Read Up From the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel Online
Authors: Jeaniene Frost
“Sufficient?” he asked, holding it out.
Veritas took it, eyeing it critically. “It will do.”
Then, to my vast, relief, she walked past Katie’s crumpled form without a single glance to join the other Law Guardians.
None of them looked at me. That was fine. I never wanted to see any of them again.
“We are finished,” the white-haired leader stated. “Your cooperation will be remembered, Mencheres.”
“As will his betrayal,” Bones immediately replied, speaking the first words he’d uttered out loud since Thonos had grabbed Katie.
Then he stared at Mencheres.
“I swore by my blood to co-rule our lines. For my people’s sake, I won’t rescind that, but my wife and I are leaving, and you won’t see us for a very long time.”
Mencheres bowed his head. “I understand, and once again, I am truly sorry.”
“Too bloody right you are,” Ian said in disgust.
He went over to Trove, stripping the demon’s jacket off his bony remains. Then Ian took it and wrapped Katie’s body in it, head and all. From how small she was, it covered her entirely.
Marie, the Law Guardians, and the council members left without saying anything else. For several moments, the clatter of their footsteps echoed on the ruined floor of the book depository; and then there was silence. The oppressive power they’d given off dissipated as well, until nothing remained except the energy that radiated from Mencheres.
With a tangible snap, the cocoon I’d been encased in disappeared. So did Bones’s and Tate’s. Both of us rushed to the hump of clothes in front of Ian, but Tate went straight to Mencheres and punched him so hard, I heard the bones in his hand shatter.
“I’ll kill you for this,” he swore in a strangled voice.
The pulse of power I felt was probably Mencheres putting him back in an invisible restraint, but I didn’t move away from the small humps in front of me. My hand stretched out, and then I stopped. I was afraid to pull back the cloth and afraid not to. Would I find everything I’d hoped for, or realize that everything I’d feared had come true?
Mencheres knelt next to us. When he stared at the lumps beneath the coat, resignation flickered across his darkly handsome features.
“Charles will kill me once he hears of this.”
“Only after he’s finished frying my arse,” Bones replied in an equally grim tone.
“Charles?” Ian sounded irate as well as confused. “What does he have to do with any of this?”
“Plenty,” Bones replied, carefully scooping up the coat and clasping the bundle to his chest. “I’ll explain later. Grab Tate and try to keep up. Mencheres?”
“I’ve got you,” his co-ruler replied, flashing me one of his rare smiles. “All of you.”
I didn’t get a chance to respond. Or to ask if the bundle that Bones cradled was Denise, then where was
Katie
? Mencheres grabbed the bloody sword and the rest of Trove’s skeleton, then all of us were catapulted into the air. Before we reached the roof, a hole blasted open, allowing us to pass through without impact. Then the empty windows on the first floor changed, the metal frames splaying outward like bare limbs reaching up to the sky.
We rushed through them and into the night, leaving nothing behind in the ruined building except blood and the smell of sulfur.
M
encheres whisked us back to Chicago, but not to the large estate he shared with Kira. Once we reached the outskirts of the metropolitan area, we dropped down at the back of a two-story church.
It was well after midnight, so no lights were on inside. All the noise from the surrounding buildings made it impossible to discern if it was empty, though. It might be late, but parts of Chicago were still very much awake, and we were right outside the busiest district of the city.
Bones shifted the bundle he held and followed Mencheres to the side door. With how fast Mencheres had propelled us here, I hadn’t been able to confirm who was in the coat because the wind had snatched away my words. Now, the question fired out of me like a bullet from a gun.
“That’s Denise, isn’t it?”
The side door opened, and Mencheres went inside. Bones glanced back at me, hesitating.
“Yes.”
Relief turned my knees to jelly. Joy kept me upright, and anxiety caused my stomach to lurch. I could still see two distinct pieces beneath the coat Bones held.
“That’s
Denise
?” Tate said incredulously.
