One Foot in the Grave

  I’d been about to insist on the same thing. A ripped-up arm was a damn sight less lethal than a ripped-up jugular, just in case Belinda thought about reneging on her promise to behave. Still, she seemed afraid enough of Bones to believe that he’d make her more than sorry if she did, which I guess stemmed from her knowing his reputation. That’s why Bones picked Belinda versus our other two caged vamps to test the guys, he’d explained. They hadn’t known him, so they didn’t know that he would follow through with exactly what he said. Belinda did know him. Too much of him for my liking, but there was nothing I could do about that.

  She smiled as she reached out to Tate. Her shirt was still hanging open, leaving her breasts bare, and she cradled his arm next to her. Tate’s heart rate was way above normal and increasing, but I thought that had to do more with the anxiousness over being bitten versus excitement over Belinda’s tits.

  “Don’t worry, gorgeous, you’ll like it,” she purred, giving her fangs a last lick.

  Tate grunted. “Not on your afterlife, bitch.”

  Belinda just laughed. Low, throaty, and knowing. “Yes you will.” Then she sank her sharp incisors into Tate’s forearm.

  I saw the tremor go through him even as his heart began to beat faster. He thinned his lips, but not before a soft sound, almost like surprise, slipped from them. When Belinda swallowed and drew deeper, sucking on his arm, Tate’s eyes fluttered closed for a second before he snapped them open. And stared at me.

  It was only a few moments, but it seemed to stretch much longer. Tate’s indigo gaze took on that same heated intensity it had the night he’d gotten drunk and confessed how he felt about me. I knew he’d be feeling that intoxicating warmth slipping through his veins. That heady, seductive rush that belied all logic. It didn’t happen every time a vampire bit someone, of course. I knew from experience after some nasty fights with them that a bite could hurt like hell. But when a vamp didn’t want it to hurt—it didn’t. Not even in the slightest way.

  “That’s enough,” Bones said in a clipped tone.

  Belinda slowly drew back, licking the drops of blood from her fangs. Tate didn’t move. He just kept staring at me like I’d somehow grown undead powers and mesmerized him.

  “Close the holes,” Bones directed Belinda. Tate hadn’t even bothered to wipe the blood leaking out in a slow drip from his arm.

  Belinda scored her thumb on a fang and held it over the punctures. They vanished in seconds.

  “Is this why you can’t stay away from him, Cat?” Tate finally asked, ignoring everyone else around him.

  I was stunned at the question, but Bones only smiled, showing a hint of his own fangs.

  “You’d like to believe that, wouldn’t you, mate?”

  “Tate, why would you even think such a thing?” I managed.

  “Don’t bother, luv,” Bones said lightly, still showing that same toothsome smile. “I don’t care what lies he uses to comfort himself with when he’s alone at night and you’re with me. Belinda, your time-out’s over. Back to your cell.”

  We left without another word, Belinda still licking her lips as we corralled her back to the lower level and her confinement.

  TWENTY-NINE

  WE BROUGHT BELINDA OUT EVERY DAY TO train with Tate, Juan, and Cooper. This was at their insistence, not mine. They refused to accept that they couldn’t rise to the challenge of pinning her, and were determined to still play an active role in capturing Ian’s men. I didn’t like it, but Tate had been as adamant as I’d ever seen him. Belinda didn’t seem to mind. Although she didn’t get her prize of fresh blood anymore, she did get to leave her small cell and also had an extra bag of plasma daily for cooperating. Plus I think she liked how frustrated they were by their inability to pin her—at least at first.

  After four days of humiliation, the guys started getting better at it. They managed a few times to plug Belinda’s chest at just the right angle so one twist would have ended her, if the knife had been silver.

  And that, I knew, was enough to make any vampire suddenly become really, really cooperative. With another week or so of practice, they might be ready for Bones to make that call to Ian saying he’d found me and had hostages. Then I could put into action my other plan. The one regarding my father that I hadn’t told Bones about. Oh yeah. I was looking forward to that.

