How to Rattle an Undead Couple (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 9)

by Hailey Edwards

  “I’m not sure what this structure’s original purpose was, but there are interconnecting shafts that fork off it in different directions. The downward slope makes me think they intersect the underground tunnel system at some point.”

  Cletus halted before another metal door and inspected it for a ward before gliding through to the other side. He materialized in a rusted-out cistern littered with protein bar wrappers and empty bottles of water.

  “Cletus?” A scratchy voice came from the darkness. “Am I hallucinating?”

  Nudging the wraith closer to the voice with a mental push, Linus gritted his teeth at the bruises purpling Boaz’s eyes, cheeks, and neck. Blood crusted his short hair and ears, but he had washed his face clean.

  The wraith poked his cheek with a bony finger, and Boaz jolted, his eyes widening.

  “Wakey, wakey.” He reached for a pile of blankets and peeled them back. “The cavalry has arrived.”

  Heart in his throat, Linus watched as his disheveled mother sat up and honed her glare on Cletus.

  “Linus?” Her expression softened. “We’ll need assistance to navigate the shaft.”

  Unable to ask why, he urged Cletus to spread his arms and shrug the question.

  “I seem to have broken my leg,” she said haughtily. “The Pritchard boy has a concussion. A vampire struck him with a metal pipe, which I honestly didn’t expect to prove harder than his skull.”

  “She’s not wrong,” Boaz admitted. “On both fronts.”

  The gesture at odds with his somber countenance, Cletus gave them two thumbs up and then retreated.

  As the wraith made his way back to the office, Linus blinked clear of their connection.

  “They’re both alive and mostly well in a cistern about a five-minute crawl from here.” He held still while his vision returned and noted Clem had rejoined them. “They’ve requested our assistance with an extraction.”

  “I’m in.” Clem rested a hand on Adelaide’s shoulders. “I’ll bring your pet ox back to you.”

  “Thanks.” She hugged him briefly. “I am rather fond of him.”

  “Count me in too.” Corbin dumped his backpack at his feet. “I’ve got headlamps. Who wants one?”

  Linus shifted toward Adelaide. “Will you be comfortable waiting for us here?”

  “No problem.” The cold light of resolve entered her eyes. “Someone needs to keep an eye out for whoever chased them down there in the first place.”

  “You’re right.” Linus gestured to Corbin. “Stay here with Adelaide.”

  “Okay.” Head down, Corbin checked, “Are you sure you don’t need more help?”

  “Boaz has a concussion, but he won’t require physical assistance, only guidance in the event he becomes disoriented. Clem can handle him.” Linus moved to shut the door and ward it until their return. “Mother has broken her leg, but I can carry her out alone. Two of us can manage.”

  “I can do that.” Corbin eyed the door. “We’ll hold down the fort until you return.”

  “Do we need to call anyone?” Adelaide picked at her nails. “Or can they make it home?”

  “They can both come to Woolworth House,” Linus decided. “We can ask the pack healer to treat them.”

  Another time, Grier could have healed them good as new, maybe better, but he wasn’t risking her health for minor injuries.

  “That works for me.” Adelaide got out her phone. “I’ll update Grier and check in on her.”

  “Thank you,” Linus said, and he meant it. “Send Cletus if you need to contact us.”

  The wraith would be more reliable than cellphones once they got belowground.

  “The trail is distinct enough I can follow it,” he said when Clem frowned. “Unless you prefer to lead?”

  “Now that you mention it,” Clem said with a smile, “I would.”

  Without another word, he crammed himself into the tight space and began wiggling until the tunnel flared wider.

  Once he got deep enough to give Linus room to enter without getting kicked in the face, he tossed his bag in then climbed after it, shoving it ahead of him as he crawled forward using his forearms.

  Aside from the occasional grunt or sneeze, and the scrape of fabric on metal, they kept their passage quiet until reaching the opening.

  “Incoming friendlies,” Clem shouted ahead of them. “Don’t kick, hit, or bite. I will leave your asses here if you do.”

