It didn’t make the way her family had been threatened okay, but she wasn’t heartless. Someone had clearly gone out of their way to putthoseflowers there. It was sweet, if a little misguided under the circumstances.
Hardly a minute passed before movement at the top of the stairs drew her eye.
A burly older man wearing a pair of glasses leaned over the banister to peer down out at them. His salt and pepper hair was cut short and his eyebrows were thick enough to touch the rims of his glasses when he frowned.
“Tomas, who have you—“ The man blanched. “Good gods, is that our Dahlia?”
She glanced over her shoulder at Tomas, who’d lifted a hand in a wave. “It’s her.”
“Ah!” The man threw himself away from the railing. He hustled down the curved staircase with surprising agility. By the time he got down to the bottom, his face was flushed and his glasses had nearly fallen off the tip of his nose. She noticed instantly that he wasn’t a vampire, but whether he was arrant or not, she had no way of knowing.
A little alarmed by his sudden approach, Dahlia took half a step back. It didn’t do her much good. The man lunged for her. In an instant she was swept into a bone-crushing hug and lifted off her feet.
“Oh, thank the gods. I don’t have to punish Alastair anymore!” He swung her around, nearly dislodging one of her heels. A cloud of expensive cologne and the scent of fresh oranges washed over her — not bad, but unmistakably unappealing compared to caramel and smoke andFelix. Dahlia had to bite back the instinctive urge to claw herself free.
Perhaps seeing her discomfort, Tomas stepped in. He laid a hand on the man’s shoulder and muttered, “Uncle Colin, you haven’t even introduced yourself yet. Maybe the hugs can wait a minute.”
“Oh, you’re right. I’m so sorry!” Colin didn’t sound the least bit sorry.
Her release wasn’t quite immediate, but he did eventually put her down. Stumbling back a step, she smoothed her hands down the front of her dress and eyed the pair of men warily.
Tomas stepped up to introduce them. “Colin, meet Dahlia. Dahlia, this is Uncle Alastair’s anchor, Colin. They’ve been together over a hundred and fifty years.”
“Just celebrated our one hundredth and seventy-second, but who’s counting.” Colin grabbed Tomas’s arm like he needed to hold onto something if he wasn’t allowed to manhandle her anymore. “Gods, I just can’t believe it. Look at you! I saw your pictures but they don’t do you justice. And you’re smart, too. Tomas, did I tell you? She’s gotten 4.0s her whole academic career!”
“Yes, you told me,” he muttered.
Dahlia made a face. “How do you know that?”
Alastair’s dry, cultured voice came down from the top of the stairs. “Because knowing things is what we do.”
She looked up to find the man descending the stairs at a much more sedate pace than his anchor had. There was no ornate cane or expensive coat this time, but Alastair Bowan didn’t need either to be intimidating. His gaze pierced her from across the foyer.
“Dahlia,” he greeted, reaching the bottom of the stairs.
“Mr. Bowan,” she coolly replied.
“Oh, please, you can’t call him that.” Colin blew out an exasperated huff. “We’re family now. You can call him Alastair, but I’m sure he’d be happy with papa.”
Dahlia narrowed her eyes at Alastair. The humor of callingthatman anything other than his name, let alonepapa,would have to be examined later.
Clearing her throat, she said, “Please forgive me if I’m not feeling particularly warm and cuddly right now. Seeing as you just ran me and my husband off the road, then held him at gunpoint.”
Colin whirled on Alastair.“What?”
For his part, Alastair looked utterly unrepentant. “Tomas is competent. I knew you’d be fine.”
Dahlia put her hands on her hips and demanded, “You complain about the Amauris being reckless with their family, but you don’t think twice about letting your nephew ram your daughter’s car into a guardrail?”
It was Tomas’s turn to receive Colin’s horrified glare. “You didwhat?”
Tomas put up his hands. “They were spotted at Old Blood and I was told to take the opportunity!”
“Alastair!” Colin jammed a finger in Dahlia’s direction. His low voice became a hiss of disapproval. “That is ourdaughter.”
“My love, you told me to bring her home. That’s exactly why I did everything in my power to get her back.” A shadeof exasperation had finally entered Alastair’s expression. “It worked, didn’t it? I don’t see what you’re complaining about.”
Wrapping an arm around her shoulders, Colin cast a venomous glare toward his partner and began to lead her through the foyer. “One hundred and seventy-two years,” he muttered, “and that man still finds new ways to be an idiot. Sweetheart, I’m so sorry. Please don’t lump me in with him.”