Ian let out a low whistle. “You’re right; Charles
will
kill you, and that’s only if she comes back from this. If she doesn’t, he’ll keep you alive so he can torture you for decades.”
Fear for my best friend caused my voice to tremble, not concern over Ian’s prediction.
“
Can
she come back from this? Sure, other demons said only bone of the brethren could kill them, but decapitation kills a hundred percent of the rest of the population.”
“Reckon we’re about to find out,” Bones muttered.
Then he disappeared inside through the same door Mencheres had. I followed them, too worried about Denise to comment about the irony of choosing a church to see if someone branded with demonic essence could resurrect herself.
The back section had a small kitchen, three offices, and a restroom. Mencheres and Bones passed by all of them, entering the main sanctuary by a side door. The scent of candles, incense, and wood polish perfumed the air. Stained glass bordered the upper perimeter of the sanctuary, transforming the ordinary light from the street into beams of mauve, blue, amber, and emerald. The colors illuminated the empty pews, the choir area, and the cross that hung front and center above the altar.
Katie stood below it, flanked by Gorgon, Kira, and a human man who looked vaguely familiar. I didn’t spare any of them a second glance because I couldn’t tear my eyes away from my daughter. She was alive. Whole. Unhurt. As I stared, I was seized with the desire to hug her while spinning in deliriously happy circles—and the urge to drop to my knees while sobbing out my thanks to God.
Both actions would alarm her. She’d already made huge strides by standing there instead of running or trying to stab anyone, and seeing me break down in hysterics would hardly be reassuring.
Instead, I smiled as I approached with slow, measured steps.
“Hi, Katie. I see you’ve met my friends.”
Those colored hues danced over her face as she took a step toward me, her head cocked to the side.
“I stayed with them like you ordered,” she said in her high, musical voice.
Like
I
ordered? Before I could ask what she meant, Tate shouldered past me, stopping when he saw Katie. From his thunderstruck expression, he hadn’t believed what we told him about Denise until that moment.
“Katie,” he breathed in the same reverent whisper most people used when they were in church. Then he sank to his knees, his broad shoulders starting to tremble with sobs.
Her eyes widened, and she glanced behind her. Yep, alarmed, just as I’d figured. I nudged Tate, whispering, “Get it together, you’re freaking her out,” while keeping the smile on my face.
Bones provided ample distraction when he set the bulky coat on the nearest pew. As he peeled back the blood-sodden fabric, I wasn’t the only one who gasped at what was underneath.
An exact replica of Katie’s head rested against the tiny, slender body. Small, pale arms folded over it, almost making it look like the headless doppelganger was hugging it to her chest.
As disturbing as the sight was, I was more upset that there wasn’t a hint of regeneration in the exposed tissues. Denise wasn’t healing from the horrific injury.
Bones had the same concern.
“Nathanial,” he said tightly, “why hasn’t she grown a new head yet?”
Nathanial. Now I remembered; the gangly redhead was Denise’s much-older relative. He’d once been branded by demonic essence, too, which is why he hadn’t aged in the century since then.
“How long’s it been since this happened?” Nathanial asked, sounding more quizzical than concerned.
“Nearly two hours,” Bones said.
Logically, I knew he was right, but it felt like only minutes since we’d left the book depository. Emotions acted as their own sort of time machine, slowing it down or cranking it into fast-forward, depending on the circumstances.
“Why does
that
look like me?” Katie asked in a very calm tone.
I stifled my groan. I’d been so anxious about Denise that I hadn’t thought to shield her gaze. One day on the job and I was already a terrible mother, letting my child stare at a decapitated body.
“Um, I think we should go in the other room,” I began.
“She’s a shapeshifter,” Bones interrupted, answering the question instead of bothering about what Katie saw. Maybe it was because he was still drunk off demon blood.
When Katie continued to stare, Bones elaborated.
“Shapeshifters can transform into anything they see or imagine. Since people were after you, this one chose your form. That allowed Gorgon to take you away without their knowing that you’d left.”
“Why did this one help me?” she wondered.
I answered that, my voice resonant with emotion.
