“What do you mean?”
Bones leaned back. “Hundreds of women were murdered or went missing in Mexican border towns around that time. Today, there’s still not a speck of any real idea who did it. Then, several years ago, a number of young girls started to go missing in and around the Great Lakes area. More recently, it became centered in Ohio. Most of them were presumed to be runaways, prostitutes, addicts, or just average, little-known girls who had vanished with no signs of foul play. Since most of them were in high-risk categories, there wasn’t much of a media fuss. I think Hennessey’s involved. It’s why I came here. He was near all three places when the disappearances started.”
“You think Hennessey did all that?” The sheer numbers appalled me. “He can’t eat that much if he wanted to! What is he, some kind of…undead Ted Bundy?”
“Oh, I think he might be a ringleader, no doubt about that, but he’s not a traditional serial killer,” Bones said crisply. “Serial killers are more possessive in their motives. From the bits and pieces I’ve gathered over the years, I don’t think he’s keeping these people to himself—I think he’s made an industry out of them.”
I almost asked what kind of an industry, but then I remembered what Bones had said to Sergio last weekend. Knew you couldn’t pass up a pretty girl…You’re his best client, from what I hear…. Did you grow short on funds so you had to go out for dinner instead of order in?…And then tonight, with Stephanie. Just making my rent, and you, cookie, are just what the landlord likes…. College girls, you’re all the same…
“You think he’s running a takeout service,” I breathed. “Turning those people into Meals on Wheels! My God, Bones, how could he get away with it?”
“Hennessey was sloppy in Maine and Mexico, but he’s gotten smarter. He now chooses women society doesn’t hold in high regard, and if they don’t fall into that category, then he sends vampires to prevent them from even being reported missing. Remember those girls Winston told you about? He wasn’t wrong, luv, they are all dead. I wanted confirmation that there were more girls missing than had been reported, so that’s why I sent you to Winston. A ghost knows who’s died, even if those girls’ families don’t. I went to see them, and they’d all been bitten into believing their daughters were off pursuing an acting career, like you’d been told, or backpacking across Europe, or moving in with an old boyfriend, whatever. They’d been programmed not to question their absence, and only a vampire can have that much mind control. Hennessey’s had his people rounding up even more girls for him lately. At colleges. On street corners. In bars, clubs, and back alleys. How could he get away with it? Have you ever really looked at the faces on your milk carton? People disappear all the time. The police? There’s enough crimes involving the rich, famous, and powerful to make it easy for them to put the disappearance of some derelicts on their back burner, and they don’t know about the others. As far as the undead world goes, Hennessey’s covered his tracks very well. There’s only suspicion, but no proof.”
Now that I knew what was going on in my own state, what Stephanie had been doing made perfect sense, if you had the ethics of a crocodile. A huge, crowded college campus had been her all-you-can-eat buffet; she just hadn’t been the one eating. No, she was someone hired to stock Hennessey’s refrigerator. And I, with my background, had been the perfect dish. Stephanie had hit the nail on the head with that. I could disappear very easily, with few questions being asked, and it would have worked just as planned. Except for the one thing about me she hadn’t counted on.
“How long have you suspected this? You told me before you’d been chasing Hennessey eleven years. You’ve known what he’s been doing that whole time?”
“No. It’s only been the past two years that I’ve gotten specific information. Mind you, I didn’t know who or what I was chasing at first. Took me a few dozen blokes to get a whisper of what was going on. A few more dozen to get a name of who might be running it. As I said, he’d covered his tracks. Then I hunted down those under his line who had prices on their heads. Sergio was one of them, for example. I’ve been picking apart his people for years, but only doing it to those who had bounties on them. That way, Hennessey didn’t know I was on to him. He just thought it was business. Now, however, he knows I’m out to get him, and why. And so does whoever else is involved, because he can’t be doing this alone.”
I digested that for a minute. “So, even if you take Hennessey out, it still might not end. His partners could start right up where he left off. You don’t have any idea who they could be?”
