Available soon from Avon BooksIgnoring a ghost is a lot more difficult
than you’d think. For starters, walls don’t
hinder their kind, so although I shut the
door in the face of the specter loitering
outside my house, he followed me inside
as if invited. My jaw clenched in
irritation, but I began unloading my
groceries as though I hadn’t noticed. Too
soon, I was done. Being a vampire
married to another vampire meant that my
shopping list was pretty short.
“This is ridiculous. You can’t keep
shunning me forever, Cat,” the ghost
muttered.
Yeah, ghosts can talk, too. That made
them even harder to ignore. Of course, it
didn’t help that this ghost was also my
uncle. Alive, dead, undead . . . family had
a way of getting under your skin whether
you wanted them to or not.
Case in point: Despite my vow not to
talk to him, I couldn’t keep from replying.
“Actually, since neither of us is getting
any older, I can do this forever,” I noted
coolly. “Or until you ante up on everything
you know about the a-hole running our old
team.”
“That’s what I came here to talk to you
about,” he said.
Surprise and suspicion made my eyes
narrow. For almost three months, my uncle
Don had refused to divulge anything about
my new nemesis, Jason Madigan. Don had
a history with Madigan, a former CIA
operative who’d taken over the secret
government unit I used to work for, but
he’d kept mum on the details even when
his silence meant that Madigan had nearly
gotten me, my husband, and other innocent
people killed. Now he was ready to spill?
Something else had to be going on. Don
was so pathologically secretive that I
hadn’t found out we were related until
four years after I started working for him.
“What happened?” I asked without
preamble.
He tugged on a gray eyebrow, a habit he
couldn’t break even after losing his
physical body. He also wore his usual suit
and tie despite dying in a hospital gown.
I’d think it was my memories dictating
how Don appeared to me except for the
hundreds of other ghosts I’d met. There
might not be shopping malls in the
afterlife, but residual self-image was
strong enough to make others see ghosts
the way they saw themselves. Don had
been the picture of a perfectly groomed,
sixty-something bureaucrat in life, so
that’s what he looked like in death.
He also hadn’t lost any of the tenacity
behind those gunmetal-colored eyes, the
only physical trait we had in common. My
crimson hair and pale skin came from my
father.
“I’m worried about Tate, Juan, Dave,
and Cooper,” Don stated. “They haven’t
been home in weeks, and as you know, I
can’t get into the compound to check if
they’re there.”
I didn’t point out that it was Don’s fault
Madigan knew how to ghost-proof a
building. Heavy combinations of weed,
garlic, and burning sage would keep all
but the strongest spooks away. After a
ghost had almost killed Madigan last year,
he’d outfitted our old base with a liberal
supply of all three.
“How long exactly since you’ve seen
them?”
“Three weeks and four days,” he
replied. Faults he may have, but Don was
meticulous. “If only one of them was away
that long, I’d assume he was on an
undercover job, but all of them?”
Yes, that was strange even for members
of a covert Homeland Security branch that
dealt with misbehaving members of
undead society. When I was a member of
the team, the longest undercover job I’d
been on was eleven days. Rogue vampires
and ghouls tended to frequent the same
spots if they were dumb enough to act out
so much that they caught the U.S.
government’s attention.
Still, I wasn’t about to assume the worst
yet. Phone calls were beyond Don’s
capabilities as a ghost, but I had no such
hindrances.
I pulled a cell phone out of my kitchen
drawer, dialing Tate’s number. When I got
his machine, I hung up. If something had
happened and Madigan was responsible,
he’d be checking Tate’s messages. No
need to clue him in that I was sniffing
around.
“No answer,” I told Don. Then I set that
phone aside and took another cell out of
the drawer, dialing Juan next. After a few
rings, a melodic Spanish voice instructed
me to leave a message. I didn’t, hanging
up and reaching for another phone from
the drawer.
“How many of those do you have?”
Don muttered, floating over my shoulder.
“Enough to give Madigan a migraine,” I
said with satisfaction. “If he’s tracing
calls to their phones, he won’t find my
location in any of these, much as he’d love
to know where I am.”
Don didn’t accuse me of being
paranoid. As soon as he’d taken over my
uncle’s old job, Madigan had made it
clear that he had it in for me. I didn’t
know why. I’d been retired from the team
by then, and as far as Madigan knew, there
was no longer anything special about me.
He didn’t know that turning from a half
vampire into a full one had come with
unexpected side effects.
Dave’s phone went straight to voice
mail as well. So did Cooper’s. I
considered trying them at their offices, but
those were inside the compound. Madigan
might have enough taps on those lines to
locate me no matter how I’d arranged for
the cell phone signals to be rerouted.
“Okay, now I’m worried, too,” I said at
last. “When Bones gets home, we’ll figure
out a way to get a closer look at the
compound.”
Don regarded me soberly. “If Madigan
has done something to them, he’ll expect
you to show up.”
Once again, my jaw clenched. Damn
right I’d show up. Tate, Dave, Juan, and
Cooper weren’t just soldiers I’d fought
alongside for years when I was part of the
team. They were also my friends. If
Madigan was responsible for something
bad happening to them, he’d soon be
sorry.
“Yeah, well, Bones and I had a couple
months of relative quiet. Guess it’s time to
liven things up again.”
My cat Helsing jumped down from my
lap the same time that the air became
charged with tiny invisible currents.
Emotions rolled over my subconscious.
Not my own, but almost as familiar to me.
Moments later, I heard the crunch of tires
on snow. By the time the car door shut,
Helsing was at the door, his long black
tail twitching with anticipation.
