At Grave's End

Still Bones drank, ignoring everything around him, his legs solidifying underneath him. I knew he wasn't getting nourishment from Mencheres's blood, but was ingesting raw power with every pull of his mouth. Those sparkling stars of light on Mencheres's skin merged into Bones's flesh with the same ease that sand absorbed seawater. It was lovely to watch-and frightening.

A hum began to grow in the air, then it rose to a piercing, thunderous crescendo in a split second. Instinctively I clapped my hands over my ears even as Bones staggered backward, going limp all at once. I jumped forward and caught him, lowering him to the ground. Mencheres fared better but not by much. Two of his men grasped him as his head drooped and he swayed, looking barely conscious.

I held Bones on my lap. Our guard formed a protective circle around us with a barked warning that anyone who approached would be killed. It wasn't an exaggeration. They were all armed with silver. So was I. It lined my legs underneath my red dress.

Mencheres regained himself enough to mumble, "My blood, freely given and accepted as proof of my word," before biting the neck of a human brought to him for that purpose. I looked away, stroking Bones's face and waiting for him to wake up.

Several minutes later, he did. I sensed it in the rush of energy that made me twitch before his eyelids even fluttered. All of a sudden, Bones felt unfamiliar to me. The vibrating power that normally exuded from him didn't just increase-it kept growing and growing, until he felt like he was going to explode right in my arms.

His hand closed over mine in the next instant, and I jerked back. It felt like I'd just shoved my fist in a light socket.

"Bloody hell, luv, this feels quite different," were his first words.

I laid a tentative hand back on him. "Are you okay?"

It was almost stupid to ask with that crackling energy nearly shooting sparks up my arm, but I couldn't help myself.

He nodded and opened his eyes. "Very much so. In fact, I've never felt better. At least not unless we were alone."

Pig. Now I knew it was the same man I'd fallen in love with. Bones might have changed in power, but not in any other way. It was almost a relief to find his mind still in the gutter.

"Let's get you off me, then, your elbow is jabbing me in the kidney-"

Something on his face made me stop in midsentence. "What?" I asked.

"Did you just call me a pig?"

I froze. Had I said that out loud?

"Bloody hell, no you didn't!" he answered for me, springing to his feet in a lithe motion.

Good God,he could read minds now? There was something neither of us had thought would happen.

Bones pulled me up and kissed me. There was so much raw energy permeating from him that his tongue almost hurt when it slid into my mouth, but then it felt good. Very, very good.

"Shh," he whispered into my ear when his mouth trailed from mine.

I could guess why the secrecy, of course. We were in mixed company, and if Bones's enemies didn't know he had the new ability to read minds, then they wouldn't worry about it being used against them.

I won't say anything. But you and I will have to talk about this, because you can't just invade my mind whenever you want to be nosy.

"Ahh!"

It came out of me in a gasp when he bit my neck in the next moment. Mother of God, my knees went weak. Bones supported me when they lost strength entirely in the next second.

We'd planned on him taking some of my blood afterward. Even though he was now hyped full of vamp juice, it wouldn't nourish him. Only human blood could, and mine still half qualified. Thus it wasn't the shock of him biting my neck that buckled me. No, it was the fierce erotic waves pouring over me with each pull of his mouth. Holy shit, it had never felt like this before. He'd gone down on me with similar effect.

Bones raised his mouth from my throat but didn't let go of me, which was good, because I might have toppled over. Thank God he'd stopped biting me when he did-I would have been mortified to have an orgasm in front of a thousand people. It was bad enough that they could all sense just how much I'd liked having my neck turned into a straw, but at least I wasn't about to ask for a cigarette.

"Don't be embarrassed," Bones said low. "I feel the same way every time I drink from you. We'll finish up here soon, Kitten, now that the formalities are over."

He still had his arm around me when he turned to Mencheres. The other vampire was refreshed as well from his blood donor, albeit less sensuously, I'd bet. They clasped hands once before facing the crowd.

