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Bones stared back, his posture loose and relaxed. If he’d been human, he would have yawned, too.
“So, you have no idea why your former ‘bait’ came to my door, then?” Ian asked in a too-casual tone.
Bones shrugged. “Must be because you killed some humans. She was always right aggrieved by vampires who did that. It’s why she agreed to be my bait in the first place. Well, that, and because of her other…talents.”
“Talents,” Ian repeated with a low laugh. “That’s one way to describe the rarest person to exist in six hundred years.”
Bones inwardly cursed as he saw that Ian’s gaze now gleamed with something Bones was very familiar with because he saw it in his own eyes every time he looked into a mirror.
Obsession.
Bones tried to defuse Ian’s interest. “I found her dual nature fascinating at first, too. It’s why I bothered to train her, but rare genetics only go so far. They certainly couldn’t stop her incessant whingeing, not to mention her lackluster shagging, her aversion to regular bathing, and don’t get me started on her snoring. Blimey, I’ve never been so tempted to smother someone in their sleep, but if I had to bear another night of lawnmower noises right next to my ear-”
Ian’s laughter cut him off.
“Oh, she can sleep in her own room after I’m done shagging her. But being in possession of the world’s only half vampire?” Ian let out a luxuriant sigh. “No artifact, piece of artwork, or priceless jewel could compare. The fact that she’s beautiful and fiercer than a dragon only makes her more irresistible.”
Bones didn’t move. If he did, he’d decorate the walls with Ian’s guts, and if Ian were dead, Bones might miss some clues as to Cat’s whereabouts from him.
“Can we have the room?” Bones asked in a pleasant tone.
Ian’s brows rose, but he flicked his fingers. At once, the other vampire left.
“Acquiring her would be more trouble than she’s worth,” Bones said in the biggest lie of his life. “She’s violent, which you clearly know, but she’s also unstable and untrustworthy. If you try to make her your property, you’ll regret it.”
Ian grunted. “That warning’s rich considering that you’re the one who branded her like free-range cattle.”
Bones’s eyes narrowed. “The hell you say?”
“Her tattoo.” Ian’s gaze landed on Bones’s left arm where his one and only tattoo resided. “Seeing your distinctive cross-bones symbol on her hip is what distracted me enough for her to plug a silver stake in my heart.”
Blood roared through Bones as if his heart had suddenly started beating again. Cat had marked herself with his tattoo?
“She said you forced her to get it,” Ian went on. “Also said she hated you,andthat you owe her a check after stiffing her, which, if true, is hilariously rude of you-”
“I owe her what?” Bones interrupted.
“Money.” Ian emphasized the word. “She said you failed to pay her a cut of the jobs that she played your bait on. Seemed quite miffed about it, too. Called you a cheap bastard.”
All lies. Cat hadrefusedBones’s money, claiming she wouldn’t be his lover and his “employee.” Bones teased her that she’d turned him back into a whore because of her insistence on not taking a cut of their jobs as long as they were sleeping together. God, he could still see her face when he told her that he’d have to earn the money back with her pleasure instead…
“…suppose I have to thank you,” Ian was saying. “She would’ve killed me after getting in that lucky stab if not for you. Did you know it’s really true that your life flashes in front of your eyes before certain death? With her blade in my heart, I suddenly felt like I was back on theAlexander. Must have said something about that, too, because instead of twisting that blade, she asked me which prisoner I was.”
Ian’s shields dropped again, peppering Bones’s subconscious with needles of surprise and remembered pain.
“Imagine my shock when she knew the story of how we were shipped to the New South Wales penal colonies on a ship named theAlexanderwhen we were human. Or how I escaped imprisonment and later returned to change you into a vampire.” Suddenly, Ian’s walls were back up, slamming Bones out of his sire’s feelings. “She said you saved her mum once, so she spared my life to call that debt even.”
“Ironic,” was all Bones could get out. If he’d been alone, he might have dropped to his knees. Every moment of the pastfour years, he’d wondered if Cat still loved him. Hell, in recent months, he’d wondered if she still felt anything at all.
But Cat wouldn’t have spared Ian’s life simply because Bones had once helped to rescue her mum. Cat had a near-pathological need to kill vampires. Bones had trained Cat to be better at it only so she wouldn’t die herself. It was her vampire-killing talent that had made Cat irresistible to the unknown government operative who’d forced her to work for him.
Don’t come after me because I’m already gone…
So began Cat’s farewell letter. Bones hadn’t heard from her since…until now. Cat sparing Ian’s life because he was Bones’s sire was as clear a message as that damned letter had been.Yes, I still care, it said.
But how much?
Bones would get his answers, or die trying.
