Chapter 24
Meera
The old, abandoned meeting room reminded me way too much of the one at the real estate office where I used to bring my clients to sign all their documents.
The walls were paneled in the same cheap wood veneer that tried to look more expensive than it was.
There was a long conference table in the room with matching pleather chairs that had seen better days, and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. A whiteboard hung on one wall, its surface covered in faded marker scribbles.
The fluorescent lights were older than the ones at the office though; these flickered overhead and buzzed annoyingly.
Seth kicked one of the chairs, sending up a cloud of dust. “Charming, right?”
I coughed and glared at him.
Since it had taken the ghouls several hours to find me at the market after leaving the safety of the penthouse, and they hadn’t attacked at all last weekend during the walk to and from the bar, or at the mall, Seth deduced that it took some time for the magic to actually orient on me once I left a protected area.
We’d taken the time to grab some light breakfast, though I was too nervous to eat much.
I never once thought I’d be trying actively to convince ghouls to attack me.
Now Graham and I sat on a blanket in what used to be a meeting room inside a dusty abandoned warehouse. There was a thick line of salt all around the room.
“What’s with the salt?” I asked. “I thought that was just to keep demons contained.”
“The salt is to stop whoever sent them from calling them back out when they realize they’ve lost you.
As long as a ghoul is stuck in this realm and still moving, it will continue to draw energy from the original caster until they sever the connection using another spell.
That takes time and more energy. That is if they even know the right spell.
Just remember to draw the final line in front of both doors after. And make it a generous line.”
I nodded, even though his answers honestly just gave me more questions.
There were two entrances to the room, and the goal was to get the ghouls to come in one and lock it inside as I escaped through the other.
The plan sounded way too simple to work, but Seth was the pro here, and if a freaking dragon thought he was good enough to be his personal wizard, then he must know what he was doing.
I just hoped it was as safe as he assured me it was.
Though if safety had been my number one concern, I wouldn’t have decided to run with a dragon’s egg.
It didn’t take long for trouble to find me.
Seth and Mateo were in the other room, monkeying around with some old equipment when a sudden prickling sensation tickled the back of my neck.
“Do you feel that?” I asked.
Graham grunted affirmation. He released his hold on me to look outside the door leading out of the offices. Seeing nothing, he went to the other door leading to the big warehouse where the others were.
We’d expected the ghouls to come from one of those two obvious directions. We hadn’t expected them to come from right inside the room. The portal opened up between me and Graham, a dark swirling mass that had dread rising up inside my chest.
“Graham!”
It was the only word I got out before the first ghoul stepped from the portal. Well, maybe “step” was being generous; it was more like it was shoved out of the aperture by a giant hand, directly at me. I dodged it. But more were coming.
“Shit!” Graham tried to get to me, but the portal, which was growing by the second, blocked him.
“The door!” I shouted, running to the one on my side. “Lock them in!”
Then I was slamming the door shut in the first ghoul’s face. My hands shook uncontrollably as I fumbled with what was supposed to be a simple bolt that Seth had installed to hold the creature in.
“Fuck!” I yelled as I got the stupid thing to finally slide in just as the first ghoul slammed its body against the door.
I started to run, only to remember the salt when I was already halfway down the hall to the office.
I turned back, my heart thumping so hard it could serve as a metronome for a whole-ass orchestra.
With so much adrenaline pumping through my system, I didn’t have the agility to draw a line with the goddamn salt, so I knocked the whole bag over in front of the door and shoved the salt around until the entire edge of the door was covered.
Seth wanted a generous line, he got a generous line.
Then I was running again. I had to get around to the warehouse where everyone else was. Three protectors had seemed like overkill, but getting separated from all of them hadn’t been the plan.
The abandoned offices were a nightmare for my dust-mite-allergic self.
I held my breath and ran, hoping I didn’t slip on the papers littered all over the linoleum floors.
