He said something in French that I couldn 't translate, but Annette did, because she laughed and replied in the same language. It was irritating not knowing what they were saying. Note to self: Expand linguistic skills.

Whatever their exchange was, it had Francois looking over at me with a glint in his, er, eye. Suddenly I wasn't so sure about my bright idea of having Annette back me up instead of Bones. She didn't like me; that had been firmly established. What if she was telling the other vampire that this was a trap? What if Bones's warning of horrible punishment didn't scare her as much as it should? Jealousy was an irrational emotion, and Annette might figure that she could come up with a whopper of a story afterward to deflect Bones's anger. I shifted uneasily in my seat, casting a quick look toward the back at my three bound guys. Things could get very ugly, very fast.

Francois stroked a strawberry-blond lock of hair from Annette's face before turning on his heel and coming over to my side of the van. I tensed, my hand sliding down to my thigh -high boots. I had silver knives tucked away in those. Maybe there wouldn't be any hostages for me to use as leverage against Ian after all.

Francois opened my door and I smiled, pretending to play with the tops of my boots in girlish flirtation while in reality, I was fingering the hilt of one of my blades.

"I have not had the pleasure of meeting you, " Francois said. "I am Francois, and my friend Annette tells me you are Selena."

I let him take my hand and kiss it, even though it meant being farther away from my knives. Behind Francois 's shoulder I saw Annette saying h.e.l.lo to the other guards. She knew all their names, I realized with an inner wince. If she wasn't backstabbing me, then she was about to do it in a big way to these people. Finally I realized the magnitude of what Bones was doing. These were Ian's people; therefore, Bones probably knew them residually, if not quite well. And for me, he was double-crossing them. Sure, it wasn't like they were innocents, since they'd agreed to be guards and potential executioners for my men, but still. It was so much easier to betray strangers than friends.

"Selena, my pet, come here," Annette said, waving me over.

I smiled at Francois once more and excused myself. Francois nonchalantly went around the back of the van, out of my sight, as I met Annette by the cl.u.s.ter of five vampires. If she's going to turn on me, I thought grimly, now would be the perfect time to do it.

But all Annette did was pull me close and kiss my neck while casually stroking my arm. Behind us, in the back of the van, it sounded like Francois was unloading Tate, Juan, and Cooper. Their hearts were beating faster, but nothing that made me think they were in imminent danger.

"Selena, meet my friends," Annette said.

I was quickly enveloped in warm h.e.l.lo kisses, as if this was a swingers ' bar instead of a warehouse hostage transfer.

Annette laughed when one of the men, Hatchet I think he'd said his name was, gave me a kiss heavy with tongue and decided to feel all the contours of my a.s.s.

"Enough of that, Hatchet," Annette said, playfully pulling me back. "Selena likes to get warmed up first, but by the feminine persuasion. Isn't that right, darling?"

b.i.t.c.h, I thought again, seeing the dare in her eyes, but I smiled and let Annette fold me in her arms. At least she wasn 't grabbing my a.s.s. Yet.

"That's right," I said breathily. "Still, it's nice to have something more substantial than a tongue to finish me off. Are you men going to be very busy here? Or do you get to take, um, breaks?"

I licked my fingers as I spoke. Annette was behind me, caressing my sides suggestively, and it was almost funny to see five sets of gazes all of a sudden turn streetlight green.

"When are we supposed to be at Ian's?" one of them asked. Francois's voice came from the other side of the van. "Not until eleven, over four hours from now."

Annette's mouth ran along the line of my neck to my shoulder, and I shivered pleasantly without faking it. The way her teeth grazed my skin had made little goose b.u.mps appear. Then she followed the line with her tongue, rubbing along the back of me with a slow, voluptuous slide.

Hatchet began taking off his clothes. I blinked. Apparently that was enough incentive for him.

Francois came around the van and put his arms around Annette. She purred and snake-hipped against him, which had me moving in the same way, too, since her hands still gripped my sides. Then Francois extended his reach and cupped my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. The rest of the guys started stripping as well. Pretty soon I'd have visual proof that none of them were packing weapons. So far the only knives I'd seen were carelessly laid several yards away by where the van pulled in. They really hadn't expected a trap.

