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 God, 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 than capture, 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 Garrison is 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 God, 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.” Though this was so complicated, Mia had no idea how to begin.
“I protest,” Justinian said. “This hunter-spawned 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 sunglasses.
She also wanted to go home.
She wanted her house, her profession, her life. She wanted to call her mom. She definitely 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 tell me?”
“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 know you 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 butt?”
She was embarrassed, 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 butt off preparing for a scenario I never really thought would happen. And I certainly never intended to become a bad-ass 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 passion—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 lust still si
zzled and threatened to burn away all brain cells used for logical thought.
“We’d better not,” she agreed. “Besides, you’re still pissed 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.
“Running out on your family and stealing from the Manticores are things he did in the past,” Colin answered. “They’re nothing compared to what the Patron is up to right now. He’s a very, very dangerous man. Dangerous and sick, and ruthless.”
Mia was stung, even if she didn’t have much respect for Henry Garrison. “Dangerous and sick and ruthless is exactly what I thought about your relatives a couple of days ago. How can you say such things when you don’t even know the man?”
“Oh, I know him,” he answered. “I’ve taken a vow to destroy him.”
“You what?” Mia jerked away and stared at her bondmate in horror. “I can’t let you kill one of my relatives!”
“He’s willing to kill mine.”
“Yeah, but you’re vampires—and he doesn’t know any better. He’s a traditionalist!”
“He’s insane,” Colin went on before she could protest further. “He doesn’t care about saving the world from vampires. He wants to live forever. He thinks vampires are immortal, the way all hunters used to, and that he can steal the secret of immortality from us. And he has the money and mindset to pursue research into immortality. He uses mercenaries, and funds rogue scientists, kidnaps vampires and mortals, and has his scientists run hideous experiments on them.”
She didn’t believe she was hearing this. “That’s the plot of a B movie. No one could get away with doing stuff like that.”
“With enough money, you can get away with anything. The Clans have been funding private scientific research for a long time. In fact, your great-grandfather hired away several of our scientists for his research. I’ve been at the abandoned military base where the Patron’s scientists ran their nasty experiments. I helped blow the place up. I helped rescue his prisoners. I was there, Mia. I know exactly how dangerous your relative is. He has to be stopped.”
“But—”
He grabbed her shoulders again. For a moment she thought he was going to shake her, but he drew her close and stared intently into her eyes. “You’re going to help me.”
It was not a plea, nor was it a threat, but it was a cold, hard statement that would brook no argument.
She didn’t try to argue, but she did say, “You could say please.”
“Please.”
Mia took a deep breath, and closed her eyes for a moment. She missed her preconceptions about vampires. It was so much easier to believe the crumbs she’d gleaned from family history, and what little her great-grandfather had told her. Right now, she felt like she was trying to pick her way through a minefield of conflicting realities. Everyone she’d met, every situation, gave her a different view of what it meant to be a vampire. But she had to make some hard choices.
To complicate things much more, now she was linked physically, emotionally, and psychically to a vampire, and to his clan.
Or at least that was what they wanted her to believe.
“My head hurts,” she said. “It really does.”
“I know.” Colin’s fingers moved to her temples and began a gentle massage. “Me, too.”
“I want to go home.”
“Me, too.”
“And I’m sick of hearing about this Patron.”
“You’re sick of it? Sweetheart, he’s been dominating my life for months. When I wasn’t thinking about you, I was working on finding him. The closest I’d come to a lead was the night I ran into you at the airport, and—” His hands were suddenly back on her shoulders. “The airport—the same one the Patron’s plane used. The same one you used.”
Mia’s heart slammed hard in her chest, and her stomach flip-flopped. She felt exposed, as if she was about to be accused of a horrible crime. Worse, she felt inexplicably guilty even before being accused.
“You’re working with him!” Colin declared. “He found out I was the one hunting him, and he sent you to trap me!”
“Oh, for crying out loud!” she responded without thinking. “Why is it always about you?”
He laughed harshly. “I suppose it was a coincidence that we met when you were a hostage?”
“Yeah.” Of course it was. It had to be. “Don’t try to make me paranoid that my great-grandfather set up the worst day of my life so that I’d start dating a vampire! Then you followed me to the hospital, remember? And I didn’t contact you after you broke up with me, did I?”
