Halfway to the Grave (31 page)

T
O GIVE CREDIT WHERE IT WAS DUE, DON WAS
as good as his word in setting up my transportation. Within an hour, I was dressed and waiting in my mother’s room, sans handcuffs. I’d finally showered to wash off all of the blood, and while in there, I allowed myself to cry, since it mixed with the water and felt camouflaged. Yet looking down at my mother now, my eyes were dry as sand.

“Well?”

I’d just finished speaking to her about the offer and my subsequent acceptance of it. Some of the repugnance had left her face while I talked and at last she took my hand.

“You’re doing the right thing. The
only
thing to save yourself from a future of evil.”

Bitterness wafted from me and a small, selfish part of me hated her. If not for her, I could just disappear with Bones and live the rest of my life with the man I loved. Yet it was no more her fault for her unyielding hatred of vampires than it was my fault for being born. In this case, we were even.

“I don’t think it’s saving me from a future of evil, but I’m doing it anyway.”

“Don’t be stupid, Catherine. Of course it is. How long could you have continued your relationship with that creature before he turned you into a vampire? If he cared for you as you claim he did, then he wouldn’t want to sit back and watch you age over time, would he? Moving closer to death each year, as all humans do. Why, when he could change you and extend your youth indefinitely? That’s what he’ll do to you if you stay with him, and if you weren’t being blind, you’d already know it.”

Much as I hated to admit it, she had brought up a very obvious point I’d let myself ignore. What would happen to our relationship in ten years? Twenty? More? God, she was right. Bones wouldn’t just sit back and watch me die of old age. He’d want me to change over, and I would never do it. Maybe we’d been doomed from the start, and my mother’s prejudice and Don’s offer were just proof of that.
You fight the battles you can win
, Bones had repeatedly said. Well, I couldn’t win this battle, but I could keep him safe. I could keep my mother safe, and then use what was in me to keep other people safe. Put in perspective, a broken heart wasn’t such a terrible price to pay. I might be looking at a future without him, but it was still a future. Considering all the girls Hennessey had taken who didn’t have that anymore, it would be an insult for me to squander my life when theirs had been robbed from them.

The door opened and Tate Bradley poked his head in. His arm was in a sling and there was a bandage near his temple.

“Time to go.”

Nodding shortly, I grasped my mother’s wheelchair and followed him down the hospital corridor. The hallway had been cleared and every patient door closed. Behind me
were eight heavily armed men. It seemed Don was afraid I’d get cold feet.

There were about two hours left of daylight. We would be driven a short distance away to a helicopter pad and then flown via chopper to where a military plane waited. I piled into the backseat with my mother. Tate took the front passenger seat, being unable to drive with his broken arm. A man who introduced himself as Pete took the wheel. My other guards took flanking positions in three vehicles, one behind us, two on each side. Ironically, it was the same formation the vampires had used last night. We pulled away and I closed my eyes, thinking that I’d have to find a way to tell Bones goodbye. Maybe I’d leave a message with Tara. She’d know how to contact him. I couldn’t just leave with no word to him at all.

Tate broke the silence after several minutes. “Pete here will be one of the members of the unit, Cather—excuse me, Cat,” he corrected himself.

I didn’t open my eyes. “Not unless I say so, or were you asleep during that part? I pick the team. Pete’s in only if he passes my test, and that goes for you, too.”

“What’s the test?” Pete asked condescendingly.

My eyes slit open.

“To see how many times you’ll get back up after I beat you unconscious.”

Pete laughed. Tate didn’t. Maybe he wasn’t as stupid as I’d first thought. The glance he threw me told me he believed every word.

“Look,”—Pete eyed me in the rearview mirror, skepticism etched on his face—“I know you’re supposed to be something special, but…what the
fuck
?”

Pete’s retort ended in a gasp when he spotted a man in the middle of the highway in our lane. My breath caught as well, and my mother screamed.

“That’s
him
! That’s—”

Tate had less hesitation. In the seconds before the car struck Bones, he pulled his gun and fired through the windshield at him.

