Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92996 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Soft sigh from him. “You were amazing, Xan. Powerful and scary. But when the demon was with me, to not be in control…it was terrifying.”
I nodded. “It’s okay now. You heard our lord Arawn,” I emphasized to him. “You’re branded now, the first mate in the Corey line to be so blessed, so what happened won’t ever again. It can’t. Arawn will not allow his servant to ever be taken by another.”
“He’s possessive, like me.”
“I find that to be a lovely quality.”
“Me too,” he murmured, wrapping me in his arms and holding me tight. “I am seriously not getting off the couch tomorrow.”
It sounded like the perfect plan to me.
FOURTEEN
It took us a good half an hour to get up and stagger back to the Jeep. We had no choice but to drive back to the mansion where Pace died, and where we found Father Dennis, who was so relieved to see us that he cried.
“Thank you for staying here and waiting for us,” Lorne told him.
“Well, son, once your friend turns into a flock of ravens in front of you, and after he’s gone, his fiancé tells you to wait and guard the crime scene…really, the only choice you have is to do as you’re told and pray for their safe return.”
We took turns hugging him.
“You two look terrible. You’re both covered in so much dirt and—were you buried alive?”
Lorne laughed at that, sounding a bit unhinged. He really needed a nap.
“You have to tell me everything.”
“We will,” Lorne assured him. “But first we have to call in finding Pace’s body and you’re going to have to lie, Father.”
He put his hand on Lorne’s shoulder. “We had to fight a demon, son. To protect others, I will lie just a bit.”
The man I loved nodded in agreement.
Once Pete showed up, he voiced the same concern for our appearance, but Lorne ignored that, wanting him instead to talk to Father Dennis.
As the priest had told Malachi Gant, he had an appointment to see Pace about blessing the property. But when he arrived, Tanner Murphy took him hostage, locked him in one of the rooms, and he could hear Pace being murdered. From there, Father Dennis fudged the truth somewhat, saying that when Lorne and I arrived, Tanner was gone but only by moments. That Lorne and I had searched the grounds, getting dirty in the process, and called it in.
When Father Dennis finished relating his part, Lorne called over to Jamestown to get their search-and-rescue team scrambled and then alerted the state police to join the Tanner Murphy manhunt. Pete, in the meantime, did a preliminary search of the house, which yielded a bloody knife he took pictures of but left where it was for the techs. I was guessing they would find Tanner Murphy’s fingerprints all over it.
Lorne had to wait for the ME and everyone else he’d called to show up, and since I wasn’t about to leave him, and Father Dennis didn’t want to leave either of us, we all waited, along with Pete, who got a towel out of the back of his vehicle to help clean up his boss a bit.
It took a while for the ME to arrive, and when she did, she asked Lorne if there would be any more bodies to pick up later, since it was turning into a daily occurrence.
“No,” Lorne promised her. “I suspect you won’t see me again for a while.”
“That’s good,” she told him.
Once Pace was gone, the crime-scene techs arrived, along with the search-and-rescue team and several members of the state police.
Lorne gave a statement, keeping to the same simple lie Father Dennis had told Pete. The chief of police vowed that he and I had never seen Murphy. That the priest told us that he’d only seen him when he arrived and was locked in a room. Lorne and I had released Father Dennis when we got there, and Lorne had directed him to lock himself in his car. That was the extent of what the three of us knew.
The other members of law enforcement took Lorne’s statement as gospel and got to work, though everyone quietly informed him there was no way Tanner Murphy wasn’t long gone. There would be a BOLO put out, of course, but this would be, at most, a one-day search.
“I’m happy about that,” Lorne told me when we were alone for a moment. “I don’t want them wasting resources on a fugitive they’ll never find.”
And they would not. Ever. My lord Arawn had turned Tanner Murphy’s body to dust. While I worried about Tanner having been killed, and I needed more answers, the demon had said the man was a murderer. That provided solace for the time being.
Pete volunteered to stay and babysit the CSI team and coordinate with everyone else so Lorne could brief the mayor, who would then make a statement to the citizens of Osprey.