Alexia hissed like a cat and bared her sharp little nails.
“We’ll try to keep in touch, but it seems everyone is having bad cell service out there,” Jeff said as he snagged Samantha’s hand.
“We meet up here, right? After it all goes down?” Benchley asked.
“Yep. See you later. And good luck,” Jeff said solemnly, then began walking toward the Jeep, pulling Samantha behind him.
Samantha waved at the siblings. The matching somber looks on their faces reflected her own.
“We’ll see them again, right?” Samantha said softly when they were a few feet away.
Jeff glanced over his shoulder at his friends before returning his attention to her. She could see the worry in his eyes and willed him to lie to her. “I don’t know.”
Samantha sighed, then nodded. The truth was better to deal with than lies. Holding tight to his slightly sweaty hand, she let him guide her to the Jeep.
* * *
It was late afternoon when Sergio pulled his truck over to the side of the road near the edge of the ghost town of Fenton. In the rearview mirror he could see the hotel where The Summoner had taken refuge just a few months before. The sight sent a sliver of fear through him and made him shiver. Before the truck was a thick copse of trees that shielded a dilapidated farmhouse and overgrown cemetery from the eyes of any travelers on the narrow country road. The memory of the life and death struggle he had experienced there not too long ago caused his chest to tighten.
Shooting a worried look at his grandmother, he saw that she, too, was staring over the field with a fearful but determined expression on her face. Her tiny hands gripped her big purse crammed with holy relics. Twisting her lips from side to side, the older woman appeared to be concentrating.
“Grandmama?”
“It feels wrong,” she said, obviously apprehensive.
“What do you mean?”
“The cemetery. It feels wrong. It feels...empty.”
“But that’s good, right?” Sergio shifted in his seat uncomfortably.
“I don’t know,” Innocente confessed. “I can usually feel something of the dead when I’m near a graveyard. This one just feels like a void.”
Nervously, Sergio picked his phone up off the dashboard and checked the bars again. Now he was wishing he had brought a weapon. With no coverage, he couldn’t call for help if something went wrong. At a few stops, he had tried to use the convenience store business phones, but he had been rebuffed every time. They had stopped at a little barbecue place and he had tried to bribe the owner, but had met with resistance. It was annoying when all he wanted to do was check in with Cynthia and see how the kids were doing.
The rumble of another engine drew his attention to his side mirror. The big dark truck pulling the camper stopped alongside them. Pete rolled down the window and leaned out.
“Where is it?”
“Across the field. There’s a dirt driveway, but it’s mostly overgrown. I don’t know if you can get the camper up close,” Sergio answered.
Ethan’s face was shrouded in shadow, hidden by his sunglasses and his cowboy hat. “Then we’ll park at that hotel and drive up with you. Okay?”
Sergio nodded. “Okay.” Shifting gears, he backed up the road a little, then u-turned. Behind him, Ethan followed suit. He noticed Innocente’s deepening frown and reached over to squeeze her hand. “We’re doing the right thing. If there is the slightest possibility of bringing her back to life, we have to do it. We both know it.”
“I know, Sergio. I thought that maybe I would feel him in the cemetery…since he died there. But it’s so…empty,” Innocente sighed, then forced a smile. “Which is a good thing, I guess. I like the idea of him burning in hell.”
Cracking a grin and chuckling, Sergio agreed heartily. “Absolutely. That’s a great place for that bastard.”
The big truck drove up to the front of the old rundown hotel. The thick weeds and creeping vines were slowly tearing the building apart. Across the street, the remains of a gas station sat in the center of a weed-choked concrete pad. The cracked and broken asphalt made for a bumpy parking job, but Sergio was more unsettled by the hotel. It looked like something out of a horror movie.“It feels empty here, too,” Innocente complained.
“But isn’t that a good thing?”
She shrugged, appearing unsettled. “I always feel something.”
Ethan and Pete climbed out of the now parked vehicle and strolled across the lot to the truck.
“What about him? Do you feel anything about him?” Sergio asked.
