Halfway to the Grave (10 page)

“Let’s see, it was 1790 and I was in Australia. I did this bloke a favor and he thought he was returning it by making me a vampire.”

“
What?
” I was shocked. “You’re Australian? I thought you were English!”

He smiled, but with little amusement.

“I’m a bit of both, as it were. I was born in England. It’s where I spent my youth, but it was in Australia that I was changed. That makes me part of it as well.”

Now I was fascinated, my earlier consternation forgotten. “You have to go into more detail than that.”

He settled back against the side of the trailer, legs casually splayed in front of him. “I was twenty-four. It happened just a month after my birthday.”

“My God, we’re almost the same age!” As soon they were out, I realized the absurdity of the words.

He snorted. “Sure. Give or take two hundred and seventeen years.”

“Er, you know what I mean. You look older than twenty-four.”

“Thanks ever so.” He laughed at my obvious chagrin, but put me out of my misery. “Times were different. People aged far more rapidly. You bloody folks don’t know how good you have it.”

“Tell me more.” He hesitated, and I blurted out, “Please.”

Bones leaned forward, all serious now. “It’s not pretty, Kitten. Not romantic like the movies or books. You remember you told me you slugged those lads when you were young because they called your mum a whore? Well, my mum
was
a whore. Her name was Penelope and she was fifteen when she had me. It was fortunate that she and the madam of the place were friendly, or I never would have been allowed to live there. Only girl-children were kept at the whorehouse, for obvious reasons. When I was little, I didn’t know there was anything unusual with where I lived. All the women doted on me, and I would do house chores and such until I got older. The madam, her name was Lucille, later inquired as to whether or not I wanted to follow in the family business. Several of the male customers who were so inclined had taken notice of me, for I was a pretty lad. But by the time Madam approached me with the offer, I knew enough to know I wouldn’t want to perform such activities. Begging was a common occupation in
London then. Thieving was as well, so to earn my keep, I began to steal. Then when I was seventeen, my mum died of syphilis. She was thirty-three.”

My face paled considerably listening to him speak, but I wanted to hear the rest. “Go on.”

“Lucille informed me two weeks afterwards that I had to go. Wasn’t bringing in enough quid to justify the space. It wasn’t that she was cruel, she was simply being practical. Another girl could take my room and bring in three times the money. Again she offered me a choice—leave and face the streets, or stay and service the customers. Yet she added a kindness. There were a few highborn women she was acquainted with that she’d described me to, and they were interested. I could choose to sell myself to women rather than men. And so that is what I did.

“The girls at the house trained me first, of course, and it turned out I had a knack for the work. Lucille kept me in high demand and soon I had quite a few regulars among the blue bloods. One of them ended up saving my life.

“I was still picking pockets, you see. One unlucky day, I pulled the purse off a toff right in front of a bobby. Next thing I knew, I was in chains and up before one of the meanest hanging judges in London. One of my clients heard of my predicament and took pity on me. She persuaded the judge through carnal means that sending me to the new penal colonies would be just the thing. Three weeks later they shipped me and sixty-two other unlucky buggers to South Wales.”

His eyes clouded, and he ran a hand through his hair reflectively.

“I won’t tell you about the voyage except to say it went beyond any misery man should ever have to endure. Once we were at the colony, they worked us literally unto death. There were three men I became mates with—Timothy,
Charles, and Ian. After a few months, Ian managed to escape. Then, almost a year later, he came back.”

“Why would he come back?” I wondered. “Wouldn’t he have been punished for running away?”

Bones grunted. “Indeed he would have, but Ian wasn’t afraid of that anymore. We were in the fields slaughtering cattle for beef jerky and the hides when we were set upon by the natives. They killed the guards and the rest of the prisoners except Timothy, Charles, and me. That’s when Ian appeared among them, but he was different. You can guess how. He was a vampire, and he changed me that night. Charles and Timothy were changed as well by two other vampires. Though three of us were changed, only one of us asked for it. Timothy wanted what Ian offered. Charles and I didn’t. Ian changed us anyway because he thought we would thank him later. We stayed with the natives for a few years and vowed to return to England. It took us nearly twenty years to finally get there.”

