Halfway to the Grave

by Jeaniene Frost

  “Why would he come back?” I wondered. “Wouldn’t he have been punished for running away?”

  Bones grunted. “Indeed he would have, but Ian wasn’t afraid of that anymore. We were in the fields slaughtering cattle for beef jerky and the hides when we were set upon by the natives. They killed the guards and the rest of the prisoners except Timothy, Charles, and me. That’s when Ian appeared among them, but he was different. You can guess how. He was a vampire, and he changed me that night. Charles and Timothy were changed as well by two other vampires. Though three of us were changed, only one of us asked for it. Timothy wanted what Ian offered. Charles and I didn’t. Ian changed us anyway because he thought we would thank him later. We stayed with the natives for a few years and vowed to return to England. It took us nearly twenty years to finally get there.”

  He stopped and closed his eyes. At some point in his story I’d uncurled myself from my ball and sat staring at him in amazement. He was absolutely right, it wasn’t a pretty story, and I hadn’t had any idea what he’d been through.

  “Your turn.” His eyes opened to stare right into mine. “Tell me what happened with that sod who hurt you.”

  “God, Bones, I don’t want to talk about that.” I hunched defensively at the memory. “It’s humiliating.”

  That dark gaze didn’t waver. “I just told you that I used to be a thief, a beggar, and a whore. Is it really fair for you to cry foul over my question?”

  Put like that, he had a point. With a shrug to hide my continued pain, I summarized it briskly.

  “It’s a common story. Boy meets girl, girl is naïve and stupid, boy uses girl and then hits the road.”

  He just arched his brow and waited.

  I threw up my hands. “Fine! You want details? I thought he really cared for me. He told me he did, and I fell for his lies completely. We went out twice, and then the third time he said he had to stop by his apartment to get something before we’d go to this club. When we got there, he started kissing me, telling me all this crap about how special I was to him….” My fingers clenched. “I told him it was too soon. That we should wait to get to know each other better, that it was my first time. He disagreed. I—I should have hit him, or thrown him off me. I could have, I was stronger than he was. But…” I dropped my eyes. “I wanted to make him happy. I really liked him. So when he didn’t stop, I just stayed still and tried not to move. It didn’t hurt as much if I didn’t move….”

  God, I was going to cry. I blinked rapidly and took in an uneven breath, pushing back the recollection. “That’s about it. One miserable time and then he didn’t call me anymore. I was worried at first—I thought something bad might have happened to him.” Bitter laugh. “The next weekend I found him making out with another girl at the same club where we were supposed to go. He told me then that he’d never really liked me and to run along because it was past my bedtime. That same night, I killed my first vampire. In a way I owe it to being used. I was so upset I wanted to either die or murder someone. At least having some creature try to rip out my throat guaranteed me one or the other.”

  Bones didn’t make any of his usual mocking quips. When I dared to meet his eyes again, he was simply staring at me, no scorn or judgment on his face. The silence stretched, seconds into minutes. It filled with something unexplainable as we kept looking in each other’s eyes.

  The sudden jostling of the trailer broke the trance as the vehicle ground to a stop. With a slight shake, Bones leapt down from his perch and headed to the rear of the car.

  “We’re nearly at the place, and there’s still work to be done. Hold open that bag for me, Kitten.”

  His normal jaunty tone was back. Perplexed by the earlier moment, I joined him at the rear of the trailer.

  Bones unwrapped Sergio from his plastic shroud as cheerily as a child ripping through wrapping paper on Christmas. I was holding a kitchen-sized garbage bag and wondering what he was up to.

  It didn’t take long to find out. With his hands, he twisted Sergio’s head off as cleanly as if it were the top on a soda bottle. There was a sickening crunch, and then the withering cranium was unceremoniously dumped into the bag.

  “Yuck.” I thrust the bag back into his hands. “You take it.”

  “Squeamish? That lump of rotting skull is worth fifty thousand dollars. Sure you don’t want to cradle it a bit?” He smiled his familiar mocking smile, the old Bones again.

