No, he realized moments later when Cat started to tell Noah a far more apologetic version of “it’s not you, it’s me.” Ah. She’d come to end things between them.

  Should’ve left him a note, that cold burn whispered.

  Bones pushed it aside. He needed to move past his bitterness if they were going to have a future. Nursing that grudge would only sabotage everything he was trying to build.

  Finally, after several more apologies, Cat left Noah’s and drove home. Bones waited nearby for half an hour to see if anyone from her team would check on her, but no one did. Finally, Bones left. He had to clean up and change. Cat wasn’t going to be alone for very long tonight.

  That evening, Bones slipped into the side door of Cat’s house. All it took was a quick lock pick. She really needed a security system. Her cat was useless. The feline only gave him a baleful blink as Bones walked by. Then again, heaven help the prowler that broke into Cat’s house intending to rob her.

  Cat was in her kitchen, heating up a frozen pre-packaged meal in her microwave. She tensed as she felt the brush of his aura, and then her shoulders unclenched.

  “It’s polite to knock. My front door’s not broken.”

  “Yes, but this is more dramatic, don’t you think?” Bones replied in a light tone.

  She didn’t answer. Just waited in front of her microwave until it chimed. Then, she took the small plastic tray and sat down at her kitchen table.

  Bones took the seat opposite her.

  “I’m not offering you any,” she finally said, arching a brow at him. “My neck and I already know that you ate.”

  “That wasn’t about feeding,” he said, searching her face. Her expression was closed off, but from her scent, she was no longer angry at him. Instead, a hint of restlessness emanated from her, as if she were trying to hold something back that fought to be free.

  “Right, that was about you making your point.”

  Her emphasis on the last word was either sarcasm or wryness. He couldn’t tell which, and she pretended to be absorbed in her meal, so he couldn’t see her eyes to find out.

  “Next time, maybe use something other than my jugular as your Exhibit A?” she went on.

  “That wasn’t your jugular.” Memory filled his voice as she finally met his eyes. “That would have made you pass out too quickly, and I wanted you to have time to decide to stop me or not. So, I bit around your jugular. That’s why it took longer, and why I could enjoy slowly drawing your blood into me.”

  She didn’t say anything. Just stared at him while the air became charged with that same magnetic pull that Bones had always felt toward her. From the new green glint in her eyes, like emeralds scattered across steel, she felt it, too. She swallowed as if finally remembering that she’d taken a bite before Bones had spoken. Then, she set her fork down.

  “So…you’re hell-bent on not going away until this danger with Ian has passed, and you’ve also neutralized whoever’s waving a check around for my corpse, right?”

  “That’s right,” Bones replied.

  “And you probably followed me earlier when I went into work to see if I’d try to fly the coop?”

  Oh, he didn’t think she’d try that, but the end result would have been the same. “Let’s just say that no plane would have made it off the ground there today.”

  “I suppose you followed me to Noah’s, too, and eavesdropped on that?” she asked, her tone now bristly.

  She would not try to shame him for the same jealousy she also felt. “I admit my lack of rationality when it comes to you. You saved that man’s life by breaking up with him today because if I’d listened to anything more erotic happening between the two of you, I would have snapped him in half.”

  She leaned forward, her gaze turning hard. “Leave Noah alone. He doesn’t believe in vampires, ghouls, or anything more supernatural than Santa Claus, so you’d better not hurt him.”

  Oh, he already knew that Noah was oblivious to who Cat was and what she did. It had only taken Bones one minute in Noah’s presence to realize that he was even more of a human teddy bear than Cat’s former college mate, Timmie, had been.

  “If I intended to kill Noah, I’d have done it before you ever realized that I was in town. But you can hardly expect me not to feel hostile toward the bloke. Remember your response when I kissed Felicity last night?”

  Anger flittered over her face before she could conceal her reaction.

  Bones gave her a knowing look. My point exactly.

