Entombed Read online

  This time Jack nudged Marin in the gut.

  Marin leaned forward in between the front seats. “I guess I didn’t realize how close we were. I was injured and focused on landing safely, which required several passes. I do vaguely recall that we’d entered the area that had reported an exodus of their local rat population.” She sat back into her seat with a thoughtful expression. “What if he’s territorial?”

  Abi made a disbelieving sound. “And his cage is tied to his territory?”

  “Sure,” Kaisermann said. “Why not? If you consider that he’s been trapped there for decades or longer, he probably thinks of that area as his. He may not want to crawl back into the cage, but I can see him being proprietary over the area.”

  “If they’re so territorial, then how’d he end up here when aswang originate in the Philippines?” Iris asked. “Seems odd.”

  “Oh crap,” Marin said. “The liver.” She shook her head. “If he is territorial and another apex predator entered the area, maybe he would mark his territory?”

  “Apex predator?” Iris sounded confused. She turned around and, with a frown, she said, “Is that what the fire is really for? So you can roast your meals?”

  Marin grinned at her. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t work that way anymore. Dragons eat in their human form…mostly.”

  Iris’s lips formed a silent, “Oh,” and she turned back to the front.

  Several seconds passed then Abi said, “You guys do realize that if all of this theorizing is anywhere near accurate that we’re not just headed out for a little recon. We’re going to run into a seriously pissed off Nate. He may have been keeping things low-key in the mortal world so he can maintain his cover longer. But you’re on his turf—for the second time.”

  “Oops.” Iris let out a long breath. “Now might be the time to tell you guys I’ve been practicing my ghost summoning.”

  Since she hadn’t known she was a medium the day before, that was a somewhat surprising statement. Jack hesitated, but someone had to ask. “So how exactly do you summon ghosts?”

  The car jerked to the side, swerving off the road.

  If ghost summoning involved flat tires, then doing it in a car seemed like a terrible idea.

  But then the door nearest to Marin was ripped away with a nasty screech of distressed metal.

  Not a ghost summoning gone awry—Nate.

  Chapter Twenty

  The car bounced and jerked as it traveled across uneven patches of dirt and grass. Jack grabbed Marin’s arm and only let go when the car slammed to a stop.

  Yanking the door off a car required a lot of force—enough to have propelled a dark, vaguely human winged creature several yards from the car.

  Nate. And he was headed back to them.

  As the creature turned in the air, his naked winged body twisted and pulled. His featherless wings strained with the effort of tightly banking, and his clawed hands seemed to snatch at the air. Ropey muscles bulged under dark leathery skin, and his wings beat at the air as he closed the distance between them. A grimace stretched across the aswang’s face, making it’s bald-headed, not-quite human head even more grotesque.

  Jack watched Kaisermann exit the SUV and followed after him. Jack’s chest tightened. He really liked that old guy. “Iris, if you can summon a ghost or two, that would be helpful.”

  “I’m trying to find my inner peace, dammit!”

  Since Iris had gone off her rocker and as yet Grandma Abi hadn’t made an appearance—Nate was still here, so he could only assume—they needed another plan. And he had no gun. Great. No sleeping during active cases and no more leaving the country for independent jobs.

  Jack could hear the dull thud of Nate’s massive wings beat as he closed in on Kaisermann and him. Marin, several feet distant, faded away, replaced by her dragon self.

  Jack put an arm around Kaisermann and encouraged him to huddle on the ground. They’d want to be low if Marin was going to try to fry Nate. She tried—but the blueish flames seemed to lick at Nate without touching him. He didn’t flinch—or catch fire or even smoke a little. No effect, just as Lachlan had said.

  Not good news, because that meant he was still coming.

  Jack crouched over the smaller Kaisermann. Nate was slow, shockingly slow. But still fast enough to outrun an elderly man, and Jack couldn’t leave his friend behind. No civilians on active cases; that seemed a good addition to the Spirelli handbook right about now. Then it occurred to Jack that the sound of Nate’s thick leathery wings beating in the air was growing quieter. He glanced up to see Nate’s naked wrinkled buttocks. The leathery skin of his legs turned to talons where his feet should have been. The sight was grotesque, so obscene he seemed almost like a caricature of a devilish creature.

