straight at the man who raised the knife even as I crashed into him. The force of my velocity bashed both of us through the wall in an expulsion of concrete. Before I allowed myself to think, I jammed one of my silver knives into the form scrambling away. I didn’t have time to wonder what part of him I’d pierced, or why the hell it wasn’t Doc, because he was yanked out. Just as swiftly my legs were tugged on next, and I was plunked out of the new hole in the wall.
Above Tate’s panicked cries of “Cat! Cat!” I heard Vlad’s cool voice.
“You’re holding the wrong man, Bones, and you owe Cat your life.”
“Kitten, are you all right?”
Bones had Doc gripped in such a way that it stalled my response. Or maybe belated dizziness from the impact of my head smashing through solid concrete was to blame. I shook some of the blood off my forehead and accepted Spade’s hand to help me to my feet. The small room was shoulder to shoulder with people.
“I’m fine,” I managed. “He was going to stab you.”
“No, Doc was going to shoot Rattler again, weren’t you, mate?”
Bones asked it with caressing menace as he tightened his grip. I winced and instinctively straightened my spine. Doc couldn’t; his was bent at the opposite angle. Bones had him folded like a backward sandwich.
“Bones!” He looked up from sharpness of my tone. “Rattlerwas going to stab you.”
“She’s right,” Tate said, pulling on his restraints. “He stabbed Annette, is she okay?”
“I have her,” Mencheres replied from outside the cell. “Zero, go fetch a human. She needs blood. Annette, don’t move. This will hurt…”
Underneath the rest of the uproar her low, pained voice penetrated. It was irregularly spaced but audible, and everyone shut up as her words became clear.
“…Crispin…it was Rattler-ah! Christ, that’s excruciating…Doc shot him…when he stabbed me…is that bloody blade out yet, Mencheres, I can’t bear to look…”
Bones released Doc. Vlad held Rattler in a punishing embrace, one hand on the silver knife I’d lodged in his chest, which was very close to his heart. Bones pushed past the people in the cramped space until he was in the hallway, kneeling by Annette’s crumpled form.
“Don’t move, sweet,” he said with the soothing cadence one would use on a child. “There, feel my hand? It’s almost over, squeeze very hard…”
With precision delicacy, Mencheres drew the wicked-looking silver blade from her chest. A laser beam would have been sloppier. The reason for his caution was obvious-she’d been skewered straight though the heart and any sideways motion would finish her. I held my breath as the last inch left her chest, because despite it all, I admired Annette. When it was out and she made a grunt of pain, sitting up, I let out my breath. It seemed everyone did, even those who didn’t breathe.
Zero came back, holding a wide-eyed teenager under his arm. Bones moved to allow the young man to be deposited next to her, and Annette latched her mouth onto him the next moment. Her hand still was curled around Bones’s and he brought it to his lips before letting her go and standing with grim purpose.
Doc stood also now, his spine having healed in the interim. He went to Annette, who just released the teenage boy with a last lick of her lips. Zero supported him as he lurched away. I hoped they had a good supply of iron pills here.
Doc stretched and his back made an audible crack.
“Think the last of them settled back into place. Bones, don’t try to play chiropractor with me again. After all, I’m the only certified medical professional in this room.”
“You were a bleedin’ dentist, and a rotten one from what I hear. Still, you are without a doubt the fastest shooter I’ve seen anywhere in any era, and I shall be grateful to you the rest of my days.” Bones glanced at Vlad next. “Pull that knife out of Rattler once my wife is clear of his reach.” To Spade, he said simply, “Let Tate loose.”
The clanking of irons was the only sound now as Spade released Tate from his restraints. Once free, Tate stretched in much the same manner Doc had, only with a lot less graciousness for his rough treatment.
“Told you it wasn’t me.”
“I knew you suspected me,” Doc said. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable this morning, Cat, but Rattler had been skulking around the side of the house after you. He knew I saw him, and it made him des perate. I followed him down here just in time to see him stab Annette. At least my bullets kept him from finishing her.”
Bones laid his hand on Doc’s shoulder. “Take Annette out of here, and once again, you have my deepest gratitude.”
After the two of them left, Bones turned to Vlad with a cold smile. “Let’s fill that vacancy on the wall, shall we?”
There was a matching smile on the former prince’s lips as the two of them strapped Rattler into the same clamps that had held Tate.
“You must be hungry,” I said to Tate, who’d gone to my side as soon as he was released. “They’re stocked here, believe me. Have someone show you.”
Tate rubbed his arms, as if he could still feel those clamps biting into them. “It can wait. Your head’s bleeding.”
“I’ll tend to her.”
With Rattler bound, Bones came to me, pressing his lips against the wound in my crown.
“You could have cracked your skull like an egg smashing into that wall, let alone the risk of getting shot. Mule- headed woman, at least it appears your stubbornness is well protected by a thick layer of bone. Have I thanked you yet for your reckless disregard of my directive to stay upstairs?”
“No,” I said with a small smile.
Bones set me back, pulling a knife from his pants. “I will. Promise.”
He cut his palm and placed it over my head. The tingling sensation was almost instant as my flesh healed. With a last brush of his lips, he let me go, and turned to the vampire who was the center of attention.
“Why?”
It was asked with the threat of punishment and the pain of betrayal combined. Rattler dropped his gaze.
Spade rammed his elbow so hard into Rattler’s rib cage that half his arm disappeared from sight.
“You were asked a question, Walter!”
Walter, a.k.a. Rattler, gave a gasp of pain even as Bones laid a hand on Spade.
“It’s all right, mate. We’ll give him a chance to confess without bloodying him first.” Then to Rattler, with a much harder tone.
“You know how this will go down. No matter how brave you fancy yourself, everyone breaks eventually. So you will either detail exactly when, why, and how you threw your lot in with Patra with all your limbs and skin attached…or with new parts growing as fast as we can tear them off.”
For once, such a grim pronouncement didn’t fill me with the slightest bit of compassion. It was all I could do not to fling myself on Rattler and start ripping him to pieces just for the sheer enjoyment of it.
“Was it for money?” I hissed. “All that gold and glory she promised? Is that it, were you just greedy?”
“I don’t care about money.” Whether it was spoken to me or Bones was a toss-up; Rattler glanced at both of us. “I did what I had to do for love.”
“For love?” I repeated. “You’re in love with Patra? Then you’re stupid as well as a backstabbing asshole.”
“Not Patra. For Vivienne.”
“Patra killed Vivienne, why would you-” Bones began, and then stopped. He shook his head with a sound that was much too callous to be laughter.
“Ah, I see. All this time, then? You told me Vivi enne had been slain months ago. I grieved with you, you sod, and all the while you were waiting for your chance!”
It clicked then. I remembered the explosion at Mencheres’s house caused by vampires who’d turned themselves into walking bombs all for the sake of whoever Patra had kidnapped beforehand. Seems Patra had done the same with Rattler by kidnapping someone he loved to get him to betray Bones. What a truly vile person Patra was. If possible, I hated her even more.
“How do you even know Vivienne’s still alive?” Bones asked.