“I’ve come very close a few times to finding out, but—well. Things happened.”
“Like what?”
“Like you, actually. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear you were one of Hennessey’s. You have an incredibly bad habit of killing people before I can get any information out of them. Remember Devon, that bloke you staked the night we met? I’d been tracking him for six months. He was Hennessey’s accountant, knew everything about him, but you plugged silver through his heart before I could say Bob’s your uncle. I thought Hennessey knew I was getting close and sent you to silence him. Then you went after me the very next night. Why do you think I kept asking you who you worked for? And tonight—”
“I didn’t mean to kill her!” I cried, lashing myself over that for a different reason this time. What information had Stephanie died with? We’d never know.
Bones got up, speaking to me as he disappeared behind one of the cave’s natural walls.
“Believe me, luv, I know that. You wouldn’t kill a human unless it was by accident or they were wearing a Vampire Henchman badge. You didn’t seem to know Stephanie had any such connections—and from the look of scene, I’d reckoned you were wrestling for the gun when it went off. She probably had a good grip on it, too. From the smell of her, she’d been hyped up on vampire blood. Would have made her quite a bit physically stronger and she’d need that, for what her job was.”
So that explained why she’d had the strength of a linebacker in her petite feminine frame. I’d underestimated her all the way around.
“Why haven’t you told me about all of this before? You trained me to fight, and then you kept me out of the real battle.”
He answered while still out of eyesight. “I didn’t want you involved. Blimey, I’d just as soon you not risk your life going after vampires to begin with, but that’s what you want to do, so I trained you to be better at it. Not like you’d listen to me if I told you to stay home, is it? Still, Hennessey and his blokes are different. Your part with them was supposed to end after Sergio, but your little physics chit ruined that tonight. You should be patting yourself on the back for killing her. Those other ‘potentials’ certainly would, if they knew what she’d had in store for them.”
“Was safety your only reason for keeping this from me, or is there more I don’t know about?”
There was the sound of water being poured. “No, there’s one more reason I kept it from you. I didn’t want to give you another reason to hate vampires. It’s not like you aren’t already predisposed to it. You tend to judge people for what they are, rather than what they do, if they don’t have a pulse.”
I was silent for a moment, because I had no defense to that. No truthful one, anyway.
“You should know something, Bones. I lied to you when we made our deal. I was going to kill you the first chance I got.”
I heard a dry chuckle. “I already knew that, luv.”
“About Hennessey…I want to help. I have to help. My God, I was almost one of those girls who never would have been heard from again! I know it’s dangerous, but if you find out where this Club Flame is, if you get a lead, I want to be there. Hennessey has to be stopped.”
Bones didn’t reply.
“I mean it,” I persisted. “Come on, I’m the perfect wolf in sheep’s clothing! Really, do you know any other half-breed girls living in an area that’s currently being harvested? You’re not talking me out of this!”
“I can see that. Here.” He returned with a bowl of water and a cloth, setting it near me and then handing me one of his shirts. “You’ve got blood on the front of you. If you go home like that, you’ll scare your mum into thinking you’ve been hurt.”
I looked down at myself. The red smear of Stephanie’s blood stained my stomach in a wide circle. In yet another example of my prejudice, even though I didn’t mind killing her so much anymore, I snatched my blouse off and immediately began to scrub my skin.
It was only after I cleaned the last of the blood from me that I felt the weight of his stare. When I looked up, his eyes were fixed on me and laced with green.
“Hey.” I slid back a few inches on the couch. “Dinner’s not served. Don’t go all glowy at the blood.”
“Do you think blood has anything to do with the way I’m looking at you now?”
His voice had a strange timbre to it. Thick with things unspoken.
I struggled not to show any reaction, but my heart had just sped up, and it wasn’t from fear. “Green eyes, fangs peeking out…pretty incriminating, I’d say.”
“Indeed?” He sat down, moving the bowl aside. “It seems I’ve neglected to inform you of what else draws such a reaction, but I’ll give you a hint—it isn’t blood.”
