“Is there something else you’d like to add, Grandsire?”
An unfamiliar vampire coming into the kitchen interrupted whatever Mencheres’s reply might have been. Must be another of Mencheres’s staff, though he bowed to Bones instead of the Egyptian vampire.
“What it is?” Bones asked.
“Pardon me, but there’s someone on the phone who says they have a call for you.”
My brows went up. So did Bones’s. “There’s a call to tell me I have a call?” he asked with heavy skepticism.
The vampire looked uneasy as he held out a cell phone. “It’s my friend Lachlan. He called me to say he’d been contacted by Chill, a vampire he knows, who was called by Nathan, who’s a member of Kyoko’s line, who says a vampire named Rollo contacted him because he met a ghost who claims to be yours—”
“Fabian!” I exclaimed, just now realizing I hadn’t seen him since the fiasco of the party.
Bones took the cell from the vampire and everything changed.
We waited two miles away from the craggy house in Moldova where Gregor had my mother held captive. Rodney crouched to my right, weighted down with multiple wickedly curved silver blades. Bones hunched to my left, his body so still that he might have been carved from stone. I tried to duplicate that same immobility, but I couldn’t. My gaze kept flicking around in impatience. Where was Fabian? He should be back by now.
Spade crept up from the brush. He’d been making sure no enemy forces were sneaking up behind us while we waited for Fabian’s report. At Spade’s nod, we were the only ones stalking others in the chilly surrounding countryside. Wind blew Spade’s inky hair back from his face as he set his gaze ahead in the same direction Bones stared.
After what seemed like an eternity, a hazy flash appeared in the trees, and we saw Fabian streaking just above the frost-covered ground.
“Gregor isn’t here, but from how Cannelle’s acting, he’ll be back soon,” the ghost said when he reached us. “Right now there are about a dozen guards. More will be with Gregor when he returns.”
Bones didn’t glance away from whatever he’d been looking at in the distance. “Then now is the best time. Fabian, keep a lookout on the road. At the first sign of Gregor or his men, you come warn us.”
The ghost nodded, his see-through features taking on a determined expression. “I won’t fail you.”
For about the dozenth time today, I wished I could hug Fabian. Never did I expect to be so indebted to a ghost, but I owed Fabian more than I could repay. After the disastrous party, Fabian had the presence of mind to follow Gregor, haunting the trunk of whatever vehicle Gregor drove or hitchhiking on various people who happened to be near Gregor. True to undead prejudice, Gregor hadn’t seemed to realize he was being spied on, even if he or one of his people might have glimpsed the ghost. Always pride before a fall.
Fabian’s hardest task after finding Gregor’s hiding place was to contact us and let us know about it. It’s not like a phantom could use a phone, e-mail, or pass on a letter. Factor in the same dismissal of ghosts that had made his spying possible, and Fabian had had a hell of a time getting a vampire ally to listen long enough to start the chain of calls that eventually reached Bones.
Until we arrived, we hadn’t even been sure that Gregor would still be in this house. It took a full day and a half from the time Fabian left the vicinity to the time Bones was handed that cell phone from the very bewildered member of Mencheres’s staff. Then another several hours to get to Moldova, then a couple hours of reconnaissance to determine this wasn’t a trap. Not that I doubted Fabian’s loyalty, but there was always the chance that Gregor had recognized the ghost and put two and two together. So far, though, it seemed like those in the house had no idea they were about to be attacked.
I gave a worried glance at the sky. All that was good news. The bad news was, dawn was only about half an hour away.
As if hearing my thought, Bones met my gaze. “You should stay back, Kitten.”
My first instinct was to argue. Vehemently, and with lots of profanity. That was my mother trapped in the house, so I damn well wasn’t going to sit back and just hope things went okay.
Then I looked around the faces staring back at me. Everyone here was risking their lives on my mother’s behalf, plus breaking undead laws on top of that, and I was the only one susceptible to the dawn. Sure, now I could stay awake and even walk when sunlight hit, but fight? No. Not even if my mother’s life—or mine—depended on it.
“I’ll stay,” I said, seeing Bones’s brows go up like those were the last words he expected to hear from me. “Give me the detonator. We might need the diversion if Gregor returns before we have my mom safely away.”