ONE

The man smiled and I let my gaze linger over his face. His eyes were a
lovely shade of pale blue. Their color reminded me of a Siberian husky, except the person
sitting next to me was no animal. Of course, he wasn't human, either.
"I have to leave now, Nick," I said. "Thanks for the drinks."
He stroked my arm. "Have another one. Let me enjoy your beautiful face a little longer."
I stifled a snort. Wasn't he flattering? But if he liked my face so much, then his eyes
wouldn't have been glued to my cleavage.
"All right. Bartender..."
"Let me guess." The loud voice came from across the bar. An unfamiliar face grinned at
me. "A gin and tonic, right, Reaper?"
Shit.
Nick froze. Then he did what I was afraid he'd do-he ran.
"Code Red!" I barked, vaulting after the fleeing figure. Heavily armed men in black
clothes sprinted into the bar, shoving the patrons aside.
Nick threw people at me as I went after him. Screaming, flailing bodies hit me, making my
attempts to catch them and fling a silver knife through Nick's heart even more difficult.
One of my blades landed in Nick's chest, but too far center to have hit his heart. Still, I
couldn't just let those people splatter to the floor like so much garbage. Nick might think
of people that way. I didn't.
My team fanned out, guarding all the exits and attempting to herd the remaining patrons
out of the way.
Nick reached the far end of the bar and glanced around frantically. There was me,
advancing with my silver knives, and my men with their Desert Eagle handguns pointed at
him.
"You're surrounded," I stated the obvious. "Don't make me angry, you won't think I'm
pretty anymore when I'm angry. Drop the girls."
He had two of them in his grip, one hand on each vulnerable throat. Seeing the terror in
those girls' eyes made anger flare through me. Only cowards hid behind hostages. Or
murderers, like Nick.
"I leave, they live, Reaper," Nick hissed, no romance in his tone any longer. "I should have
known. Your skin's too perfect to be human, even if your heart beats and your eyes aren't
gray."
"Colored contacts. Modern science's a bitch."
Nick's icy blue eyes bled to glowing vampire green and his fangs slid out.
"It was an accident," he yelled. "I didn't mean to kill her, I just took too much."
An accident? Oh, he had to be kidding me. "Her heartbeat slowing down would have
warned you," I replied. "Don't try that accident crap on me, I live with a vampire, and he
hasn't had an 'oops' moment once."
If possible, Nick looked even more ashen. "And if you're here..."
"That's right, mate."
The accent was English, and the tone was lethal. Invisible waves of power rolled over my
back as my men parted to let Bones, the vampire I most trusted-and loved-through.
Nick's gaze didn't shift, which I'd been hoping for. No, his eyes didn't leave me as he
suddenly yanked my blade from himself and then stabbed one of the girls in the chest.
I gasped, catching her instinctively when Nick threw her at me.
"Help her!" I yelled to Bones, who'd lunged at Nick instead. With that wound, unless
Bones healed her, she had only seconds to live.
I had time to hear Bones mutter a curse before he spun around, abandoning his pursuit of
Nick to drop to his knees beside the girl. I vaulted after Nick, doing some cursing myself.
Gunshots went off, but only a few. With the rest of the bar patrons still scrambling for the
doors, plus Nick holding the other girl like a shield, my team couldn't just open fire. Nick
knew that, and so did I.
Nick leapt across the heads of the crowd in a gravity-defying burst, flinging the girl at a
member of my team as if she were a weapon. Helpless, the nearby soldier fell back with
the girl on top of him, just in time for Nick to swoop down and yank his gun away.
I flung three more of my knives, but with all the jostling from the people around me, my
aim was off. Nick let out a yell as they pieced his back, missing his heart. Then he turned
and fired at me.
I had a fraction of a second to realize that if I ducked, those bullets would hit the people
around me instead. They weren't half vampire like I was; it would likely kill them. So I
braced myself...and was spun around in a blur in the next heartbeat, my head jammed into
Bones's chest while three hard vibrations shook him. The bullets meant for me.
Bones let me go, whirling around and flying across the room to Nick, who tried to snatch
another hostage. Nick didn't make it. Bones plowed into him hard enough for both of
them to smash through the wall. I ran, hopping over people, in time to see Bones twist his
knife in Nick's chest.
I relaxed. Silver twisted through the heart meant curtains for Nick-and any vampire.
Bones gave one last twist for good measure and then drew his blade out, his eyes
flickering over me.
"You're bleeding," he said, concern creasing his face.
I touched my cheek, where someone's belt or shoe or whatever had scored me when Nick
was using people like human speed bumps to slow me down.
"You've been shot, and you're worried about a scratch on me?"
Bones came over, touching my face. "I heal instantly, luv. You don't."
Even though I knew what he said was true, I couldn't help but feel his back to reassure
myself that his skin was smooth, no more shredded flesh from the bullets.
"Speaking of, there are dozens of injured people here you need to heal. You can get to my
scratch later."
Bones ignored that, drawing his thumb across a fang and touching the cut it made first to
my cheek, then to my mouth.
"You always come first for me, Kitten."
No one else called me that. To my mother, I was Catherine. My team called me Cat. To
the undead world, I was the Red Reaper.
I licked the blood off, knowing that arguing with him was useless. Besides, I couldn't help
but feel the same way when it came to Bones.
"All right," I said, the burning now gone from my cheek. "Let's wrap this up."
The girl Nick had thrown at one of my men was lying a short distance away. Bones gave
her a sweep of the eyes, saw she wasn't physically hurt, and moved on.
"That's a...he's not..." she started to babble, seeing his fangs and glowing green eyes.
I patted her shoulder. "Don't worry. You won't remember any of this in ten minutes."
"B-but what...?"
I ignored the rest of her stammering and started checking on the other people. No one
seemed to have gotten killed, thank God, aside from Nick. Bones had healed the other girl
who'd been taken hostage. Now the only thing on her chest was a blood smear and a tear
in her shirt where my knife had been. We'd gotten lucky.
"Damage report?" I asked Cooper, who was kneeling over one of the patrons who'd been
chucked at me.
"Not too bad, Commander. Multiple fractures, abrasions, contusions, the usual."
I watched as Bones picked his way through the injured to force the ones in serious
condition to swallow a few drops of his blood. Nothing worked like vampire blood for
healing.
"Another Code Red, querida," one of my captains, Juan, observed. He pointed to the
loudmouthed vampire across the room being restrained by Dave, our other team captain.
Dave was a ghoul, which meant he could hold the wriggling vamp. None of the humans on
my team could have managed to.
I nodded. "Unfortunately."
Juan sighed. "That's three times in a row. You're not easily camouflaged, even with a
different eye and hair color."
He wasn't saying anything I didn't know. I caught Bones's look, and his face nearly
screamed, I told you so.
Things had gotten more dangerous in recent months. Too many people in the undead
world now knew there was a half-vampire human who hunted them, and they knew what
to look for.
I glared at the captive vampire. "Thanks for blowing my cover."
"I only wanted to buy you a drink," the vampire sputtered. "I wasn't even sure it was you,
but your skin...it looked too perfect to be human, no matter that you breathe. And you're
a redhead, I saw that when you raised your arm. The shadow of hair there wasn't blond."
Incredulous, I hefted my arm and inspected its shaved crease. Now I'd heard everything.
Dave studied my armpit, too. "He's right. Of course, who'd think people would be
checking out your armpit?"
Who indeed? I ran a frustrated hand through my dyed blond hair. There were no more
colors left for me. I'd done black and brunette, too, to try and throw off my targets, plus
wearing multiple-colored contacts, but lately it hadn't helped.
"Juan, hold these," I said, handing him my knives. After blinking several times, I got the
brown contacts out. Ah, relief! They had been annoying me all night.
"Let me see them," the vampire suddenly asked. "I've heard, but can you show me?"
Dave tightened his grip. "She's not a carnival freak."
"No?" I sighed, and then let my eyes blaze forth.
Their new glow shone like twin emerald headlights, exactly as all vampire eyes could.
Indisputable evidence of my mixed heritage.
"All right, start talking. Tell me why I shouldn't kill you."
"My name's Ernie. I'm from Two-Chain's line. Two-Chain is a friend of Bones's, so you
can't just kill me."
"With friends like you, who needs enemies?" Bones said scathingly, gliding over to me
once he'd finished healing the injured humans and instilling their new memories with
vampire mind control.
"Bloody hung a target around her neck by screeching her name out," Bones continued.
"Just for that, I should rip off your stones and feed them to you."
For some people, that would just be a figure of speech. Not Bones. He never bluffed.
Apparently Ernie had heard of his reputation. He crossed his legs.
"Please don't." Now he went from negotiating to pleading. "I didn't mean her any harm, I
swear to Cain."
"Right." Coldly. "But you'll need more than the maker of all vampires to help you if
you're lying. Kitten, I'd like to box him and take him back to the compound, until I can
verify that he really is one of Two-Chain's people."
Bones was deferring to me, since in work matters, I was in charge. In matters of personal
vampire affairs, however, Bones outranked me by more than two centuries.
"Sure. He'll hate the capsule, though."
Bones laughed a trifle grimly. He knew from firsthand experience how unpleasant our
vampire transportation was.
"If he's lying, that'll be the least of his concerns."
Cooper came up to us. "Commander, the capsule's prepped and ready."
"Strap him in. Let's get this scene contained as quickly as possible."
My second-in-command, Tate Bradley, walked into the club. His indigo gaze swept over
the room, seeking me out.
"Cat, this is the third time you've been recognized."
As if I didn't know. "We'll just have to come up with a better disguise. Fast, before the
job next week."
Tate didn't let my tone dissuade him. "All this risk is going to get you killed. One of these
days, someone's going to recognize you and just pull a fucking gun instead of offering to
buy you a drink. This is getting too dangerous, even for your standards."
"Don't tell me what to do, Tate. I'm in charge, so you don't get to play all Papa Bear with
me."
"You know my feelings for you aren't paternal."
Before I could blink, Bones had Tate by the throat with his feet dangling several feet in the
air. I was so annoyed by Tate's comment, it took me a moment to tell Bones to let him
down.
If I hadn't known Tate for several years, I'd throttle him myself for how he continued to
bait Bones over me.
Instead of kicking or fighting, Tate managed a grimace that resembled a smile.
"Whatcha gonna do, Crypt Keeper?" he garbled. "Kill me?"
"Put him down, Bones. There are bigger problems than his attitude," I went on. "We have
to finish up here, check on Ernie's lineage, give our report to Don, and then get home.
Come on, moonlight's burning."
"One day, you're going to push me too far," Bones growled, letting Tate drop to the
ground.
I gave Tate a warning look. That's what I was worried about, too. Tate was my friend and
I cared for him, but his feelings for me ran along very different lines. It didn't help that
lately Tate seemed determined to show those feelings, especially around Bones.
Which was like waving a red flag at a bull. Vampires weren't known for their gracious
sharing tendencies. So far, I'd been able to prevent a real fight from breaking out between
them, but I knew if Tate ever made Bones truly lose his temper, he wouldn't live long
enough to regret it.
"Senator Thompson will be pleased that his daughter's murderer was punished," my uncle
and boss, Don Williams, said later when all of us were seated in his office. "Cat, I heard
you were recognized again. This is the third time."
"I have an idea," I suggested. "Maybe you, Tate, and Juan can line up and all shout it from
the rooftops. I know it's the third fucking time, Don!"
My language didn't ruffle him. Don hadn't been around for the first twenty-two years of
my life, but he'd been front row and center for the last five. I hadn't even known I was
related to him until a few months ago. Don hid our family connection from me, since he
didn't want me knowing that the vampire who-allegedly-raped my mother was his
brother.
"We're going to need to get another female to play bait," Don stated. "You can still lead
the team, Cat, but there's too much liability to have you dangling on the hook any longer.
I know Bones agrees."
That made me give a sharp bark of laughter. Bones liked me risking my life on a regular
basis about as much as I liked my father.
"Of course he does. Hell, Bones would dance on your grave if I quit my job."
Bones arched an unperturbed brow, not disputing that.
"You'd just have him pull Don out from under the dirt, Cat," Dave said with a wry smile.
I smiled back. That's what Bones had done to Dave after Dave had been killed on a job.
I'd known vampire blood was a powerful healing elixir, but I hadn't known that if a
mortally wounded person swallowed some before dying, he or she could be brought back
later as a ghoul.
Don coughed. "Be that as it may, everyone agrees it's become too dangerous for you to
continue on as bait. Think of the bystanders, Cat. Whenever there's a Code Red, more of
them stand a chance of getting killed."
He was right. Tonight was a prime example. Vampires and ghouls got pretty desperate
when they were cornered. Add in the fact that I didn't have a reputation for taking
prisoners, and what did they have to lose by taking as many humans down with them as
they could?
"Shit." It was an acknowledgment of defeat. "But we don't have any females on our team,
thanks to your sexist rules, Don, and we have another job next week. That's not enough
time to round up a qualified female soldier, break the bad news to her about vampires and
ghouls, train her to defend herself, and then have her dolled up and ready for action."
There was silence after this pronouncement. Don tugged at his eyebrow, Juan whistled,
and Dave cracked his neck.
"What about Belinda?" Tate suggested.
I gaped at him. "But she's a murderer."
Tate grunted. "Yeah, but she's performed well as a training toy with the men. Based on
her good behavior, we've promised to let her go in ten years. Maybe taking her out on
jobs will be a good indicator of whether she's turned over a new leaf like she's claimed."
Bones gave a slight shrug. "It's risky, but Belinda's a vampire, so she's strong enough for
the work. Plus she's fetching enough to pose as bait, and she'd require no training."
I didn't like Belinda, and that wasn't just because she'd once tried to kill me. She also had
a history with Bones that involved his birthday party, another vampire named Annette,
two other girls, and very little talking.
"Don?" I asked.
"We'll try Belinda next week," he said at last. "If she can't handle it, then we'll find a
suitable replacement."
Using a vampire as bait to trap and kill other vampires. It was almost as crazy as what
we'd been doing, which was using me, a half vampire, for the same thing.
"There's one more thing to discuss," Don said. "When Bones joined us over three months
ago, it was with conditions. His most significant contribution to our operation hasn't been
requested...until today."
I tensed, because I knew what that meant. To my left, Bones lifted a bored brow.
"I won't welsh on our agreement, so name the man you want me to change into a
vampire."
"Me."
The single word came from Tate. My gaze swung to him.
"You hate vampires!" I burst out. "Why would you want to turn into one?"
"I hate him," was Tate's immediate agreement. "But you're the one who said it's the
person who makes the character of a vampire, not the other way around. Which means I
would have hated Bones when he was human, too."
Nice, I thought, still shocked by Tate's intention. Good to know he was keeping an open
mind about the undead. Yeah, right.
Bones raked Don with a look. "I'll need time to prepare him for the transition, and let's
get one thing clear straightaway." He turned his attention back to Tate. "It won't make
her love you."
I glanced away. Bones had said out loud what I'd been worried about, too. God, I hoped I
had nothing to do with Tate's decision to be the first person on the team to turn into a
vampire. Please let him not do something that drastic because of me.
"I love you as a friend, Tate." My voice was soft. I hated to say this in front of a group,
but they all knew how Tate felt. He hadn't been very shy about it recently. "You're one of
my best friends, in fact. But a friend is the only way I see you."
Don cleared his throat. "Unless you or Bones have a legitimate concern, Tate's personal
feelings are irrelevant."
"Motivation is my concern," Bones said at once. "What if bitterness overwhelms him
when he can't pry her from my side, and let me assure you, mate, you won't. So the
question remains-is he choosing this for himself, or for her? If he does it for the wrong
reason, he'll have plenty of time to regret it."
At last Tate spoke. "My reasons are my own, and my commitment to my job won't suffer
for them."
Bones gave him a thin smile. "In a hundred years this job and your boss will be long gone,
but you'll still be my creation. You'll owe me your fealty unless I permit you your own
line or you challenge me and take it. Sure you want to sign on for that?"
"I can handle it," was all Tate said.
Bones shrugged. "Then it's settled. If all goes well, soon you'll have your vampire, Don.
Like I promised."
Don had an expression that was both grim and satisfied. "I hope I won't regret it."
So did I.

TWO

I woke up alone in our bed later. A sleepy glance around showed that
Bones wasn't in the bedroom. Curious, I went downstairs and found him on the couch in
our family room.
Bones was staring out the window at the mountain ridge in the distance. Vampires had the
ability to sit with utter stillness, as immobile as statues. Certainly, Bones was beautiful
enough to be a work of art. Moonlight made his hair look lighter than its deep brown
shade. He'd changed it from blond back to its natural color to be less noticeable when we
were on jobs. Those faint silvery rays also caressed the dips and hollows of Bones's
crystal skin, highlighting his lean, rippled physique. His darker brows almost matched the
color of his eyes when they weren't lit up by vampire green. Shadows made his high
cheekbones look even more perfectly etched when he turned his head and saw me standing
there.
"Hey." I tightened the robe I'd thrown on, feeling his tension in the air. "Is something
wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, luv. I'm just a touch nervous, actually."
That got my attention. I sat next to him. "You never get nervous."
Bones smiled. "I have something for you. But I don't know if you'll want it."
"Why wouldn't I want it?"
Bones slid off the couch to kneel in front of me. I still didn't get it. Only when I saw the
small black velvet box in his other hand did it hit me.
"Catherine." If I hadn't already guessed, his one and only use of my real name would have
clued me in. "Catherine Kathleen Crawfield, will you marry me?"
It didn't hit me until right then how much I'd wanted Bones to ask me that. Sure, we were
married under vampire law, but having Bones cut his hand, slap it over mine, and declare
me to be his wife didn't feel quite like the white wedding fantasies I'd had as a little girl.
Plus, Bones had done it to prevent an all out brawl between his people and his sire Ian's
people over the issue of who had dibs on me.
Looking at Bones now made all my childish imaginings pale into nothingness, however.
True, Bones was a former-human-gigolo-turned-vampire-hitman instead of a charming
prince, but no fairy tale heroine could have felt the way I did, with the man I was insanely
in love with asking me on bended knee to be his wife. My throat closed off with emotion.
How had I ever gotten so lucky?
Bones made a noise of amused exasperation. "Of all the times for you to be speechless. If
you don't mind, choose one response or the other. The suspense is torturing me."
"Yes."
Tears came to my eyes even as I started to laugh at the sheer joy bubbling up inside me.
Something cool and hard slid on my finger. I could barely see it, since my vision was
blurred, but I caught a flash of red.
"I had this cut and fashioned into a ring almost five years ago," Bones said. "I know you
think I was pressured into binding myself with you before, but that's not true. I'd always
intended to marry you, Kitten."
For about the thousandth time, I regretted leaving Bones the way I had years ago. I
thought I'd been protecting him. Turned out I was just hurting both of us needlessly.
"How could you be nervous about asking me to marry you, Bones? I'd die for you. Why
wouldn't I want to live for you as well?"
He gave me a long, deep kiss, whispering onto my lips only when I pulled away out of
breathlessness.
"I know it's what I intend to do."
Later, I was stretched out in his arms, waiting for dawn, which wasn't far off.
"Do you want to elope, or do you want to do the whole big wedding thing?" I asked
sleepily.
Bones smiled. "You know vampires, pet. Always like a fancy show, we do. Also, I know
our vampire binding didn't feel like a real wedding to you, so I want you to have
something that does."
I gave an amused grunt. "Wow, a big wedding. We'll have a hell of a time explaining the
menu to a potential caterer. Choice of entrace: beef or seafood for the humans, raw meat
and body parts for the ghouls...and a keg of hot fresh blood at the bar for the vampires.
God, I can just picture my mother's face."
Bones's smile turned devilish and he leapt up. I watched him, curious, as he went to the
other side of the room and dialed his cell phone.
"Justina."
I vaulted after him as soon as I heard my mother's name. Bones sprinted away from me,
fighting back his laughter and continuing to speak.
"Yes, it's Bones. Now really, that's such a foul name to call me...um hmm, same to you,
I'm sure..."
"Give me that phone," I demanded.
He ignored me, darting out of my reach. Ever since my father, my mother hated vampires
with a pathological passion. She'd even tried to have Bones killed before-twice-which
was why he was taking such delight in giving her a little payback now.
"Actually, Justina, I didn't just ring you to chat about what an undead murderer I
was...right, degenerate whore as well. Did I ever tell you my mum was one? No? Oh,
blimey, I come from a long line of whores, in fact..."
I sucked in a breath as Bones divulged yet another tidbit about his past to my mother, who
must be frothing at the mouth by now.
"...called to give you the good news. I asked your daughter to marry me and she
accepted. Congratulations, I will officially be your son-in-law. Now, do you want me to
call you Mum straightaway, or wait until after the wedding?"
I flew through the air in a dive that finally tackled him, wrenching the phone away. Bones
was laughing so hard, he had to breathe to get it all out.
"Mom? Are you there? Mom...?"
"You might want to give her a moment, Kitten. I believe she fainted."
There were some days when I felt a pang of wistful regret that I'd never be a mother.
Sure, my father had been newly undead enough that he'd managed to impregnate my
mother, but as a rule, vampires couldn't reproduce. And I'd never risk passing on my
genetic abnormalities to a child by means of artificial insemination, let alone my dangerous
lifestyle by adopting one.
Right now, however, I was glad I wasn't a mother. I'd faced some scary sights hunting
vampires and ghouls, but hordes of children hyped-up on sugar, squealing as they ran from
one video game to the next, while I knew there was no escape for me? Truly frightening.
Bones was outside the Chuck E. Cheese, lucky bastard. It was because of his power level.
Other vampires felt him when he was near, like inside, so Bones usually watched the
premises until the gig was up and our target knew he or she was being hunted. I lacked the
typical undead aura that felt like anything from static electricity to full-blown
electrocution, depending on the strength of the vampire. No, I had a beating heart and I
breathed, which made me look harmless-to those who didn't know what else to look for,
anyway.
Toward that end, I had almost all my skin covered up. Hey, I wasn't playing bait, so I
didn't need to wear my usual slut gear. Belinda was the one in a low-cut top with hiphugging
jeans that revealed several inches of her belly. She'd curled her hair and wore
makeup, which was a rarity, since as Don's captive, she didn't get out much.
Looking at Belinda, with her blond hair, pouty smile, and eye-popping curves, people
would never guess she was a vampire, especially since it was day-light. Even those who
might believe in vampires still bought the myth that vampires could only come out at
night, which, along with the whole sleeping in coffins, being repelled by religious symbols,
or being killed by a wooden stake, was wrong.
The little boy next to me tugged my arm. "I'm hungry," he announced.
I was confused. "But you just ate."
He rolled his eyes. "Lady, that was an hour ago."
"Call me Mom, Ethan," I reminded him, fixing a bright smile on my face while I fished out
more money. This had to be the strangest job ever. Where Don had gotten a ten-year-old
boy to act as a prop, I'll never know. But he had arranged for Ethan to come with us,
saying if we spent hours lurking at a Chuck E. Cheese without a child, we'd be suspected
of either being pedophiles or-duh-being vampire hunters by our target.
Ethan snatched at my handful of money without waiting for me to peel the bills off.
"Thanks!" he said, and scampered off toward the pizza counter.
Okay, that looked authentic-I'd seen kids do the same thing to their parents all day
today, plus all day yesterday. Good God, between the food and the endless tokens for
games, I'd gone through more money in two days here than I normally did at a week's
worth of bar jobs downing multiple gin and tonics. At least this was on Uncle Sam's dime,
not mine.
There was only one floor at Chuck E. Cheese's, so that made it easier to keep Belinda in
sight without resorting to looming over her. She was in the section to the left of the front
door, playing Skee-Ball. She landed yet another perfect throw into the center of the
circles. Lights went off while more tickets spat out of the side of the machine. Belinda had
a pile of them near her feet, and more than a few admiring fathers as well as kids clustered
around her.
But no other vampire was here, even though this Chuck E. Cheese had been linked to the
disappearance of a family three weeks ago. Not that any of the patrons here knew that. It
was only because a security camera had caught a pair of glowing green eyes in the parking
lot that Don even suspected vampires were involved in the family's odd disappearance.
Undead killers liked to hit the same hunting grounds more than once. Which confounded
the hell out of me. If vampires or ghouls never went back to the same crime scene, my
uncle's special department of Homeland Security would be out of business. Some of them
didn't have enough sense to be like lightning, never striking the same place twice.
My cell vibrated. I took it off my belt, glanced at it-and smiled. The number flashing was
911, which meant a vampire had just been seen in the parking lot. I kept my eye on Ethan
as I sidled over to where Belinda was. She gave me an irritated glance when I laid a hand
on her arm.
"Showtime," I murmured.
"Get your hand off me," she replied without losing her sweet smile.
I squeezed instead. "If you try anything, I'll kill you. And that's only if Bones doesn't beat
me to it first."
Belinda's eyes flashed green for a second, but then she shrugged. "Ten more years, then I
don't have to deal with you anymore."
I let her go. "That's right. So don't fuck up a better deal than you deserve."
"Don't you need to get away from me, Reaper?" she hissed, so low even I could barely
hear her. "You don't want to scare the fish away, do you?"
I gave Belinda a cool, evaluating stare before I turned my back and walked away. I'd
meant what I said. If Belinda pulled any tricks during this job and endangered one of the
many kids here, I'd kill her. But, as the saying went, we were giving her enough rope to
hang herself. Now we had to wait and see if she swung from it.
On my way over to Ethan, my cell vibrated again. I glanced at it and mentally groaned.
Another 911. That meant there were two vampires. Not good.
I reached Ethan, wanting to keep a sharp eye on him as well as the door. It wasn't long
before I saw two men walk in with the distinctive skin and purposeful movements that
marked the difference between a regular person and a vampire.
I gave the interior of Chuck E. Cheese's another frustrated glance. With all the children
here, this was the worst kind of place to have a showdown with the undead. If I were
playing bait, I'd try to maneuver the vamps into the parking lot to minimize the danger to
bystanders. But Belinda probably wouldn't care enough to do that. Well, I'd just have to
try and help her out.
I grasped Ethan's hand. "It's time," I told him.
His blue-green eyes widened. "The bad people are here?" he whispered.
I doubted Don had explained to Ethan-or his parents, whoever those crazy folks were to
let their son do this-what sort of "bad people" we were after. I wasn't about to
elaborate, either.
"You don't leave my sight, remember?" I said, soft but stern. "It'll be okay."
He nodded, visibly mustering up his courage. "Okay."
What a good boy.
My cell phone vibrated again, with another series of numbers flashing across the screen.
911-911
"Oh, f-crap," I caught myself just in time.
Ethan blinked up at me. "What's wrong?"
I got a tighter grip on his hand. "Nothing."
That was a lie, of course. I looked up in time to see a third vampire walking in the door.
Then a fourth. I saw Belinda pause in her next Skee-Ball toss, look at them, and smile.
Widely.
This was going to be a hell of an afternoon.

