Chapter 6

He came up for air the very second he lost it in the nightmare.

His lips parted and he gasped as he scrambled to grab onto the side of the tub. The sudsy water fell down his face, over his eyes, and into his mouth. The fear wracked his entire body. He shook down to his toes. 

There was water everywhere, but there was also blood. 

It was the dream bleeding into reality. 

He shook it away.

He closed his eyes and rubbed them with his knuckles. The inside of his mouth was dry. He tried to swallow, but it was dry as sand. When he opened his eyes a few seconds later, the water was clear. Besides the suds floating on top, there was nothing in the water but himself. 

He wiggled his toes just to make sure he was in control of his body. 

The water had run cold.

His heart skipped.

He pulled himself from the tub and frantically wrapped a towel around his entire body.

His thoughts were a maze of what he'd seen in the dream and what he couldn't get out of his head. 

The time. What was the time.

He went to the foot of his bed and lifted up the cracked white clock sitting on the chest. He felt his heart drop into his stomach.

He sat the clock down. His fingers were shaking as he sat on the edge of his bed. 

He'd been in the bath for over an hour. What felt like minutes had been a complete hour. But also, it had felt like he'd been trapped in the dream for days.

He stood up and slowly walked toward the window. The towel around him was as cold as the bath water. It was heavy from the water droplets. He tightened his grip on it.

The window looked out into the opening mouth of the forest. The trees were similar though only slightly different.

He pressed his free hand to the cold glass. His knuckles knocked against the window pane. The cold didn't feel real enough to register. It's then that he pressed his face against the glass. He wanted to feel the cold along his entire body. He closed his eyes to get lost in the feeling.

Her face was there, looking back at him.

His body went rigid, but he didn't open his eyes. He wanted to scream, to turn around, to run until he was lost in the forest. He didn't know why a girl had just been murdered there.

His teeth chattered and his arms shook. Right down to his toes, he wanted to get out of this place. 

He thought of Mantel.

He opened his eyes. The forest hadn't changed. 

There was a feeling that there was more to the dead girl. It didn't make sense that she would be in the middle of the forest. It didn't make sense that she would be attacked by a vampire so far away.

Either a vampire hadn't done this or Mantel was lying.

He pulled his hand away.

That's when he noticed it.

He reached up to clutch the ring on his neck—

His hand brushed his naked collar. Where his grandfather's ring should have been, there was nothing.

It was as if someone had punched him in the throat. 

"No," he breathed. His cold fingers wrapped around his neck. 

Still, nothing.

"Nonono." He turned and searched along the chest. The broken clock was the only thing there.

Around his bed, on his bed, and in the bathroom. He went searching for the ring that would have stood out. It was heavy, big for a ring, and had intricate carvings around the band that shined even in the dimmest of light. 

He knew that ring more than he knew himself.

Just as he made it out to the hall, the front door opened.

There was the rustling of grocery bags and then the faintest of movements he recognized as his mom's. 

He winced as he hit the frame of his bedroom door. He scanned the hallway and then darted back inside the small room. His heart raced as he threw a look around, looking under the bed and then around it just in case.

He went back to the bathroom, searching once more though he knew he wouldn't find it. 

His pile of dirty clothes were untouched from when he'd thrown them there. He turned them inside out. Tears stung his eyes as he shook them. He hoped by chance he'd stuck the ring in one of his pockets. 

They were empty.

With shaky hands, he bit back a scream.

"Ren?"

He froze with his pants in his hands. The waist band was wet from where he'd stepped on them on his way to the bedroom.

It took him a second to swallow the ache in his throat. He wiped the fallen tears with the back of his hand and straightened his shoulders. 

"Yeah?" He tried to sound as normal as possible, but there was a slight quiver in his voice.

The grocery bags rustled as they hit the kitchen table. Margret let out a heaved sigh of relief.

"Can you come help me?"

