Halfway to the Grave

FOURTEEN

W E ONLY STAYED LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE sure Charlie didn’t get out. Bones trailed more gasoline to the other units on the upper floor, and they lit up the sky as well. The girl had yet to speak. Her eyes hadn’t even really focused when I carried her out of there.

Bones gave her a few drops of blood. Said they’d tide her over until he got her somewhere safe. We couldn’t hang around here for many reasons. The fire department would be on their way. The police, too. And any of Hennessey’s goons who’d soon find out that one of his residences had been torched with his people inside.

I was surprised when Bones went over to Charlie’s car and popped the trunk. “I’ll be right back,” I murmured to the girl, and left her in the backseat. She didn’t seem to even hear me.

I went around to the back of Charlie’s car, curious. Bones was bent over the trunk. When he came back up, he had a man in his arms.

I gaped. “Who the hell is that?”

The guy’s head drooped into view and I sucked in a breath. The obnoxious jerk from the bar!

Even though I didn’t hear a heartbeat, I had to ask. “Is he…?”

“Dead as Caesar,” Bones supplied. “Charlie took him ’round the back and snapped his spine. Bloke would have felt me, too, if he’d been paying more attention. That’s where I was hiding.”

“You didn’t try to stop him?”

It came out with all of my residual guilt over the unknown man’s death. I hadn’t tried to stop him, either. Maybe that’s what sharpened my tone.

Bones fixed his gaze on me, unblinking. “No. I didn’t.”

I felt like beating my head against a wall. Technically, we’d won tonight, but the victory was hollow. An innocent man killed. A young woman traumatized beyond comprehension. No names of who else was involved, and the knowledge that now it would only get worse.

“What are you doing with him?”

He set him in the grass. “Leave him as he is. There’s nothing more to be done. With this fire, he’ll be found soon. He’ll have a proper burial. That’s all he’s got left.”

It seemed so callous just to leave the man there, but Bones had a practical, if not cold, point. There was nothing more we could do for him. Dropping him off at a hospital with a note wouldn’t make his family hurt any less.

“Let’s go,” he said briefly.

“But what about Charlie? You’re just going to leave him and Dean for the police to find, too?” I persisted, getting into the backseat and taking the girl’s hand as we sped away.

“Coppers?” A humorless smile played on his lips. “You know that when vampires died, their bodies decomposed to their true ages. That’s why they look like bloomin’ mummies sometimes afterwards. Just let them try to figure out why a bloke dead ’round seventy years ended up stuffed into a bed frame and torched. They’ll be scratching their chins about that for days. And I’m leaving Charlie the way he is for a reason. I want Hennessey to know who did it, and he will, because when we get back to the hotel, I’m going to call around and find out if there’s any money on this sod. If there is, I’ll claim it, and word will get to him. He’ll be nervous, wondering what Charlie told me, and with luck it’ll draw him out of hiding. He’ll want to shut me up for good.”

That was a very risky move. Hennessey wasn’t alone in wanting Bones as worm food. From what Charlie had said, there were about twenty other people who’d be happy about that also.

“Where are we taking her?”

“Give me a moment.” He flipped out his cell and dialed, driving one-handed. I whispered useless comforting things to the girl and thought of my mother. Once, many years ago, she’d been the victim. This wasn’t the same scenario, true, but I didn’t imagine it felt much different.

“Tara, it’s Bones. I’m sorry to ring you so late… I have a favor to ask… Thank you. I’ll be there within the hour.”

He met my eyes in the rearview mirror. “Tara lives in Blowing Rock, so it’s not that far, and the girl will be safe with her. No one really knows Tara, so Hennessey won’t think to look there. She’ll be able to give her the help she needs, and not just physically. She’s been through something similar.”

“A vampire got her?” What a horrible club to be a member of.

Bones looked away, turning his attention back to the roads.

“No, luv. He was just a man.”

