Halfway to the Grave

by Jeaniene Frost

  “But you’ve only known me two months!” Now I tried arguing the point, because denial didn’t seem to work.

  A slight smile curled his lips. “I began to fall in love with you when you challenged me to that stupid fight in the cave. There you were, chained up and bleeding, questioning my courage and almost daring me to kill you. Why do you think I struck that bargain with you? Truth is, luv, I did it so you’d be forced to spend time with me. I knew you’d never agree any other way. After all, you had such hang-ups about vampires. Still do, it appears.”

  “Bones…” My eyes were wide at his revelation and with the growing knowledge that he was serious. “We’d never work out together. We have to stop this now, before it goes any further!”

  “I know what makes you say that. Fear. You’re terrified because of how that other wanker treated you, and you’re even more afraid of what your dear mum would say.”

  “Oh, she’d have plenty to say, you can bet on that,” I muttered.

  “I’ve faced death more times than I can count, Kitten, and this instance with Hennessey is no different—do you really think the wrath of your mum is going to scare me away?”

  “It would if you were smart.” Also muttered.

  “Then consider me the stupidest man in the world.”

  He leaned over and kissed me. A long, deep kiss filled with promise and passion. I loved the way he kissed me. Like he was drinking in the taste of me and still coming back thirsty.

  I pushed him back, my breathing uneven. “You’d better not be messing with me. I like you, but if you’re feeding me a load of shit just to get some action, I’m going to plug a big silver stake right through your heart.”

  He chuckled and his mouth slid down to nuzzle my neck. “I’ll consider myself warned.”

  The erotic teasing of my pulse made me shiver. “And no biting,” I added.

  His laughter tickled me. “On my honor. Anything else?”

  “Yeah….” It was getting harder to think. “No one else if you’re with me.”

  He drew his head up and his lips twitched. “That’s a relief. After you told Tara she could have me as well, I didn’t know if you fancied monogamy.”

  I flushed. “I’m serious!”

  “Kitten”—he held my face—“I said I loved you. That means I don’t want anyone else.”

  This would only bring disaster, I knew it. Knew it as sure as I knew I was a half-blooded freak, but looking into his eyes, it didn’t matter.

  “Last but absolutely not least, I insist on going after Hennessey with you. If I trust you enough to be your…your girlfriend, you’ll have to trust me enough to let me do that.”

  Something like a sigh escaped him.

  “I beg you to stay out of this. Hennessey’s well connected and ruthless. That’s a dangerous combination.”

  I smiled. “Half dead and totally dead. We’re a dangerous combination as well.”

  He let out a dry laugh. “I reckon you’re right about that.”

  “Bones.” I made my gaze unflinching so he could see how serious I was. “I can’t walk away when I know what’s happening. I’d hate myself for not doing everything I could to stop it. One way or another, I’m in this. Your only choice is whether I’m in this with you, or without you.”

  He gave me that penetrating stare of his. The one that felt like it could drill holes into the back of my head, but I didn’t look away. He finally did.

  “All right, luv. You win. We’ll get him together. I promise.”

  The first rays of dawn pierced the sky. I looked at them with regret. “Sun’s coming up.”

  “So it is.”

  He pulled me to him again and kissed me with such fervor that I gasped. There was no mistaking the demand of his mouth or the feel of his body.

  “But it’s dawn!” I said in astonishment.

  Bones let out a low laugh. “Really, luv, how dead do you think I am…?”

  We ordered breakfast later from room service, an invention that had to come straight from heaven, in my opinion. Well, by the time we ordered it, it was actually more like lunch, although I still chose the pancakes and eggs. Bones watched in amusement as I scarfed the food down, scraping my plate when it was empty.

  “You can always send for more. You don’t have to chew the dishes.”

  “It wouldn’t matter if I did. I think you already lost your deposit,” I replied, casting a meaningful look at the shattered lamp, broken table, bloodstained carpet, overturned couch, and various other items that were in a condition other than how we’d found them. It looked like a brawl had taken place. One sort of had. A sensual one, anyway.

  He grinned and stretched his arms over his head. “Worth every farthing.”

