Destined for an Early Grave

THIRTY

IT WAS AFTER I’D SHAKEN THE LAST PERSON’S hand in line that Bones turned to me and spoke through a clenched jaw.

“Why did you invite Tepesh?”

I glanced over at Vlad, who was on the far side of the room talking with a vampire named Lincoln. To my knowledge, it wasn’t the same man who’d freed the slaves, but then again, he was really tall.

“I didn’t.”

Bones stared at me as if weighing whether I was telling the truth.

“Ask him yourself if you don’t believe me,” I said, exasperated. “Not that I mind Vlad being here, but it didn’t occur to me to invite him since he wasn’t one of the people screaming for my head.”

“Keep your voice down,” Bones hissed, tugging me none too gently toward an alcove near the front door.

I didn’t know what he was so angry about. Had it really been such a big deal for me to leave the line and say hello to Vlad? Frigging vampires and their warped rules.

Though maybe I should rethink that statement, since as a full vampire, I was insulting myself now, too.

“What is your problem?” I asked, keeping my voice very low.

Bones looked at me like I’d grown two heads. “My problem, pet, is you leaving my side to greet your former lover as if you’d severely missed him.”

Now it was my turn to stare at Bones like he’d morphed into an alien being. “My former lover? Have you lost your mind?”

In my disbelief, my voice wasn’t as soft as it had been before. Bones’s fingers tightened on my arm. “Do you want to air our business in front of everyone? Just say the word, then.”

I forced myself to calm down, because otherwise, I’d get really shrill. “What gave you the idea that I’d had sex with Vlad?” I managed to ask in a whisper.

Bones raised a brow. “Charles telling me about how he’d rung you when you were in bed with Tepesh.”

Oh for God’s sake, that’s right. Spade’s phone call that morning when Vlad slept in my room. With everything that had happened, I’d forgotten about how that would have looked.

“You know how you told me I should have asked you about what happened in New Orleans, instead of assuming based on appearances? Well, back at you, Bones. If you had asked, I’d have told you I’ve never had sex with Vlad. I’ve never even kissed him. We slept together because we were both lonely and needed a friend. Nothing more.”

From his face, Bones was wrestling with the information. I tapped my foot. If I can believe you picked up girl after girl with Cannelle and only drank them to sleep, then you’d better be able to believe me about Vlad, I thought with a glint.

“All right,” he said at last. “I believe you, and I should have asked.”

“I can’t believe you thought I slept with Vlad, yet you decided not to mention it.”

“Oh, I would have mentioned it, just not until this situation with your mum was resolved.” His voice was rough. “I thought you did it because you believed I’d cast you off and had been shagging multiple women myself. I understood how it could have happened, though I damn sure wasn’t going to let it continue.”

So that was the other reason Bones challenged Vlad to a death match the night he’d taken me from the Impaler’s house. He hadn’t just wanted me away from Vlad out of concern over Vlad sacrificing me instead of his people if ghouls attacked.

“You came to get me even though you thought I was cheating on you?”

Bones cupped my face. “You pulled me out of New Orleans even though you believed I’d left you and humiliated you with several other women. That’s what vampires do, Kitten. We always come for what’s ours, no matter the circumstances.”

I was just thinking I’d never been happier to be a vampire when a withering voice crackled the air.

“Take your hands off my wife.”

My whole body stiffened as I turned in disbelief. The opened door behind me gave a clear view of Gregor striding up.

Bones pushed himself between me and the advancing vampire. I felt rather than saw Mencheres glide over to us.

“You are not welcome here, Dreamsnatcher,” Mencheres said with frightening courtesy.

“Mencheres.” Gregor had a cold curl to his lips. “You thought you’d won, taking her memory away and imprisoning me all those years, but you failed. Everyone now knows that Catherine and I are bound, and our laws state that at any formal gathering where one spouse is present, the other can’t be refused entry.”

Gregor was right. In fact, why hadn’t I thought of that? Why hadn’t the several-thousand-year-old vampire next to me thought of that? Hell, where was one of Mencheres’s famed visions when it would actually be useful?

“I’ve never been called a more degrading insult than your wife,” I ground out. “Where is my mother, Gregor?”

Vlad also moved closer. Between him and Mencheres, if Gregor dared to attack, he’d be immobilized, then deep-fried until crispy.