I vaulted over a collapsed filing cabinet, surprised that I had that kind of athleticism in me.
The ghouls were trapped behind the door, but something inside told me to run and not stop until I was in the safety of Graham’s arms again.
I shoved the front door open with a creak and started around the building, then suddenly ran right into a rotting ghoul as I skidded around the corner.
The stench had me retching as I scrambled back just in time.
I tried to get around it, but despite its decaying body, it moved surprisingly fast, especially in the narrow alleyway between buildings. I couldn’t get around.
“Meera!” Graham yelled from the other side of the alley. “Duck behind the building.”
I did, wondering what he planned to do. My questions were answered when the ghoul suddenly flew out of the alley, a small dumpster flying with it. The ghoul went splat as the thrown dumpster squashed it up against a fence.
What the actual fuck! Graham had thrown a dumpster at it! I suddenly had déjà vu of our encounter at the market two days ago. If a heavy traffic cone was enough to send the other one flying, wasn’t a whole dumpster a bit overkill?
I peered around the corner to see Graham already there. I lunged for him, hugging him, finally able to breathe normally.
No more ghouls attacked as we made our way to the back entrance. We stepped into the warehouse to see Seth stripping.
“Wait. Why is he stripping?” I looked away.
“Because, my dear, my spell might just make this ghoul explode right after it gives up the goods. That’s why Mateo is ready with a hose. My clothes are expensive. I’m not ruining them.”
Then, in nothing but his boxers, a clear plastic raincoat, safety glasses, and a mask, Seth opened the door and stepped over the line of salt into a room full of ghouls. The door closed behind him.
“Are you okay?” Graham asked, his voice low with concern.
“Yeah, I’m good. I might have dumped the whole bag of road salt in front of the door, but I’m good.”
Graham’s lips quirked, just slightly. “The whole bag?”
I shot him a look. “My hands were shaking, and I couldn’t draw a line. I figured better safe than sorry. I’m not a superstar like you. Look at that perfectly straight line.”
He pulled me close and pressed his forehead to mine. “Seth did that. I forgot about the salt completely. I was too worried about you. You were all I could think of.”
I swallowed hard. My heart hammered in my chest, and my brain screamed at me to not fall for this absolute darling of a protective gargoyle.
But it was too late. I was already falling, and I was falling fast. Because how the fuck could I not after he just told me that?
Little ole me made the big scary gargoyle forget his mission.
I reached for him, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt. His hands slid to my waist, pulling me flush against him. The warehouse disappeared, and it was just us as I hauled him the rest of the way and kissed him hard.
It was the door to the meeting room creaking open and Seth’s uttered, “Ugh, really? You’re going to make out here? We’ve got a situation,” that cut through the moment.
The stench hit us a second later, rotten, putrid, like something had died and then been left to bake in the sun. My stomach lurched.
“What the—” I tried not to gag as the ghoul-splattered Seth stepped out.
“The ghouls exploded,” Seth said, wrinkling his nose. “They weren’t very fresh.”
That was the understatement of the day.
We all retreated outside, where Mateo was already uncoiling a hose. Seth didn’t even react as the cold spray hit him. What the hell was the guy made of?
“What did you find out?” Graham asked.
Seth shook water from his hair like a dog. “The ghouls were programmed to hunt Meera down and stop her from getting the egg to the dragon.”
Graham frowned. “But it’s already done. Omelet’s with Desmon.”
Seth guffawed. “ Omelet! I like it. But the spell is still active, so it’s still trying to stop her.”
“Maybe they don’t know the egg is already with Desmon?” Graham asked.
“But I’ve been here in Darlington. Why else would I have come here?” An uncomfortable lump settled in my stomach as the recurring dream I’d been having crashed rudely into my consciousness. “Unless… What if Desmon’s the wrong dragon?”
Three pairs of eyes turned to me.
“Explain, woman,” demanded a dripping-wet Seth.
“Well, I’ve been having these dreams…”