Undead and Unwelcome

Chapter 59

Traffic was light at this time of night, and Sinclair rode the gas pedal like he was in the race of his life. Which wasn’t far off.

In next to no time (objectively, subjectively it seemed to take a week), we were at Laura’s apartment in Dinkytown, opening the door to the spare bedroom.

Marc, Sinclair, and I all stared. Laura was studiously not staring.

Finally I said, “Devil worshippers brought a coffin up here and nobody noticed?”

Laura shrugged. I moved forward and stripped the crosses off the coffin, off the inside door handle, and the windows—no wonder Tina had disappeared from the picture so completely. The crosses were more effective than bear traps.

I popped the top off of the second coffin in the same week. “Hey, Tina? Rise and shine, it’s time to—gggkkk!”

Tina’s hands had shot up and out and she was briskly strangling me while I gurgled and grabbed her wrists. “Help me, you idiots,” I choked, which seemed to break the spell . . . Marc and Sinclair both sprang forward to prevent Tina from snapping me in half.

The perfect end to a perfect week.

They pulled her off me and Sinclair helped her sit up. She was terribly wasted, terribly old, but I knew some blood would fix her right up. She kept beating her withered hands at Sinclair’s shoulders and trying to speak.

“Be calm, Tina.”

“Yeah, be calm already,” I added. “We’ll take care of you.”

“Laura,” she whispered, so faintly I had to strain to hear. “You have to watch out for Laura.”

“They know,” Laura said, staring at her shoes.

Then Sinclair and Marc and I had our hands full keeping Tina from ripping out my sister’s throat and taking a shower in the blood.