“So why didn’t you take it?”
He shrugged. “Because maybe they’ll come back one day. Or maybe the kids will. And those memories should be there for them. Should belong to them. Not to me.”
I could practically feel my heart melting. “You know, you play the tough guy, but I think you’ve got a pretty gooey heart in there, Quinn.”
Liam snorted, opened his mouth to respond, but didn’t have a chance. There was a streak of movement in front of us, a squeal.
“Shit,” Liam called out, then slammed on the brakes, throwing out an arm to keep me from flying forward.
The truck ground to a halt with a screech of tires. My heart pounded so loudly I’d have been surprised if he couldn’t hear it.
“Wraith?” I whispered.
He nodded and pulled back his arm. Wraith-in-front-of-the-truck being a classic move to get to second base quickly.
He pulled out a flashlight, switched it on, bobbed the circle across the street. There was a pop, and the light dimmed, went out, as did the truck’s headlights.
“Son of a bitch,” he said, thumping a hand on the dashboard. It didn’t help.
“Magic and electricity.”
“Yeah,” he said.
It was dark as pitch, hard to see without any sort of light, especially on streets overgrown with magnolias and crepe myrtles.
“Did you see it?”
“I think it was a girl.” I thought I’d seen a glimpse of long hair, maybe a red skirt. But she’d moved fast, crossing the street and stepping into the yard beyond before I’d gotten a good look at her. “She ran away,” I said.
“Yeah, I noticed that.”
“No, think about it: She only ran because she saw us. What kind of wraith does that? What kind of wraith doesn’t attack outright?” She also hadn’t seemed to care about my magic, but I was in the truck. Maybe that hadn’t been close enough.
Liam stared into the dark. “That’s a very good question.” He switched off the ignition, popped open the glove box, took out a small black case.
“What’s that?”
“Tranqs,” he said. “They don’t last very long, but if we can get into a position to use them, we can keep her from hurting herself or us.”
Since we didn’t have a tranq gun, I guessed that “position” meant close enough to punch in a syringe. That was pretty damn close.
Liam looked at me. “Is there any point in telling you to stay in the car?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so. The power’s out, so the monitors won’t be on, nor will the cameras. You can use your magic if you have to, but you should be careful. You may not know when the power’s back on.”
I nodded. “I’ll be careful.”
He left the truck running. The starter was probably electric, and if the power stayed out and he turned it off, he wouldn’t be able to restart it, and we’d be walking back to the Quarter.
“Follow me,” Liam said, then opened the truck’s door slowly and quietly. He climbed out, offered me a hand, and I slid across cracked leather and down onto the street beside him. He closed the door just enough to get it out of the way, but didn’t bother shutting it. I’d yet to see a wraith who could hot-wire a vehicle. On the other hand, if they were getting smarter . . .
He moved in front of the car, checked the ground. “I don’t think we hit her,” he whispered, then gestured toward the sidewalk. He looked back at me, put a finger to his lips. I nodded my agreement. I wanted to hear her coming. Staying quiet was the only chance I’d have for that.
We stepped onto the sidewalk, bricks in a herringbone pattern that no longer lay flat, and trod carefully over the uneven surface. There were two houses with a small strip of grass and rocks in between. Probably where the homeowners had parked their cars. One of the houses was a narrow town house. The other was a white two-story house with Greek columns running down the front, and a triangular roof on top.
Liam crouched down, checked the ground, then gestured toward the columned house. He must have seen footprints.
I followed him to the porch, and he took a careful step onto it. Seven years without maintenance could create a lot of problems. When it held his weight, he gestured for me to follow him.
The door was open. He pushed it open a little more, waited in the doorway for any sign of life—or wraith. There was nothing, so he stepped inside.
The wind was picking up, leaves and debris stirring on the porch as I followed Liam into the house. It was pitch-black and smelled dusty. Musty. The humans who’d stayed behind probably would have cleaned it out of anything valuable. But that didn’t mean a wraith wouldn’t nest here.
We let our eyes adjust to the darkness, until we could tell the house’s central hallway split off into rooms on the left and right.
A sound broke the silence—a warbling moan, definitely female. It seemed to come from every room, and set every hair on my body on end.