  “Clem?” Boaz chuckled low in his throat. “What are you doing here? Uh, you are here, right?”

  “Goddess.” Clem shimmied out and dropped into the cistern. “How hard did they hit you?”

  Careful not to land on anyone in the compact space, Linus’s heels thumped lightly on impact.

  “They rang my bell pretty good.” Boaz indicated the back of his skull. “I still hear ringing, in fact.”

  “My darling boy,” his mother exhaled as Linus oriented himself. “I knew you would find us.”

  Linus went to her, knelt at her side, and took her hands. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

  “Yes,” she said emphatically. “His healing skills leave much to be desired.”

  The notion Boaz had enough magic in him to heal period surprised Linus, but he acknowledged in the same breath he tended to underestimate Boaz, and often.

  “I’ll do what I can to make transfer painless for you.” He drew sigils on her forehead, her sternum, and lined three down the shin Boaz had set and stabilized. “How does that feel?”

  The strain erased from her face, and she dropped back in a boneless heap. “Much better.”

  “I’ll be right back.” He stood and went to examine Boaz. “How are you feeling?”

  “Neither one of you has to worry about me,” he slurred. “I have things under control.”

  Linus shared a worried glance with Clem. “All the same, I would like to treat you.”

  “Okay.” Eyes drifting shut, he leaned against the wall. “Do your worst.”

  There wasn’t much Linus could do for a head injury, but he granted Boaz temporary energy and clarity of thought. It ought to be enough to get him into a guestroom at Woolworth House before the fog descended again.

  “Thanks,” Boaz grunted as he came to attention. “My brain feels much less like soup.”

  “Glad to hear it.” He located Clem. “Can you guide Boaz out?”

  “On it.” Clem led him to the vent. “Keep hold of my ankle, okay?”

  “I’ve seen enough of your flat ass to last me a lifetime.”

  “Better you run into my ass than that metal door if it got triggered after we left.”

  Grumbling reluctant agreement, he toddled after Clem, and they began their crawl.

  “I’m going to use this rope to make a harness.” Linus secured his mother with gentle hands. “I’ll have to back through the vent to ensure I can reach you if you’re in distress.”

  “Tell me one thing,” she said drowsily, making him wonder how long she had been awake. “The baby?”

  “You haven’t missed the birth.” The gender he would leave to Grier to reveal. “There’s still time.”

  “Good,” she murmured. “That’s good.”

  After giving her one last quick exam, he checked his ropework twice. “The glamour was yours, I take it?”

  “Boaz provided the location.” Her eyes drifted closed. “I didn’t have time to do much more than conceal the entrance.”

  An exit door was a risk she wouldn’t have taken, had the pain not clouded her mind. A blank wall was much safer, and it invited less examination. Then again, that might have been the point. She might have decided the risk of giving them away to their enemies was worth a quicker rescue from their allies.

  “Had there not been a familiar essence to the work,” he confessed, “I might not have noticed it.”

  The weight of the magic, paired with the strain on her body, dragged her under, and he was glad. This was going to be awkward and painful, and it was for the best if she was co
nscious for as little of it as possible.

  As imposing as her personality loomed, she weighed nothing in his arms, and he was reminded of her age as he hauled her thin frame into the vent after him. Their relationship would never be what it could have been, but he could do better. She could too. Maybe, like him, she had to learn how to express her affection, how to be present, how to let go of the past.

  He could imagine no better teacher for her than Grier, and no better time than now, with LJ’s birth, for them to get started.

  Love for her grandson might unbend his mother, enable them to have the relationship Grier experienced with Maud. That was his unspoken wish for his son, that his mother show LJ he was loved in ways that left the boy certain of his place in her heart. Not aware of his value as a pawn.

  “You are not hard on the eyes in reverse.” Adelaide chuckled behind him. “Do you need help?”

  “I can manage,” Linus said, flustered, “but thank you.”

  All the same, Corbin guided Linus’s feet onto the floor and helped him extract his mother and settle her onto his lap where he began untying the harness.

