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

“Fuck.” He groaned, leaned forward into the leaves and dirt and bits of branch Percival had brought down, unexpected pain jolting through his hands and arms, aching along his shoulders. Being stiff and cold like that for so long fucking hurt; he tried rubbing his wrists but his fingers were purple from cold and restricted blood flow and the rush now made them feel tight and tingly.


Still, he knew he couldn’t sit here trying to recover while the ground lurched under him and Dane got worse. The moon flickered like a flame, Sean felt thousands of eyes on him, and he scrambled for the crystal among the leaves. His fingers were too numb and clumsy to untie his feet; he’d have to hack the rope off like he’d done for his hands.


This took less long, but his feet had gone numb, too. He staggered up, crossed to Dane, and fell back to the ground, which seemed to greet him like gelatin. Shit. That was a bad sign. He checked Dane was still breathing and tilted him to get to his wrists.


Chapter 62