“Cass killed him,” Addie said, making herself the focus while he crept forward, eyes alert.
“She did, but you know what? He didn’t register his precious angel with the Undead Coalition. He was too paranoid. Me? He registered me right away. I was the only member of his clan listed on his records. When he was killed, the UC knocked on my door, not hers.”
“They blamed you for his death,” Addie realized. “They punished you for it.”
“They found me locked in the basement of his manor. It was obvious I had never been allowed out. I was filthy and half starved. I barely knew how to feed. They didn’t care. About any of that. They only cared they had someone to pin his murder on.” Her gaze zinged to Boaz. “Sentinels, the lapdogs of the Society.”
An odd sort of coil surrounded a tree in the distance, the color right to be vines, but the thickness… Boaz needed to get closer to tell for sure, but he thought maybe it was their break.
Addie stepped forward to steal her attention back. “What did they do to you?”
“For one hundred years, they kept me in a room with only a bed and sink. I was given books to read, which was a mercy. It kept me sane and current on the world.” She quit twirling her hair. “Do you know what kept me going every second of every minute of every hour of every day?”
“Revenge,” Boaz supplied, having moved too far to escape her notice much longer.
“No.” A frown knit her brow. “Love.”
“Love?” Addie echoed, her voice gone soft. “I don’t understand.”
“Then you’ve never been in love.”
Boaz couldn’t believe his ears. “You tracked Cass across the country so that you could be together?”
“In the sweet hereafter,” she agreed. “This isn’t what she wanted. It’s not what I wanted either. Why should we continue to exist like this? I came for her, to end it. Then we can be together, as we were meant to be, not as we are.”
He realized then that, despite her outer calmness and rational conversation, Serena was out of her ever-loving mind.
Twenty
I had worked with Cass often enough to understand Boaz was letting me draw Serena’s focus while he attempted to get close enough to take her out. It was nice, that he trusted me to do the job and didn’t coddle me, but I wished I could fist the back of his collar and drag him back to safety.
“Cass has adjusted to her new life.” I noticed the warmth on the horizon and took a step forward. “You will too.”
“I don’t want to adjust.” She eased toward me. “I want this to end.”
From the corner of my eye, I watched Boaz moving in at an angle. “What if Cass doesn’t?”
“You think because you love her that you can speak for her?” Serena scoffed. “We were lovers when we were both mortal, when we both had hearts and souls and dreams. She’s a shell. That’s all. She doesn’t care about you. She’s as vacant as I am.”
Had Serena spent any time around Cass, she would have realized fast that Cass was anything but vacant. She was vibrant and alive in a way that few people, and no vampires I had ever met, were. Maybe it was a reflection of her holding on to her humanity, refusing to let go of the parts of her Delacorte stole when he had her turned against her will, or maybe it was simply her.
“Where is she?” We were out of time for games. “Where is Cass?”
“She’ll be at peace soon.” Serena removed a wooden stake from her belt. “I’ll be waiting for her.”
“No.” I lurched forward.
Too late.
I was too late.
Serena stabbed herself through the heart.
“Where is she?” I screamed, running to her, grabbing her shoulders. “Where is she?”
With a tired smile, Serena began to disintegrate before my eyes, until I was holding ash in my hands.
“Leave her.” Boaz pointed through the trees. “See that? Might be nothing but—”
I didn’t wait for him to finish. I couldn’t bear to stand still a moment longer. I sprinted in the direction he indicated, toward odd vines wrapping a tree.
No.
Not vines.
Ropes.
Unsheathing the knife at my hip, I ran full out, eyes on the coming sunrise. “Cass?”
A faint voice murmured on the other side of the tree. “Addie?”
Tears blurred my vision as I reached her and began to hack at the ropes that bound her to a small rise overlooking a gorge. The tree stood about a foot from the crumbling edge, offering her no shelter as the shadows baked off into nothing.
“Hold on,” I chanted over and over. “I got you.”