Tara lived in a log home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was accessible only by a private driveway. This was the first I’d been out of Ohio, and I was awed by the steep cliffs, high bluffs, and rugged scenery. If these were different circumstances, I would have demanded that Bones pull over just so I could look around at it all.

An African-American woman with salt-and-pepper hair waited on the porch. Her heartbeat announced her as human, and Bones got out and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Something unpleasant twisted in me as I watched. Old girlfriend? Or not-so-old girlfriend?

She hugged him in return and listened as he briefly outlined what had happened to the girl, leaving out any names, I noticed. Bones finished with an admonition for Tara not to tell anyone of her new guest or who had brought her. Then he turned in my direction.

“Kitten? Coming?”

I hadn’t known whether to get out or stay, but that decided it.

“We’re going to meet this nice lady,” I told the girl, and carefully supported her out of the car. I wasn’t really carrying her-if directed, she would walk. I was just keeping her sheet from falling off and leading her in the right direction.

Tara’s face pinched with sympathy as we drew near. I noticed then that she had a scar running from her eyebrow into her hairline, and I was ashamed for my previous, petty reaction to whatever her relationship with Bones was.

“I’ll take her,” the man in question said, picking up the girl like she was weightless. “Tara, this is Cat.”

I was surprised to hear him call me that, but I held out my hand and Tara shook it warmly.

“I’m glad to meet you, Cat. Bones, put her in my room.”

He went inside without asking where that was, and once again I reminded myself that it was none of my business.

“Come in, child, you must be cold!” Tara said with a shiver of her own. At four a.m. in these altitudes, it was chilly out.

That also had me glancing down at myself with a mental groan. Didn’t I look lovely? With this dress and my heavy makeup, Tara was probably thinking I must be ten shades of a slut.

“Thanks, and it’s nice to meet you, too,” I responded politely. At least I could show I had manners.

I followed Tara into her kitchen, accepting the cup of coffee she handed me. She poured herself one, too, and gestured for me to sit.

A scream shattered the quiet, causing me to bolt up as I was about to sit down.

“It’s okay,” Tara said quickly, holding out a hand. “He’s just bringing her back.”

Over that terrible keen I heard Bones speaking urgently, telling the girl she was safe and no one would hurt her anymore. Soon her screams turned into sobbing.

“It can take a little while,” Tara went on matter-of-factly. “He’ll let her remember everything, and then put in a mental patch so she doesn’t get suicidal. Some of them do.”

“He’s done this before?” I asked stupidly. “Brought traumatized girls to you?”

Tara sipped her coffee. “I run an abused women’s shelter in town. Most of the time I don’t bring anyone back here, but every once in a while we get someone who needs extra care. When they need extra, extra care, I call Bones. I’m glad to finally do him a favor. I owe him my life, but I ’spect he told you about that.”

I looked at her quizzically. “No, why would you think so?”

She gave me a knowing smile. “’Cause he’s never brought a girl here before, child. Not one that didn’t need my help, leastways.”

Oh! That pleased me, but I quashed it. “It’s not like that. We, ah, kind of work together. I’m not his, er, what I mean is, he’s all yours if you want him!” I finished in an insane babble.

There was a disgusted grunt from upstairs that didn’t come from the girl. I cringed, but it was too late to take it back.

Tara considered me with a clear, unwavering gaze. “My husband used to beat me. I was afraid to leave him ’cause I had no money and I had a little girl, but one night he gave me this.” She pointed to the scar near her temple. “And I told him that was it. I was done. He cried and said he didn’t mean to do it. Man said that every time after he laid into me, but hell, yes, he meant it. No one hits you ’less they mean it! Well, he knew I meant it when I said I was leaving, so he waited behind my car that night when I went to work. I finished my shift, went out to the parking lot, and he stood up and smiled while he pointed a gun right at me. I heard a shot, thought I was dead…and then I saw this white boy, looking like a goddamn albino, holding my husband by the throat. He asked me did I want him to live, and you know what I said? No.”

