One Foot in the Grave

  He cursed, and I returned to examining the torso in front of me. Occasionally I heard his stomach heave, but he swallowed back the bile and kept working. I held out hope for his abilities yet.

  My hand struck something odd in the chest cavity of the female. Something hard that wasn’t bone. Carefully I pulled it out, ignoring the squishy suction sounds it made as I drew it free.

  Tate and Juan leaned over me intently. “Looks like a rock of some kind,” Tate noted.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Juan wondered.

  I felt as hard as the stone in my hand. Silently I screamed inside.

  “It’s not a rock. It’s a piece of limestone. From a cave.”

  “Stay back five miles from all sides. Any closer and they’ll hear your heartbeats. No overhead air support, no radio. Hand signals only; we don’t want to give away our numbers. I’ll enter the cave from the mouth, and you will give me exactly thirty minutes. If I don’t come out, you use the rockets and blast it, then contain the perimeter and watch your backs. Anything comes out of that cave except me, you shoot it until you’re sure it’s really dead. And then you shoot it some more.”

  Tate angrily rounded on me. “This is a bullshit plan! That missile would only kill you, but the vampires would just dig themselves out later. If you don’t come out, we’re coming in after you. Period.”

  “Tate is right. We’re not blowing you up before I get a chance to show you my sausage.” Even Juan sounded worried. His innuendo was halfhearted at best.

  “No way, Cat,” Dave agreed. “You’ve saved my ass too many times for me to flip that switch.”

  “This isn’t a democracy.” Ice edged my words. “I make the decisions. You follow them. Don’t you get it? If I’m not out in thirty minutes, then I’m dead.”

  We spoke while flying in the chopper to thwart any undead eavesdroppers. I was paranoid to a fantastic degree after finding that rock. I hated to believe it, but I couldn’t imagine who else could have left it except Bones. That memento from the cave was too personal for it to have been Ian. Bones was the only one who knew about the cave, and everything else. The thought of him tearing apart those people sickened me. What could have happened in four years to change him so much, that he’d do such a gruesome thing? That’s why I needed only thirty minutes. Either I would kill him or he’d kill me, but it would be fast regardless. Bones always did get straight down to business, and he wouldn’t expect a romantic reunion. Not when he just sent me a bouquet of body parts.

  The helicopter landed twenty miles away. We would drive the next fifteen and I would walk the last five. The three of them argued with me the entire time, but I ignored them. My mind was numb. I’d wanted desperately to see Bones again, but never had I imagined it would be like this. Why? I wondered again. Why would Bones do something so horrible, so extreme, after all this time?

  “Don’t do it, Cat.”

  Tate tried one last time as I wrapped my jacket around me. It was lined with silver weapons, useful for much more than warmth. Winter was slow to release its grip this year. Tate gripped my arm, but I yanked free.

  “If I go down, lead the team. Keep them alive. That’s your job. This is mine.”

  Before he could say anything more, I broke into a run.

  The last mile I slowed to a walk, dreading the confrontation. My ears were pricked for the slightest sound, but that was why the cave had been such a great hideout. The depths and heights played tricks with noise. I couldn’t pinpoint any exact sounds. Surprisingly, I thought I heard a heartbeat as I drew nearer, but maybe it was just my own pounding. When I touched the outer entrance of the cave, I felt the energy inside. Vampire power, vibrating the air. Oh God.

  Right before I ducked under the threshold, I pressed a button on my watch. Countdown, thirty minutes exactly, had just begun.

  Both my hands held wicked-looking silver daggers in them, and I was weighted down with my throwing knives. I’d even brought a gun and tucked it inside my pants, the clip filled with silver bullets. Being prepared to kill cost a small fortune.

  My eyes adjusted to the almost nonexistent lighting. From tiny openings in the rock, the cave wasn’t completely black. So far the initial entryway was clear. There were noises deeper inside, and the question I’d refused to consider now loomed in front of me. Could I kill Bones? Would I be able to look in his brown eyes, or his green ones, and wield that blow? I didn’t know, hence my backup plans of the missile. If I faltered, they wouldn’t. They’d be strong should I prove to be weak. Or prove to be dead, whichever came first.