THREE

The vampires didn't take long to notice Belinda. Maybe they even
smelled her before they saw her, because they weren't inside the place for a minute before
they sidled over to her. I kept a good grip on Ethan's hand as I heard Belinda exchange
hellos, straining my hearing to make sure she wasn't saying anything else. Like, trap or
Reaper. So far, so good. Belinda was just being flirty-with a homicidal edge to it,
inquiring if they were up for eating anyone here.
"Why do you think we're here?" one of them said with a smirk. "It ain't for the big fake
mouse."
The others laughed. My jaw clenched. Bastards.
"You here with anyone?" another asked, giving Belinda an up-and-down leer.
"Some chick I met and her son," Belinda said dismissively. "One of you can eat her, but I
call dibs on the kid."
"Point them out," the dark-haired vampire said.
I glanced away right as Belinda's hand arced up, putting a false smile on my face as I
looked at Ethan. Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen to you.
"The blonde wearing the black turtleneck sweater and jeans, holding the little boy's hand.
That's them."
"Pretty," the brunette drawled, then added quickly, "but not as pretty as you, of course."
"Thanks." Belinda's voice said his backpedaling wasn't sufficient, but she'd let it go. "So,
how do you all normally do this? Just snatch a kid and run?"
"See that guy over there?" The tall, scrawny vampire pointed to someone wearing an
employee badge. "After a few flashes of my eyes, I'm going to steal his outfit from him."
"Why would you want to take some guy's clothes?" Belinda asked in disbelief. I glanced
back over to them casually. I'd just been wondering that myself.
"Not his clothes, the Chuck E. Cheese costume," the vampire replied with a grin. "It's
easy to get kids to follow you outside without arousing suspicion when you're wearing
that. Even if their parents notice, one of us just gives 'em the gaze and they go home
thinking everything's fine. Takes them a day or so to even realize their kids are gone, and
they don't remember where they lost 'em from."
"We take them out one at a time and store them in the trunk," another added. "It's cool
enough this time of year, so they don't die and go stale, and with a flash of the eyes, they
stay quiet while they're there."
My hand tightened on Ethan's until he let out a yelp. I loosened my grip, fighting to keep
my eyes from glowing out of pure rage. I couldn't kill these guys soon enough.
Belinda smiled. "A vampire in a Chuck E. Cheese costume? That I have to see."
The vampire returned her grin. "Wait right here, honey. You'll love the show."
As if on cue, the robotic figures in the theater came to synthetic life. The kids squealed in
delight. I watched as one of the vampires followed the employee they'd pointed out
behind the stage. My intention to follow as well was cut short by what I heard next.
"...hungry now, I'm getting someone to eat," the russet-haired vampire said, sauntering
away from Belinda and the others.
I let go of Ethan's hand. Belinda had pointed him out as hers; he was the safest kid in the
place at the moment. I knelt down until I was eye-level with him.
"See that game?" I asked, pointing to the one closest to us. "You play that and you don't
move from it until me or one of the other guys you met earlier comes to get you. Promise
me."
Ethan nodded. "Promise."
"Good boy," I murmured. Ethan went over to the game and set all his tokens down by it.
Cold fury seized me as I watched the other vampire hunt for his prey.
"All units, stand by," I whispered into my cell phone. This could get ugly real fast.
I discreetly kept him in sight as the vampire wandered through the room, his sharp eyes
picking out which kids were being supervised and which weren't. There was a young boy
by the change machine, gathering up his tokens. The vampire watched him, sidling up
behind him as the boy started to browse the games. Then he waited until they were near a
corner, and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.
The boy looked up-and that was all it took. The vampire's eyes flashed green for a
moment and he murmured something, too low for me to catch. No one else noticed. The
boy followed him into the next room without a pause, disappearing behind one of the
partial walls.
I went after them, noticing the vampire had picked the least busy place, where all the outoforder
games were kept. He was kneeling, the little boy in front of him. I could see the
green light of the vampire's gaze reflecting off the skin of the boy as he stood there,
making no attempt to run or scream.
He's going to bite him right now. Right here, and he could have his body stuffed behind
one of those broken machines in less than a minute. His parents will never even know he's
in danger until he's already dead...
The russet-haired vampire leaned down, no fear of parents or God or anyone else stopping
him. I pulled out a silver knife from my sleeve and crept forward. Say hello to my little
friend, asshole!
"What the-?"
I whirled, feeling the inhuman power at my back even as I heard the voice. The vampire
wearing the Chuck E. Cheese costume stood behind me, his big fake mouse head tilted
questioningly to the side. The other vampire dropped his hands from the little boy, and his
gaze narrowed on my knife.
"Silver," he muttered.
The gig was up. "Deploy!" I screamed, knowing Bones would hear me, and flung the
knife.
It buried into his chest to the hilt. I leapt on him in almost the same movement, knocking
him over to give a few rough twists of the blade. At the same time, something heavy
landed on me. And cushy. It was the vampire in the Chuck E. Cheese getup.
I rolled over, crunching my legs up and then kicking the vampire off me. He hit a video
game hard enough to make it crash through the window. I heard Tate shout, "Homeland
Security, nobody move!" as I palmed more knives and then flung them with perfect
accuracy into vamp Chuck E.'s chest. He staggered back, but didn't go down. Damn
costume must be too thick.
I grabbed more knives from under my clothes and tackled him. He fought as hard as he
could-while being encased in a large mouse suit. Our struggles had us rolling, me
attempting to stab deep enough to penetrate that costume, and him trying to beat me while
seriously hampered in his movements.
"Leave Chucky alone!" I heard a child wail. Several more screamed.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, talk about emotionally scarring these kids, watching what must
appear to be a crazy woman trying to stab their beloved icon to death. They'd have
nightmares for years unless Bones wiped their memories.
I didn't focus on that, however. I kept hammering away with my knives, hearing another
fight break out. The other vampires. I finally got a deep enough slant on the knife under
me to have the vampire go limp, and I gave the blade a final twist.
I got up to the horrified gaze of children and parents alike, but there was no time to
explain that Chucky wasn't Chucky, but his evil twin instead. The blond vampire came
roaring across the room to me, almost kicking people big and small out of his way. I
reached for another knife, found I had only a few left, and went toward him as well. I
couldn't risk throwing my knives at him-if he ducked, whoever was behind him would
get hit. No, this would have to be a brawl. My eyes blazed green. Come on, Blondie, let's
see what you've got.
Seeing my eyes glow made him falter, but only for a moment. In my peripheral vision, I
could see Belinda wrestling with the dark-haired vampire. We hadn't given her any
weapons, for obvious reasons, but it was a relief to see her fighting for us instead of
against us.
Behind the blond vampire, the last one appeared. He snarled and started toward me, too.
Then his gaze flickered to the door.
"Oh shit," I heard him say right before he turned and ran behind the stage.
I didn't have to turn to know what had scared him; I could feel Bones enter the place. But
the other vampire hit me at the same time, so I couldn't enjoy the view of that one tucking
tail and running.
"You take him, I've got Blondie," I called out, avoiding a set of fangs aimed for my
throat.
"I'll get the sod," Bones growled, disappearing behind the large, fuzzy, robotic figures
that still sang and joked among themselves on the stage.
"Let's move it outside, people!" I ordered in between receiving and giving brutal blows.
Fast, before any parents or kids became hostages.
A quick glance showed Belinda roughly handling the dark-haired vampire, moving him
outside by almost bear-hugging him. She seemed to be speaking to him, too, but with all
this racket, damned if I knew what she was saying.
A hard swipe brought my attention back to the blond vampire in front of me. Just a little
farther, I chanted in my mind. I don't want to kill you, too, in front of dozens of children.
They'll have nightmares as it is.
When he was in front of the hole in the window left by the video game, I charged him,
ducking low to avoid his mouth. We spilled out the window into the parking lot, pounding
each other on the asphalt. I only had a couple knives left on me, not expecting losing so
many of them to Chucky's thick hide. I had to make sure I chose my moment.
"Mommy, make them stop," a child wailed, and I cursed inwardly. This was the worst
setting for a vampire takedown. From the sounds of it, the guys were having a hard
enough time keeping the parents and kids from fleeing to the parking lot in a panic, which
would compound the problem even more. Dave barked out orders to have the dark-haired
vampire Belinda had wrestled out secured in the capsule. Smart. He'd be no threat there,
and we could cart him off and stake him at our leisure later.
I was ducking to avoid a roundhouse punch that would have snapped my neck when I saw
Belinda, no longer restraining the other vampire, suddenly seize Zachary, a newer recruit,
and bury her fangs into his throat.
"Tate, stop her!" I screamed, helpless to do anything as Belinda gave a jerk and Zachary
fell back, clutching his neck with red streaming between his fingers. Then Belinda ran.
I heard gunshots, cursing, and the scrambling of feet as several of the team rushed over.
"Hostile on the loose, secure the perimeter!" Cooper shouted.
I gave the vampire in front of me a grimly cold stare. "I don't have time for this," I
growled, and charged him, knocking both of us over. His fists pummeled me, but I didn't
defend myself. I took the battering, holding his mouth away from my throat with one hand
and ramming my knife into his heart with the other. Three rough scissors of that blade and
he was dead the permanent way.
I crawled off him. My ribs hurt tremendously, but I didn't cradle my aching sides like I
wanted to. A scuffle to my left made me whip my head around, just in time to see the
dark-haired vampire who had been about to be pronged in the capsule fling the two
soldiers nearest him to the ground. Most of the team who weren't guarding the exits had
gone after Belinda, except for the ones kneeling by Zachary. This vampire had taken full
advantage of their distraction.
Dave leapt for him, but the vampire ducked under, slid like a macabre penguin on his
belly, and then took off at a flat run.
I sprinted forward, following the sounds from Tate and Cooper as they chased after
Belinda. But being human, there was no way they could catch her.
I made my decision in a split second and went after Belinda instead. She was the bigger
threat. Belinda knew the names of my team. She knew intimate details about the workings
of Don's organization, and she'd had enough experience being trapped by the security
system in the compound to give detailed descriptions to anyone who might be crazy
enough to try to breach it. There was no way I could let her repeat any of that.
I ran as fast as I could, quickly catching up to Tate and Juan. Up ahead, I couldn't see
Belinda, but I could hear where she'd been by squealing brakes and exclamations from
people as she crossed what must have been a busy intersection.
"Get the car," I gasped out to Tate, darting past him. "Track me!"
I had a transmitter in my beeper, and by car, they could follow faster. Plus handle any
police, if it came to that. There were more tires screeching and I headed in that direction,
bursting through an intersection and catching a glimpse of Belinda right before she darted
down a side street. Oh no you don't, I thought.
I put more effort into it, wishing my ribs didn't feel like they were breaking with every
step. Inside I was praying that Belinda didn't dash into someone's home and try to get a
hostage, but maybe she'd seen and heard enough about me and the team to know that
wouldn't work in her favor. No, she just ran like hell, and I was cursing her even as I kept
up.
Belinda leapt over a fence without even a pause in her stride. At least she wasn't a Master
vampire who could fly; I'd be screwed then. I took the fence almost as quickly as she had,
but the gash it gave me when a jagged edge of metal scored my leg didn't heal instantly, as
it did for her. There were days when I envied undead healing abilities. Just not enough to
turn myself fully into a vampire to get them.
When I gained on her enough to take the chance, I threw my knives. I only had two of
them left, so these had to count. The blades landed in the right area in Belinda's back,
making her stagger, but she didn't go down. Dammit, I missed her heart! My accuracy
while running full-out over uneven ground with a weaving target wasn't nearly what it
was if we'd been in close quarters while I was stationary. Note to self: Work on knifethrowing
skills while in a chase.
But the blades began to slow her. All that jostling must be driving the one dangerously
near to her heart, and Belinda couldn't stop to get a good enough grab on the handles to
pull them out. She tried swiping at her back while maintaining her breakneck speed, but all
she succeeded in doing with her flailing was to slant a knife deeper in her back instead of
pulling it out. Belinda staggered again, and I willed myself to go faster. Almost there...hit
the gas, Cat, you can't let her get away!
I gathered my strength and sprang, managing to grasp Belinda's ankles and knock her
over. She whipped around, her fangs snapping at any piece of my flesh they could find. I
ignored that and flung myself on top of her, bearing all my weight into her torso.
Belinda stilled at once. Her wide, cornflower-blue eyes met mine for a second, and then
her lids dipped even as she let out a scream that was cut off in the next moment. Those
blades, still in her back, had been driven through her heart.
I wasn't about to take any chances. I flipped Belinda over and gave both knives a hard
twist, feeling her go completely limp under me. You should have taken the ten-year deal, I
thought coldly. Instead you brought it to this.
A scream alerted me to my surroundings. Belinda and I were on the edge of someone's
lawn, it looked like. The homeowner, an older woman, was clearly upset at seeing two
women fight to the death in her backyard.
I sat back with a sigh. "Go ahead, call 911. It'll make you feel better." Even though the
police would never get their hands on me. No, not with Don's credentials. Besides, Tate
and the guys would be here soon, and so would Bones, I'd bet. He didn't need my
transmitter to track me; he could do it by scent.
She babbled something that sounded like, "Murderer," and went inside, slamming her
door. Moments later, there was the sound of her calling the police.
I stayed on the grass near Belinda, nodding politely at the few nearby neighbors who came
out to gawk at me before running inside and placing their own emergency calls. I'd been
there less than three minutes before Bones came streaking into view. He slowed when he
saw me, walking the last several yards to where I sat.
"All right, luv?"
I nodded. "Scratches and bruises, nothing serious. The vampire you were after?"
He knelt next to me. "Exchanging hallos with Belinda in hell by now, I should think."
Good. One might have gotten away, but three didn't, and the most dangerous of those
three was starting to shrivel in the late afternoon sun.
"Zachary?"
Bones shook his head. I took in a deep breath, wishing I could stab Belinda again and
somehow make her feel it.
The squealing of tires announced the guys' arrival as, moments later, Juan and Tate
jumped out of the car that skidded to a stop by us.
I stood up, brushing some of the grass and dirt off me.
"As you can see, guys, Belinda has been fired."

