One Foot in the Grave

FOUR

A KNOCK BOOMED AT MY DOOR, CAUSING ME to bolt up in bed. It was only nine in the morning. No one came by this early; they all knew my sleeping habits. Even Noah, who I’d been dating now for a month, knew better than to call or come over at such an ungodly hour.

I went downstairs, habit making me put a silver knife in my robe pocket, and looked through the peephole.

Tate was on the other side, and he also appeared as though he’d been freshly woken up.

“What’s wrong?” I said as I opened the door.

“We need to get to the compound. Don’s waiting for us, and he’s calling in Juan and Dave as well.”

I left the door open and went back upstairs to throw on some clothes. No way was I showing up in my Tweety Bird pajamas; that would hardly inspire respect among my men.

After changing and doing a quick brush of my teeth, I climbed into Tate’s car, blinking at the bright morning sunlight.

“Do you know why we’re being hauled in? Why didn’t Don call me first?”

Tate grunted. “He wanted to ask my opinion of the situation before speaking to you. There were some murders last night in Ohio. Pretty graphic, no attempt made to hide the bodies. In fact, they were displayed.”

“What’s so unusual about that? Terrible, I give you, but not out of the ordinary.”

I was confused. We didn’t jet around to every nasty crime scene, or we’d never be able to cover them all. There was more than he was telling me.

“We’re almost there. I’ll let Don fill you in on the rest. My job was just to pick you up.”

Tate had been a sergeant in Special Forces before joining Don, and his years in the military showed. Follow orders, don’t question command decisions. It was what Don loved about him-and why I frustrated my boss so much, because my credo seemed to be the exact opposite.

In twenty minutes, we were at the compound. The armed guards waved us through the gates as usual. Tate and I were such a common sight, we didn’t even show identification anymore. We practically knew all the guards by name, rank, and serial number.

Don was in his office, pacing by his desk, and my brows shot up. My boss was normally cool and collected. This was only the second time I’d seen him pace in the four years since he recruited me. The first was when he found out that Ian, or Liam Flannery, as Don still thought of him, had gotten away. Don had wanted me to bring the vampire in to keep as a pet, so we could siphon blood from him to make more Brams. When I came back without Ian, I thought Don would pop a seam. Or wear a trench in his carpet. My being stabbed was barely an afterthought. Don really had a mixed-up set of priorities, in my opinion.

On his desk were photos that looked downloaded. He gestured to them as we came in.

“I have a friend at the Franklin County Police Department who scanned these two hours ago and sent them to me. He’s already contained the area and barred any more police or medical examiners from the scene. You’re leaving as soon as the team is assembled. Pick your best men, because you’re going to need them. We’ll have additional personnel standing by to deploy at your command. This has to be put to bed immediately.”

Franklin County. My old hometown. “Cut the mystery, Don. You have my attention.”

In reply he handed me one of the photographs. It was of a small room, with a pile of fresh body parts strewn on the carpet. I recognized it at once, because it used to be my bedroom at my grandparents’ house. The writing on the wall froze me, and I knew at once why Don was freaked.

here kitty kitty

That wasn’t good. Not fucking good at all. The fact that this deliberate taunt was clearly addressed to me, and in the house I grew up in, showed two terrifying things. Someone knew my stage name-and my real one.

“Where’s my mother?” She was my first thought. Perhaps they only knew about Catherine Crawfield, or maybe they knew about Cristine Russell, too.

Don held up a hand. “We’ve sent men to her house with instructions to bring her here. We’re doing that as a precaution, because I think if they knew who and where you were now, they wouldn’t have bothered with your birthplace.”

Yes, that was true. I was so upset I wasn’t thinking clearly. That had to stop, because there was no time to be stupid.

“Do you have any idea who this could be, Cat?”

“Of course not! Why would I?”

Don pondered that for a minute, pulling the hairs on his eyebrow.

“It’s coincidental that you’ve been dating Noah Rose for a month now, and suddenly someone’s found you out? Have you told him what you are? What you do?”

I gave Don a nasty glare. “You ran a full background check on Noah the minute you discovered I was dating him. Without my permission, I might add, and no, Noah doesn’t know anything about vampires, what I do, or what I am. This better be the last time I have to assure you of that.”

Don gave a concurring nod, then went on to speculate again. “Do you think this could be Liam Flannery? Did you tell him anything before that he could have used to trace you?”

A cold chill went through me. Ian had connections to my past, all right. Through Bones. Bones knew my family’s old address, my real name, and he used to only call me Kitten. Could this be Bones? Would he have done something this extreme to draw me out of hiding? After over four years, did he still even think about me?

“No, I didn’t tell Flannery anything. I don’t see how he could be responsible.”

The lie tripped off my tongue without pause. If it was Bones, directly or indirectly, I’d deal with him myself. Don and Tate thought his body was packed away on ice in the basement freezer. I wasn’t about to change that.

Juan and Dave arrived. Both of them also looked like they’d been freshly woken. Briefly Don filled them in on the situation and its implication.

“Cat, I will leave you four to it,” he concluded. “Pick your team and plug this leak. The planes will be ready when you are. And don’t worry about bringing me back any stragglers this time. Just eliminate whoever knows about you.”

Grimly I nodded, and prayed my suspicions were wrong.

“Have you been home since you started with this Death Squad from Hell? Think anyone will recognize you?”

Dave had kept up a stream of steady chatter as we circled over the air base before landing.

“No, I haven’t been back since my grandparents died. I only had one friend”-and I was definitely not referring to a certain horny, alcoholic ghost-“and he graduated from college and moved to Santa Monica years ago.”

That had been Timmie, my old neighbor. Last I checked, he was a reporter for one of those “the truth is out there” independent magazines. You know, the kind that every once in a while hit on an incredible, factual story and then made Don’s life hell while he tried to find ways to discredit it. Timmie believed I had been killed in a shootout with the police after murdering my grandparents, some police officers, and the governor. What a way to be thought of. Don hadn’t spared my reputation in making me disappear. I even had a headstone and fake autopsy reports.

“Besides…” I shook off the past like a wet raincoat. “With my hair shorter and brown, I look very different. No one would recognize me now.”

Except Bones. He’d know me a mile away by scent alone. The thought of seeing him again, even under such murderous circumstances, made my heart pound. How low I’d fallen.

“You’re sure about bringing Cooper?” Dave nudged me and glanced toward the back of the plane. We had our own little area up front. Weren’t we the special ones?

“I know it’s only been two months since we brought Cooper on, but he’s smart, fast, and ruthless. His years as an undercover narcotics officer probably helped there. He’s performed well in training operations, so it’s time to see how he does in the field.”

Dave frowned. “He doesn’t like you, Cat. He thinks you’ll turn on us one day because you’re a half-breed. I think he should be put under the juice and have the last two months wiped from his mind.”

“Put under the juice” referred to the brainwashing techniques Don had perfected over the last years. Our in-house vampires had their fangs milked like snakes. The hallucinogenic drops they produced were then refined and harvested. When combined with the usual mind-fuck method the military used, it left the participant happily unaware of any details regarding our operation. That was how we weeded through the recruits and didn’t worry about one blabbing about a chick with superhuman powers. All they remembered was a day of hard training.

“Cooper doesn’t have to like me-he only has to follow orders. If he can’t do that, then he’s out. Or dead, if he gets himself killed first. He’s the least of our concerns now.”

The plane touched down with a jar. Dave smiled at me.

“Welcome home, Cat.”