My mother lived thirty minutes from the compound. She was still in Richmond, but in a more rural area. Her quaint neighborhood was reminiscent of where we grew up in Ohio, without being too far away from Don if things got hairy. I pulled up to her house, parked, and noticed that her shutters needed a fresh coat of paint. Did they look like that the last time I was here? God, how long had it been since I’d come to see her?
As soon as I got out of the car, however, I froze. Shock crept up my spine, and it had nothing to do with the realization that I hadn’t been here since Bones came back into my life months ago.
From the feel of the energy leaking off the house, my mother wasn’t alone inside, but whoever was with her didn’t have a heartbeat. I started to slide my hand toward my purse, where I always had some silver knives tucked away, when a cold laugh made me stop.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, little girl,” a voice I hated said from behind me.
My mother’s front door opened. She was framed in it, with a dark-haired vampire who looked vaguely familiar cradling her neck almost lovingly in his hands.
And I didn’t need to turn around to know the vampire at my back was my father.
DESTINED FOR AN EARLY GRAVE
They’ve fought against the rogue undead, battled a vengeful Master vampire and pledged their devotion with a blood bond. Now it’s time for Cat and Bones to go on a vacation. But Cat is having terrifying dreams of a vampire named Gregor who’s more powerful than Bones . . . and has ties to her past that even Cat herself doesn’t know about.
“Frost’s dazzling blend of urban fantasy action and passionate relationships make her a true phenomenon.”
Romantic Times BOOKreviews
Who is Gregor, why am I dreaming about him, and why is he called the Dreamsnatcher?”
“More importantly, why has he surfaced now to seek her out?” Bones’s voice was cold as ice. “Gregor hasn’t been seen or heard from in over a decade. I thought he might be dead.”
“He’s not dead,” Mencheres said a trifle grimly. “Like me, Gregor has visions of the future. He intended to alter the future based on one of these visions. When I found out about it, I imprisoned him as punishment.”
“And what does he want with my wife?”
Bones emphasized the words while arching a brow at me, as if daring me to argue. I didn’t.
“He saw Cat in one of his visions and decided he had to have her,” Mencheres stated in a flat tone. “Then he discovered she’d be blood-bound to you. Around the time of Cat’s sixteenth birthday, Gregor intended to find her and take her away. His plan was very simple—if Cat had never met you, then she’d be his, not yours.”
“Bloody sneaking bastard,” Bones ground out, even as my jaw dropped. “I’ll congratulate him on his cleverness—while I’m ripping silver through his heart.”
“Don’t underestimate Gregor,” Mencheres said. “He managed to escape my prison a month ago, and I still don’t know how. Gregor seems to be more interested in Cat than in getting revenge against me. She’s the only person I know whom Gregor’s contacted through dreams since he’s been out.”
Why do these crazy vampires keep trying to collect me? My being one of the only known half-breeds had been more of a pain than it was worth. Gregor wasn’t the first vampire who thought it would be neat to keep me as some sort of exotic toy, but he did win points for cooking up the most original plan to do it.
“And you locked Gregor up for a dozen years just to keep him from altering my future with Bones?” I asked, my skepticism plain. “Why? You didn’t do much to stop Bones’s sire, Ian, when he tried the same thing.”
Mencheres’s steel-colored eyes flicked from me to Bones. “There was more at stake,” he said at last. “If you’d never met Bones, he might have stayed under Ian’s rule longer, not taking Mastership of his own line, and then not being co-Master of mine when I needed him. I couldn’t risk that.”
So it hadn’t been about preserving true love at all. Figures. Vampires seldom did anything with purely altruistic motives.
“What happens if Gregor touches me in my dreams?” I asked, moving on. “What then?”
Bones answered me, and the burning intensity in his gaze could have seared my face.
“If Gregor takes ahold of you in your dreams, when you wake, you’ll be wherever he is. That’s why he’s called the Dreamsnatcher. He can steal people away in their dreams.”
THIS SIDE OF THE GRAVE
Cat and Bones have fought for their lives as well as their relationship. Just as they’ve triumphed over the latest battle, Cat’s new and unexpected abilities are making them a target. And help from a dangerous “ally” may prove more treacherous than they’ve ever imagined.
“Cat and Bones are combustible together.”
CHARLAINE HARRIS
The vampire pulled on the chains restraining him to the cave wall. His eyes were bright green, their glow illuminating the darkness surrounding us.
“Do you really think these will hold me?” he asked, an English accent caressing the challenge.