I found Helsing hiding underneath the family room couch, flattened out to fit in the narrow space. I had to lift it for him to crawl out, then spent several minutes coaxing him onto my lap. He hissed if my hand brushed his neck when I petted him, either out of bad memories or bruising. Or both. Dexter stayed by my feet, seeking the reassurance of closeness but not daring to jump on the couch where he'd be in range of Helsing's swatting paws.

Tyler and my mother were on their way over. No need for them to wait until later anymore. Bones fitted the broken front door back over the space, using nails to hold it in place since the hinges were damaged beyond repair. Anyone coming or going would have to use the back door. Sage burned softly in every room, preventing any type of spectral commuting. Even so, Kramer's presence seemed to loom in the house, mocking us from the scent of blood permeating through the closed bedroom door where Denise had been shot to the jars of sage that we had to keep refilling and relighting. When I heard rustling outside that wasn't caused by the wind or the natural sounds of wildlife, I wasn't surprised. I eased my kitty off my lap, careful not to jostle him since he had to be sore from Sarah's rough treatment, and stood.

Bones remained on the couch, laptop in front of him, tightly coiled energy flaring past his shields for a moment.

"See if you can glean any useful information," he said, nailing me with a hard stare, "but you are not leaving with him."

That last part was said with an undercurrent of steel. I nodded, not arguing because I had no intention of going anywhere with the Inquisitor. At least, not yet.

I went out the back door of the house, heading toward the vacant barn where I'd heard those rustling sounds. I hadn't brought any burning sage with me, but I didn't expect that Kramer would have come here to attack me. No, my money was on his being here for two reasons: to gloat, and to make me an offer he didn't think I could refuse.

Sure enough, a tunic-clad figure hovered about a foot off the ground near the open doors of the barn. I held out my hands to show that they were empty of sage and stopped about twenty yards from him.

"You touch me even once, and this conversation is over," were my first words.

From the way his eyes gleamed, that statement pleased the Inquisitor. "You finally fear me, Hexe?"

"I'm low on patience," I replied. "So playing our usual games is last on my list of things I want to do."

He came near enough that if he stretched out his arm, he would touch me, but I didn't back away. I wasn't kidding about my warning. If he laid even one energy-filled finger on me, our conversation was over, and he could rage at me while I was back inside the sage-filled house.

"My servant brought the others to me," he said, clearly relishing each word.

Though not a muscle on me twitched, the confirmation hit me like a punch to the gut. Francine, Lisa, I am so sorry.

"You came all the way to tell me something we figured out after seeing my friend's brains decorating the wall?" My single laugh was filled with scorn. "Come on, Kramer. Even you aren't that arrogant."

"You no longer care about their lives?" he asked, narrowing that green gaze at me.

I shrugged as if I hadn't guessed what was coming. "Nothing more I can do for them now, is there?"

The same breeze that lifted my hair around my shoulders did nothing to the ghost across from me. Not an inch of Kramer's mud-splattered tunic rustled, and his white hair continued to frame that wrinkled, angular face like bleached straw around old leather.

"You could yet save them . . . if you defeated me in battle tonight."

And there it was. Kramer knew I had to go to him willingly. He couldn't send his human accomplice to kidnap me, not with the way Sarah would get her throat torn out on sight.

I'd promised Bones that I wouldn't sacrifice my life, but neither could I turn my back because the stakes had been raised. I wasn't about to make it easy on the prick who was responsible for all this, however. My chin lifted.

"What makes you think I'd be crazy enough to leave the safety of all the sage I can surround myself with to meet you anywhere tonight?"

Kramer smiled, slow and confident. "Because, Hexe, you still believe you can defeat me."

Damn right I can! I wanted to snap back at him. Then I wanted to slap that arrogant smile off his face and stomp those remaining brownish teeth right down his f**king throat. But I could do none of those things because in his formless state, he had every advantage, and I had none.

But once the sun set tonight, he'd be flesh, and the rules would change.

"Even if I did think that," I said coolly, "my husband might not want me to try it. He's the protective type, as I'm sure you've realized."

