TWENTY-NINE

We brought Belinda out every day to train with Tate, Juan, and Cooper. This was at their insistence, not mine. They refused to accept that they couldn’t rise to the challenge of pinning her, and were determined to still play an active role in capturing Ian’s men. I didn’t like it, but Tate had been as adamant as I’d ever seen him. Belinda didn’t seem to mind. Although she didn’t get her prize of fresh blood anymore, she did get to leave her small cell and also had an extra bag of plasma daily for cooperating. Plus I think she liked how frustrated they were by their inability to pin her—at least at first.
After four days of humiliation, the guys started getting better at it. They managed a few times to plug Belinda’s chest at just the right angle so one twist would have ended her, if the knife had been silver.
And that, I knew, was enough to make any vampire suddenly become really, really cooperative. With another week or so of practice, they might be ready for Bones to make that call to Ian saying he’d found me and had hostages. Then I could put into action my other plan. The one regarding my father that I hadn’t told Bones about. Oh yeah. I was looking forward to that.
On Thursday we went to pick up one of Bones’s people from the airport. This person was flying in from London, and was apparently the first vampire Bones had ever made. Some days, vampire hierarchy felt like The Godfather to me. On acid.
“You haven’t asked and there’s been little time, but you need to know who it is we’re getting, Kitten.”
We’d just reached the section of the airport where the rest of the nonflying public waited for arriving passengers. With today’s airline security, it was as far as we were allowed to go, unless Bones turned on his optical headlights.
“Another old flame?” I joked.
Bones didn’t laugh. “You could call her that, yes.”
I needed a gin for this crap. “Great, can’t wait to meet her.”
“You remember I told you when I was human, one of my clients saved my life by convincing the judge to ship me to Australia instead of hanging me for pick-pocketing? Well, that was Annette. After I returned to London as a vampire, I looked for the people who’d shown me kindness. Madame Lucille, the bordello owner who helped raise me, was dead by then, as were many of the prostitutes I’d lived with, but Annette was still there. I offered her this life, and she accepted. She’s who we’re picking up now.”
Shit. I hated her already, and we hadn’t even met. That was a new low for me.
“And she’ll be staying with us tonight. How cozy.”
Bones took my hand. “Don’t let it trouble you. You’re the only woman for me, Kitten. Believe that.”
There was a whoosh of charged air moments later. “She’s here,” he said unnecessarily.
A woman walked toward us with the unmatched grace only a vampire could harness. Her cool, patrician features screamed aristocracy, and her lightly lined skin had that trademark glowing luminescence. Why couldn’t she be ugly? was my first thought. She looks like a cross between Marilyn Monroe and Susan Sarandon!
Her champagne-colored eyes fixed immediately on mine, and right away, I knew we had something in common. She already didn’t like me, either.
“Crispin, can I have a kiss after my long flight?”
Her accent was pure British upper-crust. She was also chicly dressed in a navy jacket with matching pants, and I’d bet her shoes cost as much as my last paycheck. Just looking at her, I felt like I had a smear of something on my face, or food in my teeth.
“Of course,” Bones replied, brushing his lips across each of her cheeks. She returned the gesture while giving me a once-over that made me feel as insignificant as her smirk judged me to be.
He turned to me. “This is Cat,” he introduced me.
I held out my hand. She shook it with ladylike graciousness, only tightening her pale, delicate-looking paw for an instant.
Oh, she had power as well. Not a Master, but a nice, steady level of torque.
“Delighted to finally meet you, darling. I so hoped Crispin would be able to locate you.” She traced a finger down his face as if in solace. “Poor sweet dear, he was positively wretched with worry that something ill had befallen you.”
It was official. I hated her. How gracious of her to remind me that I’d made him miserable for several years. Where was a nice silver dagger when I needed one?
“As you can see, Annette, he found me safe and sound.” For effect, I brought his clasped hand to my lips and kissed it.
Her smile grew frosty. “My bags should be arriving momentarily. Crispin, why don’t you fetch the car whilst Cat and I collect my things?”
It was a toss-up which I didn’t like more—being alone with her, or offering to get the car so he would be. I chose the first, since it was more bearable, and Bones left us to get our ride.
Annette had a lot of things, which she helpfully loaded onto me like I was a pack mule while making conversation zinging with underlying hostility.
“Don’t you have lovely skin? All that fresh country air no doubt played a part. Didn’t Crispin tell me you came from a farm?” Like the animals, her smug smile implied.
I hoisted a heavy suitcase over my shoulder before I replied. God, what had she packed, bricks?
“A cherry orchard. But that hardly affected my complexion. The vampire who raped my mother gave me that.”
She clucked her tongue. “Faith, I had difficulty believing Crispin when he told me what you were, but after two hundred years together, you take someone at their word.”
Nicely done. Throw in how long you’ve had him, like I don’t already know. But two could play at low blows.
“I can’t wait to hear all about you, Annette. Bones barely mentioned you at all, just something about how you used to pay him to have sex with you when he was human.”
She gave an arch little curve of her lips. “How charming that you call him by his acquired name. All his newer acquaintances do that.”
Acquaintances? My teeth ground. “That was the name he gave me when we first met. We are who we become, not who we start out as.” He’s not your boy toy anymore, got it?
“Indeed? Here I’ve always believed people truly never change from what they were to begin with.”
“We’ll see about that,” I muttered.
With her numerous items weighing me down, we proceeded to the exit. As I followed behind her, I took the opportunity to study her. Her hair was shoulder-length and pale strawberry-blond, just lovely next to her peaches-and-cream skin. She was far more voluptuous than I, and about three inches shorter than my five-eight height. If she were human, I’d judge her to be in her mid-forties. That didn’t sit in a negative column with her, though, because she gave off a smoldering, ripe sensuality that made youth look like a boring waste of time.
Bones took one look at me buried under all her luggage and vaulted over to assist. “Blimey, Annette. You should have told me how many bags you had!”
“Oh, forgive me, Cat,” Annette chuckled in false apology. “I’m accustomed to having an underling travel with me.”
“Don’t mention it.” Tightly. Underling! Who the hell did she think she was?
Luggage finally stored in the trunk, we drove off.
“When are the rest of our people arriving?” she queried, settling back in her seat. We drove a new vehicle, as my Volvo was known to Max. This was a loaded BMW. I’d ask Bones later where he got it.
“Today and tomorrow. By Friday, I reckon we’ll all be in place.”
Annette sniffed, though it wasn’t like she needed to clear her nose. “I say, Crispin, how did Belinda get herself in Cat’s little snare? I haven’t seen her since your birthday six years ago, or was it five?”
“She got caught because she started running with a group who liked to bring home live meals.”
There was something cold in his tone that perked my ears up even as Annette’s smile grew sly.
“Terrible. She must have really changed. Wasn’t it only five years ago that we three got together?”
Bones glared at her in the rearview mirror right as I translated “We three got together.” I was betting it hadn’t been for tea. And five years ago, Bones had been with me.
“Answer the question, honey. Was it six or five years ago that the three of you all fucked? See, Bones already told me that he’d screwed Belinda, Annette, but thank you for letting me know you participated also.”
Bones pulled the car to the shoulder of the road.
“I won’t tolerate such rudeness, Annette,” he said, pivoting to face her. “She knows bloody well what you’re implying, as you can see, and I don’t know why you feel the need to throw that up at her. You also know that it was eight years ago, before I met her, and I’ll thank you not to entertain her with any more recollections.”
He sounded as pissed as I felt. Annette glanced at me before raising her brows in feigned innocence.
“I apologize. Perhaps it was the long flight which made me forget myself.”
“Kitten.” Bones looked at me. “Is that sufficient?”
No, it wasn’t, and I’d have cheerfully thrown Her Majesty and her hundred pounds of baggage to the curb, but that wasn’t mature.
“I think I can handle a little ménage à trois reminiscing, but just for the record, Annette, you can forget any repeats involving the three of us.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she assured me with a gleam I caught from the rearview mirror. Oh, she and I weren’t through. I’d bet my life on it.

The rest of the drive passed without incident. Annette made arrangements for alternate accommodations after tonight, to my relief. Bones planned to tell Ian next week that he’d found me, and he’d pretend to capture my three captains the following week. And somewhere in the midst of worrying about Ian, the safety of my men, my father actively trying to kill me, and Bones successfully winning his freedom, I had the image of Annette, Belinda, and Bones doing the naked pretzel in my mind. Goddamn her. That was the last thing I needed to think about.
When Annette heard the part of the plan involving my men, she was fascinated.
“Mere humans? Willingly walking into Ian’s den as his collateral? Oh, Crispin, you must let me meet them. Can we have them for supper tonight?”
“She better mean to dinner with real food on the table,” I muttered.
“Why, Cat, that’s precisely what I meant. Can’t have me eating the bait, now can we?” She chuckled.
Bones glanced at me. I shrugged. “It’s not such a bad idea to have them meet first. Maybe it will make them less jittery about this whole Army of Darkness thing.” Or more so, depending on Annette.
“Whatever you like. I don’t care. If they agree, I’ll pick them up when I get Rodney. He’s our other guest tonight.”
“Rodney the ghoul?” How low I had slipped on the Humanity Totem Pole to be so excited about seeing a flesh-eater again, although that would complicate my menu. “Oh, I liked him. He didn’t get angry no matter how many times my mother insulted him.”
Bones gave me a sideways smile. He’d just finished taking Annette’s bags to her room. She was sitting at the kitchen table, sipping tea. I sat on the couch with a tall glass of gin and tonic that was almost empty.
“Wait.” I hated saying this in front of Queen Bitch, but whispering was redundant. “Is he…I mean, because of the last time we met…does he hate me?”
It was Rodney’s house we’d been staying at years ago when I left Bones. The two of them had gone out on an errand, and there had no doubt been an unpleasant scene when they returned to find it empty.
Bones sat next me, setting my glass down.
“Of course he doesn’t hate you. He was right sore at Don for threatening you, although we didn’t know who’d done it then. As far as your mother—well. She didn’t make a friend.”
I gave a watery laugh. “She seldom does.”
He leaned closer. “Actually, he’s a bit unsettled himself about seeing you again, but not for that reason. Rodney thought perhaps you’d be upset with him over Danny.”
Ah. I’d forgotten about that. The murder of my ex-boyfriend hadn’t ranked high on my current list of worries. Poor Danny. He’d certainly regretted seducing me in a permanent way.
“That was more your doing than his, Bones. We’ve already been over that. Besides, he’s coming to help.”
“That’s what I told him you’d say.”
Miffed, I poked him in the chest. “You think you know everything?”
His hands caressed my back. “Not everything, but some things. I knew without a doubt I’d fallen in love when we met. Then I knew I’d do anything to make you feel the same way.”
Annette’s cup clattered to the table. “I’ll take myself off to shower now.”
Bones didn’t even glance up. “Do that.”
The bathroom door closed decisively behind her.
“You keep saying you fell in love right away, but you beat me unconscious, and you were so surly with me those first few weeks.”
Bones chuckled. “You asked for that beating, and you’d have stomped me into submission if I’d shown you any weakness. Of course I didn’t let on how I felt about you. You hated the very sight of me.”
“I don’t hate you now.”
To prove the point, I gave a long, slow lick to his neck. He responded by gathering me up in his arms and heading toward the stairs.
I gasped at his clear intent. “Wait, I was teasing! We can’t, she’d hear us!” Even with the shower running, we might as well have invited her to join us after all.
Bones kept going, climbing the steps three at a time, and then depositing me on the bed.
“I wasn’t teasing, and I don’t care.” He kissed me thoroughly, tugging off my clothes. “We only have an hour. Let’s not waste it.”

THIRTY

It'll take me about two hours to fetch Rodney and pick up your blokes, Kitten. Are you going to be all right with Annette until then?”
Bones was already running late. I was the reason for his tardiness, and I couldn’t bring myself to care.
“Don’t worry about it. If she gets really lippy, I have my silver.” For emphasis, I glanced at the stack of weapons in the closet.
He snorted in laughter. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather come back to both of you the way I left you.”
“If you insist. Go on, I’ll be waiting for you.”
It was said automatically, but his eyes clouded. With a sigh, I flung myself out of bed and hugged him.
“You can tell Rodney to bet his ass I’ll be here this time.”
Bones pressed his lips to my forehead and smiled, chipper again.
“Too right you will. Call your men and have them ready; I’ll see you shortly.”
“Don’t smack Tate on the way over.”
He snorted. “We’ll see.”
After he was gone, I made the invite to dinner, then listened for five minutes as Don argued about the men leaving the compound with Max on the loose.
“Two vamps and a ghoul, Don, plus me. Who’s gonna take that on? It’s only dinner, for God’s sake. I swear they’re not on the menu. They may as well meet one of the people they’ll be trusting their lives to.”
He finally gave the phone to Tate and relayed the offer. Tate accepted at once. He wanted to check out every deadhead he could, as he so nicely put it. There was no food in the house and not enough time to cook, so I showered and went to the kitchen to find the phone book. Rodney would be shit out of luck, because no delivery place I saw advertised raw meat or body parts. I settled on Italian, and ordered different dishes for everyone. Delivery would be in an hour, right about when they’d arrive.
Annette glided into the room twenty minutes later, dressed in a long, flowing skirt with a pale peach top. She looked like a million bucks, but as soon as I felt her vibe, I knew she was itching for trouble.
“Well, my dear, you must be feeling quite smug after that scene in the car, but let me remind you that I have been with Crispin for over two hundred years, and I will last the next two hundred. You, on the other hand, will astonish me if you last out the month.”
I shut the Yellow Pages with a bang. Oh, so the gloves were off, were they?
“I can see why you feel threatened, Annette. When the person you love falls in love with someone else, that’s a real bad day, isn’t it? Look, I’m willing to overlook your previous relationship and be friendly, but piss me off and you’ll regret it.”
She smiled, a nasty little curl of the lips. “You silly girl, I’ve weathered thousands of dreamers like you. Tens of thousands, as it were. Crispin always comes back to me, and do you know why? Because I give him what he really wants. He didn’t mention the rest of the story about his birthday years ago, did he? It wasn’t just the three of us—it was the five of us. Two human girls plus Belinda and I, all shagging together. I picked the humans out myself. Crispin just adores warm living flesh, and besides, we had to eat something. Well, something else, that is.”
Motherfucker. Annette chuckled at my livid expression, her goal scored. “Oh, my sweet, I can’t count all of the times there were at least two of us with him. Crispin’s so bloody insatiable. He always was, even as a human. And you’re not that sacred to him, darling. Did he tell you about the two of us just a couple months ago? You’re nothing more to him than a mere bump in a long, winding road. Best you realize that now.”
A couple months ago. So she was the “almost” from Chicago. My knuckles went white on the table.
“In fact Bones did tell me about that, Annette, but you didn’t get your usual service, did you? Bones told me he gave you a tongue lashing and then left you high and dry. That must have stung a bit, hmm? All fired up and no cock to ride?” If she wanted to play dirty, I was ready to roll. Let’s see who got covered in the most sludge.
Both impeccably plucked brows arched. “You haven’t had much experience with men, have you? He might have left me high, but it was in no ways dry. Crispin can do more with his mouth than most men can accomplish with their entire bodies. I was well satisfied, I assure you, before he left. Not what I would have preferred, certainly, but vampires are a patient lot. He’ll be back, and I’ll be waiting.”
That was it. “Do you know what you’ve done?” I asked in a bland tone. Annette gave me an inquiring look. “You’ve gotten on my last nerve.”
The table went crashing into her before she could blink, and then my fist found a home in her perfectly arranged hair. She sprawled on the tile floor before leaping up with nosferatu quickness. My cat decided to run up the stairs, apparently not interested in who won this battle.
“Fast little child, aren’t you?” Annette mocked. “You’d have to be, to still be alive. Oh dear, did I upset you? Listening to you two in bed earlier almost lulled me to sleep. I’ve never heard Crispin sound so bored.”
“I am going to knock the slut out of you, Annette,” I gritted between clenched teeth. “And that should take some doing, you uppity English tramp!”
“I am not so easily—oof!”
The chair cracked over her head, smashing into pieces, and then I threw her bodily into the next room. She wasn’t a shrinking violet, however. Annette came at me with her eyes lit up and her fangs pointed, splinters decorating her from the ruined dinette chair. Instead of waiting for her to make a move, I charged and knocked her to the floor. She snapped her jaws with purpose, but I held her by the neck, landing brutal blows with my legs and free fist. We rolled around on the floor in a blur of limbs, but the bitch never stopped speaking the whole time.
“You’ve never had him the way I have, you puritan baby. Leaving Crispin was the cleverest thing you could have done, because it only inflamed his interest. He’d have tossed you away long ago if you hadn’t. I can’t imagine why he endures the monotony of shagging you at all, since you couldn’t handle him without his leash on. Oh, and Crispin telling you he loves you? I’ve heard that from him a thousand times as well, but in my case, time has borne the truth of it. You may as well pack up and leave now; you’re already through.”
I bashed her head into the floor to shut her up, smiling when I heard a crack as something fractured. Annette was strong, but not strong enough. I jabbed my knee into her spine until it snapped. She howled as her body bent at a wrong angle. While she was temporarily immobilized, I dashed up the stairs to the bedroom, grabbing a curved silver knife.
Annette was still on the floor when I ran back down, and a bark of grim amusement escaped me.
“By God, you think I’d fall for that? The first thing Bones taught me was to kick someone when they were down.”
I drew back my foot to slam it into her ribs when she moved faster than I’d given her credit for, sweeping my other leg out from under me.
“I know that, you insolent half-breed, but you clearly didn’t listen to him instruct how to block it!”
Back on the carpet we rolled, furniture flying in our wake. For a solid ten minutes, we grappled with each other. Annette scored several blows, but in the end, I plunged that silver blade through her chest.
She froze. Her eyes went from emerald back to champagne at once, and a single ragged breath escaped her.
“At least you lived up to your billing, but you missed. Not close enough.”
I straddled her, holding the knife still. “I didn’t miss, bitch. One flick of my wrist and you’re a bad memory and an even worse smell. I think we need to have a little talk, woman to skank. I know why you’re doing this. You want me to leave him again, but I can save you the oxygen in your words, because it won’t happen. Bones forgave me for deserting him and running off for years, so you can bet your overused, group-orgy twat that I will forgive him for one bad mouthful of you. Now, are we very clear on that?”
Annette glared up at me with pain in her expression. That silver hurt, I knew from experience. “You don’t deserve him.”
I almost laughed. “You’re right. That’s his issue, though, not yours. Here’s your issue—are you going to accept things the way they are, or are you exiting his life? See, I’m not plugging your ticker now because Bones really does care for you. Poor bastard doesn’t have any sense when it comes to women, does he? If you can handle being around him in a platonic way, I’ll deal with not slicing up your heart even though I really, really want to. What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
Suddenly her eyes widened in alarm. “Do get off, he’s almost here! Faith, he’ll be so cross with me!”
In wonder I blinked down at her. Here I sat with a knife in her chest, and she was more worried about a berating from Bones? Her priorities were way out of whack.
“Deal?” I persisted.
She shot me an annoyed glance. “Heavens yes, now let me up! I have to put the house to right. Blast it, he just sped up!”
I rolled my eyes and carefully took the knife from her chest. She sprang up at once, but not in hostility. On the contrary, she became a blur of cleaning motion, like Martha Stewart on crack cocaine.
The car door slammed a moment later, and then the front door flung open. Bones glared at Annette with an expression so infuriated, I actually pitied her.
“And that, Annette, is called Pilates,” I said, giving an exaggerated stretch.
“Very entertaining,” she hastened to agree, turning blameless eyes to him. “Why, Crispin, you’re back early—”
“Save it,” he cut her off. With a raised brow, he went to me, reached inside the back of my pants, and withdrew the bloody knife I’d hastily shoved there. He then prowled over to Annette and dangled it in front of her stricken face.
“Unless Pilates has become downright lethal, I’d say the two of you were fighting. Fighting so loudly, in fact, that I could hear you miles away.”
There was simmering menace in his tone. The tension thickened. Behind him, a face peeked in the doorway.
“Rodney!”
I threw my arms around the surprised ghoul, who looked like he hadn’t expected such a warm welcome. Tate, Juan, and Cooper hung back by the car, but I waved them in. Anything to defuse the ticking bomb of a scene I didn’t want to get into. At the same time, another vehicle pulled up in the driveway with an Italian logo on its door.
“Look.” Broad, false smile. “The food’s here! Who’s hungry?”

