“Um, I think we should go in the other room,” I began.
“She’s a shapeshifter,” Bones interrupted, answering the question instead of bothering about what Katie saw. Maybe it was because he was still drunk off demon blood.
When Katie continued to stare, Bones elaborated.
“Shapeshifters can transform into anything they see or imagine. Since people were after you, this one chose your form. That allowed Gorgon to take you away without their knowing that you’d left.”
“Why did this one help me?” she wondered.
I answered that, my voice resonant with emotion.
“Because she’s my friend, and she knew I didn’t want you to die.”
For the briefest moment, Katie’s facial mask cracked in a way I’d never seen before. Her mouth slowly curved into a tentative smile.
“Your deception was brilliant,” she said in her too-formal vernacular.
Terrible Mother Moment Number Two: I couldn’t bring myself to tell Katie that I hadn’t known about Denise’s switcheroo until the last few seconds before Thonos’s sword swung. Not only would I be admitting that I’d been unable to fulfill my promise to keep her safe only minutes after making it, but Katie had smiled at me. I’d lie my ass off to get another one of those.
“Thank you,” I said, fighting another urge to hug her.
All too quickly, her smile faded. “But now that it’s dead, you should take it away before it starts to smell.”
I winced, both at the cold reasoning and the fear that she might be right. Dear God, please let Denise come back from this! What she’d done went beyond friendship—and beyond bravery. I couldn’t stand that she might be gone forever from her selfless act. Even the thought made me want to weep over her remains until there was nothing left in me.
“Not ‘it,’ ” I said huskily. “She, Katie. She.”
We had a steep uphill battle to deprogram all of Madigan’s conscienceless training. Katie was seven, and her body count might be in the dozens, but somewhere inside that prematurely aged militant shell was a little girl. I just had to peel away the layers to find her.
“And Denise isn’t dead,” I added with a swift, mental prayer that I was right. “She’s coming back from this.”
Katie expressed her doubt with a slow, solemn blink.
“She is coming back, kiddo,” Nathanial agreed, his confident tone a balm to my fears. “I had the same thing happen to me once, and here I am, all in one piece. She’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
Ian cast a sardonic glance at the cross above us.
“Better hope someone’s listening, mate, or once Charles arrives, we’re all fu—”
“Fully aware,” I interrupted, glaring at him. “Fully aware of how awful her loss would be.”
Ian snorted. “My language is the least of your concerns, Reaper.”
True, but . . . “Everyone has to start somewhere, Ian.”
“Quiet. I sense something.”
Mencheres’s voice cut through the church, drawing all eyes to him. At his grave expression, I tensed. Had one of the council members or Law Guardians followed us here?
Then a crackling noise snapped my gaze back to the pew, and I sucked in a horrified breath. Not-Katie’s decapitated head shrank, the skin and tissue evaporating with the same speed Trove’s had when I stabbed him a second time in the eye. That crown of dirty auburn hair changed too, curling up into nothingness as though being burned by invisible flames. Within seconds, only a bare skull was left. A cry escaped me when, with a pop, it imploded into itself, dissipating until all that remained was a small pile of dust.
“No,” I whispered. Oh, Denise, no!
Something rippled over the headless remains, grayish in color and so fast it reminded me of Remnants during a killing frenzy. Then it changed, becoming palest pink instead of ashen, exploding over that small, lifeless form like wave after wave of pounding surf. Instead of shrinking, not-Katie’s body swelled, increasing until clothes that had sagged from excess material now stretched and tightened.
I don’t remember moving toward her, but somehow I was standing over the pew, looking down in disbelief as mahogany-colored satin seemed to spill from the gaping hole in her neck. A pale globe followed, expanding like a balloon under a freely running faucet. Another blur of motion, and features became distinguishable amidst the canvas of new skin. Right as the top button popped off her bloodstained shirt from her body filling out to its normal, curvy proportions, dark eyelashes fluttered open, revealing hazel eyes blinking up at me.
“Cat,” Denise rasped. “Did . . . it work?”
I sank to my knees, a happy sob bursting out of me. It was the only response I was capable of.