  “No, thanks.” Some things money just couldn’t buy, and my spending more time with that head was one of them.

  The rear of the trailer opened with a creak and Ted appeared in the artificial light.

  “We’re here, bud. Hope you both had a smooth ride.” His eyes twinkled as he looked back and forth between the two of us.

  Instantly I was defensive. “We were talking.”

  Ted grinned, and I saw Bones hide a smile as he turned to face his friend.

  “Come on, mate. We’ve been driving for, what…fifty minutes? Not nearly enough time.”

  They both laughed. I didn’t, seeing nothing amusing at all.

  “Are you finished?”

  Sobering, Bones shook his head. “Stay in the trailer for a minute. Something I have to take care of.”

  “What?” Curiosity killed the cat; I hoped for better results.

  “Business. Got a head to deliver, and I want you to stay out of it. The less people know of you, the better.”

  Made sense. I sat on the edge of the trailer with my feet dangling and then peeled back the cloth to inspect my wrist again. The wound was completely healed, the skin coapted together around the edges and unscarred. There was such a vast difference between vampires and humans, even half-breeds like myself. We weren’t even the same species. So why did I tell Bones things I’d never told anyone else? My mother didn’t know what happened with Danny, for example. She wouldn’t have understood. She wouldn’t have understood a lot about me, in fact. I hid more from her than I told her, if I were being honest, and yet for some reason, I told Bones things that I should hide.

  After about thirty minutes of contemplating this and chipping the polish off my nails, Bones reappeared. He jumped into the trailer, untied his bike, and carried it one-handed to the ground.

  “Hop on, pet. We’re finished.”

  “What about the car? Or the torso?”

  I climbed behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist for leverage. It was disconcerting to be pressed so close to him after that near miss earlier, but I didn’t want to peel myself off the asphalt if I fell. At least he’d given me a helmet, although he didn’t wear one himself. One of the advantages of being already dead.

  “Ted’s taking the car. Got a chop house that he runs for ’em. It’s how he makes his living, didn’t I tell you?”

  No, he hadn’t, not that it mattered. “And the body?”

  He sped off, leaving me clutching him at the sudden momentum as the motorcycle weaved onto the road.

  “Part of the deal. He plants him for me. Less work for us. Ted’s a smart fellow, keeps his mouth shut and minds his business. Don’t fret over him.”

  “I’m not,” I shouted over the wind. Actually, I was tired. It had already been a long night.

  It was a two-hour drive back to the cave, and we arrived shortly after three a.m. My truck was parked about a quarter mile away from the entrance as usual, since the vehicle couldn’t navigate the rest of the way. Bones pulled to a stop at the truck, and I jumped off the motorcycle as soon as it quit moving. Motorcycles made me nervous. They just seemed such an unsafe way to travel. Vampires, of course, didn’t share my trepidation of a broken neck, limbs, or skin sloughed off on the pavement. The other reason for my haste was simple—to be away from Bones as quickly as possible. Before any further attacks of stupidity overwhelmed me.

  “Off so soon, pet? The evening is young.”

  He looked at me with a glint in his eye and a devilish curl to his lips. I just collected my keys from their hiding place under a rock and h
eaved wearily into the truck.

  “Maybe for you, but I’m going home. Go find yourself a nice neck to suck on.”

  Unperturbed, he uncurled himself from the bike.

  “Going home wearing that dress with blood all over it? Your mum might worry at seeing you that way. You can come inside and change. Promise I won’t peek.” The last part was accompanied by an exaggerated wink that made me smile despite my watchfulness.

  “No, I’ll change at a gas station or something. By the way, since this job is done, when do I have to come back here? Do I get a break?”

  I was hoping for a break not only in training, but also in the time spent in his company. Maybe my head needed to be examined, and some time away would help accomplish that.

  “Sorry, Kitten. Tomorrow night you’re on again. Then after that I fly to Chicago to see my old friend Hennessey. With luck, I’ll be back on Thursday, because Friday I have another job for us….”