  The inking on his left arm caught my eye. I’d noticed it the other night, of course, but somehow hadn’t been in the conversation mood. Now I traced it with a finger.

  “Crossbones. How appropriate.” The tattoo wasn’t filled in; the bones were just an outline. His pale flesh seemed to emphasize the black ink. “When did you get it?”

  “A mate gave that to me over sixty years ago. He was a Marine who died in World War Two.”

  God, talk about a generation gap. That tattoo was over three times my age. Slightly uncomfortable, I changed the subject.

  “Did you find out anything more about Charlie?”

  He’d gotten on the computer while I called in my breakfast order. I didn’t want to know how he was going about the process of discovering if there was any money wanted for Charlie. Listing Charlie on eBay, perhaps? One corpse, extra crispy! Do I hear a thousand dollars?

  “I’ll check, should have a nibble by now,” he responded, climbing gracefully out of bed. He was still naked, and I couldn’t help but stare at his ass. Two-plus centuries or not, it was something.

  “Ah, e-mail, and good news. Bank wire transfer completed, one hundred thousand dollars. Charlie pissed off the wrong bloke, whoever this is. I’ll give him the location of where to find his body for confirmation, and Hennessey will be hearing about it soon. That’ll also be twenty K for you, Kitten, and you didn’t even have to kiss him.”

  “I don’t want the money.”

  My reply was immediate. I didn’t even have to think about it. No matter that the shallow, greedy part of my brain screeched in protest.

  He regarded me curiously. “Whyever not? You earned it. I told you that was always part of the plan, even though I didn’t let you in on it right off. What’s the problem?”

  Sighing, I tried to articulate the whirling of emotions and thoughts that consisted of my conscience.

  “Because it isn’t right. It was one thing to take it when we weren’t sleeping together, but I don’t want to feel like a kept woman. I won’t be your girlfriend and your employee at the same time. Really, the choice is yours. Pay me, and I stop sleeping with you. Keep the money, and we continue on in bed.”

  Bones laughed outright, coming over to where I sat.

  “And you wonder why I love you. When you boil it all down, you’re paying me to shag you, for as soon as I stop, I owe you twenty percent of every contract I take. Blimey, Kitten, you’ve turned me back into a whore.”

  “That’s…that’s not…Dammit, you know what I meant!”

  Clearly I hadn’t thought of it in those terms. I tried to wrest myself away, but his arms hardened like steel. Although still sparking with humor, there was a definite glint of something else in his eyes. Dark brown orbs started to color with green.

  “You’re not going anywhere. I have twenty thousand dollars to earn, and I’m going to start working on it right now….”

  We boarded the plane after boxing our stakes and knives and taking them to a FedEx carrier, airport security being so strict nowadays. In the section marked “contents,” Bones filled out “tofu.” God, but he had a sick sense of humor sometimes. It was with only our carry-on luggage that we embarked. Bones again let me have the window seat, and I waited for that rush of power when the
engines roared to life. He had his eyes closed, and I noticed a faint compressing of his fingers on the armrest when we accelerated.

  “You don’t like to fly, do you?” I asked, surprised. He never seemed hesitant about anything.

  “No, not really. One of the few ways a bloke like me can accidentally die.”

  His eyes were still closed, and then we were pressed back into our seats with the force of the liftoff. After the worst of the pressure subsided, I lifted his eyelid to see him glare balefully at my amused expression.

  “Don’t you know anything about statistics? Safest way to travel if you play it by numbers.”

  “Not for a vampire. We can walk away from almost any car crash, train wreck, sunken ship, or whatever. Yet when a plane goes down, not even our kind can do much about it but pray. Lost a mate in that crash in the Everglades several years ago. Poor bugger, they only ever found his kneecap.”

  Contrary to his suspicion, the plane landed safely at four-thirty. Bones was also very handy when it came to getting a cab. He’d just glare at the drivers with his green gaze and compel them to stop. They did, even if they already had passengers. That happened twice, to my embarrassment. Finally we flagged one without occupants and started back to my house. He had been oddly quiet since getting off the plane, and when we were within five minutes of my place, he suddenly broke the silence.

