He was happy.
That sounded like such a trivial thing, but Bones couldn’t remember the last time he’d been truly happy. Oh, he’d been satisfied, contented, pleased, charmed, exhilarated, impressed, and even emotional with the many women in his life, but this feeling of happiness was so foreign to him he wondered if he’d ever felt it before.
His past flashed through his memory, feminine faces blurring. When he finally remembered the last time he’d felt anything close to this, a lump formed in his throat.
There’s my beautiful lad. Sleep now, Crispin, I’m here…
His mum. As a child, he’d stay up until she came to bed, always afraid if he fell asleep, something bad might happen to her. He used to hate the night, because darkness meant he’d be kept downstairs in the kitchen or sent out of the house to wait until very late, when one of the other ladies would sneak him upstairs. Then he had to wait longer, his eyes heavy but heart pounding, wondering if his mum would have bruises again or if she’d come to bed at all.
When she did, when she wasn’t hurt or sick or suffering from the illness that finally claimed her, she’d hold him until he fell asleep. She’d smooth back his hair, hum to him, and whisper that he was the most beautiful lad in all of London, and one day he’d be a prince. He’d been happy then, knowing his mum was safe and hearing the lovely lies that youth had allowed him to believe. Yes, Mum, I’ll be a prince, and you’ll live in my castle and never see any of those awful blokes again.
But there was no castle. Just a bordello that was his home even after his mum died of syphilis. Then he’d been the whore, using the same beauty his mother spoke of as a bargaining tool for any woman with money to spare and an itch to scratch. He’d had no choice about selling himself, just as she had had no choice. Becoming a vampire changed all that. Afterward, he could pick who he pleasured, and there had been no shortage of women. But they hadn’t made him happy. Nothing had… until this.
She sighed. Her breathing had evened out. So had her heart rate, which no longer beat against his chest like a small bird trying to break free. Her eyes were still closed, and a hint of a shiver went through her. Without their passion to warm her, the chill in the cave was gaining ground.
Bones pulled up the blankets, covering both of them. She burrowed closer to him with an unintelligible murmur. Her arms hung loosely around his neck, leaving her breath to tickle his chest with soft puffs. He inhaled once again, thinking he might breathe all night just to keep drawing her scent deeper into him.
I love you, Kitten.
He smiled at the words he didn’t dare say out loud yet. It didn’t matter that she was too young, too stubborn, too narrow-minded, too temperamental… He loved her. If he were being practical, he’d have chosen someone far more compatible. But love wasn’t something you chose. It chose you, proving that being practical had bugger-all to do with it. All those centuries of believing he was missing whatever ingredient allowed people the insanity of love, and here it had found him when he least suspected it. It was enough to make him believe fate might exist after all, even if Cat was far too good for him despite her flaws.
Her bravery left him awed, her streak of loyalty went straight to the bone, her wit made him laugh, and the vulnerability she tried so hard to hide made him want to tell her over and over how extraordinary she was. She didn’t see it, of course. She only measured her worth by the number of vampire corpses she delivered to her mum, as if a mother’s love was something that needed to be purchased with blood. One day she’d realize that either her mum loved her or she didn’t, and if she didn’t, no amount of vengeance could tip those scales.
She shifted, whispered his name, and then started to snore. The loud sounds made him grin. Millions of women in the world, and he’d fallen in love with a half-breed who snored. The Almighty had turned out to have a grand sense of humor. If he didn’t think it would scare her straight out of bed, he’d wake her up and tell her how he felt. But she wasn’t ready to hear it. One step at a time, he reminded himself. She’d already made tremendous strides from believing that all vampires were murdering scum to falling asleep in his arms after hours of making love.
But tomorrow things might be different.
The thought sent a cold shiver through him that had nothing to do with the cave’s temperature. She’d had no intention when her night began that it would end this way. Blimey, she hadn’t even been speaking to him for days. What if tomorrow she told him this had been a mistake and it could never happen again?
Bones pushed the thought away. He hadn’t lived this long to give up on something he wanted, and he had never wanted anything more than her. If she woke up and regretted what had happened between them, well then, he’d just have to change her mind.
Because you’re not getting away from me, he thought, smoothing her hair back from her face. I promise you that, Kitten… and I promise myself.
Chapter Four
After the Morning After
Author’s note: This next section contains a different version of what happened after Cat finally succumbed to Bones’s charms. In the published version, Bones and Cat go to Charlotte to look for a lead in the human trafficking ring they’re trying to shut down. In the original version, the trafficking plotline didn’t come into play until much later. Instead, the first half of the story was more focused on Cat’s emotional battle as she deals with falling for a vampire when she still believes that vampires are evil. However, I ended up taking a lot of that out and adding the trafficking arc in place of these scenes because it revealed the story’s overall external plot and its main villain, Hennessey, much sooner.
Finally, this also contains an additional sex scene. I ended up deleting it because I felt that the book already had enough sex scenes in it. For those of you who like more of the sexy stuff, however, now you get to see what didn’t make it into the published version.