“Because she’s my friend, and she knew I didn’t want you to die.”
For the briefest moment, Katie’s facial mask cracked in a way I’d never seen before. Her mouth slowly curved into a tentative smile.
“Your deception was brilliant,” she said in her too-formal vernacular.
Terrible Mother Moment Number Two: I couldn’t bring myself to tell Katie that I hadn’t known about Denise’s switcheroo until the last few seconds before Thonos’s sword swung. Not only would I be admitting that I’d been unable to fulfill my promise to keep her safe only minutes after making it, but Katie had smiled at me. I’d lie my ass off to get another one of those.
“Thank you,” I said, fighting another urge to hug her.
All too quickly, her smile faded. “But now that it’s dead, you should take it away before it starts to smell.”
I winced, both at the cold reasoning and the fear that she might be right. Dear God, please let Denise come back from this! What she’d done went beyond friendship—and beyond bravery. I couldn’t stand that she might be gone forever from her selfless act. Even the thought made me want to weep over her remains until there was nothing left in me.
“Not ‘it,’ ” I said huskily. “She, Katie. She.”
We had a steep uphill battle to deprogram all of Madigan’s conscienceless training. Katie was seven, and her body count might be in the dozens, but somewhere inside that prematurely aged militant shell was a little girl. I just had to peel away the layers to find her.
“And Denise isn’t dead,” I added with a swift, mental prayer that I was right. “She’s coming back from this.”
Katie expressed her doubt with a slow, solemn blink.
“She
is
coming back, kiddo,” Nathanial agreed, his confident tone a balm to my fears. “I had the same thing happen to me once, and here I am, all in one piece. She’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
Ian cast a sardonic glance at the cross above us.
“Better hope someone’s listening, mate, or once Charles arrives, we’re all fu—”
“Fully aware,” I interrupted, glaring at him. “Fully aware of how awful her loss would be.”
Ian snorted. “My language is the least of your concerns, Reaper.”
True, but . . . “Everyone has to start somewhere, Ian.”
“Quiet. I sense something.”
Mencheres’s voice cut through the church, drawing all eyes to him. At his grave expression, I tensed. Had one of the council members or Law Guardians followed us here?
Then a crackling noise snapped my gaze back to the pew, and I sucked in a horrified breath. Not-Katie’s decapitated head shrank, the skin and tissue evaporating with the same speed Trove’s had when I stabbed him a second time in the eye. That crown of dirty auburn hair changed too, curling up into nothingness as though being burned by invisible flames. Within seconds, only a bare skull was left. A cry escaped me when, with a pop, it imploded into itself, dissipating until all that remained was a small pile of dust.
“No,” I whispered.
Oh, Denise, no!
Something rippled over the headless remains, grayish in color and so fast it reminded me of Remnants during a killing frenzy. Then it changed, becoming palest pink instead of ashen, exploding over that small, lifeless form like wave after wave of pounding surf. Instead of shrinking, not-Katie’s body swelled, increasing until clothes that had sagged from excess material now stretched and tightened.
I don’t remember moving toward her, but somehow I was standing over the pew, looking down in disbelief as mahogany-colored satin seemed to spill from the gaping hole in her neck. A pale globe followed, expanding like a balloon under a freely running faucet. Another blur of motion, and features became distinguishable amidst the canvas of new skin. Right as the top button popped off her bloodstained shirt from her body filling out to its normal, curvy proportions, dark eyelashes fluttered open, revealing hazel eyes blinking up at me.
“Cat,” Denise rasped. “Did . . . it work?”
I sank to my knees, a happy sob bursting out of me. It was the only response I was capable of.
T
he large craft bobbed up and down in the choppy waves of the Atlantic, held in place by the anchor we’d dropped an hour ago.
REAPER
used to be emblazoned in red across the hull, but now it said
RESPITE
in letters of seafoam green.
I liked the new name better. It signified the changing direction in my life. The Red Reaper was, for all intents and purposes, no more. At least for a good, long while. Vampire and ghoul society believed Bones and I had disappeared because I was overwrought with grief, and he was royally pissed at his co-ruler. Only a handful of people knew that neither scenario was correct.
