Destined for an Early Grave

TWELVE

IAN GLOWERED UP AT ME. “IF IT WEREN’T SO bleedin’ close to dawn, I’d make you beg for mercy.”

I was on top of him, my legs on either side of his waist. He might have liked it under other circumstances. Right now, though, with a knife sticking out of his chest, he had other things on his mind.

“Sore loser,” I responded, yanking the blade out and leaping to my feet. “Come on. Again.”

“This is a poor substitute for shagging,” he grumbled, rising and frowning at the rent in his shirt. “You’ve ruined it.”

“I told you to just take it off.” With a shrug.

Ian grinned at me. “Ah, but I thought you only wanted to enjoy the goods, poppet.”

He’d kept up a steady stream of comments and innuendoes designed to throw me off my game. I didn’t take it seriously. I knew it was just how he operated.

“Keep talking, pretty boy. It only makes your silent moments better.”

That drew a laugh as we circled each other. Ian’s eyes glittered with expectation. He loved a nasty brawl. It was one of his admirable qualities.

“Find me pretty, do you? I always knew it. Alas, Reaper, we’d have had a grand time of it before, but you had to marry Crispin. Now you’re off-limits forever, but it would have been fun. Very fun.”

“You never stood a chance, Ian.”

He ducked the knife I flung at him with another dirty chuckle.

“Poor aim, sweet. Missed me by a meter. Still chafing at the thought of how easily I could have bedded you before Crispin came back into your life? Do you really think you could have resisted me for long if I’d set out to have you?”

Arrogant bastard. I charged at him, but Ian sidestepped me at the last instant. Too late I knew I’d made a mistake. His foot swept out, his fists followed, and I was knocked off-balance. An elbow crashed into my back. It dropped me to the floor with him right on top of me. He yanked my arms back, bending them the wrong way, and his mouth latched onto my neck.

“One flick of my fangs and your throat would be torn open,” he murmured before releasing me. I flipped over, wincing, to find him staring down at me with objective triumph.

“Temper, temper,” he said. “It’s both your weakness and your strength.”

I scrambled to my feet, moving slower from what had to be broken bones in my rib cage. My rotator cuffs were hyperextended as well. They burned almost as much as my ribs. “One out of three, Ian. I wouldn’t be so quick to brag.”

“I knew I’d beat you eventually,” he countered. “Everyone makes mistakes, given enough time.”

I heard footsteps approach, and my mother came into the room. She looked at the haphazardly rearranged furniture, at me, then at Ian.

“Catherine, how long are you going to be bashing around down here?” she asked.

“Aren’t you going to say hallo, poppet?”

Ian fairly purred the question. I mouthed wordless dire threats to him over her shoulder. He just grinned at me.

She ignored him, my irregular breathing registering to her. “Are you all right, Catherine?”

Two could play the taunting game over her. For effect, I wheezed noisily.

“No I’m not. Ian broke my ribs.”

“Tattletale.” He smirked, knowing what I was doing.

Instead of being overcome with concern, she tapped her foot.

“You shouldn’t have let him get that close. Maybe since you quit your job, you’re losing your edge.”

Son of a bitch. I puffed up in outrage. Ian stifled a laugh.

Then the television stuffed into the far corner of the room turned on. I glanced around in confusion, expecting to see some newcomer with a remote control, when Ian let out a curse.

“Bollocks.”

“Huh?”

He grasped my arm with one hand and my mother’s with the other. My protest was cut off with his next muttered words.

“Dawn. Why does every ghoul feel the need to attack at dawn?”

Ian propelled us out of the room and up the basement staircase. From every corner of the house, people were coming out of their rooms and the TVs were on. Not blaring, just set to low volumes. It hit me then what the synchronized powering of the televisions was. An alarm. A subtle one.

“Who’s attacking?”

“Can’t stay and chat about it,” Ian ground out, rounding the next corner to nearly collide into Bones. “Ah, Crispin. Feeling frisky, I trust? It promises to be a busy morning.”

“So it does,” Bones said, landing a heavy hand on my shoulder. “You’re coming with me, Kitten. Ian, take her mum below.”

