“You’ve seen it?” I asked. “Or you’ve seen it?”
In addition to being able to mind-read anyone with a pulse, Mencheres was also known for his visions. Little glimpses of the future and all that. I wasn’t sure whether I believed it—why wouldn’t Mencheres be playing the lottery all the time?—but Bones believed Mencheres had that ability, and he’d known him for centuries.
“It’s certain,” Mencheres replied, no emotion in his tone.
Bones mulled this over. I kept silent. This was his call. He was the one who’d known Mencheres all of his undead life. Far be it for me to start voicing my disapproval just because Mencheres gave me the heebie-jeebies.
Bones nodded after a long moment. “I’ll do it.”
And I knew Mencheres could hear it when I thought, Aw, shit. He didn’t comment, though. He just rose, all long black hair and sharp granite eyes, and then embraced Bones.
“We will seal our new alliance next week. Until then, speak of it to no one but those you trust the most.”
Then Mencheres released Bones and gave me a wintry smile.
“Now you can leave, Cat.”
The house Mencheres used to host the gathering in honor of his and Bones’s forthcoming alliance had sentimental value for me, in a way. It was the same mansion where I’d met Ian when he’d tried to blackmail me into joining him, but I’d ended up binding myself to Bones instead. Apparently it belonged to Mencheres, and Ian had been just using it for that night.
Speaking of Ian, as Bones’s sire, he’d earned himself an invite for tonight’s festivities. Bones also had all of the direct members of his line here, well over two hundred vampires, and that didn’t count the ghouls he’d had a hand in siring, which was roughly another hundred.
Mencheres couldn’t fit all of his direct descendants without renting a football stadium, so power level and preference had decided the cut on who was invited. To showcase their new alliance, several prominent Master vampires of other lineages were present, and not all of them friendly.
Many of the ornate couches that had lined the area around the arena months ago were absent as well. There were too many people here now to have that much space taken up. It was practically standing room only, with chairs and couches reserved only for the very elite who dared to sit in them. At the arenalike center of the room, there were no such trappings. We would all stand.
This was the largest number of undead people I’d ever been around. My skin practically danced from all the vibrations coming off them. Our troupe of elite guards consisted of Spade, Tick Tock, Rattler, Zero, and about a dozen more somewhat familiar vampires. Their names might escape me, but their power levels didn’t. Even in a room filled with more than half of Bones and Mencheres’s people, our escorts were crackling with unspoken warning. I was glad I was on the inside of this group, not facing them in battle. I’d be roadkill against them.
When we entered the square elevated platform, I had the sensation of being in a boxing arena. There was Mencheres’s side and Bones’s on either corner, no one talking. Even the spectators were hushed. Then Mencheres strode to the center and addressed the faces fixed on him.
He’d dressed in an Egyptian tunic, all white, with a belt around his waist that I’d bet my ass was pure gold. Around his upper arms he had more gold bands, and his pale skin had a faint yellow sparkle. He must have dusted himself in it. With his long dark hair loose, held back only on his forehead by a thin lapis lazuli crown, he looked like he’d stepped out of an ancient fresco from a pharaoh’s tomb. Hell, for all I knew, there was a fresco of him somewhere in a pharaoh’s tomb.
“All of you are here to witness me declare my loyalty in an alliance that will only be broken by death. From this night forward, I promise that every person who belongs to Bones is also mine, as all of mine are now his. As proof of my word, I offer my blood to seal this alliance. If I betray it in any way, it will also be my penalty. Crispin, you who have renamed yourself Bones, do you accept my offer to merge our lines?”
Bones squeezed my hand once and went to stand next to the other vampire. “I do.”
Mencheres paused, maybe for dramatic effect. “And what do you offer as proof of your word?”
Bones’s voice was strong. “My blood is proof of my word. If I betray our alliance, let it be my penalty.”