FOUR

The other vampire got away. Dave blamed himself for not being the one
to strap him in the capsule, but he'd been so distracted after Belinda attacked Zachary,
which was what she'd intended, of course. Zachary bled to death before Bones finished
with the last vampire, so he hadn't gotten to him in time to heal him. Zachary had had the
team's version of a living will, too. One that stated he didn't want to be brought back as
anything inhuman if he were killed on a job. So, all of us somber, we honored his wishes
and buried him.
Ethan turned out to be an orphan, which explained why his parents hadn't strongly
opposed the part he'd played as my son. I made Don promise never to use him or any
other child again for something so dangerous, and to find him a good foster home. If Don
could run a secret branch of the government to fight the undead, finding a foster home for
an orphan shouldn't be too hard.
At last, V-day for Tate arrived. Everyone was at the compound. We were only short one
person, and that's because her flight had been delayed due to mechanical difficulties.
Annette, the first vampire Bones ever created, was coming in to help with Tate.
That had been my idea. Bones had barely spoken to Annette since her attempt to scare me
off with sordid details of his past, but I knew their estrangement bothered him. So I
suggested Annette could trade off shifts in the cell Tate would be locked in after his
change. It could take up to a week before Tate would be able to control his hunger
without ripping open the first vein he saw, so no one with a pulse could help Tate those
first several days. Dave had already volunteered, but with a third person, it would free up
some of Bones's time. And give Annette a chance to mend fences. Wasn't I just the little
peacemaker?
Now, however, I was nervous. In half an hour, Bones would kill Tate, only to bring him
back again. The time from bite to rebirth could last one hour, or several. We'd scheduled
this for eight p.m., right after sundown, when Bones would be at his strongest. It took a
lot out of a vampire to change someone over, or so I'd been told. This was my first
experience with it.
True to form, Don had videos set up. He even had electrodes stuck to Tate's chest and
head to monitor the exact moment of death as well as brainwave activity. Bones shook his
head upon seeing all the high-tech setup, acidly inquiring if it was being broadcast over the
Internet as well. Don didn't care. He intended to glean all available information he could
for study. In that, he was shameless.
Tate was in a room reinforced with a series of titanium locks. Hell, they even had a
macabre-looking operating table outfitted with clamps made of the same metal. Bones told
Don all these precautions were overkill, pun intended, but Don was worried about Tate
busting out and running amok. Tate was strapped to that table now, wearing only a pair of
shorts to allow for easier electrode access. I slipped in to see him as a human one last
time.
Numerous bags of blood sat in a cooler nearby for Tate's first few meals. My gaze met his
indigo one as I stood next to the inclined slab, maneuvering it until he was upright.
"God, Tate." My voice wavered. "Are you sure about this?"
He attempted a smile, but it lacked its usual depth. "Don't look so spooked, Cat. You'd
think you were the one about to die, not me."
I laid my hand on his cheek. His skin felt as warm as mine. This was the last time it would
be that way. Tate sighed and inclined his head closer.
"It's been a strange ride, hasn't it?" he murmured. "I remember when I didn't believe in
vampires. Now I'm about to join their ranks, led by a son of a bitch I despise. Ironic,
huh?"
"You don't have to do this, Tate. You can change your mind and we'll call the whole
thing off."
He took another deep breath. "As a vampire, I'll be stronger, faster, and harder to kill.
The team needs that...and so do you."
"Don't you dare do this for me, Tate." My voice trembled with vehemence. "If this is for
me, then get off that table right now."
"I'm doing this," he repeated, his tone equally vehement. "You can't talk me out of it,
Cat."
Bones saved me from a response by coming up behind me. "It's time, Kitten."
I went to the small observatory one level up, where the video from that room fed into. My
uncle was already seated, watching the screen. Juan, Cooper, and Dave came into our
room. I couldn't look away as on the screen, Bones walked over to Tate with the slow
grace of a true predator. Tate's breathing and heartbeat began to accelerate.
Bones studied him without emotion. "You won't gain what you're hoping for, mate, but
you will have to live with this decision the rest of your days. So, one last time, do you
want this?"
Tate took a long breath. "You've wanted to kill me for months. Here's your chance. Just
do it."
In the next second, Bones's fangs were sunk deep into Tate's neck. The machines picked
up Tate's skyrocketing pulse as he gasped, stiffening. Dave gripped my hand and I
clenched back, watching as Bones drank the life from my friend with deep, long pulls of
his mouth. That pale throat worked over and over as he swallowed. The sounds from the
EKG monitor slowed, decreased, and then made only intermittent, brief bleeps when
Bones lifted his head.
He licked the spare drops of blood around his mouth before pulling out a blade and
making a gouge in his own neck. Then Bones pressed Tate's lolling head to the wound,
keeping the tip of the knife in his neck so it didn't close.
Tate's mouth moved, at first feebly lapping at the blood, and then sucking with more
vigor. The EEG monitor began to make alarming noises. Bones dropped the knife as Tate,
eyes closed, clamped his teeth around his neck and tore at it. Bones held Tate's head, not
flinching as he chomped at him for more. Tate gnashed and sucked as the minutes ticked
on, his heartbeat skipping longer and longer in between blips until at last there
was...silence.
Bones tore Tate's mouth free, wrenching it loose and staggering back. The EEG went
haywire while the EKG showed a straight flat line on its monitor. A great tremor wracked
Tate's body, rattling the clamps holding him. Then he slumped in his restraints,
motionless. Dead, but waiting to rise.
The hours dragged by with painful slowness. Bones sat on the floor of the cell, looking
like he was resting, but I knew he wasn't asleep. Every so often, his gaze would flick over
to Tate's still form. I wondered if he could feel changes in the energy around Tate. Lord
knew the EEG could. It hadn't shut up the whole time. Bones must have wanted to smash
it more than once by now, with all the bleeps and squawks it made.
Bones had helped himself to two of the blood bags after Tate-died? Passed out? What
was the term for the state Tate was in now, anyway?-even though Bones hated bagged
plasma. He'd likened the taste to rotten milk, for an analogy I'd understand when I'd once
asked him why he didn't just eat that instead of biting people. But with what he'd drained
into Tate, Bones needed a refill, taste preferences notwithstanding.
Juan yawned. It was after midnight, and so far, we'd done nothing but watch Tate lie
there. Still, no one seemed to want to tear their eyes from the screen.
"You can all get some sleep, I'll buzz you when there's any change," I suggested. I was
used to being awake late. Being half vampire had its quirks.
Don gave me a tired but firm look. "I think I speak for everyone when I say hell no, I'm
staying."
There were grunts of agreement. I shrugged, defeated, and turned my attention back to
the screen.
The only warning I had was Bones standing up. Then, suddenly, Tate's supine body was a
seething mass of motion. His eyes were open, every muscle strained against the clamps,
and a howl so unearthly feral it rocked me back in my seat came from the speakers.
"Jesus Christ," Don muttered, his former slump gone.
Tate's scream grew impossibly louder. Through the blur from the frenzied scissoring of
Tate's head as he fought against his restraints, I saw his mouth was open...and fangs were
clearly visible as he continued to howl like he'd just come straight from hell.
Bones had said new vampires woke up with a burning, mindless thirst. That reality was
playing out before my eyes. Tate didn't seem to be aware of where he was, or even who
he was. There was nothing left of him in the gaze that scoured the small room he was
trapped in.
Bones had none of my inner panic at seeing my friend in such a condition. He went over to
the cooler, drew out a few blood bags, and walked over to Tate.
I couldn't hear what he said, because Tate's screams drowned it out, but I saw Bones's
lips move as he dropped one of the bags right onto Tate's gaping mouth. Nummy,
nummy? my frozen mind supplied. Or, Bottoms up?
It didn't matter. Tate didn't drink from the bag-he tore at it until his face was covered in
red and his snapping jaws made him look more like a great white shark than a man. Bones,
unperturbed, plucked the plastic remains from Tate's face, nimbly avoiding his fingers
getting chomped, and then dropped another bag onto Tate's mouth. It met the same
garbage-disposal fate as the first one.
I glanced away, disturbed. That made no sense, because I'd known what to expect, but
hearing it and seeing it were two different things. To my right, I also noticed Juan looking
away from the screen. He rubbed his temple.
"It's still him."
Dave's voice seemed very soft in the sudden break from Tate's screams as he slurped.
Dave nodded once at the monitor.
"I know it's hard to believe from what you're looking at, but Tate's still in there. This is
only temporary. He'll be himself soon."
God, I wanted to believe that. I knew there was no reason I shouldn't, except that now,
Tate looked more frightening than the most homicidal vampire I'd ever come across. I
guess I truly hadn't been prepared to see my friend this way, even though I'd thought I
was.
It took five bags before the demented gleam left Tate's eyes. Of course, most of the first
two had spilled around his face and shoulders, not in his mouth, since he'd sawed at them
so crazily. Now, covered in blood, he finally looked at Bones and seemed to recognize
him.
"It hurts," were Tate's first words.
Tears came to my eyes at the bleak rawness of his voice. There was so much despair
leaking out of that short sentence.
Bones nodded. "It gets better, mate. You'll have to trust me on that."
Tate looked down at himself, licking at the blood he could get. Then he stopped-and
stared straight into the camera.
"Cat."
I leaned forward, pressing the button on the monitor that allowed them to hear me.
"I'm here, Tate. We all are."
Tate closed his eyes. "Don't want you to see me like this," he mumbled.
Shame over my initial reaction made my voice raspy. "It's okay, Tate. You're-"
"I don't want you seeing me like this!" he snarled, jerking against his clamps once again.
"Kitten." Bones glanced up at the screen. "It's upsetting him. That'll make it harder for
him to control the blood craze. Best do as he wants."
My guilt deepened. Was this a coincidence, or could Tate somehow tell that I'd been
repelled by watching him before? What a crappy leader I was, let alone a bad friend.
"I'm going," I said, managing to keep my voice steady. "I'll...I'll see you when you're
better, Tate."
Then I walked out of the room, not looking back as I heard Tate's screams start up once
again.
I was sitting at my desk, staring off into space, when my cell phone rang. A glance at it
showed my mother's number, and I hesitated. I so wasn't in the mood to deal with her.
But it was unusual for her to be up this late, so I answered.
"Hi Mom."
"Catherine." She paused. I waited, tapping my finger on my desk. Then she spoke words
that had me almost falling out of my chair. "I've decided to come to your wedding."
I actually glanced at my phone again to see if I'd been mistaken and it was someone else
who'd called me.
"Are you drunk?" I got out when I could speak.
She sighed. "I wish you wouldn't marry that vampire, but I'm tired of him coming
between us."
Aliens replaced her with a pod person, I found myself thinking. That's the only
explanation.
"So...you're coming to my wedding?" I couldn't help but repeat.
"That's what I said, isn't it?" she replied with some of her usual annoyance.
"Um. Great." Hell if I knew what to say. I was floored.
"I don't suppose you'd want any of my help planning it?" my mother asked, sounding both
defiant and uncertain.
If my jaw hung any lower, it would fall off. "I'd love some," I managed.
"Good. Can you make it for dinner later?"
I was about to say, Sorry, there was no way, when I paused. Tate didn't even want me
watching the video of him dealing with his bloodlust. Bones was leaving this afternoon to
pick Annette up from the airport. I could swing by my mom's when he went to get
Annette, and then meet him back here afterward.
"How about a late lunch instead of dinner? Say, around four o'clock?"
"That's fine, Catherine." She paused again, seeming to want to say something more. I half
expected her to yell, April Fool's! but it was November, so that would be way early. "I'll
see you at four."
When Bones came into my office at dawn, since Dave was taking the next twelve-hour
shift with Tate, I was still dumbfounded. First Tate turning into a vampire, then my mother
softening over my marrying one. Today really was a day to remember.
Bones offered to drop me off on his way to the airport, then pick me up on his way back
to the compound, but I declined. I didn't want to be without a car if my mother's mood
turned foul-always a possibility-or risk ruining our first decent mother-daughter chat by
Bones showing up with a strange vampire. There were only so many sets of fangs I
thought my mother could handle at the same time, and Annette got on my nerves even on
the best of days.
Besides, I could just see me explaining who Annette was to my mother. Mom, this is
Annette. Back in the seventeen hundreds when Bones was a gigolo, she used to pay him
to fuck her, but after more than two hundred years of banging him, now they're just good
friends.
Yeah, I'd introduce Annette to my mother-right after I performed a lobotomy on myself.
"I still can't believe she wants to talk about the wedding," I marveled to Bones as I
climbed into my car.
He gave me a serious look. "She'll never abandon her relationship with you. You could
marry Satan himself and that still wouldn't get rid of her. She loves you, Kitten, though
she does a right poor job of showing it most days." Then he gave me a wicked grin. "Shall
I ring your cell in an hour, so you can pretend there's an emergency if she gets natty with
you?"
"What if there is an emergency with Tate?" I wondered. "Maybe I shouldn't leave."
"Your bloke's fine. Nothing can harm him now short of a silver stake through the heart.
Go see your mum. Ring me if you need me to come bite her."
There really was nothing for me to do at the compound. Tate would be a few more days at
least in lockdown, and we didn't have any jobs scheduled, for obvious reasons. This was
as good a time as any to see if my mom meant what she said about wanting to end our
estrangement.
"Keep your cell handy," I joked to Bones. Then I pulled away.
My mother lived thirty minutes from the compound. She was still in Richmond, but in a
more rural area. Her quaint neighborhood was reminiscent of where we grew up in Ohio,
without being too far away from Don if things got hairy. I pulled up to her house, parked,
and noticed that her shutters needed a fresh coat of paint. Did they look like that the last
time I was here? God, how long had it been since I'd come to see her?
As soon as I got out of the car, however, I froze. Shock crept up my spine, and it had
nothing to do with the realization that I hadn't been here since Bones came back into my
life months ago.
From the feel of the energy leaking off the house, my mother wasn't alone inside, but
whoever was with her didn't have a heartbeat. I started to slide my hand toward my purse,
where I always had some silver knives tucked away, when a cold laugh made me stop.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, little girl," a voice I hated said from behind me.
My mother's front door opened. She was framed in it, with a dark-haired vampire who
looked vaguely familiar cradling her neck almost lovingly in his hands.
And I didn't need to turn around to know the vampire at my back was my father.

FIVE

Max, my father, stood about thirty yards away between some trees. His
red hair blew in the breeze and those identical gray eyes bore into mine. But what really
held my attention was the rocket launcher Max had balanced on his shoulder. He also had
a gun in his other hand. The disparity between the two weapons almost made me laugh
out of sheer hysteria.
"I was going to blow up your car before you even pulled into the driveway," Max said in a
genial tone, nodding at the rocket launcher, "but then I saw you were alone. And how
could any dad pass up the chance to spend some time with his little girl?"
If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. That was what Max had spat at me months ago
after he'd been busted for hiring two hitmen to put me out of my misery. I hadn't thought
he would try more brazen attempts to kill me since Bones married me vampire-style, but it
looked like I was wrong.
"Where's your sire, Max?" I asked, my voice even. "Is Ian running late? Is he still that
pissed at me for getting away from him months ago?"
"Ian?" Max laughed. "Fuck my sire, I don't need him. I've got new benefactors, little girl,
and they want you dead as much as I do."
I debated going for my knives again. An icy smile stretched across Max's face, which
looked enough like mine for anyone to tell we were father and daughter.
"Think you can get to your weapons before I shoot you? Maybe you can. But not before
this rocket plows right through your mother, and wouldn't that be a shame."
My jaw clenched. Max and the other vampire were in the exact opposite direction from
each other. Even if I was fast enough to take out one of them, the other would still have
time to kill my mom.
"Why don't we go inside? I think a family chat's long overdue," Max said, gesturing with
the gun.
There was no way I could do anything with the two of them this far apart. I started toward
the house, but his laugh stopped me. "Drop your purse first, little girl, and kick it over my
way. Slowly."
A dozen different attack scenarios skipped through my mind, but fear for my mother made
me reject all of them. If only it was just Max here. If only I'd strapped some weapons on
me before heading over. If only I had another damn watch with a panic button in it, so
Bones could realize my mother and I were in deep shit.
I dropped my purse and gave it a sideways kick over to Max. He grunted and came closer,
his aim not wavering with either weapon.
"Let's make you a little more respectful," he said, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit me low in the stomach, doubling me over. It took a few seconds for the pain
to hit, but when it did, it was merciless.
Behind me, I heard the other vampire giggle. It wasn't much louder than the sound of the
shot. Max's gun had a silencer.
"Inside," he directed me with another wave of the gun. "Or the next round goes in your
leg."
With my fists covering the rapidly bleeding hole in my gut, I staggered into the house. As
soon as Max closed the door behind us, he fired again, striking me in the thigh.
I'd screamed at the second shot, which knocked me off my feet and sent me sprawling
onto the floor.
"It was too much fun to resist," Max smirked, then waved the gun, this time at my mother.
"You make one more sound and she gets the next slug."
Max would love to shoot my mother. It hadn't escaped my notice that she had a dull,
glazed look on her face. Max had green-eyed her into compliance. The thought of how
terrified she must have been to open her door and see my father there almost made my
rage match the pain in pure intensity.
But that was short-lived. Waves of pain, nausea, and dizziness assailed me. Max might
have missed arteries or vital organs, but in my current condition, I wouldn't be able to
fight off him and the other vampire, plus rescue her. It was only because of being half
vampire that I was even still conscious at all.
Bones. I'd often teased him about being paranoid over my safety, but it looked like the
joke was on me. Sure, if I didn't show up at the compound later, he would be worried.
Probably enough to come straight here, but from Max's expression, he'd arrive too late.
"You should have killed me when you had the chance," Max said, staring down at me.
"Bet now you wish you'd done that instead of marrying Bones back at Ian's that night."
Even if this was it for me-and I wasn't ready to concede that by a long shot-I couldn't
bring myself to agree.
"Have I ever mentioned how much I hate you, Max?" I managed to grit out. Maybe I
could stall him. Get him pissed enough to want to take his time killing me.
The other vampire laughed. "She has such spirit," he said, eyeing me even as he stroked
my mother's hair. "What a waste."
Recognition dawned about where I'd seen the black-haired vampire before. He was the
one who'd gotten away from Chuck E. Cheese's that day!
"You," I said.
He smiled. "Nice to see you again, too."
Max set the rocket launcher down, but that didn't do me nearly as much good now as it
would have a few minutes ago.
"Calibos," he said, "if my daughter moves, kill her mother."
With that grim directive, Max disappeared into the kitchen. I kept applying pressure to the
hole in my gut, since it was bleeding worse than my leg. Goddamn you, Max, I thought
through the pain. I'll see you dead even if it's the last thing I do.
And from the looks of it, it probably would be.
My mother still stared sightlessly ahead. Aside from that, to my relief, she didn't look hurt.
Calibos, as Max called the other vampire, let his hand wander down the front of her shirt
to squeeze her breast. A low growl came from me that made him grin.
"Temper, temper," he purred, letting his hand creep lower.
Max came out of the kitchen and glared at Calibos. "Not her," he said curtly. "If there's
time, you can have Cat, but Justina's mine."
Oh dear God. Renewed determination surged through me. I couldn't let Max live, even if I
ended up killing me and my mother in the process of taking him down. I knew my mother.
She'd rather be dead than raped by a vampire, especially Max.
"I think it's time to wake her up, don't you?" my father asked me in that same chipper
tone. He handed his gun to Calibos with directions to shoot me if I twitched, then went
over to my mother. Max cut his thumb on one of the four knives he'd returned from the
kitchen with and held it to her mouth.
"Rise and shine, Justina," he said, rubbing the blood on her lips.
My mother licked it, blinked once-and then screamed.
Max's hand clamped over her mouth. I tried to push the pain back enough to concentrate
on a plan. Come on, Cat, think! There's got to be a way out of this.
"Hello, beautiful," Max said, putting his face right next to my mother's. "I'm going to take
my hand away, but for every time you scream, I'm going to cut something off our
daughter. Understand?"
My mother's gaze flicked to me, widened, and then she nodded. Max dropped his hand.
"That's better. Now, to make sure kitty here doesn't spoil the fun..."
Max walked over to me, still holding those knives. I braced myself, wanting to grab for
those blades like I'd wanted nothing before it. But Calibos had the gun pointed at me and
my mother within biting distance. I'd make my stand, but this wasn't the time.
Max smiled, kneeling to grab my wrist. "You're going to die," he said, low enough that
only I could hear him, "but I'll let your mother live just so she can remember that she
watched it happen. But if you fight me, little girl, I'll rape her and kill her in front of you
before I finish you. How much do you want to save her from that?"
I'd never felt such hatred for anyone as I did for my father. There was a chance that Max
would kill us both anyway, but I had three choices. Hope I came up with a brilliant plan
and managed to rescue both of us, hope Max took long enough torturing me that Bones
showed up in time...or go for those knives and risk watching Max make good on his
threat about my mother. I knew he was capable of it. There wasn't much I thought was
beneath him.
"Let her go when it's over," I said very softly, opting for Plan A or B.
Max smiled. "Smart girl." His fingers stroked my wrist. "Why did you come here alone?
Where's Bones?"
Lying always sounded more authentic when it was mixed with the truth. "He's at the
compound. He changed one of my team last night into a vampire, so he's staying with him
until he's over the blood craze."
Max's smile widened. "Tate."
I couldn't hide my shock. My father laughed. "How do I know about that? Belinda gave
Calibos the information. Once I found your mother, all I had to do was compel her to
invite you over. I owe Belinda a huge thank-you."
Belinda. Son of a bitch, I'd underestimated that blue-eyed bimbo. Now I knew what she'd
been whispering to Calibos as she led him out of Chuck E. Cheese's. What was the one
thing Belinda knew that no one else outside my unit did? The date and time we were
changing Tate. Belinda must have figured with me dead, no one would piece together how
Max had done this. But she hadn't figured on dying herself.
Another wave of light-headedness swept over me. I must have been bleeding internally,
since what was leaking out onto the floor didn't account for how I felt.
"You'll have to save the thanks, Max, because she's dead."
He shrugged. "That's a shame. Nice girl."
"Max."
Both of us turned. My mother was still standing where she'd been. Slow tears trickled
down her face. I'd never seen her cry before.
"It's me you want," she said in a raspy voice. "I raised Catherine, and I taught her to hate
every vampire she met. Let her go. This is between you and me."
This, not being shot twice, was what brought tears to my eyes. All the times I'd thought
she didn't love me, and here my mother was trying to use herself to barter with the
vampire she feared the most.
Max lasered a green glare her way. "Oh, I have unfinished business with you, Justina. Do
you know what a pain in the ass it's been, being the vampire who fathered the half-breed?
I've had strangers beat me on sight! But I get no protection if I just kill you, whereas
taking her out garners me new friends. They wanted Bones dead, too, but I'll take what I
can get."
I was about to ask who these new friends were, when Max took one those knives and
speared it straight through my wrist, hard enough to pin it to the floor. I gave a harsh
gasp, but it was my mother who screamed.
"Stop it!"
Max grinned, keeping the other knives well away from my reach. "Thanks, Justina. Now I
get to do a little slicing, courtesy of you."
Calibos let out an annoyed sigh I could hear even above my own labored breathing.
"This is boring. Am I going to get to do anything fun today?"
Max took another knife, giving a meaningful glance at my mother before touching its tip
to my skin. "Go on, fight me. Give me a reason to make you watch your mother suffer
before she dies," he whispered.
I set my teeth and didn't fight as he drove this blade slowly through my other wrist. It hurt
even more than the first one had. My mother let out a moan that sounded like she was in
pain, too.
"Please." It was barely audible, and she held her hand out to Max. "Please, no more. This
is my fault, leave her alone!"
"What time is your playboy vampire expecting you back?" Max asked, ignoring her.
It would take Bones twenty minutes to get to the airport from the compound, maybe less
with the way he drove. Then another fifteen or so minutes to load up Annette's ridiculous
amount of bags and head back. Would Bones call me once he'd gotten back to the
compound? I had my phone set to vibrate, so I wouldn't be able to hear it if he did, since it
was outside in my purse. God, would it take him hours before he even wondered why I
wasn't back yet?
"Three hours," I said, keeping my face as blank as possible.
Max let a nasty smile curl his lips. "I'm going to assume that really means one hour. But
don't worry. I'll make it count. Oh, and I'll take this."
Max yanked my engagement ring off my finger. He held it up to the light and grinned.
"Must be five carats," he said admiringly. "This'll net me a couple million, easy."
"It's a ruby," I snapped, hating the sight of my engagement ring in his hands.
Max laughed. "Stupid little girl, that's a diamond. Red diamonds are the rarest in the
world, and Bones has had this stone for over a century. Ian's wanted to buy it from him
for decades. But you won't be needing it anymore."
Max sliced up the front of my shirt, remarking that this was for Calibos's benefit, not his.
The throbbing from my wrists, combined with the searing pain in my legs and gut, made it
so easy for me to pass out. I kept fighting the blackness that crouched temptingly near.
My mother darted forward. Calibos caught her, giving her a hard shake.
"You're nothing but animals," she hissed at them.
"Insults count as screaming," Max replied, laughing as she gaped in disbelief. "My game,
so I get to make up the rules. That's two things I get to cut off Cat now. Want to make it
three?"
I met my mother's gaze over Max's shoulder. Her eyes were wide and overflowing. I gave
the barest shake of my head. Please don't. You can't make it better. Just run when you
have the chance.
She couldn't hear my silent urgings, of course. Max let the tip of his knife dip to my jeans,
and he slit them down the side.
"Here's where I'll start," he remarked, then grabbed a handful of my hip and gave a hard
upward swipe with the third knife.
I bit my lip so hard to keep from screaming that I tasted blood. Calibos snickered. Max
held up my severed piece of skin like it was a trophy.
"Nice tattoo," he said, flinging it to the side. "Maybe I'll have that shipped to Bones, so he
can have a spare."
My hip flamed where there was now a bleeding open wound instead of the crossbones
tattoo I'd gotten to match the one on Bones's arm. My mother didn't cry out this time,
but she drew in a deep, shuddering breath.
"I love you, Catherine," she whispered.
I had to look away, because I didn't want to give Max the satisfaction of seeing me cry. I
couldn't remember the last time she'd said that to me. She must believe we were both
doomed to die.
"I'm sick of holding her, I'm putting her under," Calibos said, turning green eyes to my
mother.
"Stop it." Max's voice was a whip. "She's going to see this. She's going to know."
Calibos made an exasperated noise, then dragged my mother over to the drapes by the
window. He yanked one off, ripped it down the center, and then tied the end of it around
her neck.
"Max," I said warningly.
He swatted me in the head, hard. "Shh, I want to see what he's got in mind."
Calibos threw the other end over one of the railings in the banister on the second floor.
My mother was struggling, but she was no match for the vampire. I began to strain against
the knives pinning me down. Max shoved another one through my wrist almost like it was
an afterthought, then punched me in the gut where I'd been shot.
The blast of agony must have knocked me out for a minute, because when my eyes
focused again, my mother was standing on a chair, one end of the drapes wrapped around
her neck, and the other tied to the banister upstairs. There was hardly any slack in the line,
and one of the chair's legs was missing.
"Now she can watch, and I can join the fun," Calibos smirked.
Max gave him an approving grin, then turned his attention to me.
"Do you want to know what I'm going to do to you, little girl?" he asked in a
conversational tone. "After I torture the hell out of you, I'm going to chop you into
pieces. Can't risk Bones getting someone to raise you into a ghoul, now can I?"
Vicious prick wasn't stupid. With my half-vampire bloodline, it was entirely possible I
could be raised as a ghoul, if Max were just to murder me. But if I was dismembered, that
option was out.
"Same rules apply. Let's see how long you last before you scream and I get to cut
something off Justina," he taunted.
Max's fist began knocking my head back and forth like a toy on a spring. Blood filled my
mouth and my lip split, but I bit my tongue and didn't make a noise. After a few minutes,
the ringing in my ears dulled the thwacking sounds of him beating me. Then he stopped.
"Stubborn bitch. Hmm, let's see if you can keep quiet through this..."
He pulled a lighter out of his pocket, flicked it, dialed the flame up as high as it could go,
then held it to my arm. My whole body shuddered and I twisted futilely, gasps and grunts
coming from me. After a few minutes of unimaginable agony, I couldn't hold back my
scream any longer.
Max laughed, delighted. Vaguely I was aware of throwing up.
"I think that's going to cost Justina a finger," he remarked. "What else will you make her
lose?"
"Even if you kill me, Bones will find you," I panted. Sweat was pouring off me and my
arm hurt in ways I didn't know were possible. "Believe me, you'll be sorry when he does."
Calibos and Max chuckled like I'd told a joke. "That vampire won't start a war over you."
Max grinned. "Hell, the only reason Bones married you was to spite our sire."
That's why Max felt secure enough to risk pulling this? Because he thought he had enough
protection from his new "friends" and Bones had only married me to piss off Ian?
"Oh, Bones will find you. Count on it."
They glanced around, uneasy at the vehemence of my tone.
"Pathetic," Max said at last. "You're trying to scare me into letting you live, but it won't
work. Still, Calibos, go outside and keep watch. Just in case her playboy decides to drop
by early."
"But I haven't gotten to play with her yet," Calibos protested, with a look my way that
made me recoil.
"You'll get your chance," Max snapped. "But I set this up, so I go first."
Calibos smirked at me as he headed out the door. "I'll see you soon, sweetie."
Max got up and sauntered over to my mother next. She was almost on her tiptoes to keep
the drape around her neck slack enough to breathe. Underneath her, the chair wobbled
ominously on its three legs. Her hands were tied together with another piece of drapery,
and Max grinned as he contemplated her fingers.
"Which one will you lose, Justina? Let's see, this little finger went to market," he started
to singsong, tapping one of them. "This little finger stayed home. This little finger had
roast beef..."
I tried to mentally prepare myself for my chance. Now that one of them was outside, this
was my best opportunity. It was hard for me to focus, however. I'd had years of
experience getting knocked around, but with all of my injuries, I kept feeling myself
wandering closer to unconsciousness.
My mother met my eyes...and then kicked the chair out from under her.
"Goddammit," Max snapped, holding her up with one hand. "Why'd you do that?"
In the second that he was distracted, I yanked against the knives on my wrists with all my
strength, feeling my flesh shred. I'd gotten one of my hands free when Max turned around.
"What the hell?"
He let my mother go. She dangled by the neck, her feet well above the floor, while I
wrenched my other arm free, ignoring the white-hot burst of pain that caused. I tried to
grab one of the knives, but my wrists were too damaged for me to hold anything. I kicked
them away and then lunged at Max instead, head-butting him hard enough to knock him
over. All I need is a little of your blood, I thought, biting at him savagely, and I'll be
healed enough to fight.
A burst of noise jerked my head toward the window. The last thing I saw was glass
smashing-and then there was a burning in my neck and my vision went black. I thought I
heard screams, but all at once, everything seemed farther away. I couldn't feel anything,
either. It was a relief to be free from the pain.
Awareness came back with something wet being poured down my throat. I tried to cough
it out but couldn't. The flow wouldn't stop, forcing me to swallow. Again. And again.
"...don't you let her die!" I thought I heard my mother scream, then there was Bones's
voice, very close.
"...come on, luv, drink! No, you have to have more..."
I gagged, the liquid overflowing my mouth, when shapes around me formed into clarity. I
had my mouth plastered to a blood-slicked neck, and I pushed away even as I coughed
and swallowed once more.
"Stop it," I managed to say.
Hands set me back. It was Bones's throat I'd been pressed against. His neck wasn't the
only thing smeared red, either. So was the entire front of him.
"Christ Almighty, Kitten," Bones breathed, stroking my throat.
"Catherine," my mother cried. I jerked my head around in time to see her slip in something
as she staggered toward me. That drape was still tied around her neck, but the other end
was no longer attached to the banister. In the far corner of the room, I heard Max's
muttered cursing and a feminine English reply.
"Don't you move, you little shite."
"You've got him?" Bones asked in a truly chilling voice.
Annette sounded as fierce as I'd ever heard her. "I've got him, Crispin."
My mother reached me. She was hugging me and trying to pull me from Bones's arms
even as she kept feeling my neck.
"Did he fix it? Are you all right, Catherine?"
That's when I noticed the rest of the blood. It wasn't only splattered on Bones, but all
over me, around me, even on the nearby wall.
"What happened?" I asked, torn between dizziness, numbing gratitude that we were alive,
and being aghast at all the blood surrounding us.
"Max ripped your throat out," Bones replied. There was the weirdest mixture of relief and
rage in his blazing green gaze. "And he's going to dearly wish I'd kill him before I'm
through with him."