“Wait.”

I tugged at one of the knives on Bones’s belt. He was wearing several. Maybe this wasn’t so unexpected after all. “My ribs are fractured and I’ve got some torn ligaments. You’ll have to give me blood so that doesn’t slow me down.”

Ian let out a mocking grunt. “I won’t wait to hear the rest of this.”

“Nor should you,” Bones shot back. “Kitten, this way.”

He ignored the knife I held up and drew me up to the third level of the house. At first I thought he had weapons waiting for me. Or protective gear, Bones was big on me wearing that. But when we entered the bedroom and he pushed an unseen button in the closet, revealing a small room I hadn’t known was there, I understood.

And was furious.

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m hiding in this box.”

“I don’t have time to argue,” Bones cut me off, shoving me inside. “There are monitors, a phone, your cell, and more of your belongings. These are ghouls attacking. With those rumors Majestic said were swirling around, who do you think they’ll target? You, and anyone guarding you. If you remain out of sight, it will improve the chances of everyone fighting, so for God’s sake, Kitten, stay here.”

One glance at Bones’s blazing eyes told me that awake or lights out, I would be in this shelter.

“You have a monitor facing this door,” he went on, tapping another button on an interior panel. “If anyone you don’t recognize tries to get in, you hit this. Now back away.”

Without waiting for me to comply, he pushed me farther into the room and hit the exterior device. The door slid shut with a heavy clinking sound of locks settling into place. They quieted with a finality that was appropriate for the settings. I was sealed in.

Something caught my attention farther back in this shoe box. Monitors. There were six of them, all with different angles. One pointed toward the closet exterior, as Bones had said, but the others were aimed at the outer grounds. It startled me to see the exterior of the house, because it spoke volumes about where we were. No wonder I hadn’t been allowed to even step outside. From the looks of it, I was in a small castle. I hadn’t been able to tell that from the inside, considering how modern the interior was.

Dawn was just breaking. The sparse lightening of the sky made it easier to see the rush of activity outside, since it didn’t appear that the cameras had night vision. Most of the angles were fixed at points around the castle, but one was aimed at the sloping hill of the lower yard.

I gasped. There were so many of them.

Over a hundred ghouls marched with lethal steadiness up the uneven ground. They were all armed. Some held even more deadly devices than guns or knives, like rocket launchers. How many people were here? Bones, Spade, Rodney, Ian…and a few guards, Spade had said. Against such numbers, it would be a slaughter. Why didn’t they land-mine the lawn? I raged. Why aren’t there more people here? And why are they lining up in front of the house like fucking targets, instead of barricading behind the walls!

A man strode up from the ranks and approached the castle. He was of medium height, with salt-and-pepper hair and a commanding manner. He was saying something, but the damn monitors didn’t have sound. The room was too reinforced for my ears, so I couldn’t hear on my own, either. Whatever it was, it didn’t appear to be well received. Bones pointed an emphatic finger at the man, and it wasn’t his index one. The guy spat at the ground before whirling around and returning to the others.

With or without sound, it was clear that negotiations wouldn’t happen.

The first of the machine guns began firing. As one, the vampires took to the air, while Rodney manned a machine gun of his own. I was relieved to see some unfamiliar faces come from the castle to join Bones and the others. The vampires disappeared from the screens for a few seconds, reemerging as they bombarded the ghouls like their bodies were inhuman missiles. When they flew off in bursts of speed, either the ghoul would be headless on the ground, or dazed.

It was an incredible sight to see. From my rapid calculation, there were a dozen vampires guarding the castle, and each one of them struck with the force of a guided tornado.

Except it didn’t appear to be enough. The ghouls who survived the fierce one-on-ones didn’t stay dazed long. They shook themselves off and began their grim march forward. Step by step, they were covering the distance to the castle. Their numbers were lessening, true, but they had an obvious determination. Bones and the others might be formidable, but math was math. There weren’t enough of them.

After about twenty minutes of fierce fighting, the ghoul spokesman fired a flare, illuminating the still-muted sky in a blaze. I tensed, my hand pressed against the unforgiving screen as if that could offer assistance. It didn’t, of course. And the others forces began emerging from beneath the cover of the lower hills.

