Deadly Desire

bad examples.'

She snorted and walked over to the shelving unit. 'They all drink blood. They all have the capacity to go too far.'

So did humans, but I didn't think she was going to be receptive to that sort of logic. I gave my wrist another experimental tug and it slipped, ever so slightly, through the cuffs. Not enough to escape, but enough to give me hope that it would work, if I kept persisting.

If she gave me time.

'Killing isn't just the province of vampires.'

She swung around to face me, her expression one of pure fury. 'It wasn't a human who attacked Jessica and put her in a wheelchair or who sliced my husband's head off in a fit of anger. It wasn't a human who stole and changed my daughter.'

Something in the way she said that made my insides go cold. 'What do you mean, changed?'

'What do you think I mean?' She slapped a knife and another larger bowl onto the table. 'He made her one of them.'

Vampires couldn't make humans change with just a bite. That was little more than a Hollywood myth. It took a blood ceremony and consent for a human to cross over, so if Hanna's daughter had become a vampire, she'd done so of her own free will.

The question was, just how badly had Mommy reacted to her daughter's decision?

If the wildness in her eyes was anything to go by, the answer could only be very badly indeed.

'What does your daughter think of you slaughtering her people?'

'Her people?'

Hanna's voice had become so shrill it made my ears ache. She picked up an empty bowl and threw it at me. I had nowhere to go and no way to avoid it, so it hit the top of my head-hard. The blow left me bleeding and stunned, and more determined than ever to get away from this crazy bitch. I yanked at my wrist harder, felt it slip through a little farther. A few more tugs, and I just might be free enough to defend myself.

'My daughter was human,' she spat. 'And she died human.'

Even though I'd suspected that outcome, her words still made me sick. How could any mother, no matter how desperate, ever kill her own child? There were always other options. Always. You just had to reach out and talk to someone.

Though I guess that someone whose grip on sanity had to be fractional, at best, having her daughter turn into one of the 'monsters' must have seemed the ultimate betrayal.

'So you killed your own flesh and blood?' I continued to yank at my wrist, the rough metal edges digging deeper and deeper into my flesh. It hurt like hell but I didn't care, because whatever this madwoman was planning to do with the goop in the bowl and that fucking long knife would surely hurt me more.

'I didn't kill her,' she refuted, stalking back over to the shelving unit. 'I saved her. Or rather, I saved her soul.'

'How did you stop her from rising?' I gave a final pull on my wrist and it finally slipped free. The chains rattled like an alarm, and I grabbed wildly at the cuff to stop it from slipping to the floor.

With one wrist free, I could at least defend myself. But actually getting off this table and away from Hanna remained a problem. The numbness from the silver bullet still lodged in my shoulder prevented me from moving my other arm, and tugging on my ankle chains would not only create a whole lot more noise, it would be more visible.

'I bound her to the grave,' Hanna said. 'It cost me a lot, that binding, but at least I can sleep knowing my daughter is safe.'

She selected a canister from the shelving unit and walked back over to the table. She raised the knife, sliced her scarred palm, and let the wound bleed into the smaller bowl. The sweet forest scent changed, suddenly becoming something deeper and darker, and yet still not totally unpleasant.

'Did you stake her?' I asked. 'Chop off her head?'

She gave me a shocked sort of look. 'Of course not! What do you think I am? A monster, like them?'

'Oh, I think you're something far, far worse, lady.'

The words were out before I could stop them, but she merely laughed. It wasn't a sane sound, but that was no surprise.

'Because of the way I kill them? Believe me, I'm only doing to them what they did to my husband, to Jessica, and to my daughter.'

'I don't care how you kill the vampires.' Which was a lie, because no person, whether human or nonhuman, deserved to die the way those vampires had died-even if they had been the most brutal vampires ever to walk this earth. Which none of these had been.

Of course, I don't deny sometimes wishing a more brutal death on some of the bastards we hunted, but wishing and doing were two extremes that were never going to meet. And the guardian who did sink to the 'eye for an eye' mode of thinking soon found himself out the door and on the most-wanted list.

'Then why do you think me a monster?' She picked up the canister and added several pinches of white powder to her mix. There was a flash, like a small explosion, and suddenly the dark, foresty scent was gone. In its place was a fouler, stronger scent that reminded me of the muck the zombie had thrown at me.

But why would she try and freeze me again if she already knew it didn't work? Or was this stuff stronger than the last mix?

God, I hoped not. I might only be half free, but at least I could defend myself if worse came to worst. If that stuff actually worked, I'd be in real trouble.

Like I wasn't already.

'You're a monster because of what you did to your daughter. Because you didn't kill her but instead bound her.'

She frowned at me. 'She was dead already. I bound her before the change, so what is the problem?'

She didn't get it. She really didn't. What a stupid, stupid bitch. 'Binding a body doesn't stop said body from taking the change and rising as one of the undead. It just stops them moving out of the grave or communicating with their maker for help. What you've done is ensure your daughter a living hell of unlife in a coffin, with no hope of escape.' I shook my head in contempt. 'How could you not know that?'

And I guess it was yet another mess the Directorate would have to clean up. Although whether the daughter would actually be sane enough to rescue after years of being locked underground was another matter entirely-and not one that I'd have to decide. Thankfully.

There was a shocked silence, followed by a vehement, 'No!'

'Yes,' I spat back. 'You would have been better off to stake her from the start.'

She stared at me for several long minutes, then shook her head. 'I don't believe you.'

'Then go to her grave, Hanna. See for yourself.'

'I have no need to, wolf.' Her voice was flat. She refused to believe she could be wrong, that she could have doomed her daughter to a fate far worse than vampirism. 'I know you're only lying to try and save yourself.'

I didn't know how lying about her daughter's fate would actually do anything to save myself, but she obviously wasn't thinking clearly, so there was no point in saying anything else.

She walked over to the shelving and picked up a more ornate knife and another larger container, then walked back to the table. She exchanged the knife for the smaller bowl then walked across to where I lay. Luckily for me, she chose the right side rather than the left, and didn't notice I had one hand free.

Not that it would do me any good at the moment, because she simply wasn't close enough.

She placed the larger bowl on the floor, shifting it several times until she was satisfied, then rose and looked at me. 'Don't you wonder how I'm about to kill you?'

I snorted softly. 'Lady, dead is dead, no matter which way it comes at you.'

Besides, she'd already told me she was going to bleed me. It said a lot about her state of mind that she couldn't actually remember that.

'That, I'm sorry to say, is very true.'