Another tear streamed down his cheek. He released a shuddering breath, wiped the stray tear, and walked out from his bathroom, out from his bedroom, and out into the hall. 

The trail of water droplets followed in his footsteps. Out on the landing, he called out to her. His voice was faint.

"I'm getting dressed."

She turned then, her hair wispy around her face, and sweat beading at her temples. She held some cans in her arms. 

"Oh." She gave him a puzzled look. "You look paler than usual."

"It's nothing." He ran back to his room. She said something after him, but he couldn't hear it.

He threw on a pair of pants and went back to tearing the room apart. By the time he was done, he'd torn out the dresser drawers, tossed his bed around, and had gone through his dirty clothes seven times.

He thought over time his panic would settle, but it had only gotten worse.

It had to be here somewhere. He never took it off for anything.

But it was becoming clear something had gone wrong. He'd lost it. A ring that had been in the family for who knew how long and had been a prized possession gifted by his grandfather to him when he was born.

And he'd lost it.

He sank on the edge of his bed. He buried his face into his open palms. The water from his damp hair mixed with his tears until he couldn't tell which was which. Downstairs, his mom put away groceries, all without knowing what he'd done.

The front door slammed. Paper ripped and then there was silence.

His tears stopped.

Something else was wrong.

"Ren!"

He looked up. Fright sparked within him.

Margret stomped up the stairs. His bedroom door flew open. 

"What the hell is this?"

This, was a paper addressed to Ren and was only to be opened by Ren. 

His heart sank. There was only one piece of mail he was expecting. He thought it would arrive after he graduated. But there it was. In Margret's hands—the worst possible place for it to be.

Her hands were shaking. She threw the paper at him. It flew through the air before it sank to the floor.

"Were you ever going to tell me?" Her voice cracked.

He looked down at the paper. It wasn't his proudest moment.

"I couldn't talk about it," he said. He looked at his empty hands. The lines in his palms were maps. He wished he could look at a spot and go there. "We both know that."

"Don't turn this around on me!" She pointed at herself. Then, she jabbed her finger at him. "He died in those fucking mines and you think I'm gonna let you do the same?"

She shook her head. "You're not going."

"Mom—" He tried to stand up, but she towered over him.

"No. For God's sake, no." Her tears were the angry kind. He wondered if they burned.

She looked around. "What happened in here?"

He was confused until he looked too.

The ring. He'd torn his room apart looking for it.

She cleared her throat, wiped her face, and tried to not look as if she'd been ready to tear him in two. "I'm not gonna ask. Just…clean up after."

Like she'd come in, she left just as fast.

He picked up the paper she'd thrown.

It was his acceptance into the Mines—a mining factory that paid triple than any job he could find here.

His grandpa died working there. He worked his entire life, barely scraping by for his wife and daughter, but all he got was lung cancer and a few extra dollars after his death.

Ren wondered if his grandpa would have understood his decision to go or if he would have forbid him like his mom. Margret worked hard to provide and if she couldn't see that it was killing her, she wouldn't be able to see the benefits of getting rid of him.

Ren wasn't going to be a parasite any longer. She would just have to deal with that.

***

The house was suffocating and he had to find the ring. Retracing his steps had been the only idea he could come up with. It solved one out of two of his problems. 

He would have to deal with Margret later.

The sun was looming over the tree tops. He had about three hours before the sun set and after that, there would be no point in searching. He had the worst eyesight of any vampire to live.

He zipped up his jacket and pulled the hood over his head. The crunch of leaves beneath his feet made a steady rhythm he could focus on. He tried his best to not think about the horrible dream or the dead girl in the forest. It was a good twenty minutes before he made it out of the forest and stepped onto the main road that lead into town.

The path took him past stores he'd never set foot in. Without having to look, he could feel eyes on him. The almost empty street felt as if there were eyes in the walls. 

Everywhere he went, people knew what he was. 

He turned to the next street. He let out a sigh of relief when he found it empty. Running into people at a time like this would be a death sentence.

