“Are you ever going to tell me about who I’m after? Or do I find out later if I’ve staked the wrong guy? You’ve been pretty secretive about the whole identity thing. Afraid I’d rat you out?”

That previous smile was wiped from his face, replaced by an expression of complete seriousness.

“It was better for you not to know beforehand, pet. That way no accidental slips. Word can’t get out if word isn’t spoken, right?”

He followed me to the partially enclosed space where he kept my slutty clothes and accessories. It was amazing how many places a cave held. As near as I could figure, this one was half a mile long. I went inside the makeshift dressing room and put the privacy screen in place with a pointed look. Changing clothes in front of him was not going to happen. The screen didn’t impair conversation, however, so I answered him as my clothes came off.

“It amuses me to think of you worrying about my Freudian slips. Maybe you didn’t hear me the other times I told you, but I don’t have any friends. The only other person I talk to is my mother, and she’s being kept far out of this loop.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, a hollow feeling grew in my chest. It was true, too true. As twisted as it was, Bones was the closest thing to a friend I’d ever had. He might be using me, but at least he was up front about it. Not sneaky and deceitful like Danny had been.

“All right, luv. His name is Sergio, though he might well give you another one. He’s about six-one, black hair, gray eyes, typical vampire skin. Italian is his first language, but he’s fluent in three others as well, so his English has an accent. He’s not very beefy. In fact, he may even look soft to you, but don’t let it fool you. He’s almost three hundred years old and more powerful than you can imagine. Also, he’s a sadist, likes ’em young, real young. Tell him you’re underage and that you snuck in with a fake ID, it’ll only switch him on more. You also can’t kill him straightaway, because I need some information from him first. That’s everything. Oh, and he’s worth fifty thousand dollars.”

Fifty thousand dollars. The words echoed through my mind. And to think I’d been prepared to argue with Bones over pocket change! The words kept resounding, and with them an important detail that had never been revealed before.

“Money. So that’s why you hunt vampires. You’re a hit man!”

I was so amazed by this new information, I opened the screen while only wearing my bra and panties.

He cast a leisurely look down the length of me before meeting my eyes.

“Yeah, that’s right. It’s what I do. But don’t fret. You could also say I’m a bounty hunter. Sometimes my clients want ’em back alive.”

“Wow. I just thought we were going after people who had pissed you off.”

“And that was enough for you to kill for, someone who might have looked at me cross-eyed? Blimey, but you’re not particular. What if I were chasing some nice sweet thing that’d never hurt a fly? Still be all right with it then?”

I snapped the screen shut and found my mother’s words coming out of my mouth.

“None of you are nice sweet things. You’re all murderers. That’s why it didn’t matter. Point me at a vampire and I’ll try to kill it, because at one time they’ve done something to deserve it.”

It was so silent outside the screen, I wondered if he’d left. When I peeked, he was still standing where he’d been before. A flicker of emotion passed over his face before it became blank again. Suddenly uncomfortable, I retreated back inside to don my revealing costume.

“Not every vampire is like the ones who killed those girls Winston told you about. It’s just your bad luck to be living in Ohio at this particular time. There are things going on you don’t know about.”

“Winston was wrong, by the way,” I said smugly. “I looked up those girls’ names the next day, and none of them were dead. They weren’t even missing. One of them, Suzy Klinger, lived in the town next to mine, but her parents said she moved away to study acting. What I don’t know is why Winston would make that up, but far be it for me to understand the mental workings of a ghost.”

“Bloody hell!” Bones almost shouted. “Who did you talk to, aside from Suzy Klinger’s parents? The police? Other families?”

I didn’t know why he was so worked up. It’s not like there had been multiple homicides, after all. “No one. I entered their names online at the library’s computer and when nothing came up, I looked in a few local papers and then called Suzy’s parents saying I was a telemarketer. That was it.”

Some of the tension drained out of him. At least he wasn’t clenching his fists anymore.

“Don’t go against what I tell you to do again,” he said in a very calm tone.

“What did you expect? For me to forget about over a dozen girls being murdered by vampires because you told me to? See, this is just what I’m talking about! A human wouldn’t act like that. Only a vampire could be that cold.”

Bones folded his arms. “Vampires have existed for millennia, and though we have our villains among us, the majority of us just have a sip here and there, but everybody walks away. Besides, it’s not like your kind hasn’t made its mark for ill on the world. Hitler wasn’t a vampire, was he? Too bloody right. Humans can be just as nasty as we are, and don’t you forget it.”

“Oh, come on, Bones!” Dressed now, I pulled back the screen and started fixing hot rollers into my hair. “Don’t give me that crap. Are you telling me you’ve never murdered someone innocent? Never drank the life out of someone when you were hungry? Never forced a woman who said no? Hell, the only reason you didn’t kill me the night we met was because you saw my eyes glow, so sell that smack to someone who’s buying!”

His hand flashed out. I braced myself, but all he did was catch a falling curler. Without blinking, he rolled it back into my hair.

“Think I’d strike you? You really don’t know as much as you claim to. Aside from teaching you how to fight, I’d never lay a harsh hand on you. As for the night we met, you did your level best to kill me. I thought you were sent by someone, so I smacked you and threatened you, but I wasn’t going to kill you. No, I would have sipped from your neck and green-eyed you until you told me who they were. Then I would have sent you back to the shit with your limbs broken as a warning, but I promise you this-at no point would I have forced myself on you. Sorry, Kitten. Every woman I’ve been with has wanted me to be there. Have I killed any innocents in my time? Yeah, I have. When you’ve lived as long as I have, you make mistakes. You try to learn from them. And you shouldn’t be so quick to judge me on that. No doubt you’ve killed innocents as well.”

“The only people I’ve killed were vampires who tried to kill me first,” I said, rattled by his nearness.

“Oh?” Softly. “Don’t be so sure. Those blokes you killed, did you wait for them to try to bite you first? Or did you just assume because they were vampires and they’d gotten you alone, they intended to murder you? Ignoring the very real likelihood that they were there because they’d thought a beautiful girl was hot to shag them. Tell me-how many of them did you kill before they’d even shown you their fangs?”

My mouth dropped even as immediate denial echoed in my brain. No. No. They’d all been trying to kill me. They had. Hadn’t they…?

“Whether they showed their fangs or not doesn’t change the fact that vampires are evil, and that’s enough for me.”

“Bloody mule-headed woman,” he muttered. “Then if all vampires are the filth you claim them to be, why wouldn’t I just pry your legs open now and take out some of my evil on you?”

He was too strong for me to stop him, if he decided on that course of action. I glanced at my stakes, but they were too far away on the floor.

Bones saw me looking and a sardonic snort escaped him.