He stopped and closed his eyes. At some point in his story I’d uncurled myself from my ball and sat staring at him in amazement. He was absolutely right, it wasn’t a pretty story, and I
hadn’t
had any idea what he’d been through.

“Your turn.” His eyes opened to stare right into mine. “Tell me what happened with that sod who hurt you.”

“God, Bones, I don’t want to talk about that.” I hunched defensively at the memory. “It’s humiliating.”

That dark gaze didn’t waver. “I just told you that I used to be a thief, a beggar, and a whore. Is it really fair for you to cry foul over my question?”

Put like that, he had a point. With a shrug to hide my continued pain, I summarized it briskly.

“It’s a common story. Boy meets girl, girl is naïve and stupid, boy uses girl and then hits the road.”

He just arched his brow and waited.

I threw up my hands. “Fine! You want details? I thought he really cared for me. He told me he did, and I fell for his lies completely. We went out twice, and then the third time he said he had to stop by his apartment to get something before we’d go to this club. When we got there, he started kissing me, telling me all this crap about how special I was to him….” My fingers clenched. “I told him it was too soon. That we should wait to get to know each other better, that it was my first time. He disagreed. I—I should have hit him, or thrown him off me. I could have, I was stronger than he was. But…” I dropped my eyes. “I wanted to make him happy. I really liked him. So when he didn’t stop, I just stayed still and tried not to move. It didn’t hurt as much if I didn’t move….”

God, I was going to cry. I blinked rapidly and took in an uneven breath, pushing back the recollection. “That’s about it. One miserable time and then he didn’t call me anymore. I was worried at first—I thought something bad might have happened to him.” Bitter laugh. “The next weekend I found him making out with another girl at the same club where we were supposed to go. He told me then that he’d never really liked me and to run along because it was past my bedtime. That same night, I killed my first vampire. In a way I owe it to being used. I was so upset I wanted to either die or murder someone. At least having some creature try to rip out my throat guaranteed me one or the other.”

Bones didn’t make any of his usual mocking quips. When I dared to meet his eyes again, he was simply staring at me, no scorn or judgment on his face. The silence stretched, seconds into minutes. It filled with something unexplainable as we kept looking in each other’s eyes.

The sudden jostling of the trailer broke the trance as the vehicle ground to a stop. With a slight shake, Bones leapt down from his perch and headed to the rear of the car.

“We’re nearly at the place, and there’s still work to be done. Hold open that bag for me, Kitten.”

His normal jaunty tone was back. Perplexed by the earlier moment, I joined him at the rear of the trailer.

Bones unwrapped Sergio from his plastic shroud as cheerily as a child ripping through wrapping paper on Christmas. I was holding a kitchen-sized garbage bag and wondering what he was up to.

It didn’t take long to find out. With his hands, he twisted Sergio’s head off as cleanly as if it were the top on a soda bottle. There was a sickening crunch, and then the withering cranium was unceremoniously dumped into the bag.

“Yuck.” I thrust the bag back into his hands. “You take it.”

“Squeamish? That lump of rotting skull is worth fifty thousand dollars. Sure you don’t want to cradle it a bit?” He smiled his familiar mocking smile, the old Bones again.

“No, thanks.” Some things money just couldn’t buy, and my spending more time with that head was one of them.

The rear of the trailer opened with a creak and Ted appeared in the artificial light.

“We’re here, bud. Hope you both had a smooth ride.” His eyes twinkled as he looked back and forth between the two of us.

Instantly I was defensive. “We were
talking
.”

Ted grinned, and I saw Bones hide a smile as he turned to face his friend.

“Come on, mate. We’ve been driving for, what…fifty minutes? Not nearly enough time.”

They both laughed. I didn’t, seeing nothing amusing at all.

“Are you finished?”

Sobering, Bones shook his head. “Stay in the trailer for a minute. Something I have to take care of.”

“What?” Curiosity killed the cat; I hoped for better results.

“Business. Got a head to deliver, and I want you to stay out of it. The less people know of you, the better.”