It was like hitting a brick wall. The collision crushed the front of the car. Glass exploded out of the windows and the front and rear air bags deployed instantly. Jerked forward violently, I heard brakes screech behind us as our escort swerved to avoid slamming into our rear. The two cars on either side of us sailed past and then applied their brakes to try to rotate around. Traffic still came from behind us. Vehicles that had banked sharply to the left and right of us crashed into the turning agents’ cars. The sound of twisting steel on metal as the vehicles piled up in a ghastly domino effect was deafening.

Tate and Pete lolled in their seat belts, blood from the glass and contact with the dashboard streaming down their faces. There was a wrenching sound as Tate’s door was ripped off its frame. Through the smoke from the destroyed engine, I saw Bones grin as he chucked the piece of the car like a giant Frisbee at the car behind us. Back there, the other guards vainly tried to get a clear shot at him. They scattered as the door burst through their windshield. In a flash the other door followed suit, and my mother wailed in mortal fear when he next tore open mine.

“Hallo, Kitten!”

Despite my earlier resolution, I was thrilled to see him. He unclasped my seat belt and grabbed my mother when she tried to scoot out her side.

“Not so fast, Mum. We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

A moan from the front seat made him casually swat Tate in the head.

“Don’t kill him, Bones! They weren’t going to hurt me!”

“Oh—right, then. Let’s just send them on their way nicely.”

In a blur he yanked Tate clear from his seat. For a moment his mouth pressed against his neck, and then he tossed him fifty feet in the air. Tate landed in the grass by the shoulder of the road. Pete attempted to crawl away, but Bones grasped him and gave him the same flight with similar onboard beverage service.

“Get out of the car, luv,” Bones directed, and I sprang from the ruined remains of the vehicle. He still had my mother by the arm. She was crying and cursing him at the same time.

“They’re going to kill you, they know what you are! Catherine’s—”

My mother’s words were cut off when I punched her right in the jaw. She collapsed without another word. In her railing threats, she would have revealed too much, and if Bones knew about the deal I’d made, he would talk me out of it. I’d believe whatever impossible assurances he gave me, because my heart had no common sense.

A bullet whizzed by. I dropped to the ground, not wanting to get shot
again.
Bones gave an irritated glance in its direction and then grasped the floorboards of the car. My eyes widened in growing comprehension. God, he couldn’t do that, could he?

The agents from the cars in front of us had taken cover behind one of their overturned vehicles, and they were firing at us. Apparently they’d been told to ensure my safe arrival or, failing that, guarantee I didn’t escape. Plan A had failed, so they were going with Plan B. Bones gave a wolfish grin as he lifted the car off the ground. He spun in a semicircle for maximum velocity, and then the twisted hunk of machinery went sailing through the air, landing point-blank on the makeshift barricade of the agents’ vehicle.

There was a thunderous boom as the car exploded on contact. Thick acrid smoke billowed into the air. In the
midst of this maelstrom, with his legs apart and eyes flashing green, Bones looked absolutely, terrifyingly magnificent.

Pandemonium seized the highway. Traffic on the opposite side of the road piled up as disbelieving onlookers stopped driving and gaped at the carnage to their left. Every second brought a fresh squealing of brakes and new accidents. Bones didn’t pause to admire his work. He took my hand and threw my mother over his shoulder as we raced into the trees out of sight.

He had a car waiting about five miles ahead where the lanes were free of the wreckage behind us. Bones deposited my mother in the back, pausing only to clap a piece of duct tape over her mouth before we sped off.

“Glad you were the one that socked her, luv. It saved me the trouble. You don’t get your meanness from your father—you get it from her. She bit me.”

For someone who had just been hit by a car going sixty, he looked remarkably chipper.

“How did you do that?
How
did you stop the car? If a vampire can do that, why didn’t Switch prevent me from bashing into the house last night?”