SIX

Don arrived at my mother's with the full team less than fifteen minutes
after I called him. They must have broken every traffic law known to man, not that any
local cops could give them speeding tickets.
Bones and Annette strapped Max into the capsule. Don was taking him-for now. Bones
curtly said he'd send someone by later to collect Max, and the tone he used made me glad
my uncle didn't argue. Of course, I didn't think Don wanted Max on his hands very long.
The look the brothers had exchanged while Max was being strapped into that capsule was
filled with so much history, Don glanced away even before Max started to curse him.
I had to be given several pints of blood to replace what I'd lost. Bones's blood had healed
my multiple injuries, but my pulse had been dangerously weak.
"That was close," I said to Bones with a shaky smile after my final transfusion. I was
sitting in his car. He'd used a towel to wipe off as much blood from me as possible. We
were leaving soon. Bones didn't want to stay longer than necessary here, since we
couldn't be sure who else Max and Calibos might have told about their ambush plans.
Bones met my eyes with an unfathomable look. "I'd have brought you back one way or
another, Kitten. Either as a vampire or a ghoul, even if you hated me for it afterward."
"Not if Max had his way," I muttered. "He was going to cut me into pieces."
Bones let out a hiss that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Then he
seemed to get himself under control.
"I'll remember that," he said, each word bitten off.
So many emotions were surging in me. Relief, delayed panic, anger, exhilaration, and the
urge to clutch Bones and babble about how thrilled I was to even see him again. But there
wasn't time for a meltdown, so I stuffed those feelings back. Get it together, Cat. Can't
have you turn into a mass of psychological goo, there's too much to do.
My mother was in the backseat. She'd refused to go to the compound, even though she
wouldn't have been there long. Don was moving everyone out. Max had found my
mother's house, so it was an easy guess to make that he knew where the compound was,
too. Don wasn't taking any chances that Max had told other vampires where to find it.
Don's operation had killed enough of them that some might decide to pay it a visit.
So my mother was leaving with Bones and me now, and Don would get her set up with
another place to live later. Once he finished relocating our entire team.
"I'm sorry, Catherine," she mumbled, not meeting my eyes. "I didn't want to call you. I
heard myself saying the words, but I couldn't seem to stop."
I sighed. "It's not your fault. Max used mind control. You couldn't help what you were
saying."
"Demon power," she whispered.
"No," Bones said firmly. "Max is the one who told you all vampires were demons, right?
You think he's capable of telling the truth, even after this?"
"Whatever Max told you back then," I added, "you would have been compelled to believe,
just like you were compelled to call me before. Vampires are another species, Mom, but
they're not demons. If they are, why are you still alive? You've tried twice to get Bones
killed, but today he saved you instead of letting you hang."
Her face was twisted with emotion. Being confronted with the reality that what she'd
fervently believed for twenty-eight years might be wrong was a hard thing for anyone to
swallow.
"I lied to you about your father," she said at last, so soft I could barely hear her. "That
night, he didn't...but I didn't want to believe I could have let him, not after I saw he
wasn't human..."
My eyes closed for a moment at her admittance. I'd suspected that the night I was
conceived wasn't rape, but here was confirmation at last. Then I met her gaze.
"You were eighteen. Max had you believing you were giving birth to a modern-day
version of Rosemary's baby, just because he thought it was funny to tell you all vampires
were demons. Doesn't make him any less of an asshole. Speaking of that..." I pulled the
IV out of my arm, then put on the jacket Cooper had kindly left for me, since my own
shirt had been cut open and was sopping with blood. When I was covered, I hopped out of
the car. No more horizon-tilting dizziness. It was amazing the difference vampire blood
and three bags of plasma could make. I didn't even have a mark on me anymore, whereas
by rights, I should be in a body bag.
"What are you doing?" Bones asked, lightly holding my arm.
"Saying goodbye to my father," I replied, walking over to where the capsule sat like a
huge silver egg in the driveway.
"Open it," I said to Cooper, who was standing guard until it could be loaded into our
specialized van.
Cooper unsealed the outer locks. He didn't look away when the capsule's door slid open
and Max was revealed, so I figured he'd swigged some vampire blood on the way here.
That was the only thing that could inoculate a human from falling victim to nosferatu mind
control, even if it did have other side effects.
My father was pronged in several places with silver. The hooked end of those spikes made
it impossible for him to pull himself free without shredding his heart, not to mention
several other choice pieces of him. Once the door closed, he couldn't even wiggle,
because the inner structure prevented movement while the spikes continued to drain the
blood and strength out of him. I knew all this, because I designed it.
Bones's gaze sizzled into Max. "Go on, mate, say one word, see what it gets you," he
urged him in a voice smooth as silk-and frightening as the grave.
"Right now, Daddy dearest, 'I told you so' doesn't even begin to cover it," I said grimly
to Max. "So I'll repeat what you said to me earlier: You should have killed me when you
had the chance."
Then I turned to Bones. "Why are we taking him anywhere? I'd just as soon kill him now
and not have to worry about him again."
"You don't need to fret about him," Bones said in that same icy, neck-ruffling tone. "Ever.
But he doesn't get off that easily."
Bones reached out and touched Max's face. It was a light stroke, but Max flinched as if
Bones had sliced his cheek open with a knife.
"I'll be seeing you soon, mate. I can't wait."
Annette came over. Her champagne-colored eyes considered Max from a face lightly lined
with age. Annette had been thirty-six when Bones changed her. Times were different in
the seventeen hundreds, so she looked around forty-five, but she made it look good.
Unlike her normal impeccable appearance, her strawberry-blond hair had half-fallen out of
her chignon, and her navy tailored suit looked a lot worse for wear.
"I say, it's been quite the day already," she remarked.
I stifled a snort. How like Annette to describe an afternoon of torture as calmly as "quite
the day."
"Seal him back up," I said to Cooper, not wanting to look at my father anymore. Or ever
again.
Cooper complied, and the capsule's door slid into place with a series of locks clicking
back together. Even as it did, a frightening thought occurred to me.
"What happened to Calibos? There was another vampire here besides Max."
"His head's over there," Bones said, nodding by the trees, "but the rest of him's farther
back."
I felt a cold satisfaction at that. "How'd you know to come here?"
"The airline lost Annette's luggage." Bones sounded almost bemused. "I rang you twice to
tell you we'd be late, that we were stopping off to fetch her some new togs. You didn't
answer. You always answer, so I drove straight here. About a mile away, I heard you
scream. I pulled off, and Annette and I circled round the house on foot. We found the one
bloke. Didn't know how many more might be inside, so we smashed through the windows
at the same time."
A bark of laughter escaped me. My mother and I owed our lives to Annette's luggage
being lost? How ironic.
"Bet you wish you'd carried on," I couldn't help but quip to Annette.
A ghost of a smile flitted across her lips. "Not quite, darling. I just rang Ian," she
continued, more to Bones than me now. "He was furious to hear what Max did. He's
formally cutting Max off from his line."
That was the worst punishment a vampire could inflict on a member of their line. It meant
no vampire would challenge whatever happened to Max in the future, and right now, my
father's future looked pretty grim.
"Max said Ian didn't know about this," I added, even though I was no fan of Ian's. "He
said he had new friends who wanted me dead as much as he did."
Bones gave a short nod. "We're going home, luv. To find out who helped Max
orchestrate this, so we can kill every last one of them."
Our house was a large cabin at the top of a hill, with sweeping views of the Blue Ridge
Mountains out of bulletproof-glass windows. It was remote enough that we'd never met
our neighbors, so the helicopter pad and hangar on the side of our house hadn't been
cause for any awkward conversations.
Annette went back with Don to help with Tate, as was the original plan, although Bones
refused to go with her. He told my uncle his priorities had changed, not that Don had any
trouble understanding why. Tate would be okay with two undead people taking care of
him. It was my safety that seemed to be in a more tenuous position than Tate's, according
to what Max had said.
When I walked into my house, my cat jumped out to twine around my legs. We hadn't
figured on being back for a week, so I'd set up the automatic feeder and litter-box cleaner.
Now my kitty would get some of my leftovers instead of just his dry food. No wonder he
was glad to see me.
My mother had never been to Bones's and my house, but I was too anxious to wash the
blood off me to give her a proper tour.
"Here's the guest room," I said, directing her to the downstairs bedroom. "I've got some
clothes in it, too, so help yourself to whatever's there. I'm taking a shower."
Bones followed me upstairs. I stripped off the jacket Cooper had given me, plus my
bloodied bra and pants. If I never saw those clothes again, it would be too soon. Bones
also peeled off his crimson-spattered shirt and pants, kicking them into a corner before
joining me in the shower.
At first, the water was icy. It took a couple minutes to heat up this time of year. I shivered
as the frigid spray landed on me. Bones folded me in his arms and moved to where the
majority of it splashed on him. Even when it turned warm, however, and Bones turned to
let the heated water rinse my blood away, I was still shivering.
"I didn't think I'd make it today."
My voice was low. Bones's arms tightened around me.
"You're safe now, Kitten. And nothing like this shall ever happen again, I promise you."
I didn't reply, but I was thinking this was one promise Bones might not be able to keep.
Who knew what could happen in the future? This wasn't just about the revenge my father
had wanted on me-and my mother-for my existence. Max had done this with promises
of rewards and help. Now the question was, from whom?
But I didn't say any of that. Bones was correct-I was safe now. And he was here. Right
now was all I'd concentrate on.
For the moment, anyway.
We weren't home for more than an hour before people started showing up. First it was
Juan and Cooper, who Don sent as added protection for me. Both of them were carrying
enough silver knives and guns with silver bullet clips to take on a dozen vampires.
Then Bones's brand of added security arrived in the form of three vampires I hadn't met
before. The one named Rattler reminded me of a young Samuel Elliott, Zero looked albino
with his long blond hair and glacier eyes, and Tick Tock was pitch dark with black skin,
black hair, and black eyes. Mentally I referred to them as Cowboy, Salt, and Pepper.
Then came Spade, or Charles, as Bones called him. Spade preferred everyone else to call
him by the tool he was assigned when he was a lowly penal colonies convict. Something
about never forgetting how helpless he'd once been. Bones had picked his name after
rising as a vampire in Aborigine burial grounds. Vampires sure made it complicated to
remember what name to call them by.
Rodney the ghoul was next. He endeared himself to Juan on the spot by starting to cook
up a storm. I didn't eat, I went to bed, but to no one's surprise, I didn't get a very restful
sleep. My dreams were filled with seeing my mother dangle by the neck from a banister
and my father's sneering face as he shot me.
Don showed up a little after noon. I was seated at the kitchen table with Juan, Cooper, my
mother, and Bones. We'd been talking about anything but the obvious when my uncle
came in. I was surprised to see him, actually. I thought he'd be busy directing the transfer
from one base to another.
"Does your boss know you're playing hooky?" I asked.
Don gave me a dry smile. "I can't stay long, but I wanted to go over a few things
and...just see how you were doing."
He could have gone over any pertinent work-related items on the phone, so I was
guessing his presence had more to do with the latter part of his statement.
"I'm glad you're here," I said, meaning it. We might have had a rough start-okay, a very
rough start-but aside from my mother, Don was the only family I had.
"Have some breakfast," I offered, gesturing to the multiple covered dishes near the stove.
"Rodney's cooked more food than I even knew I had."
Don gave the items a wary flick of his eyes that made Rodney laugh.
"It's a ghoul's version of vegetarian," he assured Don. "Nothing in there you wouldn't
find in a grocery store."
Don, still looking hesitant, filled a plate and sat down. I watched him take a tiny bite,
swallow...and then spear a bigger portion. Yeah, Rodney was a superb cook.
Bones's cell rang. He excused himself to answer it, speaking in a low tone. I could only
make out a few words, since Juan and Cooper began talking to Don about the new
compound we were moving to. Getting everything up and running on no notice was going
to be challenging.
Bones came back in the room and snapped his cell shut. There was something tense in his
shoulders that hadn't been there before.
"What?" I asked.
"I have to leave for a while tonight, Kitten, but it's nothing to fret about."
"Who was on the phone? And what's going on later?"
Bones seemed to choose his words. "That was my grandsire, Mencheres. He was
confirming he'll be at the showing."
I sighed. "You're being deliberately vague, Bones. What showing? What's this about?"
The other vampires all pretended to be fascinated by the decor around them. Bones's
expression closed off into unreadable planes.
"I'm calling together members of my line, Ian's, and other pertinent vampire Masters to
witness Max's torture."
I blinked. "You're holding a rally just to beat on my father in public?"
"Whoever aided Max and Calibos didn't fret over my reaction to you being tortured,
murdered, and mutilated. It's obvious some people believe I don't care, or that I've gone
soft. But soon everyone will see what happens to those involved in a scheme to harm
you."
"There's a certain sense to it," Don said. "Making an example of one keeps the rest in line.
But killing Max tonight, Bones, even if you hurt the literal hell out of him first, will only
postpone another attack. You'll still have to find out who else is involved to prevent this
from happening again."
"Quite right, old chap," Bones agreed. "But I'm not going to kill Max. I'm going to keep
him alive to demonstrate a new meaning of the term cruel and unusual punishment. Only
when Max is completely broken in spirit will I kill him. I expect it will take years of daily
suffering before that happens. Personally, I'm hoping it takes decades."
Don looked ashen at this pitiless pronouncement. Rodney, Spade, and the three other
vampires showed no surprise.
My mother stared at Bones. Then she smiled. "Now that I have to see."
"You have got to be-" I began when Bones held up a hand.
"Wait, Kitten, this is between me and your mum. If you go, Justina, you understand you'll
be the only human there. You'd have to keep your insults directed only at the vampire on
display. Can you handle that?"
My mother tossed her hair. "I've waited a long time for this. I'll be fine. We'll shake on
it."
Bones took her hand in the first time she'd ever willingly touched a vampire. To her
credit, she didn't wipe it on her clothes when he let go.
"Then we have an accord. Juan or Cooper, I want one of you to come, too. You can carry
back what you see to her team as a warning of what awaits them should one of them be
tempted to ever betray her. Don, you are not going. You don't need to see what will
happen to your brother."
My mother stood up even as I thought, Uh oh. "Max is your brother?" she asked Don in a
scathing voice.
He didn't flinch from her anger. "Yes. He's the reason why I founded my department. I
wanted to kill my brother and all of his kind. I even used my niece to help me do it, and I
never told her who I was. Bones did, when he found out. So if you're angry at anyone, let
it be me, not Cat."
Brave words in a room full of pulseless creatures. Spade gave Don a disgusted glance
while Rodney just licked his lips. No doubt he was mentally salting and peppering Don.
"You knew she was your niece when you found Catherine?" my mother asked in disbelief.
Don let out a sigh. "I read the assault report you filed that night you met Max. I knew it
was him from your description, and then you gave birth to a child with an unusual genetic
anomaly. Yes, I knew all along that Cat was part vampire-and my niece."
My mother let out a bitter laugh. "So both of us used her for our own selfish reasons. That
vampire over there has treated her better than her own family."
Bones's brows went up. "Justina, I believe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
I was taken aback, too, but we'd gotten off the subject.
"I'm coming with you tonight," I said, noticing Bones hadn't included me in his list.
His face hardened. "No, Kitten. You're not."
Disbelief flared through me. "I'm the one who was beaten, shot, knifed, sliced, and
burned, remember? Hell yeah, I am."
"No you're not," Bones repeated, his voice sharpening. "If you want to give Max some
comeuppance yourself, grand, but you'll do it another time. Not tonight."
The reason hit me. Bones thought I couldn't handle what he'd dish out to Max. I'd been
up to my ears in blood and guts since I was sixteen, but all of a sudden, I had to be
sheltered from the ugly side of the undead?
"Bones, I'm not some delicate flower. I won't be seeing anything I can't handle."
"Yes you will," Bones replied. "If you go, you will be horrified, because I'm going to
make damn sure it's horrifying, else it doesn't serve its purpose. No, Kitten. Your
compassion is one of the things I love most about you, but in this case, it will drive us
apart. You're not going, and that's the end of it."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Hurt and anger competed inside me. How could
Bones just take it upon himself to decide what I could and couldn't handle? This was
supposed to be a relationship, not a dictatorship.
"Want to know one of the things I've loved most about you?" I asked, a feeling of
betrayal welling up in me. "That you never lorded your age over me. Yeah, there's nothing
I've seen or done that isn't old news to you, but you'd always treated me like an equal.
Well, now you're treating me like the pathetic little girl Max accused me of being. You
want to have your nasty event without me? Fine. But whatever I would have seen later
wouldn't have come between us as much as what you just pulled did."
"Kitten..." Bones said, reaching out to me.
I brushed past him and went upstairs. Below, Juan cleared his throat. Rattler whispered
something about giving me time to cool off. Don coughed and muttered that he had to
make more calls. Bones didn't say anything else, and he didn't come after me.

