No Crone Unturned

by Amanda M. Lee

  Gunner’s hand landed on my shoulder and he squeezed. “You’re in the world you’re supposed to be in. You’re with me.”

  “Aw.” Rooster and Mama Moon cocked their heads to the side and made twin expressions of delight.

  “Shut up,” Gunner growled, causing me to smile. “Brandon, I’ll be back tomorrow to check on you. Try to get some sleep.”

  “I can’t sleep here.” Brandon had run the gamut of emotions since appearing at my cabin. He was angry ... then sly ... then manipulative ... then sad. Now he was desperate. “You can’t leave me here.” He turned quickly and grabbed Gunner by the front of the shirt, his neck wound on full display as he begged his friend to help him. “I’ll die if you leave me here. Die!”

  “You’ll be fine,” Gunner promised. “I won’t let anything happen to you. You have my word.”

  “Like you gave your word to Rain?” Brandon’s demeanor suddenly shifted and he was aggressive, to the point of threatening. “You tried to lock her in here, too, didn’t you? How did that work out? Not so well.”

  I was taken aback. Rain was the woman who had held my position (and lived in my cabin) with Spells Angels before I arrived. Something had happened to her. I was assuming that something was dark, but no one wanted to talk about it. I’d heard tidbits here and there and recognized that Rain’s end was bad enough that it haunted all of them.

  Gunner wasn’t fazed. “The situations are ... different.”

  “Really? They don’t feel different. I remember sitting with you after she died. You felt guilty, thought you failed her. Do you want to feel that way again?”

  “I won’t fail you.” Gunner sounded certain of himself, but I sensed a bit of hesitation. He was questioning his resolve.

  “He won’t,” I agreed, moving closer to him. “None of us will fail you. We’ll fix this, Brandon. I’m not sure how, but we will.”

  “Oh, shut up.” Brandon’s lips curved into an evil smirk. “I don’t trust you. I know what you are. Stop trying to convince me you’re on my side. You’re evil!” He lashed out to strike me again, but Gunner caught his wrist.

  “Stop.” His tone was icy as he glared at the thing wearing his friend’s face. “I warned you what would happen if you touched her again.”

  Brandon shrank back in the face of Gunner’s fury. “I ... she’s evil.”

  “No, you’re confused ... and I’ve had enough of you.” Gunner gave Brandon a terrific shove, one so hard that the lumberyard owner tripped over the cot and smacked against the wall. Gunner was grave as he turned and gestured toward the door. “Everybody out. We’re locking this up tight.”

  Arguing would’ve been an ugly business, so I did as he asked, watching as he and Whistler locked the door once we were safely outside.

  “It’s secure,” Whistler announced. “He’s locked in there tight. We’ll need to figure out shifts for meals in case he decides to get violent, but for now we’re okay.”

  “I’ll do that first thing in the morning,” Rooster offered. “I’ll make sure somebody is always here.”

  “Then I guess that’s it for tonight.” Whistler doled out pointed looks for each of us. “That’s your cue to get out so I can sleep.”

  Under different circumstances I might’ve laughed at his reaction. Tonight, I was too tired. “I’ll check in with you in the morning. I might have a few ideas for modifying his mood.”

  Whistler nodded. “Don’t show up too early. I need my beauty rest.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that. I need mine, too.” I switched my attention to Gunner, who was staring at the closed door with something akin to despair. “Come on.” I reached out and snagged his fingers, giving them a little tug. “We’ll come back tomorrow. I promise we’ll fix this.”

  His eyes were glassy when he turned and I was stunned by the thought that he might cry. I had no problem with it. I’m not one of those people who think men shouldn’t cry. It was a humbling emotion, though, and I wanted nothing more than to take him in my arms and tell him everything was going to be okay.

  That would have to wait until we were back at the cabin. It wasn’t something that either of us felt comfortable displaying in front of a larger audience.

