At Grave s End

by Jeaniene Frost

  The six of us went inside. No one had been shot at and nothing had exploded. So far, so good, if you asked me, though truth be told, I didn’t know why we were here in the first place. After our, um, argument in the back of the tractor trailer, Bones had said he needed to see Don. I’d asked why, of course, but he had a really effective method of distracting me. Then there had been the interesting scene at the private airport, where Bones green-eyed an unsuspecting pilot into flying us to Tennessee. So now here we were, and I still didn’t know what Bones wanted to talk to my uncle about. Guess I’d find out soon enough.

  I’d avoided looking at Tate since we met up with him, Ian, Tick Tock, and Zero a few miles from here. There was a big awkward factor between us now. For his part, Bones didn’t act any differently, even though he would have been able to sense and hear my mental discomfort. Therefore, I was taken aback when Bones announced that he’d meet me in Don’s office, saying he wanted to find Juan and have a word with him.

  “Okay,” I managed, torn between going with him just to keep Bones as a shield between me and Tate, and staying because of how cowardly that was. I picked staying. Whoever said I took the easy road? Not me.

  Ian cast a meaningful look at Tate and then grinned. “I’ll go with you, Crispin,” he said.

  I began walking toward Don’s office. It didn’t surprise me that Tate followed. I heard Bones let out a sardonic snort right before the elevator doors closed. Yeah, he wasn’t surprised by Tate’s actions, either.

  Tick Tock and Zero kept pace behind us. I glanced back at them, once again struck by their dissimilarity in appearance. If ever there was a pair of vampires who looked less alike, it was the albino-ish Zero and the chocolate-skinned Tick Tock.

  “Where did the two of you meet Bones?” I asked, struggling to fill the silence before Tate did.

  “Poland,” Zero replied.

  “Australia,” Tick Tock said.

  I’d never been to either place. Tate’s comment that I didn’t really know Bones after spending just one year with him out of the two hundred and fifty he’d lived echoed in my mind. Then I squashed it. I know what counts, I reminded myself firmly.

  “So, how are you and Crypt Keeper doing?” Tate asked in a casual tone.

  “Fine.” My voice was clipped.

  Tate stopped walking and grabbed my arm. “How long are you going to pretend nothing happened, Cat?”

  “Don’t!” I said to Tick Tock, who’d already cleared his knife from his belt. “Back down, guys. I can handle this.”

  Zero’s fangs slid back into his gums, and after another hard stare, Tick Tock put away his knife. Then I rounded on Tate, looking him full in the eye.

  “It was a job, Tate. Things went further than they should have, but we got our targets and that’s what matters. Now, before you permanently burn our friendship, would you please stop reading anything more into it than it was?”

  “I know what I felt,” Tate said roughly. “You can pretend all you want, Cat, but for a while there, you weren’t acting, and you can’t say you were only thinking of me as a friend.”

  I had a moment of warning at the power filling the air before I heard Bones’s mocking laugh.

  “Just as I suspected,” he snorted from the other end of the hallway. “Knew it wouldn’t be two minutes before you’d make that claim, but you’re barking mad if you think you’ll ever come between me and my wife.”

  Tate folded his arms. “I already have.”

  Bones came closer. More of that cracking power filled the air. Ian just leaned against the wall in the hallway and smiled, like he was enjoying the show. Zero and Tick Tock moved aside, until nothing stood in Bones’s way to Tate except me.

  “What are you about to do?” I asked low.

  Bones arched a brow. “Nothing, pet. Why?”

  Because you look like you’re about to play soccer with Tate’s head, I said to him silently. And that’s not going to happen, even if he is being an idiot.

  My uncle came out of his office, looked at the vampires lined up in the hallway and Tate’s defiant stance, then coughed.

  “Cat, Bones, glad you arrived safely. Won’t you come sit down? I have some whiskey I was about to open up.”

  I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen Don drink, but I was glad for the tension dissipater. Bones smiled.

  “A nip would do me just fine, old chap.”

  I laced my fingers in Bones’s as we went inside, which was a good thing, because I almost tripped when Bones said, “You, too, mate,” to Tate.

