How to Rattle an Undead Couple - Hailey Edwards Page 0,52
center of the room, Linus half wondered if he wasn’t sharing their moment with Grier, which reminded him. “Did you get in touch with Grier?”
“I got in touch with Lethe.” Adelaide flicked the wraith a glance. “Grier seemed up to speed in any case.”
Cletus drifted closer to Linus but otherwise kept his thoughts on the topic of his spy work to himself.
“Hood will be here in a few,” she continued. “There’s enough room in Moby for everyone, right?”
“Yes,” Linus confirmed. “We’ll have to lower the rearmost seat to keep Mother’s leg fully extended.”
“The tapping noise,” Adelaide asked Boaz. “That was you?”
“What tapping noise?” He snuggled closer. “Didn’t hear any tapping noise.”
Linus debated waking his mother, just to be certain, but she had been exhausted. “This is not good.”
“Now that you mention it,” Corbin said, “I haven’t heard it since you two left.”
“I thought that was why it stopped,” Adelaide agreed. “I figured they heard you coming and went quiet.”
A cold place opened in Linus’s chest. “Do you have your pager, Boaz?”
“No.” He twirled a lock of Adelaide’s hair around his finger. “Lost it and my phone at the bunker.”
Corbin jerked his head toward Linus, and Linus nodded confirmation.
“They were bait,” Corbin growled, glancing around them. “The tapping was meant to guide us if we were too dense to figure it out on our own.”
A scratching noise started on the other side of the warded door, fingernails on metal, grating and sharp.
“They weren’t the bait,” he realized, curls of black mist wafting off his skin. “We are.”
“They brought us here to lure them out,” Clem realized. “What the hell do they want with your mom?”
“Any number of things.” He gently set her on the floor. “None of them good.”
“Eloise wants her mother back in a bad way if she’s coming after both of you.” Corbin eyed the door with calculation. “Do you think she’s that unhinged?”
“I killed her sister,” Clem reminded them all. “Her twin.” He grimaced. “Folks tend to take that personally.”
“That would definitely unhinge someone,” Adelaide admitted. “Especially if they weren’t too hinged to begin with.”
“Mother handed down the sentence that landed Rhiannon Marchand in Atramentous,” Linus added. “Grier and I both testified against her. Our evidence is what sealed her fate.”
“Eloise hired vampire thugs,” Boaz murmured, the sigil’s magic spending fast. “Good ones.”
“Did they say or do anything that made you believe they worked for the Marchands?”
“No.” He lifted his head, his eyes still unfocused. “Mostly they were too busy trying to capture or kill us.”
That brought Linus up short. “You’re not sure which?”
“I mortally wounded three or four of them before they could return the favor.” He rubbed his face. “Goddess, it’s all a blur.”
“Leisha said Eloise wanted to trade her mother for yours, but Eloise hasn’t been in touch. No one has.” Corbin chewed over his realization. “We’ve been handling this like a kidnapping, but maybe it wasn’t.”
The pieces fit, and Linus growled, “You think Eloise sent assassins to kill Mother?”
“Eloise is married. She’s pregnant. She hasn’t darkened your doorway since her mother was sentenced to Atramentous. Do you think it’s more likely her hormones got the better of her, or that she’s being framed?”
Adelaide, the newest member of their circle, frowned. “Who else would target your mother?”
Boaz snorted out a laugh. “A lot of people.”
“A whole lot of people,” Clem agreed. “A whole lot.”
“They’re not wrong,” Linus had to admit. “This feels personal.”
“They attacked your family, her family,” Corbin added, “so of course it feels personal.”
The scratching noise intensified, and Linus channeled his thoughts toward more immediate concerns.
“There are only two ways in and out.” Linus got to his feet. “We have wounded, but now we also have reason to believe our assailants won’t care. We have to assume their orders are to assassinate Mother.”
“There’s no telling where the shaft leads.” Adelaide stroked Boaz’s cheek. “You said there are multiple junctions, right?”
“Yes.” He crossed to the door. “The downward-sloping ones likely feed into the underground tunnels.”
“Large portions of which have caved in,” Boaz supplied. “We might run straight into a dead end.”
Clem scratched his jaw. “All they’d have to do then is seal up the vent and wait for us to die.”
“Adelaide,” Boaz said, facing her. “Have I ever told you you’re pretty? Like beautiful? Gorgeous even?”
“Focus.” She patted his cheek. “You can suck at flattering me later.”
“So it’s decided.” Linus placed his hand on the door, sensing the ward, hoping for a glimpse of what awaited them on the other side. “We fight our