Jeaniene Frost - This Side of the Grave

“Do you know where Harris lives?” I asked at once.

“Yeah. It’s not too far from here, actually.”

“Yet you didn’t go there yourself to check on him?” Bones asked with heavy skepticism.

Ed gave Bones a weary look. “No, and I still won’t unless I can get several people to go with me. I don’t want to be the next vampire no one ever hears from. Judge all you want, but I don’t have a bunch of badass powers to protect myself if something did happen to Shayne and Harris—and the ghouls who made it happen are still there.”

Sympathy welled up in me, dulling the voices still yammering on in my mind. Ed and Scratch were doing the best they could to look out for their friends under the very harsh circumstances of living in a world where they were close to second-class citizens. I knew from experience that it sucked to feel like no one had your back when the monsters came sniffing around. Of course, technically, Ed and Scratch were monsters, too.

Then again, so was I. In this case, that was a plus.

Bones looked at me and arched a brow.

“Let’s do it,” I said to the unspoken question.

He rose, giving his knuckles a quick, expert crack, and then threw several bills on the table.

“All right, then, mates. Let’s see if Shayne’s mobile just ran out of charge.”

True to Ed’s word, Harris’s apartment was only twenty minutes away. I found it ironic that it was also only about a mile away from the apartment complex I’d lived in when I went to OSU, seemingly another lifetime ago. If Bones noticed the close proximity to my old place, he didn’t comment on it. He seemed more focused on the exterior of the building, trying to pick up any vibes of danger within. We couldn’t risk sending Fabian in first to check it out. The ghost had snuck into our trunk when we drove off, unnoticed by Ed or Scratch, but if we sent Fabian in ahead of us, that would draw their attention to our phantom friend.

Tingles of power rode on the air behind us in the narrow parking lot. Ed and Scratch jerked around, but Bones didn’t flinch. Neither did I. That was Tiny and Band-Aid, our backup who’d followed us over from the mall.

“Tiny, Band-Aid, keep an eye on these two for a moment, will you?” Bones said to them before striding toward the complex. I went with him, shrugging into my long leather coat. It wasn’t because I was cold; the late summer day was warm, but my coat held several pounds’ worth of silver knives. Sure, I had knives tucked under my blouse, but those were the shorter, throwing variety meant for vampires. Only decapitation killed a ghoul, which meant I needed bigger blades if any sinister members of that species awaited us inside.

Bones inhaled once we reached the second floor. So did I. The front doors were all in a line facing the parking lot, with the fresh air chasing away most of the telltale scents of their occupants, but I caught a whiff of something inhuman coming from the second to last unit. Bones must have, too, because his steps quickened. I inhaled again, my nose wrinkling when we were almost at that door. Bones paused to give me a grim look.

The shades were drawn tight, preventing us from peering inside, but I already knew what we’d find. The scent of death was unmistakable.

“We’re too late,” I whispered. Seeing the broken lock on the door was almost redundant.

Bones pushed the door open, moving immediately to the side in case a flash of flying silver accompanied his entry. Nothing moved, however. The inside of the apartment was as quiet as a tomb.

And just like a tomb, it had bodies in it.

“I don’t feel anyone, but stay sharp,” Bones said as he stepped inside. I followed, checking the corners first, joining Bones in doing a sweep of the interior with as much caution as if we knew enemy forces were within. As we’d suspected, though, the place was empty of everyone except us—and two shriveled vampires on the floor of the tiny family room.

The damn voices in my mind began to rise again. There weren’t as many people in the apartment complex as the mall, so it didn’t affect me with the same sort of mental explosion, but it was like my mind was filled with the hum from a nest of angry bees. I rubbed my temple, as if that could tone them down, but of course, it didn’t help.

Bones didn’t catch the gesture. His attention was still focused on the two shriveled corpses near our feet.

“Looks like a dawn ambush,” he noted, taking in their lack of shoes and how neither body was fully dressed. “Poor sods didn’t have the chance to put up much of a fight.”

The lack of disarray in the apartment was testament of that. When supernatural creatures fought to the death, things usually got a lot messier than a few overturned tables and some blood smeared on the carpet. Investigating the deaths of vampires was still somewhat unusual for me. Sure, I’d spent years working for a covert branch of Homeland Security tracking paranormal homicides, but in those circumstances, the vampires had usually been the perpetrators. Not the victims.

. . . if I don’t pay the car payment, I’ll have enough money for the mortgage . . .

. . . told that bastard I wouldn’t put up with him being out all night again . . .

. . . so proud of her, she’ll graduate with her class . . .

I rubbed my head once more as the voices got louder. This time, Bones saw it.

“Again?”

“I’m fine,” I said, attempting a casual tone.

His stare turned pointed. “Bollocks.”

“I’ve got it under control, it’s nothing to worry about,” I amended. That was true. Dead bodies took priority over the mental mutterings going off in my head.

From his expression, Bones wasn’t buying my blasé act, but the clock was ticking on this crime scene. We had bodies to remove, evidence to erase, and killers to find.

Bones raised his voice. “Ed, get up here.”

The skinny vampire’s face pinched when he came inside and saw the bodies. “Aw, fuck,” he groaned.

“Are these Shayne and Harris?” Bones asked, in a gentler tone than before.

Ed bent down, sniffing at each body. Vampires might never look a day older than whatever age they were when they were changed, but all that ended upon death. After death, a vampire’s body rapidly composed to their true age, meaning that most of the time, there was nothing left but mummified remains inside of whatever clothes they died in. These two bodies were no exception.

Ed sat back on his haunches next to the denim-clad body. “That’s them,” he said in a thicker voice. Then he snarled, “Fucking ghouls.”

“Why don’t you go back outside now?” I said, giving Ed’s arm a pat. There was nothing more he could do, but Bones and I still had things to take care of.

Ed gave another long look at Harris’s and Shayne’s corpses before he got up and walked out. I sighed. This was bad for so many reasons, and Ed’s grief was only part of it.

“Why do you think they left the bodies?” I asked Bones quietly. “Ed and Scratch hadn’t heard of bodies being found from the other disappearances. Think the killers got interrupted?”

Bones’s gaze swept around the room. It didn’t take long; the area only consisted of a tiny kitchen and a family room big enough for just one full-sized couch.

“No, luv,” he said at last. “I think whoever did this had the time to take the bodies, but chose not to.”

I swallowed. That could be the result of the same sort of arrogance I’d seen in the past from killers who left bodies behind because they thought they were too smart to get caught. But unfortunately, I didn’t think that was the case. Instead, this looked like confirmation of a much bigger problem—killers who wanted us to know who they were. Only an idiot wouldn’t label those ghouls as prime suspects after they’d beaten on Harris just the evening before he and Shayne were murdered. Those ghouls knew that by leaving the bodies here, they were practically signing their names on them.