It sounded like Kramer snorted. "You do not recognize any man's authority over you. Even if he did object, you would defy him."

The words "man's authority" annoyed my feminism, as he doubtless intended. But I'd learned the hard way-twice-what a mistake it was to turn my back on Bones with the mistaken idea that some challenges could only be overcome if they were faced alone versus together.

Kramer couldn't understand that because such logic was rooted in love and mutual respect, things entirely foreign to the hate-filled man floating across from me. So I'd let him believe he was right.

I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I do what needs to be done, and if someone doesn't like that, no matter who they are, that's too bad for them."

Satisfaction flitted across the ghost's face, and when he spoke, his voice was equally low. "Sarah will meet you at the entrance of Grandview Park in Sioux City. She will have instructions to take you to me, but she will not know where the other women are, so your mind manipulations will be useless on her."

I smiled slightly. "Aren't you forgetting to tell me to come alone and unarmed?"

His gaze raked over me with utter contempt. "Bring any weapon you choose, but you already know if you don't come alone, you will never get your chance to discover if you can defeat me."

"Don't touch those women until you see me again," I told him with a contemptuous rake of my own gaze. "I don't want you too exhausted to put up much of a fight before I stomp you into the other side of eternity."

His mouth curled in cruel anticipation. "If you don't come at dusk, know that those women will suffer more than all before them."

Then he vanished without waiting to see if I had a reply to that. I didn't. Pleading with him to be merciful to Francine and Lisa would only ensure that he meted out even harsher torture. All I had was my hope that Kramer would try to save up his energy for me-and that he didn't trust me enough to really be gone. I couldn't see him anymore, but that didn't mean the ghost wasn't still close by. He might be hanging around to make sure I didn't run inside and tell Bones when and where I was supposed to meet Sarah. He might wonder if Bones would physically try to prevent me from leaving.

Curiosity killed the cat; I hoped it would make a ghost stick around. If he was here, then he wasn't brutalizing Francine and Lisa. I turned around and began to walk back toward the house. Now all I needed to do was talk my husband into setting aside his every protective instinct plus his innate sense of vampire territoriality. Not an easy task, but if I couldn't come up with enough logical reasons why this was the right decision, then maybe I shouldn't go to Kramer tonight after all.

Chapter Thirty-Four

"No," Bones said, as soon as I walked in the door. He wasn't on the couch anymore but pacing by the entrance, his eyes flashing green.

The tiniest smile tugged at my mouth. Guess Bones decided on a preemptive strike. "No what?"

"No, you're not trading yourself for them," he replied, striding up to me. "I know you too well, and while I loathe the thought of leaving Francine and Lisa to die, if it's a choice between you or them, it's you."

I didn't say anything to that, just went around the house and began to draw the drapes. Bones had his emotions locked behind an iron wall, but from the sizzle of power in the air, he was ready to fight me tooth and nail.

That was fine. I didn't expect anything less from the man I'd fallen in love with. Once all the drapes were closed against any ghostly prying eyes, I grabbed a pen from the kitchen and began writing on the nearest piece of paper I found, which was a grocery receipt.

Kramer's probably listening, keep arguing.

His laugh was short and humorless. "No trouble there, luv, because it's not happening."

"This is so like you to try and tell me what to do," I said while writing Kramer doesn't want a trade, he's daring me to come out and fight him alone tonight.

"You think I'd let you anywhere near that ghost when he'll have the flesh he needs for his stated intention of raping you, then burning you alive?" He snorted. "Even if I didn't love you, I wouldn't allow that to happen."

I didn't have more room on the grocery receipt, so I found a paperback book someone had left on the island in the kitchen and tore off a few of the emptier beginning and end pages.

With me, his flesh will be his weakness, not his strength.

"I can take care of myself," I said loudly, just like Kramer would expect me to. "And you don't get to order me around."

"Are you so foolish you'd rather die than listen to reason?"

