He aimed a murderous glare at the Tribe vampires, but didn't say anything as he led her to stand near Serisa and Barak. Domini was there, and Anjelica, along with a couple more Clan women and several older males. Mia felt young and way out of her depth in this crowd, and would have been happy to slip to the back behind everyone and not be noticed.

But apparently she and Colin were the center of attention. She wondered if they were ever going to be able to get away to start leading their lives and working out their relationship.

Serisa clapped her hands. "We are gathered in truce with our enemies," the Matri intoned.

Did the vampire leader have a ceremonial statement memorized for every occasion?

All the vampires, including the Tribe ones, clapped once. The combined effect was like a somber clap of thunder. Mia exchanged a glance with Domini, who claimed to be nominally human. Domini had her arms crossed, and she gave the faintest of shrugs when Mia caught her eye. Mia was almost rea.s.sured, knowing she wasn't the only one out of this particular ceremonial loop.

"Speak, Justinian of Manticore," Serisa said.

The one called Justinian took a step forward. Like all the other Primes she'd seen, Mia found him handsome, with a commanding presence. But unlike the Clan males she'd encountered, there didn't seem to be any sense of humor leavening the haughtiness of his bearing. He looked the way a vampire ought to: arrogant, cruel, and really, really pale.

"The Clans and Tribes disagree on almost every point," he began.

Justinian's voice was deep and compelling, and made her think of a high-powered trial lawyer. For some reason that image made Mia very uncomfortable-as if maybe she was the one on trial.

"Over the centuries, this has led us to misunderstand each other. But when it comes to the hunters, when it comes to survival of our kind, we are forced to cooperate." He produced a slick, sincere-seeming smile. "I have come to tell you that you are unknowingly harboring a female from one of the mortal bloodlines that have murdered our people for centuries."

"Would that be me?" Domini spoke up, taking a step forward and shielding Mia in the process. "If it is, you can leave now, because that thing with the Purist was settled long ago." Justinian turned a look on Domini that could have melted t.i.tanium.

"Silence, female!" he snapped. Then he looked her up and down and sneered. "Mortal female, at that."

"So much for the civilized veneer," Domini murmured.

"Bi-" Justinian managed to stop himself before uttering the rest of the word.

The tension in the room escalated, and Alec moved forward. Tony Crowe put a hand on Alec's shoulder to stop him. The blond vampire did the same with Justinian.

Justinian shoved away his hand, but the blond turned to Serisa. "There's a story that needs to be told," he said hurriedly. "One that goes back several mortal generations. Allow us to tell you the root of our grievance and claim. We came here in good faith."

He gave Domini a mildly reproachful look. "Bait a Prime of any of our kind, and he responds."

Domini frowned. "Okay. I did that." She pointedly did not address Justinian. "My apologies, Matri."

The friction among the Primes eased down a notch.

"Tell your story," Serisa directed.

The blond waited for a nod of permission from Justinian before he said, "For several centuries, a mortal family named Garrison pursued Tribe Manticore. These murderers made it their mission to hunt us to extinction."

His words made Mia uncomfortable, and she could almost see their point of view.

"But the Manticore accepted the terms of the Great Truce of 1903," he went on. "We tried to pursue the peaceful coexistence promised by the truce. The Manticore disappeared into the night, to take blood as we need, but to live without killing. And the Garrisons retired from hunting. They still had the blood of our dead on their hands, but we vowed not to seek revenge. We lived by the truce." He looked around and asked, "Has anyone ever heard of a Manticore killing a mortal?"

After a short silence, Barak said, "Not for over a hundred years."

"When the truce freed us from the necessity of always being on the run, the Manticore finally had the time to ama.s.s a great deal of wealth. We used this wealth to protect our young, to try to fit into the modern world. We might have become one of those tribes that blended into the neutral ways of the Families."

Mia interpreted this statement as some sort of playing on the Clan vampires' sympathies, and it seemed to be working, at least a little.

"Whatever might have happened," he went on, "we will never know. Because our future was destroyed by a man named Henry Garrison."

