It didn’t escape my notice that Mencheres hadn’t said a word. “What’s your take on this?”
He glanced at me. “When we arrive at Spade’s, we’ll be in better surroundings to continue this conversation.”
“Now.” One word from Bones, spoken with the resolution of a thousand.
“Crispin—”
“And now you address me by my human name, as if I were still that lad,” Bones interrupted. “I am your equal under our alliance, so you will tell me everything you know about Gregor.”
Bones was daring Mencheres to start a civil war within their ranks by refusing. I hadn’t expected Bones to draw a line in the sand like that and practically piss on it, and from Mencheres’s startled expression, he hadn’t, either.
Then Mencheres gave a thin smile. “All right. I told you I locked Gregor away for planning to interfere with Cat’s future so she’d never meet you. What I didn’t say was that Gregor had already taken Cat away with him before I captured him.”
I jumped up. “I’ve never met Gregor before in my life!”
“That you remember,” Mencheres replied. “You feel pains in your head when you hear of Gregor, right? Those are the stabs of your repressed memory. You’d been with Gregor for weeks before we found the two of you in Paris. By then, he’d managed to infatuate you and confuse you with lies. I knew I had to alter your recollection to fix things, which is why you have no memory of your time with him.”
“That can’t…but he can’t…” There went the hammers in my skull. He is not your husband…Sorry it didn’t work out with that other guy…it was at the Ritz on Place Vendôme…
“But vampire mind control doesn’t work on me,” I finally sputtered. “I’m a half-breed; it’s never worked on me!”
“That’s why I was the only one who could do it,” Mencheres said quietly. “It took all my power, plus a spell, to erase that time from your mind. A lesser vampire couldn’t have managed it.”
Bones appeared stunned as well. “Partir de la femme de mon maître,” he murmured. “That’s what one of Gregor’s vampires yelled at me before he ran. So that’s why Gregor is so obsessed with her.”
Mencheres was silent. Bones glanced at him, then at me.
“I don’t care,” he said at last. “Gregor can shove his claims straight up his arse.”
I still wasn’t convinced. “But I hated vampires before Bones. I would never have gone away with one for weeks.”
“You hated them because of your mother’s influence,” Mencheres said. “Gregor dealt with her first, compelling her to tell you he was a friend of hers who would protect you.”
Bones growled. “How far has word of Gregor’s claim spread?”
Mencheres considered him. “You haven’t asked me if it happened yet.”
I felt like they were speaking another language. “What?”
“Doesn’t matter. He’ll only get her over my dried, withered corpse.”
“What!” Now I jabbed Bones for emphasis.
“Gregor’s claim,” Bones said icily. “Now that he’s free, he’s telling people that sometime during those weeks you were together, he married you.”
Contrary to popular belief, there have been a few times in my life I’ve been speechless. At sixteen, when my mother told me all my oddities were due to my father being a vampire, that was one. Seeing Bones again after four years of absence, that was another. This topped both of them, however. For a space of several frozen moments, I couldn’t wrap my mind around a vehement enough denial.
I wasn’t the only one goggle-eyed. Even in my state, I noticed the other vampires in the van wearing astonished expressions that quickly turned blank after whatever evil glare Bones gave them. Mencheres continued with his same, uncompromising stare, and finally, I voiced the first coherent thought that came to mind.
“No.” Just saying it made me feel better, so I repeated it, louder. “No. It’s not true.”
“Even if it were, it won’t last beyond his death,” Bones promised.
I gestured to Mencheres. “You were there, right? Tell him it didn’t happen!”
Mencheres shrugged. “I didn’t see a blood-binding ceremony. Gregor claimed it occurred right before I arrived. A few of his people said they’d witnessed it, but they could have been lying, and Gregor’s honesty is not without fault.”
“But what did I say?”
All at once I was afraid. Had I somehow bound myself to an unknown vampire? I couldn’t have, right?