“No, I didn’t mean any of it… except for the numbers. I won’t lie to you, Catherine. Though I didn’t wish for more and I’d kill to say there were none, there were eleven other women aside from Cannelle while I was in New Orleans.”
That made twelve. In a week? Yeah, I knew he’d been promiscuous before we met, but for the love of God! Did he ever tuck it away?
He set me back enough to stare into my eyes. “I won’t ask you to forgive me, but I would ask that we start again despite this unpardonable offense.”
“You don’t even know me,” I whispered. “Bones… I drove us apart, and Gregor will kill you if we try to stay together again.”
He snorted. “Charles told me you’d run to jump on a grenade even if it posed no danger to me, but you don’t have to. Gregor’s not the first powerful chap to want me shriveled, and he won’t be the last. I’ll stand or fall as a man, Catherine. You can’t protect me from the life I’ve chosen to live.”
“You sure you don’t have your memory back?” I muttered. This sounded a lot like what he’d said the day he left me. Okay, I’d have to try harder to make him understand that he needed to get away from me.
“You don’t even remember making the choice to be with me, and let me tell you, I am a bitch who’s left you no fewer than twice. And how can I expect you to honor an oath that I won’t honor myself? I was blood-bound to Gregor years before we even met. Why would you risk your life to be with a woman who’s going back on the same oath you’d rather die than break yourself?”
His dark gaze didn’t waver. “The actions of a frightened, manipulated child don’t bear being honorable to. Did Gregor tell you what you were doing when he bound you to him? Did you even know what it meant?”
I wasn’t in his arms anymore, but Bones still held my shoulders. For the life of me, I couldn’t make myself pull away. “I should have known. I shouldn’t have let him intimidate me.”
“Do you still love me?”
I squirmed at the abrupt change in topic, let alone the question.
Bones just tightened his grip. “Answer me, and no matter the response, do not dare lie to me.”
His tone was the flat, dangerous one I recognized from his dealings with enemies. Shit, maybe he’d coldcock me if I lied. After all, I was a stranger now. There were a thousand reasons why I should take my chances anyway, but when I opened my mouth, only the truth came out.
“Yes.”
He pushed the hair from my face with a smile. “I’m glad. Would have been rough forcing you to stay with me if you didn’t, but make no mistake, Catherine, I would have. No one’s stealing my wife, and that’s who you are, so don’t argue again. Both of us willingly bound ourselves together, knowing full well the depth of that commitment. You can’t say the same about you and Gregor. Now, it seems we’ve both made mistakes, but those can’t be changed. All I’ll ask is for your honesty and fidelity from this day forward, and I pledge to you the same. Agreed?”
“You are so going to regret this,” I mumbled.
His smile didn’t falter. “Agreed? If you don’t agree, I’ll just knock you upside the head and take you with me anyway.”
His tone was light, but he had a glint in his eyes that said he wasn’t kidding. It reminded me of the Bones from our early days. Of course, if you counted his current mental state, that’s who he was.
“Agreed.” You’ll be sorry.
“And if you try to sneak away, I will hunt you down and beat the arse off you.”
Oh, yeah. Definitely shades of his old charm. “I get it.”
“Good.” At last he let me go.
I stepped back in a daze, wondering how all my intricate planning had been demolished so completely.
“Now then, I suspect Charles is still guarding the door. He told me I’d have to brawl with you, and he was right. Strong as a bloody ox, aren’t you? Did you just drink vampire blood?”
I gave him a confused look. “No.”
He frowned. “I told you that what happened before doesn’t matter. You can’t be that strong on your own, so you clearly drank from a vampire recently. You promised me honesty, Catherine, and I intend to hold you to it.”
A sharp laugh escaped me. “Boy, did Spade forget to mention something important! You don’t know what I am, do you?”
His frown deepened. “You’re my wife.”