This might turn out to be a great party after all.

“Your sharp tongue only guarantees you more punishment,” Gregor replied as he swept inside the house.

Unexpectedly, Bones smiled, running his hand down my arm in a slow caress.

“Don’t care for her tongue, do you? How strange. I find it’s one of my favorite parts.”

Gregor started forward in a rage—and then stopped. Gave a cagey look at Mencheres and Bones. Then he let out a rich laugh.

“No,” he said. “I won’t cast the first blow under an all-truce. You and I will have our day, chien, but not today. In fact, I came because I have a present for Catherine.”

Rodney elbowed people out of the way, glaring at Gregor with almost as much hatred as I did. Gregor didn’t mind. He smiled as he looked behind him at the woman making her way to the house. She was dressed in a red gown with a white fur coat. She had a leash in her hand, another vampire crawling behind her at the end of it.

“You’re dead,” I said in disbelief.

The auburn-haired woman laughed. “Oui, Catherine! You should know, as it was you who killed me. But you made a mistake. You fed me vampire blood just before slaying me, and then you sent me back to Gregor with my head attached. Merci for that. He wouldn’t have been able to raise me as a ghoul otherwise.”

Cannelle smirked the whole time she said it. Meanwhile, I wanted to smack myself. Of course. Cannelle had swallowed some of Ian’s blood right before I stabbed her in the heart. Gregor would have known that by filching it from my dreams, same way he’d learned countless other details. Cannelle had wanted to be a vampire, but as it turned out, I’d helped make her a ghoul instead.

Cannelle kicked the vampire near her feet. I glanced down, saw long dark hair hiding a woman’s face…and my blood ran cold.

“No,” I whispered.

The vampire’s head came up, her hair falling to the side—and I sprang forward.

“Mom!”

Bones snatched me back. I struggled, desperate to get to her and horrified by the glowing green ringing her previously blue eyes.

“Catherine.” Her voice wavered, so unlike its normal, strident tone. “Please. Kill me.”

“Bones, let me go!”

He mercilessly tightened his grip and hauled me back instead. Next to me, Spade had Rodney in a similar grip as the ghoul hurled curses at Gregor. Mencheres strode forward and pointed his finger an inch from Gregor’s chest.

“What is the meaning of this?”

Gregor threw back his head and laughed. “This is my present to my wife. See how merciful I am? Now Catherine can have her mother forever with her…once my loyal Cannelle no longer needs a servant, that is.”

Cannelle smiled and delivered a kick to my mother’s face. She fell over.

“I will kill you for this, Gregor!”

A booming began in my ears. At first I thought it was just the thwacking of my fists against Bones, who was using all of his strength to hold me. But then I realized the noise wasn’t coming from that. It was coming from inside of me.

Cannelle’s eyes bugged. There were shocked mutters. People all around began to stare. Apollyon pushed his way through the crowd, then glared at me.

“Her heart’s beating. What trickery is this?”

I don’t know who threw the first punch, but all of a sudden, everyone was brawling. Apollyon and the ghouls surged toward me, shouting.

Bones snapped, “Get her away from here,” then handed me to Vlad before jumping into the melee. Vlad held me in a viselike grip, backing away. Mencheres began casting out his power like a net to try to and subdue the violence, but there were too many powerful undead people to freeze them all. Shouts flew through the air, then people, as things got more physical, and at last, there was fire as Vlad decided to make an exit.

A wall of flame appeared around us, protecting us as he elevated straight upward while clutching me. In the next instant, the ceiling blasted over our heads. Then the next one, and the next, until nothing but the night sky was above us.

“Goddammit, I won’t leave them!” I shouted, as we vaulted through the ruined roof.

“It’s the only way,” Vlad muttered, squeezing me so hard I would have puked if I still could.

Boom. Boom. Boom. My heart continued to bang in my chest. It made me dizzy, the sensation amazingly unfamiliar after only a week. A slew of images tormented me as our distance from the house grew. Mom. Oh God, Mom. Changed into a vampire. Being dragged and beaten while on a leash. Bones flinging himself into the fray. Gregor laughing at it all.

“Mencheres will settle things down,” Vlad said. He had to shout to be heard above the wind as our speed increased. We were even trailing fire like a comet. “But not if you’re there with your rage at Gregor and your mystifying heartbeat. You stay, and this won’t end until half the people are dead.”

