One Foot in the Grave (27 page)

I
AN STARED AT
B
ONES, LOOKING LIKE HE MIGHT
attack him right then and there. “You betrayed me,” he said with a growl.

Bones didn’t flinch. “I took the steps necessary to make sure you didn’t force Cat into making an unwise decision. It’s not the eighteenth century, Ian. Manipulating women into bed isn’t fashionable anymore.”

“If you want your boys back, Ian,” I continued, “then you’ll agree to leave me—and
my
people—alone. I haven’t killed any of your men, and I’ll return them all to you unharmed. But first I’ll need your word that you won’t bother me again. What’s it gonna be? Your men, or your hard-on?”

Ian’s eyes slid around, taking in the many faces waiting for his decision. Then they paused at Bones, giving him another truly incensed glare, and finally fixed on me.

“Well done, Red Reaper,” he said again, but this time
with an edge of bitterness. “It appears once more I underestimated you…and your resourcefulness.” He lasered Bones with one more sizzling emerald look, and then swept out his hand. “We have an accord. You are free to go.”

Bones smiled, taking my arm, but I dug in my heels.

“Not so fast,” I said, drawing in a deep breath. “There’s one more issue to be settled first.”

“Kitten, what are you doing?” Bones asked low.

I didn’t look at him, but concentrated on Ian instead. If I’d told Bones in advance what I planned, he would have argued. Said it was too dangerous, maybe even refused to get me in front of Ian. But Bones didn’t understand that I couldn’t come this far and
not
do what I was about to do.

“I know vampires have the right to challenge their sires to a duel. Well, Ian, I challenge my father, Max. If you’re here, then he’s here somewhere. Bring him out. I’m claiming my vampire right to duel him.”

Bones groaned something that sounded like “Bloody hell, Kitten,” and to my surprise, Ian began to laugh. Heartily. Like I’d just told him the funniest joke ever. He actually had pink tears appear at the corners of his eyes, and he wiped them while still overcome with laughter.

“What’s so fucking funny?” I demanded.

“Did you all hear that?” Ian asked, controlling his mirth enough to spin in a circle and address our audience. Next to me, Bones’s face went to stone.

“You should have talked to me about this, Kitten,” he gritted.

“You would have told me to wait,” I hissed back, which only made Ian laugh harder.

“Oh, indeed he would have, Cat. You see, you just acknowledged that you consider yourself a vampire.
You
know what that means, Crispin, as does everyone else here. As a vampire, Cat, you are therefore mine, and I’ll thank you, Crispin, to get away from one of my people.”

“But I challenged
Max
,” I said angrily. “So he has to accept. And if I kill him, then I’m my own damn vampire, and
no one
has claim over me!”

Ian laughed more as Bones gave me a look that said he was tempted to throttle me.

“Oh, poppet, you’ve got a few things wrong. You
could
challenge Max for your freedom—if he was the head of his own line. But he’s not. He’s still under
my
rule, and you, as a brand-spanking-new member of my line, can’t challenge me for a year. That law was put in place to prevent rash baby vampires from taking on more than they could handle in their first year,” Ian kindly explained. “So as it turned out, I didn’t need to kidnap your men at all, because you’ve just delivered yourself into my hands. And I’m afraid you’ve got three hundred and sixty-five more days before you can issue that same challenge to me. I wonder what we’ll do to fill the time.”

Ian’s grin said he had a few choice ideas picked out already. Inwardly I cursed. Goddamn,
why
hadn’t I made sure to find out more about lineage and lines before deciding this was a good idea? Why had I let my blinding need for revenge against my father trick me into hiding this from Bones? Mencheres had said revenge was the emptiest of emotions. Apparently it motivated people to do the stupidest things as well.

“Except I’m already Bones’s,” I said, using the property card as a last resort. “He’s bitten me
and
done things in bed with me that are illegal in a few states at least!”

“Lineage trumps property, my dear Reaper,” Ian said silkily. “So while Crispin will no doubt have fond memories of your time together…memories are all he’ll have of you.”

“I beg to differ, Ian,” Bones replied, straightening. “You’re right, lineage does have a higher claim than property. But you have no claim over her if she’s my wife.”

Ian looked as confused as I felt. “But she isn’t,” he stated the obvious.

Bones pulled a knife out from his pocket. I tensed, assuming this meant we were starting the free-for-all. But Bones just drew it once across his palm and then clapped his bleeding hand over my own.

