Jeaniene Frost - At Grave’s End

“Three hours,” I said, keeping my face as blank as possible.

Max let a nasty smile curl his lips. “I’m going to assume that really means one hour. But don’t worry. I’ll make it count. Oh, and I’ll take this.”

Max yanked my engagement ring off my finger. He held it up to the light and grinned.

“Must be five carats,” he said admiringly. “This’ll net me a couple million, easy.”

“It’s a ruby,” I snapped, hating the sight of my engagement ring in his hands.

Max laughed. “Stupid little girl, that’s adiamond. Red diamonds are the rarest in the world, and Bones has had this stone for over a century. Ian’s wanted to buy it from him for decades. But you won’t be needing it anymore.”

Max sliced up the front of my shirt, remarking that this was for Calibos’s benefit, not his. The throbbing from my wrists, combined with the searing pain in my legs and gut, made it so easy for me to pass out. I kept fighting the blackness that crouched temptingly near.

My mother darted forward. Calibos caught her, giving her a hard shake.

“You’re nothing but animals,” she hissed at them.

“Insults count as screaming,” Max replied, laughing as she gaped in disbelief. “My game, so I get to make up the rules. That’s two things I get to cut off Cat now. Want to make it three?”

I met my mother’s gaze over Max’s shoulder. Her eyes were wide and overflowing. I gave the barest shake of my head.Please don’t. You can’t make it better. Just run when you have the chance.

She couldn’t hear my silent urgings, of course. Max let the tip of his knife dip to my jeans, and he slit them down the side.

“Here’s where I’ll start,” he remarked, then grabbed a handful of my hip and gave a hard upward swipe with the third knife.

I bit my lip so hard to keep from screaming that I tasted blood. Calibos snickered. Max held up my severed piece of skin like it was a trophy.

“Nice tattoo,” he said, flinging it to the side. “Maybe I’ll have that shipped to Bones, so he can have a spare.”

My hip flamed where there was now a bleeding open wound instead of the crossbones tattoo I’d gotten to match the one on Bones’s arm. My mother didn’t cry out this time, but she drew in a deep, shuddering breath.

“I love you, Catherine,” she whispered.

I had to look away, because I didn’t want to give Max the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I couldn’t remember the last time she’d said that to me. She must believe we were both doomed to die.

“I’m sick of holding her, I’m putting her under,” Calibos said, turning green eyes to my mother.

“Stop it.” Max’s voice was a whip. “She’s going to see this. She’s going toknow.”

Calibos made an exasperated noise, then dragged my mother over to the drapes by the window. He yanked one off, ripped it down the center, and then tied the end of it around her neck.

“Max,” I said warningly.

He swatted me in the head, hard. “Shh, I want to see what he’s got in mind.”

Calibos threw the other end over one of the railings in the banister on the second floor. My mother was struggling, but she was no match for the vampire. I began to strain against the knives pinning me down. Max shoved another one through my wrist almost like it was an afterthought, then punched me in the gut where I’d been shot.

The blast of agony must have knocked me out for a minute, because when my eyes focused again, my mother was standing on a chair, one end of the drapes wrapped around her neck, and the other tied to the banister upstairs. There was hardly any slack in the line, and one of the chair’s legs was missing.

“Now she can watch, and I can join the fun,” Calibos smirked.

Max gave him an approving grin, then turned his attention to me.

“Do you want to know what I’m going to do to you, little girl?” he asked in a conversational tone. “After I torture the hell out of you, I’m going to chop you into pieces. Can’t risk Bones getting someone to raise you into a ghoul, now can I?”

Vicious prick wasn’t stupid. With my half-vampire bloodline, it was entirely possible I could be raised as a ghoul, if Max were just to murder me. But if I was dismembered, that option was out.

“Same rules apply. Let’s see how long you last before you scream and I get to cut something off Justina,” he taunted.

Max’s fist began knocking my head back and forth like a toy on a spring. Blood filled my mouth and my lip split, but I bit my tongue and didn’t make a noise. After a few minutes, the ringing in my ears dulled the thwacking sounds of him beating me. Then he stopped.

“Stubborn bitch. Hmm, let’s see if you can keep quiet through this…”

He pulled a lighter out of his pocket, flicked it, dialed the flame up as high as it could go, then held it to my arm. My whole body shuddered and I twisted futilely, gasps and grunts coming from me. After a few minutes of unimaginable agony, I couldn’t hold back my scream any longer.

Max laughed, delighted. Vaguely I was aware of throwing up.

“I think that’s going to cost Justina a finger,” he remarked. “What else will you make her lose?”

“Even if you kill me, Bones will find you,” I panted. Sweat was pouring off me and my arm hurt in ways I didn’t know were possible. “Believe me, you’ll be sorry when he does.”

Calibos and Max chuckled like I’d told a joke. “That vampire won’t start a war over you.” Max grinned. “Hell, the only reason Bones married you was to spite our sire.”

That’s why Max felt secure enough to risk pulling this? Because he thought he had enough protection from his new “friends” and Bones had only married me to piss off Ian?

“Oh, Boneswill find you. Count on it.”

They glanced around, uneasy at the vehemence of my tone.

“Pathetic,” Max said at last. “You’re trying to scare me into letting you live, but it won’t work. Still, Calibos, go outside and keep watch. Just in case her playboy decides to drop by early.”

“But I haven’t gotten to play with her yet,” Calibos protested, with a look my way that made me recoil.

“You’ll get your chance,” Max snapped. “But I set this up, so I go first.”

Calibos smirked at me as he headed out the door. “I’ll see you soon, sweetie.”

Max got up and sauntered over to my mother next. She was almost on her tiptoes to keep the drape around her neck slack enough to breathe. Underneath her, the chair wobbled ominously on its three legs. Her hands were tied together with another piece of drapery, and Max grinned as he contemplated her fingers.

“Which one will you lose, Justina? Let’s see, this little finger went to market,” he started to singsong, tapping one of them. “This little finger stayed home. This little finger had roast beef…”

I tried to mentally prepare myself for my chance. Now that one of them was outside, this was my best opportunity. It was hard for me to focus, however. I’d had years of experience getting knocked around, but with all of my injuries, I kept feeling myself wandering closer to unconsciousness.

My mother met my eyes…and then kicked the chair out from under her.

“Goddammit,” Max snapped, holding her up with one hand. “Why’d you do that?”

In the second that he was distracted, I yanked against the knives on my wrists with all my strength, feeling my flesh shred. I’d gotten one of my hands free when Max turned around.

“What the hell?”

He let my mother go. She dangled by the neck, her feet well above the floor, while I wrenched my other arm free, ignoring the white-hot burst of pain that caused. I tried to grab one of the knives, but my wrists were too damaged for me to hold anything. I kicked them away and then lunged at Max instead, head-butting him hard enough to knock him over.All I need is a little of your blood, I thought, biting at him savagely,and I’ll be healed enough to fight.