I stared at her like I’d never seen her before. “Did Rodney like them?” I asked.
She huffed. “Did he like what, Catherine?”
“The balls on you, that’s what!”
Bones laughed again and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “Let’s go, Kitten. Just had to rub it in, I couldn’t resist. Justina, good on you, and Rodney”-another decadent chuckle-“admirablecourage.”
Bones propelled me, still bitching, from the house. The door slammed behind us.
Bones still couldn’t contain his laughter as we drove away at safer speeds. “I’m delighted you didn’t ring her in advance, luv. That was priceless.”
I didn’t answer, just settled back in my chair and broke the seal on the gin.
My dress was silver. It hung to my feet in a clinging line from the waist, two ties forming a halter at the neck. The back was bare, and the front had a deep V that made a bra impossible. Those stick-on ones didn’t do the trick, either.
I frowned at my reflection. “You’ll be able to tell right off if I get cold. I’m the hostess, I’m not supposed to look cheap.”
Bones appeared behind me in the mirror. “You don’t look cheap, you’re stunning.”
A brush of his lips on my back punctuated his compliment, and as if on cue, both my nipples puckered. Yeah, it looked indecent, all right.
“Ravishing,” he whispered into my skin.
He should like the dress, he picked it out. Bones always chose more revealing outfits than I did. At least I had on underwear, minuscule though it was. Some things I insisted on despite his limitless powers of persuasion.
Bones tilted his head to the side for a second. “Your mum’s here.”
I went downstairs to greet her, since Bones wasn’t dressed yet. I hadn’t seen her since that unbelievable night at Rodney’s, and I didn’t even want to know if they were now, um, dating. Rodney, being a gentleman, hadn’t mentioned the incident when he showed up this morning to prep for the evening’s meal, but I’d heard Bones greet him with an “All hail the dragon slayer!” salute.
I opened the door…and my smile froze. Thiscouldn’t be my mother.
Her brown hair was free of gray and had new lighter highlights. Whether it was makeup or a chemical peel that seemed to have taken ten years off her in less than three weeks was anyone’s guess. Her dark amethyst velvet dress was tighter than mine, and cut high on one leg before draping down to her ankle on the other side. One shoulder was bared in Grecian style, and her hair was swept half up with stray pieces trailing. Her blue eyes were the only thing familiar about her.
“Catherine.” She swept by me without a hug. Okay,that was familiar, too. “You really should wear something warmer, it’s freezing out.”
Hello to you, too, Mom. Or whoever the hell you are, because you sure don’t look like the woman who raised me.
“You should talk,” I managed. “I can see all the way up to your thigh. My God, if Grandma saw you now, she’d come right out of her grave!”
My mother opened her mouth, paused, and then smiled. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”
I was going directly to the kitchen to fall to my knees in awe before Rodney. Lo and behold, he’d managed to give her a sense of humor, and here I’d figured that would take voodoo, several headless chickens, and a lot of gris-gris.
“Let’s get you some eggnog, Mom,” I said, recovering from my shock enough to steer her into the living room. “It’s spiked.”
FOURTEEN
OUR LIST OF GUESTS WAS SMALL DUE TO THE unfestive circumstances of being at war. There were Rodney, Spade, Rattler, Tick Tock, Ian, Zero, and another vampire Annette brought as her date named Doc. Mencheres wasn’t here, and that was fine by me. My guests consisted of Denise, Randy, my mother, Don, Cooper, Dave, Juan, and Tate.
Bones had invited Ian at the last minute. He hadn’t been on my original list of people I wanted to spend time with, but since he’d thrown in his side with ours, Bones felt he’d deserved the nod. I’d been hoping he wouldn’t show, but that was in vain. In fact, I wondered if the reason Ian came was because he knew he was here against my preference-and got a kick out of that.
We were sitting in the dining room. Ian had arrived late and as soon as he crossed the threshold, my mother and Don had gotten up from the table. They were lingering near the porch with Dave, Cooper, and Juan, who also had reason not to like the chestnut-haired vampire across from me.
“Why, Cat, you seem edgy,” Ian baited me after my silence at the table grew pointed. “You’re not still cross at me over kidnapping your ex-boyfriend last summer, are you?”
I resisted the urge to hurl my plate at him. “Of course not, Ian. It’s just that normally at this hour, Bones and I are fucking like rabbits, so I get twitchy when I have to wait for him to climb aboard.”
Ian wasn’t amused. “Do you let her insult me when I have come in goodwill, Crispin?” he demanded.
Bones lifted a brow. “You’re not insulted in the least, and bringing up reference to how you attempted to force Cat into your line was extremely ill-mannered. Let it be the last time you speak of it.”
The words were mild-his eyes weren’t. They were swimming with green.
Ian leaned back in his chair. “Well, mate, look at you. Claws come shooting out straightaway, and here I was barely even being rude. At first I thought you snatched her away from me out of spite, but that’s not it, is it? You of all people to fall prey to love.”
They had over two hundred and twenty years of history between them, both good and bad. The air seemed to thicken around the table.
“You didn’t come here just to discuss my wife, did you?”
Ian leaned forward. “It was Max’s treatment of her that prompted you to declare violent retribution to any who had a part in it. Why wouldn’t I want to see how committed you were before I stuck my own neck out farther than I already have? If you were merely angry out of a sense of pride, well…” Ian dangled the sen tence with a careless flick of his hand. “Why endanger me and mine over ruffled feathers?”
“Do you remember the time I jammed a silver knife into your heart, Ian?” I asked brightly. “You can’t count how many times I’ve wished I’d twisted it. Ruffled feathers over my kidnapping, torture, and attempted murder? Fuck you!”
“I’m not downplaying what happened to you, Cat,” Ian said at once. “Only stating my interest in Crispin’s reaction to it. What he’s done to Max is deserved, but that could have been the smart response of a leader showing his mettle, nothing more. You do appreciate the difference?”
Ian’s piercing turquoise eyes met mine. He was a cold bastard, I knew that from experience, but there must be more to him than I saw. Or Bones would have killed him decades ago.
Bones inclined his head. “You have your answer, Ian. My response is entirely personal when it comes to her.”
“Lucky for you that Mencheres merged lines with you and gave you more power. And speaking of your new alliance, I can’t imagine why Mencheres chose you over me, considering of the two of us, I’m not the one who shagged his wife.”
I froze even as Bones let out a vicious curse. Ian, catching my expression, began to laugh.
“What, didn’t Crispin tell you about that? Don’t know why, happened before your parents were even born.”
I got up from the table. Discussing this in front of Ian was not going to happen. Bones followed me as I went outside on the porch. Once we were alone, I rounded on him.
“Why? I know you didn’t think much of screwing around before me, but Patra was your grandsire’s wife!”
His jaw clenched. “I didn’t know who she was when it happened. Mencheres and Patra hadn’t been on good terms since before I became a vampire. A few decades ago, I met a woman, spent the night, and then a week later I found out she was Mencheres’s wife. Patra knew whoI was. She did it to hurt Mencheres, bloody hell, who do you
