“Don’t touch me. You’re a dead man.”

  “Since before we met,” he agreed, still chuckling, “But I love you anyway, Kitten.”

  She huffed. “Don’t try to get out of this. We’ll see if you love me when I pay you back, and I will.”

  “Even then I’ll love you,” Bones promised as she strode out of the room. “Even then.”

  Cat didn’t remain gone for long. Don drained nearly two pints from Bones, and then portioned it out in thirds into paper cups. Tate would be the first to sample it, and angry or no, Cat wasn’t about to let him do that without her being present.

  “Stay back, luv,” Bones said, all his laughter gone. Sometimes, humans went briefly feral at the rush of power, and Tate was a strong man with quick reflexes as it was. Worse, Cat would rush to Tate if he reacted poorly. Not away from him.

  “I would never hurt her, deadhead,” Tate muttered.

  Bones gave him a level look. “In your right mind, I believe that. But you might not be in your right mind for the first few minutes, so she stays away, and I stay close.”

  Tate didn’t argue. He even backed away from Cat and came nearer to Bones despite his lip curling in distaste. Then, he hoisted the paper cup and downed it as if he were a contestant in a local pub’s drinking contest.

  The shudders hit Tate almost instantly. His pupils narrowed, dilated, and narrowed again while his heart rate skyrocketed and he began hyperventilating. Bones grabbed his shoulders, ready to take him to the ground if need be, but Tate didn’t bolt toward Cat or anyone else. Instead, he clenched his fists until cartilage snapped, healed, and snapped again, all while looking around with the wild gaze of a spooked racehorse.

  Two minutes later, Tate was breathing less frantically, and his body was no longer wracked with tremors. Bones said nothing, but it appeared the lovesick sod had admirable fortitude.

  “Let go of me,” Tate rasped, shoving at Bones.

  Bones did, but he still stayed close. Tate didn’t seem to notice. He was looking at Cat, who stared back with sympathy pinching her lovely features.

  “Jesus, Cat,” Tate muttered. “This isn’t like before at that cave. What the hell is in that guy’s blood?”

  “Power,” Cat said simply. “The blood you had before was from a weaker, shriveling vampire, so it doesn’t compare.”

  Tate shook his head. “Your voice is so loud. Everything is, and the smells! Damn, Juan, you stink. Didn’t you shower today?”

  Juan’s color heightened. “Fuck off. I showered, but I ran out of soap. Didn’t know we’d get sniff tested.”

  Cat sighed. “You’ll get a chance to pay him back for that comment, Juan, because if you still want this, you’re next.”

  Juan did. Bones repeated the process of holding him until he recovered, noting that Juan took an additional ninety-eight seconds to recover. Cooper took an additional ninety-two, so Tate was the strongest of the bunch.

  “Ready to be first again?” Bones said with an arch smile at Tate. The training room was next, and Bones had every intention of fulfilling his earlier threat.

  “Oh, yeah,” Tate said, sizing Bones up with the ignorance of someone who believed his meatier muscles would hold any advantage. “And maybe you’ll be the one shitting different colors.”

  Bones let out a low laugh. “That’s impossible for many reasons, but don’t take my word for it. Let me show you.”

  “Meet you there, vampire,” Tate said, and left.

  “Bones,” Cat drew out, seeing the look in his eyes.

  He waved off her concern. “With that much blood in him, anything I break will soon repair itself. Besides, it’ll do him a world of good to learn that no matter how invincible he feels right now, he can still get his arse thoroughly kicked.”

  Don moved in front of the doorway, blocking Bones. “I’ve seen the way you look at Tate,” he said quietly. “Don’t break what can’t be repaired.”

  Bones stifled his derisive laugh. Don cared for Tate, did he? If only he held his niece in such high regard.

  “I don’t mistreat those who put their trust in me,” Bones said, his tone adding, unlike you.

  Don gave him the thinnest of smiles. “I hope so.”