Most of those people were gathered on the rocky Nova Scotia shoreline about a quarter mile from where our boat was anchored. We hadn’t had a chance to say a proper goodbye before, especially with some of them being halfway around the world while events were going down in Detroit and Chicago. It worked out that it had been a couple weeks since then. Now, Spade no longer tried to beat Mencheres and Bones on sight.
He did still glare at them, though, and his arm looked to be permanently welded to Denise’s side. He didn’t even let her go when she hugged me after Bones and I climbed out of our dinghy.
“For the thousandth time, I’m fine,” Denise chided him, squeezing his hand. Then she gave me a lopsided smile. “Though I never want to do that again. It wasn’t really painful, but do you know I could still
see
for a few seconds before I passed out? If I’d have had a stomach attached, I would’ve puked
for sure.
”
I’d always be grateful—and amazed—by what she’d done. That she could joke about it now showed how deep her bravery ran.
As for Katie, we were teaching her normal speech instead of her militia-styled jargon, among the many other ways we tried to decondition Madigan’s training. It would take a while, and I was fine with that. She laughed for the first time yesterday when my mother had swatted Tate, then Bones with a freshly caught grouper after the two men had been squabbling over the best way to prepare it. The five of us in the same vessel had made my mom mutter “We’re going to need a bigger boat” more than once, but she was as happy as I’d ever seen her.
If I’d never thought to be a mother, she’d
really
never thought to be a grandmother, and she seemed to make it her mission to make up for the parenting mistakes she’d made with me by lavishing love on Katie.
“She’s my second chance,” she’d said, looking at me with remorse in her blue eyes.
I understood the silent apology, and I accepted it. Everyone deserved a second chance sometimes.
That’s why a ghost now hovered over the
Respite,
staying on the ship with Katie, Tate, and Justina while Bones and I said our goodbyes. Don had no one he needed to say goodbye to. As a ghost, he could flit from place to place with ease, especially since Marie’s essence acted as a sort of GPS in my veins. Plus, he wasn’t staying on the boat while we traveled. Bones hadn’t forgiven him and perhaps never would, but at my insistence, Don was allowed to visit Katie for a couple hours every few days. Once we picked a more permanent place to call home, he could hang his ectoplasm nearby if he wanted to. Family was family, and if some members didn’t get along? Well, we wanted to give Katie as normal an upbringing as possible. It didn’t get more normal than that.
“I’m going to miss you,” I told Denise, releasing her from my hug.
She smiled, blinking away the shine in her hazel eyes.
“I’ll miss you, too, but we’ll see each other after you get settled in somewhere.”
“Not too soon after,” Spade muttered under his breath.
Denise gave him a mock punch. “I heard that.”
The look he bestowed on her was so loving, I didn’t care that Spade kinda hated us right now. He was wonderful to my best friend, which was the important thing. Besides, I couldn’t blame him for being angry despite Denise acting of her own free will. When you loved someone, the thought of almost losing them made you crazy. Who was I to judge him for that?
“Until again, mate,” Bones said, holding out his hand.
Spade looked at it. Then he grasped it, using it to pull Bones in for a quick, firm hug.
“Until again, Crispin,” he said in a steady voice.
I hid my smile. I knew he’d forgive Bones eventually. Their history was too long and too multi-layered for him not to.
Then Bones turned to the voluptuous strawberry blonde vampire who stood to the left of Spade. We were on a rocky beach with salt spray pelting us as if it was angry, and Annette had still dressed to the nines. She even wore heels. Her makeup looked a little worse for wear, but that was from tears spilling out of her champagne-colored eyes.
“Oh, Crispin, I’ll miss you terribly,” she said when he enveloped her in a hug.
