“Where to?”
“Just around, until our mate Tony here tells us otherwise.”
We left the bashed-up other car on the side of the road. It was one of Ted’s that he didn’t have a use for. A chop-shop owner was turning out to be a pretty handy friend.
“I don’t know anything, I’m just trying to make a buck,” Tony tried again.
“Liar.” Pleasantly, from Bones. “You’re one of Hennessey’s, and don’t tell me you don’t know how to contact him. All vampires know how to reach their sire. Just for your miserable existence, I should kill you. Pretending to sell drugs to addicts and then green-eying them into thinking they’ve gotten what they paid for—you’re pathetic.”
“Asshole,” I agreed.
“He’ll kill me.” It was a whimper.
“Not if he’s dead, he won’t, and you’re as good as that now yourself. What do you think Hennessey will do if he finds out you let yourself get captured? Think he’ll look kindly on how you were peddling your wares for me to find you? He’ll forgive you because he’s such a good bloke, right? He’ll rip your bloody head off and you know it. I’m your only hope, mate.”
Tony looked to me as if for help. I held up my middle finger. Well, what did he expect?
He turned back to Bones. “Promise me you won’t kill me and I’ll tell you everything.”
“I won’t kill you unless you refuse to talk,” Bones answered brusquely. “And if you lie to me, I really won’t kill you, but you’ll want me to. Count on it.”
There was a coldness to his tone that reminded me of when I’d been in Tony’s shoes. Yeah, Bones could be pretty scary.
Tony began to talk. Fast. “Hennessey’s been real secretive about his location lately, but if I need something, I’m supposed to go to Lola. I have her address—she’s in Lansing. She and Hennessey are pretty tight. If she doesn’t know where he is, she’ll know who does.”
“Give me her address.”
Tony rattled off the information. Bones didn’t bother to write it down, but maybe that was because he still held the dagger in Tony’s chest.
“Kitten, get on the I–69 and head north. We’re going to Lansing.”
It was a three-hour drive. Bones got exact directions from MapQuest on his cell phone, remarking how he loved modern technology. We walked the last half mile, parking Tony’s car in a nearby grocery store lot and taking him with us. Bones held the knife next to him with a malevolent smirk, commenting that if he even squeaked, he’d end him. As we approached, I saw Lola lived in an apartment complex also, albeit much snazzier than mine or Charlie’s. It was five a.m., and where was I? Skulking around another apartment building. I hoped we’d be done in time for me to take that exam. I could just imagine my excuse to the professor if I missed it. But honestly, I had to find a bad vampire! Somehow I didn’t think it would fly.
“Her car’s not here,” Tony whispered, taking Bones’s threat seriously and keeping his voice down.
“You can tell from one glance, aye?” With heavy skepticism.
“When you see it, you’ll understand,” Tony replied.
Bones put a finger to his lips as we got within a hundred feet of the place, indicating with hand signals that Tony and I were to stay put while he checked the building. I resisted the urge to give him the same fingered version of my opinion I’d relayed to Tony earlier, but consoled myself with the knowledge that watching the perimeter was important. And if I heard any subsequent brawling, I was close enough to jump in on it.
Bones slinked around the far side of the building and then disappeared. Minutes ticked by, stretching into an hour. Bones still hadn’t come back, but I didn’t hear any sounds of fighting, so I assumed he was perched somewhere also. The sun would be up soon, and my crouched position, holding Tony at knife point, was getting uncomfortable. A kink started in my back, and irritably I realized I’d never make that exam.
I was about to find a softer part on the ground to sit on when I noticed the car pulling up. Well, score one for Tony. He was right. You would notice that one, even at a glace.
It was a screaming red Ferrari, and the woman who’d just parked it wasn’t human. I crouched lower. The shrubs provided adequate cover, and from the small hill we were on, I had a clear view of her. She had short black hair, and from her features, she was Asian. Her car, outfit, and even her purse were all high-end, big-ticket items. Everything about her shouted money.
