Tate and Juan laughed at the shocked expression on Cooper’s face.
“No fucking way,” Cooper breathed.
My brow arched at him. “Oh, very fucking way. Have respect for the freaks around you. The minute you don’t, one will break you in pieces. Believe me, I’ve seen it.” Hell, I’d done it, but that was more information than he needed just now.
“Tate, Juan, get Dave and meet me outside. We’re on for tonight.”
“Showtime,” Tate murmured.
Juan groaned in mock disappointment. “I’ll miss my show again!”
“DVR it like a normal person,” I threw over my shoulder as I left.
When I was far enough away for even Tate to think I couldn’t hear him, he addressed Cooper again. “One more thing. Critical safety advice. Whatever you do, never call her Kitten.”
“Why not?” Cooper sounded intrigued.
“I’ll take that one.” Juan chimed in, with grimness under the humor in his tone. “Because if you do, when you wake up three days later… everything will still hurt.”
***
Later, when I explained tonight’s mission to them, Juan’s face resembled a child’s on Christmas morning when confronted with a pile of presents. “You’re telling me we’re going after a lesbian vampire? Cat, if you let me watch, she can suck all my blood as a diversion. I’d die a happy man.”
“This is serious,” I snapped. Juan and his perpetual hard-on. If he wasn’t such a good fighter, I’d have killed him myself by now. “Over a dozen women are dead, remember?”
“Are you the bait or the hook tonight, Cat?” Dave asked.
What a relief to change the subject from Juan’s fantasies.
“Hopefully both. If she’s already picked out her treat for the evening, I’ll see if I can tag along. If not, we follow her. We need to find the nest. There’s probably a few vampires, judging from the body count.”
“A threesome.” Juan sighed in rapture.
“Juan, I swear. If you screw this up tonight, I will shove your gun up your ass and fire. You got me?”
“Loud and clear, querida.” He grinned, unrepentant as usual. I pitied the poor fool who ever married him.
“Okay then. Tate, pick ten more men; we’ll need a solid crew. Don wants another refill on his vampire blood supply.”
“I hate bagging and tagging them,” Dave muttered.
I did too. That’s how we lost the last member of our team. One of them was careless for an instant. Before anything could be done, his throat was missing. Even I couldn’t fix that.
“We have the new capsule, Dave,” I reminded him, proud of my contribution to its invention. “That mistake won’t happen again.”
“Let’s hope not,” Tate muttered.
Just before I left to board the plane, I stopped by Don’s office. He looked startled to see me. Usually one visit a day was enough for both of us unless something major happened.
“Don, I need you to do me a favor.”
His forehead wrinkled. Those were words he never heard from me. “What is it?”
“Um, if I don’t make it back tonight, I adopted a kitty. Would you make sure it goes to a good home?” I hated to sound so pathetic, but my mother hated cats and Denise was allergic.
His expression eased into a smile. Clearly he’d expected something far more involved. “Of course. But I won’t need to. You’ll be magnificent, as always.”
“Yeah, well, the day will come eventually when I’m up against someone more magnificent.”
“Not you,” he said confidently. “You’re unique. I knew it from the moment I saw you.”
And took me away from Bones. Deep in my heart, I would never forgive him for that. Yet I’d made a bargain and I would hold to it.
“See you later, Don, if my ass still points to the ground.”
“Beg your pardon?”
I smiled. “Australian expression. Means if I’m still standing. Really, brush up on your lingo.”
***
Our team traveled in two planes. They never had my three leaders and me on the same flight, out of paranoia if the plane went down. Someone would still have to head the units and train replacements. At my request, Juan was with the other backup men on the second plane. He was still far too happy about tonight for my patience. At least he could be counted on to rally the men. Juan was an excellent leader.
“Cat, how about on Monday we grab some chow and play cards?” Dave suggested. “I still have to win back that fifty you stole from me last week.”
