Free Undead for a Day by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom Nancy Holder Chris Marie Green

signed on to work with them in London, Dawn had known she was more sensitive than most people. Even more than Kiko.
    “That part wasn’t so clear to me,” he said. “I’m still not so sure where the Meratoliages are having that bonfire.”
    Damn. “Do we know how many family members are at the bonfire?”
    “Twenty,” Kiko said. “Ten men, ten women.”
    Ouch. “Can we assume from what we already know about keepers that the men could’ve been put aside as active custodes because of the family heart defect? Can we guess that they’re not going to be strong fighters?”
    “Not necessarily,” Kiko said. “I know those men are weaponed up. Same with the women, even though they’re only the family ‘breeders’.”
    Dawn glanced at Lilly, who was as still as a pet rock. They already knew that this girl with the misshapen mouth and grotesque eyes had been out of the ordinary for a keeper. The few records they had found on the Meratoliages’ estate had documented lines and lines of male custodes with only the occasional female chosen for duty.
    Jonah chimed in. “Aren’t the women good at the dark arts in that family? I say they’re the ones to worry about.”
    Kiko had his eyes closed, as if he was sifting through what Lilly had given him. “There’s a Meratoliage at the bonfire who’s the most valuable of them all. She’s leading this ritual. Her name is...Amber. Yeah, Amber.”
    Interesting, how Lilly was just giving up all this information out of the kindness of her dislocated heart. “You also asked how the family was planning to get the dragon out of me. Any answers there?”
    At this, the dragon’s blood slammed against Dawn’s right side. She started at the force of the malcontent.
    Everyone glanced at her, and she held up a hand. “It’s okay. Since there’s no soul stain to feed on tonight, someone’s just a little eager at the thought of escaping me.”
    Lilly emitted one of those zombie-moans again, but all eyes went to Kiko, waiting for him to answer Dawn’s question about how the Meratoliages were going to pull the dragon out of her.
    “You really want to hear this?” Kiko asked.
    “No. But I always manage to live through the bad news, anyway.”
    “Yeah, you sure do.” He gave her a look that only war buddies could understand, but then something like concern took its place. “The Mertoliages are gonna do what any good surgeon would to extract something out of a body, Dawn.”
    It didn’t need any more elaboration than that.
     
    *
     
    After everyone had gone their own ways—Jonah back to his bed for more rest, Kiko to the computers, Costin still watching Lilly in her chair—Dawn had sought some privacy in her room, with its sedate white walls and sheer aqua blue curtains. She wanted to figure out the wisest course of action now that they knew what the Meratoliages had in mind.
    If they went into their enemy’s territory, all guns blazing, there was a chance that the team could wipe away part of the Meratoliage family tonight—most importantly, the one named Amber.
    Their leader.
    In short, Dawn thought of it this way: If you had the opportunity to take out someone who was about to unleash great evil in the world—like Hitler, say, or a megalomaniac like the dragon—would you do it at any cost? And would you do it before you knew they were probably going to flee as soon as Samhain was over?
    The answer was a huge duh. But the problem was that Dawn, herself, was carrying that evil within her, and if she went to the people who wanted it more than anything, she’d be putting a dangerous entity right in front of the Meratoliages and daring them to take it. And even if she would’ve bet donuts to dollars in the past that she and the team could best twenty enemies—some of them even practiced in the dark arts—she wasn’t so sure about that now, with her side lacking the spirit Friends, plus their hunting skills being so rusty.
    Maybe it would be smart to just stay here,