Page 36 of Cold Sacrifice

“I will be in Huntersburg tonight at seven-thirty.”

“We’ll be ready for you.”

“We should discuss payment before I drive down,” she said. “I’m sure Sixten told you that I’m quite expensive.” She quoted me a figure.

Sixten hadn’t been exaggerating. “I’ll see you tonight,” I told her. I was willing to pay whatever she asked, if she could get the job done.

I needed a way to tell the ghosts I’d be back, but other than holding up a finger and mouthing the words, there was little I could do.

When I slid my phone back into my pocket and looked around, the ghoul was gone. I felt his absence, like he’d accomplished whatever it was he’d come for and had gone back to his world.

I hung my bag over a tree limb, just in case I’d need it later that night, and then I paused to listen. In the distance, I heard the sound of crows cawing. Just as abruptly, they stopped.

“Weird,” I murmured, rubbing at the goosebumps that had popped up on my arms.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and called my alpha. “Jared,” I said when he answered. “Everything good?”

“Since Voss,” he said, “everything has been calm for the wolves.”

“And you’re happy for the downtime,” I said, smiling.

“More than I can say. Are you okay, Kait?”

“You know what’s happening with the vampires,” I said.

“Yes. Several of my best wolves are guarding them as they sleep,” he said.

A couple of years ago such a thing would have been unheard of. Wolves guarding vampires? Even now, it startled me, though I’d protected the vampires more than once. But Jared lending his wolves to the vampires still managed to shock me.

“That’s…nice of you,” I managed.

He laughed, and my entire body reacted. I knew the way he affected me would never fade. “I need to spend about a week with you,” I told him. “I’d like to do nothing but lock myself in your bedroom with you and only open the door when Nell brings us food.”

I was only half joking.

“I can make that happen,” he said. “We can start tonight.”

I sighed. “Tonight,” I told him, “a witch is coming to Silverwood. I met the necromancer who’s compelling the vampires to kill themselves, and I think it’s going to get worse. She’s full of decades of hatred, and honestly, I don’t blame her.”

It was Jared’s turn to be shocked. “Why would she target you, Kait?”

“I don’t think she targeted me. She’s…old, Jared. And powerful. When she’s compelling a vampire, she may have their memories. I don’t know. Somehow she found out that I can see spirits. She wanted me to help the ones she’d been buried with.”

“What did she say to you?” His voice was soft and deceptively gentle.

I didn’t lie to him. “She took control of Joe to show me that she could. She said if I help Bastien, she’ll compel Joe to kill me and then himself.”

And maybe that was the moment it actually sank all the way in.

“Until this is over and she’s dead,” Jared said, “I will stay with you.” He blew out a hard breath. “There are too many fucking vampires in Jakeston. You need to leave, Kait, until this is settled. We can’t keep them all away from you.”

“I can handle a vampire,” I told him. “I don’t want to fight Joe. I won’t hurt him while he’s under her control. The other vampires…” I shrugged. “I’ll do what I have to do to protect myself.”

“She may take control of Bastien,” he said quietly.

And Bastien was a master. If it came down to a fight between Bastien and me, could I walk away from that fight? I would have had a better chance before Anika stole my magic. Now…

He was a master vampire. If he wanted to kill me, he could likely find a way to kill me, even if I brought my shapeshifter to the fight. And I would bring my shapeshifter.