“I thought about it,” I said, lowering my hands. “I almost did. It would be fun to toss him in there alive and kicking. The only problem is he might free Lenore in order to free himself. As much as he wouldn’t want to be a meal or crushed by her anger, running out of oxygen makes you desperate.”
Christian cradled my neck with his warm hands. “Are you certain about this? You won’t be having regrets?”
“If so, we know where they are. I gave it a lot of thought today. I knew as long as I was angry, I’d never make a rational decision. When I felt his fear moving inside me, I had a moment of clarity.” I glanced at the open grave. “Is this a safe place to bury them?”
“Gravewalkers don’t do this type of work anymore. Not really. The odds of one of them wandering into this cave on my property are slim to none.” He gave me a crooked grin. “Perhaps we can pop in every few years and give our regards. Now come help me with the bodies. We’re doing this together.”
I grabbed Fletcher’s feet while Christian took his arms. We dropped him into the hole carefully, and he landed straight on his back with his limbs inside the coffin.
I stared down at Fletcher Black. This would be the last time we would see each other. He would finally suffer the way I wanted him to, and how he died was truly up to destiny. After all, nothing was written in stone. Both Christian and I had been buried by the same woman, and yet we were both found. I almost died in a fire as a child, and the man who saved me was Christian Poe. Sometimes fate had a funny way of popping in and reminding me that anything could happen. In a cemetery, it was possible they might be discovered by a Gravewalker. But in this location? Probably not.
If so, I was certain that it would be decades, if not centuries, later. Christian and I would be a powerful force by then. Revenge might be a dish best served cold, but justice was a dish well planned. And justice was served.
Christian squatted above Lenore and used his finger to move a tendril of hair away from her face. “Thank the heavenly angels I can finally talk without hearing your fecking voice. Let’s make one thing clear: I never loved you, but I could have. I was obsessed with pleasing you, and you were feeding me your blood to manipulate my emotions and keep me loyal. You are a venomous snake with no sense of humor and insipid stories that bore the feck out of me. You’re not the most beautiful woman in the room; you’re only the most affluent. Without your money and power, you’re nothing. That’s why Raven outshines you. She’s everything you’re not, and that makes her far superior. I know why you buried me, and just so you know, you acted in haste. Even if you had cut ties with me, I would have never told anyone your secrets. That’s how devoted I was—how loyal. You used me and then you threw me out like yesterday’s trash. And yet you somehow expected me to come crawling back to you, as if suffering in the ground hadn’t changed me to my core.” Christian planted his fists on either side of her head and stared down at her. “I was ready to take your head today, but that’s not the ending you deserve. You played victim your whole life to men holding power over you, butyouwere the one doing the victimizing. Aye, women deserve equal opportunities. In fact, if more women ran this world, it might be a sight better than the mess we’ve made of it. Not women like you. Raven will one day become the leader you always dreamed of being, only she’ll rule with fairness and firmness. And should you ever walk out of this grave I’ve dug for you, then come for us. I dare you.”
Christian grabbed the dagger and cut her hair as he had once done with Sparrow. When he finished, he lifted her into his arms, the impalement wood still deep in her chest. As he hummed an old Fred Astaire song “Cheek to Cheek,” he rocked her in his arms as if they were dancing. He did a twirl and then strolled to the grave, still humming with relish. I wondered if that song had any meaning between them.
“I’ve wanted you dead for so long,” he finally said. “But Raven’s a smart lass. You’ve tried too hard to gain my loyalty, and you have no idea what you put me through. You think a man can rise from a coffin after ten long years and put aside any fantasies about your death? It’s not that easy. I’ll be interested to hear your perspective if you manage to find your way out of here. Maybe in ten years, maybe five hundred. Let’s have a cup of coffee and discuss how eager you are to be friends again, shall we? Sweet dreams.” He bent forward and let go.
I heard her body slam into Fletcher’s, and I walked to the edge and looked in. “Is that gonna be deep enough?”
“Aye. They’re not going anywhere in that condition. Perhaps I should have tossed her in facedown,” he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
I leaned over and glared at her glassy eyes. While I couldn’t remember the incident of when she buried me, I could only imagine her glee when she closed the lid, thinking she’d never have to deal with me again. “Just so we’re clear, we didn’t come after you. Christian never broke his word. He promised he wouldn’t come after you and kill you, and we’ve stayed true to that. But we never made any promises about not burying you. We didn’t conspire with the person who put you here. And one more thing—we’re not honoring that favor for the rest of eternity. The one about us not coming for you. We’ll put an expiration date on it of one hundred years. Sound reasonable?”
Christian grabbed a shovel from the dirt pile and got on his knees. He lowered the tool into the casket and flipped her left arm back in the coffin. Because he’d cut her hair, I could see Fletcher’s blank stare below her, just to the left. Christian tossed the shovel aside.
Before going any farther, I got down on my knees and glared into the grave. “This is what you get for meddling in my life. I bet you got a real laugh out of dressing up Fletcher to get under my skin. Do you know what he did to me? Do you have any idea who you’re lying on top of? I bet you do, and that makes it worse. You’re a despicable woman. I bet you thought I was going to call you a fucking bitch.” I stood up and brushed the dirt off my hands. “Yeah, that too.”
Christian picked up the coffin lid and lowered it into the grave at an angle before letting go. The lid slammed into place. He took his time pouring nails into his pockets from a box of supplies he’d placed in the room. Then he grabbed a hammer and jumped onto the coffin lid. I watched him hammer every single nail through the wood, and he took his time doing it. Lenore could have waltzed back into Christian’s life and left us alone, but she hadn’t.
Time for them to fully appreciate their impending fate.
“Maybe you should have gotten a stone coffin,” I suggested.
“The pine box is a different experience,” he said, still hammering. “You get all sorts of things creeping in, slithering into your ears and your nose.”
Christian tossed the hammer out. I offered him my arm while he found his footing and climbed up. He must have dug the grave last night before his trip and then picked up the coffin this afternoon.
With two shovels on hand, we both took our time filling dirt in the hole. I wanted Fletcher to hear every single drop of dirt on the lid. I remembered what it was like to run out of air and then do nothing except exist in the darkness. I hoped the fates would look kindly on us and give them what they deserved. How long would Fletcher last down there before he officially died? How long could a Vampire stay buried before not even Vampire blood could regenerate their bones? Even if they somehow freed themselves in five hundred years, I’d get satisfaction looking into their faces. And I’d be a different person. I wasn’t certain what kind of person I would one day become, but I knew with certainty that I was finally burying the demons that kept me up at night.
We patted the dirt down. Because of the coffin, we had a pile of excess.
“Spread it around,” Christian said. “It’ll settle with time.”
We took our shovels and spread the dirt across the hollow room. Afterward, I sat down on a rock, and Christian sat beside me.
“I should have thought to bring water,” he said.
“I’m not thirsty.”
“I meant for me. I’d take a wee on their grave, but my bladder is empty.”
“As usual. Maybe we can have sex on top of them. Can they hear us?”
“Jaysus wept.”Christian chuckled and put his arm around me. “You’re a peculiar woman.”
“Yep. And that’s why you love me.”