THIRTY-ONE

Annette politely excused herself to change clothes, and I did the same. Rodney picked up the broken fixtures without comment while Bones followed me into the bedroom.
“Not now,” I began before he opened his mouth. “We settled it. The guys are here and so is dinner. Let’s sit down on whatever furniture is left and eat. The rest can wait.”
His lips thinned. “All right. But this isn’t settled. You’re still seething mad, I can smell it, and we’re dealing with this after supper.”
Bones threw his coat on the bed and then gave one last parting comment over his shoulder as he left.
“Best put on something with sleeves; your arms are covered in scratches.”
Dinner was an exercise in endurance. Annette was effortlessly charming with my three men. No awkward chagrin for her. Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, but then again, she was room temperature. Juan flirted with her outrageously, and she even got a few smiles out of Tate. Bones, meanwhile, sat and brooded with a quietness that bordered on rudeness.
I engaged Rodney in conversation and tried to ignore those brown eyes burning into my side. Was Bones angry that I’d stabbed Annette? God, she was still talking and taking up space! Furthermore, in spite of my denials, what she’d said was festering. Multiple women at once. Warm living flesh. Tens of thousands.
Was it true? Sure, I knew Bones hadn’t been a monk before me—duh, former gigolo, so I’d expected some promiscuity—but that kind of history staggered me. Yes, I’d known there would be exes. Probably a lot of exes, but I hadn’t expected that the notches on Bones’s belt would have a similar number to the miles on my car’s odometer! Just thinking about it made me want to kill him and crawl into an insecure ball at the same time. When the plates were finally cleared away, I was a mass of conflicted emotions.
“Cards, gentlemen?” Annette asked. She pulled out a deck from one of her many bags and shuffled them with practiced hands. Tate and Juan’s eyes gleamed. There were few things they loved more than a good game of poker.
Bones stood at once. “Not for the two of us. Enjoy your game, Annette, by all means. Then you can take her friends back. Rodney will accompany you and show you the way. After that, your luck will have run out.”
The four men weren’t fools. Everyone knew there had been a brawl, and it was an easy guess as to what it was about. Hell, Rodney had probably heard it also. He gave a sympathetic glance at Annette.
“That was hardly polite,” I hissed as we went upstairs, Bones shutting the bedroom door behind us. “You may as well leave it open; they can still hear us.”
“Anyone ill-mannered enough to eavesdrop when they can choose to ignore us listens at their own peril,” Bones replied in clear warning to those below. He leaned back against the door. “Dinner was a waste of time; you barely ate. Now, tell me what happened.”
Frankly I was trying to forget, because maggots of doubt were worming inside me. No wonder I’d had no appetite.
“A catfight, no pun intended. Annette said some nasty things and so did I, and then I stabbed her to make a point. Now that was a pun.”
Bones wasn’t amused. “So that’s it, then? All’s well and no hard feelings?”
I nodded without conviction.
He moved suddenly, just inches away in a blink. When he lowered his head to kiss me, I flinched.
He straightened. “Right. There are two ways I’m going to hear every blasted word Annette said to you. One is from you by request. The other is after I beat it out of her. Now, the selfish part of me hopes you’ll stay silent, but then that would defeat the greater good. You can tell me anything, Kitten, as I’ve often said. Anything at all. The question is, will you?”
There was a quarter of a bottle of gin on the nightstand. I sat on the bed and drained it before replying.
“Fine. Here goes. Annette said you were basically a raging pervert who liked your women in minimums of twos, humans especially because of their warm bodies, you’ve fucked more women than the population of this state, I’d never hold your interest…” I paused to take another breath. “You sounded bored in bed with me earlier, I’d never be able to handle what you really liked to do, you tell half the women you fuck that you’re in love with them, you’d have tossed me out years ago if I hadn’t left you first…oh, and that she was the one you munched on a couple months ago.”
“I am going to flog Annette fleshless for this.” Bones’s voice was low and furious. “If I were you, I’d have killed her. Bloody hell.”
He snatched open the door. “Rodney, take them back and leave Annette here!”
He didn’t bother waiting for a response before slamming it closed again. I heard Rodney’s mumbled acceptance and then the sounds of them leaving.
“Is it true?” I asked. “You’re pissed at her, but is that because she lied to me? Or because she told me the truth?”
His eyes closed for a second. “I’m sorry to be having this conversation under these circumstances, Kitten, but I had no intention of concealing my past from you. The short answer to what Annette told you is yes, I have been with many women. Many. Human and otherwise.”
Many. Again, that wasn’t unexpected considering his age, former profession, and drop-dead gorgeous—literally!—looks. But I needed a little more clarification than the word many.
“Usually in bunches? Thousands? Tens of thousands?”
Bones came to the bed and knelt next to where I sat.
“Let me explain how I was after I was changed into a vampire. For a few years, I brooded over the fate Ian forced on me, but eventually I figured I may as well have a grand time being dead. Back then I had a talent for exactly one thing, and that was shagging. If the girl fancied feminine company also while we were in bed, I certainly didn’t object. Then as the years passed, I began meting out death to those I thought deserved it. Later I started making an income from it. Soon killing became the other thing I excelled at, and between the two, I thought I was as happy as I had any right to be.
“My life went on like this, and yes, Annette was frequently one of the women I shagged, either alone or accompanied. Then one day a friend of mine asked me to find his daughter’s murderer, and I traced her killer and his operation to a bar in Ohio. There I met you, and I fell in love. You can’t imagine what that was like after centuries of…emptiness. I hadn’t thought I was capable of falling in love, but at last I felt like I had something to give other than a good shag or killing a bloke for someone. And now my trusted friend Annette has sought to rip that away from me by taunting you with things in my past, hoping it would destroy your feelings for me.”
We had never discussed how Bones became a hit man, or very much at all about his early years. Despite our months together, I realized we’d spent most of our time chasing the bad guys and very little time talking about who we were, or who we had been. It wasn’t hard to imagine the type of life Bones had described, either. I couldn’t relate to all the sex, but for the past four and a half years, I’d had little to offer people but my ability to kill as well. And at the end of the day, that was a very lonely feeling.
“Don’t judge her so harshly, Bones. Annette loves you; that’s why she did what she did. I don’t like your extensive sexual history, but I can handle it—if it’s in your past. But I will never participate in a threesome, foursome, fivesome, whatever. If that’s what you’re hoping I’ll eventually get into…then we have a problem.”
“Except for that one instance I truly regret with Annette, I didn’t touch another woman while we were apart, because I don’t want anyone but you. And as far as telling other women I loved them, when I was a whore, I used to tell all my clients I loved them. Almost part of the job, as it were. That’s why I’d said it before to Annette, but not since I was human have I said it to anyone but you.”
The truth was in his eyes, and it took the sting out of discovering everything, and everyone, that had come before me.
“Well, then…okay.”
“Okay?” Bones pulled me onto the floor with him until our faces were level.
“Yeah,” I said softly, touching his face. “Okay.”
When he kissed me this time, I didn’t flinch. I coiled myself around him.
Bones drew back after a long moment. “I still have to deal with Annette. You might look leniently on her, but she violated my trust, and I cannot dismiss that. Annette!” he suddenly called out. “Get up here!”
I shrugged, an idea I normally wouldn’t have considered threading its way into my head.
“Do it your way, but I suggest another one. You could go ahead and beat her bloody, or…you could give me such loud, screaming orgasms that the sound of them blisters her ears. If you have any former-whore-turned-promiscuous-vampire tricks you’ve been holding back, well, bring them on. I only have one stipulation: You’d better outperform any service you gave to her or anyone else, because if I don’t wake up tomorrow red in the face from embarrassment at what you did to me, I’ll be disappointed.”
Annette opened the door without knocking. Bones rose and gave her a frightening look.
“We have business to sort out, you and I,” he said with silky threat. Then he glanced back at me. “Later.”
And he slammed the door in her face.
“Trying to hang my knickers around your neck?”
The look in his eyes, already marbled with green, made my reply unsteady. “You don’t wear any.”
He glided over and drew me to my feet. “I should assure you that in bed you have nothing to prove to me, or that I’ve never enjoyed making love to anyone more, but only a fool passes up what you just offered me. Now, I am short on some props, and there isn’t nearly enough time in one night to run through all the ways I’ve fantasized about taking you, but I promise you this…” His voice deepened. “You’ll be scandalized in the morning when you can think again.”

