Destined for an Early Grave (Page 6)

At last he swallowed. His eyes didn’t open, but there was suction on my wrist that hadn’t been there before. That suction grew, pulling the blood from my veins, and the relief crashing through me numbed the dizziness that followed. Mesmerized, I watched the holes in Bones start to swell, then the spent silver rounds expelled from his body. It made me smile even as the edges of my vision became fuzzy and faded just as Bones opened his eyes.

Chapter Three

…WAKING UP NOW…"

"…will be leaving soon, he’ll arrive tomorrow…"

The snatches of conversation floated above me. I was warm. Well, everything but my arm. Something soft and cool brushed my forehead.

"Are you awake, Kitten?"

That snapped my eyes open, clearing the lethargy. I tried to sit up, but a firm grip prevented me.

"Don’t move, luv, give the blood a few minutes to circulate."

Blood? With a few blinks, Bones focused into view. He still had red smears all over him, but his gaze was steady. That calmed me into sinking back where I’d been, which apparently was draped across his lap. Two empty plasma bags, a hypodermic needle, and a catheter were next to him.

"Where are we?"

"In a van on our way to London," he answered. "You remember the attack?"

"I remember seeing enough silver coming out of you to fund someone’s college plans," I replied, glancing around to find Mencheres and four other vampires with us. "You could have been killed. Don’t ever do that again."

A breath of laughter escaped him. "That’s rich, coming from the woman who emptied nearly all of her blood into me."

"You had too much silver in you to heal. What was I supposed to do, sit back and watch you die?"

"And those gunmen might have blown your head off," was his even reply.

"Who were they? Did they get away?"

I touched my cheek. No pain. It hadn’t just been human blood Bones had given me. I might heal faster than the average person, but only vampire blood could mend broken bones this fast.

"I’m sorry, luv," Bones murmured. "Almost got you killed, walking into a gauntlet in such a witless manner."

"How many died?"

"Three out of the six were killed."

There was more than self-blame and sadness in his voice, however. I couldn’t pinpoint what.

"Ghouls attacked us, and they were bloody well armed, as you know. Right after you left with me, ’round eight other vampires joined into the fight."

"At least help did come." I smiled at Mencheres. "Thank you."

Bones’s mouth twisted. "It wasn’t Mencheres’s people who came to our aid. Our rescuers likely would have attacked me next if Mencheres hadn’t finally arrived with backup."

Maybe the new blood hadn’t reached my brain yet, because I didn’t understand. "If they weren’t your people, whose were they?"

"We were being followed by two sets of people," Bones summed it up. "Those ghouls, and Gregor’s people, I suspect. He must have gotten tired of trying to reach you through dreams and decided on the more physical form of a kidnapping."

It didn’t escape my notice that Mencheres hadn’t said a word. "What’s your take on this?"

He glanced at me. "When we arrive at Spade’s, we’ll be in better surroundings to continue this conversation."

"Now." One word from Bones, spoken with the resolution of a thousand.

"Crispin – "

"And now you address me by my human name, as if I were still that lad," Bones interrupted. "I am your equal under our alliance, so you will tell me everything you know about Gregor."

Bones was daring Mencheres to start a civil war within their ranks by refusing. I hadn’t expected Bones to draw a line in the sand like that and practically piss on it, and from Mencheres’s startled expression, he hadn’t, either.

Then Mencheres gave a thin smile. "All right. I told you I locked Gregor away for planning to interfere with Cat’s future so she’d never meet you. What I didn’t say was that Gregor had already taken Cat away with him before I captured him."

I jumped up. "I’ve never met Gregor before in my life!"

"That you remember," Mencheres replied. "You feel pains in your head when you hear of Gregor, right? Those are the stabs of your repressed memory. You’d been with Gregor for weeks before we found the two of you in Paris. By then, he’d managed to infatuate you and confuse you with lies. I knew I had to alter your recollection to fix things, which is why you have no memory of your time with him."

"That can’t…but he can’t…" There went the hammers in my skull. He is not your husband…Sorry it didn’t work out with that other guy…it was at the Ritz on Place Vendome…

"But vampire mind control doesn’t work on me," I finally sputtered. "I’m a half-breed; it’s never worked on me!"

"That’s why I was the only one who could do it," Mencheres said quietly. "It took all my power, plus a spell, to erase that time from your mind. A lesser vampire couldn’t have managed it."

Bones appeared stunned as well. "Partir de la femme de mon maitre," he murmured. "That’s what one of Gregor’s vampires yelled at me before he ran. So that’s why Gregor is so obsessed with her."

Mencheres was silent. Bones glanced at him, then at me.

"I don’t care," he said at last. "Gregor can shove his claims straight up his arse."

I still wasn’t convinced. "But I hated vampires before Bones. I would never have gone away with one for weeks."

"You hated them because of your mother’s influence," Mencheres said. "Gregor dealt with her first, compelling her to tell you he was a friend of hers who would protect you."

Bones growled. "How far has word of Gregor’s claim spread?"

Mencheres considered him. "You haven’t asked me if it happened yet."

I felt like they were speaking another language. "What?"

"Doesn’t matter. He’ll only get her over my dried, withered corpse."

"What!" Now I jabbed Bones for emphasis.

"Gregor’s claim," Bones said icily. "Now that he’s free, he’s telling people that sometime during those weeks you were together, he married you."

Contrary to popular belief, there have been a few times in my life I’ve been speechless. At sixteen, when my mother told me all my oddities were due to my father being a vampire, that was one. Seeing Bones again after four years of absence, that was another. This topped both of them, however. For a space of several frozen moments, I couldn’t wrap my mind around a vehement enough denial.