One Foot in the Grave (Night Huntress 2)

"By my blood, you are my wife," he said in a clear voice. Then he said more softly to me, "I rather envisioned something more romantic for this, Kitten, but circumstances don't allow for that."

"You must be mad!" Ian raged, snatching his own blade from his pants.

"Do not move!" a voice thundered down at once.

Ian froze, and Bones, in the act of whipping his own knife toward Ian, froze as well. A dark-haired figure glided down the aisle, people moving aside to let him through. I didn't even need to see his face to know it was Mencheres. The unadulterated power washing over me told me that.

"Mencheres," Bones said, with an inclination of his head. "Am I correct in my assumption?"

"In all ways but one" was the vampire's smooth reply.

"You have ever taken his side over mine!" Ian snapped, losing his quiet deference.

Bones rolled his eyes. "Not this again."

"It is not a matter of sides," Mencheres stated calmly. "I said Bones was right in all ways but one. Cat has not yet claimed him as her husband."

Ian snatched at that. "You don't know what that means, Cat. This isn't like a human marriage, where divorce is as common as breathing. If you agree to this, you'd be bound to Crispin for the rest of your life. No changing your mind, no release from it, until one of you was truly dead. If you even shagged another man, he'd have the right to kill him for it without retribution."

Mencheres smiled, but it wasn't cheery. "Yes. Once this is declared, it can never be retracted."

Brown eyes met mine when I looked away from Mencheres. Bones arched a brow, waiting.

"Don't you think it's time you met your father?" Ian baited me next.

That got my attention. I swung back in his direction, and my hand clenched over the knife I'd just accepted from Bones.

Ian pressed his advantage. "I'll make you a bargain, Cat. A vastly different one from what I'd first intended. You can leave here tonight with my assurances that I won't press my claim over you, or trouble your men again. Furthermore, I'll give you Max, to do with what you will. All I require in return is that you refuse this offer and part company with Crispin permanently. Your word on it."

My mouth hung open, fingers whitening over the handle of the blade.

"Maximillian, come here!" Ian trumpeted.

The doors to the hall opened, and Spade moved out of the way to let a tall man through. Well, well. Apparently that picture had showed only a glimmer of our resemblance. Face to face there was no question. I did look just like him.

I pulled my hand free from Bones in a sort of shock. Max went to the edge of the arena and then paused, not coming nearer. I walked the last few steps that separated us.

His hair was crimson, just as bright and thick as my own. God, those eyes, silvery gray and exactly like mine. He had high cheekbones, a full mouth, straight nose, strong jawline...Everything was identical to me but in masculine proportion. Even the way he stood was similar. It was like looking in a weird gender-bending mirror, and for a minute, all I could do was stare.

For his part, Max didn't say anything. His face flashed defiance and resignation in equal parts as he looked from me to Ian. He didn't ask for mercy, though. Not from either of us. Was that bravery...or a simple realization that it wouldn't do him a damn bit of good?

Finally I found my voice. "Do you know what I promised myself when my mother told me what I was, and how it happened?"

I slid as close to him as possible without touching. He held himself stiffly, like one of the statues outside. Only his eyes moved, and they followed me with rapt concentration.

My fingers grazed his shoulders as I circled him. He flinched under their weight, and I laughed low and viciously.

"Oh, Max, I feel your power level, and it's not that high. I'm much stronger than you are, but you must know that, right? It's why you tried to have my head blown off, so I couldn't get to you first. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting to kill you?"

Still he said nothing. Ian gave me a questioning glance, but I ignored him. He didn't know what Max had arranged; it was plain. I paced around my father, getting angrier that he wasn't talking.

"I first heard about you on my sixteenth birthday. Sweet sixteen, and what did I get? The full knowledge about my nightmare of a heritage. So I swore to myself that one day, I'd find and kill you for her. That you'd pay for raping my mother with your life. Did you hear what Ian just offered me? Your ass, with all the other parts attached!"

