There was silence after this pronouncement. Don tugged at his eyebrow, Juan whistled, and Dave cracked his neck.

“What about Belinda?” Tate suggested.

I gaped at him. “But she’s a murderer.”

Tate grunted. “Yeah, but she’s performed well as a training toy with the men. Based on her good behavior, we’ve promised to let her go in ten years. Maybe taking her out on jobs will be a good indicator of whether she’s turned over a new leaf like she’s claimed.”

Bones gave a slight shrug. “It’s risky, but Belinda’s a vampire, so she’s strong enough for the work. Plus she’s fetching enough to pose as bait, and she’d require no training.”

I didn’t like Belinda, and that wasn’t just because she’d once tried to kill me. She also had a history with Bones that involved his birthday party, another vampire named Annette, two other girls, and very little talking.

“Don?” I asked.

“We’ll try Belinda next week,” he said at last. “If she can’t handle it, then we’ll find a suitable replacement.”

Using a vampire as bait to trap and kill other vampires. It was almost as crazy as what we’d been doing, which was using me, a half vampire, for the same thing.

“There’s one more thing to discuss,” Don said. “When Bones joined us over three months ago, it was with conditions. His most significant contribution to our operation hasn’t been requested…until today.”

I tensed, because I knew what that meant. To my left, Bones lifted a bored brow.

“I won’t welsh on our agreement, so name the man you want me to change into a vampire.”

“Me.”

The single word came from Tate. My gaze swung to him.

“You hate vampires!” I burst out. “Why would you want to turn into one?”