After the cake, everyone cleared out of the church and the tents. It was almost midnight, the witching hour. The snow looked pristine settled on the ground in thick white blankets, cold air billowing out in the breaths of those who took them. Bones had me in front of him at the edge of the trees. He said there was one more surprise.

With a blast, fireworks shot into the night, exploding over the church in a dazzling display of colors and shapes. For several moments, I stared, then Bones picked me up and carried me rapidly into the woods, chuckling as I craned my neck to catch another glimpse of the artificially lit sky.

"We're making our escape, Kitten, while they're all distracted."

The helicopter waited a mile away. I climbed inside and fired the propellers. Flying was a skill I'd learned years ago with Don, and helicopters were my favorite to operate. We were airborne and away from the still-exploding spectacle in minutes.

"Don't fret, luv. I know what you're thinking. I left a check for twice the amount of what that church is worth. No one is getting ripped off. Couldn't leave such an obvious scent trail for anyone to pick up on, now could I? It'll burn to ashes. Less chance of people discovering exactly who was there."

I glanced sideways at him as I flew the Bell Jet Ranger expertly. "You really do plan ahead, don't you? That light show was magnificent. I almost wish I could have seen it all."

"Go faster, pet, and I'll show you what else I have planned."

We were forty minutes away by air, a deliberate calculation. When we talked about where we wanted to go for the two weeks off for our honeymoon, I'd been adamant. I wanted to be alone, not in a hotel room or seeing sights which would occupy valuable time, but alone. He hadn't needed persuading. We were spending one week at our Blue Ridge home and then one week at the Jackson Hole one. Both of us loved the mountains. The Blue Ridge location won the first round due to location. It was much, much closer than the Wyoming house from the church. Patience wasn't one of my virtues now.

The chopper landed neatly on the helipad and was garaged out of sight. Bones picked me up and sprinted up the stairs of the sparsely furnished house that was my favorite of our homes. My cat was rudely locked out of the bedroom as Bones kicked the door closed behind him. The feline had a tendency to want attention at the most inopportune moments.

Bones set me down to light the candles that were conveniently arrayed. I had just begun to kick off my shoes when he stopped me.

"Don't." His voice was soft but resonating. He finished with the candles a moment later and returned, running his hands up my arms. Green flame spilled out of his eyes.

"Don't take anything off, not yet. I want you just like this, with everything you have on now. You've never looked more stunning, and I want to be inside you while you're wearing that beautiful dress. All night I've been wondering what you've got on under it. Let's see, shall we?"

He knelt at my feet, hands sliding up my legs underneath the skirt of the dress. An approving noise left his throat.

"Silk stockings, hmmm? Lovely. And garters as well. Ah, what's this? Is that a corset, pet? Blimey, I haven't felt one of those in almost a century. Authentic replica, except for these. How terribly thoughtful of you, Mrs. Russell. These snap buttons would have come in right handy back when these things were all the rage."

"Glad you like it." Breathlessly.

His fingers had been busy. I sucked in a sharp gasp when he flipped my skirt up enough to cover him as he explored inside. The aforementioned buttons came free with a decisive pop as he unsnapped them. I backed up toward the bed in two unsteady steps when his mouth glided up my thigh.

"Say my name. I want to hear it when I taste you," he entreated into the red curls between my legs.

"Bones," I sighed.

He gave an inhaled breath at the center of me underneath my skirt.

"The other one. Just this once, call me by my other name."

The mattress was behind me. I scooted onto it to support my trembling knees. In a gesture of blatant desire I hadn't shown before, I spread my legs and pressed his head between them while groaning out the name I never called him.

"Crispin..."

An oral assault from lips, tongue, and teeth began on my flesh. He didn't bite me in the way he had previously but used his fangs as instruments of pressure without breaking my delicate skin.

When I felt near the edge of release I rolled away suddenly, panting. "Not against your mouth. I want to come when you're inside me."

He rose up from his knees, emerald eyes burning into mine. I stilled his hands with a quavering smile when he went to shrug off his coat.