I swallowed my coffee in one gulp. “Don’t wait for me to judge you. In my opinion, he had it coming.”

“I said no for my daughter, so she’d never be scared of him the way I was,” she said, taking my empty cup and refilling it. “Bones didn’t just snap his neck and leave, either. He got me out of that flea-hole apartment I was in, gave me a place to stay, and eventually I got my own place and opened up the shelter. Now I’m the one helping out women who don’t have nowhere else to turn. God has a sense of humor sometimes, doesn’t He?”

That made me smile. “You could say I’m proof of that.”

Tara leaned forward and dropped her voice. “I’m telling you this because he must have taken a shine to you. Like I said, he don’t bring nobody here.”

This time, I didn’t argue. There was no point, and I couldn’t tell her that my presence was more necessity than preference.

Something the girl was saying upstairs redirected my attention.

“…made me call my roommates. I told them I’d met up with my old boyfriend and we were going away together, but it was a lie. I don’t know why I said it, I heard the words coming out of my mouth, but I didn’t want to say them…”

“It’s all right, Emily.” Bones’ voice was soft. “It wasn’t your fault, they made you say that. I know this is hard, but think. Did you see anyone else aside from Charlie and Dean?”

“They kept me in that apartment the whole time, but no one else came in. I have to take a shower now. I feel so dirty.”

“It’s all right,” he said again. “You’ll be safe here, and I’ll find all of the sods who did this.”

It sounded like he was out the door when she suddenly shouted.

“Wait! There was someone else. Charlie took me to him, but I don’t know where we were. It seems like I blinked, and then I was in this house. I remember the bedroom was big, wood floors, and it had red and blue paisley wallpaper. There was this man wearing a mask. I never saw his face, he kept it on the whole time…”

Her voice wavered. Tara shook her head in repugnance at what didn’t need to be elaborated.

“I’ll find them,” Bones repeated with resolve. “I promise.”

He came down the stairs a few minutes later.

“She’s settled down,” he said, more to Tara than to me. “Her name is Emily, and she doesn’t have any family to contact. She’s been on her own since she was fifteen, and her mates think she’s off with an ex-boyfriend. No need to tell them otherwise and put them in danger.”

“I’ll brew another pot of coffee and be right up,” Tara said, rising. “You staying?”

“Can’t,” Bones replied with a shake of his head. “We have to catch a plane this afternoon and we’re booked at a hotel. But thank you, Tara. I’m indebted to you.”

She kissed his cheek. This time, my gut didn’t knot. “No, you ain’t, honey. You keep safe, now.”

“And you.” He turned to me. “Kitten?”

“I’m ready. Thank you for the coffee, Tara, and for the company.”

“Wasn’t nothing, child.” She smiled. “You be sweet to our boy here, and remember, be good only if being bad ain’t more fun!”

I let out a surprised laugh at this mischievous directive, which was unexpected considering the very unfunny circumstances we were meeting under.

“I’ll try to remember that.”

Bones didn’t speak during the hour drive back to the hotel. There were so many things I wanted to ask him, but of course, I couldn’t bring myself to.

When we pulled in the parking lot, however, I couldn’t stand the silence anymore.

“So what’s next? We find out if Charlie has a bounty on him? Or see if anyone knows who the masked asshole might be? I wonder why the guy bothered to wear a mask. Kinks, do you think, or maybe he was someone she knew and he didn’t want her to recognize him?”

Bones parked and gave me an unfathomable look. “Either one is a possibility, but regardless, I think it’s best if you bow out now.”

“Oh, don’t give me that unsafe crap again!” I said, instantly angry. “You think I can see what was done to Emily, know it’s going on with countless other girls, and just hide under my bed? Remember, I was supposed to be one of those girls! I’m not bowing out, no way!”

“Look, it’s not your bravery that’s in question,” he replied with an edge.