  “It’s going to be okay.” I kept my voice low as I gripped his hand tighter. “Have faith in me. I will fix this. I promise.”

  “I know you will.” Briefly, he dropped his forehead against mine and closed his eyes. “I just have never seen anything like that. He was like a different person.”

  “He is a different person. But we’ll get your friend back. I swear it.”

  Seventeen

  “You’re quiet,” Gunner noted when we returned to the cabin. It was almost two in the morning, which meant we had only a few hours before we had to get up. Every muscle in my body screamed for rest even as my mind churned.

  “I’m just ... thinking.”

  “Yeah. There’s a lot of that going around.”

  I was too tired to worry about pajamas, so I stripped down to my underwear and climbed into bed. Gunner followed suit, hitting the lights before letting loose a long sigh. It was pitch black in the room. I wasn’t worried about visitors sliding through the trees and approaching us. I’d warded the cabin. On top of that, I had a perverted ghost hanging around. He would warn us if trouble approached.

  “Good night,” I murmured, closing my eyes.

  “Good night.”

  Absolute silence followed for a moment, and then he slid his arm under my waist and tugged me until I rolled against him, my cheek resting on his shoulder. “You have questions about Rain.”

  The simple statement caused my eyes to snap open.

  “I do,” I confirmed. “Ever since I arrived nobody has wanted to answer those questions. I don’t foresee tonight being any different.”

  “It’s a little different ... thanks to Brandon. You’re allowed to be curious.”

  I hesitated.

  “Ask whatever you want,” he prodded.

  Well, that was an opening I couldn’t very well ignore. “Okay.” I licked my lips. “Were you together?”

  “No.” He immediately started shaking his head. “We worked together, had a few drinks together now and then, but we were never romantically involved.”

  “And yet you’re tortured by her death.”

  “I’m ... bothered by what happened,” he corrected. “Rain was, let’s just say she was a wild child. She liked to throw herself headlong into whatever investigation we had going at any given moment. She was headstrong ... and belligerent ... and brave. She was also petulant and pouty. She wasn’t the easiest person to deal with.”

  “And at some point you locked her in that cage.”

  “She was acting out of sorts. We were convinced she was possessed.” He opened his mouth for a second and I was certain he was going to say something important. Instead, he pressed his lips against my forehead before continuing. “I’m starting to wonder if the same thing happened to her that has happened to Brandon.”

  “Seriously?” I pulled back. The strong lines of his face were visible despite the limited moonlight, but I couldn’t ascertain what he was feeling. “Do you really think that’s true?”

  He shrugged as he pulled me tighter against him. It was as if he needed the contact. “She was running around at the time, dating someone she didn’t want us to know about. I didn’t think much of it. She was always jumping from dude to dude.”

  “And you’re certain you never dated her?”

  He chuckled. “I’m certain. Before you, I was convinced that dating people in our group was a bad idea.”

  “Given what happened to Brandon, I’m not sure that it’s not,” I muttered.

  He stiffened next to me. “What are you saying?”

  “Don’t worry.” I rested my hand on his chest. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a good or bad idea at this point. It’s done. It’s not as if you and I are going to be able to stay away from one another. Even if we decided af
ter the fact that it was a mistake we’re already both goners.”

  His lips curved against my forehead. “That’s true.”

  “I guess I just assumed you guys were involved given the way Brandon was reacting.”

  “No.” Gunner sobered. “Brandon knew I was upset about how things went down. Obviously whatever has taken him over knew to use that memory against me. What I don’t understand is why he’s so fixated on you.”

  That was easy enough to answer. “They’ve pegged me as a threat. I think it has to do with the fact that I remember Bixby and what I’m assuming was the master from Detroit all those years ago. That’s the one thing that sticks out to me.”

  “What if you’re wrong?”

  “Then I’m wrong. But it doesn’t feel wrong.”

  “Well ... I guess you would know best.” He snuggled down deeper into the covers. “Do you want to hear about Rain?”