  Damn, he was turning around for a second run.

  Don’t let go of Kaisermann.

  Marin’s voice appeared in his head. Jack searched for her, scanned the area near the SUV twice, but nothing. Hard to believe he’d lost track of an elephant-sized scaly beast. Then on the third attempt, he saw the shimmer, like heated air rising off asphalt on a Texas summer day. She’d camouflaged herself, an excellent skill hampered only by the telltale shimmer when she moved.

  Jack! You need to hold on to Kaisermann. I think Sally’s found a way to protect him.

  Which explained Nate’s failed attack.

  This time when Nate dove for them with his talons extended, Jack didn’t duck his head. He again shielded Kaisermann, and watched in fascination as Nate’s talons sparked and skidded across a surface that wasn’t really there. Now that was a cool forcefield.

  Nate must have figured it out, because he didn’t turn for another run at them. Instead, he turned back to the car.

  Marin’s silvery, iridescent scales worked by reflecting back what was around her. She didn’t actually disappear. And Jack could see now what her destination had been when she’d been on the move before. She’d placed herself in between Nate and the two women who were still inside the car.

  What were they doing in there? And what the hell was Marin thinking? Nate would shred her semi-soft baby-dragon scales.

  “How are we still alive?” Kaisermann whispered in his ear.

  Jack had forgotten that Marin’s words hadn’t been spoken aloud. “Marin thinks it might be Sally.”

  With a furrow etched into his forehead, Kaisermann said, “I don’t understand. That’s not—”

  “Trust me. Marin’s usually right. A sickeningly large amount of the time, in fact.” Jack kept an arm wrapped around his friend’s shoulders and encouraged him to stand. “Can you walk with me? I have no idea how far your protection will extend, but I don’t know what else we can do.”

  Kaisermann’s eyes bugged out, followed by a shrill howl—thankfully not from Kaisermann.

  “What the hell was that?”

  Kaisermann’s eyes were still huge. “She steamed him.”

  “What?—Oh.” Jack winced. He wished all things bad on Nate, but ouch. Jack looked for Nate’s dark form and found him skulking out of par-boil range. “That wicked clever girl.”

  I heard that. It won’t keep him for long. It’s not damaging him, just causing pain.

  “Yeah, that’s too bad. How are the ladies in the car?” Jack asked. When he saw Kaisermann eyeing him oddly, he said, “I’m talking to Marin. She’s got excellent hearing…and, ah, mind-speaking, a kind of dragon telepathy.”

  “Ah.”

  Iris is hunting inner peace.

  “What the hell are you talking about? What does inner piece have to do with the anything? And where is Grandma Abi? Have we already exhausted her time on this plane?” Jack started toward the SUV again, walking slowly and keeping Kaisermann close.

  “Grandma Abi is recruiting on the other side,” Kaisermann said.

  Jack paused, then picked up the pace. “I really don’t think I’ll ever sleep again. What else did you guys discuss while I was out?”

  “Nothing to do with inner peace, if
that makes you feel better.” Kaisermann’s eyes twinkled with mirth.

  “Glad you’re getting some entertainment out of this, buddy. Iris is obsessing over inner peace, hence my curiosity.”

  She needs to find inner peace so she can use her medium skills, basically, act as a beacon for any of the souls that Grandma Abi recruits. Pressure does not help.

  “Well, hell. Why didn’t you say so?” Jack leaned close to Kaisermann and whispered in his ear, “Trust me. We’re helping, not running.” Then he turned them away from the SUV. In a normal tone of voice, Jack said, “So leathery bald guy, I see why you dig that young guy’s body. He’s much better-looking than you.”

  As he and Kaisermann had started to move away from the SUV, Nate had tracked them and was starting to close the distance. In a deep, mellow, and under other circumstances likely charming voice, Nate said, “Humans are walking pieces of meat. There is nothing attractive in your flightless form and your thin vulnerable skin. Even your bones break like twigs.”

