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"You were asked a question, Walter!"
Walter, aka Rattler, gave a gasp of pain even as Bones laid a hand on Spade
"It's all right,him first" Then to Rattler, with a much harder tone
"You kno this will go down No matter how brave you fancy yourself, everyone breaks eventually So you will either detail exactly when, why, and how you threw your lot in with Patra with all your li as fast as we can tear them off"
For once, such a grihtest bit of cohim to pieces just for the sheer enjoyment of it
"Was it for lory she proreedy?"
"I don't care about money" Whether it was spoken to lanced at both of us "I did what I had to do for love"
"For love?" I repeated "You're in love with Patra? Then you're stupid as well as a backstabbing asshole"
"Not Patra For Vivienne"
"Patra killed Vivienne, ould you-" Bones began, and then stopped He shook his head with a sound that was hter
"Ah, I see All this tirieved with you, you sod, and all the while you aiting for your chance!"
It clicked then I remembered the explosion at Mencheres's house caused by va bombs all for the sake of whoever Patra had kidnapped beforehand See soet him to betray Bones What a truly vile person Patra was If possible, I hated her even more
"How do you even know Vivienne's still alive?" Bones asked
Rattler looked even ht after Spade had elbowed him out the other side
"Because every week Patra calls meand lets me hear her scream"
Bones began to pace in limited, impotent strides
"I only told her about the train," Rattler went on "I had nothing to do with the attacks on your wife Earlier, I was going to snatch Cat and threaten to kill her unless you slew yourself in ht, but Doc saw rab her So I ca the only other person the Reaper would endanger herself for, but I failed I know you'll punish "
"You'd dare ask ?" Harshly
"I don't plead for lenience I know you'll put me with the other one, but before you doBones, ive me"
Bones quit pacing There was a loaded silence Then he came to stand in front of Rattler
"In 1867, I befriended you Five years later, I changed you, and what did I say was the worst thing you could ever do as a vampire?"
Rattler looked away "To betray your sire"
"Right You have committed the worst act you could in the eyes of our people, yet you ask iveness Do you knohat I have to say to that, Walter Tannenbaum?"
Bones was co Maybe it was the aftereffects of slah solid concrete that slowed me, or it could have been that heeven Spade and Vlad as they tried to block him
"You have it"
The knife he'd used to cut his palm was still in his hand It buried with a fierce twist into Rattler's heart even as he uttered those words
There was a split second as their eyesfutilely on Bones's ar from the onlookers, when I would swear I saw Rattler s with him His body slumped, and before my eyes, his skin started to wither
"Bones, why?"
Noas the one who directed that ringing question to hi around to face me
"Because I would have done the saiveness"
In the uncomfortable moment of silence I spoke up "He didn't have mine"
Only the pain in his voice keptat hirew more still
"I heard that bitch laugh when she told me she'd killed you Then saw her face when she thankedof any retribution? Doesn'tht have been ht me that No matter how much you empathized with Rattler, you shouldn't have killed hiiven me Rattler"
And with that, I left the s a path to let me pass
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SINCE BONES HAD BEEN PRETENDING TO BE weak prior to finding out who the traitor was, he hadn't spent much time with the prisoner he'd helped capture from the train ambush-Anubus, Patra's second-in-colected in the furor over Bones's return, though I'm sure he didn't complain over his lack of attention In fact, he almost seemed surprised to see someone in his cell
This was really the first I'd seen him as well, since I didn't count that initial time when Ian, Rodney, and Spade had returned with hiyptian, well over six-three, and he had the long straight hair and pronounced features to brag of his heritage His bearing was far frorih he elded into the steel wall he hung from