SEVEN

My hurt lasted the rest of the day. I stayed in my room, not wanting to
talk to anyone, especially Bones. He'd left me alone, too, not even attempting to come
upstairs.
But as the sky darkened, I decided I couldn't just keep sulking. I showered again and went
downstairs. Rodney had made dinner. God only knew where he'd gotten the steaks from;
he must have sent someone to the store.
Don, seated at the table with my mother, gave me a wintry smile. "We were just
discussing hiring Rodney to cook for the team. I think it would improve productivity by
thirty percent."
I snorted, noticing Bones was outside on the porch. "Probably more. Speaking of the
team, where's the new base?"
"Tennessee, that former bomb shelter the CIA used to occupy. With some basic
renovations, we should be up and running again within a week or two. The underground
reinforcements make this facility the safest choice."
"I agree. When are you going there?"
"Later tonight." Don nodded at my mother. "You'll have a place to stay there as well.
We've also relocated your friends Denise and Randy on the off chance that Max
discovered their home as well as yours."
"God, I hadn't even thought of that!" I exclaimed, lashing myself for being an idiot. How
could I have forgotten to consider the safety of my best friend and her husband?
Don sighed. "You had other things on your mind. Being tortured and almost killed will do
that to a person."
Rodney set a plate in front of me, and one in front of my mother. I almost fainted when
she began to eat instead of hurling it at him. Had one of the vampires gotten tired of her
bitching and bitten her into a better mood?
She caught my flabbergasted look. "I watched what he put in it," she said defensively.
Rodney, instead of being insulted, just laughed. "You're welcome, Justina."
I dragged my attention away from the unbelievable sight of my mother eating food a ghoul
had prepared. "If you're going to the new compound later, Don, I'm going with you."
Bones had been pacing on the porch while talking on his cell. At that, his booted stride
stopped.
Don cast a pointed glance out the window before meeting my gaze. "Are you sure that's
wise?"
"Unless you fire me, I am going there today to check on my team," I interrupted him.
"That's where I'm needed." Since I clearly wasn't wanted with Bones later.
I ignored the muttered curse outside. Don spread out his hands. "Of course I'm not going
to fire you. I'm sure the men will be glad to see you."
"Zero, Tick Tock, Rattler, you will be accompanying her," Bones said. He didn't bother to
come inside or raise his voice. With their hearing, it wasn't necessary.
"How did you move Tate to the new location, anyway?" I asked without comment on my
assigned guard. Transporting a blood-crazed new vampire must have been tricky.
Don coughed. "The only way we could. In the capsule."
My jaw dropped. "He could have been killed."
Don's expression clouded. "It was Tate's idea. He knew how dangerous he was to the
team any other way. He arrived safe and is now confined with Annette and Dave again.
She's said Tate's already making strides in controlling his hunger."
It was less than a day since Tate had been turned.
"Wow."
Bones came back inside. I didn't look up, but concentrated on my food. When I was done,
I rinsed my plate, put it in the dishwasher, and started back toward my room.
"Just a moment, Kitten," Bones said. I paused, half up the stairs. He held out something
that flashed in the light. "Did you want this back?"
I glanced down at my left hand and felt a sting of shame. I'd forgotten about my ring.
Good God, I had to get my head out of my ass. First not thinking of Denise and Randy's
safety, then not even remembering Max had stolen my engagement ring. That whole
tortured-and-almost-killed thing wouldn't cover every screwup I was making. No wonder
Bones was treating me like a stupid little girl-I was acting like one.
"Thank you," I said, looking him in the eye. "I do want it back, of course."
No matter how upset I was over him leaving me behind tonight, my anger wasn't going to
be permanent. I'd fight Bones to see the error of his ways over treating me like a damsel in
distress, but I wasn't giving up on us. Not now, not ever.
Bones almost smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."
He came up the stairs. I stretched out my hand, but instead of handing me the ring, Bones
slid it on my finger. The cool touch of his skin on mine, that familiar tingle of his
power...all of it made me want to do nothing more than fling myself in his arms and forget
about the world around us.
But there was so much more going on than just the two of us, and how we felt. Who
would have ever guessed that my falling in love with a vampire was turning out to be the
easiest part of our relationship? I remembered when I thought him being undead was the
biggest obstacle to our having a life together. Now I knew the stakes were much higher.
"I'm leaving now, Kitten. Don will give me the location where you'll be. I'll pick you up
afterward."
I let my hand slide from his. "What time?"
"Before dawn, but not by much."
It wasn't even eight. Bones had a long party planned for Max. "Uh huh," was all I said.
He inhaled with a slow breath. Maybe he was gauging my emotions by my scent. "I love
you," he said at last, and then left without waiting to see if I said it back.
He was already down the stairs by the time I murmured my reply.
"I love you, too."
I gave the interior of the new building a once-over. "Cozy. For a bomb shelter."
"It will be much more difficult for anyone to monitor," Don pointed out. "The exterior
looks like a private airport, and the underground levels are extensive. We'll add upgrades
each day until it's completed."
"Oh, I like it."
Rattler, Zero, and Tick Tock looked around with curiosity as well. Don hadn't been wild
about three strange vampires accompanying me, but he must have known better than to
argue with Bones. Rodney, Cooper, and my mother had gone with Bones on his grisly
field trip. Juan didn't, so he was perusing the facility as well.
"Where's the team?" I asked.
"On the fourth sub-level. They're busy moving the pieces of the obstacle course into the
new training room."
I swallowed. It would be a huge undertaking to get everything up to speed, and it was all
my fault. I was the one with the homicidal father who'd found out where our last facility
was, after all.
"I'm going down there. You coming?"
Don shook his head. "No. I'm going to check on some of the online transfers, make sure
everything's being routed correctly."
I left him to go to the elevators, following the signs. Juan and my three undead watchers
trailed me.
I did a couple hours of lifting and moving with the guys to try and get things into
somewhat of an order. This was where having those three undead bodyguards came in
handy, since they could hoist cars on their shoulders if they wanted to. We made the most
of them with the really heavy items, but they didn't complain, although I was sure this
wasn't they had in mind when they were told to watch my back. I was just about to get the
rappelling platform in place when Don walked in. He waved me over, an odd expression
on his face.
"What's wrong?" I asked at once, checking my cell to make sure I hadn't missed any calls.
"Nothing. Come to my office for a minute. There's...something you should see."
"Why does everyone think being cryptic is cool?" I wondered. Don didn't answer. He just
headed back up and left me to follow. My watchdogs quit what they were doing and
followed as well. If only my team were so obedient.
I was still grumbling as we got to Don's office. His door was closed, and I yanked it
open-and then stopped in my tracks.
Tate stood on the other side of it. Indigo eyes ringed with green gazed at me with
suppressed heartbreak. I glanced at my watch. It was just a few minutes after midnight,
only a day since he'd been changed.
"He's mastered his hunger enough to be let out for a short while," Annette said. She was
standing a little off to the side behind him. "Remarkable, really."
Pink tears slid out of Tate's eyes as he stared at me.
"I'll never forgive myself, Cat. I'm the one who suggested using Belinda as bait on jobs,
and it almost got you killed. I'm so fucking sorry."
I touched his face, wiping away those pink streaks. "It's not your fault, Tate. No one saw
this coming."
He grasped my hand. "I heard Max had gotten to you. I had to see for myself that you
were all right."
Tate grabbed me, hugging me so hard, I knew I'd have bruises. He was probably unaware
of it, not having had much time to get used to his new strength.
I pushed at him. "Tate...you're squeezing me too hard."
He let me go so fast I almost staggered. "Oh Christ, I can't do anything right!"
It hadn't escaped my notice that my three vampire guards were very close by. Their
energies coiled in the air, as if the snow, coal, and Western-themed vampires were just
about to strike.
"Ease down, guys," I told them.
"You shouldn't be so close to a new vampire," Rattler said. "It's not safe."
Tate's eyes went green. "Who the fuck are they?"
"Bones's way of being overprotective. They're my shadow until he gets here sometime
later."
Annette cocked her head. "Is Crispin dealing with Max tonight?"
"Yep. And he thinks I wouldn't be able to stomach seeing him at his vampy worst. But he
had Cooper and my mother go along. He must figure they're tougher than I am."
"Or more accurately, he doesn't care what they think of him," Annette replied.
"Figures you'd take his side," I scoffed.
The icily blond Zero moved closer to Tate. I saw it and let out an annoyed sigh.
"For crying out loud, he's not going to bite me, so back down."
"Your temper and scent are exciting him," Zero responded in a flat tone. "He's too newly
turned to restrain his hunger from such triggers for long."
I cast a glance back at Tate. His eyes were blistering emerald, and if I could see his aura, it
would probably be sparking. Oh. Maybe Whitey had a point.
Tate snarled, "I'd never hurt her."
Don, who hadn't said anything the last several minutes, spoke. "Then go back to the
chamber and prove it."
Tate rounded on him before he seemed to catch himself. He took in a long scent of air and
blew it out through his nose.
"You're right. Everyone in this room with a pulse is starting to smell really good. Okay.
Back in the box, better safe than sorry."
He brushed by me as he went, taking in another long, lingering breath. "You smell like
honey and cream, Cat. I'm going to make myself breathe the rest of the night, just to catch
another whiff of you on my skin."
Oh shit. Why did he have to say things like that?
Tick Tock's hand went to the knife at his belt. Zero moved in front of me, almost stepping
on my toes to do it. Rattler just shook his head.
"You'll be dying twice, boy, if you keep talkin' that way."
Tate gave him a cold look. "That gets scarier every time I hear it." Then he was gone,
heading toward the elevators and the lowest level where his holding cell was.
I cleared my throat. "Well. At least that wasn't awkward."
Annette's mouth quirked. "Before I join Tate, might I have a word with you?"
I shrugged. "Sure. What's up?"
She glanced around. "In private."
"Fine, whatever. Come into my new office."
The three Fangsters didn't try to follow us. Guess they didn't feel Annette was a threat.
Little did they know she and I were more likely to brawl than anyone else here.
I shut my door more for the illusion of privacy than thinking it would prevent undead
eavesdropping. "Okay, what's up?"
Annette sat in one of the two chairs in the room. "Crispin's right to keep you away from
this, Cat. Even though you're clearly sore with him about it."
I rolled my eyes. "Don't you start."
She stared at me. "I was fourteen when I was forced into an arranged marriage with the
meanest, most revolting man I'd ever met...at the time. On the third night, Abbot called
one of the chambermaids to join us in bed. I refused, and he beat me. After that, whenever
he brought a woman into our bedchamber, I didn't argue. A few years later, a married
duchess named Lady Genevieve invited Abbot and me to her estate when her husband was
away at court. She drugged Abbot, and when he slumbered, she told me she had a surprise
for me. There was a rap at her door and then a young man walked in. You can guess who
it was."
"Do I need to hear this?" I interrupted. "Although on an objective level it's fascinating, I
don't want to hear you reminisce about having sex with Bones."
She waved a hand. "There's a point. Crispin and I were both trapped by our
circumstances, you see. Divorce only existed for kings then, and a woman was nothing
more than a flesh machine for reproduction. I did conceive, whose child I don't know,
since I'd been shagging both Crispin and Abbot, but at the time of delivery, Abbot refused
to summon a midwife. The baby was breech, I almost bled to death, and my infant son
strangled on his cord."
That took away my irritation. Even well over two hundred years later, there was no
mistaking the pain in Annette's voice. "I'm sorry," I said sincerely.
She nodded once. "The stillbirth rendered me sterile and I was ill for months. Crispin
snuck to care for me as I convalesced. Then soon after, he was arrested for thievery. Lady
Genevieve arranged for me to have a private session with the magistrate. I convinced him
not to hang Crispin, but to transport him to the South Wales colonies instead. It was the
only thing I could do to repay Crispin for his many kindnesses."
"Thank you."
I'd never said that to Annette before, but over this topic, it was more than due. Yeah,
Annette and I had our problems, but without her-and Ian, come to think-Bones
wouldn't have lived beyond the eighteenth century.
"Nineteen miserable years passed. One night there was a knock on our bedchamber door.
Abbot opened it, and then was thrown backward through the air. The hood fell back on
the intruder and there was Crispin, looking not a day older than when I'd last seen him.
"Crispin told me he hadn't forgotten me or the misery I'd endured. Then he broke every
bone in Abbot's body. After he'd killed him, Crispin showed me what he'd become, and
he gave me a choice. With Abbot dead, I would inherit everything and could live out the
rest of my life at court. But to me, that was only exchanging one cage for another, so I
chose the other option Crispin offered. He turned me, and he has sheltered me ever since."
She paused to wipe away a tear. "And now to my point. You're strong, Cat, but you're
not cruel. Nor is Crispin unless he is enraged or forced, and he is both in this instance.
You'd be stricken by what you saw, but he would do no less than what was necessary.
Crispin blames himself, and in part he's correct. Vampires respect what they fear. Mercy is
considered a weakness. So love him enough to give him this, even if it's at the price of
your pride."
She stood. Despite being confined in a room with Tate all day, she still looked as perfect
as if she'd stepped from the salon.
"You confuse me," I said at last. "Why would you care about smoothing things over with
me and Bones? It wasn't too long ago you did your best to split us up."
She paused on her way to the door. "Because I love him. Even though I can't have him
anymore, I still want him to be happy."
She left, but it took me several minutes before I did. Things were much easier when I just
hated Annette, not when I felt she had a point I needed to listen to.