THIRTY-TWO

With deliberate slowness, Bones began unbuttoning his shirt. I watched his creamy skin revealed with each unfastened clasp. When he was finished, he pulled it off, and then ripped each sleeve free with a tug. The reason for that strange action was revealed when he tied the fabric around my eyes, blindfolding me.
My nails dug into my palms as everything went black. He’d done a good job with it. The next thing I felt were his hands pushing me back onto the bed, and then easing off my clothes until I was naked.
Something was secured around my wrist, stretching my arm out lengthwise and then restraining it, presumably to the bed frame. The same action was repeated with my other arm.
“Don’t fight them,” Bones whispered. “They’re not strong enough to hold you. Relax.” A low chuckle. “Let me work.”
Thus shackled, I could only listen as he moved around. It sounded like he was in the bathroom rummaging through the cabinets, for what I had no idea. Being blindfolded and tied naked to a bed was disconcerting, to say the least, but he didn’t take long before he returned.
Hands trailed over my shoulders and moved lower to cup my breasts. A mouth closed over my nipple, fangs already extended. He laved the peak with his tongue, and then the flatness of his human teeth nibbled it to hardness.
I inhaled sharply when he carefully dug his incisors in next, just short of breaking the skin. He drew stronger on my nipple until ribbons of raw desire shot through me.
“I want to touch you,” I moaned, pulling on the bonds that prevented me.
He clamped his hands over my wrists without breaking contact with his mouth.
“Later.”
His English accent was thicker, and I knew from the brush of his hip that he was naked now as well. Below us the TV switched on, Annette pointedly turning up the volume, but it barely registered to me. Not with Bones increasing the pressure until my nipple felt seared, and there was a sharp stab when his fangs pierced it.
A cry wrenched from me, but not of pain. He made a hoarse noise and began to suck harder, pulling my blood into his mouth. As before when he drank from me, I started to feel warm all over. My breast was positively burning, but I also felt a thrill of apprehension. I’d said anything goes, and Bones wasn’t wasting time.
“Your heart is thundering in my ears, but you won’t fret long,” he murmured, switching to my other breast. “I’m going to knock the fear right out of you.”
I gasped and arched underneath him when he bit me again in the same way. Now both my nipples were sizzled and each breast throbbed with heat. His lips slithered up my arm as he shifted higher in bed, moving off me.
I felt the probe of his tongue on my wrist below where those unseen bonds held me. His mouth covered the spot in the next instant, fangs puncturing so quickly I didn’t even have time to tense.
That same throb from my breasts was now duplicated in my wrist. Hot, pulsing waves beat in accordance with my pulse. If heroin addicts feel anything like this, I thought dizzily as it spread like warm caramel down my arm, then I completely understand why they do it.
“That’s the juice from my fangs you’re feeling,” Bones said throatily. “It’s moving through your veins with every heartbeat. If you were human, I wouldn’t dare bite you more. Too much would drug you, but you’re not human. So I can do this…”
I moaned out loud when he bit my other wrist. Now that sweet unbelievable heat was covering my entire upper body. Good God, but I hadn’t known vampire bites could feel like this, or I might have demanded he drink from me every day.
Bones squeezed my wrists, and I jumped. The pressure seemed to push that warmth deeper in me.
“Don’t move, luv.”
Easier said than done. I wanted to pull on the bonds to have their tautness drive that heat further into me. His skin brushing against my mouth distracted me from that, however, as he slid his body down the length of me and then firmly pinched my nipples. That sudden jab of double fire had me twisting toward him with a cry.
“More!”
He laughed softly. “Oh yes. Much more.”
Anticipation heightened within me when Bones parted my legs and moved between them, one arm underneath my hips. His mouth was so close, but he didn’t do what I wanted him to. Instead he started nuzzling my thigh.
“Bones, please.” The request was ragged. I needed to feel his tongue inside me. Probing me. Licking me.
“Not yet.”
The breath from his words teased me, causing the ache to expand. I gritted my teeth, mentally cursing him.
“Yes. Now.”
“Not yet.”
I was actually going to argue, caught up in a whirlwind of lust from the heat running through me, when Bones bit into my thigh.
My whole body arched, and I inadvertently pulled on the bonds holding me. More liquid fire cascaded in me, tripled by the new flames in my leg, and I came with an internal spasm that left me trembling. Holy shit! He hadn’t even touched me between my legs, and here I was shaking from a 9.0 on the orgasm scale.
Bones’s mouth left my thigh, which was throbbing so hard, it felt like my artery was trying to shove his juices through my veins. I didn’t even have time to catch my breath when a dominating lick deep within me took it away. With his arm under my hips, he pressed me closer, his mouth greedily ravishing my pink flesh. My head fell back while my moans got even louder. Another climax drew near, accelerated by his tongue swirling and stabbing inside me, and then he abruptly stopped.
“Not yet!” I cried in blind need.
“Hold still.”
Bones’s arms hardened around me until I was immobilized from the waist down. A rasp of his mouth against my flesh made me tremble, and then he sealed it over my clitoris and sucked slowly. Deliberately. Even through the numbing ecstasy, something about the way he did it darted trepidation inside me. He couldn’t mean to…?
There was a split second of clarity when I felt his fangs penetrate, and then nothing but white-hot fire. Dimly I felt more suction and heard ear-splitting shrieks, but couldn’t register who made them. One after the other the orgasms convulsed me, shattering me from the inside out. Everything burned and then exploded, only to burn again. Eventually I fell back into awareness, and found the frenzied cries to be coming from me.
My blindfold was off. The strips of his shirt that had held me to the bed frame were severed, and apparently I had torn up the sheets around us. Bones had me pinned underneath him, restrained by his body. The last haze lifted, and his face came into focus.
He wore a purely masculine smile that had passed smug and hovered near conceited. I couldn’t stop shaking, especially when he kissed me and I tasted blood and other things on his tongue.
“Oh, Kitten,” he growled. “You have no idea how much I enjoyed that. I’ve already spilled myself inside you, bloody hell, I thought you’d castrate me with your pleasure. Do you know how long you’ve been whipping around from the effects of my bite?”
Not a clue. “Five minutes?”
To my shock, my voice was hoarse and nearly unrecognizable. He chuckled.
“Try twenty, give or take a few. The police have already come and gone; Annette sent them away. I think the neighbors thought someone was being murdered.”
“Huh?” I croaked, and then gasped when he moved lower and thrust fully inside me with one stroke. That gasp turned into a cry when his pelvis ground into my bitten, throbbing clitoris. It felt like lightning just struck me below the waist.
He groaned in satisfaction. “Feels hot, doesn’t it?”
That didn’t even begin to describe it. “It burns. Burns. God, Bones, it feels so good!” My vehemence surprised me on an internal level, but skin-deep, I wanted more. Needed more, and wasn’t shy about telling him.
“Don’t stop, don’t stop!”
Bones moved harder, faster, and I reveled in his fierceness. Every thrust sent new heat blasting into me, making me almost insane with desire. His chest flattened my breasts, pressing on my nipples, and he clamped his hands around my wrists. The combined pressures sent me spinning into another orgasm, and yet it still wasn’t enough. I urged him on in between shouts, crying out for more until I couldn’t speak, and when he came, I joined him with a scream that took most of my voice with it.
Bones pulled out of me and left the bed, but I hardly noticed. I couldn’t move, and my heart was beating so rapidly, I felt certain it was dangerous.
He came back moments later, turning me until I lay on my side. His fingers slid between my thighs with something liquid but thicker coating them. He kissed my neck, and then smeared the substance into the crease of my buttocks.
I trembled. Oh God. I knew what he intended.
Bones curled his body along the length of mine, positioning. “It’s all right, Kitten, don’t fret. Relax…”
Wordless grunts emerged from my throat when he spread my cheeks and I felt the first start of penetration. A soft cry escaped me, almost a wheeze. Bones moaned, grasping my hips. His next thrust breached me and the tip of him slid inside.
He throbbed, or perhaps it was me. Either way, the new sensation was strange and almost disturbing. Bones reached down, rubbing my clit to quickly reignite that heat in me. Then he slowly invaded further into the depths that had never before been crossed.
Another jagged noise left my throat. Bones stopped at once.
“Does this hurt?”
His voice was thick with lust, but he didn’t move as he waited for my response. The fullness inside me wasn’t pain in the strictest sense, but it was indescribably intense. I wasn’t sure if it hurt me, or I liked it, or both.
When I didn’t respond in the affirmative, he asked another question. “Do you want me to stop?”
My voice, when it came, was scratchy and very soft. “No.”
Bones craned his neck to kiss me. His fingers bombarded my flesh while he began to move in and out, slowly, a little deeper each time. I didn’t know if it was the passion in his kiss, his fingers stoking the fire in me, or something else, but when my back arched, I was shocked to find myself moving with him.
“Yes,” he groaned. “Yes…”
My mind might still be objecting to this new activity, but my body had no morality. Bones increased the motion by infinitesimal degrees, building a gentle rhythm I couldn’t help responding to, while rubbing my clit with every stroke. I dug my nails into his arm, moaning into his mouth, and let a hidden instinct take over.
I didn’t think it was possible. It probably wouldn’t have been possible if I’d been thinking at all, but eventually my release hit me as surely as the astonishment over what caused it.
Bones growled deeply in his throat and abruptly pulled out. A warm wetness spilled onto my thigh moments later.
“Don’t move, luv,” he whispered, voice still vibrating with his climax. “I’ll clean us up.”
Seconds after the unnecessary command, because I didn’t think I could move anything, he drew out a sudsy towel from a nearby bowl and ran it over my thigh. With half-closed eyes, I watched him wipe himself with another cloth after I’d been attended to. Then he threw the rags to the floor and took me in his arms.
He kissed me, biting his tongue so his mouth was flavored with drops of blood that I swallowed as if I were thirsty. That soreness in my throat vanished, which was a plus, but then that flaring heat in me also ebbed. I broke the kiss to look down at my breasts. The puncture marks in my nipples vanished before my eyes. Bones’s blood had healed more than my voice, of course, and I couldn’t help feeling the tiniest bit disappointed.
He smiled when he saw where I was looking. “Oh, Kitten, I’m not nearly done feasting on your flesh. I can’t get enough of that pop when your skin breaks, or the taste of your luscious blood filling my mouth…”
He proved his statement by biting me in every place he had before, until I was in danger of damaging my voice once again. Not that I cared while I was on top of him, each rock of my body shooting exquisite pleasure into me. Vocal cords? Who needed ’em?
Bones sat up, brought me closer, and sank his fangs into my neck. God, if he didn’t kill me before dawn, I’d be amazed. He drew on the punctures while shifting me on his lap until my legs wrapped around his waist. His thrust brought on another shallow suction, and another, and another, while vaguely I wondered why my skin wasn’t smoking, because it felt like I had to be on fire.
“Bite me, Kitten. Drink me as I drink you.”
I buried my teeth into his neck with far more roughness than he’d shown. There was a giving way of skin—yes, a pop—and then blood filled my mouth. It was warm, heated from being in my body minutes before, but irrevocably altered after being in his. We drank from each other, me more deeply, and nothing seemed separate anymore. His body was my body, his blood my blood, our blood, and it flowed back and forth between us with every swallow.
Scent began to fill my nose. Colors sharpened, becoming clearer. My heartbeat, which had sounded loud before, now practically deafened me. Just as an overwhelming hunger hit, Bones wrenched me away.
“No more.”
In fury I clawed him to get to his throat. He slammed me back on the mattress, tearing into me with an unbridled vehemence that still wasn’t enough. There was a creak as the bed broke under us.
“Goddammit, Bones, give me more!” I roared, and didn’t know if I called out for blood, or sex, or both.
“Is that all the fight you’ve got?” he taunted me.
I laid open his back with my nails, trying to lick his blood off my hands from the scratches. He held my wrists together and plunged repeatedly inside me, his throat tantalizingly near. I wanted that throat in my mouth. Wanted to tear it and feel his blood spilling into me, overflowing me, covering me. Something had taken over inside me, and it was clawing to get out.
“You’d better not stop fucking me,” I snarled, and a decadent grin lit his face. “Because if you do, I’ll drain you dry.”
Bones laughed, savage and exultant. “You’ll drain me dry, but not my neck, and you’ll beg me to stop before I’m finished,” he promised before abandoning himself to the battle.

THIRTY-THREE

Wake up, luv. It’s nearly noon.”
My lashes fluttered open to meet a pair of dark brown eyes. Bones sat on the bed. Or the remains of it.
Lucidity returned with a vengeance. He laughed at the color that immediately scalded my face.
“And there is my payment, the rubies in your cheeks. Are you properly scandalized by your wicked behavior? If you were Catholic, you’d singe the ears of the priest you confessed to. Do you remember making me swear to repeat all those naughty actions again, no matter what you said this morning?”
Now that he brought it up, I did recall saying that. Great. Betrayed by my own immorality.
“God, Bones…some of that was depraved.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” He closed the distance between us. “I love you. Don’t be ashamed of anything we did, even if your prudery is on life support.”
I studied his neck where I’d bitten him. There were no marks, of course, and none on my own throat. With all the blood I’d drunk from him, I’d probably heal as fast as he did for the next few days.
“I’ll never look at your fangs the same way after last night. A part of me wants to apologize for holding you back before, and the other part wants you to apologize to me because you knew better!”
He laughed again. “I still have more to show you, trust me, but there isn’t time now. We’re behind schedule as it is since I let you sleep.”
I threw the covers off me and headed to the bathroom. Behind schedule or not, I was taking a shower. Bones was already washed and dressed. His hair was still slightly damp.
“There’s something you should know,” he called after me. “Tate’s here. He spent the night.”
The shampoo squirted across the wall instead of in my hand. For the first time, I noticed the heartbeat downstairs. “Why?”
There was tempered deliberation in Bones’s words as he entered the bathroom. “He convinced Rodney to drop the others off and bring him back here, out of misguided concern for you. When he arrived, you and I were well occupied. Annette invited him to stay and entertain her. He accepted.”
The shower rod came off when I yanked the curtain back too hard to look at him. Bones caught it and hung it back without comment.
“Tate and Annette? Not playing poker, were they?”
“No, why, are you jealous?” he bluntly asked.
“No, are you?”
“Not at all. Just annoyed at her spite toward you, but that’s been dealt with.”
“Tate called me a necrophiliac once.” There was an edge to my voice. “I’ll have to return the compliment.”
“You just did. He’s listening, I can feel it.”
Was he? Nosy prick. He knew I didn’t like Annette. She wasn’t the only one being spiteful. Another thought registered. “You knew last night, didn’t you?”
Bones inclined his head in acknowledgment. “You can forget asking me why I didn’t tell you. Not for worlds would I have interrupted us, and if he chose to stay, that was his prerogative. Never fear—I forgot about him at once, because you demanded all my attention.”
As I lathered my hair, I decided I wasn’t upset at Bones. After all, it was pretty damn difficult to even shower and not throw him back on the bed. My modesty might still be outraged, but the rest of me wasn’t.
Bones inhaled, his eyes glinting as he caught my scent. “I’m going downstairs. I can’t be so close to you without wanting you, and there’s no time.”
He left in a swish of motion, making me smile as I resumed washing.
Four heads swiveled in my direction when I came down. The kitchen table was full. Since most of the chairs were broken from yesterday, we were short a seat. Bones pulled me onto his lap without pausing in his conversation with Rodney, tapping the plate of food in front of him.
“Eat something. Can’t have you getting faint because you keep skipping meals.”
“I’m amazed she can even walk,” Tate griped without looking up. “You must have given her a gallon of blood after what I heard last night.”
“Is that any concern of yours?” Bones coolly inquired, tightening his grip when I would have risen to smack Tate. “At work you have your seniority, Kitten, but he’s on personal ground now, so those rules don’t apply.”
“I’d keep a lid on it if I were you, Tate,” I warned. “Nice to see you walking without a limp, too, or are you? You’re seated so I can’t tell.”
Tate didn’t back down. “You’re the one who said once you go dead, no one’s better in bed. Thought I’d see if you were right.”
Rodney laughed. “You said that, Cat?”
Bones gave me a sideways smirk. “Happy to represent my kind,” he assured me.
I glared at Tate, but then my mouth twitched. His did, too, and he grunted once in bemusement. “Christ, Cat, can you imagine Dave looking down on us now? He probably doesn’t believe his eyes. Breakfast with a table of vampires.”
Tears clouded my eyes at the mention of Dave. Tate glanced away in embarrassment at the sudden moisture in his own gaze.
“Wish we would have had you with us that day, deadhead,” Tate said gruffly to Bones. “At least you could have probably saved him with that turbo blood of yours. Cat couldn’t get enough in him, even when she squeezed the other vamp like a sponge. If you can keep that from happening again, maybe it’s worth having you on the team. Even though I can’t stand you.”
Instead of being offended, Bones tapped his chin thoughtfully. He exchanged a glance with Rodney, and then turned me around more fully in his lap.
“Kitten, you didn’t tell me you poured vampire blood on your friend as he died. Did he swallow any of it?”
“Juan made him swallow a little, but God, Bones, Dave had been missing almost half his throat. He bled to death before it could heal all the way.”
“Tricky,” Rodney stated.
I shot him a look. “A lot more than tricky. He was a friend.”
The ghoul started to open his mouth when Bones cut him off.
“Not now, mate. Kitten, the timetable’s been moved up. While you were sleeping, Ian called me and said he’d gotten information on your location. We knew it was only a matter of time, though I would have preferred another week or two to get everything in place. No matter, the die is cast. I told Ian I’d found you myself just last night, and that I’d have hostages for him later today. Ian was overjoyed, and he’s assembling a welcoming party. Bloody bloke always did like things flashy.”
I stiffened. “Okay, well, then we do this tonight. I’ll tell Don, we’ll get the rest of the guys assembled, and…we’ll settle things.”
“Actually, luv, there are a few problems. Ian wasn’t satisfied when I told him I had three of your men as collateral. He wants more, and he’s dispatched someone to get it.”
A chill ran up my spine. “What’s more?”
“Noah,” Tate bluntly supplied. “And that’s not even the punch line.”
“Do you mind?” Bones glared at Tate before continuing. “Your rash bloke is correct, Kitten, and that’s the second problem. Ian figures he’ll kill one of your men in front of you, both as incentive for you to heed his demands, and as payback for you slaying his butler Magnus. Ian intends to save Noah for the coup de grâce, however, because whoever gave him information about you didn’t know you’d broken up with Noah. Furthermore, he sent your father, Max, to get Noah, since apparently Max offered to do it.”
I shoved the plate away and vaulted off his lap. “Don’s watching Noah’s place, right? We’ll catch Max, that piece of shit, and I’ll kill him. It’ll make my whole existence.”
Bones shook his head. “We can’t, luv. If we do that, Ian will know we’re playing him false. How else would you have a team of vampire killers there at the ready? We’ll lose our advantage of surprise, and I’m not endangering you that way. Why do you think Max offered to go? He’s probably intending to set Noah up as his own blackmail and then kill you on sight! Ian doesn’t know that, but we do. Don’t fret; I’m sending Rodney to ensure Noah’s safety. He’ll grab him first and beat Max to it. Ian’s not going to kill Noah—he thinks he’s too valuable. Max, on the other hand, would do just that to enrage you into coming after him.”
“You go,” I said at once. “Rodney, it’s nothing against you, but if something goes wrong…if Max shows up sooner than you expect, I want someone there who’ll scare my father into not pulling any tricks. That’s you, Bones. You’re not just an old vampire with a badass hit man reputation, you’re higher up in Ian’s line and Max knows it. He wouldn’t dare try shit with you around, and without you, I have visions of Noah’s tombstone dancing in my head.”
“No,” Bones said inflexibly. “I’m going to be with you, helping to capture Ian’s guards. Annette can accompany Rodney to get Noah, if you’re concerned about Max.”
“Please,” I scoffed. “Like Annette would care if things went wrong with Noah. It would hardly break her heart if Noah died, or yours, for that matter, but it means something to me!”
It was a low thing to say, but still true. Bones lifted a shoulder in admission.
“Left to myself, I couldn’t give a rot if Noah dies. I won’t deny that. But you’d suffer for it, and that I do bother about.”
“I’ll take Annette.” The words flew out without much forethought. “She can come with me as backup to help with Ian’s guards, then you can be with Rodney to get Noah.”
Bones gave me a look like I’d gone crazy, which wasn’t a far trip for me. “You think I’d let you attack a group of vampires—a group you’re not even intending to kill, which as we all know makes it bloody harder—while I’m off securing your pet vet?”
His scathing delivery on those last two words made me even more determined to ensure Noah’s protection. Rodney would know Bones wouldn’t really be upset if anything happened to Noah. Annette would know it, too. But if Bones went himself…then he’d feel honor-bound to make sure Noah was kept safe. No matter how much he didn’t like him.
“Actually, it would work better this way,” I said, improvising. “We can assume two things: one, the guards won’t know who I am at first, thanks to my brown hair, and two, once they do realize who I am, they’ll try not to kill me. Ian would be pissed at being denied his prize, right? They’d know that. I’m safer with them than anyone else.”
“It may indeed work better, Crispin,” Annette offered. “They’d be less likely to suspect an ambush if they thought we were there for their…entertainment.”
Bones didn’t respond for a long moment, then he turned to Annette and smiled coldly at her.
“After yesterday, I have cause to wonder if you’re offering with ulterior motives, so let me tell you what will happen if any harm comes to her. I’ll cut you off from my line.” Bones took a knife out of his pocket and sliced it across his palm, his eyes never leaving Annette’s. “On my blood, I swear I’ll cut you off. And then I’ll offer a standing reward to anyone who makes your life an unbearable hell, do you understand me?”
Annette actually gulped. I couldn’t help but wince in empathy for her. What Bones had just promised her was worse than a death sentence. Annette would be open game for anyone undead and uncaring, and she wasn’t strong enough to protect herself. Throw in some cash prizes to any interested Dead Depraved, and she’d be truly screwed.
Bones arched a brow at me. “Now you can have Annette accompany you, and I’ll go after Noah.”
Poor Noah. The only reason he was involved in this to begin with was that he’d had the misfortune to date me. In fact, out of everyone, I was the only truly safe one in this whole messed-up scenario. Annette would protect me with her whole afterlife now, and Ian’s men would probably risk getting killed themselves rather than hurt their sire’s coveted new toy. That left Bones at risk trying to keep Noah safe, not to mention if Annette and I couldn’t beat Ian’s men, my three guys were in the most danger of all. Ian had said he’d kill one of them, for revenge and to prove a point. Tonight would decide everything, and suddenly I couldn’t bear to just gamble that we’d be all strong enough or smart enough to pull it off. What if we weren’t? Why should any of them have to risk dying to save me? After all, there was another way out. It only required my sacrifice, and I made the decision in a split second.
“Bones.” I came over and grasped his hand. “None of this has to happen at all. Ian only wants me because being a half-breed makes me rare, but if I’m a full-blown vampire, then I’m nothing special. So do it. Change me over. Make me a vampire.”
The howl of protest I expected from Tate, but the most emphatic refusal came much softer.
“No.”
I blinked in surprised anger. “Come on, dammit, do it! Or was Annette right? Does my body temperature mean that much to you?”
Cheap shot number two. Bones tightened his grip when I tried to tug free.
“You’re not leaping before you look on this one. Balls before brains won’t do it.” His refusal finally penetrated the rampage by Tate, who shut up and stared at Bones with disbelief. “You don’t want this, luv,” Bones continued. “You think you have no choice, but I’ve told you time and again, there is always another way. If you truly desired me to change you, then I would. You know that. But not like this. There’s no going back from this decision, and then even the most poignant regret is wasted.”
He pulled me to him, and his next words fell softly near my ear.
“And if I were really just so fond of your flesh being warm, I’d throw you in a hot tub each time before I shagged you. You’d be ninety-eight degrees in twenty minutes, vampire or no, so sod Annette and her nasty little comments.”
“Something could happen to you with Max,” I muttered.
Bones let out a snort. “Not a chance. You’re right—Max is too much of a coward to take me on, and if he did, I’d bend him in half the wrong way and deliver him to you in a box.”
“That leaves my guys. If Annette and I fail, I can’t just stand there and watch Ian kill one of them.”
Bones sat back, but still didn’t let go of my hand.
“There’s another way around that as well, if it comes to it. Once I’m free of Ian’s line, then I’m free to take my people—and my possessions—with me. You don’t like it, but the fact remains that in vampire culture, you’re considered mine by right of blood and bed. I’ll claim your men as mine, too. Ian couldn’t kill them then, not without risking war with me.”
“But you haven’t fed from or fucked any of them!” I burst. “And unless things are going to get downright freaky, that isn’t going to change!”
“I for one would rather die,” Tate muttered.
“You’re already covered, you sod,” Bones said curtly. “Annette is under my line, so when she shagged you, that gave her the ability to call you hers. Which then makes you mine by default, though I won’t be proud to say it.”
“What?” Tate asked, incensed. “I’m not some fang boy toy!”
Annette chuckled throatily. “But according to vampire laws, darling, you’re my fang boy toy if I say so.”
“You should’ve read the fine print before hopping into bed with her, Tate,” I said pitilessly. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t pay you back for what you did to me, and tattle to Don about it. Still, right now we’ve got bigger issues. Okay, Bones, if you or Annette bite Cooper and Juan, we’re covered if things go south with Ian?”
“Yes,” he said, ignoring Tate’s glare.
That worked for me. I didn’t want to announce myself as property to a room full of vamps, but if it was that or watch one of my men die…fuck my pride. Theirs, too. Life was more important than bruised egos.
“All right,” I said, standing. “We’ll go to the compound so one of you can bite Juan and Cooper, then Annette and I will take the guys to play bait and switch with Ian’s men, you and Rodney will get Noah…when are we all supposed to meet up later with Ian?”
“’Round midnight, Kitten, which gives you time, because between capturing Ian’s blokes and going to see Ian, you need to go to a spa.”
“A spa?” I repeated, like I’d never heard the word before. “Why on earth would I do that?”
“Because you need at least an hour in a steam room to sweat my scent from your pores,” Bones replied calmly. “If you go to Ian as you are now, he’ll know from one sniff that we’ve double-crossed him, and then we may as well just start the mayhem. Don’t fret, everything’s been arranged.”
“A spa,” I repeated again, shaking my head. That would have made my top ten of things I did not count on doing today, but looks like I had a date with a steam room. And Ian’s men. And Ian. And my father.
Tonight was going to be a busy night, no doubt about that.