  34

  Bones fulfilled his promise, but once again, Tate managed to impress him. To be fair, Juan and Cooper did, too. All three were clearly used to being beaten until they were unconscious, and they all recovered with admirable swiftness, striking out before their eyes reopened or rolling away from kicks from muscle memory alone. Cat’s fighting skills shone through each of them, until Bones realized they were wasted behind their thick helmets and heavy tactical gear. They were far quicker and deadlier without such equipment. From the look on Don’s face as he watched, he knew it, too, and Don practically salivated at seeing their increased prowess.

  “You’ve schooled them brilliantly, Kitten,” Bones said when he finished with Cooper and came up to the training room’s version of a sky box. Tate and Juan were already there with Don and Cat, and Tate gave him a grim, if more respectful, look.

  “They are without a doubt the toughest humans I’ve encountered,” Bones went on. “With the additional strength of my blood, they’ll be equal to young vampires.”

  Cat looked both relieved and pleased since she fretted over her men with the same intensity all good commanders had. Bones punctuated his compliment by kissing her forehead, his lips lingering when he felt her slight shiver. He’d taken off his shirt during his fight with Tate to avoid the bloke using it as a handhold, and Cat’s gaze slid over his bare, muscled skin in a caress she didn’t allow herself to give.

  He’d soon do away with that hesitancy. He moved closer, pressing his chest against her hand. She drew in a sharp breath and her fingers flitted over his skin before she snatched her hand back and gave a guilty look around.

  “I’m, uh, off to clean up,” she said, sidestepping Bones and heading for the door at nearly a run. “I’ll see all of you later.”

  Oh, no, she wouldn’t. She’d see him now.

  Bones followed her, anticipation quickening his steps.

  Tate’s voice rose, tight with anger. “Where do you think you’re going? The men’s showers are in the opposite direction.”

  “I’ll file that away with all the other useless information that doesn’t apply to me,” Bones shot back. Cat had disappeared from his sight, but from her path, she was headed to her locker room. Good enough. Anything with a closed door would do.

  “Why? Got something you’re embarrassed to show us, vampire?” Tate shouted as a last resort.

  Bones laughed. “Just not stupid. We all know where you’d rather be.”

  “Don’t, amigo,” Juan said, covering Tate’s instant sputter.

  Bones ignored them as he entered the locker room that was exclusive to Cat since Don allowed no other women on the team. Past the lockers and changing room was the showers, and they consisted of a wall of open stalls. Cat was naked beneath a blasting spray, and she held out a hand as if to say, wait.

  That wasn’t why Bones stopped. It was the sight of her. Her lush curves were even more beautiful with the stark shower walls as their only backdrop, and her skin tightened beneath the cold spray from the showerhead. That water forked over her round breasts before sluicing down the valley of her stomach and then clinging to the red curls between her legs. A shiver puckered her nipples even more, and those tightened peaks called to him even more than the new hammering of her heart.

  “Not here,” she breathed, as if her entire body wasn’t giving off a siren call of the opposite. “It’s…inappropriate.”

  He would have laughed if lust hadn’t thickened his throat, not to mention other parts of him. This place had repeatedly endangered her life, yet she thought this was inappropriate?

  He’d show her otherwise.

  Bones stripped away his trousers and shoes, all while never taking his eyes from her. Then, he came toward her and turned the water from cold to hot. As enticing as he found her shivers, he wanted her feeling them for an entirely different reason. Then, he knelt in front of her, inhaling the scent of her desire while flicking the taut skin of her stomach with his tongue.

  “Sod ‘em,” he murmured. “I want you, Kitten, and you want me. That’s all I bother about.”

  Then, his tongue snaked lower, tasting those sweet, silky depths. Her gasp sounded like a shot fired from her throat, and she gripped his shoulders while her back hit the wall.

  “I-I won’t be able to stand,” she managed as his tongue delved deeper, lashing and twisting the soft, delectable flesh.

  “I’ll hold you,” he promised, and lifted her, settling her thighs around his shoulders while bracing her against the wall.

