“That poison you’re referring to runs in half my DNA,” I snapped. “Is that why you don’t give a shit every time I go on an assignment that could get me killed? Because it’s just one less snake to worry about?”
“At first it was,” he brusquely rejoined, standing now also. He spread his arms in an encompassing gesture. “Look at you. You’re like a time bomb covered in skin. All that power, all that inhuman ability... I used to believe you’d get bored with your limitations and shirk them off. Cross over completely. That’s why I told Tate when you signed on to be prepared to kill you. But you never faltered, and you didn’t succumb to the urge for more power. Frankly... it was inspirational.”
Don smiled in a self-deprecating way. “Five years ago, I was quite disillusioned about the human character when exposed to supernatural influence. When I discovered you, I thought you’d crumble all the faster for what was in your blood. Yes, I sent you out on the riskiest missions first, in order to maximize your usefulness until you turned and had to be put down. That didn’t happen, however. You, who carry in your genetic makeup the same corruption which has stumbled so many before you, proved to be the finest of us all. In short, and not to overdramatize, you made me hope again.”
I stared at him. He didn’t drop his eyes from my hard gaze. Finally I shrugged.
“I believe in what I’m doing, whether you believe in me or not. I’m taking a week off to contemplate this and figure out my next step. When I come back, we’re having another talk, and this one will include Tate, Juan, and Cooper. You’re going to tell them about the consequences of the blood they drank. And you’re wrong about something, Don. It’s not vampire blood that corrupts—it’s whether the person who drinks it is corrupted to begin with. Hey, don’t take my word for it, look at the guys. They felt that same power, felt how different it could make them... and yet they didn’t turn evil. It doesn’t twist who you are, it only increases it, for better or worse. Remember that, but I have a feeling I’ll have to remind you.”
“Cat.”
Don stopped me as I kicked back the rubble to open the door.
“You are coming back, aren’t you?”
I paused with a hand on the frame. “Oh, I’ll be back. Whether you like it or not.”
It didn’t surprise me to feel the change of energy in my house later that night. I was in the kitchen, heating up a frozen dinner in the microwave, when suddenly I knew I wasn’t alone.
“It’s polite to knock,” I said without turning around. “My front door’s not broken, you know.”
That feeling of power intensified as Bones walked in the kitchen.
“Yes, but this is more dramatic, don’t you agree?”
My dinner beeped. I took it out of the microwave, grabbed a fork, and sat down at the dinette table. Bones took the seat opposite me, watching me with tempered wariness.
“I’m not bothering to offer you any,” I said flippantly. “My neck and I both know you already ate.”
A hint of a frown touched his mouth. “I told you that wasn’t about feeding.”
“No, it was about you making your point.” I skewered a bite and chewed. “Next time, maybe use something other than my jugular as your Exhibit A?”
“It wasn’t your jugular. That would have made you pass out too quickly, and I wanted you to have time to make your decision to kill me or not,” Bones replied, holding my stare. “So I bit around your jugular. That’s why it took longer... and why I could enjoy drawing your blood into me instead of just swallowing a gushing arterial flow.”
That made me hesitate on my own swallow. Bones’ eyes were swirling with green from the memory, like mint in chocolate, and if I were honest, I’d admit to an internal ripple of pleasure as well at the recollection. His bite could have passed for foreplay, it had felt that good.
But there were more important things to get down to, even though my libido certainly didn’t agree.
“So,” I said after I’d finished chewing. “You’re hell-bent on not going away until this danger with Ian has passed and you’ve neutralized whoever’s waving a check around for my corpse, right?”
Bones nodded. “That’s right.”
“And you probably followed me earlier when I went into work, just waiting to see if I’d try to fly the coop?”
A shrug. “Let’s just say no plane would have made it off the ground there today.”
My gaze hardened. “Then I suppose you followed me to Noah’s afterward, and eavesdropped on that as well?”
Bones leaned forward with complete coldness on his face. “I normally would never harm someone innocent, but I admit to a certain lack of rationality when it comes to you. You saved that man’s life by breaking up with him today, because if I’d have listened to anything else going on at his house, I would have snapped him in half.”