I laughed again, this time with real humor. Well, Spade hadn’t had much time with Bones before they arrived here. Guess he’d skipped over parts about me that he’d deemed less important.
“I’m half-vampire, Bones.”
He still didn’t get it. “Being married to one, I suppose you could consider yourself that way—”
“Not consider. I am.”
To avoid further argument, I let the light out of my eyes, bathing his face in a soft emerald glow.
His expression was priceless. There were so few times I was able to shock him. Considering all the times that Bones had rendered me speechless with disbelief, it was refreshing to see him that way.
“Look at your eyes,” he finally managed.
“That’s what you said the first time you saw them. Threw you through a loop then too.”
“You breathe, I hear your heart beating—”
“I’ll sum it up: my father had sex with my mother right after he was changed. He still had living sperm, and I showed up five months later. You were actually the first vampire I met that I didn’t kill, but not for lack of trying.”
“You tried to kill me?” His brows went up. “Why?”
“Because you were there. I had a bad attitude about vampires back then. My mom kind of brought me up with a grudge.”
“Seven years of my life, replaced with doctored or false memories. You have no idea how livid that makes me.”
His frustration was palpable. On a much smaller scale, I knew how he felt, so part of me wanted to hug him and tell him it would be okay. The other part still wanted to beat him for his rampant cheating, unwitting or not, but I did neither. I was a stranger to him now, which meant I didn’t have the right to hug him or hit him.
“I can tell you about them, well, part of them. I wasn’t there for half. Look, I know what you said, but if this gets to be too much, I’ll understand. You’ve just been slapped with a wife, a memory loss, and an archnemesis, all in the past few hours. I’d pass out if I were you. So despite your best intentions, if over the next few days you realize that you can’t do this, feel free to go. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be all right.”
“Thank you for saying that.” His features hardened. “Now, don’t ever say it again.”
He was so damned obstinate. I prayed it wouldn’t get him killed.
A knock sounded at the door, and then Spade popped his head in.
“Ah, Crispin, have you convinced your runaway bride to stay? Or shall we have a GPS system implanted in her for easier tracking?”
Bones answered before I could give an ungracious reply. “She’s staying.”
“Splendid. I’ll return this to you then. Cat left it by mistake at my prior residence.”
He handed something small to Bones, who gave me a strange look when he took it.
“By mistake, eh?”
Spade smiled. “As it turned out.”
Light reflected from my red-diamond wedding ring when Bones opened his palm.
I shifted in a mixture of guilt and defensiveness. “I was angry. Keeping it seemed hypocritical.”
Bones studied the ring and then me with equal intensity. “Give me your hand.”
Slowly, I stretched it out.
“This stone used to be my most prized possession,” he said as he slid the ring onto my finger. “That I gave it to you tells me more about what you used to mean to me than anything Charles has said. I don’t expect you to act as though nothing’s happened, Catherine. I can handle the consequences of my actions. I only expect you to be honest, as I will be with you.”
I looked at the ring on my hand.
When I’d thrown it on the floor at Spade’s, I never expected to see it again. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
He released my hand and shrugged. “Nothing important ever is.”
***
Vlad was in the hallway by Don’s office. He leaned against the wall as he watched me approach. Bones wasn’t with me. Spade had dragged him off for a minute, I assumed to see Ian.
“You texted Spade and told him where we were,” I said without preamble.
A half smile flitted across his mouth. “Yes.”
“Damn it, Vlad, I thought I could trust you!”
“You can,” he replied without a hint of sarcasm. “Gregor would have eventually killed you because he can’t control you. I don’t think highly of Bones, but at least he’ll respect you. He’s your best chance for survival, even if you’re too emotional to see that at the moment.”
“And he might die for it. Since you don’t like him, I suppose you’d consider that a bonus?”
Vlad heard the betrayal in my voice, but he only shrugged.
“Who knows what will happen in the future? Now, it’s time for us to part and I don’t expect to see you again for quite a while, so give me a kiss.”
