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Oh, Ian would eventually get around to telling Bones if he’d murdered one of Bones’s exes, but it would hardly make Ian’s priority list, and he’d said that Cat came to see himyesterday. No, Ian would only hurry to tell him that if Cat had gotten away. That, Ian would consider a priority because he’d want revenge for the attempt on his life.
But how did Ian know about Bones’s connection to Cat? Only three of Bones’s closest friends knew of his ties to her, plus a few very dead vampires that Bones had tracked down years ago.
Only one possibility-Cat must have told Ian herself.
Hope splashed Bones like a cooling wave. Had Cat left some breadcrumbs with Ian for Bones to follow?
Bones snatched up his mobile and laptop. Ian had the answers he needed. Now, to convince his narcissistic sire that it was in Ian’s best interest to give them to him.
* * *
Thirty hours later,Bones’s knock was answered by an unfamiliar blond vampire instead of Ian’s normal ghoul manservant. Then again, this house wasn’t Ian’s usual house when he stayed in New York, so several changes were afoot.
“Tell Ian that Crispin’s here,” Bones said to the new doorman, using his human name since Ian was one of the few people who still called him that.
“More to the left,” Bones heard Ian say, sounding as if he were in an upper room of the three-story mansion. “Blast it, man, can’t you see that the piece isn’t centered?”
“Never mind, I’ll tell him myself,” Bones said, brow arching as the vampire failed to move from the doorway.
“You haven’t been approved yet,” the vampire replied.
He was barely out of his teens in undead years, judging from the low power level in his aura. That’s why Bones smiled instead of knocking him flat.
“You must be new, so let me elaborate. I’m also the first vampire Ian ever made, and I knew himbeforehe had fangs, so I don’t require ‘approval.’ I only require you to move.”
“But, sir…” the vampire began.
“Oh, let him in,” Ian called down. “Before he gets even nastier than his normal foul temperament.”
The doorman stepped aside, revealing more vampires that Bones hadn’t met before. No surprise. Ian was always expanding his line. Even now, several of the vampires hustled to unpack crates containing antiques, artwork, and other expensive decorations while still more vampires hauled in furniture or hung thick silk drapes over the huge windows.
Bones went up the grand staircase, following the sound of Ian’s voice. On the third floor, Bones found Ian reclined on a chaise lounge in a parlor, his long auburn hair spilling onto the collar of his vivid blue robe.
“What do you think, Crispin?” Ian said in lieu of a hello. “Is that piece centered or not?”
Bones glanced at the wall opposite Ian, where a vampire was holding up the wood-framed, mounted head of a Caucasian man with thin black hair and a look of complete surprise on his features.
“More to the left,” Bones said.
Ian gave the vampire holding the piece an exasperated look. “Itoldyou so.”
Bones turned back to Ian. “Not your usual artwork, is it?”
Ian flashed an impish smile. “No, but when a mate told me that an American trophy hunter had booked an illegal hunt to kill a Siberian tiger, I couldn’t resist. Do you know how few Siberians remain? This bloke didn’t care. Now look at him.” Ian nodded at the head. “He still can’t believehe’sthe one stuffed and mounted on a wall instead of that tiger.”
“Speaking of rare, beautiful things,” Bones drew out.
Ian whistled. “I haven’t seen you in, what? Three years? Now, a day after you learn of your former paramour’s visit, you’re in my new house, which, by the way, I didn’t tell you about, so how’d you find me?”
Bones flashed a brief grin. “Finding people is my stock in trade, you might remember. With your extravagant tastes, it was hardly a challenge. Your former house is under police guard with all your belongings inside, so that left you without your required finery. I only needed to look up the delivery address for all the posh furnishings and antiques being hustled in by frantic rare antiquities dealers to find you.”
Ian gave an appreciative grin. “Guilty as charged. Your weakness, however, has always been women, and now, it seems, one woman in particular.”
What had Cat told Ian about them? If Ian knew they’d been in love, his sire would hold that over Bones with the glee of a tyrannical toddler stealing someone’s favorite toy.
He’d gamble that she hadn’t. “Thatwoman is a pain in my arse. Do you know how frustrating is it that she’s still using what I taught her to kill vampires when she was only ever supposed to be temporary bait for my targets?”
Ian stared at Bones with such sharpness that Bones’s eyes prickled, as if the suspicion threading through the bond that connected every vampire to their sire wasn’t indication enough that Ian sensed something was off.
