Destined for an Early Grave (26 page)

I was already out of the car by the time the black Mercedes pulled up next to Vlad. Bones got out, yanking me to him before I could speak. He gave me a hard kiss that would have stolen my breath if I still had any. Then he set me back, tracing my mouth while his eyes turned green.

I knew he could taste Vlad’s blood on me. Part of me wanted to apologize while the other argued that out of all people, Bones would understand.

“Bones,” I began.

“Don’t fret about it,” he said, brushing my mouth again. “Let’s go. Tepesh.” Bones gave Vlad a short nod. “Until the next time.”

Vlad leaned against his car with his usual jaded half smile.

“Somehow I think that might be sooner rather than later.”

I
WAS SURPRISED TO HEAR THAT ONLY THREE
people had been killed last night. Since it was a formal gathering under an all-truce, most of the guests had been unarmed. The three who’d been killed were humans, who couldn’t survive a weaponless undead free-for-all the way vampires and ghouls could. As far as the ramifications of breaking an all-truce, no one knew—or would say—who’d started the violence. Mencheres and Bones managed to get people calm enough to leave without wars being declared. Gregor left with my mother and Cannelle in tow. As for how Apollyon and his ghouls would deal with my unprecedented vampiric heartbeat…time would tell.

I was less worried about that as I was about hatching a plan to rescue my mother. I brooded over ideas the entire drive and train ride to Bucharest. Don and my old team couldn’t help. My uncle had international connections, true, but not of the undead variety. He’d be as out of depth in this scenario as I was. I also stalled calling him because I didn’t want to start the whole, “So, I’m a vampire now,” conversation. Overcoming my uncle’s long-held prejudices was the last thing on my To Do list at the moment.

We arrived at our destination, a mansion that looked straight out of a horror novel, after 3:00
A.M.
With dawn in just a few hours, I’d be comatose again soon. Losing morning time was something I’d thought I’d prepped myself for before changing into a vampire, but I hadn’t figured on how dire the circumstances would be when it happened. Now every minute I was passed out seemed like a taunt. What was Gregor doing to my mother? God, what was Cannelle doing to her? I’d thought the worst thing Gregor could do was kill my mom. I should have known he wouldn’t be that merciful.

Rodney came out to meet us. The ghoul had the same smoldering-furious look in his eyes that I probably did. On impulse, I hugged him, feeling a lump in my throat when he squeezed me back, hard. Bones would walk through fire to get my mom back, if that’s what it took, but he’d do it out of love for me. Not out of any affection for her. My mother didn’t have many fans, which was her own fault; but right now, it meant more to me than I could articulate to know someone cared for
her,
flaws and all.

“She’s tough,” Rodney said. His beard rasped my cheek as he leaned back. “If we can get her back, she’ll make it. Doesn’t matter what she is now or what he’s done to her.”

“She wanted me to kill her,” I whispered. “God, Rodney, she always said she’d rather be dead than be a vampire.”

“She’ll make it,” he repeated. His voice hardened. “You had it hard growing up, but so did she. Justina’s shocked and scared now, but she’s not a quitter. I’d bet my life on it.”

“Rodney, the laws,” Bones began.

“Save it.” The ghoul let go of me to stare at Bones. “If you don’t manage to kill Gregor soon, I’m going after her, laws or no laws—and backup or no backup.”

“Don’t be a fool, that would be suicide,” Bones snapped.

Rodney gave him a cold smile. “You always said no one lives forever.”

I was torn between wanting to hug Rodney again and knowing Bones was right. “She’ll need you when we get her back,” I said, choosing logic for once. “My mother and I, you know we clash. You’re the only one she seems to listen to, but you can’t help her cope with being a vampire if you’re dead.”

Rodney flicked his gaze to me, then walked back into the house without another word. I had no idea if that meant he’d wait, or if that was his way of saying he wouldn’t.

“This won’t last long, Kitten,” Bones said, breaking the loaded quiet. “Gregor’s run out of tricks. He’ll be forced to seek me out soon, because each day he doesn’t, people will question why Gregor refuses to face the man who stole his wife and who’s daring him to a duel over her.”

That snapped my attention away from my mother. “When did you dare him to duel?”

Bones’s gaze was dark and steady. “I publicly challenged Gregor as soon as Mencheres told me he was invading your dreams.”

