Bruiser placed a fingertip under my chin and turned my face to his. He was smiling, a little half smile. “What?”
“We don’t have enough weapons,” I blurted.
Bruiser burst out laughing. He’d been laughing a lot lately. He set his own glass in the wood holder and raised the upholstered back of the bench seat across from us. From the hidden space in the back of the seat, he pulled out four nine millimeters, fully loaded, extra mags, four vamp-killers, and two sets of longswords and short swords. “There are also flashbangs, null sticks, and a few amulets provided by the Everharts.”
The tension left my body in a whoosh of unexpected comfort. My Sweet Cheeks replaced the weapons, each snapping into place with sharp, secure clicks, closed the storage compartment, and took up his glass. This time, I clinked glasses with him and leaned into him. I took a breath and let it out. “Thank you. But how did you know I needed to us to be carrying so many weapons?”
“If you had been in your Beast form, you would have been shredding the upholstery with your claws while snarling at me.”
I hiccupped on the bubbles in the champagne. Weird, senseless tears gathered in my eyes. “I love you,” I blurted again, still surprised each time these weird emotions welled up in me and unexpected words burst out of my mouth.
“And I adore you. Come here.” He held out his arm and I snuggled close, sipping my glass of bubbles. Bruiser kissed me.
The privacy window rose, closing out Jodi and Wrassler. I had always loved this limo, and somehow, when Bruiser and I were alone in the passenger compartment, things always got heated.
The traffic thinned and our motorcade made its way out of the city.
???
My Beast was purring inside me.Best mate,she thought at me.Best mate.
He is,I agreed, as I redressed in my jeans and T-shirts and braided my hair. I had lost my elastic and was tying the end of the plait off with a length of string I picked up off the floor, when Bruiser said. “I have something for us.” He sounded odd, almost tentative, and Beast turned her attention to him.
Mate smells worried, she thought.
“Us?” I said. “Tickets to anywhere on the first flight out of Asheville?”
Bruiser chuckled, dug in his pocket, and pulled out a ring box.
I stared at it. Frozen in place. Not daring to breathe.
“You don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to,” he said, “but the very old man in me wanted us to have them.”
I stared at the box. Black velvet. Simple. Elegant. Not inside a gift box and wrapped with a bow. Just the black velvet.
When I didn’t speak, he opened the box and pulled out a wide band, a man’s ring. The gold band was etched with things. I took it and turned the ring, studying the engraving. Three overlapping circles. I realized they weren’t just circles, but were part of my crest. The circles were laurel leaf crowns. The crown of the Dark Queen. And beside the crowns on one side was a miniscule puma concolor, a representation of my Beast. On the other side of the crowns was a blade. A vamp-killer.
My blood dropped through me, leaving me shocked and chilly in the limo. “This is perfect,” I whispered.
He took the man’s band back and placed a very unusual ring in my palm. “This is yours. If you like it.”
On my gold band was a faceted, oval, golden diamond—inset and open on the bottom, so it would catch the light, but not snag on things. In color and overall shape, the stone in its setting looked a lot like The Glob, my best weapon. To either side of the diamond were images, my Beast on one side, a crown on the other, and on the inside, a heart and a feather were engraved in the yellow gold. I blinked back tears.
“My ring is saying I’m married to all the parts of you. Your ring says all of you married me, and you carry my heart with you always, because once given, I am yours forever.”
“Crap on crackers with toe jam,” I said, though it came out a croak. “They’re perfect!” I threw my arms around him.
“You’ll have to wear it on the chain around your neck so if you shift, you won’t lose it.”
I mumbled into his collar, “I don’t deserve you, Sweet Cheeks.”
“Nor I you, Love.”
The limo lurched, swerved. Came to an abrupt, rocking halt, so hard and fast we tumbled against the side door and our champagne sloshed in the wood holders. Gunshots sounded.
Bruiser and I dropped into the floorboards.
We were miles from anywhere, in the unlit, unpopulated, piney forests of Alabama. No one was supposed to know our route, yet we were under attack.