  “I take it you don’t want me to see you to the door and give you a kiss goodbye in front of your mum?”

  “Absolutely not!”

  The look he gave me told me he didn’t appreciate the emphaticalness of my response.

  “Be that as it may, I want to see you tonight.”

  I sighed. “Bones, no. I’m barely ever home anymore. Next weekend I move into my new apartment, so these next few days with my family will be all I’ll have for a while. Something tells me my grandparents won’t be visiting often.”

  “Where’s the apartment?”

  Oh, I’d forgotten to mention it. “About six miles away from the campus.”

  “You’ll be only twenty minutes from the cave, then.”

  How convenient. Bones didn’t speak the last part. He didn’t have to.

  “I’ll call you with the address on Friday. You can come over after my mother leaves. Not before. I mean it, Bones. Unless you get a lead on Hennessey or our mysterious masked rapist, give me a little time. It’s already Sunday.”

  The long driveway to my house came into view as the taxi rounded the next corner. Bones saw it and took my hand.

  “I want you to promise me something. Promise me you’re not going to start running again.”

  “Running?” Why would I do that? I hadn’t had much sleep and I certainly didn’t feel in the mood for jogging.

  Then his meaning penetrated. When I got home and looked into my mother’s eyes, I would second-guess a relationship with him all to hell, I knew. He must have known it, too. Now, however, the only face in front of me was his.

  “No, I’m too tired to run, and you’re too fast. You’d only catch me.”

  “That’s right, luv.” Softly, but with unyielding resonance. “If you run from me, I’ll chase you. And I’ll find you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  IT WAS A BUSY REMAINDER OF THE WEEK. THERE was packing, paperwork for the apartment, the deposit and rental agreement signed with my new landlord, and saying goodbye to my family.

  Using some of the money from the first job with Bones, I’d bought a box spring and mattress and a dresser for my clothes. Add a few lamps, and that was the whole enchilada. The rest of the money I split with my mother, telling her one of the vampires I’d taken down had carried cash. It was the least I could do. The remaining money I hoarded, knowing I would still have to get a part-time job to make ends meet. How I was going to handle college, a job, and helping to track down a group of enterprising undead murderers was anyone’s guess.

  Bones hadn’t called or come over, as per my request, but he’d been in my thoughts all week. To my horror, one morning my mother asked me if I’d had a nightmare the previous evening. Apparently I’d been saying the word “bones” in my sleep. Mumbling something about graveyards, I brushed her off, but the reality remained. Unless Bones and I broke up—or I got killed, of course—one day I’d have to deal with her and him. Frankly, that scared me more than going after Hennessey.

  My grandparents let me keep the truck, which was nice of them. They had been less than pleased with me lately, but I received a stiff hug from each of them when it was time for me to leave. My mother followed me in her car because, as I expected, she wanted to see me settled in.

  “Be sure and learn good, child,” Grandpa Joe gruffly said when I started to pull away. My eyes pricked with tears, since I was leaving the only home I’d ever known.

  “I love you both,” I sniffed.

  “Don’t forget to keep going to Bible study with that nice young gal,” my grandmother instructed me sternly. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, if she only knew what she was saying.

  “Oh, I’m sure I’ll be seeing her soon.” Real soon.

  “Catherine, it’s…it’s…you could always stay at the house and commute.”

  My mother’s obvious dismay as she looked around my apartment made me hide a smile. No, it wasn’t pretty, but it was all mine.

  “It’s fine, Mom. Really. It will look much better after we clean.”

  After three hours of side-by-side scrubbing, it didn’t look any better, in fact. But at least now I wouldn’t worry about bugs.

  At eight p.m., my mother kissed me goodbye, throwing her arms around me and hugging me so hard it almost hurt.

  “Call me if you need anything, promise me. Be careful, Catherine.”

  “I promise, Mom. I will.”

  Oh, what a tangled web we weave…What I was going to do next was far, far from careful, but I was doing it anyway. A soon as she left, I picked up the phone and dialed.

