One Foot in the Grave

murderous circumstances, made my heart pound. How low I’d fallen.

“You’re sure about bringing Cooper?” Dave nudged me and glanced toward the back of the plane. We had our own little area up front. Weren’t we the special ones?

“I know it’s only been two months since we brought Cooper on, but he’s smart, fast, and ruthless. His years as an undercover narcotics officer probably helped there. He’s performed well in training operations, so it’s time to see how he does in the field.”

Dave frowned. “He doesn’t like you, Cat. He thinks you’ll turn on us one day because you’re a half-breed. I think he should be put under the juice and have the last two months wiped from his mind.”

“Put under the juice” referred to the brainwashing techniques Don had perfected over the last years. Our in- house vampires had their fangs milked like snakes. The hallucinogenic drops they produced were then refined and harvested. When combined with the usual mind-fuck method the military used, it left the participant happily unaware of any details regarding our operation. That was how we weeded through the recruits and didn’t worry about one blabbing about a chick with superhuman powers. All they remembered was a day of hard training.

“Cooper doesn’t have to like me-he only has to follow orders. If he can’t do that, then he’s out. Or dead, if he gets himself killed first. He’s the least of our concerns now.”

The plane touched down with a jar. Dave smiled at me.

“Welcome home, Cat.”

FIVE

THE HOUSE I GREW UP IN WAS ON A CHERRY orchard that looked like it hadn’t been harvested in years. Maybe not since my grandparents were murdered. Licking Falls, Ohio, was a place I hadn’t thought I’d see again, and the scary thing was that it seemed like time had stood still in this small town. God, this house would get a sick sort of notoriety. Four people had been killed inside these walls. Two supposedly by their own granddaughter, who’d then gone on a senseless murder spree, and now this couple.

It was ironic that the last time I’d walked up to my front porch, it had also been to a double murder. Pain blasted through me at the mental image of my grandfather slumped on the kitchen floor and my grandmother’s red handprints staining the stairs where she’d tried to crawl away.

Dave and I circled around the kitchen, careful not to disturb anything more than necessary.

“Were the bodies checked? Was anything found?”

Tate coughed. “The bodies are still here, Cat. Don ordered they not be moved until you looked at them. Nothing has been confiscated.”

Great. Don was too smart for his own good. “Have they been photographed? Documented? We can rip through them to look?”

Juan winced at my choice of words, but Tate nodded. The house was surrounded by exterior troops in case this was a trap. It was just before noon, so we were somewhat safer. Vampires hated to be up early. No, I had been brought here specifically, and I was betting whoever did this was getting their beauty rest.

“Okay then. Let’s get started.”

An hour later, Cooper was at his breaking point.

“I’m going to be sick.”

I glanced past the remains of what used to be a happy couple. Yep, Cooper’s mocha face was positively green.

“You throw up and you’ll eat it off the floor, soldier.”

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.