THIRTEEN 5 page

Bones made an irritable noise. “Unless one of Marie’s people went behind her back–and that’s unlikely–or one of mine did, I’m at a loss.” His fingers drummed on his leg. “Perhaps Don had a hand in it. What name did he use to have those pills delivered to my home, Kitten?”

“Kathleen Smith.” I scoffed at the thought that my uncle would be so stupid as to use my real name. “And if you factor in the time frame, just a day from me telling him where we were, it doesn’t fit. We know Gregor was in Paris and London when we were there, so he’d have to have left soon after we did to make it here. That rules out Don.”

Bones stared at me. “You’re right. Only Charles knew where we were bound to when we left his house. I don’t reckon he ran an ad about it. Marie knew after we arrived. That leaves few people who could have informed Gregor, and they’re all in this car.”

That woke up Band‑Aid and Hopscotch. Liza gave a widened glance into the rearview mirror. I tensed, wondering if one of the two vampires would abruptly attack.

Neither did. They looked back at Bones, and he met their gaze, his expression cold and hooded. Without saying it, I knew he was weighing the option of killing them.

“Sire,” Band‑Aid began.

“Save it.” Shortly. “After Rattler, I don’t put betrayal past anyone but three people, and you’re not one of them. Still, no need to be hasty. Neither of you will leave my sight until we’ve arrived, and then you’re going to be secluded. If Gregor still finds us, we’ll know it wasn’t you.”

Each of them had a slightly stunned look to his face. Hopscotch recovered the fastest and nodded.

“I wouldn’t betray you. I welcome the opportunity to prove it.”

“As do I.” Band‑Aid seconded, giving a furtive glance to Liza.

“Whatever you need me to do,” she said softly.

“I won’t force you.” Bones almost sighed. “Yet I would ask, Liza.”

She smiled in such a sad way, it even hurt me to see it. “You’ll feel safer. It’s such a small thing to do for you.”

It sucked giving the people around you a suspicious eye. Big dark cave. It was sounding better and better.

“I know I only just met her, but somehow, I don’t think it was Marie,” I said.

Bones raised a brow. “Why not?”

“Well…she told me a weird story about poisoning her husband. At first I thought it was just to scare me, but it was after she said if I was married to Gregor, she’d back his side, since vampires can’t divorce.”

“Really?” Bones mulled it. “That’s interesting. Oh, everyone knows Marie killed her husband when she was human. What I’ve never heard before is how she did it.”

“I thought she hit him with an ax,” was Liza’s response. “That’s the story I was told.”

“Interesting,” Bones repeated. “Why do you believe this makes her sympathetic to our side, luv? Seems she stated whom she’d support.”

I’d rather not say.

I shifted on the seat, wishing I’d shut up before.

“You’re blocking me.” His eyes flashed green.

Yeah, I was keeping him out of my mind with all the mental armor I could muster. Big mouth. Why can’t you just leave well enough alone?

It wasn’t directed to him; I was berating myself. There were a few things I’d wanted to discuss privately with Bones after meeting Majestic. This wasn’t private by anyone’s standards.

“We agreed not to do this,” Bones went on. “Hide any knowledge or speculation. Whatever it is, Kitten, tell me.”

I blew out a deep breath. He wasn’t going to like this.

“Marie told me Gregor could return my memories, and that you and Mencheres knew it. She wondered why you didn’t want me to remember what happened. On the street back there, she had the chance to demand I get my memories back. We were in her backyard, outnumbered; she could have insisted. But she let us go. I think she did it…because she believes I am bound to Gregor, and she knows she’d have to back him if it was proven.”

Bones went absolutely still. His glare intensified until it felt like I was being hit with emerald lasers.

“Do you want to remember your time with him?”

I took another deep breath, longer than the first one.

“It bothers me that there’s over a month of my life I don’t know about. You should have told me, Bones. You promised you weren’t going to hide things from me anymore, either, but I had to find this out from Marie.”

“I didn’t tell you because I wasn’t certain. In any event, I wasn’t going to let that filthy cur put his hands on you, have your mouth on him–”

“Are you serious?” I interrupted. “Where in all of this did you think I’d kiss him?”

Bones shot me a harsh glance. “The power to open your mind is in Gregor’s blood, as he said. You’d have to bite him.”