Oops,Mia thought, as shock rattled her.

Colin had put his arm around her shoulders; now it tightened in reaction to her psychic outburst.

"What?" he asked.

The blond went on, "Garrison was from the generation of the hunter family born after the truce was signed. He had no personal vendetta to pursue vampires, no reason to hunt us. But he came after us anyway. Not because of what we are, but because of what we had. This Garrison stole everything from us and made himself a wealthy man."

"A very wealthy man," Justinian added. "And Tribe Manticore has dedicated nearly a century to hunting him. It is our right to take back what is ours, but Garrison hides himself very well. It has taken us decades to find even a member of his family. And what do we encounter, when we finally have the key to his whereabouts within our reach? We find that the Clans have offered protection to this vampire murderer's great-granddaughter." He pointed at Mia. "To her."

Everyone turned to look at Mia.

"And by the way," the blond said, "these days, Garrison likes to be known as the Patron."

Chapter Nineteen.

Colin's arm was no longer around her shoulder. In fact, he had stepped away and was the one looking at her with the most intent scrutiny.

Though the gazes turned on her were neutral and questioning, the psychic temperature in the room was decidedly cooler. And the air of danger was palpable just under the surface.

Mia went cold, and tried not to shake-but Good G.o.d, she was a mortal among vampires! And the blond had done a fine job of working the room.

She turned her glare on the Manticore vampires. "These are the ones who have been trying to kill me," she reminded the Clan members.

"We have been trying to-"

The blond hesitated, and Mia was willing to bet he was trying to come up with words that were more diplomatic thancapture, torture, interrogate.

He settled on, "We have questions for the hunter. It was natural for us to approach her with a certain amount of caution."

"He jumped out of the bushes and grabbed me," Mia said. "If Colin hadn't rescued me, I don't know what would have happened." She glanced at Domini, then over at Alec and Tony. "And remember the attack in the parking garage?"

"We came here to claim our right to deal with the Garrison woman," Justinian said.

"She is now a member of Clan Reynard," Anjelica spoke up. "You cannot have her."

Mia flashed her Matri-in-law a shocked look. "What? Would you just turn me over to them otherwise?"

"We came to claim her," the blond said. "But we had no knowledge that the mortal had managed to connive to bond herself to a Prime. Of course, now our negotiations over the Garrison woman have become more complicated."

This guy was good. He was making it sound like she'd wormed her way into Colin's clan on purpose.

"My name isn't Garrison," she pointed out. "Henry Garrisonis my great-grandfather, but-"

What was she supposed to say? That she'd only met the old boy a few days ago, that she didn't like him-and that he'd sent her out hunting vampires?

"I know very little about the man," she finished.

"He's richer than G.o.d, and about as old," Colin said. He took her by the arm. "That's what you told me about him once. Don't you remember?"

"Yeah-vaguely." "You didn't tell me he's the Patron." His voice was soft, deadly, and very, very scary. So was the cold look in his eyes.

Being scared always made Mia angry. She jerked her arm away from Colin's grasp. "I didn't know."

Colin looked calm, but she was all too aware of the seething fury beneath the surface. "If you will excuse us, Matris, I need to talk to my bondmate in private."

"Yes. We need a few minutes to work this out." Thoughthis was so complicated, Mia had no idea how to begin.

"I protest," Justinian said. "This hunter-sp.a.w.ned female has her psychic claws in your young Prime. That makes him vulnerable to any poisonous lies she plants in his mind. It is the Manticores' right to question her. Let me-"

"You have ten minutes." Serisa cut him off. She made a shooing gesture. "Go out on the terrace and talk."

"When were you planning on telling me?"

Colin sounded far too calm, when she'd been waiting for an explosion. He'd been standing with his back to her for a couple of minutes, looking out at the landscaped hillside stretching down from the house. The marble terrace was empty; every sign of last night's celebration was gone.

Mia squinted in the bright light that poured down on them. She was aware of a growing headache, and wished for a pair of sungla.s.ses.

She also wanted to go home.

