“She explained what you are and how I came to be.” Laughter twisted in his throat. “She wanted me to understand, to be grateful.”
Having been on the receiving end of you can thank me now talks from her, I could sympathize.
“She told me you live in Savannah.” He raked his gaze over Woolly, the garden, and the carriage house. “I knew your last name, so finding you was easy.”
Woolly swung the front door in a questioning arc that helped me remember my manners.
Oscar shuffled over to me and latched his arms around my legs, his eyes heavy with sleep he had never required until now. I palmed the small knife I kept finding reasons not to return to Linus and pricked my index finger. I touched Oscar between the eyes, drawing on a crimson sigil supplied by genetic memory.
“Grier,” he rushed out on a shocked breath.
“I’m here, kid.” I kissed the top of his head. “Feel better?”
“Mmm-hmm.” He reached for me, and I boosted him onto my hip. “I’m sleepy.”
Pulling back, I fretted at the dull glow in his cheeks. “Do you want me to tuck you in bed?”
“Nah-uh.” He curled his fists in my hair. “I wanna stay with you.”
“You got it.” Holding Oscar close, I waved Corbin in. “This is not a conversation for the front porch.”
Behind him, Hood caught my eye and gave a tight nod while Lethe trotted off into the yard.
As soon as Corbin stepped across the threshold, Woolly snagged him in her wards like a gnat on flypaper. His eyes flared with betrayal, pinning me on the spot like we were trapped together. Loathing morphed his features next, and that he hurled at Linus.
“This won’t take but a minute,” I reassured him. “I have to know I can trust you before I let you in.”
A quiver rose through my feet from the hardwood, a tremor of anxiety from Woolly that she would pick wrong. Again.
“You got this.” I placed my hand on the nearest wall. “Volkov tricked his way in. That wasn’t your fault. Trust your instincts.”
The tremble beneath me eased, and she refocused her energy on scanning Corbin from top to bottom.
After much hemming and hawing, she concluded he wasn’t a threat. And with his energy signature humming at a similar frequency to mine, we couldn’t deny he was my creation.
Corbin stumbled upon release, but he recovered before tipping into me. “Your home is alive?”
“You’re a vampire, he’s a ghost, I’m a necromancer, and a haunted house is what you find odd?”
“We all have our hard lines.” He scanned the room. “Guess mine gets drawn at animate buildings.”
Welcoming our second-ever vampire guest into the living room, I indicated the sofas. “Have a seat.”
Warily, he sank onto the cushions, muscles tense and ready to uncoil if the couch so much as twitched beneath him.
I could have explained the phenomenon was limited in scope to Woolworth House herself, not her contents, but I figured keeping him on his toes was a good idea.
Eyelids lowering, Oscar levitated out of my arms as if he were a feather blown on an air current.
Woolly rustled the curtains in the nearest window, and I nudged him in that direction. She wrapped him up tight in the scratchy fabric, allowing him to drift nearby while I returned my attention to our guest.
Linus indicated I should take the chair, and he perched on the armrest. Bracing my elbow on his thigh, I propped my chin in my palm and awarded Corbin my full attention. “Start from the top.”
“Like I said, I got caught taking out a vampire.” His voice came out strained. “The Elite arrested me, tried and convicted me, and then they tossed me in Atramentous.”
Black edged my vision, and the room shrank until I was back there, sitting in my familiar cell.
The cold seeps into my bones. The putrid stink of my own filth clogs my nose until I part my ragged lips and suck in rank air swirling near the floor where I press my cheek.
With a violent tug, I wrested myself out of the memories before they sucked me down into oblivion.
Cool fingers brushed my cheek, smearing tracks while hot tears dripped off my chin.
The stairway into my mind, the one curving away from my problems, loomed. The path was a quick escape from what I longed to forget even when I barely remembered the details. But instead of retreating, I set my jaw and linked hands with Linus. Tears wet his skin, and I used his touch to anchor me in the present.
The time for burying my head in the sand had passed. Chin up, I had to see where this journey took me.
