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Destined for an Early Grave(56)

By:Jeaniene Frost


Yet Gregor had let me go with my pulse intact. Now there were rumbles that I’d influenced him as well. What no one cared to hear was that Gregor hadn’t had a choice about changing me. The silver dagger in his back made his decision for him.

Adding to these ghoul/vampire hybrid fears were my high jumps in Paris. Who’d have thought that would have been responsible for so much added paranoia? But since flying was a skill only Master vampires possessed, the fact that I had come close to demonstrating it, even briefly, had people wondering what other powers I could be hiding. It fueled the fears about what would happen if ghoul attributes were added to my repertoire. Would I be invincible? Unkillable? Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and rerotate the spinning of the globe to turn back time? The theories got wilder and crazier.

Little did anyone know that all I was a danger to currently was anything sweet. Before I’d turn to alcohol for useless comfort. Now I used sugar, but there was a lot of pain and not nearly enough sugar.

“When does Spade get back?” I asked Annette. He’d gone out earlier with a vague statement about business. No one told me anything that could be used against me. We all knew Gregor was still snooping in my mind, even though I’d barely slept, and he’d been able to learn almost nothing. I didn’t know where we were. How many people were with us. What day it was. Actually, none of those things meant shit to me. All I knew was this—it had been five days since Bones walked out. That’s how I measured time. In the minutes and seconds since I’d last been with him.

“After dark,” she answered.

Fabian came downstairs and sat—in a fashion—next to Annette. The ghost was smiling at her in a way that could only be called besotted.

I rolled my eyes. Even phantoms had a thing for Annette, it seemed. She’d probably found a way to have sex with him. Though he was transparent and as solid as a particle cloud, if anyone could do it, Annette could.

“What a charming man,” she remarked. “Faith, Cat, you might have started a trend. When I leave, I daresay I’ll be trying to sneak him past you.”

It took so much willpower not to ask, “And how soon will that be?” After all, I’d been trying to control my think it, say it tendencies.

“Annette, I think I’ll just skip the movie and read something. Watch it without me.”

Halfway up the stairs, I passed Vlad. He’d stayed on, making the comment that he’d leave when things were settled. I bet he hadn’t figured on being here this long.

I was nearly to the bedroom when I heard my cell phone ring. The sound made me hurtle through the door, almost diving to get it.

“Bones?” I answered.

A contemptuous scoff filled my ear. “No, chérie. Still hoping for your lover’s return? How amusing.”

Gregor. Just what I needed.

“What’s up, dear?” Sarcastically. “Still snooping in my dreams, I see. Are you done apologizing to your ghouls because I’m sucking in air instead of blood? Just when you think you’ve got the little woman cornered, oops, you forget she has a knife.”

“You should have stayed with me and spared yourself the humiliation of being yet another castoff of that peasant whore,” he purred. “While you pine for Bones, he ruts with other women.”

“Liar. Bones might be pissed at me, but he’s a better man than that. Of course, that’s something you wouldn’t understand.”

Gregor just laughed. “Oh, Catherine, soon you will see you’re very wrong. Did you really think he’d changed? He saw a way out, and he took it.”

I hung up, stopping myself from my stamping on the phone only out of concern that Bones might call next, and I’d have broken the thing. I was breathing heavily, like I’d been running. When Vlad tapped on the doorframe, I whirled around and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Do you know where Bones is? Tell me the truth!”

Vlad flicked his gaze to his shirt, as if to say, Do you mind?

“No, Cat. Going to shake me next?”

I dropped my hands, balling them in frustration. “That bastard is playing games with me. He knows what I’m most afraid of, and he’s using it to hurt me!”

“Gregor?” Vlad asked evenly. “Or Bones?”

I stopped pacing and shot him a measured look. “I meant Gregor, but…you might have a point.”

Vlad smiled. “And what are you going to do about it?”

“When Spade gets back,” I said grimly, “I’m going to shake him.”



Spade just made it through the front door when I grabbed him by the shirt.

“You contact Bones and tell him he’s made his point. I might have been wrong, but he’s being cruel, and I’ve had enough.”