Once, the sight of Bones clasping his former lover would have filled me with jealousy. Now, I only felt bad for Annette. She’d loved him since the two of them were human, and while Bones had great affection for her, he’d never felt the same way. I hoped one day, she’d find someone to love who’d love her back. Despite her flaws—and one very memorable incident the day we met—Annette had proved to be fiercely loyal. That’s why Bones trusted her with this, his greatest secret.
“You’ll make a wonderful father,” I heard her whisper when she let him go.
“He already has,” I said, smiling at Bones.
Then I embraced Annette, meaning it when I said, “We had a rocky start, but you turned out to be good people.”
Her snort was somehow ladylike. “What’s
one
attempt to kill each other between friends, right, darling?”
I laughed as I let her go. “My thoughts exactly.”
“Can we move this along?” a bored voice stated. “I have places to be and people to shag.”
“Ian, I’m not going to hug you,” I stated as I approached him. “I know you like this better.”
With that, I slapped him hard enough to rock his head to the side. When he’d straightened, he flashed me a wicked grin.
“Finally, you give me what I want. Knew you loved me, Reaper.”
“Oh, from the first,” I assured him, rolling my eyes.
Bones grabbed Ian, hugging him while the two exchanged man-slaps on the back.
“See you soon, cousin,” Bones stated when they were done.
“Indeed you will,” Ian replied, winking at me.
I got bear hugs from Juan, Dave, and Cooper next. Changing over had eradicated most of the damage Madigan had done, but Cooper would always look on the wiry side of thin instead of his normal, bulky build.
“I’ll miss you guys so much,” I told them. “Stay safe, will you?”
Cooper let out an amused grunt. “Bones is having Mencheres watch our backs while you’re gone, so how could we not?” Then his expression became serious. “I’ve been locked away learning how to control my hunger, so tell me one thing, Cat: Is he dead?”
“Yes,” I said steadily. “Madigan’s dead.”
I hadn’t been there to see it. Neither had Bones. Mencheres had executed our former nemesis, taking his head off with a burst of that incredible power. Madigan never knew what hit him, Don had said. One moment, he’d been babbling about crayon colors he liked; the next, he was no more.
The Madigan who’d destroyed so many lives didn’t deserve such an easy end, but all we’d had left was his shell. Making that shell pay for the other’s crimes didn’t seem fair. Granting the mercy of a quick, painless death did. Even the shell knew too much for Katie to be safe.
A dark form appeared in the dusky sky above us, chasing away that line of thought. Then that form dropped down with near-sound-breaking speed, landing with his back to us about a dozen feet away.
I only needed to see the long black hair whipping in the wind to know it was Mencheres. Give it to the former pharaoh for knowing how to make an entrance.
When he turned around, I expected the woman clasped to his chest to be Kira. When I saw short, thick black hair and a decidedly darker skin tone, I was stunned.
“Why is
she
here?” I gasped.
Marie disengaged herself from Mencheres with regal grace, but she looked as surprised to see me as I’d been to see her.
“You said you had critical business with me, Mencheres,” she said, voice cooler than the brisk evening temperature. “Have you brought me here for vengeance instead?”
“No,” Bones stated, grasping my hand and pulling me forward. “You’re here to be reminded about your word, Majestic.”
He was going to tell her Katie was still alive? Good God, why? We were almost done with our goodbyes and on our way to a clean getaway!
Then I paused. Bones would never endanger Katie, so what was I missing? A shadow appeared in my peripheral vision, and after a glance, I brushed it aside.
Just a ghost. I’d been drawing them like stink drew flies, which was why we were spending a few months on a boat before settling either in New Zealand or Australia. Ghosts didn’t frequent the open water, and by the time we made up our mind where to go—and got Katie to the point where she could interact with people without throwing up big red flags—Marie’s power would be out of my system. Until then, I’d have to send this one away with instructions not to repeat anything he’d seen or heard. Same thing I’d done with all the others lately, and—
“Of course!” I said out loud.
Marie’s brows went up as if to say,
are you sharing with the rest of the class or not?
“Bones is right, you’re not here because we want revenge,” I said crisply. “We don’t need it. Katie is alive.”
