Part 30 (1/2)
Finally I found my voice. ”Do you know what I promised myself when my mother told me what I was, and how it happened?”
I slid as close to him as possible without touching. He held himself stiffly, like one of the statues outside. Only his eyes moved, and they followed me with rapt concentration.
My fingers grazed his shoulders as I circled him. He flinched under their weight, and I laughed low and viciously.
”Oh, Max, I feel your power level, and it's not that high. I'm much stronger than you are, but you must know that, right?
It's why you tried to have my head blown off, so I couldn't get to you first. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting to kill you?”
Still he said nothing. Ian gave me a questioning glance, but I ignored him. He didn 't know what Max had arranged; it was plain. I paced around my father, getting angrier that he wasn't talking.
”I first heard about you on my sixteenth birthday. Sweet sixteen, and what did I get? The full knowledge about my nightmare of a heritage. So I swore to myself that one day, I'd find and kill you for her. That you'd pay for raping my mother with your life. Did you hear what Ian just offered me? Your a.s.s, with all the other parts attached!”
The rage leaked out of my pores, and my eyes blasted him with their glow when I faced him again.
”Come on, Max, whatcha think? What a gift, right? Who could say no to that? I mean, I 've wanted to kill you more than I've ever wanted anything in my whole twisted, subnormal, dysfunctional life!”
The knife Bones had given me trembled in my hand with the ache to bury it in his heart. Finally, after another long stare, I chuckled again. Bittersweetly. My need for revenge had almost cost me Bones once tonight. At least I wouldn't let myself make that same mistake twice.
”You worthless piece of s.h.i.+t, you're about to do the first, last, and only thing you've ever done for me as a father, because there's someone in my life who means more to me than even killing you. Congratulations, sc.u.m. You just gave away the bride.”
Instead of twisting that knife through my father's heart, I slashed it across my palm and slapped it over the pale hand still outstretched to me.
”Bound together forever, huh? Sounds good to me. By my blood, Bones, you are my husband. Is that what I'm supposed to say? Is that right?”
Bones bent me backward with the force of his kiss, and I a.s.sumed that was my answer.
THIRTY-EIGHT.
MAX BROKE HIS SILENCE ONLY AFTER BONES let me up from his kiss. He raked me with a glance and then smiled. Chillingly.
”If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Do you believe that, little girl? I do. You and I will have our day, mark my words.”
”Is he threatening her?” Bones asked Ian with a cold pleasantness as I met my father's steely gaze. ”Perhaps you need to remind him that anyone who comes after my wife-or anyone belonging to her, such as her uncle-is in fact declaring war on me as well. Is that your position, Ian? Does he speak for you?”
Ian gave Max a truly menacing glare. ”No he does not, and he has nothing else to say on the matter. Do you, Max?”
Max gave a glance around at all of Bones's people, who were watching him with threat as well.
”No, I have nothing else to say about that,” he replied in a tone that said he'd have plenty to say under other circ.u.mstances.
”But I do have something to say about her mother.” He fixed his eyes back to me. ”You've been misinformed. I f.u.c.ked her, oh yes.
But I didn't rape her.”
Bones tightened his grip on me, sensing I was about to explode. Ian saw it as well.
”You gave up your chance, Cat, and it works both ways. Max is mine and under my protection. If you lay a hand on him, it's an act of war.” I got ahold of myself. Another time, another place. Not here where it would turn into a bloodbath between Bones and Ian's people.
”You've probably raped so many women that you don't even remember who she was,” I settled on evenly.
Max smiled. ”You never forget your first, and she was my first after I'd been changed. She was a beautiful brunette with big blue eyes and nice round t.i.ts. So young and eager. So fresh. I had such a great time f.u.c.king her in the backseat of that car, and the only time she objected was after I was done. She opened her eyes, saw mine glowing green, saw my fangs...and started to scream her head off. Started to cry, too. Just bawled hysterically and said I was a h.e.l.l sp.a.w.n or something like that. It was funny.
So funny I didn't bother to deny it. I told her she was right, that I was a demon. That all vampires were demons, and she'd just let herself be f.u.c.ked by one. Then I drank her blood until she quit screeching and pa.s.sed out, and that, little girl, is what really happened between your mother and me.”
”Liar,” I spat.
His smile turned cruelly knowing. ”Ask her.”
Max was obviously capable of lying. Anyone who could conspire to murder his own daughter wouldn't be above lying his a.s.s off if he wanted to, but somehow...somehow...I wasn't sure if he was lying now. My mother had vehemently stated from as far back as I could remember that all vampires were demons. I'd thought it was just a general term of repugnance, but maybe there was more to it than that. If Max had told her he was a demon, that all vampires were, it would certainly explain her mixed feelings toward me as well as her outright refusal to consider vampires as anything but evil.
”You remember her mum that distinctly, do you?” Bones asked in a conversational tone while I wrestled with this.
Max didn't lose that hateful smirk. ”Isn't that what I just said?”
”What was her name?” Again, blandly.
”Justina Crawfield!” Max snapped. ”Going to ask me what color panties she wore next?”
Bones suddenly smiled, but it was far from pleasant. ”When Ian figured out you were her father, I also wager he mentioned that she very much wanted you dead. Scared the stones off you, didn't it? Finding out someone strong enough to get the drop on him was coming after you. You remembered her mum-clearly, as you've proven-and it would have been simplicity itself to look up the name of the child she'd given birth to all those years ago. You gave that information to a hit man named Lazarus, didn't you?
Had him murder that couple in her old house to draw her out, yet even when she walked into his trap, he didn't succeed in killing her. You must have been really scared then, so you decided to go after her through the one source you had. Your brother. You knew he'd sent her after Ian, who else would have, and so you dug around until you found a mole in his operation. One who could give another hit man her location and more importantly, her weaknesses. Good plan, mate, but I 'm here to inform you that your little rodent and his accomplice have been exterminated.”
”You p.r.i.c.k!” I gasped, seeing it all fall into place.
”What's this?” Ian asked suspiciously.
”Max found her long before I did, but he kept that to himself. He's been going behind your back for months, Ian, trying to murder her to protect his own miserable a.r.s.e. Not very loyal of him, is it?”
”I don't know what he's talking about!” Max insisted.
I stared at the man who was my father and knew that now, unequivocally, he was lying. Ian wore a look on his face that said he knew it, too.
”You have any proof of this, Crispin?”
No one was fooled by his cool demeanor. Ian's eyes had gone flat green.
Bones nodded. ”I have copies of bank records and transactions from the most recent attempt. Stupid sod used a personal account to pay the informant at her uncle's operation, and I reckon if you look, you'll find that account can be traced to Max.
You'll also no doubt find another large transfer of funds in April, when the people living in her old house were murdered.”
Ian whitened around the lips. I grinned maliciously at Max.
”Uh oh. Looks like someone's in trouble.”