Fields of Blood (The DeathSpeaker Codex Book 2) by Sonya Bateman Read Free Book Online Page B

half-embedded into the side of a mountain. The photo had been taken from an angle above, showing that the structure was in some kind of canyon lined with moss-covered rock.
    And the white rectangle was a train ticket from the Port Authority station to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Right in the middle of the Appalachians.
    I’d been dragged through those mountains more than once on the Valentines’ endless hunting trips, enough that I knew without a doubt this picture had been taken in that range somewhere. This was where they’d been headed—to Sadie’s family.
    Now I definitely had to talk to the dead kid.
     

C HAPTER 9

     
    I put the photo back carefully and closed the briefcase. “Let’s leave that alone for now,” I said, still holding onto Sadie. “We’ll take it with us, okay?”
    “Yeah. Okay,” she said shakily. “It’s going to be all right. I mean, you killed them all before they could leave,” she said, looking at Reun. “Right?”
    He didn’t answer right away. Finally, he said, “All that were here. But if the human police did not take the boxes…”
    Sadie gave a violent shudder. “Oh, God. ”
    “Hold on. We don’t need to guess, when we can find out for sure,” I said, offering a reassuring squeeze. “Let me talk to him.”
    She nodded once.
    I rubbed her arm and drew a bracing breath before turning to the body. Somehow I knew this was really going to suck. “I’ll do what I did last time, all right?” I said. “Whatever he says, I’ll repeat it.”
    “Hurry,” Sadie whispered.
    “Yeah.”
    I got down carefully, kneeling in the bloody pool that surrounded him. There was no other way to do it. The kid had been dead for hours already, and he’d lost all traces of human coloring along with most of his blood. His staring eyes had started to cloud with the film of death, ghostly white patches on dulled brown.
    Three years of moving bodies, and the young ones still got to me every time. There was no getting used to this.
    I laid a hand on his torso near the shoulder, avoiding the worst of the slashes Reun had carved into him. “Hey, kid,” I said. “You there?”
    OH GOD WHAT IS THIS! Is somebody there oh my God why does it HURT. Shit I think I’m dead I’m DEAD OH SHIT I’M DEAD. Hello? Is anybody there? I can’t—
    “Calm down,” I said firmly, closing my eyes against the pain. It had skipped over needles and went straight to drill bits this time. “What’s your name, kid?”
    Leonard. Leo. JESUS am I really dead? Who are you? What’s happening?
    “My name is Gideon.” I glanced up at Sadie, who hovered nervously besides me, and shook my head slightly. “You are dead, Leo.”
    Shit! That crazy guy with the knife, he killed me! Oh GOD, I’m dead, I’m in that ROOM and nobody knows about it. My folks! Jesus, this’ll KILL them. What if they never find me? What do I do? Shit oh shit oh shit—
    “Leo. You’ve got to calm down.” My throat clenched, and not just because of the pain. “I need to ask you a few questions,” I said. “You’ll have to answer. But the less you talk, the less it’ll hurt. Okay?”
    Okay. Okay, shit, okay.
    “What’s going on?” Sadie said hoarsely. “Is something wrong?”
    “He’s freaked out. Doesn’t know what’s happening.” I wouldn’t explain it all right now. This had to be as fast as possible, because it was killing me in more ways than one. “Just…don’t interrupt, okay? If he says anything important, I’ll tell you.”
    “All right.”
    Hello? Are you still there?
    The utter terror and confusion in the kid’s voice nearly brought tears to my eyes. “I’m here, Leo,” I said. “Let’s get through this, and then you can go. Did you work for Milus Dei?”
    Yes. I mean, sort of. Yes. Go where? Where am I?
    “I don’t know, kid. I’m sorry.” Christ, this hurt my heart almost more than my head. But it wasn’t doing my head any favors, either. “Where were you going, before you…?”
    I couldn’t finish