“By my blood, you are my wife,” he said in a clear voice. Then he said more softly to me, “I rather envisioned something more romantic for this, Kitten, but circumstances don’t allow for that.”

“You must be
mad
!” Ian raged, snatching his own blade from his pants.

“Do not move!” a voice thundered down at once.

Ian froze, and Bones, in the act of whipping his own knife toward Ian, froze as well. A dark-haired figure glided down the aisle, people moving aside to let him through. I didn’t even need to see his face to know it was Mencheres. The unadulterated power washing over me told me that.

“Mencheres,” Bones said, with an inclination of his head. “Am I correct in my assumption?”

“In all ways but one” was the vampire’s smooth reply.

“You have ever taken his side over mine!” Ian snapped, losing his quiet deference.

Bones rolled his eyes. “Not
this
again.”

“It is not a matter of sides,” Mencheres stated calmly. “I said Bones was right in all ways but one. Cat has not yet claimed him as her husband.”

Ian snatched at that. “You don’t know what that means, Cat. This isn’t like a human marriage, where divorce is as common as breathing. If you agree to this, you’d be bound to Crispin for the rest of your life. No changing your mind, no release from it, until one of you was truly dead. If you even shagged another man, he’d have the right to kill him for it without retribution.”

Mencheres smiled, but it wasn’t cheery. “Yes. Once this is declared, it can never be retracted.”

Brown eyes met mine when I looked away from Mencheres. Bones arched a brow, waiting.

“Don’t you think it’s time you met your father?” Ian baited me next.

That
got my attention. I swung back in his direction, and my hand clenched over the knife I’d just accepted from Bones.

Ian pressed his advantage. “I’ll make you a bargain, Cat. A vastly different one from what I’d first intended. You can leave here tonight with my assurances that I won’t press my claim over you,
or
trouble your men again. Furthermore, I’ll give you Max, to do with what you will. All I require in return is that you refuse this offer and part company with Crispin permanently. Your word on it.”

My mouth hung open, fingers whitening over the handle of the blade.

“Maximillian, come here!” Ian trumpeted.

The doors to the hall opened, and Spade moved out of the way to let a tall man through. Well, well. Apparently that picture had showed only a glimmer of our resemblance. Face to face there was no question. I
did
look just like him.

I pulled my hand free from Bones in a sort of shock. Max went to the edge of the arena and then paused, not coming nearer. I walked the last few steps that separated us.

His hair was crimson, just as bright and thick as my own. God,
those eyes
, silvery gray and exactly like mine. He had high cheekbones, a full mouth, straight nose, strong jawline…Everything was identical to me but in masculine proportion. Even the way he stood was similar. It was like looking in a weird gender-bending mirror, and for a minute, all I could do was stare.

For his part, Max didn’t say anything. His face flashed defiance and resignation in equal parts as he looked from me to Ian. He didn’t ask for mercy, though. Not from either of us. Was that bravery…or a simple realization that it wouldn’t do him a damn bit of good?

Finally I found my voice. “Do you know what I promised myself when my mother told me what I was, and how it happened?”

I slid as close to him as possible without touching. He held himself stiffly, like one of the statues outside. Only his eyes moved, and they followed me with rapt concentration.

My fingers grazed his shoulders as I circled him. He flinched under their weight, and I laughed low and viciously.

“Oh, Max, I feel your power level, and it’s not that high. I’m much stronger than you are, but you must know that, right? It’s why you tried to have my head blown off, so I couldn’t get to you first.
Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to kill you?
”

Still he said nothing. Ian gave me a questioning glance, but I ignored him. He didn’t know what Max had arranged; it was plain. I paced around my father, getting angrier that he wasn’t talking.

“I first heard about you on my sixteenth birthday. Sweet sixteen, and what did I get? The full knowledge about my nightmare of a heritage. So
I swore
to myself that one day, I’d find and kill you for her. That you’d pay for raping my mother with your life. Did you hear what Ian just offered me? Your ass, with all the other parts attached!”

The rage leaked out of my pores, and my eyes blasted him with their glow when I faced him again.

“Come on, Max, whatcha think? What a gift, right? Who could say no to that? I mean, I’ve wanted to kill you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my whole twisted, subnormal, dysfunctional life!”