EIGHT

Bones arrived at ten after midnight. I went outside to watch the
helicopter land, Cooper at the controls. Bones was the first one off. Then came my
mother, Rodney, and Cooper. Cooper looked downright ghostly, but my mother seemed
almost blase.
"Now that was informative," were her first words. "Catherine, you never told me that no
matter how many times you sliced something off a vampire, it grew back."
Charming. "Guess I don't have to ask if you had a nice time," I muttered. "I suppose it'll
make you easy to shop for this Christmas, though."
She frowned. "Must you always wisecrack? Never mind, I'm tired and I just want to get
some sleep."
I swept out an arm. "The barracks are right this way."
She gave a disparaging glance around. "I remember barracks all too well from when you
first started with Don. It's like sleeping in a coffin and since I'm not a vampire, I'll pass on
that."
"Mom." My teeth ground together. "It's only temporary. We'll get you another place
soon. I would say you could stay with Bones and me, but then there's the whole vampire
thing again."
"I can get a hotel," she insisted.
"Registered under the same name Max found you at?" I shot back. "No. Don's going to
get you a new ID and another house, but until then-"
"She can stay with me."
The offer didn't come from Cooper. No, he'd been studying the ground in a rapt way
during this exchange. Bones lifted his brows in surprise.
Rodney shrugged. "I have a house about two hours from here. I'm not there much, since I
travel a lot, and it would be safe until your uncle found her something else, Cat."
I sighed. "Rodney, thanks for offering, but-"
"You don't have body parts there, do you?" my mother interrupted. "I don't want to open
the refrigerator and find a head on the shelf."
Rodney laughed. "No, Justina, it doesn't look like Jeffrey Dahmer's hideaway."
She gave a measuring look toward the exterior of the building and then back at Rodney.
"If my choices are staying in a barrack with a bloodsucking new vampire on the premises,
or at the home of a ghoul, I'll take the ghoul. Catherine, I'm sure one of your soldiers can
give us a ride?"
She swept away toward the barracks, Rodney following after her. Dead Man Walking, I
thought, and it had nothing to do with him being a ghoul.
Bones watched them go and then turned to me. "That woman is frightening."
I snorted. "I've felt that way my entire life."
Bones stared at me, his expression guarded. No doubt he was wondering if I was going to
start bitching at him again over how he'd kiddie-tabled me, but I wasn't. I still disagreed
with his reasons, but Annette's admonition struck a chord in me. My relationship with
Bones was worth a hell of a lot more than my wounded pride over what he'd done. I had
to work through this issue with him, and avoidance or whining wasn't the way to do it.
Still, I felt awkward, not knowing what to do with myself. I hadn't given him a real
greeting. My normal routine would have been to kiss him, but that didn't feel appropriate,
either. I settled on stuffing my hands into my pockets and shifting uneasily on my feet.
"So..."
I let the single word trail off. Bones gave me an ironic smile.
"Better than 'rack off,' as it were."
"I understand why you did it, but we need to find a way to get past this sort of thing," I
said in a rush. "Protecting the other person from what we assume he or she can't handle, I
mean. I didn't think you could handle Don and my mother years ago, so I left, but I should
have trusted you to make that decision for yourself. Just like you should have trusted me
to decide about this."
Bones snorted in disbelief. "You're comparing my leaving you for one night to you
disappearing on me for over four years?"
I felt a flush rise in my face. "Well, no...er, I mean, the principle's the same," I
stammered. "What I did was wrong and stupid and I can honestly say I regret it more than
anything in my life. But tonight you didn't give me a choice, Bones."
I paused, taking a deep breath and trying to let my eyes convey what I was having a hard
time articulating.
"If you would have asked me not to go, for the same reasons you ordered me not to, I
would have been okay with it. I would have still thought you were being paranoid, but it
wouldn't have made me feel like you were pulling a 'me big bad vampire, you silly little
girl' routine."
Bones shot me a frustrated look. "Of course I don't think you're a silly little girl."
He began to pace. I watched him, saying nothing.
"I'm very weary of being the reason you need to be strong," he said, his eyes edging with
green. "Because of me, you dangled yourself out as bait to a group of murdering white
slavers years ago. You had to drive a car through a house to rescue your mum-while
covered in your grandparents' blood. You took a job with Don that's nearly gotten you
killed countless times. All because of me."
He stopped pacing to come over to me, grasping my shoulders.
"I am well sick of seeing you forced to prove your strength on my behalf, so I didn't want
you to do it yet again with Max. Can't you understand that?"
I covered his hands with mine. "Yes. But you didn't make me do any of those things,
Bones. Even if I'd never met you, I'd still be going after vampires, and I would still have
to handle the consequences of that."
He was silent for a long moment, staring into my eyes with that hard, penetrating gaze of
his. Then at last, he gave a short nod.
"All right, luv. Next time I'll give you the choice, not make the decision for you."
I gave his hands a squeeze. "I promise not to decide things for you again, either."
His mouth twisted. "Turns out I'll be the first to make good on my word over this new
accord. There have been some developments. Max gave us the name of the chap who sold
him the missile he was going to use on your car."
"Do you know where he is now?"
"Yes."
I felt cold anticipation at the thought of confronting that person.
"I'm going with you."
Bones's expression said he hadn't expected any other response.
"Tomorrow."
This was my third trip to Canada. I'd traveled there on missions for Don, but maybe one
day I'd get to just visit Niagara Falls as a tourist and not kill anything.
I sat in a van with my companions. Dave was half a mile away, negotiating the sale of
three hundred surface-to-air missiles, five hundred grenades, and three high-powered
explosives. He was acting as the front man, since Bones was much more recognizable.
With Dave's extensive military background, he could talk shop with the best of the black
market arms dealers. Even now they were quarreling over the grade of plastique for the
potential car bombs.
No one spoke in the van. We could hear every word ourselves, so that meant any undead
ears trained in our direction could as well. Cooper and Juan rechecked their machine guns,
which were equipped with silver bullets. That modified ammunition wouldn't kill any
ghouls, but it would make a vampire's day very unpleasant. Our numbers were low for a
reason. Less chance of getting noticed that way.
Spade was there, picking at his fingernails as the time ticked by. He wasn't carrying a gun.
Master vampires like him and Bones didn't need to, since they were weapons themselves.
Deadly ones.
The modified bulletproof bodysuit I wore chafed underneath my clothes. It was the newest
thing, a thin, flexible piece that covered all the major organs and looked like a medieval
teddy. Of course, if my head got blown off, it wouldn't do me any good, but the rest of me
was protected. Cooper and Juan were also outfitted with the same material. Range of
motion was greatly increased with this versus the old bulky vests.
"...not going to give you a fucking dime, this is not the product we agreed on," Dave was
saying. "I'm supposed to go back to my client and tell them maybe the trigger mechanism
will work or maybe it won't, praise Allah and it will. You stupid amateurs. There is so
much shit for sale now, I don't need to pussy around with this Blue Light Special quality
at Rembrandt prices, so fuck off and have a nice day."
He must have started to walk away, because there was a scurry of footsteps behind him.
"Wait a moment. Perhaps we could discuss-" the agitated bargainer began before he was
cut off by a laugh. Bones stiffened beside me, and Spade perked up. This must be our
target.
"Harrison, I'll take it from here," a cool voice interrupted.
We slid the van door open and crept out. Spade and Bones went first, their lack of
heartbeats being an advantage. The rest of us would follow after the attack started. The
element of surprise was priceless.
"Who are you?" Dave asked, sounding annoyed. "Another lackey?"
"I'm Domino, and yes, I am the boss," was the icy reply. "You must excuse this sample of
material. It was a test. Occasionally we get undercover officers posing as buyers, but they
can't tell the difference between a bomb or a basket. You clearly know your merchandise,
however. Even if I've never heard of you."
This last part was colder than the first, and with open suspicion. Dave grunted.
"How many undercover agents have you had poking around your business that lost their
pulses? Last I checked, the police academy hasn't called for undead admissions."
"Ah, but there is always a first time, isn't there? Now then, I have other business to attend
to. Logan, bring out the other crates. We need to finish this up-"
Domino stopped speaking just before the explosion. He must have felt them coming
before the two bombs that had been thrown into the warehouse detonated. The staccato
burst of gunfire that erupted along with screams let me know there were more inside than
we'd figured.
Juan, Cooper, and I sprinted toward the structure where flames were now leaping into the
night. Keeping our heads down, we returned fire. In the blackness, I saw human and
undead defenders trying to locate the cause of the bodies on the ground. Our machine
guns crackling in the dark had two advantages. They kept the guards' attention on us
while Spade and Bones slaughtered, and we took out several targets more at the same
time. Dave had two primary goals in the melee of violence around him-keep Domino
from getting killed, or getting away.
Juan grinned wolfishly and chanted unknown taunts in Spanish as we breached the
perimeter. Cooper was cooler, methodical even as he sighted down his marks with
admirable accuracy. He had a slight curl to his lips. For him, that was the equivalent of
cackling glee.
Once close enough, I threw the gun away in favor of my knives, which were my favorite
weapon. Almost as fast as I'd fired the bullets, I threw off silver blades at the remaining
two dozen fighters. The humans were easy to drop, clawing at chests as the knives sank
home.
Someone jumped me from behind, knocking me down. I wrestled him, holding his
snapping fangs at bay. The vampire had a look of disbelief, then his features began to
shrivel as I jammed a dagger through his heart. Chucking him off, I whirled to face the
next one.
It was a human about to fire point-blank in my direction. I spun in a midair cartwheel to
avoid the bullets, savagely amused by the dumbfounded expression he wore as none of
them hit me. I wrenched the gun out of the man's hands and turned it on him. A few short
bursts later and he was dead on the ground.
The next three vampires were all of lesser ages and powers. I dispatched them with my
knives as Juan and Cooper unloaded round after round into the remaining forces that had
lost their formation. Domino's men were firing at anything, including one another, as our
attack continued. Inside the warehouse I heard more sounds of death being dealt. Choked
curses and fruitless scrambling to get away. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dave,
Domino trapped underneath him, a silver blade near the vampire's heart.
For a moment, his disbelieving green gaze met mine before it widened in comprehension,
and Domino began to struggle harder.
Dave cracked his head against the pavement hard enough to fracture his skull. It wouldn't
kill him. It would just take him time to heal it.
Everything began to get quiet soon after. Intermittent shouts were cut off before they
could be completed. A glance around showed minimal resistance now, as those who were
left alive began to surrender. Strapped to my leg, along with the myriad of weapons, was a
cell phone. I dialed Don and let him know to hold off any police that would have been
alerted by the explosions. Several members of my team were ten miles away, waiting for
this call. They would keep the Canadian authorities at bay while we finished up here.
There was a sudden whoosh of air above me. The knives I'd been ready to fling stayed in
my hand as Bones dropped from the sky. He looked me over, assuring himself that I
wasn't hurt, no doubt, and then swung his gaze around to the vampire Dave was
restraining.
"Why hallo, Domino. Do you know who I am?"
Bones gestured for Dave to let Domino up. Spade appeared, red stains splattering him,
and held Domino with an unyielding grip. Juan and Dave rounded up the few remaining
survivors.
Domino glared at Bones. "No. What's the meaning of this?"
It was an outright lie. Domino did know. His eyes kept flicking to me.
Bones smiled. "Oh, grand. Going to make me beat the truth out of you? My favorite way
to work."
Even I blinked at the suddenness of his movement. One moment Domino's legs were
kicking, the next they were ripped off and in Bones's hands. Ew.
New body parts hurt when they grew back. So I'd been told, anyway. Domino screamed
like that was true.
"Still don't know me, mate? Come on, lie to me again, see what it gets you."
"Stop," Domino shouted. "I know you, but I didn't know what the missile was for. I
swear to Cain I didn't know!"
A dark brow arched. "Max didn't pay you himself, so who did?"
Domino stared with fascinated revulsion at his own limbs on the ground in front of him.
"Promise you won't kill me, then I'll tell you everything."
"You don't want me to do that," Bones said softly. He leaned closer until he was mere
inches from Domino's face. "Because if I let you live, you'll wish I hadn't. Or I can kill
you here. Much easier that way. See, I believe you when you say you didn't know what
that missile was for. That's why you get a choice, but either way, you will tell what I want
to know."
I watched as denial, hope, despair, and bitter acceptance flashed on Domino's face.
"The money was wired, I don't know who from," came his flat reply at last. "Max was
given an account number to transfer it into, but he didn't handle it himself. I know this
because he kept calling me to see if the money had arrived. It took a few days, and he got
impatient and said something about a deadline."
"Back to the bank wire," Bones said. "You're going to give me all of your account
numbers, and then the locations of where you store your other merchandise. Make it
quick. Don't want to stand here all bloody night."
Domino began to strain against Spade, but the other vampire was too strong. "Why do
you need all of them? You can take the account it was sent to, but leave the rest alone!"
Bones chuckled, but it wasn't pleasant. "Why I want them is because I'm taking every last
cent you have, along with your life. It'll be a lesson to others about what will happen to
them if they cross me. Now, do you need more incentive to talk?"
Domino swore as he began to spout off numbers, locations, banks, stocks, investments,
safety deposit boxes, all but what was hidden underneath his proverbial mattress. Bones
took notes, pausing to question in more detail certain nuances. When Domino was
finished, he just stared blankly ahead.
Bones rested his hands on either side of Domino's head, a light touch that belied his
intention.
"Now, mate, if you've left anything out, or lied to me, you won't be around when I find
out. But you have a son. Drug runner, isn't he? He won't be past my reach, and I'll have
no qualms about taking all of my anger out on him, so the next bugger doesn't try to
deceive me when I offer him a fair deal. One last time, have you left anything out?"
"I'd always heard you were a vicious bastard," Domino said in a dull voice. "All I've
worked for, gone. My son will have nothing."
Those pale hands tightened. "He'll have his life. Unless he was involved in this or tries to
collect vengeance on me later, I'll leave him alone. Last chance."
Domino must have believed the warning, because three more bank account numbers were
revealed in a monotone of resignation. Being an arms dealer paid well. Between the
money and the illegal merchandise, Bones was getting millions. No wonder he laughed at
my salary.
"Wise choice," he commented when Domino finished. "If you've been truthful, your son is
safe from me and mine. Any last words?"
"You're an asshole."
Bones just shrugged. "I already knew that."
Two hard turns later and it was over. I looked away from the head that dropped to the
ground next to the rest of Domino's body.

NINE

In spite of the feverish tracking of Domino's accounts to try and
pinpoint who supplied the money, we'd come up empty-handed. Whoever it was, he or
she was clever. There were ghost companies, fake names, and canceled bank accounts, to
name a few of the obstacles we encountered.
Two weeks later, Bones's cell phone rang. The crescendo should have sounded like a
warning, but I'd been concentrating on the papers in front of me.
"Hallo...ah, didn't recognize the number, Mencheres..."
The name snapped me to attention. What did Bones's version of a vampire granddaddy
want?
Bones's relaxed features hardened into unreadable planes as he listened. Then he said,
"Right. We'll see you shortly," and hung up.
"Well?" I prodded.
"Mencheres is summoning me to his house to discuss a proposition he has for me."
I frowned. "Why couldn't he just tell you whatever it is over the phone?"
"It must be important, pet," Bones snorted. "My grandsire isn't much for dramatics, so
whatever he wants to propose, it's not whether I'll water his plants for him for a small fee
when he goes out of town."
Even though I was bundled under a thick sweater, I felt a chill go up my spine. What
could Mencheres want to discuss with Bones that was so important, he was having him
drop everything to meet him in person?
There was only one way to find out.
Mencheres answered the door himself, and I couldn't help but shiver as I felt his aura
wash over me. The waves of energy coming from him were like a mini lightning storm.
Mencheres's features announced him as Egyptian, and he had that whole wannabe pharaoh
thing going on with his regal bearing and waist-length black hair. I guessed Mencheres to
be well over two thousand, though from his appearance, you wouldn't think he was a day
over twenty-five.
"Nice place you have here," I remarked, looking over the ornate mansion as we entered.
"I can see why you'd need the space, what with all your houseguests."
If I'd thought we'd be surrounded by Mencheres's usual underlings, I was wrong. It
sounded like we were the only three people in this mansion aside from some dogs.
Mastiffs. Noble animals. I was a cat person myself.
Bones gave me a glance that made Mencheres smile. "Don't worry, she can say what she
pleases. I like her directness. It's very similar to yours, albeit less diplomatic at times."
"My wife makes a good point, although tactless," Bones said. "Normally you have several
of your people on hand. Should I assume their absence means you wish to keep our
business private?"
"It's what I thought you would want," was his reply. "Before I go any further, can I offer
either of you something? The house is fully stocked."
I bet it was. This place was three times the size of our home, and with huge grounds to
boot. Bones had said Mencheres kept a vampire and ghoul staff with him, plus some
members of his line, and then their live-in snacks as well. Being as old as he was, he had a
large entourage.
Bones accepted an aged whiskey. I declined anything, wanting to get right to the point.
Mencheres led us to a lovely drawing room done in masculine tones. Leather couches with
buttery textures. A stone fireplace. Hardwood floors and hand-stitched rugs. One of the
dogs came to sit at Mencheres's feet when he settled himself on the couch opposite us.
Bones had one hand around his glass and the other was holding mine.
"Do you like the whiskey?" Mencheres asked.
"For the love of God, just say what your proposal is already," I burst out, since with
Mencheres's ability to read minds, he would have heard my internal, impatient wonderings
anyway.
Cool fingers tightened around mine. "I can't help it," I went on, more to Bones than
Mencheres. "Look, I'm good at flirting with things and then killing them, or just killing
them. Not beating around the bush. Mencheres had us fly all the way here for something,
and it wasn't to ask if the whiskey was good."
Bones sighed. "Grandsire, if you would be so kind..."
He waved a hand to indicate what the rest of the sentence dangled. Let's have it.
Mencheres leaned forward, his steel eyes meeting Bones's dark brown ones. "I propose a
permanent alliance between your line and mine, Bones. If you agree to this alliance, I will
give you the same gift of power that was once given to me."
Wow. Sure didn't see that coming.
Bones tapped his chin while I shifted on my seat. Vampire politics made me edgy as a rule,
and the thought of a permanent alliance with this particular mega-spooky vampire didn't
make me happy at all. There had to be something behind this. I didn't see Mencheres
throwing it out there solely to be magnanimous.
Bones seemed to agree. "You want to merge lines and give me a power upgrade? Why do
I feel like there's more than you're telling me, Grandsire?"
Mencheres's face was impassive. "War is coming, I've seen it. With your new strength and
our combined lines, we'll have a better chance to win."
"You've seen it?" I asked. "Or you've seen it?"
In addition to being able to mind-read anyone with a pulse, Mencheres was also known for
his visions. Little glimpses of the future and all that. I wasn't sure whether I believed itwhy
wouldn't Mencheres be playing the lottery all the time?-but Bones believed
Mencheres had that ability, and he'd known him for centuries.
"It's certain," Mencheres replied, no emotion in his tone.
Bones mulled this over. I kept silent. This was his call. He was the one who'd known
Mencheres all of his undead life. Far be it for me to start voicing my disapproval just
because Mencheres gave me the heebie-jeebies.
Bones nodded after a long moment. "I'll do it."
And I knew Mencheres could hear it when I thought, Aw, shit. He didn't comment,
though. He just rose, all long black hair and sharp granite eyes, and then embraced Bones.
"We will seal our new alliance next week. Until then, speak of it to no one but those you
trust the most."
Then Mencheres released Bones and gave me a wintry smile.
"Now you can leave, Cat."
The house Mencheres used to host the gathering in honor of his and Bones's forthcoming
alliance had sentimental value for me, in a way. It was the same mansion where I'd met
Ian when he'd tried to blackmail me into joining him, but I'd ended up binding myself to
Bones instead. Apparently it belonged to Mencheres, and Ian had been just using it for
that night.
Speaking of Ian, as Bones's sire, he'd earned himself an invite for tonight's festivities.
Bones also had all of the direct members of his line here, well over two hundred vampires,
and that didn't count the ghouls he'd had a hand in siring, which was roughly another
hundred.
Mencheres couldn't fit all of his direct descendants without renting a football stadium, so
power level and preference had decided the cut on who was invited. To showcase their
new alliance, several prominent Master vampires of other lineages were present, and not
all of them friendly.
Many of the ornate couches that had lined the area around the arena months ago were
absent as well. There were too many people here now to have that much space taken up.
It was practically standing room only, with chairs and couches reserved only for the very
elite who dared to sit in them. At the arenalike center of the room, there were no such
trappings. We would all stand.
This was the largest number of undead people I'd ever been around. My skin practically
danced from all the vibrations coming off them. Our troupe of elite guards consisted of
Spade, Tick Tock, Rattler, Zero, and about a dozen more somewhat familiar vampires.
Their names might escape me, but their power levels didn't. Even in a room filled with
more than half of Bones and Mencheres's people, our escorts were crackling with
unspoken warning. I was glad I was on the inside of this group, not facing them in battle.
I'd be roadkill against them.
When we entered the square elevated platform, I had the sensation of being in a boxing
arena. There was Mencheres's side and Bones's on either corner, no one talking. Even the
spectators were hushed. Then Mencheres strode to the center and addressed the faces
fixed on him.
He'd dressed in an Egyptian tunic, all white, with a belt around his waist that I'd bet my
ass was pure gold. Around his upper arms he had more gold bands, and his pale skin had a
faint yellow sparkle. He must have dusted himself in it. With his long dark hair loose, held
back only on his forehead by a thin lapis lazuli crown, he looked like he'd stepped out of
an ancient fresco from a pharaoh's tomb. Hell, for all I knew, there was a fresco of him
somewhere in a pharaoh's tomb.
"All of you are here to witness me declare my loyalty in an alliance that will only be
broken by death. From this night forward, I promise that every person who belongs to
Bones is also mine, as all of mine are now his. As proof of my word, I offer my blood to
seal this alliance. If I betray it in any way, it will also be my penalty. Crispin, you who have
renamed yourself Bones, do you accept my offer to merge our lines?"
Bones squeezed my hand once and went to stand next to the other vampire. "I do."
Mencheres paused, maybe for dramatic effect. "And what do you offer as proof of your
word?"
Bones's voice was strong. "My blood is proof of my word. If I betray our alliance, let it be
my penalty."
Normally they would have each sliced their hands, clasped them in a formal handshake,
and called it a day. Kind of similar to a vampire marriage ceremony, in fact. But there was
more going on tonight than our guests were aware of. Everyone here knew that Bones and
Mencheres were merging their lines, but what they didn't know about was the bonus
activity. The transference of power. Only those of us on the platform showed no surprise
as Mencheres eschewed the traditional hand cutting and bent his head to Bones's neck
instead.
There was a flurry of exclamations from the observers. Guess they'd caught on to what
else this was about. Three rows up, I heard Ian spit out a foul curse, and I smiled. Uh oh,
did someone feel slighted?
Ian wasn't the only one. There were several more unhappy voices from Mencheres's side
of the huge room. People who'd obviously thought one day to be the lucky recipient of
this gift themselves. That was the other reason why we had the guards with us. In case
someone, or a group of someones, got more than vocal with their dissatisfaction.
Mencheres ignored all that and didn't stop drinking from Bones's neck. When at last he
lifted his mouth, I saw Bones sway a tad on his feet. Draining a vampire made him weaker,
and from the looks of Bones, Mencheres had cleaned his plate.
"My word, sealed in blood," Bones rasped. "Freely given and accepted."
Mencheres tilted his head in invitation next, and Bones sank his fangs into the other
vampire's exposed throat.
It was different than when Mencheres drank. Something changed in the air. An invisible
current in the room grew. Static electricity seemed to jump off the two figures in the
center of the platform, and I blinked, rubbing my arms like I'd been zapped. Here it was,
the transference of power. Bones told me that Mencheres had to will it out with his blood;
it wasn't something that could be stolen just by anyone drinking him. Even as I watched,
the Egyptian vampire's skin started to glow with an eerie inner light, as if a million stars
were trying to break out of his flesh.
Above us, there was the sound of abrupt movement and scuffling. Someone was either
trying to start a brawl or trying to make a break for it. Spade barked out a command, and
unseen vampires descended from the roof like lethal spiders. They dropped onto the small
melee, and then the noise stopped with equal speed.
Still Bones drank, ignoring everything around him, his legs solidifying underneath him. I
knew he wasn't getting nourishment from Mencheres's blood, but was ingesting raw
power with every pull of his mouth. Those sparkling stars of light on Mencheres's skin
merged into Bones's flesh with the same ease that sand absorbed seawater. It was lovely
to watch-and frightening.
A hum began to grow in the air, then it rose to a piercing, thunderous crescendo in a split
second. Instinctively I clapped my hands over my ears even as Bones staggered backward,
going limp all at once. I jumped forward and caught him, lowering him to the ground.
Mencheres fared better but not by much. Two of his men grasped him as his head drooped
and he swayed, looking barely conscious.
I held Bones on my lap. Our guard formed a protective circle around us with a barked
warning that anyone who approached would be killed. It wasn't an exaggeration. They
were all armed with silver. So was I. It lined my legs underneath my red dress.
Mencheres regained himself enough to mumble, "My blood, freely given and accepted as
proof of my word," before biting the neck of a human brought to him for that purpose. I
looked away, stroking Bones's face and waiting for him to wake up.
Several minutes later, he did. I sensed it in the rush of energy that made me twitch before
his eyelids even fluttered. All of a sudden, Bones felt unfamiliar to me. The vibrating
power that normally exuded from him didn't just increase-it kept growing and growing,
until he felt like he was going to explode right in my arms.
His hand closed over mine in the next instant, and I jerked back. It felt like I'd just shoved
my fist in a light socket.
"Bloody hell, luv, this feels quite different," were his first words.
I laid a tentative hand back on him. "Are you okay?"
It was almost stupid to ask with that crackling energy nearly shooting sparks up my arm,
but I couldn't help myself.
He nodded and opened his eyes. "Very much so. In fact, I've never felt better. At least not
unless we were alone."
Pig. Now I knew it was the same man I'd fallen in love with. Bones might have changed in
power, but not in any other way. It was almost a relief to find his mind still in the gutter.
"Let's get you off me, then, your elbow is jabbing me in the kidney-"
Something on his face made me stop in midsentence. "What?" I asked.
"Did you just call me a pig?"
I froze. Had I said that out loud?
"Bloody hell, no you didn't!" he answered for me, springing to his feet in a lithe motion.
Good God, he could read minds now? There was something neither of us had thought
would happen.
Bones pulled me up and kissed me. There was so much raw energy permeating from him
that his tongue almost hurt when it slid into my mouth, but then it felt good. Very, very
good.
"Shh," he whispered into my ear when his mouth trailed from mine.
I could guess why the secrecy, of course. We were in mixed company, and if Bones's
enemies didn't know he had the new ability to read minds, then they wouldn't worry about
it being used against them.
I won't say anything. But you and I will have to talk about this, because you can't just
invade my mind whenever you want to be nosy.
"Ahh!"
It came out of me in a gasp when he bit my neck in the next moment. Mother of God, my
knees went weak. Bones supported me when they lost strength entirely in the next second.
We'd planned on him taking some of my blood afterward. Even though he was now hyped
full of vamp juice, it wouldn't nourish him. Only human blood could, and mine still half
qualified. Thus it wasn't the shock of him biting my neck that buckled me. No, it was the
fierce erotic waves pouring over me with each pull of his mouth. Holy shit, it had never
felt like this before. He'd gone down on me with similar effect.
Bones raised his mouth from my throat but didn't let go of me, which was good, because I
might have toppled over. Thank God he'd stopped biting me when he did-I would have
been mortified to have an orgasm in front of a thousand people. It was bad enough that
they could all sense just how much I'd liked having my neck turned into a straw, but at
least I wasn't about to ask for a cigarette.
"Don't be embarrassed," Bones said low. "I feel the same way every time I drink from
you. We'll finish up here soon, Kitten, now that the formalities are over."
He still had his arm around me when he turned to Mencheres. The other vampire was
refreshed as well from his blood donor, albeit less sensuously, I'd bet. They clasped hands
once before facing the crowd.
"Our alliance has been sealed," Mencheres said formally.
Bones was more casual about it. "Then this is a party, mates. Let's have at it."

