At Grave's End

"I'll give it back, then," I responded, and whacked her a good one. Honestly, whatever happened to saying,Excuse me?

Someone grabbed me from behind. Cool hands moved over my br**sts in a rough caress. I stiffened but didn't slam my elbow into their rib cage. Not yet.

"I'm better from the front," I purred in my best bondage-tramp imitation.

My head was jerked back next, so hard there would be strands of it in his grip. I gritted my teeth. This better be Slash, or I was going to stomp the shit out of the unknown asshole.

That cool hand made its way from my breast down my stomach-and didn't stop. Okay, enough being Little Miss Submissive!

I whirled around, losing more hair, and smashed my knee up at the same time. Tall, Dark, and Depraved, who didnot have a silver dragon tattoo on his jaw, doubled over. Then I shoved him into the gyrating mass of revelers surrounding us.

"Isaid I'm better from thefront."

There was laughter by the other dancers close enough to witness this. I gave Tall, Dark, and Depraved another nasty glare before scouting around again for Slash. He had to be here. I didn't want to come back tomorrow if I couldn't find him. In fact, I'd be pretty happy if I never set foot in this place again.

Two more cool hands slid along my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest. I clenched my fist, about to let loose a roundhouse punch, when something out of the corner of my eye stopped me. Were those scales etched on the side of my new Romeo's face?

I turned around...and smiled. "You look good enough to eat, handsome."

The man grinned, stretching the dragon's tail that curled from his jaw to the side of his mouth. "Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing about you."

We began to dance. Slash was about my height, and he used the alignment of our bodies to his greatest advantage. I let it go on for a few minutes. Right up until he unzipped his leather pants and pulled out Mr. One Eye.

"Whoa," I said, twisting away as he attempted to find a home for his stiff friend. "Isn't there somewhere we can be...alone?"

Slash glanced at his cock, as if expecting it to voice an objection. Then he tugged my arm.

"Come with me. I know just the place."

I saw with relief that I was being pulled toward the fake bar. If he'd gone in the opposite direction, all hell would have broken loose. Slash never bothered to tuck his dick back in his drawers, either. That thing stuck out the whole time like it was pointing the way.

"Oohh, how exciting," I said as he lifted the faux counter to reveal that hidden staircase.

Slash took my hand, almost yanking me beside him. The narrowness made for a very uncomfortable walk as we went down.Mental note: Shower as soon as possible.

"I think you'll be surprised," he said as he opened the door. Then he stopped short. "What the-?"

I shoved him in with all my strength. Slash went sprawling. He skidded to a halt at that awful pole, which now had the very bloody form of Anre shackled to it.

I closed the door behind me. Bones went over to Slash, raised a brow at his rapidly deflating erection, and then gave him an icy smile.

"No, mate, I expectyou're the one who's surprised."

"If we can leave quietly, I think we won't have to call in the team," Tate said as he piled Slash's body on top of Anre's. Priscilla and the other nameless vampire were stacked next to them.

"Skulk out the back with our tails between our legs?" Bones snorted. "Fear's a valuable motivator. If we sneak away, then there's nothing to give someone pause who might consider setting up shop in this place again, is there?"

I considered that. In most of our operations, we had a smash-and-grab approach. Smash the bad guys (or girls!), grab the evidence (meaning bodies) and then leave. Maybe that strategy needed rethinking. Bones was right about fear being an excellent motivator. Patra was using that tactic against us now. Maybe we needed to highlight that we played for keeps, too.

I glanced at Dave. He gave me an almost imperceptible nod. Tate, however, was incensed.

"Brilliant plan, Crypt Keeper. You want us to bring up those heads like souvenirs, then shake our fingers at them and say, 'They were naughty' at all the freaks out there? You're out of your mind!"

"Foolish. Coward."

Bones bit out both words precisely. Tate snarled, and I tripped him as he stalked toward Bones.

