Don didn’t reply. Bones made a regretful noise. “Open that envelope I gave you earlier, Kitten.”
With trembling fingers I drew the paper out of my shirt, ripping open the seal and unfolding the single page inside. It was an article with a photo, but the caption underneath blurred into nothingness because all I’d needed to do was look at the face.
The man standing with a grin had red hair, high cheekbones, a straight nose, a jaw that was masculine but eerily similar, and I couldn’t tell, but I’d bet those were gray eyes. Even faded, the likeness was unbelievable. Finally I had a face to put to my hate, and it was a mirror of my own. No wonder my mother had such issues.
As absorbed as I was in devouring the image of my father, it took me a minute to look at the other person in the photo. The one with an arm around my father’s shoulders. “Family Celebrates Commendation of Federal Officer,” the title read.
The years hadn’t been kind, but I recognized him at once. A furious chuckle escaped me, and I flung the page at Don.
“Well, isn’t life just one big joke? One huge cosmic one-liner! I now know just how Luke Skywalker felt when Darth Vader told him who he was, only you’re not my father. But you’re his brother.”
TWENTY-FOUR
I GLARED AT MY boss. “Should I call you Uncle Don? You son of a bitch, you sent me out on how many suicide missions when you knew I was your niece? You and my mother have a lot in common—the two of you should be related!”
Don finally broke his silence. “Why would I think you’d be any different? Thirty-five years ago my older brother was investigating Liam Flannery, and then he disappeared. Years passed. We thought he was dead, and no one would tell us about the last case he’d been on. I joined the FBI myself to find out what had happened to him. Over time, I also found out what my brother had really been chasing. I vowed I’d continue his hunt and give him justice, but then one day out of the blue, he came to me. He told me to forget about Liam and the underworld I was tracking or he’d kill me. My own brother. I couldn’t believe it.
“Six months later, your mother was attacked in the same city in Ohio I’d followed him to. When I read the description of her rapist, I knew it was him, and I knew that he’d finally crossed over. Then five months later, she gave birth to a child. One with a genetic anomaly documented at birth. Yes, I suspected all along, and made it a point to check up on you periodically while I created this department. Years went by, nothing happened, and I began to forget about you. Then your name came up in connection with a series of strange murders and grave robberies. I was already on my way back to Ohio when your grandparents were killed.”
Don smiled but it wasn’t happy. “I also believe that life is a comic accident. Here God had given me the one thing strong enough to stop my brother and his kind, and it was his own daughter. Yes, I used you while waiting for the day when you’d turn as he did, but that didn’t happen. When I finally believed you were different, I sent you to capture Flannery so I could use him to draw Max out. But as fate would have it, Liam got away. I’m guessing he’s the one who sent the shooter after you last night.”
My mind reeled with this latest bombshell. Ian had made my father? The same man who’d turned Bones had also been the one who sired Max? That made Ian partly responsible for my half-dead existence. Unbelievable.
“It’s not Flannery who hired that gunman,” Bones stated. “He wants her alive. No, it has to be someone else who’s trying to kill her. Someone affiliated here.”
Don made a derisive noise. “How are you going to find out who this mythical traitor is? Torture all the staff?”
Bones glowered at him. “For someone who’s studied vampires for years, you certainly don’t give them much credit. Forgetting these?”
He flashed green into his eyes, and their light hit Don’s face. He looked away.
“The spellbinding eyes of the nosferatu. Many days I’d wished I had the ability to glare the truth out of people, but without all the other consequences.”
“Yes, well, there’s a price for power and it always gets paid. Shall I let you go, Kitten, so you can bash his head in?”
Bones didn’t sound troubled at the notion. I stared at Don. We had the same eyes, I realized. How had I never noticed that before?
“I should kill you for what you did to me, but I won’t. I happen to understand wanting vengeance better than most people. It can make you do rash things, like sending your niece out to get killed so one day you can try to trap your brother. Besides”—a shrug—“aside from my mother, you’re the only real family I have left. You can come with us or stay, I don’t care, but if you come, don’t interfere. Think you can handle that?”
Don rose. “I can handle it.”
Tate and Juan still stood outside the door.