He was glad when he made it to the school.

It was empty. It was as it should be this late in the day. Though, it shouldn't have looked so gloomy. However, gloomy didn't mean it looked worse than when it was alive with teenagers. Ren found that he quite liked the way it looked when it was deserted. It was a lot more inviting.

He stood on the sidewalk and gazed up. He craned his neck back to take in the tall windows on the second floor.

"What are you doing?"

He turned around with a sharp jolt. 

Darrien stared curiously at him, his thick brows furrowed. 

Ren crossed his arms.

"Nothing."

He turned and walked as fast as he could to the other side of the school. He could hear Darrien following. His heart lodged in his throat.

"Are you sure about that?" Darrien sauntered after Ren with his hands in his pockets. He didn't even look like he was nervous.

Ren scoffed at his own thoughts. Why the Hell would he need to be nervous? I wasn't going to attack him. 

He looked around at the spot he'd sat at after school. There were rocks, broken chunks of sidewalk and dirt. A few bits of trash blew across the empty parking lot. That was it. He didn't see anything.

His tears were spent.

He pressed the back of his hand to his nose.

"I'm…uh…" He whirled around, picking up dirt with his shoes. Nothing. He looked up at Darrien. "Looking for something."

Darrien raised a brow. "I could…help you. If you want."

Ren stared.

"I'm a vampire."

There was a look that crossed Darrien's face. Ren couldn't tell what it meant.

Darrien shifted on his feet. "So?"

Ren took another look at him and then decided that he shouldn't ask. The ring was what Ren was after. Whatever was going on with Darrien wasn't his problem. 

Ren walked past him, but as he was crossing the parking lot to the forest, a loud bang rang out—a slamming car door.

He startled.

"Hey fangy! How about you come give my cock a suck!"

Ren froze against all judgment. 

When he turned around, he saw Regan and his two sidekicks heading straight toward him.

His feet were stuck to the pavement. Regan was holding something he couldn't see. He started to jump to conclusions. A knife, a gun. Anything could be turned into a murder weapon.

Darrien waved his hand. "Regan, piss off."

Regan jutted the thing in his hand toward Darrien. He didn't even flinch. "Got somethin' to say, faggot?"

Darrien raised a brow. "I already said it."

Ren looked between Darrien and Regan. This would have been a great time to get the Hell out of there, but his feet were refusing to listen. They acted as if they wanted to stick around to see what happened. Frankly, he didn't have the time. He needed to find that fucking ring before his mom found out. 

She was already mad about the letter from the Mines.

Regan looked Darrien up and down. He looked confused. "What's gotten into you?"

He turned to Ren. He made a disgusted face. "Hanging around a vamp and defending him…"

Sam and Ollie looked just as dismayed.

Darrien pushed the thing Regan was holding. Ren finally got a look at it. It was just car keys. A bit of his fear deflated.

"Come on. We were just talking. It's not like I'm a sympathizer."

Ren took a step back.

All eyes turned to him. He kept walking backward until he knew they weren't going to come after him. If it wasn't his life on the line, he might have found the situation comical. Darrien looked like he wanted to say something to Ren while Regan, Sam, and Ollie were watching with clueless looks.

He must have looked ridiculous walking backward, but his heart was pounding so hard in his chest that he couldn't think straight.

Once he crossed the parking lot, he turned. He disappeared into the thick brush of the forest, following the trail back home.

He kept thinking about Darrien's words. He sounded genuine. Well, he had until he said he wasn't a sympathizer. He hadn't let Regan tear Ren a new one. That was the best thing Ren could say about him.

He was halfway down the trail when he realized the only place he hadn't looked was the forest. Suddenly, the night before flashed before him. The dead girl's face with her sunken eyes and pale skin almost knocked him off his feet. 

She'd been beautiful, even when she was dead. Whoever killed her had ripped her apart, but had left some of her intact. His stomach churned as he remembered the smell. It wasn't the smell necessarily. The memory was imprinted on him. And so was the smell of copper.

