Destined for an Early Grave

by Jeaniene Frost

  “And Bones would trust Marie because she always guarantees safe passage in her meetings.” That clever, dirty schmuck.

  Cannelle actually smirked. “Oui.”

  My anger turned to ice. “Is that all, Cannelle?”

  “Oui.”

  I turned to Ian. “Think she’s got more?”

  He met my gaze with equal coldness. “No, poppet. I think that’s it.”

  I still had the knife in my hand, slick from Cannelle’s blood.

  “Cannelle,” I said in a steady, clear tone. “I’m going to kill you. I’m telling you this so you can take a moment to pray if you choose, or to reflect, whatever. You lured my husband around with the full intention of taking him to his slaughter, and that’s just not forgivable to me.”

  “Cat, no,” Geri said.

  I didn’t answer her. Cannelle gave me a look filled with malicious defiance. “But Bones isn’t your husband. Gregor is.”

  “Semantics. You’re wasting time. Get right with God. Fast.”

  “I am a human,” she hissed. “A living, breathing person. You may have it in you to wound me, but not to kill me.”

  I ignored that, too. “Marie got her freedom for her role in this. What did Gregor promise? To change you into a vampire?”

  Another hostile glare. “Oui. It’s my payment for all the years I’ve served him.”

  “You backed the wrong horse,” I said. “You’re not going to be a vampire, Cannelle, but I’ll let you die like one.”

  She stood up. “You wouldn’t dare. Gregor would kill you.”

  Then she looked down. The silver knife was buried in her chest. It even vibrated for a few seconds with her last remaining heartbeats. Cannelle watched with astonishment the handle quiver before her eyes glazed and her knees buckled.

  I stood over her and felt more of that awful coldness.

  “Maybe Gregor will kill me for this, Cannelle. I’m willing to take that chance.”

  I went to see Don. He was busy with his own preparations for departure. I didn’t know where my former unit was stationed now, and that was good by me. I wouldn’t have put it past Gregor to use that information to his advantage. Don wouldn’t, either. That’s why everyone from our division was clearing out right after I did.

  Vlad was in Don’s office. As soon as I entered, they both quit speaking. My mouth curled.

  “How obvious are you two? Come on, boys, what’s the topic? ‘Will Cat have a breakdown?’ or ‘Ten easy steps to talk someone out of suicide’? Both of you can save it. I’m okay.”

  My uncle coughed. “Don’t be so dramatic. I was getting a way to contact you since you can’t exactly send me a postcard, and Vlad was informing me that you’ll be with him.”

  I gave Vlad a look that would have been challenging—if I hadn’t just spent umpteen hours flying overseas on an empty stomach, lack of sleep, and general hypertension.

  “For now.”

  Vlad smiled, disdainful and amused at the same time. “It’s your choice, Cat. I’m not forcing you.”

  Don looked back and forth between us, his gray eyes narrowing. They were the same smoky color as mine, and right now, they were glinting with suspicion.

  “Is there something going on with the two of you that I should be aware of?”

  “Isn’t there something going on with you that she should?” Vlad responded.

  Now it was my turn to glance between them. “What?”

  Don coughed and flashed a single glare to Vlad. “Nothing.”

  Vlad let out a noncommittal grunt. “Then that’s all you’ll get from me as well, Williams.”

  I was about to demand to know what the hell the subtext of this was when Don spoke up.

  “Cat, you asked me before to find out if those dream-suppression pills had any side effects. I’ve checked with Pathology, and they said you might experience depression, mood swings, irritability, paranoia, and chronic fatigue. Have you noticed any of that?”

  I thought back to my last few times with Bones and couldn’t help but burst into demented laughter.

  “Yeah. All of the above, and all at once. This information would have been useful a couple weeks ago, but it’s kind of irrelevant now.”

  I wasn’t going to use those pills again. I’d rather be ignorant of my whereabouts than subject to the side effects that had helped drive Bones and me apart. Don must have guessed some of my train of thought because he gave me a sad look.

  The moment was broken when Cooper came running in. “B4358 is coming in for a landing.”