"You must have slipped, because Iknow you weren't about to do anything, were you?"

Tate glared up at me, and then must have seen the consequences of following through with that intention in my gaze, because he lost his angry posture.

"Your call, Cat. What's it gonna be?"

Oddly enough, it's what happened when I'd pushed off Tall, Dark, and Depraved that made my decision. The people around us, human and otherwise, had just laughed. Not jumped in and helped him beat me into submission.

"We give a warning and show the proof. Like you said, Tate-I'll use those heads as props."

"All units, stand by," Tate said into his radio. It didn't escape me that he sounded both pissed and resigned.

We made our way single file back up the stairs. Bones went first, followed by me, Tate, Dave, and our rescued couple, who hadn't said much all night. When we were all out, Bones lifted me up onto the counter of the fake bar, since my hands were full, and let out a whistle that pierced even over the loud music.

"Shut that noise off," he barked, giving a menacing green glare to the puzzled vampire in what I assumed was the DJ box.

The pumping techno beat was silenced. There were sounds of protest that cut off when people saw me. You could say I stood out, what with being perched on a bar holding four severed heads by their hair.

"I'll make this quick so you can get back to your fun. I'm the Red Reaper, and these four"-I held the heads up for better viewing-"took their games too far by killing my kind. If it happens again here, I'll come back."

Two hundred pairs of eyes stared at us, and most of them didn't come with heartbeats. Inside I tensed. Who knew how this would go? Things could get very unpleasant very fast.

Bones held out his hand to help me down, and I dropped my grisly trophies and took it.

Maybe some of them recognized who he was, or could guess. Or maybe it was simple apathy. Either way, one by one, the humans and nonhumans pulled back until there was a clear path from our position to the door. Bones set me down from the bar, and all of us walked uninterrupted to the exit.

"Un-fucking-real," Tate muttered when we reached the parking lot.

"Which just shows you how much you have to learn," Bones replied.

Chapter Thirteen

BONES ANDIDROVE TO DENISE'S THE NEXT day. I hadn't seen my best friend in a while, what with gearing up for Tate's change and then the whole aftermath of my kidnapping. So just to hang out with her and relax was nice. Denise also knew everything about me, Bones, vampires, ghouls, and even the war we were in. I had to call her and explain the reason behind her abrupt relocation, after all. Don probably just told her and her husband, Randy, to pack without giving any reason why.

Their new house was on the outskirts of Memphis. It was a good thing Randy was a private computer consultant and could work wherever, because I would have hated to be the cause of him losing his job. Denise had quit her job shortly after they got married, so again, I was spared some guilt. They hadn't said anything, but I thought they were trying for a baby. It would explain her sudden interest in things she'd never bothered with before. Case in point, she made dinner for us instead of ordering out. Definitely a new trait.

"This is really good," I enthused, helping myself to more pot roast. "We'll have to come here for the holidays. As you know, I burn water."

Denise grinned. "Or you could have your own party and let Rodney cook. Didn't you tell me he was amazing in the kitchen?"

"Oh, he is," I answered, mouth still full. Then I cocked my head. "Bones, how dangerous would it be for us to have a Christmas party?"

He considered the question. "Have to only invite a few people, but I don't think it would be cause for any real alarm."

I swallowed as the idea grew in my mind. "I've never done that kind of thing before. My grandparents weren't social butterflies and I didn't much feel like entertaining during the years we were apart. Our guesthouse is finished, so we'd have plenty of room. We can't have our wedding right now, but we can have a small holiday party. It'll be our first Christmas together, Bones."

He smiled at me. "That's an excellent reason to celebrate, and I know Rodney would be delighted to come and cook. It's his favorite pastime."

Denise clapped her hands. "Oh, it'll be so cool. I've never celebrated a holiday with dead people before!"

Randy rolled his eyes, but Bones just laughed. "Yes, that usually does make for a more interesting time than a midnight Mass at church, I suspect."