  “Yeah, I get it,” I said disgustedly. “Well, you just remember I’m starting college next week, so you’ll have to cut me some slack. We might have an arrangement, but I’ve waited too long already to get my degree.”

  “Absolutely, pet. Fill your head with volumes of information that will never apply in real life. Just remember—dead girls pass no exams, so don’t think you’re going to neglect your training. Don’t fret, though. We’ll work it out. Speaking of that, here you go.”

  Bones drew out a wide opaque plastic bag from inside his jacket, which had looked considerably fuller than normal, come to notice. Rifling through it for a moment, he pulled out a wad of something green and held it out to me.

  “Your share.”

  Huh? I stared at the multiple hundreds in his hand with disbelief that turned to suspicion.

  “What’s this?”

  He shook his head. “Blimey, but you’re a difficult chit! Fellow can’t even give you money without you arguing. This, luv, is twenty percent of the bounty Sergio had on his head. It’s for your part in him losing his head. See, I reckon since I don’t pay anything to the IRS, I may as well give their cut to you. Death and taxes. They go hand in hand.”

  Stupefied, I stared at the money. This was more than I could earn in six months of waitressing or working the orchards. And to think I had been worried about draining my savings on gas! Before he changed his mind, I shoved the cash in my glove box.

  “Umm, thanks.” What did one say? Words left me at the moment.

  He grinned. “You earned it, pet.”

  “You just got a big chunk of change yourself. Are you finally moving out of the cave?”

  Bones chuckled. “Is that why you think I stay there? Out of lack of funds?”

  His clear amusement made me defensive. “Why else? It’s not a Hilton. You have to pirate electricity and you wash in an ice-cold river. I didn’t think you did that just because you liked seeing your parts shrink!”

  That really made him laugh. “Concerned for my bits and pieces, are you? Let me assure you, they’re fine. Of course, if you don’t take my word for it, you could always—”

  “Don’t even think about it!”

  He stopped laughing, but there was still a gleam in his eyes. “Too late for that, but back to your question. I stay there because it’s safer, primarily. I can hear you or anyone else coming from a mile away, and I know it like the back of my hand. Be difficult for someone to ambush me without my turning it around on them. Also, it’s quiet. I’m sure there have been many times the background noise from your house has kept you awake. And besides, it was given to me by a friend, so I check on it when I’m in Ohio and make sure all’s well, like I promised him.”

  “A friend gave you the cave? How do you give someone a cave?”

  “His people found it hundreds of years ago, so that makes it theirs as much as anyone can claim anything they don’t walk around in. Used to be a winter residence of the Mingoes. They were a small tribe of the Iroquois nation, and they were one of the last Iroquois still in the state when the Indian Removal Act of 1831 was put into effect. Tanacharisson was a mate of mine, and he chose not to go to the reservation. He hid at the cave after the last of his tribe was forcibly removed. Time went by, he saw his people and culture being irrevocably destroyed, and he decided he’d had enough. He painted his body for battle and went off on a suicide mission against Fort Meigs. Before he did, though, he asked me to look out for his home. Make sure no one disturbed it. There are bones of some of his ancestors back in the far part of it. He didn’t want the whites desecrating them.”

  “How terrible,” I said softly, thinking of that lonely Indian making his last stand after seeing everything he loved disappear.

  He studied my face. “It was his choice. He had no control over anything except how he died, and the Mingoes were very proud. To him, it was a good death. One befitting the legacy of his people.”

  “Maybe. But when death is all you have left, it’s sad no matter how you cut it. It’s late, Bones. I’m leaving.”

  He touched my arm then, and his features were very serious.

  “About what you told me earlier, I want you to know it wasn’t your fault. Bloke like that would’ve done the same to any girl, and no doubt has before and since you.”

  “Are you speaking from experience?”

  It flew out before I could stop myself. Bones let his arm drop and he stepped back, giving me another unfathomable look.

  “No, I’m not. I’ve never treated a woman in such a manner, and most especially not a virgin. Like I said before—you don’t have to be human to have some behaviors be beneath you.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just hit the gas and drove away.