  “What?” my uncle snapped. “They didn’t get permission!”

  My eyes widened. Those were the call numbers to Dave’s plane. The one that was carrying Bones and Spade.

  “I know, sir. The tower ordered them not to land, but they said an Englishman got on the wire and said to shut it or he’d beat the seven shades of shit out of him.”

  Bones. “We have to leave,” I said to Vlad. “Now.”

  “‘Run, Forrest, run!’” Vlad mocked.

  “Stow it, Drac,” I snapped. “With or without you, I’m in the air before he gets off that plane.”

  “It will be with me. Williams”—Vlad gave a nod at my uncle—“farewell. Few people have your determination to walk their road all the way to its conclusion.”

  I didn’t even spare the time to give my uncle a hug. I was halfway down the hall, tossing a “Thanks, ‘bye!” over my shoulder.

  “Be safe, Cat,” Don called after me.

  I’d try my best.

  It was so close, I knew I’d be haunted by it, and the ghost on board had nothing to do with that. Cooper had fueled our plane while I’d been dealing with Cannelle, so there was no time wasted there. Vlad strode out, entering it moments behind me, with Fabian clinging to his shoulder. I’d have been all right if I hadn’t been compelled to look out the small window of the twin-engine craft as we took off. Our plane hit the skies just as the door to the other Cessna swung open, and an achingly familiar figure came out of it. For a crazy, heart-stopping moment, I felt like Bones was looking right at me.

  “Why do I hear Casablanca music playing in my head?” Vlad asked in an ironic voice.

  I looked away from the runway. “You’re a regular movie encyclopedia, aren’t you?”

  “And you’re the boy who cried wolf. If you say it’s over, then let it be over, or quit spouting out false absolutes that you don’t believe yourself.”

  Goddamn merciless Romanian usurper. Why was I on a plane with him, anyway? Why didn’t I just go off by myself, trek to a rain forest, and hide there alone until Gregor, the ghouls, and everyone else forgot about me as completely as Bones had?

  I gave one more last look out the window. We were up high enough now that I couldn’t be sure if he was still staring after us—or if he’d turned his head away, like I had to.

  “You’re right,” I said to Vlad.

  His hand reached out. The scars that covered it were mute testament to the decades of battles he’d fought, and those were just when he’d been human.

  I took it, glad mine weren’t empty anymore and hating myself for feeling that way. How weak I was.

  Vlad squeezed once. “I don’t want to be alone now either,” he said, making it sound very reasonable and not at all like something to be ashamed of.

  I sighed. Right again, buddy. That’s two for two.

  TWENTY-THREE

  WATER SWIRLED ALL AROUND ME. EVERYTHING was dark and foggy. Where was I? How did I get here? The air had a terrible smell, and the liquid I was struggling in became black and too thick to swim in. Some of it got into my mouth, making me retch. It wasn’t water after all. It was tar.

  “Help!”

  My cry went unanswered. The tar seemed to be pulling me under. I gasped, choking, and felt burning as some of the tar went into my lungs. I was being sucked deeper into it. Drowning. A hazy thought flitted through my mind. So this is how I’m going to die. Funny, I always thought it would be during a fight…
<
br />   “Take my hand,” an urgent voice said.

  Blindly I reached out, unable to see past the inky fluid in my eyes—and then the tar was gone, and I was standing in front of the man I’d been running from.

  “Gregor,” I spat, trying to will myself awake. A dream, you’re just trapped in a dream. “Goddammit, leave me alone!”

  Gregor loomed over me. An invisible wind blew his ash-blond hair, and those smoky green eyes were glowing emerald.

  “You may have swept your lover beyond my reach this time, but I will have him soon enough. How does it feel, my wife, to be cast aside? Ah, chérie. You deserve your pain.”

  Gregor had a tight grip on my arms. I could feel him try to pull me outside my own skin, and I fought a moment of panic. I’d just arranged for Bones to get away, why hadn’t I expected Gregor to be waiting for me to shut my eyes? His power seemed to be seeping into me, slowly filling me up. I wanted to distract him, fast, from coiling that dangerous aura around me.

