No Good Comes When You Dig Up the Dead, page 30
On the bed, Leslie Burnden freezes like a statue.
57
Sometimes They Don’t Stay Dead
POV: Erin
Heads turn as three vampires and a nephilim sweep into the hotel, slightly bedraggled from the unexpected downpour. And since War was careful to translocate into the trees behind the car park, we had quite the trek to make it inside, so we’re all drenched to the skin.
“Now what?” War says.
“Let me just…” My gaze ping-pongs around the hotel lobby and into the bar, where the interest in our arrival is waning. I inhale deeply. “Wait here a minute.” I sniff my way to the bar, the scent of Theo growing stronger, but it stops by the bar next to a pretty woman with sparkling eyes.
She eyes me with concern. “Alright there, love?”
I nod automatically. “Yeah, fine.”
Theo’s been here, but he went back the way he came. Did he do this deliberately to confuse my senses? He must know I’d come after him eventually, no matter what his stupid note said. I blink back the tears, determined not to show weakness in front of anyone, but Theo’s letter is fresh in my mind.
* * *
Erin,
I didn’t realise until it was too late that the man I’m hunting for murdering you is also the man who murdered me, and I wish to God it wasn’t the person I now know it is. Remembering what happened that night opened a cavern inside me—a cavern so cold, hollow, and empty that I’m not sure I’ll ever feel warmth enough to fill it again.
Remember when I told you my favourite time of day was just before the sun dips below the horizon? When the last of the day’s warmth hovers before it succumbs to the darkness? I feel like I’ll never experience that again. That warmth. I’ll be forever in the dark now, and I don’t want to drag you into the darkness with me because you deserve better, Erin. You’ve always deserved better, and I’m so sorry.
Don’t come after me.
Please forgive me.
Love Theo xx
* * *
Yeah, he can go fuck himself if he think I’d ever leave him behind to deal with this on his own. I head back to the reception where the others are waiting.
“Well?” Jack asks.
“He was in there, but not for long I don’t think.” I follow his scent to the lift. “Fuck, he used the lift.”
At least if he used the stairs, I’d be able to tell which floor he’s on. Now I’ll have to check each floor, so I head for the stairs.
“What’s the plan?” Brody asks.
“What do you mean?”
They sigh. “We can’t just go crashing in there.”
“Avert thine eyes, immortal,” I say.
Brody grabs my arm. “I’m not joking. The last thing we want to do is spook Theo into doing something he’ll regret.”
They have a point, but I want this to be over. I want to treat it like any other case. Close it with a big red stamp and send it to the archive never to be thought about again. The relief of finally finding out who killed me is marred by the news that he killed Theo too, that it was someone who Theo had loved. All I want now is to get him through this betrayal… to love him, and to keep him.
“Excuse me?”
I turn to find the woman from the bar. “Yes?”
“Are you looking for a young man with an awkward, runaway mouth and something of a mission?”
A strangled sigh of relief escapes me. “You’ve seen him?”
“He said he was looking for a man who hurt someone he loves,” the woman says. “That you?”
My throat tightens around a lump that wasn’t there before, and tears scratch at the back of my eyes as I nod.
“Room 308.”
“How do you know?” Brody asks.
“He offered me money to collect the key from reception… said he didn’t look much like a Mandy.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“No problem.” The woman starts to turn away, eyeing me over her shoulder. “Don’t let him do anything he’ll regret.”
“I won’t,” I say, as Jack jabs the button to call the lift. “You should probably leave though.”
The woman nods. “Understood.”
When we pile into the lift, I pull my bat from the bag at my thigh, spinning it in my hand.
Jack scowls down at me. “What the fuck is that?”
“You know perfectly well what it is, and that I’m registered to use it.”
“Against clear and present threats only,” Jack argues.
“Theo is in a room with a known murderer. That’s a clear and present threat.”
“Not when faced with four vampires and a nephilim, it’s not.”
