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 seethat 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’veseen 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 it-why 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.
“Nowyou 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, therewas 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