I turned around to smile at Dave. My house was a favorite hangout place after work. Like me, everyone on our team was sworn to secrecy about our work. Not being able to relax around normal people because of your occupation made things very lonely. Hence, poker was a favorite pastime at my place, though why the guys kept coming back for more was beyond me. I beat them ninety percent of the time. They all loved the stocked minibar in the family room though. Amazing what an endless supply of liquor could accomplish.
“Can’t Monday. I have… Er, I can’t.”
I tripped over my reply, almost admitting I had a date. The fact that I never dated didn’t escape anyone’s notice. Juan called me a spinster. Dave might not be gifted with my extra perception powers, but when I looked away in embarrassment, he pounced.
“You go, Cat!”
“Huh?” Tate was slower on the draw.
“Cat has a date.”
Tate looked stunned. “No way. You’re going out with someone? Really?”
“Oh, stop. It’s not like that. He’s a vet, new in town, and he helped me out last night with this cat I accidentally hit. So as a favor I’m going to… I don’t know, have dinner. See a movie.”
“Folks round here call that a date, missy,” Dave drawled in a fake Southern accent.
Tate still looked shell-shocked. “Has Don run a check on this guy? It could be a trap.”
That raised my hackles. No way was I going to ask permission to go on a simple date like I was fourteen. By God, now I’d go on two just out of spite.
“Tate, do you check with Don each time before you get laid? Does Dave? Does Juan? Of course not, or Don would have to hire a separate staff just to handle Juan’s love life. I think I’m old enough to handle this on my own, so rack off!”
Occasionally Bones’s expressions would leak out in my speech. He’d been English by birth and Australian by vampiric rebirth after he was one of the unfortunate prisoners sent to the New South Wales penal colony. Of course, that was back in 1789. Okay, so he’d been a little older than me.
“Now you’re going to have sex with the guy? I thought you said it was just a date!”
“Easy, man,” Dave warned Tate, seeing my features darken. “This guy could pick his nose at dinner and then leave her with the check. Don’t load the shotgun yet.”
This visual seemed to calm Tate, because he shut up and turned his attention to the paperwork in front of him. There were photos of the crime scenes, autopsy reports, and eyewitness statements. You know, the usual light reading material. Most of the victims were either lesbian or bisexual and were last seen leaving with an Asian woman with long black hair. Three of the victims had left from the same bar, Ophelia’s, so that’s where we were headed.
“What do you think?” Tate finally asked after mulling over the reports for half an hour.
I tapped a finger at one of the photos. “Two men inside, posing as a couple. Two around the back as lookouts. The other six split in two groups with separate vehicles. No wires inside, only in the van. If I leave with the target, switch out the tail so she doesn’t get suspicious. Once at her home base, wait for my signal, then come in blazing. Have someone waiting at the van to pull up the capsule immediately for transport. Should be quick and clean.”
“Oh, it might be quick, but it’s never clean,” Dave commented.
I shrugged. It was true that we usually looked like something out of the horror movie Carrie after one of our missions. This wa
s not a job for the squeamish.
“Tate, you can pick the pair for inside. But absolutely not Juan. He’d be too busy beating his meat to be any good as backup.”
Dave laughed, easing some of the tension that still lingered from earlier. “Cat, are you sure you were never in the Navy? You have the dirtiest mouth of any chick I’ve ever met. Who taught you to speak that way?”
A twinge shot through me, and I shoved it back down with all the other memories of Bones that I couldn’t bear to dwell on. “It just comes naturally, I guess.”
***
Ophelia’s was pretty upscale. Velvet couches, high-end tables, and excellent drinks. They boasted a smaller dance floor that was mostly packed with couples of the same sex. I wore a tight, strapless crimson dress that hugged my breasts in order to stay upright. I carried a small purse that held only my fake ID and cosmetics because all my weapons were tucked away in my specially made knee-high leather boots.
