One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress 2)

Our training room was more than a gym. It was an extravaganza of an obstacle course complete with swinging ropes, falling debris, shifting ground, water hazards, and lots of room to run. The dim emergency lights in there served to Bones's advantage, providing only subtle illumination. Bones had insisted we wait in Don's box overlooking the area. He didn't want me to get stabbed or shot in the melee.

It was something to watch, all right. There were shouts when his pale face became visible in the intermittent lights, and then a frenzy of motion even I couldn't fully follow.

"Christos," Juan breathed in awe. "Look at him fly."

Bones was surging around in gravity-defying bounds as he picked apart the careful formation I'd taught the men, bowling into them with his body and scattering them like pins. Tate shook his head in disgust.

"Years of work, right down the f**king drain. Makes me want to beat them myself."

"Cooper's trying to rally them," I observed. "Oops, down he goes. Goddamn, Bones can really hit like a sonofabitch. I'll need a pint of his blood after this to heal them all."

"What makes you think he'll do that?" Don asked skeptically.

"Because I'll ask him to, that's why. You really are thick. He climbed into our hell capsule for me earlier, yet you think he'll refuse to donate a little blood to make me happy? Dumb ass."

My boss-or should I say uncle-didn't respond.

"All right, Kitten," Bones called out. "They're clean. Not a bad bunch of blokes."

Almost offhandedly, he kicked one of the fallen forms, eliciting a groan in return. I shook my head at Tate's expression.

"I told you he taught me everything I know. Kick 'em when they're down. That was his favorite rule. You're familiar with the rest of them."

"Goddammit, Cat, he's been in there less than ten minutes. How can he tell that none of them are involved? Most of them aren't even conscious now!"

"I trust him," I answered simply. "Bones wouldn't say it unless he was sure, and that's enough for me."

Juan had a dazed look on his face as he studied the remains of our team. Then a smile tugged his lips.

"That," he said emphatically, "was cool!"

It wasn't until we approached the pathology floor that Bones quickened his step. His eyes went green as soon as the elevator doors opened, and he gave me a quick, hard kiss before shoving me back inside it.

"Stay here," he said briskly. "I smell something."

Bones walked away with Juan and Don following. Tate hung back with me.

"This is a wild f**king goose chase," he muttered. "Smells something? What can he smell-"

"Shh!" I said, honing my ears to pick up every nuance of sound in the next room. There was a scrambling noise that was very short-lived, a squawk, and then a mocking deadly sneer.

"Well, now, what do we have here? No, you're not turning away, look right here at me..."

"He's got someone," I said for Tate's benefit, and brushed by him.

In the lab, Bones had our pathologist's assistant, Brad Parker, pinned to the wall by one pale hand. The glow from his gaze lit the room with an eerie green luminance.

"Right then, where were we? Tell me all about what you've been up to, and be specific. You can start with any partners."

"One," Brad mumbled. "He looks just like her."

I froze. Don's gaze met mine as a chill went through me. There was no doubt who Brad had to be referring to.

Bones glanced at me once and then turned his attention back to the man in front of him.

"Indeed? Now, tell me everything else..."

This time, Juan and Tate took dictation and I merely listened for the second time in as many days as a plot to kill me was outlined. Brad called him by a different name, but the perpetrator was clearly my father. Apparently after Ian pieced together the family resemblance between the Red Reaper he'd tangled with and his own lackey Max, my father had decided he didn't want to be a dad. He traced me by tracking Don, knowing he had to be the one backing me. Find one and the other wasn't far, he'd assumed correctly. With his inside knowledge of both the Bureau and his brother, Max had progressed with remarkable swiftness. Then he found what he was looking for in Brad Parker, a man whose loyalty could be bought and who knew enough to make it worth the payment.

It had almost worked. If not for my being on a date with a vampire, my head would have been blown off.

When Bones was finished, he arched a brow at Don. "You have any more questions for him?"

Don looked stunned. "No, I can safely say you covered it. Tate? Juan? Anything else?"

Mutely they shook their heads. Tate was more grudging in his silent response, his lips thinned to a straight line, but Juan looked at Bones with a flash of admiration. A start.

"Fancy locking him up?"

The question was again addressed to Don. I appreciated the gesture behind it. Bones was deferring Brad's fate. To my surprise, Don waved a hand.

"You know we're not letting him live, not with what he knows. Just don't make a mess."

Tate was incensed. "For Christ's sake, we can take him below and shoot him!"

"Don't be childish, Tate," Don snapped. "Bullet or bite, the end's the same, and it's his right. He found him; we didn't. Cat would be dead soon if he hadn't, and despite what she thinks of me, I don't want that to happen."

Don looked straight at me when he said that last part, and understanding dawned as to what this was. He was giving a peace offering in the form of Brad Parker's jugular. It wasn't pretty, but again, it was a start.

"Make it fast," I said to Bones. "I know you want to take your time, but don't. He's not worth it."

I didn't leave the room, but Tate did, in a huff. Juan shuffled but stayed, and Don remained where he was.

Bones didn't mind the audience. He bit into Brad's neck with his fangs fully extended, swallowing deeply and repeatedly. No one except me heard the inevitable sound of death as it occurred, and true to my request, it was fast.

"There you are, old chap," Bones said a minute later as he let Brad fall limply to the tile. "Not a drop spilled."

I went to him, stepping over Brad, who was sprawled by his feet. Bones kissed my forehead with warm lips. Two kills in two days; he was probably stuffed. Then again, his dinner last night had drained into the capsule.

"You know I'm going after him, Don." There was no need to say the name, and somehow, I didn't want to.

