This Side of the Grave

Finally his shoulders squared as he looked back at me and Bones. "You two aren’t human, either." A statement, not a question.

"No," I said gently. "We’re not."

He shook his head like he was trying to clear it. "Those guys, the ones who grabbed me

. . . they were gonna eat me?"

No use lying about that, either. "Oh yeah. Definitely." He glanced at Bones. "But you won’t."

Bones arched a brow as if disputing that. I elbowed him while I said, "No, Timmie, he won’t. Neither of us will hurt you."

"Tim," he replied, then gave me a wry smile. "No one’s called me Timmie in years." I smiled back. "Sure. And it’s Cat, by the way."

"Cat." That wry smile remained. "Guess it suits you better than Cathy."

"No," Bones said.

Timmie’s –  Tim’s – smile faded. I glanced at Bones in confusion. "No what? You think I look like a Cathy?"

"No to what he’s about to ask you," Bones replied. "You already owe her for saving you from those other blokes. Don’t thank her by asking for another large favor." Tim clapped his arms around his head. "My God, you can really hear . . . ? Well, stop it!" Bones laughed outright. I had to admit Timmie did look funny clutching his head, but I didn’t join in Bones’s chuckles.

"Try wrapping tinfoil around your nog next, see if that works better," he suggested devilishly.

I gave Bones a sharp look, sorry he couldn’t read my mind anymore to hear my mental reprimand. "Stop it. I might have been tempted to do the same thing myself when I knew certain people could eavesdrop in my head."

Tim let his arms down. "I don’t care what he says, you gotta help me," he got out in a rush.

Bones rolled his eyes and then gave Tim a glare that would have struck most people mute out of terror. "Right thick, aren’t you? Let’s see if I can’t explain my position better outside." Off the premises, where violence was allowed? "Don’t even think about it," I drew out warningly.

"Not for that," he replied, though his mouth twitched in a way that said the thought had crossed his mind. "Believe me, Kitten, you’ll have wasted your time saving him before if others hear what he’s about to ask you."

That didn’t sound promising. But I needed Timmie – dammit, Tim! – for something, too, so I’d hear out his request. Didn’t guarantee I’d agree to whatever he wanted, but I’d listen.

"Okay. Let’s go outside and talk."

Timmie gave Bones and me a speculative glance. "Before we go, I gotta know: If mind-reading abilities are real, there’s something else I wondered if fiction got right about vampires – "

"Ask me if I sparkle and I’ll kill you where you stand," Bones cut him off with utmost seriousness.

"Not that." Timmie’s mouth quirked before his expression became serious and, oddly, hopeful. "When I go back to my apartment, is it true that, uh, your kind can’t come inside?" I hated to destroy his sense of safety, but believing that would only be dangerous for him.

"Sorry, that’s a myth. Vampires don’t need to be invited to go anywhere they want to." I didn’t add that we’d already been in his apartment earlier, finding out from his roommate where Timmie would be tonight. Not that the young man remembered Bones and me questioning him once we’d given him a few flashes of our gaze, but I thought that was more information than Timmie could handle at the moment.

He was silent. "Shit," Timmie said at last, with heartfelt emphasis.

I nodded. Sometimes, that word summed things up better than I ever could.

"Let’s go, before people start to wonder what we’re blathering on about," Bones said, inclining his head toward the door.

We walked past the crowded parking lot toward the empty one ahead. It was far enough away from the real entrance of Bite that no one should be able to overhear us, aside from Tiny and Band-Aid, who still kept watch in their car. I couldn’t hear his thoughts, but Timmie’s scent was a mix of excitement, fear, and determination. Whatever he wanted to ask meant a great deal to him.

"Look, if your girlfriend vanished after sniffing around looking for proof about vampires, chances are she’s dead," Bones stated once we reached the chain-link gate.

I winced at his bluntness. Timmie also looked shaken, but then he raised his chin.

"Nadia’s not my girlfriend, and I don’t believe she’s dead. You don’t know her. She’s my best freelance reporter because she can charm any one into doing what she wants." Bones snorted. "I don’t care if she was Helen of Troy and Scheherazade combined, obviously someone caught her and wasn’t pleased about her snooping. The fact that she wasn’t sent back to you afterward with her memory erased and a new desire to quit reporting doesn’t bode well for her."

I winced again, but Bones was probably right. There was a reason the world didn’t know about the undead, and that was because vampires and ghouls were zealous about keeping their existence a secret. Some of them too zealous, like the vampires that had been about to make Timmie a nighttime snack.

"We could check around," I said, giving Bones a slight shake of my head when he looked like he was about to object. Yes, we had a lot of urgent matters on our plate, but Timmie’s pleading expression made me unable to say no.

"Discreetly, of course," I added. "We’ll start by asking Verses if he remembers seeing her, then show her picture to your people, Mencheres, some of your allies . . . maybe one of them will know where she is."

I didn’t hold out much hope for Nadia turning up alive, but at least this way, Timmie could feel like he wasn’t abandoning someone he cared about. From the look on his face, the fact that Nadia hadn’t been his girlfriend wasn’t due to a lack of interest on Timmie’s part.

"Really?" he said. Then Timmie grabbed me in a hug. "Thank you, Cathy!" We were never going to get each other’s names right.

"I’m not promising that we can find her, but we’ll look," I said, giving him a light squeeze back.

Timmie let me go, flashing a crooked smile at Bones. "Aren’t you going to threaten to pull my nuts off for that?"

A dark brow arched. "Not at the moment."

"Cathy, what happened seven years ago?" Timmie asked. "Why did the feds claim you were shot trying to escape after being arrested for killing the governor and your whole family? I knew that was bullshit. You could never kill anyone."

Something between a laugh and a snort escaped Bones. I shifted uncomfortably. Here’s hoping I never had to explain to Timmie the reason behind my nickname of the Red Reaper.