At Grave’s End

“Justina.”

I vaulted after him as soon as I heard my mother’s name. Bones sprinted away from me, fighting back his laughter and continuing to speak.

“Yes, it’s Bones. Now really, that’s such a foul name to call me…um hmm, same to you, I’m sure…”

“Give me that phone,” I demanded.

He ignored me, darting out of my reach. Ever since my father, my mother hated vampires with a pathological passion. She’d even tried to have Bones killed before-twice-which was why he was taking such delight in giving her a little payback now.

“Actually, Justina, I didn’t just ring you to chat about what an undead murderer I was…right, degenerate whore as well. Did I ever tell you my mum was one? No? Oh, blimey, I come from a long line of whores, in fact…”

I sucked in a breath as Bones divulged yet another tidbit about his past to my mother, who must be frothing at the mouth by now.

“…called to give you the good news. I asked your daughter to marry me and she accepted. Congratulations, I will officially be your son-in-law. Now, do you want me to call you Mum straightaway, or wait until after the wedding?”

I flew through the air in a dive that finally tackled him, wrenching the phone away. Bones was laughing so hard, he had to breathe to get it all out.

“Mom? Are you there? Mom…?”

“You might want to give her a moment, Kitten. I believe she fainted.”

There were some days when I felt a pang of wistful regret that I’d never be a mother. Sure, my father had been newly undead enough that he’d managed to impregnate my mother, but as a rule, vampires couldn’t reproduce. And I’d never risk passing on my genetic abnormalities to a child by means of artificial insemination, let alone my dangerous lifestyle by adopting one.

Right now, however, I was glad I wasn’t a mother. I’d faced some scary sights hunting vampires and ghouls, but hordes of children hyped-up on sugar, squealing as they ran from one video game to the next, while I knew there was no escape for me? Truly frightening.

Bones was outside the Chuck E. Cheese, lucky bastard. It was because of his power level. Other vampires felt him when he was near, like inside, so Bones usually watched the premises until the gig was up and our target knew he or she was being hunted. I lacked the typical undead aura that felt like anything from static electricity to full-blown electrocution, depending on the strength of the vampire. No, I had a beating heart and I breathed, which made me look harmless-to those who didn’t know what else to look for, anyway.

Toward that end, I had almost all my skin covered up. Hey, I wasn’t playing bait, so I didn’t need to wear my usual slut gear. Belinda was the one in a low-cut top with hip-hugging jeans that revealed several inches of her belly. She’d curled her hair and wore makeup, which was a rarity, since as Don’s captive, she didn’t get out much.

Looking at Belinda, with her blond hair, pouty smile, and eye-popping curves, people would never guess she was a vampire, especially since it was day- light. Even those whomight believe in vampires still bought the myth that vampires could only come out at night, which, along with the whole sleeping in coffins, being repelled by religious symbols, or being killed by a wooden stake, was wrong.

The little boy next to me tugged my arm. “I’m hungry,” he a

I was confused. “But you just ate.”

He rolled his eyes. “Lady, that was an hour ago.”

“Call me Mom, Ethan,” I reminded him, fixing a bright smile on my face while I fished out more money. This had to be the strangest job ever. Where Don had gotten a ten-year-old boy to act as a prop, I’ll never know. But he had arranged for Ethan to come with us, saying if we spent hours lurking at a Chuck E. Cheese without a child, we’d be suspected of either being pedophiles or-duh-being vampire hunters by our target.

Ethan snatched at my handful of money without waiting for me to peel the bills off.

“Thanks!” he said, and scampered off toward the pizza counter.

Okay,that looked authentic-I’d seen kids do the same thing to their parents all day today, plus all day yesterday. Good God, between the food and the endless tokens for games, I’d gone through more money in two days here than I normally did at a week’s worth of bar jobs downing multiple gin and tonics. At least this was on Uncle Sam’s dime, not mine.

There was only one floor at Chuck E. Cheese’s, so that made it easier to keep Belinda in sight without resorting to looming over her. She was in the section to the left of the front door, playing Skee-Ball. She landed yet another perfect throw into the center of the circles. Lights went off while more tickets spat out of the side of the machine. Belinda had a pile of them near her feet, and more than a few admiring fathers as well as kids clustered around her.

But no other vampire was here, even though this Chuck E. Cheese had been linked to the disappearance of a family three weeks ago. Not that any of the patrons here knew that. It was only because a security camera had caught a pair of glowing green eyes in the parking lot that Don even suspected vampires were involved in the family’s odd disappearance.

Undead killers liked to hit the same hunting grounds more than once. Which confounded the hell out of me. If vampires or ghouls never went back to the same crime scene, my uncle’s special department of Homeland Security would be out of business. Some of them didn’t have enough sense to be like lightning, never striking the same place twice.

My cell vibrated. I took it off my belt, glanced at it-and smiled. The number flashing was 911, which meant a vampire had just been seen in the parking lot. I kept my eye on Ethan as I sidled over to where Belinda was. She gave me an irritated glance when I laid a hand on her arm.

“Showtime,” I murmured.

“Get your hand off me,” she replied without losing her sweet smile.

I squeezed instead. “If you try anything, I’ll kill you. And that’s only if Bones doesn’t beat me to it first.”

Belinda’s eyes flashed green for a second, but then she shrugged. “Ten more years, then I don’t have to deal with you anymore.”

I let her go. “That’s right. So don’t fuck up a better deal than you deserve.”

“Don’t you need to get away from me,Reaper?” she hissed, so low even I could barely hear her. “You don’t want to scare the fish away, do you?”

I gave Belinda a cool, evaluating stare before I turned my back and walked away. I’d meant what I said. If Belinda pulled any tricks during this job and endangered one of the many kids here, I’d kill her. But, as the saying went, we were giving her enough rope to hang herself. Now we had to wait and see if she swung from it.

On my way over to Ethan, my cell vibrated again. I glanced at it and mentally groaned. Another 911. That meant there were two vampires. Not good.

I reached Ethan, wanting to keep a sharp eye on him as well as the door. It wasn’t long before I saw two men walk in with the distinctive skin and purposeful movements that marked the difference between a regular person and a vampire.

I gave the interior of Chuck E. Cheese’s another frustrated glance. With all the children here, this was the worst kind of place to have a showdown with the undead. If I were playing bait, I’d try to maneuver the vamps into the parking lot to minimize the danger to bystanders. But Belinda probably wouldn’t care enough to do that. Well, I’d just have to try and help her out.

I grasped Ethan’s hand. “It’s time,” I told him.

His blue-green eyes widened. “The bad people are here?” he whispered.

I doubted Don had explained to Ethan-or his parents, whoever those crazy folks were to let their son do this-what sort of “bad people” we were after. I wasn’t about to elaborate, either.

“You don’t leave my sight, remember?” I said, soft but stern. “It’ll be okay.”