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’tyou 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 reproduc tion. 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.
“Nowthat 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…”