He stood in the middle of the trail, gazing at the trees, the overgrown brush, and the dirt. All of it, paired with the cloudy sky made him feel small and insignificant. He'd always felt this way like his life wasn't worth much, not to his mom or to himself. 

The wind rustled the branches. A couple of leaves fell away, soaring through the air until they found their place on the ground.

He stopped.

He let out a swift gasp before he couldn't breathe. The air whooshed out of his lungs and he was captured there. The air crushed against his body, pinning him. It felt as if someone was speaking to him, but there was no sound. 

The urge was there. The urge to destroy everything in his path. He fought against it, struggling to stay in the right mind. The thoughts of blood and murder were everywhere. He couldn't escape them. He was floating. He couldn't be. His mind was tricked. 

His feet felt like they were hundreds of miles away from the ground. He was flying through the air like those falling leaves.

Then, it stopped.

He fell down with a large cry that ripped through his chest. The gasp that came after was soft as he hit the ground. He crawled to his hands and knees.

"What—" A trail of spit splattered in the dirt. "—the fuck."

He rolled onto his back, chest heaving as he clutched his throat. The air filling his lungs tasted better, foreign, but disgusting at the same time. It burned all the way down as did his saliva. His body was a heatwave crashing into itself and the trees were swirling like he was water going down a drain. 

When it was over, he got to his feet. He staggered.

The forest hadn't changed. Neither had the trail, but there was something off about it.

Indescribable. That's what it was.

He scurried away from the horrible sight.

Away from the trail, he diverged down a small hill. It cut corners, skipping over his house, and was an easier way to get to the general area where the dead girl was. She was buried only a few feet away from where she'd been murdered. Hopefully, the ring would be on the topsoil and not buried along with her.

The sun casted a faint glow through the treetops. It was late into the evening and he didn't have a lot of sunlight left.

He made it to the site about ten minutes later. It wasn't enough time for him to calm his nerves. Instead, he was left with a flushed face and twitching hands. 

It was even harder to focus when he was thinking about digging up a dead body he'd helped bury less than twenty-four hours ago. 

That was if it would come to that. He hoped he would find the ring on the ground before he had to make that choice.

The sun was now a faint glow on the underbrush. It came up to his knees.

He thought he'd gone the wrong way at first. The trees didn't look quite right and the feeling he got once he stepped into a ring of surrounding trees made him feel like he was entering a different time zone. Then, he saw the large boulder marking this place as the bloody scene.

The smell of copper was in the air. It was hard to miss.

The sweet smell of the blood had long vanished. This was too old, too contaminated to make him hungry, but the thought of fresh blood made his gums ache. He pressed his tongue over his teeth, hoping it would soothe them. The ache went down some, but it was still there.

The freshly turned soil was soft beneath his feet. He crossed the clearing, following the smell of the blood until he was sure he was hovering over the kill site.

When he looked at it, the kicked dirt and the disheveled grass, it sent him back once more to when he'd found her.

Mantel was over her body, covered in blood. When he looked up, Ren thought he was a goner. He thought he was going to die last night.

Thinking about it now, it should have been obvious that Mantel wasn't going to kill him. Mantel hadn't been drinking from her. Ren was just so afraid his fear over road any rationality.

Shaking his head, he looked around. He kicked dirt, leaves, and the grass aside. He was tempted to get down on his hands and knees, but he thought it might be bad if his DNA or scent was on everything.

He laughed under his breath.

Did it matter though? His hands were on her body so it really didn't make sense.

That was his breaking point. He fell to his knees and began to comb the area inch by inch. He wasn't going to be leaving until he found that damn ring. Going home really wasn't an option.

Dirt clumped under his nails. His fingers and palms were stained. The sun was no longer casting on the ground. It wasn't fully set, but it was clear that this was all the light he was going to get.

