"From where your cell is transmitting, I'm guessing you're at your former childhood residence," he stated, pissing me off more that he must've started tracking my signal as soon as I picked up. "A chopper will be there to pick you up in thirty minutes."

"Sorry, but you'll just have to tell me what's up over the phone. I have other plans for tonight," I said, waving Bones over and mouthing Madigan while pointing at my cell.

"If you refuse to come, your visitation privileges at the compound will be permanently revoked."

A distinct click punctuated that sentence. Good thing, too, since I'd taken a deep breath so I could tell the consultant in explicit terms where he could shove his ultimatum, and that wouldn't have been smart. He probably could revoke my visitation privileges if he tattled on me to the higher-ups for cursing him out the way I was about to.

"What does he want, Kitten?"

"Death by fang if he keeps this up," I spat, my temper leaking out despite my efforts to rein it in. "I don't know," I amended with a tight sigh. "But now I know how frustrated Chris felt when you pointed out that he couldn't stop you if you decided to do something he didn't like. Karma's a bitch, right?"

Both dark brows arched. "Going to elaborate on what you mean?"

"If I don't drop everything and let myself be whisked away to the compound, so Madigan can chew me out for God-knows-what, then I only get to see my mother and the guys when they're off base. Which, as you know, isn't that often."

Bones didn't react with instant anger as I'd done. Instead, he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Good way to find out if your uncle's discovered anything of import on the bloke, so let him feel like he's won this round. It'll only be to our benefit."

Of course. If I didn't let Madigan push my buttons so effectively, I'd have come to the same conclusion. Don also didn't know that he couldn't zip to my side whenever he wanted to anymore. Aside from seeing if he'd come up with any dirt on Madigan, it was also important to let my uncle know about my change in supernatural status.

"You'll have to stay here, Bones. Otherwise, we wouldn't be back in time to pick everyone up from the cave."

It wouldn't be right to ask Chris's team to wait in a damp, chilly cave most of the night, especially since they'd had to bunk on the floor without food last night. But I'd be damned if I'd ask our helicopter escort to pick up the gang first before flying us back to the house. Madigan might know about my old childhood home, but I wasn't about to give up the cave's location to him, too.

Bones's scent and the scrape of his emotions across mine let me know how much he didn't like the idea of my going alone, but at last, he nodded.

"You'll take sage in case Kramer manages to locate you again."

Right, because I couldn't show up to see Madigan covered in weed and garlic. Even if that wouldn't be cause for a lot of questions, which it would, that mixture would keep Don away from me, defeating half the purpose of going.

"I'll call you when I'm on my way back," I said, brushing his sculpted cheekbones with the tips of my fingers. "You keep some sage close by, too, and if Helsing starts to screech, light it."

"Oh, don't fret about me." Bones smiled, but something cold flashed across his face. "I'm looking forward to making that spook's acquaintance again."

He might be relishing the chance to avenge Kramer's shower attack on me, but if I had my way, neither one of us would see the Inquisitor until we were slamming the door of the trap shut on him.

"I love you," I said, because it was a better use of words than endless repetitions for him to be careful. Logic might know that Bones was more than capable of handling himself if Kramer came after him, but the thought of his being attacked while I was away still made me sick to my stomach.

"I love you, too, Kitten."

His voice changed, becoming the warm, knowing one that made me melt a little each time I heard it. Then his lips brushed across my forehead, so feathery soft and light it was more a tease than a kiss.

"Don't let that tosser Madigan get a rise out of you, he'll only enjoy it," he murmured against my skin. "Your will is stronger than his. Show him that."

I trailed my fingers from his face down to his shoulders, pulling him closer until the hard planes of his body pressed along mine. Madigan had hung up on me ten minutes ago. That meant the chopper wouldn't arrive for another twenty minutes.

I let my hands glide from his shoulders down to the tight valley of his stomach, then dipped one inside the front of his pants.

"Why don't you help put me in a calmer mood?" I whispered.

I was on the floor, Bones's mouth crushing mine, before the last word left my lips.

Chapter Thirteen

Madigan glared at me as I walked into what used to be my uncle's office. I glared right back, willpower alone keeping my gaze from glowing green and fangs from jutting out of my teeth. Not only had Madigan ignored my previous remarks about the uselessness of an ID check on the roof; he'd also installed a full-body scanner that broadcast such explicit imagery of my body onto a screen, TSA officials everywhere would weep with envy. I'd then had every bit of metal on me confiscated except my wedding ring, and had to argue for ten minutes before the new guards would let me bring in my packet of sage. As it was, they'd taken my box of matches, because of course those were potentially deadly weapons.

Idiots. I was a vampire, as they well knew. I could kill someone ten times quicker with my teeth or my hands. It was a good thing Bones hadn't come with me, or he might've slaughtered one of the guards just to prove a point about the whole stupid, insulting process. Finding out that Madigan had also commandeered Don's office, plus hearing his repeated mental renditions of the same car insurance jingle, had been the cherry on the sundae wreckage of my formerly good mood.

From my uncle's deep frown as he floated behind Madigan, he was in a foul mood, too.

"So sorry there wasn't a body cavity search," I said in lieu of a hello. "My ego might never recover."

Madigan's pale blue eyes narrowed. "Lax security might have been acceptable during my predecessor's term, but it's not under mine."

"You mean Tate's predecessor's term," I corrected at once, not responding to the slap against Don because I was trying to cool my temper instead of inflame it. My uncle already knew the many reasons why Madigan's new security measures were pointless when it came to vampires. All Madigan was doing with his fancy new scanner was wasting taxpayer money in an attempt to look competent to unknowing government superiors.