Page 18 of Deadly Lineage
Sniffing, Alexandra ran her finger under her nose. Her face was red and splotchy, and snot glistened just under her nose. “Thank you, Daddy. I love you. Mom and I both miss you.”
“I miss you both too, sweetie. And you know I love you more than all the grains of sand on the shore.”
“I know.” Alexandra offered a watery smile. “I knew I could count on you to tell me the truth. Even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.”
“Always,” Theodore answered. “You will take care of her, necromancer.” It wasn’t a question and while that wasn’t written into Alexandra’s contract, I would do what I could.
“I’ve got a friend on the police force. I’ve also got a pretty powerful warlock father who likes pushing his arrogancearound.” Pops had the magical wherewithal to back up all that arrogance.
“I will hold you to that promise.”
I thought that was splitting a few hairs considering I hadn’t exactlypromised. Still, I didn’t want to see anything happen to Alexandra either.
Theodore’s soul was about as peaceful as I figured he could get. It was a good time to let him go. “Theodore Phillips Randolph, I release you. Be at peace.”
Theodore’s soul eased back into the ether, traveling beyond the veil. I could bring him back again if needed, but I doubted that would be necessary. Alexandra had what she needed, even if it wasn’t what she wanted.
Air-conditioning was a human wonder, and I cranked my car’s air on high as I climbed back inside, easing into the fake leather seats. I’d activated my pain charm on the walk to my car and felt its soothing relief ooze into every nook and cranny of my body. The pounding assaulting my head drifted away, leaving a peaceful zone of sheer nothingness behind.
Slipping my phone into the cup holder, I pulled out of the cemetery and started back toward the main road. At the last minute, I decided to take the back roads home. I wasn’t in a hurry, and the thought of interstate traffic made me physically ill.
There was something serene about coasting down winding highways that curved and bent. Rivers and streams passed me by while soft music filtered through my speakers. I hummed along, forgetting the exact words but enjoying the melody.
I was winding around one of those bends, Widow’s Lake coming up on my left, when I heard the call. The sound ripped through Pops’s pain charm, slamming into my head like a jackhammer.
The car swerved and the driver behind me screeched to a stop, barely avoiding rear-ending me. As they passed, their horn blared, adding another layer of mental assault.
There was a body nearby. If I had to guess, it was in the lake. And it felt just like Rebecca’s cries.
“Son of a—”
Chapter
Six
Franklin
“Do you know our victim’s name?” I asked, pulling out my spiral notebook. My shoes neared the lake’s edge. It was shallower here, and cattails grew alongside duckweed.
Boone concentrated for a moment before he answered, “Phineas Noland.”
“Phineas? That sounds like—”
“Warlock,” Boone supported my unfortunate thought. Warlocks only had two names. Anglo-Saxon humans typically had three. Some humans had more than three names and some species only had one name. Pixies typically had just the one. The first lesson I learned from Boone was that names were important. They were a soul’s identity, their calling card. It was the key to their return. Once he latched onto their thread, the name followed. Don’t ask me how. I had no more idea of that than why pixies produce dust, or anything else magical.
“Shit.”
“Shit indeed.” Boone’s fingers twitched and when he caught me staring, he said, “I really wanna call Pops. A witch is one thing, but now we’ve got a dead warlock on our hands. I haven’ttried pulling his soul back yet, but I’ve got a sinking feeling it will be in the same condition as Rebecca’s.”
Guilt ate at me. Worry too. Still, I had a job to do and a victim to recover. “I hate to ask.”
“Trust me, I hate to hear it.” Boone grinned without an ounce of joy.
“Do we need to fish the body out first?” I stared over the lake. One of the officers had a boat, and a couple of them were in the water. Not that I thought they’d find him that way.
Boone considered before shaking his head. “I think the easiest way will be for me to call the soul back. When I do that, I might be able to make him stand long enough to get somewhere the others can find him. I… Typically, I could ask a corpse to walk to us, or if they’re in good enough condition, swim.”
“But you don’t think this one will be typical.”