Once she was free, she slid down onto her knees, too weak to move. Her skin was already pinkening.
Kneeling beside her, I gathered her into my arms. “What did she do to you?”
“Stake,” she panted. “Gut.”
Cass must have fought back too hard for Serena to restrain her without inflicting mortal damage. Immortal damage, more like, since she had given her enough wounds to bleed her dry. Cass could heal, if we got her to shelter, but not without help.
“You’re going to have to drink from me.” I angled my head to make it easier. “You’ll have to do it fast.”
“No,” she murmured. “I promised you I would never do that.”
“Extenuating circumstances, Cass.” I cupped the back of her skull and guided her down. “It’s okay. Promise.”
The flash of pain I expected never appeared, but the scent of blood overwhelmed my senses. “What…?”
Boaz had stuck his wrist in front of Cass, and she had been too hungry to resist.
Avoiding their intimate moment, I averted my gaze from where their skin met and sought his gaze. “Where do we take her?”
“It’s too late.” His voice came out tight. “We’ll have to bury her.”
“Bury her?” I clutched at Cass. “Will she be okay if we do that?”
“She’ll be safe from the sun, and she doesn’t have to breathe. She’s not technically alive, remember?”
He allowed her to feed precious seconds longer then forced her to let him go with a pressure technique he applied on her jaw. Blood still dripped down his wrist when he jogged deeper into the shadows and drew a sigil on the dirt, using the crimson as ink.
While I cradled Cass, I attempted to get a better idea of what he was doing, but he was too sheltered for me to see. “Ready?”
“Ready.” He got to his feet, wavering. “I’ll help.” He swallowed a few times. “Just give me a second.”
“Took…too much.” Cass wedged her feet under her and staggered toward him with my assistance. “Didn’t mean…”
“It’s not your fault.” He gave up and sat down before he fell down. “I don’t have much magic. Using it drained me, not you.”
When we got near enough, I could see he had created a perfect grave. The hole in the ground had precise square corners, and it must have measured eight feet by three feet. It was flawless, and, I say this as a necromancer, creepy as heck he could do that on a whim.
“Give me your hands.” I seized her wrists. “I’ll lower you down.”
Cass mumbled, fighting me, and tipped backward. She fell onto her back in the hole with an undignified, “Oomph.”
“I’ll be right here until dusk,” I promised her. “Don’t breathe and don’t struggle.”
Curling onto her side, Cass shut her eyes and fell into the deep sleep only achieved by vampires.
“We’ll have to fill in the hole.” Boaz groaned as he reached for the mound to haul handfuls of dirt into the hole. “I was only half telling the truth when I blamed magic.”
That he didn’t want to burden Cass’s conscience, even at a time like this, endeared him to me.
Together, we buried my friend in a grave.
Weirdest couples’ activity ever.
Twenty-One
The sentinels found Ari in the basement of Cass’s house. She was as close to true dead as it got, but sh
e hadn’t given up on her second chance at life yet. The reason for the delay in the sentinels locating us was the rescue op they organized on the house. They thought, and rightly so, that I would have bulled in to find Cass. They expected to discover Boaz’s and my charred remains. Instead, they located Ari in the nick of time.
Abernathy told us all about it when he brought Boaz and me sleeping bags for the day. I had made a promise not to leave Cass, and I meant it. Boaz meant his vow too, and he refused to leave me. Honey brought us fast food that tasted better than the signature dish at any three-starred Michelin restaurant in my current state, and we passed out in the shade of the trees.
“Will your magic trick work with Cass in the grave?”
Sitting shoulder to shoulder with Boaz, we watched the moonrise together.
“I’m not sure.” He scratched his jaw. “I’ve never done it with a live person. There was never a reason.”
“How did you learn to dig insta-graves?” I stared up at him. “That’s a very specific magic.”
