Destined for an Early Grave (15 page)

I let out a bitter laugh. “You think? My husband can’t come to the phone because he’s too busy slicing off heads, and here’s the punch line! He’s not really my—”

“Don’t say it.”

Vlad cut me off. His expression turned deadly serious.

“Knowing and admitting are two separate things. Gregor still wants your public acknowledgment as proof. Don’t give it to him.”

“Where do you stand in this?” I asked quietly.

It was more than putting him on the spot, but I couldn’t help it. I knew Vlad wouldn’t demur in giving me his true position, no matter what it was.

He considered me. Vlad Tepesh wasn’t a classically handsome man like some of the hunks who’d played Dracula in the movies. His face was oval; lips thin, with deep-set eyes, a wider forehead, and a tight beard. He was lean, too, and he stood an even six feet tall. But none of those actors had Vlad’s presence. What he might have lacked in perfection of features he made up for in sheer magnetism.

At last he took my hand. His were scarred in multiple places, as well as being more dangerous than his fangs, since they were the outlet of Vlad’s pyrokinesis, but Vlad didn’t frighten me. He should have, but he didn’t.

“I feel a connection to you, as I once told you. It’s not love, it’s not attraction, and I won’t sacrifice myself for you, but if you needed me, and it was possible for me to help you, like today, I’d come. Whichever side you called me from.”

I squeezed his hand once before letting go. “Thank you.”

He settled back more comfortably in his chair. “You’re welcome.”

W
E DIDN’T RETURN TO THE HOUSE IN
Bavaria. Granted, from the air I couldn’t be sure that we
weren’t
in Bavaria, but it wasn’t the same place I’d left. Not having my pills, I just shut my eyes as we landed, then took a car the rest of the way. Even if I’d had them, I’d decided not to take the pills anymore. Gregor couldn’t pull me out of a dream unless I helped him, and I sure wasn’t going to do that again. Besides, I wondered if those pills were making me ill, because as Vlad noticed, I felt like hell. I’d have to call Don and ask if there were side effects from taking them.

Spade was the first person I saw when I opened my eyes after Vlad led me into the house. He stood in the foyer with his arms crossed, wearing a truly resigned expression.

“You shouldn’t have left.”

“Where’s Bones?”

I wasn’t about to get into it with Spade. Yeah, I had it coming, but there was only one person entitled to give it to me. The fact that Bones hadn’t come out when he heard me arrive spoke volumes. He must be really pissed.

Spade glanced to his left. “Follow the music.”

Piano music played in the general direction Spade indicated. Maybe Bones was listening to a relaxing CD. One could only hope it had improved his temperament.

“Thanks.” I headed past the next few rooms toward the sound.

When I entered what appeared to be a large library, I saw the music was coming from a piano, not a CD. Bones was bent over it, his back to me, pale fingers gliding expertly over the keys.

“Hi,” I said, after standing there several heartbeats without him even turning around. Going to ignore me, was he? Not if I could help it. I’d rather get this over with than prolong it.

“I didn’t know you could play,” I tried again, coming closer.

When I got near enough to feel his vibe, I stopped. Bones felt wound enough to explode, though the music coming from his hands was serene. Chopin, maybe. Or Mozart.

“Why are you here?”

He asked it with deceptive gentleness, not missing a note or looking up. The question startled me.

“B-because you are,” I said, cursing myself for stuttering like an intimidated teenager. I’d had enough of that.

Bones still didn’t look up. “If you’ve come to say goodbye, you needn’t bother. I don’t need a tearful explanation. Just walk out the same way you came in.”

A lump rocketed up in my throat. “Bones, that’s not—”

“Don’t touch me!”

I’d been about to smooth my hand across his back when he knocked my arm away so hard, it spun me.
Now
Bones was looking at me, and the rage in his gaze pinned me where I was.

“No. You don’t get to stroll in here stinking of Gregor, then lay your hands on me.” Each word was a measured, furious growl. “I’ve endured quite enough of being patronized. You treat me as if I was a feeble human who couldn’t survive without your help, but I am a
Master
bloody
vampire.
”

That last part was shouted. I flinched. Bones flexed his hands, seeming to get a handle on himself. Then he spoke the next part through gritted teeth.

