Lily nodded, but it was a lie. She was physically warm again, but inside she was still shaking, still cold. Afraid.
And alone. Rule held her. She felt his breath on her hair, the heat from his body, yet she felt alone in her body in a way she hadn’t for nine months.
Damned mate bond, she thought. And wept.
“OUT. Out. Get out.”
“Shh, baby, it’s okay. You’re okay. It’s gone.”
Yes, the wraith was gone. A dream. That’s all it had been, just a dream. Lily blinked her eyes open, aware of Rule’s body curved around hers, his hand stroking her hair. The smutty air of predawn told her it was early, but no longer night.
She’d dreamed the wraith was still in her, that it had hidden so well it had fooled everyone. And Rule . . . Rule had left her. The mate bond was gone, so he’d left her.
Her damned subconscious didn’t bother with subtlety, did it? Hit her over the head with her worst fear when she was already hurting. Stupid subconscious. She sat up, shoving back her hair. “I need to get to work.”
“It’s early yet. You don’t have to—”
“No. No, listen. In the dream, it kept telling me how glad it was I’d come to see it. But that happened for real, too. It did say something like that. It said that I—that we—came to it.”
He said nothing for a moment, then spoke slowly. “It was already there, in the forest.”
She nodded. “I need to look at the map.”
RULE went with her. She could have stopped him, probably—if she’d had every available deputy at the sheriff’s office man the doors, ready to shoot. He’d know if the wraith got into her again, he said. He’d smell it. When it was in a body, he could smell the death magic.
“Then what?” she asked sourly. “You going to make scary faces at me until it leaves?”
His smile had been faint. Distant.
But he was right, and though she tried not to notice too much, it comforted her to have him with her. Maybe he wouldn’t be with her that much longer.
Shut up, she told herself. Rule hadn’t stopped loving her when the mate bond snapped. They’d adjust. They’d be okay.
Assuming her brain didn’t fry. Was she blinking more than usual, or just noticing it more?
“Here’s the spot where you found the bodies.” Lily pointed at three red pins. “Here’s where Deacon and I shot the dogs.” Those pins were blue, and almost on top of the first three. “Last night we were . . .”
“Here.” Rule tapped a spot a few inches away. “The blue pins are animal deaths?”
She nodded and stuck in a white pin, then used her finger to estimate the distance. “That’s only about five miles between the bodies and the picnic site. The way the roads curve around, it seemed farther.”
“What’s this?” Rule tapped another white pin.
“Meacham’s house. It’s not far from the woods. Well, we knew that, but we were thinking in terms of how easy it was for him to take the bodies there, not—”
The door opened. “How come I always have to get my own donuts?”
It was Brown, disgruntled as ever. And holding a white box with the Dunkin’ Donuts logo. “Here,” he said, thrusting the box at her. “You might as well eat some, since I damned near had to draw on that deputy to get past without him mooching. And don’t give me any crap about your diet.” He glared. “Someone who’s been in the ER needs sugar.”
It was a get-well gift, Brown-style. “Thank you.” And bless him, there was a chocolate cake donut with chocolate icing. She snagged it.
“What are you doing here?” Brown asked Rule with no more belligerence than usual as he helped himself to one of the donuts. “And where’s the other one, the pretty guy?”
Lily had to smile at that description, but with her mouth full of donut, she let Rule answer.
“Cullen’s holed up at his hotel. His wife couriered him some of his materials. He hopes to find out more about wraiths. And I’m watching out for Lily,” Rule finished levelly. “I can smell death magic.”
“Oh. Good idea.” Brown chewed as he talked. “If that wraith gets in her again, you’ll know, huh? Not sure what you can do about it, but at least you can warn the rest of us. What?” he said when Rule narrowed his eyes. “It’s not a great idea to have the lead on an investigation under the control of a crazy spook. She’s armed, for Christ’s sake. I’d appreciate a little warning.”
“I’ll do my best,” Rule said dryly.
“I’ll be having frequent MRIs,” Lily told Brown. “To make sure my brain’s functioning normally. For now, I’m clear of crazy spooks and my brain’s working as well as it ever does. Which isn’t all that great, but I finally noticed something.”
She pointed at the map. “Here’s Meacham’s place, where the wraith entered a human for the first time. Here’s where the dogs were, the ones it had been riding. We think the wraith was in one of those dogs when it attacked Rule near the grave site, right here. And here”—she tapped the map—“is where it was last night. It told me . . . It said we had come to it. It was there already.”
“You think that’s where it’s hanging out? In the woods?” Brown came closer. “Reasonable, but over here’s Hodge’s place, nowhere near the other spots.”
Lily exchanged a glance with Rule. “It may have followed me or Rule into town when we discovered the bodies. It . . . wants to talk to someone, possibly Rule.”
“The crazy killer spook wants a conversation?” Brown shook his head and grabbed another donut. “So you figure its grave is out in those woods?” When they stared, he waved the donut in his hand, looking almost embarrassed. “I just thought—you know. Graves. Spooks. Seem to go together.”
“Maybe the death wasn’t reported,” Lily said slowly. “If it wasn’t, the woman, the practitioner who created it, had a body to dispose of. And maybe”—she looked at Rule—“Meacham didn’t bury those bodies. The wraith did, while still in Meacham’s body. It had some sense that bodies should be buried, and it took them to the place it knew.”
“Not quite the same place,” Rule said. “I would have smelled another body if it were close.”
“A seven-month-old body?”
He considered that a moment, then nodded. “I think so, yes. I’d have to be close, but the soil smells different when there’s a body beneath it.”
“So you could do it now. You could find it.” A body would mean an ID. A name.
“I can try.”
“Let’s go.”
“Lily.” Rule gripped her arm, stopping her. “You’re the last person who needs to go looking for the wraith’s grave. You’re too vulnerable.”
She kept herself steady. Inside she wasn’t, but she kept her outside steady, and she was proud of that. “You’re going to go sniffing without me?” She shook her head. “It may not be there. It could be right in this room now. We don’t know—”
“It’s more likely to be there than anywhere else.”
“I think I know how to keep it out.”
“That’s not good enough.”
She lowered her voice, hoping to keep Brown from hearing. “It came in through . . . the other-Lily. You know what I mean. It came in when I’d just felt her memories brush against me. If I close her out, it can’t get in.” Maybe. She swallowed. “I need to know, Rule. I need to know I can keep it out.”
When he let go of her arm, it wasn’t really acceptance. His eyes were too flat and closed to call it that. But at least he wasn’t fighting her.
Okay. Get moving. Lily grabbed the other chocolate donut and shoved the box at Brown. “You’re going to need these. You’ve got that list from the hospital?” The list of those who had, temporarily, died.
“Yeah.”