“Then what?”

“I saw your face. The look in your eyes when I spoke to Charlie. You wondered if I was going to join Hennessey. Deep down, you still don’t trust me.”

He hit the steering wheel with his last comment. It dented, and I winced from more than the accusation in his words.

“You were doing a great job acting, and I got confused. God, can you really blame me? Every day for the past six years I’ve had it drummed into my head that all vampires are lying, vicious scum, and to date, by the way, you’re the only one I’ve met who isn’t!”

Bones let out an amazed snort. “Do you realize that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me?”

“Was Tara your girlfriend?”

It just flew out. I sucked in a horrified breath. Good Lord, why did I ask that?

“Never mind,” I said quickly. “It doesn’t matter. Look, about last night…I think we both made a mistake. Hell, you’ve probably realized that as well, so I’m sure you’ll also agree that it should never happen again. I didn’t mean to flake out earlier with Charlie, but old habits die hard. Okay, bad metaphor there, but you get my point. We’ll work together, bring down Hennessey and whoever else is in his little gang, and then we’ll, ah, go our separate ways. No harm, no foul.”

He stared at me silently for several moments. “’Fraid I can’t agree to that,” he finally answered.

“But why? I’m great as bait! All the vampires want to eat me!”

A small smile touched his mouth even as I mentally groaned at my choice of words. Bones reached over and stroked my face.

“I can’t just let us go our separate ways, Kitten, because I am in love with you. I love you.”

My mouth fell open and my mind briefly cleared of thought. Then I found my voice.

“No, you don’t.”

He let out a snort and dropped his hand. “You know, pet, that is one truly annoying habit you have, telling me what I do and do not feel. After living for over two hundred and forty-one years, I think I know my own mind.”

“Are you just saying that to have sex with me?” I asked suspiciously, remembering Danny and all of his cutesy lies.

He gave me an annoyed look. “Knew you’d think such a thing. That’s why I didn’t say anything before, because I never wanted you to wonder if I were merely lying to cajole you into bed. However, to be rudely blunt, I’ve already gotten you on your back, and it wasn’t by declaring my devotion to you. I simply don’t care to hide my feelings any longer.”

“But you’ve only known me two months!” Now I tried arguing the point, because denial didn’t seem to work.

A slight smile curled his lips. “I began to fall in love with you when you challenged me to that stupid fight in the cave. There you were, chained up and bleeding, questioning my courage and almost daring me to kill you. Why do you think I struck that bargain with you? Truth is, luv, I did it so you’d be forced to spend time with me. I knew you’d never agree any other way. After all, you had such hang-ups about vampires. Still do, it appears.”

“Bones…” My eyes were wide at his revelation and with the growing knowledge that he was serious. “We’d never work out together. We have to stop this now, before it goes any further!”

“I know what makes you say that. Fear. You’re terrified because of how that other wanker treated you, and you’re even more afraid of what your dear mum would say.”

“Oh, she’d have plenty to say, you can bet on that,” I muttered.

“I’ve faced death more times than I can count, Kitten, and this instance with Hennessey is no different-do you really think the wrath of your mum is going to scare me away?”

“It would if you were smart.” Also muttered.

“Then consider me the stupidest man in the world.”

He leaned over and kissed me. A long, deep kiss filled with promise and passion. I loved the way he kissed me. Like he was drinking in the taste of me and still coming back thirsty.

I pushed him back, my breathing uneven. “You’d better not be messing with me. I like you, but if you’re feeding me a load of shit just to get some action, I’m going to plug a big silver stake right through your heart.”

He chuckled and his mouth slid down to nuzzle my neck. “I’ll consider myself warned.”

The erotic teasing of my pulse made me shiver. “And no biting,” I added.

His laughter tickled me. “On my honor. Anything else?”

“Yeah…” It was getting harder to think. “No one else if you’re with me.”