I had never been to an airport before, let alone on a plane. It was exciting, but I fought not to show it, carefully making my expression glum and angry. That wasn’t all an act; I was furious at Bones for forcing me to go. Now that we were boarded and awaiting takeoff, my grim countenance began to slip.
He’d booked first-class tickets. The seats were leather and roomy. They reclined as well, but were upright now as the plane taxied down the runway. Glancing to my right, I saw Bones close his eyes when the aircraft picked up speed. With an incredible surge of power, it left the ground, sounds of engines groaning with the effort, and my face felt pulled back into my skull. It was amazing, and without realizing it, I grinned.
I had the window seat, and my eyes were glued to the grainy image of the ground disappearing from sight. The lights of the evening winked up at us, and after several minutes the plane eased into a horizontal position and the Fasten Seat Belts light flickered off. Flight attendants unclipped their belts and scurried to the beverage carts.
“Enjoying yourself, pet?” Bones had been staring at me while I was fascinated with the outside view.
Remembering myself, I dropped the smile from my face and scowled. “No.”
He snorted in derision. “Yeah, you look right wretched.”
Ignoring that, I accepted the offer of a drink from the flight attendant. When she passed our seat, I lowered my voice so only he would hear me. “Why did you come to my house before I was supposed to meet you at the cave? How did you know I had no intention of showing?”
Those dark brown eyes looked levelly into mine. “I saw your face when you left this morning. You looked as though someone had just walked over your grave. Give me some credit for knowing women after more than two hundred years.”
“Keep your voice down.” I looked around to see if someone had overheard him, but everyone appeared to be minding their own business. “You know it can never happen again, Bones. I made a terrible mistake last night, but now I’ve learned from it. You have to respect that.”
“Nice speech,” he commented. “Been working on it long?”
&nbs
p; I poked him hard in the arm. “I’m serious! God, what was I thinking?” The last part was meant to be only in my head, but the words flew out.
Bones jumped all over them. “I’ll tell you what you were thinking. You were thinking you were a woman, though admittedly a young one, and I was a man, and for once in your bloody life you weren’t consumed with anguish about your heritage. You took a short trip off your high horse and found out you loved walking on the ground.”
“Whatever!” I snapped.
He reached out and lightly fingered my neck where the hickeys showed. Silly me forgot to wear a high-collared shirt. “The marks you left on my skin have healed. I wish they hadn’t. I would keep the proof of your response to me forever if I could.”
“Then thank God for enhanced recuperative powers.” Muttered because of the stab of remembrance that shot through me. The marks he’d left on me would eventually heal too, but I would never forget what had happened when they were made.
He gave a grunt of dismissal. “Tell yourself what makes you the happiest, pet. You could have walked away from me last night, but you didn’t. I know it, and now you know it too. The rest is posturing.”
He closed his eyes again and reclined the chair, leaving me to flip miserably though the pages of the flight magazines.
It was less than an hour and a half before we landed. Amazing how fast one could cross states while in the air. We collected our bags and went to the car-rental area. Bones had reserved an SUV, and after filling out the necessary paperwork we were off. He drove, of course, since I had no idea where we were staying or how to get there. The name signed on the registration forms was Phillip Arthur. So I wasn’t the only one who had false identification.
We arrived at the Charlotte Towers around eleven thirty. When Bones signed the check-in forms, I saw he had only booked one room.
“You have a package waiting for me?” he immediately queried.
The man behind the desk handed him a FedEx box and Bones tucked it under his arm.
“There are two beds in that room, right?” I asked the concierge.
The man gave a flustered look at his paperwork while Bones arched a dark brow at me. “Um, let’s see… No, the reservation requested a king size, not two queens. Ah, is that going to be satisfactory?”
“No, it’s not,” I began, but Bones gave a warning squeeze to my hand.
“Causing a scene, luv? Why don’t you run an ad in the newspaper while you’re at it? Let everyone know we’re in town. Me, I love a good fight, but you tend to like the ones that are safer. Still, if you insist…”
Defeated, I yanked my hand out of his and looked directly at the mortified concierge. “We are not having sex.” There. Had to tell someone.
He nodded briskly and passed over the room keys. “Enjoy your stay.”
“Thanks ever so,” Bones replied, eyes flashing dangerously at me.
With my head erect, I followed him to the elevator. The hotel was beautiful. It was the nicest one I had ever seen, albeit the only one I’d ever stayed in. The lounge was opulently furnished, and the room was on the top floor with lovely views of the city from the tall windows. If only I weren’t here with Bones, I’d have cried out with joy. Of course, if I weren’t here with him, I could have never afforded such luxury. You pay for your pleasure with pain, my mother had always said. A grim and often truthful motto.
Bones, ever practical, began to unpack. I busied myself with discovering the delights of the minibar and the snacks therein.
“Food! And liquor!” In my eagerness, I broke my stiff silence and heard a bark of laughter in reply.
“Is that the way to your heart? I’d have installed a minibar in the cave long ago if I knew you were so easy to please.”
“For your information, I haven’t eaten all day.”
He finished with the bags and sauntered over. “Make it quick, pet. We can feed you when we’re finished. You have to get dressed.”
