toss in everything that’s happened with fiends from the beginning, who wins?”

  Pulling away from her, I opened the gate and started down the road. There was a moment of hesitation behind me as Piper tried to decide whether to cut across the field or follow me.

  She caught up to me.

  “What do you mean who wins?”

  “Well, what was your first brush with fiends? Jester’s death?”

  “Actually, the hell of it was, I passed that mill on my way into town. I nearly stopped and took them on, despite being exhausted. They would have slaughtered me. Critch was the one who sent for me. He knew I was coming in.”

  “So, did three other people on my list.”

  “He knew about the birthright.”

  “So, did three other people on my list.”

  My great-uncle had gone into the barn…or around the barn, but I hadn’t seen him come out behind it. I stopped right in front of it to take one final stab at convincing Piper to stay outside. “Look, I’ll immobilize Critch and we can discuss all your theories when my dad arrives.”

  She was staring at the patch of paint right next to the door while biting her lip. Sensing my gaze, she turned to me and clenched her fists at her sides. “I’m going with you. I understand ‘crazy’ better than you ever will. Maybe I can reason with him.” Then, she stomped over to the door and opened it.

  Stepping through the doors, I searched the dark interior for my uncle.

  “He did come in here, didn’t he?” Piper asked softly.

  “I thought so.” Great. He was gone. I wanted to throw something but I didn’t want to scare Piper. Then her words niggled at the back of my brain. “Three people?” I asked. “What three people were on your list who fit this besides Critch?”

  “Your aunt, Danny, and his father.”

  “You’re including my aunt?” Aunt Jess had looked guilty earlier when I’d talked to her, but…no.

  With a sigh, Piper stepped over to a bale of hay just past the light cast by the door. “Never underestimate a woman, Gris.”

  That’s when the persistent itching on my back from my wings hit me. “Hell.” I grabbed her just before her hand hit the bale and dragged her into the light.

  “Don‘t profane, and what are you doing?” she asked, pulling her hand from mine. I grabbed her around the waist, holding her close to me.

  In the silence, she heard it, too.

  The scrambling and shuffling in the hay, all around us.

  Piper shivered. “It’s cold even in the sunlight,” she whispered.

  The fiends were crowded into this barn like somebody’d sold admission. I could smell it, that scent—sulfur. Critch had gathered fiends here.

  Behind us, the barn door slammed shut and a large piece of wood bolted it closed.

  Fiends dove toward me from all sides, their banshee shrieks so piercing that I winced and jerked. My skin hardened in an instant as I slipped into Watcher form. I shifted so quickly that my wings stung as they burst through my shirt. My shirt split all along my sleeves, and my clawed feet shot through my shoes.

  Grabbing Piper, I jumped into the large patch of light left behind by the square window above us in the barn. I was back in human form in an instant, but not before I’d felt the brush of fiends’ claws on my skin. This was bad. This was very bad.

  Piper‘s breaths came in quick bursts. “So cold. They’re here. I felt them.” Her head bumped my chin as she looked up. “Gris, they’re here.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Piper

  A shiver spooked through my body, and it was justified. I couldn’t see, but I could feel Gris changing from his normal form to the other and back again. And they were here. Like the nights in my room, the monsters were out from under the bed and roaming.

  “Gris?” What should we do? I glanced over at the door. That’s part of what had seemed wrong when we’d walked up. The door to the barn had been open. It’d been closed earlier.

  “There’s a whole slew of fiends in this barn, Piper, and they’re aggressive. I‘m not sure what is setting them off, but—they’re going to attack. They usually wait until night when they have more strength, but they won’t this time.” He sniffed. “That is a lot of sulfur.” He groaned. “That damn mill. It’s like that mill again—only there’s more than twice as many.”

  I could smell the sulfur in the air now. It smelled like several dozen eggs had gone very wrong in the barn. “It does smell evil if that counts for anything,” I said.

  A low, deep laugh sounded outside the barn.

  I shivered even as Gris seemed to relax. It was the same laugh I’d heard in the gym.

  “Danny,” Gris yelled, “what the hell are you doing? Quit being a dumbass and open the door. Critch seeded this place with something like he did that grain mill. It’s gathered a bunch of fiends. Let us out. We need to round him up before he does something we can’t fix.”

  Something wasn’t right—beyond everything else—beyond the strange scent and the cold feel of the air. Something was decidedly wrong. When Danny didn’t answer Gris right away, I whispered, “Gris, he’s put up the missing boards.”

  “What?”

  We were in the only solid patch of light in the whole barn. There were streaks from ill-placed boards and holes in the wood, but every last one of the boards I’d stacked behind the barn was back up. They didn’t match up just right, so he hadn’t hammered them up, but they were up nonetheless.

  “He wins, Gris. It was Danny. Not your great-uncle. Danny put the missing boards back up to trap us. Critch definitely set fire to the house, but Danny did everything else. I told you my list was right! I told you!”

  Another laugh from Danny.

  “It can’t be,” Gris said.

  “Danny, you son of a bitch, you killed my dog. I hope you rot in hell!” If ever there was a time for cursing, this was it.

  Gris shouted. “Open the damn door.”

  “Now why would I do that? I’d have to go through the ritual again, and I’m starting to run low on ingredients. I already had to take on getting more beast’s teeth, and that was a pain in the ass. Only it wasn’t on account of me not being able to use anything with cloven hooves or feathers. But you always thought I was stupid.”

  “I never thought you were stupid. Shiftless and ignorant, but that’s not the same,” I yelle
d back.

  “Don‘t aggravate him,” Gris hissed under his breath.

  “Yeah, well, nobody noticed the dogs, did they? The other missing dogs?” Danny yelled. “You lock a bunch of angry fiends in a barn to slaughter everything and nobody thinks anything of a few dumb mutts disappearing with the rest of the livestock.”

  “Jester was not a dumb mutt. He knew you were sick and twisted. Jester always hated you!”

  “Well, you have your boyfriend to thank for that. I used all the beast’s teeth at the mill—the one he didn’t stop for, even though it was on the way to our place. He’d set out so late that the ritual might not have worked, but he didn’t stop anyway. I figured he wouldn’t be able to resist proving himself and he’d be tired and easy prey…especially since he’d ridden here. I’d gone to all the trouble to goad him into riding his motorcycle, too.”

  Gris groaned and slapped his forehead. “He did. He said my rustrocket wouldn’t even make it here.”

  Okay, I hated to admit it, but that was clever.

  Gris turned around, searching for a way out. Maybe if I just kept Danny talking.

  “Then, I had everything with me at the mill when he finally got around to it, but nine fiends wasn’t enough. Plus, I had to step everything up when Gris got interested in my business and in you, Piper. You were just supposed to die. You had one job. Do you know how long it takes to gather these creatures? I’ve been moving them around as I gathered them, and there’s only so many empty buildings in Hidden Creek. It’s a damn pain to manage. It’s like herding and it’s taking up too much of my time.”

  I gasped. “You had them in the gym! That’s just plain not safe. Kids go to the gym!” He’d had them in the gym, and I’d stumbled into them.

  Danny laughed. “That was so funny. I couldn’t believe the luck of that. I almost had you.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Gris asked. It was a good question. Hopefully Danny’d answer it.