Crowbones

CHAPTER 51

Julian

Watersday, Novembros 3

The Jumble didn’t feel right.

Restless and uneasy, Julian went around The Jumble’s main house for the second time, checking the windows and the locks on the doors to reassure himself that everything was secure. He knew security was an illusion since so many beings around the place could slip through a crack or knock down a door, but that illusion was all any of them had anywhere. Ever.

Not a baseline change to the place. Whatever didn’t feel right was still superficial, but if it took root in The Jumble, it would spread into Sproing, and the village could become a lost place, a toxic ghost town that people abandoned without understanding why they no longer wanted to stay.

He stopped in the doorway of the library, letting the words circle. “Toxic ghost town.” He’d been in some places that had become exactly that. He had tried to settle in a few places that had felt all right in the beginning but quickly felt wrong in ways that had him packing and heading out for another town. He’d never been in one of those places right at the start, when he might have witnessed the event that had turned a healthy, prosperous village into an emotional cesspool that eventually drove out everyone who couldn’t thrive on the rot.

Was that another factor? Did the arrival of Crowbones start that turning, or did the Crowgard bogeyman arrive because a place was beginning to turn?

Julian stood on the wide screened porch that opened off the kitchen and ran the length of the back of the house. The porch door had a lock, such as it was, and the kitchen door had a sturdier lock, but . . .

He heard Michael and Ian Stern’s voices before they rounded the corner of the house, the beams from their flashlights illuminating the ground. He held open the porch door.

“We heard the doctor say he was staying overnight,” Michael said. “Wasn’t sure if there would be a place for him to sleep, so we fetched the air mattress and sleeping bag we had stowed in the car. Better than the floor. You and the doc can flip a coin to see who gets the couch in the TV room.”

He hadn’t been planning to stay since Vicki was full up with guests, but it was hard to argue with Intuits when they had a feeling, and clearly the two men had decided this was necessary.

“Why didn’t you knock on the front door?” he asked. “It’s closer to the cars, and I could have let you in that way.”

Michael hesitated. “It feels safer back here. And we’ve used this door as a quick route between the main house and the cabins since we arrived.”

A recognized scent on an established path. Was that what Michael was trying to tell him?

“Besides,” Ian added, “the teens have decided that the boys will spend the night at the Crowgard cabin and all the girls will be spending the night with Vicki in her apartment.”

A shiver went down Julian’s spine. He shoved his hands in his pockets and resisted the urge to pace. “You staying for the movies?”

“No. Thanks,” Ian replied. “The evening has been scary enough, and it feels like we’ll be better off if we’re where we’re supposed to be.”

He couldn’t disagree with that. “You have everything you need?”

Michael nodded. “Food, drinks, jugs of water, candles, and flashlights in case the power goes out.”

“We’ll make sure our phones are charged,” Ian said. “Just in case. Jenna said she was going to do the same. And Viktor assured us that he can contact the terra indigene here at the main house or at Silence Lodge if there is any sign of trouble and human-style communication stops working.”

Julian watched the men head to the lake cabins, then locked the porch door before lugging the air mattress and sleeping bag into the main house. He locked the kitchen door before continuing toward the TV room. Then he stopped and headed for the library instead. Plenty of room on the floor there, and the library windows looked out over the front of the house. Wouldn’t hurt to have someone there. He’d have to ask if Doc Wallace had a preference as far as sleeping arrangements were concerned since the man was there in an official capacity.

Leaving the air mattress and sleeping bag in the library, Julian crossed the entranceway at the same time Vicki came down the stairs—and something that sounded like a rain of pebbles hit the front door.

“What’s that?” Vicki asked, hurrying down the stairs.

Julian held up a hand, palm out, a command to stop. Then he walked to the front door, every step feeling like razors slicing his skin. Delicate slices, not too deep. Just enough to create a shiver of pain. His hands felt numb as he turned the lock, as one hand closed on the knob and turned it.

He flipped the switch for the outside lights, pulled the door open, and looked down.

Small white pebbles scattered just outside the door.

Not pebbles. Bones.

He glanced back and saw Vicki—and Kira and Aggie, now standing beside her.

Just like in the Murder game, he thought as a quiet sound coming from somewhere in the dark filled his brain.

Rattle, rattle, rattle. Rattle, rattle, rattle.

Julian slammed the door shut, turned the lock, and rushed toward Vicki.

“Call your guests at the lake cabins. Tell them to stay inside and lock the doors. I’ll call Wayne.”

“What’s out there?” Vicki asked.

“Crowbones,” Aggie whispered.

Julian nodded. “The real thing this time.”

He watched the color drain from Vicki’s face, watched her eyes go blank. Then she blinked, nodded, and hurried to her office with Kira and Aggie following on her heels.

Leaning against the reception desk, his eyes fixed on the front door, Julian took out his mobile phone and made the call.

“Grimshaw.”

“Wayne? It’s here. Crowbones is here.”

“Stay inside. I’m heading back that way and . . . Crap!”

“Wayne? Wayne!”

The call was cut off. Then his phone rang.

“Wayne?”

“It’s Ilya. You need to stay at The Jumble tonight, Mr. Farrow.”

Something strained in the Sanguinati’s voice. “Crowbones is here. Right now.”

“I know. But you can’t reach the village or the Mill Creek Cabins, so staying at The Jumble is your only choice.” A pause. “Mr. Farrow?”

“Yes?”

“Crowbones is not the only hunter looking for prey tonight.” Ilya ended the call.

Julian closed his eyes and pictured the Murder game board as it had been set up when they were looking for answers the other day. Three teenies together near the entrance of the “house.” Natasha placing the crow skull just outside the front door. And him grabbing teeny Vicki and the other two teenies to get them away from the threat.

Human, Crow, Sanguinati. Was that combination the trigger? Or was it those particular individuals?

Vicki hadn’t closed her office door. He could hear her talking to someone as he approached. When Aggie spotted him, he put a finger to his lips. No reason to interrupt Vicki. He’d talk to Doc Wallace—and Conan and Cougar. Warn them that the danger was right on the doorstep.

Ilya had said Crowbones wasn’t the only hunter out there tonight.

Who would be missing in the morning?