Read Online The Gravedigger's Brawl by Abigail Roux - Free Book Online Page B

He exhaled shakily. Heard a faint noise. Like someone drumming their fingers on a wooden table in the distance.
    Ash took a tentative step forward and licked his lips. “Hello?” he called out, surprised at how shaken he was. Houses this old creaked and groaned all the time. Not that he’d ever heard this particular house make that particular noise, but still . . .
    The drumming seemed to fade into the echo of his voice as it filtered through the bar. Had he really heard it, or was it just his imagination? He’d been listening to that damned broken A/C unit bang and clang for so long he’d be hearing things for days.
    When no other sounds presented themselves, he leaned back against the glass of the door and let his head hang. He snorted and laughed—
    Then hopped away and shouted at a loud banging on the glass beside his head. He whirled and staggered back from the door, his hand over his heart as Caleb, on the other side of the door, chuckled.
    â€œMorning!” Caleb called as he slid his key into the lock and opened it. “Little skittish this morning, are we?”
    Ash glared at him, still holding his hand over his heart. “Asshole,” he huffed. “Scared the shit out of me.”
    â€œI can see that.” Caleb shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the coat rack beside the door. “What’s going on, Sir Yipsalot?”
    â€œShut up.” Ash patted his chest and then ran his hands through his hair in embarrassment. “Just . . . thought I heard something upstairs right before you got here.”
    Caleb’s smile vanished. “You the only one here?”
    â€œYeah, I got here about thirty minutes ago. I swear, if Ryan’s up there with some girl, I’m going to kick his ass.”
    Caleb raised a dubious eyebrow and smirked.
    â€œI’d put up a valiant effort, at least!” Ash turned away and went in search of the screwdriver he’d chucked into the unknown earlier.
    Caleb circled the unit Ash had set in the middle of the floor. “Air conditioning’s broken again?”
    â€œAnd that’s not the only thing,” Ash grumbled. “It’s just the only thing I couldn’t fix.”
    Caleb sighed as he frowned down at the broken unit. “Well. It’s not like the upstairs really needs it anyway. We just kept it running to keep the wood from warping with the humidity.”
    â€œYeah, I know, I’ve been here,” Ash said with a little more acid than Caleb deserved. “It should be okay ’til spring. Over the winter we can get someone to come in and extend the central system to the upper floors.”
    â€œThat’ll cost an assload of money.”
    â€œBut then we could use the upstairs and expand,” Ash said. It wasn’t the first time they’d had this discussion.
    â€œI suppose. We could just buy a new unit.” Caleb waved a hand at the A/C. It popped at his feet, sizzling. “Or not.”
    The unit popped again and then sparked. Caleb hopped back as Ash dove for the bar. The unit spit sparks again and began to sputter flames from inside as Ash pulled up onto the bar and reached over, stretching and grabbing a dirty dishrag. He pounced on the unit with the damp rag, beating out the flames as Caleb scrambled for the fire extinguisher. They managed to get it out before it did any real damage, and more importantly, before the smoke reached the detectors on the ceiling and set off the sprinklers.
    â€œWow,” Caleb said as they stood side by side, looking at the charred unit warily and waiting for more flames.
    â€œYeah,” Ash said, panting as he held the singed dishrag in his hand.
    â€œGood bloody thing you took it down when you did.”
    Ash didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if it had caught fire while in the window upstairs. “Kicking it may have hastened its self-destruction,” Ash admitted.
    â€œHuh.”
    â€œGlad it