“We’re doing it now?” Dismay filled me; I’d hoped for a quiet evening on the couch stuffing my face.
He gave a suggestive wiggle of his brows. “Well, we really should be going straightaway, but I know you could persuade me…”
“Not that, the job. But it’s…” I checked the clock. “Midnight.”
“Yeah, midnight, and time to kill some vampires. Come on, luv. Brought your stakes and knives in that package I picked up at the desk. Get dressed in your tight little clothes and make them drool. When you’re staking them, you can always pretend it’s me.”
I dropped my snacks immediately. “That works.”
***
Uptown Charlotte was a busier city than Columbus or Newark. There were streets lined with clubs and shops, all open until two a.m. or later. When we arrived at Club Flame, Bones had a more ambitious plan than we’d previously implemented. I was no longer going to lure the intended victim to take me for a drive but was going to lead them outside and go for them there. There was a neat little catch to that as well. There were two of them. One for me, one for Bones. Both needed to be quickly and cleanly dispatched and thrown in the SUV before anyone noticed that a murder had occurred. Personally, I thought we were both going to jail.
I wore the purple dress, cut high on the thighs and with crisscrossed straps covering my back. It was the smuttiest of all the dresses, in my opinion, but since I was acting as though two men at once was my bag… Well, there you have it. Bones went with me as well, saying that the marks didn’t know him and therefore wouldn’t recognize him. We would play the swinging couple. How romantic.
Bones looked sleazy as well, wearing a black leather vest that made his pale arms and chest almost glow next to the fabric. He actually wore pants that weren’t black. They were deep purple to go with my dress. We looked like a pair of freaks, in my estimation. Once I would have said that I wouldn’t be caught dead dressing like this, but now that was tempting fate to utter such provocative words. You just never knew what you’d be caught dead in.
Once inside we separated, not wanting to look overly cozy together. That suited me just fine. The less time with Bones, the better. At the bar, I ordered a gin and tonic and watched with paranoid concern that no one but the bartender went near the glass. Even when I looked around, my hand covered the rim at all times. Fool me once, shame on you and all that.
Bones had filled me in on the details of the two vamps while we were driving. The tall skinny blond would be Eric, and his short brown-haired friend was Ed. Eric was supposed to be distinguishable by a nose-to-jawline scar on his face, and Ed by extensive tattooing. Be still, my beating heart. When I asked what they’d done to piss off the person who hired him, he’d responded that they made a snuff film starring his employer’s fourteen-year-old son, who was human and had been snatched off the street by pure bad luck. The bankroller was human as well and had gotten Bones’s name by an elaborate hit man referral network. The vamps were supposedly no more than fifty years old each, so that was the reason for his lack of concern as to their fighting skills. Hopefully he was right.
With his height, Eric was the first one that I spotted. When Bones said tall and skinny, he wasn’t kidding. Eric was probably six foot seven inches and weighed no more than one seventy-five. If that wasn’t enough, there was the jagged scar on his face. Contestant number one. Sidled along next to him must be Ed. He was about five foot flat. As described, tattoos decorated his arms like clothing. They were on the dance floor, apparently boogying with themselves. Anxious to wrap things up before it got any later, I headed over.
Working my way through the people, I started dancing close to them. Truth be told, I’d discovered I liked to dance. It was an outlet my body responded to that didn’t involve waking up with a vampire. I caught their gaze and smiled, dancing closer until I wedged myself nearly between them. To my surprise, they didn’t seem interested. After a few minutes, Eric cast Ed a look and they moved closer to a guy about my age, making him their monkey in the middle. One look at the heat in their
stare when they glanced at the other man made it perfectly clear.
Giving up, I made my way to the bar where Bones sat. He sipped a whiskey neat. It amazed me how vampires were able to eat and drink as they pleased even though their bodies didn’t work like a human’s. Plunking down next to him, I grabbed his glass and finished it in one swallow without asking.
“Looks like I could’ve kept my panties on,” I remarked conversationally.
A dark brow rose questioningly at me. “Did I miss something?”
“You sure did. Looks like you’re the bait tonight. They don’t swing my way.”
Bones ordered another drink and digested the information. Finally he gave a slight shrug. “Intelligence on these individuals only went so far this round. At least the location and time were correct. So be it, then. Keep a lookout. When I go out that back door, I want you behind me in three, got it?”
The wicked grin that slid across my face was unchecked. Good to see someone else be the meat instead of me. “I’ll be behind you in three, or they will?”
He gave me a look. “Just be there.”
“Oh, honey,” I called out merrily after he walked away. He stopped, arching a brow. “Don’t forget to take your panties off!”
Laughing, I ignored the strange looks that were cast my way from people within earshot and instead relished the dark one he threw me.
To give him credit, he worked fast. After a few dances with the boys and some drinks, they were out the poorly lit back door within twenty minutes. As soon as the door closed behind them, I set my watch and waited, moving to be in striking vicinity when the timer went off. Counting down to the last ten seconds, I pulled my stakes out of my boots and gripped them in both hands as soon as the timer hit zero.