Destined for an Early Grave(53)

“Shit,” I whispered.

Neither of us said anything for a minute, then Vlad pulled out his cell phone.

“I have her,” he announced. “She’s fine, and we’re in the air.”

“Is that Bones?” My stomach churned with nervousness. He’s going to be so pissed at me.

“It’s Spade,” Vlad answered with the mouthpiece covered. Then, “Yes…I know…no, we have the fuel…She wants to speak to Bones…um hmm, quite. We’ll be there in three hours.”

He hung up, and I blinked. “He’s not there?”

Vlad folded his phone and set it back in his coat. The look he gave me was filled with irony.

“Spade didn’t feel it would be a good idea to have you speak with him. He’s probably going to spend the next three hours trying to calm Bones down.”

“He’s really angry, I know, but it looked like they were all going to get killed. What was I supposed to do?”

“You both made your choices,” Vlad observed. “Whatever the consequences, it’s done. Really, Bones surprised me with this whole endeavor. I didn’t think he was so clever, but he’s shown his best potential in the last couple years.”

“How?” I was feeling ill as I thought of the inevitable confrontation.

“First of all, using mercenaries.” Vlad smiled wickedly. “Very enterprising, but I suppose he knew most of them from his hit-man days. If he’d rounded up over a hundred of the strongest members in his line, Gregor would have heard about that and smelled a trap. But paid killers, accountable to no one? Who notices when scores of them go off the radar?”

“Bones has always been smart,” I muttered. “His intelligence was just camouflaged under a mountain of pussy.”

Vlad laughed before he sobered. “Perhaps, but now he’s displaying his ruthlessness as well. He’s chopped off a head an hour from Gregor’s ghouls since you’ve been gone, promising to decapitate the lot of them unless he gets you back.”

“What?”

That bolted me up in my chair. Granted, the undead didn’t play by normal rules of engagement, but they were pretty consistent when it came to battle prisoners. Those were taken hostage and traded or bargained for later. Oh, things might get creative when it came to extracting information, but since no permanent damage could be done to the undead, barring mental trauma, that was just the norm. Bones callously slaughtering his captives? I was shocked.

Vlad wasn’t. He looked mildly intrigued. “As I said, rare form, which is why Gregor let you go without a fuss. If he hadn’t, he’d have trouble the next time he enlisted other people to fight for him. But enough of that. You don’t look well.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “You think? My husband can’t come to the phone because he’s too busy slicing off heads, and here’s the punch line! He’s not really my—”

“Don’t say it.”

Vlad cut me off. His expression turned deadly serious.

“Knowing and admitting are two separate things. Gregor still wants your public acknowledgment as proof. Don’t give it to him.”

“Where do you stand in this?” I asked quietly.

It was more than putting him on the spot, but I couldn’t help it. I knew Vlad wouldn’t demur in giving me his true position, no matter what it was.

He considered me. Vlad Tepesh wasn’t a classically handsome man like some of the hunks who’d played Dracula in the movies. His face was oval; lips thin, with deep-set eyes, a wider forehead, and a tight beard. He was lean, too, and he stood an even six feet tall. But none of those actors had Vlad’s presence. What he might have lacked in perfection of features he made up for in sheer magnetism.

At last he took my hand. His were scarred in multiple places, as well as being more dangerous than his fangs, since they were the outlet of Vlad’s pyrokinesis, but Vlad didn’t frighten me. He should have, but he didn’t.

“I feel a connection to you, as I once told you. It’s not love, it’s not attraction, and I won’t sacrifice myself for you, but if you needed me, and it was possible for me to help you, like today, I’d come. Whichever side you called me from.”

I squeezed his hand once before letting go. “Thank you.”

He settled back more comfortably in his chair. “You’re welcome.”





SEVENTEEN




WE DIDN’T RETURN TO THE HOUSE IN Bavaria. Granted, from the air I couldn’t be sure that we weren’t in Bavaria, but it wasn’t the same place I’d left. Not having my pills, I just shut my eyes as we landed, then took a car the rest of the way. Even if I’d had them, I’d decided not to take the pills anymore. Gregor couldn’t pull me out of a dream unless I helped him, and I sure wasn’t going to do that again. Besides, I wondered if those pills were making me ill, because as Vlad noticed, I felt like hell. I’d have to call Don and ask if there were side effects from taking them.