  On Thursday we went to pick up one of Bones’s people from the airport. This person was flying in from London, and was apparently the first vampire Bones had ever made. Some days, vampire hierarchy felt like The Godfather to me. On acid.

  “You haven’t asked and there’s been little time, but you need to know who it is we’re getting, Kitten.”

  We’d just reached the section of the airport where the rest of the nonflying public waited for arriving passengers. With today’s airline security, it was as far as we were allowed to go, unless Bones turned on his optical headlights.

  “Another old flame?” I joked.

  Bones didn’t laugh. “You could call her that, yes.”

  I needed a gin for this crap. “Great, can’t wait to meet her.”

  “You remember I told you when I was human, one of my clients saved my life by convincing the judge to ship me to Australia instead of hanging me for pick-pocketing? Well, that was Annette. After I returned to London as a vampire, I looked for the people who’d shown me kindness. Madame Lucille, the bordello owner who helped raise me, was dead by then, as were many of the prostitutes I’d lived with, but Annette was still there. I offered her this life, and she accepted. She’s who we’re picking up now.”

  Shit. I hated her already, and we hadn’t even met. That was a new low for me.

  “And she’ll be staying with us tonight. How cozy.”

  Bones took my hand. “Don’t let it trouble you. You’re the only woman for me, Kitten. Believe that.”

  There was a whoosh of charged air moments later. “She’s here,” he said unnecessarily.

  A woman walked toward us with the unmatched grace only a vampire could harness. Her cool, patrician features screamed aristocracy, and her lightly lined skin had that trademark glowing luminescence. Why couldn’t she be ugly? was my first thought. She looks like a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Susan Sarandon!

  Her champagne-colored eyes fixed immediately on mine, and right away, I knew we had something in common. She already didn’t like me, either.

  “Crispin, can I have a kiss after my long flight?”

  Her accent was pure British upper-crust. She was also chicly dressed in a navy jacket with matching pants, and I’d bet her shoes cost as much as my last paycheck. Just looking at her, I felt like I had a smear of something on my face, or food in my teeth.

  “Of course,” Bones replied, brushing his lips across each of her cheeks. She returned the gesture while giving me a once-over that made me feel as insignificant as her smirk judged me to be.

  He turned to me. “This is Cat,” he introduced me.

  I held out my hand. She shook it with ladylike graciousness, only tightening her pale, delicate-looking paw for an instant.

  Oh, she had power as well. Not a Master, but a nice, steady level of torque.

  “Delighted to finally meet you, darling. I so hoped Crispin would be able to locate you.” She traced a finger down his face as if in solace. “Poor sweet dear, he was positively wretched with worry that something ill had befallen you.”

  It was official. I hated her. How gracious of her to remind me that I’d made him miserable for several years. Where was a nice silver dagger when I needed one?

  “As you can see, Annette, he found me safe and sound.” For effect, I brought his clasped hand to my lips and kissed it.

  Her smile grew frosty. “My bags should be arriving momentarily. Crispin, why don’t you fetch the car whilst Cat and I collect my things?”

  It was a toss-up which I didn’t like more—being alone with her, or offering to get the car so he would be. I chose the first, since it was more bearable, and Bones left u
s to get our ride.

  Annette had a lot of things, which she helpfully loaded onto me like I was a pack mule while making conversation zinging with underlying hostility.

  “Don’t you have lovely skin? All that fresh country air no doubt played a part. Didn’t Crispin tell me you came from a farm?” Like the animals, her smug smile implied.

  I hoisted a heavy suitcase over my shoulder before I replied. God, what had she packed, bricks?

  “A cherry orchard. But that hardly affected my complexion. The vampire who raped my mother gave me that.”

  She clucked her tongue. “Faith, I had difficulty believing Crispin when he told me what you were, but after two hundred years together, you take someone at their word.”

  Nicely done. Throw in how long you’ve had him, like I don’t already know. But two could play at low blows.

  “I can’t wait to hear all about you, Annette. Bones barely mentioned you at all, just something about how you used to pay him to have sex with you when he was human.”