Bones snorted derisively. “That pup? He couldn’t stop a toddler on a tricycle. He was only ’round sixty, luv, in undead years. You have to be an old Master vamp like me to pull such a trick without regretting it dearly afterwards. Believe me, it hurt like blazes. That’s why I took a nip from your two blokes before chucking them off. Who were they, anyhow? They weren’t police.”

This had to be handled very carefully. “Um, they were from some branch of government, they didn’t say which. Weren’t real chatty, you know? I think they were taking me to a special jail or something because of Oliver.”

He gave me a look. “You should have waited for me. You could have gotten killed.”

“I couldn’t wait! One of Oliver’s dirty cops tried to shoot me, and he was supposed to plant a bomb in the hospital where they were taking my mother! Oliver was the one, Bones. He admitted it, practically bragged about how Hennessey was ‘cleaning up’ his state for him. Like all those people were nothing but garbage. God, if I’d killed him ten times, it still wouldn’t be enough.”

“What makes you think those blokes who were taking you away weren’t more of his men?”

“They weren’t. Besides, you hardly treated them like you were giving them the benefit of the doubt. You dropped a car on four of them.”

“Oh, don’t fret.” Unconcernedly. “They jumped free before the explosion. And if they were too thick not to, then they deserved to die for their stupidity.”

“Whose car is this?” We were riding in a black Volvo SUV, fully loaded with that new car smell.

Bones cast a sideways glance at me. “Yours. Do you like it?”

I shook my head. “Not whose it is
now
, but won’t it be reported stolen soon?”

“No,” he replied. “This was your Christmas present. It’s registered under the name on your false license, so there’s no way for them to track it. Hope you don’t mind missing out on the surprise, but under the circumstances, it was our best option.”

My mouth hung open, because he was clearly serious. “I can’t accept this. It’s way too expensive!” In the midst of everything, here I was arguing over the lavishness of a Christmas gift. Normal and I would never meet.

He gave an exasperated sigh. “Kitten, for once could you just say thank you? Really, luv, aren’t we past this?”

A sharp stab of misery poked me when I remembered we were way past this, just not like he thought.

“Thank you. It’s beautiful. All I got you was a new
jacket.” Christmas was only two weeks away, but it might as well have been a thousand years.

“What kind of jacket?”

God help me, how would I have the strength to walk away from him? His dark brown eyes were lovelier than anything money could buy. I swallowed hard and described it, because talking kept the tears at bay.

“Well, it was long, like a trenchcoat. Black leather, so you’d look spooky and mysterious. The police probably ransacked whatever was left of my apartment the vampires didn’t destroy. It was wrapped and hidden under the loose board in the kitchen cabinet.”

Bones took my hand and squeezed it gently. Now there was no halting the moisture from my eyes.

“Switch?” Better asking late than never. The fact that Bones was here made the question almost rhetorical.

“Shriveled in Indiana. That bugger ran at full speed for hours. Sorry I couldn’t have taken my time with him, Kitten, but I wanted to head straight back to you. When I caught him, I staked him and left him to rot in the woods by Cedar Lake. With all the bodies left back at the house, one more isn’t going to rock the boat. In fact, Indiana’s where we’re headed now.”

“Why Indiana?” Dimly I was glad Switch was dead. Maybe now my grandparents could rest in peace.

“Got a mate there, Rodney, who will set you and your mum up with new identification. We’ll bunk at his place tonight and leave tomorrow afternoon. Just have to run a few errands in the morning to be set. From there, we’ll proceed to Ontario for a few months. We
will
track down those last two sods, mark my words, but we’ll do it quietly once this heat over Oliver cools down. When your lads can’t find a trace of you after a bit, they’ll look for other fish to fry.”

Oh, if only it were that simple.
“How did you know when they were moving us?”

He gave an amused grunt. “By watching. When they cleared a path from a floor to the back exit and had armed guards waiting by a bunch of vehicles, it was obvious. I just stayed ahead of them until the timing was right.”

A solid thumping noise drew my attention to the backseat. Bones grinned.

“Looks like your mum woke up.”