  Did I? It didn’t seem that I had much choice. “Yeah.”

  “She’d become secretive toward the end. She was hanging out with people we didn’t know. She was acting furtive, shirking her duties. Still, that wasn’t enough to force us to turn on her. We assumed she would get it together and return to the way she was.”

  “But something happened.”

  He nodded. “Yeah. Something happened. We caught her breaking into Rooster’s office and going through his files. When questioned on it, she tried to deny what she was doing. It was obvious she was lying. Then she lashed out and threatened to kill us all. She actually pulled a knife on Marissa.”

  I was taken aback. “And she didn’t stab her? That shows restraint.”

  He poked my side, amused. “You’re a funny girl.”

  “I should have my own stand-up special.”

  “This is not a funny situation.”

  “No,” I agreed. “Not remotely funny.”

  “We locked her up, promised we would figure out what was happening, and then observed her for three days.”

  “And?”

  “And nothing. We don’t know what happened to her. We don’t know why she was acting the way she was. We only know that she escaped.”

  Ah. We were finally getting somewhere. “How did she escape?”

  “Raisin. She heard Rain cursing a blue streak. She assumed Rain had accidently locked herself in the storage room.”

  “Raisin is probably lucky that Rain didn’t hurt her.”

  “Very lucky,” Gunner agreed. “We think it’s because she heard Whistler. He came in right after Raisin and gave her a good talking to about being in the bar. Because she didn’t realize anything had happened, Raisin didn’t admit to being the one who’d let Rain out. By then ... it was too late.

  “We didn’t want Raisin to blame herself for what happened, so we played it off,” he continued. “We went out to her cabin — your cabin now — but she’d already packed her things and cleared out. We thought she was going to run, but during the next few days we heard reports about her being seen in the area.”

  “Who was she hanging out with?”

  “We don’t know.”

  “How is that possible? What happened to her?”

  “Whatever force took her over compelled her to kill herself,” he replied softly. “You know that cliff that overlooks the lake where we went hiking about two weeks ago?”

  I nodded. “The day after Drake took off to take care of his sister and I was melting down because I wanted information? Yeah.”

  “We finally found her one day, had her closed off. We were determined to help. She saw us, probably figured out our intentions, and took off racing. That road is treacherous up there. She knew it, but she didn’t slow down. She took every curve as if she didn’t care if she would fly off the road. When she hit the top and realized we were still in pursuit she purposely kept going ... right over the edge.”

  I was horrified on his behalf. The picture he painted was heartbreaking. “I’m really sorry. I just ... don’t understand. Someone had to be controlling her, changing her personality. You said before you were wondering if it was like now. Something must’ve made you consider that.”

  He cleared his throat. “Brandon. He’s acting out of sorts, just like Rain. I saw the realization on Rooster’s face earlier. He thinks the same thing.” Gunner shifted so he was lower in the bed, his arm still around me as we faced each other. “What if these vampires were here back then and nobody knew it? What if they were using Rain as a smokescreen? What if we could have ended this months ago but none of us figured it out? That means Honey died for nothing ... and now Brandon is in danger.”

  I worked my jaw. He was a melancholy pain when he wanted to be. “You can’t go back in time. We might never know what happened with Rain. All we can do is move forward ... and that’s what we’ll do. We’ll figure it out ... and save Brandon. I promise I won’t let anything happen to him.”

  “You can’t promise that. I know you mean well, but you’re not omnipotent. You can’t control everything.”

  “No, but I can control this. I won’t let you lose him.”

  He held me tighter. “This can’t be all about me. You’re involved in this, too. I want you safe.”

  “I don’t think I’m in the right line of work for that. But it doesn’t matter. We’ll figure it out because it’s necessary.”

  “Yeah.” He closed his eyes and kissed my cheek. “I’m sorry he hit you. That’s not like him. I need you to know that. He’s not the type of guy who hurts women.”

  “I know. You wouldn’t surround yourself with people like that. I’m not upset.”

