Sophie nodded. “Any missing soul could be worn like a costume by a hellion like the bastard who killed Meredith.”

Meredith was killed by a reaper, not a hellion, but… “Close enough,” I said. She was catching on pretty quickly for a traumatized human. “Okay, everybody grab a sandwich and pick a partner. Each partner gets a laptop and you’ll go through the online obituaries in pairs.” Tod and I had already made lists of the local papers and paired them as best we could with sections of the list Levi had sent, which was organized by geographical zones.

Nash and Sabine settled onto the couch with his laptop, their portion of the reaper list, and a plate piled high with food. Sophie and Luca took her laptop and claimed the kitchen table. Tod sat between me and Em and our laptops at the bar, checking off names as we read them to him, while Em munched on her sandwich and I picked at mine with no real interest.

“You know, it’s amazing how much of this Netherworld creepy demon crap winds up involving a bunch of teenagers armed with laptops and a wireless connection,” Em mumbled as she scrolled.

Tod chuckled. “We’re the twenty-first century’s Mystery Inc.”

“Well, that’s comforting, right?” I said, summoning a grin in spite of the circumstances. “Scooby always gets his man… .”

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out to find Alec’s name and number on the display. I accepted the call and held the phone up to my ear, swiveling on my bar stool to face away from most of the talking at my back. “Hey, shouldn’t you be at work?”

“Yeah.” The tension in that one syllable rang sympathetic notes of fear down the length of my spine. “We have a problem, Kaylee.”

I excused myself with a glance at Tod, then blinked into my room and closed the door. “What’s wrong, Alec?”

“I need your help. Now.”

My chills became icicles growing in place of my bones, freezing me from the inside out. “Where are you?”

“My place. And, Kaylee? Bring your dagger.”

16

“DID HE SAY who it is?” Tod paced at the end of my bed while I typed furiously on my phone with both thumbs.

“No. He just said to bring my dagger, which I can’t do until Madeline brings it back.” I hit Send on the text to my boss.

My room. Need dagger. Now.

“Who do you think it looks like? It has to be someone you know.” Tod stopped pacing and the fear in his eyes no doubt mirrored my own. “Someone you both know. How else would Alec know it’s actually a hellion?”

My phone slid through my grip and thumped to the floor at his feet. I hadn’t thought of that. Alec would have to know whomever he’d seen well enough to know that person was acting strange.“There are only a few people on that list, and most of them are in this house,” I said, grasping at that fact for what little hope I still clung to.

Tod knelt for my phone, then handed it back to me. “So who’s not here? Your uncle?”

I nodded slowly and squeezed his hand when it slid into mine. “And your mom.”

“No.” His denial surfaced as a furious burst of pale, pale blue, churning within the brighter cobalt in his irises. “I’ll kill the bastard myself if he’s touched my mother.”

“You won’t have to.” I’d do it. That was my job. I’d thought I was being resurrected to save souls, but so far I felt more like a murderer than a savior, even though I knew in my head that I was only doing what had to be done.

Tod pulled his own phone from his pocket and started to dial his mother’s number, but before he could place the call, Madeline appeared on the rug behind him, holding my dagger. I was off the bed in an instant and took the knife from her so fast I almost grabbed the blades instead of the hilt.

“Thanks. Don’t tell anyone where we’re going. We’ll explain to everyone all at once, when we get back.”

“Where are you going?” Madeline demanded as Tod stood and took my hand.

“Be back soon.” I squeezed his hand, then blinked us both into the living room of Alec’s apartment, about half a mile away.

I’d only been there a couple of times, but the minute my feet touched the carpet, I knew something was different. Everything looked the same, but felt…wrong.

The TV was off. Alec left the TV on all the time when he was home, and I’d always assumed that was part of his ongoing quest to integrate with the twenty-first century, after having missed a quarter of the previous one. Sports, cartoons, infomercials—he’d watch anything. But this silence was new. And creepy.

“Alec?” I called, then immediately wished I hadn’t. I couldn’t limit my audibility to him if I didn’t know where he was, and I really didn’t want to alert the hellion to our presence.

The tiny galley-style kitchen was empty, but an open bottle of beer stood on the counter, next to a half-eaten chocolate cupcake—Alec’s favorite snack food.

A second later, I realized that television sounds weren’t the only things missing. “Where’s Falkor?” I whispered as Tod headed across the living room toward the short hall. Alec’s half Nether-hound—another littermate of Styx’s—was named after a flying dog-creature he’d loved in some movie from his childhood in the eighties. And like Toto, Cujo, and Baskerville, he’d growled every time he saw me since my unfortunate demise.

But now Falkor was silent.