She had gotten about a dozen feet from the entrance to her building when Bones stepped into view. Apparently he’d been waiting out of sight inside the doors. She tried to run, but he pounced, cutting her flight to freedom short.
“Not so fast, Lola.”
The woman straightened and her chin came up. “How dare you touch me!”
“Dare?” Bones let out a laugh. It wasn’t his charming one. “There’s a fine word. It implies courage. Are you brave, Lola? We’ll soon find out.”
He drew out the last sentence with meaning. She looked around once before glaring at him.
“You’re making a big mistake.”
“Wouldn’t be my first.” He yanked her next to him. “Right, then, sweetness. You know what I want.”
“Hennessey and the others are going to kill you, it’s only a matter of time,” she spat.
Bones grasped her jaw and brought her face closer.
“Now, I don’t like abusing women, but I think you’ve earned the right to be an exception. It isn’t very private here, so I’m operating under a bit of a time crunch. You’re going to tell me who else is involved with Hennessey, and where to find them all right now, or I promise you you’ll endure every torment and humiliation you’ve helped to inflict on others. Fancy that? I’ve met some depraved, beastly blokes in my travels who would just love to give you a taste of your own poison. Tell you what—I’ll even sell you to them. Turnabout’s fair game, isn’t it? I’d say that was fair all the way ’round.”
Lola’s eyes widened. I could see that even from my vantage point. “I don’t know where Hennessey is, he hasn’t told me!”
Bones started dragging her back toward the parking lot. “You’ve just made Christmas come early for some happy deviants,” he stated crisply.
“Wait!” It was a plea. “I know where Switch is!”
He stopped, giving her a rough shake. “Who’s Switch?”
“Hennessey’s enforcer,” Lola said with a curl to her mouth. “You know how he hates to get his hands dirty. Switch handles the messy things, like silencing witnesses and hiding the bodies. He’s also recruiting for more help, since we don’t have Stephanie, Charlie, and Dean anymore. With Hennessey’s new protection, we don’t even have to worry about any pesky human interference.”
Something on the building’s roof caught my eye just as Bones asked, “What’s Switch’s real name, and who’s Hennessey’s new protection?”
Two forms dropped from the ten-story roof. Bones and Lola were directly below them. I jumped out from the bushes.
“Heads up!”
Two things happened at once. Lola pulled a blade from her purse as Bones looked up, and I, out of a mindless reaction, let fly the three silver knives in my hand.
Tony chose that moment to pounce. I’d let go of him to make that toss, and he came at me with fangs bared, knocking me to the ground. I held off his snapping jaws and twisted, ramming my knees into his chest to throw him back, and then plunged my other blade into his heart. He made an odd noise, almost like a pained giggle, and fell over on his side.
I leapt up in time to see Bones kneeling over Lola. She was on the cement, and silver protruded from her chest in a tight circle of three. Behind them were two bodies with two unattached heads. So much for the aerial attackers.
Bones rose from his kneeling position and swung his gaze to me.
“Lucifer’s bouncing balls, Kitten, not again!”
Uh-oh. I squirmed, instinctively also trying to block Tony’s body from his view. As if that made him any less dead.
“She was going to stab you,” I said in my defense. “Look in her hand!”
He was looking at the ground near my feet instead. “Him, too?”
I nodded, sheepish. “He jumped me.”
Bones just stared. “You’re not a woman,” he said finally. “You’re the Grim Reaper with red hair!”
“That’s not fair—” I protested, but a shrill scream cut me off.
A woman dressed in a business suit dropped her purse and ran shrieking back into the building. Guess a bunch of dead bodies in the parking lot had spooked her. Not the usual thing you’d expect to find while you were leaving to go to work.
Bones sighed and yanked the blades out of Lola. “Come on, Kitten, let’s go. Before you murder someone else.”
“I don’t find that funny—”
“At least I got some information out of Lola first,” he went on conversationally, tugging me back toward the car. “Hennessey’s enforcer, Switch. We’ll start by trying to find out who he is.”
