Bones smiled. "I have something for you. But I don't know if you'll want it."
"Why wouldn't I want it?"
Bones slid off the couch to kneel in front of me. I still didn't get it. Only when I saw the small black velvet box in his other hand did it hit me.
"Catherine." If I hadn't already guessed, his one and only use of my real name would have clued me in. "Catherine Kathleen Crawfield, will you marry me?"
It didn't hit me until right then how much I'd wanted Bones to ask me that. Sure, we were married under vampire law, but having Bones cut his hand, slap it over mine, and declare me to be his wife didn't feel quite like the white wedding fantasies I'd had as a little girl. Plus, Bones had done it to prevent an all out brawl between his people and his sire Ian's people over the issue of who had dibs on me.
Looking at Bones now made all my childish imaginings pale into nothingness, however. True, Bones was a former-human-gigolo-turned-vampire-hitman instead of a charming prince, but no fairy tale heroine could have felt the way I did, with the man I was insanely in love with asking me on bended knee to be his wife. My throat closed off with emotion. How had I ever gotten so lucky?
Bones made a noise of amused exasperation. "Of all the times for you to be speechless. If you don't mind, choose one response or the other. The suspense is torturing me."
"Yes."
Tears came to my eyes even as I started to laugh at the sheer joy bubbling up inside me.
Something cool and hard slid on my finger. I could barely see it, since my vision was blurred, but I caught a flash of red.
"I had this cut and fashioned into a ring almost five years ago," Bones said. "I know you think I was pressured into binding myself with you before, but that's not true. I'd always intended to marry you, Kitten."
For about the thousandth time, I regretted leaving Bones the way I had years ago. I thought I'd been protecting him. Turned out I was just hurting both of us needlessly.
"How could you be nervous about asking me to marry you, Bones? I'd die for you. Why wouldn't I want to live for you as well?"
He gave me a long, deep kiss, whispering onto my lips only when I pulled away out of breathlessness.
"I know it's what I intend to do."
Later, I was stretched out in his arms, waiting for dawn, which wasn't far off.
"Do you want to elope, or do you want to do the whole big wedding thing?" I asked sleepily.
Bones smiled. "You know vampires, pet. Always like a fancy show, we do. Also, I know our vampire binding didn't feel like a real wedding to you, so I want you to have something that does."
I gave an amused grunt. "Wow, a big wedding. We'll have a hell of a time explaining the menu to a potential caterer. Choice of entree: beef or seafood for the humans, raw meat and body parts for the ghouls...and a keg of hot fresh blood at the bar for the vampires. God, I can just picture my mother's face."
Bones's smile turned devilish and he leapt up. I watched him, curious, as he went to the other side of the room and dialed his cell phone.
"Justina."
I vaulted after him as soon as I heard my mother's name. Bones sprinted away from me, fighting back his laughter and continuing to speak.
"Yes, it's Bones. Now really, that's such a foul name to call me...um hmm, same to you, I'm sure..."
"Give me that phone," I demanded.
He ignored me, darting out of my reach. Ever since my father, my mother hated vampires with a pathological passion. She'd even tried to have Bones killed before-twice-which was why he was taking such delight in giving her a little payback now.
"Actually, Justina, I didn't just ring you to chat about what an undead murderer I was...right, degenerate whore as well. Did I ever tell you my mum was one? No? Oh, blimey, I come from a long line of whores, in fact..."
I sucked in a breath as Bones divulged yet another tidbit about his past to my mother, who must be frothing at the mouth by now.
"...called to give you the good news. I asked your daughter to marry me and she accepted. Congratulations, I will officially be your son-in-law. Now, do you want me to call you Mum straightaway, or wait until after the wedding?"
I flew through the air in a dive that finally tackled him, wrenching the phone away. Bones was laughing so hard, he had to breathe to get it all out.
"Mom? Are you there? Mom...?"
"You might want to give her a moment, Kitten. I believe she fainted."
There were some days when I felt a pang of wistful regret that I'd never be a mother. Sure, my father had been newly undead enough that he'd managed to impregnate my mother, but as a rule, vampires couldn't reproduce. And I'd never risk passing on my genetic abnormalities to a child by means of artificial insemination, let alone my dangerous lifestyle by adopting one.
Right now, however, I was glad I wasn't a mother. I'd faced some scary sights hunting vampires and ghouls, but hordes of children hyped-up on sugar, squealing as they ran from one video game to the next, while I knew there was no escape for me? Truly frightening.
Bones was outside the Chuck E. Cheese, lucky bastard. It was because of his power level. Other vampires felt him when he was near, like inside, so Bones usually watched the premises until the gig was up and our target knew he or she was being hunted. I lacked the typical undead aura that felt like anything from static electricity to full-blown electrocution, depending on the strength of the vampire. No, I had a beating heart and I breathed, which made me look harmless-to those who didn't know what else to look for, anyway.
Toward that end, I had almost all my skin covered up. Hey, I wasn't playing bait, so I didn't need to wear my usual slut gear. Belinda was the one in a low-cut top with hip-hugging jeans that revealed several inches of her belly. She'd curled her hair and wore makeup, which was a rarity, since as Don's captive, she didn't get out much.
Looking at Belinda, with her blond hair, pouty smile, and eye-popping curves, people would never guess she was a vampire, especially since it was day- light. Even those whomight believe in vampires still bought the myth that vampires could only come out at night, which, along with the whole sleeping in coffins, being repelled by religious symbols, or being killed by a wooden stake, was wrong.
The little boy next to me tugged my arm. "I'm hungry," he announced.
I was confused. "But you just ate."
He rolled his eyes. "Lady, that was an hour ago."
"Call me Mom, Ethan," I reminded him, fixing a bright smile on my face while I fished out more money. This had to be the strangest job ever. Where Don had gotten a ten-year-old boy to act as a prop, I'll never know. But he had arranged for Ethan to come with us, saying if we spent hours lurking at a Chuck E. Cheese without a child, we'd be suspected of either being pedophiles or-duh-being vampire hunters by our target.