Halfway to the Grave

by Jeaniene Frost

  I felt as hard as the stone in my hand. Silently I screamed inside.

  “It’s not a rock. It’s a piece of limestone. From a cave.”

  “Stay back five miles from all sides. Any closer and they’ll hear your heartbeats. No overhead air support, no radio. Hand signals only; we don’t want to give away our numbers. I’ll enter the cave from the mouth, and you will give me exactly thirty minutes. If I don’t come out, you use the rockets and blast it, then contain the perimeter and watch your backs. Anything comes out of that cave except me, you shoot it until you’re sure it’s really dead. And then you shoot it some more.”

  Tate angrily rounded on me. “This is a bullshit plan! That missile would only kill you, but the vampires would just dig themselves out later. If you don’t come out, we’re coming in after you. Period.”

  “Tate is right. We’re not blowing you up before I get a chance to show you my sausage.” Even Juan sounded worried. His innuendo was halfhearted at best.

  “No way, Cat,” Dave agreed. “You’ve saved my ass too many times for me to flip that switch.”

  “This isn’t a democracy.” Ice edged my words. “I make the decisions. You follow them. Don’t you get it? If I’m not out in thirty minutes, then I’m dead.”

  We spoke while flying in the chopper to thwart any undead eavesdroppers. I was paranoid to a fantastic degree after finding that rock. I hated to believe it, but I couldn’t imagine who else could have left it except Bones. That memento from the cave was too personal for it to have been Ian. Bones was the only one who knew about the cave, and everything else. The thought of him tearing apart those people sickened me. What could have happened in four years to change him so much, that he’d do such a gruesome thing? That’s why I needed only thirty minutes. Either I would kill him or he’d kill me, but it would be fast regardless. Bones always did get straight down to business, and he wouldn’t expect a romantic reunion. Not when he just sent me a bouquet of body parts.

  The helicopter landed twenty miles away. We would drive the next fifteen and I would walk the last five. The three of them argued with me the entire time, but I ignored them. My mind was numb. I’d wanted desperately to see Bones again, but never had I imagined it would be like this. Why? I wondered again. Why would Bones do something so horrible, so extreme, after all this time?

  “Don’t do it, Cat.”

  Tate tried one last time as I wrapped my jacket around me. It was lined with silver weapons, useful for much more than warmth. Winter was slow to release its grip this year. Tate gripped my arm, but I yanked free.

  “If I go down, lead the team. Keep them alive. That’s your job. This is mine.”

  Before he could say anything more, I broke into a run.

  The last mile I slowed to a walk, dreading the confrontation. My ears were pricked for the slightest sound, but that was why the cave had been such a great hideout. The depths and heights played tricks with noise. I couldn’t pinpoint any exact sounds. Surprisingly, I thought I heard a heartbeat as I drew nearer, but maybe it was just my own pounding. When I touched the outer entrance of the cave, I felt the energy inside. Vampire power, vibrating the air. Oh God.

  Right before I ducked under the threshold, I pressed a button on my watch. Countdown, thirty minutes exactly, had just begun.

  Both my hands held wicked-looking silver daggers in them, and I was weighted down with my throwing knives. I’d even brought a gun and tucked it inside my pants, the clip filled with silver bullets. Being prepared to kill cost a small fortune.

  My eyes adjusted to the almost nonexistent lighting. From tiny openings in the rock, the cave wasn’t completely black. So far the initial entryway was clear. There were noises deeper inside, and the question I’d refused to consider now loomed in front of me. Could I kill Bones? Would I be able to look in his brown eyes, or his green ones, and wield that blow? I didn’t know, hence my backup plans of the missile. If I faltered, they wouldn’t. They’d be strong should I prove to be weak. Or prove to be dead, whichever came first.

  “Come closer,” a voice beckoned.

  It reverberated with echoes. Was that an English accent? I couldn’t be sure. My pulse sped up, and I went farther inside the cave.

