Jeaniene Frost - At Grave’s End

“Please don’t kill me, I have done nothing to you,” he whimpered.

“Bloody hell, show some dignity. You’re an embarrassment to the race,” Bones chided him.

“Tate, get the unhappy couple,” I directed him.

Tate went over to them, slashed his palm, and clapped it across each of their mouths. Soon their welts disappeared. Then he untied them from the pole, herding them well out of the way of the other bodies.

Anre held out a hand to Bones. “You have no cause to harm me. You want the humans? They’re yours.”

I shook my head. Wasn’t it always the bullies who feared retaliation the most?

“You’re afraid of him, but it’s me you need to worry about.”

I retrieved one of his fallen whips and cracked it for punctuation. Bones had thought I couldn’t handle seeing what he dished out to Max, but I could prove that I wasn’t too squeamish when it came to doing necessary dirty work.

“Give me the names of your other playmates, Anre. Refuse and, well…you have a lot of mean-looking toys here. Tried any of them out on yourself lately?”

An hour later I was in possession of a name-Slash. He was here somewhere, scouting out his potential dinner. With all the noise from above, I doubted he even knew what had happened to Anre.

I made my way through the dancers, seeking a man with the tattoo of a silver dragon along his jaw. Along the way, I was bumped, jostled, and even slapped by an overzealous woman whose partner turned away at the last moment. She didn’t even apologize, either. Just glared at me and snapped, “That wasn’t your gift!”

“I’ll give it back, then,” I responded, and whacked her a good one. Honestly, whatever happened to saying,Excuse me?

Someone grabbed me from behind. Cool hands moved over my breasts in a rough caress. I stiffened but didn’t slam my elbow into their rib cage. Not yet.

“I’m better from the front,” I purred in my best bondage-tramp imitation.

My head was jerked back next, so hard there would be strands of it in his grip. I gritted my teeth. This better be Slash, or I was going to stomp the shit out of the unknown asshole.

That cool hand made its way from my breast down my stomach-and didn’t stop. Okay, enough being Little Miss Submissive!

I whirled around, losing more hair, and smashed my knee up at the same time. Tall, Dark, and Depraved, who didnot have a silver dragon tattoo on his jaw, doubled over. Then I shoved him into the gyrating mass of revelers surrounding us.

“Isaid I’m better from thefront.”

There was laughter by the other dancers close enough to witness this. I gave Tall, Dark, and Depraved another nasty glare before scouting around again for Slash. He had to be here. I didn’t want to come back tomorrow if I couldn’t find him. In fact, I’d be pretty happy if I never set foot in this place again.

Two more cool hands slid along my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest. I clenched my fist, about to let loose a roundhouse punch, when something out of the corner of my eye stopped me. Were those scales etched on the side of my new Romeo’s face?

I turned around…and smiled. “You look good enough to eat, handsome.”

The man grinned, stretching the dragon’s tail that curled from his jaw to the side of his mouth. “Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing about you.”

We began to dance. Slash was about my height, and he used the alignment of our bodies to his greatest advantage. I let it go on for a few minutes. Right up until he unzipped his leather pants and pulled out Mr. One Eye.

“Whoa,” I said, twisting away as he attempted to find a home for his stiff friend. “Isn’t there somewhere we can be…alone?”

Slash glanced at his cock, as if expecting it to voice an objection. Then he tugged my arm.

“Come with me. I know just the place.”

I saw with relief that I was being pulled toward the fake bar. If he’d gone in the opposite direction, all hell would have broken loose. Slash never bothered to tuck his dick back in his drawers, either. That thing stuck out the whole time like it was pointing the way.

“Oohh, how exciting,” I said as he lifted the faux counter to reveal that hidden staircase.

Slash took my hand, almost yanking me beside him. The narrowness made for a very uncomfortable walk as we went down.Mental note: Shower as soon as possible.

“I think you’ll be surprised,” he said as he opened the door. Then he stopped short. “What the-?”

I shoved him in with all my strength. Slash went sprawling. He skidded to a halt at that awful pole, which now had the very bloody form of Anre shackled to it.

I closed the door behind me. Bones went over to Slash, raised a brow at his rapidly deflating erection, and then gave him an icy smile.

“No, mate, I expectyou’re the one who’s surprised.”

“If we can leave quietly, I think we won’t have to call in the team,” Tate said as he piled Slash’s body on top of Anre’s. Priscilla and the other nameless vampire were stacked next to them.

“Skulk out the back with our tails between our legs?” Bones snorted. “Fear’s a valuable motivator. If we sneak away, then there’s nothing to give someone pause who might consider setting up shop in this place again, is there?”

I considered that. In most of our operations, we had a smash-and-grab approach. Smash the bad guys (or girls!), grab the evidence (meaning bodies) and then leave. Maybe that strategy needed rethinking. Bones was right about fear being an excellent motivator. Patra was using that tactic against us now. Maybe we needed to highlight that we played for keeps, too.

I glanced at Dave. He gave me an almost imperceptible nod. Tate, however, was incensed.

“Brilliant plan, Crypt Keeper. You want us to bring up those heads like souvenirs, then shake our fingers at them and say, ‘They were naughty’ at all the freaks out there? You’re out of your mind!”

“Foolish. Coward.”

Bones bit out both words precisely. Tate snarled, and I tripped him as he stalked toward Bones.

“You must have slipped, because Iknow you weren’t about to do anything, were you?”

Tate glared up at me, and then must have seen the consequences of following through with that intention in my gaze, because he lost his angry posture.

“Your call, Cat. What’s it gonna be?”

Oddly enough, it’s what happened when I’d pushed off Tall, Dark, and Depraved that made my decision. The people around us, human and otherwise, had just laughed. Not jumped in and helped him beat me into submission.

“We give a warning and show the proof. Like you said, Tate-I’ll use those heads as props.”

“All units, stand by,” Tate said into his radio. It didn’t escape me that he sounded both pissed and resigned.

We made our way single file back up the stairs. Bones went first, followed by me, Tate, Dave, and our rescued couple, who hadn’t said much all night. When we were all out, Bones lifted me up onto the counter of the fake bar, since my hands were full, and let out a whistle that pierced even over the loud music.

“Shut that noise off,” he barked, giving a menacing green glare to the puzzled vampire in what I assumed was the DJ box.

The pumping techno beat was silenced. There were sounds of protest that cut off when people saw me. You could say I stood out, what with being perched on a bar holding four severed heads by their hair.

“I’ll make this quick so you can get back to your fun. I’m the Red Reaper, and these four”-I held the heads up for better viewing-“took their games too far by killing my kind. If it happens again here, I’ll come back.”

Two hundred pairs of eyes stared at us, and most of them didn’t come with heartbeats. Inside I tensed. Who knew how this would go? Things could get very unpleasant very fast.