The moon almost shined brighter than the sun had. He was able to at least make out some of the things lying on the ground. There were large and small twigs, beetles crawling in the dirt and crickets that jumped when he swept through the tall grass.

He hadn't come up with anything. There was no shine and no touch of metal.

With a heavy sigh, he sat back on his heels. The girl was buried just past the trees in front of him. The boulder to his side gave him something strong to hold onto as he got to his feet. He dusted the dirt off his pants.

"What are you doing here?"

He almost jumped out of his skin.

He whipped around.

Mantel was standing in the clearing. The moonlight showed the natural blond highlights in his short wavy hair. He was wearing black slacks and a white button-down shirt. He looked ridiculous standing in the middle of a forest when he looked ready for an office job interview.

Mantel looked Ren up and down. He frowned.

"I—uh…" What the Hell was he supposed to say? That he was going to dig up a dead girl's body because he lost a family heirloom?

It sounded like a fucking joke.

It might have been the thing to say because the next thing out of his mouth was a load of bullshit.

"Just…uh…making sure she was still here." He turned around, ducking his head to look at the untouched mound of dirt. "Yep! She is!"

Mantel narrowed his eyes.

Yeah. It was pretty obvious Ren wasn't there to make sure a corpse wasn't walking.

He backed up as Mantel took a step forward. Ren really didn't like the look in his eyes. It said Ren only had a few seconds to explain himself before Mantel attacked.

Mantel's eyes glowed red.

He was getting closer, barely three feet away. "Tell me. What are you doing here?"

Ren's mouth opened. Something about Mantel's eyes.

Oh fuck.

"My grandfather's ring. I lost it." They weren't the words he'd been meaning to say.

Mantel was right in front of him now. The red glow was impossible to look away from.

"Keep looking at me," he said. His voice was steady, calming in a way Ren didn't like. It was the voice of a predator about to catch its prey. "You're going to turn around and never come back to this place again."

Ren started to nod.

Wait. No.

Ren shook his head as hard as he could. His eyes closed. The red glow faded from his mind.

"You—" Ren whispered under his breath. "What did you do?"

He backed up until his legs hit the edge of the boulder. His back pressed against the cold surface. He slowly opened his eyes. Mantel took another step. The red glow had faded. A look of intrigue covered his face.

Ren's hands scurried over the rough surface of the rock, clutching onto anything he could.

A deep frown cut through Mantel's handsome face. He looked confused. Ren was too.

"You're kidding, right?"

That kind of language didn't sound right coming out his mouth. Mantel looked like he'd stepped out of a prep school pamphlet.

Ren pointed at Mantel's face.

"Your eyes…"

"I'm a vampire, obviously." Mantel rolled his eyes. "Magic, remember?"

Ren stumbled for words. "Halfy, remember."

He thought he saw a smile pull at Mantel's lips. "I guess we both have things to learn."

He stepped back. "Get out of here."

He was back to his hard self. A stone-cold unreadable beauty.

Ren stood his ground. "I'm not going anywhere."

Mantel let out a growl. "You can't be here! We made a deal."

Mantel went to grab Ren's arm, his eyes glowing red once more. Ren held up his hand, jerking it out of Mantel's reach.

"Turn your eyes off!" They died out and Mantel let out another sound. He was very expressive when he wanted to be.

Once Ren was sure he wasn't going to be influenced by whatever tricks Mantel was playing, he walked around the boulder. He made sure Mantel was in his line of sight the entire way around. Mantel glowered at him, arms crossed over his chest, and his foot tapping. If he was a ticking bomb, he would have went off already.

When Ren was on the other side of the boulder, he spoke up.

"I'm not leaving until I find the ring. Now, go off or something."

Ren couldn't actually believe he was talking to Mantel this way. Somewhere between seeing the confusion on Mantel's face and being entranced by his eyes, Ren had lost his fear. He thought he might be going mad.

