“Once and for all, and it’s good that so many people will hear this so I don’t have to repeat it—my name is Cat.” Since they’d all seen me, concealing my work name hardly seemed important. “Now, I dragged my ass up here for a reason, and it wasn’t to hear that you liked my dress. Where are my men? And what do you want? It must be a real doozy for you to track me down and blackmail me.”
Ian had a superior grin when he answered, comfortable in his presumed control. “You can thank your old friend for helping me find you, Cat. I have a feeling you’ll remember him. Crispin, say hello to your former protégée.”
“Hallo, luv. Long time no taste,” a voice drifted down to me.
I hid a grin and turned in his direction.
Bones cleaned up better than Ian, in my prejudiced opinion, and I couldn’t help the tug of a smile when I saw his hair. Sometime since I’d last seen him, he’d colored it the same shining platinum it had been when we first met. It was newly cut as well, hugging his head in closely cropped curls. His shirt was a full-bodied crimson, contemporary by contrast with Ian’s, and his skin glowed like cream-covered diamonds against the vivid fabric. It was time for me to look away. Fast. Before I drooled.
“Bones, what an unexpected revulsion,” I said cleanly. “Jeez, you’re not dead yet? I’d hoped to see the last of you years ago. Still having that premature ejaculation problem?”
Ian guffawed in amusement. So did the rest of his section. They were segregated by lineage, with the youngest members higher up in the nosebleed seats. Bones sat symbolically on the lower edge of Ian’s group, and a snort of laughter accompanied his response.
“Perhaps if your snoring hadn’t been so bloody loud in the interims, I would have been able to concentrate better.”
Touché. I turned my back to him. “All right, Ian. Enough of this crap. I’m all decked out in my pretty dress and it’s clearly a party. What’s the occasion?”
Ian went right for the melodramatic. “Far and wide I’ve told everyone that the avenging human called the Red Reaper is actually a vampire disguised behind a pounding heart and warm flesh. There isn’t another known half-breed in the world. Put simply, I want you with me, Cat, as part of my people. Since I didn’t reckon on you being agreeable to the thought after our last meeting, I’ve taken four of your men to ensure that you’re more... open-minded when we discuss it now.”
Ian didn’t know I’d already gotten back three out of those four, and had six of his own men to boot. He probably just thought Francois and the others were running late.
“Uh huh,” I said cynically. “I’m guessing this whole being ‘part of your people’ means I’d have to spend a lot of time with you.”
Ian smiled with more than a hint of wickedness. “You would require supervising at first, after all.”
“And if I refuse, I suppose you’ll kill my men?”
He shrugged. “Really, poppet, would it require me killing all of them before you’d see what I’m offering isn’t so repugnant? I think it would only require killing one or two, at most.”
You cold bastard, I thought, eyeing Ian. The fact that he was being practical, not maniacal, told me a lot about him. Ian didn’t seem like he’d particularly enjoy killing a couple of my men, but he’d do it. Bones had some of that same coldness, I knew. And so did I, if I was honest.
“You told people about me,” I said abruptly, changing my tactics. “But I bet they had trouble believing you. Want me to give them a demonstration of what I can do? I mean, you’ve got all these guests, but so far, they haven’t seen anything exciting yet.”
An interested look came over Ian’s face. Bones had said Ian liked a flashy show. It didn’t appear that he was wrong.
“What are you offering for a demonstration, my lovely Red Reaper?”
“Bring out your strongest fighter. I’ll beat him or her, and I’ll do it with only what I’ve got on me now.”
I spread my hands and twirled to show that I didn’t have any weapons, but of course Ian would know that I’d been searched. It wasn’t my fault no one had taken a good look at my shoes.
“What do you want if you win?” Ian asked.
“One of my men back unharmed. And I get to pick who.”
Ian looked me over for a long moment. I gave him my most innocent expression. “Agreed,” he said at last.
“Good,” I said instantly. “I’ll take Noah.”
Shit, if I could win back Noah myself, that was a big load off my mind. Wouldn’t Ian be surprised later when he found out he’d bartered his only hostage back to me?
Bones chose that moment to stand up. “Ian, before this circus begins, I have an issue to settle with you. Frankly I would have skipped this event altogether if you hadn’t commanded me to appear. That is the rub, my sire. I wish to be under no one’s authority but my own, and it is time. Release me from your line.”
Ian looked like he’d been punched in the gut before he shielded his expression.