Epilogue
The large craft bobbed up and down in the choppy waves of the Atlantic, held in place by the anchor we’d dropped an hour ago. REAPER used to be emblazoned in red across the hull, but now it said RESPITE in letters of seafoam green.
I liked the new name better. It signified the changing direction in my life. The Red Reaper was, for all intents and purposes, no more. At least for a good, long while. Vampire and ghoul society believed Bones and I had disappeared because I was overwrought with grief, and he was royally pissed at his co-ruler. Only a handful of people knew that neither scenario was correct.
Most of those people were gathered on the rocky Nova Scotia shoreline about a quarter mile from where our boat was anchored. We hadn’t had a chance to say a proper goodbye before, especially with some of them being halfway around the world while events were going down in Detroit and Chicago. It worked out that it had been a couple weeks since then. Now, Spade no longer tried to beat Mencheres and Bones on sight.
He did still glare at them, though, and his arm looked to be permanently welded to Denise’s side. He didn’t even let her go when she hugged me after Bones and I climbed out of our dinghy.
“For the thousandth time, I’m fine,” Denise chided him, squeezing his hand. Then she gave me a lopsided smile. “Though I never want to do that again. It wasn’t really painful, but do you know I could still see for a few seconds before I passed out? If I’d have had a stomach attached, I would’ve puked for sure.”
I’d always be grateful—and amazed—by what she’d done. That she could joke about it now showed how deep her bravery ran.
As for Katie, we were teaching her normal speech instead of her militia-styled jargon, among the many other ways we tried to decondition Madigan’s training. It would take a while, and I was fine with that. She laughed for the first time yesterday when my mother had swatted Tate, then Bones with a freshly caught grouper after the two men had been squabbling over the best way to prepare it. The five of us in the same vessel had made my mom mutter “We’re going to need a bigger boat” more than once, but she was as happy as I’d ever seen her.
If I’d never thought to be a mother, she’d really never thought to be a grandmother, and she seemed to make it her mission to make up for the parenting mistakes she’d made with me by lavishing love on Katie.
“She’s my second chance,” she’d said, looking at me with remorse in her blue eyes.
I understood the silent apology, and I accepted it. Everyone deserved a second chance sometimes.
That’s why a ghost now hovered over the Respite, staying on the ship with Katie, Tate, and Justina while Bones and I said our goodbyes. Don had no one he needed to say goodbye to. As a ghost, he could flit from place to place with ease, especially since Marie’s essence acted as a sort of GPS in my veins. Plus, he wasn’t staying on the boat while we traveled. Bones hadn’t forgiven him and perhaps never would, but at my insistence, Don was allowed to visit Katie for a couple hours every few days. Once we picked a more permanent place to call home, he could hang his ectoplasm nearby if he wanted to. Family was family, and if some members didn’t get along? Well, we wanted to give Katie as normal an upbringing as possible. It didn’t get more normal than that.
“I’m going to miss you,” I told Denise, releasing her from my hug.
She smiled, blinking away the shine in her hazel eyes.
“I’ll miss you, too, but we’ll see each other after you get settled in somewhere.”
“Not too soon after,” Spade muttered under his breath.
Denise gave him a mock punch. “I heard that.”
The look he bestowed on her was so loving, I didn’t care that Spade kinda hated us right now. He was wonderful to my best friend, which was the important thing. Besides, I couldn’t blame him for being angry despite Denise acting of her own free will. When you loved someone, the thought of almost losing them made you crazy. Who was I to judge him for that?
“Until again, mate,” Bones said, holding out his hand.
Spade looked at it. Then he grasped it, using it to pull Bones in for a quick, firm hug.
“Until again, Crispin,” he said in a steady voice.
I hid my smile. I knew he’d forgive Bones eventually. Their history was too long and too multi-layered for him not to.
Then Bones turned to the voluptuous strawberry blonde vampire who stood to the left of Spade. We were on a rocky beach with salt spray pelting us as if it was angry, and Annette had still dressed to the nines. She even wore heels. Her makeup looked a little worse for wear, but that was from tears spilling out of her champagne-colored eyes.
