Read Night Huntress 07 - This Side of the Grave for Free Online Page B

the cancer in remission, but time catches up with everyone, and it has, at last, caught up with me.”
     
    Seven years ! My mind reeled. “You hid this the whole time we’ve known each other? Why? ”
     
    Don’s sigh rattled in his throat. “I didn’t trust you when you first joined the team, as you remember. Then, I didn’t want to distract you from your job. After you discovered you were my niece… well. Things happened. You’ve had a lot to deal with the past couple years, more than most people have had in their entire lives. I was going to tell you about it, but I wanted to give myself time to sort some things out first.”
     
    I knew my mouth hung open, but I couldn’t seem to summon the willpower to close it. Bones came to me and took my hand, wordlessly squeezing it.
     
    “You must have had an important reason for coming here without calling,” Don said. “What’s going on?”
     
    I couldn’t believe he expected me to just change the subject, as if the topic of his impending death wasn’t worth further discussion.
     
    “Chemo, surgery, and vampire blood might not be able to help you, but I still can.” The words spilled out recklessly. “I’m a vampire now and I can make you one, too. You won’t owe me any of that normal fealty crap, and changing over will cure everything—”
     
    “No.”
     
    The single word was soft but emphatic. My instant, sputtering argument faded as Don was seized with a wracking cough.
     
    “But you can’t… you can’t just die ,” I whispered.
     
    He straightened, controlling his cough. The same fierce will that had ordered Tate to shoot me the day we met was still in his gray eyes.
     
    “Yes I can. It’s called being human.”
     
    I swallowed hard. The same argument I’d once used with Bones to rationalize why a relationship between us couldn’t work had just been flung back in my face. Now I knew the frustration Bones must’ve felt at that time, because I had a sudden urge to shake Don until the blind stubbornness rattled right out of his head.
     
    But since I couldn’t do that, I’d try another tactic. “You’re indispensable to this operation. If you were gone, I wouldn’t be the only one who would suffer. Think of the team—”
     
    “They have Tate,” Don interrupted me. “He’s taken over this department for the past three months and he’s doing an excellent job.”
     
    “Tate’s needed out in the field, not for management,” I argued even as I reeled at this new bit of information. “You only have one other vampire and a ghoul on the team aside from Tate. That’s not enough when going after the undead. Plus, some serious shit is brewing with ghouls right now.”
     
    A cough made Don pause before replying. “We may have another vampire on the team soon.”
     
    Must be Cooper. He was the next in line to lose his pulse. Seems a lot of changes had happened. Even if I wasn’t a member of the team anymore, I’d thought being a friend and family meant some one would keep me in the loop. Boy, was I wrong.
     
    “Christ Almighty,” Bones muttered.
     
    Don shot him a look. “We’ll talk about that later. Now, tell me what trouble is brewing with the ghouls, Cat.”
     
    My uncle’s expression said that continuing to discuss the obvious reasons why he should save his life would only be pointless right now. I tried to pull myself together enough to focus on why we’d come, but I felt like the floor had just opened up underneath me.
     
    “You remember last year that a ghoul leader, Apollyon , was all worked up about me possibly changing into a vampire-ghoul hybrid? Well, he hasn’t calmed down…”
     
    Several minutes later, I’d given Don all the details as we knew them. He tugged on his eyebrow as he listened. When I was finished, he let out a heavy sigh.
     
    “Those vampires reporting back to you are a good start, but I don’t think it’s enough. If hostilities increase between vampires and ghouls, humans will bear