My jaw clenched when Ellis outlined in a dull voice how he"d been given very special instructions regarding my dispatch. It was to be a head shot only, a minimum of three bullets, and at a range no closer than a hundred yards. No car bombs, poison, physical confrontation, or any contact near my car or residence. Ellis didn "t know what I was, but whoever had hired him must have had a frigging good idea. These stipulations were too specific to be coincidental.
By the end, I"d written on over a dozen different bills, and my hand was cramped from the minuscule pen. Considering the alternative, however, I wasn"t going to complain. Finally Bones sat back on his haunches and asked if there was anything else Ellis hadn"t mentioned.
"The client got anxious in the last e -mail and moved up the time frame. Said new circ.u.mstances mandated immediate results. My price was increased by twenty percent if the job was done tonight. I followed her from her house to the restaurant.
Easier to escape in the confusion there."
Motherf.u.c.ker. Someone wanted me dead in a hurry, and whoever that was also knew where I lived. A sick feeling swept over me, because there were only a select number of people who knew that.
I didn"t think we were going to turn him over to the police, but the swiftness with which Bones yanked Ellis to him and latched his mouth onto his throat still startled me. This wasn"t the first time I"d witnessed death by fang, but it was the first time I did nothing and just watched. Ellis"s heartbeat raced at first, then slowed, and finally stopped.
"Does that hurt?" I coldly wondered when Bones released him, letting him fall to the ground.
He wiped his lips with the back of his hand. "Not nearly as much as he deserved, but we don"t have time for that."
With a touch now gentle enough to soothe a baby, he traced his fingers along the scratch on my temple. I knew what it was. The graze from a bullet.
"So b.l.o.o.d.y close to losing you," he whispered. "I wouldn"t have been able to stand it, Kitten."
He pulled me to him, hard, and a delayed reaction to my near-death experience set in. I"d had people try to kill me before, sure. Too many times to count, but a gunshot at far range seemed so...mean. I shivered.
"Cold? Want my jacket?" He began to shrug off his leather coat when I stopped him.
"You"re warm. I"ve never felt you this warm before."
The reason for his new temperature was ten feet from us, but I didn"t care. I held him and savored his unusual heat. Then I tugged at his shirt collar, popping loose a b.u.t.ton, just so I could feel his heated skin next to my cheek.
"Don"t, luv," Bones said in a strained voice. "I have very little control left in me."
Except I didn"t want his control right now. Or mine. Back at that restaurant, I "d been nanoseconds from being blown to kingdom come, but here I was. Alive, unhurt...and unwilling to waste another moment.
I kissed his collarbone, sacrificing another b.u.t.ton to better access it. Bones"s hands tightened on my back. The waves of leashed power emanating from him excited me. Under my mouth, his skin seemed to crawl with voltage begging to be let free. My tongue flicked out, sliding lower on his chest to follow the hard grooves-until Bones yanked my head up and slanted his mouth across mine. There was a metallic taste to his mouth, but it didn"t repel me. Instead I kissed him like I was trying to devour him, sucking on his tongue while tearing at his shirt. Bones picked me up and walked swiftly to the end of the parking lot, where there were more shadows. Something hard and uneven touched my back, but I didn"t turn around to see what it was. I was too busy running my hands over the warm flesh that his torn shirt had revealed.
There was a yank at my dress and the front split open. Bones"s mouth left a hot trail down my neck to my breast, his fangs deliciously grazing my skin. A strangled moan tore out of me when he pushed my bra down and sucked hard on my nipple. Throbs of desire so acute they were almost painful burned in me.
I moved my hand between our tightly molded bodies with the single-minded intent of destroying his pants. Then all thought fled as his fingers slid under my panties to push into me. I arched back hard enough to hit my head on whatever I was propped against, harsh cries of need spilling from me. My loins twisted in pleasure with each new rub, the intensity inside me building-until his hand was gone, leaving me wet and aching.
"I can"t wait," Bones muttered fiercely.
If speaking was still in my control, I would have immediately agreed. But all my vocal abilities were used on gasping at the unbelievable sensations his fingers caused. Bones shifted, I heard another rip, and then he thrust deeply inside me. His mouth claimed mine at the same instant, m.u.f.fling my cry at the ecstasy of his hard flesh filling me. Then there was the sweetest edge of pain as he began to move rhythmically, almost roughly, inside me.
My mind was seized with a single jumbled rant: Harder-faster-more-yes! It was all I could think as I clawed at his back, desperate to somehow get closer. Bones"s arm was under my hips, holding me tighter even as the solidness at my back rocked with our movements. Between his kiss, my grip, and that unknown brace, I could barely breathe, but I didn"t care. All that mattered was the escalating pa.s.sion within that had my nerve endings contracting and twisting in a frenzy.
