I let the single word trail off. Bones gave me an ironic smile.
“Better than ‘rack off,’ as it were.”
“I understand why you did it, but we need to find a way to get past this sort of thing,” I said in a rush. “Protecting the other person from what we assume he or she can’t handle, I mean. I didn’t think you could handle Don and my mother years ago, so I left, but I should have trusted you to make that decision for yourself. Just like you should have trusted me to decide about this.”
Bones snorted in disbelief. “You’re comparing my leaving you for one night to you disappearing on me for over four years?”
I felt a flush rise in my face. “Well, no…er, I mean, the principle’s the same,” I stammered. “What I did was wrong and stupid and I can honestly say I regret it more than anything in my life. But tonight you didn’t give me a choice, Bones.”
I paused, taking a deep breath and trying to let my eyes convey what I was having a hard time articulating.
“If you would haveasked me not to go, for the same reasons youordered me not to, I would have been okay with it. I would have still thought you were being paranoid, but it wouldn’t have made me feel like you were pulling a ‘me big bad vampire, you silly little girl’ routine.”
Bones shot me a frustrated look. “Of course I don’t think you’re a silly little girl.”
He began to pace. I watched him, saying nothing.
“I’m very weary of being the reason you need to be strong,” he said, his eyes edging with green. “Because of me, you dangled yourself out as bait to a group of murdering white slavers years ago. You had to drive a car through a house to rescue your mum-while covered in your grandparents’ blood. You took a job with Don that’s nearly gotten you killed countless times. All because of me.”
He stopped pacing to come over to me, grasping my shoulders.
“I am well sick of seeing you forced to prove your strength on my behalf, so I didn’t want you to do it yet again with Max. Can’t you understand that?”
I covered his hands with mine. “Yes. But you didn’t make me do any of those things, Bones. Even if I’d never met you, I’d still be going after vampires, and I wouldstill have to handle the consequences of that.”
He was silent for a long moment, staring into my eyes with that hard, penetrating gaze of his. Then at last, he gave a short nod.
“All right, luv. Next time I’ll give you the choice, not make the decision for you.”
I gave his hands a squeeze. “I promise not to decide things for you again, either.”
His mouth twisted. “Turns out I’ll be the first to make good on my word over this new accord. There have been some developments. Max gave us the name of the chap who sold him the missile he was going to use on your car.”
“Do you know where he is now?”
“Yes.”
I felt cold anticipation at the thought of confronting that person.
“I’m going with you.”
Bones’s expression said he hadn’t expected any other response.
“Tomorrow.”
This was my third trip to Canada. I’d traveled there on missions for Don, but maybe one day I’d get to just visit Niagara Falls as a tourist and not kill anything.
I sat in a van with my companions. Dave was half a mile away, negotiating the sale of three hundred surface- to-air missiles, five hundred grenades, and three high-powered explosives. He was acting as the front man, since Bones was much more recognizable. With Dave’s extensive military background, he could talk shop with the best of the black market arms dealers. Even now they were quarreling over the grade of plastique for the potential car bombs.
No one spoke in the van. We could hear every word ourselves, so that meant any undead ears trained in our direction could as well. Cooper and Juan rechecked their machine guns, which were equipped with silver bullets. That modified ammunition wouldn’t kill any ghouls, but it would make a vampire’s day very unpleasant. Our numbers were low for a reason. Less chance of getting noticed that way.
Spade was there, picking at his fingernails as the time ticked by. He wasn’t carrying a gun. Master vampires like him and Bones didn’t need to, since they were weapons themselves. Deadly ones.
The modified bulletproof bodysuit I wore chafed underneath my clothes. It was the newest thing, a thin, flexible piece that covered all the major organs and looked like a medieval teddy. Of course, if my head got blown off, it wouldn’t do me any good, but the rest of me was protected. Cooper and Juan were also outfitted with the same material. Range of motion was greatly increased with this versus the old bulky vests.
“…not going to give you a fucking dime, this is not the product we agreed on,” Dave was saying. “I’m supposed to go back to my client and tell them maybe the trigger mechanism will work or maybe it won’t, praise Allah and it will. You stupid amateurs. There is so much shit for sale now, I don’t need to pussy around with this Blue Light Special quality at Rembrandt prices, so fuck off and have a nice day.”
He must have started to walk away, because there was a scurry of footsteps behind him.
“Wait a moment. Perhaps we could discuss-” the agitated bargainer began before he was cut off by a laugh. Bones stiffened beside me, and Spade perked up. This must be our target.
“Harrison, I’ll take it from here,” a cool voice interrupted.
We slid the van door open and crept out. Spade and Bones went first, their lack of heartbeats being an advantage. The rest of us would follow after the attack started. The element of surprise was priceless.
“Who are you?” Dave asked, sounding annoyed. “Another lackey?”
“I’m Domino, and yes, I am the boss,” was the icy reply. “You must excuse this sample of material. It was a test. Occasionally we get undercover officers posing as buyers, but they can’t tell the difference between a bomb or a basket. You clearly know your merchandise, however. Even if I’ve never heard of you.”
This last part was colder than the first, and with open suspicion. Dave grunted.
“How many undercover agents have you had poking around your business that lost their pulses? Last I checked, the police academy hasn’t called for undead admissions.”
“Ah, but there is always a first time, isn’t there? Now then, I have other business to attend to. Logan, bring out the other crates. We need to finish this up-”
Domino stopped speaking just before the explosion. He must have felt them coming before the two bombs that had been thrown into the warehouse detonated. The staccato burst of gunfire that erupted along with screams let me know there were more inside than we’d figured.
Juan, Cooper, and I sprinted toward the structure where flames were now leaping into the night. Keeping our heads down, we returned fire. In the blackness, I saw human and undead defenders trying to locate the cause of the bodies on the ground. Our ma chine guns crackling in the dark had two advantages. They kept the guards’ attention on us while Spade and Bones slaughtered, and we took out several targets more at the same time. Dave had two primary goals in the melee of violence around him-keep Domino from getting killed, or getting away.
Juan grinned wolfishly and chanted unknown taunts in Spanish as we breached the perimeter. Cooper was cooler, methodical even as he sighted down his marks with admirable accuracy. He had a slight curl to his lips. For him, that was the equivalent of cackling glee.
Once close enough, I threw the gun away in favor of my knives, which were my favorite weapon. Almost as fast as I’d fired the bullets, I threw off silver blades at the remaining two dozen fighters. The humans were easy to drop, clawing at chests as the knives sank home.
Someone jumped me from behind, knocking me down. I wrestled him, holding his snapping fangs at bay. The vampire had a look of disbelief, then his features began to shrivel as I jammed a dagger through his heart. Chucking him off, I whirled to face the next one.
It was a human about to fire point-blank in my direction. I spun in a midair cartwheel to avoid the bullets, savagely amused by the dumbfounded expression he wore as none of them hit me. I wrenched the gun out of the man’s hands and turned it on him. A few short bursts later and he was dead on the ground.
The next three vampires were all of lesser ages and powers. I dispatched them