I screamed, vaulting up and tugging at the door to my sealed cage. It didn’t even budge. I started searching to find the lever to open this trap. There had to be one.

My heart was pounding so loudly, it seemed to be screaming along with me. Another hundred ghouls had just come from the concealment of the landscape. They had attacked in two waves, a clever, deadly plan. Pick just before dawn when the vampires were weakest. Have them expend their power on the first segment, draining them further. Then, when they were at their weariest, close in for the kill. And here was I, locked in a safe room, utterly helpless to do anything but watch.

A ring shattered my concentration. With my hammering pulse, I actually waited a second to see if it was real or imagined. It sounded again, and I had to wade through the spilled items I’d flung about to find its source. Underneath some clothes was my cell phone. I grabbed at it, hoping against hope that it was Don. Maybe he could help. Send some troops, even if I didn’t know where the fuck we were.

“Catherine.”

The voice reached me before I’d even had time to gasp hello. It wasn’t my uncle.

“Gregor.”

I was breathing heavily, a combination of my broken ribs, terror over losing Bones, and my futile search for a way out.

“Don’t be afraid, my wife.”

His tone was soothing, but it had an undercurrent of something else. What, I didn’t know or care.

“I don’t have time for this…” Spaces were needed to catch my breath. “Have to get out of here…”

“You are in no danger.”

That made a harsh laugh escape me. “Boy, are you wrong.”

“They won’t harm you, Catherine.”

Now I clutched the phone and recognized what his voice held. Confidence.

“These are your ghouls, aren’t they?” I breathed.

On the screen, Bones was regrouping the vampires nearest to him, dodging gunfire with every second. The earlier scene made sense to me now. An envoy had approached and made a demand that Bones refused. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that demand was. That’s why Bones had me under lock and key. He knew I wouldn’t have sacrificed everyone if I could help it.

“It doesn’t have to end this way, ma chérie,” Gregor said. “Come to me, and I swear my people will leave without further harm to yours.”

“What you don’t know is that I’m locked in a panic room,” I snapped. “Even if I wanted to, I can’t go anywhere.”

“You don’t have to move from where you are to come to me,” he almost purred, “I am the Dreamsnatcher. I can get you if you but sleep.”

Sleep? Who could sleep at a time like this? The walls vibrated from the barrage of shooting, and I was going to throw up over what was on the monitors. Short of banging my head against the wall until I passed out, I didn’t see sleep happening.

“Easier said than done.”

My voice trailed off, losing its desperate scorn. Bones had packed this room with care. There were a few books, snack foods, beverages, writing utensils, and most importantly—pills.

I weighed the decision, glancing between the pill bottle and the desperate scenario playing out on the monitors. Mencheres said Gregor didn’t want to hurt me. All the precautions Bones had taken were to keep Gregor from finding me, but not because Gregor wanted to kill me, because Gregor wanted me with him.

It might be dangerous to go to him, but Bones and my friends were in far more danger now than I’d be with Gregor later. I couldn’t just sit back and hope a miracle would prevent them from being slaughtered before my eyes.

“I’ll do it, but not without conditions.”

Gregor made a disbelieving noise. “Perhaps you don’t know the seriousness of what’s happening.”

“I’ve got a bird’s-eye view,” I corrected him, biting my lip. “But I still have conditions.”

Another scoff. “I won’t harm you, Catherine.”

“That’s nice, but it’s not what I’m after.” God, the new force of ghouls was starting to fire, converging with the remaining first group. I didn’t have much time. “As soon as I’m with you, this attack stops. You’re responsible to make sure they get called off and stay called off. You want me to remember what happened with us? Fine, I’ll do it. But if after I remember everything, I still want to go back to Bones…you’ll let me leave, immediately, and without exception. It’s a gamble, Dreamsnatcher, how confident are you?”

I was deliberately going for his arrogance. There was no doubt in my mind that whatever I discovered, it wouldn’t change my feelings toward Bones. Gregor didn’t know that, of course. With my open challenge, he’d have to be insecure not to agree, and he didn’t strike me as insecure.

