“Open it!” Tanya said eagerly.
Sierra shut her eyes. She couldn’t bear to look.
“What the hell?” Ronan’s voice was rough with disbelief.
“It’s empty,” Tanya said.
Sierra cracked her eyes open a smidge. “No body?”
“No body,” Ronan confirmed grimly.
“So this was a dead end, no pun intended,” Damon drawled.
“Then where is Hal’s body?” Sierra asked.
“Why do we care?” Tanya asked. “Is this for your next book? It must be, right? If you’re going to mention my assistance in the acknowledgments, please make sure you spell my name correctly.”
“Nobody is going to be listed in any book,” Damon said emphatically.
“You’ve had a thing against books since that incident with Zoe,” Tanya said.
“What do we do now?” Sierra asked.
“We keep checking.” Ronan felt along the satin padding.
“Hal’s body won’t fit in the padding,” Tanya said.
Sierra knew he was looking for a key or something to indicate the location of the treasure that Hal was so fiercely protecting.
“Sierra and I can wrap things up from here,” Ronan assured Damon. “We won’t be long.”
Damon looked down at his cell phone. “Good. Because I’m needed elsewhere.”
“I’m not,” Tanya said.
“Yes you are.” Damon took Tanya by the arm and the two of them departed with vamp speed.
As Ronan quickly checked the lining of the coffin, Sierra was distracted by another spirit nearby. He was a young man wearing dark pants and a white shirt. She could see him clearly. His dark hair was slicked back in the style of the twenties.
“Have you seen Ruby?” he asked.
Sierra nodded. Going on a hunch, she asked, “Are you Johnny?”
The ghost nodded. “I’ve been waiting for her. Why is she still at the house? I can’t go there.”
Sierra didn’t know how long she’d have with Johnny. His energy was fading quickly. Unlike Ruby, he wasn’t accustomed to materializing.
“Did you kill Hal? Do you know where his body is? What do you know about the treasure?” Sierra asked in a rush.
But Johnny was gone.
“Another ghost?” Ronan asked.
Sierra nodded.
“I found something.” Ronan held up a piece of paper and quickly studied it before putting it in his pocket.
“What is it?”
“I’ll tell you later. First I’ve got to return the casket to its grave.” He did so with amazing ease and speed.
“It still looks like a fresh grave,” Sierra said.
An instant later, it was covered with grass as it had been before. Ronan looked down at his smartphone where a beep indicated a new text. “Damon asked Zoe to return the grave site to the way it was.”
“So not only does Zoe lend us her car, she cleans up our mess again,” Sierra said. “Talk about a nice neighbor.” She paused at the sudden strong smell of cigar smoke. “Hal?” she whispered, looking around.
The surrounding ghosts had faded away, replaced by a man wearing a stylish and expensive-looking suit. He had dark hair and a narrow weasel-like face with sunken eyes of an indeterminate color. He gave her the creeps and that was saying a lot considering what she’d already been through that night.
“I’m Baron Voz,” he said.
Right. Of course he was. All the nightmare demons seemed to be coming out of the darkness in this cemetery. First she’d had a confrontation with her father and now here was this man who had turned Ronan.
“I see you know who I am,” Voz said.
“And what you are,” she said.
Voz shook his head. “Tsk-tsk, Ronan. You really should learn to keep your mouth shut.”
Ronan instantly stepped in front of Sierra as he had when the clock and mirror had come flying at her. “Leave her alone.”
“You bonded with her.”
Ronan neither confirmed nor denied Voz’s statement.
“You only have two days remaining to find the key,” Voz said.
“It’s not a fair agreement,” Sierra said. “You didn’t provide enough information. You’ve set Ronan up to fail.”
The moment she said those last words, she knew it was a mistake. Ronan stiffened and anger radiated from him. He may actually have growled.
Voz laughed. “Even this weak human thinks you will fail.”
“That’s not an option,” Ronan said.
“No, it’s a foregone conclusion,” Voz said. “You will fail and be indentured to me forever.”
Sierra wanted to say that she would help Ronan, that he wasn’t alone, but knew that wouldn’t go over well so she kept silent.