  “You didn’t say nice things about my butt,” Boaz grumped. “All I got was a view of Clem’s pancake ass.”

  “Leave me and my butt out of this.” Clem helped Adelaide ease Boaz into a seated position. “It’s not my fault your eyes are still crossed.”

  Chuckling, Corbin kept out of their conversation, but the camaraderie between the three was clear.

  As was often the case, his mother had been right to draft Corbin into the sentinels. They were providing him with an anchor, a kinship, outside of Grier. One that could last him the whole of his immortality should he choose.

  “Hush.” Adelaide sat next to Boaz. “You don’t need to get worked up over nothing.”

  “I knew you would save me.” Boaz leaned against her. “You always do.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” She didn’t fuss about his weight, just wrapped her arms around him. “You’re half out of your mind.”

  “That doesn’t change the facts.” He buried his face in her throat. “I love you, Addie.”

  “I know.” She kissed his cheek. “Try telling me when you’re not concussed, you big oaf.”

  With Cletus mingling in the center of the room, Linus half wondered if he wasn’t sharing their moment with Grier, which reminded him. “Did you get in touch with Grier?”

  “I got in touch with Lethe.” Adelaide flicked the wraith a glance. “Grier seemed up to speed in any case.”

  Cletus drifted closer to Linus but otherwise kept his thoughts on the topic of his spy work to himself.

  “Hood will be here in a few,” she continued. “There’s enough room in Moby for everyone, right?”

  “Yes,” Linus confirmed. “We’ll have to lower the rearmost seat to keep Mother’s leg fully extended.”

  “The tapping noise,” Adelaide asked Boaz. “That was you?”

  “What tapping noise?” He snuggled closer. “Didn’t hear any tapping noise.”

  Linus debated waking his mother, just to be certain, but she had been exhausted. “This is not good.”

  “Now that you mention it,” Corbin said, “I haven’t heard it since you two left.”

  “I thought that was why it stopped,” Adelaide agreed. “I figured they heard you coming and went quiet.”

  A cold place opened in Linus’s chest. “Do you have your pager, Boaz?”

  “No.” He twirled a lock of Adelaide’s hair around his finger. “Lost it and my phone at the bunker.”

  Corbin jerked his head toward Linus, and Linus nodded confirmation.

  “They were bait,” Corbin growled, glancing around them. “The tapping was meant to guide us if we were too dense to figure it out on our own.”

  A scratching noise started on the other side of the warded door, fingernails on metal, grating and sharp.

  “They weren’t the bait,” he realized, curls of black mist wafting off his skin. “We are.”

  “They brought us here to lure them out,” Clem realized. “What the hell do they want with your mom?”

  “Any number of things.” He gently set her on the floor. “None of them good.”

  “Eloise wants her mother back in a bad way if she’s coming after both of you.” Corbin eyed the door with calculation. “Do you think she’s that unhinged?”

  “I killed her sister,” Clem reminded them all. “Her twin.” He grimaced. “Folks tend to take that personally.”

  “That would definitely unhinge someone,” Adelaide admitted. “Especially if they weren’t too hinged to begin with.”

  “Mother handed down the sentence that landed Rhiannon Marchand in Atramentous,” Linus added. “Grier and I both testified against her. Our evidence is what sealed her fate.”

  “Eloise hired vampire thugs,” Boaz murmured, the sigil’s magic spending fast. “Good ones.”

  “Did they say or do anything that made you believe they worked for the Marchands?”

  “No.” He lifted his head, his eyes still unfocused. “Mostly they were too busy trying to capture or kill us.”

  That brought Linus up short. “You’re not sure which?”

  “I mortally wounded three or four of them before they could return the favor.” He rubbed his face. “Goddess, it’s all a blur.”

  “Leisha said Eloise wanted to trade her mother for yours, but Eloise hasn’t been in touch. No one has.” Corbin chewed over his realization. “We’ve been handling this like a kidnapping, but maybe it wasn’t.”

  The pieces fit, and Linus growled, “You think Eloise sent assassins to kill Mother?”