Made sense. I sat on the edge of the trailer with my feet dangling and then peeled back the cloth to inspect my wrist again. The wound was completely healed, the skin coapted together around the edges and unscarred. There was such a vast difference between vampires and humans, even half-breeds like myself. We weren’t even the same species. So why did I tell Bones things I’d never told anyone else? My mother didn’t know what happened with Danny, for example. She wouldn’t have understood. She wouldn’t have understood a
lot
about me, in fact. I hid more from her than I told her, if I were being honest, and yet for some reason, I told Bones things that I should hide.

After about thirty minutes of contemplating this and chipping the polish off my nails, Bones reappeared. He jumped into the trailer, untied his bike, and carried it one-handed to the ground.

“Hop on, pet. We’re finished.”

“What about the car? Or the torso?”

I climbed behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist for leverage. It was disconcerting to be pressed so close to him after that near miss earlier, but I didn’t want to peel myself off the asphalt if I fell. At least he’d given me a helmet, although he didn’t wear one himself. One of the advantages of being already dead.

“Ted’s taking the car. Got a chop house that he runs for ’em. It’s how he makes his living, didn’t I tell you?”

No, he hadn’t, not that it mattered. “And the body?”

He sped off, leaving me clutching him at the sudden momentum as the motorcycle weaved onto the road.

“Part of the deal. He plants him for me. Less work for
us. Ted’s a smart fellow, keeps his mouth shut and minds his business. Don’t fret over him.”

“I’m not,” I shouted over the wind. Actually, I was tired. It had already been a long night.

It was a two-hour drive back to the cave, and we arrived shortly after three a.m. My truck was parked about a quarter mile away from the entrance as usual, since the vehicle couldn’t navigate the rest of the way. Bones pulled to a stop at the truck, and I jumped off the motorcycle as soon as it quit moving. Motorcycles made me nervous. They just seemed such an unsafe way to travel. Vampires, of course, didn’t share my trepidation of a broken neck, limbs, or skin sloughed off on the pavement. The other reason for my haste was simple—to be away from Bones as quickly as possible. Before any further attacks of stupidity overwhelmed me.

“Off so soon, pet? The evening is young.”

He looked at me with a glint in his eye and a devilish curl to his lips. I just collected my keys from their hiding place under a rock and heaved wearily into the truck.

“Maybe for you, but I’m going home. Go find yourself a nice neck to suck on.”

Unperturbed, he uncurled himself from the bike.

“Going home wearing that dress with blood all over it? Your mum might worry at seeing you that way. You can come inside and change. Promise I won’t peek.” The last part was accompanied by an exaggerated wink that made me smile despite my watchfulness.

“No, I’ll change at a gas station or something. By the way, since this job is done, when do I have to come back here? Do I get a break?”

I was hoping for a break not only in training, but also in the time spent in his company. Maybe my head needed to be examined, and some time away would help accomplish that.

“Sorry, Kitten. Tomorrow night you’re on again. Then after that I fly to Chicago to see my old friend Hennessey. With luck, I’ll be back on Thursday, because Friday I have another job for us….”

“Yeah, I get it,” I said disgustedly. “Well, you just remember I’m starting college next week, so you’ll have to cut me some slack. We might have an arrangement, but I’ve waited too long already to get my degree.”

“Absolutely, pet. Fill your head with volumes of information that will never apply in real life. Just remember—dead girls pass no exams, so don’t think you’re going to neglect your training. Don’t fret, though. We’ll work it out. Speaking of that, here you go.”

Bones drew out a wide opaque plastic bag from inside his jacket, which had looked considerably fuller than normal, come to notice. Rifling through it for a moment, he pulled out a wad of something green and held it out to me.

“Your share.”

Huh?
I stared at the multiple hundreds in his hand with disbelief that turned to suspicion.

“What’s this?”

He shook his head. “Blimey, but you’re a difficult chit! Fellow can’t even give you money without you arguing.
This
, luv, is twenty percent of the bounty Sergio had on his head. It’s for your part in him
losing
his head. See, I reckon since I don’t pay anything to the IRS, I may as well give their cut to you. Death and taxes. They go hand in hand.”