  The only thing she said after that were pleas interspersed with his name, and when he finally slid inside her, she had forgotten all about propriety.

  Bones spent most of the next day contacting the direct members of his line and having them make preparations to come to the States. When he enacted his plan against Ian, he needed all his first-generation people around him. Their presence would further disincentivize Ian from retaliating. But Bones saved one call for when he drove to Cat’s house to retrieve her feline. This conversation needed to be private.

  “Crispin.”

  Annette sounded so pleased when she answered his ring that Bones felt ashamed. He hadn’t spoken to her since that night in Chicago, and she hadn’t done anything to earn such rudeness. He’d been the one in the wrong. Not her.

  “Hallo, Annette. I’m…I apologize for my silence.”

  “Give it no further thought,” she said with a graciousness he didn’t deserve. “I’m just glad you’re all right. I haven’t been able to reach Charles in recent days, so I haven’t gotten my usual update on you from him.”

  She said that last part with a lilt in her voice that told him she was teasing. That’s right, he’d accused her of such roundabout spying when last he saw her. God, he was a shite.

  “I’ve had Charles rather busy on my behalf, I’m afraid.”

  “Oh? With what?”

  “Backup.” Bones paused, and then said, “I found her.”

  Her indrawn breath was the only sound he heard for a full thirty seconds. Then, Annette said, “Isn’t that wonderful?” with such brightness that a deep knot inside him relaxed.

  He’d dreaded another lecture, and while there were few people in the world whose opinions he regarded highly enough to endure one, Annette was on that extremely short list.

  “It was a happy reunion, I hope?” Annette went on.

  “It was,” he said, sparing her the initial complications. “But there are outside issues that still need resolved. Ian is one of them. I’m sure you’ve heard of his pursuit of her, too.”

  “Yes.” Now Annette’s tone soured. “Ian is ever chasing the next unattainable treasure, though I have no idea why. He has enough riches and rare objects to make a dragon weep with envy.”

  “Yes, well, Ian’s a large complication, but he’s not the only one,” Bones said, and filled her in about Max, his relationship to Don, and how Max had tried to kill Cat.

  Annette was quiet until he finished, and then she let out a short laugh. “Well, Crispin. You never could abide the quiet life.”

  Bones snorted. “I’m now actively seeking it out, but first, I have to resolve all the above.”

  “Why not simply tell Ian what Max did to Cat? He’ll likely kill Max himself for going behind his back that way.”

  “Or he’ll offer Max’s punishment as a prize to Cat, should she accept his other advances,” Bones replied with grimness.

  Annette paused. “You think she’d accept such terms?”

  He didn’t want to find out. That’s why he was twisting himself into knots to avoid it happening. “I think I’d rather handle it myself than leave any of it to Ian.”

  “Ah,” was all Annette said, yet the single word contained enough weight to feel like a boulder had landed on him. She had guessed his fear, but she wasn’t commenting on it. Gratitude filled him. Annette had ever had his best interests at heart, which is why now, he needed to have hers.

  “You’re the first and most important member of my line, but you also know Ian almost as well as I do, Annette. So, you know that he could well declare war. If so, you’ll be swept up in it, unless you’re already independent of me. That is why I’m offering you your own Mastership of your line. Leave mine, and I vow that you’ll still have my protection, but then you won’t-”

  Her laughter cut him off, as clear and sparkling as fine champagne. “You’re barking mad if you think I’d abandon you when you need me the most. Thank you for the thought behind your offer, Crispin, but now, you can shove it up your arse.”

  He closed his eyes. She’d shown that same unwavering devotion back when he was a desperate prostitute and she was an abused noblewoman who only experienced a kind touch if she purchased it first. Annette didn’t even know that he was responsible for the worst moment of her life, either. She thought that Abbott had refused to summon the midwife during her breech delivery in another of his impulsive rages, but no. That abuse had been calculated.