  “I am.”

  “I can tell.” On impulse, I repeated the gesture and kissed his cheek. “Go to sleep. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.”

  “Right now, right here with you, I know that everything will be okay. I can’t think otherwise. I might be more of a Debbie Downer tomorrow. I can’t promise anything.”

  “Fair enough. Just get some sleep.”

  I WOKE TO POUNDING ON THE DOOR loud enough to disorient me.

  “What the ... ?” Gunner swore viciously under his breath as he extricated himself from the embrace we’d fallen into the previous evening. Neither of us had moved, which seemed to indicate that we were exhausted. “I’m going to kill whoever that is.”

  I remained where I was, my morning-muddled mind refusing to fire on all cylinders, and only managed to rouse myself when I heard angry voices in the living room. When I made my way there, I found Graham and Gunner facing off.

  “It’s barely even light out,” Gunner complained, hands on hips. He made quite the morning spectacle, what with his chiseled chest and the cute boxers with little dogs on them.

  “Yes, well, some of us start the day early,” Graham fired back, his eyes drifting to me. “Nice hair.”

  It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about, and I reached up to smooth away my bedhead.

  “Your hair is fine,” Gunner shot back, grabbing my hand before I could make a fuss. “He’s just being a pain in the behind.”

  “Yes, that’s the only reason I’m here,” Graham drawled. “Would someone like to make me some coffee?”

  When Gunner didn’t immediately respond with a snarky comeback, I realized the question was directed at me ... which didn’t make me happy.

  “You’re only asking because I have ovaries, right?”

  Graham looked horrified by the question. “What?”

  “Serving coffee is apparently work for women in your world.” I was in no mood to play nice. “That means I’m the one who has to get your caffeine.”

  “To be fair, I was expecting you to get my coffee,” Graham admitted. “It’s not because you’re a woman, it’s because you’re the hostess. Most hostesses would’ve already offered.”

  “Oh.” I chewed my bottom lip, the righteous indignation I was gearing up to embrace evaporating. “I guess that makes sense.” I didn’t miss the amused looks Gunner and his father shared as they followed me
to the kitchen. I’d forgotten that I wasn’t wearing sleep shorts until I felt a cool breeze lift the T-shirt I was wearing. That only served to make my mortification complete. “Um ... I should probably put some pants on.” I wrestled the T-shirt lower. “It will just take me a second.”

  Gunner took pity on me and nodded. “I’ll handle the coffee this morning, even if you are the hostess and it’s your job.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

  By the time I came back, Gunner and Graham were seated at the table, mugs of coffee in front of them. There was an air of defiance floating around Gunner. He refused to put a shirt on and seemed to be daring his father to comment on it. Graham silently sipped his coffee and returned the stare. It was something of a standoff, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I would ever understand men.

  “You guys are acting like children,” I pointed out as I shuffled toward the counter. I’d taken time to run a brush through my hair, but now I regretted it because I was feeling defiant, too.

  “We know,” Gunner replied, breaking off the staring contest with his father and turning his face to me. “I made yours how you like it and put it in your ‘witch, please’ mug.” His lips quirked, forcing me to stare anywhere but his mouth for fear I would lose it ... or kiss him in front of his father. Neither option seemed a good way to go. He pulled out the chair next to him so I could sit, giving me a long once-over and then smiling. “I wish you would’ve left the hair like it was. Now I know you’re not going back to bed.”

  “If your father is here before the crack of dawn I don’t think I’m going back to bed regardless.”

  “Which is another reason he sucks,” Gunner lamented, his hand moving to the back of my neck as he glared at his father. “Well, out with it. You said you couldn’t tell me what was going on until Scout was here because you didn’t want to explain it twice. She’s here ... and I’m ready for the big news.”

  Instead of immediately responding, Graham grinned at his offspring. “You guys are kind of cute. I mean ... domestic. Do you sit on the couch at night and share popcorn while watching romantic comedies?”