  “Why bother assuming one of our useless forms if you find them so offensive?” Jack asked, as he continued to walk away from the SUV. If increasing the distance between leather-butt Nate and Iris didn’t diminish the pressure on her, he wasn’t sure what else would.

  “Like the cattle you are, humans scatter when frightened. Better to keep the herd calm and feast as I desire.” Nate was now closing the distance between the three of them. He couldn’t claw them, so what exactly was his plan? Jack was sure he had one.

  “What was with the liver in the herbalist’s pantry?”

  “A gift to the beast before I slay her.” From Nate’s tone, Jack could guess that Marin had been spot on with the ego assessment. This guy’s was epic. Giving his worthiest—and yet still subpar—competition a last meal. “I found the gesture generous. Liver is, after all, the tastiest part.”

  Jack was getting pretty damn nervous. The guy was close. From fifteen feet away, Jack could easily see Nate’s eyes were red. It was more than a little disconcerting. He had to search for something—anything—to say. He had to keep the attention on them. “If the liver is so tasty, why eat the heart first?”

  “Oh, but that would be telling, and that secret is mine to keep.” Nate was ten feet away.

  Kaisermann stood up very straight under Jack’s arm and said, “Stealing the heart while it still beats traps the essence of the form. Consuming it allows you to assume that form.”

  No poker with Kaisermann in the future; the guy could bluff with the best of them. The conviction in his voice would have fooled Jack, but he knew Kaisermann didn’t have any more of a clue than the rest of them.

  Nate looked pissed. He still had vaguely human features and showed emotion much like a human, but that emotion looked overdone and silly on him. “You’re not so very clever, caretaker. It’s the beast who protects that has shared that knowledge.”

  Whoa, what? Since when did Kaisermann and Sally actually speak? Jack didn’t have time to ponder the conundrum of Sally and Kaisermann’s relationship. Nate was rushing them.

  He wasn’t fast, but he was solid. And he wasn’t planning to use his talons.

  Shit. Too late Jack recognized the creature’s strategy. With all the force he could muster, Nate rammed them.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Jack did his best to roll with the hit. And as much as he tried to hang onto Kaisermann, he couldn’t.

  He struggled to catch his breath, and he pushed himself onto his knees. Head hanging, he gasped for breath.

  He needed to speak. To tell Kaisermann to run. The man would never leave his friends otherwise. He coughed and wheezed. Probably wouldn’t run even if Jack told him to. Finally, the thought surfaced that if he was this jacked, Kaisermann might not be in any shape to escape. Hopefully, Sally would keep the old guy from harm.

  Head hanging down, Jack shoved hard against the ground in an attempt to get to his feet. Then he felt the cold, a sting, an angry pulsing pain—and he was wrenched into the air.

  He must have screamed. He couldn’t hear—not anyone, not himself. But he must have screamed. Because it hurt.

  A breeze on his wet face. Jarring pain. Breeze. Pain.

  Sound returned and he heard the dull thump of Nate’s wings. Each beat was a nasty pulling sensation in his back. His brain scrambled, but no answer came.

  His limbs dangled with no support. In the air—he was in the air. With the realization came a wave of disoriented dizziness. He spun like a spider at the end of a web. Like a man held aloft by the razor talons of an aswang.

  Jack cracked his eyes open. His vision was blurry. Tears, pain, shock. He blinked and saw the SUV. Blinked and something?—nothing? Blinked and saw Marin. Blinked and saw a lot of Marin’s teeth.

  “Dragon bitch, I know what your human attempts, and he’s too weak. Concede and I’ll give your humans a quick death.”

  Jack would have laughed—except he couldn’t. Kill the humans fast, just for you, only if you surrender. Bullshit. The bastard always killed humans quickly. How else would he add their skin to his human body wardrobe?

  If he wasn’t mistaken, that was about what Marin said to him.

  In slow parts his mind had joined the land of full consciousness, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be here. He couldn’t imagine the shape his back was in. The talons were dug deep into what meat and fat there was. Toes and fingers still moved, so far as he could tell. One shining light in the dark night of this massive cluster.

