Tyler and I rested our fingertips on the wooden planchette after he sprinkled a fine layer of Don’s ashes onto the board. Then he began to recite an invitation for my uncle to appear. After a few minutes, the planchette started to move, and prickling sensations rose on the back of my neck. Dexter whined, the sound both anxious and excited. Animals could sense the presence of ghosts better than anyone, including vampires.

Then a swirl appeared above the Ouija board, like a miniature tornado that didn’t generate any wind. Icy tentacles slid up my spine in a slithering caress. We were no longer the only people in the room.

“Is he here?” Tyler asked, unable to see the energy swirls yet.

I stared at them, watching them grow and lengthen until they formed into an older man in a business suit, the Ouija board jutting out of his midsection like he’d been cut in half with it.

“Hi, Don,” I said with satisfaction. “Glad you could make it.”

My uncle looked around in confusion. “Cat. How—?”

“How did I yank you out of whatever afterlife corner you were hiding in?” I interrupted. “I’m friends with a medium, remember?”

Don looked at the board protruding from his stomach, his mouth curling down. “Who knew these things actually worked?”

“Make friends with others of your kind, you’ll learn lots of things,” Tyler said, squinting in Don’s general direction. Then his forehead smoothed. “Oh, there you are.”

“No time for pleasantries, Don,” Bones stated. “You need to tell us everything you’ve been hiding about Madigan. My people’s lives depend on it.”

Don frowned. “Your people?”

“Tate, Juan, Dave, and Cooper,” I supplied. “They’re considered Bones’s under vampire law. More importantly, they’re our friends. You know they’ve been missing. Well, Madigan claims they were killed on a job, but he’s lying, which means they’re in serious trouble.”

The air didn’t move despite the heavy sigh Don let out.

“I wanted you to investigate their disappearance because I’d hoped they’d deserted their posts and were hiding from Madigan. Or were deep undercover, or even had died on a mission. Anything but this, because if Madigan has them, then by now, they probably are dead.”

Only his lack of a solid form kept me from shaking him. “Or they’re alive, trapped somewhere, and expecting us to do something.”

The look he gave me was so filled with sadness that I almost missed the other emotion flitting across his face. Shame.

“When Madigan took over my old job, I feared he might try this, but I didn’t expect it so soon. I’m sorry, Cat. There’s nothing you can do. Neither can I. Madigan’s no doubt ghostproofed that building, too.”

“What building?”

The two words seethed with threat. So did the stare Bones lasered at Don. Both should’ve scared my uncle into answering with the truth. Instead, he sighed once more.

“If you ever get close to Madigan again, kill him. You can’t save Tate and the others, but you can avenge them and save others like them if things haven’t progressed past that already.”