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“You would have told me to wait,” Cat shot back.
Ian burst into fresh laughter. “Indeed he would have, Cat! You see, you just acknowledged that you consider yourself to be a vampire.Youknow what that means, Crispin,” Ian added, allowing another wave of cruel amusement to wash over Bones before Ian shut him out of his emotions. “Everyone else here does, too. As a vampire, Cat, you are now therefore mine, so Crispin, I’ll thank you to get away from one of my people.”
“I challengedMax, not you,” Cat sputtered. “So Max has to accept that challenge, and if I kill him, then I’m my own damn vampire, and no one else’s!”
Bones fisted his hands. It was that, or he’d shake her until he finally knocked better communication skills into her.
“Oh, poppet, you’ve got a few things very wrong.” Ian was still chuckling. “You could indeed challenge Max for your freedom if he were head of his own line. But he’s not. Max is still undermyrule, and as a brand-new member of my line, you can’t challenge me for a year. That law was made to prevent rash baby vampires from taking on more than they could handle.”
All of which Bones would have told her, had she only shared her plans with him. But no. She’d been blinded by her need for revenge against Max, just as he’d feared.
“As it turned out, I didn’t even need to kidnap your men,” Ian went on brightly. “You just delivered yourself into my hands, and you’ve got three hundred and sixty five more days before you can issue me that same challenge. I wonder what we’ll do to fill the time?” he added with an insinuating grin.
“But I’m already Bones’s,” Cat protested, waving in his direction. “He’s bitten meanddone things in bed with me that are probably illegal in few states!”
Ian’s smile was luxuriant. “Lineage supersedes property, my dear Reaper. So, while Crispin will doubtless have fond memories of you…memories are all he’ll have.”
Ian gave Bones a single, triumphant glance before oiling him with more runoff emotions from his unexpected victory.
Rage burned through Bones, deadly and purposeful.I’ll see you dead before you lay one finger on her, war be damned!
He was about to murder Ian when his prior words whispered across his mind, followed by the cooling embrace of his ice.
There isalwaysanother way…
There was, actually. One.
“I beg to differ, Ian,” Bones said with his newfound, glacial calm. “Yes, lineage does supersede property, but you have no claim over her if she’s my wife.”
Ian’s shock was mirrored by Cat’s, although Ian was the first to speak. “But sheisn’t.”
Time to fix that.
Bones withdrew a silver knife and slashed it across his palm. Then, he grasped Cat’s hand, his blood seeping out between their joined fingers. “By my blood, you are my wife.”
She stared at him in disbelief.
A sardonic smile hid his sudden nervousness. “Yes, I rather envisioned something more romantic for a proposal, too, but circumstances don’t allow for that.”
She drew in a breath to speak, but Ian cut her off.
“You must bemad, Crispin!” he shouted, and yanked out his own knife, raising it to strike.
Bones raised his, pushing Cat behind him, when power blasted out and froze him into place.
“Donotmove,” a familiar voice ordered.
Bones couldn’t. Neither could Ian, from how he was still in that same half-lunge. Mencheres’s telekinesis didn’t just mean that he could move objects or people. He could freeze them, too.
Bones inclined his head as Mencheres came down the aisle toward them. It was all he was capable of since the rest of him was still immobilized.
“Mencheres, am I correct in my assertion about Cat?” Bones asked.
“In all ways but one,” Mencheres replied with a tinge of amusement. Then, he released Bones from his invisible grip.
Ian’s gaze flashed green as he straightened, revealing he, too, had been set free. But that didn’t make Ian any happier. “You have ever taken Crispin’s side over mine, Mencheres!”
“Not this again,” Bones muttered. As usual, Ian’s ego was turning everything into a contest.