Oh. I drew in a breath. “Considering last weekend, I don’t have anything you haven’t seen before, and I doubt you’re overcome with desire by seeing me in my bra.”
“Kitten, look at me,” he said flatly.
I blinked. “I am.”
“No, you’re not.” He slid closer, his eyes all green now. “You stare straight through me as if I’m not even there. You look at me…and you don’t see a man. You see a vampire, and therefore accord me less substance. One of the few exceptions was last weekend. I held you and kissed you, watched your eyes light up with desire, and knew for once you were truly seeing me for all I was. Not just a non-beating heart with a shell around it. I dare you to look at me that way again, now, with no excuse of chemicals to fall back on. I want you.” A slight smile twisted his lips as he made the blunt statement. “I’ve wanted you from the moment we met, and if you think sitting next to me in your bra doesn’t overwhelm me with desire, you’re very wrong. I just don’t force myself where I’m not invited.”
For a few stunned seconds, I was speechless. So much had happened tonight, my brain was having a hard time sorting through it all. I looked at Bones and it was almost as if scales dropped from my eyes, because suddenly I did see him. Those high cheekbones, dark brows framing eyes turned to emerald, a curving mouth, straight nose, and etched jawline. Crystal skin stretched over those features and tightly wrapped around a lean, rippled frame. His elegant hands and their long, tapered fingers. My God, he was beautiful. Absolutely, incredibly beautiful, and now that I’d finally allowed myself to notice, I couldn’t stop staring.
“Kiss me.”
The words left me without any thought, and I realized I’d secretly wanted to say them for a while. Bones leaned over and his lips closed over mine softly. Gently. Giving me every opportunity to change my mind and push him away, but I didn’t. I slid my arms around his neck and brought him closer.
He ran his tongue along my lips until I opened my mouth. His touched mine for a moment before retreating, teasingly, back into his mouth. Another flickering touch and back again, and again. Coaxing me, persuading me. Finally I traced my tongue into his mouth, feeling the answering rub and then the unbelievable sensuality of him sucking on it.
I moaned, unable to help it. The graze of his incisors should have bothered me, but they didn’t. They didn’t seem to hinder him, either, because he kissed me with the same passion he had last weekend. My senses ignited, and I maneuvered my hand from his neck and brought it to his shirt. One by one, I undid his buttons. When it hung open, I ran my palms along his bare skin and, oh God, it did feel as incredible as it looked. Like silk stretched over steel. Bones reached behind him and flicked the collar off his shoulders. The whole garment fell onto the floor. All the while he kept kissing me until my breath came in gasps.
With a mind of their own my hands traveled from his chest across his back, fingers feeling out the ridges and muscle. His flesh vibrated with power, making me feel like I stroked lightning encased in skin. Bones groaned low in his throat as I touched him, sliding closer until our bodies were pressed together.
His lips trailed down to my neck, finding my pulse unerringly. He drew it into his mouth, manipulating my vulnerable artery with his tongue and lips. It was the most dangerous position to be in with a vampire, but I wasn’t afraid. Instead, the feel of him sucking on my neck aroused me unbelievably. The waves of heat sweeping through me had me quivering.
His lips came up to my ear, and he licked the shell before whispering into it.
“I want you so much. Tell me you want me. Say yes.”
To deny that I wanted him would be an obvious lie. Just one thing held me back, and it was the memory of Danny.
“Bones…I didn’t like it before. I think…something’s wrong with me.”
“Nothing’s wrong with you, and if you change your mind or say stop, no matter when, I’ll stop. You can trust me, Kitten. Say yes. Say yes….”
Bones swooped his mouth onto mine and ravaged the inside with such hunger that I sagged against him. His arm supported me, and I tore away long enough to speak one word.
“Yes….”
It barely left my mouth before he kissed me again, lifting me up and carrying me into the bedroom. The mattress gave under our weight as he stretched me out on it. In one motion, he unclipped my bra and pulled it off while his palms cupped my breasts. Then he lowered his mouth to my nipple and sucked strongly.