  The three of us filed into Don’s office. I took a seat on the couch and Bones sat next to me. Tate stood, his posture stiff and unyielding.

  Don looked over each of us in turn before he sighed. “Why do I feel like I just interrupted a potentially nasty scene out there?”

  “It doesn’t matter, they’re done now,” I said to Don, glaring at Tate to let him know he’d better stick to that. “It was a vampire pissing contest, but it’s over.”

  “Right you are, luv.”

  Bones leaned over to place a light kiss on my cheek. Then he dropped the bomb.

  “I can read humans’ minds now, Don. Therefore, I know the dilemma you’re in, but the way out is right in front of you. It’s commendable you haven’t used your assets for monetary gain before, but desperate times call for desperate measures, don’t you agree?”

  “What?” I gasped, both confused by his last sentence and astounded that Bones had told Don about his new power.

  My uncle didn’t blink. “I won’t expose the public to Brams. Synthetic vampire blood made into medicine is too experimental. In the wrong hands, it could turn the entire population into superhuman killers.”

  “What are you two talking about?” I demanded again.

  “Don’s in a bind,” Bones replied. “His government’s implemented deep budget cuts, and he’s looking at closure in a year or two. He didn’t want to tell anyone for fear of lowering morale.”

  My jaw dropped. Don’s face confirmed it. “How could you have not said anything?” I gasped.

  Bones tapped his chin and gave Don a calculating look. “Smart of you to realize how destructive Brams could be, but you don’t need it. What’s got the politicians in a twist today? Terrorism. Scares ’em sackless. What can you offer that no one else can? An interrogator guaranteed to get all the facts, names, places, and plots quicker than they can say full-scale retaliation.”

  Bones paused to let his words sink in. I was still shocked that Don had held back something as important as closing from the rest of us.

  “You’re offering to do that?” Don asked, openly skeptical.

  Bones chuckled without humor. “Not me. Tate. Ship him to wherever their most stubborn hostage is, have him green-eye information out of the bloke, then sit back and sell him out to the highest bidder. You’ll be flush inside of two months while providing an invaluable service to your country to boot. Best of all, the Geneva Convention can kiss your arse, because the hostage—and his holders—won’t even remember how it happened.”

  “You bastard!” Tate burst, advancing on Bones in a fury.

  “Sit down, soldier!” Don shouted in a tone I’d never heard him use.

  Tate halted in his tracks, staring at me. “He’s only doing this to get me away from Cat. He doesn’t give a shit about our operation, this country, or anything else but her!”

  “That’s not the question, is it?” Bones asked icily. “Do you care about your operation, this country, or anything else but her? I seem to remember you saying your love for her wouldn’t interfere with your job. Prove it.”

  I knew then that Bones had planned this ever since he’d ripped the roof off that limousine. Don’t get mad, get even didn’t begin to cover it.

  Don stood up. “Well, Tate? What’s your answer?”

  Tate gave Bones a look of pure hatred. “You order me to go, Don, and I’ll go.”

  Don sighed. “You’re the finest man I know. You’ll prov
e that everything I believed about integrity being corrupted after turning into a vampire was wrong.” Don’s gaze flicked to Bones. “I’ll need someone to replace him. Cat’s gone too much now, and Dave isn’t enough.”

  Bones didn’t flinch. “Let me have Tate ’round another week, then you can ship him off and I’ll provide you with a replacement.”

  Don turned back to me. “Go on, Cat. I’ll handle things from here.”

  Even though this was for the best, I felt anguished for Tate. I knew what it was like to be forced to walk away from the person you loved. I just wished that with this absence, Tate would fall in love with someone else. Maybe being away from me would wake him up to the fact that there were plenty of great women out there, instead of always having the person he thought he wanted dangled just out of his reach.

  “Damn you,” Tate growled to Bones.

  “I hope…” The proper words failed me, so I just mumbled, “Take care of yourself, Tate,” and walked out the door with Bones beside me.

