This idea has no doubt been bandied about and even written, but this is my attempt to take on the Night Huntress books from Bones' point of view. This is written solely from Bones' point of view. Most of it is internal, just in his head, but there a few things that are referred to in the books that take place between him and Spade or him and Ian, and I will be writing them out. That will be the only original dialogue between characters. A lot of the second book will original thoughts from Bones as he is seeking Cat out. I've broken the story up into segments of action, rather than by chapter, and they might be shorter than some on this site, but you might get 20 chapters of this story out of one from each book. Since it is a partial re-write, there are a number of lines in every chapter that belong solely to Jeaniene Frost - I'm just borrowing them. These characters also all belong to Jeaniene Frost, as does the entire Night Huntress World I like to play in. This little disclaimer is good for every chapter of this story, but will only appear once to save me from having to copy and paste it and save readers from having to skip it. Many thanks to the peeps over at the Night Huntress Series page on Facebook for helping me come up with the name 'Temptations of the Grave' and for encouraging me to write this!
I was sitting in the back snug in a sleazy bar in Nowhere, Ohio, head down to try and avoid detection. I'd had my eye on Devon for a few weeks, watching, learning his patterns, waiting for the perfect moment to snatch him up and grill him for information about Hennessy.
When she came and sat across from me, she was about the third bird of the night to try her luck. But, seeing as how I was trying my best to avoid detection, I didn't even bother to glance at her the first time she made her offer. Then, she did a strange thing. She reached out and stroked a finger across my hand. That caught my attention. Odd, that.
Then she blurted out, "Want to fuck?" That really caught my attention. Not so much the question - I've been asked that countless times in my years - but by the way she said it. I turned back to her and truly noticed her for the first time. Flowing crimson hair, perfect pale skin, and a blush at what she had just said. Gorgeous, she was. But it was her eyes that caught my attention the most. A lovely gray shade I'd never seen before, but it was their expression that stood out the most. She was looking me over, even during her clear mortification, like she was mentally cataloging my strengths and weaknesses.
How strange. She couldn't be much over 21, and yet her eyes had the expression of steel in them. It was a shame that I couldn't take her up on her offer, or even spend some time with her, but I'd been hunting Devon for months and never been this close before. I couldn't afford to let him slip through my fingers.
"Bad timing, luv. Be a good bird and fly away, I'll find you." Oh, how I hoped that was true.
She looked a bit baffled at my refusal but left. I left the snug and went to stand in the shadows of the back wall of the bar. I saw my lovely redhead come out of the ladies', then head to the bar. Strangely enough, when Devon came in, he made his way straight over to her. A weird, scalding feeling I'd never felt before came over me. I couldn't really identify it. All I knew was it increased when she left the bar with him.
I followed them on my bike, back far enough that he wouldn't notice they were being followed. He drove her to a secluded spot by a lake, and that strange scalding feeling intensified when I thought of him with her. Suddenly though, I saw her run screaming from her the car. I tensed, ready to throw myself into the mix if necessary, when I saw one of the strangest things I've seen in all my years. Devon gave chase, and just as he was about to bite her, bugger if she didn't stake him! Then she sank his car in the lake, took him back to her truck, and chopped his bleedin' head off! She went back to an old barn of a house and buried him, whistling a merry tune.
What in the bloody hell was she?