  While I was waiting, I took a shower and put on new clothes. Not night clothes, because that seemed too obvious, but regular clothing. The time apart this week had been rough, and for more than just the scary fact that I missed him. My mother made her usual comments about how all vampires deserved to die and for me to keep hunting them, in between admonitions to study diligently. I’d cringed with guilt every time I had to nod and agree with her so she didn’t get suspicious.

  My hair was still wet from washing it when I heard him rap twice. I opened the door…and the last few days fell away. Bones stepped through the entrance and locked it behind him while pulling me into his arms in one motion. God, but he was beautiful, with those chiseled cheekbones and pale skin, his body hard and seeking. His mouth covered mine before I could get a breath in, and then I didn’t need to breathe because I was too busy kissing him. My hands trembled when they reached up to grasp his shoulders and then clenched when he reached under my waistband to feel inside.

  “I can’t breathe,” I gasped, wrenching my head away.

  His mouth went to my throat, lips and tongue moving over the sensitive skin as he bent my spine until only his arms held me upright.

  “I missed you,” he growled, restlessly pulling off my clothes. He swept me up in his arms and asked a single question. “Where?”

  I jerked my head in the vicinity of my bedroom, too busy feasting on his skin to answer. He carried me into the small room and nearly flung me on the bed.

  A tentative knock at my door the next morning made me groan as I rolled over. The clock showed nine-thirty. Bones had left right before dawn with a whispered promise to meet me here later. He said my apartment had too much exposure for him to sleep. Whatever that meant.

  I stumbled into my robe, fastening my attention to the doorway where the knock had come from. Heartbeat, whoever it was, and only one. That made me leave my knives in the bedroom. Opening the door armed might set a bad tone if it was my landlord.

  The sound of footsteps retreating had me snatch the door open in time to see a young man abou
t to disappear into the unit next to mine.

  “Hey!” I said, a little sharper than I’d intended.

  He stopped almost guiltily, and it was then that I noticed the small basket near my feet. A quick glance showed it contained ramen noodles, Tylenol, and pizza coupons.

  “College survival kit,” he said, coming toward me with a hesitant smile. “I guessed from seeing you unload your books last night that you’re attending school, too. I’m your neighbor, Timmie. Uh, Tim. I mean Tim.”

  The obvious cover-up of a nickname had me smiling. Childhood baggage was hard to overcome. In my case, I’d never get past mine.

  “I’m Cathy,” I replied, using my school name again. “Thanks for the goodies, and I didn’t mean to bark at you. I’m just grouchy when I wake up.”

  He was instantly apologetic. “I’m sorry! I just assumed you’d be awake. Jeez, am I dumb. Go back to sleep, please.”

  He turned to go into his apartment, and something about his hunched shoulders and awkward demeanor reminded me of…me. That was how I felt on the inside most of the time. Unless I was killing someone.

  “It’s okay,” I said quickly. “Er, I had to get up anyway, and the alarm clock must not have gone off, so…do you have any coffee?”

  I didn’t even really like coffee, but he’d made a nice gesture and I didn’t want him feeling bad. Seeing the relief that washed over him made me glad for the small lie.

  “Coffee,” he repeated with another shy smile. “Yeah. Come on in.”

  I wasn’t wearing anything under the robe. “Give me a second.”

  After throwing on sweatpants and a T-shirt, I padded over in slippers to Timmie’s place. He’d left the door open, and the aroma of Folgers filled the air. It was the same brand my grandparents had brewed all my life. In a way, it was comforting to smell it.

  “Here.” He handed me a mug and I sat on the stool by his counter. The layouts of our apartments were identical, except of course Timmie’s place had furniture. “Cream and sugar?”

  “Sure.”

  I studied him as he went about the small kitchen. Timmie was only a few inches taller than me, not quite six feet, and had sandy-colored hair and taupe eyes. He wore glasses and had the type of frame that looked like it had only filled out from the skinniness of adolescence recently. My internal suspicious radar so far hadn’t picked up anything threatening about him. Still, it seemed every time someone was nice to me, he or she had ulterior motives. Danny? One-night stand. Ralphie and Martin? Attempted date rape. Stephanie? White slavery. I had a reason to be paranoid. If I felt even the slightest bit woozy after drinking this coffee, Timmie was going down for the count.