I stayed where I was. One cat waiting at
the door was enough, thanks. With a
whoosh of frigid air, my husband came
inside. Snow coated Bones, making him
look like he’d been dusted with powdered
sugar. He stamped his feet to dislodge the
flakes from his boots, causing Helsing to
jump away with a hiss.
“Clearly he thinks you should pet him
first and deal with the snow later,” I said.
Eyes so dark they were nearly black
met mine. Once they did, my amusement
turned into primal female appreciation.
Bones’s cheeks were flushed, and the
color accented his flawless skin, chiseled
features, and sensually full mouth. Then he
took his coat off, revealing an indigo shirt
that clung to his muscles as if reveling in
them. Black jeans were snug in all the
right places, highlighting a taut stomach,
strong thighs, and an ass that could double
as a work of art. By the time I drew my
gaze back up to his face, his slight smile
had turned into a knowing grin. More
emotions enveloped my subconscious
while his scent—a rich mixture of spices,
musk, and burnt sugar—filled the room.
“Missed me already, Kitten?”
I didn’t know how he managed to make
the question sound indecent, yet he did. I
would’ve said the English accent helped,
but his best friends were English and their
voices never turned my insides to jelly.
“Yes,” I replied, rising and coming
over to him.
He watched me, not moving when I
slowly slid my hands up to lace them
behind his neck. I had to stand on tiptoe to
do it, but that was okay. It brought us
closer, and the hard feel of his body was
almost as intoxicating as the swirls of
desire that curled around my emotions. I
loved that I could sense his emotions as
though they were my own. If I’d realized
that was one of the perks of him changing
me into a full vampire, I might have
upgraded my half-breed status years ago.
Then his head lowered, but before his lips
brushed mine, I turned away.
“Not until you say you missed me, too,”
I teased.
In reply, he picked me up, his grip all
too easily subduing my mock struggles.
Smooth leather met my back as he set me
onto the couch, his body a barricade I
didn’t want to dislodge. His hands settled
around my face, holding me with
possessiveness as green filled up his
irises and fangs slid out of his teeth.
My own fangs lengthened in response,
pressing against lips that I parted in
anticipation. His head bent, but he only
brushed his mouth over mine with a
fleeting caress before chuckling.
“Two can play at teasing, luv.”
I began to struggle in earnest, which
only made his laughter deepen. My high
kill count had earned me the nickname of
the Red Reaper in the undead world, but
even before Bones’s startling new
powers, I hadn’t been able to best him.
All my thrashing did was to rub him
against me in the most erotic way—which
was why I kept doing it.
The zipper on my hoodie went all the
way down without his hands moving from
my head. My clothes accounted for most
of his practice with his fledgling
telekinesis. Then the front clasp on my bra
opened, baring the majority of my breasts.
His laughter changed to a growl that sent
delicious tingles through me, hardening my
nipples. But when the buttons popped
open on his indigo shirt, its color
reminded me of Tate’s eyes—and the
news I needed to tell him.
“Something’s up,” I said in a gasp.
White teeth flashed before Bones
lowered his mouth to my chest. “How
cliché, but true nonetheless.”
The baser part of me whispered that I
could postpone this talk for an hour or so,
but concern for my friends slapped that
down. I gave myself a mental shake and
grabbed a handful of Bones’s dark brown
curls, pulling his head up.
“I’m serious. Don came by and relayed
some potentially disturbing information.”
It seemed to take a second for the
words to penetrate, but then his brows
rose. “After all this time, he finally told
you what he’s been hiding about
Madigan?”
“No, he didn’t,” I said, shaking my head
for real this time. “He wanted to let me
know that Tate and the others haven’t been
home in over three weeks. I tried their
cells and only got voice mails. Actually,
that distracted me from pushing Don about
his past with Madigan.”
Bones snorted, the brief puff of air
landing in the sensitive valley between my
breasts. “Clever sod knew it would. I
doubt it was an accident that he gave you
this information while I was out.”
Now that concern for my friends wasn’t
foremost in my mind, I doubted it was an
accident, too. Don had been by my house
enough to know that Bones left for a
couple hours every few days to feed. I
didn’t go with him since my nutritional
needs lay elsewhere. Inwardly I cursed.
Finding out if my friends were okay was
still of paramount importance, but so was
discovering what Don knew about
Madigan. It must be monumental for my
uncle to keep it under wraps even when
we didn’t speak for months as a result.
After all, I wasn’t just the only family Don
had left—as a vampire, I was also one of
the few people who could see him in his
new ghostly state.
“We’ll deal with my uncle later,” I
said, pushing Bones away with a sigh of
regret. “Right now, we need to find a way
into my old compound that doesn’t involve
both of us ending up in a vampire jail
cell.”
About the Author
JEANIENE FROSTis the New York
Times, USA Today, and international
bestselling author of the Night Huntress
series and the Night Huntress World
novels. To date, foreign rights for her
novels have sold to nineteen different
countries. Jeaniene lives in North
Carolina with her husband, Matthew, who
long ago accepted that she rarely cooks
and always sleeps in on the weekends.
Aside from writing, Jeaniene enjoys
reading, poetry, watching movies with her
husband, exploring old cemeteries,
spelunking, and traveling–by car.
Airplanes, children, and cookbooks
frighten her.
To know more about Jeaniene, please
visit her website at
www.jeanienefrost.com.
V i s i t www.AuthorTracker.com for
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Date: 2015-12-11; view: 333
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