  She leaned back with a sigh. “Fine. We both have feelings for each other, and you think it can work despite my job and my mother’s virulent hatred of vampires. Since you’re refusing to leave anyway because of Ian and the contract out on me…”

  She let the sentence dangle meaningfully.

  Bones fought a laugh while an instant, heady rush also made him feel like he’d just drunk a large amount of drugged blood. “Are you waving the white flag on your resistance to me?”

  Cat let out a huff. “No. I’m saying we take things slow. See if this blows up in our faces. I’m not saying I’m going to declare my eternal love while falling back with my legs open.”

  Too late for the first one, Bones thought, anticipation sizzling through him. But I can wait a bit for the latter.

  “There are other positions,” he noted with a slow smile.

  Gooseflesh rippled over her, and her color heightened. Now, she was also thinking about those other positions-and how much she’d enjoyed them.

  “Celibate dating. Take it or leave it,” she finally said.

  “Done,” Bones replied.

  She looked startled, as if she’d expected him to argue or press for better terms when he had no need to. Her passion was as fierce as her bloodlust. If she couldn’t fight it back when she hated him because she hated all vampires, she didn’t stand a chance now that she loved him.

  Oh, Kitten, he thought, tracing his tongue along the inside of his lip. Your willpower is going down in flames.

  “Okay,” she said with a hint of awkwardness. “Well, then…”

  A car turned into her cul-de-sac. One glance out Cat’s window made him stifle a groan. If only it had been Cat’s boss sending some soldiers to try and kill him. Instead, it was her.

  “Kitten, your resolve on this is about to be tested sooner than you expected,” Bones said, rising from his seat.

  She blinked. “Huh?”

  He gave her a thin smile. “Your mum’s here.”

  17

  Cat stood so fast that her chair upended. “Oh, shit!”

  Then, she tripped trying to rush to the front door because her feet were still tangled in the overturned chair. Bones commiserated with her dismay, but he felt no panic. This dual confrontation had been a long time coming.

  He went into Cat’s living room, taking a seat on the sofa.

  “What are you doing?” Cat said, finally extracting herself from the chair.

  “Staying right here. You just agreed to give us a chance, so, time to come out of the coffin with your mum about me.”

  She gave him a fraught look. “Now?”

  “Yeah, now,” he said, his tone turning hard. “I should have forced this issue before. Instead, your mum found out about our relationship only after vampires murdered her parents in front of her. Little wonder she took it poorly.”

  “Took it poorly?” Cat repeated in a near screech. “She tried to have you killed!”

  Certainly did. Seemed to be habit with Crawfield women when they first met him.

  Justina knocked.

  Bones glanced at the door. “Will you get it, or shall I?”

  “Just a second, Mom!” Cat called out before muttering “If this is happening, I need a drink,” under her breath. Once she’d retrieved a bottle of gin from her cabinet, she headed toward the front door with a frazzled look. “She’ll go straight to Don after this.”

  Bones arched a brow. “Let her. Either way, I’m staying.”

  Cat squared her shoulders and opened the door. Justina pushed past her, so focused on her daughter that she didn’t even notice Bones sitting in the living room.

  “You didn’t answer me earlier, so I called Noah’s cell looking for you, and he told me you broke up with him! Don’t think I don’t know why, Catherine, and I’m here to tell you that it will stop this instant.”

  Cold amusement webbed through him. Oh, he was going to enjoy destroying Justina’s illusions.

  “You threw away that piece of murdering trash years ago,” Justina went on, “and you will do it again! I will not sit back and watch you turn into the same kind of hellspawn that fathered you…” Justina finally saw him, and her ranting trailed off into a furious hiss.

  Bones waved. “Hallo, Justina, lovely to see you again.” He patted the space beside him. “Won’t you have a seat?”

  Cat gulped her gin while Justina did an excellent impression of a peppermint stick with how her face went dead white to fiery red.

  “For God’s sake, Catherine!” she sputtered. “What is wrong with you? Did this animal put you under a spell again?”

  Bones laughed. Justina might not remember their other encounter, but he couldn’t wait for her to remember this one.

