Jeaniene Frost - This Side of the Grave

To Matthew, Melissa, and Ilona,

for too many reasons to list.

The vampire pulled on the chainsrestraining him to the cave wall. His eyes were bright green, their glow illuminating the darkness surrounding us.

“Do you really think these will hold me?” he asked, an English accent caressing the challenge.

“Sure do,” I replied. Those manacles were installed and tested by a Master vampire, so they were strong enough. I should know. I’d once been stuck in them myself.

The vampire’s smile revealed fangs in his white upper teeth. They hadn’t been there several minutes ago, when he’d still looked human to the untrained eye.

“Right, then. What do you want, now that you have me helpless?”

He didn’t sound like he felt helpless in the least. I pursed my lips and considered the question, letting my gaze sweep over him. Nothing interrupted my view, either, since he was naked. I’d long ago learned that weapons could be stored in various clothing items, but bare skin hid nothing.

Except now, it was also very distracting. The vampire’s body was a pale, beautiful expanse of muscle, bone, and lean, elegant lines, all topped off by a gorgeous face with cheekbones so finely chiseled they could cut butter. Clothed or unclothed, the vampire was stunning, something he was obviously aware of. Those glowing green eyes looked into mine with a knowing stare.

“Need me to repeat the question?” he asked with a hint of wickedness.

I strove for nonchalance. “Who do you work for?”

His grin widened, letting me know my aloof act wasn’t as convincing as I’d meant it to be. He even stretched as much as the chains allowed, his muscles rippling like waves on a pond.

“No one.”

“Liar.” I pulled out a silver knife and traced its tip lightly down his chest, not breaking his skin, just leaving a faint pink line that faded in seconds. Vampires might be able to heal with lightning quickness, but silver through the heart was lethal. Only a few inches of bone and muscle stood between this vampire’s heart and my blade.

He glanced at the path my knife had traced. “Is that supposed to frighten me?”

I pretended to consider the question. “Well, I’ve cut a bloody swath through the undead world ever since I was sixteen. Even earned myself the nickname of the Red Reaper, so if I’ve got a knife next to your heart, then yes , you should be afraid.”

His expression was still amused. “Right nasty wench you sound like, but I wager I could get free and have you on your back before you could stop me.”

Cocky bastard. “Talk is cheap. Prove it.”

His legs flashed out, knocking me off-balance. I sprang forward at once, but a hard, cool body flattened me to the cave floor in the next instant. An iron grip closed around my wrist, preventing me from raising the knife.

“Always pride before a fall,” he murmured in satisfaction.

I tried to throw him off, but a ton of bricks would have been easier to dislodge. Should’ve chained his arms and his legs before daring him like that , I mentally berated myself.

That arrogant smirk returned as the vampire looked down at me. “Keep squirming, luv. Rubs me in all the right places, it does.”

“How’d you get out of the clamps?” Over his shoulder, I saw a hole in the cave that used to be where the inch-thick titanium cuffs had dangled. Unbelievable. He’d ripped them right out of the wall.

A dark brow arched. “Knew just the right angle to pull. You don’t install restraints without knowing how to get out of them. Only took a moment; and by then, I had you on your back. Just like I said I would.”

If I still had a heartbeat, it would be racing by now, but I’d lost that—for the most part—when I’d changed from a half-breed into a full vampire several months ago. My eyes turned bright green as fangs slid out of my teeth.

“Showoff.”

He leaned down until our faces were only an inch apart. “Now, my lovely captive, with you trapped beneath me, what’s to stop me from having my vile way with you?”

The knife I still held dropped from my hand as I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Nothing, I hope.”

Bones, my vampire husband, gave a low, sinful laugh. “That’s the answer I wanted to hear, Kitten.”

Being underground in a cave wouldn’t make most people’s favorite last-minute accommodations list, but it was heaven to me. The only sounds were the smooth motions of the underground river. It was a relief not to have to tune out the background noise from countless conversations that were all too audible with a vampire’s hearing. If it were up to me, Bones and I would stay here for weeks.

But taking a time-out from our lives to get some R&R wasn’t in the cards for us. I’d learned that the hard way. What I’d also learned was to grab moments of escape when we could. Hence the stopover to rest the dawn away in the same cave in which, seven years ago, my relationship with Bones began. Back then, it had been me in the chains, convinced I was about to be eaten by an evil bloodsucker. Instead, I ended up marrying that bloodsucker.

Helsing, my cat, gave a plaintive meow from the corner of the small enclave, scratching at the stone slab that served as a door.

“You don’t get to explore,” I told him. “You’d get lost.”

He meowed again but began to lick his paw, giving me baleful looks the whole time. He still hadn’t forgiven me for leaving him with a house sitter for months. I didn’t blame Helsing for his grudge, but if he’d stayed with me, he might have gotten killed. Several people had.

“Rested enough, luv?” Bones asked.

“Um hmm,” I murmured, stretching. I’d fallen asleep shortly after dawn, but it hadn’t been the instant unconsciousness that had plagued me for my first weeks as a vampire. I’d grown out of that, to my relief.

“We’d best get moving, then,” he said.

Right. We had places to be, as usual.

“The only thing I regret about stopping to catch some sleep here is the lack of a normal shower,” I sighed.

Bones snorted in amusement. “Come now, the river’s very refreshing.”

At forty degrees, “refreshing” was a kind way to describe the cave’s version of indoor plumbing. Bones moved the stone slab out of the way so we could exit the alcove, putting it back before my kitty could leap out, too.

“The trick is to jump in,” he went on. “Taking it slow doesn’t make it any easier.”

I swallowed a laugh. That advice could also apply to navigating the undead world. All right. One leap into a freezing river, coming up.

Then it was time to get to the real reason why we’d come to Ohio. With luck, nothing was going on in my old home state except for a few random cases of fang-on-fang violence.

I doubted it, but I could still hope.

The afternoon sun was still high in the sky by the time Bones and I arrived at the fountain of the Easton mall. Well, a street away from it. We had to make sure that this wasn’t a trap. Bones and I had a lot of enemies. Two recent vampire wars will do that, not to mention our former professions.

I didn’t sense any excessive supernatural energy except a smaller tingle of power in the air that denoted one, maybe two younger vampires mixed in with the crowd. Still, neither Bones nor I moved until a hazy, indistinct form flew across the parking lot and into our rental car.

“Two vampires are at the fountain,” Fabian, the ghost I’d sort of adopted, stated. His outline solidified until he looked more like a person and less like a thick particle cloud. “They didn’t notice me.”