“I didn’t know how it worked.”

“Right, but you’d do it if you could,” Bones said with such accusation that I clenched my hands to keep from shaking him.

“If someone ripped over a month of memory from your life, you’d want to know what it contained, too.” Spoken without shouting. Good for me.

“No, I wouldn’t.”

His tone wasn’t calm. It was almost a snarl.

“If someone took from my memory an event that might unravel our marriage, I wouldn’t want to remember it under any circumstances, but perhaps our marriage means more to me than it does to you.”

There went my Zen moment of tranquil chi. Blackout rage, aisle five!

“The only person who could unravel our marriage is you. Let’s say I did find out I married Gregor. Does the thought that there might be a chance for you to be single again sound too tempting to you?”

“You’re the only one admitting to looking for a loophole,” Bones replied with equal fury. “Fancy the look of Gregor? Wonder if you might have preferred shagging him to me? Is that what you want to remember?”

I was so insulted, it made me incensed.

“You’ve lost your mind!”

I shoved him, but he didn’t move. “I bled my first time with Danny, got it? Or do you need me to draw you a picture?”

Under normal circumstances, I would never say something so personal with a crowd, but rage is funny. It makes you oblivious to everything else.

Bones drew his face right up next to mine. “That sod could have shagged you all night, and you’d have still bled with Danny later. All Mencheres would have needed to do was give you his blood once he found you. Heals all wounds, right? If they took you from Gregor shortly after the first time he’d bedded you, you’d have had a simple wound that could have been healed.”

“That’s…” I was so aghast at the idea, I couldn’t begin to respond. “That’s bullshit!” I finally managed.

“Really?” Bones leaned closer. “I happen to know differently, because I’ve done it.”

The soft way he said the words made them even more emphatic. Fury, denial, and jealousy spat out my words faster than I could think.

“Damn you for being a conscienceless whore.”

Bones didn’t take his eyes off me, nor was his response any louder.

“That’s what you married, Kitten. A conscienceless whore. But if you recall, I never pretended to be anything else.”

Yeah, I knew he’d been a gigolo when he was human, but that’s not what stung. If only his screwing around had stopped once he didn’t need the money to survive, I thought bitterly. But no. After he became a vampire, he did it for fun, as he just reminded me.

I didn’t want him to know how much his past still had the power to hurt me, so I drew my mental shields around me. They were my only defense to shut him out. Then I looked out the window. I couldn’t bear the sight of his beautiful face at the moment.

Bones let go of me and sat back. We didn’t speak the rest of the trip.

NINE

YEE‑HAW!”

The cry made me shake my head. A bar with an inside rodeo. Nope, I wasn’t kidding. It even had a live, snorting bull. For the listed price, proof of prior experience, several signed waivers, and a complete lack of common sense, anyone could ride it, too.

Bones and I were still barely speaking. I told him about the rumor of me wanting to turn into a ghoul, but beyond that, we didn’t talk much. Nothing else was going on, either, and that may have been mutual. When we reached the Fort Worth motel after a straight day of driving, I swallowed the pills Don had sent to me and passed out. The most intimate moment I’d had with Bones was when he woke me with his wrist against my mouth. I’d swallowed his blood, declared that I needed to shower, and that was that. He was dressed and waiting for me when I came out, coolly detached with nothing but business to discuss. The invisible wall between us was worse than fighting, in my opinion.

Bones was meeting a ghoul contact at this bar. He didn’t like the ghoul rumor going around about me and wanted to see how seriously it was being taken. Spade was meeting us here, too, since Hopscotch, Band‑Aid, and Liza were being quarantined.

Fabian proved helpful by checking out the bar first, making sure this wasn’t a setup with the ghoul. Only two things cheered me from my current depressed mood. My best friend Denise lived in Texas now, so she was coming tonight. The other plus to the evening was that Cooper, my friend and former team member, was coming, too. Spade was picking both of them up.

When they walked into the bar, I was so glad to see them that I almost shoved past people in my way. Denise returned my hug, albeit with less desperate fervor, and Cooper was somewhat taken aback by my fierce embrace.

Spade came in behind them. He cast an appraising glance at Bones and me while he said hello. No doubt mentally weighing our friction.