"Don"t stop, don"t stop!" I cried, but it came out as only a garbled shout against his mouth. Bones must have translated, however, because he ramped up his speed until I wasn"t even sure I was still conscious. Spasms began to shake me from the inside out as my body convulsed with the overload of pleasure. I heard Bones groan, barely audible above the thundering of my heartbeat, and then moments later felt the wetness of his release inside me.
It took a few minutes before I could speak. "Something"s jabbing me...in the back."
I was still panting. Bones wasn"t, of course, that whole not needing to breathe thing. He pulled me away and then glanced at the offending object.
"Twig."
Finally I looked behind me. Yes, there was a tree. With a very smashed twig on the front of it.
My legs slid down from his waist until I was standing once again. I glanced at my dress. Ruined. Guess I couldn"t complain, not with how Bones"s shirt was in strips. Then I looked-belatedly-around the parking lot to see if we"d just given anyone a free show. No one was nearby gawking, thank G.o.d. Good thing this store closed early and Bones had chosen a tree in an unlit area.
"That took the edge off years of deprivation," I murmured, still basking in the residual tingles.
Bones had been kissing my neck. At my words, he stopped. "Years?" he asked quietly.
I felt inexplicably shy all of a sudden. Yeah, with what just happened, shyness didn"t make sense, but it was true. It was one thing to risk getting caught with my pants down-literally-in public during the heat of the moment. Quite another to get caught with my previous celibacy swinging in the breeze.
Still, it was too late to take it back. I took in a deep breath. "Yes. Noah was the first guy I dated since you, and we didn"t...well. We didn"t. Enough said."
Bones slid his hands up my arms in a slow caress. "It wouldn"t have mattered if there"d been other men since me, Kitten.
Oh, I"d have cared, make no mistake, but in the end, it wouldn"t have mattered. Yet you"ll forgive me if I confess to being very, very glad that there weren"t."
He kissed me, long and searching. Then he pulled away with a noise of resignation. "We need to get out of here, luv. Soon someone will stumble across us."
Yeah, and with a dead body across the parking lot, if it was a police officer, we"d get charged with a whole lot more than indecent exposure.
"Bones." I paused. Okay, I had no right to ask, since I"d dumped him and given him written instructions to get on with his life. But I couldn"t stop myself. "I"ll say the same thing, it doesn"t matter, but...what about you? I"d rather know than wonder."
He met my eyes squarely. "Once. Close enough to count. I"m not going to be all Clinton about it and call it by a different name. After Chicago, when I left you that watch but you didn"t come to me, I was very out of sorts. Thought perhaps you"d truly forgotten me, or didn"t care. At the same time, an old lover of mine was in town. She invited me to her room, and I went."
He stopped at that, but I couldn"t let it go. How typical of me.
"And then?"
Even though his gaze didn"t waver, his expression tightened. "She and I were in bed, I"d tasted her, and then I stopped before it went further. I"d been imagining she was you, and I couldn"t pretend any longer. So I apologized and left." Tasted her. I knew he wasn"t referring to feeding. Scalding jealousy filled me, and I closed my eyes against the mental image of his mouth on another woman in that way.
"It doesn"t matter," I managed to say, and I meant it. But, oh G.o.d, it still hurt.
"I"m sorry," he said. I could hear the remorse staining his voice. "I should have never allowed it to go that far. I was angry, lonely, and feeling rather ent.i.tled. Not an honorable combination."
I opened my eyes. The moon was in white relief against the night sky, and its rays seemed to make Bones"s skin glow.
"It doesn"t matter," I said again, with more strength this time. "And for the record, I didn"t find out about that watch until after the fact. I"m not saying I would have run off with you had I found it sooner, but-I would have pressed that b.u.t.ton. I wouldn"t have been able to stop myself."
He smiled. Seeing it eased some of the hurt from his earlier confession. "I"ve never been able to stop myself either when it comes to you, Kitten. But we really do need to leave now."
I cleared my throat. "Um, on foot?"
"No," he snorted as he pulled up his pants. "The faster way."
"I still can"t believe you didn"t tell me you could fly," I complained. "I can think of a few times back in Ohio when it would have saved me some gas money!"
"I didn"t tell you about it back then because I was afraid to show you even more ways that I wasn"t like a normal man."
Considering my many prejudices at the time, it was hard for me to blame him for such caution. "Can you also leap tall buildings in a single bound?" I asked after a pause.
He enfolded his arms around me, breath from his laughter tickling my neck. "We"ll try that tomorrow night."
I nodded at the dead hit man across the parking lot. "What are we doing with him?"
"Leaving him. I"m sure your blokes will come along soon enough, so he"s their problem. We"re going back to my house to find out who employed the late Ellis Pierson."
His arms tightened, and there was expulsion of air as he vaulted upward like his feet had invisible rockets. This time I didn"t squeeze my eyes shut, but I welded myself to him as the distance grew between us and the streets below.
"You don"t ever crash, do you?" I managed to ask breathlessly.
He chuckled, the sound s.n.a.t.c.hed away by the wind.
