I launched out of bed, slamming Bradley in the head when he moved to block me. He dropped like a stone onto the floor. Then I grabbed Don by his shirt collar and hauled him out of his wheelchair, lifting him until his feet dangled in the air.
“You can kill us both now, Catherine,” he panted. “We can’t stop you. Maybe you’d make it out the window without getting shot. Maybe you’d make it to her room and fling her over your shoulder and carry her off, kicking and screaming for help. Maybe you’d get a car and a false passport, meet up with your lover and try to skip the country. Maybe you would get away with all of that. But how long before she left you? How long before she ran away out of fear of her own daughter? And then how long before someone found her and made her pay for what you’ve done?”
Don held my eyes as tightly as I gripped his shirt. In his stare I could see the truth. See my mother fighting every moment to escape, probably trying to kill herself out of misery, and then getting stolen away again because of me or Bones. We would try to rescue her, of course, and then what if she died and Bones did as well? It was one thing to risk my relationship with her if she didn’t accept me because of the man I loved. But I couldn’t demand her life in return for my happiness, and I couldn’t risk his for the same reason. We could run all over the world, but we wouldn’t be able to escape what was inside us, and eventually it would destroy all of us.
I relinquished my grip on Don. He crumpled to the ground, his shattered knees unable to hold him. There was a way to ensure the safety of both Bones and my mother, and it only required one sacrifice. Mine.
I knew then that I had to take Don’s offer. It tore at my heart, but to do any less would be to condemn either Bones or my mother. Her hatred of vampires was so great, she would get herself or him killed if we tried to run away, and we’d have to, with so many different people chasing us. We couldn’t run from Hennessey and Oliver’s remaining friends, the police, plus a secret U. S. government agency as well! One of them would catch us. It would only be a matter of time. If I went with Don, I’d be eliminating two out of the three threats against us, so the odds of Bones and my mother being safe more than doubled. How could I refuse, if I claimed to love them? Love wasn’t doing only what was best for me, after all. It was doing what was best for them.
“We have a deal,” I said to Don, steeling myself. “If you meet my conditions.”
“Name them. I’ll tell you straight out if they’re impossible.”
He struggled to climb back into the wheelchair, but I watched him without pity.
“One, I command any teams that hunt vampires. There’s no way I’m going to listen to any brass-striped and -buttoned fool when it comes to battle. I’m superior to any of your men and I don’t care that I’m younger. We do things my way and I train and pick my own team. If they don’t meet my standards, then they stay at home.”
My voice was granite and I didn’t blink. He nodded briskly, all business.
“Two, we leave right away, and we don’t come back here. You forget about my undead friend. I’m not backstabbing someone who helped rescue my mother and has done me no harm. If you can’t handle that, then we quit speaking, because if I ever hear differently, you’ll wish more than my mother does now that I’d never been born. Believe me, you’ll have plenty of other dead vampires to play with by the time I’m through.”
Don hesitated for only a moment and then shrugged. “I want to win the war, not just one battle. I’ll agree to that. Provided, of course, you have no further contact with him or any other nonhuman friends you may have acquired. I won’t endanger my people needlessly or open my division to infiltration because you like how something is in the sack.”
His emphasis on thing was deliberate. So he had prejudice issues as well.
“Three, there is a length-of-service agreement. Even soldiers get to quit after a period of time. I don’t want to be enslaved to you for the rest of my natural life, however short that may turn out to be. Ten years, and not a minute more.”
He frowned and pulled at his eyebrow. “What if after that time special circumstances come up? Monsters don’t send us notice in advance to warn us of the trouble they plan. How about ten years’ full duty, and then after that, three missions a year of our choice for another three years? That seems fair, doesn’t it?”
“Three missions a year, not to exceed one month in total time length combined. Done.”