I nodded. “Yeah.” Of course I couldn’t promise that, but I’d do everything I could to make it happen.

“Lark, in my dream Bent said that he was going to come for Gage, and that not even your little trinkets could stop him.”

“Bravado,” I replied, but I wasn’t so sure. Bent might very well have figured out a way to get to Gage. It was a hospital—lots of people in weakened states just primed for possession. Gage might get out of bed to go to the bathroom and Bent could attack. He might possess a nurse, or a doctor. Killing Gage wouldn’t mean anything to him—it would be his revenge. He was going to fight us, and if we tried to take him out, he’d take Gage with him. He could do that easily in the amount of time it was going to take us to dig up his bones. There was no quick way to do that—at least not a quiet one that wouldn’t get us arrested.

“I’ll stay with him,” Wren said. “I can protect him, and if you need me, you can just summon me.”

It was a sound plan—and it would keep her off Haven Crest grounds, away from the violent ghosts there. At least the ones at the hospital had been somewhat friendly.

I would not think of that little kid...

“What about Kevin?” Sarah asked. “Is he coming? Or is there too much of a chance that Bent might possess him again?”

Wren looked away, but it wasn’t as though anyone but me could notice.

“He’s coming,” Mace replied. “He wouldn’t sit this out.”

“Why?” Roxi piped up. “He wasn’t with us that night. This isn’t his problem.”

“It’s not Lark’s, either,” Ben said. “Or Wren’s, but they’re helping us.”

“Because we asked,” Roxi reminded him.

I jumped in. “Kevin’s your friend. That’s why. Now, let’s talk about how this is going to go down.”

We had shovels and salt. Sarah had lighter fluid that her dad used on the charcoal grill he insisted on using instead of buying a gas barbecue. Everyone had their iron rings and weapons, and Ben had managed to grab parts of an old iron fence from his mother’s workshop that we could lay out around Bent’s grave to protect us from attack while we dug.

“But how are we going to get all of this stuff into the cemetery?” Sarah asked. “We can’t carry it up that tree and across the field. It’s too much.”

“I’ve got that taken care of,” Mace said.

His girlfriend looked surprised. This was obviously the first she’d heard of this. “How?”

“I’ve got it.” From the expression on his face that was all he was going to say.

Sarah turned to me. “Do you know anything about this?”

I scowled. “Why the hell would I know what he’s up to?” Then to Mace. “Where do you want to meet?”

He mentioned a side road not far from the asylum.

“Can you take us all?” Ben asked.

Mace nodded, but he still didn’t give his plan away.

“Could what you’re doing get us into big trouble?” I asked.

He merely smiled.

Oh, crap.

* * *

“Is that a cop van?” Ben asked that night, slowing his car as we approached the meeting spot.

“It’s a freaking paddy wagon,” I growled. And Mace was standing next to it on the shoulder of a dark, deserted secondary road.

Ben laughed and pulled over just ahead of the van. “If we get caught, we are so screwed.”

He had that right. Screwed didn’t even begin to describe what we’d be. My God, I didn’t know whether to tear a strip off Mace for dragging us all into his theft, or hug him for being so damned ballsy. Regardless, no one was going to bat an eye at a police presence around Haven Crest. Our only problem would be if security came by to check it out, and according to Mace, security rarely patrolled the cemetery.

Ballsy and smart. I was almost jealous for not having thought of it myself.

Mace grinned at me when I got out of the car. “Not bad, huh?”

I shook my head, but I couldn’t help but grin back. “You’re insane.”

He patted the side of the van. “No one will even miss it. They keep it in an old garage near the back lot of the station. They only use it when there’s a festival or concert going on.”

Ben opened the trunk of his car. “You’ve got balls, man.”

Mace shook his head. “Nah. I’m just willing to do whatever it takes to end this.” He unlocked the back doors of the van and came to help Ben load the iron fencing into it. I took care of the shovels and cardboard box full of salt cans and other supplies. As we were loading everything up, the rest of our group arrived. Roxi was with Wren and Gage at the hospital—mostly because I figured she’d be too worried about her boyfriend to concentrate here. And, call me a romantic, but whatever happened tonight, they deserved to be together for it.

Sarah stared at the van. Her face was pale. “Mace, what did you do?” I hadn’t even noticed that she and Kevin had arrived.

Ben and I exchanged glances, and then with Kevin. If this was going to turn into a thing, none of us wanted to be there.

“What I had to,” he replied.

She shook her head. “If we get caught we can kiss college goodbye.”

“Getting caught is the least of our worries,” I reminded her, ending the argument before it could escalate. “Does everyone have their rings and weapons?”