  “Come closer,” a voice beckoned.

  It reverberated with echoes. Was that an English accent? I couldn’t be sure. My pulse sped up, and I went farther inside the cave.

  There had been some changes since I’d last seen it. The area that once doubled as a living room was trashed. The sofa was in sections, and it hadn’t been a sectional. Stuffing from the cushions settled like snow on the floor, the television was smashed in, and the lamps had long since seen their last light. The dressing screen that had guarded my short-lived modesty was in pieces throughout the area. Someone had obviously torn the place apart in a fit of rage. Frankly I was afraid to look in the bedroom, but I peeked inside anyway, and my heart constricted.

  The bed was reduced to bits of foam. Wood and springs littered the space and stood inches deep on the ground. Stones in the wall were chipped here and there from a fist or other hard object pummeling them. Anguish welled up in me. This was my doing, as surely as if I’d used my own hands.

  A cool current parted the atmosphere behind me. I whirled around with knives at the ready. Staring at me with glowing green eyes was a vampire. Behind him were six more. Their energy thickened the air in the close space, but they were evenly distributed, if you could call it that. Only one of them crackled with an abundance of power, but his face was entirely foreign to me.

  “Who in the fuck are you guys?”

  “You came. Your old boyfriend wasn’t lying. We weren’t sure whether to believe him.”

  This statement was from the vamp in front, the one with the curling brown hair. He looked to be about twenty-five, in human years. From the clout oozing off his body, I judged him to be roughly five hundred or a young Master. Out of the seven, he was the most dangerous, and his previous sentence scared the shit out of me. Your old boyfriend. That was how they knew about me. Mother of God, it wasn’t Bones who killed those people, but these vampires instead! What they would have done to him to make him talk both sickened and infuriated me.

  “Where is he?”

  The only question that mattered. If they’d killed Bones, I was going to turn them all into exact replicas of the mattress behind me. Indistinguishable from one particle to the next.

  “He’s here. Alive still. If you want him to remain that way, you’ll do what I tell you.”

  The other minions began to fan out, trapping me with the bedroom as my only exit. Since it was a closed area, there was no help there.

  “Let me see him.”

  Curly Hair smiled smugly. “No demands, girl. Do you think those knives will really protect you?”

  When my grandparents were murdered and I’d rammed a car through a house to rescue my mother, I thought I couldn’t get any angrier. How wrong I was. The unadulterated bloodlust pouring through me made me tremble. They took my shaking for fear, and their smiles broadened. Curly stepped forward.

  Two of the daggers flew out of my hand before I even articulated the order to my brain. They buried past their hilts in the heart of a vamp to my left, who had been licking his lips. He pitched forward before his tongue finished its insinuating path. More knives replaced those, and once again both my hands were full.

  “Now I’m going to ask again, and don’t piss me off. I have spent the morning up to my ass in guts and I am low on patience. The next one’s aimed for you, Brownielocks, unless you show me what I want to see. Your boys might get me in a rush, but you’ll be too dead to care.” br />
  My eyes bored into his, and I let him see that I meant every single word. Unless they showed me Bones, I was going to assume the worst and go down in flames, and by God, I’d see they went with me.

  There must have been something in my gaze he took seriously. He jerked his head at two of his stunned lieutenants. They took a last look at their friend, who was slowly beginning to shrivel, before trotting off. One untwisted knife wouldn’t have killed the vamp. But two had done the necessary damage to his heart. In the background, I heard the clanking of irons, and then I knew where they had Bones. Hell, once I’d been chained there myself. Now I was sure I could hear a heartbeat. Did they have a human guard on him?

  The leader studied me dispassionately.

  “You are the one who’s been murdering our kind the last several years. A human with the strength of an immortal, the one they call the Red Reaper. Do you know how much money you’re worth?”

  Holy shit, now that was ironic. He was a bounty hunter, and I was his mark. Well, it was only a matter of time, I supposed. You can’t off a hundred creatures and expect no one to get cranky.

