The Eternal Tomb Read Free Page B

had woken him.
    Crrrrackk!
    The sound was violent and close by. Oliver flicked a handle and the lid of his coffin yawned open. He sat up to find Phlox on the other side of the crypt. Sebastian stood nearby, head down, hands clasped behind his back.
    â€œGood morning, Oliver,” Phlox said, her tone businesslike. She was well-dressed in a sharp black blazer, a high-collared white shirt, and black pants. Her long platinum hair was pulled back and fastened with two sticks, yet one wild strand had sprung free and dangled in front of her face.
    â€œHey, Mom,” said Oliver. “What’s up?”
    â€œOh,” sighed Phlox, “just catching up on a little housecleaning.” With that, she raised an enormous sledgehammer and slammed it down—
    On Bane’s coffin.
    The wood exploded as the heavy stone head crashed into it. Splinters sprayed across the room. Phlox lifted the sledgehammer and struck again. The coffin lid imploded and a geyser of sleeping soil burst into the air. The sound rattled off the stone walls of the crypt.
    â€œThere we go,” said Phlox, another strand of hair coming free. Oliver noted the tight purse of her mouth, the turquoise glow in her eyes, the fierce v shape of her brow.…
    Crrrraaackk!
    â€œNice work, honey,” Sebastian said supportively. His eyes had begun to glow with emotion as well, his face similarly tense.
    Phlox’s next swing crashed through the bottom of the bed and into the dresser drawers below. The sledgehammer came away wrapped in ratty black T-shirts and torn jeans. Phlox shook the clothes free, then swung the hammer again.
    Oliver watched his brother’s coffin splinter apart, collapsing into a pile of broken wood and clothes and soil, and felt his face grow tight as well.
    Finally, this was good-bye.
    The sledgehammer head clanged to the stone floor. Phlox turned to Sebastian. “Would you like a turn?” she asked solemnly.
    Sebastian looked down at his hands. His left, though almost fully regrown, was still slightly smaller than the right, and a ghostly white. Sebastian was finally able to do most of the normal things that an adult vampire could do, but he shook his head. “You can finish.”
    â€œOliver?” Phlox asked, holding the sledgehammer toward him.
    â€œYou do it,” said Oliver quietly.
    â€œAll right, then.” Phlox swung ferociously, crushing the pile of remains and even cracking the floor in the process.
    Oliver was relieved to finally see his parents releasing their emotions, and also that he’d gotten Bane’s hidden objects out of the coffin just in time.
    Phlox stopped again, this time letting the hammer fall from her hand and clatter to the floor. She stared hard at the wreckage, her eyes burning. “Shall we?” she whispered.
    â€œOf course,” said Sebastian. He gathered armfuls of the tangled wood and clothing. “Oliver, would you like to help?”
    â€œYeah.” Oliver slipped out of bed and filled his arms as well. He followed Sebastian upstairs. Within his load was one of Bane’s leather jackets, which still carried a faint scent of Bane’s many noxious colognes. The smell made Oliver’s gut clench. He never imagined that he could have missed his annoying brother this much. Then again, until the moment before Bane was slain, Oliver had had no idea how similar they were. It was so unfair.
    Phlox followed Oliver as they climbed to the surface floor of the house. They slipped through the steel door, around the broken refrigerator, and carried the remains across the dilapidated space, through a huge hole in the far wall, to a giant stone fireplace. Rain fell gently into the room from rotted holes in the floors above.
    Sebastian tossed his armful in. Oliver did the same. Phlox followed, then pulled a tiny glass jar from her pocket and hurled it at the pile. The jar exploded and a thick pink substance splattered onto the remains. It was jellied