Page 57 of Stalk the Dark
We followed him onto the path that wound through the cemetery like a silver ribbon. Headstones and mausoleums dotted the grounds, some hidden behind bramble and bush, others pushing free of the stonework to reach for the sky.
The place felt abandoned and lost. “Doesn’t anyone come here?”
“Everyone who knew anyone buried here is probably dead,” Merry said. “This is the oldest cemetery in Dracul territory and the only one in Old Town. The others are modern and in New Town. Humans are no longer buried here.”
“It’ll be lively soon enough,” Wayne said from up ahead. “Rising year brings all the specters out.”
“What do you mean?”
“The ghosts. You’ll be able to see them soon enough. Something happens at rising that allows them to manifest easier. You’ll see people salting their doorways and windowsills. You best do the same lest you want an invasion.”
Ghosts? Great.
“But the ghouls live here now?” Edwin pressed.
“Yeah,” Wayne said.
He didn’t elaborate. “So why did they take your officer? What were you doing here?”
"We got a call from what we thought was a human reporting an attack in the cemetery. Once we got here, there was no human, just a bunch of ghouls. There wasan altercation, and they took Charlie. We had to retreat to avoid getting bit.”
We followed the path round, deeper into the grounds where trees spread their canopies to block out the moon, and through a stone arch into a clearing where a huge ornate mausoleum was housed. A young girl sat outside, reading—back propped against the wall, legs out in front of her and crossed at the ankle. She looked up as we approached.
“Where is he?” Wayne demanded. “Where’s Charlie?”
The girl closed her book, set it neatly on the ground, then stood. She was small, and she looked human, but on closer inspection, her skin had a grayish tinge to it, and the tips of her fingers were black.
“You can have your man back,” she said. “Once you find Lomax.”
“Who’s Lomax?” Edwin asked.
“He’s nobody,” Wayne sneered. “A flesh-eating nuisance that’s better off?—”
“I’d watch what you say,” the girl said. “Considering weflesh-eating nuisanceshave your man.”
“You don’t eat vamps,” Wayne said smugly.
“No. But we could use a chew toy.”
She was a ghoul? This young girl who couldn’t be more than eighteen? I’d never seen a ghoul before, but I’d read about them, flesh-eating entities that took dead bodies as hosts. They were supposed to bedecaying, awful-looking monsters, but this girl didn’t look dead.
I had questions, and maybe once we wrapped this up, I’d be able to ask them, but first— “Hi, my name’s Orina. I’m with the Order. I’m not sure what’s happening here. I was told you took Charlie…Can I ask why? I mean, it’s obviously not for food.” Fuck, did they eat people? If they ate people, then I might have to put them down…
She fixed her dishwater eyes on me. “Ask him. Ask him how many times we’ve called in to chase our case. Lomax, our leader, is gone. Missing for almost two weeks, and they’ve done nothing to find him.”
So they’d taken Charlie to force their hand. “Wayne?”
“You’re in line, okay? There are other cases that need?—”
I turned on him. “Whoa, you don’t put a missing persons on hold. You act on it. Immediately. You did the same thing to the Diago case on Raffleton, leaving us nothing to work with.”
“We have a system.”
“Oh? You mean the one where the people who pay get priority?”
He sucked in his cheeks, eyes narrowing to slits. “How dare you make such accusations?”
“Fuck this, and fuck you, Wayne. You can tell Kaster the deal is off. I don’t work with crooked officers.”