  “A lot, I hope. Hate to be on clearance.”

  He frowned. “You mock me. I am Lazarus, and you should quake before me. Remember, I hold the life of your love. Which means more to you—his fate, or yours?”

  Did I love Bones enough to die for him? Absolutely. Relief that he wasn’t behind this made me almost cheerful about my impending death. Any day of the week I’d rather die than suspect him of such cruelty again.

  Sobbing brought my attention back to the situation. What was going on? A glance at my watch showed fifteen minutes before bomb time. Bones would have to get out fast before that missile hit. Lazarus wouldn’t be around to collect any cash. Maybe I’d tell him that before the timer ran out.

  Something human and weeping was thrown to the surface near my feet. I gave it a disparaging look before turning to Lazarus.

  “Quit stalling. I don’t need to see one of your chew toys to believe you’re all badasses. Really, I’m quaking. Where’s Bones?”

  “Bones?” Lazarus said, his eyes darting around. “Where?”

  Two things occurred to me at nearly the same instant. One, from Lazarus’s expression, he had no idea where Bones was. Two, the tear-streaked face turning up at me belonged to the lying little shit who’d seduced and dumped me when I was sixteen.

  SIX

  DANNY?” I SAID IN DISBELIEF. “DANNY MILTON? You’re the reason I had to drag my ass all the way from Virginia?”

  Danny also wasn’t happy to see me. “You ruined my life!” he wailed. “First your freak boyfriend crippled my hand, then you’re not dead, and now these creatures kidnapped me! I hate the day I met you!”

  I snorted. “Right back at you, asshole!”

  Lazarus regarded me suspiciously. “He said you used to be in love with him. You’re just pretending not to care now so I won’t kill him.”

  “You want to kill him?” Perhaps I was crazed with the knowledge that less than fifteen minutes remained, or maybe I was just fed up. “Go ahead! Here, I’ll help!”

  I pulled the gun from the back of my pants and shot Danny at point-blank range. Lazarus and the other vampires were momentarily stunned at this turn of events, and I took advantage. The next rounds landed full in Lazarus’s face. I didn’t bother firing into his heart, because I wanted him alive. He had information for me, if I lived, and I emptied the clip into him while my free hand flung knives at the remaining five.

  They charged me. Fangs sank in and ripped my flesh before I threw them off. This was a flat-out brawl, rolling around on jagged rocks, pummeling and hacking any flesh that wasn’t mine. I was acutely aware of the seconds ticking by as I struggled to keep my knives in my hand and their fangs from my throat. After all, it was one thing to die for Bones, whether he’d gone mental or not. Quite another to die for that sniveling prick Danny Milton. You could safely say I still held a grudge.

  The last vampire was eliminated with a gouge to his heart, and my watch showed less than thirty seconds. Lazarus, not dead after a face full of silver bullets, crawled toward Danny. Danny, still alive, moaned helplessly and tried to back away. There wasn’t enough time to pump Lazarus for information, let alone kill him and rescue Danny. Barely enough time to do just one.

  Without a moment to think, I grabbed Danny and tossed him over my shoulder, running flat-out for the entrance of the cave. He screamed at the jostling and cursed me between gasps. The timer went to zero just as the sunlit mouth came into view. Behind me I heard Lazarus running also, but too far back. He’d never make it. Neither would I. Time was up.

  Instead of the explosion I expected, there were voices. Movement right outside. Two figures entered the cave as I was almost upon them. It was Tate and Dave. I shouted because I knew they couldn’t see me in the dark.

  “Don’t shoot!”

  “Hold fire, it’s Cat!” Tate boomed.

  What happened next happened almost instantly, though it would be forever slow motion in my mind.

  “Hostile coming fast, aim high!” I yelled, and ducked down to clear their line of fire. Tate, who hadn’t relaxed stance, fired blindly into the blackness behind me. Dave, who had lowered his gun to try to locate me in the stygian dark, came throat to face with Lazarus instead.