  “You made a mistake sending Cannelle. In case you haven’t heard, I killed her. Ian’s shipping her body to you with a big red bow. You’ll have a harder time getting recruits to do your dirty work when people hear about that.”

  Gregor nodded, not looking particularly upset. “Oui, that was unexpected, and it will cost you, ma femme. Return to me, and perhaps I will not make the price too steep.”

  “Why are you so obsessed with me coming back?” I asked in frustration. “We’re clearly not compatible. You don’t act like you love me. Half the time, I don’t even think you like me.”

  Something flashed across Gregor’s face, too quick for me to determine what it was. “You’re mine,” he said at last. “Soon you will see you belong with me.”

  There was more to it, I just knew, but I had bigger concerns at the moment. Gregor’s power flexed around me. I tried to pry his hands off, but it was as if they were welded onto me.

  “I’ve got bad news for you then, because going back to walking on eggshells around your every mood swing? Sorry, Gregor. You lost your chance with me when I grew up and developed self-esteem. I’m never coming back to you.”

  “Why do you do this!” he shouted, giving up his false exterior of calm. “I offer you everything, and you scorn me as though I were lower than that whore of a lover who left you!”

  His anger was drawing his power back into himself and away from me. I pressed my advantage.

  “Because I’m happier being the castoff of a whore than I’d ever be as your wife.”

  Gregor shoved me away from him. I landed back in the tar pit, up to my shoulders in that sticky black goo. He stood over me and shook his fist.

  “You are mine whether you prefer it or not, and you can think about this as you continue to hide from me. I will find Bones again when he doesn’t have his people surrounding him. It’s only a matter of time. And then, chérie, he will die.”

  I didn’t have a chance to scream out my hatred of him, because the tar closed over my head in the next instant. I was moving downward very fast, like I was being flushed, and then—

  I sat bolt upright in bed. The sheets around me were damp, but not from tar. I was covered in a cold sweat. And I was madder than hell.

  “I’m going to kill you, Gregor,” I growled to the empty room. Whatever leftover positive emotion I’d had for him as a teenager was gone. If I had another chance with a silver knife stuck in Gregor’s back, I’d twist it with a smile. You should have before, my mind mocked. No good deed goes unpunished.

  Vlad walked in my room without knocking. “Your rage has been seething in my mind for the past five minutes.”

  “I hate him,” I said, getting up from the bed to pace.

  Vlad stared at me without blinking. “I have no cause to war with Gregor, Cat, but it does pain me to see you like this.”

  “It’s so maddening,” I went on. “Bones might be able to kill Gregor, if he got him alone in a fair fight, but Gregor won’t go for that. And I’m not strong enough to take Gregor down. I breathe, bleed, I don’t heal instantly—I’m not tough enough for him. Being half-human was great for my old job. All those things I mentioned lured my targets and made me a more effective hunter. But with really old vampires, like Gregor, it just makes me…weak.”

  Vlad didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. We both knew it was true.

  “What are you going to do about that?” he asked at last.

  I stopped pacing. That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?

  The next night, Vlad, Maximus, Shrapnel, and I were upstairs playing poker. Vlad had been winning all night, a feat I attested to his mind-reading skills—though he swore he wasn’t using them on me—and the fact that Shrapnel and Maximus were probably afraid to beat Vlad even if they could. It was almost midnight when there was a loud knock downstairs. The three vampires leapt to their feet in a blur of motion. Flames were already shooting out of Vlad’s hands.

  Vlad hadn’t been expecting anyone; that much was clear from his reaction, so I understood the cause for their alarm. Whoever it was had managed to get past Vlad’s formidable guards without notice, chosen to knock to show us they didn’t need the element of surprise, and had done all this without the very powerful vampire striding out of the room realizing they were even here.

  In short, we were in deep shit.

  I started after Vlad, but he whirled around with a snarl.

  “Stay here.”

  I responded with a mental roar of how he could go straight to hell if he expected me just to wring my hands and wait, when something moving outside the window caught my attention.

  I pointed. “Look.”