"You were right. Keep them on. And then call me by my real name when you come."

Bones crawled up the bed toward me, fully clothed. I shivered as I drew down his zipper to grasp the hard flesh it concealed. He leaned back against the pillows, lifting the skirt of the dress as I straddled him. His mouth smothered my cry as I impaled myself on him.

The fabric of his pants rubbed my flesh. He murmured a warning about the zipper and undid his trousers, easing them out from under me without taking them down past his thighs. I rested my hands on the lacey neck of his shirt, fingering the silver threads braided in his waistcoat. His back arched with each rocking motion of my hips.

"You're so bloody beautiful," I rasped as the intensity built.

He laughed into my neck. "That's my line, luv. Tell me if you like this, Kitten. I think you will..."

His thumb sought out and found the top of my cleft, pressing erotic circles into the jumping knot of flesh with each movement I made. My hands clenched in the material of his coat.

"Stop that, I can't- I can't..." Every flick of his thumb caused me to jerk back uncontrollably with ecstasy. "I can't concentrate," I finished.

He let out an amused noise. "You're not supposed to. Still thinking? Let's put a stop to that."

He increased the pressure, causing me to grind in frenzied rapture on top of him. The climax burst inside me in tremors that felt like they might tear a muscle. Bones rolled me over and buried his head in my cleavage as I shook.

"That's better," he groaned into my skin. His fingers began to undo the buttons of my dress.

"Didn't you...?" I asked raggedly.

He shifted up to kiss me, sucking on my tongue and thrusting strongly within me.

"Not yet. Told you, I have a plan. For each time you come, I'll remove a piece of your clothing. Once you're naked I'll let myself go. We still have the corset, stockings, shoes, garters and your veil to work through. A man should have goals, don't you agree?"

Oh, I agreed. "I will be... ah, yes, right there... happy... to assist you."

Bones didn't cheat by biting me into submission, he took the long way around my clothing. Two hours later I was finally naked and drenched in sweat. He surged on top of me, alternating between kissing my face and my breasts. I'd raked bloody scratches into his back that healed just in time to be re-inflicted.

"Kitten," he moaned. "I'm going to pour myself into you now."

"Yes," I urged, twisting under him.

A jagged chuckle. "Not just that, luv. Something new. I've been saving this for tonight. Put your hands on my shoulders, like that. Now. Look in my eyes, Kitten, don't close yours. That's right, look straight into them..."

God, they began to really glow. Not just gleam, but sparkle and spin with a thousand tiny lights. I watched, fascinated, and gradually became aware that his skin started to shimmer as well. It was as if a light had been switched on that leaked out of his pores and through his eyes. A humming energy built up inside him. This was similar to what happened when he levitated, but stronger. And I couldn't look away from his eyes; they started to suck me in...

I fell forward into the spinning wheels of emerald in his gaze, lost. Bones seemed to grow and expand all around me until I didn't feel the bed underneath me, or my arms, legs, or anything of me. There was nothing but him, and I felt everything he did.

My body was hard, masculine, pulseless. The skin covering me was cool and rippled with lean sinews, and I was sizzled by the hot flesh of the woman underneath me. Her heartbeat drummed in my ears frantically, loud cries searing my mind as I thrust harder inside her. The sweet, musky scent of her filled my nose and flavored my mouth, arousing me to move faster, each stroke causing her to clench internal muscles around me. Wet ridges of scorching flesh welcomed each penetration, crunching in anticipation and tension. I loved the viselike grip she held me in and wanted to drink her and feel her blood inside me.

The hunger curled in my throat. I licked her neck, rolling her pulse underneath my tongue. She clutched me closer, screaming now, yes, yes, yes, her muscles compressing me in a scalding rush of liquid which ripped my control from me. I sank my fangs into her throat, blood splashing into my mouth, so warm, luscious, empowering me. Revitalizing me, running to every nerve in my body in an instant. Another deep pull that was better than the first. Ah, so close now.