Anger and frustration flowed around me from his aura, but though his words were cold, he read the page I handed to him. If he truly meant what he said, he wouldn't bother.

Go to Elisabeth's apartment. Tell her Sarah will meet me at the entrance of Grandview Park in Sioux City at dusk. She can follow us from there, then tell you where Kramer and I will be. I'll hold him off long enough for you to get there. Then we'll take him to the trap. Same plan as before, only I'll lead you to him instead of the women leading him to us.

Kramer thought I'd fall victim to my pride and thus agree to facing him alone, but with two other innocent lives at risk, I wanted backup. He wouldn't fight fair, and I had no intention of being the only one playing by the rules.

"There's too much risk, which you'd see if you weren't blinded by your own arrogance," Bones said harshly.

I didn't know if that was him acting or me failing to make a dent in my arguments, so I wrote my answer to the accusation.

Kramer didn't follow Elisabeth to Spade's. He followed my signal and found us. She's an expert at evading him. This will work.

Out loud I said, "Arrogant? You should talk since you seem to think you can make all my decisions for me! I'm not a child, Bones. You can't tell me what to do and just expect to be obeyed."

I had to let you go out alone when you were challenged to a duel, I wrote, staring at him once I was finished. It was harder than hell, but I did it.

He muttered a curse while running his hand through his hair. "That's not the same."

My pen flashed across the page. Yes it is, and just like Gregor wouldn't have stopped if you refused his challenge, Kramer won't stop either. He never wavers once he picks a target, and no one can hide from the dead forever! What if he attacks me while I'm in a fight with another vampire? I'm in more danger if I DON'T go.

"This isn't the first time I've faced death, and I don't intend for it to be the last," I said, repeating the same words he'd told me before fighting in that fateful duel. "I've chosen to live a dangerous life, but it's who I am, and that wouldn't change even if we'd never met."

The barest smile touched his mouth though his aura spiked with dangerous pulses of emotion-driven energy.

"Low blow, Kitten."

I held his gaze with a faint smile of my own. "Someone once taught me to take every cheap shot and every low blow in a fight."

His stare was so intense that I half wondered if he could somehow see into my mind. That would be helpful. Then he'd know this wasn't my pride talking. It was my experience. I wasn't like all the other women Kramer had singled out over the centuries. No archaic system of law was against me, I wasn't abandoned by friends and family, and I might be flesh and blood, but I wasn't human. Just like the Inquisitor hadn't been human for a long, long time. With me, Kramer would finally be picking on someone his own size.

Kramer had only seen me run before. He'd never seen me stand my ground and fight. Tonight, I'd show him why the undead world referred to me as the Red Reaper.

Bones suddenly grabbed me, his mouth slamming over mine in a kiss so fierce I tasted blood when he lifted his head. But that didn't bother me. I licked the blood off my lips with a hunger that matched the fire in his gaze, wanting to throw him to the floor and take him with enough roughness to leave cracks in the wood. I love you, I mouthed, pulling his head down for another blisteringly violent kiss.

He pushed my mouth down to his neck, almost forcing my fangs into his skin with the way he ground against me. I took him up on the silent demand and bit, drinking deeply when his blood came, not moaning out of bliss because I didn't know how closely Kramer might be listening. His hands ran over me in a forceful, possessive caress while I drank, absorbing strength as well as nourishment from that heady liquid. When the crimson flow slowed to a trickle despite my suction and Bones willing it out to me, I stopped, licking his neck free of any lingering traces. I felt heavy and full, my senses buzzing from the excess of my feast. I normally drank about half that much when I fed from him, but I knew why he wanted me to drain him. He could refill, but once he was gone, I couldn't.

He cupped my face when I drew back, staring into my eyes while he dropped his shields and let his aura flood over me, twining into my emotions until I couldn't tell where my feelings ended and his began. From the frustration, love, lust, and worry pouring off him, I guessed that he wanted to make love to me until neither of us could think . . . and then tie me up and pile heavy boulders on me until after the sun rose. The intensity in all those feelings told me that the absolute last thing he wanted to do was what he did next.