Author's note: Some readers might remember that Belinda was one of the vampires Don had kept captive at the compound so that his scientists would have a steady supply of vampire blood in order to make Brams. Readers might also remember that Bones had a history with Belinda, and Cat was not happy when she found out about that. The scene where Cat first caught Belinda was in the original version of One Foot in the Grave, but it ended up being cut because I thought readers would rather have Bones appear on the page sooner than see Cat on another hunt with her team. However, I loved Cat's interactions with Tate, Juan, Dave, and the rest of her team, so I'm glad that I saved this in a file instead of deleting it entirely.

Don was in his office and I went directly there. He was my first stop every day. The routine was that I was briefed on any intelligence and then I shared it with my team leaders Tate, Dave and Juan.

Don glanced up from his computer when I walked in. "Cat. Good afternoon."

I looked at the clock. Yes, it was after twelve already.

"Don." Without invitation I sat down and stretched out my legs. He eyed me when I put my feet on the seat opposite me, but said nothing. We'd had the conversation about feet on the furniture many times before, and he'd finally given up.

"News arrived last night of some related deaths in Phoenix. Women with strange injuries to the throat, blood loss but no blood at the scene. Police think they were killed somewhere else and the bodies dumped. Needless to say, I disagree."

"Whatcha think? One or more vamps?" Blood loss only meant no ghouls or flesh eaters. They left very distinct corpses behind when they were too full to eat everything.

Don frowned. "More than one. The area is fairly narrow, but there are too many for just one vampire to be feeding. My guess is that you'll uncover a nest. Let's put it out of business."

I yawned and didn't cover my mouth. Sometimes I did things like that just to aggravate him. Like the feet. Even though I'd gotten over my resentment of him, a little devil in me enjoyed annoying him. Seeing his face darken made it all worthwhile.

"Am I keeping you awake, Cat?" There was a definite edge to his tone.

I blithely ignored the question. "Are the three recruits from yesterday patched up? Ready for more training today?"

That made Don lean forward with more enthusiasm. It was the one thing that would always put him in a good mood. "They were given the transfusions immediately after their removal from the Wreck Room." Ah, the cute nickname given to the place where the potentials first met me. Someone here had a sense of humor. "That last strain you brought in was of decent stock. With any luck, tonight you can procure more. We're running below the levels I'm comfortable with."

"Without me you wouldn't even know what levels you were comfortable with, Don." In that I'd proven my worth in gold. Before me, they never even knew that vampire blood healed.

Six years and a team of brilliant scientists later, they'd filtered through the components in undead blood and come up with ways to preserve it. Now the team and any wounded recruits were patched up in a day or so, courtesy of the vampires I brought back alive to be temporary donors. The tricky part was that only the younger ones were easy to damage sufficiently and transport without killing them. There was a drawback. The younger the vamp was, the weaker the power in their blood. The older they were, the more potent they got. Especially if they were a Master vampire. Those were extremely difficult to bring in alive. Hell, it was enough of a job to kill them. Don salivated at the thought of an old, strong vamp in his custody. He could concentrate the serum in the blood and stretch it ten times further.

"You've held up your end of our agreement admirably."

That caused me to look twice at him. It was the highest form of praise he'd ever bestowed on me.

"You feeling all right, Don? You're not drunk, are you?"

Another thin smile appeared on his face, which was lined with years.

"No, just remembering the day we brought you in. In my greatest imaginings I didn't think it would turn out this well."

I snorted rudely. "Yeah, Tate mentioned that yesterday. Nostalgia must be in the air around here. He said you were sure he'd have to shoot me within a year."

Don shrugged. We might have been discussing lunch. "I didn't trust you. You were filled with wild, unchecked power. I thought you'd try to run away on your first mission and warn the vampires about us. Tate knew what to do if that happened."

Now I pushed my feet off the chair and stood. This was too many trips down memory lane for me. "I keep my promises. If you didn't know that then, you should have realized it by now. I'm off to the exercise unit to meet up with the boys. Anything else I should know about tonight?"

"Only that you leave in five hours. With the time change there it will give us two extra hours to prepare. Oh, and one more thing. The person last seen alive with five of the victims was a woman. Looked very cozy with them too. You can review the rest of the data on the plane. Try to bring at least one in alive."