  She gave an arch little curve of her lips. “How charming that you call him by his acquired name. All his newer acquaintances do that.”

  Acquaintances? My teeth ground. “That was the name he gave me when we first met. We are who we become, not who we start out as.” He’s not your boy toy anymore, got it?

  “Indeed? Here I’ve always believed people truly never change from what they were to begin with.”

  “We’ll see about that,” I muttered.

  With her numerous items weighing me down, we proceeded to the exit. As I followed behind her, I took the opportunity to study her. Her hair was shoulder-length and pale strawberry-blond, just lovely next to her peaches-and-cream skin. She was far more voluptuous than I, and about three inches shorter than my five-eight height. If she were human, I’d judge her to be in her mid-forties. That didn’t sit in a negative column with her, though, because she gave off a smoldering, ripe sensuality that made youth look like a boring waste of time.

  Bones took one look at me buried under all her luggage and vaulted over to assist. “Blimey, Annette. You should have told me how many bags you had!”

  “Oh, forgive me, Cat,” Annette chuckled in false apology. “I’m accustomed to having an underling travel with me.”

  “Don’t mention it.” Tightly. Underling! Who the hell did she think she was?

  Luggage finally stored in the trunk, we drove off.

  “When are the rest of our people arriving?” she queried, settling back in her seat. We drove a new vehicle, as my Volvo was known to Max. This was a loaded BMW. I’d ask Bones later where he got it.

  “Today and tomorrow. By Friday, I reckon we’ll all be in place.”

  Annette sniffed, though it wasn’t like she needed to clear her nose. “I say, Crispin, how did Belinda get herself in Cat’s little snare? I haven’t seen her since your birthday six years ago, or was it five?”

  “She got caught because she started running with a group who liked to bring home live meals.”

  There was something cold in his tone that perked my ears up even as Annette’s smile grew sly.

  “Terrible. She must have really changed. Wasn’t it only five years ago that we three got together?”

  Bones glared at her in the rearview mirror right as I translated “We three got together.” I was betting it hadn’t been for tea. And five years ago, Bones had been with me.

  “Answer the question, honey. Was it six or five years ago that the three of you all fucked? See, Bones already told me that he’d screwed Belinda, Annette, but thank you for letting me know you participated also.”

  Bones pulled the car to the shoulder of the road.

  “I won’t tolerate such rudeness, Annette,” he said, pivoting to face her. “She knows bloody well what you’re implying, as you can see, and I don’t know why you feel the need to throw that up at her. You also know that it was eight years ago, before I met her, and I’ll thank you not to entertain her with any more recollections.”

  He sounded as pissed as I felt. Annette glanced at me before raising her brows in feigned innocence.

  “I apologize. Perhaps it was the long flight which made me forget myself.”

  “Kitten.” Bones looked at me. “Is that sufficient?”

  No, it wasn’t, and I’d have cheerfully thrown Her Majesty and her hundred pounds of baggage to the curb, but that wasn’t mature.

  “I think I can handle a little ménage à trois reminiscing, but just for the record, Annette, you can forget any repeats involving the three of us.”

  “Wouldn’t dream of it,” she assured me with a gleam I caught from the rearview mirror. Oh, she and I weren’t through. I’d bet my life on it.

  The rest of the drive passed without incident. Annette made arrangements for alternate accommodations after tonight, to my relief. Bones planned to tell Ian next week that he’d found me, and he’d pretend to capture my three captains the following week. And somewhere in the midst of worrying about Ian, the safety of my men, my father actively trying to kill me, and Bones successfully winning his freedom, I had the image of Annette, Belinda, and Bones doing the naked pretzel in my mind. Goddamn her. That was the last thing I needed to think about.

  When Annette heard the part of the plan involving my men, she was fascinated.

  “Mere humans? Willingly walking into Ian’s den as his collateral? Oh, Crispin, you must let me meet them. Can we have them for supper tonight?”

  “She better mean to dinner with real food on the table,” I muttered.