“She was going to kill you—”
“Did it ever occur to you to aim for something other than the heart?” We were walking at a good clip. More people came out of the building behind us. I could tell from the additional screams.
We had reached the car, and he suddenly gave me a quick, sound kiss.
“I love that you did it to protect me, but next time, try aiming to wound, hmm? You know, maybe throw the knives at someone’s head instead? Then they’re incapacitated momentarily, but not reduced to a pile of rotting remains. Just food for thought.”
Chapter Seventeen
EVEN WITH BONES’S SPEEDING, I WOULDN’T have time to shower before I went to class. I’d be lucky to make it if I only dashed in my apartment and changed clothes.
“I have to drop this off at Ted’s,” he was saying as I got out of the car. “Should be back in a few hours.”
“I’ll be asleep,” I muttered. “Do we have to—”
“Hi, Cathy!”
Timmie opened his door with a wide smile. He must have seen me through his window.
Bones gave Timmie a look that froze the smile on the younger man’s face.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company,” Timmie apologized, almost tripping to hurry back into his apartment.
I shot Bones an equally hostile glare for rattling my already skittish neighbor. “It’s okay,” I said, smiling at Timmie. “He’s not really ‘company’ anyway.”
“Oh.” Timmie gave Bones a shy peek. “Are you Cathy’s brother?”
“Whatever would give you the idea that I’m her damn brother?” Bones snapped.
Timmie backed up so fast, he hit the back of his head against his doorframe. “Sorry!” he gasped, and banged into the door again before managing to scramble back inside.
I marched over to Bones and stuck my finger in his chest. He regarded me with what I would have called sullenness—if he hadn’t been over two hundred.
“You have a choice,” I said, biting off each word. “Either you make a very sincere apology to Timmie now, or you leave and slither back to your cave like the festering ball sack you just acted like. I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but he’s a nice guy, and you probably just made him pee his pants. Your decision, Bones. One or the other.”
A dark brow arched at me. I tapped my foot. “One…two…”
He muttered something foul and then climbed the stairs, rapping twice on Timmie’s door.
“Right, then, mate, terribly sorry for my unspeakable rudeness, and I do beg your pardon,” he said with admirable humbleness when Timmie cracked it open. Only I could pick up the slight edge to his voice as he went on. “I can only say that it was caused by my natural affront to the notion of her as my sister. Since I’ll be shagging her tonight, you can imagine how I’d be distressed at the thought of rogering my sibling.”
“You schmuck!” I burst as Timmie’s jaw dropped. “The only thing you’ll be shagging tonight is yourself!”
“You wanted sincerity,” he countered. “Well, luv, I was sincere.”
“You can get right back in the car and I’ll see you later, if you’re not being such an ass!”
Timmie’s head swiveled back and forth between the two of us, his jaw still swinging open. Bones gave him a smile that was more just a baring of teeth.
“Nice to meet you, mate, and here’s some advice: Don’t even think about it. You try anything with her and I’ll neuter you with my bare hands.”
“Leave!” I stamped my foot for emphasis.
He swept past me and then swiveled, kissing me hard on the mouth before jumping back to avoid my right hook.
“I’ll see you later, Kitten.”
Timmie waited until Bones had driven out of sight before he dared to speak.
“That’s your boyfriend?”
I let out a grunt that I suppose was an affirmative.
“He really doesn’t like me,” he said, almost a whisper.
I gave one last look in the direction Bones disappeared to before shaking my head at his bewildering behavior.
“No, Timmie. I guess he doesn’t.”
I made it to class just as the professor was handing out the tests. My dirty, bruised, disheveled appearance caused a few looks and nudges that I pretended not to notice. Then, I was so tired, I didn’t even know what I scribbled down for answers. The rest of the classes were even worse. I nodded off in physics and had to be poked awake by the person next to me. When I got back to my apartment, I discovered my period had made its appearance.
It was official. My day sucked.
