"Don't bleedin' believe it," Bones chuckled.
"What!"
He continued to streak through the streets at a high rate of speed. "Oh, you'll see. And you'll need that bottle Denise gave you."
I figured there wasn't a bloodbath going on, because he still grinned with maniacal humor. Hopefully the sound of my mother being axed to death wouldn't make him so gleeful. When we pulled up in the driveway of what I assumed had to be Rodney's house, all I heard was her fumbling around and muttering curses. What was unusual about that?
Bones darted out of the car without even turning the engine off and pounded on the door hard enough to rattle the windows.
"Open up, Justina, or I'll break down this door!"
The front door flung open as I approached at a slower rate than Bones had. Someone had to turn the car off, after all.
Bones went right past my mother, ignoring her demands to stay out. He gave her a wicked rake of the eyes, and his lips twitched uncontrollably.
"Well. As I don't live and breathe. Justina, hair's a bit disheveled, luv, been cleaning house? No? And your face...if I didn't know better, I'd say it was flushed. Back when I was a degenerate whore, as you like to say, I'd see women look like you do all the time. After they wereshagging."
My mouth dropped and I took in her appearance. She was wearing only a robe, her brown hair was indeed going every which way, her face was distinctly colored, and holy shit, was that ahickey on her neck?
"You filthy animal, get out of here," she commanded Bones.
He laughed so hard it bent him double. "Really, that's a bit of the pot calling the kettle black now, isn't it? And to think how Kitten used to be terrified about you finding out she was shagging a vampire. You can't say much about that anymore, can you? Come on down, mate, take a bow! I stand in abject awe."
"Bones," Rodney's voice called out gratingly from upstairs. "Just get out of here."
I staggered. "Mom? You andRodney?"
A scarlet blush graced my mother's features. "He was making me dinner," she sputtered.
I found my voice amid the astonishment. "And dessert, too, apparently! I don't believe you. All those years, you crucified me for sleeping with a vampire, and look at you. Rodney's a ghoul, you hypocrite!"
"He doesn't kill people, they're dead when he gets to them!" she thundered back with questionable logic. "And I am forty-five years old and don't need to be explaining myself to my daughter."
I stared at her like I'd never seen her before. "Did Rodney like them?" I asked.
She huffed. "Did he like what, Catherine?"
"The balls on you, that's what!"
Bones laughed again and wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "Let's go, Kitten. Just had to rub it in, I couldn't resist. Justina, good on you, and Rodney"-another decadent chuckle-"admirablecourage."
Bones propelled me, still bitching, from the house. The door slammed behind us.
Bones still couldn't contain his laughter as we drove away at safer speeds. "I'm delighted you didn't ring her in advance, luv. That was priceless."
I didn't answer, just settled back in my chair and broke the seal on the gin.
My dress was silver. It hung to my feet in a clinging line from the waist, two ties forming a halter at the neck. The back was bare, and the front had a deep V that made a bra impossible. Those stick-on ones didn't do the trick, either.
I frowned at my reflection. "You'll be able to tell right off if I get cold. I'm the hostess, I'm not supposed to look cheap."
Bones appeared behind me in the mirror. "You don't look cheap, you're stunning."
A brush of his lips on my back punctuated his compliment, and as if on cue, both my ni**les puckered. Yeah, it looked indecent, all right.
"Ravishing," he whispered into my skin.
He should like the dress, he picked it out. Bones always chose more revealing outfits than I did. At least I had on underwear, minuscule though it was. Some things I insisted on despite his limitless powers of persuasion.
Bones tilted his head to the side for a second. "Your mum's here."
I went downstairs to greet her, since Bones wasn't dressed yet. I hadn't seen her since that unbelievable night at Rodney's, and I didn't even want to know if they were now, um, dating. Rodney, being a gentleman, hadn't mentioned the incident when he showed up this morning to prep for the evening's meal, but I'd heard Bones greet him with an "All hail the dragon slayer!" salute.
I opened the door...and my smile froze. Thiscouldn't be my mother.
Her brown hair was free of gray and had new lighter highlights. Whether it was makeup or a chemical peel that seemed to have taken ten years off her in less than three weeks was anyone's guess. Her dark amethyst velvet dress was tighter than mine, and cut high on one leg before draping down to her ankle on the other side. One shoulder was bared in Grecian style, and her hair was swept half up with stray pieces trailing. Her blue eyes were the only thing familiar about her.
"Catherine." She swept by me without a hug. Okay,that was familiar, too. "You really should wear something warmer, it's freezing out."
Hello to you, too, Mom. Or whoever the hell you are, because you sure don't look like the woman who raised me.
"You should talk," I managed. "I can see all the way up to your thigh. My God, if Grandma saw you now, she'd come right out of her grave!"
My mother opened her mouth, paused, and then smiled. "I won't tell if you won't."
I was going directly to the kitchen to fall to my knees in awe before Rodney. Lo and behold, he'd managed to give her a sense of humor, and here I'd figured that would take voodoo, several headless chickens, and a lot of gris-gris.
"Let's get you some eggnog, Mom," I said, recovering from my shock enough to steer her into the living room. "It's spiked."
Chapter Fourteen
OUR LIST OF GUESTS WAS SMALL DUE TO THE unfestive circumstances of being at war. There were Rodney, Spade, Rattler, Tick Tock, Ian, Zero, and another vampire Annette brought as her date named Doc. Mencheres wasn't here, and that was fine by me. My guests consisted of Denise, Randy, my mother, Don, Cooper, Dave, Juan, and Tate.
Bones had invited Ian at the last minute. He hadn't been on my original list of people I wanted to spend time with, but since he'd thrown in his side with ours, Bones felt he'd deserved the nod. I'd been hoping he wouldn't show, but that was in vain. In fact, I wondered if the reason Ian came was because he knew he was here against my preference-and got a kick out of that.
We were sitting in the dining room. Ian had arrived late and as soon as he crossed the threshold, my mother and Don had gotten up from the table. They were lingering near the porch with Dave, Cooper, and Juan, who also had reason not to like the chestnut-haired vampire across from me.