“If it were my wish, I could rip you apart with my bare hands. Yes, you’re strong. You’re quick. But not strong enough or fast enough that I couldn’t kill you if I had a mind to. Yet despite this, you continue to treat me with the contempt you’d show an inferior. I’ve brushed it off. Told myself it didn’t matter, but no more. Yesterday, you believed in Gregor more than me.
You left me
to go to him, and there is no overlooking that, so I ask you again, why are you here?”

“I’m here because I love you and we’re…” I was about to say,
we’re married
, but the words choked me. No, I’d proven to myself that we weren’t, as far as vampires were concerned.

Bones let out a cold snort. “I won’t stand for this. I’m not going to hold you in my arms and wonder if I’m the one you’re really thinking about.”

“Bones, you know that isn’t true!” I was anguished at the accusation. “I love you, you know that. And if you didn’t know it, God, you could look for yourself and see—”

“Only shadows,” he ruthlessly interrupted. “Glimpses when your guard was down, when that bloody wall you hide behind wasn’t blocking me. I have been open with you about all of me, even the worst of me, because I thought you deserved no less, but you don’t hold me in the same regard. No, you reserved that for Gregor. You trusted
him
enough to leave everything at his word. Well, luv, I bow when I am beaten, and Gregor has defeated me in a grand style. He’s the one you respect. He’s who you trust, so if you’re not leaving, I am.”

Cold swept over me, and the lump in my throat grew reinforcements. This wasn’t a fight. This was something far worse.

“You’re leaving me?”

He sat back down on the piano bench. Almost idly, his fingers flicked the keys.

“I can stand many things.”

His voice was harsh in its emotionlessness. I recoiled from it. For a second, I was afraid of him.

“Many things,” he continued. “I can stand your affection for Tate, much as I despise him. Your repeated jealousies over other women, even when I have given you no cause, for I’d be the same way in your place. I can stand your insistence to participate in dangerous situations that are way over your head, for again, that is also my nature. All of these things ate at me, but for you, I chose to stand them.”

Now he stood. That calm, apathetic tone vanished, and his voice rose with each passing word.

“I also chose to stand the things you didn’t admit to, like when you secretly wondered if Gregor had made you happier than I had. I could even tolerate the real reason you didn’t want to change over, the
real
reason you clung to your heartbeat. I could stand to know that deep down, there’s a part of you that still believes all vampires are evil!”

Roared now. I backed up, never having seen Bones like this. His eyes were electric green, and the emotion in him had him shaking on his feet.

“Don’t think I don’t know it. Don’t think I haven’t
always
known it! And I could bear it, yes, even knowing the other reason for your hesitancy. Underneath your claims of devotion, past your love—and I do think you love me, despite it all—you don’t want to change over because you don’t think we’ll last. You believe we are only temporary, and becoming a vampire is such a permanent thing, isn’t it? Yes,
I know this.
I’ve known it since I met you, but I’ve been patient. I told myself that one day, you wouldn’t look at me with those guarded eyes. That one day, you’d love me the same way I loved you…”

The piano smashed into the wall across the room. It made a horrible keening noise, like it hurt from being destroyed. My hand pressed to my mouth while the emptiness in my stomach uncurled to fill my whole body.

“I’ve been a fool.”

His simple sentence shattered me more thoroughly than the furniture he’d just demolished. I made a gasp of pain that he ignored.

“But this, this is the one thing I cannot endure—your walking out on me. I would rather have died than seen that note you left me. Would have cheerfully tucked myself
in my grave
than to see that filthy piece of paper!”

“I didn’t walk out on you. I was trying to help, and I told you I was coming back—”

“Nothing you say matters.”

It struck me like a slap. He looked at me, no tenderness, love, or forgiveness on his face. It was as if he were a statue. My heart beat faster with fear, desperate fear at everything falling apart.

“Bones, wait…”

“No. Will it change anything? Will it turn back the clock so you won’t have left? It won’t, so don’t bother. You’ve only ever learned one way. Only one, and I should have remembered that. Perhaps this will finally penetrate into that armor you so relentlessly polish and shine.”

He turned on his heel and began to walk away. I stared in stupid transfixion before racing after him, catching him as he approached the now-deserted front entrance.

“Wait! God, let’s talk about this. We can work it out, I swear. Y-you can’t just
go
!”