The knife Bones had given me trembled in my hand with the ache to bury it in his heart. Finally, after another long stare, I chuckled again. Bittersweetly. My need for revenge had almost cost me Bones once tonight. At least I wouldn’t let myself make that same mistake twice.

“You worthless piece of shit, you’re about to do the
first, last, and only thing you’ve ever done for me as a father, because there’s someone in my life who means more to me than even killing you. Congratulations, scum. You just gave away the bride.”

Instead of twisting that knife through my father’s heart, I slashed it across my palm and slapped it over the pale hand still outstretched to me.

“Bound together forever, huh? Sounds good to me. By my blood, Bones, you are my husband. Is that what I’m supposed to say? Is that right?”

Bones bent me backward with the force of his kiss, and I assumed that was my answer.

M
AX BROKE HIS SILENCE ONLY AFTER
B
ONES
let me up from his kiss. He raked me with a glance and then smiled. Chillingly.

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Do you believe that, little girl? I do. You and I will have our day, mark my words.”

“Is he threatening her?” Bones asked Ian with a cold pleasantness as I met my father’s steely gaze. “Perhaps you need to remind him that anyone who comes after my wife—or anyone belonging to her, such as her uncle—is in fact declaring war on me as well. Is that your position, Ian? Does he speak for you?”

Ian gave Max a truly menacing glare. “No he does not, and he has nothing else to say on the matter. Do you, Max?”

Max gave a glance around at all of Bones’s people, who were watching him with threat as well.

“No, I have nothing else to say about that,” he replied
in a tone that said he’d have plenty to say under other circumstances. “But I do have something to say about her mother.” He fixed his eyes back to me. “You’ve been misinformed. I fucked her, oh yes. But I didn’t rape her.”

Bones tightened his grip on me, sensing I was about to explode. Ian saw it as well.

“You gave up your chance, Cat, and it works both ways. Max is mine and under my protection. If you lay a hand on him, it’s an act of war.”

I got ahold of myself.
Another time, another place.
Not here where it would turn into a bloodbath between Bones and Ian’s people.

“You’ve probably raped so many women that you don’t even remember who she was,” I settled on evenly.

Max smiled. “You never forget your first, and she
was
my first after I’d been changed. She was a beautiful brunette with big blue eyes and nice round tits. So young and eager. So fresh. I had such a great time fucking her in the backseat of that car, and the only time she objected was after I was done. She opened her eyes, saw mine glowing green, saw my fangs…and started to scream her head off. Started to cry, too. Just bawled hysterically and said I was a hell spawn or something like that. It was funny. So funny I didn’t bother to deny it. I told her she was right, that I was a demon. That all vampires were demons, and she’d just let herself be fucked by one. Then I drank her blood until she quit screeching and passed out, and that, little girl, is what
really
happened between your mother and me.”

“Liar,” I spat.

His smile turned cruelly knowing. “Ask her.”

Max was obviously capable of lying. Anyone who could conspire to murder his own daughter wouldn’t be above lying his ass off if he wanted to, but somehow…somehow…I wasn’t sure if he was lying now. My mother had vehemently stated from as far back as I could remember that all vampires were demons. I’d thought it was just a general term of repugnance, but maybe there was more to it than that. If Max
had
told her he was a demon, that all vampires were, it would certainly explain her mixed feelings toward me as well as her outright refusal to consider vampires as anything but evil.

“You remember her mum that distinctly, do you?” Bones asked in a conversational tone while I wrestled with this.

Max didn’t lose that hateful smirk. “Isn’t that what I just said?”

“What was her name?” Again, blandly.

“Justina Crawfield!” Max snapped. “Going to ask me what color panties she wore next?”

Bones suddenly smiled, but it was far from pleasant. “When Ian figured out you were her father, I also wager he mentioned that she very much wanted you dead. Scared the stones off you, didn’t it? Finding out someone strong enough to get the drop on him was coming after you. You remembered her mum—clearly, as you’ve proven—and it would have been simplicity itself to look up the name of the child she’d given birth to all those years ago. You gave that information to a hit man named Lazarus, didn’t you? Had him murder that couple in her old house to draw her out, yet even when she walked into his trap, he didn’t succeed in
killing her. You must have been really scared then, so you decided to go after her through the one source you had. Your brother. You knew he’d sent her after Ian, who else would have, and so you dug around until you found a mole in his operation. One who could give another hit man her location and more importantly, her weaknesses. Good plan, mate, but I’m here to inform you that your little rodent and his accomplice have been exterminated.”