“You claim you escaped.” Linus addressed Corbin while tracing an absent line from my elbow to wrist. I wasn’t certain he was aware he was doing it, but it soothed me. “Where were you held?”
“A facility in Reno.” Corbin clenched his hand around the keys, and blood leaked between his fingers from the strength of his grip on the jagged metal teeth. “The Grande Dame offered me a deal. If I allowed them to study me, my condition, they would call my time served in one hundred years.”
“You took the deal.” Otherwise, he wouldn’t be sitting here. He would be chained in a cell.
“What choice did I have? One hundred years in the span of forever is…” A shiver rippled through him, like the thought of eternity chilled him to the bone. “I obeyed their every order and smiled while I did it. Faking compliance earned me extra privileges. Laundry detail got me access to the docks and the trucks.” He noticed his hand and wiped the blood on his pants. “One night, I wheeled in my last cart of dirties then crawled under the semi and worked out hand and footholds. The trailer skirt hid me, and I held on until the driver stopped for the night.”
“They didn’t search beneath the trucks?” Linus cocked his head. “What about the dogs?”
“Cadaver dogs.” Corbin snorted. “I don’t smell like a vamp to them. I noticed it my first time in the yard, and I tested the theory for weeks before I tossed away my only avenue of escape.”
“A soul has to leave the body before it can return,” I said, thinking it through. “You died, and I brought you back. You ought to smell the same as any vampire, or close enough for the dogs to point when they scent you.” I shared a look with Linus. “Woolly recognized similar notes in his energy to mine. Do you think that might have altered his scent as well?”
Linus pursed his lips in consideration. “We’ll have to ask the gwyllgi for their opinion.”
“I don’t know what to tell you.” Corbin shrugged. “I discovered a loophole, and I exploited it.”
“A loophole that size is unlikely.” Linus radiated calm. “Society prisons are very good at what they do.”
“Call your mom and verify my story,” Corbin taunted. “She’s probably spitting nails right about now.”
Used to taking hits below the belt where his mother was concerned, Linus raised an eyebrow as if to ask, Is that the best you can do?
“When I call, should I mention you’re here?” Linus kept his tone cool, but black gathered in the corners of his eyes. “That you’re my source of information?”
The vampire swallowed hard. “No.”
“How else would I explain my sudden interest in a minor facility in a town clear across the country?”
Corbin had no answer for that.
Linus knew his mother better than anyone. He was Corbin’s best hope of avoiding detection, assuming we decided to help him evade capture. I wasn’t sure I wanted Clarice Lawson as an enemy, even if I was responsible for Corbin’s current predicament.
“I’m sorry for being an ass.” Corbin raked his fingers through his hair, tugging on the ends with frustration. “I haven’t eaten since I broke out six days ago.”
A hungry vampire was a dangerous vampire. Corbin was a ticking time bomb until he fed.
“I don’t know how to…” A grimace twisted his features. “They didn’t teach me to...”
“Feed,” I finished for him.
“Yeah.” Relief he didn’t have t
o say it bowed his shoulders. “That.”
Vampire hunter or not, sympathy welled in me. “They served you donor blood?”
“Yeah.” He wet his lips. “Heated. In a mug.”
Not teaching a vampire how to source his own meals wouldn’t handicap him in the long run. When they got hungry enough, they turned savage. Their biology demanded blood, and their brains flipped a switch to make sure they got it. Rip out enough throats and rogues learned finesse. That or they got put down.
“Look, I get that I put you in a tight spot.” Corbin stood with a resigned sigh. “You’re under no obligation to help me, but I don’t want to hurt any innocents. Can you at least point me in the right direction?”
I hooked a thumb over my shoulder, indicating the stairs. “Fifth room on the left.”
“You’re going to let me stay?” He glanced between us. “Here? With you?”
“With us.” I patted Linus’s thigh. “He lives here too.”
Corbin wisely kept his mouth shut about our living arrangements.