The rage leaked out of my pores, and my eyes blasted him with their glow when I faced him again.

"Come on, Max, whatcha think? What a gift, right? Who could say no to that? I mean, I've wanted to kill you more than I've ever wanted anything in my whole twisted, subnormal, dysfunctional life!"

The knife Bones had given me trembled in my hand with the ache to bury it in his heart. Finally, after another long stare, I chuckled again. Bittersweetly. My need for revenge had almost cost me Bones once tonight. At least I wouldn't let myself make that same mistake twice.

"You worthless piece of shit, you're about to do the first, last, and only thing you've ever done for me as a father, because there's someone in my life who means more to me than even killing you. Congratulations, scum. You just gave away the bride."

Instead of twisting that knife through my father's heart, I slashed it across my palm and slapped it over the pale hand still outstretched to me.

"Bound together forever, huh? Sounds good to me. By my blood, Bones, you are my husband. Is that what I'm supposed to say? Is that right?"

Bones bent me backward with the force of his kiss, and I assumed that was my answer.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

MAX BROKE HIS SILENCE ONLY AFTER BONES let me up from his kiss. He raked me with a glance and then smiled. Chillingly.

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Do you believe that, little girl? I do. You and I will have our day, mark my words."

"Is he threatening her?" Bones asked Ian with a cold pleasantness as I met my father's steely gaze. "Perhaps you need to remind him that anyone who comes after my wife-or anyone belonging to her, such as her uncle-is in fact declaring war on me as well. Is that your position, Ian? Does he speak for you?"

Ian gave Max a truly menacing glare. "No he does not, and he has nothing else to say on the matter. Do you, Max?"

Max gave a glance around at all of Bones's people, who were watching him with threat as well.

"No, I have nothing else to say about that," he replied in a tone that said he'd have plenty to say under other circumstances. "But I do have something to say about her mother." He fixed his eyes back to me. "You've been misinformed. I f**ked her, oh yes. But I didn't rape her."

Bones tightened his grip on me, sensing I was about to explode. Ian saw it as well.

"You gave up your chance, Cat, and it works both ways. Max is mine and under my protection. If you lay a hand on him, it's an act of war."

I got ahold of myself. Another time, another place. Not here where it would turn into a bloodbath between Bones and Ian's people.

"You've probably raped so many women that you don't even remember who she was," I settled on evenly.

Max smiled. "You never forget your first, and she was my first after I'd been changed. She was a beautiful brunette with big blue eyes and nice round tits. So young and eager. So fresh. I had such a great time f**king her in the backseat of that car, and the only time she objected was after I was done. She opened her eyes, saw mine glowing green, saw my fangs...and started to scream her head off. Started to cry, too. Just bawled hysterically and said I was a hell spawn or something like that. It was funny. So funny I didn't bother to deny it. I told her she was right, that I was a demon. That all vampires were demons, and she'd just let herself be f**ked by one. Then I drank her blood until she quit screeching and passed out, and that, little girl, is what really happened between your mother and me."

"Liar," I spat.

His smile turned cruelly knowing. "Ask her."

Max was obviously capable of lying. Anyone who could conspire to murder his own daughter wouldn't be above lying his ass off if he wanted to, but somehow...somehow...I wasn't sure if he was lying now. My mother had vehemently stated from as far back as I could remember that all vampires were demons. I'd thought it was just a general term of repugnance, but maybe there was more to it than that. If Max had told her he was a demon, that all vampires were, it would certainly explain her mixed feelings toward me as well as her outright refusal to consider vampires as anything but evil.

"You remember her mum that distinctly, do you?" Bones asked in a conversational tone while I wrestled with this.

Max didn't lose that hateful smirk. "Isn't that what I just said?"

"What was her name?" Again, blandly.

"Justina Crawfield!" Max snapped. "Going to ask me what color panties she wore next?"