R
ODNEY WAS A GHOUL, TO MY SURPRISE.
Somehow I just expected vampire. Bones lifted my mother out of the backseat, tape still over her mouth, and handed her off to me as he made the introductions. Rodney didn’t bat an eye. He must have been used to people showing up at his house bound and gagged.

I set my mother on her feet and shook Rodney’s hand as much as I could while keeping her from bolting away.

“I hate to impose right off, Rodney, but where’s the bathroom?”

“It’s no imposition, it’s on the left,” he said with a smile.

I hauled her with me. “Be back in a minute, Bones. I want to get her cleaned up and have a word with her.”

“Take your time, luv.”

I locked the door behind us and immediately began to run the water in the tub. On the way over, I’d come up with
a plan, but now I had to get my mother to play along. She made furious grunts behind her gag, and I sighed. Even with the water running, Bones might hear us.

I gave the bathroom mirror a cagey glance and then turned the faucet to run as hot as possible. Soon the room filled with steam. Bingo.

I used my finger to write on the now-fogged mirror:

Leaving tomorrow don’t speak he’ll hear you

Her eyes bugged. “He killed the man who murdered Grandpa Joe and Grandma, Mom,” I said in a clear voice. “He won’t hurt me and he won’t hurt you.”

She wrote three words next to mine:

Leaving without him?

I nodded my head yes, even though I wanted to throw up. “I know you hate vampires and I know this will be hard, but you’re going to have to listen to me for a while.”

He doesn’t know, he would stop us

“Just give me a little time. You have to trust me. Our lives depend on it.”

Play along no matter what

“We’re staying here tonight, and then tomorrow we’re leaving the country. It’s the only way.”

I kept repeating that to myself. This
was
the only way. It just hurt more than I could stand.

“Well? Are you going to be reasonable? Can I take the gag off?”

She gave me a hard stare and wrote again on the mirror:

Leaving without him promise me

“You can trust me,” I repeated. “I promise.”

My mother nodded once, and I took her gag off. She glanced at the door, but didn’t say a word.

I grabbed one of the pretty hanging towels and rubbed our words off the mirror. “Try to be nice when we go out.”

Bones and Rodney were seated at the table. My mother glared at both of them, but said nothing. For her, that
was
being nice.

“Take your pick of the guest rooms, one upstairs and one in the basement,” Rodney offered.

“Show me the one in the basement,” I said instantly.

“Of course, follow me.”

I took my mother’s arm and we went down a flight of stairs to the basement. Rodney opened a door to a guest room complete with fluffy blankets and, more importantly, no windows.

I gave my mother a light push inside. “This’ll be perfect for you, Mom.”

She stared stupidly at me as I started to leave.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Upstairs. With Bones. Good night.”

I slammed the door and watched with grim contentment as Rodney locked it from the outside. The mere fact that he had a downstairs bedroom with a lock on the outside was cause for comment, but none of my business.

There was a pounding on it almost at once.

“Catherine! You can’t mean to—”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow, Mom, when we’re alone.
Tomorrow.
Don’t cause a fuss, you’re making Rodney hungry.”

Although I had no way of knowing the truthfulness of that statement, he winked at me and made a low rumbling noise in his throat. The room inside at once became quiet.

“Thanks for that,” I whispered gratefully. “She would have banged all night.”

He smiled as we walked back up the stairs. The door to the basement he also locked and gave me a meaningful glance.

“In case she’s really feisty.”

Bones waited for me in the other guest room and I went straight into his arms, breathing in the scent of him. For several minutes we just held each other. Selfishly I tried to drink in the feeling of him next to me. I might know this was the only way, but oh God, did it hurt.

“I told you we’d make it through the night, luv. You didn’t believe me.”

“No,” I softly answered. “I didn’t. But you were right, and both of you are alive. That’s all that matters. It means more than anything to me.”

“You mean more than anything to me.”

He lowered his head and brushed his lips across mine. In response I wound my hands around him and pressed him to me so tightly, I knew I’d have bruises in the morning.

“Why are you crying?” he whispered.