"Sir, yes, sir!" My hand rose in mocking salute and he glowered again.

Three dirty looks in thirty minutes. Maybe today would be a good day.

The exercise room was more than a gym. It was an extravaganza of an obstacle course, complete with ropes to swing from, falling debris, ground that shifted under your feet, and lots of room to run. Bones had trained me in a cave and in the woods. This was a more modern version, but the same principals held. Drive a recruit until they passed out, then wake them up and push them further. Boot camp was a pleasure cruise compared to this, or so I'd been told in profane and explicit language numerous times. When I stepped inside, I saw Tate and Juan berating an exhausted soldier from yesterday. Oh yes, the one with the potty mouth. Even though I was the length of a football field away and there was enormous noise from the activity, I heard each word clearly.

"You're not stopping, Cooper! Back at the ropes! If you think we're being rough on you, just wait until Cat comes over. She'll make you wish you had your bottle and your blankie."

Tate's voice sliced through the commotion and Cooper, obviously his name, panted hard.

"I don't believe this shit. I don't believe it. Yesterday twenty of my bones are broken, and today I'm running a fucking marathon. Vampires, who in the world would guess?"

"No one, pal, and that's the way it stays. You think you're shocked now? See how you feel when one of them comes for your throat. You'll be glad for your efforts here. They'll save your life later."

Tate spoke from experience. He'd been on at least a hundred missions with me and been comatose over a dozen times to show for it. He was one tough human. Without the recuperative benefits of the blood I harvested, he would have been dead years ago. At least some good had come out of my heartache.

"And they tell me that bitch is half one of them? How can you follow a fucking-"

The sentence abruptly ended with Juan's fist in his face. Cooper fell to his knees. Juan was a pretty mean cookie as well.

"No one talks about Cat that way in front of me." The Spanish accent seemed to emphasize the statement.

Cooper gaped at him. "Why? She's in charge, but you must have to watch your backs. One day she could snap."

Juan shook his head in wry amusement. "Yeah, we watch our backs if we're conscious. She's dragged my half-dead ass out of so many horror houses, I can't even count them all. When she goes back inside a place filled with vamps to haul your ignorant carcass out, you'll stop someone from insulting her too."

"That will never happen. No matter what you say, she's a freak."

"Hey, dumb fuck, she can hear you." Tate gestured in my direction and I waved.

"Bullshit. No one could hear us from that far in this racket," Cooper said with absolute conviction.

Boy, did he have a lot to learn.

Juan grinned at him. "Go on, whisper something to me, and when she walks up, she'll repeat it to you. She can hear you from a mile away. Hell, if you fart, she'll hear it before anyone smells it."

Oh, charming. Juan did have a way with words.

"Okay, I'll play." Cooper leaned in and whispered to Juan, who nodded and looked at me expectantly. They loved to show off my abilities.

I walked over to them, and Cooper looked at me in challenge.

"You aren't circumcised," I announced. Funny what people thought to say.

Tate and Juan laughed at the shocked expression on Cooper's face.

"No fucking way," Cooper breathed.

My brow arched at him. "Oh, very fucking way. Have respect for the freaks around you. The minute you don't, one will break you in pieces. Believe me, I've seen it." Hell, I'd done it, but that was more information than he needed just now.

"Tate, Juan, get Dave and meet me outside. We're on for tonight."

"Showtime," Tate murmured.

Juan groaned in mock disappointment. "I'll miss my show again!"

"DVR it like a normal person," I threw over my shoulder as I left.

When I was far enough away for even Tate to think I couldn't hear him, he addressed Cooper again. "One more thing. Critical safety advice. Whatever you do, never call her Kitten."

"Why not?" Cooper sounded intrigued.

"I'll take that one." Juan chimed in, with grimness under the humor in his tone. "Because if you do, when you wake up three days later... everything will still hurt."

Later, when I explained tonight's mission to them, Juan's face resembled a child's on Christmas morning when confronted with a pile of presents. "You're telling me we're going after a lesbian vampire? Cat, if you let me watch, she can suck all my blood as a diversion. I'd die a happy man."

"This is serious," I snapped. Juan and his perpetual hard-on. If he wasn't such a good fighter, I'd have killed him myself by now. "Over a dozen women are dead, remember?"

