No wonder Volkov wanted me. Every clan would petition me to resuscitate their candidates. An alliance with me meant he would have a say in who was turned and in naming the price of their immortality. Here I thought my restored title and fortune might be factors, but I had sorely underestimated the scope of his master’s ambition.
“I’m tired.” I rubbed my forehead. “Can I sleep on this?”
“Of course, dear girl. I imagine this must all come as a shock.” She pressed a button on her desk, and the door to her right swung open. The sentinel who entered did so carrying Keet in a small cage. The Grande Dame gestured to him. “I believe this belongs to you.”
“Keet?” Boaz growled over my shoulder. “Why does she have your bird?”
“Insurance” was all I said, and I knew he understood when he stiffened behind me.
“When did this happen?” Boaz rounded on me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I pinched my lips together. Fiddlesticks. I’d forgotten I hadn’t caught him or Amelie up on the break-in.
Filling him in now, after the fact, did nothing to improve his mood.
“How can I protect you if you keep secrets from me?” His hands closed over my arms, and he lifted me from my chair. He was halfway to shaking me when the fury glazing his eyes cleared enough for him to recall our surroundings, the company we kept, and he lowered his voice. “You should have told me. I never would have let you—”
I lowered mine too as I extricated myself from his hold. “Exactly.”
Ignoring the hulking man vibrating with rage at my elbow, the sentinel crossed to me and extended the cage. Keet, rustling his feathers at the movement, chirruped at me in happy recognition.
“Hey, fella.” Vision blurring, I reached through the bars and scratched his head with my fingertip. “I missed you too.”
“One more thing before you go,” the Grande Dame called, circling her desk until she stood before me. “She would want you to have this.” Boaz relieved me of the cage as she pressed the cold metal box into my hands. “She would want to return home.”
The moisture evaporated from my tongue as my fingers closed over the terrible burden. “Thank you.”
“We don’t have to be enemies, Grier.” She cupped my cheek in her palm. “I’ve made mistakes with you, and I’m sorry for that.”
I locked my knees to keep from recoiling at her touch.
“Family sticks together.” She kissed my forehead. “It’s how we survive.”
The cold weight of Maud’s remains anchored me to the floor. Only the warmth of Boaz at my side thawed me enough that I could turn my back on her. The Grande Dame ordered the office doors opened, and we started our long walk down the dark hall leading back to the amphitheater.
“I’m sorry,” Boaz murmured. “I was pissed you didn’t mention the wraith. Woolly was attacked, and you didn’t tell me. Your aunt kidnapped your goddamn zombie, for Pete’s sake. You love that stupid bird.”
We reached the elevators, and I stopped. “Look, it happened the night you found out about the draft. I wanted to tell you and Amelie, but I didn’t want to make things even worse, and there was nothing you could do about it anyway.”
“You still should have told me.” He palmed the back of my head and reeled me in for a gentle hug. “I hate that I made you feel Volkov was your only option.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“Next time, let me be there for you.” He released me when the doors rolled open. “That’s what I’m here for, okay?”
A burst of warmth kindled in my chest at the offer. He could be such an overbearing knuckle-dragger sometimes, but his heart was in the right place. A good woman might be able to train him up right one of these days, and more power to her. With the paths of our lives diverging yet again, I didn’t waste time hoping that job might fall to me. The odds, it seemed, had never been in our favor.
Ten
Boaz texted a friend who traded keys with him on the steps of city hall, and we climbed into a borrowed sedan that smelled like stale fries. I still hadn’t seen his new ride, but I heard its throaty growl a few streets over as his friend took her for a spin. Our neighbors must love his new purchase.
I cocked an eyebrow at him. “You must think you’re pretty smooth.”
A smile glinted in his eyes. “Comparisons have been made between me and babies’ bottoms, yes.”
“Thanks for the ride.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. “Thanks for being here tonight.”
“Anything for you, Squirt,” he rumbled. “You’re my best girl.”
A quiver rippled through my lower stomach at his tone. Of all the times he’d called me his best girl, I had never once believed he meant it, but I was having trouble not taking him—and the wide palm he wrapped around my thigh—seriously.
“You aren’t making this any easier,” I murmured, thinking on his father’s warnings.
