“I still can’t believe she wants to talk about the wedding,” I marveled to Bones as I climbed into my car.
He gave me a serious look. “She’ll never abandon her relationship with you. You could marry Satan himself and that still wouldn’t get rid of her. She loves you, Kitten, though she does a right poor job of showing it most days.” Then he gave me a wicked grin. “Shall I ring your cell in an hour, so you can pretend there’s an emergency if she gets natty with you?”
“What if there is an emergency with Tate?” I wondered. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave.”
“Your bloke’s fine. Nothing can harm him now short of a silver stake through the heart. Go see your mum. Ring me if you need me to come bite her.”
There really was nothing for me to do at the compound. Tate would be a few more days at least in lockdown, and we didn’t have any jobs scheduled, for obvious reasons. This was as good a time as any to see if my mom meant what she said about wanting to end our estrangement.
“Keep your cell handy,” I joked to Bones. Then I pulled away.
My mother lived thirty minutes from the compound. She was still in Richmond, but in a more rural area. Her quaint neighborhood was reminiscent of where we grew up in Ohio, without being too far away from Don if things got hairy. I pulled up to her house, parked, and noticed that her shutters needed a fresh coat of paint. Did they look like that the last time I was here? God, how long had it been since I’d come to see her?
As soon as I got out of the car, however, I froze. Shock crept up my spine, and it had nothing to do with the realization that I hadn’t been here since Bones came back into my life months ago.
From the feel of the energy leaking off the house, my mother wasn’t alone inside, but whoever was with her didn’t have a heartbeat. I started to slide my hand toward my purse, where I always had some silver knives tucked away, when a cold laugh made me stop.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, little girl,” a voice I hated said from behind me.
My mother’s front door opened. She was framed in it, with a dark-haired vampire who looked vaguely familiar cradling her neck almost lovingly in his hands.
And I didn’t need to turn around to know the vampire at my back was my father.
FIVE
M AX, MY FATHER, STOOD ABOUT THIRTY yards away between some trees. His red hair blew in the breeze and those identical gray eyes bore into mine. But what really held my attention was the rocket launcher Max had balanced on his shoulder. He also had a gun in his other hand. The disparity between the two weapons almost made me laugh out of sheer hysteria.
“I was going to blow up your car before you even pulled into the driveway,” Max said in a genial tone, nodding at the rocket launcher, “but then I saw you were alone. And how could any dad pass up the chance to spend some time with his little girl?”
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That was what Max had spat at me months ago after he’d been busted for hiring two hitmen to put me out of my misery. I hadn’t thought he would try more brazen attempts to kill me since Bones married me vampire-style, but it looked like I was wrong.
“Where’s your sire, Max?” I asked, my voice even. “Is Ian running late? Is he still that pissed at me for getting away from him months ago?”
“Ian?” Max laughed. “Fuck my sire, I don’t need him. I’ve got new benefactors, little girl, and they want you dead as much as I do.”
I debated going for my knives again. An icy smile stretched across Max’s face, which looked enough like mine for anyone to tell we were father and daughter.
“Think you can get to your weapons before I shoot you? Maybe you can. But not before this rocket plows right through your mother, and wouldn’t that be a shame.”
My jaw clenched. Max and the other vampire were in the exact opposite direction from each other. Even if I was fast enough to take out one of them, the other would still have time to kill my mom.
“Why don’t we go inside? I think a family chat’s long overdue,” Max said, gesturing with the gun.
There was no way I could do anything with the two of them this far apart. I started toward the house, but his laugh stopped me. “Drop your purse first, little girl, and kick it over my way. Slowly.”
A dozen different attack scenarios skipped through my mind, but fear for my mother made me reject all of them. If only it was just Max here. If only I’d strapped some weapons on me before heading over. If only I had another damn watch with a panic button in it, so Bones could realize my mother and I were in deep shit.
I dropped my purse and gave it a sideways kick over to Max. He grunted and came closer, his aim not wavering with either weapon.
“Let’s make you a little more respectful,” he said, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet hit me low in the stomach, doubling me over. It took a few seconds for the pain to hit, but when it did, it was merciless.