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"What happened?" I asked, suddenly thinking that there was a whole lot more depth to Luke than I'd assumed.
"I was in love with a girl--Marla. We wanted to get married, but the Packmaster gave her to someone who beat the crap out of her and passed her around to his buddies. I tried to sneak out, take her with me, and they caught us. There was a big fight . . . it was a bad scene. She's dead now, and I'm a pariah. I can never go back. I defied the law of the Packmaster."
Neither Menol y nor I said a word, just waited. His eyes echoed the pain in his voice, and I felt like I'd overstepped my boundaries.
He pushed himself to his feet. "I gave Delilah al the information about Amber that I could think of. Tomorrow I'l bring the skunk scent remover to the bar.
Delilah, you can pick it up there."
He nodded, again tapping his hat, and I flushed, looking at him. It had been over a month since I'd had sex, and he was lean, lanky, and al male. But he didn't even blink an eye my way, and truthful y, I was relieved. I was so confused over Chase. And Zach, the werepuma I'd slept with twice and who had saved Chase's life, was taking far longer to heal up from his injuries than anybody had first thought. Last time I'd gone to visit him at the rehabilitation center where he was staying, he'd refused to see me, and we hadn't spoken in over a month, even though I'd tried cal ing every week.
Menol y saw Luke out while I sorted through the notes. When she came back, I looked up, and she smiled softly at me. Her eyes had once been a gorgeous blue, but the further she sank into her new life as a vampire, the grayer they became and now--now they were almost silver.
"You're horny, aren't you?" She let out a sigh. "That's the trouble with getting involved with somebody. You begin to need them . . . and then . . ." With a glance over at Nerissa, she shrugged. "And then you can't imagine them not being in your life."
It was then I noticed a gold band on her right index finger. I pointed to it. "That's new. Just when and where did you get it?" I held her gaze, and she narrowed her eyes and gave a little huff. If she was voluntarily breathing, I knew I'd gotten under her skin. Go, me!
"Oh, al right. Nerissa gave it to me. It's . . . a promise ring. It symbolizes that we're off the market, at least as far as other women go. Guys--eh, they come and go, but . . . with women? We're exclusive. I bought her one to match." She gently reached over and lifted the werepuma's hand, and I saw a duplicate band. Both were engraved with Celtic knot work. I caught my breath and looked into my sister's eyes.
Menol y had come so far from the torture and rape she'd undergone before being kil ed and thrust into life as a vampire. She was happy now, for the most part, and she'd actual y opened herself up to love--of whatever sort she could handle at this point.
I reached out and took her other hand and brought it to my cheek, and for the first time I didn't flinch at the coldness. As I pressed my lips to her fingers, I glanced up and saw bloody tears sliding down Menol y's cheeks. She silently opened her arms, and I slid inside them as she enfolded me to her chest.
"I'm sorry--I'm so sorry. I tried for so long to just accept you like Camil e did without reservations, but I was afraid . . . And now . . ."
"And now you're not," she whispered.
"And now . . . I'm not," I said, realizing it was true. The fear of her death and rebirth had fal en away like a shroud, leaving only Menol y standing in front of me. My sister, unveiled in her new life, happy and radiant and no longer the monster Dredge had turned her into--the monster I stil remembered when she was sent home to kil us, when Camil e chased me out the window to protect me.
As she slowly released me and I sat back, Menol y grimaced. "I'm so happy. But Kitten, you have to promise to do something for me."
"What?" I asked, breathless, wondering if she wanted a better apology for my hesitance al those years.
"Do something about that mop." She pointed to my hair.
Iris meandered in, clad in a silk kimono. Her hair was tousled, loose and fal ing to her ankles in a golden rain of silk strands. And her cheeks were rosy, with an afterglow impossible to hide.
Milkmaids gone wild, I thought impulsively. Grinning, I waggled my finger at her. "You and Bruce been busy?"
"Hush you," she said, scolding me. "None of your business, girl. But I wil tel you that I did some checking. I'm not comfortable using hair dye, at least not right now. After the peroxide, it would fry your hair and probably muck it up worse than it is."
"Wel , I don't want that." I frowned, not at al happy. "Hel ." I glanced over at Menol y. "You're right, I need to do something--I can't just leave it like this.
Maybe it's time for a change." I motioned to Iris. "Get your scissors."
"What? You're kidding." She stared at me like I was crazy.
"Just do it. I want it short and edgy. If I'm going to have punk hair, I'm going al the way. And this way it wil grow out my normal color, and I can just trim the ends a little bit til al the mismatched patches are gone."
Menol y giggled. "You're real y going to do it, Kitten? I bet you won't go through with it."
I snorted. "Watch me. Fire up Jerry Springer, haul out the Cheetos; we're having a party."
Menol y obligingly brought me a bowl of the orange crispy puffs I loved so much, along with a glass of milk, and then, after cajoling Nerissa to sprawl out on the sofa where the gorgeous golden-haired Amazon promptly passed out, she folded her legs and hovered up toward the ceiling, tossing me the remote.
As I channel-surfed, Iris brought out her kit and bade me sit on the hassock in front of her. She stil had to stand on a stepstool since I was so tal .
"Can you make it stylish?"