  About three dozen of Vlad’s guards were elevated in stark relief against the clear night sky, all twirling in lazy circles about twenty feet off the ground. They were opening and closing their mouths, unable to speak, but apparently trying.

  That gave me a pretty good idea who was downstairs knocking on the door. Only one vampire I knew could cloak his power level to avoid detection and twirl hardened undead guards in the air like fireflies.

  Vlad must have guessed also, judging from the flames slowly extinguishing from his clenched fists.

  “Mencheres,” he muttered.

  I froze in the hallway, wondering if the mega-Master vampire was alone—or accompanied.

  The knock sounded again. Now it seemed even more ominous than when I thought it was enemy forces.

  Vlad motioned for Shrapnel and Maximus to lower their weapons. “Stay here,” he said to me again, but with none of his prior vehemence. “I’ll find out what he wants.”

  “Mencheres,” I heard Vlad say moments later, to the echo of a door flinging open. “You are welcome in my home and may enter. You”—and here my heart skipped a beat, because the venom in that one word confirmed my suspicions—“may not.”

  A laugh responded to that rude greeting. Hearing Bones so close hit me like a physical blow.

  “Tepesh, I’ve come a long damned way to get here, and pretty as your little dragon door knockers are, I don’t fancy spending more time outside admiring them.”

  Mencheres, more tactful, addressed Vlad with the patience a parent used on an errant child.

  “Vlad, you know I cannot allow you to forbid entry to the co-ruler of my line. To do so would insult me as well, and I know you don’t mean to do that.”

  “Let my men down,” Vlad said with an edge to his voice.

  “Of course.” Mencheres actually made it sound like he’d forgotten about elevating over thirty vampires in the air. There were multiple thumps a moment later.

  In another mood, I would have found that funny.

  “Very well, come in.” Vlad’s tone was far from gracious. “But you’ll abuse my hospitality if you venture even a foot up those stairs, and we both know who I’m talking to.”

  Bones laughed again, only this time, it sounded closer. They must be inside.

  “Really, mate, you’re like a hound fretting over his scraps. Careful
you don’t unwittingly combust, or you’ll ruin this fetching imitation Persian rug.”

  “And I have had enough of your comments about my home!” Vlad barked. I could practically smell the smoke coming from him. “What do you want, not that you stand a fuck-all chance of getting it, mate.”

  Vlad’s exaggerated Cockney accent drained away my momentary shock and turned it into alarm. Bones had wasted no time in getting Vlad good and mad. What was he up to?

  “I’m here for Cat,” Bones replied, all bantering gone.

  Such a wave of emotion swept over me that I felt dizzy. Just as quickly, I slammed my mind shut, wishing I could do the same with my heart. This could be about business. I wouldn’t humiliate myself by letting Bones know how just the sound of his voice was affecting me. Bones had said how great my shields were at keeping him out. Here’s hoping I hadn’t lost my touch.

  “If she doesn’t want to see you, then you’ve wasted your time,” Vlad said, each word a dare.

  I was still making up my mind whether or not I did want to see Bones when he let out a rude snort.

  “You misunderstand, Tepesh. I’m not here to see her. I’m taking her with me.”

  My jaw dropped. Vlad let out something like a growl. “I’ll fry you where you stand.”

  The unmistakable sound of knives scraping together had me out of the room, shoving Maximus aside with all my inhuman strength even as Bones replied, “Try it.”

  “Stop!”

  Three heads swiveled up toward me. Vlad’s hands were still in flames, and Bones had two silver knives in his grip. Mencheres stood a few feet off, watching them like a silent referee. I came down the stairs. Fabian floated after me, darting in and out of the wall.

  A glance showed me what was different about Bones since I’d last seen him. His hair was shorter, cropped close to his head and curling at the tips. His eyes were hooded as they met mine. Devoid of any emotion at all. That was the hardest thing to see.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I asked him.

  “Getting you,” he answered, arching a brow.

  If he’d said it while holding out roses and apologizing, I might have been moved. But Bones said it like he was talking about a pair of shoes he’d misplaced. I narrowed my eyes.