THIRTY-FOUR

Tate, Juan, and Cooper were in the back of the van, handcuffed, with duct tape over their mouths and three unused rolls of it near their feet. This van wasn’t the luxury kind with the DVD player, surround sound, or heated seats, either. There weren’t any seats in the back, actually, and aside from the metal grille separating the two front seats from the rest of the vehicle cabin, the interior was as stripped as could be. Rodney had supplied the van, and from the looks of it, my guys weren’t the only people who’d ever been restrained in the back of it.
Annette drove. I didn’t complain about that, since it made sense, appearance-wise. Bones had told Ian he was sending Annette to deliver the hostages to his men, and Ian would have relayed that. I was supposed to be the bisexual fang groupie who was Annette’s date for later. The really horny bisexual fang groupie, since I was also supposed to suggest to the guards that they blow off a little steam with us. Neither Annette nor Bones thought they’d be hard to convince, since what danger would leaving three trussed-up humans alone for a bit pose to a group of vampires? None that they were aware of, which was the point.
“We’re almost there,” Annette said, her first words this whole trip. The hour-long silence had suited me just fine. Chatting with Annette wasn’t high on my list of priorities.
A new waft of scent from the back coincided with an increase in my guy’s pulses. The news that we were almost there was kicking their adrenaline into gear. Since we hadn’t had more time for them to practice with Belinda, I didn’t expect them to be able to pin Ian’s men long enough for Annette and me to secure them. But we were hoping Tate, Juan, and Cooper would prove to be enough of a distraction to make it easier on Annette and me. And for them not to get killed in the process, of course.
I inhaled again. It was such a unique thing to be able to discern emotions by scent. I’d inherited a lot from my undead father, but a heightened sense of smell hadn’t been one of those upgraded senses. Maybe when I saw him tonight, I’d thank him for my other abilities. Right before I killed him.
Then I took another deep breath and frowned. Bones’s scent still clung to me, of course, even after my shower this morning. Hence his whole spa idea later, but that wouldn’t do me any good now, ten minutes away from facing Ian’s men.
“I still smell like Bones,” I said to Annette. “Won’t smelling him on me cause suspicion when we play our little act with Ian’s guards?”
Annette’s mouth curled. “They think you’re just another pretty girl, not the Red Reaper Ian’s after, so it would make perfect sense that you’d smell like Crispin. The two of us supposedly just came from picking up prisoners from him, remember? Crispin does have a reputation. In fact, you really should smell more like me as well, for things to be truly believable.”
My teeth ground, which only made Annette’s smirk broaden. “When hell freezes,” I said evenly.
She clucked her tongue. “Pity.” And she gave me a slow once-over that reminded me loud and clear that Annette found women just as enticing as men. Guess since she hadn’t succeeded at pulling me away from Bones, she thought she’d try a “can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach.
I drummed my nails on the van door, biting back the urge to groan, “Are we there yet?” Fighting vampires held a much stronger appeal than getting hit on by Bones’s former main squeeze. Especially since she only wanted to get me in bed so that Bones could join us.
About five minutes later, Annette pulled into the parking lot for a strip of warehouses. I glanced around. It was after six in the evening on a Friday, so most of the working world had left, assuming any of these warehouses were owned by the average company with average employees. Annette pulled out her cell and dialed.
“Open the bay door,” she said by way of greeting.
“We’re here.”

Annette backed the van up into a bay door, which closed as soon as we were inside. I’d wondered how we were supposed to hand over three handcuffed and gagged men without attracting attention. I gave a quick glance around what I could see of the warehouse from my vantage point in the van. Aside from the six vampires approaching us, there didn’t appear to be anyone else in the immediate vicinity. That was a plus.
The fact that the warehouse consisted of one open, big-ass room was a definite negative, however. The van was the only thing that interrupted the space in here. Mentally I cursed. So much for bringing the vamps back into a room two at a time so no one else could see what was going on. I caught Annette’s eye and nodded at the open area around us. She just shrugged and got out of the van.
Bitch.
“’Allo, my beauty,” one of the vampires greeted Annette in an accented voice. He had a patch over his right eye, and a crooked nose that, when he was human, must have been broken repeatedly. Still, those defects somehow worked with the rest of him, giving him a roguish air that complemented his dark looks.
Annette gave the man a kiss on the mouth. A long one. My brows shot up. Well. Annette was either very friendly when meeting people, or he wasn’t a stranger.
“Francois,” she murmured. “It’s been too long.”
He said something in French that I couldn’t translate, but Annette did, because she laughed and replied in the same language. It was irritating not knowing what they were saying. Note to self: Expand linguistic skills.
Whatever their exchange was, it had Francois looking over at me with a glint in his, er, eye. Suddenly I wasn’t so sure about my bright idea of having Annette back me up instead of Bones. She didn’t like me; that had been firmly established. What if she was telling the other vampire that this was a trap? What if Bones’s warning of horrible punishment didn’t scare her as much as it should? Jealousy was an irrational emotion, and Annette might figure that she could come up with a whopper of a story afterward to deflect Bones’s anger. I shifted uneasily in my seat, casting a quick look toward the back at my three bound guys. Things could get very ugly, very fast.
Francois stroked a strawberry-blond lock of hair from Annette’s face before turning on his heel and coming over to my side of the van. I tensed, my hand sliding down to my thigh-high boots. I had silver knives tucked away in those. Maybe there wouldn’t be any hostages for me to use as leverage against Ian after all.
Francois opened my door and I smiled, pretending to play with the tops of my boots in girlish flirtation while in reality, I was fingering the hilt of one of my blades.
“I have not had the pleasure of meeting you,” Francois said. “I am Francois, and my friend Annette tells me you are Selena.”
I let him take my hand and kiss it, even though it meant being farther away from my knives. Behind Francois’s shoulder I saw Annette saying hello to the other guards. She knew all their names, I realized with an inner wince. If she wasn’t backstabbing me, then she was about to do it in a big way to these people. Finally I realized the magnitude of what Bones was doing. These were Ian’s people; therefore, Bones probably knew them residually, if not quite well. And for me, he was double-crossing them. Sure, it wasn’t like they were innocents, since they’d agreed to be guards and potential executioners for my men, but still. It was so much easier to betray strangers than friends.
“Selena, my pet, come here,” Annette said, waving me over.
I smiled at Francois once more and excused myself. Francois nonchalantly went around the back of the van, out of my sight, as I met Annette by the cluster of five vampires. If she’s going to turn on me, I thought grimly, now would be the perfect time to do it.
But all Annette did was pull me close and kiss my neck while casually stroking my arm. Behind us, in the back of the van, it sounded like Francois was unloading Tate, Juan, and Cooper. Their hearts were beating faster, but nothing that made me think they were in imminent danger.
“Selena, meet my friends,” Annette said.
I was quickly enveloped in warm hello kisses, as if this was a swingers’ bar instead of a warehouse hostage transfer. Annette laughed when one of the men, Hatchet I think he’d said his name was, gave me a kiss heavy with tongue and decided to feel all the contours of my ass.
“Enough of that, Hatchet,” Annette said, playfully pulling me back. “Selena likes to get warmed up first, but by the feminine persuasion. Isn’t that right, darling?”
Bitch, I thought again, seeing the dare in her eyes, but I smiled and let Annette fold me in her arms. At least she wasn’t grabbing my ass. Yet.
“That’s right,” I said breathily. “Still, it’s nice to have something more substantial than a tongue to finish me off. Are you men going to be very busy here? Or do you get to take, um, breaks?”
I licked my fingers as I spoke. Annette was behind me, caressing my sides suggestively, and it was almost funny to see five sets of gazes all of a sudden turn streetlight green.
“When are we supposed to be at Ian’s?” one of them asked.
Francois’s voice came from the other side of the van. “Not until eleven, over four hours from now.”
Annette’s mouth ran along the line of my neck to my shoulder, and I shivered pleasantly without faking it. The way her teeth grazed my skin had made little goose bumps appear. Then she followed the line with her tongue, rubbing along the back of me with a slow, voluptuous slide.
Hatchet began taking off his clothes. I blinked. Apparently that was enough incentive for him.
Francois came around the van and put his arms around Annette. She purred and snake-hipped against him, which had me moving in the same way, too, since her hands still gripped my sides. Then Francois extended his reach and cupped my breasts. The rest of the guys started stripping as well. Pretty soon I’d have visual proof that none of them were packing weapons. So far the only knives I’d seen were carelessly laid several yards away by where the van pulled in. They really hadn’t expected a trap.
I bent forward, like I was reveling in the sensations…and then I palmed four knives from my boots. Good timing, too. Francois had been about to feel me up, or were those Annette’s hands starting to get frisky?
“Now!” I shouted, and flung the blades.
Two landed in Hatchet’s eyes, and the other two in the eyes of the vampire next to him. They screamed, snatching at the blades while I leapt forward, throwing myself on them and smashing their heads together hard enough to hear crunching sounds.
But not hard enough to kill. Hatchet and his friend were on the ground, writhing and blinded, but they’d heal. The other three vampires had gone for their weapons—and came face to face with Tate, Juan, and Cooper instead.
“Remember those handcuffs?” Tate asked, dangling one. “Fakes.”
The vampires didn’t bother to attempt to green-eye them into submission. They came tearing toward them with their fangs and fists instead. All this I saw while grappling with the two wounded ones on the floor, trying to get just the right slant with knives on both of them without killing them. Annette had her hands full with Francois, who sounded like he was cursing her up one side and down the other in French.
My three guys had exactly one silver knife apiece, which had been hidden in the soles of their shoes. They were all that stood between the vampires and their own cache of weapons. Right now, watching the vampires charge them as if time had shifted to slow motion, I knew I couldn’t intervene. Not unless I killed the two vampires I was wrestling with.
I straddled Hatchet, holding him down, while roughly cutting the other vampire’s throat deep enough that it nearly hacked his head off. That kept him occupied for a moment. Long enough for me to seize one of my blades, ignoring the pain as Hatchet landed a brutal blow to my stomach, and ram it into his chest.
He froze. The knife had gone clean through his heart. I leaned over until my hair brushed his face.
“Don’t move, and I won’t twist this blade. I don’t want you dead. I just want you docile.”
He stared up at me and spoke one word. “Reaper.”
I knew my gaze must have been lit up, which was typical under the circumstance. I nodded.
“That’s right. Now, don’t fucking move.”
I jumped off him, catching the blur of motion to my right as Juan, Tate, and Cooper were involved in the fight of their lives. Cooper already had two wide slashes on his collarbone, but he was holding his own and countering each lightning-fast move. Tate had blood running from his mouth, but he, too, seemed relatively unhurt, and Juan…where the hell was Juan?
The vamp beside me was getting up, his throat almost completely healed. I slammed his head into the hard ground, stunning him, and dragged him off several feet away from Hatchet. Then I jumped to avoid his leg from swiping my feet out from under me and skewered him in the chest.
“You want to live?” I asked, giving the blade a tiny flick. “Then don’t dare so much as twitch.”
Annette had Francois on the ground. Neither one of them had weapons, so it looked like they were trying to chew each other to death. I glanced at her, and then my guys. Juan still wasn’t in sight. He must be on the other side of the van. I paused, then flung a blade as I caught Hatchet’s hand beginning to creep toward the knife in his chest. It landed square in his forehead.
“Next one finishes you,” I snarled. “Don’t test me again.”
Juan went flying over the top of the van. He had gouges all over him, but his heart rate was steady. Elevated as hell, but steady, and I leapt up to catch him before he barreled into the ground.
“Watch where you’re going,” I said with a quick grin, setting him on his feet and then jumping onto the top of the van. From this higher vantage point, I could see the blond vampire Juan had been battling almost reaching the pile of weapons. I didn’t hesitate, but pushed off the side of the van like it was a diving board and hurled myself at him. He went down, hard, with me grabbing his back.
“Juan, make sure those two vamps don’t pull out their silver!” I managed to shout before an elbow to my face cut me off. Ow ow oww! My nose broke and I tasted blood. That didn’t stop me from returning the favor and slamming the vampire’s face into the ground, however, which produced a satisfying crunch.
“Now we’re even,” I panted, then flicked a knife from my boots and sent it home through his back. “And now I’m ahead.”
“Cat, watch out!” Cooper yelled.
My head snapped up to see another vampire flying toward me. I reached in my boots again—and found nothing. I was out of knives, and out of time to get away.
Then suddenly the vampire was knocked to the side. Tate’s head appeared in the jumble of flying limbs. He must have barreled into the vamp at the last second. I scrambled forward to the silver knives, scraping the hell out of my knees on the concrete, but came up with several lovely, gleaming blades.
“Heads up!” I called out. My guys ducked immediately, and those blades landed in undead flesh, garnering fresh howls. Tate jumped back on the vampire who’d tried to ambush me, and I tossed him a blade that he caught one-handed before driving it into the vamp’s back.
“Don’t twist, don’t twist!” I reminded him, joining in Cooper’s fight.
Five minutes later, it was done. Francois was the last vampire to be taken down, and when I pulled him off Annette, lodging a knife firmly in his back, he was still cursing her.
“Why?” he demanded at last, his accent making the word almost incoherent.
Annette had blood all over her, some of it hers, some of it Francois’s. With her unmarked skin and that red gore coating her, she could have passed for a curvy Sissy Spacek at the end of Carrie.
“You see who she is?” she asked Francois curtly, jerking her head toward me. “Your sire wants her. My sire loves her. I’m sorry, Francois, but my loyalty is to Crispin, not Ian.”
I maneuvered Francois over to the van, where Annette began wrapping duct tape around his wrists. It wouldn’t be enough to hold a vampire normally, but too much jiggling would drive that knife farther into Francois’s heart, and he’d know it.
“You may as well kill me,” Francois said bitterly. “For that is what Ian will do once he discovers we were duped and failed him.”
“I don’t think so,” I replied. “Or I’ll tell everyone that Ian fell for the same trick back in February. See, I had him in the same position you’re in, Francois, and Ian seems the arrogant type who wouldn’t want that to become public knowledge. If you guys behave, you’ll live to bite another day, I promise.”
Tate came over. He took off his shirt and handed it to me.
“Your nose is still bleeding, Cat.”
Yeah, I knew that. I could taste it, since it was running in a slow drip into my mouth. I swiped at my face with Tate’s shirt. Annette finished with Francois’s wrists and then sliced her palm, holding it an inch from me.
I met her eyes…and then brought her hand to my mouth. Her cut had been deep, and though the wound healed almost instantly, the blood it drew remained. I sucked on it for a second, noting with detachment that she tasted different from Bones, and felt my nose tingle as it healed.
“Thanks,” I said, dropping her hand.
A slight smile curved her mouth. “Wouldn’t want to have your lovely face marred, now, would we? After all, you have another party to go to.”

