Dane's a Decrypter down on his luck -- after accidentally dispatching the wrong creature, he's sent to a small town where the cryptids he hunts are sparse. Crypt Coffee becomes his business front, but instead of a thrilling new mission on the side, he's stuck sending ghosts back to where they came from. Dane can annoy customers, at least, and tries to scare off Professor Sean Sanderson when he starts poking around too much.<br><br>But Sean isn’t about to stay away. Not when he hears about the murder of a former student, and definitely not if young, exciting Dane has information about it. But the more he allows himself to get dragged into this supernatural world of monsters and ghosts, the more the danger escalates. And if Sean and Dane aren’t careful, tracking down a murderer who can use magic might just get them killed.

Bad Seed

“Take care of yourself,” said Dane. When he glanced at Ned, the ghost’s expression was closed off, neither joking nor concerned, just blank. Almost eerily blank. “Don’t engage. Sometimes they can be nasty pieces of work.”


“I’ve been around a while, thanks.”


Dane thought he should feel insulted at that, but really he was just tired and irritated. It was late, his report to the Order was overdue, and they were going to start riding his ass for it. Worst of all, hewas thinking about that damned professor again, whatever his name was. He didn’t want to deal with Eliza’s bout of ethereal indigestion. He turned away from the grave.


“Anything else going on I should know about?”


“I don’t fucking know, Ned, you tell me.”


“Some other grave rumblings. Nothing you need to worry about. Some people in to look at a plot—I’d bet on them burying someone soon, but I seem to have no currency.”


“Right. Anything not in the graveyard I should know about?”


Chapter 5