"Alright, come on," Mantel said while waving Ren to come back around to him. "Away from the body."

Ren kept stepping toward the mound in the dirt. His pulse spiked when he imagined her face once more.

Mantel was growing more upset. His face was turning bright red. Ren thought he might have pissed him off.

Ren didn't care. He was still riding on a triumphant high.

He'd been cut off from vampires his entire life. He was still getting used to being so close to one. 

Mantel was annoying and a little self-centered. He was nothing like the vampires Ren had heard or read about. He knew most of it was fiction to scare humans. The vampires in Sangui always seemed like royalty from hundreds of years ago. 

He thought it was kinda funny that out of all the people he could get stuck with after finding a body, it was a vampire with an attitude.

The moonlight fell over Mantel's features like a silky hand reaching out toward an angel. Ren envied Mantel's posh clothes. He was practically dripping in money. For god's sake, he was walking round in shoes that had to cost more than Ren's house. In a fucking forest.

Ren was surprised when he felt not fear but anger. He hated Mantel. And it was more than his irritating personality that ground Ren's gears.

Mantel thought he was better than Ren. It was written all over his face.

Ren rolled his eyes and began to dig at the upturned soil. He hadn't thought it through when he'd come here. Getting his hands dirty hadn't been his plan, but he wasn't going to leave without the ring. The rest of his life depended on it. What worth was he if he couldn't even take care of a ring?

"Are you completely out of your mind?!" Mantel hauled Ren up by the back of his shirt. He almost strangled him as Ren tried to get away. Mantel tossed him on the other side of the boulder, almost ramming Ren's head into the side of it.

Ren glared up at him, chest heaving as he tried to find the strength to yell a curse at him. But he was cut off by voices that weren't theirs.

Ren and Mantel locked eyes.

Before Ren could react, Mantel dived toward the boulder beside him.

They both pressed back against it. Ren drew his legs up to his chest while Mantel peeked over the boulder. Ren swatted him and motioned for Mantel to get down. Mantel hissed at him, but when the voices got closer, they huddled together.

This was not how he thought the night would go. With Mantel against the length of his body, it was really hard to ignore how warm Mantel was. And how fit he was under all those clothes. Jealousy coursed through him, but it was soon forgotten as he tired to focus on what the newcomers were saying.

 They were older. Their voices were gruff. Men that were either in their late thirties or were heading toward early forties. Ren wanted to peak over the boulder like Mantel had. The curious part of him was itching to get a look though he knew it was a dumb idea. 

They must have been in the clearing now. The boulder wasn't even fifteen feet away from them.

He was scared now. It was the strongest it had ever been with a firm grip on his heart and every inch of his body.

He heard footsteps, the cracking of twigs underweight. His heart lodged in his throat. His head swam as he tried to steady his breathing. Whoever they were, they couldn't know what had happened. No one but him and Mantel knew what had gone down last night.

Except the murderer.

He closed his eyes, chastising himself for bringing that up. It only made his stomach upset. 

The killer could be one of them. His eyes flew open.

Mantel threw a hand over Ren's mouth, smothering the gasp he would have let out otherwise. Ren looked up at Mantel, shaking his head to get his hand off. Mantel stared back at him with a look that made Ren more terrified. Did he know what Ren was thinking? Did he think this could be the killer too?

"This is the spot." Ren could hear them. The first one had a gruff voice. He sounded like a smoker.

"She should have called," the other said. It was a higher pitch. "She shouldn't have come alone."

Not the killers then. Or maybe one of them was.

They stopped. Ren itched to know where they were and to run the hell out of there.

Mantel pressed his fingers harder into Ren's cheek. They were still looking at each other. Ren held Mantel's gaze, afraid that if he looked away, he might let out a scream. His hands came up to Mantel's and gripped hard onto his wrist. He wasn't trying to move his hand. The pressure was soothing in a way, calming, and he wanted to keep it there. It was a whole lot better than shivering against the rock alone.