THIRTY-FIVE

An hour later, one would never guess I’d done anything more strenuous today than paint my toenails or shop at the mall. I was relaxing in the steam room, with an attendant rubbing my feet, of all things. I’d tried to politely refuse such pampering, but I was told it was part of my prearranged treatment. And truthfully, it felt so wonderful, my protest was halfhearted at best.
After that, there was the sauna, exfoliating, and an herbal bath with exotic oils and mints. If there was any trace of Bones’s scent on me after this, it’d be a frigging miracle. Even my teeth were treated to a bleaching solution that nearly burned my gums off.
When I was done being put through a high-end version of a car wash, the attendant came in and handed me a box.
“Here you go, miss. This is for you.”
Inside was a dress, a cell phone, a set of car keys with a vehicle description, and a pair of high-heeled shoes. As soon as I took them out, I smiled. The guys wouldn’t be the only ones with dangerous footwear. The heels on these were solid silver, covered with only a layer of black paint.
I got dressed quickly, checking the clock on the wall. Then I looked at my reflection and paused. The dress had Bones written all over it, since it was more like a teddy than evening wear. It had a halter that plunged to my waist in a style that would have made even Jennifer Lopez pause. Double-sided tape held the two black strips of material to my breasts in vertical swaths. The bottom was attached, cut high on the legs front and back, and the only thing that saved the outfit from being obscene were the translucent bits of fabric that ranged from hip to mid-thigh length and swayed when I moved.
One thing was for sure—this dress sure as hell didn’t lack for fluidity. There wasn’t enough of it to hinder movement.
Once I had my makeup on, the new cell phone from the box rang as if on cue. An unfamiliar voice was on the other end.
“Reaper, meet us at the overpass of Forty-fifth and Wilkes. You’d better be alone. By now you should know that we have four of your people, and we don’t need all of them.”
How charming. Not even a hello. “I’ll play ball, but if you kill any of them, you’re next.”
I was already on my way to the parking lot, those new keys in my hand. They went to the blue Explorer parked near the entrance. I fastened my seat belt as I drove off, since going through the windshield wasn’t in my plans tonight. At least not that I knew of.
Two cars waited for me at the designated area with four vampires in each of them.
“Let’s get this show on the road, boys,” I greeted them.
Sixteen pairs of eyes roamed me from head to high-heeled feet. Helpfully I spun in a circle and stretched out my arms.
“You can check me for weapons, but what you see is what you get. Now, if you’re finished gaping, I have a date with whoever your boss is.”
“Hello there, darling,” a voice behind me said, with a pronounced English accent.
I spun around to see a tall vampire with long, spiky black hair lounging by the guardrail. He hadn’t been there a moment ago. His aura announced him as the most powerful of the group, a Master vampire, and it wasn’t the first time I’d met him.
“Where I come from, it’s polite to introduce yourself first before calling someone a sexist demeaning nickname, or maybe you weren’t brought up with manners?”
He smiled and straightened from his easy slouch to sweep me a bow that was still the courtliest I’d ever seen.
“Of course. How rude of me. My name is Spade.”
I controlled my expression to show nothing, but inwardly I grinned. This was Bones’s best friend. Years ago when we met, I’d automatically assumed he was a bad guy and tried to smash his head in with large stones. After Bones arrived and cleared up his identity, Spade had brushed himself off—and then roundly criticized me for my method of introduction.
“Spade. Nice name. Were you forced to pick from a comic book or something?”
I knew why he’d chosen the name, of course. Spade had been a South Wales prisoner along with Bones. The overseer used to call the former Baron Charles DeMor-timer by his assigned tool, a spade. He’d kept the name so he wouldn’t forget his former helplessness.
His mouth twitched before he stilled it. “I’ll ponder my choice later, angel. If you would step this way? I’m going to search you for weapons.”
The other eight formed a protective circle around us as Spade ran his hands leisurely and thoroughly over me. When he was finished, he wore a slight grin.
“Now it’s a pleasure meeting you.” He inclined his head toward one of the cars. “After you.”
We drove to a deserted road where a helicopter waited. There was no more conversation. I drummed my fingernails on my leg as we took off. The other vampires kept staring at me, but I ignored them. For his part, Spade was silent, but every so often, he’d cast a sideways smirk at me.
We landed just over two hours later. I didn’t have a watch, but guessed the time around eleven-thirty. Soon, then. Very soon. I said a silent prayer that no one but my father would get killed tonight, and then I got out to start the party.

Ian certainly liked to entertain in style. This house was even grander than his last one, a virtual mansion. Gardens formed eerie shapes in the moonlight, and torches were decoratively displayed for maximum effect. Sculptures frozen in permanent pose either welcomed or warned, and some of them were downright barbaric. Idly, I wondered if the ancient-looking Greek ones were authentic as we crossed underneath a marble trellis. Knowing Ian’s penchant for rare and valuable things, they probably were.
The collective force of supernatural power that hit me when the doors opened made me pause. It was like walking into liquid electrocution with all the inhuman currents buzzing around. Good God, what kind of creatures were in here? A twinge of apprehension shot through me. This was the big leagues and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go pro, but it was too late to turn back now.
There was a gauntlet of vampires and ghouls lining the hall we strode through. The weight of their stares was heavy, but I looked straight ahead and forced my legs not to tremble. Never show fear. That would be the same as ringing a dinner bell.
A set of impressively carved, giant double doors were pulled open by two attending vampires. Spade motioned for me to go inside. I squared my shoulders and straightened my spine, gliding into the dangerous unknown as casually as if I were Cinderella to the ball.
Thunderdome, was my first thought. Gothic, luxurious Thunderdome. An amphitheater of sumptuous chairs, couches, and pedestals circled an open bare center that could have been an arena. The room was set up stadium style, with each level overlooking the ominous square platform. Since my path took me in a straight line to center stage, that’s where I went.
Murmurs broke out at the sight of me, so many it was hard to translate. Apparently I was the main attraction tonight. How flattering. With sheer willpower I refused to search the dozens and dozens of faces for the one I loved. Bones was here. Even in the maelstrom of whirling energies, I could feel him. Hell, I could smell him after downing all that blood last night.
Ian was seated front and center like royalty. The lowest balcony was one level up from the platform, so I tilted my head toward him and feigned surprise.
“So you’re the one who’s behind all this? Serves me right for not twisting that knife before. Come on down and I’ll fix my oversight.”
Ian had dressed up as well, wearing a vintage flowing shirt with ruffles of antique silk. I guessed it was late seventeen hundreds, from the style. Its pearly color nearly matched his skin, and his chestnut hair was tastefully arranged. Turquoise eyes gleamed at me with anticipation.
“Your prissy pants suit didn’t begin to do you justice, Catherine. You are simply dazzling.”
“Once and for all, and it’s good that so many people will hear this so I don’t have to repeat it—my name is Cat.” Since they’d all seen me, concealing my work name hardly seemed important. “Now, I dragged my ass up here for a reason, and it wasn’t to hear that you liked my dress. Where are my men? And what do you want? It must be a real doozy for you to track me down and blackmail me.”
Ian had a superior grin when he answered, comfortable in his presumed control. “You can thank your old friend for helping me find you, Cat. I have a feeling you’ll remember him. Crispin, say hello to your former protégée.”
“Hallo, luv. Long time no taste,” a voice drifted down to me.
I hid a grin and turned in his direction.
Bones cleaned up better than Ian, in my prejudiced opinion, and I couldn’t help the tug of a smile when I saw his hair. Sometime since I’d last seen him, he’d colored it the same shining platinum it had been when we first met. It was newly cut as well, hugging his head in closely cropped curls. His shirt was a full-bodied crimson, contemporary by contrast with Ian’s, and his skin glowed like cream-covered diamonds against the vivid fabric. It was time for me to look away. Fast. Before I drooled.
“Bones, what an unexpected revulsion,” I said cleanly. “Jeez, you’re not dead yet? I’d hoped to see the last of you years ago. Still having that premature ejaculation problem?”
Ian guffawed in amusement. So did the rest of his section. They were segregated by lineage, with the youngest members higher up in the nosebleed seats. Bones sat symbolically on the lower edge of Ian’s group, and a snort of laughter accompanied his response.
“Perhaps if your snoring hadn’t been so bloody loud in the interims, I would have been able to concentrate better.”
Touché. I turned my back to him. “All right, Ian. Enough of this crap. I’m all decked out in my pretty dress and it’s clearly a party. What’s the occasion?”
Ian went right for the melodramatic. “Far and wide I’ve told everyone that the avenging human called the Red Reaper is actually a vampire disguised behind a pounding heart and warm flesh. There isn’t another known half-breed in the world. Put simply, I want you with me, Cat, as part of my people. Since I didn’t reckon on you being agreeable to the thought after our last meeting, I’ve taken four of your men to ensure that you’re more…open-minded when we discuss it now.”
Ian didn’t know I’d already gotten back three out of those four, and had six of his own men to boot. He probably just thought Francois and the others were running late.
“Uh huh,” I said cynically. “I’m guessing this whole being ‘part of your people’ means I’d have to spend a lot of time with you.”
Ian smiled with more than a hint of wickedness. “You would require supervising at first, after all.”
“And if I refuse, I suppose you’ll kill my men?”
He shrugged. “Really, poppet, would it require me killing all of them before you’d see what I’m offering isn’t so repugnant? I think it would only require killing one or two, at most.”
You cold bastard, I thought, eyeing Ian. The fact that he was being practical, not maniacal, told me a lot about him. Ian didn’t seem like he’d particularly enjoy killing a couple of my men, but he’d do it. Bones had some of that same coldness, I knew. And so did I, if I was honest.
“You told people about me,” I said abruptly, changing my tactics. “But I bet they had trouble believing you. Want me to give them a demonstration of what I can do? I mean, you’ve got all these guests, but so far, they haven’t seen anything exciting yet.”
An interested look came over Ian’s face. Bones had said Ian liked a flashy show. It didn’t appear that he was wrong.
“What are you offering for a demonstration, my lovely Red Reaper?”
“Bring out your strongest fighter. I’ll beat him or her, and I’ll do it with only what I’ve got on me now.”
I spread my hands and twirled to show that I didn’t have any weapons, but of course Ian would know that I’d been searched. It wasn’t my fault no one had taken a good look at my shoes.
“What do you want if you win?” Ian asked.
“One of my men back unharmed. And I get to pick who.”
Ian looked me over for a long moment. I gave him my most innocent expression. “Agreed,” he said at last.
“Good,” I said instantly. “I’ll take Noah.”
Shit, if I could win back Noah myself, that was a big load off my mind. Wouldn’t Ian be surprised later when he found out he’d bartered his only hostage back to me?
Bones chose that moment to stand up. “Ian, before this circus begins, I have an issue to settle with you. Frankly I would have skipped this event altogether if you hadn’t commanded me to appear. That is the rub, my sire. I wish to be under no one’s authority but my own, and it is time. Release me from your line.”
Ian looked like he’d been punched in the gut before he shielded his expression.
“We will speak on this later, Crispin, when there aren’t so many distractions,” he said, struggling to stall without appearing weak.
Bones encompassed the multitudes with a wave of his hand. “There is no better time than now, with all present to observe tradition. I want nothing more when I leave than what is mine by right—the vampires I’ve created, their possessions, and all my human property. I’ve waited long enough for this, Ian, and I’m not waiting any longer.”
There was an uncompromising edge to his last sentence, and everyone there heard it.
Ian’s tone changed from coaxing to curtness on the spot. “And if I refuse? Are you threatening to challenge me to win your freedom?”
“Yes,” Bones replied bluntly. “But why the need? Our paths go back to our humanity, and we shouldn’t part with one of us destroyed by stubbornness. Release me by your favor and not by a fight, for that is my wish.”
I couldn’t imagine having a centuries-old history with someone like Bones had with Ian, and one that had literally transcended death to boot. Ian didn’t seem like anything special to me, but for Bones to try so hard not to have to kill him, there must be more to him than met the eye. I knew loyalty over Ian changing Bones into a vampire would only go so far. Maybe Ian was a bit like Don. Ruthless and manipulating when it came to what he wanted, but at the core, not an evil person. Otherwise Bones wouldn’t bother asking for his freedom, when he could challenge Ian to a duel and kill him for it. Bones could beat Ian if it came to that, and he knew it. The question was, did Ian?
Ian weighed his decision silently for a minute. There was a hushed expectancy. I tensed when he took a knife from his pants and made his way through the guests to Bones.
He looked at the knife, at Bones, and then flipped it until the blade was facing inward instead of pointing out.
“Go then, and be Master of your own line, subject to none but yourself and the laws which govern all of Cain’s children. I release you.”
Then he handed the knife to Bones, who accepted it respectfully.
“You all bear witness,” Bones called out, to various audible acknowledgments.
Wow, that was short and sweet. I’d expected something more bloody or ceremonial.
Ian let out a resigned noise. “We’ve been together a long time, Crispin. It will feel odd not having you as one of my people. What are your plans?”
“The same as any new Master of a line, I suspect,” Bones said lightly, though his expression hardened. “I’ll protect those who belong to me at all costs.”
I knew what he meant by that, even if his deeper meaning flew by Ian.
“You’re under no more obligation to stay; will you be leaving, then? Or will you wait to see if your former protégée wins her challenge?”
Bones smiled, and his eyes flicked to me. “Wouldn’t miss this part, mate. I wager she wins, unless she’s forgotten everything I taught her.”
“I rather doubt that,” Ian responded dryly.
“What are the rules for this fight?” I questioned. “Are you judging the winner by who’s first to be pinned and helpless?”
Ian returned to his couch and settled comfortably on it. “No, poppet, this isn’t a wrestling match. You’ll only win back your man if you kill your opponent. Now, your opponent doesn’t have the option of killing you, however. But he can deliver you to me in any state, and once he does, then you’re mine.”
I absorbed that information. With that, I let my own light loose from my eyes. Their glow pierced the air like twin emerald lasers, causing a multitude of voices to speak at once. Ian had told them what I was, but seeing was believing.
“Bring on your best, Ian. I’m ready.”
He smiled. “Don’t you want to have your former lover wish you luck first?” And he pointed at the ceiling above me.
I looked up—and stared. Son of a bitch. Suspended in a cage at the top of the domed ceiling was Noah. Talk about a bird’s-eye view. He was even tilted at an angle for perfect scrutiny. What a shitty position to be in, watching your fate played out below you while you were helpless to do anything about it.
The green shine from my gaze fell on Noah’s face, who was looking down at me with horror. It was the expression I always knew he’d wear if he found out what I was. Sometimes it truly sucked to be right.
“Grendel,” Ian called out. “How would you like to deliver this half-breed to me?”
There was a laugh from the other side of the room. A bald man stood and gave a slow, appreciative whistle.
“I’ll bring her to you, Ian. It will be my pleasure to break her.”
I looked my challenger up and down. Uh oh. This might be a problem.