Innocente again wagged her head. “No, no. He just feels like another person. Nothing special. I don’t think he’s anything more than a man.”
“Then we probably shouldn’t worry,” Sergio suggested.
“You think I’m a paranoid old woman,” Innocente huffed.
“I think you’re a worried grandmother that wants to save her granddaughter.”
“Eh, true.”
Sergio unlocked the doors so Ethan and Pete could climb in. Watching them over his shoulder, he noted that Pete appeared just as uneasy as his grandmother. The thought of restoring his cousin to a mere mortal made Sergio very happy, but he, too, was plagued by niggling worries. Maybe it was because Ethan was so imposing with his dark sunglasses and rugged appearance. He reminded Sergio of a gunslinger from the Old West. His presence wasn’t comforting, but it wasn’t uncomfortable either. At times, he didn’t seem quite real to Sergio. No, that wasn’t right. It felt as though Ethan was somehow standing outside of the world, watching them all. Yeah, that’s what it was. It was a little creepy now that he put his finger on it.
“Drive up to the old house and park behind it. I don’t want to tip off any passing locals that we’re digging up their cemetery,” Ethan instructed.
“Gotcha.”
Sergio drove the truck in a circle and headed up the road toward the turnoff. It was hard to see with the thick golden-brown wild grass drowning the fence, but he managed to see it in time. Turning sharply, he grunted as the truck bounced up the deeply rutted drive. His grandmother grumbled in Spanish as she clung to the dashboard with both hands. A few groans issued from the backseat. He tried to drive slow enough so they wouldn’t be tossed around inside the truck, but he had to go fast enough to not get stuck in either the deep ruts or the pasty mud at the bottom of some of the deeper holes made by a recent rain.
Finally he drove up to the old farmhouse where Amaliya and Cian had taken refuge from The Summoner. It was also the house where Sergio, Innocente, Samantha, and Jeff had been trapped by an army of the dead. The sight of it gave him the willies. The house was listing a bit more to one side than he remembered and a good chunk of the roof had caved in. Sergio wondered if it was the result of the battle that had happened there, or a recent storm. He couldn’t remember how the house had looked the night they had survived The Summoner’s attack.
“Park up behind those bushes.” Ethan leaned forward to point at one heavily overgrown area next to the house.
Sergio complied without answering. Now that they were at the spot where Amaliya had destroyed The Summoner, he was feeling more than a little spooked. His grandmother sat beside him, her rosary clutched in her fingers, her lips soundlessly moving in prayer.
“So this is where it went down?” Pete said, awe in his voice.
“Yeah, Amaliya killed him and saved Cian,” Sergio said, then realized he had inadvertently let a valuable bit of information slip out. He shot a look at Ethan and saw a flash of a slight smile.
“So she’s in Austin, huh?” Ethan shoved open the truck door, slipped out, and reached into the bed of the truck to grab the shovels.
“Austin?” Pete’s voice was thoughtful. “She always loved Austin. I should have known she’d go there. I hope she’s not alone.”
Innocente gave Sergio a warning look. They’d both agreed to keep quiet about Amaliya’s new life in Austin and about Cian. It was obvious that Pete was pining hard for her and neither one of them really knew what Amaliya would do once she had the cure. Would she try to stay with Cian? Or would she try to find happiness in a mortal life? Sergio knew what he was hoping for. It would be nice to see his cousin married with kids living a nice normal life. It would suck for Cian, but Sergio was never too sure about the vampire anyway.
Pete climbed out of the car and Sergio followed, pocketing his keys. Both of them snagged shovels and waded into the thick grass behind Ethan to where the mottled gray gravestones stuck out of the weeds. Sergio twisted about to give his grandmother a slight wave. She sat with the truck door open, clutching her rosary, observing their progress with a solemn expression on her face.
“So we dig up the bits of the big bad vampire, burn it, then find Amaliya and turn her mortal, huh?” Pete’s voice was full of hope and desire.
“Yep,” Ethan answered.
“Just like that?” Sergio asked.
“Just like that.” Ethan climbed over the remains of a wrought-iron fence and dropped into the graveyard.