Bones suddenly smiled, but it was far from pleasant. "When Ian figured out you were her father, I also wager he mentioned that she very much wanted you dead. Scared the stones off you, didn't it? Finding out someone strong enough to get the drop on him was coming after you. You remembered her mum-clearly, as you've proven-and it would have been simplicity itself to look up the name of the child she'd given birth to all those years ago. You gave that information to a hit man named Lazarus, didn't you? Had him murder that couple in her old house to draw her out, yet even when she walked into his trap, he didn't succeed in killing her. You must have been really scared then, so you decided to go after her through the one source you had. Your brother. You knew he'd sent her after Ian, who else would have, and so you dug around until you found a mole in his operation. One who could give another hit man her location and more importantly, her weaknesses. Good plan, mate, but I'm here to inform you that your little rodent and his accomplice have been exterminated."

"You prick!" I gasped, seeing it all fall into place.

"What's this?" Ian asked suspiciously.

"Max found her long before I did, but he kept that to himself. He's been going behind your back for months, Ian, trying to murder her to protect his own miserable arse. Not very loyal of him, is it?"

"I don't know what he's talking about!" Max insisted.

I stared at the man who was my father and knew that now, unequivocally, he was lying. Ian wore a look on his face that said he knew it, too.

"You have any proof of this, Crispin?"

No one was fooled by his cool demeanor. Ian's eyes had gone flat green.

Bones nodded. "I have copies of bank records and transactions from the most recent attempt. Stupid sod used a personal account to pay the informant at her uncle's operation, and I reckon if you look, you'll find that account can be traced to Max. You'll also no doubt find another large transfer of funds in April, when the people living in her old house were murdered."

Ian whitened around the lips. I grinned maliciously at Max.

"Uh oh. Looks like someone's in trouble."

Granted, it wasn't his head on a stake, but from Ian's expression, Max might soon be wishing I'd chosen to kill him earlier instead.

Ian gave Bones a last, long look, and then he turned away, gesturing curtly for Max to follow him.

"Hey Max," I called out as he stalked after Ian. "Watch your back. You never know when someone might stick a knife in it."

I saw his shoulders tense, but he didn't turn around. He went right through those big double doors and then was gone. I'll see you again, I promised him silently. I know who you are now, and you can run, but you can't hide.

Perhaps my greatest shock was when the other vampires began to disperse as well, without even so much as a muttered threat among them. Guess they were taking Bones's warning seriously that anyone starting trouble with me would get a piece of him and his people, too.

Spade made his way down to the arena to give Bones an affectionate slap on the back.

"Bloody hell, mate. You a married man? Now I've seen it all."

The tension visibly drained from him as he smiled at his friend. "Charles," he said, calling him by his human name. "I believe we're in need of a lift."

We hitched a ride with Spade, who drove us to the airstrip where the same helicopter that had brought me here would now take all of us back to the warehouse. Once we got there, Bones let Ian's six men loose and told them they were free to go. They looked stunned to be released so easily, but didn't question it, and melted away into the night. Then there was one more stop to let Spade off before we reached the compound. By that time I was tired, physically and emotionally, but there were still things to do.

When we arrived, the five of us went straight to Don's office. My uncle's forehead creased in what might have been embarrassment, and he quickly ceased his examination of my attire. Oh yeah. I'd forgotten I was barely dressed.

"Uh, Cat, would you like a lab coat or...something?"

Bones took off his jacket. "Here, luv, put this on before your uncle turns red. Best do that anyway, since I'm about to flog Juan for trying to memorize every curve of your arse."

I took the proffered coat and glared at Juan pointedly. He smiled, unrepentant as always.

"What did you expect? You shouldn't have let her walk in front of me, amigo, if you didn't want me looking."

"You're all here, so obviously the operation was a success." It was straight to business as always for Don. "Cat, you gave instructions to have Noah Rose transferred directly to a hospital? And to have his car wrecked and police reports of a hit-and-run accident filed?"