At Grave's End

“How did this woman get those vampires to Krispy Kreme themselves? Obviously the humans had to be tranced into becoming walking bombs, but the vampires? It doesn’t seem like their style.”

 

 

Tick Tock was driving. Mencheres rode shotgun, and Bones and I were in the backseat. Good thing this vehicular monstrosity had a third row so that the other three vampires weren’t perched on our laps.

 

“Likely by holding whomever they love hostage and then threatening wretched torment on them if they refused,” Bones replied. “Not much else would make a vampire give up their own lives in that way, but we’ll find out for certain when we question the others more fully.”

 

I winced. “God, then I can’t really blame them for what they did. Maybe you shouldn’t be so rough on them—”

 

“Did they come to me with the plot?” Bones interrupted. “No. I would have tried to assist them and their family if they had, but they didn’t, so they knew the consequences.”

 

I didn’t argue further. Vampires played by a whole different set of rules, and for nearly killing Bones…yeah, they deserved what they got.

 

“Will she really let their families go?”

 

Bones shrugged. “It’s in her favor to. Else the threat doesn’t work as well next time.”

 

“I hate this shit,” I grumbled. “Backstabbing. Hostages. Suicide bombings. Family and friends hurt just because they love someone on the wrong side of the fang border. It’s only going to get worse now, isn’t it?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Most of the time Bones’s honesty was what I loved about him. Then there were the times when I wished he would just fucking lie to me.

 

I let out a deep sigh. “This puts our wedding on hold. There’s no way we could expect to pull off a shindig like that with everything going on now. Instead of ‘Here Comes the Bride,’ I’d probably be walking down the aisle to a bunch of ticking noises before a big boom.”

 

“I’m sorry, luv,” Bones said. “It wouldn’t be safe, not at this time.”

 

Not unless we drive straight to a post office and do the honors there, I thought bleakly, then lashed myself for being childish. So we’d have our wedding another time, big deal. Considering how tonight had almost turned out, a canceled wedding should be the least of my concerns.

 

“So who is this Patra chick, anyway?” I asked. “Doesn’t make sense that she’d go to such extremes to help my father murder me…and then let her lackey Talisman offer Tate a deal to get me out of the house before it blew.”

 

In the front seat, I saw Mencheres tense even as Bones said, “No, it doesn’t, does it, Grandsire? In fact, while I can think of several reasons why Patra would want you dead, and me as well now that I’ve merged lines with you, I don’t have the slightest idea why she’d come after my wife.”

 

Something in his tone made me look sharply at him…and then at the silent vampire in the front seat. There was more going on here than met the eye. The tension grew until you could almost see it like a haze.

 

“It was never about Cat,” Mencheres said at last.

 

“Excuse me?” Now I was pissed. “When someone tries to see you dead, then it is about you in my book.”

 

Mencheres didn’t turn around, but kept staring ahead at the highway. “Then your book would be wrong, because there is another reason to kill you. Max and Calibos believed that Bones didn’t care about you, so they thought they could get away with what they did. But Patra knew Bones loved you. Enough that your death would be a crippling blow to him, which would make him easier to kill later. That’s the only reason she aided Max, because she has no interest in you, Cat. Killing you was just a means to get to Bones.”

 

Bones muttered a curse even as I burst out, “But why? What did Bones do to her?”

 

Bones’s face was grim. With the soot and ash smeared all over him, he looked very dangerous.

 

“I think it’s time you explain, Grandsire.”

 

“Everyone envies me my visions,” Mencheres said with bitterness. “You don’t know what it’s like to be asked why, why, why didn’t I see the earthquake coming, or the tsunami, or the volcano, or the plane crash, or whatever tragic event that claims the lives of those around me. I don’t know what makes some things come to me with diamond-sharp clarity, while others are murky, and some are never glimpsed at all. I can only warn what I am sure of…and then wait to see if I’m ignored.”

 

I blinked. This was as upset as I’d ever seen Mencheres. His slick-as-ice exterior was seriously cracked, and he looked like he wanted to put his fist through the windshield. Tick Tock cast him an appraising look out of the corner of his eye, no doubt deciding whether or not to pull over.

 

“No one is blaming you for what happened tonight,” Bones said in an even tone. “But you still haven’t answered my question.”

 

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