Her red hair clung in wet strands to her face, green eyes huge and glowing. I still felt the squeezing of her body around me, but with less force. Her heartbeat slowed a trifle as her hands flexed on my shoulders with aftershocks. Roughly I gathered her into my arms, holding her hips hard against mine and plunging repeatedly into her hot, narrow depths. Over and over, each cleaving motion inciting more, yes, oh Christ, so good, a little more...

My skin exploded, molten sensation poured over me and through me, wracking me with shudders that shattered me. I shouted out her real name hoarsely as I came, just like she'd asked me to.

"Catherine...!"

"What do you think, Kitten? Did you like that?"

What did I think? Every part of me was shaking. So many thoughts raced through my mind, I couldn't pick one fast enough before it was replaced. Add that to the aftereffects of a near-simultaneous orgasm with myself, and Play-Doh was more coherent than I was.

"Is it... like that... every time?" was all I came up with.

He lay spooned behind me, a sheet tangled around us. I'd started to get the chills as soon as I was mentally back in my body.

"Close enough, yes. You should take a trip inside me after I bite you between your legs. Whatever you are feeling then, trust me, I am feeling more. It's like shagging a volcano that just erupted. Perhaps now you won't wonder if I'm satisfied with you in bed. You have your answer."

"How? I mean, how did you do that?" I peered around my shoulder to look at him as he smiled at me.

"You know a vampire can steal the mind of a human with their eyes. Well, pet, that is what I did with you. Only I didn't steal, you see, because you're too strong for that. It doesn't work by force with you since you have nosferatu blood in your veins. But I could ask, and you could choose to surrender your will to me. That's what I did, Kitten. I asked. You accepted."

Bones nestled against me, kissing the spot on my neck he'd bitten, we'd bitten, whatever. Hell if I knew the proper way to describe it.

"It was incredible," I settled on saying softly. "I can't even begin to articulate how much. Although technically, I just had sex with another woman, even if it was me."

He gave a sinful chuckle and began to unwind the sheet. "And you said you'd never have a threesome."

"That's as close as it comes, Bones," I said without anger. My body was too languorous for that. I'd actually been inside his skin, closer than I ever thought to be. Astonishing. "How often can that, um, be done? Is there a burnout factor? You were leaking power like a ruptured oil tanker-it must have cost you something."

Bones successfully got rid of the cotton barrier separating us. He began to caress me as he answered. "Cost a bit, Kitten. Everything worthwhile does, right? I'd say at a guess without it affecting me unduly... twice a month?"

"Really?" I mulled the response, stretching under those probing hands. He closed the distance between us.

"You know," I murmured as his head lowered to my breast, "I heard some of those things as you thought them. You have a very dirty mind, Bones. Just depraved."

He smiled against my skin. "Absolutely. What do you think I've been trying to tell you? Now let me prove it once again, Kitten."

Chapter Twenty-Two.

Belinda Gets Fired

Author's note: In At Grave's End, Belinda gets killed after a calamitous sting operation at Chuck E. Cheese's. In the original version, the Chuck E. Cheese's scene never happened, and thus Belinda died very differently. In both versions, however, Belinda has brief contact with another vampire and tells him the exact date and time that Tate was going to be changed over, giving Max the information he needed to attack Cat when Bones and her team would be occupied. In the published version, Cat killed Belinda before they had to chance to discover that. In this version, Belinda deliberately goads Cat with some very explicit recollections, but the end result is the same.

Two weeks later, we strolled back into the Virginia compound. If I weren't so afraid of the word perfect, it would be what I used to describe our honeymoon.

We had originally intended to spend a week at our home in the Blue Ridge and then go to Jackson Hole, but an extended snowstorm nixed our travel plans. I could honestly say I didn't care. We toasted marshmallows, made snowmen, had a freezing version of a strip snowball fight and spent hours in our outdoor hot tub. The house was stocked well with food, and we only ventured out a few times for Bones to feed. He didn't want to only take blood from me for practical reasons, and a couple of flashes from his eyes later and the gas station attendants were unaware of their contribution to his appetite.

