Bones landed about twenty meters from the gray sedan parked along the highway’s shoulder. The car’s driver didn’t notice him dropping out of the sky. Humans rarely did. When you didn’t know vampires existed, let alone that some of them could fly, you manufactured other explanations for how someone could suddenly appear in your line of vision.
Thus, the driver’s surprised blink when Bones walked toward him. His shifting gaze indicated wariness, but he wasn’t afraid. When Bones tapped on his window, the driver lowered it an inch to say, “I don’t need any help. Triple A is on the way.”
The line that identified him as the client, as if Bones hadn’t recognized him from his gray hair, thin features, and the moles darkening his ecru-colored skin. This was George Shayne.
Bones replied with the line meant to confirm his identity, too. “Yes, but my services are guaranteed.”
George’s breath exploded out with relief. Just as quickly, though, his wariness returned, this time with a hint of fear wafting through the cigarette scent that clung to him.
“You’re early. Does that mean it’s…done?”
Bones lifted the bag containing Sergio’s head. George recoiled out of instinctual disgust. Then, his features hardened, and he leaned forward to get a better look.
“It’s just a skull,” George said in confusion. “How do I know this is the animal that killed my daughter?”
Vampires decomposed back to their true age after death. There was now little left of Sergio’s head aside from bits shriveled skin that still stubbornly clung to his cranium.
Bones held out his mobile with his free hand. When he deposited Sergio into the car’s boot earlier, he’d snapped a picture. Sergio had been so newly dead then that decomposition hadn’t done its full work, so his features were still recognizable as the last man that Aurora Shayne had been seen alive with.
Sergio hadn’t bothered to erase the club’s security footage when he kidnapped Aurora. He also hadn’t bothered to hide Aurora’s body after he killed her. That’s how arrogant Sergio had been.
But George Shayne, a widower with no other children, wasn’t content to wait for the legal system to administer justice. He wanted it in blood.
George had also done a decent job getting the word out to the right places. The contract was a small one, but Bones would’ve taken it even if it didn’t provide cover for him killing Sergio in the vampire world. Justice in the form of blood was exactly what Sergio had deserved.
“I de-fleshed the skull to make it harder to identify,” Bones said. “I can provide disposal as well, if you’d like.”
“No,” George said in a newly savage tone. “I want to smash it to pieces myself.”
Understandable.
Bones handed over the skull. George grimaced, but his hands didn’t tremble as he placed it in a knapsack he’d had the foresight to bring. Then, he shoved the sack into the backseat. When he looked at Bones, tears filled his gaze.
“Tell me he suffered more than my daughter did.”
Bones’s jaw clenched. He’d read the coroner’s report. Sergio had taken his time with Aurora. Bones would have done the same to Sergio, if circumstances had allowed.
“He died bleeding and begging,” was all Bones could offer.
George made a sound between a sigh and a sob. “Good. I’m glad about that. I am. But…I don’t hurt any less. I thought…I thought maybe I would—?”
Bones had George Shayne’s jaw in his grip before the other man could stiffen in shock. Then, Bones unleashed the power in his gaze. When that inhuman green light bathed George’s face, the man’s pulse skyrocketed.
“You’re safe,” Bones said, and George’s heart rate went from frantic back to a normal rhythm. “You feel no guilt over hiring someone to kill that sod. Doing so saved other girls’ lives. Soon, you won’t hurt so much when you think of your daughter. Eventually, you’ll remember only the good times, and this pain will heal.”
