Up From the Grave: A Night Huntress Novel
Frost, Jeaniene
Dedication
To the fans of the Night Huntress series,
thank you for letting Cat and Bones into your lives.
This one’s for you!
Acknowledgments
If I mentioned everyone who played a critical role in the success of the Night Huntress series, it would take several pages. Many of you I will never know about, but I owe you my thanks nonetheless. Therefore, I’m only going to highlight two people here, hoping that the rest of you know how deeply appreciated you are. With that being said . . . thank you, God, for the career You have gifted me with. It wasn’t done with the strength of my hands, but the blessings from Yours. On the publishing side, I wouldn’t have been able to share Cat and Bones with anyone if not for my editor, Erika Tsang. Back in 2006, she took a chance on a new author with a story that didn’t fit neatly into the urban fantasy or the paranormal romance genre. Needless to say, I will always be grateful.
Prologue
Crunch.
The sound was a relief. So was the sudden limpness in the form underneath her. It was over.
She jumped off the body before it started leaking as they all did. Then she stood at attention, careful not to look directly at the old man who watched her from behind a thick layer of glass. He didn’t like it when she stared into his eyes.
The man pursed his lips as he considered the results of her latest test. Not a muscle moved, but inwardly, she smiled at the melody that kept repeating in his mind. Her other instructors rarely sang in their thoughts, yet he did. Every time. If it wouldn’t have made him mad, she would’ve told him she enjoyed it, but her instructor didn’t like people prying into his mind. She’d overheard that shortly after getting the ability, so she never told him about it.
“Seven seconds,” he said at last, glancing down at the body. “These subjects no longer represent a challenge to you.”
He sounded pleased, but still she didn’t smile. Displays of emotion led to too many questions, and she wanted to get back to her manuals.
“It’s time to move on to the next phase,” he continued.
The words seemed to be directed at her, yet he was really speaking to the man behind the mirrored glass twenty meters above him. Since she wasn’t supposed to know he was there, however, she nodded.
“I’m ready.”
“Are you?”
The way he drew out the words warned her that this next test wouldn’t be easy, which was why she couldn’t stop her surprised blink when the chute above her opened and a new subject tumbled into the arena. It looked similar to the others she’d neutralized, but when it leapt up and faced her, she understood. Her new opponent had no heartbeat.
“What is it?” she asked, her own heart starting to beat faster.
Her opponent had a question, too.
“What the fuck is this?”
“Neutralize it,” her gray-haired instructor commanded.
She hid her disappointment. Perhaps if she finished quickly, she’d be rewarded with an answer. At the very least, neutralizing this . . . thing would give her more information.
She charged without another moment’s hesitation, sweeping its legs out from under it before slamming her elbow down on its throat.
Crunch.
Its bones shattered with the usual sound, but instead of going limp, the thing threw her off and leapt upward while giving the old man a disbelieving look.
“What have you done?”
As it spoke, its neck snapped back into place, losing its misshapen angle in less time than she took to blink again. She stared in confusion. What sort of creature could heal itself like that?
“You want to live?” her instructor answered the thing coolly. “You’ll have to kill her.”
Those same words had been spoken to many opponents before this one, yet for the first time, her hands felt damp. With its incredible healing ability, was it possible that the thing couldn’t be neutralized?
She glanced up at the old man, meeting his gaze for a second before she looked away. Even in that brief moment, she had her answer.
The thing could be killed. She just had to figure out how.
One
Ignoring a ghost is a lot more difficult than you’d think. For starters, walls don’t hinder their kind, so although I shut the door in the face of the spectre loitering outside my house, he followed me inside as if invited. My jaw clenched in irritation, but I began unloading my groceries as though I hadn’t noticed. Too soon, I was done. Being a vampire married to another vampire meant that my shopping list was pretty short.
“This is ridiculous. You can’t keep shunning me forever, Cat,” the ghost muttered.
Yeah, ghosts can talk, too. That made them even harder to ignore. Of course, it didn’t help that this ghost was also my uncle. Alive, dead, undead . . . family had a way of getting under your skin whether you wanted them to or not.