Chapters (52)
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
- Contents
- Prologue
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Epilogue
- An excerpt from Halfway to the Grave
- An excerpt from One Foot in the Grave
- An excerpt from At Grave’s End
- An excerpt from Destined for an Early Grave
- An excerpt from This Side of the Grave
- An excerpt from One Grave at a Time
- About the Author
- By Jeaniene Frost
- Copyright
- About the Publisher
The look he gave me was so chilling, I was reminded that Bones had been a hit man for almost two centuries before we met.
“The danger of war hasn’t diminished because of her age. It’s the reason I’m willing to let Katie live if she allows us to hide her for the rest of her life. Otherwise, by our hand or someone else’s, she’ll have to die.”
My expression must have conveyed my flat refusal because he grasped my shoulders and all but shook me.
“It sickens me, but you know I’m right! You turned into a full vampire because the mere possibility that you could add ghoul attributes to your half-vampire nature nearly caused a war. Katie is that addition, and if that ever becomes general knowledge, she’ll start the war we all fear. Or be killed to stop it.”
“But she doesn’t have to stay hidden forever,” I whispered, still reeling over the bleak future Bones had laid out for the child. “When she’s old enough, she could choose to become one species or the other—”
“It’s too late,” Bones said in a far gentler tone. “Katie’s already a combination of vampire and ghoul. Losing her humanity won’t negate that; it will only increase it.”
I had no words to refute that. Too well, I remembered the hundreds that had died when ghouls started taking out Masterless vampires in the early stirrings of a species uprising. Then the hundreds more, on both sides, that died quelling that conflict. Bones was right; only my changing over had stopped those hundreds from turning into millions since ten percent of the world’s population was undead. That, and our uneasy truce with the new ghoul queen, Marie Laveau, who’d already stated that if we didn’t shut down this new threat, she would.
I took in a ragged breath, more for the familiarity of the act than any hope that it would soothe me.
“You’re right.” Damn you, Madigan! “The best Katie can hope for is a life hidden away. Maybe it won’t be too awful. Due to her demonically enhanced blood being a drug for vampires, Denise has to hide, too.”
Bones let me go, only his gaze gripping mine as he spoke.
“And if she proves impossible to hide, we won’t be able to protect her from what will happen next.”
I let out my breath on a bitter sigh. “No. I suppose we won’t.”