Jeaniene Frost - Up From the Grave

“You lied to me, Crawfield,” Madigan hissed.

“Russell,” I corrected him automatically, still staring at Bones in disbelief.

Then my head jerked up as noises crashed through the woods, the sky, and even the waters around the pier.

Madigan managed a smile despite the tight grip Bones had him in.

“That’s all right. I lied, too.”

If he said anything else, I didn’t hear it. The sound of machine-gun fire was too loud.

Ivaulted into the air, wincing as bullets pierced me faster than I could fly out of range. Being shot multiple times hurt, but the pain quickly faded, which meant the bullets weren’t silver.

That surprised me until I remembered that Madigan wanted me alive. He must think I had something really special in my DNA to risk using non-lethal force to capture me, but the joke was on him. I’d be happy to deliver the punch line once we had him back at the apartment, where Denise would morph into his non-evil twin and we’d—

Wait, why was gunfire still going off below? Didn’t Madigan’s people realize we were long gone? Speaking of which, why hadn’t Bones caught up with me yet? He was by far the faster flier.

I stopped and twirled in a circle to search the sky from every direction, but all I saw were storm clouds. There was no telltale charge of supernatural energy in the air, either. Where the hell was he?

Then a fresh barrage of gunfire made my stomach clench. He couldn’t still be on the pier, could he?

I dove straight down like a hawk streaking after prey. As I cleaved through layer upon layer of opaque storm clouds, the scene below finally became visible. Soldiers converged on the pier from the woods, boats on the lake, and cars that screeched up to the launch ramp. All with automatic weapons that spit bullets at the lone vampire kneeling on the end of the pier.

“Bones!” I screamed. “Fly, dammit!”

But he didn’t. He fell forward instead, his body slumping against the rough wooden planks. Then the only movement I saw was his clothes ripping as bullets pitilessly continued to strafe him.

I landed next to him so hard that half my body went through the pier. It only took me a second to scramble up and fling myself over him, glad at the icy-hot needles of pain that meant the bullets were piercing me instead of him. Then, over the sound of gunfire, I heard a shout.

“Hold your fire!”

Madigan’s voice, amplified by some sort of device. I lifted my head, a snarl escaping me as I saw him treading water a few dozen feet away from the pier. Somehow, he’d escaped Bones and jumped for it. That was fine. I could carry both of them as I flew—

A shock wave knocked me off Bones and sent me sprawling against the other side of the pier. Concussion grenade, I mentally diagnosed. One amped up enough for vampires. Madigan had really upgraded his toys, but before I could scramble back to Bones, I saw something that froze me into immobility. A line appeared in his blood-spattered cheek, dark as pitch and snaking across his skin like a crack in a statue. Then another line appeared, and another one. And another.

No.

It was the only thought my mind was capable of producing as black lines began to appear all over his skin, zigzagging and splintering off into new, merciless paths. I’d seen the same thing happen to countless vampires before, usually after twisting a silver knife in their hearts, but denial made it impossible for me to believe the same was happening to Bones. He couldn’t be slowly shriveling before my gaze, true death changing his youthful appearance into something that resembled pottery clay baked too long in an oven.

My immobility vanished, replaced by terror such as I’ve never felt. I vaulted across the pier, snatching Bones into my arms while my tears joined the rain in soaking his face.

“NO!”

Even as the scream left me, the changes in him grew worse. His muscular frame felt like it deflated, the hard lines of his body becoming rubbery before they began to shrink. I clutched him tighter, sobs turning my tears scarlet, while something started to hammer in my chest. It felt as though I were being pummeled on the inside with hard, steady blows. My heartbeat, a part of me registered. It had been silent for almost a year, but now, it pounded more strongly than it ever had when I was a human.

Another cry tore out of me when Bones’s skin cracked beneath my hands before sloughing off onto the wooden planks. Frantic, I tried to put it back on, but more flesh began to peel away faster than I could hold it together. Muscle and bone peeked out from those widening spaces, until his face, neck, and arms resembled a gaping slab of meat. But what tore through me like a fire that would never stop burning was his eyes. The dark brown orbs I loved sank into their sockets, dissipating into goo. My scream, high-pitched and agonized, replaced the scrambling sounds of soldiers setting up position around me.

I didn’t try to stop them. I sat there, clutching handfuls of what now looked like dried leather, until all I could see underneath Bones’s bullet-riddled clothes was a pale, withered husk. Dimly, I heard Madigan yell, “I said no silver ammo! Who the fuck fired those rounds?” before everything faded except the pain radiating through me. It made the agony I felt when I’d nearly burned to death a blissful memory. That had only destroyed my flesh, but this tore through my soul, taking every emotion and shredding it with knowledge that was too awful to bear.

Bones was gone. He’d died right before my eyes because I insisted on taking Madigan down my way. I deserved everything I got from the twisted bureaucrat for leading my beloved husband to his death.

“Take her,” Madigan barked.

Rough hands grabbed me, but I didn’t care even when something hard and heavy snapped across my neck, shoulders, and ankles. When someone tried to pry Bones out of my grip, however, my fangs ripped into that person’s throat without so much as a thought. Hot blood sprayed my face and ran down my mouth while dozens of rifles cocked.

“Hold your fucking fire!”

Madigan’s voice again. If anything mattered other than the man I cradled, I’d have torn his throat open next, but I did nothing except tighten my grip on Bones and drop my head next to his.

Rough patches of skull rubbed me where there should have been smooth, sleek skin—another wrecking ball to my emotions I would never recover from.

Sobs shook me so hard that I felt like I was coming apart. That was fine. I wanted to be torn into pieces. It would hurt less than the knowledge of Bones’s death. It’s why I didn’t fight when Madigan said, “Let her keep the body. I’ll study it, too” and a heavy net was flung over me. From the burn wherever it touched skin, it was silver, and from the slashes I felt as it was tightened, it was also fitted with silver razors. Struggling would shred me, not that I had any intention of struggling. I knew without a doubt that Madigan would kill me once he was done with me. If I escaped, however, my friends would try to keep me from joining Bones.

Years ago, Bones had made me promise to go on if he were killed. I’d done so, yet now, I was going back on that promise. Death was my only chance to be reunited with him. I wasn’t missing that for anything.

“Wait for me,” I whispered, my voice breaking on another sob. “I’ll be there soon.”

Irode in the back of a truck while half a dozen armed guards pointed their weapons at me. Oddly enough, their thoughts were muted behind a static-like white noise that emanated from their helmets. Aside from the thick armor plating, the vehicle could have been the back of a U-Haul, the interior was so plain. It also didn’t have windows, but from the length of the drive, our destination wasn’t Madigan’s compound in Tennessee. I wasn’t sure where we were headed, but from the thoughts I caught, we had an armed convoy escorting us the whole way.