“I’ll remember that,” he whispered and kissed me long and slow, warming me up all over again.
My phone pinged from the front seat.
We both groaned, pulling apart.
“That’s probably Harvey,” I said.
“We need to go home.” He stared down at my lips.
“Yeah.” I traced his cheekbone. “Are you still hungry?”
“Ravenous.” His grin was positively sinful. “Oh, wait, did you mean for food?” He gave me one last hard kiss and sat up. “Come on, Boots. Let’s go see the kids and tell your aunt what you did to that Hungarian devil.”
“You mean what we did.”
He helped me upright, adjusted his pants, and then helped me dress in our tight quarters, giving me his T-shirt to wear since my blouse had dried blood on it.
Ten minutes later we were on the road heading to Aunt Zoe’s. I was back in the passenger seat, resting my head against the cold window. The smell of his cologne surrounded me, thanks to his T-shirt, making the thoughts in my head much less chilling.
“You okay?” he asked, reaching over and squeezing my knee.
“I’m just thinking.”
“About what?”
“How to kill a lidérc.” I covered his hand with mine. “I think it needed help when it was on that other plane. That’s why it had those other two freaky creeps at the ready.” I shifted in my seat to face him. “I forgot to tell you that tonight, when it was on this plane, it hesitated.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I dared it to come and get me, it rushed up to me but then paused, like it was hesitating, assessing maybe.” I stared out the windshield at the road, but my mind was back in the courthouse, replaying the moment. “I saw a silver light swirling in the center of it. I think that’s where I need to aim.”
“Aim with what?”
I looked at him. “My mace. You and Cornelius are going to get me onto that other plane with my mace in hand.” I was tired of not having a worthy weapon in hand when I faced off with obnoxious monsters.
He frowned at the road for a moment before turning back to me. “And then what?”
I smiled. “I’m going to take out the trash.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I stared out the passenger side window as Doc weaved back down into Deadwood. Stevie Nicks was still on the radio along with the rest of Fleetwood Mac, singing about a “Gold Dust Woman.” Thick clouds hovered overhead, blocking out the moon. At least there’d be no werewolves out howling tonight. As nutty as that sounded, these days I had to count my blessings where I could find them.
Nothing made much sense anymore. Certainly not healing so quickly from that knife cut; nor how Prudence had not only known I was in trouble in that basement room, but also possessed Harvey in order to help me trap the lidérc. Was “possession” the right word for it? Or was what she’d done more of a haunting? No, that didn’t sound right. Was it another example of astral projection? I sighed. All of this paranormal crap made me want to bang my head against a wall.
Then there was the lidérc itself. Where in the hell did a Hungarian devil even come from? Was there a mother devil somewhere birthing more of these assholes? Or was some Kyrkozz-like entity creating these suckers out of thin air?
Shuzzbutt. I barely recognized my life anymore. The woman who’d moved to Deadwood to raise her two kids while trying to eke out a living selling real estate was long gone, leaving a killer in her place. I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d checked my bank account. Had I even paid my car insurance this month?
We were less than a mile from Aunt Zoe’s when my cell phone rang. I looked at the screen, figuring Harvey was calling again to tell us to get our tail feathers home for supper.
I figured wrong.
“It’s Masterson,” I told Doc, hesitating to answer it.
He glanced my way. “You might as well see what he has to say.”
I took the call via speakerphone so Doc could hear. “Hello, Dominick.”
“Where are you?” He didn’t bother with pleasantries.
Doc and I exchanged raised brows. “On the road. Where are you?”
“Standing on your aunt’s front porch.”
“You’re where?”
Doc growled next to me.
“You heard me, Scharfrichter.” Dominick’s voice was too smooth for comfort, like black ice. “I have something of yours. Tell me, did you carve these alchemy markings on the frame? Or is this the lovely Zoe’s handiwork at play?”
I cringed. Dominick had found my lidérc trap. Did he know a magic mirror when he saw one? “You might want to be careful with that, Dominick. Breaking a mirror will bring you seven years of bad luck.”
“Careful with the looking glass itself? Or careful with what lurks on the other side of the gateway?”
There was my answer. I ignored his questions, wary of him tricking a truth out of me that he might not know yet. “Out of curiosity, can you see your reflection in the mirror, and is blood your favorite party drink?”
He laughed low and velvety. “I assure you I am no vampire, Violet, nor a Nachzehrer or a draug or any other member of the undead population for that matter. My flesh is still very much alive.”
Uhhh … There was a whole population of undead? That couldn’t be good.
Doc took a right into our neighborhood.
“So, Scharfrichter, shall I go inside and visit with your lovely aunt while I wait for you to arrive?”
No! “Stay away from my aunt, Dominick. I’ll be there in less than a minute.” I hung up and frowned at Doc. “What did he mean by the ‘undead population’?”
“I’m afraid to find out.” Doc slowed as we turned onto Aunt Zoe’s street. “What was that other name he mentioned? The one after Nachzehrer?”
“It sounded like ‘drowg.’ ” I shuddered at the idea of dealing with undead