She wanted her house, her profession, her life. She wanted to call her mom. Shedefinitely didn't want anything to do with her great-grandfather.

"He ran out on my family," she reminded Colin. "Remember that I told you how he abandoned them? I didn't know anything about-no, that's not quite true. I knew about the Garrisons being hunters, but not about how he-"

"When were you going to tell me that you are a vampire hunter?" He turned slowly to face her. When she didn't immediately deny the charge, he lifted one heavily arched brow. "Well," he said, and put his hands behind his back. "Isn't this interesting?"

Mia would have preferred him to shout.

"Domini said I should tell you right away, but there hasn't exactly been time."

Surprised hurt spread from him like a shock wave. "Domini knew about this, but you didn't tellme? "

"There wasn't time!" Mia repeated. "The subject came up just before the ceremony." She crossed her arms and took a defiant stance in front of him. "And I don't know why I have to defend myself just because my ancestors and yours didn't get along.

We're not the Hatfields and the McCoys, you know."

"Who?"

Okay, maybe Colin didn't know anything about American history. Or maybe it was mortal history he was weak on.

Mia tried another tack. "I'm not the enemy. I don't want to hurt anyone in the Clans."

Her own sincerity surprised her. It hadn't been so long ago that she'd lumped all vampires into the evil-monsters-that-must-be- destroyed category.

What had changed her mind? Was it because they'd given her a beautiful dress and made her and Colin marry each other? Because they threw a great party? Maybe it was because the Clan vampires had defended her from the Tribe ones?

"Your people don't seem to have any kind of evil agenda toward humans. I haven't witnessed anything but your helping people."

She looked at him with admiration. "You're a SWAT officer."

"Didn't you accuse me of using that to cover up killing people?"

She winced. "I was angry when I said that. Scared and totally confused at finding out you were a vampire."

"How could you be confused when you already knew about vampires?"

"I didn't knowyou were one! All I knew was what little my grandmother told me, which she learned from her grandfather and only half believed herself. A lot of information can get lost or garbled in that amount of time."

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "I guess mortals have a different view of time. What's within living memory for one of us can be ancient history for you."

She nodded. "Exactly. I knew I had a legacy, and a feeling I should do something about it, but-"

"Is that why you're such a jock? So you could kick vampire b.u.t.t?"

She was embarra.s.sed, since her training didn't stand up well against the reality of his kind. "I like being physical. But yeah," she admitted, "I've worked my b.u.t.t off preparing for a scenario I never really thought would happen. And I certainly never intended to become a bad-a.s.s vampire hunter until that blond guy jumped me."

"Tony said you were looking for the hunters." Colin slapped a hand to his forehead. "I am such an idiot. He kept saying you were a wannabe hunter. Why didn't I pay attention? Because I can't think around you." As if in proof, he grabbed her by the shoulders and drew her into a hard, fierce kiss.

She opened her mouth beneath his and responded just as fiercely. Heat raced through her, mutating the high drama of their argument into pa.s.sion-deep physical and emotional need. She ran her hands down his back and thighs, reveling in the feel of warm skin and wiry muscles.

The kiss ended as abruptly as it began, leaving her dizzy with desire and totally frustrated. "Hey!"

He gave a harsh, breathless laugh and shook his head. "I can't think. All I want to do is that. And more."

"Me, too." She was crazy about Colin.

Or maybe just plain crazy. Here they were in the middle of yet another argument, faced with a threat from those Manticore jerks, yet l.u.s.t still sizzled and threatened to burn away all brain cells used for logical thought.

"We'd better not," she agreed. "Besides, you're still p.i.s.sed at me."

"Yeah," he agreed.

"I still don't completely know why."

"Because of the Patron." Colin put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't you realize who this man is?"

"The man who deserted my grandmother's family," she responded. "This does not endear him to me. And apparently he got rich by stealing, but since that claim comes from vampires who attacked me, I'm not necessarily willing to believe that." But she couldn't deny that Henry Garrison and the Patron were the same man; she had heard one of his staff address him as Patron.