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“I’m leaving Ian’s line,” Bones stated. Mencheres had traveled too far for Bones to waste his time with meaningless pleasantries. “Ian wants Cat, and she wants to murder one of Ian’s people, so you see why I need to divest my loyalties and be Master of my own line.”
Nothing changed in Mencheres’s expression as he looked from Bones to Cat. Then, he said, “Do you truly believe that killing your father will make any part of your life better?”
Bones was surprised by the question, but not as much as Cat. She nearly rocked back on her heels.
“Yes,” she said when she recovered. “Hellyeah, in fact. For starters, I would no longer have to worry about hit men sighting my head in their scopes, and for another, I think killing him would be really,reallysatisfying.”
“Vengeance is the emptiest of actions,” Mencheres murmured.
“Beats suppressed rage,” Cat retorted.
“I didn’t say it was her father she wanted to kill,” Bones noted, arching a brow. “How did you know that?”
Mencheres gave him an amused look. “You already know how.”
Bones sighed. “Ah.”
“And?” Cat said while tapping her foot.
Right. “Mencheres sees things. Visions, glimpses of the future, that sort. It’s one of his powers.”
From Cat’s expression, she was having trouble believing that. “Got any stock tips?” she quipped. “I could sure use some. The government doesn’t pay shit for salary.”
Mencheres’s lips twitched, but then his expression became smooth as glass as he said, “Are you going to claim Cat as one of yours, Bones? Is that why you wanted to meet in secret? To ask for my support should you and Ian go to war over her?”
“Yes,” Bones replied.
Cat was still looking at Mencheres with open skepticism. When Mencheres’s expression became pointed as he stared back, Bones realized he’d forgotten to warn her about something else.
“Kitten, Mencheres can also read humans’ minds, and from his current expression, he can also read half-breed’s minds.”
“Whoops,” Cat said with a newly sheepish look. She must have been thinking something snarky indeed. Then, her gaze narrowed. “But he can’t read vampires’ minds, I take it, or you wouldn’t have phrased it that way.”
“No, not vampires’ minds, unless you’ve been hiding that ability?” Bones added with a slight grin at Mencheres.
He returned it. “That power would have saved me from many poor decisions in the past, but no. Just humans and half-breeds, it appears. Now, have you told Cat what pretext you’d use to claim her as yours in the vampire world?”
Bones bit back his groan. Normally, he appreciated Mencheres’s bluntness, but onthistopic, he would have preferred an abundance of discretion.
Cat caught Bones’s reaction and glared at him. “Oh, you’d better tell me whateverthisis.”
No chance that she wouldn’t be angry by it. That’s why he didn’t bother coating it with pretty lies first.
“Every vampire is territorial, as you know. I found you, I bit you, and I shagged you, all before Ian ever laid eyes on you. So, in the vampire world, that makes you my…my property, should I claim you as such-”
“Son of a bitch!” she shouted. “Your plan is to growl over me like I was a slab ofmeatyou didn’t want to share?”
He sighed. “I don’t see you that way, so why does it matter what loophole I utilize? Frankly, I don’t know why Mencheres brought it up in the first place.”
Twin black brows arched. “Because I refuse to side with you unless she is fully aware of the ramifications.”
“And he didn’t need mind-reading abilities to know I’d be pissed by them,” Cat snapped. “Neither did you, which is why you left that detail out. No way, Bones. No. Way. Go on, declare your independence and be Master of your own line, but you are not calling yourselfmyMaster, loophole be damned.”
Anger sharpened his tone. “You do realize you’re being a hypocrite? The day before yesterday, I truthfully swore to Don to take your orders while on mission, and yet here you are, refusing to let strangers eventhinkthat you’d heed mine.”
Her mouth opened…and stayed that way while shame flitted across her features. Then, she closed her mouth with a click.
“There has to be another way of stymieing Ian without using sexist ‘property’ loopholes.”
