This Side of the Grave

"Fuck you," the ghoul spat.

Why did he have to say that? Now things were going to get really unpleasant.

"Do you want to do this the bloody way, or the fast one?" Vlad asked, looking them over with cool detachment as Bones resumed making a hole in the driveway with the ghoul’s face.

"Can’t say I care how I get my answers, as long as I do," Bones replied curtly, banging the ghoul’s face again for emphasis.

"Hmm. Hold him, but not too close."

Bones grasped the ghoul’s arm in a grip that steel wouldn’t break, but jumped off his back. Vlad walked over to the ghoul and ruffled his hair, almost a friendly gesture. Then he returned to my side. In the few short steps that took, flames began licking up the ghoul’s legs, blackening his clothes and skin. The ghoul screamed. I couldn’t suppress a grimace of remembrance. I’d been burned before, and it hurt worse than even being stabbed with silver.

"Feeling more talkative now?" Vlad asked, barely discernible above the ghoul’s shrieks.

"You continue to stay silent and I’ll cook your frank and beans next." The ghoul yanked at his arm in a frantic attempt to get away, but as I’d suspected, Bones’s grip didn’t even budge. What did surprise me was the ghoul throwing the rest of his body in the opposite direction so hard that more than his shirt ripped.

Bones didn’t share any of my qualms about suddenly holding an arm that wasn’t attached to a body anymore. He just grabbed the ghoul by his other arm and began thumping him over the head with the loose limb. I’d heard Bones threaten to beat someone with their own limb before, but I’d always assumed that was a figure of speech. Apparently not.

"Did Marie send you?" Bones snarled, keeping away from the flames climbing higher up the ghoul’s legs. There go the frank and beans, I thought with a wince.

"Majestic knows nothing of this – aarrrghhh!"

"He’s being cooperative now, ease up on the flaming," I said to Vlad.

The man whose history inspired the world’s most famous vampire novel gave me a jaded look.

"You call that cooperative? I call it barely getting his attention."

"Vlad . . ." I drew out.

"Spoilsport," he muttered.

The fire ebbed on the ghoul’s lower body at the same rate as it disappeared from Vlad’s hands. I shivered, remembering what having that power felt like after drinking Vlad’s blood. If I were honest, I’d admit it had been tantalizing and terrifying. To suddenly have all your anger flow out of you in streams of fire had been as overwhelming to my senses as my newfound ability to fly. Trouble was, just like all the powers I borrowed through blood, I couldn’t control it. I might have blown an enemy to fiery smithereens, but I’d also set Bones on fire by accident.

"You make me burn you again and I’ll forget that I care about her opinion," Vlad said to the ghoul so casually, he might have been commenting on the weather.

"Marie didn’t send you after Cat?" Bones asked, giving the ghoul a final whap with his severed arm before throwing the shriveling limb aside.

The ghoul’s blue eyes met mine. He might look no older than me in human years, but to be strong enough to keep from babbling out his name, rank, and serial number as soon as Bones began working on him, he had to be old.

"Majestic did not know our intent," he said, calling Marie by the ostentatious name she preferred.

Bones cast a look at the sky. "It’ll be dawn soon. If I’m not in bed with my wife by then because I’m still dealing with your worthless arse, I’ll be in a very foul mood. So you’d best reconsider lying to me. Else I’ll send her inside and do things to you that you’ll be too horrified to want to live through."

I actually blanched at the coldness in Bones’s tone, not to mention the whole "send her inside" part, but Vlad’s mouth curled in what looked like grudging appreciation.

"Majestic did not know," the ghoul repeated, more emphatically this time. "We planned to leave the city afterward to avoid her wrath for striking a guest without her permission."

"Oh, she’d be right brassed off at you, if you’re telling the truth," Bones agreed. Then his grip tightened ominously. "But I’m still not convinced. If you’re not doing her bidding, who sent you?"

"We sent ourselves," the ghoul rasped.

"Kitten." Bones’s voice was so flat it was terrifying. "Go inside."

"Now wait a minute," I began, even as the ghoul shouted, "It’s true! We cannot allow Apollyon to incite our species to war!"

My brows rose at that. I’d assumed if Marie hadn’t sent him, he must be one of Apollyon’s ghouls, but it didn’t sound like he was a fan.

"Who’s we?" Bones asked, tracing his fingers almost delicately over the ghoul’s regenerating skin where Vlad had burned him. Even that light touch generated a harsh gasp from the flesh-eater before he spoke.

"Those like me who know Apollyon seeks war for his own gain, not for any benefit to our species." The ghoul tossed a hard look my way. "Apollyon was denied his coup centuries ago when the other half-breed was killed, so now he forbids his supporters from harming her. If we’re to stop him before his madness infects too many of my people, she must die." Bones crashed the ghoul’s skull into the driveway hard enough for a hunk of it to fly off, clattering like a grisly mini Frisbee not far from my feet. I looked away, rubbing my temple with a sudden weariness that had nothing to do with the approaching dawn. It shouldn’t surprise me that more than the vampire nation might seek my death to avoid war, but I hadn’t anticipated things to progress this far so soon. I’d also assumed Apollyon wanted me dead. Silly me should have realized my death didn’t fit into his grand scheme of species dominance. No wonder his ghouls avoided Bones and me when we were out trolling in Ohio. We were the safest vampires in the state, if Apollyon had forbidden his people from harming me.

"Why is Apollyon so convinced ghouls would win in a war against vampires, anyway?" I asked, still rubbing my temple. "No offense, but from what I’ve seen, fangers have some distinct advantages over flesh-eaters."

The ghoul still seemed a little dazed from the recent blow to his head, but he managed to answer me.

"Ghouls are harder to kill than vampires with your fragility to silver. But most importantly, since her sire is dead, Majestic no longer has loyalty to the vampire world. Should the ghoul nation go to war, she will now side with her people instead of vampires." Vlad let out a short laugh. "Your brains must not have fully regenerated if you think one ghoul alone can win the war."

"I don’t know if Majestic’s aid can cause us to win," the ghoul replied, sounding as weary as I felt in that moment. "Apollyon believes it can. But my brethren believe both sides would suffer unimaginable losses if we warred, and after that, how could anyone be considered a winner?"