This Side of the Grave (#5 Night Huntress)

“You don’t understand what you’re asking for. It’s not as simple as holding a sйance. It’s too dangerous.”
Those coppery green eyes bored into mine. “I know very well what Marie can summon, and if you can now also call forth such creatures, that
would give vampires a critical edge if we are unable to kill Apollyon and prevent war from breaking out.”
“Calling them forth isn’t what scares me,” I said, a shiver of remembrance running through me. “Controlling them once they’re here, or sending
them back, that’s the problem.”
“This is far too important for you to refuse simply out of fear,” Vlad retorted.
“You just don’t get it.” I swiped a hand toward the cemetery for emphasis. “Those things—Remnants, Marie called them—are like ghostly land
mines, and you’re asking me to stomp on them to see if I can direct the blast radius! It’s not fear for me that I’m saying no. They didn’t hurt me last
time and probably wouldn’t again. It’s fear for you if I do it and fail.”
Vlad held up his hand. Flames covered it, indigo and orange intertwining across his skin without singeing a single hair.
“The power I have is only valuable because I can and will use it. Apollyon’s right; Marie’s new lack of allegiance to vampires is a game changer,
but we now have the ability to counter the ghoul nation’s most devastating weapon through you, but not if you refuse to wield that power.”
I remembered the icy, ravenous feel of the Remnants, the mental maelstrom of their voices in my head, and shuddered. “I’ll wield it, or try to, only
as a last resort. You don’t know how strong the Remnants are. I could raise them, lose control of them, and then end up watching them eat allies and
enemies alike. Only a fool throws a risky Hail Mary pass in the first quarter of the game.”
Vlad’s brow arched insolently. “No, only a fool would attempt to see if their best weapon works during a battle instead of before it.”
“There are days when you really push my buttons, Tepesh,” I snapped.
“And there are days when I wonder how you’ve survived as long as you have,” he countered. “You won’t get a better chance to test your abilities
than right now. Bones isn’t here, so your biggest concern is gone, and you can risk my life because I accept the danger, and because friends might
be rare, but they’re not irreplaceable. Now, let’s get in the graveyard and get started. Before Mencheres calls and then lectures us into an early
grave about how imprudent this idea is.”
Vlad’s face had been granite-hard during the first half of his speech, but then his lip curled almost impishly at that last sentence. I was torn by
anger at his disdainful comment about my survival skills, dismay at how casually he assumed I’d react to his death, and amusement at how an over
six-hundred-year-old Master vampire could still sound like a naughty kid planning to outwit his babysitter.
“You have got to be one of the most unusual people I have ever met, and considering all the strange ones I know, that’s saying a lot,” I managed,
shaking my head.
His grin was shameless. “If you’re just now realizing what an original I am, Catherine, you’re even later to the game than I imagined.”
“Your arrogance deserves its own zip code, Drac,” I said, laughing despite myself.
“And you’re stalling. Get out and let’s get started.”
My flash of good humor vanished under an onslaught of nervousness. “Maybe we should wait for Mencheres. With that power of his, he might be
able to help if things get out of hand—”
“Not when it comes to anything from the ground,” Vlad cut me off. “Grave magic is immune to Mencheres’s telekinesis. That’s why he couldn’t do
anything to the zombies that New Year’s Eve except grab a sword and start hacking away at them like the rest of us.”
Good point. I hadn’t ever wondered why Mencheres hadn’t tried to stop that attack with his power. Probably because I was too busy thinking,
Holy shit, we’re all gonna die!
And some of my friends had died. Nothing good ever came out of being close to magically raised creatures from the grave, in my experience.
That brought up another concern, a less deadly but far more embarrassing one. I cleared my throat, glancing away from Vlad.
“You know, Marie said it wouldn’t happen that bad again, but just in case . . . if I do this and safely put the Remnants back, then all of a sudden
start coming on to you, I don’t mean it. It’s just the aftereffects of being connected to the hungers of the dead. Not me suddenly having a crazed
desire to jump on your jock.”
Vlad threw back his head and roared with laughter. Pink tears gleamed from his eyes before he reined himself in to just a few lingering chuckles.
“I’ll be sure to thwart any jock-jumping attempts you might make on me or anyone else,” he replied at last, his lips still twitching.
I sucked in a deep breath and then blew it out, trying to center myself before I made a leap into the other side, metaphorically speaking. I had no
idea how to raise the Remnants, but I assumed I’d start with trying to tap into the connection I felt to ghosts and work my way up from there.
“You sure you want to be close by when I do this?” I asked, shooting a worried look at Vlad. “At best, you’ll get hurt. At worst, I won’t be able to
stop them from killing you.”
His expression was a mix of utter ruthlessness and reckless challenge, making me wonder if he’d looked that way when charging on horseback