Spitefully, I wanted to say no. He’d tattled on me and didn’t deserve one. Then again, without Vlad talking me off a ledge, among many other things, I wouldn’t even be here.
I stood on tiptoe gave him a quick, chaste good-bye kiss.
He brushed his knuckles across my face when we parted. “Take care of yourself, Cat.”
“Good-bye, Vlad,” I replied softly.
“I’m glad to hear you say that, else I’d wonder what the devil you were doing,” a biting voice said from behind us.
Oh, shit.
Turning around only confirmed that Bones was on the other end of the hallway. Mentally, I cursed Vlad. My back was to Bones, but Vlad would’ve seen him.
“Let him believe you have other options,” Vlad whispered, too low for Bones to overhear. “Do his arrogance some good.” Then louder, “Well, Bones, didn’t you wake up with more than you went to sleep with? If you don’t remember me, let me be of assistance—we don’t like each other.”
“Oh, I remember that distinctly.”
Bones advanced with a glint of green in his eyes. Clearly, he thought the kiss he’d witnessed had been more than platonic. I backed away from Vlad like he was poisonous.
“Um, we really should be going—”
“But, Catherine, I haven’t greeted Tepesh yet.” His tone held the promise of violence.
I was the only thing standing between the two of them, and it was a precarious position. Just walk away, I sent to Vlad. Now.
“No,” Vlad said mildly.
“No, you won’t say hallo?” Bones thought Vlad was talking to him. “Very discourteous.”
I turned my back to Vlad and held out a hand toward Bones. “I don’t know what you have in mind, but let me remind you that I could pull the territorial card with twelve other women,” I said, switching tactics. “We agreed to start over, right? So let’s do it.”
Bones stared at Vlad for another tense moment before he held out his hand. “Right you are, Catherine. Come with me.”
I took his hand and walked away from Vlad without looking back.
***
We didn’t talk for the next several hours. Spade drove and Fabian rode shotgun. Ian had taken another car; thank God for small favors. I sat in the backseat next to Bones and closed my eyes. From his silence, I didn’t know if Bones was sleeping or quietly stewing. Occasionally, his leg or shoulder brushed mine from the swaying of the car, but that was it. He’d let go of my hand as soon as we were off the base.
“I’m arranging for some of your personal effects to be waiting when we arrive, Crispin,” Spade said, finally breaking the silence. “Pictures, letters, DVDs. Hopefully they should assist with jogging your memory. Cat, it should only be round an hour until we’re on a plane. You can open your eyes after that.”
I yawned. “Good. I’d like to sleep, but I can’t until we’re far enough away. Don cleared out the team right after we left, but it gives my uncle more time too.”
“Time for what?”
Bones sounded annoyed. He didn’t know about the handicap, either. It must feel like we were speaking a different language to him.
“I should find out exactly what Spade told you so I don’t assume you know something,” I said with a sigh. “Every time I sleep, Gregor sifts through my subconscious and gleans everything I know, like my location, who I’m with, and what we’re planning. I’ve almost gotten everyone killed a bunch of times. Drugging me didn’t turn out so well, either. The pills turned me into a psycho bitch with their side effects, and though clocking me must have been enjoyable, that was only temporarily effective.”
Bones was silent for such a long moment, I thought, He’s already regretting not walking away when he had the chance.
“Are you telling me… that I’ve drugged and beaten you?”
His carefully controlled tone told me I’d miscalculated what he was angry about. When put like that, it sounded worse than the reality.
I tried to explain. “You only clocked me once before we got the pills, and what else were you supposed to do? E-mail Gregor with directions to where we’d be?”
“I don’t bloody believe this,” he said in a hiss.
Spade attempted to soothe him. “Crispin, you were under a great deal of stress, trying to secure her safety and the safety of those around you—”
“Bollocks,” he snapped. “Wasn’t she also under stress? Bloody hell, you’ll never have to explain why you left me, Catherine, but you might want to clarify why you came back. Gregor must have seemed like a vacation by comparison. Is that why you’ve been sitting with your eyes closed this entire time? I thought you just didn’t wish to speak with me.”