TEN

Bones, ever paranoid that one of these guests could be Max's mysterious
benefactor, was plastered to my side. I didn't mind for two reasons. First, he could be
right. There was a shitload of pulseless people here, and who knew how many of them
were really allies? The other reason was simple. That new throb of his power felt like a
caress along my skin.
But when the naked human men and women came out to mingle among the guests, I
stopped in my tracks.
Bones chuckled, hearing the question in my mind, or guessing from the look of my face.
"These are the hors d'oeuvres, Kitten. See that glitter they're covered in? It's a very
special mixture, edible as well. Note the ones with the extra arms? They don't have birth
defects, those arms are food delicacies shaped like limbs and glued onto them. Ghouls
have to eat also."
I stared in disbelief as one of the walking treats sat on the lap of a vampire, offering her
neck. Meanwhile, a ghoul sedately gnawed on what appeared to be a fake fourth arm
protruding from her torso. Yuck!
I found my voice. "That is the sickest version of a snack plate I've ever seen. How did you
get these people to agree to this? Mind-fuck them?"
He snorted. "Not nearly. They're willing volunteers, pet. Some are humans who belong to
Mencheres or me, and others are groupies, for lack of a better word. People who know
about vampires and ghouls and are hoping some nice undead bloke will choose them to
change over. It happens, of course. Else they wouldn't flock to us in droves. Some of
them offer more than a bite or a beverage, but that's their choice. I don't require it."
Oh, so they were dinner and entertainment. How my life had changed. Here I was, one of
the hosts of a bang-and-bite soire honoring Bones's alliance with a mega-Master
vampire. What next, presiding over a massive orgy?
Bones caught my hand. "We're sneaking away for a moment," he whispered, backing me
into a nearby study. Once past the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, he pressed a lever, and
then we were in a narrow dark passageway before I'd ever seen where it was.
"Secret tunnel?" I teased. "How very cloak-and-dagger."
He smiled. "Ah, here we are. Alone at last."
"Here" was a small room, unfurnished, no windows. Only a hatch in the ceiling about
three feet square in size.
"Leads to the roof by way of the attic," he supplied. "Quick way to make a dash for it, if
one needed to. Also, this room has thick concrete walls, so less sound travels."
So that meant we could talk without being overheard. "You can read my mind now," I
breathed. "God, Bones, that kind of freaks me out."
"I'd tell you I won't listen to your thoughts, but that would be a lie. You're too close to
me for me to block them out completely, and I can't say I would even if I could. I want to
know all of you, Kitten. What you show me, and what you try not to."
There was no use arguing over it. If I'd been endowed with the same power, I'd be just as
guilty of using it. Mencheres had said Bones's strength would grow, but he hadn't
mentioned that he might get new abilities altogether. I wondered what else was going to
be different.
"My vision and hearing are clearer," Bones answered for me. "And of course I feel
significantly stronger. As for what else is different, we'll have to wait and see."
"I still don't know about this," I muttered. It was weird having him pull the questions out
of my mind before I could even ask them.
Bones studied my face. "I haven't changed, luv. Just my abilities. Can you believe that?"
He would have heard the answer before I said it out loud, but I did it anyway.
"Yes."
Bones gave me a few drops of his blood to replenish what he'd drunk before we returned
to the questionable festivities. I felt like I'd downed a bottle of NoDoz, I was so wired.
Don will be doing backflips when he gets his sample for his weekly collection, I thought
irrelevantly.
Tate was across the room. He caught my eye and rubbed his nose, twice. I tensed. That
was an old signal that there was trouble. He turned around in the next moment, so it
wouldn't have been obvious to anyone that a message had just been exchanged.
This was a time when Bones's new telepathic eavesdropping would come in handy.
Something's up, Tate's freaked. If you have a lockdown mode for this place, now would
be the time to implement it.
Bones made his way over to Mencheres, keeping me close to his side as we passed by
other people. They didn't exchange words. Maybe Mencheres had also heard my mental
warning, because he nodded once and then gestured to a nearby guard.
That's when all hell broke loose.
A vampire walking toward us blew up. Just blew into pieces of scorched body parts. Then
three more rushed in our direction at kamikaze speeds.
Bones threw me across the room like a Hail Mary football to Tate, who darted forward. It
wasn't a moment too soon. The explosion from the charging vampires momentarily
deafened me. Tate caught me, using his body as a shield from the sudden attack of human
and inhuman bombs that seemed to be all around us. Two more of our breathing treats
went off like Roman candles, splattering gore on whoever was lucky enough not to be
killed by their close contact. I craned over Tate's shoulder and kicked as he barreled us
away from the crowd.
"Goddammit, let me go!"
"You don't understand," Tate ground out, giving me a rough elbow to the head that
briefly stunned me into limpness. Then I started to wrestle with him as he sped through the
throngs of people. Each exit was guarded by vampires who belonged to Bones or
Mencheres, but they let us pass after a shouted command from Bones. Hearing his voice
made me weak with relief. At least he was still alive.
Tate clamped his hand over my mouth, not letting go, even when I bit him. It was the
most damage I could inflict in the position he had me in, flung over his back like a sack.
Only after we were outside on the lawn did he stop running.
"Let go of my hand, I have to go back inside," he almost snarled, dropping me.
I released my bite and began to yell. "What the fuck, Tate! You think I'm just going to
stay out here while people are exploding-"
"There's a bomb, Cat. This place is going to blow."
That shocked me into silence for a second, then I started toward the house again.
Tate punched me, hard, rocking me back.
"I don't have time to explain," he spat. "But I am going to get everyone out, even your
vampire lover. If you see Talisman, grab him. He's involved. Guard the perimeter, Cat."
He sprinted back inside, and I wrestled with the choice whether or not to follow him.
Everything inside me screamed to go back in and tell Bones about the bomb. What if Tate
didn't get to him in time? Mentally I kept shouting the warning at him, but with all the
chaos, I didn't know if he'd hear me.
My decision was made when I saw three forms streaking stealthily across the roof. Oh, we
had rats trying to abandon ship, did we?
I got them in midair as they jumped to the ground, throwing them into the walls from the
velocity of my leap. There was only a split second to identify them before I crashed into
their bodies, and in that instant, I knew which ones to skewer. The two lesser vampires
each got a chestful of daggers while I split Talisman's skull on the stone walls, not killing
him, but dazing him.
He came to awareness with a frenzy of snapping teeth. Talisman was a Master vampire
and he wasn't willing to go down gently. We rolled around on the grass, both of us tearing
at each other. Soon I was covered in messy bite marks where his teeth sliced me but
hadn't locked on. Only when I jabbed a knife through his heart did he freeze. With a
malicious smile I moved it a fraction.
"One twitch and you're beef jerky, asshole. I'd stay real still if I were you."
But he wasn't me. "I won't be held like your father," he said, and proved his statement by
thrashing on top of me, shredding his own heart with his actions and going limp.
"Shit!" I exclaimed, and shoved him off.
There wasn't time to ponder Talisman's suicide. The doors to the house opened and
groups of vampires and ghouls came out, led by the guards. There were so many of them,
it looked like an anthill evacuating. None of the faces belonged to Bones, however.
I saw Annette amid the throng and grabbed her. "Where's Bones? Why isn't he out here?
He knows, doesn't he?"
I didn't say bomb, not wanting to cause a panic if people didn't know yet. Annette looked
rather frazzled herself, her usual cool composure absent.
"He's still inside. He won't leave until all his people are out and he finds the others who
are involved."
"Oh no he doesn't," I growled.
Annette yanked on my arm and didn't let go. "Crispin said to keep you out here," she
insisted, holding me back.
Everything else aside, I enjoyed what I did next. Shallow of me, but true. I whirled and hit
her so hard, she dropped to the ground with a dent in her skull. On the practical side, it
also kept her from restraining me. See? It wasn't all for fun.
As I rushed toward the house, I almost barreled into Spade.
"Don't even think about stopping me," I warned him, palming some knives to punctuate
my threat.
He barely looked at them. "You have to come with me, we need to get Crispin out. Tate is
still inside as well. At a guess, we have less than four minutes."
Four minutes! Vampires could survive many things, but having their entire body blown to
bits wasn't one of them. Fear made me reckless, and I dashed forward into the house at a
dead run, Spade keeping pace.
We were in the deserted hallway when he sprung. I'd been searching the corners for
danger and hadn't expected it from the man at my side. His fist shot at my head, but I
never even saw it coming. All I knew was one moment, I'd been peering around a
corridor, and in the next, I was seeing stars before everything went black.
When I opened my eyes, we were sprawled on the lawn a hundred yards from the house.
Spade still held me in an unrelenting grip. Even his legs were tangled around mine.
"You backstabbing son of a bitch," I managed, struggling without success.
Spade gave me a grim smile even as he tightened his grip.
"Sorry, angel, but Crispin would kill me if I'd let anything happen to you."
Something moved on the roof. With Spade half on top of me, I couldn't see what, or who,
it was.
"Is that him?" I asked desperately.
Spade craned his neck. "I'm not-"
An explosion cut him off and lit the sky, as bright as if God himself flipped on a switch. I
screamed, struggling even as Spade flipped me over with his body covering mine. My face
was pressed in the grass while heavy thunks landed everywhere. It had to be pieces of the
house raining down on the lawn like proverbial brimstone. The smoke was choking even
with my face in the dirt.
Spade didn't move for a few minutes, ignoring the threats I gasped out. Not until the
sounds of falling objects ceased did he allow me to sit up, but he kept his rigid grip.
The vampires and ghouls milling around hadn't screamed at the sight of the house
exploding in the night. They looked discomfited, but not traumatized.
"Charles, give me a hand with these."
Bones appeared above us in the swirling smoke. I was so relieved to see him, I almost
cried. He was covered in soot, mostly unclothed from where his shirt and pants had been
burned off, and his hair was in singed patches. He also had three vampires in his arms.
When he landed, he dumped them to the ground.
"Hold those two. Bloody sods," he grumbled, kicking one. The third sat up and shook his
head as if to clear it.
It was Tate. Thank God, he'd made it out alive as well. Spade released me as Bones knelt
next to me, and I threw my arms around him.
"I'm so glad you're okay...and don't you ever tell your friends to hold me back again,
dammit!"
Bones chuckled. "Can we fight about that later, Kitten? We still have business to sort out,
after all."
Then he set me back to look at me. "What happened to you? You look chewed."
He took one of my knives and sliced his palm. I took his blood, feeling the pain in my head
ebb.
"Are Juan and Cooper okay?" I asked, trying to spot them among the throngs of people.
"I can hear them," Tate answered. "They're all right."
Bones gave Tate a sharp look. "How did you know what was about to happen?"
Green flashed in Tate's eyes. "That scumbag Talisman approached me while you and Cat
were off somewhere. He said he'd heard I was in love with Cat, and offered me a chance
to get her all to myself. All I had to do was make sure you stayed inside the house after
the bodies started to firecracker. Talisman guessed you'd want Cat as far away from any
walking grenades as possible, so I was supposed to take her outside, then I just had to
save my own ass in time. Presto, you dead, one Reaper looking for comfort. I gotta say, it
was pretty tempting."
"I would have known you'd never do that, Tate," I said at once. "You're too good a
man."
He laughed with more than a trace of irony. "Don't be so sure. I'll probably regret it
later."
Bones stared at Tate for a long moment. I didn't say what else was obvious-that despite
how much Bones didn't care for him, either, he could have left Tate in that house to die.
But he'd grabbed him and saved his life instead. Without Bones flying them away, Tate
would have burned. Both of them were more alike in their honor than I thought either
would ever acknowledge.
But as Bones had said, there was more pressing business at hand right now. Like the two
very unhappy vampires fifteen feet away. My eyes narrowed as I glared at them. Try to
blow up the man I loved, would they? We'd just see about that.

ELEVEN

We were on the far side of the lawn of the still-smoldering house. The fire
department had come. So had the police, but this time, Juan and Tate didn't even need to
bother with their credentials. Not with so many vampires able to green-eye the emergency
crews into putting out the flames first and asking questions...never.
Which was why no police had wandered over despite some very loud yelling by the six
perpetrators of tonight's bonfire. The other four had been rounded up when the original
two outed them under extreme duress. None of the guests had been allowed to leave while
this went on, for obvious reasons, despite some protests. After two hours of
"questioning," the main architect of the attack was finally revealed to be a vampire named
Patra.
And wouldn't you know it, this Patra was also Max's mysterious benefactor, though I had
no idea who she was, let alone why she'd wanted me dead.
As soon as Bones heard the name, his head whipped up and he stared at Mencheres. The
Egyptian vampire closed his eyes with a look I might have called pain.
"Let me guess," I said, noting their reactions with alarm. "We're talking about a really old,
powerful vampire?"
Bones turned his gaze back to me. "Yes. Over two thousand years old and a Master.
Mencheres, you know what this means."
The other vampire's tunic wasn't all sparkly white now, and that pretty gold dust on his
skin had been replaced by ashes. Right about now, I was thinking it matched his
expression.
His steel eyes opened, and whatever emotions he might have been feeling were slammed
behind an impenetrable mask.
"Yes. It means war."
"Those of you who are not of our lines," Bones said in a clear voice, "make your choice
now. Stay here and align yourself with us, or choose Patra and walk away. You get free
passage tonight only. Should I ever see you or yours again without invitation, I'll kill
you."
Mencheres glided over next to him. "Decide," he said simply.
Some of those who walked over to us were a given. Spade had moved before the words
finished being uttered. Rodney did, too, and several other notable members of the
pulseless community. Vampires and ghouls I didn't recognize were taking our side, either
out of loyalty to Bones or Mencheres, or out of fear of them.
Then there were the holdouts.
Several glided off into the night, their absences wordless but pointed. Then there were the
undecided ones, waiting to see how many stayed and how many left before they chose a
side. The person who surprised me most by leading his people over with a curt nod to
Bones was Ian. I'd been sure he'd take that long walk into the night, what with how he'd
been upstaged by Bones twice in the last few months. I glanced at Bones and thought a
single sentence: I don't trust him.
A half shrug was his only response.
When it was finished, roughly seventy percent of the independent Masters had cast their
lot with us. The other thirty were only an indication of the opposition. Who knew how
many really meant it by standing at our side tonight? Only time would tell.
Pledges made, everyone left the ruins of the house. I hoped Mencheres had insurance,
because he'd just lost a shitload of valuables in that detonation. Then again, I didn't think
"undead vendetta" would look like a plausible reason on his homeowner's policy claim
form.
Mencheres, Rattler, Tick Tock, and Zero accompanied Bones and me in our specially
equipped SUV. It had bulletproof glass, among other things, and before we turned it on,
Zero checked it over for any explosive devices. Fool us once and all that. Spade and
Rodney were in charge of our four party spoilers. I was betting they were going to have a
long day in front of them.
Once we'd driven off far enough that I wasn't worried about other undead ears listening, I
asked the questions I hadn't wanted to utter before.
"How did this woman get those vampires to Krispy Kreme themselves? Obviously the
humans had to be tranced into becoming walking bombs, but the vampires? It doesn't
seem like their style."
Tick Tock was driving. Mencheres rode shotgun, and Bones and I were in the backseat.
Good thing this vehicular monstrosity had a third row so that the other three vampires
weren't perched on our laps.
"Likely by holding whomever they love hostage and then threatening wretched torment on
them if they refused," Bones replied. "Not much else would make a vampire give up their
own lives in that way, but we'll find out for certain when we question the others more
fully."
I winced. "God, then I can't really blame them for what they did. Maybe you shouldn't be
so rough on them-"
"Did they come to me with the plot?" Bones interrupted. "No. I would have tried to assist
them and their family if they had, but they didn't, so they knew the consequences."
I didn't argue further. Vampires played by a whole different set of rules, and for nearly
killing Bones...yeah, they deserved what they got.
"Will she really let their families go?"
Bones shrugged. "It's in her favor to. Else the threat doesn't work as well next time."
"I hate this shit," I grumbled. "Backstabbing. Hostages. Suicide bombings. Family and
friends hurt just because they love someone on the wrong side of the fang border. It's only
going to get worse now, isn't it?"
"Yes."
Most of the time Bones's honesty was what I loved about him. Then there were the times
when I wished he would just fucking lie to me.
I let out a deep sigh. "This puts our wedding on hold. There's no way we could expect to
pull off a shindig like that with everything going on now. Instead of 'Here Comes the
Bride,' I'd probably be walking down the aisle to a bunch of ticking noises before a big
boom."
"I'm sorry, luv," Bones said. "It wouldn't be safe, not at this time."
Not unless we drive straight to a post office and do the honors there, I thought bleakly,
then lashed myself for being childish. So we'd have our wedding another time, big deal.
Considering how tonight had almost turned out, a canceled wedding should be the least of
my concerns.
"So who is this Patra chick, anyway?" I asked. "Doesn't make sense that she'd go to such
extremes to help my father murder me...and then let her lackey Talisman offer Tate a deal
to get me out of the house before it blew."
In the front seat, I saw Mencheres tense even as Bones said, "No, it doesn't, does it,
Grandsire? In fact, while I can think of several reasons why Patra would want you dead,
and me as well now that I've merged lines with you, I don't have the slightest idea why
she'd come after my wife."
Something in his tone made me look sharply at him...and then at the silent vampire in the
front seat. There was more going on here than met the eye. The tension grew until you
could almost see it like a haze.
"It was never about Cat," Mencheres said at last.
"Excuse me?" Now I was pissed. "When someone tries to see you dead, then it is about
you in my book."
Mencheres didn't turn around, but kept staring ahead at the highway. "Then your book
would be wrong, because there is another reason to kill you. Max and Calibos believed
that Bones didn't care about you, so they thought they could get away with what they did.
But Patra knew Bones loved you. Enough that your death would be a crippling blow to
him, which would make him easier to kill later. That's the only reason she aided Max,
because she has no interest in you, Cat. Killing you was just a means to get to Bones."
Bones muttered a curse even as I burst out, "But why? What did Bones do to her?"
Bones's face was grim. With the soot and ash smeared all over him, he looked very
dangerous.
"I think it's time you explain, Grandsire."
"Everyone envies me my visions," Mencheres said with bitterness. "You don't know what
it's like to be asked why, why, why didn't I see the earthquake coming, or the tsunami, or
the volcano, or the plane crash, or whatever tragic event that claims the lives of those
around me. I don't know what makes some things come to me with diamond-sharp clarity,
while others are murky, and some are never glimpsed at all. I can only warn what I am
sure of...and then wait to see if I'm ignored."
I blinked. This was as upset as I'd ever seen Mencheres. His slick-as-ice exterior was
seriously cracked, and he looked like he wanted to put his fist through the windshield.
Tick Tock cast him an appraising look out of the corner of his eye, no doubt deciding
whether or not to pull over.
"No one is blaming you for what happened tonight," Bones said in an even tone. "But you
still haven't answered my question."
No, he hadn't, but he'd done a good job at clouding the issue. Hell, I could barely
remember what the question was myself after that outburst. Oh, right, why the really old
bitch wanted Bones dead. Focus, Cat!
"I warned Patra many years ago what would happen if she went down a certain path."
Mencheres's voice was so low, I had to strain to hear him. "Centuries ago, I saw a vision
of a man marrying a woman who was neither human, vampire, nor ghoul, and then the
same man wielded the knife that killed Patra. So you see, Bones...as soon as Cat was
revealed to be a half-breed and you wed her at Ian's, Patra knew what I'd told her all
those years ago had come to pass. So the only way she can avoid that fate is to kill you."
"You son of a bitch." My voice was a furious growl. "You knew Patra would come after
Bones with all she had, but you didn't warn him. You didn't do any- thing!"
"Kitten, infighting won't solve anything," Bones said, but he didn't sound pleased, either.
"We have to stick together, else we'll be doing Patra's work for her."
The logic penetrated that red part of my brain that was thinking, Kill! Kill! toward the
vampire in the front seat.
Mencheres shook his head. "I've had guards watching Bones since that night at Ian's. The
only time I didn't was when you both were carrying out your missions with your uncle.
Furthermore, I...I'd hoped when Patra realized I'd been right, that she'd cease her plots
against me. But after what happened to you, I knew she was set on her course. And that is
why soon afterward, I made my offer of an alliance with Bones. Without it, do you think
either of you would have a chance?"
Hard words. Bones gave Mencheres that same flat stare. "You're very right I'm going to
kill Patra for what she's done to my wife. No matter if you plead with me not to."
"Why the hell would he?" I wondered irritably. "Seems to me she wants him dead, too, or
she wouldn't have just barbecued his home hoping he'd be in it along with you. In fact, oh
powerful one, why haven't you taken her out yourself? Can't you handle her on your
own?"
Mencheres closed his eyes. It was Bones who answered my question.
"There's more about Patra you don't know. She chose her vampire name in honor of her
mother, one of Egypt's most famous rulers, and merely shortened it when she changed
over. Patra is the daughter of Cleopatra, and Mencheres refuses to kill her...because she's
his wife."