I bent forward, like I was reveling in the sensations...and then I palmed four knives from my boots. Good timing, too.

Francois had been about to feel me up, or were those Annette's hands starting to get frisky?

"Now!" I shouted, and flung the blades.

Two landed in Hatchet's eyes, and the other two in the eyes of the vampire next to him. They screamed, s.n.a.t.c.hing at the blades while I leapt forward, throwing myself on them and smashing their heads together hard enough to hear crunching sounds.

But not hard enough to kill. Hatchet and his friend were on the ground, writhing and blinded, but they 'd heal. The other three vampires had gone for their weapons-and came face to face with Tate, Juan, and Cooper instead.

"Remember those handcuffs?" Tate asked, dangling one. "Fakes."

The vampires didn't bother to attempt to green-eye them into submission. They came tearing toward them with their fangs and fists instead. All this I saw while grappling with the two wounded ones on the floor, trying to get just the right slant with knives on both of them without killing them. Annette had her hands full with Francois, who sounded like he was cursing her up one side and down the other in French.

My three guys had exactly one silver knife apiece, which had been hidden in the soles of their shoes. They were all that stood between the vampires and their own cache of weapons. Right now, watching the vampires charge them as if time had shifted to slow motion, I knew I couldn't intervene. Not unless I killed the two vampires I was wrestling with.

I straddled Hatchet, holding him down, while roughly cutting the other vampire's throat deep enough that it nearly hacked his head off. That kept him occupied for a moment. Long enough for me to seize one of my blades, ignoring the pain as Hatchet landed a brutal blow to my stomach, and ram it into his chest.

He froze. The knife had gone clean through his heart. I leaned over until my hair brushed his face.

"Don't move, and I won't twist this blade. I don't want you dead. I just want you docile."

He stared up at me and spoke one word. "Reaper."

I knew my gaze must have been lit up, which was typical under the circ.u.mstance. I nodded.

"That's right. Now, don't f.u.c.king move."

I jumped off him, catching the blur of motion to my right as Juan, Tate, and Cooper were involved in the fight of their lives.

Cooper already had two wide slashes on his collarbone, but he was holding his own and countering each lightning-fast move. Tate had blood running from his mouth, but he, too, seemed relatively unhurt, and Juan...where the h.e.l.l was Juan?

The vamp beside me was getting up, his throat almost completely healed. I slammed his head into the hard ground, stunning him, and dragged him off several feet away from Hatchet. Then I jumped to avoid his leg from swiping my feet out from under me and skewered him in the chest.

"You want to live?" I asked, giving the blade a tiny flick. "Then don't dare so much as twitch."

Annette had Francois on the ground. Neither one of them had weapons, so it looked like they were trying to chew each other to death. I glanced at her, and then my guys. Juan still wasn't in sight. He must be on the other side of the van. I paused, then flung a blade as I caught Hatchet's hand beginning to creep toward the knife in his chest. It landed square in his forehead.

"Next one finishes you," I snarled. "Don't test me again."

Juan went flying over the top of the van. He had gouges all over him, but his heart rate was steady. Elevated as h.e.l.l, but steady, and I leapt up to catch him before he barreled into the ground.

"Watch where you're going," I said with a quick grin, setting him on his feet and then jumping onto the top of the van. From this higher vantage point, I could see the blond vampire Juan had been battling almost reaching the pile of weapons. I didn 't hesitate, but pushed off the side of the van like it was a diving board and hurled myself at him. He went down, hard, with me grabbing his back.

"Juan, make sure those two vamps don't pull out their silver!" I managed to shout before an elbow to my face cut me off.

Ow ow oww! My nose broke and I tasted blood. That didn't stop me from returning the favor and slamming the vampire's face into the ground, however, which produced a satisfying crunch.

"Now we're even," I panted, then flicked a knife from my boots and sent it home through his back. "And now I'm ahead."