I’d known Bones had planned to fight Gregor in New Orleans, but I hadn’t known a standing challenge had been thrown down. The realization that at any time Gregor could accept it, resulting in a fight to the death between him and Bones, filled me with icy fear.

“He’s stronger than you are.” My voice was barely above a whisper.

Bones snorted. “I know that, luv, but he won’t be the first bloke I’ve shriveled who exceeded me in power. All I need is one mistake from Gregor, and he’s mine.”

I didn’t say aloud the thing that made my heart ache with dread.

But what if Gregor doesn’t make a mistake?

Two days passed with no word from Gregor. Rodney and I took turns wearing holes in the carpet pacing. Bones kept cautioning patience. If Rodney was anything like me, he loathed that word by now.

One thing the stress seemed to be good for was forcing myself awake and moving after dawn. I could now even walk through the entire morning hours, though it must look like I was doing an impression of a staggering drunk. Aside from stress being a motivator, I also continued to notice that the more I drank from Bones in the morning, the more I could push off the paralyzing effects of the sun breaking the horizon. Maybe good nutrition really was the key to health, for people or vampires.

Today, I’d marked a personal milestone; making it down the three-story winding staircase to the kitchen and back again. It took me two hours, something that in the afternoon, I’d accomplish in seconds, but I was happy with the progress even as I collapsed, exhausted, on the nearest chair.

“Tomorrow, I’m going outside,” I said. Direct sunlight would be even harder on me, but I had to get myself up to speed. Fast. As it was, a human could kick my ass from dawn to noon.

“Do you have any idea how remarkable it is that you’re even awake?” Bones said, gesturing to Mencheres. “Tell her. I slept from dawn until dusk for the first two months. It was considered admirable progress for me to be about during daylight at all in my third month. This is only your second week, Kitten.”

“It’s unprecedented,” Mencheres agreed.

His tone made me glance up at him. I caught a flicker of something on his face that quickly smoothed into impassiveness. Bones must have caught Mencheres’s tone, too, because he arched a brow.

“Is there something else you’d like to add, Grandsire?”

An unfamiliar vampire coming into the kitchen interrupted whatever Mencheres’s reply might have been. Must be another of Mencheres’s staff, though he bowed to Bones instead of the Egyptian vampire.

“What it is?” Bones asked.

“Pardon me, but there’s someone on the phone who says they have a call for you.”

My brows went up. So did Bones’s. “There’s a call to tell me I have a call?” he asked with heavy skepticism.

The vampire looked uneasy as he held out a cell phone. “It’s my friend Lachlan. He called me to say he’d been contacted by Chill, a vampire he knows, who was called by Nathan, who’s a member of Kyoko’s line, who says a vampire named Rollo contacted him because he met a
ghost
who claims to be yours—”

“Fabian!” I exclaimed, just now realizing I hadn’t seen him since the fiasco of the party.

Bones took the cell from the vampire and everything changed.

We waited two miles away from the craggy house in Moldova where Gregor had my mother held captive. Rodney crouched to my right, weighted down with multiple wickedly curved silver blades. Bones hunched to my left, his body so still that he might have been carved from stone. I tried to duplicate that same immobility, but I couldn’t. My gaze kept flicking around in impatience.
Where was Fabian? He should be back by now.

Spade crept up from the brush. He’d been making sure no enemy forces were sneaking up behind us while we waited for Fabian’s report. At Spade’s nod, we were the only ones stalking others in the chilly surrounding countryside. Wind blew Spade’s inky hair back from his face as he set his gaze ahead in the same direction Bones stared.

After what seemed like an eternity, a hazy flash appeared in the trees, and we saw Fabian streaking just above the frost-covered ground.

“Gregor isn’t here, but from how Cannelle’s acting, he’ll be back soon,” the ghost said when he reached us. “Right now there are about a dozen guards. More will be with Gregor when he returns.”

Bones didn’t glance away from whatever he’d been looking at in the distance. “Then now is the best time. Fabian, keep a lookout on the road. At the first sign of Gregor or his men, you come warn us.”

The ghost nodded, his see-through features taking on a determined expression. “I won’t fail you.”

For about the dozenth time today, I wished I could hug Fabian. Never did I expect to be so indebted to a ghost, but I owed Fabian more than I could repay. After the disastrous party, Fabian had the presence of mind to follow Gregor, haunting the trunk of whatever vehicle Gregor drove or hitchhiking on various people who happened to be near Gregor. True to undead prejudice, Gregor hadn’t seemed to realize he was being spied on, even if he or one of his people might have glimpsed the ghost. Always pride before a fall.