I was sputtering in anguish, tears spilling down my cheeks. They blinded me, but I felt his hand as he reached out and softly touched my face.

“Kitten.” His voice was thick with something I couldn’t name. “This is the part…where you don’t have a choice.”

The door slamming behind him knocked me off my feet.

A
NNETTE LET THE SHADE FALL BACK OVER THE
window. “It’s raining. I told you I could smell it.”

I turned my attention to the carton of ice cream in front of me. Pralines and Crème. It was almost empty. Next I’d crack open the Swiss chocolate.

“No fooling you with a bogus weather report.”

“We’ll watch the movie instead of taking a walk,” Annette continued. “I hear it’s good.”

Good? I couldn’t seem to remember what that was. I felt like I was a walking open wound. I couldn’t even sleep more than minutes at a time, no matter how exhausted I was, because I was afraid if Bones came back, I might miss an instant with him. The only respite in my current misery was that my mother wasn’t here. She was somewhere with Rodney, but for obvious reasons, I didn’t know where.

“Crispin needs time,” Spade had said after that terrible exchange. “Don’t tear off after him. Even I don’t know where he is.”

So I’d been waiting, dwelling on every awful thing he’d said to me, and worse, how most of it was true. I hadn’t meant to keep Bones at a distance. I didn’t know why I closed parts of myself off. But more than that, I wished with all of my heart that I hadn’t left that morning with Gregor.

And Gregor had been busy. Not content with his role in ruining my relationship, Gregor had been feeding the rumors that without his intervention, I might change myself into a vampire/ghoul hybrid. That’s how he’d garnered the two-hundred-plus ghoul army he’d amassed to attack in Bavaria. Gregor had promised the ghouls that once he had me, he’d change me into a vampire. Gregor even had the balls to state that if Mencheres hadn’t stolen me away and imprisoned him a dozen years ago, I’d already have been a vampire and wouldn’t have risen to such notoriety today.

Yet Gregor had let me go with my pulse intact. Now there were rumbles that I’d influenced him as well. What no one cared to hear was that Gregor hadn’t had a choice about changing me. The silver dagger in his back made his decision for him.

Adding to these ghoul/vampire hybrid fears were my high jumps in Paris. Who’d have thought that would have been responsible for so much added paranoia? But since flying was a skill only Master vampires possessed, the fact that I had come close to demonstrating it, even briefly, had people wondering what other powers I could be hiding. It fueled the fears about what would happen if ghoul attributes were added to my repertoire. Would I be invincible? Unkillable? Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and rerotate the spinning of the globe to turn back time? The theories got wilder and crazier.

Little did anyone know that all I was a danger to currently was anything sweet. Before I’d turn to alcohol for useless comfort. Now I used sugar, but there was a lot of pain and not nearly enough sugar.

“When does Spade get back?” I asked Annette. He’d gone out earlier with a vague statement about business. No one told me anything that could be used against me. We all knew Gregor was still snooping in my mind, even though I’d barely slept, and he’d been able to learn almost nothing. I didn’t know where we were. How many people were with us. What day it was. Actually, none of those things meant shit to me. All I knew was this—it had been five days since Bones walked out. That’s how I measured time. In the minutes and seconds since I’d last been with him.

“After dark,” she answered.

Fabian came downstairs and sat—in a fashion—next to Annette. The ghost was smiling at her in a way that could only be called besotted.

I rolled my eyes. Even phantoms had a thing for Annette, it seemed. She’d probably found a way to have sex with him. Though he was transparent and as solid as a particle cloud, if anyone could do it, Annette could.

“What a charming man,” she remarked. “Faith, Cat, you might have started a trend. When I leave, I daresay I’ll be trying to sneak him past you.”

It took so much willpower not to ask, “And how soon will that be?” After all, I’d been trying to control my
think it, say it
tendencies.

“Annette, I think I’ll just skip the movie and read something. Watch it without me.”

Halfway up the stairs, I passed Vlad. He’d stayed on, making the comment that he’d leave when things were settled. I bet he hadn’t figured on being here this long.

I was nearly to the bedroom when I heard my cell phone ring. The sound made me hurtle through the door, almost diving to get it.

“Bones?” I answered.