  “Eloise is married. She’s pregnant. She hasn’t darkened your doorway since her mother was sentenced to Atramentous. Do you think it’s more likely her hormones got the better of her, or that she’s being framed?”

  Adelaide, the newest member of their circle, frowned. “Who else would target your mother?”

  Boaz snorted out a laugh. “A lot of people.”

  “A whole lot of people,” Clem agreed. “A whole lot.”

  “They’re not wrong,” Linus had to admit. “This feels personal.”

  “They attacked your family, her family,” Corbin added, “so of course it feels personal.”

  The scratching noise intensified, and Linus channeled his thoughts toward more immediate concerns.

  “There are only two ways in and out.” Linus got to his feet. “We have wounded, but now we also have reason to believe our assailants won’t care. We have to assume their orders are to assassinate Mother.”

  “There’s no telling where the shaft leads.” Adelaide stroked Boaz’s cheek. “You said there are multiple junctions, right?”

  “Yes.” He crossed to the door. “The downward-sloping ones likely feed into the underground tunnels.”

  “Large portions of which have caved in,” Boaz supplied. “We might run straight into a dead end.”

  Clem scratched his jaw. “All they’d have to do then is seal up the vent and wait for us to die.”

  “Adelaide,” Boaz said, facing her. “Have I ever told you you’re pretty? Like beautiful? Gorgeous even?”

  “Focus.” She patted his cheek. “You can suck at flattering me later.”

  “So it’s decided.” Linus placed his hand on the door, sensing the ward, hoping for a glimpse of what awaited them on the other side. “We fight our way out, make our way to the van, and retreat to Woolworth House.”

  “How long will it take Hood to reach us?” Adelaide helped Boaz straighten. “We can’t risk leaving him.”

  “We’ll give him ten minutes.” Linus drew on an amplification sigil and signaled for quiet. What he heard had him erasing it just as fast. “If we last that long.” He checked the mark on his wrist. “I’m protected. I’ll go first and draw them off if I can or take them out if I can’t.”

  “Leave the ward off the door.” Clem set his jaw. “We don’t have the juice to b
ring it down ourselves.”

  That increased the danger to them, but it was just as risky to leave them trapped where their assailants could burn them out, herding them into the vents toward an uncertain fate. They themselves might not know where the vents led. They might have simply trusted that wherever Boaz had hidden Mother, they would reveal themselves with the proper enticement.

  With a low moan, Cletus tapped Linus on the shoulder, and Linus understood Grier was watching.

  “I’ll be careful,” he promised her softly. “We’ll be home before dawn.”

  The remaining time slid through his fingers, and he faced the group one last time.

  “Give me five minutes to clear a path. Get to Moby,” he reiterated, “and then go to Woolworth House.”

  “You heard the man.” Corbin stepped up beside him. “Let’s do this, Pops.”

  Hand to the door, Linus hesitated with his gaze on Corbin and his fingers within range of the sigil.

  “You’re not going out there alone.” He bumped shoulders with him. “Grier would kill me.”

  “We don’t know what’s out there.”

  Fangs on display, Corbin smiled. “We’ll find out together.”

  An answering grin twitched in Linus’s cheek as he erased the sigil, and they strode into chaos.

  Thirteen

  The prickle of supernatural energies across Linus’s skin gave him the measure of the four men crowded into the rear of the store. Vampires. Behind them, three women stood together, and the quick glimpse he had of them before bared fangs and hissing threats erupted into violence reminded him of the mother, maiden, crone paintings of the three-faced goddess all necromancers worshipped: Hecate.

  Experience told him at first glance there would be no drawing this crowd away from the others, and so they would go through them.

  Cold filtered over his skin as his cloak and cowl settled around him, and when he raised his hand, the wicked blade of his scythe glittered in the darkness. He took the head of the nearest vampire before he could test Grier’s protective sigil, though Linus knew from experience it was adamant.

  Corbin punched his hand through the chest of the second vampire and ripped out his heart in a display of violence so raw Linus lost seconds of his focus to the carnage.