  “If anyone’s under a spell, it’s me. Your daughter cast one on me five years ago, and I haven’t broken free since. Oh, and you’ll be delighted to know that we’ve decided to resume our relationship. Don’t bother with congratulations, Justina. Trust me-your expression is congratulations enough.”

  “Going right for the throat,” Cat muttered. “Typical vamp.”

  Justina whirled on her daughter. “I’d hoped you’d gotten over your undead whoring when you left him, but it seems you only postponed it-”

  “Don’t ever speak to her that way again.”

  Justina stopped as if he’d said that while his gaze was lit up. It wasn’t, but he’d let all his fury fill his voice, and she flinched as if she’d been struck.

  “Call me any name you fancy and more, but I will not stand by while you slander her out of your own bigotry,” Bones continued while rising from the couch.

  She backed up, and for an instant, she looked uncertain. Then, she rounded on Cat again. “You’re going to let him threaten me? I supposed you’ll just sit back and let him suck the life out of me, too?”

  Cat snorted. “Please. He won’t hurt you, which is a damn sight more courtesy than you’d show him given the chance, and excuse me if I don’t defend your attempts to keep calling me nasty names. Must be that flaw in my character.”

  “Blood will out,” Justina said, shaking her finger at Cat. “That’s what my father always said, and he was right. Look at you! You’ve debased yourself by leaving a good man for an animal-no, not even an animal! Something lower-”

  “I’m right here, Justina,” Bones interrupted in a bored tone. “Want to call me an animal? Turn your eyes this way.”

  Justina blinked when Bones moved in front of Cat faster than her eyes could track. Then, she almost backed up as she found herself suddenly face to face with him, but she stopped herself before taking that step. Instead, she squared her shoulders in much the same way Cat had done before opening the door, and fixed her cold blue stare onto him.

  “You. What’s your name again?”

  As if you don’t know. “Bones. Can’t say it’s a pleasure to finally be properly introduced, but it is about time.”

  Justina’s scent indicated more than a little fear, but she looked at him with the same disgust she’d show to a piece of dog shit on her shoe.

  “Well, aren’t you pretty? Her father was, too. Gorgeous, in fact, and Catherine is the spitting image of him. Sometimes, I could barely stand to look at her for their resemblance.”

  Cat glanced away, blinking hard.

  Anger burned Bones. Yes, Cat’s resemblance to Max was uncanny, so at times, it might have been hard for Justina to reconcile that. But she never should have shared that fact with Cat, let alone like this.

  “She may resemble him, but she has a great deal of you in her. Stubbornness, for one thing. Courage, too, plus a nasty temper. She can also hold a grudge quite well, but you’ve got her beat there. Over twenty-seven years later, you’re still punishing her for what someone else did to you.”

  Justina stabbed the air near his chest as if her finger were a silver blade. “How dare you throw up to me what one of your own kind did, you dirty, murdering fiend!”

  Oh, he wasn’t throwing up what Max did. That was unforgivable indeed. He was throwing up what she had done.

  “If I was a murdering fiend, I would’ve punched your ticket years ago. Would’ve made my life a measure easier, I assure you. You had her in shambles when those wolves came with their greedy little offer, and we all know why she took it, don’t we? It doesn’t bother you a bit that she’s been as miserable as I have these past years, or that she’s had more near-death experiences than bloody Houdini. No, you sit back on your satisfaction that she’s out killing vampires instead of shagging one! Well, I hope you enjoyed your little interlude because it’s over, Justina. I’m back, and I’m staying.”

  She tried to out-glare him. When that failed, she turned to Cat, who’d been steadily draining her gin bottle.

  “Catherine! You can’t have agreed to stay with this creature? He’ll change you into a vampire and steal your soul-”

  “My soul is mine and God’s,” Cat cut her off. “Bones couldn’t steal it if he tried. But I’m not letting you or anyone else tell me what to do with my personal life anymore.” She took a deep breath. “You don’t have to like Bones. Hell, you can keep hating his guts for all I care, but as long as I’m with him, you will have to tolerate him. So will Don and the other members of my team, or…or I’ll leave and never come back.”