  NINETEEN

  W E DIDN’T LEAVE RIGHT AWAY, WHICH WAS Bones’s idea, not mine. I went to my office while Bones went off to talk to Juan. When the two of them came back fifteen minutes later, Juan looked paler, but he also seemed to be excited.

  “What’s up, buddy?” I asked him.

  Juan glanced around my office. “Bones, aqui? Ahora?”

  Bones gave him an impassive look and shut the door. “Sí. Listos?”

  Juan’s eyes met mine, and then he nodded. “Sí.”

  I was still translating when Bones grabbed Juan and buried his fangs deeply into his neck. What the hell? Then what they’d been saying penetrated. Bones, here? Now? Yes. Ready? Yes. Oh God. Juan must be the vampire replacement Bones had just promised Don. Talk about not wasting any time.

  Juan’s legs buckled and his eyes fluttered closed. He lost consciousness, his body rapidly going into shock from the mass amounts of blood leaving it. Bones held him, sucking harder at his neck. Juan’s face drained of color even as Bones’s became pinker, almost flushed. If I touched him now, I knew he’d be warm, though his new temperature would only last as long as it took for Juan to suck his blood back out of him.

  Juan’s heartbeat slowed. What had been a fast, nervous beating when Bones first bit him turned into lazy, lethargic buh-booms with growing spaces in between. After a minute, Bones raised his head.

  “Kitten, hand me that letter opener.”

  It took me a second to shake myself from seeing my friend dying in front of me, but then I passed the requested item over. Bones took it and plunged it into his own neck, blood spilling out from the unusual fullness of his jugular. He put Juan’s head there, forcing his blood into Juan’s mouth.

  Dave came in the door, an odd expression on his face. Thin crimson lines streamed into Juan’s slack mouth. The air became charged, like there was an electric storm nearby. Bones held Juan to his throat, the letter opener still piercing his skin. Juan’s lips twitched. His mouth began to fasten of its own volition onto Bones’s neck. The letter opener fell unneeded to the floor, because Juan was biting at him now. With single purpose, he clutched Bones, chewing into the pale neck.

  Juan sucked on Bones’s throat, tearing his flesh and swallowing in ravenous gulps. Bones held him, his lips in a tight line as Juan’s blood was given back to him irrevocably altered. Finally he grasped Juan and tore his mouth away, wrestling him to the ground and pinning him. Juan struggled, his teeth snapping and starting to curve with the first hints of fang.

  “No you don’t, mate,” Bones said.

  Dave moved toward me, standing in the way of the now-insensible man who would kill anyone out of sheer, blind hunger.

  Juan continued to thrash for another minute before he shuddered violently. Then his whole body went limp and his last few heartbeats went forever silent.

  Bones grunted in weariness and rolled off him. Changing a vampire weakened him of power. Not to mention he’d just been sucked dry.

  “You need a refill,” I stated, and went to pass by Dave to get some plasma from our in-house blood bank.

  “Don’t.”

  Bones was on his feet before I could blink.

  “Just…stay right here, Kitten.”

  Understanding dawned. The last time he’d changed someone over, I’d gone away for “just a minute” and ended up being tortured and nearly killed.

  “I’ll get it.”

  The offer came from Dave, who seemed to remember.

  “No, you won’t,” Bones said. “You’ll stay right here on the very slim chance our friend wakes up and makes a go for her throat. That way I wouldn’t have to kill him. Call Ian, have him bring the blood up.”

  Jeez, he was being cautious. The odds of Juan rising so soon and overcoming Bones were near absolute zero, but I didn’t argue. Dave made the call. The fact he also didn’t argue meant he must be equally paranoid.

  “Why aren’t we just putting him downstairs in the secured cell? That’s what it’s there for.”

  “Because, Kitten…” Bones put Juan’s lifeless body on the couch and stayed close to him. “We’re leaving, and we’re taking him with us.”

  It was several hours and a dizzying free-flying jaunt from the compound back to our cars later that we rounded the last curves on our driveway in the Blue Ridge.

  “Where will we put Juan?”

  Three cars behind I could hear him howling, cut off the next moment by the slurping sound of him feeding from the plasma bags I’d packed. He’d just risen. Five vampires were in the car with him, and three of them were Masters. No, he wasn’t going anywhere.