"Our alliance has been sealed," Mencheres said formally.

Bones was more casual about it. "Then this is a party, mates. Let's have at it."

Chapter Ten

BONES, EVER PARANOID THAT ONE OF THESE guests could be Max's mysterious benefactor, was plastered to my side. I didn't mind for two reasons. First, he could be right. There was a shitload of pulseless people here, and who knew how many of them were really allies? The other reason was simple. That new throb of his power felt like a caress along my skin.

But when the na**d human men and women came out to mingle among the guests, I stopped in my tracks.

Bones chuckled, hearing the question in my mind, or guessing from the look of my face.

"These are the hors d'oeuvres, Kitten. See that glitter they're covered in? It's a very special mixture, edible as well. Note the ones with the extra arms? They don't have birth defects, those arms are food delicacies shaped like limbs and glued onto them. Ghouls have to eat also."

I stared in disbelief as one of the walking treats sat on the lap of a vampire, offering her neck. Meanwhile, a ghoul sedately gnawed on what appeared to be a fake fourth arm protruding from her torso. Yuck!

I found my voice. "That is the sickest version of a snack plate I've ever seen. How did you get these people to agree to this? Mind-fuck them?"

He snorted. "Not nearly. They're willing volunteers, pet. Some are humans who belong to Mencheres or me, and others are groupies, for lack of a better word. People who know about vampires and ghouls and are hoping some nice undead bloke will choose them to change over. It happens, of course. Else they wouldn't flock to us in droves. Some of them offer more than a bite or a beverage, but that's their choice. I don't require it."

Oh, so they were dinner and entertainment. How my life had changed. Here I was, one of the hosts of a bang-and-bite soiree honoring Bones's alliance with a mega-Master vampire. What next, presiding over a massive orgy?

Bones caught my hand. "We're sneaking away for a moment," he whispered, backing me into a nearby study. Once past the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, he pressed a lever, and then we were in a narrow dark passageway before I'd ever seen where it was.

"Secret tunnel?" I teased. "How very cloak-and-dagger."

He smiled. "Ah, here we are. Alone at last."

"Here" was a small room, unfurnished, no windows. Only a hatch in the ceiling about three feet square in size.

"Leads to the roof by way of the attic," he supplied. "Quick way to make a dash for it, if one needed to. Also, this room has thick concrete walls, so less sound travels."

So that meant we could talk without being overheard. "You can read my mind now," I breathed. "God, Bones, that kind of freaks me out."

"I'd tell you I won't listen to your thoughts, but that would be a lie. You're too close to me for me to block them out completely, and I can't say I would even if I could. I want to know all of you, Kitten. What you show me, and what you try not to."

There was no use arguing over it. If I'd been endowed with the same power, I'd be just as guilty of using it. Mencheres had said Bones's strength would grow, but he hadn't mentioned that he might get new abilities altogether. I wondered what else was going to be different.

"My vision and hearing are clearer," Bones answered for me. "And of course I feel significantly stronger. As for what else is different, we'll have to wait and see."

"I still don't know about this," I muttered. It was weird having him pull the questions out of my mind before I could even ask them.

Bones studied my face. "I haven't changed, luv. Just my abilities. Can you believe that?"

He would have heard the answer before I said it out loud, but I did it anyway.

"Yes."

Bones gave me a few drops of his blood to replenish what he'd drunk before we returned to the questionable festivities. I felt like I'd downed a bottle of NoDoz, I was so wired.Don will be doing backflips when he gets his sample for his weekly collection, I thought irrelevantly.

Tate was across the room. He caught my eye and rubbed his nose, twice. I tensed. That was an old signal that there was trouble. He turned around in the next moment, so it wouldn't have been obvious to anyone that a message had just been exchanged.

This was a time when Bones's new telepathic eavesdropping would come in handy.Something's up, Tate's freaked. If you have a lockdown mode for this place, now would be the time to implement it.

