Aiden shrugged out of his jacket and offered it to me. “Here, put this on.”
“I’m fine,” I said, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.
“No, you’re damn well not,” he all but growled. “So take the damn jacket and stop being silly.”
I did. And immediately felt better for it. “Thanks.”
“I’m not always a bastard,” he said. “Despite appearances to date.”
“So I’m learning.” And maybe, just maybe, he was beginning to look beyond his instinctive hatred of witches, and see the person rather than the power.
He opened the truck’s door, ushered me in, then ran around to the driver side and started the engine. “What’s the best way to stop a zombie?”
“Shoot the fuck out of them,” I said. “Head shots work best. Decapitation is another option, but that means getting a little too close to them.”
“Not the answer I was expecting.” He smiled again. “Can we stop him from getting into the Redferns’ house? Morris doesn’t own a gun, but I doubt he’d be able to shoot his own son even if he did.”
I hesitated. “Placing salt across all entrances is one of the few myths that holds true, but it won’t stop our vamp if he’s with Mason.”
He turned left onto Cemetery Road then glanced at me. “So it’s not true that vampires can’t cross a threshold uninvited?”
“It is, but he’s also a witch. He can simply raise a force to blast the salt away.”
“Meaning I’d better go talk to Morris and Em tonight.”
“And tell them what? Their son’s a zombie?” I studied him. “Why on earth would they even believe something like that?”
“They won’t,” he said. “Hell, I’m not entirely sure I believe it yet, and I’ve seen the grave. But I can’t not tell them, either.”
I guess he couldn’t, if only because the opened grave would be discovered in the morning by the cemetery staff.
Silence fell as the streets sped past. He eventually pulled into the driveway of a small weatherboard house and then stopped. “You’d best stay here. I’ll go talk to them.”
I nodded. He climbed out and walked up to the small porch. The light came on as he neared the front door, and a woman with brown hair and a bright smile ushered him inside.
I locked the doors, then crossed my arms and hunkered down in the seat. In a matter of minutes, I was asleep.
It was the sound of the truck’s engine that jerked me awake. I blinked rapidly and shoved upright, looking around for a moment before I realized we’d already left the Redferns’ house. I rubbed tired eyes and then glanced at Aiden.
“Everything okay?”
“Sort of.” His expression was grim. “I told them Mason’s grave had been desecrated, but not that he’d found new life as a zombie.”
“Which leaves them unprepared if he turns up.”
“They weren’t likely to believe that even if I had told them.” He shot me a grim glance. “Few rational people would. Zombies belong in books and movies, not real life.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t negate—”
“What I did say,” he continued, cutting me off, “was that there’d been a number of robberies in the area, and the perpetrator’s description matched Mason’s. I asked them to call me if they saw someone who looked like him.”
Which wouldn’t really help them, because by the time anyone got there, the damage would already be done.
Aiden must have guessed what I was thinking, because he added, “I’ve also ordered Byron onto watch duty.”
“He’s another ranger, I take it?”
“Yes, and just in case our vamp does make an appearance, I’ve told him to grab a cross and sharpen some stakes.” He glanced at me again. “They do work, don’t they?”