A contemptuous scoff filled my ear. “No,
chérie.
Still hoping for your lover’s return? How amusing.”

Gregor. Just what I needed.

“What’s up, dear?” Sarcastically. “Still snooping in my dreams, I see. Are you done apologizing to your ghouls because I’m sucking in air instead of blood? Just when you think you’ve got the little woman cornered, oops, you forget she has a knife.”

“You should have stayed with me and spared yourself the humiliation of being yet another castoff of that peasant whore,” he purred. “While you pine for Bones, he ruts with other women.”

“Liar. Bones might be pissed at me, but he’s a better man than that. Of course, that’s something you wouldn’t understand.”

Gregor just laughed. “Oh, Catherine, soon you will see you’re very wrong. Did you really think he’d changed? He saw a way out, and he took it.”

I hung up, stopping myself from my stamping on the phone only out of concern that Bones might call next, and I’d have broken the thing. I was breathing heavily, like I’d been running. When Vlad tapped on the doorframe, I whirled around and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Do you know where Bones is? Tell me the truth!”

Vlad flicked his gaze to his shirt, as if to say,
Do you mind?

“No, Cat. Going to shake me next?”

I dropped my hands, balling them in frustration. “That bastard is playing games with me. He knows what I’m most afraid of, and he’s using it to hurt me!”

“Gregor?” Vlad asked evenly. “Or Bones?”

I stopped pacing and shot him a measured look. “I meant Gregor, but…you might have a point.”

Vlad smiled. “And what are you going to do about it?”

“When Spade gets back,” I said grimly, “I’m going to shake
him.
”

Spade just made it through the front door when I grabbed him by the shirt.

“You contact Bones and tell him he’s made his point. I might have been wrong, but he’s being cruel, and I’ve had enough.”

Spade flicked my hands as if they were lint. “You couldn’t relay that without creasing my shirt?”

“An attention-getter,” I replied with a glint. “Just in case you needed one.”

Vlad was on the other side of the room with Fabian and Annette. All three of them were waiting to see if Spade complied or refused. I’d moved some furniture out of the way, just in case Spade chose the latter. No need to trash the place.

“Cat,” Spade began, “give me a few more days.”

“Wrong answer,” I said with a smile, and hit him.

Maybe it was the smile that put him off his guard. His head jerked to the side from the blow, then he took me seriously. The looseness was gone from his posture, and he took a wary step backward, his hands flexing in readiness.

“It’s not so simple, but I can’t explain why.”

“You’d better find a way.”

“I need a little more time,” he snapped.

I stopped in sudden understanding and let out a harsh laugh.

“Oh, I get it. You can’t reach him, can you? That’s why you’re hemming and hawing. You don’t know where he is!”

Spade ground out a curse. “Good show, Reaper! As soon as you sleep, that fact will now be repeated to Gregor. Want to hang a bloody target around Crispin’s neck?”

“How long?” I prodded, the first leaking of fear starting through me. “Do you even know where he went?”

“I won’t give more information that could endanger—”

“Yes, you will,” I said, anxiety and anger sharpening my tone. “Don’t you worry about me, if I have to stay awake until this is squared away, I will. I’ll break the world record for going without sleep if I have to, but you’re spilling your beans, and you’re doing it
now
.”

Spade’s mouth tightened. Emerald flashed in his tawny eyes, and he gave me a look filled with steel.

“You’d better be prepared to keep that vow, for I’ll hold you to it.”

The details Spade outlined had me on an emotional roller coaster. Yes, he’d known how to contact Bones when he left. Before I even returned with Vlad, Bones had tersely given him a number for emergency use, leaving his location undisclosed. Two days ago, Spade had left him a message to find out when he was coming back. His call went unreturned. Since then, Spade had paged him, e-mailed him, and tried a few trusted friends as well. No one had heard from Bones.

“I’ve been making discreet inquiries, such as today when I was gone, and I think he might have been seeking an audience with Marie,” Spade finished. “Rodney says he spoke to Crispin three days ago, and he made a comment about how hot it was in New Orleans. Why else would he be there? I’ve sent Rodney to investigate. That’s all I know.”

“Why didn’t you just call Liza and ask her instead of waiting for Rodney to get there?”