“Dawn is four hours away, and you chose a heck of a city for your escape.” Vampires aware of his family ties would kill him on sight, and most necromancers would pay someone to do it for them. Being Deathless didn’t mean he couldn’t be killed. It just meant he wouldn’t die on his own. “Giving you a place to crash for the day is the least we can do.” Stashing him also meant we knew where to find him until we decided what to do about him. “Linus and I have errands to run, but we’ll leave Lethe and Hood with you in case there’s any trouble.”
“To keep an eye on me.” His eyes glinted in a flash of temper. “That’s what you mean.”
“That too.” I gestured around the room. “This house isn’t just my home. She’s family. Hurt her, and I will deliver you to the Grande Dame with a big red bow stuck to your forehead. That goes for Oscar and the gwyllgi too.”
Squeaky barks carried from the bay window where Keet bounced along the bottom of his cage, snapping his beak at the bars.
This was all Lethe’s fault. I told her not to sneak him pieces of hamburger patties. Now she was his hero.
“The same goes for the parakeet.” I indicated the small banana-yellow bird scratching his earhole with his foot. “Usually, he has grand delusions he’s a bat. Right now, he believes he’s a dog. Just go with it.”
“Oookay.” Corbin looked ready to bolt out the door and take his chance with the dawn. “I guess.”
“I’ll bring up a towel and fresh sheets in a minute.” I hadn’t changed the ones in that room since Amelie moved into the carriage house. After getting to my feet, I crossed to the window and unwrapped the bundle of ghost boy cradled in Woolly’s embrace. “Oscar, can you show Corbin to Amelie’s old room?”
His mumbled reply sounded mostly like a yes, so I nudged him toward the stairs.
Corbin stared at me a moment too long then ran his tongue over his teeth in preparation for what he was about to ask.
Linus picked up on the tension between us, and he slid his hands into his pockets. It did nothing to hide the way his fingers curled into fists, but no black clouded his eyes, and I doubted Corbin noticed the slip.
“I need…” Corbin’s gaze caressed the length of my throat. “I can’t put it off any longer.”
“I’ll bring you dinner,” Linus said in a voice that threatened my ears with freezer burn.
A soft growl tickled the back of my throat, and he whipped his head toward me.
“Not you.”
“I offered to bring him dinner.” His tone thawed, his eyes dancing. “Not be his dinner.”
The temperature in the room cranked up a few degrees as I blushed. “Nanny nanny boo-boo?”
The joke was weak, but it was all I had to offer after snarling over him like he was a bloody steak caught between the jaws of two ravenous dogs.
After Oscar tugged on his sleeve, Corbin took the hint and headed upstairs, leaving Linus and me alone.
Linus waited a minute before allowing his lips to curve. “I don’t mind you being possessive.”
“You’re not a hunk of meat.” I exhaled through my teeth. “You act civilized, so can I.”
“Don’t feel the need to conform on my behalf.” He eased his fingers under my hair, cupping my nape, his fingers spreading chills. “No one has ever wanted me for myself. I don’t mind. You wanting me.”
“Good.” I let him guide me against his chest, where I buried my face in his shirt and linked my arms at his spine. “I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.” I felt the hitch in his breath, the uptick of his heart. “One day, you’ll believe that.”
He hummed an answer that didn’t satisfy me, but it’s not like I could beat him over the head with a stick. I mean, I could. He would let me. But it wouldn’t drive home his worth. It would only prove I was a crazy girlfriend.
Hmm.
“Am I your girlfriend?” I mumbled against his shirt. “We didn’t exactly define this.” I swallowed. “Us.”
“I don’t require a label,” he said, tension drawing his back tight against my fingertips.
“What if I want one?” I peeked up at him. “Do you have any objections?”
“No,” he breathed, the word softer than the relieved exhale that parted his lips.
“Wait here.” I ducked into the kitchen and dug out a permanent marker and a pack of yellowed labels Maud used to stick on preserves and various other concoctions. Linus kept a wary eye on me while I filled in the blank space where he couldn’t see. “Done.” I peeled it off, walked over, and stuck it to his shirt with a pat. “There.”
“Grier’s boyfriend,” he read, his fingers tracing the curling edge. “I suppose that means the reverse is true for you.”
