One Foot in the Grave

I told Don you had to be informed, whereas you didn’t give me the same courtesy!”

“Is this some sort of payback?” he asked low.

The pain in his eyes had little to do with this latest revelation and everything to do with my previous admission. Right then I saw what I’d been blind to before. God, Tate was in love with me. It was so clear, even I couldn’t fail to notice.

“No, it has nothing to do with that.” No need to lie there. “It has nothing to do with any of you, and that’s the way it stays.”

“There is no way I will allow this behavior to continue,” Don stated flatly. “Too many lives are at risk, and I care about that even if you don’t.”

I stood and loomed over him. “Fuck you, boss. I care about each and every man in my unit, and I’ve proved that countless times. You don’t believe me? Then fire me.”

“Querida, don’t be so hasty,” Juan implored. Don hadn’t moved. “We’re concerned for you; what if this vamp finds out what you are-”

“He knows,” I interrupted.

Don cursed freely. That made me blink. He never lost his cool.

“How does he know that, Cat? You told him? Did you draw him a fucking map of our location and numbers as well? I hope he’s amazing in bed, because you’ve just ruined everything we’ve worked for!”

“No, I didn’t tell him.” As I spoke, I improvised. “I met him years ago. He knew what I was from back then, and he left Ohio before all that shit went down. I hadn’t seen him until a month ago when I ran into him around here. He’s only a hundred and I’m stronger than he is, so he knows to keep his trap shut or I’ll kill him. There you have it.”

“How could you do it?” This from Tate, who gave me a faintly disgusted glare. “How could you fuck a corpse? You really went from one extreme to the other. First Noah, then right to necrophilia!”

That pissed me off. “Does everybody forget I’m half vampire? When you say shit about the undead, you’re also talking about me! It’s like skinheads trying to convince Halle Berry to march in their neo-nazi parade! How could I do it? Why don’t you tell me, Tate? Or you, Juan? Both of you have tried to fuck me. Guess that makes you necrophiliacs as well.”

It was a low blow, but one that was deliberate. They had to stop seeing all vampires as evil, and God knew that was a tough habit to break. After all, it had taken me years to be less narrow-minded, and I’d been in love with one.

Don coughed, not liking the direction of the conversation. “No one forgets what you are. However, it doesn’t change what your mission is. You kill the undead. All of you do. This is a momentous task with great responsibility. What’s to stop your lover from doing his kind a favor by informing them where the elusive Red Reaper lives? After all, if you’re dead, then you can hardly threaten him.”

“Juan, how many different women have you slept with in the past four years?” I abruptly asked.

He scratched his chin. “Yo no se, querida, perhaps…about one a week?” he answered before Don gave him a censuring glare.

“That’s not necessary!”

“I think it is,” I said sharply. “One a week, give or take. That’s over two hundred different women in the past four years he’s worked here, and on a side note: Juan, you’re a slut. But how many of them were carefully screened to ensure they weren’t a Renfield, or some ghoul’s underling? You sexist bastards, I’m the only one called on the carpet for who I date! Well, I’ve had enough of this little chastity session. Don, it comes down to this. You either trust me or you don’t. I’ve never let you down, and I won’t walk away unless you make me. Period. Now, unless you have a real emergency, I’d like to get back to my vacation. And my corpse, thanks.”

I marched to the door, but Tate didn’t move from in front of it.

“Get out of my way,” I said with an undertone of menace.

“Cat.” Don got up and lightly took my elbow. “If we have nothing to fear from your association with this vampire, then you won’t mind stopping by the lab for a blood sample. You haven’t been indiscriminately drinking blood, have you?”

I snorted. “Not my beverage of choice, sorry. But if it’ll make you feel better to check my lab work, fine. Lead the way.”

“I’ll be frank with you,” Don said as we walked to the second level, Tate and Juan following. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about this. I have the team to consider. I’m not comfortable risking their lives on only your word that this creature isn’t dangerous.”

“That’s where the trust part comes in. Besides, if he wanted to hurt the team, he could have done that last weekend at the GiGi Club. Don’t fuck up a good thing because of blind prejudice, Don. We both know you need me.”

He regarded me as I stepped into the lab. “I want to believe you can’t be turned against us. But I don’t know if I can.”

Later, after a spot processing proved I wasn’t hyped full of nosferatu juice, Tate walked me to my car. He hadn’t said a word since Don’s office, and I didn’t speak, either. They were letting me go, but I knew nothing had really been settled. That was okay-I had nothing to hide now. Well, almost nothing.

Tate opened my door out of polite habit. I slid inside but didn’t shut it. His fingers tapped on my roof.

“I bet you thought that was poetic justice, me not knowing about how much longer I could live. I told Don to tell you about your aging three years ago, when they were sure. He disagreed, and he’s the boss. Sometimes you just have to follow orders, even if you don’t want to.”

“Sometimes.” I stared at him without blinking. “Not always. Not when it affects your friends, but we have different opinions about that.”

“Yeah, well, we have different opinions about a lot of things.” Dark blue eyes met mine. “You really handed me my ass in there. First you casually admit to having a vampire boyfriend, then you tell everyone I tried to fuck you. What’s next? You going to whip out a dick and say you’re really a man?”

His sour tone didn’t lend to humor, but I smiled slightly. “Back me into a corner and I come out clawing. You know that. I wish all of you would just have a little faith. I care about my team and the job I do. If I didn’t, why would I put up with this shit?”

His mouth twisted. “You might have Don fooled, Cat, but not me. I saw your face tonight. You’ve never smiled at anyone the way you smiled at that vampire. That’s why I don’t trust you not to get in over your head. You already are.”

TWENTY

BONES SHOWED UP PROMPTLY AT SEVEN THE next night. We had plans to have an early dinner and then escape-until the following morning, anyway. As soon as I’d left the compound the previous evening, Don put round-the-clock surveillance on me. That had been a mood kill, to say the least. They probably had microphones pointed at my house, too, for maximum spying potential.

It pissed me off no end. What did Don think, that if left unsupervised, I’d hold undead rallies to give every pulseless person within a hundred miles a blueprint of his compound? If Don didn’t have such a strong “greater good” agenda, I might have quit my job right then and there.

I was still scowling over it all when I opened the door to let Bones in…and then I stopped and gawked at him.

He wore tailored black pants and a dark blue shirt, his skin radiating against the deep-colored fabric. A black leather jacket was slung loosely over his shoulders and complemented his ensemble. It was the jacket itself that held my attention. It was long, trailing almost down to his calves.

“Holy shit, is that what I think it is?” I blurted.

Bones grinned and did a circle. “You like? After all, you kept your Christmas present”-he nodded to the Volvo in my driveway-“so it only seemed fair to retrieve mine, especially since you took