Destined for an Early Grave

“It’s Spade,” Vlad answered with the mouthpiece covered. Then, “Yes…I know…no, we have the fuel…She wants to speak to Bones…um hmm, quite. We’ll be there in three hours.”

He hung up, and I blinked. “He’s not there?”

Vlad folded his phone and set it back in his coat. The look he gave me was filled with irony.

“Spade didn’t feel it would be a good idea to have you speak with him. He’s probably going to spend the next three hours trying to calm Bones down.”

“He’s really angry, I know, but it looked like they were all going to get killed. What was I supposed to do?”

“You both made your choices,” Vlad observed. “Whatever the consequences, it’s done. Really, Bones surprised me with this whole endeavor. I didn’t think he was so clever, but he’s shown his best potential in the last couple years.”

“How?” I was feeling ill as I thought of the inevitable confrontation.

“First of all, using mercenaries.” Vlad smiled wickedly. “Very enterprising, but I suppose he knew most of them from his hit-man days. If he’d rounded up over a hundred of the strongest members in his line, Gregor would have heard about that and smelled a trap. But paid killers, accountable to no one? Who notices when scores of them go off the radar?”

“Bones has always been smart,” I muttered. “His intelligence was just camouflaged under a mountain of pussy.”

Vlad laughed before he sobered. “Perhaps, but now he’s displaying his ruthlessness as well. He’s chopped off a head an hour from Gregor’s ghouls since you’ve been gone, promising to decapitate the lot of them unless he gets you back.”

“What?”

That bolted me up in my chair. Granted, the undead didn’t play by normal rules of engagement, but they were pretty consistent when it came to battle prisoners. Those were taken hostage and traded or bargained for later. Oh, things might get creative when it came to extracting information, but since no permanent damage could be done to the undead, barring mental trauma, that was just the norm. Bones callously slaughtering his captives? I was shocked.

Vlad wasn’t. He looked mildly intrigued. “As I said, rare form, which is why Gregor let you go without a fuss. If he hadn’t, he’d have trouble the next time he enlisted other people to fight for him. But enough of that. You don’t look well.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “You think? My husband can’t come to the phone because he’s too busy slicing off heads, and here’s the punch line! He’s not really my —”

“Don’t say it.”

Vlad cut me off. His expression turned deadly serious.

“Knowing and admitting are two separate things. Gregor still wants your public acknowledgment as proof. Don’t give it to him.”

“Where do you stand in this?” I asked quietly.

It was more than putting him on the spot, but I couldn’t help it. I knew Vlad wouldn’t demur in giving me his true position, no matter what it was.

He considered me. Vlad Tepesh wasn’t a classically handsome man like some of the hunks who’d played Dracula in the movies. His face was oval; lips thin, with deep-set eyes, a wider forehead, and a tight beard. He was lean, too, and he stood an even six feet tall. But none of those actors had Vlad’s presence. What he might have lacked in perfection of features he made up for in sheer magnetism.

At last he took my hand. His were scarred in multiple places, as well as being more dangerous than his fangs, since they were the outlet of Vlad’s pyrokinesis, but Vlad didn’t frighten me. He should have, but he didn’t.

“I feel a connection to you, as I once told you. It’s not love, it’s not attraction, and I won’t sacrifice myself for you, but if you needed me, and it was possible for me to help you, like today, I’d come. Whichever side you called me from.”

I squeezed his hand once before letting go. “Thank you.”

He settled back more comfortably in his chair. “You’re welcome.”

SEVENTEEN

WE DIDN’T RETURN TO THE HOUSE IN Bavaria. Granted, from the air I couldn’t be sure that we weren’t in Bavaria, but it wasn’t the same place I’d left. Not having my pills, I just shut my eyes as we landed, then took a car the rest of the way. Even if I’d had them, I’d decided not to take the pills anymore. Gregor couldn’t pull me out of a dream unless I helped him, and I sure wasn’t going to do that again. Besides, I wondered if those pills were making me ill, because as Vlad noticed, I felt like hell. I’d have to call Don and ask if there were side effects from taking them.

Spade was the first person I saw when I opened my eyes after Vlad led me into the house. He stood in the foyer with his arms crossed, wearing a truly resigned expression.

“You shouldn’t have left.”

“Where’s Bones?”