  Then something shifted. Changed. Brightened.

  Except the light was still the same, and nothing had changed. Jack was still so much meat in Nate’s claws.

  And then he wasn’t. He was falling.

  But he didn’t fall; he landed.

  Be still!

  Thank God for that. Jack lay prone, probably in the middle of a battlefield, and yet he had no desire to find cover because that meant a lot of hurt.

  That lasted about three full seconds, then he rolled over. No way he was sleeping through this. It hurt like hell, but at least he could see. Jack squinted as he looked up into the sky. He could sort of see. There was Nate, moving in an odd zigzagging pattern. Maybe Jack had cattle on the brain because of Nate’s earlier comment, but it looked a lot like leather-butt was being herded in the sky—but for the fact that nothing else was there.

  “Holy shit. Iris did it. She found her inner peace.” Jack chuckled which made him cough, which made him about pass out as he wrenched the wounds in his back.

  “Hey, watch it. Take it easy now,” a familiar voice said.

  Jack looked up into Kaisermann’s face. The smile that stretched his face was so broad it hurt his cheeks. “Damn, but it’s good to see you. Think you can help me up?”

  “With a little help.” Kaisermann nodded to his left where Abi was standing.

  “I’ve got a medical kit in the SUV,” she said. “Wait here, and I’ll bring it back.”

  “No way in hell am I missing this,” Jack said. “There are a bunch of ghosts herding a flying leathery, bat-like, bald guy through the sky toward his eventual place of eternal rest. Not missing that for the world. And don’t think I didn’t notice Marin told me to stay put then hauled ass.” One small problem occurred to Jack. “How far are we from the crypt?”

  “Too far for you to walk,” Kaisermann said with a raised eyebrow.

  Since that could mean five feet or five miles, Jack opted for another option. “Don’t suppose the SUV is still running?”

  Abi rolled her eyes. “If you die of blood loss, infection, or any other complication, I would like it to be known that I recommended against this course of action. Now that I know there are ghosts…well, I don’t want you to came back and haunt me.” As she spoke, she and Kaisermann hefted Jack into an upright position.

  Her attempt at verbal distraction was commendable but not successful. He might have screamed like a little boy. But after he was done screaming, he figured it was all good. Pain made people do strange th
ings.

  While he caught his breath and Kaisermann propped him up, Abi brought around the SUV. It looked great minus the missing door. There wasn’t even a flat. The jerking that Jack had assumed was a tire mishap had been Nate sideswiping their SUV.

  More sweat maybe mixed with some tears, and Jack was situated in the backseat. He sat sideways and Abi braced, while Kaisermann drove them to the crypt.

  Jack tried to catch another glimpse of Nate being poked in the sky by pissed off ghosts, but he didn’t see anything. They were almost there when Jack started to worry. “Guys, did we ever find out if the ward was still standing? We’ve got three days before a spell-caster is expected down here. No way we catch Nate again in three days. And even then, who knows if our guy can cast the right kind of ward.”

  “Let’s hope it’s there,” Abi said. Jack could hear the tension in her voice.

  Kaisermann, on the other hand, didn’t seem ruffled. “I have faith. Sally wouldn’t have shown us this path if wasn’t going to work. She can’t see the future and there’s a lot I’m sure she doesn’t know, but she does have an intimate understanding of nature and the magic in it.” He met Jack’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “She would know, Jack.”

  Jack didn’t have Kaisermann’s bone-deep faith in Sally, but communication issues aside, she had been very reliably on their side.

  “Hey guys, do you see that?” Abi pointed to the sky.

  Kaisermann pulled up as close as he could get to the crypt and parked, then he hung his head out the window.

  Jack opened the door to better see then whispered to Abi, “Help me out?”

  She jumped out the other side and ran around to Jack’s door, all the while continuing to check the sky above.

  The three of them watched in fascination as the invisible hands of what must be ghosts pulled the flailing and screaming Nate from the sky. It looked more like a bar take-down than an arrest—a lot of power but not great control. For every two steps forward they went, Nate would scramble one back. He was terrified.