“You know I’m an Elite, but before I was a sentinel, I was in the army.” He gazed across the gorge. “War is ugly. The winners and losers all look the same when they’re dead.” He frowned. “I got a High Society friend to teach me the sigil so my unit could bury enemies and friendlies alike. It wasn’t much, but it was the least we could do.”
“I’m sorry.” I touched his arm. “That couldn’t have been easy.”
“Life never is,” he breathed. “The gravedigger is the only sigil that works for me every time.”
From his story, he’d had cause to use it until he must have perfected it, even with his weakened magic.
“Can you do any other magic?” High Society necromancers had all the good tricks. “Or is that classified?”
A snort ripped out of him, which made me feel good for brightening his mood. “I learned three total. The other two almost never work. I don’t have enough juice for them unless I’m desperate.”
“What are they, if you don’t mind sharing?”
“I can start a fire that takes ten times as long with magic as it does to strike a flint, and I can sanitize water with magic in three hours, as opposed to the fifteen minutes it takes it boil it.” A smile tugged at his lips. “The guys mock me about it, but hey. I can do more than most. I’m not going to knock it.” The corners of his eyes twinkled. “I’m also never traveling without a lighter or water purification tablets.”
A smidge of envy had me agreeing with him. I wished I could do even one trick. One small thing.
“It’s time.” He threw off his sleeping bag. “Be ready to help me restrain her if she’s got the munchies.”
“Okay.” I tossed my bag aside and scooted close to him. “I’m ready.”
With a grimace, Boaz slid a knife across his palm then used the blood to ink the sigil on the dirt.
This time, I got a front row seat when the dirt simply vanished from in front of us and appeared in a pile beside us. I was so distracted, it took me a second to notice the problem.
“She’s not in there.” I leaned over the edge. “Cass? Can you hear me?”
The mound of dirt beside us shifted, and Cass’s neon-yellow hair poked through the dirt.
“Never,” she spat. “I am never letting you bury me again. I would rather die.” She paused. “Again.”
Rushing over, I helped dig her out and then tackled her with a hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Okay would require fewer worms and beetles.” She got to her feet. “What did I miss?”
Unsure how much Serena had told her, I explained the whole sordid mess while she gazed up at the moon. Much of it, she must have already known, based on her lack of response. Or maybe she was numb from shock.
“I had no idea,” she said at last. “I thought she was dead. I mourned her. I killed him for her.”
And Serena had been punished for it, which only added to Cass’s burden of guilt.
“I’m sorry.” I touched her shoulder. “For all of it.”
“None of it’s your fault.” She wiped pink tears from her cheeks. “I can’t believe she was out there, this whole time, and I didn’t know. I could have saved her. We could have been…”
Delacorte had stolen that time from them, twisted Serena until she was a hull of her former self, until all she wanted was to make the pain, the loneliness, the memories…stop.
“You couldn’t save her, Cass.” I hoped she believed that. “It was too late when she started hunting you.”
“We’ll never know, will we?” She ruffled her hair, shaking loose dirt. “I think I’m going to go home for a few weeks.”
Home meant back to her clan, to Javier, where she could heal among her own kind in safety and privacy.
I won’t lie. It hurt. I would rather she asked to come home with me. I would have let her use Hadley’s room until she climbed out from under this cloud. But maybe that was me, forgetting she was a vampire at the core. A calm, sterile environment with minimal emotion might be the best environment in which to heal. I had to trust her to know herself, what she needed now.
“Okay.” I cleared the lump from my throat. “Bring your phone?” I handed it to her, since Serena had taken it. “In case you need me?”
Cass came to me, folded herself against me, and buried her face in my neck. “I’ll always need you.”
Touched by her affection, I didn’t notice at first that she was licking me. My carotid, actually. “Cass…”
“You told me to bite you.”
“That was last night. When you were dying. You’re fine now.”
“You’re not fun.”
“So I hear.” I shoved her back a safe distance. “Do you need a ride?”
“I’ll call Javi.” She rubbed her thumb over her phone. “He’s always fussing I don’t come home enough.”