I wasn’t about to get into it with Spade. Yeah, I had it coming, but there was only one person entitled to give it to me. The fact that Bones hadn’t come out when he heard me arrive spoke volumes. He must be really pissed.

Spade glanced to his left. “Follow the music.”

Piano music played in the general direction Spade indicated. Maybe Bones was listening to a relaxing CD. One could only hope it had improved his temperament.

“Thanks.” I headed past the next few rooms toward the sound.

When I entered what appeared to be a large library, I saw the music was coming from a piano, not a CD. Bones was bent over it, his back to me, pale fingers gliding expertly over the keys.

“Hi,” I said, after standing there several heartbeats without him even turning around. Going to ignore me, was he? Not if I could help it. I’d rather get this over with than prolong it.

“I didn’t know you could play,” I tried again, coming closer.

When I got near enough to feel his vibe, I stopped. Bones felt wound enough to explode, though the music coming from his hands was serene. Chopin, maybe. Or Mozart.

“Why are you here?”

He asked it with deceptive gentleness, not missing a note or looking up. The question startled me.

“B-because you are,” I said, cursing myself for stuttering like an intimidated teenager. I’d had enough of that.

Bones still didn’t look up. “If you’ve come to say goodbye, you needn’t bother. I don’t need a tearful explanation. Just walk out the same way you came in.”

A lump rocketed up in my throat. “Bones, that’s not—”

“Don’t touch me!”

I’d been about to smooth my hand across his back when he knocked my arm away so hard, it spun me. Now Bones was looking at me, and the rage in his gaze pinned me where I was.

“No. You don’t get to stroll in here stinking of Gregor, then lay your hands on me.” Each word was a measured, furious growl. “I’ve endured quite enough of being patronized. You treat me as if I was a feeble human who couldn’t survive without your help, but I am a Master bloody vampire.”

That last part was shouted. I flinched. Bones flexed his hands, seeming to get a handle on himself. Then he spoke the next part through gritted teeth.

“If it were my wish, I could rip you apart with my bare hands. Yes, you’re strong. You’re quick. But not strong enough or fast enough that I couldn’t kill you if I had a mind to. Yet despite this, you continue to treat me with the contempt you’d show an inferior. I’ve brushed it off. Told myself it didn’t matter, but no more. Yesterday, you believed in Gregor more than me. You left me to go to him, and there is no overlooking that, so I ask you again, why are you here?”

“I’m here because I love you and we’re…” I was about to say, we’re married, but the words choked me. No, I’d proven to myself that we weren’t, as far as vampires were concerned.

Bones let out a cold snort. “I won’t stand for this. I’m not going to hold you in my arms and wonder if I’m the one you’re really thinking about.”

“Bones, you know that isn’t true!” I was anguished at the accusation. “I love you, you know that. And if you didn’t know it, God, you could look for yourself and see—”

“Only shadows,” he ruthlessly interrupted. “Glimpses when your guard was down, when that bloody wall you hide behind wasn’t blocking me. I have been open with you about all of me, even the worst of me, because I thought you deserved no less, but you don’t hold me in the same regard. No, you reserved that for Gregor. You trusted him enough to leave everything at his word. Well, luv, I bow when I am beaten, and Gregor has defeated me in a grand style. He’s the one you respect. He’s who you trust, so if you’re not leaving, I am.”

Cold swept over me, and the lump in my throat grew reinforcements. This wasn’t a fight. This was something far worse.

“You’re leaving me?”

He sat back down on the piano bench. Almost idly, his fingers flicked the keys.

“I can stand many things.”

His voice was harsh in its emotionlessness. I recoiled from it. For a second, I was afraid of him.

“Many things,” he continued. “I can stand your affection for Tate, much as I despise him. Your repeated jealousies over other women, even when I have given you no cause, for I’d be the same way in your place. I can stand your insistence to participate in dangerous situations that are way over your head, for again, that is also my nature. All of these things ate at me, but for you, I chose to stand them.”

Now he stood. That calm, apathetic tone vanished, and his voice rose with each passing word.

“I also chose to stand the things you didn’t admit to, like when you secretly wondered if Gregor had made you happier than I had. I could even tolerate the real reason you didn’t want to change over, the real reason you clung to your heartbeat. I could stand to know that deep down, there’s a part of you that still believes all vampires are evil!”