The Necromancer's Betrayal (The Final Formula Series, Book 2.5) by Becca Andre Page B

didn’t attempt to show any discretion about discussing Kari’s situation in front of her. The dead were nothing more than objects in the necromancer world.
    The woman’s callous indifference went right through Elysia. That and her assumption that Doug was the one responsible. “Her name is Kari, and I Made her.” Cursed or not, she wouldn’t live what was left of her life in Doug’s shadow.
    The receptionist’s eyes went wide.
    Elysia clamped her mouth shut, immediately regretting the words. What was she thinking? The woman was bound to mention it to Doug—and everyone else she saw. The strain of her power loss was making her reckless.
    “Care if we go back?” Elysia waved toward the locked doors behind the receptionist’s desk. She lifted her chin, trying to emulate the arrogance Doug always displayed around lesser necromancers.
    “No, please,” the receptionist collected herself enough to answer. “Go right ahead. I believe Doug said he would be in room two.” She pressed a button, and the sound of the lock disengaging echoed around the room.
    Elysia had started to turn away, but stopped. “Doug’s here?”
    The receptionist lifted a brow, looking surprised. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”
    “I meant, he’s here already.” Elysia smiled. “He must have driven fast.”
    “He just arrived.”
    Elysia thanked her and headed for the doors, her stomach twisting in apprehension. It looked like she would have to pay for her ill-thought comment immediately.
    Elysia led Kari through the doors into the empty hall beyond. Should she hide Kari in one of the rooms? She would prefer to speak to Doug before he met Kari. But what if all the employees weren’t gone for the day? Everyone who worked here had some tie to the Deacon’s family, and most of them were necromancers. If one of them came face to face with Kari, they would know what she was—unless Elysia could find a way for her to blend in with the other dead. If Kari hid in a mortuary drawer…
    Memories rose. The hollow dark. Cold dead fingers sliding along her thin child’s arm. Elysia shivered. She could never ask Kari to hide in a drawer.
    “You’re engaged?” Kari’s question interrupted Elysia’s dark memories.
    “What?”
    “The woman at the desk said you were engaged.”
    “Oh. Yes.” Elysia led her slowly down the hall, still not certain what to do.
    “To the were—I mean, the grim?”
    “No. Another necromancer.” They were approaching the room where she had met Neil. One of the double doors to that room stood open, and she heard a low rumble of male voices. Neil and Doug?
    “When you walked into my store, I thought you and your friend were a couple.”
    “He’s dead.”
    “Like me or…”
    “Like you, in a way.”
    They had reached the autopsy room, and Elysia stopped behind the closed door to sneak a peek through the small pane of glass. Doug was indeed present, along with Neil. The pair of them stood over one of the three tables in the room.
    “What the hell?” she whispered. James lay on the table.
    She pressed her hands to the cool steel of the door, ready to shove it open and demand to know why James was here and not at his hotel.
    “If she can’t feel a dead bird, she can’t feel the bond.” Neil’s voice carried through the open door beside her. He straightened from his position bent over James’s arm. He held a syringe filled with a bright red liquid in his gloved hand. James’s blood.
    Elysia hesitated.
    “What are you saying?” Doug asked. “Has she already lost it?”
    “You knew it was a possibly.”
    “In time. You reassured me the potion wouldn’t accelerate the process.”
    The door warmed beneath Elysia’s hands, but she didn’t push it open.
    “Hold him.” Neil picked up an empty syringe from the cart beside him and turned back to James.
    “He’s secure.” Doug didn’t touch James. He didn’t have to. It was Doug’s power that held him in place.
    “So keep her as a mistress,”