Love Your Entity(63)
“What the hell is going on here?” Damon demanded.
“We’re digging up Hal’s grave,” Tanya said cheerfully. “We could use some help.”
Damon shot a dark look at Sierra. “Was this your idea?”
“Uh.” She wasn’t sure how to answer that one. “How did you know we were here?”
“We monitor unusual activity in all the area cemeteries,” Damon said.
“In case of a zombie uprising or something?” Sierra asked.
“Or something.” Damon turned to Ronan. “Would you care to make a comment here?”
“No.” Ronan’s eyes gleamed with an unnatural light.
“I suppose you’re going to tell me there’s no need for concern, right?”
“Right,” Ronan said.
“And I should trust an indentured vampire because?” Damon said.
Since Ronan stubbornly remained silent, Sierra spoke up. “Because he’s telling the truth.”
“He hasn’t said anything,” Damon pointed out. “If you make trouble, I swear—”
“Don’t swear in a cemetery.” Tanya looked around nervously. “It’s bad luck.”
Tanya wasn’t the only nervous one. Sierra was sensing several dark presences growing in power. The fog was rapidly increasing, billowing up and separating her from the sparring vampires.
Sierra felt as if she were being pulled far away. She was suddenly alone. She swayed and had to reach for a nearby heart-shaped headstone for support. Because standing right before her was her worst nightmare—her father.
Chapter Seventeen
“I told you I’d come after you,” her father said, his voice reptilian.
Stunned, Sierra dropped her flashlight. Her heart skittered in fear as she watched it roll over a grave before coming to a halt against a headstone.
ROY BARNES.
She could see the letters clearly even without artificial illumination. Leaning down, she quickly scooped up the flashlight and cradled it against her body the way she had cradled Boo as a kid. Once she realized what she was doing, she aimed the flashlight at Roy.
From the top of his buzz-cut shorn head to his size twelve construction boots, he looked the way she remembered him—big and mean. They said he’d had his heart attack during a bar fight and died on the spot. He sure as hell looked ready to do battle right now.
“You don’t scare me,” she said.
“Liar.”
His accusation, while true, hit her the wrong way, firing up her anger. “Bully,” she shot back. “Shit-faced bastard!”
“That’s no way to talk to your father,” he roared.
“You’re not my father. You never were. You provided sperm, that’s all. Nothing else. Not support, not kindness. Certainly not love.”
“I supported you and your bitch of a mother for five years.”
“You beat and intimidated us.”
“What do you know?” he scoffed. “You were just a kid.”
“I know enough.” She eyed him with extreme suspicion. “I thought spirits in hell couldn’t return to this world.”
“Apparently they can if you stand in their cemetery dealing with other spirits and prying open caskets,” he mocked her.
She’d had enough. “You aren’t welcome here. So go back to that hellhole you crawled out of.”
He laughed. He had the gall to actually laugh.
“Go!” she bellowed at him. “Begone!”
He drifted closer.
Sierra felt frozen in place. She refused to back down. Evil spirits like him fed on fear. Even as a human, he’d fed on fear. So she displayed none.
Her showdown with him continued for a moment or two before he started to waver in front of her, then slowly dematerialized. Like the Cheshire cat, only his face remained visible, his eyes glaring at her with vicious intent. Finally that too was gone.
She almost sank to the ground in relief.
“Sierra! Where are you? Come back,” Ronan cried out.
The mist cleared, allowing her to find her way back to Ronan and his vampire friends. They stood beside the casket they’d just dug up.
Seeing the disapproval on Sierra’s face, Ronan said, “It’s the only way to get rid of Hal.”
Sierra was still trying to recover from her confrontation with her father. She certainly didn’t need to be staring inside a casket at a putrid pile of bones covered in maggots. She’d seen enough horror movies to know the risks here.
Dizziness threatened to overcome her. The sheer number of spirits nearby was nearly overwhelming. She took several steps back from the open gaping hole in the ground, suddenly terrified that she was going to either fall in or be yanked into it.