“You’ll stay with me while you find a new place to live.” I made it an order. “I’ve got plenty of room.”
“Yes, Mom.” She cracked a smile then faced Boaz. “Take care of her, or I will rip out your throat.”
“Keep your lips to yourself,” he said, returning her threat, “or I’ll tear them off and feed them to you.”
“No one is ripping anyone’s throat out or lips off.” I waded in between them. “Y’all need to behave.”
Both of them squinted at the other, clearly waiting to see who would fall in line first.
When neither broke, I tried for diplomacy and expediency. “Do you want us to walk you to the road?”
“No.” Her gaze slid past me, and I wondered if she was searching for a pile of ash scattered across the leaves in the distance. If so, she wouldn’t find Serena. The cleaners had already collected her remains, though Cass could claim them, and the bounty, later. If she wanted. I wouldn’t pressure her either way. “I think I’ll stay here for a few more minutes.”
“All right.”
I startled when Boaz wrapped an arm around my shoulders, but I appreciated him guiding me away. I might not have left otherwise, and that was wrong. Cass deserved a moment alone to say her goodbye.
We returned to Willie, who was right where he’d left her, but the view of the charred remains of Cass’s home left a cold weight in my stomach that only grew colder when a blue pickup turned into the drive.
The window slid down to reveal Patel, who took in the destruction and then us.
“You cost me money.” He spat on the dirt. “I came all the way down here to collect on this killer that had all the clan masters clutching their pearls, and you beat me to them.”
“Sorry, man.” Boaz shrugged. “Them’s the breaks.”
“Yeah.” He grunted. “Guess so.” A feral smile tipped up his lips. “I still say you owe me a drink for my troubles.”
“Sure.” Boaz grinned. “Name the time and place, and your first glass of water is on me.”
The joke, that water was free, took a second to penetrate Patel, but then he roared with laughter.
&
nbsp; “Always did like you.” He slapped his hand on the side of his truck. “You’re an asshole, just like me.”
From what I had seen of them, Boaz was nothing like Patel, but I wanted Patel gone more than I wanted to defend Boaz. Cass and I were big fish in a small pond here, and we liked it that way. We had no room for a shark in our waters.
“See you around, Patel.” Boaz offered him a curt wave. “Happy hunting.”
“I expect an invitation to the wedding.” Patel put the window halfway up then laughed. “I’ve never seen a man get his balls chopped off. Ought to be interesting.”
With that, Patel spun dirt that ruined Willie’s mirror shine and hit the road.
“I really hate that guy,” Boaz muttered. “I hope I go another five years without seeing him again.”
“Me too.” I wiped the grit from my eyes. “I promise there will be no ball-chopping at the wedding.”
Whipping his head toward me, Boaz broke into a wide smile that turned into a laugh. “Good to know.”
“I’m ready to go.” I patted his arm. “I want to wash off the smoke and dirt and then sleep ten years.”
“Hop on.” He patted the seat on his bike. “We can go the speed limit and everything.”
A laugh wedged itself in my throat, and I was tempted, so tempted to take him up on his offer.
“I think I’ll walk back,” I murmured. “I’m ready to go home, but I’m not ready to be home, if that makes sense.” I raked my hair back into a ponytail. “See you there?”
“I’m not letting you go alone.” He shot me an incredulous look. “I told you I would walk the bike if I had to, and I meant it.”
About to tell him I had changed my mind, that I was being silly, he didn’t give me the chance. He nudged the kickstand and started rolling Willie down the drive. I fell in beside him and breathed easier for it.
For the first two miles.
Then I caved and begged him to drive me the last four home.
We put the hot water heater through its paces by showering together. Well, not together. But at the same time. Then I raided the freezer for TV dinners. We ate pizza bagels and chips on the couch while watching Dracula in Cass’s honor. I fell asleep with marinara on my shirt and my head on Boaz’s shoulder.
The Redemption of Boaz Pritchard Page 14
