TWENTY-NINE

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?”

I nodded. “Do it.”

Bones sliced a long upward line along his forearm, splitting open his veins. That scrumptious red liquid filled the seam at once. My mouth watered.

Next, Bones smeared his blood onto his fingers and passed them within inches of my lips. I swallowed hard, fighting down my urge to snatch at his hand and suck his fingers—and then his forearm.

Then, Bones pressed those bloodied fingers into my mouth, teasing me with their unbelievable sweetness. I trembled but didn’t lick or bite down. You can do this, Cat. Don’t give in.

Bones handed me a napkin. “Spit it out, Kitten.”

I did, giving back those drops that had made my mouth physically ache with wanting. If I still could, I’d have been sweating bullets by then.

“Again.”

Bones repeated this tortuous act five more times, me spitting out what my body was howling at me to keep, until at last Bones smiled at me.

“You did it, luv.”

“Well done, Cat,” Spade said.

“It’s more than well done.” Bones kissed my forehead. “Getting control of the thirst inside of three days is extraordinary.”

“What time is it?”

“Round 12:30,” Spade replied.

Less than six hours until dawn. That was the other “side effect” of this transformation. When the sun rose, I conked out. Not just got sleepy, like I’d been accustomed to my whole life, I meant fall down in midsentence out. In a way, that was more concerning to me than my bouts of hunger. If I happened to be in a fight when dawn broke, I’d be toast.

I was working on staying conscious when the sun came up. As of now, I could keep my eyes open a few minutes while my body did an excellent impression of a limp rag. It would go away with time, but I worried about how much time. Right now, I couldn’t even move until noon.

“I want to go out,” I said. “Drive somewhere, stare at every street sign I pass, read road maps until I go blind, and get directions from anyone within twenty yards. Oh, but I’m taking a bath first. That tiny shower in the basement only had cold water.”

Mencheres strode into the room. As soon as I saw his face, I knew something was horribly wrong.

“It’s Gregor, isn’t it?” I said before he could speak. “What did he do?”

Mencheres put his hands on my shoulders. “Cat, your mother has disappeared.”

“No!”

It burst from me along with a sudden spurt of tears. Bones’s arm tightened around my waist.

“How? Was the junkyard attacked?” he asked.

Mencheres shook his head. “Rodney said she disappeared from her room. Her nightclothes were still in her bed.”

He’d snatched her from her sleep. Oh God, Gregor had pulled my mother right out of her dreams to kidnap her.

“He said he’d make me suffer,” I whispered, hearing Gregor’s snarl again from my last dream with him. “I didn’t think he’d go after my mother. How could he if he never drank from her?”

My voice trailed off. Gregor could have. I’d assumed he’d just used the power in his gaze to compel my mother to tell me that he was an old friend the night I met Gregor. But obviously, he’d taken her blood as well.

“I need to talk to Gregor,” I said at once. “Someone has to know how to reach him.”

Mencheres dropped his hands from my shoulders. “You know that’s what he wants. He’ll want to trade, you for her.”

“Then I’ll do it,” I said.

Bones’s grip on me turned to steel. “No, you won’t.”

“What do you expect me to do? Shrug my shoulders and just hope Gregor doesn’t kill her? I know you don’t like her, Bones, but she’s my mother. I can’t abandon her!”

“He absolutely will not kill her, Kitten,” Bones replied, his voice hard. “She’s the only advantage he has over you now that you’re a vampire and he can’t dreamsnatch you again.”

Fear, rage, and frustration boiled up in me to form a harsh scent, like burning plastic. You could go to Gregor, but then Bones could attack once they know where Gregor is. No, Gregor will expect that and have a trap waiting. If Bones brought enough people to get out of a trap, Gregor would know you were double-crossing him and probably kill her out of spite.

“Mencheres!” I exclaimed, grabbing his shirt. “You could go with me. You imprisoned Gregor once, you could do it again! Or better yet, we’ll kill him.”

He shook his head. “I imprisoned him before in secret so as to avoid a war between his allies and mine. If Gregor disappears now, everyone would know Bones or I had a hand in it. Gregor’s allies would surely attack us in revenge.”

I cast around for another alternative. “You could hold Gregor and his men in a vise with just your mind—I’ve seen you do it. Then I get my mother back and we can escape.”

Some of his long black hair spilled over his shoulder from how hard I’d yanked at him, but his gaze was flat—and sad.

“I cannot do that, Cat.”

“Why?” I spat.

“Because Gregor has rights to your mother under our laws,” Mencheres said quietly. “To attack him for taking one of his own people would bring more than Gregor’s allies against us.”

“Gregor doesn’t have any rights to my mother,” I snapped. Then something cold ran over me that had nothing to do with my new temperature.

Yes, he did. Under vampire law, I was Gregor’s wife, which meant anyone belonging to me was his, too. And on top of that, Gregor had bitten my mother, making her his property under vampire law if he chose to claim her as such.

Oh, God. No vampire would violate their laws to help me get my mother back, not even Vlad.

“If the laws are so strict, why haven’t I been forced back to Gregor?” I asked bitterly. “Why am I free, when she isn’t?”

“You haven’t admitted in public to being his wife, for one. Even still, some vampires who believe Gregor have advocated your being forced to return to him, Kitten. But most consider it not their business that you’ve chosen someone else. Attacking Gregor to retrieve your mum would make it their business, however. You know she’d be considered his property one way or the other, so stealing his property opens up the possibility in people’s minds that Mencheres and I might try to steal some of their people without cause, too.”

“Without cause?” My tone was lethal.

Bones gave me a look. “Cause in their eyes, not ours.”

“I can’t just abandon her to Gregor, laws or no laws,” I stated.

He turned me until we faced each other. “Kitten, neither will I, but we must wait. Once Gregor’s dead, your mum will be free. Gregor is expecting you to rush to him with all haste. He won’t be prepared for you to use caution. Will you trust me and wait until the timing is right?”

I bit my lip. The blood filling my mouth reminded me that my fangs were out. Amidst everything else, a wave of hunger swept through me. How could I just wait and hope that Gregor wouldn’t get impatient and send me parts of my mother as motivation to return to him? And yet how I could just rush into the fray without a plan, or backup? My damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead strategy hadn’t been working for me lately.

Bones touched my cheek. “I will find him, luv. And I will kill him. Trust me.”

I swallowed, feeling a tear slide down my face and knowing it would be colored pink.

“All right.”

Bones kissed me, quick but tender. Then he turned to Mencheres.

“We will announce her change. A formal gathering is best, so her introduction to vampire society can be done under an all-truce, avoiding the danger of an attack.”

“Agreed,” Mencheres said. “I’ll set it up at once.”

“You want to have a party?” I asked, not sure if I was hearing them right. “That’s your big idea?”

“There are still ghouls who consider you a threat to their species,” Bones replied. “One in particular, Apollyon, has made the most noise about you. Showing him and the others that you’re a vampire will get rid of that problem. It will also garner goodwill toward us with the other vampires in the community, which we’ll need when Gregor has his unfortunate, gruesome demise.”