Bones made his way over to Mencheres, keeping me close to his side as we passed by other people. They didn't exchange words. Maybe Mencheres had also heard my mental warning, because he nodded once and then gestured to a nearby guard.

That's when all hell broke loose.

A vampire walking toward us blew up. Just blew into pieces of scorched body parts. Then three more rushed in our direction at kamikaze speeds.

Bones threw me across the room like a Hail Mary football to Tate, who darted forward. It wasn't a moment too soon. The explosion from the charging vampires momentarily deafened me. Tate caught me, using his body as a shield from the sudden attack of human and inhuman bombs that seemed to be all around us. Two more of our breathing treats went off like Roman candles, splattering gore on whoever was lucky enough not to be killed by their close contact. I craned over Tate's shoulder and kicked as he barreled us away from the crowd.

"Goddammit, let me go!"

"You don't understand," Tate ground out, giving me a rough elbow to the head that briefly stunned me into limpness. Then I started to wrestle with him as he sped through the throngs of people. Each exit was guarded by vampires who belonged to Bones or Mencheres, but they let us pass after a shouted command from Bones. Hearing his voice made me weak with relief. At least he was still alive.

Tate clamped his hand over my mouth, not letting go, even when I bit him. It was the most damage I could inflict in the position he had me in, flung over his back like a sack. Only after we were outside on the lawn did he stop running.

"Let go of my hand, I have to go back inside," he almost snarled, dropping me.

I released my bite and began to yell. "What the fuck, Tate! You think I'm just going to stay out here while people are exploding-"

"There's a bomb, Cat. This place is going to blow."

That shocked me into silence for a second, then I started toward the house again.

Tate punched me, hard, rocking me back.

"I don't have time to explain," he spat. "But I am going to get everyone out, even your vampire lover. If you see Talisman, grab him. He's involved. Guard the perimeter, Cat."

He sprinted back inside, and I wrestled with the choice whether or not to follow him. Everything inside me screamed to go back in and tell Bones about the bomb. What if Tate didn't get to him in time? Mentally I kept shouting the warning at him, but with all the chaos, I didn't know if he'd hear me.

My decision was made when I saw three forms streaking stealthily across the roof. Oh, we had rats trying to abandon ship, did we?

I got them in midair as they jumped to the ground, throwing them into the walls from the velocity of my leap. There was only a split second to identify them before I crashed into their bodies, and in that instant, I knew which ones to skewer. The two lesser vampires each got a chestful of daggers while I split Talisman's skull on the stone walls, not killing him, but dazing him.

He came to awareness with a frenzy of snapping teeth. Talisman was a Master vampire and he wasn't willing to go down gently. We rolled around on the grass, both of us tearing at each other. Soon I was covered in messy bite marks where his teeth sliced me but hadn't locked on. Only when I jabbed a knife through his heart did he freeze. With a malicious smile I moved it a fraction.

"One twitch and you're beef jerky, asshole. I'd stay real still if I were you."

But he wasn't me. "I won't be held like your father," he said, and proved his statement by thrashing on top of me, shredding his own heart with his actions and going limp.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, and shoved him off.

There wasn't time to ponder Talisman's suicide. The doors to the house opened and groups of vampires and ghouls came out, led by the guards. There were so many of them, it looked like an anthill evacuating. None of the faces belonged to Bones, however.

I saw Annette amid the throng and grabbed her. "Where's Bones? Why isn't he out here? He knows, doesn't he?"

I didn't saybomb, not wanting to cause a panic if people didn't know yet. Annette looked rather frazzled herself, her usual cool composure absent.

"He's still inside. He won't leave until all his people are out and he finds the others who are involved."

"Oh no he doesn't," I growled.

Annette yanked on my arm and didn't let go. "Crispin said to keep you out here," she insisted, holding me back.

Everything else aside, I enjoyed what I did next. Shallow of me, but true. I whirled and hit her so hard, she dropped to the ground with a dent in her skull. On the practical side, it also kept her from restraining me. See? It wasn't all for fun.