Marie’s mouth actually dropped, then she looked at me in an odd way, as if wondering if my mind had snapped from grief.
“I fail to see how that’s possible,” she said in a neutral tone.
“Demon shapeshifter who did us a favor,” I supplied. “You can only kill demons one way, and beheading isn’t it.”
Suspicion and disbelief competed on her features before they became perfectly smooth.
“If the person executed wasn’t the child, why would you tell
me
?”
“You’re the only person who can find us without looking,” Bones stated. “With those filmy minions of yours, no one can hide from you.”
“So if any ghosts tell tales of a strange vampire family they encountered, you can order them to shut up,” I added. “My power to command ghosts will fade, but yours never will. That’s why we’re telling you about Katie. You’re going to help us keep her a secret.”
Bones’s mouth curled. “And you’ll want to do that, for if word of her survival spreads, you’ll be considered an accomplice in duping the vampire council.”
“How?” Marie asked bluntly.
“With this,” Ian said in a cheerful tone.
We all turned. He held up a camera, smirking.
“Got some lovely shots of you speaking with Crispin, Cat, and Mencheres, but it’s the boat in the background that really makes it incriminating.”
“Besides.” Mencheres’s smile was wide enough to show his fangs. “You’ll do it because if you don’t, I can tear your head off from two cities away.”
Marie let out a sharp laugh at that.
“I can send Remnants after you from the same distance, so let us dispense with the threats.”
“Yes, let’s,” I said at once. “Instead, why don’t we try something neither of our species has been able to do before? Let’s trust each other.”
I held out my hand, staring into Marie’s hazelnut eyes.
“Back in New Orleans, you swore by your blood that if there was a public execution, you’d leave Katie and the rest of us alone. You got your execution. Now give us our peace, and we’ll promise to do the same with you and your people.”
Marie looked at my hand, then at the boat beyond.
“Are you prepared to hide her until she dies a natural death? With her bloodline, that could be a very long time.”
“Then that’s how long we’ll be away,” I replied evenly. “Mencheres has promised to handle issues with their people, and I was never a social butterfly anyway.”
Her gaze flicked to Bones next.
“You would give up so much for another man’s child?”
“Katie is
my
child,” Bones responded instantly. “She may not be my biological daughter, but that merely means she’ll have two fathers.”
Marie glanced at the boat again. I did, too. Tate was on deck, Katie standing next to him. She had Helsing in her arms, as per usual. Much to my delight, Katie loved having a pet, and my kitty took the additional affection as his due. It was almost dark, but I could still see the new blonde highlights in Katie’s auburn hair. She loved the sunshine although we had to slather her with SPF50. Maybe she spent so much time in it now because she’d seen it only rarely before.
Then Marie looked back at me. With a hint of a sardonic smile, she grasped my hand.
“We will trust each other, then. After thousands of years, it’s past time our two species tried that instead of threats and death.”
“Better late than never,” I said, squeezing her hand.
When we let go, I took Bones’s, savoring the feel of his flesh and the power that curled around me with its own caress.
We could accomplish anything together. I hadn’t believed that before, but I did now.
“Mencheres,” Marie said, turning to the other vampire. “Since we are all in agreement, you need to return me to my city. I have to make sure no more of my people disobey me like the ones in Detroit did.”
“A queen’s work is never done,” I said lightly.
Now her laughter was knowing. “Neither is a mother’s, Reaper, as you’ll soon discover.”
I looked at the boat again, waving this time. Tate waved back. Katie looked at him, at me, and held up her hand, giving it a tentative wiggle.
I couldn’t be prouder if she’d composed a sonnet and pinned it to a bull’s-eye by throwing a knife from fifty paces.
When I looked back at Marie, I was smiling.
“I can’t wait to find out, which is why I’m starting now. Bones?”
He snorted. “I’ve been ready, luv. It’s you that takes the longest, as always.”
I couldn’t stop my grin. “So let’s not wait anymore. Everyone . . . we’ll see you again, some soon, some later, but as vampires say, until again.”