Jeaniene Frost - At Grave’s End

Bones’s gaze sizzled into Max. “Go on, mate, say one word, see what it gets you,” he urged him in a voice smooth as silk-and frightening as the grave.

“Right now, Daddy dearest, ‘I told you so’ doesn’t even begin to cover it,” I said grimly to Max. “So I’ll repeat what you said to me earlier: You should have killed me when you had the chance.”

Then I turned to Bones. “Why are we taking him anywhere? I’d just as soon kill him now and not have to worry about him again.”

“Youdon’t need to fret about him,” Bones said in that same icy, neck-ruffling tone. “Ever. But he doesn’t get off that easily.”

Bones reached out and touched Max’s face. It was a light stroke, but Max flinched as if Bones had sliced his cheek open with a knife.

“I’ll be seeing you soon, mate. I can’t wait.”

Annette came over. Her champagne-colored eyes considered Max from a face lightly lined with age. Annette had been thirty-six when Bones changed her. Times were different in the seventeen hundreds, so she looked around forty-five, but she made it look good. Unlike her normal impeccable appearance, her strawberry-blond hair had half-fallen out of her chignon, and her navy tailored suit looked a lot worse for wear.

“I say, it’s been quite the day already,” she remarked.

I stifled a snort. How like Annette to describe an afternoon of torture as calmly as “quite the day.”

“Seal him back up,” I said to Cooper, not wanting to look at my father anymore. Or ever again.

Cooper complied, and the capsule’s door slid into place with a series of locks clicking back together. Even as it did, a frightening thought occurred to me.

“What happened to Calibos? There was another vampire here besides Max.”

“His head’s over there,” Bones said, nodding by the trees, “but the rest of him’s farther back.”

I felt a cold satisfaction at that. “How’d you know to come here?”

“The airline lost Annette’s luggage.” Bones sounded almost bemused. “I rang you twice to tell you we’d be late, that we were stopping off to fetch her some new togs. You didn’t answer. You always answer, so I drove straight here. About a mile away, I heard you scream. I pulled off, and Annette and I circled round the house on foot. We found the one bloke. Didn’t know how many more might be inside, so we smashed through the windows at the same time.”

A bark of laughter escaped me. My mother and I owed our lives to Annette’sluggage being lost? How ironic.

“Bet you wish you’d carried on,” I couldn’t help but quip to Annette.

A ghost of a smile flitted across her lips. “Not quite, darling. I just rang Ian,” she continued, more to Bones than me now. “He was furious to hear what Max did. He’s formally cutting Max off from his line.”

That was the worst punishment a vampire could inflict on a member of their line. It meant no vampire would challenge whatever happened to Max in the future, and right now, my father’s future looked pretty grim.

“Max said Ian didn’t know about this,” I added, even though I was no fan of Ian’s. “He said he had new friends who wanted me dead as much as he did.”

Bones gave a short nod. “We’re going home, luv. To find out who helped Max orchestrate this, so we can kill every last one of them.”

Our house was a large cabin at the top of a hill, with sweeping views of the Blue Ridge Mountains out of bulletproof-glass windows. It was remote enough that we’d never met our neighbors, so the helicopter pad and hangar on the side of our house hadn’t been cause for any awkward conversations.

Annette went back with Don to help with Tate, as was the original plan, although Bones refused to go with her. He told my uncle his priorities had changed, not that Don had any trouble understanding why. Tate would be okay with two undead people taking care of him. It was my safety that seemed to be in a more tenuous position than Tate’s, according to what Max had said.

When I walked into my house, my cat jumped out to twine around my legs. We hadn’t figured on being back for a week, so I’d set up the automatic feeder and litter-box cleaner. Now my kitty would get some of my leftovers instead of just his dry food. No wonder he was glad to see me.

My mother had never been to Bones’s and my house, but I was too anxious to wash the blood off me to give her a proper tour.

“Here’s the guest room,” I said, directing her to the downstairs bedroom. “I’ve got some clothes in it, too, so help yourself to whatever’s there. I’m taking a shower.”

Bones followed me upstairs. I stripped off the jacket Cooper had given me, plus my bloodied bra and pants. If I never saw those clothes again, it would be too soon. Bones also peeled off his crimson-spattered shirt and pants, kicking them into a corner before joining me in the shower.

At first, the water was icy. It took a couple minutes to heat up this time of year. I shivered as the frigid spray landed on me. Bones folded me in his arms and moved to where the majority of it splashed on him. Even when it turned warm, however, and Bones turned to let the heated water rinse my blood away, I was still shivering.

“I didn’t think I’d make it today.”

My voice was low. Bones’s arms tightened around me.

“You’re safe now, Kitten. And nothing like this shall ever happen again, I promise you.”

I didn’t reply, but I was thinking this was one promise Bones might not be able to keep. Who knew what could happen in the future? This wasn’t just about the revenge my father had wanted on me-and my mother-for my existence. Max had done this with promises of rewards and help. Now the question was, from whom?

But I didn’t say any of that. Bones was correct-I was safe now. And he was here. Right now was all I’d concentrate on.

For the moment, anyway.

We weren’t home for more than an hour before people started showing up. First it was Juan and Cooper, who Don sent as added protection for me. Both of them were carrying enough silver knives and guns with silver bullet clips to take on a dozen vampires.

Then Bones’s brand of added security arrived in the form of three vampires I hadn’t met before. The one named Rattler reminded me of a young Samuel Elliott, Zero looked albino with his long blond hair and glacier eyes, and Tick Tock was pitch dark with black skin, black hair, and black eyes. Mentally I referred to them as Cowboy, Salt, and Pepper.

Then came Spade, or Charles, as Bones called him. Spade preferred everyone else to call him by the tool he was assigned when he was a lowly penal colonies convict. Something about never forgetting how helpless he’d once been. Bones had picked his name after rising as a vampire in Aborigine burial grounds. Vampires sure made it complicated to remember what name to call them by.

Rodney the ghoul was next. He endeared himself to Juan on the spot by starting to cook up a storm. I didn’t eat, I went to bed, but to no one’s surprise, I didn’t get a very restful sleep. My dreams were filled with seeing my mother dangle by the neck from a banister and my father’s sneering face as he shot me.

Don showed up a little after noon. I was seated at the kitchen table with Juan, Cooper, my mother, and Bones. We’d been talking about anything but the obvious when my uncle came in. I was surprised to see him, actually. I thought he’d be busy directing the transfer from one base to another.

“Does your boss know you’re playing hooky?” I asked.

Don gave me a dry smile. “I can’t stay long, but I wanted to go over a few things and…just see how you were doing.”

He could have gone over any pertinent work-related items on the phone, so I was guessing his presence had more to do with the latter part of his statement.