A clench of pure desire gripped me between my legs. He gently squeezed my other breast and worried the nipple between his fingers. My back arched and I clasped his head. The sensations were too much—the tug of his mouth, slight scrapes of teeth, until I thought I’d faint.
Bones unzipped my jeans, tugging them down until they were off and only my panties remained to clothe me. He traced his hand along them, pressing inward. The friction of the cotton and his fingers made my nerve endings jump. A groan escaped him when he pulled my panties off, baring me to his gaze.
“Oh, Kitten, you’re so beautiful. Exquisite,” he breathed before kissing me with a thoroughness that left my head spinning. He trailed his mouth to my breasts again, drawing on each nipple while his hand sought my center. Those fingers caressed me knowingly, as if I’d told him secrets, and I bit my lip to stifle the cries. When his thumb circled the ball of my flesh and a long finger rubbed inside me, I trembled in uncontainable need.
A harsh noise of protest escaped me when he stopped. He moved his hand away, his mouth left my breasts, and he dragged his lips down my stomach. It wasn’t until he was past my navel that I realized his intention.
“Bones, wait!” I gasped, shocked.
He paused at once, mouth still on my belly. “Stop?” he inquired.
Color flamed my cheeks and I couldn’t articulate my objection. “Er, not stop all of it, just…um, I don’t think that’s appropriate—”
Something like a snort escaped him. “I do think,” he muttered, and lowered his mouth.
At the first touch of his tongue my mind literally went blank. A long, slow lick probed me, leaving seared flesh in its wake. Another wet stroke and another, deeper this time, and my modesty washed away in waves of pure heat. He spread my legs farther, shifting until they straddled his shoulders, all the while plying and delving into the soft pink flesh.
I didn’t tell him to wait anymore, because I couldn’t speak. Moans I didn’t recognize as my own rose from me with increasing volume and wrenching, twisting spasms of pleasure curled inside me. I writhed under him, feeling him explore every nuance of me with shocking intimacy. My hips arched helplessly, and an aching emptiness inside me grew with each stroke of his tongue. I was being pushed to an edge I’d never experienced befo
re, and it approached faster and faster. Bones increased the pressure, ratcheting up the intensity, and when his mouth finally settled on my clitoris and he sucked, I screamed.
Shards of ecstasy burst from me, traveling from my center to my extremities in a flash. My heart, which I thought would simply erupt, seemed to slow in its beating and my breathing lost its jaggedness. That previous fire was suddenly replaced with something warm and euphoric spilling all through me, causing my eyes to fly open in astonishment.
Bones slid up my stomach, framing my face in his hands. “You have never looked more beautiful,” he said, voice vibrating with passion.
My body still shook with aftershocks, but this was the part I feared. I tensed as he moved between my legs.
“Don’t be afraid,” he whispered, and kissed me.
For a split second I was embarrassed, considering what he’d just been doing. Then I found the new, salty flavor to his mouth provocatively stimulating. His tongue twined with mine as his hardness slid along my wet crease. I shuddered, but he only swept the outside before pulling away and doing it again. And again. He matched his tongue to his body as he stroked me, bringing that previous ache back with reinforcements.
“You tell me when,” he murmured, long moments later. “Or not at all. We don’t have to go further yet. I’ll spend the rest of the night tasting you, Kitten, I loved that. Let me show you how much.”
Bones dragged his mouth purposefully lower, but I held him to keep him where he was.
“Tell me,” he moaned as a twist of his hips forced a cry from me.
My heart pounded with nervousness, but there was only one answer.
“Now.”
He gave me a dizzying kiss and then raised himself on his arms. The feel of hard flesh boring into mine made me gasp. Shivers broke out inside me while he thrust slowly forward, and I buried my face in his neck and trembled. He moved deeper, and a sensation of incredible fullness spread through me. When he was fully sheathed he stopped, closing his eyes briefly before looking down at me.