This Side of the Grave

"Glad you’re here, I was just about to call."

"Do you live here, ma’am? We received a report about suspicious persons loitering in the area," the blond cop said, eyeing Tiny in a wary manner. His partner’s hand moved to his gun.

"Skin that piece again and I’ll forget I’m not hungry," Tiny muttered, so low the cops couldn’t hear him.

I stifled a laugh and addressed the police officers again. "I don’t live here, but my friend’s place was broken into. Can you check it out?"

The cops gave me a once-over as they came up the stairs to the second floor. I smiled in a harmless way and made sure my empty hands were well within eyesight. Of course, a thorough cop would wonder why I was wearing a long jacket during the warm summer afternoon.

When they were within a dozen feet of me, my gray eyes turned glowing green. I lasered that stare at them, letting the entrapping nosferatu power cloud their minds.

"There’s nothing going on here," I said in a firm, pleasant voice. "Turn around and leave, the call was a false alarm."

"Nothing going on," the blond officer intoned.

"False alarm," his buddy repeated, his hand leaving his gun.

"That’s right. Go on. Serve and protect somewhere else." They both turned around and got back into their car without another word, driving off.

Before I became a vampire, it would’ve taken twenty minutes and two phone calls to get the same result, unless Bones green-eyed the local cops into leaving. Vampire mind control sure made it easy to cut through the bureaucratic red tape when it came to crime scenes.

Bones appeared in the apartment doorway holding two slender, sheet-draped bundles. To any nosy neighbors, he might have been carrying wrapped horizontal blinds instead of what I knew they were – the remains of Shayne and Harris.

"Tiny, put these in your boot," Bones said.

Tiny glanced down at his feet in confusion. I snorted. "He means your trunk. British English can be so confusing at times."

"That’s only because you Yanks keep renaming things," Bones replied with an arch look, handing off the corpses to Tiny. Then he leapt over the balcony, landing in the parking lot without a hitch in his stride as he walked over to Ed and Scratch. Both vampires regarded Bones gloomily.

"What’re you doing with their bodies?" Ed asked.

"Burying them elsewhere," Bones replied.

Scratch ran a hand through his gray-streaked hair. "Suppose you’ll be off now that you’ve learned what you wanted to know."

Scratch sounded resigned. I caught Bones’s slight smile as I came down to the parking lot the normal way by taking the stairs.

"Get in the car, lads. We have some things to discuss." I got behind the wheel with Bones riding shotgun as Ed and Scratch warily climbed into our backseat. From my rearview mirror I saw Tiny stuff the remains of the two vampires into his trunk, then he and Band-Aid were ready to go.

"Back to the mall?" I asked, pulling out of the driveway.

"That’s fine, Kitten," he replied. His arm rested across the back of his seat as he settled himself in a lounging way while staring at Ed and Scratch.

"Would you try to bring your mates’ killers to justice if you had assistance?" Bones asked them.

A scoff came from Ed. "Of course. Shayne didn’t deserve to go out like that. Didn’t know Harris very well, but he probably didn’t, either."

"Damn straight," Scratch muttered.

I cast a sideways glance at Bones, wondering where he was going with this and still unable to plug into his emotions to get a hint. He tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Would be dangerous, even with help."

Another scoff, this time from Scratch. "Living is dangerous when you’re Masterless, unless you’re one of the lucky strong ones, but I don’t expect you’d know much about that." A smile ghosted across Bones’s lips. "I know a thing or two about dangerous living, in fact, but as you seem not to fancy being Masterless, what say you to joining my line?" My gaze flew to Bones before flicking to the rearview mirror. Both Ed and Scratch looked stunned. So was I. What Bones was offering was akin to adopting them.

"Think before you answer," Bones went on. "Once sworn, you can’t change your mind and get your freedom back unless you formally ask for it and I decide to grant that request." Ed let out a soft whistle. "You’re serious, aren’t you?"

"As death," Bones lightly replied.

"I heard you’re a mean bastard," Scratch said after a long pause. "But I’ve also heard you’re a fair one. I can deal with mean and fair. Beats being on my own trying to fight off every ass**le who thinks killing Masterless vampires is an easy way to make a name for himself." My brows went up at this blunt analysis, but Bones didn’t look the least bit offended.

"What about you, Ed?"

"Why are you offering this?" Ed wondered, looking at Bones with narrowed eyes. "You know from our power levels that we’ll never be Masters. You can’t be hard up for our measly ten percent tithe, either, so what’s in it for you?"

Bones matched Ed’s stare. "For starters, I want to catch these ghouls, and you’d help me with that. You also must have heard that recent wars killed several members of my line. You were loyal to your mates even after your Master died and you had no obligation to them. Then you were smart enough not to walk into a potential trap without backup. I could use more smart blokes whose loyalty to me, my wife, and my co-ruler would be without exception." Ed met my gaze briefly in the rearview mirror before looking back at Bones. "All right," he said, each word measured. "I’m in."

Bones pulled out a silver knife. I snapped my attention back to the road before I caused a wreck with my frequent glances around the car. Besides, I knew Bones wasn’t about to start stabbing Ed and Scratch. He was just making this official.

"By my blood," Bones said, scoring a line in his palm, "I declare you, Ed, and you, Scratch, to be members of my line. If I betray this oath, let my blood be my penalty." Then Bones passed the knife to Ed, his cut healing before the first drops of blood splashed against his dark pants. I didn’t need to look back to know that Ed made a slice into his palm; the tantalizing new scent of blood told me that.

"By my blood, I acknowledge you, Bones, as my Master," Ed rasped. "If I betray this oath, let my blood be my penalty."

Scratch repeated the words to the accompaniment of another mouthwatering scent filling the car. Aside from my discomfort with the whole "master" aspect that came with vampire lineage, I now had the tightening in my stomach to think about. I hadn’t fed since last night and my next meal might be tricky to get since I had to find someone aside from Bones to drink from.