He drew his head up and his lips twitched. “That’s a relief. After you told Tara she could have me as well, I didn’t know if you fancied monogamy.”

I flushed. “I’m serious!”

“Kitten”-he held my face-“I said I loved you. That means I don’t want anyone else.”

This would only bring disaster, I knew it. Knew it as sure as I knew I was a half-blooded freak, but looking into his eyes, it didn’t matter.

“Last but absolutely not least, I insist on going after Hennessey with you. If I trust you enough to be your…your girlfriend, you’ll have to trust me enough to let me do that.”

Something like a sigh escaped him.

“I beg you to stay out of this. Hennessey’s well connected and ruthless. That’s a dangerous combination.”

I smiled. “Half dead and totally dead. We’re a dangerous combination as well.”

He let out a dry laugh. “I reckon you’re right about that.”

“Bones.” I made my gaze unflinching so he could see how serious I was. “I can’t walk away when I know what’s happening. I’d hate myself for not doing everything I could to stop it. One way or another, I’m in this. Your only choice is whether I’m in this with you, or without you.”

He gave me that penetrating stare of his. The one that felt like it could drill holes into the back of my head, but I didn’t look away. He finally did.

“All right, luv. You win. We’ll get him together. I promise.”

The first rays of dawn pierced the sky. I looked at them with regret. “Sun’s coming up.”

“So it is.”

He pulled me to him again and kissed me with such fervor that I gasped. There was no mistaking the demand of his mouth or the feel of his body.

“But it’s dawn!” I said in astonishment.

Bones let out a low laugh. “Really, luv, how dead do you think I am…?”

We ordered breakfast later from room service, an invention that had to come straight from heaven, in my opinion. Well, by the time we ordered it, it was actually more like lunch, although I still chose the pancakes and eggs. Bones watched in amusement as I scarfed the food down, scraping my plate when it was empty.

“You can always send for more. You don’t have to chew the dishes.”

“It wouldn’t matter if I did. I think you already lost your deposit,” I replied, casting a meaningful look at the shattered lamp, broken table, bloodstained carpet, overturned couch, and various other items that were in a condition other than how we’d found them. It looked like a brawl had taken place. One sort of had. A sensual one, anyway.

He grinned and stretched his arms over his head. “Worth every farthing.”

The inking on his left arm caught my eye. I’d noticed it the other night, of course, but somehow hadn’t been in the conversation mood. Now I traced it with a finger.

“Crossbones. How appropriate.” The tattoo wasn’t filled in; the bones were just an outline. His pale flesh seemed to emphasize the black ink. “When did you get it?”

“A mate gave that to me over sixty years ago. He was a Marine who died in World War Two.”

God, talk about a generation gap. That tattoo was over three times my age. Slightly uncomfortable, I changed the subject.

“Did you find out anything more about Charlie?”

He’d gotten on the computer while I called in my breakfast order. I didn’t want to know how he was going about the process of discovering if there was any money wanted for Charlie. Listing Charlie on eBay, perhaps? One corpse, extra crispy! Do I hear a thousand dollars?

“I’ll check, should have a nibble by now,” he responded, climbing gracefully out of bed. He was still naked, and I couldn’t help but stare at his ass. Two-plus centuries or not, it was something.

“Ah, e-mail, and good news. Bank wire transfer completed, one hundred thousand dollars. Charlie pissed off the wrong bloke, whoever this is. I’ll give him the location of where to find his body for confirmation, and Hennessey will be hearing about it soon. That’ll also be twenty K for you, Kitten, and you didn’t even have to kiss him.”

“I don’t want the money.”

My reply was immediate. I didn’t even have to think about it. No matter that the shallow, greedy part of my brain screeched in protest.

He regarded me curiously. “Whyever not? You earned it. I told you that was always part of the plan, even though I didn’t let you in on it right off. What’s the problem?”

Sighing, I tried to articulate the whirling of emotions and thoughts that consisted of my conscience.

