Jeaniene Frost - At Grave’s End

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Some things won't stay buried… at grave's end
It should be the best time of half-vampire Cat Crawfield's life. With her undead lover Bones at her side, she's successfully protected mortals from the rogue undead. But though Cat's worn disguise after disguise to keep her true identity a secret from the brazen bloodsuckers, her cover's finally been blown, placing her in terrible danger.
As if that wasn't enough, a woman from Bones's past is determined to bury him once and for all. Caught in the crosshairs of a vengeful vamp, yet determined to help Bones stop a lethal magic from being unleashed, Cat's about to learn the true meaning of bad blood. And the tricks she's learned as a special agent won't help her. She will need to fully embrace her vampire instincts in order to save herself – and Bones – from a fate worse than the grave.

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“You must cut through her people,” he rasped to Bones, gesturing to the building. “I can’t go with you. If I am killed, the wraiths will fade, and they are the only things stopping Patra from fighting against you.”

They were sure doing something, I knew that. Moments after they’d disappeared into the hotel, there were the most horrible ear-splitting screams.

“Why don’t you just kill her yourself?” I blurted. “If you can raise vengeful spirits and levitate two dozen people almost eighty miles, she should be a piece of cake.”

Mencheres seemed to fall onto the sidewalk. “I can’t,” he whispered. “Even now, I can’t.”

A brief surge of pity filled me before I squelched it. He might still love Patra, but she didn’t return the sentiment, and we’d all be dead unless that woman was in the ground.

Bones gave him a cold, quick glance. “I’ll keep my promise. We’ll get you when it’s over. Juan, Dave, you stay with him. Make sure no one comes near.”

Juan started to protest being left behind, but a warning glare cut him off. Then Bones cracked his knuckles and faced the hotel.

“All right, mates. Let’s end this.”

Patra might have had several guards around the perimeter of the hotel. She might have had some in windows, on the roof, in the basement, and manning the entrance. But if nothing else, having twenty-three pissed-off wraiths suddenly swarm the hotel made for a hell of a distraction. In addition to Patra’s ceaseless screaming-what were theydoing to her?-there were the scrambling sounds of multiple people running up the stairs, new shouts, an eruption of gunfire, and several odd popping noises. I cast a look at Bones and thought,Huh? The rage-wrought specters weren’t even solid, what could they be doing that would make it sound like World War Three in there?

Bones shrugged. “One way to find out.”

Once we reached the building’s entrance, whatever guards had been stationed there were gone. Spade frowned, shaking his head.Trap, he was saying. I took four grenades from my belt, pulled the pins, and then chucked them inside. Second later, glass shattered and the building shook as they detonated. Whoever might have been waiting for us wasn’t there now.

We rushed in, the vampires fanning out to the sides. Bones and I kept low but raced forward. Those screams and awful noises from several floors up got louder. Finally we saw about a dozen vampires burst through an entryway under what I supposed was the grand staircase. They went down in a hail of silver before they even had a chance to back up.

“Where is everyone?” I said low to Bones. Aside from that paltry dozen, the downstairs seemed shockingly vacant.

Bones cocked his head. “There are more upstairs that I can hear. Something’s got them in shambles. It must be the wraiths, but I can’t imagine how.”

I agreed it sounded like a Chinese fire drill upstairs. People were screaming, footsteps were thundering up and back, and there were more of those popping noises that were like nothing I’d heard before them. Whatever was going on, Patra was still alive. She was the one screaming the loudest.

Bones held out three fingers, indicating the group was to split up. Eight of us would take the stairs, another eight would climb the exterior of the building, and the remaining eight would go up the elevator shafts. It sounded like the most activity was about nine floors up, near the top of the building, so that’s where we were headed.

We were on the third floor when a small group of vampires came darting down the stairs. They had blood covering them, their clothes were ripped-and they barely even looked in our direction. But that didn’t stop me from unloading my M-16 with silver-bullet ammunition into them. They collapsed, their hearts shredded from the barrage of silver from my gun and the men unleashing their own weapons by my side. Sure, knives were my favorite, but this was easier when it came to distance killing.

There was more scrambling on the floor above us. Something was causing an all-out panic. Surely it couldn’t just be the sight of the wraiths? I mean, yeah, they were scary-looking, but this wasn’t a kids’ slumber party they were crashing. This was the stronghold of a Master vampire who’d been around when Jesus walked the earth. You’d think the undead would be a little harder to rattle.

“This is almost too easy,” Ian whispered, echoing my thoughts.

Vlad shot him a sardonic glance. “Never underestimate Patra’s ability to make a grand entrance.”

“Stay sharp,” Bones said. “Whatever’s going on, the shank of it is taking place up there. Let’s join the party.”

There were two more sets of vampires on our way up the stairs. They were each running as if from hell itself, which made it more of a slaughter than a fight to take them down. The closer we got, the more frenzied the commotion sounded above us. Finally we reached the floor where the noise was the loudest, and followed those horrible screams to the room they were coming from.

There was no guard at the door, and it was open. Vlad sent a ball of flame ahead of us, but it didn’t prove to be necessary. We entered the room without anyone jumping out at us, and once inside, I stopped and stared.

Patra, far from the elegant, imposing figure I’d seen before, was writhing on the ground. Blood came from her nose, mouth, eyes, and various parts of her body. All around her-God, allthrough her-the wraiths converged. They coiled around her body like gray snakes, whipping her about, diving straight into her only to come out the other side and do it all over again. She kept screaming for help, in a number of languages, it sounded like.

Even as we watched, a wild-eyed vampire, who couldn’t have been older than fifteen when he was changed, was flung away from her with both arms missing. The wraith nearest to him-was that Zero?-dove into his chest until it disappeared entirely. The vampire screamed, and then there was a pop and he came apart. His head, legs, and torso went in different directions. The wraith appeared out of the wreckage of his body, hovered for a second, and then returned to Patra until he was indistinguishable from the other blurring gray forms encasing her.

All around us were the bodies of her fallen guards. There were scores of them, and they looked like they’d been similarly blasted from the inside out. Pieces of them, their clothing and weapons were scattered everywhere. Those lethal shadows who’d done this amazing amount of carnage ignored us and continued to pitilessly torment Patra.

She was contorted in agony, her skin bubbling up each time one of them drove in and out of her. I was certain her insides had to be pureed from this. Seeing what they’d done to her guards let me know they could have killed her if they’d wanted to. The fact that she was still alive said their idea of vengeance was much more sinister than mere death.

Bones held his hand out. “Everyone stay back,” he said, and gripped his knife.

I cast a frantic look at the decimated guards. “If you go near her, those wraiths will rip you to pieces!”

He brushed my face. “Not me. Don’t you see? Mencheres knew it would come to this. He saw it. That’s why he chose me to share his power with. It still connects us, so I’m the only person they won’t harm. I can feel them…and as they can’t hurt him, they can’t hurt me.”

He dropped his hand and walked toward Patra. I don’t think she was even aware of him. She didn’t seem to be aware of anything even though her eyes were open. Blood continued to streak from her as she was besieged by the merciless, tireless remains of the men she’d murdered from her spell last night.

One of the grayish figures rose from her and streaked to Bones when he came within a dozen feet. I started forward, but the whiplash of his voice stopped me.

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