Eighth Grave After Dark

“You have a very eclectic collection of relatives.” I looked at Denise as she tried to scrub a stain out of the tablecloth. “But don’t we all?”

“No, you’re right. Mine is a little more eclectic than others, which is why you’re only just meeting most of them.”

“They’re great. Really, Cook, but you never told me your cousin Lucille was clairvoyant.”

“Oh, yeah, she’s … different. Remember? I told you that one night we were playing Screw Your Neighbor with that couple from the first floor.”

“Yes, you told me she’s different. You didn’t tell me she’s clairvoyant.”

Cookie cast a doubtful gaze. “Like clairvoyant clairvoyant?”

“Yep. Maybe that’s where Amber gets it.”

Cookie’s expression did a 180, shifting from doubt to horror. “Bite your tongue. Amber is nothing like Lucille.” I felt a spike of fear shudder through her. “That woman has sample packs of Preparation H from the 1970s.”

“That may be, but it must run in your family. There is something very special about your daughter.”

“Yes. Special. Just not that special.”

I cracked up. “You’re right. Odds are, Lucille was labeled insane at a very young age. But she’s really just—”

“Eccentric,” Cookie finished. “I get it. I just didn’t know she was gifted.”

“I doubt anyone does. But at least you know to nurture Amber’s gifts. Not suppress them before they have a chance to bloom and then she becomes the lady that collects samples of hemorrhoid medication.”

“I will do anything to avoid that.” She indicated Lucille with a nod. The poor woman was asking everyone who was left if they’d seen Tommy.

“Hey,” I said, frowning at her, “aren’t you supposed to be on your way to your one-night stand? I mean, your pre-honeymoon honeymoon?”

She laughed. “Well, we were, but there is a missing girl out there. She takes precedence.”

“What?” A jolt of alarm swept through me, not unlike a body shot might have. “Cook, no. This is your wedding day. You are not, under any circumstances, working. Oh my God, I can’t even—”

My phone chimed and I looked down. It was the text I’d been waiting for.

“I have to go—”

“Go?”

“—but you are going on your pre-honeymoon honeymoon, and that is an order.”

“Where are you going?”

“I mean it, Cook,” I said as I hurried—aka waddled faster than usual—past her. “I don’t want to see you when I get back.”

“You can’t leave the grounds.”

I grabbed a sweater, then rushed out the front door, saying just before it closed, “Go!”

* * *

I walked quickly past some guests loitering by the cars out front, hoping they wouldn’t wave me down for a chat. I also avoided eye contact with the departed who stood between me and my destination, winding through them, hoping I didn’t look drunk to the loiterers. Seriously, didn’t they have homes? I kept my head down and my stride quick. I had places to be, and I couldn’t risk Reyes coming back to find me gone. He would definitely come looking for me.

Fortunately, he wouldn’t see me go into the woods from the backyard unless he was specifically watching. I made sure to go straight for the cover of trees and stuck to them until I came around to a path that led to an access road about a hundred yards from the convent. I hurried as fast as my legs could carry the two of us, wobbling through the brush and dry yellow grass, dodging tree branches and departed alike. Even though I knew the Twelve couldn’t come onto the sacred ground, I still kept a constant vigil. I’d been attacked more than once. Their teeth were like razors set on thick, powerful jaws. It was not something I wanted to experience again.

I could hear them growling in the distance, the sound a low rumble over the land, reminding me that in all the months we’d been here, they’d never stopped patrolling the borders. The access road came into view at last. The deeper I ventured into the woods, the more nervous I became. A blue sedan sat parked there. I stopped, my ankles aching from traversing the uneven ground. The growls had grown louder, echoing off the trees around me and reverberating in my chest. I fought to control my fear lest I accidentally summon the one man I didn’t want to know I was meeting another of his gender. Alone. But it wasn’t easy. The hellhounds knew I was taking a direct path to their jaws. I could go only a few more feet before they would latch on to me and pull me off the blessed dirt. I glanced back one more time to make sure Reyes hadn’t followed me; then I called out to him.

“I’m here,” I said.

A man, tall, in his early sixties, wearing a suit and a military cut, stepped from behind a tree and walked toward me.

“Mr. Alaniz,” I said as he greeted me with a once-over.

“Ms. Davidson. I didn’t realize this was a formal affair.”

“This old thing?” I asked, teasing. “I just threw this on at the last minute.” When he winked at me, I added, “Actually, my best friend got married today. I didn’t have time to change.”

“I understand, but I would advise against walking out here in those shoes again, especially in your condition.”

“I know, but I had to sneak away. Thanks again, by the way, for meeting me like this.”