“You
prick
!” I gasped, seeing it all fall into place.

“What’s this?” Ian asked suspiciously.

“Max found her long before I did, but he kept that to himself. He’s been going behind your back for months, Ian, trying to murder her to protect his own miserable arse. Not very loyal of him, is it?”

“I don’t know what he’s talking about!” Max insisted.

I stared at the man who was my father and knew that now, unequivocally, he
was
lying. Ian wore a look on his face that said he knew it, too.

“You have any proof of this, Crispin?”

No one was fooled by his cool demeanor. Ian’s eyes had gone flat green.

Bones nodded. “I have copies of bank records and transactions from the most recent attempt. Stupid sod used a personal account to pay the informant at her uncle’s operation, and I reckon if you look, you’ll find that account can be traced to Max. You’ll also no doubt find another large transfer of funds in April, when the people living in her old house were murdered.”

Ian whitened around the lips. I grinned maliciously at Max.

“Uh oh. Looks like someone’s in trouble.”

Granted, it wasn’t his head on a stake, but from Ian’s expression, Max might soon be wishing I’d chosen to kill him earlier instead.

Ian gave Bones a last, long look, and then he turned away, gesturing curtly for Max to follow him.

“Hey Max,” I called out as he stalked after Ian. “Watch your back. You never know when someone might stick a knife in it.”

I saw his shoulders tense, but he didn’t turn around. He went right through those big double doors and then was gone.
I’ll see you again
, I promised him silently.
I know who you are now, and you can run, but you can’t hide.

Perhaps my greatest shock was when the other vampires began to disperse as well, without even so much as a muttered threat among them. Guess they were taking Bones’s warning seriously that anyone starting trouble with me would get a piece of him and his people, too.

Spade made his way down to the arena to give Bones an affectionate slap on the back.

“Bloody hell, mate. You a married man? Now I’ve seen it all.”

The tension visibly drained from him as he smiled at his friend. “Charles,” he said, calling him by his human name. “I believe we’re in need of a lift.”

We hitched a ride with Spade, who drove us to the airstrip where the same helicopter that had brought me here would now take all of us back to the warehouse. Once we got there, Bones let Ian’s six men loose and told them they were free to go. They looked stunned to
be released so easily, but didn’t question it, and melted away into the night. Then there was one more stop to let Spade off before we reached the compound. By that time I was tired, physically and emotionally, but there were still things to do.

When we arrived, the five of us went straight to Don’s office. My uncle’s forehead creased in what might have been embarrassment, and he quickly ceased his examination of my attire. Oh yeah. I’d forgotten I was barely dressed.

“Uh, Cat, would you like a lab coat or…something?”

Bones took off his jacket. “Here, luv, put this on before your uncle turns red. Best do that anyway, since I’m about to flog Juan for trying to memorize every curve of your arse.”

I took the proffered coat and glared at Juan pointedly. He smiled, unrepentant as always.

“What did you expect? You shouldn’t have let her walk in front of me,
amigo
, if you didn’t want me looking.”

“You’re all here, so obviously the operation was a success.” It was straight to business as always for Don. “Cat, you gave instructions to have Noah Rose transferred directly to a hospital? And to have his car wrecked and police reports of a hit-and-run accident filed?”

“That’s right. Bones just might put your brainwashers out of a job, Don. Noah has no idea what he saw tonight. All he’ll remember is that he was in a car wreck and he has to call his insurance company in the morning. You don’t have to worry about him.”

“You know, that brings up a very good point.” Tate
gave Bones a hostile glance. “How do we know he hasn’t been fucking with our minds this whole time? Your decision to make him part of this team could have been planted, Don!”

Bones answered the accusation for him. “He knows it wasn’t. For one, this office is being recorded by a battery-powered camera stuck up in the ceiling. I can hear it, old chap,” he supplied at Don’s flabbergasted expression. “Of course, I could have just made you think you watched what occurred when you hadn’t, but you went on alert as soon as you heard your niece was shagging a vampire. You’ve been tipping the bottle, as it were. Drinking vampire blood to immune yourself to mind control. I can smell it on you.”

Don’s face confirmed it all. I shook my head.

“You will just never trust me, will you? Look, I’m tired, so let’s make this brief. Ian and Max are still alive, but they won’t mess with either of us anymore. It’s been settled. Under nosferatu laws, Bones kind of…um, married me.”

