Normally they would have each sliced their hands, clasped them in a formal handshake, and called it a day. Kind of similar to a vampire marriage ceremony, in fact. But there was more going on tonight than our guests were aware of. Everyone here knew that Bones and Mencheres were merging their lines, but what they didn’t know about was the bonus activity. The transference of power. Only those of us on the platform showed no surprise as Mencheres eschewed the traditional hand cutting and bent his head to Bones’s neck instead.
There was a flurry of exclamations from the observers. Guess they’d caught on to what else this was about. Three rows up, I heard Ian spit out a foul curse, and I smiled. Uh oh, did someone feel slighted?
Ian wasn’t the only one. There were several more unhappy voices from Mencheres’s side of the huge room. People who’d obviously thought one day to be the lucky recipient of this gift themselves. That was the other reason why we had the guards with us. In case someone, or a group of someones, got more than vocal with their dissatisfaction.
Mencheres ignored all that and didn’t stop drinking from Bones’s neck. When at last he lifted his mouth, I saw Bones sway a tad on his feet. Draining a vampire made him weaker, and from the looks of Bones, Mencheres had cleaned his plate.
“My word, sealed in blood,” Bones rasped. “Freely given and accepted.”
Mencheres tilted his head in invitation next, and Bones sank his fangs into the other vampire’s exposed throat.
It was different than when Mencheres drank. Something changed in the air. An invisible current in the room grew. Static electricity seemed to jump off the two figures in the center of the platform, and I blinked, rubbing my arms like I’d been zapped. Here it was, the transference of power. Bones told me that Mencheres had to will it out with his blood; it wasn’t something that could be stolen just by anyone drinking him. Even as I watched, the Egyptian vampire’s skin started to glow with an eerie inner light, as if a million stars were trying to break out of his flesh.
Above us, there was the sound of abrupt movement and scuffling. Someone was either trying to start a brawl or trying to make a break for it. Spade barked out a command, and unseen vampires descended from the roof like lethal spiders. They dropped onto the small melee, and then the noise stopped with equal speed.
Still Bones drank, ignoring everything around him, his legs solidifying underneath him. I knew he wasn’t getting nourishment from Mencheres’s blood, but was ingesting raw power with every pull of his mouth. Those sparkling stars of light on Mencheres’s skin merged into Bones’s flesh with the same ease that sand absorbed seawater. It was lovely to watch—and frightening.
A hum began to grow in the air, then it rose to a piercing, thunderous crescendo in a split second. Instinctively I clapped my hands over my ears even as Bones staggered backward, going limp all at once. I jumped forward and caught him, lowering him to the ground. Mencheres fared better but not by much. Two of his men grasped him as his head drooped and he swayed, looking barely conscious.
I held Bones on my lap. Our guard formed a protective circle around us with a barked warning that anyone who approached would be killed. It wasn’t an exaggeration. They were all armed with silver. So was I. It lined my legs underneath my red dress.
Mencheres regained himself enough to mumble, “My blood, freely given and accepted as proof of my word,” before biting the neck of a human brought to him for that purpose. I looked away, stroking Bones’s face and waiting for him to wake up.
Several minutes later, he did. I sensed it in the rush of energy that made me twitch before his eyelids even fluttered. All of a sudden, Bones felt unfamiliar to me. The vibrating power that normally exuded from him didn’t just increase—it kept growing and growing, until he felt like he was going to explode right in my arms.
His hand closed over mine in the next instant, and I jerked back. It felt like I’d just shoved my fist in a light socket.
“Bloody hell, luv, this feels quite different,” were his first words.
I laid a tentative hand back on him. “Are you okay?”
It was almost stupid to ask with that crackling energy nearly shooting sparks up my arm, but I couldn’t help myself.
He nodded and opened his eyes. “Very much so. In fact, I’ve never felt better. At least not unless we were alone.”
Pig. Now I knew it was the same man I’d fallen in love with. Bones might have changed in power, but not in any other way. It was almost a relief to find his mind still in the gutter.
“Let’s get you off me, then, your elbow is jabbing me in the kidney—”
Something on his face made me stop in midsentence. “What?” I asked.
“Did you just call me a pig?”
I froze. Had I said that out loud?
“Bloody hell, no you didn’t!” he answered for me, springing to his feet in a lithe motion.
Good God, he could read minds now? There was something neither of us had thought would happen.
Bones pulled me up and kissed me. There was so much raw energy permeating from him that his tongue almost hurt when it slid into my mouth, but then it felt good. Very, very good.
“Shh,” he whispered into my ear when his mouth trailed from mine.