“If Karmen’s elixir kept her alive well past her natural span, a little arsenic can’t have done her much harm,” Sylvia said, finishing a row.
Lochlan said, “It’s all about balance.”
“You don’t have to come with us,” I said to Jennifer. “You must be so tired.”
She looked at me. “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it.”
So we decided that everyone would go in the same car as they arrived at Rafe’s in, except that Jennifer and I would go with Rafe in his Land Rover and Lochlan would ride along with us. Unfortunately, the noise and commotion of several vampires helping themselves to the tools out of her gardening shed woke Olivia, who stumbled out, looking understandably annoyed.
When she heard what was going on, she first of all wanted to come along with us, but Rafe said there were too many people coming already.
When Alfred and Theodore and Hester arrived with various digging implements, some of them with earth clinging to them, Sylvia freaked out. “I’m not having all that dirt in the Bentley.”
Olivia, sleepy as she was, managed a chuckle. “Why don’t you borrow my truck?”
That turned out to be a fabulous idea, and after noisily loading all the shovels and picks into the truck, we set out.
“Do you really think we’ll find the elixir?” Jennifer asked. She was in the back seat with Lochlan, and I was in the front, sitting beside Rafe. I wasn’t sure who she’d addressed the question to, but it was Rafe who answered after a slight pause.
“I think it’s too easy.”
That was interesting because I had sort of felt the same way. However, once Sylvia had made a decision, it was easier to follow along than argue with her. Besides, she could be right and all we had to do was dig in the right place to find the witch’s secret stash of eternal youth. And, while we were there, we might want to slip inside Karmen’s house and have another look around. I was positive that there was something we’d missed. Some clue that would tell us who’d murdered her.
Fortunately, Karmen’s property was far from anyone else, so it would be very unlikely that neighbors would alert the police to strange goings-on. Still, we took no chances. We parked on the road leading up to her drive rather than turning into the drive itself. This meant that we had to walk down her private lane. Naturally, the vampires had excellent night vision, so it wasn’t like we needed flashlights. My night vision wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t vampire-accurate. There was a moon, but it was partly covered by clouds. I had an eerie feeling.
Jennifer came up beside me and said, “This place gives me the creeps,” and I knew she was feeling it too.
Then we stopped. Rafe had held up his hand. He turned and said softly, “Do you hear that?”
I strained my ears. I have pretty good hearing, but I didn’t hear anything. Wait. It sounded like gravel shifting.
Sylvia looked at Rafe. “Someone’s here before us.”
Chapter 18
Rafe said, “Wait here. I’ll go first.”
Sylvia stepped forward. “I’m coming with you.”
He didn’t argue, and the two of them crept silently forward.
Sylvia suddenly turned and whispered, “Lucy, you’d better come too.”
I started to follow her, and Jennifer said, “Well, I’m not being left here all by myself with a bunch of vampires,” and then she came along. In truth, I don’t think she cared about being left with the vampires. She didn’t want to miss anything.
I could feel Hester’s restlessness behind me. I knew that if it had been anyone but Sylvia who told her to stay put, she’d be following us too. But Sylvia did command obedience in Hester, and based on the fact that they were all doing as she told them, I guessed she commanded obedience from all of them.
As we walked between the pub and the cottage, the sound grew louder. It was like metal scraping on stone. We moved forward, behind the pub and cottage, to where Karmen’s land stretched out quite far. The gardens were pretty, and behind them was a structure rising out of the ground, looking ghostly in the moonlight.
Patrick Herrick had said there was a mausoleum on the land. This must be it, though there was no church nearby and no other graves that I could see. The mausoleum looked old, and there were two stone swans on Roman plinths guarding the entrance. Rafe went up two stairs and to a stout wooden door that locked. Except the door was standing open, and as we grew closer, the noise grew more distinct. There was someone in there. When he eased the door open, I caught the gleam of light.
Even though I was not alone and with some powerful creatures, my heart still began to pound.
We walked in. I think that Rafe had motioned to me and Jennifer to stay back, but naturally we pretended we hadn’t seen him. I might be nervous, but I wasn’t going to miss the excitement.
It was a mausoleum, or had been. I could just make out the shelves, which I was happy to see were empty of bodies, coffins or ashes. It would have been easy to miss the second door because it was set into the wall, but this too was open. And there were stone stairs leading down into who knew what. But from down below, there was light gleaming up.
Rafe went down the stairs first, Sylvia following close behind. We crept down afterwards, me first and then Jennifer bringing up the rear. The stairs were stone and quite smooth, as though they were in frequent use. Not crumbling and falling apart like I would have expected. This must be the crypt, and I sincerely hoped it was as empty as the mausoleum.
The stairs bent around a corner, and as I went around the bend,
