"Has anyone called Don to tell him you caught up with me?"
That won the toss, and it hadn't even been on my mental list.
"No, but he can wait a bit longer. Come lie down with me, I've longed for nothing as much as your arms these past days."
Bones pulled me with him to the bed, enfolding me under the blanket. I reached out, fingering his shock of white hair. Bones's flesh was cool against my cheek, his skin tight and sleek. It seemed impossible that not long ago, it was withered.
"Your body aged almost to the point of truly dying. That's why your hair's white, isn't it?"
"Yes. I expect so."
It hit me then, staring at his unlined, beautiful face and that stark light hair framing it, that neither of us should be alive. Bones had almost been killed by a knife in his heart, and add one more step on a rocky ledge for me, and he would have returned to find my body broken beyond revival.
Sometimes there were moments when things were perfectly clear. When the answers seemed so obvious, I wondered how I hadn't noticed them before. When I'd thought Bones was dead, nothing else had mattered for me except making sure those responsible paid. I hadn't cared that I'd need to quit my job to handle the responsibility of his line and avenge his death. No, I'd taken that as a given and had called Don to tell him I wasn't coming back.
Now, however, with Bones alive, I could return to my job. Except I didn't want to. I wasn't going to backburner Bones because his life meant less to me than his presumed death had. What do you do when you get a second chance...or in my case, a third or fourth?
You don't squander it, that's what.
"Things are going to change," I said.
Maybe Bones heard it in my voice. It could have been the threads forming in my mind, because his eyes widened even before I said the next words aloud.
"I'm quitting my job."
Chapter Twenty-Six
SPADE GAVE A POINTED GLANCE AT THE CLOCK and then at a plate on the table. "Your breakfast is cold."
I glanced at the clock also. We should have been down an hour ago, but oh well. Some things had a higher priority than food.
I sat at the table in front of what I assumed was my plate. The Brie was waxy inside the croissant, the eggs wilted, and the julienne peppers had lost whatever brightness they'd once had. Rodney began to brew another pot of coffee, apparently thinking the previous one was a lost cause.
I smiled at Spade. "Don't worry, it's room temperature. My favorite."
I ate my food with a rush of appetite while Bones went with Spade to find a liquid breakfast. Once out of my eyesight, I heard Annette join them. Bodyguards. Since Mencheres was in the room next to the kitchen, I was covered. Besides, my money wasn't on Rodney being the turncoat. Or surprisingly, on the other vampire who glided in.
Vlad took a seat next to me, ignoring Rodney's inhospitable glare.
"With the color back in your face," Vlad observed, "Bones isn't the only one who looks resurrected."
I leaned back to sip my coffee. He considered the cup in front of me with a sardonic smile.
"Ah, a hot cup of caffeine. You must need it after yet again another night without sleep."
I felt color burn on my cheeks. Vlad chuckled, picking daintily at his fingernails.
"Really, Cat, you shouldn't be so shocked. Soundproof isn't mindproof, and telepathy travels through even the thickest walls. I could barely sleep myself with all the shouts going off in my head."
Good God, I hadn't considered that. This must be what it felt like to have someone find a sex tape of you.
"There goes your invitation to ever stay at our house," I ground out, suddenly fascinated with my coffee cup. "Here I'd been thinking I almost liked you. I'm over it now."
Vlad grinned, and it was wolfish and charming.
"And here I was lamenting the fact that the opportunity to extend our friendship had passed. I'm not a fool like the other one. You'll never leave Bones. The boy should realize that and move on with his life."
I stiffened. What his sentence told me was that Vlad, too, didn't think Tate was the traitor. If he had, Vlad would know Tate wouldn't have a future to worry about.
"I owe you."
Vlad's expression turned serious just as quickly as the change in topic. "You would, normally. In this case, however, it's a debt of mine settled and requires no payment from you."
"Come on, Vlad, you're breaking character. Magnanimous isn't your best color."
He smiled. "Quite correct. You said before you read about my historical account? Then you know that I was married. At a battle near my home, I was struck in the head. It would have been a deathblow, but I'd been a vampire for several weeks. Dawn came, and I slept as all new vampires do, my forehead still caked with blood. My men assumed I'd been slain. A soldier ran to my house to inform my wife of my demise. You know what happened next."
Yes, I did. She jumped to her death from their castle roof, thinking to spare herself from enemy captivity or worse.
And almost six hundred years later, Vlad had stepped in to help prevent me from doing the same thing.
That scarred hand slid across the table to mine. "My wife stood alone on that roof when I should have been there. I hadn't told her what I was. Already I'd horrified her by what I'd done to keep my people safe, I was afraid that my no longer being human would drive a deeper wedge between us. I'd planned on telling her the truth in time...but all at once there was no more time. Since she's been gone, I've done many more things she would have been revolted over, yet on that day with you...I felt her smile at me. I haven't felt that in a very long time."
Abruptly he stood. "Don't squander what you have. If you do, you'll spend the rest of your days regretting it. Bones should never be afraid to show you all he is, even though he's an uppity street peasant who's been gifted far and away over what he deserves."
This last part was louder, because Bones was on his way back from the sound of the measured stride heading toward us. I smiled up at Vlad wryly.
"Petty, aren't you?"
"Of course. Along with my many other despicable qualities. But, Catherine..." He leaned closer until only I could hear him. "I would have never let you jump."
Vlad left right after that, taking the other exit from the kitchen to avoid running into Bones. This time I thought it was less because of their mutual dislike and more that he wanted to avoid more of his gratitude. Like it was pesky to be reminded he'd done a good deed.
Bones came in the kitchen, glancing from Vlad's retreating figure back to me. Then he rolled his eyes.
"Blimey, Kitten, don't tell me you like that conceited sod?"