I swiped at the tears I hadn’t realized were there. “Because…I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you.”

He kissed me. “Nothing will happen to me, I promise.”

I promise too. In fact, I’m going to bet my life on it.

“I want you to know that despite everything, I’m so glad I met you,” I choked out. “It was the luckiest day of my life. If I hadn’t, I never would have known what it was like for someone to love me, all of me, even the parts I hated. I would have gone through life empty and guilt-ridden, but you showed me a whole new world, Bones. I’ll never be able to thank you for all you’ve done for me, but I will love you every day until I die.”

Maybe he’d remember this after I was gone. Maybe he wouldn’t hate me for what I had to do.

“Kitten,” he moaned as he drew me down onto the bed. “I only
thought
I was living before I met you. You’ll love me until you die? That’s not nearly long enough….”

I cursed each ray of sunlight that mocked me with its appearance. Bones already told me he and Rodney would be leaving for about four hours to make the final arrangements for our departure. They would take Rodney’s car, leaving me the Volvo just in case they had to summon us to meet them. All that was left now was for him to leave, not knowing that we would never see each other again.

Rodney, the domesticated ghoul, made breakfast. Pancakes and omelets for my mother and me. Under my threatening glare she ate hers, looking as though she would choke with each swallow. Out of courtesy I ate far more than I wanted, not having an appetite but not wanting to appear rude. One of the few things I was thankful for was that Rodney was waiting until later to eat…whatever his normal breakfast consisted of.

When Bones started toward the door, I surprised him by grabbing him and throwing my arms around him. I buried my head in his neck.
I can’t let you go yet. I can’t do it. It’s too soon!

“What’s this? Miss me before I’ve even left?”

My heart constricted. “I’ll always miss you when you’re gone.”

It was treading the tightrope a little dangerously, but I couldn’t help but say it.

He kissed me, achingly tender. I held him and desperately tried not to cry.
This hurts so much! How can I let you go? How can I let you walk away?

How can you not?
my logic countered.
You love him? Then prove it. Keep him safe.

Ruthlessly I swallowed back my tears.
It’s b
e
tter to do this now than later. You know this is the right decision. He’ll live long past your lifetime, and he’ll forget about you eventually.

I pulled away, touching his face very softly. “Give me your jacket.”

Even in the midst of reveling in his last embrace, I was adding the final nails to the coffin. Bones shook it off, raising a dark brow in question. “In case we have to leave and meet you,” I said in explanation. “It’s cold outside.”

Bones handed me the faded denim coat he’d worn yesterday while causing a forty-car pile-up and I folded it under my arm. He gave one last brush of his lips on my forehead as I prepared to shut the door behind him.
You can do this. Let him go. It’s the only way.

“Be careful, Bones. Just please…be careful.”

He smiled. “Don’t fret, luv. I’ll be back before you know it.”

I watched through the peephole long after they drove off and then fell to my knees, letting myself feel all the pain of a shattered heart. I cried until my eyes burned and I could barely breathe. This hurt so much worse than those bullets had.

Twenty minutes later I stood and was a different person. There was no more time for weeping. I had a job to do.
You play the hand you’re dealt
, Bones had always said. Well, I’d been born a half-breed for a reason, and now was my chance to prove it.
Come one, come all, bloodsuckers! The Red Reaper’s ready for you!

I advanced on my mother and spoke in low clipped tones. First things first.

“Get dressed, we’re leaving. Now, I’m going to tell you exactly what you’ll say, and God help you if you don’t follow every fucking word of it….”

The helicopter hovered overhead, a large mechanical beetle in the sky. Don Williams was wheeled over the uneven ground at his insistence and ten other agents fanned out around the perimeter. In the middle of this scene I huddled around Switch’s body. It hadn’t been hard for me to find him. Bones had told me he’d left him in the woods near Cedar Lake. With my new nose, I’d scented him out soon after arriving. Switch was now wearing a denim jacket over his decomposed remains, and a silver knife protruded grotesquely out of his back.

