halfway to the grave by jeaniene frost

Author:jeaniene frost
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: vampyre
ISBN: 0061245089
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-10-13T05:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

W E ONLY STAYED LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE sure Charlie didn’t get out. Bones trailed more gasoline to the other units on the upper floor, and they lit up the sky as well. The girl had yet to speak. Her eyes hadn’t even really focused when I carried her out of there.

Bones gave her a few drops of blood. Said they’d tide her over until he got her somewhere safe. We couldn’t hang around here for many reasons. The fire department would be on their way. The police, too. And any of Hennessey’s goons who’d soon find out that one of his residences had been torched with his people inside.

I was surprised when Bones went over to Charlie’s car and popped the trunk. “I’ll be right back,” I murmured to the girl, and left her in the backseat. She didn’t seem to even hear me.

I went around to the back of Charlie’s car, curious. Bones was bent over the trunk. When he came back up, he had a man in his arms.

I gaped. “Who the hell is that?”

The guy’s head drooped into view and I sucked in a breath. The obnoxious jerk from the bar!

Even though I didn’t hear a heartbeat, I had to ask. “Is he…?”

“Dead as Caesar,” Bones supplied. “Charlie took him ’round the back and snapped his spine. Bloke would have felt me, too, if he’d been paying more attention. That’s where I was hiding.”

“You didn’t try to stop him?”

It came out with all of my residual guilt over the unknown man’s death. I hadn’t tried to stop him, either. Maybe that’s what sharpened my tone.

Bones fixed his gaze on me, unblinking. “No. I didn’t.”

I felt like beating my head against a wall. Technically, we’d won tonight, but the victory was hollow. An innocent man killed. A young woman traumatized beyond comprehension. No names of who else was involved, and the knowledge that now it would only get worse.

“What are you doing with him?”

He set him in the grass. “Leave him as he is. There’s nothing more to be done. With this fire, he’ll be found soon. He’ll have a proper burial. That’s all he’s got left.”

It seemed so callous just to leave the man there, but Bones had a practical, if not cold, point. There was nothing more we could do for him. Dropping him off at a hospital with a note wouldn’t make his family hurt any less.

“Let’s go,” he said briefly.

“But what about Charlie? You’re just going to leave him and Dean for the police to find, too?” I persisted, getting into the backseat and taking the girl’s hand as we sped away.

“Coppers?” A humorless smile played on his lips. “You know that when vampires died, their bodies decomposed to their true ages. That’s why they look like bloomin’ mummies sometimes afterwards. Just let them try to figure out why a bloke dead ’round seventy years ended up stuffed into a bed frame and torched. They’ll be scratching their chins about that for days. And I’m leaving Charlie the way he is for a reason.

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