  Annette hadn’t known whose baby she was carrying, but Bones had. Abbott was sterile from a childhood fever. All the prostitutes Bones had lived with knew that. Abbott knew it, too. Only Annette hadn’t, and Bones had never told her because Annette already grieved the child’s loss when she believed its father was the man she hated, not the man she adored…

  “Thank you,” Bones finally said. He couldn’t count all the times he’d uttered those words to her, but he let his voice vibrate with the intensity of how much he meant it.

  She laughed again, softer this time. “There’s no need for such things between us, Crispin. You came for me over two hundred years ago, when you had every reason to forget about me, but you didn’t. Then, you killed that monster who forced me to marry him and turned me into a vampire, so I’d have enough power to never be at someone else’s mercy again. More than that, you are my dearest friend, and you always will be. That means I’ll go wherever you go, be it to war, or to peace, or back to America, which I expect is where I’ll need to be soon?”

  “Yes,” he said. “I’m in Virginia now, but I doubt this is where my confrontation with Ian will take place. Still, wherever that will be, it will happen within weeks, so be ready.”

  “I’ll make preparations at once, though I hope to meet the lovely Cat before that happens. If she’s stolen your heart so thoroughly, I’m sure she’ll steal mine, too.”

  “She will.” Without meaning to, his voice deepened as he thought of Cat, and Annette heard it.

  “Heavens, man, stop whatever you’re doing and return to her, before you have me fleeing to the nearest set of willing arms from contact lust alone.”

  Bones laughed. As if she needed such prompting. Annette had a very healthy sexual appetite, as many satisfied men and women could attest. “I do have to go, but not for that, sadly. I have an actual cat to retrieve, among other things.”

  “Hurry along, then, and ring me when it’s time for me to come to you,” Annette said.

  “I will.”

  He hung up, smiling. Annette had taken everything better than he could have hoped. Now, to ensure that the rest of his plans ran as smoothly.

  35

  They were back at the compound the next morning. Bones would have preferred a longer hiatus, but there was something he’d neglected to do the last time they were there.

  “You said you had captive vampires here, right, Kitten?”

  She gave him a quizzical look. “Three of them. Why?”

  “They might be useful.” Depending on whose lines they belonged to, leastways. “Let me see them.”

  She took him to the lowest sublevel of the compound, where he’d first been imprisoned. Tate, Juan, and Cooper shadowed them, which had been Don’s idea. Bones deserved an award for not pointing out to Don that if he had a mind to free those vampires, her blokes couldn’t stop him, added strength or no. But he said nothing as Cat led the way to the opposite side of the sublevel that Bones had been locked away in. Then, she stopped at five screened windows with incredibly thick glass.

  “This is Grumpy,” Cat said, pushing a button that lifted the screen on the first window. A blue-eyed Caucasian vampire with overgrown brown hair and tattoos up to his neck stared back at them. “His real name is Dillon, or so he told us. I’m guessing he’s about thirty in undead years.”

  From the weakness in his aura, Bones agreed with that guess. He didn’t recognize the vampire, so he nodded and waited for her to raise the next screen.

  “Jack’s in this pen, but I call him Chirpy because of his high-pitched voice,” Cat said as the screen lifted, revealing a white-haired Asian vampire with enough wrinkles to resemble a Shar Pei puppy. “I estimate he’s around seventy, both in living and undead years. We snagged him at a baseball game. He liked to drink the beer vendor girls.”

  Chirpy smiled and nodded as if to say, damn right!

  Bones rolled his eyes. Of all the ways to spend one’s afterlife, that might be the most wasteful.

  “And this is Sunshine,” Cat said, raising the last screen. “We don’t know her real name. She never told us.”

  A pretty, blonde Caucasian vampire with gardenia-pale skin and full lips glanced up in disdain before her blue eyes locked with Bones’s. Then, she hurled herself against the glass.

  “Bones! How did you get here? Never mind, just kill them and let me out!”

  He laughed. “Belinda, fancy seeing you here. Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not here to rescue you.”

  “You know her?” Cat said, and then gave Belinda an entirely different once-over.

  “How can you abandon me after what we meant to each other?” Belinda wailed while pawing at the glass.