Even seated, Don commanded the activities. “Is that him?” he demanded as he drew near.

“It’s him.”

Don stared down at the unrecognizable corpse and frowned. “There’s nothing left but bones!”

“Funny you should say that,” I responded in a flat tone. “That was his name. Bones.”

The cold wind caused me to shiver and I glanced around at the dreary landscape of naked trees and frigid earth.

“He’s dead, so why the rush? When your call came in, you said if we didn’t arrive within the hour, you were leaving because it was too dangerous to wait. Well, it’s been forty-five minutes and he doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere.”

I stood and towered over him in his wheelchair. “Because yesterday he told me there would be vampires coming for retribution over what happened the night before last. Oliver had toothy friends. The team isn’t in place and I can’t fight them on my own. Since I value my own neck, I don’t want it to become food. Get me and my mother out of here. Now.”

“We’re taking him as well,” he insisted. “We’ll want to study the body.”

I shrugged.

“Study away, but I suggest you speed up. Vampires can smell flesh from miles away. Any of your boys left here
poking at pinecones will become one big snack in a hell of a hurry.”

Don stared at me. “Why should I believe you?”

As if annoyed, I ran my hand through my hair. “Because you’re not as dumb as you look. Any of your men who were injured yesterday need to be moved immediately as well. The vamps will try to extort information from them and I’m sure those agents know things you’d rather not be shared with the undead.”

He stared into my eyes for several more long moments and I stared back without blinking. Finally he called out to his men, decision made.

“Let’s move it out, people. Wrap it up, we leave in five! Someone get the hospital on the phone and transport all injured personnel in the Medevac chopper on the double. No arrival destination listed. Stanley, pack that body and make it snappy, we’re airborne in five.”

There was a flurry of activity as the agents rushed to carry out his instructions. While they made final preparations, I sat down next to my mother. She put her hand in mine without a word.

“Ms. Crawfield.” Don approached with the sound of crunching wheels. “Is there anything you’d like to add to your daughter’s description of what happened? Anything at all?”

My mother looked up at him and dourly shook her head. “How could I? I was unconscious. That animal hit me, again. When I came to, Catherine had killed him. There he is, see for yourself.”

Don looked back and forth between the two of us. Neither of us wavered. He sighed. “Then, ladies, come with me. The helicopter will take us to the airport. Let’s try this again.”

Eight hours later, I walked the long corridor of the military hospital in Houston, Texas, with Don rolling at my side.

“It’s done?”

He grunted in the affirmative. “Catherine Crawfield has been officially killed by the FBI after trying to escape during a transfer. That’s how we explained the highway pile-up yesterday. The body of a Jane Doe has been substituted as yours.”

I nodded, only sorry that Timmie would believe that. Or maybe he wouldn’t. He
had
been a conspiracy buff. “And my reason for killing Ethan Oliver?”

Don smiled coldly. “A random act of senseless violence. Considering Oliver’s propaganda campaign, I thought it was fitting.”

I didn’t smile back, but I thought it was fitting, too.

“Tate asked to see me?”

“As soon as he woke up. The doctors are holding off on the painkillers, otherwise it would be pretty one-sided.”

“How badly is he hurt?” Cynically, I was more curious than concerned.

“Two broken legs, two broken arms, six broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, broken nose, some internal bleeding, abrasions, and a low iron count. He’ll be out for weeks recovering.”

“We’ll see,” I murmured.

Tate Bradley was covered in casts and gauze. His eyes fluttered when we came in the door.

I pulled up a chair and sat down. “Hello.”

A pain-filled gaze met mine. “Did I make the team, Cat?”

His voice was a raspy whisper, but the words made me almost smile. Almost.

“You want to sign on for this kind of pain on a regular basis?”

“Hell, yeah.” Breathy but firm.

I shook my head sardonically. “Then congratulations,
Tate. You’re the first team member.” I stood and turned to Don.

“Get a nurse and have them take some blood from me. At least a pint. Have them transfuse it to Tate.”