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“She is too much,” Cat said with a sigh.
Bones agreed, but Justina wasn’t the relation he was here to discuss. “Back to you, Don. For most of my years, I’ve had a trade. I find people, and I’m right good at it. Imagine my surprise when I had such a devil of a time finding her. Then, I couldn’t find much about her father, either. Now, failure to locate one, I could see, but two? Both hidden so carefully it was almost as if they were concealed…by the same person.”
Cat stiffened, and Bones took her hand. No, she wasn’t expecting this turn to the conversation, but that assassin necessitated hastening the revelation.
“Two things always struck me as strange when she disappeared into the smoke,” Bones said, staring at Don. Sweat beaded the other man’s upper lip, but aside from that, his face revealed nothing. “The first was how you showed up with all her facts and figures the same day she was arrested. Such research takes time, as I know, which meant you’d have to have been keeping tabs on Cat for a while, but how would you know to do that? Only one way. You already knew what she was.”
Cat’s gasp covered the pained sound Don made, and she overturned her chair with how fast she leapt out of it.
“Don,whathave you been hiding from me?”
She was halfway across Don’s desk to grab him when Bones hauled her back. If she was going to assault Don, she’d do it withallthe facts.
“Sit down, luv,” Bones said, pulling her onto his lap.
She didn’t struggle, but she was stiff as a board in his arms, and she glared at Don as if her gaze could yank the truth out of him. “Go on, Bones, since he still isn’t talking.”
“The second thing that stumped me was how there were no records of recent deaths matching her father’s description at the time her mother was raped,” Bones continued. “Not even any John Doe’s. Ian was the one who solved that riddle. You named him as Liam Flannery, Don, and you sent Cat after him, but Ian wasn’t her usual sort of target, was he?”
Cat answered when all Don gave was more silence.
“No, he wasn’t. Get to the point, Bones.”
He sighed. “I’d rather hoped Don would step in and finish. He owes you that, but he’s probably hoping like blazes that I’m only fishing, aren’t you, old chap?”
The moniker made Don’s shoulders stiffen. He didn’t like it, which made Bones decide to keep calling him that, and if Don thought Bones was bluffing by only revealing kernels of knowledge, he’d learn that Bones never bluffed.
“Open the envelope I gave you earlier, Kitten.”
She fished it out of her bra and unfolded it. Don glimpsed the printout of the old newspaper clipping when she pulled it free from the envelope, and his jaw clenched.
That’s right, Bones thought coldly.Nothing stays buried forever, especially when it comes to the undead.
Cat took one look at the photo above the article, and tremors started wracking her. Bones held her tighter, well remembering the shock he’d felt when he first saw Max, too. Their resemblancewasuncanny, even in a grainy newspaper photo captioned “Family Celebrates Commendation of Federal Officer.”
Don had been decades younger in the photo, which is why it took Cat several moments to recognize the man with his arm around Max. When she did, her trembling increased while rage erupted from her scent. Then, she hurled the article at Don.
“Isn’t life just one big joke? I mean, onehugecosmic one-liner! Now I know how Luke Skywalker felt when Darth Vader told him who he was, except you’re not my father, Don. But you’re his brother, so I guess I should call youUncleDon.”
28
Don’s stomach made a lurching sound, as if he were about to vomit. Bones felt no pity. If he had his way, Don would already be bleeding out. Only Cat’s loyalty to her family saved his life, and Donwasher family, rotten bastard though he was.
He’d watch and cheer if Cat decided to kill Don, though.
“You son of a bitch!” Cat continued to rage. “You sent me out onhowmany suicide missions when all the while, you knew I was your niece? You and my mother have a lot in common-the two ofyoushould be related!”
True, that,Bones thought, but Don was finally finished being silent.
“Why would I think you’d be any different, Cat? Thirty-five years ago, my older brother, who I idolized, was investigating Liam Flannery. Then, he disappeared. We thought Max was dead, and no one at the FBI would tell us about the last case he was on. I later joined the FBI to try and find out what had happened to him. Eventually, I found out what Max had really been chasing. Vampires. I vowed to continue his hunt and give Max justice, but one day, Max showed up. I was shocked that he was still alive. He didn’t look a day older, either, but what really shocked me was how Max told me to forget about Liam Flannery and the vampire underworld, or he’d kill me.”
Pain strafed Don’s tone before, and his gaze became haunted. So, this was why Don believed that drinking vampire blood turned a person evil. Bones supposed it was easier to believe that than to admit Max must have been evil all along.
“Six months later, Justina was attacked in the same city I’d followed Max to,” Don continued in a brisker tone. “When I read the description of her rapist, I knew it was Max, and that he’d finally become a vampire. Five months later, Justina gave birth to a child with a genetic abnormality documented at birth. Yes, I suspected your lineage all along, and made it a point to periodically check up on you while I created this department. But when years went by and nothing happened, I forgot about you…until your name came up in connection with a series of strange murders and grave robberies. I was already on my way to Ohio to get you when your grandparents were killed.”
Cat closed her eyes. Her tremors had ceased, but the anger leaking from her scent hadn’t. Now, though, it was also saturated with pain. She’d never forgive herself for her grandparents’ murders even though they weren’t her fault.
Don waited until Cat opened her eyes before he spoke, and a sardonic smile twisted his mouth.