“I say, Crispin, you’d look better if you were being nailed inside a wooden box,” he commented. His gaze flicked around the bar with mild distaste. “No doubt this wretched music’s to blame. I don’t know why country singers feel the need to set depression to a melody.”

Denise smiled. “I think this place is great. Is that a bull?”

“You bet.” As if commanded, the animal snorted unhappily. He and I were in perfect agreement.

“Oh, I wish I could ride it,” she said.

It was good to see Denise smile. In truth, I hadn’t seen her much at all recently, smiling or otherwise. After her husband Randy was killed, Denise stayed with Bones and me for a few weeks. Then she went back to Virginia, saying she wanted to get away from everything supernatural.

I couldn’t blame her. It was a supernatural attack that had killed Randy; why wouldn’t Denise want to get away from the reminders of that? Then she moved to Texas about two months ago, remarking it was the only way she could keep her mother from trying to set her up with other men. Denise wasn’t ready to come out of mourning yet. I couldn’t blame her there, either.

“Cooper, mate, good to have you with us,” Bones said. “Stick with the ladies whilst Charles and I go off for a moment. I’m sure Kitten wants to hear all about what’s going on with her old team.”

With that, he turned away. Spade went with him, leaving the three of us standing on the outskirts of the bull ring.

Son of a bitch.

Not that I didn’t want to spend time with Denise and Cooper, but it was my ass they were discussing with the ghoul contact. Seemed only fair that I got to be in on the details.

“…remodeled the Wreck room to include…are you listening, Commander?”

Only then did Cooper’s stream of dialogue penetrate. “Ah, sorry, Coop. I need a drink,” I said, heading for the nearest bar.

I ordered a gin, no tonic, and drank it before it even hit the wooden counter. The bartender gave me a look as I slid the empty shot glass at him for a refill.

“That’ll be nine‑fifty, ma’am.”

“Of course,” I began, reaching into my jeans before I froze in embarrassment. I didn’t have a wallet on me. No, the only currency I carried was about ten pounds of silver under my shirt and in my pants. God, this was the last straw. Wait, bartender, while I find Bones so I can get my allowance.

“Here, keep the change. And pour two more just like it.”

Cooper threw money on the table. Denise sat next to me, her hazel eyes wide.

“Cat, are you okay? You look like you might blow a fuse.”

The bartender filled the drinks and passed them over. Cooper handed me the third one after I gulped the second as quickly as the first.

“I’m fine.”

No use articulating the many things that were wrong. Misery might love company, but Denise had had enough of that without me piling on.

“You don’t seem fine.”

I didn’t want to get into it, but I didn’t want to tell her that. Instead, I sought for a distraction. “Look, the bull’s out!”

With Denise’s attention fixed on the amateur cowboy struggling on top of the bull, I was able to avoid her scrutiny. Across the crowd of people, I saw Bones nudge Spade, then they turned their attention to a tall, very thin, very dead man who approached. Must be the ghoul contact. Soon the three of them melted into the crowd.

I sighed, covering it with a smile as Denise turned back to me.

“That’s so cool! Let’s grab more liquor, Cat. Maybe you can jump on next.”

I’d have loved to drink more liquor, but since Bones and Spade just went off with the contact, I couldn’t very well go over to him and demand his wallet.

“Denise, how much money do you have on you?”

She frowned. “Oh crap, I left my purse in Spade’s car.”

Cooper reached again in his pants. “I should have brought my credit card. This should last…” he pulled out a wad of twenties and gave it a critical glance “…ten minutes.”

Good old Coop. Can’t say the man didn’t know how the half‑dead could pack it away.

“I’ll pay you back,” I promised, feeling like a poor relation.

Cooper’s prediction turned out to be wrong. It was almost half an hour before his cash ran out. Of course, I hadn’t counted on the nearby men offering to buy Denise and me drinks. I refused, but Denise took one drink per male offering, thanking the guys but giving a firm “no” to a second. Most of them took it with friendly, mock disappointment, but a large guy with bushy brown hair needed a little more persuading.

“Aw, come on, honey,” he said to Denise, “let’s dance.”

His hand landed on her leg. My brows shot up. Cooper started to stand when I smacked the man’s offensive paw aside.

“My friend only dances with me.”

Denise smiled. “Sorry.”

The guy gave me an evil, disgusted look, and walked away, his three friends in tow. Too bad, Bushy Hair, I thought.