“I did ring Liza.” Spade ground his jaw. “She told me Marie had ordered her out of the Quarter a week ago and that she was refused permission even to communicate with anyone in it. Marie didn’t give Liza an explanation; she just said she’d let her know when she could return.”

“When did you find this out? How could you not have told me?”

“Crispin’s specific instructions were to keep you uninvolved,” Spade countered. “The last time you ran off like Henny Penny to shout the sky down, it didn’t turn out well, did it? I suggest patience this round. Do you worlds of good.”

I was about to scald him when my conscience stopped me.
He’s right. You did run off last time, and these are the consequences. Maybe Bones just can’t communicate right now. Let them do it their way. Wait until Rodney calls.

“Fine.” I sat down. “We’ll wait to hear from Rodney.”

Spade regarded me with caution, as if waiting for me to take it back. “I’m sure he’ll ring soon.”

“Soon” turned out to be five hours later. Rodney’s voice was audible to everyone even before Spade put him on speaker. He was shouting.

“The fuck is going on there, but they’ve shut down the whole Quarter! Majestic’s only allowing humans to pass who aren’t of any vampire or ghoul’s line. I don’t know if Bones is there.”

“How is she doing this?” Spade looked dumbfounded. I was stunned myself. How could Marie quarantine a whole section of the city?

“They’ve got ghouls and police on every section of the Quarter, supposedly searching for an abducted child. They make it really simple—turn around or you’ll wish you did. I tried scoping out the river, but that’s guarded as well. Marie’s not playing games. We’ll have to try something else.”

Annette paled.

“They’re using police,” I breathed, my mind whirling with ideas. “I could ask some of my old team to go and check it out. They’re human, and they have higher credentials…but that announces our involvement. It needs to be someone else.”

I grabbed my phone. This was a big favor that might turn out to be a waste of time, but I was asking anyway. After all, weren’t you supposed to be able to count on your family?

“Don,” I said once my uncle answered. “In case you were shopping early for my birthday, I’ve got the perfect gift for you. I’m going to put Spade on the phone, then plug my ears while he tells you where we are. Then, I’m going to ask that you send a plane right away to ferry a ghost to Louisiana. Just get him within a few cities of New Orleans, and he’ll do the rest.”

“Cat?” Don waited a second before responding. “Have you been drinking?”

A brittle laugh escaped me. “I wish.”

I was waiting again. It seemed to be all I could do lately. Spade made a few more calls to mutual acquaintances, trying to glean in a roundabout way if they had information on Bones, but no one had. Short of asking, “Seen Crispin ’round?” it was a painstaking and frustrating process.

Therefore, when a car pulled up, I ran to the window, praying that it was Bones. It wasn’t, and I couldn’t have been more surprised to see who walked up to the house.

Tate, the captain of my former team and my longtime friend, strode into the room and came right up to me like no one else was there. “How could you not have told me any of this?” he demanded.

Both Spade and Vlad were giving Tate hostile looks. Tate might be my friend, but he wasn’t theirs. I pulled his hands away before he was impaled through the heart with silver.

“I didn’t know Bones was missing, I just thought he was pissed.”

Tate made a scornful noise. “Not Crypt Keeper. I don’t give a shit about him. I meant you and the vampire Don just told me has been chasing you for weeks.”

Oh, jeez. Tate was bent that I didn’t tell him about Gregor? As if I needed this on top of everything else.

“Because I’ve hardly seen you since I quit working for Don. Now, are you here to help? Unlike you, I care very much that Bones is missing.”

“He’s not missing,” Tate stated coldly. “He’s just an asshole.”

He was on his feet when he said it, staring up from the ground an instant later. Spade glowered over him. The anger emanating from him made me step between them.

“You’ve made your point.”

“Crispin isn’t here to counter his insults, and I’ll not listen to anyone slander him,” Spade retorted, his hand on a silver knife.

“Your boy isn’t missing,” Tate repeated, getting to his feet. “He’s in the French Quarter like you thought, and if he’s being held against his will, he’s sure making the most of it.”

“What are you talking about?”

Tate gave me a pitying but hard glance and pulled some sheets out of his coat.

“Satellite imagery. I printed it from the computer before I got here, so it’s a little blurry, but there’s no mistaking him. See the time stamp? It’s 11:32
P.M.
Central Time last night. Bones looks fine to me.”