  Chapter Eight

  IT OCCURRED TO ME THE NEXT MORNING THAT I had a few hours with nothing to do and money to spend. The combination of both had never happened before. Energized by the thought, I ran upstairs to shower again and get dressed. Showers were all I’d taken lately, since baths had proven to be slightly dangerous.

  After a blissful trip to the mall, I was shocked when I glanced at my watch and saw that it was after six. My, how time flew when I wasn’t killing something. It was too late to drive home and give my mother an excuse about tonight, so I settled on calling her. I lied—again—and told her I’d run into a friend and would be seeing a movie and having a late dinner. I hoped whatever occurred tonight wouldn’t take too long. It would be nice to spend a weekend evening at home for once.

  Speeding to arrive late anyway, I leapt from the truck as soon as I pulled into the familiar grotto. Paranoid, I’d taken my packages with me. It would be just my luck for someone to break in and steal my purchases, even at the edge of the woods. By the time I’d sprinted the remaining mile to the entrance, I was almost out of breath.

  Bones was waiting near the opening with a scowl.

  “Took your sweet bleedin’ time, I see. Oh, but I suppose everything in those bags is for me, so all’s forgiven. Guess I don’t have to wonder where you’ve been.”

  Oops. Suddenly it occurred to me that arriving with an armful of presents bought with his money while not getting him anything might be construed as rude. Covering my faux pas, I straightened my shoulders in feigned offense.

  “Actually, I did get you something. Here. It’s for…umm, your aching muscles and pains.”

  I handed him the massager I’d bought for my grandfather, realizing too late the stupidity in the gesture. Vampires didn’t have aching muscles or pains.

  He looked at the box with interest.

  “Well, well. Five speeds. Heat and massage. Deep, penetrating action. Sure this isn’t yours?” That dark brow arched with volumes of meaning, and none of them therapeutic.

  I snatched it back.

  “Just say so if you don’t want it. You don’t have to be so crude.”

  Bones gave me a pointed look. “Keep it and give it to your gramps like it was intended. Blimey, but you’re a bad liar. Good thing you manage to pull it off with the mark
s.”

  Exasperated already, I fixed him with a scathing look.

  “Can we get on to business? Like the details about tonight?”

  “Oh, that.” We descended deeper into the cave. “Let’s see, your bloke’s over two hundred years old, naturally brown hair, but he changes his color periodically, talks with an accent, and is very quick in combat. Good news is, you can keep your knickers on. He’ll be smitten with you on sight. Any questions?”

  “What’s his name?”

  “He’ll probably make one up, most vampires do, but his name is Crispin. Get me when you’re ready. I’ll be watching telly.”

  Bones left me at my makeshift dressing room, and I flipped through the dozen or so skank-wears he’d bought me until I pulled out a halter dress that almost skimmed the knees. Still too tight, but at least my boobs and butt didn’t hang out of it.

  An hour of hot rollers, makeup, and high-heeled boots later, I was ready. Bones lounged sideways across the weathered chair, avidly watching Court TV. He loved the channel. Somehow, seeing a criminal get such a kick out of that program disturbed me. His favorite comment was that victims had less than half the rights of the offenders.

  “Hate to pry you away, but I’m ready. You know, places to be, etc.”

  He glanced up in mild pique. “This is a good part. They’re about to deliver a verdict.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake! You’re worried about a verdict on a murder case when we’re about to commit one! Doesn’t that strike you as a little ironic?”

  Suddenly he was in front of me, uncurling himself with the speed a striking rattler would envy.

  “Yes, it does, pet. Let’s be off.”

  “Aren’t you driving separately?” We never rode together, to avoid people making the connection.

  He shrugged it off.

  “Believe me, you’d never find the place. It’s a different sort of club, very particular. Come on, let’s not keep the gent waiting.”

  Different sort of club. That was the biggest understatement I’d ever heard. It was far off the main highways, down a twisting back road that looked seldom traveled, and inside an industrial warehouse that was soundproofed. To the outside observer, it was simply another blue-collar industry building. Parking was around the back with only one narrow way in or out between tall trees that acted as a natural gate.