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Bones held out his hand.
Ian shook it with a sardonic smile. “We’ve been together a long time, Crispin. It will feel odd not having you as one of my people. What are your plans now?”
“The same as any new Master,” Bones replied. “Protecting those who belong to me at all costs.”
Ian rolled his eyes. “So dramatic. Well, you’re under no further obligation to stay, so will you be leaving? Or will you wait to see if your former protégée wins her challenge?”
Bones looked at Cat, who silently watched this exchange. When his eyes met hers, he couldn’t stop his smile, so he looked away before his scent betrayed him, too.
“Oh, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Bones hadn’t known that Cat would bargain for one of her men by offering a duel, but no matter. He’d been the strongest vampire in Ian’s line, so now, any challenger Ian picked would be weaker than Bones, and thus very, very beatable for Cat.
“I wager she wins, too,” Bones went on. “Unless she’s forgotten everything I taught her.”
“I rather doubt that,” Ian said, rubbing his chest as if in memory of Cat’s knife piercing it.
“What are the rules for this fight?” Cat called out, switching everyone’s attention back to her. “Are you judging the winner by who’s first to be pinned and helpless?”
Ian laughed as he left Bones and returned to his seat. “No, poppet. You’ll only win if you kill your opponent. Now, your opponent can’t kill you, but hecandeliver you to me in any state he likes, and once he does that, you’re mine.”
Cat only smiled, and released the emerald glow in her gaze.
Hundreds of voices erupted at once. Many vampires leapt up in shock, too. Bones watched in sympathy. Yes, it truly was staggering to see a vampire’s eyes on a human. Bones had almost tripped over his own feet when he first saw Cat’s eyes glow.
“Bring on your best, Ian,” Cat said above the melee.
Ian smirked. “Don’t you want your lover to wish you luck first?” he asked, and pointed up.
Cat’s gaze went to the peak of the domed tent…and stared.
Noah stared back from his suspended cage. He didn’t speak, and he wasn’t afraid, per Bones’s earlier directives, but revulsion filled Noah’s face as he gazed at Cat’s inhuman eyes.
Cat shuddered and looked away.
Ian’s smirk widened. He thought her reaction was fear at seeing Noah captured, but Bones knew better. She’d dated Noah because he was everything her mum wantedherto be, which meant Noah was horrified by everything Cat was, now that he knew it.
“Grendel!” Ian sang out.
Bones stiffened. He knew that name, and it didnotbelong to a vampire in Ian’s line.
“How would you like to deliver the half-breed to me?” Ian continued in that same merry tone.
A laugh boomed out from the far side of the stadium before a giant ghoul came into view.
Bones’s jaw tightened.Thiswouldn’t do.
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Cat’s mouth dropped as her gaze swept over the ghoul, which took several moments because Grendel was nearly seven feet tall and about half that size in width. He only wore trousers, and he’d oiled his massive upper body until his olive-toned skin gleamed under the lights. When Grendel jumped into the arena, Cat muttered “Aw, shit,” at the ghoul’s lithe grace, which was very at odds with his lumbering size.
Ian barely stifled his laugh. “This is Grendel, the ghoul nation’s most famous mercenary. He’s almost six hundred years old and a formerstradiotiof the Venetian armies. Grendel used to be paid according to the number of heads he lopped off in battle, and that, my dear poppet, was just when he was human.”
All true, and that didn’t include the far more gruesome reputation Grendel had earned after he’d become a ghoul.
Cat glanced down at her shoes with a rueful shake of her head that only Bones understood. They looked like normal stilettos, but the long, thin heels were actually silver coated in black paint. Cat hadn’t arrived weaponless after all, but her silver heels were now useless. Only decapitation killed ghouls.
Bones raised a brow when Cat glanced his way next. She didn’t have to do this. He was now head of his own line, free to take his people and his “property” with him. Cat knew that. All she had to do was say the word, and this charade ended.