“I’m not sure.” I gestured to all the empty real estate on my shirt. “I don’t have one.”
Unable to stop the smile crinkling the corners of his eyes, he walked into the kitchen and jotted down a line. He peeled off his label, returned to me, and smoothed it on my shirt, right over my heart. I worked up the nerve to glance down, uncertain what title he had settled on so quickly, and my voice broke when I read simply, “Mine.”
I had never belonged to someone before and had them belong to me too.
This felt big, larger than stickers and more permanent than the markers we used to stake our claims.
“You guys heading out?” Lethe strolled into the room and plopped on the couch. “Or making out?”
Huffing in annoyance, I picked up a pillow and threw it at her head. “Ever hear of knocking?”
“Ever hear of not inviting strangers into your house?” She caught the pillow and tucked it under her head. “Oh! Or better yet—ever hear of not inviting strangers to sleepovers? Seriously. You have trust issues. As in, you’re not suspicious enough.”
“Woolly cleared Corbin,” I reminded her.
“He won’t cause any problems,” Linus agreed. “We have too much leverage over him.”
Hearing his certainty bolstered mine. “If he shows his butt, we’ll toss him out on it.”
Linus excused himself to the kitchen.
The fridge opened, glass tinkled, and the microwave hummed.
Lethe examined her fingernails. “What do I get for babysitting your spawn?”
“Whatever you want from Black Dog Brewery.”
Her eyes lit up, and she rubbed her hands together.
“Keep it under a hundred this time,” I warned. “I can’t afford to keep bribing you otherwise.”
“I did,” she protested. “My bill was like ninety-nine dollars and ninety-six cents. A new record.”
“The charge was for two hundred and sixty-five dollars.”
She twirled a strand of vibrant blue hair around a finger. “I can’t help that you didn’t put a cap on Hood or Baby Kinase.”
“One hundred dollars,” I said slowly. “Total.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll go light.”
“Thank you.” I lifted a finger. “On th
e topic of my spawn, how does he smell to you?”
“Like he spent one too many days in a car without taking a pee break.”
“I meant species-wise.”
“Oh.” She thought about it a minute. “Mostly, he smells human, but not human. Know what I mean?”
“Uh, no.”
“Vampires carry this undertone of humanity in their base scent. It sours over time, but it’s still present, even on fledglings. Decay starts as soon as they turn. Corbin smells like you, but not like a necromancer, and like a vampire, but not a dead human.”
“As confused as that explanation makes me, I’m guessing inhaling it would also give a cadaver dog pause.”
“Probably.” She snickered. “They’re not exactly gwyllgi to know the difference, are they?”
Linus returned with a steaming mug he raised to Lethe. “Can you run this up to Corbin?”
Nose wrinkling, she reached for it. “Sure thing.”
Arm extended as far as it would go, she couldn’t run up the stairs fast enough.
Eager to get out of my head for a few blocks, I turned to Linus. “Do we patrol, or do we run away?”
Locks snicked on the front door, and I realized my mistake, but by then Woolly had latched the windows too.
“I’m kidding,” I told her. “It was a joke.”
The old house was not amused, and she refused to budge.
We were locked in for the night thanks to me and my big mouth.
“There’s more than enough to keep us occupied in the basement,” Linus pointed out.
Basement access had been a tender spot between us, but relationships were built on trust, and he had earned mine ten times over.
“That works.” I massaged the base of my neck. “I wanted to stretch my legs, but it’s probably smarter to stay home considering we have an unexpected guest.”
The chandelier in the foyer dimmed with Woolly’s suspicion that I had accepted being grounded so well.
Little did she know alone time with Linus was far from a punishment.
The lock on the basement door got thirsty from time to time, and tonight it must have been parched. That, or it tasted the remnants of old blood on my hand from where I pricked my finger to give Oscar a boost and got a hankering for more. I had to reopen the cut, stick the persnickety brass key in the lock, and bleed liberally on both before I could twist the knob.
How to Live an Undead Lie (The Beginner's Guide to Necromancy Book 5) Page 3