THIRTY-SIX

For one, the man standing had to be almost seven feet tall. His arms were thicker than my waist, and he had legs like tree trunks covered in skin. For someone his size, he moved down the aisle with a light, quick grace that gave me a sinking feeling in my stomach. Massive and fast; that wasn’t good. But what had me the most concerned was that the man now jumping into the arena wasn’t a vampire. He was a ghoul.
I could kick my silver heels through his heart until the cows came home, but it wouldn’t kill him. Neither would these heels suitably double as a sword to cleave his head off. Alrighty, then. This would be interesting.
Ian grinned at me with expectant victory. “Do you know who that is, Cat? That’s Grendel, the most famous mercenary of the ghouls. He’s almost six hundred years old and a former stradioti of the Venetian armies. Grendel used to be paid according to the number of heads he lopped off in battle, and that, my dear poppet, was just when he was human.”
I caught Bones’s eye. He raised a brow. Did I want him to intervene? he was asking silently. He could stop all this by pulling the property card, I knew, and Bones’s expression told me that Ian wasn’t exaggerating a bit in his description of what a badass Grendel was.
I gave the smooth-skulled ghoul another thorough evaluation. Yeah, he looked like a mean motherfucker, no doubt about it. And here I was armed with only a pair of high heels. I glanced up at Noah, who had a resigned expression on his face. Clearly he thought he was a dead man no matter what happened. I could take the easy way out. Call myself Bones’s Bite Bitch and walk away with nary a broken fingernail to show for it, but that wasn’t my style. No, I’d rather fight this giant and win my freedom than get it handed to me by default. But where was a cannon when I needed one?
“Don’t bash her about too badly, Grendel; I have plans for her later.” Ian smirked.
The ghoul gave an ominous laugh. “She’ll be alive. Anything else is up to you to heal.”
How comforting. I shook my head ever so slightly at Bones, indicating I didn’t want him to intercede. Then I cracked my knuckles with a hint of grimness, watching as Grendel approached. The ghoul looked me over with a professional, callous scrutiny, no doubt deciding which of my bones to break first.
“To show that I have no fear,” he said in his deep voice. “I’ll let you strike the first blow without defending myself.”
“I’m not giving you the same thing,” I responded instantly.
A cold smile wreathed his face. “I would hope not. Then this would end too soon and spoil my fun.”
Nice. Grendel the Giant was a sadist. Who said anything in life was easy?
I took a deep breath—and then leapt in the air toward him, kicking my feet out with all my strength. My heels landed in his throat and I scissored outward, hoping to sever the spinal column in his neck.
But it didn’t. What it did do was tear off two big chunks of his neck and leave me straddling him as we both fell back from the impact. I landed with my knees very indecently around his face, and then I jumped back.
Ian laughed so hard, his eyes turned pink from tears. “You didn’t use that battle tactic with me before, Cat. I daresay I feel cheated.”
Grendel wasn’t in as jolly a mood. He got to his feet, rubbed his throat where the skin was healing back into place, and gave me a very unpleasant look.
“You will pay with pain for that.”
What was I supposed to say? It wasn’t good for me, either?
Grendel’s fist shot out. It was almost comical, because I only saw a blur and then boom! I flew into the stands behind me. Landed on two well-dressed female vampires who helpfully threw me back into the arena without even a how-do-you-do. As soon as I hit the ground, I rolled, narrowly avoiding a kick that would have landed my intestines into my chest cavity. Then I jumped up to prevent him from crashing down onto me like a WWE wrestler. Fuck me, he was fast! And he wasn’t fooling around! Another leap made his balled fist land on my shoulder instead of my ribs. There was a crack as my collarbone broke. Another crack as he feinted left and followed through with an underhanded right, smashing three of my ribs at least. I darted away, gasping, to be hit in the back when I wasn’t fast enough. Face-first I sprawled onto the arena floor, scrambling, my heart sinking as I felt an iron fist close over my ankle.
Grendel yanked me closer and drove his fist into my side. I pulled back at the last second, so he didn’t take out my entire right rib cage, but he blasted my kidney. I doubled over, coughing up blood in a crimson ribbon, barely able to even breathe. Grendel let go of my ankle. He got to his feet and began to laugh.
“This was the feared Red Reaper? This?”
There was an outbreak of applause. I wasn’t the crowd favorite, obviously. Grendel took a bow, still laughing, while a cold rage erupted in me. This fucker was not going to hand me over to Ian while chuckling at how easy it had been. I would take him down, pain or no pain. Come on, Cat. You’re not done yet.
“Pussy.”
I said it while pushing myself into a half-crouched position. Grendel stopped laughing at once. He loomed over me, drawing back his hand to clock me.
Instead of flinching away, I surged forward. My lower position put me in perfect range to do the most damage I could with my mouth.
Grendel let out a high screech. I didn’t bite anymore, because the main purpose was distraction, and there was nothing like a chewed groin to get a guy’s full attention focused on that. When he instinctively shielded his crotch, I whipped around him to jump onto his back like a monkey, using my legs to hold on. Then I plunged my fingers into his eyes.
Grendel screamed in earnest at that. I shoved my fingers deeper, ignoring the disgusting squishy sensation. His arms flailed back as he tried to hit any part of me he could. I jumped off, missing those murderous blows, and swept his feet out from under him. Even though my fingers weren’t in his eyes anymore, he still couldn’t see. They hadn’t healed yet. I only had seconds.
I launched myself at him again, using the speed from that charge as leverage while I squeezed his head and yanked it around with everything I had. There was an audible break, but not enough. All my muscles bunched as I pulled with my last spurt of strength, using my legs to brace myself—and then I toppled backward with Grendel’s head in my lap, bloody eye sockets staring up at me.
“You forgot…to kick me…when I was down,” I managed to wheeze.
The instant of shocked silence was broken when several voices began to speak at once. I spat some blood out of my mouth, not caring how unladylike that looked, and cradled my aching side. Grendel would have had me if he hadn’t been so smug. One more blow like the last one to my side, and I wouldn’t have been able to twist the top off a soda bottle. Even now, I felt like I’d been in a car wreck. Make that a train wreck. A big one. Grendel’s face looked up at me, his skin beginning to wrinkle, and I shoved his skull away with distaste. Some people liked to keep trophies. I wasn’t one of them.
Slowly I pushed myself to my feet and glared at Ian, who was still gaping.
“Lower…the cage…down.”
I still couldn’t speak right from the pressure of my broken ribs. Ian nodded, tight-lipped, and with a rasp of metal, Noah was brought to the floor. When he was let out of the cage, he looked at me and the headless ghoul with horror. Then he started to scream.
“Somebody shut him up,” Ian ordered, annoyed.
Spade stepped forward immediately, his piercing gaze and order for silence quieting Noah in seconds. Then he led him back up the aisle to the double doors where he’d been watching. I relaxed a tiny bit. It was as safe a place as any for Noah to be.
Ian, surprisingly, began to clap, but his clapping had more of a mocking sound to it than the genuine applause Grendel had briefly garnered.
“Well done, Red Reaper! No one could scoff at that name for you now. I’m more than impressed, as is everyone here. You’ve proven to be resourceful, strong, and ruthless. You’ve won your challenge and one of your men back. However…I still have three more of them. How much are their lives worth to you, poppet? Join me, swear your loyalty to me, and I’ll let them go. Come now, it won’t be that unpleasant. Indeed, there are many perks, as you’ll discover.”
Ian smiled when he said that last sentence, leaving me little doubt as to what he was talking about.
Bones stood. “I’ve seen enough, Ian. I’m leaving now.”
“But this is the best part,” Ian said, winking at me. I held up my middle finger. He laughed. “Now you’re reading my mind, Cat.”
Bones made his way down the aisle. Over a hundred people also stood and began to follow suit. My eyes bugged. All of those were his?
“No need to stay any longer, mate. I bid you good night.” He got farther down until he was on the lowest level above the arena, and then he turned and grinned at Ian.
“But before I go, I think I’ll pay my respects to your guest of honor.”
Ian guffawed. “Be careful. You might end up alongside Grendel.”
“I always did like to live dangerously,” Bones replied, hopping down into the square space with me. Once there, his grin widened.
“Congratulations on a magnificent display of unsportsmanlike conduct. What a dirty fighter you are. Somebody really skilled must have trained you.”
I laughed even though it hurt. “Yeah. An arrogant bastard.”
“You know what they say about sticks and stones. Come now, pet, how’s about a kiss farewell for old time’s sake?”
“Want a kiss? Come and get it.”
I could see Ian just to the right behind Bones. He chuckled and muttered something to the person next to him about Bones’s high chance of getting his lips bitten off. That chuckle turned into a hiss of outrage when Bones took me in his arms and I slanted my mouth over his. I didn’t close my eyes as I kissed him, either. The look on Ian’s face was too priceless.
“What the hell—?”
Ian stood so abruptly, the couch overturned beneath him. I ignored that, sucking the deep gash on Bones’s tongue that he’d given himself in full view of everyone. It healed even as I started to feel better, his blood mending the damage within me.
Ian was livid at this change in the program. He shot Bones a glare sizzling with emerald rage.
“That’s enough, Crispin! Cat’s mine now, so you can remove your hands and get out.”
Bones tightened his grip on me instead. “I’m afraid I must disagree. I rather like my hands where they are.”
“Have you gone mad?” Ian jumped down into the arena. If he were human, he’d be having a heart attack. “What is this? You’d dare to antagonize me over a woman you barely tolerate? One you haven’t even seen in years? That’s hardly the behavior a new leader shows his people, unless there’s more to it than that? Is this some sort of excuse to start a war with me?”
Bones gave Ian a measured look. “I’m not trying to start a war with you, Ian, but if you start one, I’ll finish it. It’s very simple. I won’t let you force her into doing anything, but if she fancies you, I’ll walk away. So, luv, who would you rather be with? Me or Ian?”
“You,” I said at once, with a sly grin. “Ian, sorry, but you’re not my type. Plus kidnapping my friends to try and make me become your arm trophy? Not cool.”
An angry gleam flashed in Ian’s gaze, and when he smiled, it was dangerous.
“You remember slaughtering my friend Magnus, Cat? You’ve just decided that fate for one of your own friends.”
Then Ian pulled out a cell phone, continuing on as he dialed. “If you step away from Crispin right now, I might consider letting you persuade me to allow that person to live. But you’d better come up with a damn enticing offer, because I’m very brassed off. Otherwise, it’s the luck of the draw as to who my men execute.”
I heard the first ring coming from Ian’s cell. Then Tate’s voice answered.
“Hello,” he said cheerfully. “Francois’s phone.”
“Put Francois on the line,” Ian snapped.
“Hi there, buddy,” I called out loudly enough for Tate to hear me. “That’s Ian you’re talking to. Tell him the good news.”
Tate’s laugh flowed through the phone. “Oh hi, Ian. Francois can’t come to the phone right now. He’s tied up…with a silver stake in his chest.”
Ian snapped the phone closed, and his expression turned to pure, livid ice.
“You don’t have any of my men hostage, Ian,” I said cleanly. “But I have several of yours.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