“Nicely done, Commander,” Cooper commented.

“Stop calling me that.”

I didn’t mean to sound so sharp. Cooper just didn’t realize the title kept reminding me that my position as leader was forever gone. Right now, sitting at a bar trying without success to drown my sorrows, I felt pretty useless.

Denise glanced between the two of us. “I think we should get my purse now,” she said.

Cooper and I walked Denise to Spade’s car. It was unlocked, to my surprise. When I questioned that, Denise shrugged and said Spade had remarked that locks just kept honest people out. Her purse was still tucked under the passenger seat where she’d left it. Denise had just slung it over her shoulder when the slurred drawl behind us stopped her.

“Well, now, boys, lookie what we found.”

I’d heard them approach. Their smell, loud steps, and obvious heartbeats made them far from stealthy, but since they were human, I hadn’t been concerned.

“Beat it, guys,” I said.

Bushy Hair from the bar didn’t stop. Neither did his two pals, who were equally large.

“Now we was just sayin’,” Bushy Hair began with a slur that revealed how drunk he was, “that it weren’t fair two such pretty gals was only playin’ with this here Negro.”

“Negro?”

Cooper repeated the word with open challenge. God, a trio of bigots. Just what the doctor didn’t order.

“I’ll handle this,” I said coldly. These dumb‑asses didn’t know I was the most dangerous of the group. They kept concentrating on Cooper, seeing only the well‑built male as the threat.

“Here’s some really good advice: Start walking. I’m in a bad mood, so get the fuck out of here before you get on my last nerve.”

I didn’t bother reaching in my clothes to get my silver. On humans, I didn’t need weapons. Spade had parked in the far back corner of the lot. These chumps thought that spelled opportunity, but they were wrong.

It did surprise me, though, when Bushy Hair pulled a gun from underneath his shirt. He aimed it at Cooper.

“You.” There was an ugly resonation to his voice. “You’re gonna sit on that ground while we make nice with your gals.”

“Cooper.” It came from me in an incensed growl. I wasn’t risking him or Denise getting shot. “Do as he says.”

Cooper had been following my orders for a long time. He made a furious noise but sat as directed. From the way Bushy Hair handed off the gun to his friend, he was satisfied.

“That’s real smart, redhead.” He leered. “Now, you just stand by my buds while your friend and I get in this backseat.”

I went right to his friends like he said. After all, one of them had the gun. If I quietly coldcocked them, there’d be no nasty scene–

Bushy Hair only got to place his hand on Denise before I felt a whoosh. I had an instant to tense before I realized who it was, and then there was a sickening thump. Or, to be more accurate, a splat.

It was difficult to say who had the most horrified look on their faces–the two men Bones now had dangling from their necks, or Denise as she stared at the remains of Bushy Hair’s head. Spade stood next to her, muttering something foul, then he kicked the twitching figure of Bushy Hair hard enough to have him ricochet off her car. Spade had flung the man to the ground so viciously, his head looked like a watermelon dropped from five stories.

“Denise, are you all right?” Spade asked.

“He’s…. he’s…” Denise didn’t seem to know what to say.

“Really, really dead,” I supplied, relieved that two vampires flying at high speeds over a parking lot hadn’t attracted attention. “Bones, let them go, you’re killing them.”

“That’s the point,” he answered, still holding them by their throats. “I’d break their necks, but that would be too quick.”

They kicked and clawed at his wrists while their tongues protruded from their mouths. Denise looked like she was going to throw up.

“Why did you have to kill him?” she whispered to Spade.

“Because of what he intended to do,” Spade replied, low and fierce. “No one deserves to live after that.”

Cooper gave the body a pitiless glance. “We need to move him, Commander.”

I didn’t bother to comment about the title. First things first.

“Bones.”

He glanced at me as if there weren’t two dying men in his hands. Their limbs were moving slower now. One of them urinated, darkening the blue in his jeans. Clearly, he wasn’t just trying to scare them.

“At least don’t do it here.” I stalled. “This is too public, and you’re freaking Denise out. Throw them in the trunk, and we’ll fight about it on the way out. If you win, you get to strangle them twice.”

His lip curled. “I know what you’re trying to do, luv, but in this case, you make a valid point.”