“It’s not safe for me to know where we are,” I continued to insist. “The only time I’m not dangerous is when we fly or I’m out like a light.”
“Club you over the head before I shag you, do I?” Bones asked in a conversational tone. “I’m obviously a Neanderthal, so I must whap you a good one and then drag you off for my pleasure, right? This treating you like contaminated waste ends here. Open your eyes.”
I almost did out of disbelief. “No.”
“Crispin,” Spade began.
“She’ll not know where we’re headed once we reach the plane,” he said curtly. “Catherine, open your eyes.” His tone rang with pure command.
I almost smiled. “Here’s lesson one about me: I don’t take orders. Especially when I know they’re wrong. My eyes stay shut, Bones, so deal with it.”
Instead of getting irate, he let out an amused snort. “Stubborn, are you? Well, pet, here’s my response to your lesson—we’re traveling north on I-95 in Georgia, just passing the Savannah exit. No need to keep your eyes closed now, is there?”
My lids snapped open with incredulity. “I can’t believe you just did that, you shit!”
He clucked his tongue. “Such a foul word coming from such a lovely mouth.”
“Don’t bother with flattery, buddy, I’ve heard all your lines,” I muttered, still smarting over being outfoxed.
“I expect you have.” He smiled slyly. “Still, you married me, so some of them must have worked.”
The way he was looking at me made me self-conscious. He was evaluating me as a woman, and with our constant fights the last few times we were together, it had been a while since he’d done that. I didn’t even want to remember how far back it was since other things had happened. Maybe Bones had already guessed that, hence the cocky twist to his lips.
Well, deprived I might be. Easy I wasn’t.
“Don’t even think of it. You’re in the doghouse, big-time. It might not be your fault, but a short time ago, I heard another woman swallow your sword. The fact that she’s dead now might give you an idea about how much I didn’t like that.”
&n
bsp; His smile didn’t waver. “You gave her a more merciful end than I would have. I despise that Cannelle made me a pawn in hurting and humiliating you.”
“And she was trying to lure you out to Gregor so he could kill you,” I added.
“Oh, that.” He made a dismissive motion. “I’d have merely broken her legs if that were her only crime. This isn’t an excuse, but you should know that Cannelle encouraged company with us. I thought it was just what she fancied, but now I know it was deliberate.”
This was a very painful subject, but ignoring it wasn’t going to make it go away. Better to ask now than wonder later. “Were, um, were the others human? I’d like to be prepared if there’s a chance that I’ll run into one of them later. I’m not asking because I’m sharpening my knives, I just… Never mind. Forget it.”
I dropped my gaze, studying the floorboards. Why had I even asked? Maybe one day I’d learn to let well enough alone.
“Humans all, and I’m certain it wasn’t accidental,” Bones replied. “I suspect Cinnamon was ensuring that no one would ask me any incriminating questions. A vampire or ghoul might have heard of me and therefore made a comment referencing you.”
“Fabian did, right?” I still didn’t look up. “You must have thought he was crazy.”
Bones sighed. “Indeed. I don’t pay much attention to ghosts in general—no offense, mate—and he was railing what sounded like insane nonsense to me. I only began to take him seriously after he started singing.”
“Singing?”
“That was my idea,” Spade interjected. “Had to find a way to get Crispin’s attention without attracting others. I had Fabian sing old songs from the Alexander that the four of us had made up. No one else would have known them, and at their end, I had him relay messages. Like, don’t leave the city, or you’re in danger.”
I was torn between admiring Spade’s cleverness and fighting the urge to shout, Couldn’t you have added “keep your dick in your pants!” Fortunately, I held that comment back. Fidelity didn’t supersede safety. No matter how much it hurt now, Spade had made the right decision.