"Cat, watch out!" Cooper yelled.

My head snapped up to see another vampire flying toward me. I reached in my boots again-and found nothing. I was out of knives, and out of time to get away.

Then suddenly the vampire was knocked to the side. Tate's head appeared in the jumble of flying limbs. He must have barreled into the vamp at the last second. I scrambled forward to the silver knives, sc.r.a.ping the h.e.l.l out of my knees on the concrete, but came up with several lovely, gleaming blades.

"Heads up!" I called out. My guys ducked immediately, and those blades landed in undead flesh, garnering fresh howls.

Tate jumped back on the vampire who'd tried to ambush me, and I tossed him a blade that he caught one-handed before driving it into the vamp's back.

"Don't twist, don't twist!" I reminded him, joining in Cooper's fight.

Five minutes later, it was done. Francois was the last vampire to be taken down, and when I pulled him off Annette, lodging a knife firmly in his back, he was still cursing her.

"Why?" he demanded at last, his accent making the word almost incoherent.

Annette had blood all over her, some of it hers, some of it Francois's. With her unmarked skin and that red gore coating her, she could have pa.s.sed for a curvy Sissy s.p.a.cek at the end of Carrie.

"You see who she is?" she asked Francois curtly, jerking her head toward me. "Your sire wants her. My sire loves her. I'm sorry, Francois, but my loyalty is to Crispin, not Ian."

I maneuvered Francois over to the van, where Annette began wrapping duct tape around his wrists. It wouldn't be enough to hold a vampire normally, but too much jiggling would drive that knife farther into Francois's heart, and he'd know it.

"You may as well kill me," Francois said bitterly. "For that is what Ian will do once he discovers we were duped and failed him."

"I don't think so," I replied. "Or I'll tell everyone that Ian fell for the same trick back in February. See, I had him in the same position you're in, Francois, and Ian seems the arrogant type who wouldn't want that to become public knowledge. If you guys behave, you'll live to bite another day, I promise."

Tate came over. He took off his shirt and handed it to me.

"Your nose is still bleeding, Cat."

Yeah, I knew that. I could taste it, since it was running in a slow drip into my mouth. I swiped at my face with Tate's shirt.

Annette finished with Francois's wrists and then sliced her palm, holding it an inch from me.

I met her eyes...and then brought her hand to my mouth. Her cut had been deep, and though the wound healed almost instantly, the blood it drew remained. I sucked on it for a second, noting with detachment that she tasted different from Bones, and felt my nose tingle as it healed.

"Thanks," I said, dropping her hand.

A slight smile curved her mouth. "Wouldn't want to have your lovely face marred, now, would we? After all, you have another party to go to."

THIRTY-FIVE.

AN HOUR LATER, ONE WOULD NEVER GUESS I'd done anything more strenuous today than paint my toenails or shop at the mall. I was relaxing in the steam room, with an attendant rubbing my feet, of all things. I'd tried to politely refuse such pampering, but I was told it was part of my prearranged treatment. And truthfully, it felt so wonderful, my protest was halfhearted at best.

After that, there was the sauna, exfoliating, and an herbal bath with exotic oils and mints. If there was any trace of Bones's scent on me after this, it'd be a frigging miracle. Even my teeth were treated to a bleaching solution that nearly burned my gums off.

When I was done being put through a high-end version of a car wash, the attendant came in and handed me a box.

"Here you go, miss. This is for you."

Inside was a dress, a cell phone, a set of car keys with a vehicle description, and a pair of high-heeled shoes. As soon as I took them out, I smiled. The guys wouldn't be the only ones with dangerous footwear. The heels on these were solid silver, covered with only a layer of black paint.

I got dressed quickly, checking the clock on the wall. Then I looked at my reflection and paused. The dress had Bones written all over it, since it was more like a teddy than evening wear. It had a halter that plunged to my waist in a style that would have made even Jennifer Lopez pause. Double-sided tape held the two black strips of material to my b.r.e.a.s.t.s in vertical swaths. The bottom was attached, cut high on the legs front and back, and the only thing that saved the outfit from being obscene were the translucent bits of fabric that ranged from hip to mid-thigh length and swayed when I moved.