Fabian’s hardest task after finding Gregor’s hiding place was to contact us and let us know about it. It’s not like a phantom could use a phone, e-mail, or pass on a letter. Factor in the same dismissal of ghosts that had made his spying possible, and Fabian had had a hell of a time getting a vampire ally to listen long enough to start the chain of calls that eventually reached Bones.

Until we arrived, we hadn’t even been sure that Gregor would still be in this house. It took a full day and a half from the time Fabian left the vicinity to the time Bones was handed that cell phone from the very bewildered member of Mencheres’s staff. Then another several hours to get to Moldova, then a couple hours of reconnaissance to determine this wasn’t a trap. Not that I doubted Fabian’s loyalty, but there was always the chance that Gregor
had
recognized the ghost and put two and two together. So far, though, it seemed like those in the house had no idea they were about to be attacked.

I gave a worried glance at the sky. All that was good news. The bad news was, dawn was only about half an hour away.

As if hearing my thought, Bones met my gaze. “You should stay back, Kitten.”

My first instinct was to argue. Vehemently, and with lots of profanity. That was
my mother
trapped in the house, so I damn well wasn’t going to sit back and just hope things went okay.

Then I looked around the faces staring back at me. Everyone here was risking their lives on my mother’s behalf, plus breaking undead laws on top of that, and I was the only one susceptible to the dawn. Sure, now I could stay awake and even walk when sunlight hit, but fight? No. Not even if my mother’s life—or mine—depended on it.

“I’ll stay,” I said, seeing Bones’s brows go up like those were the last words he expected to hear from me. “Give me the detonator. We might need the diversion if Gregor returns before we have my mom safely away.”

Spade nodded, handing over the detonator he’d had located in his belt. Several packs of TNT had been strapped to the trees, as close to the house as we dared to plant them without being seen. In a fight, the explosions wouldn’t harm any vampires or ghouls, unless they happened to be right next to the trees when the bombs went off, but they would make a hell of racket. And sometimes, distraction made all the difference between life and death—or escape and capture.

Bones gave me a quick, hard kiss. “I won’t return without her,” he promised.

“Don’t say that.” The words were out of my mouth at once. “If something happens, if it’s too dangerous to get her now, you come back to me. We’ll find another way.”

Rodney began crawling through the brush. Spade gave me a somber look and followed. Bones caressed my face once, then left as well. So did Fabian. I stayed where I was, not needing binoculars to watch their progress toward the house. There were four guards outside and, according to Fabian, at least eight more inside, plus Cannelle. The element of surprise would be all the advantage they had, outnumbered four to one, and I doubted Gregor had left weak vampires or ghouls as guards.

Even though the distance was less than two miles, it took the three men over ten minutes to crawl there, barely disturbing the long grass around them. I was almost a wreck by the time they approached the house. A jumble of fear, hope, frustration, and nerves made me feel like I could jump out of my own skin. Did the guards have instructions to kill my mother at once if there was an attack? Could Bones, Spade, or Rodney get to her in time, without getting themselves killed in the process?
Oh God, please, let this work.

I couldn’t help it; I began to crawl closer, promising myself to only get within a mile. Just close enough to really see what was going on. The scattering of trees made for a skewed view of the house.

The ground was free of tall grass within thirty yards of the house, so there was no more coverage for Bones, Rodney, and Spade to sneak up in. Everything in me tensed as I saw the three men rise at the exact same time to charge the house.

Shouts of alarms came from the four guards, but I was savagely pleased to see how fast they were cut off. Bones took two down himself, one from a distance by throwing silver into his chest, and the other by an up-close twist of the same metal through the guard’s heart. Spade and Rodney made short work of their two guards, then, from different angles, the three men entered the house.

More shouts came from inside. I crawled faster, keeping low but within eyesight of the house. Gunshots barked in terrifying staccato from what sounded like automatic weapons. A feminine voice rose in a furious, accented screech.
Cannelle.
Remembering her kicking my mother while holding a leash made me want Cannelle dead almost as much as Gregor.

I’d made it to the mile mark when Fabian came streaking toward me, waving his ghostly arms.