“I wouldn’t turn you out without protection, if it came to that. I would see you safely escorted,” was his careful, measured reply. “Yes, I am confident enough to gamble. Your terms are acceptable.”

I wasn’t going to let him mince words. “Swear it on your life, Gregor, because that’s what I’ll take if you’re lying.”

“You’re threatening me?” He sounded amused. “Fine. I swear it on my life.”

I released a deep sigh. I didn’t really trust Gregor, but I had to take the chance. If I didn’t, and everyone here died, I’d never forgive myself. Lord, please let Gregor be telling the truth, and please, please, let Bones understand.

“All right. Get ready to do your stuff, because here I come.”

I snapped the cell phone shut and picked up the bottle of sleeping pills Bones had stored in case I needed to keep Gregor out. What he hadn’t guessed was that I might use them to let Gregor in.

Don had been very specific about the dosage. Four pills all at once. If I took less, they’d make me fall into normal sleep. I unscrewed the cap and popped two in my mouth, washing them down with a bottle of water. Then I grabbed a pen that had been stacked near my books. The pills metabolized quickly; I was already starting to feel dizzy. There wasn’t any paper in this cell, so I ripped out a page from one of the books and scribbled on the small blank space.

I’m coming back…

The words blurred before I was even done writing them. With my last effort, I stabbed them into place with the pen. Then my vision blackened completely.

I was running, except for once, I wasn’t being chased.

“Come closer, Catherine.”

I followed his voice and saw him ahead. Gregor was smiling a cool, expectant grin. It made me slow down the last few paces.

“Remember our deal.” I warned, feeling his power reach out with its invisible tentacles.

Gregor’s gaze glinted. “Come to me.”

For a second, I hesitated. I glanced behind my shoulder, hoping Bones would somehow appear. He didn’t, of course. He was battling for his life and the lives of those around him. Well, at least now, I could help.

I crossed the space and let Gregor enfold me in his arms. Something that might have been his lips brushed my neck, but aside from that…

“Nothing’s happening.”

I said it into his chest, him being so damn tall. That blurry dreamlike feeling didn’t cease even though the air around us seemed to electrify.

“I don’t understand,” he muttered.

“Of all the luck, now you’re having performance issues?” I hissed, growing agitated over the thought of what was happening to Bones. “Come on, Gregor. Get your Dreamsnatcher on.”

He held me tighter. “It must be you,” he whispered. “You’re blocking me.”

Shit. Dropping my defenses was about the hardest thing for me to do, especially with a stranger I didn’t trust.

“I’m trying not to.”

His eyes blazed. “Your delay could be costly.”

Damn him, he was right. I had to get into this. Fast.

I wound my arms around his neck and pulled his head down. When his mouth slanted over mine, I kissed him, slightly surprised that it felt familiar. With the distraction of him kissing me with a rough hungriness, I felt my shields waver and crack. Let go, Cat. Just ease up and relax…

A roaring pain swamped over me, like I was being pulled inside out. Amidst the white noise and confusion, I would have screamed, but I didn’t have a throat, a voice, or a body. I felt the indescribable terror of being stripped from my own skin and flung into nothingness. It was the worst feeling of falling, only at sonic speed.

When it culminated, I wasn’t reunited with my body; I was splattered back into it. The sensation of being blood, flesh, and bone again had me transfixed by the sound of my own heartbeat, a numbing cadence that was the sweetest thing I’d heard.

“Catherine.”

Only then did the rest of my senses kick into gear. Guess a molecular transport will knock the ever-living shit out of anyone unlucky enough to experience it. It occurred to me that I wasn’t standing anymore, though I was still wrapped up in Gregor’s arms. In slow motion, my mind began to take inventory. Two arms, two legs, check. Wiggle fingers and toes, check. Ribs still hurt, okay. Heart pounding like a jackhammer, right. But something was missing.

Large hands slid down my bare back. Gregor, solid and very much not a dream, wore a triumphant smile on his face.

And just like me, it was the only thing he had on.