TWELVE

Marquis was a swingers' bar where S&M was in vogue and humans were
the minority. To blend in with their anything-goes style, I was posing as the third in a trio
with Tate and Dave. Bones was here somewhere, but I hadn't seen him. It was hard
enough for me to disguise who I was without walking in arm-in-arm together.
Not that we were here for kinky fun and games. Even though we were at war with the
undead-the very famous undead, to be precise-I still had a job to do. After the deadly
fiasco with Belinda, Don hadn't found another woman to be a replacement for me as bait
yet, and this club was reported to be a place several people had disappeared from. Even
though it was getting very difficult trying to juggle my job with all the upheaval in my
personal life, work waited for no one. Not even the two-millennia-old daughter of
Cleopatra.
I still had a hard time coming to grips with that, but Bones reminded me that people who
were remembered hundreds or even thousands of years after their time were bound to
make a lasting impression on their contemporaries. Put like that, I guess it wasn't such a
surprise that some of history's notables-or their offspring, like Patra-had been changed
over by a vampire or ghoul. But Mencheres hadn't just changed Patra, he'd also married
her a mere few years after turning her. Practically a whirlwind courtship, as far as pulseless
couples went. And even worse for him was that while he couldn't bring himself to kill his
estranged wife, she sure didn't seem to have that same hesitation with him.
To blend in with the Marquis crowd, I'd had a drastic makeover. My hair was streaked
with wide black highlights, and my outfit, if it could be called that, looked like a
combination of Last Tango in Paris and American Chopper.
Two black leather circles attached to my breasts by thin metal chains were all that covered
me from the waist up. Black leather thong panties were the bottom half, with more chains
dangling from my waist in an absurd version of a skirt. Leather-topped thigh-high
stockings embedded with spikes doubled as my hosiery, and I wore solid silver highheeled
shoes. All the better to kick the hell out of someone with. I'd gone heavy on the
black eye makeup until raccoons and I could pass for cousins. Add numerous chains
crisscrossing my arms, and this evening couldn't end fast enough.
Dave and Tate were dressed with equal heinousness. More black leather, chains, and
whips. Either Don's staff truly had costumes for all possible occasions on hand, or
someone at wardrobe had a lot of explaining to do.
We were checked for weapons at the door, all our chains notwithstanding. As usual, my
silver shoes went overlooked. Hiding a weapon in plain sight had proven to be very
effective. I was ushered in with Tate and Dave without anyone guessing a thing. Let the
free-for-all begin.
The three of us surveyed the interior of the club. Even I, who'd seen a lot, blinked at the
spectacle around me.
Couples led each other around by collars, dog-walking style. Every other person had a
whip. I almost felt left out. In front of us a domestic dispute was going on. A man
backhanded his date so hard, blood pearled at her mouth. My abrupt step forward was put
on hold when she moaned in pleasure, asking for another blow.
Ew. Well, what did I expect? S&M didn't stand for soft and mushy.
What almost gave me away as a quasi-normal person was my reaction when I got a look
at the dance floor. Random beatings aside, which seemed to be the norm, some humans
and their undead companions were giving dirty dancing a whole new name.
"Wow," Tate whispered. "They're fucking right on the dance floor."
"I see that." There was an edge to my words.
Dave gave me a sideways grin. "Juan will cry at being stuck in the van. If he were here,
he'd be screaming, Authenticity's imperative! and taking his pants down."
That relaxed me enough to laugh. "You're so right. Well, let's boogey, boys, but keep
your pencils in your pockets. We have a job to do."
For the next half hour, we grooved while managing to do a sweep of the area at the same
time. So far, nothing looked murderous, even if it was nasty and rough.
I felt a hum of power nearby. Bones had gotten to be so familiar to me that I knew him by
aura alone. As casually as I could manage, I glanced over Dave's shoulder, seeking him
out. My eyes widened when I found him.
Bones was shirtless, those luscious muscles moving under his crystal flesh as he danced.
And holy hell, when had he found the time to pierce his nipples? Those rings must be
silver; that was the only thing a vampire's body wouldn't naturally dispel, but would need
to be forced out by willpower instead, which Bones obviously wasn't doing. Those shiny
silver circles drew the eye to his sculpted chest. It took me a minute to even notice his
pants, and then I did freeze.
"Keep moving, Cat," Dave whispered.
I picked up where I'd left off, staring over Dave's shoulder as I danced. Bones's pants
were made entirely of thin metal chains linked together. Skin peeked through the gaps
whenever he moved, and anyone could tell he wasn't wearing anything under them. He
caught my eye and grinned, running his tongue over his lip slow enough for me to notice
that his nipples weren't the only thing he'd pierced.
I was just starting to get warm all over at the thought of how that spike in his tongue
would feel, when a brunette jostled around other people to peer up at Bones, her
expression one of delighted shock.
"I don't believe it, it's you! Do you remember me? Think Fresno, late eighties. Of course,
I was human then. I almost didn't recognize you with the dark hair, you used to be
blond..."
Bones was giving her a glare that would have frozen steel, but she went on, heedless.
"...come here before? I'm here all the time, and I can show you the private party area."
Bones lost his annoyed look at once and beamed at her. "Priscilla, wasn't it? Of course I
remember you, my lovely. Private area, you say? Show me."
Bones let her drag him off to the side. Tate watched, a faintly disgusted curl to his lips.
"Don't you get sick of it? How half the women he runs into have had a piece of him?"
I ignored that and focused on Bones and Priscilla. Bones was telling her I was on the
menu for tonight, if that private area was discreet enough for dining.
"It is," Priscilla was saying as she ran her hands over him. "I can't wait to fuck you now
that I'm a vampire. You were so amazing before, and it'll only be better..."
My teeth ground together. Tate just let out a knowing snort.
Priscilla pulled Bones's mouth down to hers next. I knew I should look away, but I
couldn't. Nor could I leap across the dance floor and pummel her into a mass of goo,
which is what I really wanted to do. But if I did, I might as well grab a bullhorn and
announce myself. So I watched Bones kiss her with a thoroughness that had my nails
ripping into my palms. It's not real, just like it's not real when you have to romance
targets on a job, I reminded myself.
But it hurt like it was real, making me wonder how Bones stood it when the situation was
reversed and it was me French-kissing and getting feely with other men. At least he
grabbed Priscilla's hand to stop her when the tramp reached for the front of his pants.
"Soon, sweet, after I've eaten," Bones told her in a sensual purr. "Wouldn't want to be
distracted, would I?"
Bones propelled her back toward our little group.
"This is William," he said with a nod to Dave, still in my arms. "The rest aren't worthy of
names," he finished, indicating me and Tate.
Priscilla ran a finger over his chest. "What's yours? You never did tell me."
He brought her hand to his lips. "I'll tell you afterward."
My teeth ground again, but I didn't say anything.
"Follow me," Priscilla said. "This way."
His former promiscuity is finally coming in handy, I thought darkly as we approached the
entryway into the hidden room. This would have taken time to find on our own.
It was concealed underneath the unused bar in the far corner. You stepped behind a half
wall and lifted the false cabinet to reveal stairs. They traveled down, the noise from the
revelers and music masking the sounds below. Something thumped in the room beyond the
narrow passage, rising and falling with increasing volume as we approached.
"Welcome." Priscilla smiled as she opened the door. "To the real Marquis."
The room wasn't large, but it was filled from top to bottom with unnatural devices of
every kind. Manacles hung from the walls, the cuffs attached to them stained with blood.
We stepped past benches of a variety I never wanted to know about, straps and buckles
worn from repeated use. A wheel? I didn't even want to guess what that was for.
The thumping noise we'd heard turned out to be the flogging of a couple tied to one of the
welded poles. They were faced away from their tormentor, foreheads smacking into the
pole with every blow, and from the looks of them, they weren't enjoying their punishment.
The whip master paused in his measured staccato to glance up at us. He was a vampire,
roughly two hundred from the feel of his aura.
"What have you brought me, Priscilla?"
Another vampire lounged on the nearby couch, drinking from the neck of an unconscious
woman on his lap.
"Guests, Anri," she said.
He rested his sherry-colored eyes over me. "I'll take her. It will be a pleasure to mark her
flawless skin." Next he considered Bones. "You look familiar, have we met?"
Bones gave him a cold smile. "Not formally, but we did run into each other in London,
round 1890, when I was looking for a bloke named Renard. Recall me now? I took his
head but left you the rest of him."
Anri lowered his whip. Realization bloomed on his features, and then he shot Priscilla a
truly evil glare.
"You idiot, do you know who this is?"
Priscilla gave Bones a confused look. Her distraction gave me the chance-and the great
satisfaction-to knock her down and then ram my silver-heeled shoe right through her
heart.
"She pissed me off for the last time," I said to no one in particular.
The vampire on the couch, watching this exchange with alarm, froze over his victim's
neck. I lunged at him next. The girl was snatched from his hands and thrown to Dave
while I head-butted the vamp with brutal force. He was stunned for a moment. Just long
enough for me to jab the heel of my shoe into his heart and straight out through his back.
Anri began to back away, although there was nowhere for him to go. Tate and Dave were
behind him, Bones and me in front of him.
"Please don't kill me, I have done nothing to you," he whimpered.
"Bloody hell, show some dignity. You're an embarrassment to the race," Bones chided
him.
"Tate, get the unhappy couple," I directed him.
Tate went over to them, slashed his palm, and clapped it across each of their mouths.
Soon their welts disappeared. Then he untied them from the pole, herding them well out of
the way of the other bodies.
Anri held out a hand to Bones. "You have no cause to harm me. You want the humans?
They're yours."
I shook my head. Wasn't it always the bullies who feared retaliation the most?
"You're afraid of him, but it's me you need to worry about."
I retrieved one of his fallen whips and cracked it for punctuation. Bones had thought I
couldn't handle seeing what he dished out to Max, but I could prove that I wasn't too
squeamish when it came to doing necessary dirty work.
"Give me the names of your other playmates, Anri. Refuse and, well...you have a lot of
mean-looking toys here. Tried any of them out on yourself lately?"
An hour later I was in possession of a name-Slash. He was here somewhere, scouting
out his potential dinner. With all the noise from above, I doubted he even knew what had
happened to Anri.
I made my way through the dancers, seeking a man with the tattoo of a silver dragon
along his jaw. Along the way, I was bumped, jostled, and even slapped by an overzealous
woman whose partner turned away at the last moment. She didn't even apologize, either.
Just glared at me and snapped, "That wasn't your gift!"
"I'll give it back, then," I responded, and whacked her a good one. Honestly, whatever
happened to saying, Excuse me?
Someone grabbed me from behind. Cool hands moved over my breasts in a rough caress. I
stiffened but didn't slam my elbow into their rib cage. Not yet.
"I'm better from the front," I purred in my best bondage-tramp imitation.
My head was jerked back next, so hard there would be strands of it in his grip. I gritted
my teeth. This better be Slash, or I was going to stomp the shit out of the unknown
asshole.
That cool hand made its way from my breast down my stomach-and didn't stop. Okay,
enough being Little Miss Submissive!
I whirled around, losing more hair, and smashed my knee up at the same time. Tall, Dark,
and Depraved, who did not have a silver dragon tattoo on his jaw, doubled over. Then I
shoved him into the gyrating mass of revelers surrounding us.
"I said I'm better from the front."
There was laughter by the other dancers close enough to witness this. I gave Tall, Dark,
and Depraved another nasty glare before scouting around again for Slash. He had to be
here. I didn't want to come back tomorrow if I couldn't find him. In fact, I'd be pretty
happy if I never set foot in this place again.
Two more cool hands slid along my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest. I clenched
my fist, about to let loose a roundhouse punch, when something out of the corner of my
eye stopped me. Were those scales etched on the side of my new Romeo's face?
I turned around...and smiled. "You look good enough to eat, handsome."
The man grinned, stretching the dragon's tail that curled from his jaw to the side of his
mouth. "Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing about you."
We began to dance. Slash was about my height, and he used the alignment of our bodies
to his greatest advantage. I let it go on for a few minutes. Right up until he unzipped his
leather pants and pulled out Mr. One Eye.
"Whoa," I said, twisting away as he attempted to find a home for his stiff friend. "Isn't
there somewhere we can be...alone?"
Slash glanced at his cock, as if expecting it to voice an objection. Then he tugged my arm.
"Come with me. I know just the place."
I saw with relief that I was being pulled toward the fake bar. If he'd gone in the opposite
direction, all hell would have broken loose. Slash never bothered to tuck his dick back in
his drawers, either. That thing stuck out the whole time like it was pointing the way.
"Oohh, how exciting," I said as he lifted the faux counter to reveal that hidden staircase.
Slash took my hand, almost yanking me beside him. The narrowness made for a very
uncomfortable walk as we went down. Mental note: Shower as soon as possible.
"I think you'll be surprised," he said as he opened the door. Then he stopped short. "What
the-?"
I shoved him in with all my strength. Slash went sprawling. He skidded to a halt at that
awful pole, which now had the very bloody form of Anri shackled to it.
I closed the door behind me. Bones went over to Slash, raised a brow at his rapidly
deflating erection, and then gave him an icy smile.
"No, mate, I expect you're the one who's surprised."
"If we can leave quietly, I think we won't have to call in the team," Tate said as he piled
Slash's body on top of Anre's. Priscilla and the other nameless vampire were stacked next
to them.
"Skulk out the back with our tails between our legs?" Bones snorted. "Fear's a valuable
motivator. If we sneak away, then there's nothing to give someone pause who might
consider setting up shop in this place again, is there?"
I considered that. In most of our operations, we had a smash-and-grab approach. Smash
the bad guys (or girls!), grab the evidence (meaning bodies) and then leave. Maybe that
strategy needed rethinking. Bones was right about fear being an excellent motivator. Patra
was using that tactic against us now. Maybe we needed to highlight that we played for
keeps, too.
I glanced at Dave. He gave me an almost imperceptible nod. Tate, however, was incensed.
"Brilliant plan, Crypt Keeper. You want us to bring up those heads like souvenirs, then
shake our fingers at them and say, 'They were naughty' at all the freaks out there? You're
out of your mind!"
"Foolish. Coward."
Bones bit out both words precisely. Tate snarled, and I tripped him as he stalked toward
Bones.
"You must have slipped, because I know you weren't about to do anything, were you?"
Tate glared up at me, and then must have seen the consequences of following through
with that intention in my gaze, because he lost his angry posture.
"Your call, Cat. What's it gonna be?"
Oddly enough, it's what happened when I'd pushed off Tall, Dark, and Depraved that
made my decision. The people around us, human and otherwise, had just laughed. Not
jumped in and helped him beat me into submission.
"We give a warning and show the proof. Like you said, Tate-I'll use those heads as
props."
"All units, stand by," Tate said into his radio. It didn't escape me that he sounded both
pissed and resigned.
We made our way single file back up the stairs. Bones went first, followed by me, Tate,
Dave, and our rescued couple, who hadn't said much all night. When we were all out,
Bones lifted me up onto the counter of the fake bar, since my hands were full, and let out
a whistle that pierced even over the loud music.
"Shut that noise off," he barked, giving a menacing green glare to the puzzled vampire in
what I assumed was the DJ box.
The pumping techno beat was silenced. There were sounds of protest that cut off when
people saw me. You could say I stood out, what with being perched on a bar holding four
severed heads by their hair.
"I'll make this quick so you can get back to your fun. I'm the Red Reaper, and these
four"-I held the heads up for better viewing-"took their games too far by killing my
kind. If it happens again here, I'll come back."
Two hundred pairs of eyes stared at us, and most of them didn't come with heartbeats.
Inside I tensed. Who knew how this would go? Things could get very unpleasant very fast.
Bones held out his hand to help me down, and I dropped my grisly trophies and took it.
Maybe some of them recognized who he was, or could guess. Or maybe it was simple
apathy. Either way, one by one, the humans and nonhumans pulled back until there was a
clear path from our position to the door. Bones set me down from the bar, and all of us
walked uninterrupted to the exit.
"Un-fucking-real," Tate muttered when we reached the parking lot.
"Which just shows you how much you have to learn," Bones replied.

THIRTEEN

Bones and I drove to Denise's the next day. I hadn't seen my best friend in
a while, what with gearing up for Tate's change and then the whole aftermath of my
kidnapping. So just to hang out with her and relax was nice. Denise also knew everything
about me, Bones, vampires, ghouls, and even the war we were in. I had to call her and
explain the reason behind her abrupt relocation, after all. Don probably just told her and
her husband, Randy, to pack without giving any reason why.
Their new house was on the outskirts of Memphis. It was a good thing Randy was a
private computer consultant and could work wherever, because I would have hated to be
the cause of him losing his job. Denise had quit her job shortly after they got married, so
again, I was spared some guilt. They hadn't said anything, but I thought they were trying
for a baby. It would explain her sudden interest in things she'd never bothered with before.
Case in point, she made dinner for us instead of ordering out. Definitely a new trait.
"This is really good," I enthused, helping myself to more pot roast. "We'll have to come
here for the holidays. As you know, I burn water."
Denise grinned. "Or you could have your own party and let Rodney cook. Didn't you tell
me he was amazing in the kitchen?"
"Oh, he is," I answered, mouth still full. Then I cocked my head. "Bones, how dangerous
would it be for us to have a Christmas party?"
He considered the question. "Have to only invite a few people, but I don't think it would
be cause for any real alarm."
I swallowed as the idea grew in my mind. "I've never done that kind of thing before. My
grandparents weren't social butterflies and I didn't much feel like entertaining during the
years we were apart. Our guesthouse is finished, so we'd have plenty of room. We can't
have our wedding right now, but we can have a small holiday party. It'll be our first
Christmas together, Bones."
He smiled at me. "That's an excellent reason to celebrate, and I know Rodney would be
delighted to come and cook. It's his favorite pastime."
Denise clapped her hands. "Oh, it'll be so cool. I've never celebrated a holiday with dead
people before!"
Randy rolled his eyes, but Bones just laughed. "Yes, that usually does make for a more
interesting time than a midnight Mass at church, I suspect."
"We'll have to invite my mother, too," I said. "In fact, she's not that far from here.
Rodney's place is what? About an hour away?"
Bones nodded. "Yes. Want to visit her next?"
I considered my options. If she knew I'd been this close to her and hadn't stopped by, I'd
never hear the end of it. Okay, so that was settled.
"We'll drop by. God knows she'll be there. The woman never goes out."
"When's her new place going to be ready?" Denise asked.
"Next week. I think Don deliberately took a while relocating her out of Rodney's to pay
her back for some of the grief she's heaped over him in the past. There's no reason it
should have taken so long to get her a safe place, not that I'll tell her that."
Denise got up, rummaged in her pantry for a minute, and then came out with an unopened
bottle of gin.
"Here. If you're going to your mother's, you'll need this."
We said our goodbyes to Denise and Randy an hour later and headed off to my mother's
temporary residence. It had been a pleasant drive through the country, very relaxing-until
suddenly Bones cocked his head to the side as if concentrating, and then stomped on the
gas pedal.
"What's wrong?"
He'd said moments ago that we were almost there. Alarmed, I strained my ears, but my
range wasn't as far as his. All I could hear were the sounds from various families as we
whizzed by their homes.
"Don't bleedin' believe it," Bones chuckled.
"What!"
He continued to streak through the streets at a high rate of speed. "Oh, you'll see. And
you'll need that bottle Denise gave you."
I figured there wasn't a bloodbath going on, because he still grinned with maniacal humor.
Hopefully the sound of my mother being axed to death wouldn't make him so gleeful.
When we pulled up in the driveway of what I assumed had to be Rodney's house, all I
heard was her fumbling around and muttering curses. What was unusual about that?
Bones darted out of the car without even turning the engine off and pounded on the door
hard enough to rattle the windows.
"Open up, Justina, or I'll break down this door!"
The front door flung open as I approached at a slower rate than Bones had. Someone had
to turn the car off, after all.
Bones went right past my mother, ignoring her demands to stay out. He gave her a wicked
rake of the eyes, and his lips twitched uncontrollably.
"Well. As I don't live and breathe. Justina, hair's a bit disheveled, luv, been cleaning
house? No? And your face...if I didn't know better, I'd say it was flushed. Back when I
was a degenerate whore, as you like to say, I'd see women look like you do all the time.
After they were shagging."
My mouth dropped and I took in her appearance. She was wearing only a robe, her brown
hair was indeed going every which way, her face was distinctly colored, and holy shit, was
that a hickey on her neck?
"You filthy animal, get out of here," she commanded Bones.
He laughed so hard it bent him double. "Really, that's a bit of the pot calling the kettle
black now, isn't it? And to think how Kitten used to be terrified about you finding out she
was shagging a vampire. You can't say much about that anymore, can you? Come on
down, mate, take a bow! I stand in abject awe."
"Bones," Rodney's voice called out gratingly from upstairs. "Just get out of here."
I staggered. "Mom? You and Rodney?"
A scarlet blush graced my mother's features. "He was making me dinner," she sputtered.
I found my voice amid the astonishment. "And dessert, too, apparently! I don't believe
you. All those years, you crucified me for sleeping with a vampire, and look at you.
Rodney's a ghoul, you hypocrite!"
"He doesn't kill people, they're dead when he gets to them!" she thundered back with
questionable logic. "And I am forty-five years old and don't need to be explaining myself
to my daughter."
I stared at her like I'd never seen her before. "Did Rodney like them?" I asked.
She huffed. "Did he like what, Catherine?"
"The balls on you, that's what!"
Bones laughed again and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Let's go, Kitten. Just had to rub
it in, I couldn't resist. Justina, good on you, and Rodney"-another decadent chuckle-
"admirable courage."
Bones propelled me, still bitching, from the house. The door slammed behind us.
Bones still couldn't contain his laughter as we drove away at safer speeds. "I'm delighted
you didn't ring her in advance, luv. That was priceless."
I didn't answer, just settled back in my chair and broke the seal on the gin.
My dress was silver. It hung to my feet in a clinging line from the waist, two ties forming a
halter at the neck. The back was bare, and the front had a deep V that made a bra
impossible. Those stick-on ones didn't do the trick, either.
I frowned at my reflection. "You'll be able to tell right off if I get cold. I'm the hostess,
I'm not supposed to look cheap."
Bones appeared behind me in the mirror. "You don't look cheap, you're stunning."
A brush of his lips on my back punctuated his compliment, and as if on cue, both my
nipples puckered. Yeah, it looked indecent, all right.
"Ravishing," he whispered into my skin.
He should like the dress, he picked it out. Bones always chose more revealing outfits than
I did. At least I had on underwear, minuscule though it was. Some things I insisted on
despite his limitless powers of persuasion.
Bones tilted his head to the side for a second. "Your mum's here."
I went downstairs to greet her, since Bones wasn't dressed yet. I hadn't seen her since that
unbelievable night at Rodney's, and I didn't even want to know if they were now, um,
dating. Rodney, being a gentleman, hadn't mentioned the incident when he showed up this
morning to prep for the evening's meal, but I'd heard Bones greet him with an "All hail
the dragon slayer!" salute.
I opened the door...and my smile froze. This couldn't be my mother.
Her brown hair was free of gray and had new lighter highlights. Whether it was makeup or
a chemical peel that seemed to have taken ten years off her in less than three weeks was
anyone's guess. Her dark amethyst velvet dress was tighter than mine, and cut high on one
leg before draping down to her ankle on the other side. One shoulder was bared in Grecian
style, and her hair was swept half up with stray pieces trailing. Her blue eyes were the only
thing familiar about her.
"Catherine." She swept by me without a hug. Okay, that was familiar, too. "You really
should wear something warmer, it's freezing out."
Hello to you, too, Mom. Or whoever the hell you are, because you sure don't look like the
woman who raised me.
"You should talk," I managed. "I can see all the way up to your thigh. My God, if
Grandma saw you now, she'd come right out of her grave!"
My mother opened her mouth, paused, and then smiled. "I won't tell if you won't."
I was going directly to the kitchen to fall to my knees in awe before Rodney. Lo and
behold, he'd managed to give her a sense of humor, and here I'd figured that would take
voodoo, several headless chickens, and a lot of gris-gris.
"Let's get you some eggnog, Mom," I said, recovering from my shock enough to steer her
into the living room. "It's spiked."