I wanted to fling myself out of his arms and go back to the house, but the bitter truth was that Vlad was right. Once again, everyone I cared about would be better off if I was gone.

When my eyes opened, it took me a few seconds to get my bearings. The first thing I knew was that I was in the backseat of a car. Second, it didn’t seem to be moving. Third, I had my mouth clamped ferociously on someone’s throat, and I knew from the taste that it wasn’t Bones.

I flung myself back to reveal it was Vlad I’d just neck-raped. His shirt was ripped open, and I’d had him pressed against the side of the car door.

He straightened to an upright position. “What was that?” he asked calmly.

I cursed myself for forgetting to tell him about a very important detail concerning my eating, even though that had been the last thing on my mind. After our aerial exit from the free-for-all that had once been a party, Vlad kidnapped the first person he came across, green-eyed him, and had us driven to the train station. There, we boarded the next available train. Once on it, I’d insisted on calling Bones, who hadn’t answered. Neither had Spade or Mencheres.

Vlad dismissed my concerns, saying they were probably too busy to bother answering their phones. My further attempts to reach them were cut short when the sun rose an hour later, and I passed out in my chair. That was the last thing I remembered.

“Have you heard from Bones?”

“I spoke with him a few hours ago. He should be here soon.”

I digested this, noting that my heartbeat, which had precipitated the melee, was silent now. How ironic that we’d had the coming-out party to try and soothe any ghoul concerns. Now the repercussions from last night might give Apollyon more fuel for his paranoid fire. I could only hope that Mencheres and Bones had managed to calm things down, and that my being a weird vampire was less threatening to ghouls than being a half-breed.

Vlad drew the torn edges of his collar together and I brought my attention back to explaining my earlier actions.

“Something strange happened after I was changed. I went straight for any vampire near me instead of drinking human blood. For some reason, vampire blood is what I, ah, crave—and now you already know that sometimes my heart still beats.”

Vlad looked as stunned as I’d ever seen him. “Extraordinary,” he murmured.

Even as he said it, I couldn’t help but lick my lips. Vlad’s blood had a different flavor, sure, but it was still delicious.

Vlad watched me doing it, and I stopped. Even though I hadn’t been aware when I did it, I felt guilty for munching on my friend.

“Sorry,” I mumbled.

His lip curled. “Never let it be said that you’re predictable, Cat.”

I wished I were. First, I’d been a freak as a half-breed, now I was an even bigger one as a vampire.

And now my mother was a vampire, too. My mother, who’d hated vampires ever since she first found out about them. My mother, who’d begged me to kill her last night.

“You might want to rethink your friendship with me, Vlad, because I’m getting my mother back even if I have to break every vampire law to do it.”

Vlad’s coppery green gaze was steady. “I wouldn’t expect any less from you.”

I didn’t reply to that, just glanced out the window. The sun was halfway up in the sky. It must be around noon. I’d been unconscious for hours. All vampire laws aside, how I’d make good on my promise to rescue my mother, considering that dawn stole all the strength from me, was the real question. Not to mention I didn’t know where the hell Gregor had my mother hidden away. She could be anywhere by now.

“Cat.” I looked up to find Vlad still staring at me. “I can’t help you with this, you know that.”

A small, sad smile twisted my lips. “Yeah, I know.” I understood, but oh, I would have liked Vlad as backup.

“Gregor’s greatest weakness is his pride,” Vlad stated. “Use it against him. He’ll fall for it every time.”

I felt Bones minutes before I heard the car. Since he’d changed me, I was attuned to him in a way that defied logic. Even now, I could sense his impatience, like sandpaper grating across my subconscious.

I was already out of the car by the time the black Mercedes pulled up next to Vlad. Bones got out, yanking me to him before I could speak. He gave me a hard kiss that would have stolen my breath if I still had any. Then he set me back, tracing my mouth while his eyes turned green.

I knew he could taste Vlad’s blood on me. Part of me wanted to apologize while the other argued that out of all people, Bones would understand.

“Bones,” I began.

“Don’t fret about it,” he said, brushing my mouth again. “Let’s go. Tepesh.” Bones gave Vlad a short nod. “Until the next time.”

Vlad leaned against his car with his usual jaded half smile.

“Somehow I think that might be sooner rather than later.”