Her questions made him thoughtful. He looked away, then back at her. “Meeting me was the worst day of your life?”
He sounded dead serious, but there was a faint spark of teasing in his eyes. Maybe it was her “always about you” comment that had cut through his rising paranoia.
“Meeting you was—interesting. Being taken hostage that day was frightening.” She looked around her. “Though I guess it was good practice for being kidnapped by vampires.”
“We were both kidnapped by vampires,” he reminded her. “What were you doing at that airport?” he went on, relentlessly back on the hunt. “And just how did you find Tony? Why? You are working for the Patron,” he decided.
“Working with him,” Mia answered. “Or atleast, I thought I was.” Colin gaped at her in surprise, which didn’t help her already frayed temper. “You look like you thought I was going to lie to you and say, oh, no, I haven’t had anything to do with the Patron. Come to think of it, I haven’t. The man I went to for help, after I was attacked by vampires, is the only living relative I have who has ever had contact with vampires. I went to him for help,” she reiterated.
“You could have—”
“Come to you?” Mia shook her head. “How could I? I was trying to protect you—from vampires.”
When Colin started to laugh, Mia couldn’t help but join him. Well, at the time she hadn’t known how absurd that was.
They were still laughing when Barak appeared on the terrace and said, “Time’s up.”
Chapter Twenty
“Tell them,” Colin said to Mia when they were once more standing before the Matris and the elders.
The Manticores stood at their back, but Colin had put himself between them and his bondmate. He realized with dread that no one in the room was going to like Mia’s explanations, but the Manticores were the only ones that posed any real danger to her. The problem was, she couldn’t really understand that yet.
Mia turned a confused look on him. “Tell them what?”
“Everything you know about the Patron,” he clarified. “Everything you’ve done with him, or for him.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He’d thought she was going to protest. When she didn’t he put a hand on her shoulder. It was meant to be reassuring—at least he tried to mean it that way. His head was still whirling from everything that had happened between them, the information overload of the last few hours. He was confused and furious—at Mia, because of Mia, for Mia.
But he was there for Mia. Whether she wanted him or not.
Mia took a deep breath, and focused on Serisa. “Henry Garrison is my great-grandfather. Until they attacked me”—she jerked a thumb over her shoulder—“I never had any contact with him. After the first attack, I knew I needed help fighting vampires. I didn’t know how to contact the local vampire hunters. In fact, it didn’t even occur to me at that time that I should try going that route. So I contacted Garrison
.”
“How?” Justinian demanded.
“With difficulty,” she answered, without bothering to look at the Manticore Prime.
“And after you contacted him?” Serisa asked. “What then?”
“Then he asked me to bring him a vampire. For experimentation.”
She said it without any hesitation, without any show of fear. Colin wasn’t the only one in the room who gasped.
“You’re working for the Patron?” Domini asked. “You’re helping him with his sick research?”
“I didn’t know it was sick at the time, did I?” Mia asked in turn. “He told me he wanted to learn more about vampires, that he wanted one to study. He didn’t say anything to me about research into immortality.”
“What about our money?” the blond Manticore asked. “Did he mention anything about where he keeps large sums of stolen cash?”
“There are more important things than money,” Serisa declared.
The blond gave a derisive snort of laughter.
“What about our claim?” the leader of the Manticores spoke up. “The Garrison woman can lead us to what is ours, what was stolen by a mortal. Is it not our right to question her, under the agreements established to protect our kind from vampire hunters?”
“The Patron posses a threat to all our kind,” Barak said. “You have the right to assist in the hunt for him.”
“What if the female won’t help you?” Justinian persisted. “If you deem finding Garrison important for all vampires, but the woman won’t cooperate, what then? We have a claim on her information; you must allow us what is ours by right.”
Colin spun around to bare his fangs at the Manticore Primes. “Do you know how much I will enjoy killing all of you, if you try to touch what is mine?”
“Well, excuse me for having a free will and the ability to make my own decisions.”
Colin whirled back around to find Mia standing with her arms crossed and a look of complete disgust on her face.
She turned slowly, aiming her annoyance at everyone in the room, and didn’t speak until she was looking at him again. “Perhaps it would be nice if someone would kindly ask me to help,” she suggested.
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