Chapter Eleven
Skylar
“I take it you have a plan,” Xander said as we neared the mortuary.
It was dark and unlike vampire central of Dead Man’s Alley, the business district of Old Town was abandoned.
There weren’t a whole lot of human businesses that kept their doors open after ten unless they were serving booze.
“Park here.” I pointed to an aging purple Victorian with a neon sign in the front window. A hand, an eye, and a card blinked on and off advertising the tarot reading within. It was probably the only business open now.
“You want to get your cards read?” Xander asked skeptically.
“No, I want to leave our car in front of an open business and not in front of the mortuary.”
“So what are we doing at the mortuary in the first place?” he asked.
“You dragged me to a cemetery, it seemed fair,” I joked.
“Fair point.”
“For real, though, we needed a place to regroup and it might help shield us a little,” I said. “Though, I’ve used this place before so they’ll either come here looking for us or think we’d avoid it since they know about it.”
“Let’s hope it’s the latter,” he said.
“Come on.” I hadn’t explained the rest of my plan yet. While I wasn’t sure if the thinner veil was needed to connect with Elias, I had felt him last time we were here. There was a connection between us through our bond and I needed him here with us.
With any luck, I’d be able to send him a signal and let him know we needed his help. And hopefully prevent him from walking into a trap at our not so safe house.
The gravel crunched under my feet as we made our way to the back of the building.
“You spend a lot of time hanging around mortuaries?” Xander asked.
“I’m here about once a week,” I said with a shrug. “Don’t you wish you’d gotten to know the weird quirks before you told me you wanted to be with me?”
“Hey, our first date could be considered a visit to my grandparents and a cemetery,” he said. “So joke’s on you, I’m into quirky.”
I smiled, appreciating how he rolled with the punches. “My friend’s family owns this place. It’s where I hid the stone last time.”
“The girl who was held hostage?” Xander asked.
“Yeah.” My chest tightened with grief. I was angry at myself for putting Heidi in that situation and upset that I couldn’t even check in on her. I wished I could make sure she was safe but I wasn’t sure I could trust my phone. I knew I probably shouldn’t even be carrying it with me, but I was more at risk of being tracked with magic. It was probably overkill to not call Heidi, but it made me feel like I was trying to keep her safer by not contacting her.
We walked into the soft grass of the spacious back yard. The chairs were lined in neat rows, probably in preparation for a service tomorrow. None of the lights were on but I could see well enough thanks to my good night vision. I knew Xander would be fine in the low light too.
I navigated between the rows of chairs and walked toward the back where a little grove of three pine trees created a more private space. It wasn’t ideal, but it would feel less exposed.
“What exactly are we doing?” Xander whispered.
“I need to contact Elias,” I said.
“Can’t you just call him?” he asked.
“Do you have his number?” I waited, hoping that maybe the two of them had exchanged info while I was asleep.
“You don’t have the phone number for the guy you had sex with last night?”
“Do you have the phone numbers for all the women you’ve had sex with?” I countered, my hands on my hips.