Jeaniene Frost - Destined for an Early Grave

My uncle coughed. “Don’t be so dramatic. I was getting a way to contact you since you can’t exactly send me a postcard, and Vlad was informing me that you’ll be with him.”

I gave Vlad a look that would have been challenging—if I hadn’t just spent umpteen hours flying overseas on an empty stomach, lack of sleep, and general hypertension.

“For now.”

Vlad smiled, disdainful and amused at the same time. “It’s your choice, Cat. I’m not forcing you.”

Don looked back and forth between us, his gray eyes narrowing. They were the same smoky color as mine, and right now, they were glinting with suspicion.

“Is there something going on with the two of you that I should be aware of?”

“Isn’t there something going on with you that she should?” Vlad responded.

Now it was my turn to glance between them. “What?”

Don coughed and flashed a single glare to Vlad. “Nothing.”

Vlad let out a noncommittal grunt. “Then that’s all you’ll get from me as well, Williams.”

I was about to demand to know what the hell the subtext of this was when Don spoke up.

“Cat, you asked me before to find out if those dream-suppression pills had any side effects. I’ve checked with Pathology, and they said you might experience depression, mood swings, irritability, paranoia, and chronic fatigue. Have you noticed any of that?”

I thought back to my last few times with Bones and couldn’t help but burst into demented laughter.

“Yeah. All of the above, and all at once. This information would have been useful a couple weeks ago, but it’s kind of irrelevant now.”

I wasn’t going to use those pills again. I’d rather be ignorant of my whereabouts than subject to the side effects that had helped drive Bones and me apart. Don must have guessed some of my train of thought because he gave me a sad look.

The moment was broken when Cooper came running in. “B4358 is coming in for a landing.”

“What?” my uncle snapped. “They didn’t get permission!”

My eyes widened. Those were the call numbers to Dave’s plane. The one that was carrying Bones and Spade.

“I know, sir. The tower ordered them not to land, but they said an Englishman got on the wire and said to shut it or he’d beat the seven shades of shit out of him.”

Bones. “We have to leave,” I said to Vlad. “Now.”

“‘Run, Forrest, run!’” Vlad mocked.

“Stow it, Drac,” I snapped. “With or without you, I’m in the air before he gets off that plane.”

“It will be with me. Williams”—Vlad gave a nod at my uncle—“farewell. Few people have your determination to walk their road all the way to its conclusion.”

I didn’t even spare the time to give my uncle a hug. I was halfway down the hall, tossing a “Thanks, ‘bye!” over my shoulder.

“Be safe, Cat,” Don called after me.

I’d try my best.

It was so close, I knew I’d be haunted by it, and the ghost on board had nothing to do with that. Cooper had fueled our plane while I’d been dealing with Cannelle, so there was no time wasted there. Vlad strode out, entering it moments behind me, with Fabian clinging to his shoulder. I’d have been all right if I hadn’t been compelled to look out the small window of the twin-engine craft as we took off. Our plane hit the skies just as the door to the other Cessna swung open, and an achingly familiar figure came out of it. For a crazy, heart-stopping moment, I felt like Bones was looking right at me.

“Why do I hear Casablanca music playing in my head?” Vlad asked in an ironic voice.

I looked away from the runway. “You’re a regular movie encyclopedia, aren’t you?”

“And you’re the boy who cried wolf. If you say it’s over, then let it be over, or quit spouting out false absolutes that you don’t believe yourself.”

Goddamn merciless Romanian usurper. Why was I on a plane with him, anyway? Why didn’t I just go off by myself, trek to a rain forest, and hide there alone until Gregor, the ghouls, and everyone else forgot about me as completely as Bones had?

I gave one more last look out the window. We were up high enough now that I couldn’t be sure if he was still staring after us—or if he’d turned his head away, like I had to.

“You’re right,” I said to Vlad.

His hand reached out. The scars that covered it were mute testament to the decades of battles he’d fought, and those were just when he’d been human.

I took it, glad mine weren’t empty anymore and hating myself for feeling that way. How weak I was.

Vlad squeezed once. “I don’t want to be alone now either,” he said, making it sound very reasonable and not at all like something to be ashamed of.

I sighed. Right again, buddy. That’s two for two.

WATER SWIRLED ALL AROUND ME. EVERYTHINGwas dark and foggy. Where was I? How did I get here? The air had a terrible smell, and the liquid I was struggling in became black and too thick to swim in. Some of it got into my mouth, making me retch. It wasn’t water after all. It was tar.

“Help!”

My cry went unanswered. The tar seemed to be pulling me under. I gasped, choking, and felt burning as some of the tar went into my lungs. I was being sucked deeper into it. Drowning. A hazy thought flitted through my mind. So this is how I’m going to die. Funny, I always thought it would be during a fight …

“Take my hand,” an urgent voice said.

Blindly I reached out, unable to see past the inky fluid in my eyes—and then the tar was gone, and I was standing in front of the man I’d been running from.

“Gregor,” I spat, trying to will myself awake. A dream, you’re just trapped in a dream. “Goddammit, leave me alone!”

Gregor loomed over me. An invisible wind blew his ash-blond hair, and those smoky green eyes were glowing emerald.

“You may have swept your lover beyond my reach this time, but I will have him soon enough. How does it feel, my wife, to be cast aside? Ah, chérie. You deserve your pain.”

Gregor had a tight grip on my arms. I could feel him try to pull me outside my own skin, and I fought a moment of panic. I’d just arranged for Bones to get away, why hadn’t I expected Gregor to be waiting for me to shut my eyes? His power seemed to be seeping into me, slowly filling me up. I wanted to distract him, fast, from coiling that dangerous aura around me.

“You made a mistake sending Cannelle. In case you haven’t heard, I killed her. Ian’s shipping her body to you with a big red bow. You’ll have a harder time getting recruits to do your dirty work when people hear about that.”

Gregor nodded, not looking particularly upset. “Oui, that was unexpected, and it will cost you, ma femme. Return to me, and perhaps I will not make the price too steep.”

“Why are you so obsessed with me coming back?” I asked in frustration. “We’re clearly not compatible. You don’t act like you love me. Half the time, I don’t even think you like me.”

Something flashed across Gregor’s face, too quick for me to determine what it was. “You’re mine,” he said at last. “Soon you will see you belong with me.”

There was more to it, I just knew, but I had bigger concerns at the moment. Gregor’s power flexed around me. I tried to pry his hands off, but it was as if they were welded onto me.

“I’ve got bad news for you then, because going back to walking on eggshells around your every mood swing? Sorry, Gregor. You lost your chance with me when I grew up and developed self-esteem. I’m never coming back to you.”

“Why do you do this!” he shouted, giving up his false exterior of calm. “I offer you everything, and you scorn me as though I were lower than that whore of a lover who left you!”