One Grave at a Time

“Oh, I’ll tell you right now,” he replied smoothly. “Your dear mum tried to eat one of the women you’re attempting to save.”

Twenty-eight

The cellar seemed much smaller with the four of us in it. Tyler sat at the top of the stairs, the door cracked so he could get enough clean air to breathe, but not open all the way because we didn’t want a certain nosy ghost to overhear our conversation.

I didn’t need to ask my mother if Ian was correct. The instant guilt that flashed across her face when he made his unbelievable statement was answer enough for me. What I waited to ask until all of us were underground was one simple question.

“What the hell happened, Mom?”

“It was an accident,” she muttered, looking at the plain wooden wall instead of me. “It wouldn’t happen again.”

“Yes it would, and if you bit Denise the next time, Charles would kill you no matter whose mother you were,” Ian stated.

I rubbed my forehead against the mental image Ian described. If my mother bit Denise and tasted her demonically-altered, drugging blood, Spade would kill her. He’d do it even though it would cause a huge rift between him and Bones because of me, not to mention how it would horrify Denise. But the lengths a vampire would go to in order to protect his spouse superseded all other bonds.

“You did the right thing bringing her here,” Bones said to Ian, and I had to agree. I’d thought keeping her with Spade and Denise would be safer, but not if she was still struggling with her hunger enough to attempt feeding from people who were off the menu.

“What triggered this, Mom? Do you know, so we can prevent it from happening again?”

“Ah, and here’s the richest part,” Ian said, elbowing my mother.

She smacked at his arm, still not making eye contact with anyone in the room. “I’ve got it under control now.”

Ian laughed out loud at that. “No vampire can stop feeding and be under any control for long, my pretty little imbecile.”

I was so stunned by his statement that I didn’t react to the insult. “You haven’t been feeding? But all those times you went out saying you were going to—”

“Lies, lies, lies,” Ian said cheerfully. “I’m the last person to judge for that, but she actually thought she could sustain herself by sucking the blood out of raw meat packages—and while that’s funny in a dozen different ways, it’s not practical in the least.”

Bones had his emotions tamped down, a sign that whatever he was feeling toward her right now wasn’t something he wanted to share with me. If it was anything like my emotions, he wanted to shake her while screaming, Are you out of your fucking mind? With everything going on, you have to decide that you’re going to be the world’s only vegetarian vampire? Did it ever occur to you what would happen if your brilliant plan didn’t WORK?

But I said none of those things, partly because it was clear Ian had already given her his unedited opinion on her ill-fated scheme, and also because she looked like she was about to cry. I could count on one hand the times I’d seen my mother cry, and it wasn’t something I wanted to see again, let alone cause.

“Okay,” I said, taking in a deep breath to quell the part of me that still wanted to go with the shake-and- scream approach. “How long have you been attempting to live off meat package blood?”

“Since I quit the team,” she mumbled. “Tate used to give me bagged plasma, but once I left, I knew that wouldn’t happen anymore, so I tried to find an alternative.”

My eyes bugged as I calculated the time. Bones still said nothing, his face carefully expressionless and his aura closed off like a vault. Tyler wasn’t nearly as locked down in his reaction. Bitch, you are SO lucky you didn’t try to eat my dog, rang across my mind.

“Okay.” My voice was almost a squeak with my incredulity. “That didn’t work, so, uh, who’d you try to eat?”

She said nothing, worrying her lower lip between teeth that were harmlessly flat at the moment.

“Francine got frightened by a noise and cut herself after squeezing a sage glass too hard,” Ian supplied. “Your mum pounced on her and started sucking away. Would’ve been arousing if not for all the screaming.”

“Ian,” Bones drew out warningly.

He grinned. “You’re right. I was aroused anyway.”

I punched him in the chest without even thinking about it. My mother’s bottom lip quivered.

“I didn’t mean to. I just couldn’t stop myself.”

“Of course you couldn’t. You’re a vampire.”

The exasperated statement came not from me, though I’d been thinking it, or from the other two vampires in the room. It came from Tyler, who climbed down the stairs even though the increased smoke made him cough.

“You know: fangs, flashy green eyes, and superspeed? All that caught your attention already?” At her scoff, he added, “So why’d you think you could opt out of the ‘drinking human blood’ part?”

“I refuse to tear into someone’s flesh, holding them down and stealing their blood . . .” Something dark flashed across her expression before her features twisted in pain. “I won’t do that again. Ever.”

Her tone hardened at that last word, and I knew she was remembering her first days as a vampire when the prick who sired her threw in humans with her. It took the last of my anger from me, though a bucketload of frustration still remained.

“There’s no need to harm anyone when you feed, Justina,” Bones said. “But as you’ve discovered, you can’t wish away your need for blood, and animal blood will not suffice for long.”

“Maybe I just need more of it. There wasn’t a lot in those meat packages,” she insisted.

A mental image of my mother sneaking around at night to suck on cattle or goats crossed my mind. What if that was the real source of the Chupacabra legend, and they were actually vampires in denial like she was? Nothing would surprise me right now.

“You could drink a slaughterhouse dry, and you’d still lust over the first human you chanced upon,” Ian replied pitilessly. “Be easier on our kind if we didn’t need human blood, but we do, and you’re no exception.”

“Even if I wouldn’t hurt them, I refuse to force anyone to give me their blood by ripping away their willpower,” my mother said. “So unless I start stealing from blood banks, I don’t see another solution.”

“Drink me.”

My head swung in Tyler’s direction with almost the same amount of disbelief my mother showed. Tyler shrugged.

“None of her concerns apply with me because I’m offering, so she won’t be ripping away my willpower, and she damn sure won’t be holding me down and tearing open my anything.”

“Are you sure?” I’d hate for him to feel pressured because he was the only person here with a pulse. We could make other arrangements. Lots of vampires had willing donors. A few phone calls, and we could have a donor here although that person would have to leave right away because of Kramer and his whole kill first, say hello later tendency.

“I’d rather have her drink a little from me now with someone here to control her than sit around waiting for her to lose it again.” Then Tyler’s stare turned pointed as he looked at my mother. “And you will lose it again. You’re already looking at me like I’m a big juicy steak. Can’t kick you out, either. Cat would just worry herself sick about you and every other fool near enough for you to bite.”

Then he turned to Bones, folding his arms. This offer ain’t free, but we’ll talk price when Mama’s not here, and so you know? I don’t come cheap, he thought at him in a clear, concise way.

I had no qualms about paying him. That seemed a far better trade than Tyler’s offering out of guilt or compulsion. The barest smile touched Bones’s mouth. He nodded once, and Tyler rolled up his sleeve, holding his bare arm out.