The time passed too quickly. I hadn't even spoken to anyone from work. They'd been given strict instructions not to bother us unless there was a serious emergency. Since there had been no calls, I assumed all must have been well.

Don looked up from his computer as we came in his office. Instead of taking my usual seat in the chair opposite him, I sat on the couch with Bones. Obnoxious maybe, but I couldn't stop touching him yet. Maybe in another couple of weeks.

Don cleared his throat. "You're both looking well. It appears you had a nice honeymoon."

"Very much so, old chap. Too short, of course. Were it not for our vampire-in-training, you wouldn't have seen us for over a month."

The intimate tone he used, combined with the light brush of his lips on my temple, made my uncle shift in his chair. Open affection between me and a vampire never failed to unsettle Don. I put him out of his misery by changing the subject.

"Did anything noteworthy go on while we were gone?"

Don started tugging his eyebrow. Oh, so there had been activity. "We had some incidents locally," he began. "A disturbance at a restaurant that serves vampires. Apparently you knew about this place, Cat, and didn't bother to enlighten me."

I shrugged off the accusation in his tone. Before Bones, Don had had a pretty stringent policy when it came to vampires. See 'em, kill 'em, find out later if they were being naughty. I had my own way of handling things. If the vampires didn't hurt humans, I didn't hurt them, hence my relaxed attitude about the places they frequented where bodies didn't turn up.

"What restaurant?"

That earned me a dirty look. "How many of them are there? Aren't you concerned about a large number of vampires congregating in the city when your mother lives?"

"Bloody hell, mate, vampires and ghouls are everywhere," Bones interjected. "Roughly ten percent of the population is undead. Going to have her try to hack her way through all of them?"

Don blanched at the statistic but returned to the subject. "The place was Arturo's, an Italian restaurant where they served blood side by side with the red wine, it seems. Some humans who were there called 911, and since we monitor those calls for supernatural content, we sent a team."

"Who went?" I hated it when my team went anywhere without me. Although Dave was great at filling my shoes, being undead and all, protective instincts died hard. No pun intended.

"Dave, Tate, Angus, and Belinda. We brought her to give a low profile since she's a vampire. Cooper stayed nearby with more soldiers for backup, and only those four went inside. As it turned out, it was just a couple of vamps being very indiscreet by feeding off their playthings at a table, and the sight of that naturally freaked the other humans out. The owner of the restaurant apologized profusely and swore that nothing like that had happened before. He even mentioned you, Cat. Said you'd been there and you knew the place was okay. You can imagine how much I liked hearing that."

His reproachful tone made me squirm, and then I took the offensive. "They have great lasagna, so what? No one else knew who I was. The owner guessed because of my frigging hair and skin. I didn't go back, and that was a year ago! They didn't let their clientele get rowdy, so why should I have called in the troops?"

Don twisted his lips. "That's not all there is to the story. Belinda vanished for about ten minutes until Dave sniffed her out. She didn't try to run, which surprises me, but she did have, ah, contact with another vampire before she was discovered. We have her in lockdown now."

I didn't get it at first, but Bones did. He gave a short bark of laughter. "So you caught her shagging the first undead sod she came across, did you? Undisciplined chit. Doesn't say much for the rest of them, to let her wander so off her leash."

"That little slut," I muttered.

Don nodded. "As I said, she's been confined to her cell since then, blood allotment decreased by fifty percent. I was waiting further decision on her punishment until you returned, Cat. Nothing else out of the ordinary has happened. The restaurant remains open, but it's being monitored now."

"Was Belinda questioned when she was brought back? What about the vampire she was nailing, was he checked for any weapons?"

My uncle shook his head in frustration. "She was questioned, yes, and also searched, but nothing was found. The vampire she consorted with managed to run away, as the team was more concerned with securing Belinda. We've watched the restaurant, but he hasn't returned since. Belinda claims never to have seen him before. According to her, she wasn't being particular."

Bones stood. "We should talk to her, Kitten. Find out if there's more."