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I glanced down at the drawer. “That’s the thing, some aren’t missing. Just one.”

He took a breath and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. It is strange. What makes you think you’ll get any answers in the cemetery, though?”

I shrugged. “Just a hunch. Someone benefits from keeping the mystery alive, maybe he’ll show up tonight.”

Chapter Seven

Jonah

Briar jumped into the passenger seat of my truck without asking, and I do mean jumped since my truck is lifted and even in her boots she was a head shorter than I was.

She settled into the well worn leather like she belonged there.

I put the truck in drive and tried to focus on the road rather than the woman beside me. She was quietly reviewing notes in the dim light of the cab, and I took the time to think the situation through.

This all seemed a little strange.

Dueling influencers, vampires, witches, missing records, and, at the heart of it all, a mystery. Then again, maybe it wasn’t so difficult to understand. Part of it anyway. The almighty dollar was one hell of a motivator. There were people who would lie, cheat, and steal to make money in business or the stock market, so why would it be any different in the world of social media? Mercer was trying to sell a version of events that was sensationalized and overblown. His bottom line might take a hit if Briar revealed the truth and it turned out to be nothing paranormal.

We arrived at the cemetery, and I glanced around the property as I climbed out of the truck. The first thing I noticed was tire tracks I knew hadn’t come from Briar or I.

“You parked closer to the road when you’ve been here, haven’t you?” I asked as Briar walked around the front of the truck to stand beside me.

She nodded. “I’d never take my car this far into the woods. I’d worry about getting it out again.”

“Then someone else has been here.”

“Do they have a guard watching this place during the day?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know if it wasn’t in the budget or they just didn’t expect anything bad to happen in the light of day, but the only hours this place is guarded is when I’m here.”

“Let’s go check it out,” she said.

I caught her elbow before she could walk too far away. “Hang on. We don’t know who it is or what their intentions are. Let me do a walkthrough of the cemetery before you go in there.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’ll walk behind you if it makes you feel better, but this isn’t a murder investigation. The worst thing you’re going to find is an idiot with a tripod.”

She was probably right, and I knew that, but I was a protective person at the best of times. Having her here made me want to be extra careful. She seemed like the type to insult someone three times her size. She must know how to handle herself to have survived this long.

Even so, my instinct was to protect, and her instinct was to cause trouble.

The air was cold as we walked around the perimeter of the cemetery. There were some scuffs in the dirt, and the leaves were disturbed, but that could have been from Briar or from me.

What was definitely not from us was the green uplighting, circle of candles and tripod.

Sitting in front of the set up was the man I was supposed to keep out. The lighting gave his too-long blond hair a quality that was half alien and half ethereal. His skin too had a sickly strange glow. He had a black robe pulled around his shoulders pooling on the ground around him.

“Greetings ghouls, it’s Midnight Mercer. Thanks for joining my live. As you can see, I’m here—”

I was moving before he could finish the sentence. “You’re not welcome here,” I barked, approaching from behind the camera. The slight man jumped at the sound of my voice. His long legs tangled in the bottom of his robe before he was fully on his feet and he went down on his ass. His leg kicked out, hitting the tripod and the green light in one blow.

The light went out, the screen of his phone went black and for one long moment the whole place was dark. I clicked on a flashlight and shone it at the man by my feet. “You’re trespassing, Mercer.”

He scrambled to his feet —successfully this time — and stood in front of me at his full height, which had the top of his head coming to my nose. He held his lip in a sneer.

“This is public land and—”

“—and you know damn well you’ve been told not to come here. Grab your shit and get out.”