shell of her house, dazed. Her stuff. Her life. Everything she owned, gone.
Someone mentioned an accelerant, and Shay could see the firefighters poking through the soaked and charred rubble, some spots still smoldering here and there. A flurry of activity caught Shay’s attention. Three men squatted and examined something.
“Come on. We’ve got to go,” Cody said. Something in his face sent a chill up her spine in spite of the heat from the ashes. Scanning the area, he escorted her, Nina, and Matilda into his vehicle. “I’ll be right back.”
Shay watched through the side mirror as he walked close to Nina’s rental, looked around, and quickly drove his dagger into her front tire. It happened so fast, Shay wasn’t sure she saw it.
Cody approached the grim-faced men near the burned house, spoke to them for a moment, and then jogged back, eyes scanning the area. “Let’s go.” He got in and started the engine. “They have your phone number, and mine, if they have any questions.”
“What about my car?” Nina asked.
“It has a flat. I’ll have the rental agency pick it up.”
“What’s wrong?” Shay whispered.
“They found bones in the fire.”
“Bones?” She kept her voice low, although it probably wasn’t necessary, with Nina’s and Matilda’s poor hearing. “Whose?”
“I hope the arsonist’s.”
“They’re sure the fire was set on purpose?”
“They don’t know for sure, but it looks that way. We’ve got to get back to the castle.” His face was strained.
“Why would someone set the fire? As a warning?”
“More likely to draw you out into the open.”
***
“Are we there yet?” Matilda asked from the backseat. “I need to use the little girl’s room.”
“A few more minutes,” Cody told her.
“What a shame about the rental car. I can’t believe the tire went flat,” Nina said.
Shay distracted them with conversation while Cody took a long, awkward route to the castle to make sure they weren’t followed. They had no choice but to bring Nina and Matilda there. Too many people surrounding Shay had already died.
Nina reached over the seat and patted Shay’s shoulder. “I’m sorry about your house, honey, but you know you always have a home in Virginia.”
“I know, Nina. Thank you.” Shay was too brain-dead to contemplate what she would do when she left the castle. In addition to demons and vampires, now she had police, insurance agents, and fire investigators to deal with. Would they think she set the fire? Who did the bones belong to? “Lucy!” Shay blurted out. “Oh my God, Lucy.”
Cody took his eyes off the rearview mirror. “What?”
“Lucy wasn’t watching the fire… the bones…” She pulled out her phone and tried with trembling fingers to reach Lucy, but she didn’t answer. “We have to go back and check on her.”
“We can’t. I’ll call when we get to the castle and have someone go by her house. She’s probably somewhere else.”
Matilda leaned forward, peering over Cody’s shoulder. “Does this castle have a dungeon?”
“God help us,” he muttered under his breath as he turned into the castle gate. “If there’s a dungeon, I’m sure the owner doesn’t want anyone down there.”
“Humph. Oh, look, Nina. He’s a hunk,” she said, waving at Conall, who was guarding the gate.
Nina pursed her lips. “You’d better be on your best behavior, Matilda, or they’ll ask us to leave. We’ve never stayed in a real castle for more than one night.”
“What about towers? I just love tall towers like Rapunzel lived in. Remember that tower in Ireland, Nina, where the tour guide fell down the stairs? The one that had the nose turned up like a pig’s?”
“He didn’t fall; you knocked him down when you tripped in your high-heeled boots. Nobody tours a castle in high heels. Poor man rolled all the way to the bottom. Cracked his tailbone and five ribs.”
“His mother shouldn’t have named him Porky, with a nose like that.”
“His name wasn’t Porky, it was Parker,” Nina said.
“They didn’t even give me my money back.”
“You’re lucky they didn’t sue you.”
“Here we are,” Shay said, as the castle came into view. It wasn’t a massive castle, but it was impressive nonetheless. Two towers rose on either side of the three-story structure. The grounds gently rolled with stands of trees, natural, not overly manicured.
“Nina and Matilda pressed their faces to the window. “It’s so… exciting,” Matilda said. She threw open the door and climbed out of the Range Rover. “I can’t wait to explore.” She trotted toward the door, stiff red hair bobbing up and down.
“I think there’s something wrong with her,” Nina said, and took off after her cousin.
