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She turned into his arms when he slid into bed. Her eyes fluttered closed, and her breathing went from pants to deep, even breaths as the minutes ticked by, but she wasn’t asleep. Her fingers kept brushing his shoulders in slow, absent strokes.
“I don’t want to think about reality yet, but I also know it won’t wait for us,” she finally murmured. “Ian’s still coming for me. Max is, too, and so is possibly another hit man.”
“None of them will hurt you,” Bones swore, ice spearing through his previously warm glow.
She didn’t say anything for several moments. Then, “Since Ian is your sireandmy father’s sire, that means I’m technically part of Ian’s vampire family, doesn’t it?”
She didn’t know how true that was. Ian had a strong claim on Cat in the vampire world, and his sire was too wily not to use it, should Max prove to be inadequate bait. But Max might be all Ian needed to get Cat to bargain with him in a way that she’d later regret. Still, she’d searched for her father ever since she found out she was half vampire at sixteen, so her need to kill Max to finally avenge her mum was so deeply instilled in her that it might prove greater than anything else.
Bones didn’t let himself dwell on the thought. It was too disturbing. Instead, he’d ensure that Cat was never faced with such a choice. Forbidden fruit couldn’t tempt if you were never offered it. Toward that end, he had some manipulating of his own to do. Ian would be proud of him, if that manipulating wasn’t against him.
“That’s true, but there’s a way to nullify it,” he said in as casual a voice as he could manage. “Toward that end, there’s a vampire I want to introduce you to. He’s very important in the vampire world, and to Ian in particular, so we need to meet him in secret, and you can’t tell anyone.”
“Let me guess. It’s Dracula?” she teased.
God, no. That sod was insufferable. “Hardly.”
She yawned. “Of course I’ll meet him, and I won’t tell anyone. So, how is this mysterious vampire important to Ian?”
Bones closed his eyes. “He’s Ian’s sire.”
32
College campuses were usually awash with people. The Virginia Tech university was no exception. Despite it being an hour before midnight, students still flowed through the grounds like living streams. In such an environment, tracking someone by scent was impossible. Even by sight it could be cumbersome. All one needed was a low-slung ball cap to shadow the eyes and the cotton helm of the ever-popular “hoodie” to cover the head, and you’d be just another anonymous form in the crowd.
That’s what Bones was wearing, but Cat didn’t need such measures. With her appearance frozen in her early twenties, she already looked like a student, especially since she’d worn her favorite pair of denims and a simple, form-fitting navy shirt.
“I thought we were meeting some important vampire,” she murmured as Bones began striding toward Derring Hall. “Did we stop here because you wanted to grab a bite to eat first?”
The thought that he’d need such measures to find a vein made him laugh. “No, luv. Thisiswhere we’re meeting him. Well, beneath here, as it were.”
“Underground?” she asked with a skeptical glance around.
Bones led her forward. “Follow me.”
They went inside Derring Hall. Bones ignored the common passageways in favor of the stairs leading to the basement. Then, he took a little-used corridor and went to the end of it, where a young human man was near the grate in the floor. He might have been mustering up his courage to try the infamous tunnels himself, or he was waiting for someone. Either way, Bones said, “Leave, and we were never here,” while flaring up the power in his gaze.
The student nodded and walked away. Bones yanked up the grate in the floor, revealing a rusted metal ladder beneath some of the old steam pipes that used to be the primary heating source for the campus. Then, he motioned to Cat.
“After you.”
She gave him a look as she shimmied into the small hole. “This isn’t even the weirdest date we’ve ever been on.”
Bones grinned. “Not by half.”
When she’d cleared the ladder, Bones descended and replaced the metal grate over the hole. Then, he led her past the maze of pipes, graffiti, and passageways toward their destination.
“We couldn’t have met him at a Starbucks?” she said after passing a “Warning: Asbestos!” sign.
“Less chance of anyone seeing or overhearing us down here,” Bones replied as the air suddenly became sweltering. There was a reason these tunnels were off-limits. Being in a dark, winding labyrinth with hidden drops in the floor and sudden, severe changes in temperature was very dangerous for humans. “No one even knows that Mencheres is in the States,” Bones went on. “He’d like to keep it that way for now.”
“And Mencheres made Ian, and Ian made you. So, that kinda makes Mencheres your fang granddaddy?”
Bones hid his smile as he picked his way through the debris in the tunnel. “Mencheres is my grandsire, yes, but more importantly, he’s a very powerful vampire that Ian wouldn’t want to cross. Since Max is a member of Ian’s line and still under Ian’s protection, any attack against Max would be considered the same as an attack against Ian in the vampire world.”
“But Max trying to have my head blown off is A-okay?” she asked with a flash of bitterness.
Bones picked his words with care. “Remember I told you vampires operated under a form of feudalism? That means when a vampire turns a human, that new vampire is under their sire’s protection. If the sire isn’t their own Master, then that new vampire is also under the head Master’s protection. You were born, not changed. So, no vampire has ever claimed you. That makes you without a sireorMaster to defend you against any attacks from within the vampire world.”
