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 soiree 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