As soon as Juan saw me in my low-cut, tight dress, he began to protest his assignment outside the club. “Cat, you never let me have any fun. I’ll tongue-kiss whoever you set me up with if you let me inside. Madre de Dios, you look like strawberries and cream, my favorite—”
I slapped him. He rocked back on his heels, but the grin never left his face. Maybe why I tolerated him, aside from his effectiveness as a fighter, was because he reminded me of another pervert. Change the Spanish accent to an English one, and it would be like listening to Bones.
“That’s exactly why you’re not coming inside, so shut up and get serious.”
We left Juan to sulk in the van while I went inside, hoping to get lucky with a murderous female vampire who might or might not show. If she didn’t come around tonight, there was always tomorrow. If at first you don’t succeed and all that.
Tate and Peter followed me inside, pretending to be a loving couple. Once in the club, we didn’t make contact with each other. We didn’t have to. Every so often, one of them would whisper, “All clear,” and I heard them. Wires weren’t necessary when I could detect their slightest breath. Being half-monster did have its advantages.
A few times different women asked me to dance. I accepted, wanting to blend in. My current partner looked to be in her early thirties with curly brown hair and big brown eyes. Bones had taught me how to dance, one of the countless things he’d shown me, so there was nothing chaste about the way I moved. My partners seemed to like it. When this one tried to kiss me, however, I pulled back. No point in her getting possessive if the vampire showed up.
“Not so fast, honey,” I said. “I’m keeping my options open tonight.”
“Your loss,” she replied, walking away.
I stifled a snort. Had to love a girl with confidence.
“You’ve never looked better,” I heard Tate say to Peter, and I went on alert. That was the signal that they’d spotted someone who might be our target.
“Let’s dance,” I announced to the girl on my left, who’d been eyeing me for the past half hour. She accepted with alacrity and I turned things up a notch, gyrating aggressively against her. Then I grasped her hips and turned her around, nibbling on the back of her neck. She gasped and arched against me, molding her rear to my crotch.
“Juan would be spewing in his pants by now,” I heard Peter say.
Tate kept his talk to business. “Target approaching your left.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a swish of waist-length black hair, poker straight and thick. Then almond-colored eyes met mine for an instant before I looked away.
That must have been enough for her because I felt her as she approached. Judging from the vibe she gave off, she had been undead for probably around fifty or sixty years. Older vampires gave off a stronger current, like supercharged static electricity. Master vampires were even rarer. They positively vibrated the air around them. Bones had been one of those. He’d crackled with energy like a walking lightning bolt. No wonder he was the person vampires called when they wanted to kill one of their own. Bones had been a bounty hunter, to put it nicely. Hit man would be a more appropriate term since most of the creatures he delivered were missing their bodies from the neck down. I should know; for a time, I’d been his assistant.
Almond Eyes was still watching me, I could feel it. For effect, I raised my arms and let my head fall back as though absorbed in the rhythm of the music, displaying my neck to maximum advantage. My crimson dress would be a startling contrast against my pale skin, which had a faint, almost imperceptible incandescence. My skin had garnered me the highest praise from my former victims. Bones had once likened it to a homing beacon for vampires.
Apparently it still worked, because she headed right for me, and her aura parted the air before her. When a cool hand touched my shoulder, I glanced up as if in surprise.
“I like you,” she purred in smooth, unaccented tones.
My dancing partner glowered at her. “Hey, wait just a minute.”
The vampire pushed her aside as casually as if she were swatting back like a pesky fly. Vampires were as tactful as rampaging bulls when it came to something they wanted.
“Sorry, sweetie,” I said to the sputtering girl and then put my arms around the vampire. She was my height and our faces were level as we began to dance. She pulled my hips firmly against hers and then twisted them for maximum friction.
“What’s your name, lovely?” she murmured, licking red lips.
I smiled back and licked mine too, but more leisurely. “Cat.”
“Ahhh…” She drew the sound out as the music continued to another song. “Curiosity killed the cat, or so they say.”
