“I don’t plead for lenience. I know you’ll put me with the other one, but before you do…Bones, my sire, I ask that you forgive me.”
Bones quit pacing. There was a loaded silence. Then he came to stand in front of Rattler.
“In 1867, I befriended you. Five years later, I changed you, and what did I say was the worst thing you could ever do as a vampire?”
Rattler looked away. “To betray your sire.”
“Right. You have committed the worst act you could in the eyes of our people, yet you ask my forgiveness. Do you know what I have to say to that, Walter Tannenbaum?”
Bones was completely still, and that should have been my warning. Maybe it was the aftereffects of slamming my head through solid concrete that slowed me, or it could have been that he moved too fast, outdistancing even Spade and Vlad as they tried to block him.
“You have it.”
The knife he’d used to cut his palm was still in his hand. It buried with a fierce twist into Rattler’s heart even as he uttered those words.
There was a split second as their eyes met, me yanking futilely on Bones’s arm and shouts of protest coming from the onlookers, when I would swear I saw Rattler smile. It died in the next instant along with him. His body slumped, and before my eyes, his skin started to wither.
“Bones, why?”
Now I was the one who directed that ringing question to him. He swung around to face me.
“Because I would have done the same thing if I were him, so he has my forgiveness.”
In the uncomfortable moment of silence I spoke up. “He didn’t have mine.”
Only the pain in his voice kept me from screaming at him. Instead, in a manner very like his, I grew more still.
“I heard that bitch laugh when she told me she’d killed you. Then saw her face when she thanked me for it being all my fault. Aren’t I deserving of any retribution? Doesn’t my injury measure up next to Rattler’s? This might have been merciful but it was wrong, Bones. You taught me that. No matter how much you empathized with Rattler, you shouldn’t have killed him. I let you have Max. You should have given me Rattler.”
And with that, I left the small room, the other vampires clearing a path to let me pass.
TWENTY-NINE
S INCE BONES HAD BEEN PRETENDING TO BE weak prior to finding out who the traitor was, he hadn’t spent much time with the prisoner he’d helped capture from the train ambush—Anubus, Patra’s second-in-command. In fact, Anubus had almost been neglected in the furor over Bones’s return, though I’m sure he didn’t complain over his lack of attention. In fact, he almost seemed surprised to see someone in his cell.
This was really the first I’d seen him as well, since I didn’t count that initial time when Ian, Rodney, and Spade had returned with him and without Bones. Anubus was tall for an Egyptian, well over six-three, and he had the long straight hair and pronounced features to brag of his heritage. His bearing was far from that of a prisoner awaiting a grim sentence, too. He almost appeared relaxed, even though he was welded into the steel wall he hung from.
His stygian gaze evaluated me in much the same way I considered him. Coldly. The first flicker of real disconcertion came when I moved aside to let him view the man who followed behind me.
“Ah, hallo there, Anubus. Blimey, I think the last time I saw you was over fifty years ago. You recall, I had just met this very forward wench who took me back to her chalet and then nearly bored me to impotence with her shagging. Don’t think she moved once under me the whole time, and it took hours, didn’t it? Why, if the mattress would have had a hole of similar size, I wager I’d have had a grander time shoving my cock into that…”
A bellow of rage cut off the rest of his sentence. I managed to keep my features blank. Bones had warned me what he would use to goad Anubus, since Anubus regarded Patra as a deity, but I’d insisted on being present. Guess he wasn’t kidding about it being graphic enough to piss the other vampire off.
“Shut up, filth! I can’t believe you’re still alive, but you won’t be for long. All the flames of the netherworld are more than what you deserve.”