  “Why, Cat, that’s precisely what I meant. Can’t have me eating the bait, now can we?” She chuckled.

  Bones glanced at me. I shrugged. “It’s not such a bad idea to have them meet first. Maybe it will make them less jittery about this whole Army of Darkness thing.” Or more so, depending on Annette.

  “Whatever you like. I don’t care. If they agree, I’ll pick them up when I get Rodney. He’s our other guest tonight.”

  “Rodney the ghoul?” How low I had slipped on the Humanity Totem Pole to be so excited about seeing a flesh-eater again, although that would complicate my menu. “Oh, I liked him. He didn’t get angry no matter how many times my mother insulted him.”

  Bones gave me a sideways smile. He’d just finished taking Annette’s bags to her room. She was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping tea. I sat on the couch with a tall glass of gin and tonic that was almost empty.

  “Wait.” I hated saying this in front of Queen Bitch, but whispering was redundant. “Is he…I mean, because of the last time we met…does he hate me?”

  It was Rodney’s house we’d been staying at years ago when I left Bones. The two of them had gone out on an errand, and there had no doubt been an unpleasant scene when they returned to find it empty.

  Bones sat next me, setting my glass down.

  “Of course he doesn’t hate you. He was right sore at Don for threatening you, although we didn’t know who’d done it then. As far as your mother—well. She didn’t make a friend.”

  I gave a watery laugh. “She seldom does.”

  He leaned closer. “Actually, he’s a bit unsettled himself about seeing you again, but not for that reason. Rodney thought perhaps you’d be upset with him over Danny.”

  Ah. I’d forgotten about that. The murder of my ex-boyfriend hadn’t ranked high on my current list of worries. Poor Danny. He’d certainly regretted seducing me in a permanent way.

  “That was more your doing than his, Bones. We’ve already been over that. Besides, he’s coming to help.”

  “That’s what I told him you’d say.”

  Miffed, I poked him in the chest. “You think you know everything?”

  His hands caressed my back. “Not everything, but some things. I knew without a doubt I’d fallen in love when we met. Then I knew I’d do anything to make you feel the same way.”

  Annette’s cup clattered to the table. “I’ll take myself off to shower now.”

  Bones didn’t e
ven glance up. “Do that.”

  The bathroom door closed decisively behind her.

  “You keep saying you fell in love right away, but you beat me unconscious, and you were so surly with me those first few weeks.”

  Bones chuckled. “You asked for that beating, and you’d have stomped me into submission if I’d shown you any weakness. Of course I didn’t let on how I felt about you. You hated the very sight of me.”

  “I don’t hate you now.”

  To prove the point, I gave a long, slow lick to his neck. He responded by gathering me up in his arms and heading toward the stairs.

  I gasped at his clear intent. “Wait, I was teasing! We can’t, she’d hear us!” Even with the shower running, we might as well have invited her to join us after all.

  Bones kept going, climbing the steps three at a time, and then depositing me on the bed.

  “I wasn’t teasing, and I don’t care.” He kissed me thoroughly, tugging off my clothes. “We only have an hour. Let’s not waste it.”

  THIRTY

  IT’LL TAKE ME ABOUT TWO HOURS TO FETCH Rodney and pick up your blokes, Kitten. Are you going to be all right with Annette until then?”

  Bones was already running late. I was the reason for his tardiness, and I couldn’t bring myself to care.

  “Don’t worry about it. If she gets really lippy, I have my silver.” For emphasis, I glanced at the stack of weapons in the closet.

  He snorted in laughter. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather come back to both of you the way I left you.”

  “If you insist. Go on, I’ll be waiting for you.”

  It was said automatically, but his eyes clouded. With a sigh, I flung myself out of bed and hugged him.

  “You can tell Rodney to bet his ass I’ll be here this time.”

  Bones pressed his lips to my forehead and smiled, chipper again.

  “Too right you will. Call your men and have them ready; I’ll see you shortly.”

  “Don’t smack Tate on the way over.”