A dark sense of humor. My favorite. “And satisfaction brought it back,” I replied at once.
She gave a throaty laugh. “I haven’t heard that before. Do you believe it?”
“Oh, yes,” I said and kissed her.
It was the first time I’d ever kissed a woman. When comparing apples to oranges, it wasn’t any different. Lips, tongue, mouths, all the same. Granted, I wasn’t used to tasting lipstick, but then what can you expect? None of the men I’d kissed had ever worn any.
She reached down and squeezed my ass. Getting pawed was an unfortunate necessity when playing the part of bait, but I only let this sort of activity go so far. If it went beyond my tolerance, I simply pulled out the silver. The sight of a long, lethal blade was enough to douse any vampire’s lust, particularly when that blade soon skewered them in the heart.
Then someone roughly pulled us apart. I looked up to see a man, roughly forty, with a medium build and wearing a poorly fitting jacket.
“Excuse me, miss,” he said to the vampire. “I’m Detective Avery, and I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
So my people weren’t the only ones staking out Ophelia’s looking for an Asian murder suspect. Kudos to the local law enforcement for doing their homework and taking the initiative. Not that it would do them any good. You couldn’t exactly read a vampire their rights.
“Detective?” Her voice was all innocence. “Of course. One moment.” Then she turned back to me and her sultry expression returned. “Go get a drink, lovely. I’ll be right back.”
Shit. I hoped she didn’t take him outside and break him in half. Walter was out there, but if he intervened, that would give us away. Fortunately, she looked like she had decided that discretion was the better part of valor. She led the detective to a corner in the bar, facing him so that her back was to the majority of the people.
With my enhanced vision, I saw a flash of green and heard her speak with inhuman resonation, telling him he’d seen nothing and to go home. Nosferatu mind tricks. They worked on humans like a charm. The detective headed for the door without a backward glance.
She took her place next to me moments later.
“What was that about?” I asked, just like a normal person would.
She trailed her hand across my bare shoulders. “Rash of car thefts. He wanted to know if I’d seen anything suspicious.
” The lie slipped from her lips without pause. “You have the most beautiful gray eyes I’ve ever seen, Cat. Like darkened silver, and your skin… You are stunning. I want to be alone with you.”
My, but she was quick. We hadn’t even shared a drink yet. “You haven’t told me your name,” I pointed out, as if piqued.
She kept touching me as she answered. “Jade.”
“Jade.” I covered her hand with mine. “I would love to be alone with you.”
***
The valet went to get her car. Jade made good use of the time by kissing me deeply. From a block away, I could hear Juan moan. This was his dream come true. Thankfully, she paid the noise no heed, and the valet didn’t take long to bring her shiny silver Corvette around.
“I hope you live close by,” I said when I climbed into the passenger seat.
She smirked at me. “Not far, lovely.”
After about ten minutes, Jade pulled up to a three-story house in an upscale neighborhood. Her house was surrounded by a high iron fence that opened electronically with a clicker in her car. It was well past midnight, but there were lights on inside her home.
“Your house is so large,” I commented as I counted the number of heartbeats I heard coming from the structure. Three humans at least, and they could be prey… or pets. Over the years, I’d come to realize what Bones had repeatedly tried to tell me. Having a pulse didn’t make someone automatically better; it only made them automatically warmer. I’d witnessed firsthand how cruel humans could be, and they matched the undead any day in viciousness.
“A few friends of mine stay with me,” Jade replied as we entered the front door.
“I can’t wait to meet them,” I said, which was the absolute truth.
We walked through a lovely foyer and entered a large living room. I counted seven more vampires, four female and three males. A human woman sat on the lap of one of the males, and aside from the dazzling amount of jewelry she wore, she had nothing else on. I measured the otherworldly energy in the air and did a quick estimation that none of the vamps were over a hundred years old. Maybe I wouldn’t need the team as backup after all.
Outtakes from the Grave (Night Huntress #8) Page 12