“Oh, Crispin, I’ll miss you terribly,” she said when he enveloped her in a hug.
Once, the sight of Bones clasping his former lover would have filled me with jealousy. Now, I only felt bad for Annette. She’d loved him since the two of them were human, and while Bones had great affection for her, he’d never felt the same way. I hoped one day, she’d find someone to love who’d love her back. Despite her flaws—and one very memorable incident the day we met—Annette had proved to be fiercely loyal. That’s why Bones trusted her with this, his greatest secret.
“You’ll make a wonderful father,” I heard her whisper when she let him go.
“He already has,” I said, smiling at Bones.
Then I embraced Annette, meaning it when I said, “We had a rocky start, but you turned out to be good people.”
Her snort was somehow ladylike. “What’s one attempt to kill each other between friends, right, darling?”
I laughed as I let her go. “My thoughts exactly.”
“Can we move this along?” a bored voice stated. “I have places to be and people to shag.”
“Ian, I’m not going to hug you,” I stated as I approached him. “I know you like this better.”
With that, I slapped him hard enough to rock his head to the side. When he’d straightened, he flashed me a wicked grin.
“Finally, you give me what I want. Knew you loved me, Reaper.”
“Oh, from the first,” I assured him, rolling my eyes.
Bones grabbed Ian, hugging him while the two exchanged man-slaps on the back.
“See you soon, cousin,” Bones stated when they were done.
“Indeed you will,” Ian replied, winking at me.
I got bear hugs from Juan, Dave, and Cooper next. Changing over had eradicated most of the damage Madigan had done, but Cooper would always look on the wiry side of thin instead of his normal, bulky build.
“I’ll miss you guys so much,” I told them. “Stay safe, will you?”
Cooper let out an amused grunt. “Bones is having Mencheres watch our backs while you’re gone, so how could we not?” Then his expression became serious. “I’ve been locked away learning how to control my hunger, so tell me one thing, Cat: Is he dead?”
“Yes,” I said steadily. “Madigan’s dead.”
I hadn’t been there to see it. Neither had Bones. Mencheres had executed our former nemesis, taking his head off with a burst of that incredible power. Madigan never knew what hit him, Don had said. One moment, he’d been babbling about crayon colors he liked; the next, he was no more.
The Madigan who’d destroyed so many lives didn’t deserve such an easy end, but all we’d had left was his shell. Making that shell pay for the other’s crimes didn’t seem fair. Granting the mercy of a quick, painless death did. Even the shell knew too much for Katie to be safe.
A dark form appeared in the dusky sky above us, chasing away that line of thought. Then that form dropped down with near-sound-breaking speed, landing with his back to us about a dozen feet away.
I only needed to see the long black hair whipping in the wind to know it was Mencheres. Give it to the former pharaoh for knowing how to make an entrance.
When he turned around, I expected the woman clasped to his chest to be Kira. When I saw short, thick black hair and a decidedly darker skin tone, I was stunned.
“Why is she here?” I gasped.
Marie disengaged herself from Mencheres with regal grace, but she looked as surprised to see me as I’d been to see her.
“You said you had critical business with me, Mencheres,” she said, voice cooler than the brisk evening temperature. “Have you brought me here for vengeance instead?”
“No,” Bones stated, grasping my hand and pulling me forward. “You’re here to be reminded about your word, Majestic.”
He was going to tell her Katie was still alive? Good God, why? We were almost done with our goodbyes and on our way to a clean getaway!
Then I paused. Bones would never endanger Katie, so what was I missing? A shadow appeared in my peripheral vision, and after a glance, I brushed it aside.
Just a ghost. I’d been drawing them like stink drew flies, which was why we were spending a few months on a boat before settling either in New Zealand or Australia. Ghosts didn’t frequent the open water, and by the time we made up our mind where to go—and got Katie to the point where she could interact with people without throwing up big red flags—Marie’s power would be out of my system. Until then, I’d have to send this one away with instructions not to repeat anything he’d seen or heard. Same thing I’d done with all the others lately, and—