“Good,” he said without an ounce of remorse. “I’m tired of easy.”
Those words ranked up there in my top ten list of things I had always wished he would say. Now that he had, I had no idea what to make of them. So I breathed him in and didn’t make anything of them at all.
All too soon, we paused at the end of the driveway while the automated gates swung open, and I released a pained groan. “I’d hoped Volkov would take the hint when I didn’t ask him to wait for me.”
“I’ll handle him.” Eagerness sharpened Boaz’s expression as he rolled up to Woolly and parked. “You need to rest. I’ll make sure he understands that.”
“I appreciate the offer, but he’s not going to quit until I tell him no.” I lifted my wrist and shook it side to side. “Besides, I have to give this back to him.”
“How much does he know about you?” Boaz asked in a quiet voice.
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “He refused to share his intel. He let me get blindsided tonight.”
He mulled over that. “Is that why you’re refusing his offer of alliance?”
I jerked upright and met his stare. “How did you—?”
“I’m not a total idiot.” His gaze skimmed down my body, over the dress Volkov had given me. “He’s stamping proof of ownership all over you. The dress isn’t half as bad as the jewelry. There’s only one reason why he would give you a weapon against him, and that’s if he was trying to win you over with trust.”
“Can you do me a favor?” I slid the crimson bangle over my wrist, shuddering at the warmth it had leached from me. I wished I could chuck it at Volkov as a distraction while I bolted for the house, but running from predators only turned you into prey. “Don’t let me make a total fool of myself out there.”
“I’ve got your back.” He reached over me and palmed a stake from the glovebox. “Do what you need to do.”
We exited the car together, leaving Keet in the floorboard and the box on my seat, but I walked ahead of Boaz to greet my former escort. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again tonight.”
“I wasn’t sure how long the Grande Dame would keep you, so I came here to wait. I hope you don’t mind.” He gestured toward Boaz. “I assumed your friend would see you home. It appears I was correct.”
“Do you want me to get rid of him?” Boaz tossed the stake end over end in his hand. “Say the word, and he’s gone.”
Volkov scoffed in his direction, amused that Boaz would pit himself against a Last Seed and expect to come out on top. “I only came to make sure you were all right. It’s my duty as your escort to ensure you arrived home in the same condition as when you left.”
“I’m fine, thank you, but I’ve come into some information tonight that changes things.” I extended the bangle toward him. “I appreciate your offer, but I can’t accept it at this time. There’s too much uncertainty in my future for me to factor in one more unknown.”
“Tradition demands you keep it as a token of my esteem.” He spread his hands, palms out, and stepped back. “I am forbidden to pursue you should you return the gift.” He looked to Boaz for confirmation. “It is an absolute refusal. I will accept it, of course, if that’s your wish. But I hope you will keep me in mind for a while longer, until you’ve had time to adjust to your new circumstances.”
“He’s telling the truth.” Boaz shrugged when I checked in with him. “The courtship ends when the avowal is returned.” He held Volkov’s stare. “However, there’s no rule that says you have to wear it while you’re making your decision.”
I tucked in the smile twitching on my lips and conceded the point. Fine. So maybe I wouldn’t shake off Volkov tonight. But Boaz had found me a loophole. I could keep the bangle as an escape hatch for the day the Grande Dame pressed me too far into a corner. Not an ideal solution, since it meant I had to keep tap-dancing around Volkov, but if I could find another means of nullifying his lure without depending on his gift, I could seize the upper hand in any future negotiations.
“All right. I’ll keep the bangle for now.” I didn’t put it back on, and Volkov let his mask slip a fraction in his irritation. “I don’t want to make any irreversible decisions until I’ve had time to weigh my options.”
Volkov inclined his head. “Perhaps I could persuade you to—”
Boaz placed a proprietary hand at the small of my back, and Volkov’s lip twitched in a snarl.
“Not tonight.” I stepped away from Boaz to show that while I wasn’t with Volkov, I wasn’t with him either. “Maybe some other time.”
Volkov took a step that mirrored mine. “Grier.”
“She said no.” Boaz didn’t raise his voice, didn’t shift his weight forward, gave no outward indication he was primed for battle. Except for his smile. There was something wicked and dangerous in the curve that set my pulse sprinting. “Back off, vamp.”