  There was a sickening gurgle as his artery was freed. I screamed, dropping Danny and rushing to him. Lazarus threw him at me with full force, and Dave’s body knocked me flat. Hot blood sprayed my face as I locked my hands around his neck, futilely trying to stem the flow. In the midst of this Tate was still shooting, and Lazarus cracked him against the cave wall and ran out. Outside there was the spattering of more gunfire as the perimeter troops shot at the fleeing vampire.

  “Man down, man down!”

  Juan sprinted inside the cave, flashlight drawn, followed closely by Cooper and three others. I tore my shirt off to apply pressure to Dave’s neck.

  Dave could barely talk, but he was trying. “…’on’t…let me…’ie…”

  There was only one chance. Maybe not even that.

  “Hold him,” I snapped to Juan. Then I dashed deeper into the cave as rapidly as I’d left it. When I came to the first body, I hoisted it on my shoulders and ran back.

  “What are you doing?” Cooper demanded.

  I ignored him, taking a knife and slicing deeply into the dead vampire’s neck. Blood dripped, but not enough. I hacked the head off completely and flipped the vamp upside down, holding him by his feet. Now a steady stream of purplish liquid trickled directly onto Dave.

  “Open his mouth. Make him swallow,” I commanded. God, let it not be too late. Let it not be too late…!

  Juan pulled back Dave’s lips with tears coursing down his face. He was praying as well, out loud and in Spanish. Ruthlessly I kicked the cadaver to send more blood downward, and Juan forced Dave to swallow.

  The skin around Dave’s neck reacted to the undead blood, but not quickly enough. The flow from his jugular slowed even as the edges started to close. Soon it stopped. Dave was dead.

  I stormed out of the cave, seething with grief. Men were searching the area, and I grabbed the nearest one.

  “Where did he go? Did you see which way he went?”

  The soldier, Kelso, blanched at seeing me covered in blood. “We couldn’t tell. Someone said vampire, but all I saw were trees. We’re looking now. He can’t be far.”

  “Like hell he can’t,” I snarled. A Master vampire at full gallop, even injured, could run upward of sixty miles an hour. No way was Lazarus getting away. No way.

  The three men still hovered around Dave’s lifeless body. Juan wept unashamedly, and Tate’s eyes overflowed with tears.

  “The vampire got through the perimeter,” I began without preamble. “I’m going after him. Tate, fix me with a transmitter and have the team follow. I’m telling you right now, I don’t give a shit what the rules are, because I’m changing them. When I get him, only the o
nes who do exactly what I say will be with me. If you don’t, you can hang back with the rest of the crowd. I’m not standing over the body of another man today, no matter what Don thinks is acceptable. Whoever wants to be there when this vamp gets his, come with me. Tell the rest of the crew to stay back until we come out.”

  Tate and Juan stood immediately. Cooper hesitated. I stared at him and didn’t blink.

  “Pussying out, Coop?”

  He shot me a measured look. “I’m half Sicilian and half African. Both sides believe in retribution. The only pussy here is yours, Commander.”

  “Then order the rest of the men to stand by and follow me. We’ll see what you’re made of.”

  He jerked his head at where Danny lay, still huddled in shock. “What about him?”

  “Hand him over to the medics. He’s got a gunshot wound.”

  “The vampires shot him?” Tate questioned in surprise. Vampires didn’t traditionally use guns. Why would they, when their teeth were more powerful?

  “They didn’t. I did. Let’s move; every second counts.”

  Cooper chucked Danny over his shoulder and headed out into the light without comment. I heard him direct the troops to stay back while we checked the cave for survivors. As he did that, I closed Dave’s eyes. When Cooper returned, I held the flashlight in front of me so they could see where they were going.

  “This way.”

  When we reached the area where I’d killed the other vampires, I started in.

  “All right, men, I’m only going to say this once. Take a knife, grab a vamp, and I don’t care if you have to suck the blood off their balls, you’re going to get as much of that liquid in you as possible. Humans can drink a pint of blood before the body automatically regurgitates. I expect a pint in each of you, and now. The vampire who killed Dave was a Master and he’s running better than a mile a minute. We don’t have time to argue about morality. These bodies are shriveling with every second. You’re in or you’re out.”