Magic Grave

Bones tugged my hand. 'This shouldn't take too long, Kitten.'

We left Tammy on the dance floor with the ghoul to head toward the glittering blue bartender and the gray- haired undead gossip.

*** *** ***

I sat a few seats away from Bones at the bar, dividing my attention between eavesdropping on him and keeping an eye on Tammy. So far, she seemed to be fine, and Verses had been right; the wrinkled vampire next to Bones didn't need much prodding to start chattering. Bones let him pick the topics for the first half hour or so, then he turned the conversation.

'Bloody economy's got us all buggered,' Bones declared, draining his whisky in one gulp. 'Take me. Three years ago, I'm living the posh life off my investments. Today, I'm guarding a human to scrape by. Like to stake myself and save the embarrassment, I would.'

Poppy snickered. 'What're you guarding a human against? Tax evasion?'

They both laughed, and then Bones lowered his voice conspiratorially. 'No, mate, against her relative. In truth, I wonder if I shouldn't be on the other side of this coin.'

Even across the bar, I could see the gleam of interest in Poppy's eyes. 'What other side?'

Bones leaned in, lowering his voice even further until I could barely hear him. 'The side that gets paid more if the whiny brat dies. Faith, if I knew how to contact the chit's smarmy cousin, I'd take that job instead of the one I've got. Then I'd get a meal out of it to boot.'

Poppy chewed on his drink straw. 'Can't ya find out from the girl where this relative is?'

'She doesn't know. Believe me, I asked with the brights on.' Bones tapped under his eye for emphasis. 'I can't take another month of this. I'll eat her and then get no bloody money from anyone.'

Poppy glanced around. I looked away, pretending to study my drink. When I strained, I caught his reply.

'Had a fellow here last night. He's in the population reduction business, if you know what I mean, and he was laughin' about this job where hired meat tried to use a bone muncher to tidy things up on a contract that was runnin' long. You'll never guess what happened. Somehow, the bone muncher ends up dead. Dead! Then the mark disappears. The way I heard it, now the meat's worried about his contract gettin' cancelled.'

Forty minutes later, this finally pays off, I thought.

'You hear the name of this meat?' Bones asked casually. 'I might be interested in helping him out once I'm finished with this job.'

'Think I heard the fellow call him Serpentine. Isn't that funny? The meat renamed himself just like he's a vampire.'

Serpentine. I'd have Don burning up the computers on that alias as soon as we got home.

'Ah, mate, I owe you. Next round's on me.'

Bones stayed another twenty minutes, letting Poppy ramble more until I fantasized about wrapping duct tape around the vampire's mouth. Finally, Bones feigned regret over needing to leave, but told Poppy he'd be back next weekend. And complained about how he'd have the bratty heiress with him.

My brows rose. What are you up to, Bones?

Chapter Six

I pulled the clothes out of the dryer and stifled a curse. Bleach stains everywhere. Tammy was twenty; how could she not know how to do a load of laundry without ruining everything?

Still, at least Tammy was doing her own laundry now. Or trying to. That was the result of my mother's influence. Twenty years of spoiled rich bitch didn't stand a chance against forty-six years of farm-reared discipline. Even though I was much closer to Tammy's age and my mother made Tammy do things that caused the blonde to wail, to my surprise, my mother was the person Tammy seemed to have bonded with.

Perhaps that was my fault. Maybe I was so used to being in a search-and-destroy mode that I couldn't tackle being in a nurturing one instead. The thought was oddly depressing. Check my ovaries, doctor, because maybe I'm not really a woman.

After dinner – which my mother still insisted on cooking, not that I complained – we sat by the fireplace. It was time to fill Tammy in on what we'd found out.

'Tammy, here's what's going on: Don still hasn't found your cousin, but Bones found out that the original hitman who took your contract is dead.'

Tammy bolted out of her chair. 'That's great! Does it mean I can go home now?'

'Not so fast. The hitter died under unusual circumstances.'

Tammy sat back down, her enthusiasm fading. 'How?'

'His throat was ripped out,' Bones said bluntly. 'And his computer and other effects were rummaged through, so someone else might have taken an interest in his unfinished jobs.'

Bones's connections from his bounty hunter days turned out to be faster than Don's computers, because he discovered Serpentine was dead before my uncle even found out his real name. Don did send a team over to examine the apartment where Serpentine – or James Daily, as the autopsy certificate read – was found. Even though the person was clever at covering their tracks, Don could tell someone had hacked into Serpentine's computer. Maybe it was a coincidence that some of the files that were accessed were about Tammy, or that Serpentine had been killed by a vampire. We knew Serpentine had undead connections since he sent a ghoul after Tammy. But maybe it was more than coincidence.

'I told you vampires normally don't bother with contracts on humans, but life never fails to surprise,' Bones said in a dry tone. 'When we were at Bite, I told the gossipy bloke I spoke with that we'd be back tomorrow night. If we still go, it would allow me to dig for more information, but there's a chance it could prove dangerous to you.'

Tammy scoffed. 'How dangerous? I've almost been electrocuted, shot, and eaten by a ghoul, remember?'

'If another vampire did decide to get involved with the contract on you, he or she could follow us back here and try to take you out,' I said quietly.

Tammy gave us a shrewd look. 'And then you could catch them. Find out where my cousin is, I'd bet. I saw you in action against that ghoul, Cat. How about you, Bones? You're a tough guy, right? Because I want this over. I want my life back.'

Fabian floated in the room. 'I could be the lookout. No other vampire or ghoul would notice me. I'd help keep Tammy safe.'

Poor Fabian, he was right. Vampires and ghouls were notoriously disrespectful of ghosts. They ignored them more than most humans ignored homeless people.

'Thanks, Fabian,' I said. 'We could really use your help.'

'It's so weird when you do that,' Tammy muttered.

I hid a smile. Some part of me thought Tammy didn't believe Fabian existed and that we just pretended to speak with him to mess with her.

'I'll help protect her,' my mother said. Her face was closed off, as if she were fighting back memories. Once again, I hated what had been done to her because of me.

Bones rose from his chair. 'All right. If we're going to Bite tomorrow, it's time you learn to defend yourself, Tammy.'

She gave him a startled look. 'Isn't that what I'm paying you two for?'

I didn't correct Tammy by saying my uncle and his department were getting her money, not Bones or me. I hoped Don wasn't taking Tammy to the cleaners, but he was a government official.

'You should still know basic skills. After all, you're a pretty girl, and predators can have heartbeats, too.'

Tammy brightened at the compliment. I hid a smile. Flattery would make her much more accommodating, as he would know.

Bones went into the kitchen and came out with a steak knife. He dangled it in front of Tammy, who looked at it doubtfully.