"Are you the bait or the hook tonight, Cat?" Dave asked.

What a relief to change the subject from Juan's fantasies.

"Hopefully both. If she's already picked out her treat for the evening, I'll see if I can tag along. If not, we follow her. We need to find the nest. There's probably a few vampires, judging from the body count."

"A threesome." Juan sighed in rapture.

"Juan, I swear. If you screw this up tonight, I will shove your gun up your ass and fire. You got me?"

"Loud and clear, querida." He grinned, unrepentant as usual. I pitied the poor fool who ever married him.

"Okay then. Tate, pick ten more men; we'll need a solid crew. Don wants another refill on his vampire blood supply."

"I hate bagging and tagging them," Dave muttered.

I did too. That's how we lost the last member of our team. One of them was careless for an instant. Before anything could be done, his throat was missing. Even I couldn't fix that.

"We have the new capsule, Dave," I reminded him, proud of my contribution to its invention. "That mistake won't happen again."

"Let's hope not," Tate muttered.

Just before I left to board the plane, I stopped by Don's office. He looked startled to see me. Usually one visit a day was enough for both of us unless something major happened.

"Don, I need you to do me a favor."

His forehead wrinkled. Those were words he never heard from me. "What is it?"

"Um, if I don't make it back tonight, I adopted a kitty. Would you make sure it goes to a good home?" I hated to sound so pathetic, but my mother hated cats and Denise was allergic.

His expression eased into a smile. Clearly he'd expected something far more involved. "Of course. But I won't need to. You'll be magnificent, as always."

"Yeah, well, the day will come eventually when I'm up against someone more magnificent."

"Not you," he said confidently. "You're unique. I knew it from the moment I saw you."

And took me away from Bones. Deep in my heart, I would never forgive him for that. Yet I'd made a bargain and I would hold to it.

"See you later, Don, if my ass still points to the ground."

"Beg your pardon?"

I smiled. "Australian expression. Means if I'm still standing. Really, brush up on your lingo."

Our team traveled in two planes. They never had my three leaders and me on the same flight, out of paranoia if the plane went down. Someone would still have to head the units and train replacements. At my request, Juan was with the other backup men on the second plane. He was still far too happy about tonight for my patience. At least he could be counted on to rally the men. Juan was an excellent leader.

"Cat, how about on Monday we grab some chow and play cards?" Dave suggested. "I still have to win back that fifty you stole from me last week."

I turned around to smile at Dave. My house was a favorite hangout place after work. Like me, everyone on our team was sworn to secrecy about our work. Not being able to relax around normal people because of your occupation made things very lonely. Hence, poker was a favorite pastime at my place, though why the guys kept coming back for more was beyond me. I beat them ninety percent of the time. They all loved the stocked minibar in the family room though. Amazing what an endless supply of liquor could accomplish.

"Can't Monday. I have... Er, I can't."

I tripped over my reply, almost admitting I had a date. The fact that I never dated didn't escape anyone's notice. Juan called me a spinster. Dave might not be gifted with my extra perception powers, but when I looked away in embarrassment, he pounced.

"You go, Cat!"

"Huh?" Tate was slower on the draw.

"Cat has a date."

Tate looked stunned. "No way. You're going out with someone? Really?"

"Oh, stop. It's not like that. He's a vet, new in town, and he helped me out last night with this cat I accidentally hit. So as a favor I'm going to... I don't know, have dinner. See a movie."

"Folks round here call that a date, missy," Dave drawled in a fake Southern accent.

Tate still looked shell-shocked. "Has Don run a check on this guy? It could be a trap."

That raised my hackles. No way was I going to ask permission to go on a simple date like I was fourteen. By God, now I'd go on two just out of spite.

"Tate, do you check with Don each time before you get laid? Does Dave? Does Juan? Of course not, or Don would have to hire a separate staff just to handle Juan's love life. I think I'm old enough to handle this on my own, so rack off!"

Occasionally Bones's expressions would leak out in my speech. He'd been English by birth and Australian by vampiric rebirth after he was one of the unfortunate prisoners sent to the New South Wales penal colony. Of course, that was back in 1789. Okay, so he'd been a little older than me.

"Now you're going to have sex with the guy? I thought you said it was just a date!"