One Grave at a Time

Bones remained on the couch, laptop in front of him, tightly coiled energy flaring past his shields for a moment.

"See if you can glean any useful information," he said, nailing me with a hard stare, "but you are not leaving with him."

That last part was said with an undercurrent of steel. I nodded, not arguing because I had no intention of going anywhere with the Inquisitor. At least, not yet.

I went out the back door of the house, heading toward the vacant barn where I'd heard those rustling sounds. I hadn't brought any burning sage with me, but I didn't expect that Kramer would have come here to attack me. No, my money was on his being here for two reasons: to gloat, and to make me an offer he didn't think I could refuse.

Sure enough, a tunic-clad figure hovered about a foot off the ground near the open doors of the barn. I held out my hands to show that they were empty of sage and stopped about twenty yards from him.

"You touch me even once, and this conversation is over," were my first words.

From the way his eyes gleamed, that statement pleased the Inquisitor. "You finally fear me, Hexe?"

"I'm low on patience," I replied. "So playing our usual games is last on my list of things I want to do."

He came near enough that if he stretched out his arm, he would touch me, but I didn't back away. I wasn't kidding about my warning. If he laid even one energy-filled finger on me, our conversation was over, and he could rage at me while I was back inside the sage-filled house.

"My servant brought the others to me," he said, clearly relishing each word.

Though not a muscle on me twitched, the confirmation hit me like a punch to the gut. Francine, Lisa, I am so sorry.

"You came all the way to tell me something we figured out after seeing my friend's brains decorating the wall?" My single laugh was filled with scorn. "Come on, Kramer. Even you aren't that arrogant."

"You no longer care about their lives?" he asked, narrowing that green gaze at me.

I shrugged as if I hadn't guessed what was coming. "Nothing more I can do for them now, is there?"

The same breeze that lifted my hair around my shoulders did nothing to the ghost across from me. Not an inch of Kramer's mud-splattered tunic rustled, and his white hair continued to frame that wrinkled, angular face like bleached straw around old leather.

"You could yet save them . . . if you defeated me in battle tonight."

And there it was. Kramer knew I had to go to him willingly. He couldn't send his human accomplice to kidnap me, not with the way Sarah would get her throat torn out on sight.

I'd promised Bones that I wouldn't sacrifice my life, but neither could I turn my back because the stakes had been raised. I wasn't about to make it easy on the prick who was responsible for all this, however. My chin lifted.

"What makes you think I'd be crazy enough to leave the safety of all the sage I can surround myself with to meet you anywhere tonight?"

Kramer smiled, slow and confident. "Because, Hexe, you still believe you can defeat me."

Damn right I can! I wanted to snap back at him. Then I wanted to slap that arrogant smile off his face and stomp those remaining brownish teeth right down his f**king throat. But I could do none of those things because in his formless state, he had every advantage, and I had none.

But once the sun set tonight, he'd be flesh, and the rules would change.

"Even if I did think that," I said coolly, "my husband might not want me to try it. He's the protective type, as I'm sure you've realized."

It sounded like Kramer snorted. "You do not recognize any man's authority over you. Even if he did object, you would defy him."

The words "man's authority" annoyed my feminism, as he doubtless intended. But I'd learned the hard way-twice-what a mistake it was to turn my back on Bones with the mistaken idea that some challenges could only be overcome if they were faced alone versus together.

Kramer couldn't understand that because such logic was rooted in love and mutual respect, things entirely foreign to the hate-filled man floating across from me. So I'd let him believe he was right.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I do what needs to be done, and if someone doesn't like that, no matter who they are, that's too bad for them."

Satisfaction flitted across the ghost's face, and when he spoke, his voice was equally low. "Sarah will meet you at the entrance of Grandview Park in Sioux City. She will have instructions to take you to me, but she will not know where the other women are, so your mind manipulations will be useless on her."

I smiled slightly. "Aren't you forgetting to tell me to come alone and unarmed?"

His gaze raked over me with utter contempt. "Bring any weapon you choose, but you already know if you don't come alone, you will never get your chance to discover if you can defeat me."

"Don't touch those women until you see me again," I told him with a contemptuous rake of my own gaze. "I don't want you too exhausted to put up much of a fight before I stomp you into the other side of eternity."

His mouth curled in cruel anticipation. "If you don't come at dusk, know that those women will suffer more than all before them."

Then he vanished without waiting to see if I had a reply to that. I didn't. Pleading with him to be merciful to Francine and Lisa would only ensure that he meted out even harsher torture. All I had was my hope that Kramer would try to save up his energy for me-and that he didn't trust me enough to really be gone. I couldn't see him anymore, but that didn't mean the ghost wasn't still close by. He might be hanging around to make sure I didn't run inside and tell Bones when and where I was supposed to meet Sarah. He might wonder if Bones would physically try to prevent me from leaving.

Curiosity killed the cat; I hoped it would make a ghost stick around. If he was here, then he wasn't brutalizing Francine and Lisa. I turned around and began to walk back toward the house. Now all I needed to do was talk my husband into setting aside his every protective instinct plus his innate sense of vampire territoriality. Not an easy task, but if I couldn't come up with enough logical reasons why this was the right decision, then maybe I shouldn't go to Kramer tonight after all.

Chapter Thirty-Four

"No," Bones said, as soon as I walked in the door. He wasn't on the couch anymore but pacing by the entrance, his eyes flashing green.

The tiniest smile tugged at my mouth. Guess Bones decided on a preemptive strike. "No what?"

"No, you're not trading yourself for them," he replied, striding up to me. "I know you too well, and while I loathe the thought of leaving Francine and Lisa to die, if it's a choice between you or them, it's you."