Ian stared at Bones, looking like he might attack him right then and there. “You betrayed me,” he said with a growl.
Bones didn’t flinch. “I took the steps necessary to make sure you didn’t force Cat into making an unwise decision. It’s not the eighteenth century, Ian. Manipulating women into bed isn’t fashionable anymore.”
“If you want your boys back, Ian,” I continued, “then you’ll agree to leave me—and my people—alone. I haven’t killed any of your men, and I’ll return them all to you unharmed. But first I’ll need your word that you won’t bother me again. What’s it gonna be? Your men, or your hard-on?”
Ian’s eyes slid around, taking in the many faces waiting for his decision. Then they paused at Bones, giving him another truly incensed glare, and finally fixed on me.
“Well done, Red Reaper,” he said again, but this time with an edge of bitterness. “It appears once more I underestimated you…and your resourcefulness.” He lasered Bones with one more sizzling emerald look, and then swept out his hand. “We have an accord. You are free to go.”
Bones smiled, taking my arm, but I dug in my heels.
“Not so fast,” I said, drawing in a deep breath. “There’s one more issue to be settled first.”
“Kitten, what are you doing?” Bones asked low.
I didn’t look at him, but concentrated on Ian instead. If I’d told Bones in advance what I planned, he would have argued. Said it was too dangerous, maybe even refused to get me in front of Ian. But Bones didn’t understand that I couldn’t come this far and not do what I was about to do.
“I know vampires have the right to challenge their sires to a duel. Well, Ian, I challenge my father, Max. If you’re here, then he’s here somewhere. Bring him out. I’m claiming my vampire right to duel him.”
Bones groaned something that sounded like “Bloody hell, Kitten,” and to my surprise, Ian began to laugh. Heartily. Like I’d just told him the funniest joke ever. He actually had pink tears appear at the corners of his eyes, and he wiped them while still overcome with laughter.
“What’s so fucking funny?” I demanded.
“Did you all hear that?” Ian asked, controlling his mirth enough to spin in a circle and address our audience. Next to me, Bones’s face went to stone.
“You should have talked to me about this, Kitten,” he gritted.
“You would have told me to wait,” I hissed back, which only made Ian laugh harder.
“Oh, indeed he would have, Cat. You see, you just acknowledged that you consider yourself a vampire. You know what that means, Crispin, as does everyone else here. As a vampire, Cat, you are therefore mine, and I’ll thank you, Crispin, to get away from one of my people.”
“But I challenged Max,” I said angrily. “So he has to accept. And if I kill him, then I’m my own damn vampire, and no one has claim over me!”
Ian laughed more as Bones gave me a look that said he was tempted to throttle me.
“Oh, poppet, you’ve got a few things wrong. You could challenge Max for your freedom—if he was the head of his own line. But he’s not. He’s still under my rule, and you, as a brand-spanking-new member of my line, can’t challenge me for a year. That law was put in place to prevent rash baby vampires from taking on more than they could handle in their first year,” Ian kindly explained. “So as it turned out, I didn’t need to kidnap your men at all, because you’ve just delivered yourself into my hands. And I’m afraid you’ve got three hundred and sixty-five more days before you can issue that same challenge to me. I wonder what we’ll do to fill the time.”
Ian’s grin said he had a few choice ideas picked out already. Inwardly I cursed. Goddamn, why hadn’t I made sure to find out more about lineage and lines before deciding this was a good idea? Why had I let my blinding need for revenge against my father trick me into hiding this from Bones? Mencheres had said revenge was the emptiest of emotions. Apparently it motivated people to do the stupidest things as well.
“Except I’m already Bones’s,” I said, using the property card as a last resort. “He’s bitten me and done things in bed with me that are illegal in a few states at least!”
“Lineage trumps property, my dear Reaper,” Ian said silkily. “So while Crispin will no doubt have fond memories of your time together…memories are all he’ll have of you.”
“I beg to differ, Ian,” Bones replied, straightening. “You’re right, lineage does have a higher claim than property. But you have no claim over her if she’s my wife.”
Ian looked as confused as I felt. “But she isn’t,” he stated the obvious.
Bones pulled a knife out from his pocket. I tensed, assuming this meant we were starting the free-for-all. But Bones just drew it once across his palm and then clapped his bleeding hand over my own.
“By my blood, you are my wife,” he said in a clear voice. Then he said more softly to me, “I rather envisioned something more romantic for this, Kitten, but circumstances don’t allow for that.”
“You must be mad!” Ian raged, snatching his own blade from his pants.
“Do not move!” a voice thundered down at once.
Ian froze, and Bones, in the act of whipping his own knife toward Ian, froze as well. A dark-haired figure glided down the aisle, people moving aside to let him through. I didn’t even need to see his face to know it was Mencheres. The unadulterated power washing over me told me that.
“Mencheres,” Bones said, with an inclination of his head. “Am I correct in my assumption?”
“In all ways but one” was the vampire’s smooth reply.
“You have ever taken his side over mine!” Ian snapped, losing his quiet deference.
Bones rolled his eyes. “Not this again.”
“It is not a matter of sides,” Mencheres stated calmly. “I said Bones was right in all ways but one. Cat has not yet claimed him as her husband.”
Ian snatched at that. “You don’t know what that means, Cat. This isn’t like a human marriage, where divorce is as common as breathing. If you agree to this, you’d be bound to Crispin for the rest of your life. No changing your mind, no release from it, until one of you was truly dead. If you even shagged another man, he’d have the right to kill him for it without retribution.”
Mencheres smiled, but it wasn’t cheery. “Yes. Once this is declared, it can never be retracted.”
Brown eyes met mine when I looked away from Mencheres. Bones arched a brow, waiting.
“Don’t you think it’s time you met your father?” Ian baited me next.
That got my attention. I swung back in his direction, and my hand clenched over the knife I’d just accepted from Bones.
Ian pressed his advantage. “I’ll make you a bargain, Cat. A vastly different one from what I’d first intended. You can leave here tonight with my assurances that I won’t press my claim over you, or trouble your men again. Furthermore, I’ll give you Max, to do with what you will. All I require in return is that you refuse this offer and part company with Crispin permanently. Your word on it.”
My mouth hung open, fingers whitening over the handle of the blade.
“Maximillian, come here!” Ian trumpeted.
The doors to the hall opened, and Spade moved out of the way to let a tall man through. Well, well. Apparently that picture had showed only a glimmer of our resemblance. Face to face there was no question. I did look just like him.
I pulled my hand free from Bones in a sort of shock. Max went to the edge of the arena and then paused, not coming nearer. I walked the last few steps that separated us.
His hair was crimson, just as bright and thick as my own. God, those eyes, silvery gray and exactly like mine. He had high cheekbones, a full mouth, straight nose, strong jawline…Everything was identical to me but in masculine proportion. Even the way he stood was similar. It was like looking in a weird gender-bending mirror, and for a minute, all I could do was stare.
For his part, Max didn’t say anything. His face flashed defiance and resignation in equal parts as he looked from me to Ian. He didn’t ask for mercy, though. Not from either of us. Was that bravery…or a simple realization that it wouldn’t do him a damn bit of good?
Finally I found my voice. “Do you know what I promised myself when my mother told me what I was, and how it happened?”
I slid as close to him as possible without touching. He held himself stiffly, like one of the statues outside. Only his eyes moved, and they followed me with rapt concentration.
My fingers grazed his shoulders as I circled him. He flinched under their weight, and I laughed low and viciously.
“Oh, Max, I feel your power level, and it’s not that high. I’m much stronger than you are, but you must know that, right? It’s why you tried to have my head blown off, so I couldn’t get to you first. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting to kill you?”
Still he said nothing. Ian gave me a questioning glance, but I ignored him. He didn’t know what Max had arranged; it was plain. I paced around my father, getting angrier that he wasn’t talking.
“I first heard about you on my sixteenth birthday. Sweet sixteen, and what did I get? The full knowledge about my nightmare of a heritage. So I swore to myself that one day, I’d find and kill you for her. That you’d pay for raping my mother with your life. Did you hear what Ian just offered me? Your ass, with all the other parts attached!”
The rage leaked out of my pores, and my eyes blasted him with their glow when I faced him again.
“Come on, Max, whatcha think? What a gift, right? Who could say no to that? I mean, I’ve wanted to kill you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my whole twisted, subnormal, dysfunctional life!”
The knife Bones had given me trembled in my hand with the ache to bury it in his heart. Finally, after another long stare, I chuckled again. Bittersweetly. My need for revenge had almost cost me Bones once tonight. At least I wouldn’t let myself make that same mistake twice.
“You worthless piece of shit, you’re about to do the first, last, and only thing you’ve ever done for me as a father, because there’s someone in my life who means more to me than even killing you. Congratulations, scum. You just gave away the bride.”
Instead of twisting that knife through my father’s heart, I slashed it across my palm and slapped it over the pale hand still outstretched to me.
“Bound together forever, huh? Sounds good to me. By my blood, Bones, you are my husband. Is that what I’m supposed to say? Is that right?”
Bones bent me backward with the force of his kiss, and I assumed that was my answer.

THIRTY-EIGHT

Max broke his silence only after Bones let me up from his kiss. He raked me with a glance and then smiled. Chillingly.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Do you believe that, little girl? I do. You and I will have our day, mark my words.”
“Is he threatening her?” Bones asked Ian with a cold pleasantness as I met my father’s steely gaze. “Perhaps you need to remind him that anyone who comes after my wife—or anyone belonging to her, such as her uncle—is in fact declaring war on me as well. Is that your position, Ian? Does he speak for you?”
Ian gave Max a truly menacing glare. “No he does not, and he has nothing else to say on the matter. Do you, Max?”
Max gave a glance around at all of Bones’s people, who were watching him with threat as well.
“No, I have nothing else to say about that,” he replied in a tone that said he’d have plenty to say under other circumstances. “But I do have something to say about her mother.” He fixed his eyes back to me. “You’ve been misinformed. I fucked her, oh yes. But I didn’t rape her.”
Bones tightened his grip on me, sensing I was about to explode. Ian saw it as well.
“You gave up your chance, Cat, and it works both ways. Max is mine and under my protection. If you lay a hand on him, it’s an act of war.”
I got ahold of myself. Another time, another place. Not here where it would turn into a bloodbath between Bones and Ian’s people.
“You’ve probably raped so many women that you don’t even remember who she was,” I settled on evenly.
Max smiled. “You never forget your first, and she was my first after I’d been changed. She was a beautiful brunette with big blue eyes and nice round tits. So young and eager. So fresh. I had such a great time fucking her in the backseat of that car, and the only time she objected was after I was done. She opened her eyes, saw mine glowing green, saw my fangs…and started to scream her head off. Started to cry, too. Just bawled hysterically and said I was a hell spawn or something like that. It was funny. So funny I didn’t bother to deny it. I told her she was right, that I was a demon. That all vampires were demons, and she’d just let herself be fucked by one. Then I drank her blood until she quit screeching and passed out, and that, little girl, is what really happened between your mother and me.”
“Liar,” I spat.
His smile turned cruelly knowing. “Ask her.”
Max was obviously capable of lying. Anyone who could conspire to murder his own daughter wouldn’t be above lying his ass off if he wanted to, but somehow…somehow…I wasn’t sure if he was lying now. My mother had vehemently stated from as far back as I could remember that all vampires were demons. I’d thought it was just a general term of repugnance, but maybe there was more to it than that. If Max had told her he was a demon, that all vampires were, it would certainly explain her mixed feelings toward me as well as her outright refusal to consider vampires as anything but evil.
“You remember her mum that distinctly, do you?” Bones asked in a conversational tone while I wrestled with this.
Max didn’t lose that hateful smirk. “Isn’t that what I just said?”
“What was her name?” Again, blandly.
“Justina Crawfield!” Max snapped. “Going to ask me what color panties she wore next?”
Bones suddenly smiled, but it was far from pleasant. “When Ian figured out you were her father, I also wager he mentioned that she very much wanted you dead. Scared the stones off you, didn’t it? Finding out someone strong enough to get the drop on him was coming after you. You remembered her mum—clearly, as you’ve proven—and it would have been simplicity itself to look up the name of the child she’d given birth to all those years ago. You gave that information to a hit man named Lazarus, didn’t you? Had him murder that couple in her old house to draw her out, yet even when she walked into his trap, he didn’t succeed in killing her. You must have been really scared then, so you decided to go after her through the one source you had. Your brother. You knew he’d sent her after Ian, who else would have, and so you dug around until you found a mole in his operation. One who could give another hit man her location and more importantly, her weaknesses. Good plan, mate, but I’m here to inform you that your little rodent and his accomplice have been exterminated.”
“You prick!” I gasped, seeing it all fall into place.
“What’s this?” Ian asked suspiciously.
“Max found her long before I did, but he kept that to himself. He’s been going behind your back for months, Ian, trying to murder her to protect his own miserable arse. Not very loyal of him, is it?”
“I don’t know what he’s talking about!” Max insisted.
I stared at the man who was my father and knew that now, unequivocally, he was lying. Ian wore a look on his face that said he knew it, too.
“You have any proof of this, Crispin?”
No one was fooled by his cool demeanor. Ian’s eyes had gone flat green.
Bones nodded. “I have copies of bank records and transactions from the most recent attempt. Stupid sod used a personal account to pay the informant at her uncle’s operation, and I reckon if you look, you’ll find that account can be traced to Max. You’ll also no doubt find another large transfer of funds in April, when the people living in her old house were murdered.”
Ian whitened around the lips. I grinned maliciously at Max.
“Uh oh. Looks like someone’s in trouble.”
Granted, it wasn’t his head on a stake, but from Ian’s expression, Max might soon be wishing I’d chosen to kill him earlier instead.
Ian gave Bones a last, long look, and then he turned away, gesturing curtly for Max to follow him.
“Hey Max,” I called out as he stalked after Ian. “Watch your back. You never know when someone might stick a knife in it.”
I saw his shoulders tense, but he didn’t turn around. He went right through those big double doors and then was gone. I’ll see you again, I promised him silently. I know who you are now, and you can run, but you can’t hide.
Perhaps my greatest shock was when the other vampires began to disperse as well, without even so much as a muttered threat among them. Guess they were taking Bones’s warning seriously that anyone starting trouble with me would get a piece of him and his people, too.
Spade made his way down to the arena to give Bones an affectionate slap on the back.
“Bloody hell, mate. You a married man? Now I’ve seen it all.”
The tension visibly drained from him as he smiled at his friend. “Charles,” he said, calling him by his human name. “I believe we’re in need of a lift.”

We hitched a ride with Spade, who drove us to the airstrip where the same helicopter that had brought me here would now take all of us back to the warehouse. Once we got there, Bones let Ian’s six men loose and told them they were free to go. They looked stunned to be released so easily, but didn’t question it, and melted away into the night. Then there was one more stop to let Spade off before we reached the compound. By that time I was tired, physically and emotionally, but there were still things to do.
When we arrived, the five of us went straight to Don’s office. My uncle’s forehead creased in what might have been embarrassment, and he quickly ceased his examination of my attire. Oh yeah. I’d forgotten I was barely dressed.
“Uh, Cat, would you like a lab coat or…something?”
Bones took off his jacket. “Here, luv, put this on before your uncle turns red. Best do that anyway, since I’m about to flog Juan for trying to memorize every curve of your arse.”
I took the proffered coat and glared at Juan pointedly. He smiled, unrepentant as always.
“What did you expect? You shouldn’t have let her walk in front of me, amigo, if you didn’t want me looking.”
“You’re all here, so obviously the operation was a success.” It was straight to business as always for Don. “Cat, you gave instructions to have Noah Rose transferred directly to a hospital? And to have his car wrecked and police reports of a hit-and-run accident filed?”
“That’s right. Bones just might put your brainwashers out of a job, Don. Noah has no idea what he saw tonight. All he’ll remember is that he was in a car wreck and he has to call his insurance company in the morning. You don’t have to worry about him.”
“You know, that brings up a very good point.” Tate gave Bones a hostile glance. “How do we know he hasn’t been fucking with our minds this whole time? Your decision to make him part of this team could have been planted, Don!”
Bones answered the accusation for him. “He knows it wasn’t. For one, this office is being recorded by a battery-powered camera stuck up in the ceiling. I can hear it, old chap,” he supplied at Don’s flabbergasted expression. “Of course, I could have just made you think you watched what occurred when you hadn’t, but you went on alert as soon as you heard your niece was shagging a vampire. You’ve been tipping the bottle, as it were. Drinking vampire blood to immune yourself to mind control. I can smell it on you.”
Don’s face confirmed it all. I shook my head.
“You will just never trust me, will you? Look, I’m tired, so let’s make this brief. Ian and Max are still alive, but they won’t mess with either of us anymore. It’s been settled. Under nosferatu laws, Bones kind of…um, married me.”
Don tugged madly at his eyebrow. “What?”
I explained briefly about the laws of binding, and then shrugged.
“Humanly speaking, I’m still single. As far as anyone undead is concerned, however, I’m married to Bones lock, stock, and two smoking barrels. Sorry I couldn’t give Max your best, Don, but I’ll get him one day. I promise.”
Those same steel-gray eyes stared at me. At last, Don smiled faintly.
“I did give Max my best. I sent him you.”
A lump rocketed its way up in my throat, and I had to blink.
“There is another matter we need to discuss,” Bones said, surprising me.
“Okay, but make it fast. I’m about to fall asleep on my feet.”
“Yesterday Tate told me your friend drank vampire blood as he died. That’s a rather significant detail.”
I frowned wearily. “How so? It couldn’t have made him a vampire. He only had a few swallows at most. We buried him three days later, and believe me, he was dead.”
“Quite so, as far as being a vampire or a human is concerned. But there is another species, isn’t there?”
We all looked blankly at him. Bones made a noise of concession.
“Vampires and ghouls are sister races, as I’ve told you. You know a vampire is born after a human is bled to the point of death and then drinks deeply of vampire blood. Making a ghoul isn’t that dissimilar. You first mortally wound a human, then have him drink vampire blood, but not enough for him to live. After he dies, a ghoul takes the human’s heart and switches it with his own. Ghouls can survive having their heart ripped out, which is why the only way to kill them is decapitation. After the hearts are switched, you pour vampire blood over the transplanted heart. It activates it, for lack of a better term, and then you have the birth of a new ghoul.”
His meaning penetrated. Rodney’s face flashed in my mind last night when he had glanced at Bones and said, “Tricky.” He hadn’t been referring to Dave’s murder. He’d been alluding to his possible rebirth.
“Dave’s been dead for months, Bones. Planted in the ground after being pumped full of formaldehyde. You’re telling me it’s possible? Of course you are; why else would you bring this up? Oh God. Oh God.”
“It’s possible, but do you want that? He’d still be your friend, with all of his memories and personality traits except one: what he eats. Now, ghouls mainly eat just raw meat, but every so often, they have to vary their diet, and you know what I’m taking about.”
“Jesus,” Tate muttered. I seconded that. There went my appetite.
“Get past your instinctive aversion for a moment,” Bones went on. “Now, normally I wouldn’t even consider participating in changing a person without their consent, but as he’s unavailable for comment, I’m asking all of you. You were his friends; what do you think he would choose? To remain dead in the ground…or to come out of it?”
The opportunity to have Dave back—walking, talking, cracking jokes, and actually being here, was real. Suddenly I wasn’t a bit tired.
“Do we have to decide now?” Don asked.
Bones nodded. “Normally rejuvenation is done at the time of death, for obvious reasons. Each day he lingers in the ground, the chance of rousing him diminishes. As it stands, it will take a great deal of power to accomplish it. Rodney has offered to sire him, Kitten, but he wants to leave town because of this business with Ian. He’s of his own line, therefore not under my protection, and he reckons Ian might try to take retribution on those he can get away with. He leaves tomorrow, so if it’s to be done, it would have to be tonight.”
“If your friend is leaving, what would happen with Dave, if we do this?” Don asked practically. “Would he leave with him?”
Bones waved away the concern. “Not necessary. I could handle him. Vampires have been foster parents to ghouls for millennia and vice versa. As I said, sister races. After a few weeks of adjustment, you could get him back better than new, as it were.”
“What if we say yes, you do this, and Dave decides he’d rather be dead than undead? What then?” Tate looked tormented by the thought. The same one had occurred to me.
“Then he gets his wish,” Bones said softly. “He’s dead as it is, and if he chooses to return to that, he would. That’s why we’ll have a sword at the grave. It would be quick, and he would be as he was.”
I wanted to throw up at the mental image. The feeling looked mutual on everyone there. Bones tightened his hand over mine.
“If none of you can accept him as a ghoul, then don’t expect him to accept himself. He would have to have your unprejudiced support or this conversation ends now. Being a ghoul wouldn’t change him as a person; it would only change his abilities. He would be stronger, faster, and with new senses, but still be the same man. Is that man worth more to all of you than your squeamishness over what he’d eat?”
“Yes.”
It was Juan who spoke. His eyes were bright with unshed tears. “We wake him up and let him choose. I miss my friend. I don’t care what he eats.”
That lump was back, with reinforcements. Nearby Cooper shrugged. “I didn’t know him very well, so my opinion should count the least. However, if Cat can handle being half of a freak, couldn’t Dave handle being a whole one? It would seem easier to me.”
Tate stared at Bones in a measured, calculating way. “You don’t give a shit what the rest of us think. You’re only offering to do this for her.”
“Absolutely,” Bones said at once. “Better for the rest of you as well? That’s just your luck.”
“Yeah, well, I say go for it, but I think you’re full of shit and you can’t pull him out from under that headstone. But I’ll be sure to apologize if I’m wrong.”
Don and I were the only ones not to ante up, and it was betting time. There was almost no hair left at the end of my uncle’s eyebrow as he stared at Bones.
“We have a saying in the military: Leave no man behind. We haven’t done that on any of our missions yet, and I’m not about to start. Bring him up.”
That only left me. I thought of Dave, and the fear of trying to get him back and failing. Or even worse, him coming back and then being repelled into suicide by what he was. Finally I thought of Dave’s last garbled comment as he bled to death in my arms: ’on’t…let me…’ie…
That made the decision for me. “Do it.”

