Graveminder

Chapter 52

DAISHA HEARD THE VEHICLE IN THE DISTANCE. WITH HIS LIVING HUMAN hearing, the Undertaker had no idea that Cissy was approaching. Daisha, on the other hand, heard the engine stop, knew that the woman was getting closer. She was walking toward the house, presumably because she had seen their truck.

“Are you listening?” Byron asked.

“I am. Rebekkah needs a minute, so I stay with you,” Daisha said. She considered and rejected the idea of telling him that she heard Cissy walking toward the house. Give her a minute. Rebekkah hadn’t gone out to confront Cissy, but she had the right to do so. Like the dead inside the garage, like Daisha, like Troy, and like Maylene, Rebekkah had the right to confront the monster who had stolen so much from so many. She is the Graveminder. Daisha would give Rebekkah her chance to talk to the woman, and then she’d go outside and do what she’d come here to do.

Daisha tried to keep her features placid, not to reveal what she could hear outside, to let Cissy approach. Buy the Graveminder some time. The Undertaker wasn’t a bad sort, not really. She couldn’t blame him for his reaction to her. His job was to care for the grieving living and the truly dead. Unlike Rebekkah. The Graveminder cared for the truly dead and the Hungry Dead.

Byron narrowed his eyes and stared at her. “What gives?”

“Nothing. I wish Rebekkah hadn’t seen that.” Daisha motioned toward the garage. “The woman is cruel, and I wish Rebekkah hadn’t been hurt.”

Byron gave her a puzzled glance. “Why?”

“She cares for the dead. Like the last one. She would protect us from the woman. From you. From everything.”

“I don’t trust you,” he said. “When this is over, you need to go to the land—”

“That, Undertaker, is not yours to decide.”