Page 58 of Cold Sacrifice

It didn’t mean that some of his vampires wouldn’t continue to die until we stopped the threat. It didn’t mean that Joe wouldn’t still be forced to stay locked in Max’s basement or that the necromancer might not transfer her rage from the vampires to those determined to stop her.

Me. My people. The wolves.

The humans.

Rick called me at ten a.m., long before I was ready to leave Jared’s warmth.

“I’m sorry for waking you, Kait,” he said.

“Rick,” I murmured, my voice still thick with sleep. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Ben fixed me up and gave me some good drugs. I’m not hurting.” He hesitated. “Are you with Jared?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Put the phone on speaker so I can tell you both.”

I did, my stomach tight with the beginning strings of worry. “We’re listening,” I said.

“We’ve discovered the necromancer is not forced to sleep during the day, the way the vampires are.” His voice turned grim. “She’s had a busy morning.”

I closed my eyes, wishing already that I could go back to ten minutes earlier when I was dozing with the alpha’s arms around me, pretending there was nothing outside his bedroom walls. “I think the longer she’s awake,” I said, “and walking the city, the stronger she’s becoming.”

“What did she do?” Jared asked Rick.

“She boarded a public transport van and killed everyone on board, except for the driver. He escaped, and we believe she let him go because she wanted the city to know who was responsible for the deaths.”

“Fuck,” I whispered. “How many, Rick?”

“There were nine passengers. Seven women and two men. She ripped them to pieces, Kait.”

“Rage because she can’t kill Bastien,” Jared said.

“Rage,” I murmured. “Period.”

“Afterward,” Rick said, “she disappeared. There’s no sign of her. The video footage shows her running to an alley, and then she was just gone. She didn’t come out the back, and she didn’t return to the front.”

“She went into the ground,” I told him. “That’s where she is. I’ll meet you in the city where it happened, and I want to explore that alley. She may be awake in the morning but not yet be strong enough to stay out in the day, especially after an attack.”

“Then we’ll never catch her,” he said grimly. “It’s not like we can start digging.”

“I can go in after her,” I told him. I looked at Jared, who frowned down at me. “My…changes. I can go into the ground after her.”

I didn’t explain to them how the demon had engulfed the butterfly or why I knew without a single doubt that I could burrow into the earth and find the necromancer. I didn’t want to. I didn’t know how to. But I knew I could.

Neither of them pushed for more.

“Okay,” Rick said. “I’ll see you there, Kait.”

He ended the call.

Jared pulled me closer against him and kissed my lips. “I am tempted to make you forget you’re supposed to leave this bed.”

“I’m tempted to let you,” I said. “When Jakeston gets the bad stuff, it’s always really, really bad, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It always is.” Then he slid from the bed and held out a hand. “Let’s get cleaned up and have some breakfast before we go.”

I took his hand and let him pull me up. “You’re coming?”