“Aw, c’mon, old man. Let me have a little fun.”
“Can’t you drive your car?”
He opened the garage door and looked at the row of brightly colored toys. He rubbed his hands together. “My Mustang doesn’t purr like the M6.” The sweet cherry-red convertible was calling to him.
“My M6? No, Jaden. Remember what you did to my Boxster?”
He slipped the keys off the hook and slid behind the wheel. The scent of premium leather surrounded him. “That was not my fault. That dryad jumped right out in front of me.” He started the car, damn near purring himself at the sound of the engine. Fuck, Duncan had great taste in cars.
He could almost feel Duncan’s chuckles. “Don’t you mean her tree?”
He put the car in gear and pulled out of the garage, closing the door behind him. “Leave her tree out of this.”
“Be careful, Jaden. Get a scratch on that car and I’ll take it out of your hide.”
“Promises, promises.” He hit the gate remote and drove out into the night. “I’m heading toward Charles’s place. What time do you need to be at the Dunne’s?”
“No clue. Shane said he’d arrange things with his father and call us back. By the way, you’re under family orders to attend.”
Well. Shit. So much for working through the family fun-fest. He could just picture what Sean Dunne would do to him when he found out his baby girl was a vampire’s bondmate. “Can’t we just say I’m dead?”
“Jaden. You’ll be there and you’ll like it.” He winced at Moira’s tart tone. Apparently there were downsides to this whole bondmate thing, like long distance nagging. “Jaden. You know what? Just shut up. Get your ass back home before daybreak.”
“That doesn’t leave me a whole lot of time, sweetheart.” It was already three o’clock in the morning. Daybreak was in roughly three hours.
“Doesn’t matter. You need to be rested before you deal with my family.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yes, dear.”
She snorted. How the hell did you snort mentally? “Be careful, a ghra.”
His heart freaking melted right in his chest. He hoped he never took their love for granted. The gift they’d granted him was priceless, and he planned on treating it as such. “I will. Promise. Keep yourselves safe, got it?”
“Will do.” Moira sounded sleepy. “Love you, Jaden.”
“Love you, amoureaux. Get some rest.” Duncan sounded much more awake. “I’ll keep watch now. Moira, you can have the morning shift.”
Jaden couldn’t stop the smile from crossing his face. Duncan had been pissed at being stuck in the damsel- in-distress role, but Jaden knew Duncan was not prepared for what someone toying with the Black could throw at him. It was up to Jaden to keep them truly safe. “I’m not expecting a move from them tonight. They’ve laid down the gauntlet, now they’re going to watch how you react to it.”
“Which means they might be expecting you.”
“True. I’ve got plans for that, though.”
He felt Duncan’s surprise. “What plans?”
He smirked. “You’ll see. Don’t worry, this isn’t my first job.” And it wouldn’t be his last, bondmates or no. He helped people every day, people damaged by those who sought quick and dirty ways to power. As far as he was concerned he would be a Blade until the day he died whether he worked for Robin or not.
It was the least he could do to pay back all of the gifts fate had been kind enough to give him.
Jaden pulled up outside the house Charles Malmayne was currently calling home. It was a stately mansion located somewhere between where Leo Dunne now resided and Duncan’s latest acquisition, the huge brick mansion Moira was dying to redecorate. Duncan’s home, large though it was, still managed to feel like a home. Charles’s house, on the other hand, shouted money and power. Clad in pale stucco and stone with Grecian columns and a car port larger than most hotels had, it managed to look both boorish and pretentious. A huge fountain in the circular driveway featured a nude woman pouring water out of an urn surrounded by pissing cherubs. “It’s confirmed. Charles is definitely overcompensating.”
“What?”
“Have you seen his new place?” Jaden backed the car up until the house was out of sight. He pressed the button that raised the car’s roof and locked it into place.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Let’s just say that I doubt he serves cocktail wieners. They probably give him a complex.” He got out of the car and locked it before misting through the bushes and the fence. He solidified on Charles’s property and scented the air. “So far so good. I’m on the grounds.”
“Keep me posted.”
“Will do.” Jaden glided forward, soundless and swift. Vampires could move quickly when motivated, and Jaden had lots of motivation. He reached the side of the mansion within two blinks. He began to climb up the house, heading for the roof. He doubted Charles was stupid enough to leave him an open window, but that was all right.
Jaden didn’t need something to be open to get into a house. All he needed was a tiny crack.
He reached the roof unmolested. “I’m going to try and get into the house now.” He could almost hear Duncan grumbling. “I’m being careful, old man.”
“Stop calling me that.”
Jaden’s brows rose. Duncan’s tone was difficult to decipher. “I didn’t know you disliked me calling you that.” Duncan had never mentioned it before.
“I tolerated it. Now? No way in hell will my lover call me old man.”
Jaden shivered, and his dick turned rock-hard. Just like that he’d gone from Blade to lover. “Shit. Knock it off. How the hell am I supposed to pull a B&E with a hard-on?”
“Don’t go in, Jaden. Stay outside the house.”
“No can do. I need to know what Charlie-boy has planned.” He misted through the slight gap in the weatherproofing of the window casement, solidifying in the dark and musty attic. “No one ever takes care of the attic windows. Did you ever notice that?”
“Can’t say that I have.” If mental voices had teeth, Duncan’s would be clenched.
Jaden smirked. He crawled along the wall, careful to avoid the creaking floorboards because, mansion or hovel, they all had creaky floorboards somewhere. Very few of them had creaky walls, however, and that’s what he stuck to. “Spiderman, Spiderman, friendly neighborhood Spiderman.”
“Jaden. No. Please. The last time you did that I had that damn song stuck in my head for a week.”
Moira giggled, sounding sleepy. “Spins a web, any size. Catches thieves just like flies.”
“I hate you both.”
“Look out! Here comes the Spiderman!” Jaden chorused with Moira. He bit his lip to keep from laughing and opened the basement door.
Moira’s mental voice was full of amusement. “Why are we singing that, anyway?”
He stared at the two “men” outside the door. Both of them were holding .38’s pointed right at him. They were dressed like Secret Service men, complete with sunglasses and dangling wires in their ears. Idiots. “Step into my parlor.”
“Shit. Jaden?”
