She cocked the gun. “Come on, Cathy. Don’t make this messy.”
“You won’t shoot, your neighbors would hear,” I said, keeping my voice calm while wondering what in the name of God was going on.
Her finger tapped the side of the barrel. “Silencer. They won’t hear a thing.”
My gaze narrowed as a thought occurred to me. “Did Bones put you up to this?”
“Who?” she asked in annoyance.
From her expression, she’d never heard of him, and that chilled me. If this wasn’t another of his little tests, or if she wasn’t pulling some kind of twisted sorority prank, then this was the real deal.
I picked my words very carefully. “I don’t have any money or drugs, so you’re wasting your time. Just put the gun down and I’ll walk out of here and not call the police.”
She came closer. Only about six feet separated us. “College girls, you’re all the same. You think you’re so smart, but when the time comes, I have to spell everything out like I plucked you from preschool. I should just tape-record myself and play it to you bitches so I don’t have to keep saying everything over and over again! All right, listen up, stupid! I’m going to give you to the count of three to put those cuffs on, and if you don’t, then I’m going to shoot you. First round goes in your leg. One…two…three.”
The gun went off, but I lunged away before she’d finished speaking. Holy shit, whatever this was, she meant business! If I hadn’t moved, she would have plugged a hole in me!
Stephanie fired again with a curse, clearly not expecting my speed. I jumped her, grabbing for the gun. To my shock, she was far stronger than I’d anticipated. We fell to the floor, rolling, the gun in between us, each of us tugging roughly for it. When it went off again, I froze.
Her eyes were as wide as they could be, and staring straight into mine. Something warm spilled onto me. I pushed back, letting the gun slide from my numb fingers, and watched as the blood spread in a widening pool around her chest.
My hand came to my mouth in horror and I scooted back until I felt the wall behind me. Stephanie made a noise that was half grunt, half sigh. Then she stopped moving altogether.
I didn’t need to check her pulse-I’d heard her heart stop. For a few moments that seemed to stretch into forever, I stared at her. In the apartments around us, no one noticed a thing. She was right. The gun had a silencer. Its muffling abilities had worked as described.
In a daze, I went over to her lovely wicker nightstand and picked up the phone, dialing the only number I could think of. When I heard his voice, my composure cracked, and I started to shake.
“Bones, I-I just killed someone!”
He didn’t ask any of the questions that would have been first on my list. Like, What’s wrong with you? or Did you call the police? Bones only asked where I was and then told me not to move. I was still holding the phone when he arrived ten minutes later. I hadn’t moved, all right. I was barely even breathing.
The sight of him coming into the bedroom filled me with profound relief. If Stephanie had been a vampire, I would have been just fine. I’d wrap up her body, drive her out into the woods, and bury her in a deserted spot without missing a beat. This, however, was different. I’d taken a life, and I had no idea what to do about it.
“What have you touched?” was his first question as he knelt in front of me.
I tried to think. That was asking a lot at the moment.
“Um…the phone…maybe the edge of the dresser or her nightstand…that’s it. I’d just gotten here when she started acting nuts and saying these awful things…”
Bones took the phone from me. “It’s not safe here. One of them could return at any moment.”
“One of whom? She doesn’t have any roommates,” I protested, watching as he unhooked the phone from the wall and put it in a large garbage bag.
“This place stinks like vampires,” he said shortly. “We have to tidy up and leave.”
That got me to my feet. “Vampires! But she didn’t…she wasn’t-”
“What did she say about Hennessey?” he cut me off.
Now I felt completely lost. “Hennessey? Hennessey? He has nothing to do with this!”
“Like hell he doesn’t,” Bones growled, stripping Stephanie’s comforter off the bed and wrapping her in it, cocoon-style. “He’s one of the people I smell. Him, or someone who’s had contact with him. His scent’s here.”
My head started to pound. This was like a bad dream. Bones finished rolling up Stephanie and then began filling that garbage bag with her stuff. Schoolbooks. Folders, papers. He rifled quickly through her drawers and added other various items. I wasn’t much help. I just stood there, making sure my hands didn’t stray to leave any incriminating fingerprints.
He left me to check the living room and returned with the bag even bulkier.
“Take this, luv.”
The garbage bag was handed off to me. I had to hug it to hold it, fearing the plastic would rip from its weight. Bones then took one of her shirts and began briskly rubbing down the dressers, doorframes, end tables, and doorknobs. After he was satisfied, he hefted the lump of blankets that was Stephanie and threw her over his shoulder.
“Nice and quick to your truck, Kitten. Don’t look around, just march right to it and get in the passenger seat. I’ll be right behind you.”
TWELVE
W E STOPPED ONCE ON OUR WAY TO THE CAVE. Bones made a call on his cell, and then he pulled over off by the side of the road near the darkest, most wooded part. It wasn’t five minutes before a car pulled up behind us.
“Hiya, buddy!” Ted called out.
“Prompt as ever, mate,” Bones greeted him, getting out of my truck. He went around to the trailer bed and I heard his motorcycle being moved. He’d laid it over Stephanie’s body. She wasn’t going to blow off with that thing holding her down.
I stayed in the truck, not in the mood for chitchatting.
“Whatcha got there?” Ted asked, giving me a friendly wave over Bones’s shoulder.
“Dinner for whichever ghoul you feel like rewarding, but make sure they clean their plate. I don’t want any part of her resurfacing,” Bones replied.
My stomach heaved. God, talk about disposing of a body! I’d assumed we would bury her. Serving her up to a ghoul had never occurred to me.
Ted didn’t share any of my qualms. “You betcha, bud. Anything I should warn them about?”
“Yeah.” Bones handed the bundle over and Ted plopped her in his trunk. “Tell them not to chip a tooth on the bullet.”
That was it for me. I opened the truck door just in time, the evening’s events slamming into me and heaving out of my stomach in a rush.
“She all right?” I heard Ted ask as I coughed and drew in deep breaths.
Bones made a sound similar to a sigh. “She will be. Have to be off, mate. Thanks.”
“Sure thing, bud. Anytime.”
I closed my door just as Bones climbed back in. Ted’s headlights flashed as he backed up, and then he was gone.
Bones reached inside his jacket and handed me a flask. “Whiskey. Not your favorite, but it’s all I’ve got.”
I took the bottle gratefully and gulped until there was no more. The liquor’s artificial warmth began to thaw the ice in my limbs.
“Better?”
“Yeah.”
My voice was scratchy from the lingering burn of the alcohol, but it had helped in more ways than one. That numbing shock was fading, replaced instead with a slew of questions.
“No more cryptic shit, Bones. Who is Hennessey, and what’s he got to do with a gun-toting psychotic from my