He dropped them, and they fell like twin bags of bricks. Harsh, gurgling noises came from them as they began to breathe again.

I heard some people approach. They were laughing, minding their own business–and about to stumble onto a messy murder scene and two half‑strangled men.

“Spade, take our car and get Denise out of here,” I said. “You can meet up with us later. Cooper, open the trunk, let’s get him in here.”

“Blue Forerunner, mate, other side of the lot,” Bones directed, tossing keys to Spade. Another set was passed to him in the same manner. “Ring you on the morrow.”

Spade took Denise away, pausing only to stop the people from coming over with a flash of green.

“Get back inside, you’re staying longer,” he instructed them. They nodded, did a one‑eighty, and returned to the bar. Poor folks would probably stay all night.

“Cooper, I don’t want you getting bloody, you can’t green‑eye someone into forgetting about it,” I said as I hefted the lifeless man into the trunk. “Grab one of the others and toss him in.”

Cooper complied, picking up the nearest guy and shoving him into the trunk.

Bones lifted the remaining man and shook him. “If I hear a single peep out of either of you, I’ll shut you up the permanent way. Now, before I lock you in the boot, where’s your car?”

“Unngghh,” the guy in his grasp said. “Unngghh…”

“You damaged his windpipe, he can’t talk,” I noted.

“Indeed.” Bones scored the tip of his finger across a fang, smiled wolfishly into the man’s terrified face, and thrust his bloody finger into his mouth. “Now, answer me. Softly. Or I’ll rip your tongue out and ask the other bloke.”

With even that small drop of Bones’s blood, the man could speak again, if not very intelligibly.

“…white ’ickup ’ruck…”

“The white pickup truck with the Confederate flag near the front?” Bones queried with another shake. “That it?”

“…essss…”

“Who’s got the keys?”

A wracking cough, then a pained moan followed his response. “Kenny…’ocket…’illed him…”

“In the dead bloke’s pocket?”

“Unngh.”

“Kitten, if you would?”

I began digging inside the pants of the body. Nothing, front or back. Then I patted down the shirt pockets. Bingo.

“Here.”

“Cooper, take their ride and drive it to Twenty‑eighth and Weber Street. Wait there, we’ll pick you up when we’re through.”

“Keep your cell handy, just in case,” I added, not commenting about the irony of a black man driving a truck with a Rebel flag.

“Right then, mate.” Bones dropped the man into the trunk and slammed the lid down. “Watch your heads.”

TEN

CANDLERIDGE PARK’S SIGN SAID THERE WERE a number of scenic trails and nature paths, but that wasn’t why we were there. No, we were there to bury a body. Hopefully, just one.

Fabian floated above the trees, having hitched inside Spade’s car without a word. He had to be touching something to travel long distances. The exception was if he was in a ley line, which I still didn’t understand. Something about invisible energy currents that acted like spiritual highways. Later, I’d ask him about it in more detail. Right now, I was arguing with Bones. Again.

“Spade acting in the heat of the moment is one thing, but if you kill these guys now, it’ll be in cold blood, Bones. They should go to jail, plus get some brainwashing to have them march in every Take Back the Night parade, not to mention civil rights, as soon as they’re let out. But they have families who don’t deserve to grieve over their sorry dead asses.”

“Everyone has someone who cares for them,” Bones replied without pity. “Even monsters. It’s not fair, but it doesn’t change the necessity.”

“The gun wasn’t loaded,” I muttered, switching tactics. “I checked. Besides, it’s not like anything would have happened. I had it under control–”

“Is that even the bloody point?”

Exasperated, Bones shut off the engine and turned to face me.

“You can’t hear their thoughts. I can. This isn’t the first time they’ve done such a thing, and even if you stopped them and flogged them into hysterical apologies, their intentions were the same. If they weren’t human, would you be arguing with me over killing them?”

He had me there. From the look in his eyes, he knew it, too.

“Vampires and ghouls have their own rules.” I tried again. “They’d know what would happen if they did such a thing. These bozos didn’t get a copy of that playbook. They deserve jail time, yes, but not death.”

Bones snorted. “Why didn’t it occur to them that they were doing something so appalling, if they were caught, they’d be executed on the spot? It’s not my fault that vampires have a fairer form of punishment for rapists than humans do.”

