“Because there’s not enough choppers to get everyone off, and if we take cars, it could be an ambush. We’ll make a stand, luv. Find out what we’re up against. Now, we’ll have the chopper ready just in case. If need be, you can fly your mum, Denise, and Randy to safety.”
“I won’t leave you,” I said. “No matter what.”
Bones made a soothing noise even as he began to strap on about forty pounds of silver. “Now Kitten, they’re human and therefore easiest to kill. The rest of us are capable of—”
“Not a motherfucking chance.” In the same reasonable tone he used. “Juan knows how to fly and I’m stronger than he is, so he’d be the best choice if their evacuation became necessary. And if you even think of pulling a fast one, like knocking me out and loading me onto that chopper, I’ll return to work full-time taking on assignments that’ll make your hair even whiter than it is now.”
Bones gave me a quick, fierce kiss.
“Bloody woman. Learned a few mind-reading tricks of your own, have you? Right then, suit up and change clothes. Your sweater’s too bulky, it’ll restrain your movements.”
I just pulled it off, left in my bra, sweatpants, and sneakers. There was no time to go upstairs and find a more flexible shirt. I began to strap on silver knives, lashing them to my legs, waist, and arms with the enhanced speed of long practice.
“Just not going to listen to a word I say, are you?” Bones asked as he handed me a sword. “Keep one of these, we don’t know what we’re trying to kill and silver might not work. You’re going to freeze like that, Kitten.”
“Isn’t that the least of our concerns?” With a laugh that was more strained than amused. “Now I’ve got full range of motion, and that’s what’s most important.”
“Right you are.” Bones drew off his own sweater and threw it to the ground next to mine. Most of the vampires and ghouls followed suit. Bare chests gleamed in the reflection of the light of the chandelier as everyone strapped on weapons. Even as we did so, those footsteps outside came closer.
Mencheres came downstairs. I hadn’t seen him before this, but he’d obviously heard what was going on, because he had more weapons covering him than skin.
“To the lawn, we’ll start with an exterior perimeter and fall back inside if necessary,” Bones said. “Zero, you gather the humans and put them in the holding cells below, since they’re the most reinforced. Feel free to use physical means to make any reluctant ones obey, especially her mother.”
I would have replied with something rude, but this wasn’t the time. We filed outdoors in a precise manner, setting up formation around the house. Hand signals were used once we were outside, the vampires and ghouls moving with a speed any military leader would love to command. Of course, they predated most military leaders. Practice did make perfect.
The frigid wind made me shiver. Yes, it was extremely cold, but it wouldn’t kill me and hypothermia was something I didn’t have to worry about. I was half vampire, after all, so my blood wouldn’t know how to freeze. It didn’t stop me from wishing I could be as impervious to it as my companions, though. Vampires and ghouls might not like the cold, but I was the only one whose teeth were chattering.
“All right, luv?”
Bones asked it while not taking his gaze off the trees in front of him. We were dead center in front of the house, and hopefully that wasn’t prophetic.
I gritted my jaw to still it. “It’ll go away when the action starts.”
There was movement at my side. Tate slid next to me without a word, shouldering Spade aside.
“Leave him,” Bones interjected when Spade was about to shove him back. “It’s what he’s good for.”
Tate might have replied with something, I won’t ever know. His mouth opened…but then the first of the mysterious figures cleared the trees and stopped his rejoinder. Bones stiffened, turning as cold and hard as any of the icicles on the roof. Spade let out a low hiss, and someone muttered something that sounded like a prayer.
“Sweet Christ,” I whispered, a new freeze settling in me. “What is that?”
It was Mencheres who answered, coming up behind us and raising his voice to be heard above the thing’s sudden snarl as it began to run, its mouth snapping obscenely from half-rotted lips.
“That,” he replied, “is the grave.”
THIRTY
I N OLDER MOVIES, ZOMBIES LOOKED ALMOST comical. The newer films pegged them better—the insanity of eyes bulging out and flesh hanging in rancid layers over a frame hunched from hunger. Some were more decomposed than others, bones visible in places as they staggered forward. But all of them had one thing in common; they were ravenous, and we were food.
When the first one was visible, Mencheres appeared as stunned as the rest of us were. After his cryptic statement, however, he began to curse in a manner so unlike him that it broke my attention from the oncoming horde.
“Never in all my foulest imaginings did I believe she would do such a thing,” he finished with. “There will be payback for this, perhaps not by me or anyone here, but one day she will account for such a deed.”