I used my last remaining energy to shower before flopping into bed. Five minutes later, there was a knock on my door.
“You’d better run,” I muttered, eyes closed.
The knock became louder. “Catherine!”
Oh shit. It was my mother. What’s up, God? Wanted to see how much I could take?
“Coming!”
I answered the door, bleary-eyed, in my pajamas. My mother brushed past me with a disapproving frown.
“You’re not dressed. The movie’s in less than an hour.”
Double shit! Today was Monday and I’d promised her we’d see a movie together. With everything going on, I’d completely forgotten.
“Oh, Mom, I’m sorry. It was a really late night and I’m just now getting to bed—”
“Did you get one of those monsters?” she cut in, her frown magically erased.
“Is that all you care about?”
The sharp question surprised both of us. Instantly, guilt swarmed over me at the hurt look on her face.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. Jeez, I sounded like Timmie. “Um, in fact I did get two bad vampires last night.”
That was partly true. I’d just left a few details out she didn’t need to know about.
“Bad?” she asked with a gleam. “What do you mean by bad? They’re all bad!”
She can’t help it, I told myself, fighting guilt of another kind now. The only vampire she ever met raped her.
“Nothing. I’m just really tired. Can we do the movie another night? Please?”
She went into my kitchen, all four square feet of it, and opened my refrigerator. What she saw made her face draw even further together.
“It’s empty. You don’t have any food. Why don’t you have any food?”
I shrugged. “I haven’t been to the store yet. I forgot you were coming over.”
I’d eaten the last of the ramen noodles for lunch yesterday, and what I couldn’t tell her was that Bones usually took me out to eat. It was one of the few normal things we did together, albeit picking low-key places to avoid being spotted.
“You look very pale.”
Again, she said it as if it were an indictment. I yawned, hoping she’d take the hint.
“Nothing new there.”
“Catherine, you’re paler, there’s no food in here…have you started drinking blood?”
My mouth was still open fr
om the yawn, and at that comment, it stayed that way.
“You’re serious?” I managed.
She backed away a step. Actually backed away. “Have you?”
“No!”
I stomped toward her, hurt and mad to see her cringe. “Here.” I grabbed her hand and pressed it to my throat. “Feel that? It’s a pulse. I don’t drink blood, I’m not turning into a vampire, and my fridge is empty because I haven’t been to the store! For God’s sake, Mom!”
Timmie picked that moment to poke his head into my apartment. “Your door was open…”
He stopped, startled at the thunderous expression on my face. My mother dropped her hand from my neck and straightened her shoulders.
“Who’s he, Catherine?”
Timmie quailed at her tone. Poor guy didn’t know it was her normal one. “Be nice!” I hissed. First Bones had scared him, now my mother would probably give him a heart attack.
“Is this your boyfriend?” she asked next in a stage whisper he could clearly hear.
An immediate denial sprang to my lips, and then something happened in me. Something crafty, calculating, and opportunistic. I looked at Timmie and saw exactly what my mother saw. A living, breathing young man. One who was a hundred percent not dead.
In my defense, I was probably crazed from lack of sleep, my period, and being accused of having a liquid diet.
“Yes!” It came out of me with reckless abandon. “Mom, meet my boyfriend, Timmie!”
I ran to him, hiding his dumbfounded expression from her line of sight, and gave him an enthusiastic kiss on the cheek.
“Please go with it,” I begged in his ear, hugging him while I said it.
“Ouch!” he squeaked.
Oops. Squeezed too hard. I let him go with a wide smile. “Isn’t he just adorable?”
She came toward us, looking him up and down. Timmie gawked at her before holding out a trembling hand.
“H-hello, Mrs….?”
“Ms.,” she corrected at once.
He blanched at her emphaticalness, having no idea of the many reasons why that was a touchy subject. To give him credit, however, he didn’t run out the door.
“Ms.,” he tried again. “Nice to meet you, Ms….?”
Halfway to the Grave Page 21