  There had been some changes since I’d last seen it. The area that once doubled as a living room was trashed. The sofa was in sections, and it hadn’t been a sectional. Stuffing from the cushions settled like snow on the floor, the television was smashed in, and the lamps had long since seen their last light. The dressing screen that had guarded my short-lived modesty was in pieces throughout the area. Someone had obviously torn the place apart in a fit of rage. Frankly I was afraid to look in the bedroom, but I peeked inside anyway, and my heart constricted.

  The bed was reduced to bits of foam. Wood and springs littered the space and stood inches deep on the ground. Stones in the wall were chipped here and there from a fist or other hard object pummeling them. Anguish welled up in me. This was my doing, as surely as if I’d used my own hands.

  A cool current parted the atmosphere behind me. I whirled around with knives at the ready. Staring at me with glowing green eyes was a vampire. Behind him were six more. Their energy thickened the air in the close space, but they were evenly distributed, if you could call it that. Only one of them crackled with an abundance of power, but his face was entirely foreign to me.

  “Who in the fuck are you guys?”

  “You came. Your old boyfriend wasn’t lying. We weren’t sure whether to believe him.”

  This statement was from the vamp in front, the one with the curling brown hair. He looked to be about twenty-five, in human years. From the clout oozing off his body, I judged him to be roughly five hundred or a young Master. Out of the seven, he was the most dangerous, and his previous sentence scared the shit out of me. Your old boyfriend. That was how they knew about me. Mother of God, it wasn’t Bones who killed those people, but these vampires instead! What they would have done to him to make him talk both sickened and infuriated me.

  “Where is he?”

  The only question that mattered. If they’d killed Bones, I was going to turn them all into exact replicas of the mattress behind me. Indistinguishable from one particle to the next.

  “He’s here. Alive still. If you want him to remain that way, you’ll do what I tell you.”

  The other minions began to fan out, trapping me with the bedroom as my only exit. Since it was a closed area, there was no help there.

  “Let me see him.”

  Curly Hair smiled smugly. “No demands, girl. Do you think those knives will really protect you?”

  When my grandparents were murdered and I’d rammed a car through a house to rescue my mother, I thought I couldn’t get any angrier. How wrong I was. The unadulterated bloodlust pouring through me made me tremble. They took my shaking for fear, and their smiles broadened. Curly stepped forward.

  Two of the daggers flew out of my hand before I even articulated the order to my brain. They buried past their hilts in the heart of a vamp to my left, who had been licking his lips. He pitched forward before his tongue finished its insinuating path. More knives replaced those, and once again both my hands were full.

  “Now I’m going to ask again, and don’t piss me off. I have spent the morning up to my ass in guts and I am low on patience. The next one’s aimed for you, Brownielocks, unless you show me what I want to see. Your boys might get me in a rush, but you’ll be too dead to care.”

  My eyes bored into his, and I let him see that I meant every single word. Unless they showed me Bones, I was going to assume the worst and go down in flames, and by God, I’d see they went with me.

  There must have been something in my gaze he took seriously. He jerked his head at two of his stunned lieutenants. They took a last look at their friend, who was slowly beginning to shrivel, before trotting off. One untwisted knife wouldn’t have killed the vamp. But two had done the necessary damage to his heart. In the background, I heard the clanking of iro
ns, and then I knew where they had Bones. Hell, once I’d been chained there myself. Now I was sure I could hear a heartbeat. Did they have a human guard on him?

  The leader studied me dispassionately.

  “You are the one who’s been murdering our kind the last several years. A human with the strength of an immortal, the one they call the Red Reaper. Do you know how much money you’re worth?”

  Holy shit, now that was ironic. He was a bounty hunter, and I was his mark. Well, it was only a matter of time, I supposed. You can’t off a hundred creatures and expect no one to get cranky.

  “A lot, I hope. Hate to be on clearance.”

  He frowned. “You mock me. I am Lazarus, and you should quake before me. Remember, I hold the life of your love. Which means more to you—his fate, or yours?”