If Mantel hadn't shown up, they might have seen Ren. And he didn't know what these guys were up to.

Mantel clenched his jaw. He was crouched beside Ren. Ren looked down at Mantel's feet. He was in an awkward position with one leg down on the ground and the other balancing him on one foot. Ren put an arm out around his back. The tension lessened on his face.

When he looked back at Ren again, Ren felt a jolt in his chest.

"What's the scanner say?"

"It's the spot, Malcolm. If she isn't here, she isn't here."

"She wouldn't have gone off on her own. She's too smart for that."

"Maybe she's hanging with Phil. You know how kids these days are. They're not always thinking about the Society."

"She was. Now help me search the area."

They kicked a few bunches of dirt and grass. They were shuffling around, getting closer to Ren and Mantel. Ren shivered as a breeze went by them. Mantel pressed harder against him. His warmth flooded Ren's body and his thoughts. His head was getting woozy and he didn't think it was the fear's fault.

A cell rung. The feet stopped just beside the boulder. If Mantel wasn't covering Ren's mouth, he would have let out a sigh.

"Hello?" They were walking back toward the other side of the clearing.

"Sounds like your problem," the man said. The one with the gruff voice. "We're here."

There was a second of silence.

"Malcolm, hand me the scanner." There was the rustling of clothing. Another second. Ren couldn't hear anything except for Mantel's hushed breaths. Ren's own heaving chest was lost to the pounding in his ears. A headache was forming at his temples.

"It's open. What do you want me to tell Cipher?" The man hummed. "Is Carla there by chance?"

He sighed. "She isn't."

They might have been talking about the girl. Ren's eyes flickered to where she was buried. Her name was Carla.

"We're heading back now. We'll meet you at the gate."

Their heavy footfalls almost seemed to shake the entire forest floor. Ren's hand pressed down onto a twig. He wanted to scream in pain, shake the thing out of his skin, but Mantel kept him down. It wasn't until a few minutes had passed after the last of their footsteps disappeared that Mantel removed his hand.

Ren gasped and clutched at his chest. It was a soft gasp that could barely be heard over him falling onto the ground.

"They were looking for her," he said.

Mantel's face was grim. "They're with the Hunter Society."

Ren didn't know what to say. He fell into silence. They both did. Mantel's eyes were on him, but also in a faraway place. He was thinking as Ren did. The Hunter Society. Ren should have known when they mentioned Society. But it was hard to believe the HS was still active.

"I thought they disbanded."

Mantel gave him a look. "Is that the official statement or just what you believe?"

Ren was floored. "Both?"

Mantel got up, dusting the dirt from his expensive white shirt and slacks. Ren bit back a retort about how it was Mantel's fault for dressing like that out in a forest. Where did he think he was going when he set out tonight?

Ren furrowed his brows. "How did you even know I was going to be here?"

Mantel turned away. "I didn't. I was making sure nothing had dug the body up."

Her body, Ren wanted to say. He pressed his lips together.

He stood up as well, his feet feeling more like jelly. The HS and the girl were connected. That made it more obvious that he had to get his ring. If her body was ever found, the HS would be all over it.

He swallowed. "What if they come back?"

Mantel waltzed over to where her body lay. He walked around it, scanning the area, and then nodded to himself.

"I've got a plan."

Ren raised a brow. "A plan?"

He sounded too pleased with himself while covered in dirt and leaves. One was currently sticking to the back of his shoulder. Ren wasn't going to tell him any time soon. 

"If you want your ring back, you'll help me."

Ren blinked. "You're going to force me into this again?"

Mantel plucked a stick from his sleeve. "Then you shouldn't have come out here. Anyway, you helped bury her. You'll help get rid of her."

He had a point. Not about Ren coming back here tonight, but the whole burying her thing. Though, he forced Ren to do that too.

He sagged against the boulder. "What's your plan then?"

Mantel said his next words like it was obvious.

"We're going to burn her."