THIRTY-NINE

The cemetery was completely quarantined off. Even the airspace above it was closed. My entire team was in place around the perimeter. Farther back, there were more guards. Don wasn’t taking any chances on interruption. He was even filming, and one of the dozen men in the immediate vicinity of the grave held a portable camera.
Rodney glanced at all the pomp and shook his head.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Look at all this shit.”
“All this shit” encompassed the hundred-plus military presence. Rodney was camera-shy. He didn’t trust the government as far as he could throw them, which, in his case, was actually pretty far, but suffice it to say he didn’t like the audience of brass.
Bones didn’t care about the onlookers. When it was finally time, he held up three fingers. From the dozen volunteers in our unit, that number stepped forward. We could have used plasma bags, but according to Bones, fresh blood had more kick to it. My three captains and I weren’t on the menu tonight, because he wanted us strong in case things went south. Like Dave’s head, for example. A sword was at my feet just in case. I’d insisted on being the one to wield it, if it came to that. Dave was my friend. If he wanted to die a second time, it would be from the hand of someone who loved him, although what comfort that might give was questionable.
A medical team stood by, discreetly out of direct eyesight. After Bones drained them to the point of dizziness, the three men staggered over to the med unit. They would get transfusions on the spot with the handiness of modern science.
The casket had been raised from the dirt. It hurt just to see it. All the clamps and seals were broken, and the spotlights illuminated Dave’s face when the lid was flipped back. We were under a tent even though it was well after dark. Don’s paranoia that someone would witness this attempt mandated the tent, on top of everything else. A little corpse reanimation made him downright jittery.
Rodney had a special curved knife for the next part. The five of us gathered closer as Dave was lifted from his casket and laid on the ground.
“Jesus,” Tate mumbled as he saw Dave fully under the lights.
I gripped his hand and found that it was shaking. So was mine. Even Juan trembled next to me, and I clasped his hand as well. My grip increased when they cut the clothes off him from the waist up.
I smothered a gasp when that wickedly curved blade drove into Dave’s breastplate as easily as a knife through cake. Rodney carved out a sizable piece of his rib cage, exposing the heart and surrounding organs. Bones casually placed that piece aside on a waiting tray that now resembled nothing short of a platter.
Who ordered the ribs? the macabre thought raced through my mind.
Rodney doffed his shirt and folded it neatly before placing it well outside the circle. He already had a spare pair of pants there. Then he squatted beside Bones, who was dressed only in a pair of dark shorts. His skin gleamed under the fluorescent lights, but my usual admiration was absent. Must have been the sight of him plunging that same dagger under Rodney’s rib cage, wiggling it around, and then drawing out the ghoul’s heart.
Two of the waiting blood donors vomited. The rest looked like they wanted to join in. I couldn’t blame them, but thankfully, my throat stayed clear. Rodney was amazingly quiet throughout, only grunting a few times and making a comment about paybacks. Bones snorted with grim amusement at that. Rodney’s heart was then placed on another waiting tray before they turned their attention back to Dave.
This part was much simpler with his breastplate off. Swish, swish, swish, and out came Dave’s heart. Rodney unceremoniously shoved it inside his chest cavity while Bones arranged Rodney’s former ticker in Dave. Finally satisfied with the placement, he leaned over Dave’s torso and dragged the knife deeply across his own throat.
The soft outcry came from me, not him, at the sight of his neck hacked open. Bones had warned me that this would be graphic, but hearing and seeing were two different things. With his power, he forced the blood from his body. It came in crimson streams. He had to cut his neck three more times after it healed, and there were more sounds of indigestion from the troops. When that red flow finally slowed, Bones set the knife down and waved at the remaining donors.
“Move it,” I hissed when there was hesitation.
One by one the seven men knelt down, Bones drinking from their necks before they stumbled away. When the last one headed for the medic unit, Bones reopened his artery and the faucet was turned back on.
Something began to happen. I could feel it before seeing anything. The air became charged with energy. My skin crawled as it slipped over me. Blood continued to gush into Dave’s chest, overflowing the cavity, and then my own heart stopped for a second when I saw his finger twitch.
“Holy fucking Christ,” Tate breathed.
Dave’s hand lazily curled, flexing. Next came his feet, toes flinching sporadically even as the torrent of blood from Bones ebbed again.
“He needs more. Get another six men,” Rodney barked, since with his throat open, Bones could hardly speak.
I shouted out the order, unable to tear my eyes away. There was scrambling as more donors were rounded up. Rodney helpfully held them in front of Bones long enough for the refills to take place, and then each man was dragged away to the medics. Distantly I hoped they’d brought enough plasma, because this was taking much more blood than we had anticipated.
When Dave’s head tilted to the side and his eyes opened, I fell to my knees. Rodney placed his severed rib cage back over Dave’s chest like fitting a piece into a puzzle. Bones rubbed the area with the blood pooling around him, and I had to try twice before I could speak.
“Dave?”
His mouth opened and closed before a scratchy reply sent tears coursing down my cheeks.
“Cat? Did…the vampire…get away?”
God, he thought he was still in the cave in Ohio! That made sense, since it was his last memory. Bones and Rodney moved away. Juan wept, mumbling in Spanish. Tate knelt, shell-shocked, before he touched Dave’s hand and broke into tears at the answering squeeze.
“I don’t believe it. I do not fucking believe it!”
Dave frowned at the three of us.
“What happened? You guys look awful…Am I in the hospital?”
I opened my mouth to respond when he reared back suddenly and sat up.
“There’s a vampire! What…”
He finally noticed the blood. Bones was also covered in it where he sat a few feet away. I held Dave by the shoulders and spoke urgently to him.
“Don’t move yet. Your chest hasn’t knitted together completely.”
“What—?” He looked down at himself, and then around the tented area before his eyes settled on the coffin and the headstone bearing his name.
“Dave, listen to me.” My voice was thick. “Don’t worry about the vampire; he won’t hurt you. Neither will the ghoul next to him. You…you weren’t hurt in that cave in Ohio. You were killed. This is your grave, and that’s the coffin you’ve been inside for the past three months. You died that day, but…we brought you back.”
He stared at me as though I’d gone crazy, then a heartbreaking smile tugged his lips.
“You’re trying to scare me for breaking formation. I knew you’d be mad, but I never thought you’d go this far—”
“She’s not trying to scare you,” Tate croaked through his tears. “You died. We saw you die.”
Dave glanced in alarm at Juan, who gulped and hugged him hard, crawling behind him.
“Mi amigo, you were dead.”
“But what…how…”
I went to Bones and Rodney, laying a hand on each of them.
“We had a choice, Dave, and now you have to make one, too. These two brought you back, but there’s a price. Your humanity died with you, and nothing can change that. You’re only with us now…because you’re a ghoul. I’m so sorry for not warning you in time when that vampire ran out of the cave. He killed you, but you can continue on…undead.”
The denial filled his features as he looked at us, his surroundings, and then the headstone.
“Look, mate, feel your neck,” Bones said practically. “You don’t have a pulse. Take that knife.” He pointed at the instrument that had been busy all evening. “Slice it across your hand. See what happens.”
Dave cautiously placed two fingers to his throat, waited, and then his eyes bugged. He grasped the bloodied blade and drew it swiftly across his forearm. A thin line of blood welled before his flesh neatly closed together, and then he screamed.
I abandoned my previous position and clutched his hands. “Dave, let me tell you from experience that you can overcome an unexpected heritage. We are who we make ourselves to be, no matter what. No matter what. You’re still you. You’ll still laugh, cry, do your job, lose at poker…We all love you, listen to me. There’s more to you than your heartbeat! So much more.”
He started to cry, pink tears leaking out of his eyes. Juan, Tate, and I wrapped him in a group hug, covering him as he shook. Finally he pushed us back and wiped his eyes, staring at the blood on his fingers.
“I don’t feel dead,” he whispered. “I remember…hearing you scream, Cat, and seeing your face, but I don’t remember dying! And how can I go on if I’m dead?”
Tate answered fiercely, “Dead is stuffed inside that box, not what you are now. You’re my friend, always will be, no matter what the fuck you eat. I didn’t believe that pale prick when he said he could wake you up, but you’re here, and don’t you dare think of covering yourself back up with dirt. I need you, buddy. It’s been hell without you.”
“I missed you, amigo,” Juan said in almost incoherently accented English. “You can’t leave me again. Tate’s boring and Cooper only wants to train. You stay.”
Dave stared at us. “What’s been going on that you have a vampire and a ghoul raising the dead for you?”
I clutched his other hand. “Come with us and we’ll tell you all of it. You’ll be all right, I promise you. You used to trust me before; please, please trust me now.”
He sat where he was, silently staring at the headstone and the faces close to him. At last a wry smile twisted his lips.
“This is the weirdest thing of all. I feel fine. My mind’s cotton candy, but for a dead man, I feel pretty goddamn great. Are we in a cemetery?”
At my nod, he slowly stood up. “I hate cemeteries. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
I threw my arms around him and the tears fell again, but this time, I smiled through them.
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Juan led him out of the tent. Wordlessly, Don clapped a hand on his back, his own gaze shiny as they walked away. Bones still sat on the ground by Rodney.
I flung myself on him so hard it flattened him, heedless of the blood soaking him. With all my joy I kissed him, and when I finally pulled back, he smiled.
“You’re welcome.”
“Ahem.” Rodney grinned. “I helped, too, remember?”
I gave him a fervent lip-lock of gratitude that had Bones snatching me back with a snort of amusement.
“That’s thanks enough, luv. You won’t be able to get rid of him if you keep it up.”
“You look awful, Bones. God, is it always that brutal?”
Rodney answered the question. “No, not normally. Just about a pint usually does the trick, but your boy was cold for a long time. Frankly, I didn’t think it would work. You’re lucky Bones is strong.”
“I am lucky,” I agreed, but not only for that reason.
“Hey Crypt Keeper.”
It was Tate, and he had a resolute look to his face.
“I keep my word, so I’m here to say I’m sorry for saying you were full of shit, and in this case, I’m fucking thrilled to be wrong. Since vampires are more about actions than words, though, you can have a swig at my expense. You look like shit. Anybody ever told you you’re too pale?”
Bones laughed. “Once or twice, and since I’m knackered, I’ll take you up on your offer.”
He rose to his feet and Tate tilted his head. “Don’t kiss me first,” he snidely remarked.
Bones didn’t reply to that, but just sank his teeth into him. A minute later, his blond head lifted.
“Apology accepted. Kitten, we don’t want to keep your friend waiting. He has a lot to learn. Rodney, your assistance was greatly appreciated, but I know you want to go. I’ll ring you in a few days.”
I gave the ghoul a last hug before he disappeared into the night. Bones walked with his arm around me while Tate kept pace at my side.
“We still have to deal with my mother,” I said.
“Indeed, yes. Can’t have her trying to kill me all the time, can we? But don’t fret. She won’t be any harder to manage than raising the dead.”
“Don’t be so sure.” But even my mother couldn’t dampen my mood. Not with the empty grave behind me, and its former occupant waiting ahead of us by the car.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This past year has really driven home why books have an acknowledgments page. Writing an initial draft might be done in solitude, but everything after that isn’t.
First, I want to thank God, for granting me what I hadn’t even dared to pray for.
Next, I want to thank my husband, Matthew, for giving me the love and support that made me believe I could pursue my dreams, and for accepting me as I am, which has made all the difference.
I want to thank the fans of the Night Huntress series. Your enthusiasm for my characters means more to me than I can ever express.
I owe a huge thank you to my editor, Erika Tsang, who really rolled up her sleeves with me on this one. Aside from her outstanding feedback on what was and wasn’t needed to get this story told, she also spent an hour with me discussing the varied potentials for a ghoul’s diet (hope your appetite has finally recovered!). You’re the best, Erika.
Thanks go to my agent, Rachel Vater. I can’t imagine anyone else helping me along this journey.
Immense gratitude goes to Tom Egner, for my gorgeous covers. Further thanks go to the wonderful people at Avon Books, who’ve made my experience with the publishing world such a pleasant one.
Sincerest thanks go to Melissa Marr, Jordan Summers, Mark Del Franco, and Rhona Westbrook, for beta-reading OFITG and keeping me on track. Also thanks to Vicki Pettersson, for enough hours of encouragement to warrant therapy payments.
Of course, I’m grateful to my family, especially my parents and sisters. Your unconditional support has meant the world to me.
Last but not least, I want to again thank Melissa Marr. You’ll never know how important your friendship has been along this strange, bumpy road. I’d try to articulate, but we both know you’re better with words than I am.





Copyright © 2008 by Jeaniene Frost. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.