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throne. That gem hadn’t been revealed until we’d gotten ourselves into a pickle in Vancouver, just after I’d Changed and learned I was the Kelly heir. So, sue me if I thought that there still might be something not yet said.
    “I did, and it was,” Adam replied, truth evident in his gaze. “I’ve never lied—”
    I laughed, short, bitter and oh so angry. Not at him, really. It wasn’t his fault that the fucking fickle fingers of Lady Fate had been messing about in our particular bloody pie. Adam had been as ignorant of the Machiavellian machinations of Minerva Kelly as I had been. Neither of us had known then that my former lover, Gideon Kelly, was in fact, half Sidhe, like myself, only from Adam’s side of that fence… and Adam’s half-brother. Now, all this ridiculous political and genetic manipulation was coming back to bite the Kellys in the proverbial ass. And I was the ass it was biting… hard. “Truth,” I snorted. “Such a slippery concept with the Sidhe, is it not?”
    He flinched, a slight grimace crossing his face. I waved a dismissive hand at him. “No, not you, love,” I said. “Never you. You did what you had to, to try to keep things in place until it was the right time. It’s my bloody cousin’s fault, this is. I’m afraid he got way too much of Gigi’s ambition and drive and not enough of her practical sense.”
    “That’s more than evident.” Adam set the phone on the desk and walked toward me. “I am beyond glad that despite everything, we still found each other.”
    I had to smile at him. From the look on his face, I could tell he still held some insecurity, too. Sure, we’d blood-bonded just a few hours ago, or was it only minutes? I had no real idea of the time. The entire night so far had passed in a ridiculous tornado of insanity… kind of like my life for the past, oh, eight months or so. But hey, who was counting? Oh yeah, I was. All I could think about right now was that I wanted to leave with Adam, go back to his house and lock ourselves away for at least a week. No phones. No email. Nointerruptions. In fact, that had been the plan. After the formal foofaraw was over, we were going to stay home and shut out the world for a bit. Let other people run the ranch while we just existed. Only, whatever god or goddess of luck I’d pissed off somewhere down the line had other ideas.

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    “The fox changes his fur but not his habits.”
    —Proverb
     
    A fter a moment, Adam nodded and thumbed the phone back to normal operation. “Our thanks, Minerva,” Adam said. “We will evacuate tonight.”
    “Your vampires?”
    “Will go to my estate in Wiltshire. I have a pilot on his way now. Niko’s made the arrangement.”
    “They could come to me instead. It’s far closer.”
    “An offer quite appreciated, Minerva,” Adam said. “Though sending them to the Kelly enclave sounds logical, there’s a part of me that wishes them to be gone entirely from this continent. It is not their fight.”
    “Nor is it,” Gigi agreed. “You must do what you think best, Adam. Though, your plane can’t get to your estate until well past morning.”
    “Understood,” Adam said. “I’d planned for them to make a stop in Dallas. They can be there by dawn. I have someone there who can house everyone safely until nightfall.”
    “If I remember correctly, your plane seats only a dozen or so.”
    “True. However, my hired pilot has a larger plane we can use.”
    “Pish-tosh.” I could imagine Gigi’s well-coiffed head shaking. “There is no need to involve others. I’ve a plane that will suit. It can transport everyone in safety directly from the ranch airstrip.” For a moment, I wondered how she knew our airstrip could support a larger plane, then I remembered. She was the one who had the bloody thing built. No doubt it could handle the entire Kelly fleet—including, evidently, a vampire-ready jet.
    “The plane has blackout windows?” I asked.
    “Yes, and will