Bones was on his feet before I could blink.
“Just…stay right here, Kitten.”
Understanding dawned. The last time he’d changed someone over, I’d gone away for “just a minute” and ended up being tortured and nearly killed.
“I’ll get it.”
The offer came from Dave, who seemed to remember.
“No, you won’t,” Bones said. “You’ll stay right here on the very slim chance our friend wakes up and makes a go for her throat. That way I wouldn’t have to kill him. Call Ian, have him bring the blood up.”
Jeez, he was being cautious. The odds of Juan rising so soon and overcoming Bones were near absolute zero, but I didn’t argue. Dave made the call. The fact he also didn’t argue meant he must be equally paranoid.
“Why aren’t we just putting him downstairs in the secured cell? That’s what it’s there for.”
“Because, Kitten…” Bones put Juan’s lifeless body on the couch and stayed close to him. “We’re leaving, and we’re taking him with us.”
It was several hours and a dizzying free-flying jaunt from the compound back to our cars later that we rounded the last curves on our driveway in the Blue Ridge.
“Where will we put Juan?”
Three cars behind I could hear him howling, cut off the next moment by the slurping sound of him feeding from the plasma bags I’d packed. He’d just risen. Five vampires were in the car with him, and three of them were Masters. No, he wasn’t going anywhere.
“The cellar,” was Bones’s reply. “It’s reinforced, and we’ll have Tick Tock, Dave, and Rattler take turns staying with him. Within a week, he’ll be himself.”
Until then, Juan was a danger to anyone with a pulse.
“We’re not going to have enough room if everyone stays.”
“Three of the couches have pull-outs and the rest will make do with blankets and the floor. Each one of them has endured worse, believe me.”
“We’re the ones with the urgent problems and it’s our house they’re staying at, we should take the floor,” I noted. “It’s only polite.”
Bones snorted. “Right. In my own home on Christmas? I think not.”
Yes, it was after two a.m. and therefore officially Christmas Day. This wasn’t the romantic, private evening I had planned, but oh well. We were together.
I leaned over and kissed his neck, letting my breath tickle his ear. “Merry Christmas,” I whispered.
Bones put the car in park and stopped me when I began to draw back. His hand curled around my neck as he dipped my head back with a slow, deep kiss that made me really wish we were alone.
It was interrupted when Ian rapped on our side window.
“If we’re supposed to wait outside in the cold while you two snog in the car, I’d just as soon have flown home.”
My mouth opened in outrage when my mother trotted by and muttered, “Thank God somebody said it.”
The humor of that struck me and I laughed. My mother, agreeing with the vampire who’d sired Max? Now that was a Christmas miracle if I’d ever heard one.
“I’m sorry, Ian, did I forget to ask your permission before I kissed my wife?” Bones countered. “Wanker.”
“Guttersnipe.”
Ian said the insult with a trace of a smile. Far from being offended, Bones chuckled, giving me a last kiss before he got out of the car and grasped Ian by the shoulders.
“I’m glad you’re here, mate.”
Ian had a self-deprecating smile. “Do you know why I am? Because for once, you asked for my assistance. You’ve never done that in all the centuries I’ve known you. That’s why I threw in my lot with you, bloody usurping sod though you are.”
Ever since I first met Ian, I hadn’t understood why Bones tolerated him, but seeing the two of them like this explained a lot.
“You could have walked away, Ian. Just as you could have over two hundred and twenty years ago when I was imprisoned at the colony. I didn’t thank you then and I haven’t since, yet it is long overdue. Thank you, Ian, for changing me into a vampire. I am forever in your debt.”
Ian’s eyes flashed with emotion. Then he arched a jaded brow, recovering.
“About bleedin’ time. I expect it to take another two centuries before you’ll apologize for threatening to kill me over Cat?”
Bones laughed. “You’ll shrivel waiting for that apology, mate.”
“Let’s hatch a dastardly plan, then,” Ian said with amused grimness. “Or Patra will ensure that we’ll all shrivel.”
Vlad showed up at our house, remarking that he’d been in the neighborhood. I doubted that, but I wasn’t about to call him a liar, especially since he’d proved to be a useful source of information. Still, part of me wondered if he’d shown up just because it irritated Bones. Vlad seemed to have a devilish sense of humor that way.