Jeaniene Frost - Up From the Grave

“More sites are appearing as conspiracy theorists and cryptozoologists repost the information,” Mencheres said in somber agreement. “Tai is attempting to take them down to slow the progression of information, but . . . there are too many.”

To illustrate his point, Mencheres minimized that page and opened a new one.

WE ARE NOT ALONE, BUT IT ISN’T WHO YOU THINK, the new headline announced, followed by extensive pathology reports on Katie’s tri-species nature—and what had made that merging possible.

I was too devastated to even curse as Mencheres opened site upon site filled with even more information meant to inflame ghoul and vampire relations. He was right; it was too late to contain this. It had gone viral, just as Trove intended.

Granted, most people viewing these scanned documents wouldn’t know who Specimen A1 was, let alone believe that in vitro fertilization from a half-vampire egg would result in a quarter-vampire child who’d been able to absorb ghoul DNA into her genetics. I mean, I was Specimen A1, and I still had a hard time believing it. Throw in the fact that most humans didn’t know that vampires or ghouls existed, and the reaction, judging from the comments, was open derision.

But the problem wasn’t humans, who’d think all of this was a hoax. It was everyone else who’d know that it wasn’t.

At last, Bones handed back the tablet even though I’d still been reading with a growing sense of doom.

“We need to—” he began, then stopped abruptly when a slender blonde with porcelain-doll loveliness opened the main door without knocking.

“Need to what?” Veritas asked coolly.

I didn’t groan out loud, but it was close. A Law Guardian barging in? Things had gone from horrible to tragic.

“Veritas,” Mencheres said, his tone now smooth as iced butter. “Welcome.”

She gave him a look that said she knew she was as welcome as a festering case of herpes but nodded at the greeting. The pretty blonde might look like she was the same age as Tai, but she was older than Mencheres and almost as powerful. She also had the full weight of the vampire ruling council behind her. For her to show up unannounced mere hours after the leak meant that they were as freaked as Trove had hoped.

No matter what happened, I had to kill that demon for all he’d done.

Then the Law Guardian’s gaze landed on me. For a second, I thought I saw pity in her sage green eyes. Before I could be sure, whatever it was vanished, leaving nothing but granite resolve.

“You know why I am here,” she stated. “The council has already ruled, and their decision is final. Tell me where the child is. It must be destroyed.”

“ It is a little girl who didn’t ask for any of this!” I burst out.

Her measured stare didn’t waver.

“Neither did you, according to the documents released, which is why you’re not under arrest for treason.”

I advanced forward until Bones’s hand on my arm stopped me.

“You’re saying the council would have considered it treason if I’d knowingly had a child when I was a half-breed?”

Now I was sure about the sympathy that flashed across Veritas’s face.

“People like you and I don’t get to choose our fates.”

A wistful note tinged her voice before it, and her features, hardened once more.

“If you don’t know that yet, in time, you will learn. Now, tell me where the child is.”

Even if she weren’t my daughter, even if she’d been brainwashed beyond repair and we would never succeed in hiding her, I couldn’t sentence her to death by answering with the truth.

“I don’t know.”

Katie deserved what she’d never been given before. A chance. I knew what I was risking by doing this, but what choice did I have? Maybe it was faith that made me believe God wouldn’t let our races destroy each other over not killing a child for the crime of being different.

Then I glanced at Bones, noting how tightly he’d closed down his aura and how stony his features were. He didn’t look at me, either. His gaze was all for the Law Guardian, whose stare grew pointed.

My soul seemed to suck in a fearful breath. I will do anything to protect you, he’d sworn. Would he betray Katie’s location in order to stop me from trying to save her? It might cost me my life, and both of us knew it.

Don’t, I thought, wishing desperately that he could still read my mind. Please, Bones. Don’t.

“If you’re looking for the child,” he said in an even voice, his power freezing my mouth when I began to interrupt him, “start with Richard Trove. He’s the demon that funded her creation. As for Madigan, take him with you when you leave. We’ve gleaned nothing useful from him. Perhaps you’ll have better luck.”

Then he turned his back, effectively dismissing her.

I still couldn’t speak since he hadn’t released his telekinetic gag, but Veritas wouldn’t know that. I turned around with him, gripping his hand to convey thankfulness that words wouldn’t cover anyway.

Bones squeezed back, a silent pledge that we were in this together. Now I truly felt like we had a chance. Together, we’d been able to do amazing things.

Veritas let out what sounded like a sigh.

“You realize what will happen if the council discovers that you’re lying?”

Bones glanced over his shoulder with a shrug.

“We’ll be sentenced to death?”

“Nothing less,” she said shortly. “If you wish to revise your responses, you may do so now, without repercussion.”

Like a piece of tape ripped away, I felt Bones’s power leave my mouth. Giving me a chance to recant if I chose.

For a moment, I wavered. The memory of his shriveling in my arms was still fresh and unspeakably awful. I never wanted to experience that again, but if we went after Katie, it could result in Bones’s death.

He might have read the fear in my gaze. Or maybe it was my scent that betrayed me. Very slowly, he brought my hands to his mouth and kissed them.

“I love you, Kitten,” he breathed against my flesh.

Then he dropped them, turning to give the Law Guardian a hard look.

“We gave you our answer, Veritas. Now, if you don’t mind, shut the door behind you when you leave.”

Veritas didn’t take Madigan with her. Bones wanted to kill him since we no longer needed him to find out who his backer was, but I had a few questions for my former nemesis. Trove could have falsified the records he posted online, yet somewhere in Madigan’s shattered mind, he knew the truth about Katie’s biological mother.

It took hours to get it out of him. In addition to the Grand-Canyon-wide gaps in Madigan’s memories, he also had the attention span of a ferret on crack. By dawn, however, he’d managed enough lucid tidbits to verify Trove’s claims about Katie being my daughter. If ghosts could pass out, Don would have fallen over when he realized that’s where the trail of questions I had him ask Madigan led to.

I was tempted to do that myself over suddenly becoming something I never thought I’d be—a mother. This was one challenge where all my fighting skills were totally useless. My childhood hadn’t been a hallmark example to draw from, either. Due to my father vampirically brainwashing my mother, I’d been brought up believing I was half-evil. I’d hated the otherness that made me different from everyone else, and now I had a child with a double dose of that “otherness” in her.

Of course, that meant I knew everything not to do. For example, I would never tell my child that being different was something to be ashamed of. Katie might have to hide it to survive, but if it took everything I had in me, she’d know that her unique nature wasn’t the problem. People’s prejudices were. And she’d never, ever have to fear that one day, she’d do something to lose me. I hadn’t had that assurance growing up, and I might not know much about mothering, but I knew how badly it hurt when it felt like you were one mistake away from losing your family.