The lift opens on the third floor, and I step out first. “You can wait outside.”
Jack sighs as I strut off down the corridor, swinging my nail bat.
The scent of Theo is strong here. I stop outside room 308, glance down at my pretty boots with a sigh, then kick the door in.
“Holy fuck!” Brody exclaims behind me. “Your hair is… moving.”
“About that…” My gaze roams over Theo, who looks better than I thought he would. Like magnets, my eyes are drawn to the bed, where Leslie Burnden has frozen at the sight of me. “Later,” I tell Brody.
The others file into the room behind me, and I rush to Theo’s side, taking his hand in mine. “It was all there—the photos, the underwear, the phones, everything—but we need to finish up here before the police arrive.”
Theo cups my cheek, pressing our foreheads together. “I thought this would feel… better, but I just feel mildly nauseated.”
“That’s okay,” I whisper. “I just don’t want you doing anything you’ll regret later.”
He nods. “I feel… in control. Why have you brought a nail bat?”
“Scourges are the weapon of my house,” I admit. “This is close enough.”
When I turn to the man on the bed, he eyes my entourage warily, then his gaze shifts to me as I lessen the curse on him, so he can move… just a little bit… a little taste of freedom that I can snatch away when I feel like it.
I lift the nail bat as I stalk closer.
This is the man who ended my life. This wretched, snivelling, old man with a bloodied nose and watery eyes killed me for fun, but… there’s something strange… undefinable about his aura.
He flinches. “None of this is possible. How are you stronger? This is a nightmare.”
I laugh. “Sure. What you’re going through is a nightmare, you self-obsessed prick.”
I imagine slugging him across the jaw, watching the nails embedded in my bat sink into his flesh, the sick squelch of his skin as it splits and drags with my momentum. I could cave his head in, battering him until all that’s left is blood and bruises and a piss-soaked bed.
“How is he here? My Stephen.”
“Oh, him? No, he’s not your Stephen. He’s mine.”
“I know you.”
I press the end of my bat, the only part with no nails, into his thigh. “Yeah, you killed me once.”
“P-Paula Johnson.”
“Aw, you do remember me. That’s nice. But the problem with killing people, Leslie, is that sometimes they don’t stay dead.”
My grip tightens on my weapon, and I raise my arm to swing.
“He’s a vampire,” Theo says. “A weak one, but a vampire nonetheless.”
I lower the bat. I wasn’t expecting that, but it explains his strange aura. “Weak, how?”
Theo grimaces. “Just really fucking feeble.”
“You don’t feed from your victims?” I ask Burnden.
“I’m not an animal,” he whispers, because that’s all the voice I’ll let him have.
I smirk. “Sure you’re not. How are you feeding?”
“Derek,” he says.
“He buried him beneath the rosebush in the garden,” Theo adds.
“He’s been gone a while,” I say. “What have you been doing for blood since then?”
“Nothing. I don’t need it. I’m stronger than my urges.”
“Not all of them, Grandad.”
“That’ll be why he’s weak,” I say. “He wasn’t turned when he killed me. He looks much older.”
Theo lets out a cackle of disturbing laughter. He doesn’t even sound like himself. “This is why you stopped going to church.”
“That fucker went to church?” Brody says.
I can’t remember the last time I heard Brody swear, and it shocks a laugh out of me. “I hope you weren’t asking for God’s forgiveness, Leslie.”
“Stop saying my name,” he whispers.
“I don’t think I will.”
“Erin, we can take him in,” Jack says. “He’s a vampire. That puts him under my jurisdiction. He’ll spend the rest of his miserable life, and it will be a long miserable life, in the Tomb.”
“Justice first,” I say, and Jack nods.
“What’s the Tomb?” Theo asks.
“A prison for people like him,” Jack says.
“There aren’t people like me,” Leslie insists, his raspy voice grating on my nerves.
