Page 114 of Of Mercury and Mist

Her shoulders slumped. “He said to stay here; there’s nothing I can do, and we’d just get in the way. Have some faith. I’ve seen the two of them fight, they’ll be fine.”

“What’s the code?” I’d walked over to the wall panel and had my finger poised and ready.

She shook her head. “I don’t know it. Josiah never gave it to me for exactly this reason. The exit is different than the entry.”

“Give me your ring,” I ordered her, holding out my palm. She had a massive diamond on her left ring finger.

“What? Why?” Instinctively, she pulled her hands behind her.

I groaned and opened the refrigerator. “Do you have any white cheddar?” Tons of food crammed the shelves. They could’ve served Thanksgiving dinner with its contents.

“You’re seriously hungry right now? What are you doing?” Della joined me, burning a hole into the back of my head as she watched me shoving bunches of lettuce and tubs of artisan dips to the side.

“Here we go.” I pulled out a cellophane-wrapped block of cheese and began opening drawers on the small counter.

After cutting a couple slices, I brought them to the door and waved the pieces around before kneeling on the floor and passing a chunk by the seam between the floor and edge of the door.

“Okay, you’re being a total weirdo, and I’m too stressed out for this,” Della complained.

“Wraiths like cheese,” I told her. “They like cheese and shiny things. I used to distract them at Samuel’s house so I could dump out the poison wine he used to force me to drink. His plants kept dying and no one could figure it out.”

She tugged my shoulder. “There’s no way this is going to work.”

“Yeah, probably not but I’m not gonna just sit here. Get us some weapons.” If the man kept cheese in his safe room, it went without saying he’d have an arsenal.

I traced a line through the air around the door with the cheese while Della rifled through a cabinet. The whirring sound the panel had made was the only noise I’d heard other than the sound of our own voices and the contrast set my nerves further on edge. For all we knew, Micha and Josiah lay dying somewhere in the house or beyond.

She returned with a long blade that she handed to me, and she had a machine gun slung over her shoulder. “That’s it?” I asked. There was definitely more.

She passed me a couple more knives and I stood there a moment. I had no idea where to put them. Then, she passed me some stretchy holders that I subsequently took advantage of. “When did you learn how to shoot guns? What is that?” It was so strange seeing her like this.

“Canada, like I told you earlier” she said, making sure her gun was loaded. “You sure this is going to work?”

The moment she asked, the door beeped, gears turned, and the panel moved. Three wraiths hovered in the doorway, noses twitching. I quickly tossed pieces of cheese to them, and we stepped out of the room.

“Josiah’s gonna be pissed his security system can be breached by dairy products,” Della stated. “He’s going to be beyond furious.”

“I would be, too.” One of the wraiths overheard her statement and its eyes bulged before it disappeared in a plume of smoke.

We stepped across the floor as quickly as we could and then paused by the corner of the wall to listen. Everything was silent.

Were we too late? Realistically, I knew there wasn’t much either of us could do against vampires, demons, or whatever else had come for our men. We didn’t know for sure anyone had come, not having seen a thing, but the air felt heavy, and dread crawled up my spine. Something had arrived, and it wasn’t good.

The oppressive atmosphere grew stronger, the closer we got to the main level. When we reached the top of the stairs, I took a deep breath before opening the door.

FORTY

Ashley

There was no one around. The two of us stepped through the doorway and were greeted by nothing but a draft.

“The front door’s open,” Della stated, her shoulder bumping into mine as she peered around me. Her gun banged into my hip.

I paused, my palm against the wall as I listened. Still nothing. “Let’s go,” I said, carefully moving forward.

We navigated the halls until we reached the home’s foyer, and the front door stood wide open, an indentation in the center of the wood. Scanning the living space and not finding anything, I rushed forward and peeked outside.

What greeted us was an expanse of bodies, mostly wraiths as far as I could tell. A couple of the trees that made up Josiah’s manicured property were on fire, flames crackling in the air.

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