"Yes, I know." He appraised the two of us together and tugged his eyebrow. "I want to speak in private with you, Cat. There are some things we need to discuss."

"We can speak, but Bones is coming. Really, even if he couldn't hear us, which he can, I'd just tell him later."

Bones gave Don a smug smile. Well, he'd earned a little gloating.

Don coughed. "If you insist. Juan, would you remove...?" He gestured vaguely at Brad's body as we followed him back to his office.

Chapter Twenty-Five

ARE YOU LEAVING US?" DON BEGAN WITHOUT preamble when I shut the door.

It was a good question, since I now knew what he'd hidden from me these past years.

I looked around Don's office and then back at the man himself. Don and I didn't have similar features, but he was my blood, as surely as my mother was. After several quiet moments, I realized I didn't hate him for his lies, both outright and of omission. Who was I to judge him so harshly for his mistakes? After all, I'd made an exceptional number of my own.

"No."

Don let out a sigh that might have been relieved, but Bones ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Bloody hell. You just won't take the easy road."

"I need to do this."

Bones stared at me for a long moment, then turned to Don.

"The only way you're keeping her is if I'm with her. Consider it a two-for-one deal. I won't stop her from doing what she considers her job, but I will not see her die for it. None of those men are strong enough to back her up, but I am. You want her? Then you'll get me also."

This I hadn't expected. Clearly neither had Don. He gaped.

"You can't expect me to allow a vampire inside an operation designed to kill vampires! That's not even lunacy-it's suicide!"

Bones smiled a very patient smile and sat down, tapping his fingers on Don's desk.

"Look, mate, I could give a rot about your operation, but do happen to care a great deal about her life, so I'm going to make you an offer, and you're going to accept it."

Don blinked at the baldness of the statement. I was curious myself to hear what this offer was, because it was news to me, too.

"Why does the success of your missions hinge on her?" Bones went on. "Because she's your strongest fighter. Without her, you have a group of men who might do jolly well in a regular war, but against ghouls and vampires, they're roadkill. You know it, too. That's why you got your knickers in a twist when you discovered how lethal she was at twenty-two. And don't think I've forgotten that it was your manipulating that kept me alone the past several years. Just for that, I'd fancy peeling your skin off like an orange while you were alive and screaming, but that's off topic."

"Quite," I said edgily.

Bones continued as if I hadn't spoken. "But since she insists on still working here, we have to come to an arrangement. As skilled as she is in battle, no one is infallible. If she went down in a fight right now, your operation would be finished, since you have no one strong enough to replace her. This is the first part of what I'm offering. You will never have to fret about her coming back from a job, because unless I'm shriveled on the ground, she will."

"You want to work for me?" Don asked in astonishment.

Bones laughed. "Not for you, old chap. For her. She's the only one I'd listen to, anyway."

My expression must have been as astonished as Don's, because Bones paused and took my hand.

"I'm not fretting over control with you. You can have all of the command you desire as long as we're together. I'll just save my demands for the bedroom."

I flushed. Bones just chuckled and brought my hand to his lips.

Don also looked as though a change in subject were in order. "What's the second part of your offer?"

Bones straightened but still grasped my hand. "Ah, the second part, and this is why you won't refuse me. I can give you what you've been secretly itching for ever since you started your little science project here."

"And what do you think that is?" Don asked, openly skeptical.

"Vampires," Bones responded. "You want to make your own vampires."

"No he doesn't!" I immediately denied.

Except Don wasn't jumping to his own defense. Instead he stared at Bones in a very odd way. Like he'd just found him interesting.

Bones settled back into his chair. "You want what every commander of troops wants-loyal soldiers who are stronger than your enemy. How many times have you wished more of your team had her powers? How often have you longed for soldiers blessed with the same advantages your enemies had? This is a onetime offer, mate. You choose your best, and I'll make them better."

Stunned, I watched Don consider the offer, then he set his hands on the desk.

"What if after they crossed over, they turned on us? That happens, as I know, and then I'd have unleashed mayhem on myself and my remaining team."

"Simple. They threaten you, then they threaten her and I kill them. I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to eliminate a danger to her, and you already have two bodies to prove that. However, a period of apprenticeship might rest your mind. Pick your potentials and give them raw blood. See how they handle the new power. If they can't control a little, then they can't control the rest of it. But if they can..." Bones let the sentence dangle.

"Let me get this straight," Don said briskly. "You'll accompany Cat on missions in order to minimize her risk. You'd also agree to change selected soldiers into vampires. They would be under your supervision, terminated if necessary, and directed by me via her. Do I have this right?"

"Yes." No hesitation in Bones's reply. I was still dumbfounded over the entire negotiation.

"Anything else?"

"I have some conditions," I interrupted, seizing the opportunity. "My schedule changes. Your operation just got seriously upgraded, Don, so I don't want to hear any complaints. First, no more surveillance. I better not see or hear any of my team spying on me anymore, because after tonight, my location's going to be secret. That way, no one can torture or green-eye the information out of them, or have them just give it up for money, like Brad Parker did. And everything else waits until my father is taken care of. Your brother takes priority, don't you agree, Uncle?"

Don was silent for several moments. At last he gave a sardonic smile.

"Well, Cat, Bones...I guess we have an agreement."

Parley completed, there were some loose ends before we could leave. "Is my mother still here?"

"She's in one of the bunkers. You want to see her?"

"No. But keep her here. If my father knew where to find me, then she's not safe at her house."

"We also can't have your team wandering around for Max to snatch them up and discover I'm involved, Kitten," Bones stated. "As for the rest of your employees, round them up. They won't remember seeing me."

"What about Noah?" This from Don, and I winced.