Instead, he was going to spend an eternity entombed alive. And in an almost comical way, all this was his fault. When they’d been on assignment at the bar and Raven was luring the Mage away, Christian had set her up. He’d wanted to test her quick thinking by stalling his appearance. After all, real life always came with a monkey wrench or two. What would she do without all the structure and safety nets, forced to make her own decisions?
And just as he’d sought to prove, his plans didn’t go accordingly. When he’d tuned in to their conversation in the car and realized that the Mage was about to speed away, Christian launched to his feet to go after them. He might have made it in time had something not caused him to turn in the other direction.
Someone, to be exact.
Prior to joining Keystone, Christian had severed ties with old acquaintances. Nothing personal, but he’d needed to move on with his life, and that meant creating distance. He moved to an older section of the city and avoided his usual stomping grounds, but occasionally he’d glimpse a familiar face and dodge out of view. It wasn’t difficult to keep a low profile in a big city like Cognito, but when he saw the familiar Chitah taking a seat near the hall, he slipped out the front door instead of the back.
Those few seconds had cost him precious time. When he reached the back of the building, Raven was gone. He turned in a circle, sharpening his Vampire hearing until he picked up her shouting. That was when he hopped on his bike and weaved through traffic, barely able to hold on to their dialogue long enough to sense which direction they were moving. It required concentration to block out the sound of his motor and all the cars around them, but once he reached a long stretch of road with few turnoffs, it was just a matter of catching up with them.
Christian had never believed in karma, but lying in the casket with old Martha Cleavy was giving him second thoughts about divine justice.
Chapter 18
When I hung up with Wyatt after telling him the news about Christian, I figured Viktor would reprimand him for speaking to me. It wasn’t much information to go on. After all, there were dozens of cemeteries in Cognito, and it would be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Wyatt was going to relay the news to Viktor and leave it up to him.
I didn’t think anything would come of it, so I started my own search. After all, I was partly the reason he was in the cemetery to begin with. I left the address with Wyatt in case one of them wanted to help out, but they probably had bigger concerns on their plate.
I could have just dumped Salvator in a junkyard and stayed out of it, and that might have been the smarter thing to do since Viktor now knew my location and would probably send a Vampire to scrub my memories, but I couldn’t get Christian’s last words about knowing myself out of my head. Keystone deserved to lay their man to rest in a dignified way, and turning my back was the wrong thing to do.
Two hours after driving Salvator’s car to the cemetery, I’d only come across eight fresh graves. I pressed my ear to the earth, wondering if he might be down there. But I didn’t have a shovel, it was daylight, and the local news would eat up a story like that. I stumbled upon a few structures that looked like community mailboxes, but instead of parcels, there were ashes behind each of the plaques. Since many families watched the caskets being lowered, I suspected that anyone hiding a body might have dug their own makeshift grave with no headstone, so I kept my eyes alert.
A vehicle rolled in my direction through the thinning fog. Keystone operated a black cargo van, used for transporting the entire group at one time. When it stopped, the rear doors popped open and a few familiar people poured out. I was surprised to see that everyone had come.
“Dead end,” Wyatt said, approaching me. “Literally.”
Gem elbowed him, and we closed the distance between us.
“There are three fresh graves that way,” I said, pointing over my shoulder.
She sighed and spoke solemnly. “We searched there already. Wyatt can’t locate dead bodies unless there’s a ghost or other special circumstances. If Christian died angry, Wyatt thinks he might be lingering around. But chances are he’s not, so we’re looking for something else—like a fresh grave with no stone or something out of the ordinary. Claude can’t pick up a Vampire’s scent, and we can’t detect his energy,” she said, referring to herself and Niko. “It’s a crapshoot.”
Viktor remained behind the wheel, watching me with somber eyes but not getting out. Shepherd fell back a bit from the group, standing out among our foggy surroundings in a black leather jacket. Between the tall Chitah, Gem in her platform sneakers, Niko in all black, and Wyatt’s slacker attitude, they looked like a group of misfit action heroes.
“What do you plan on doing?” I asked.
Shepherd folded his arms, his gaze fixed on something in the distance. “We don’t leave a man behind.”