  Did I love Bones enough to die for him? Absolutely. Relief that he wasn’t behind this made me almost cheerful about my impending death. Any day of the week I’d rather die than suspect him of such cruelty again.

  Sobbing brought my attention back to the situation. What was going on? A glance at my watch showed fifteen minutes before bomb time. Bones would have to get out fast before that missile hit. Lazarus wouldn’t be around to collect any cash. Maybe I’d tell him that before the timer ran out.

  Something human and weeping was thrown to the surface near my feet. I gave it a disparaging look before turning to Lazarus.

  “Quit stalling. I don’t need to see one of your chew toys to believe you’re all badasses. Really, I’m quaking. Where’s Bones?”

  “Bones?” Lazarus said, his eyes darting around. “Where?”

  Two things occurred to me at nearly the same instant. One, from Lazarus’s expression, he had no idea where Bones was. Two, the tear-streaked face turning up at me belonged to the lying little shit who’d seduced and dumped me when I was sixteen.

  Home for the Holidays

  An excerpt from Home for the Holidays, a short story in A Bite Before Christmas.

  Available in hardcover and eBook on October 25, 2011.

  One

  I GLANCED AT MY WATCH. TEN MINUTES TO midnight. The vampire would be back soon, and despite hours of careful preparation, I wasn’t ready for him.

  A ghost’s head popped through the wall, the rest of his body concealed by the wood barrier. He took one look around the room and a frown appeared on his filmy visage.

  “You’re not going to make it.”

  I yanked the wire through the hole I’d drilled into the ceiling’s rafter, careful not to shift my weight too far or I’d fall off the ladder I was balanced on. Fabian was right, but I wasn’t ready to concede defeat.

  “When he pulls up, stall him.”

  “How am I supposed to do that?” he asked.

  Good question. Unlike humans, vampires could see ghosts, but tended to ignore them as a general rule. While this vampire showed more respect to the corporeal-impaired, he still wouldn’t stop to have a lengthy chat with one before entering his home.

  “Can’t you improvise? You know, make some loud pounding noises or cause the outer walls to bleed?”

  The ghost shot me a look that said my witticism wasn’t appreciated. “You watch too many movies, Cat.”

  Then Fabian vanished from sight, but not before I heard him muttering about unfair stereotypes.

  I finished twisting together the wires along the ceiling. If all went well, as soon as the vampire came through that door, I’d use my remote transmitter to unload a surprise onto his head. Now, to set up the last of the contraptions I’d planned—

  The unmistakable sound of a car approaching almost startled me into falling off the ladder. Damn it, the vampire was back! No time to rig any other devices. I barely had enough time to conceal myself.

  I leapt off the ladder and carried it as noiselessly as I could to the closet. The last thing I needed was a bunch of metallic clanging to announce that something unusual was going on. Then I swept up the silver knives I’d left on the floor. It wouldn’t do for the vampire to see those right off.

  I’d just crouched behind one of the living-room chairs when I heard a car door shut and then Fabian’s voice.

  “You won’t believe what I found around the edge of your property,” the ghost announced. “A cave with prehistoric paintings inside it!”

  I rolled my eyes. That was the best tactic Fabian could come up with? This was a vampire he was trying to stall. Not a paleontologist.

  “Good on you,” an English voice replied, sounding utterly disinterested. Booted footsteps came to the door, but then paused before going further. I sucked in a breath I no longer needed. No cars were in the driveway, but did the vampire sense that several people lurked out of sight, waiting to pounce on him as soon as he crossed that threshold?

  “Fabian,” that cultured voice said next. “Are you sure there isn’t anything else you want to tell me?”

  A hint of menace colored the vampire’s tone. I could almost picture my friend quailing, but his reply was instant.

  “No. Nothing else.”

  “All right,” the vampire said after a pause. The knob turned. “Your exorcism if you’re lying.”

  I stayed hidden behind the chair, a silver knife gripped in one hand and the remote transmitter in the other. When the sound of boots hit the wood floor inside the house, I pressed the button and leapt up at the same time.

