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Justina whirled on her daughter. “I’d hoped you’d gotten over your undead whoring when you left him, but it seems you only postponed it-”
“Don’teverspeak to her that way again.”
Justina stopped as if he’d said that while his gaze was lit up. It wasn’t, but he’d let all his fury fill his voice, and she flinched as if she’d been struck.
“Call me any name you fancy and more, but I willnotstand by while you slander her out of your own bigotry,” Bones continued while rising from the couch.
She backed up, and for an instant, she looked uncertain. Then, she rounded on Cat again. “You’re going to let him threaten me? I supposed you’ll just sit back and let him suck the life out of me, too?”
Cat snorted. “Please. He won’t hurt you, which is a damn sight more courtesy than you’d show him given the chance, and excuse me if I don’t defend your attempts to keep calling me nasty names. Must be that flaw in my character.”
“Blood will out,” Justina said, shaking her finger at Cat. “That’s what my father always said, and he was right. Look at you! You’ve debased yourself by leaving a good man for an animal-no, not even an animal! Somethinglower-”
“I’m right here, Justina,” Bones interrupted in a bored tone. “Want to call me an animal? Turn your eyes this way.”
Justina blinked when Bones moved in front of Cat faster than her eyes could track. Then, she almost backed up as she found herself suddenly face to face with him, but she stopped herself before taking that step. Instead, she squared her shoulders in much the same way Cat had done before opening the door, and fixed her cold blue stare onto him.
“You. What’s your name again?”
As if you don’t know.“Bones. Can’t say it’s a pleasure to finally be properly introduced, but it is about time.”
Justina’s scent indicated more than a little fear, but she looked at him with the same disgust she’d show to a piece of dog shit on her shoe.
“Well, aren’t you pretty? Her father was, too. Gorgeous, in fact, and Catherine is the spitting image of him. Sometimes, I could barely stand to look at her for their resemblance.”
Cat glanced away, blinking hard.
Anger burned Bones. Yes, Cat’s resemblance to Max was uncanny, so at times, itmighthave been hard for Justina to reconcile that. But she never should have shared that fact with Cat, let alone like this.
“She may resemble him, but she has a great deal of you in her. Stubbornness, for one thing. Courage, too, plus a nasty temper. She can also hold a grudge quite well, but you’ve got her beat there. Over twenty-seven years later, you’restillpunishing her for what someone else did to you.”
Justina stabbed the air near his chest as if her finger were a silver blade. “How dare you throw up to me what one of your own kind did, you dirty, murdering fiend!”
Oh, he wasn’t throwing up what Max did. That was unforgivable indeed. He was throwing up whatshehad done.
“If I was a murdering fiend, I would’ve punchedyourticket years ago. Would’ve made my life a measure easier, I assure you. You had her in shambles when those wolves came with their greedy little offer, and we all know why she took it, don’t we? It doesn’t bother you a bit that she’s been as miserable as I have these past years, or that she’s had more near-death experiences than bloody Houdini. No, you sit back on your satisfaction that she’s out killing vampires instead of shagging one! Well, I hope you enjoyed your little interlude because it’s over, Justina. I’m back, and I’m staying.”
She tried to out-glare him. When that failed, she turned to Cat, who’d been steadily draining her gin bottle.
“Catherine! You can’t have agreed to stay with this creature? He’ll change you into a vampire and steal your soul-”
“My soul is mine and God’s,” Cat cut her off. “Bones couldn’t steal it if he tried. But I’m not letting you or anyone else tell me what to do with my personal life anymore.” She took a deep breath. “You don’t have to like Bones. Hell, you can keep hating his guts for all I care, but as long as I’m with him, youwillhave to tolerate him. So will Don and the other members of my team, or…or I’ll leave and never come back.”
Bones’s brows went up. He’d expected her to draw a line with her mum, but he hadn’t expected this.
Justina looked shocked, too. Then, she glanced at Bones as if expecting to see his gaze lit up, forcing these words out of Cat. When it wasn’t, her expression turned vengeful.
Cat let out a harsh laugh. “Try it, Mom. Call my work and try to have him killed. If anyone comes for him that way, I’ll kill them myself, no matter who it is.”
Bloodyhell. Even if Cat were bluffing, this wasn’t the same woman who hadn’t wanted to open the door a few minutes ago. This was someone as fed-up as he’d been.
“Then, Bones and I will disappear,” Cat went on, her expression ice personified. “Do you really want that? After all, if I stay here with you, Don, and my team, I’m much less likely to want to change into a vampire. But, take me away from all that by making me run away with him, and, well. You never know.”
Horror lit Justina’s expression. Cat had hit at her mum’s deepest fear not with a sledgehammer, but with a wrecking ball.
“Look at the bright side, Justina,” Bones said, fighting a laugh. “If you let us be, she might grow tired of me in time.”
Justina’s glare was filled with all the violence that her human body wasn’t capable of. “As if I’d believe anything you said. It would be best for everyone if you’d just stake yourself and die. If you really loved my daughter, that’s what you’d do.”
