Secrets In The Bones: The Curse of Blood Bay

Sixteen

Ellena wasn't throwing in the towel. Those paintings barely scratched the surface, making me wonder if anyone else had spotted the same details. McNally was the obvious one to poke our claws at. Longitude and latitude might be the cause of his deep-sea diving escapades. If we weren't planning an escape, we might as well dissect our info like it's another case: no half-measures or second-guessing.

We had a hunch that Ruth had been feeding us a tall tale. I knew we couldn't let Ruth catch wind of our suspicions—not yet. How much of a witch she was could also become the spotlight? However, my lack of knowledge disadvantaged us. Unless, by some miracle, Ellena turned into a quick study. The way she tore through the dusty path between the bookshelves made me think this was heaven for her. I could still vividly picture the towers in Ellena's flat.

Then I remembered her blood on the staircase. I couldn't let her get taken again as she danced from one row to the next. Melanie might have controlled a Kanaima demon back then, but she was human. What we were facing now could be a colony of vampires, or just a few, for all we knew. Bloodsuckers. Ellena had already heard voices. My vision made me think the guy I'd seen could've been the elder vampire. I still hoped we'd find a picture of Jean and Frederick to know for sure. Much of what we'd heard had become a mess; I didn't know what parts were true. We were in another dismal basement, looking for answers, which felt surreal. Maybe another holiday to get over this one was on the agenda.

Looking around at how old everything was, there had to be a detail among them to help us. I was drawn to a series of maps on the wall. Each showed the Scottish coast over the centuries, particularly around the Cruden Bay area. From school, I remembered lessons on coastal erosion. The cliff face has changed from the seventeenth century to the present. I got to thinking about the two number sequences we had. If they were longitude and latitude, we'd be foolish to plot them against how the coast looked now. Ellena caught me staring and came over. I waited to see if she saw what I had done.

It took Ellena two minutes to grab her notebook. She had the line, so I let her run with it. After all, we had nothing but time. At least a few more hours before something intriguing was due to happen. Nicholas McNally had mentioned 9 p.m. on the phone. It could be a wasted journey, but I wanted to go back. In my mind, it was about whoever had taken a beating on the garage floor. Whether David McNally would get his hands dirty by removing a dead body or the victim had only been taken to where the McNallys got what they wanted.

"You think it's at sea?"

"Well, those scuba divers are looking for something. The how, what, and why are a mystery for now. But something has them down there."

"But you think they could be in the wrong place?" It was a working theory; the numbers could've meant something else, and we didn't know who left them to be found or who else knew about them.

"It's a shot in the dark. McNally is looking for something in particular. Those boxes I saw seemed old. But check out the year and tear on the coastline over the years," I pointed before stepping aside for Ellena to get closer. I continued, looking from behind Ellena's shoulder. At first, my curiosity held up. Soon enough, I drifted into a daze, focusing on the back of Ellena's head. I had hoped this would be a week to learn more about Ellena's past life. We'd have a nice relaxing time. I wanted to dig a little into ADI Locke to see how much she knew, especially considering his storage shop in Forest Gate. Instead, I'm looking at the back of Ellena's head as she works out old maps. If anyone could substantiate my thoughts, she could, and I wouldn't seem like such an irrational idiot.

Lost in my admiring haze, a shock rippled below the dip in my neck. One by one, the hairs sparked to life, shivering down my spine. It came out of nowhere, in a place I least expected danger. Ellena kept looking away while my head bounced to the left. My hackles were going haywire. The room had fallen silent, heightening the trepidation in my mind—enough to cause my claws to shoot forward. Nothing stood out in the dimly lit room, but the rumble through my neck wasn't letting up. I could hear mine and Ellena's heartbeats like a thunderstorm, with everyone else so quiet. Ellena's had sped up, and I didn't know why, too distracted by the tormenting of my neck hairs.