At Grave’s End

He gave me a serious look. “She’ll never abandon her relationship with you. You could marry Satan himself and that still wouldn’t get rid of her. She loves you, Kitten, though she does a right poor job of showing it most days.” Then he gave me a wicked grin. “Shall I ring your cell in an hour, so you can pretend there’s an emergency if she gets natty with you?”

“What if thereis an emergency with Tate?” I wondered. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave.”

“Your bloke’s fine. Nothing can harm him now short of a silver stake through the heart. Go see your mum. Ring me if you need me to come bite her.”

There really was nothing for me to do at the compound. Tate would be a few more days at least in lockdown, and we didn’t have any jobs scheduled, for obvious reasons. This was as good a time as any to see if my mom meant what she said about wanting to end our estrangement.

“Keep your cell handy,” I joked to Bones. Then I pulled away.

My mother lived thirty minutes from the compound. She was still in Richmond, but in a more rural area. Her quaint neighborhood was reminiscent of where we grew up in Ohio, without being too far away from Don if things got hairy. I pulled up to her house, parked, and noticed that her shutters needed a fresh coat of paint. Did they look like that the last time I was here? God, how longhad it been since I’d come to see her?

As soon as I got out of the car, however, I froze. Shock crept up my spine, and it had nothing to do with the realization that I hadn’t been here since Bones came back into my life months ago.

From the feel of the energy leaking off the house, my mother wasn’t alone inside, but whoever was with her didn’t have a heartbeat. I started to slide my hand toward my purse, where I always had some silver knives tucked away, when a cold laugh made me stop.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, little girl,” a voice I hated said from behind me.

My mother’s front door opened. She was framed in it, with a dark-haired vampire who looked vaguely familiar cradling her neck almost lovingly in his hands.

And I didn’t need to turn around to know the vampire at my back was my father.

FIVE

MAX, MY FATHER, STOOD ABOUT THIRTY yards away between some trees. His red hair blew in the breeze and those identical gray eyes bore into mine. But what really held my attention was the rocket launcher Max had balanced on his shoulder. He also had a gun in his other hand. The disparity between the two weapons almost made me laugh out of sheer hysteria.

“Iwas going to blow up your car before you even pulled into the driveway,” Max said in a genial tone, nodding at the rocket launcher, “but then I saw you were alone. And how could any dad pass up the chance to spend some time with his little girl?”

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That was what Max had spat at me months ago after he’d been busted for hiring two hitmen to put me out of my misery. I hadn’t thought he would try more brazen attempts to kill me since Bones married me vampire-style, but it looked like I was wrong.

“Where’s your sire, Max?” I asked, my voice even. “Is Ian ru

“Ian?” Max laughed. “Fuck my sire, I don’t need him. I’ve got new benefactors, little girl, and they want you dead as much as I do.”

I debated going for my knives again. An icy smile stretched across Max’s face, which looked enough like mine for anyone to tell we were father and daughter.

“Think you can get to your weapons before I shoot you? Maybe you can. But not before this rocket plows right through your mother, and wouldn’t that be a shame.”

My jaw clenched. Max and the other vampire were in the exact opposite direction from each other. Even if I was fast enough to take out one of them, the other would still have time to kill my mom.

“Why don’t we go inside? I think a family chat’s long overdue,” Max said, gesturing with the gun.

There was no way I could do anything with the two of them this far apart. I started toward the house, but his laugh stopped me. “Drop your purse first, little girl, and kick it over my way. Slowly.”

A dozen different attack scenarios skipped through my mind, but fear for my mother made me reject all of them.If only it was just Max here. If only I’d strapped some weapons on me before heading over. If only I had another damn watch with a panic button in it, so Bones could realize my mother and I were in deep shit.

I dropped my purse and gave it a sideways kick over to Max. He grunted and came closer, his aim not wavering with either weapon.

“Let’s make you a little more respectful,” he said, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit me low in the stomach, doubling me over. It took a few seconds for the pain to hit, but when it did, it was merciless.

Behind me, I heard the other vampire giggle. It wasn’t much louder than the sound of the shot. Max’s gun had a silencer.

“Inside,” he directed me with another wave of the gun. “Or the next round goes in your leg.”

With my fists covering the rapidly bleeding hole in my gut, I staggered into the house. As soon as Max closed the door behind us, he fired again, striking me in the thigh.

I’d screamed at the second shot, which knocked me off my feet and sent me sprawling onto the floor.

“It was too much fun to resist,” Max smirked, then waved the gun, this time at my mother. “You make one more sound and she gets the next slug.”

Max would love to shoot my mother. It hadn’t escaped my notice that she had a dull, glazed look on her face. Max had green-eyed her into compliance. The thought of how terrified she must have been to open her door and see my father there almost made my rage match the pain in pure intensity.

But that was short-lived. Waves of pain, nausea, and dizziness assailed me. Max might have missed arteries or vital organs, but in my current condition, I wouldn’t be able to fight off him and the other vampire, plus rescue her. It was only because of being half vampire that I was even still conscious at all.

Bones. I’d often teased him about being paranoid over my safety, but it looked like the joke was on me. Sure, if I didn’t show up at the compound later, he would be worried. Probably enough to come straight here, but from Max’s expression, he’d arrive too late.

“You should have killed me when you had the chance,” Max said, staring down at me. “Bet now you wish you’d done that instead of marrying Bones back at Ian’s that night.”

Even if this was it for me-and I wasn’t ready to concede that by a long shot-I couldn’t bring myself to agree.

“Have I ever mentioned how much I hate you, Max?” I managed to grit out. Maybe I could stall him. Get him pissed enough to want to take his time killing me.

The other vampire laughed. “She has such spirit,” he said, eyeing me even as he stroked my mother’s hair. “What a waste.”

Recognition dawned about where I’d seen the black-haired vampire before. He was the one who’d gotten away from Chuck E. Cheese’s that day!

“You,” I said.

He smiled. “Nice to see you again, too.”

Max set the rocket launcher down, but that didn’t do me nearly as much good now as it would have a few minutes ago.

“Calibos,” he said, “if my daughter moves, kill her mother.”

With that grim directive, Max disappeared into the kitchen. I kept applying pressure to the hole in my gut, since it was bleeding worse than my leg.Goddamn you, Max, I thought through the pain.I’ll see you dead even if it’s the last thing I do.

And from the looks of it, it probably would be.

My mother still stared sightlessly ahead. Aside from that, to my relief, she didn’t look hurt. Calibos, as Max called the other vampire, let his hand wander down the front of her shirt to squeeze her breast. A low growl came from me that made him grin.