One thing was for sure-this dress sure as h.e.l.l didn't lack for fluidity. There wasn't enough of it to hinder movement.

Once I had my makeup on, the new cell phone from the box rang as if on cue. An unfamiliar voice was on the other end. "Reaper, meet us at the overpa.s.s of Forty-fifth and Wilkes. You'd better be alone. By now you should know that we have four of your people, and we don't need all of them."

How charming. Not even a h.e.l.lo. "I'll play ball, but if you kill any of them, you're next."

I was already on my way to the parking lot, those new keys in my hand. They went to the blue Explorer parked near the entrance. I fastened my seat belt as I drove off, since going through the windshield wasn't in my plans tonight. At least not that I knew of.

Two cars waited for me at the designated area with four vampires in each of them.

"Let's get this show on the road, boys," I greeted them.

Sixteen pairs of eyes roamed me from head to high-heeled feet. Helpfully I spun in a circle and stretched out my arms.

"You can check me for weapons, but what you see is what you get. Now, if you 're finished gaping, I have a date with whoever your boss is."

"h.e.l.lo there, darling," a voice behind me said, with a p.r.o.nounced English accent.

I spun around to see a tall vampire with long, spiky black hair lounging by the guardrail. He hadn 't been there a moment ago. His aura announced him as the most powerful of the group, a Master vampire, and it wasn't the first time I'd met him.

"Where I come from, it's polite to introduce yourself first before calling someone a s.e.xist demeaning nickname, or maybe you weren't brought up with manners?"

He smiled and straightened from his easy slouch to sweep me a bow that was still the courtliest I'd ever seen.

"Of course. How rude of me. My name is Spade."

I controlled my expression to show nothing, but inwardly I grinned. This was Bones's best friend. Years ago when we met, I'd automatically a.s.sumed he was a bad guy and tried to smash his head in with large stones. After Bones arrived and cleared up his ident.i.ty, Spade had brushed himself off-and then roundly criticized me for my method of introduction.

"Spade. Nice name. Were you forced to pick from a comic book or something?"

I knew why he'd chosen the name, of course. Spade had been a South Wales prisoner along with Bones. The overseer used to call the former Baron Charles DeMor-timer by his a.s.signed tool, a spade. He'd kept the name so he wouldn't forget his former helplessness.

His mouth twitched before he stilled it. "I'll ponder my choice later, angel. If you would step this way? I'm going to search you for weapons."

The other eight formed a protective circle around us as Spade ran his hands leisurely and thoroughly over me. When he was finished, he wore a slight grin.

"Now it's a pleasure meeting you." He inclined his head toward one of the cars. "After you."

We drove to a deserted road where a helicopter waited. There was no more conversation. I drummed my fingernails on my leg as we took off. The other vampires kept staring at me, but I ignored them. For his part, Spade was silent, but every so often, he'd cast a sideways smirk at me.

We landed just over two hours later. I didn't have a watch, but guessed the time around eleven-thirty. Soon, then. Very soon. I said a silent prayer that no one but my father would get killed tonight, and then I got out to start the party.

Ian certainly liked to entertain in style. This house was even grander than his last one, a virtual mansion. Gardens formed eerie shapes in the moonlight, and torches were decoratively displayed for maximum effect. Sculptures frozen in permanent pose either welcomed or warned, and some of them were downright barbaric. Idly, I wondered if the ancient-looking Greek ones were authentic as we crossed underneath a marble trellis. Knowing Ian's penchant for rare and valuable things, they probably were.

The collective force of supernatural power that hit me when the doors opened made me pause. It was like walking into liquid electrocution with all the inhuman currents buzzing around. Good G.o.d, what kind of creatures were in here? A twinge of apprehension shot through me. This was the big leagues and I wasn't sure if I was ready to go pro, but it was too late to turn back now.