  “The cellar,” was Bones’s reply. “It’s reinforced, and we’ll have Tick Tock, Dave, and Rattler take turns staying with him. Within a week, he’ll be himself.”

  Until then, Juan was a danger to anyone with a pulse.

  “We’re not going to have enough room if everyone stays.”

  “Three of the couches have pull-outs and the rest will make do with blankets and the floor. Each one of them has endured worse, believe me.”

  “We’re the ones with the urgent problems and it’s our house they’re staying at, we should take the floor,” I noted. “It’s only polite.”

  Bones snorted. “Right. In my own home on Christmas? I think not.”

  Yes, it was after two a.m. and therefore officially Christmas Day. This wasn’t the romantic, private evening I had planned, but oh well. We were together.

  I leaned over and kissed his neck, letting my breath tickle his ear. “Merry Christmas,” I whispered.

  Bones put the car in park and stopped me when I began to draw back. His hand curled around my neck as he dipped my head back with a slow, deep kiss that made me really wish we were alone.

  It was interrupted when Ian rapped on our side window.

  “If we’re supposed to wait outside in the cold while you two snog in the car, I’d just as soon have flown home.”

  My mouth opened in outrage when my mother trotted by and muttered, “Thank God somebody said it.”

  The humor of that struck me and I laughed. My mother, agreeing with the vampire who’d sired Max? Now that was a Christmas miracle if I’d ever heard one.

  “I’m sorry, Ian, did I forget to ask your permission before I kissed my wife?” Bones countered. “Wanker.”

  “Guttersnipe.”

  Ian said the insult with a trace of a smile. Far from being offended, Bones chuckled, giving me a last kiss before he got out of the car and grasped Ian by the shoulders.

  “I’m glad you’re here, mate.”

  Ian had a self-deprecating smile. “Do you know why I am? Because for once, you asked for my assistance. You’ve never done that in all the centuries I’ve known you. That’s why I threw in my lot with you, bloody usurping sod though you are.”

  Ever since I first met Ian, I hadn’t understood why Bones tolerated him, but seeing the two of them like this explained a lot.

  “You could have walked away, Ian. Ju
st as you could have over two hundred and twenty years ago when I was imprisoned at the colony. I didn’t thank you then and I haven’t since, yet it is long overdue. Thank you, Ian, for changing me into a vampire. I am forever in your debt.”

  Ian’s eyes flashed with emotion. Then he arched a jaded brow, recovering.

  “About bleedin’ time. I expect it to take another two centuries before you’ll apologize for threatening to kill me over Cat?”

  Bones laughed. “You’ll shrivel waiting for that apology, mate.”

  “Let’s hatch a dastardly plan, then,” Ian said with amused grimness. “Or Patra will ensure that we’ll all shrivel.”

  Vlad showed up at our house, remarking that he’d been in the neighborhood. I doubted that, but I wasn’t about to call him a liar, especially since he’d proved to be a useful source of information. Still, part of me wondered if he’d shown up just because it irritated Bones. Vlad seemed to have a devilish sense of humor that way.

  “Whatever happened to Anthony?” he asked after hearing that Hykso and Kratas were being held hostage. Unfortunately, according to Spade, so far they hadn’t proved to know a wealth of information.

  “I’ll be shipping pieces of him back to Patra,” Bones replied. “Along with pieces of the other blokes. It’ll give her people something to think about.”

  The sick part of me wondered if Bones would cover those boxes with Christmas wrapping paper. Talk about getting an unwanted present. Here’s hoping Patra didn’t have something similar in the works for us. Nothing said “home for the holidays” like opening a present full of body parts.

  “That’s it!” I shot straight out of my seat, struck with an idea like a proverbial light bulb had gone off.

  Bones arched a brow at me, not knowing what it was. My thoughts must have been whirling too fast for him to catch.

  “It’s Christmas. Most people are with their loved ones today,” I said. “Rather than ship bits of Anthony and the other guys from flunky to flunky, hoping they got to someone high enough to pass them onto Patra, how would you like to deliver them in person?”