Did it feel odd that they were currently outnumbered by dead people? Hell yeah! But it felt worse that Cree might be somewhere out here, scared out of his mind because he really had no clue what was going on. At least she did have the basics of the scenario—crazy vampire witch hybrid wants someone she cares about brought back to life so she’ll do anything, including kidnap an innocent guy and drag a person who had no clue who or what, apparently, she was into her crazy scheme to get that done. It sounded like the plot of a bad horror flick.
She stepped on something that crackled under her weight. The sound echoed in the eerie night—or rather early morning—air. Steele glanced over his shoulder, just to see that she was still there, but he didn’t stop moving.
He wasn’t wearing his shades and his Drakon eyes glowed like their own personal flashlight through the dense fog. The air was like a cool mist over her skin and she wondered if a jacket wouldn’t have been a good idea, it was late October.
Shit! It was late October, getting very close to the creepiest time of year. Was that a coincidence?
Her mind was going in so many different directions Ravyn hardly noticed when they’d cleared the area of headstones and now walked along a narrow stone path with twelve-foot-high tombs on either side like guards. Now, her heart rate picked up its pace as she focused her eyes on trying to read the names on the small placard at the side of each marble structure. Steele kept moving, following some sort of sensory thing Drakons had, or at least that’s what she figured he was doing. She wondered if she, being part witch and all that, had some sort of sensory mojo she could tune in to. Since touching the dagger again she’d felt a steady pulse of power thumping through her bloodstream, she just wasn’t real clear on how to use it. Now would be as good a time as any to think a little harder on that.
Instinct told her to move to her right, and she stepped off the stone path to get closer to the tombs on that side. She slowed her steps and started focusing on what she was feeling rather than the names on the placards. Reaching out a hand she began sliding her fingers over the cool marble as she moved. During the space in between tombs she could hear that strange humming she’d heard so many times before in the past two weeks. It wasn’t loud and didn’t pierce straight to her eardrum like a wicked hot needle, instead it just kind of moved with her, picking up when her fingers registered the cool marble again.
Three tombs away from where she started her fingers stilled on the tomb, the cool turning to warm and she stopped. She touched it with both hands now, dragging her fingers along the stone, feeling the heat rise steadily as she did so. There was no placard here, or at least none she could see or feel and she was moving all over the side panel of the tomb.
“What is it?”
She jumped at the sound of Steele’s voice close to her ear. For a moment she’d forgotten he was out here with her.
“I don’t know,” she said but didn’t move her hand from the stone. “This one feels different.”
Seconds pulsed between them where there were no words.
“Follow the feeling,” he told her.
Her head snapped up as she looked over to him. “I don’t know what I’m doing. It could be nothing.”
He shook his head. “If you’re feeling it, it’s something. Follow the feeling. I’ll be right here next to you.”
She nodded because he had no idea what those last words meant to her. He was going to be right there with her, not in front of her leading the way because he was the stronger and more experienced being. Right there with her because he trusted her feelings even though she wasn’t totally sure she did. Right there with her because he cared enough not to leave her like her father had.
Her hands continued to feel along the tomb as she walked around to its other side. There should be a latch somewhere, like she’d seen on the other ones. An ornate handle and a holder mounted onto the side where she suspected flowers could have been inserted when loved ones came to visit. Her mother’s tomb wouldn’t have any flowers, ever, because as far as Ravyn knew she and General Walsh were Adele’s only family.
As she moved down the side the warm changed to blistering heat that had her hissing but not removing her hand. Not until they turned around to the back of the tomb and she saw the red liquid seeping from the edges of the stone. Her eyes widened and she absently wondered how she was seeing all of this in the dark? Steele was next to her but she was no longer seeing through his orange-tinted light beam. Instead everything had shifted to a dull glow and now, the red was tinging her focus. Her hands were shaking now as she frantically moved them over this side of the tomb, looking for the handle, a latch or some way to open it and get inside.
She couldn’t find it and fear gripped her neck like a hand, squeezing until she began to hyperventilate.
A hand on her shoulder sent her jumping and then going immediately still. “Don’t let it rule you. Take the fear, let it guide you instead. Fear untamed leads to destruction.”
His voice was so deep, so rugged and so caring at the same time. Her eyes watered with how overwhelmed she felt at this very moment. So much had happened, so much was going on and she wasn’t sure...she didn’t know
