How to Rattle an Undead Couple - Hailey Edwards Page 0,53

way out, make our way to the van, and retreat to Woolworth House.”

“How long will it take Hood to reach us?” Adelaide helped Boaz straighten. “We can’t risk leaving him.”

“We’ll give him ten minutes.” Linus drew on an amplification sigil and signaled for quiet. What he heard had him erasing it just as fast. “If we last that long.” He checked the mark on his wrist. “I’m protected. I’ll go first and draw them off if I can or take them out if I can’t.”

“Leave the ward off the door.” Clem set his jaw. “We don’t have the juice to bring it down ourselves.”

That increased the danger to them, but it was just as risky to leave them trapped where their assailants could burn them out, herding them into the vents toward an uncertain fate. They themselves might not know where the vents led. They might have simply trusted that wherever Boaz had hidden Mother, they would reveal themselves with the proper enticement.

With a low moan, Cletus tapped Linus on the shoulder, and Linus understood Grier was watching.

“I’ll be careful,” he promised her softly. “We’ll be home before dawn.”

The remaining time slid through his fingers, and he faced the group one last time.

“Give me five minutes to clear a path. Get to Moby,” he reiterated, “and then go to Woolworth House.”

“You heard the man.” Corbin stepped up beside him. “Let’s do this, Pops.”

Hand to the door, Linus hesitated with his gaze on Corbin and his fingers within range of the sigil.

“You’re not going out there alone.” He bumped shoulders with him. “Grier would kill me.”

“We don’t know what’s out there.”

Fangs on display, Corbin smiled. “We’ll find out together.”

An answering grin twitched in Linus’s cheek as he erased the sigil, and they strode into chaos.

Thirteen

The prickle of supernatural energies across Linus’s skin gave him the measure of the four men crowded into the rear of the store. Vampires. Behind them, three women stood together, and the quick glimpse he had of them before bared fangs and hissing threats erupted into violence reminded him of the mother, maiden, crone paintings of the three-faced goddess all necromancers worshipped: Hecate.

Experience told him at first glance there would be no drawing this crowd away from the others, and so they would go through them.

Cold filtered over his skin as his cloak and cowl settled around him, and when he raised his hand, the wicked blade of his scythe glittered in the darkness. He took the head of the nearest vampire before he could test Grier’s protective sigil, though Linus knew from experience it was adamant.

Corbin punched his hand through the chest of the second vampire and ripped out his heart in a display of violence so raw Linus lost seconds of his focus to the carnage.

A third vampire threw himself against Linus while his attention was divided, and Linus brought up his knee, sending the vampire sprawling. The crime against his mother carried a death sentence, and Linus passed judgment with a sweep of his blade against the tender skin of the vampire’s throat.

The fourth vampire howled as Corbin rode it down, his fangs buried in its throat.

The three necromancers, or so Linus assumed, witnessed the berserker rage without flinching.

“Who are you?” Linus demanded of the trio, who wore glamour to conceal their faces. “Show yourselves.”

Rather than answer, they joined hands and began a low chant that caused sigils on their arms to glow. The reverberation in their unified voice matched the one he had overheard at the rental. This, whoever hid beneath the glamour, was who Leisha had conspired with to kill his mother.

Snarling, Corbin launched himself at the woman in the center, teeth snapping at her throat.

A wall of magic sprung up around the trio, a ward they must have set prior to Linus exiting the office. Corbin hit it and bounced off, smacking his skull against the floor. Blood matted his hair and covered his face, but Linus couldn’t tell if any belonged to him.

“I won’t ask again.” Linus prowled over then crouched to examine their circle. “Confess, or you will die.”

The trio remained silent within their protective bubble while Linus singled out its weakness.

“Corbin.” He waited until the Deathless vampire grunted. “We need to contain at least one of them.”

A feral growl was his only answer as Corbin got to his feet and began circling the women.

The front door burst open, providing all the distraction he required to shatter their ward with brute magical force. The percussive blast knocked the women