Jeaniene Frost - This Side of the Grave

Several minutes later, I’d given Don all the details as we knew them. He tugged on his eyebrow as he listened. When I was finished, he let out a heavy sigh.

“Those vampires reporting back to you are a good start, but I don’t think it’s enough. If hostilities increase between vampires and ghouls, humans will bear the brunt of the fallout. We need someone to infiltrate Apollyon’s group. Find out everything we’re only guessing at now.”

I let out a grunt. “That would be great, but there’s a problem. Any ghouls we’d trust enough to spy would be known associates of Bones and would be killed on the spot. Finding someone tough and reliable that Apollyon wouldn’t recognize will be hard . . .”

My voice trailed off even as Bones raised a brow. Don gave me a short nod.

“Dave.”

I closed my eyes, hating the thought of my friend in such a situation, but Don was right. Dave was smart, tough, experienced, and already dead. Bones had raised Dave as a ghoul over two years ago after Dave had been killed on a mission, but few people in the undead world had ever met Dave. He’d been too busy as a member of Don’s team to hang out at many fang or flesh-eater parties.

“We’ll ask him,” I settled on. “Let him decide if he wants to do it. Going undercover is always dangerous, but going undercover to infiltrate a group of murderous undead zealots is too dicey to make it an order.”

“Go get him,” Don said. “He’s in the Wreck Room.”

I met my uncle’s intractable gaze with an equally stubborn one of my own. “I’ll go get him and we’ll deal with the ghoul situation, but I’m not giving up on you. Think about my offer. About all the positive changes you can make in the world if you’re still alive .”

He gave me a faint smile. “I was always going to die, Cat. Whether in a few months or a few years, it’s inevitable. You should have already accepted that, but you haven’t. You’ve thought with the mind of a vampire since the day we met. Your fangs are new, but that’s the only difference I see since you changed over.”

I bit my lip, refusing to acknowledge that he might be right. “I’ll go get Dave.”

I walked out of Don’s room with Bonesfollowing me, trying to concentrate on anything but my uncle’s sad, stubborn gaze. Click-click-click went my shoes on the tile. Lung cancer. Click-click-click, bringing me closer to the elevator. Past the point of surgery, chemotherapy, or vampire blood. Click-click-click. Known for seven years.

Once inside the elevator, however, my control cracked and tears blurred my vision. Aside from my mother, Don was the only real family I had left. My grandparents had been murdered several years ago and my father was serving a whole new definition of “hard time” for repeatedly trying to kill me. Even though our relationship was nowhere near normal, over the past few years, Don had become the closest thing to a father I’d ever had.

And soon he’d be gone. Forever.

Bones folded me into his arms. With his height, my face was pressed to his collarbone, his leather jacket cool against my cheek while his hand smoothed over my hair. I held on to him, sinking into the oasis of his embrace, feeling his strength not just in the muscled wall of his body, but also in the power that enveloped me like a thick cloud as he dropped the shields from his aura.

Then I pushed him away, clearing the pink from my vision with several blinks. If I let myself dwell on this now, I wouldn’t be able to handle the very important tasks ahead of us. I wasn’t giving up on Don, but I had to pull myself together and concentrate on what needed to be done. This wasn’t the time for me to fall all to pieces.

“I’m okay,” I said to Bones, holding out a hand when he would have spoken. “Let’s just get Dave. One crisis at a time, right?”

The elevator doors opened to reveal a darkly handsome vampire on the other side, black hair in a loose ponytail and normally playful expression subdued.

“Hey, Juan,” I said, managing a limp smile.

“ Querida ,” he murmured, opening his arms. Even though I was upset with him, I went into them, giving him a brief hug.

“ Lo siento ,” he whispered when I let him go.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, too,” I replied bleakly. “You, Tate, Dave— all of you should have told me.”

“Don made us promise not to. He didn’t want to worry you.”

I was too upset to laugh at the irony of that. “Too late now.”

“Bones, mi amigo, cómo es usted ?” Juan said next. Bones answered in the same language, but I was too distracted to bother translating their Spanish as I headed for the Wreck Room. Despite my vow not to think about Don’s condition, a part of me was still busy plotting ways to save him. Maybe the vampire blood Don used to treat his cancer just wasn’t strong enough. If he started ingesting a Master vampire’s blood—like Bones’s or Mencheres’s—maybe his results would be different.

Farther down the hall, the double doors to the training area opened and Tate walked out. He headed straight for me, but I didn’t even look at him as I strode down the hall toward the same room he’d just left.

Tate caught my arm when we drew level with each other. “Cat, there’s something I need to—”

“Save it,” I replied, shoving his hand off. “You couldn’t run fast enough to tell me when you thought Bones was cheating on me last year, but when it came to Don and something that was actually true , then you’re all about respectful silence.”

“That’s not—” he began, reaching out once more.

Bones grabbed Tate before his hand could brush my skin, appearing faster than if he’d materialized from the air around us.

“If you fancy keeping this,” he said in a growl while his fingers tightened on Tate’s arm, “don’t try touching her again.”

Any other time I would’ve objected, knowing Bones never bluffed and he would rip Tate’s arm off, but today I didn’t care. Out of everyone’s silence about my uncle’s health, Tate’s hurt the most. Yes, things had been strained between us ever since Bones came back into my life, but for a long time before that, Tate had been my closest friend. Facing death together on countless missions had forged strong bonds between us, but this was the last straw for me.

“Better yet, try touching me again and I’ll rip your arm off,” I snapped, stepping around him to continue down the hall. “I’ve put up with a lot from you despite your animosity to Bones and refusal to accept that you and I will never be more than friends. But after this, we’re done, so stay away from me.”

Behind me, Juan cleared his throat. “Ah, querida . . .”

“Don’t bother defending him,” I replied, yanking open the heavy doors of the area we’d dubbed the Wreck Room due to how intense training got. “I’m not—”

My voice trailed off while my eyes bugged. There, in the middle of the room, was a brunette vampire running through what looked to be a new obstacle course, easily dodging the cement blocks that swung at her.

“What?” I gasped.

The vampire didn’t hear me. Tate muttered something that sounded like “I tried to warn you,” but I didn’t turn around. She’s wearing a uniform , my mind hazily noted, immediately followed by Why the HELL is she wearing a uniform ?

“Mom!” I shouted at her. “What are you doing here?”

Her head whipped around—and then she was knocked off her feet by the next swinging cement boulder. Even from the distance, I caught the aggravated look my mother threw me as she jumped back up.