“You think you’re special?” I ask. “There are thousands of pigs like you rotting in the Tomb. There’s a reason it’s called that, you know. You’ll have your own tiny underground cell.” I raise the nail bat again, and the old man flinches. “I’ll make sure yours is filled with dirt.”
“I love you,” Theo blurts. “I mean, I properly love you.”
I glance at him over my shoulder. “I know.”
“And I’ll still love you even if you smash his skull in, which is no less than he deserves. Just wanted you to know.”
I swing the nail bat, grinning when the fear floods the old man’s eyes. “I already got what I came for.” I halt the momentum of the bat, and lean forward, pressing it into his chest. “I came for him, not you. I don’t give a fuck about you. You’re nothing but a miserable old prick the world is better off without, but I can’t deny that seeing you scared is a bonus.”
“I’m not scared.”
“I can smell fear,” I whisper, baring my fangs, and letting my snakes loose.
The last of Leslie Burnden’s colour flees from his cheeks, the scent of his fear strong as my battle aura fills the room.
“If you two aren’t dead, your murders can’t be pinned on me,” Leslie whimpers, digging his heels into the mattress to push himself away from me, even though there’s nowhere to go.
“Oh, we’re dead,” I say. “Paula Johnson, one hundred percent dead. Stephen King, absolutely dead. Thanks to your grandson, we know there were two more unaccounted for victims.”
“Amelia, the woman I found when I was a kid,” Theo says. “And Pippa Copsey. They weren’t connected to the first six cases at all.” He turns to Jack. “He admitted to killing Derek and my dad.”
Rage flares again inside me. “What?”
“He drugged him, drove him to the roof of the car park, and convinced him to jump.”
The tears in Theo’s eyes destroy me.
“You fucking arsehole.” I swing the bat down into the old man’s thigh, ignoring his screams of pain as I tug the nails from his flesh, the sick, wetness of the sound turning my stomach.
“Your parents went to his house,” Theo says, distracting me from the act of sinking my weapon into his flesh again. “They knew it was him, but they couldn’t prove it, so they wanted him to lose what they’d lost—his only child.”
“But…” I can’t figure out what he’s trying to say. My parents would never have killed Evan, so what does he mean? Then it hits me. “They told him. They told him what his father did to me.”
Theo nods. “And he believed it. He believed it because he’d always known his dad was a piece of shit… just like we know he’s a piece of shit.”
My breath leaves me, my shoulders sagging. I can’t lift the bat again, because no violence I can inflict will solve any of this. It won’t make me and Theo feel better, and it won’t get us the justice we’re owed. It would only haunt us both, and frankly, we’re so haunted already that I might need to call Oz in for an exorcism. With all this behind us, we can move on… move forward. Hopefully together.
“In about five minutes, the police will know he’s a piece of shit as well,” Brody adds.
“Give it another day,” War says. “And the whole world will know he’s a piece of shit.”
“What about the Tomb?” Theo says.
“The Tomb will be coming for him,” Jack says. “Don’t you worry about that. But the families of the women he murdered, and your family too… They deserve justice. He’ll have an accident in prison… shame.” He flashes a grin. “Then, he’ll be ours.”
I pick the clumps of flesh from the nails and wipe the blood on the bed. “There’ll be no proof we were ever here… no CCTV footage, no prints… nothing,” I promise the old man.
Jack produces a piece of paper from his inside pocket. “And this here, is a letter from a lovely lady called Mandy Paid, detailing how she tied you up in a pretty bow when you tried to attack her. Where’s the phone you used to keep in contact with her?”
Brody is already looking for it.
“Fuck off,” Leslie grumbles. “You’re too chicken to even follow through and kill me.”
Jack growls, stalking menacingly towards the man on the bed. “I’ve killed more people in the last year than you have in your whole life, you abominable cunt. It’s nothing to be proud of, and I just don’t think you’re worth getting my hands dirty for, so where’s your phone?”
