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hard snap and carried down into the bowels of an open grave.

 
    “I told you it was a woman, Pike. I saw her in the light, clear as day.”
    Small and fat and angry, the man shone his flashlight down the ornate stone recess decorated with a carved chair and a vase of granite roses.
    Nothing moved now. His companion snickered. “Ain’t nothing down there, fool, and our buyers are waiting. Get your head out of your arse and get back over to the meet point.”
    “But I saw her—”
    “ Forget her!”
    The footsteps hammered away, back into the shadowed paths of the graveyard. Wind blew over the old stone monuments, ornate headstones and weathered graves, part of a forgotten past.
    The night was silent again. There was no one nearby to hear the faint rumble of stone somewhere beneath the old mausoleum, the ancestral graveyard of the family of Alasdair, with holdings in France, Ireland and Greyhaven near Skye.

     
    Maddie came awake slowly, wincing at the pain that locked around her forehead. She turned dizzily and then coughed, gulping in musky, dank air. Memories returned slowly.
    The graveyard.
    The man who had followed her through the shadows.
    Most of all, she remembered the warning fog.
    She sat up and studied the darkness. Where was he? She hadn’t imagined the hand that had grabbed her. “Hello?”
    No answer.
    But Maddie knew someone had rescued her. He had to be close by. “Who are you? Why did you—”
    “Cease your clamor, girl.” The low voice boomed out of the shadows with such force that Maddie jumped. Okay, this was not funny. She was in a graveyard, dragged down into some kind of mausoleum. She had witnessed an intended drug deal, and the men nearby would be waiting for her.
    This is going to make a really bad story for Teague—assuming she could actually tell him, which she couldn’t until she got safely out of this graveyard.
    “I appreciate you grabbing me when you did. Things were getting ticklish up there. So…who are you?”
    She heard the slow tread of feet in the darkness. “I might well ask you the same. Who are you, and why have you come to this place?”
    “Some men were chasing me. I didn’t mean to trespass or anything. I just needed to hide until they went away. They had a drug deal going on up in the cemetery.”
    Maddie had a sudden, horrible thought. What if he was part of the drug deal? What if this spot was a clever meeting place?
    “I believe that I asked for your name, girl. I am not in the custom of being disobeyed.”
    Okay, he might have rescued her, but the creep was weird. Maddie was getting angry now. His words were odd, and why didn’t he show his face?
    “I don’t much care how you are usually treated. Who lurks around a graveyard anyway?” She didn’t wait for an answer. She slid an arm along the damp stone wall, feeling a trickle of water.
    They must be underground. That would explain the seepage.
    Quietly she felt her way forward. She didn’t have a clue where she was going, but staying where she was would be totally stupid. She didn’t like the cold, commanding tone of the man’s voice.
    She didn’t expect to hear a sudden rumble of laughter. The sound seemed awkward, as if it surprised the man as much as it did her.
    “A most amusing question. I am not certain how to begin explaining that.”
    “While you think about it, how about you hold down the laughter? I don’t want those creeps to hear. I’m pretty sure they’re armed and dangerous.”
    The laughter grew cold. “Armed? I think that their arms will pose no threat to me. But as you say, caution may be prudent.”
    Maddie kept moving, her hand to the wall; but the voice moved too, as if he was following her.
    She swallowed a knot of fear. “Want to explain why you talk so funny? I mean, it is 2012.”
    Again the low, rough laughter. “Is it indeed? An age of noise and great chaos, not to my liking at all. But when duty summons, one must follow.”
    More of this weird talk. Who the heck