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“…arrogant to name herself the Red Reaper,” Lionel was saying. “As soon as I saw a redhead in those pictures, I knew who must’ve ruined my operation and killed my men.”
What Lionel didn’t say was that his “operation” must have involved murdering humans. Those were the only vampires that Cat Crawfield, a.k.a. the “Red Reaper,” came after these days.
“Oh, she didn’t name herself that. I did,” Bones replied.
He’d gotten to the “last known whereabouts” part, but to his dismay, Lionel had no address, city, or even state of residence. He only had the address of the crime scene a few counties over from this one. Blast it, Bones already knew that Cat had been in Virginia ten days ago! It’s why he was here now.
“What do you mean?” Lionel said in a sharp tone.
Bones looked up. “I called her the grim reaper with red hair when she kept killing my targets before I could interrogate them. She didn’t like that, but weeks later, when I called her my Red Reaper, she smiled-”
“Youknowthe bitch?” Lionel interrupted.
Rage smashed through Bones’s walls, releasing the full force of his aura.
Lionel recoiled when he felt it. “What the fuck-”
Bones yanked Lionel’s throat out before he could say another word, and then grabbed two silver knives from his coat.
Lionel leapt back when he saw them, his throat already healing with supernatural swiftness. “What are you doing?” he demanded.
Bones snorted. “Would’ve thought it was obvious, but if you need it spelled out”-he lunged-“I’m going to kill you.”
Lionel avoided the strike, but just barely. The knives slashed into his back instead of piercing his heart.
“Stop!” Lionel demanded with the imperiousness of someone used to being obeyed. “Kill me, and you’ll start a war!”
Bones lunged again, feinting right this time. Lionel fell for it, going left. Bones’s stab pierced Lionel’s chest, but Lionel yanked back with impressive speed. The knife ripped through Lionel’s arm instead of his heart.
“Why?” Lionel spat, yanking out one of the fence poles and swinging it like a club. “Why take the contract if you knew the Red Reaper? You even demanded exclusivity-”
“Yes, which makes me the only bounty hunter after your measly five hundred K,” Bones cut him off.
Craftiness sprang into Lionel’s gaze. “If it’s more money you’re after…”
Bones’s temper exploded. Money, power, control…that’s what had motivated the people who’d forced Cat to leave him. Why else would a shadow branch of government blackmail a half-vampire into becoming their personal assassin?
“Fuck your money,” Bones said, and flung his knives.
Both landed in Lionel’s chest. One pierced his heart from how suddenly Lionel dropped to his knees. Silver in the heart was nearly paralyzing for a vampire, but it wasn’t fatal. Yet.
Bones landed on Lionel and slammed his head into the ground hard enough to shatter his skull. The deep rents in Lionel’s head healed in the next several seconds, but the knife wounds didn’t. Silver prevented a vampire’s natural healing abilities.
Lionel’s eyes focused and widened as he saw Bones’s hand on the hilt of the knife in his heart. “Don’t,” he rasped.
“You asked why I took the contract,” Bones replied. “It’s the same reason why I’m the one who spread the ‘Red Reaper’ moniker in the undead world. That way, news of her exploits warned the smart ones away, and the stupid ones, like you,” his tone turned scathing, “used that same name when hiring undead bounty hunters to kill her, making you so, so easy to find.”
“I’ll cancel the contract-”
“Oh, it’s cancelled,” Bones said, and twisted the blade.
The green glow instantly faded from Lionel’s eyes and his skin began to crackle and split. Vampires might not age while they were alive, but true death reverted all their years back onto their corpse in short order. By the time Bones rose, Lionel’s body resembled a badly constructed scarecrow.
A rat scurried away from the nearby waste container. A vermin-infested rubbish bin was a perfect place for this sod. Bones picked him up and shoved him inside, but Lionel’s neck was now so brittle that it snapped. His skull banged down the side of the dumpster before landing on Bones’s foot. Bones kicked it with enough force to penetrate the dumpster’s rusted exterior.
Goal!he thought irreverently.
Later, Bones would manufacture a price on Lionel’s head so that the war Lionel had threatened him with would never happen. If people knew that Bones had killed a prominent vampire for personal reasons, it might, but if Bones called it business because he was a bounty hunter by trade, and Lionel had a contract out on him? Well, vampires didn’t respect much, but commerce was a highly protected industry.