Don tugged madly at his eyebrow. “
What?
”

I explained briefly about the laws of binding, and then shrugged.

“Humanly speaking, I’m still single. As far as anyone undead is concerned, however, I’m married to Bones lock, stock, and two smoking barrels. Sorry I couldn’t give Max your best, Don, but I’ll get him one day. I promise.”

Those same steel-gray eyes stared at me. At last, Don smiled faintly.

“I did give Max my best. I sent him you.”

A lump rocketed its way up in my throat, and I had to blink.

“There is another matter we need to discuss,” Bones said, surprising me.

“Okay, but make it fast. I’m about to fall asleep on my feet.”

“Yesterday Tate told me your friend drank vampire blood as he died. That’s a rather significant detail.”

I frowned wearily. “How so? It couldn’t have made him a vampire. He only had a few swallows at most. We buried him three days later, and believe me, he was
dead
.”

“Quite so, as far as being a vampire or a human is concerned. But there is another species, isn’t there?”

We all looked blankly at him. Bones made a noise of concession.

“Vampires and ghouls are sister races, as I’ve told you. You know a vampire is born after a human is bled to the point of death and then drinks deeply of vampire blood. Making a ghoul isn’t that dissimilar. You first mortally wound a human, then have him drink vampire blood, but
not enough for him to live
. After he dies, a ghoul takes the human’s heart and switches it with his own. Ghouls can survive having their heart ripped out, which is why the only way to kill them is decapitation. After the hearts are switched, you pour vampire blood over the transplanted heart. It activates it, for lack of a better term, and then you have the birth of a new ghoul.”

His meaning penetrated. Rodney’s face flashed in my mind last night when he had glanced at Bones and
said, “Tricky.” He hadn’t been referring to Dave’s murder. He’d been alluding to his possible rebirth.

“Dave’s been dead for months, Bones. Planted in the ground after being pumped full of formaldehyde. You’re telling me it’s possible? Of course you are; why else would you bring this up? Oh God. Oh God.”

“It’s possible, but do you want that? He’d still be your friend, with all of his memories and personality traits except one: what he eats. Now, ghouls mainly eat just raw meat, but every so often, they have to vary their diet, and you
know
what I’m taking about.”

“Jesus,” Tate muttered. I seconded that. There went my appetite.

“Get past your instinctive aversion for a moment,” Bones went on. “Now, normally I wouldn’t even consider participating in changing a person without their consent, but as he’s unavailable for comment, I’m asking all of you. You were his friends; what do you think he would choose? To remain dead in the ground…or to come out of it?”

The opportunity to have Dave back—walking, talking, cracking jokes, and actually being
here
, was real. Suddenly I wasn’t a bit tired.

“Do we have to decide now?” Don asked.

Bones nodded. “Normally rejuvenation is done at the time of death, for obvious reasons. Each day he lingers in the ground, the chance of rousing him diminishes. As it stands, it will take a great deal of power to accomplish it. Rodney has offered to sire him, Kitten, but he wants to leave town because of this business with Ian. He’s of his own line, therefore not under my protec
tion, and he reckons Ian might try to take retribution on those he can get away with. He leaves tomorrow, so if it’s to be done, it would have to be tonight.”

“If your friend is leaving, what would happen with Dave, if we do this?” Don asked practically. “Would he leave with him?”

Bones waved away the concern. “Not necessary. I could handle him. Vampires have been foster parents to ghouls for millennia and vice versa. As I said, sister races. After a few weeks of adjustment, you could get him back better than new, as it were.”

“What if we say yes, you do this, and Dave decides he’d rather be dead than undead? What then?” Tate looked tormented by the thought. The same one had occurred to me.

“Then he gets his wish,” Bones said softly. “He’s dead as it is, and if he chooses to return to that, he would. That’s why we’ll have a sword at the grave. It would be quick, and he would be as he was.”

I wanted to throw up at the mental image. The feeling looked mutual on everyone there. Bones tightened his hand over mine.

“If none of you can accept him as a ghoul, then don’t expect him to accept himself. He would have to have your unprejudiced support or this conversation ends now. Being a ghoul wouldn’t change him as a person; it would only change his abilities. He would be stronger, faster, and with new senses, but still be the same man. Is that man worth more to all of you than your squeamishness over what he’d eat?”