"Not lately."
TWENTY-TWO.
BONES HAD LEFT HIS LAPTOP AND OTHER POSSIBLE incriminating information back at the house he was renting, which is where we went. For another piece of luck, his cell phone was safely inside the leather coat he still wore. We wouldn"t go back to my house anymore, for obvious reasons. With how much of a rush the mysterious source behind the attempt on my life was in, there could be another hit man waiting for me. I "d have to send someone else over to feed my cat for the next day or so.
Once we were safely inside the house and I could concentrate on more than "Eek, too high, too fast!" my mind spun with possibilities.
"Do you think Ian was behind the hit man?"
"Not a chance," Bones said without hesitation. "Ian wants you alive so he can add you to his collection. Be a bit hard to do that if your head was in pieces."
I remembered those three tight-knit holes in the window. "How did you know to knock me out of the way?"
"I heard the shots go off. He didn"t use a silencer."
My head had been less than four feet away from the window at the time. Holy s.h.i.t, he"d moved fast.
He read my look. "Not fast enough. One touched your skin. That"s far too slow for me."
I gave a humorless chuckle. "That"s faster than I even knew was possible. And the flying trick blew me away as well. Still, we can never go back to that restaurant again. You destroyed the place and didn"t even pay for our wine."
"We both know what it has to be, Kitten," Bones said, ignoring that. "Obviously Don decided not to trust you."
I thought it over, and then shook my head.
"It"s not Don. It doesn"t make sense. Ellis said that he had originally been given the contract a week ago. That means the hit was planned before anyone knew you came into my life. Don had no reason to want me dead then. I was playing by all his rules."
Bones got up and began to pace. "You"re right. I"m still so bloomin" unsettled about almost wearing your brains, I"m not thinking clearly. Right then, Don looks clean. Perhaps. But then that means that there"s a traitor at your compound. This isn"t just some random contract by an undead bloke who wants the mysterious Red Reaper eliminated. This is someone who"s privy to who you are, what you are, and your whereabouts. How many people does that equate to?"
Reflectively, I rubbed the wound near my hairline. "My entire unit, Don"s scientists, some of the guards...about a hundred people."
He frowned. "That"s a large number of suspects, and that means it won"t take Ian long to pick up on you, either. I"ll have to pay a visit to your work. Sniff out the potential Judases one by one."
"Bones." I marched over to him. "You don"t understand. That place is heavily armed and heavily guarded. I should know, I helped design the security! There are only two ways a vampire can get inside the compound without a ma.s.sive bloodbath. One way is shriveled. They store those vampires on ice for study. The other way is nearly as unpleasant-p.r.o.nged with silver near the heart and transported inside our capsule. We keep those vampires alive for their blood to supply the Brams. That"s it. End of story."
Instead of being discouraged, he tapped his finger on his chin and then picked up his cell and dialed.
"Yes, thank you, I"ll hold...Right, one large pizza, extra cheese, pepperoni, mushrooms. Two liters of c.o.ke also. Um hmm, cash. Forty minutes? Here"s the address..."
When he hung up, I blinked at him in confusion. "Is that code for something?"
He laughed. "Yeah, it"s code. For a large pizza and soda. You never did have a bite to eat, and we can"t have you starving on me. Don"t fret; it"s all for you. As you know, I"m full. Now tell me about this capsule."
"This is the worst idea you"ve ever had."
My jaw ached from grinding my teeth. I was practically hoa.r.s.e from arguing, but Bones was unperturbed.
"This is the only way I can get within sniffing distance of whoever "s trying to take you out. If they"re a vampire or ghoul"s lackey, I"ll smell it on them. Or they"ll try to run, or stink like fear. Either way, we"ll know."
"Or you"ll be packed on ice next to Switch."
"Not going to happen, pet. Make the call."
Bones handed me his phone for the fifth time. With a withering glare, I finally took it and dialed. Here went nothing.
"Don, it"s me," I said when he answered.
"Cat, are you hurt?" To his credit, he sounded genuinely concerned.
"No, but someone"s trying to change that. Look, I"m coming in; I"ll see you in an hour. Don"t let anyone, and I mean anyone, leave until I get there. Call in whoever"s out. We have a rat."
"Of course, come in at once. We"ll discuss it when you get here. But no one here could possibly be involved-"
"Do you want me to come in or not? These are my terms, and I "m pretty G.o.dd.a.m.n inflexible about them, since my head nearly parted company with my shoulders last night."
He paused and then sighed. "If that"s what makes you feel safe. Where is, ah, your companion?"
"He went out, I don"t know where. Right now I"m more worried about my own a.s.s."
"Hurry in. I"ll recall the teams, but if you don"t arrive in an hour, I"m sending them back out."
I hung up and almost flung the phone at Bones. "Happy now?"
He pressed his lips over the scab on my temple. "Not yet, but I will be. Go straight there; don"t stop for anything."