His stomach growled.

She laughed shakily and tugged him to his feet. “C’mon, big guy, let’s go eat.”

Jaden slammed the drawer shut with a snarl. The damn bitch was getting loonier by the day, and if he didn’t find out how she’d figured out his weakness soon he was going to scream.

Jaden paced the room, knowing he had about an hour before the Deranged Darling got back from her big society party. She’d hopped Daddy’s jet for a little jaunt to California yesterday, and Jaden for one couldn’t be happier.

Jaden hoped she got hit by a bus. It wouldn’t kill her, but damn if it wouldn’t make him feel better.

She was so meticulous and neat, she had to have the information written down somewhere. But it wasn’t in her desk, her room, or in the hidden safe behind the Renoir, and damn if that wasn’t one of the cheesiest things he’d ever seen. Talk about a cliché.

Where would she hide it? If he could just lay his hands on the name of the person who ratted him out…

Not Duncan. Not after everything they’d been through together. Duncan had taken a frightened newbie vamp in, one who’d been tossed out by his Master, and helped him find his feet and fangs in a world where vamps were the lowest rung of the social ladder.

Oh, sure, if you were a Black Court vamp you were pretty high on the food chain. Of course, if you remained Black Court after being turned it pretty much guaranteed you were a psychotic ass-hat. White Court, on the other hand, looked down on vamps as lower than dog shit until you proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you could overcome the Dark Queen’s taint. Jaden held back a cynical laugh. Like he had a choice about being “tainted”. For the White Court, proving you were untainted usually meant being dead. A dead vamp was the best vamp, as far as Queen Glorianna was concerned. It was why most vamps who left the Black Court pledged their allegiance to Oberon and the Gray Court. There vamps were treated just like any other fae. If you fucked up, the Court fucked you up. If you didn’t, you lived a happy, productive life.

It was something Jaden could understand, even encourage. He’d sent more than one lost young vamp to Oberon’s mountain palace.

When they first met, Duncan had looked past the fact that Jaden hadn’t yet pledged himself to Oberon. Duncan had seen Jaden, and liked something in him. He’d taken him in, made him his right-hand man. Hell, he’d fucking blood-bonded with him, even if it was only the lightest bond a vampire could cast.

To be bonded to a White Court Sidhe lord was almost unheard of for one of his kind. He’d been Duncan’s ever since.

And if it wasn’t for the fact that the Deranged Darling was Duncan’s family she’d already be dead.

Jaden stomped out of the office, closing the door behind him and relocking it quickly. She’d never know he’d been there. He’d long since learned the knack of searching without leaving a trace. He headed to his own office, located right next to Duncan’s, and slumped into his chair. He put his feet up on his desk, tipped his head back, and tried to come up with a plan that would free him from Kaitlynn without losing the one person on the face of the earth Jaden would gladly die for.

Ruby spent lunch mostly absorbing what Leo had told her in the hayloft. The part that wasn’t trying to understand everything she’d been shown was enjoying the look of shock and awe on Moira’s face all through the meal. She kept darting glances between Ruby and her father, and Sean knew exactly what his daughter was doing. He kept his face serene, but when Moira wasn’t looking he winked at Ruby.

After the meal, Ruby turned to Aileen. “Is there anything I need to know about a Sidhe mating that Leo might not want me to know?”

“Hey!”

Ruby ignored Leo’s indignant shout and focused all of her attention on Aileen.

Aileen stared at her thoughtfully. “What has he told you so far?”

Ruby recounted everything Leo had told her, leaving out the incredibly hot sex they’d engaged in, but from the small smile on Aileen’s face she had the feeling Sean had already filled her in on that small fact.

“So. You know how the Claiming is done, starting with tasting and ending in…hmmm… I believe you understand that part just fine.” Aileen smiled serenely at her son, who flushed bright red. “The Vow is quite simple, really.”

Turning to Sean, Aileen took his hands in her own. “I vow that from this day forward you shall not walk alone. My strength is your protection, my heart is your shelter, and my arms are your home. I shall serve you in all those ways that you require. I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care. Yours is the name I whisper at the close of each day and the eyes into which I smile each morning. I give you all that is mine to give. My heart and my soul I pledge to you. You are my Chosen One, you are my mate, and you are bound to me for eternity.”

Sean kissed the back of Aileen’s hand, the love he felt for his petite wife very evident. “I vow that from this day forward you shall not walk alone. My strength is your protection, my heart is your shelter, and my arms are your home. I shall serve you in all those ways that you require. I pledge to you my living and my dying, each equally in your care. Yours is the name I whisper at the close of each day and the eyes into which I smile each morning. I give you all that is mine to give. My heart and my soul I pledge to you.

You are my Chosen One, you are my mate, and you are bound to me for eternity.”

Ruby sighed. “That’s beautiful.”

Aileen turned to her, her face still glowing with her love for her husband. “That’s the Vow. There’s a bit more to it than that, a flow of magic that’s exchanged when two people take the Vow. That’s called the Binding.”

“But I’m human, I don’t possess magic.”

“Oh, yes you do, kitten.” Ruby turned to find Leo watching her, that quiet possessiveness once again in evidence. “All humans have magic, they just don’t know how to find it.”

“I don’t know if I understand.” Ruby stared into Leo’s otherworldly face, knowing her confusion showed by the concern in his expression. He hadn’t bothered to put his glamour back up.

“Trust me, kitten. Okay? Without speaking the Vow there’s no way to demonstrate the Binding, and since my parents are already bonded they can’t show you what it looks like.”

She sighed. “I’ve trusted you since the party, so I guess I can keep going out on that particular limb.”

Leo picked up her hand and placed a gentle kiss on the back of her fingers. “The only possibly frightening part for you would be if the Binding is strong enough to have visible results.”

“Like the Claiming?”

Leo shot his parents a quick look. “Not quite. If the Vow is taken during a time of stress it’s possible the show would be a bit more spectacular than that.”

“Oh.” Ruby thought the Claiming light show was spectacular. What would be next, fireworks?

“What’s the third part of the mating again?”

“There’s the Claiming, the Vow, and the Binding.”

Her head was beginning to spin. She got the Claiming and the Vow, but… “What’s the Binding again?”

“That’s the part where my power and yours blend, bonding us together for eternity.”

Oh. “Eternity is a really long time, Leo.”

“No. It’s not. Eternity is looking for your soul mate and never finding her.”

Leo used the hand he was holding to pull her to her feet. “We’ll be in our room.”

Leo closed the door and turned to face his reluctant mate. “Okay, kitten, now you know.”

“You’re positive I’m yours?”

Leo nodded, his eyes never leaving her face. Her face was shadowed, her brows drawn together in a thoughtful frown. She licked her lips and drew a quick breath. “How does this affect Shane’s kidnapping?”

“If the Malmaynes have their way, our mating would be set aside in favor of the alliance marriage, something I’m not willing to risk.”