“Because it isn’t right. It was one thing to take it when we weren’t sleeping together, but I don’t want to feel like a kept woman. I won’t be your girlfriend and your employee at the same time. Really, the choice is yours. Pay me, and I stop sleeping with you. Keep the money, and we continue on in bed.”

Bones laughed outright, coming over to where I sat.

“And you wonder why I love you. When you boil it all down, you’re paying me to shag you, for as soon as I stop, I owe you twenty percent of every contract I take. Blimey, Kitten, you’ve turned me back into a whore.”

“That’s…that’s not…Dammit, you know what I meant!”

Clearly I hadn’t thought of it in those terms. I tried to wrest myself away, but his arms hardened like steel. Although still sparking with humor, there was a definite glint of something else in his eyes. Dark brown orbs started to color with green.

“You’re not going anywhere. I have twenty thousand dollars to earn, and I’m going to start working on it right now…”

We boarded the plane after boxing our stakes and knives and taking them to a FedEx carrier, airport security being so strict nowadays. In the section marked “contents,” Bones filled out “tofu.” God, but he had a sick sense of humor sometimes. It was with only our carry-on luggage that we embarked. Bones again let me have the window seat, and I waited for that rush of power when the engines roared to life. He had his eyes closed, and I noticed a faint compressing of his fingers on the armrest when we accelerated.

“You don’t like to fly, do you?” I asked, surprised. He never seemed hesitant about anything.

“No, not really. One of the few ways a bloke like me can accidentally die.”

His eyes were still closed, and then we were pressed back into our seats with the force of the liftoff. After the worst of the pressure subsided, I lifted his eyelid to see him glare balefully at my amused expression.

“Don’t you know anything about statistics? Safest way to travel if you play it by numbers.”

“Not for a vampire. We can walk away from almost any car crash, train wreck, sunken ship, or whatever. Yet when a plane goes down, not even our kind can do much about it but pray. Lost a mate in that crash in the Everglades several years ago. Poor bugger, they only ever found his kneecap.”

Contrary to his suspicion, the plane landed safely at four-thirty. Bones was also very handy when it came to getting a cab. He’d just glare at the drivers with his green gaze and compel them to stop. They did, even if they already had passengers. That happened twice, to my embarrassment. Finally we flagged one without occupants and started back to my house. He had been oddly quiet since getting off the plane, and when we were within five minutes of my place, he suddenly broke the silence.

“I take it you don’t want me to see you to the door and give you a kiss goodbye in front of your mum?”

“Absolutely not!”

The look he gave me told me he didn’t appreciate the emphaticalness of my response.

“Be that as it may, I want to see you tonight.”

I sighed. “Bones, no. I’m barely ever home anymore. Next weekend I move into my new apartment, so these next few days with my family will be all I’ll have for a while. Something tells me my grandparents won’t be visiting often.”

“Where’s the apartment?”

Oh, I’d forgotten to mention it. “About six miles away from the campus.”

“You’ll be only twenty minutes from the cave, then.”

How convenient. Bones didn’t speak the last part. He didn’t have to.

“I’ll call you with the address on Friday. You can come over after my mother leaves. Not before. I mean it, Bones. Unless you get a lead on Hennessey or our mysterious masked rapist, give me a little time. It’s already Sunday.”

The long driveway to my house came into view as the taxi rounded the next corner. Bones saw it and took my hand.

“I want you to promise me something. Promise me you’re not going to start running again.”

“Running?” Why would I do that? I hadn’t had much sleep and I certainly didn’t feel in the mood for jogging.

Then his meaning penetrated. When I got home and looked into my mother’s eyes, I would second-guess a relationship with him all to hell, I knew. He must have known it, too. Now, however, the only face in front of me was his.

“No, I’m too tired to run, and you’re too fast. You’d only catch me.”

“That’s right, luv.” Softly, but with unyielding resonance. “If you run from me, I’ll chase you. And I’ll find you.”