This Side of the Grave (#5 Night Huntress)

“Bones. Cat.” A sardonic smile quirked Vlad Tepesh’s mouth as he took in Bones’s partially clad state, the grip he had around the ghoul’s throat,
and my own bloodstained clothes. “How nice of you to drop in.”
Chapter Fourteen
I let go of Bones, allowing him greater range of motion to handle the ghoul. He was probably glad not to have me throttling him anymore, even
though he didn’t need to breathe.
“This sod has answers I require,” Bones stated crisply to Vlad as he flung the ghoul face-first onto the concrete drive, jumping on his back before
he could even attempt to scramble away.
I gave Vlad a small wave as Bones proceeded to make more dents in the driveway using the ghoul’s face. “We, ah, got jumped by ghouls at our
hotel and he’s the last one left alive,” I said by way of explanation.
“They attacked you inside the city?” Vlad gave the ghoul an intrigued look, not appearing concerned with the damage inflicted on the driveway
even though I made a mental note to cut him a check. “Marie didn’t go back on her word of safe passage, did she?”
“That’s my first question,” Bones said, grinding the ghoul’s face against a jagged edge of concrete. “Did the queen of New Orleans send you?”
“Fuck you,” the ghoul spat.
Why did he have to say that? Now things were going to get really unpleasant.
“Do you want to do this the bloody way, or the fast one?” Vlad asked, looking them over with cool detachment as Bones resumed making a hole
in the driveway with the ghoul’s face.
“Can’t say I care how I get my answers, as long as I do,” Bones replied curtly, banging the ghoul’s face again for emphasis.
“Hmm. Hold him, but not too close.”
Bones grasped the ghoul’s arm in a grip that steel wouldn’t break, but jumped off his back. Vlad walked over to the ghoul and ruffled his hair,
almost a friendly gesture. Then he returned to my side. In the few short steps that took, flames began licking up the ghoul’s legs, blackening his
clothes and skin. The ghoul screamed. I couldn’t suppress a grimace of remembrance. I’d been burned before, and it hurt worse than even being
stabbed with silver.
“Feeling more talkative now?” Vlad asked, barely discernible above the ghoul’s shrieks. “You continue to stay silent and I’ll cook your frank and
beans next.”
The ghoul yanked at his arm in a frantic attempt to get away, but as I’d suspected, Bones’s grip didn’t even budge. What did surprise me was the
ghoul throwing the rest of his body in the opposite direction so hard that more than his shirt ripped.
Bones didn’t share any of my qualms about suddenly holding an arm that wasn’t attached to a body anymore. He just grabbed the ghoul by his
other arm and began thumping him over the head with the loose limb. I’d heard Bones threaten to beat someone with their own limb before, but I’d
always assumed that was a figure of speech. Apparently not.
“Did Marie send you?” Bones snarled, keeping away from the flames climbing higher up the ghoul’s legs. There go the frank and beans, I thought
with a wince.
“Majestic knows nothing of this—aarrrghhh!”
“He’s being cooperative now, ease up on the flaming,” I said to Vlad.
The man whose history inspired the world’s most famous vampire novel gave me a jaded look.
“You call that cooperative? I call it barely getting his attention.”
“Vlad . . .” I drew out.
“Spoilsport,” he muttered.
The fire ebbed on the ghoul’s lower body at the same rate as it disappeared from Vlad’s hands. I shivered, remembering what having that power
felt like after drinking Vlad’s blood. If I were honest, I’d admit it had been tantalizing and terrifying. To suddenly have all your anger flow out of you in
streams of fire had been as overwhelming to my senses as my newfound ability to fly. Trouble was, just like all the powers I borrowed through blood,
I couldn’t control it. I might have blown an enemy to fiery smithereens, but I’d also set Bones on fire by accident.
“You make me burn you again and I’ll forget that I care about her opinion,” Vlad said to the ghoul so casually, he might have been commenting on
the weather.
“Marie didn’t send you after Cat?” Bones asked, giving the ghoul a final whap with his severed arm before throwing the shriveling limb aside.