  Bones’s brows went up. He’d expected her to draw a line with her mum, but he hadn’t expected this.

  Justina looked shocked, too. Then, she glanced at Bones as if expecting to see his gaze lit up, forcing these words out of Cat. When it wasn’t, her expression turned vengeful.

  Cat let out a harsh laugh. “Try it, Mom. Call my work and try to have him killed. If anyone comes for him that way, I’ll kill them myself, no matter who it is.”

  Bloody hell. Even if Cat were bluffing, this wasn’t the same woman who hadn’t wanted to open the door a few minutes ago. This was someone as fed-up as he’d been.

  “Then, Bones and I will disappear,” Cat went on, her expression ice personified. “Do you really want that? After all, if I stay here with you, Don, and my team, I’m much less likely to want to change into a vampire. But, take me away from all that by making me run away with him, and, well. You never know.”

  Horror lit Justina’s expression. Cat had hit at her mum’s deepest fear not with a sledgehammer, but with a wrecking ball.

  “Look at the bright side, Justina,” Bones said, fighting a laugh. “If you let us be, she might grow tired of me in time.”

  Justina’s glare was filled with all the violence that her human body wasn’t capable of. “As if I’d believe anything you said. It would be best for everyone if you’d just stake yourself and die. If you really loved my daughter, that’s what you’d do.”

  Cat drew in her breath to reply.

  Bones beat her to it. “Know what your problem is, Justina? You’re in desperate need of a good shag.”

  Cat laughed and then took a swig of gin to cover that when her mother shot an incensed look her way.

  “Not that I’m offering you one myself, mind,” Bones went on. “My days as a whore ended back in the seventeen hundreds, but I have a mate who owes me a favor and he might be up for the job-Kitten, are you all right?”

  She’d stopped breathing, and her heart rate had skyrocketed. Then, her hands went to her throat. Now he knew what was wrong. That was the universal gesture for choking.

  Bones gave her several hard smacks on the back. She coughed, spewing gin out, and finally drew in a ragged breath.

  Justina didn’t seem to notice. “You filthy, molesting sodomite!” she raged at Bones.

  “Isn’t this a proper flashback to her childhood?” Bones snapped. “You’re more concerned with yourself than your own daughter. Bloody hell, woman, can’t you see that she’s choking?”

  Justina stopped her tirade to stare at Cat, who took in several more painful-sounding breaths. She must have accidentally inhaled quite a bit of gin. Come to think of it, Cat had gasped when Bones told her mum he’d been a former whore. If she’d had a mouthful of gin when she did that, no wonder she now appeared as if she’d just been water-boarded.

  When Cat’s breathing no longer sounded like the dying gasps of a drowning sailor, Bones returned his attention to Justina.

  “’Sodomite’ is both bigoted and technically incorrect. Women were my clients, not men. ‘Course, if you don’t trust my recommendation for that shag, I reckon your daughter might have a friend among her team who’d be up for the arduous task of-”

  “That’s it!” Justina shouted, and ran toward the door.

  “Come back soon,” Bones said in his cheeriest tone.

  Justina slammed the door behind her.

  “She’ll go straight to Don,” Cat rasped out.

  Bones smiled as he brushed her hair back. “No, she won’t. She’s riled, but she’s not stupid. It threw her a good one to see you stand up to her. She’ll stew for a while, and then wait for an opportunity. Despite whatever she’s told you, she’ll never risk you leaving her. You’re all she has.”

  Cat wiped her mouth as she finally straightened from the half-crouch she’d been in when she’d been coughing. “You should still watch your back. If she calls Don, he could send the team after you without my knowing it.”

  “To what end?” Bones said with a laugh. “It would take a small army of humans to be able to corner me, and I’d hear that coming. Don’t fret, luv. I’m not so easy to kill. Now, do you want to wear that? Or do you want to put something else on?”

  She gave him a confused look. “For what?”