Even as I spoke, I drew my gun out of my pants. I kept one on me at all times now, knowing it was only a matter of time until I had to shoot him.
“Hallo handsome,” he mumbled. “Want to fuck?”
Relief coursed through me and I put my gun back in its holster. Those were the words I’d said when I was an inexperienced vampire hunter looking to entice Bones outside so I could kill him. What I’d lacked in charm I made up for in bluntness.
“You have to hang on a little longer,” I told him as I began to unwind the chains that tethered him to several pipes. “We’re moving to another location.”
“Kitten, I can’t . . . do this anymore.”
The words sliced through me like a dozen silver blades. He sounded so awful that all I wanted to do was cradle him while he slept for three straight days. This was too much. I wouldn’t have held out half this long. It was horrible to ask anything else of him, but even though it was unfair, I had to push all my tender feelings aside.
“You need to do this,” I said sharply. “We’re not safe here and we need to leave. Don’t you dare fall asleep and let her attack us now. I thought you loved me.”
I hated myself for every word. If I were Bones, I’d tell me to fuck off and then I’d start snoring. But he shook his head as if to clear it and then somehow forced himself to stand even with hundreds of pounds of chains coiled around him.
I’d never loved him more—or been more determined to boot that she-bitch inside him back to hell. “That’s right,” I went on while mentally promising to make this up to him. “Stay alert.”
I kept up a steady stream of conversation that only a drill sergeant would consider encouraging as I removed most of the chains but kept his arms locked to his chest in a metallic version of a straightjacket. Then I stuck some earphones in his ears and put a black hood over his face with a final brusque admonition for him to stay focused. Heartless bitch, table for one! I thought, but if things went according to plan, he’d be free of the demon tonight. As my last step of preparation, I duct-taped an iPod to his chains and turned it up. Loudly.
Thus blinded and deafened, I led him up the stairs to the first floor. It would have been quicker if I carried him, but an abrupt “no” from under the hood stopped me when I started to lift him. Male pride survived even a fortnight’s lack of sleep and a demon’s merciless assault, it seemed. That was fine. Bones could be cursing me up one side and down the other as an ungrateful bitch, and if it gave him strength, I’d cheer him on.
Ian stood next to a bloody series of symbols, Balchezek on the other side of them. Good to know he still responded promptly to his supernatural pages. A plastic container the size of a purse was at the demon’s feet, and he hefted it with a smile.
“All right, fangers. Let’s put the baby in your friends to bed!”
My thoughts exactly.
Very few people were in this derelict section of town, which was good. If anyone saw us leading a hooded, chained man to the car, they’d call the police and report a kidnapping. But, thankfully, no one stopped us as we sped off toward Ocean Isle Beach, where a boat waited for us on the stormy waters of the North Carolina coast.
Twenty-Two
WAVES BOUNCED OUR boat like a stone skipping across a pond as we made our way toward the small craft bobbing in the distance. With my enhanced vision, I made out Denise’s dark head at the helm, the wind whipping her hair into Medusa-like tendrils. I slowed our craft to idle speed, letting the current direct us instead of the speedboat’s powerful engines. We didn’t want to get too close. Denise made no move to approach us, either. She kept her craft where it was, staying as still as a statue in her position by the wheel.
Less than an hour later, I heard the roar of another engine coming from the direction of the harbor. With darkness approaching, the frigid temperatures, and small-craft advisory warnings, I didn’t think it was a family out for a pleasure cruise. A sleek white craft cleaved through the water toward Denise’s boat, the sun’s dying rays illuminating the pale hair of the vampire at that helm.
A vampire who bore a striking resemblance to Bones.