"We'll have to invite my mother, too," I said. "In fact, she's not that far from here. Rodney's place is what? About an hour away?"

Bones nodded. "Yes. Want to visit her next?"

I considered my options. If she knew I'd been this close to her and hadn't stopped by, I'd never hear the end of it. Okay, so that was settled.

"We'll drop by. God knows she'll be there. The woman never goes out."

"When's her new place going to be ready?" Denise asked.

"Next week. I think Don deliberately took a while relocating her out of Rodney's to pay her back for some of the grief she's heaped over him in the past. There's no reason it should have taken so long to get her a safe place, not that I'll tell her that."

Denise got up, rummaged in her pantry for a minute, and then came out with an unopened bottle of gin.

"Here. If you're going to your mother's, you'll need this."

We said our goodbyes to Denise and Randy an hour later and headed off to my mother's temporary residence. It had been a pleasant drive through the country, very relaxing-until suddenly Bones cocked his head to the side as if concentrating, and then stomped on the gas pedal.

"What's wrong?"

He'd said moments ago that we were almost there. Alarmed, I strained my ears, but my range wasn't as far as his. All I could hear were the sounds from various families as we whizzed by their homes.

"Don't bleedin' believe it," Bones chuckled.

"What!"

He continued to streak through the streets at a high rate of speed. "Oh, you'll see. And you'll need that bottle Denise gave you."

I figured there wasn't a bloodbath going on, because he still grinned with maniacal humor. Hopefully the sound of my mother being axed to death wouldn't make him so gleeful. When we pulled up in the driveway of what I assumed had to be Rodney's house, all I heard was her fumbling around and muttering curses. What was unusual about that?

Bones darted out of the car without even turning the engine off and pounded on the door hard enough to rattle the windows.

"Open up, Justina, or I'll break down this door!"

The front door flung open as I approached at a slower rate than Bones had. Someone had to turn the car off, after all.

Bones went right past my mother, ignoring her demands to stay out. He gave her a wicked rake of the eyes, and his lips twitched uncontrollably.

"Well. As I don't live and breathe. Justina, hair's a bit disheveled, luv, been cleaning house? No? And your face...if I didn't know better, I'd say it was flushed. Back when I was a degenerate whore, as you like to say, I'd see women look like you do all the time. After they wereshagging."

My mouth dropped and I took in her appearance. She was wearing only a robe, her brown hair was indeed going every which way, her face was distinctly colored, and holy shit, was that ahickey on her neck?

"You filthy animal, get out of here," she commanded Bones.

He laughed so hard it bent him double. "Really, that's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black now, isn't it? And to think how Kitten used to be terrified about you finding out she was shagging a vampire. You can't say much about that anymore, can you? Come on down, mate, take a bow! I stand in abject awe."

"Bones," Rodney's voice called out gratingly from upstairs. "Just get out of here."

I staggered. "Mom? You andRodney?"

A scarlet blush graced my mother's features. "He was making me dinner," she sputtered.

I found my voice amid the astonishment. "And dessert, too, apparently! I don't believe you. All those years, you crucified me for sleeping with a vampire, and look at you. Rodney's a ghoul, you hypocrite!"

"He doesn't kill people, they're dead when he gets to them!" she thundered back with questionable logic. "And I am forty-five years old and don't need to be explaining myself to my daughter."

I stared at her like I'd never seen her before. "Did Rodney like them?" I asked.

She huffed. "Did he like what, Catherine?"

"The balls on you, that's what!"

Bones laughed again and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Let's go, Kitten. Just had to rub it in, I couldn't resist. Justina, good on you, and Rodney"-another decadent chuckle-"admirablecourage."

Bones propelled me, still bitching, from the house. The door slammed behind us.

Bones still couldn't contain his laughter as we drove away at safer speeds. "I'm delighted you didn't ring her in advance, luv. That was priceless."

I didn't answer, just settled back in my chair and broke the seal on the gin.