I put my head in my hands. It was aching. Granted, it probably hurt a lot less than Bushy Hair’s must have when it hit the parking lot concrete. Logically, Bones was correct. But it still felt wrong.

“You’ve obviously made up your mind, so do whatever you’re going to do. You’re too strong for me to stop you.”

Bones gave me an unfathomable stare before climbing out of the car and opening the trunk. I listened as he made the two men carry their friend into the woods. Then Bones ordered them to dig with their hands. It was maybe forty minutes before they were done. Then I heard something like a resigned sigh.

“This goes against my better judgment, Kitten…Look right here, both of you. You will go to the nearest police station and make a confession of every blasted crime you’ve ever committed, excluding only this burial tonight. When you are arrested, you will refuse an attorney, and when you are in front of a judge, you will plead guilty. You will spend your allotted time behind bars knowing you deserve every second of it. Now take your worthless lives and go.”

When Bones came back to the car, I was still wiping at my eyes. He shut the driver’s door and let out a self‑deprecating snort.

“Has it been so wretched lately that letting scoundrels escape punishment is the highlight of our time together?”

The words were flippant; the expression on his face wasn’t. It was filled with a regret that I caught before he masked it back into composure.

“It’s because this shows that you still care, despite how crappy things have been lately.”

There was that flash across his face again. “Did you really think I’d ceased to care? Kitten, I care so much it wrecks me.”

I hurtled myself across the car, latching my arms around him and feeling the mind‑numbing relief of his answering embrace.

“I can’t believe I was so pissed before about being unemployed and without a wallet,” I choked, realizing how absurd that was compared to what really mattered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” I kissed him, a deep, searching kiss that wiped out the estrangement of the past several days. “How fast can you make it back to the motel?”

His gaze lit up with lovely, hungry green.

“Very fast.”

“Good.” It was almost a moan. “I’ll call Cooper and tell him we’ll see him in the morning.”

Bones rolled down his window. “Fabian,” he called out, “get your ghostly arse back in the car, we’re leaving.”

Bones did make good time back to the Red Roof Inn. The thought of that uncomfortable mattress with those thin blankets sounded sinfully appealing to me now. Yet while we were waiting at a stoplight about a mile away, pain sliced into my skull.

…understand this man will stop at nothing, and you’ll never be safe…

“Gregor,” I breathed, so low it was barely a sound.

“Where?” Bones whipped his head around.

…ensure your protection, but you must trust me, chérie…

“Oh, Jesus,” I whispered. “Bones…I think he’s at the hotel!”

Bones made a U‑turn, then hit the accelerator. Brakes squealed, and other vehicles slammed to a stop while horns blared. He hadn’t bothered to wait for the light.

“Fabian,” Bones said in a tight voice, “go back to the hotel to check. We’ll be at the gates of the park we just left.”

“I will be quick.” Fabian promised, and he vanished. We didn’t even have to slow down.

Bones continued to floor it, checking the rearview mirror. After several miles, he pulled over at a gas station.

“Come on, luv, time to switch cars.”

We got out. The man fueling his Honda next to us only had time to say, “What the–?” before Bones hit him with his gaze.

“This is your car now,” he said. “And yours is mine.”

“My car,” the man repeated, eyes glazing.

“Right. Go home and clean it, it’s ghastly dirty.”

“Wait until he starts on the trunk,” I mumbled, getting into the man’s vehicle.

Bones drove less aggressively this time, but he still went way above the speed limit. Instead of the direct route to the park, he took side roads. Once we reached the park, Bones pulled under a tree, shutting off the engine and the headlights.

In the quiet, my accelerated breathing sounded too loud. “Do you–do you think–”

“Why do you believe Gregor’s at the motel?”

He asked it as nonchalantly as if he were inquiring, paper or plastic? That didn’t fool me. His knuckles were almost white on the steering wheel.

How to explain? “I got these sharp pains in my head, and I could hear him, only he wasn’t talking to me now . I think it was memories of what he’d said before, and the only other time it happened was when he was close, on the street in New Orleans.”

A pause. Then, “What did he say?”

“You couldn’t hear it?” That surprised me.

“No.” The mildness drained from his tone. “Else I wouldn’t ask.”

“Um, okay. The first one was quick, just a fragment. Something about there not being a cherry farm in France. This time, he was warning me that someone was after me.”

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 502