“Got it,” Brody says, closing the drawer of the bedside cabinet with a gloved hand. “And this.” Brody twists the tube in their hand until a vibrant red lipstick pops out. “Not really your colour, Leslie. I bet it’s got murder victim DNA all over it. I’ll just leave it here for the police to find.” They return it to the drawer, then fiddle with the phone. “Yep, here’s those embarrassingly flirty messages.” They glance at Theo with a smirk. “Didn’t know you had it in you.”
“Mandy took your phone,” Jack tells Leslie. “She’s a bit of a klepto, that Mandy.”
Brody drifts towards the bathroom. “She pilfered all the bathroom goodies too.”
“Leave me here, and I’ll feed on the police,” Leslie says. “Suck them dry until I’m stronger than any of you.”
“You didn’t stick around for your confinement period, did you?” Jack says. “Your skin is fucking atrocious. You’re healing, but not properly, and not fast enough. That’s why you’re weak.” Jack’s grin is feral. “And who says the police aren’t vampires too, Burnden?”
“Don’t leave me here, Stephen. You’re my grandson.”
“You’re dead to me,” Theo says.
“Before we make our dramatic exit, I need to rinse this off in the bathroom,” I say, as Leslie continues to whine in the raspy voice that my gorgon powers have left him with. “I’m not putting it back in my bag like this.”
“Just wrap it in a fucking towel,” Jack says. “You can burn it later. Right now, we need to leave.”
We turn as one for the door.
“Stephen!”
Theo turns back one last time. “Stephen is dead.”
58
Purges
POV: Theo
The rain has stopped by the time War translocates us to the woods behind the car park, where we have a perfect view of the window of room 308.
“I guess it’s time to face the music,” I say as Erin slips her hand into mine.
“No,” Jack says. “There is no music because you two were nowhere near this dance. Understood?”
“I have no problem swallowing bitter medicine, Jack,” Erin protests. “But I don’t want this on Theo’s record.”
“Which is why you two are leaving. And since I outrank you, you’ll do as you’re fucking told for once, and sit this one out.” Jack lays his huge hands on Erin’s shoulders. “Erin, I owe you this much, alright? Let me do it without making threats. Brody and I have reason to be here since we’re investigating Theo’s case. Let War get you home without argument. We’ll return Theo’s hire car when the police get here.”
“He can’t get off, Jack,” Erin says. “He needs to be punished.”
“He will be. I promise.”
Erin lets go of my hand to hug Jack. “Thank you. I know I’m a pain in the arse.”
Jack wraps her in his arms, his eyes on me as he says, “What have you done to her?”
I laugh when she thumps his beefy chest. “Nothing. She’s always been this perfect.”
War chokes, and Erin and I shoot him twin glares.
Brody grins like a loon. “You never told me you were from Medusa House.”
“I only found out myself a few years ago,” Erin tells them. “It’s not common knowledge, and I’m still getting used to it.”
“Your snake hair is badass.” Brody pouts. “Where did it go?”
“The snakes only come out with my battle aura.”
Brody slaps their forehead. “That’s why you don’t want to do combat training.”
I’m not the only one who notices the embarrassment brewing on Erin’s face. At least her wings didn’t pop out tonight.
“Let’s get back in there, Saddler,” Jack says. “It’s time for the rest of you to leave.”
“Hang on then, Gaga,” War says, holding out his elbows. “Where to?”
I’m so tired. I just want to get home and curl myself around Erin.
“I need to stop somewhere to buy a scrubbing brush,” Erin says. “Then we need to stop at a river… fast flowing. Then a… forest fire?
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I grumble.
“I’m not taking my fuck-bat into the flat until it’s properly purged,” she says.
Twenty minutes later, War leaves us in the dark, buzzing silence of our flat.
“This has been the longest day,” I whisper.
“Yeah.” Erin sighs, as she switches on the living room light. “Teddy, we need to talk.”