  “Surprise!”

  Confetti unleashed from the ceiling onto the vampire’s head. With a whiplike motion, I threw my knife and severed the ribbon holding closed a bag of balloons above him. Those floated down more slowly, and by the time the first one hit the floor, the vampires who’d been concealed in the other rooms had come out.

  “Happy birthday,” they called out in unison.

  “It’s not every day someone turns two hundred and forty-five,” I added, kicking balloons aside as I made my way to the vampire in the doorway.

  A slow smile spread across his features, changing them from gorgeous to heart-stopping. Of course, my heart had stopped beating—for the most part—over a year ago, so that was my normal condition.

  “This is what you’ve been so secretive about lately?” Bones murmured, pulling me into his arms once I got close.

  I brushed a dark curl from his ear. “They’re not just here for your birthday, they’re staying for the holidays, too. We’re going to have a normal, old-fashioned Christmas for once. Oh, and don’t exorcise Fabian; I made him try to stall you. If you were ten minutes later, I’d have had streamers set up, too.”

  His chuckle preceded the brush of lips against my cheek; a cool, teasing stroke that made me lean closer in instinctive need for more.

  “Quite all right. I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.”

  Knowing my husband, he’d find several uses for them, and at least one of those would make me blush.

  I moved aside to let Bones get enveloped in well-wishes from our guests. In addition to Fabian and his equally transparent girlfriend floating above the room, Bones’s best friend, Spade, was here. So was Ian, the vampire who sired Bones; Mencheres, his young-looking vampire version of a grandfather; his girlfriend, Kira; and my best friend, Denise. She was the only one in the room with a heartbeat, making her seem human to anyone who didn’t know better. Our guest list was small, because inviting everyone Bones knew for an extended birthday/holiday bash would require me renting a football stadium. Therefore, only Bones’s closest companions were present.

  Well, all except one.

  “Anybody heard from Annette?” I whispered to Denise when she left Bones’s side and returned to mine.

  She shook her head. “Spade tried her twenty minutes ago, but she didn’t answer her cell.”

  “Wonder what’s keeping her.”

  Annette might not be my favorite person, considering her previous, centuries-long “friends with benefits” relationship with Bones, but she’d be last on the list of people I’d expect to skip his birthday party. Her ties with Bones went all th
e way back to when both of them were human, and in fairness, Annette seemed to have accepted that her position in his life was now firmly in the “friends without benefits” category.

  “She flew in from London to be here,” Denise noted. “Seems odd that she’d decide a thirty-minute car commute was too much.”

  “What’s this?” Bones asked, making his way over.

  I waved a hand, not wanting to spoil the festive mood. “Nothing. Annette must be running behind.”

  “Some bloke rang her right before we left the hotel. She said she’d catch up with us,” Spade said, coming to stand behind Denise. With his great height, her head was barely even with his shoulders, but neither of them seemed to mind. Black hair spilled across his face as he leaned down to kiss her neck.

  “Why am I the only one without someone to snog?” Ian muttered, giving me an accusatory glance. “Knew I should’ve brought a date.”

  “You didn’t get to bring a date because the type of girl you’d pick would want to liven things up with a group orgy before cutting the cake,” I pointed out.

  His smile was shameless. “Exactly.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Deal with not being the center of slutty attention for once, Ian. It’ll do you good.”

  “No it won’t,” he said, shuddering as if in horror. “Think I’ll go to the hotel and see what’s taking Annette.”

  Denise snorted. “Way to make do with who’s available.”

  I bit back my laugh with difficulty. Denise’s opinion of Ian—and Annette—was even worse than my own, but that didn’t make her wrong. Still, out of respect for both of them being Bones’s friends, I contained my snicker.

  Far from being offended, Ian archly rose his brows. “Just following the American adage about turning a frown upside-down.”

  Mencheres, ever the tactful one, chose that moment to glide over. “Perhaps we should turn our attention to gifts.”

  Bones clapped Ian on the back. “Don’t take too long, mate.”