Bloodstone Read Online Free PDF Page B

invited you for a late dinner, so I could wrestle the little hooligans into bed and have a grown-up evening for a change.” She put a hand on Maria’s shoulder and drew her back a step. “And that’s why Maria is on her way to bed, too.”
    “But Mom, I want to talk to Aunt Vicky.”
    “We agreed you could say hello, and then you’d go to bed. No arguments. Remember?”
    “Yeah.” Maria looked at the floor.
    Kane came forward, holding out his hand. “Hi, Maria,” he said. “I’m Kane. Vicky’s told me lots about you.” He smiled. “All of it good.”
    Maria squinted at him, giving him the once-over, as she shook his hand solemnly. “Are you Vicky’s boyfriend?”
    He and I exchanged a glance, and his eyes were so full of warmth and light I melted a little inside.
    “Yes,” we said together.
    Maria nodded, and her serious expression morphed into a grin. “Okay.”
    A timer dinged. Gwen looked toward the kitchen door. “ That’s the lasagna,” she said. “Upstairs now, Maria. I’ll come up in a minute to say good night. Then you can read for a bit, but lights out by nine, all right?”
    “Okay, Mom.”
    Gwen squeezed the girl’s shoulder and went into the kitchen.
    Maria stood on tiptoe to plant a kiss on my cheek. “Come back soon, okay? When it’s not just for grown-ups.”
    “I will. But you listen to your mom now.”
    She nodded, said good night to Kane and her dad, and climbed the stairs.
    “Who wants a drink?” Nick asked.
    Nick poured me my usual club soda. Kane had a Scotch. (His werewolf metabolism would burn off that, plus any wine served with dinner, long before it was time to drive home.) Gwen returned and announced that dinner would be on the table in fifteen minutes.
    Conversation flowed easily. Kane asked Nick about his work in a downtown Boston investment firm and talked knowledgeably with Gwen about the novel her book club was reading. Once we moved into the dining room, he admired the table and complimented the food. She caught my eye and touched her chin as she tucked her hair behind her right ear, a signal we’d developed in high school. It meant, “This guy’s a good one.”
    Halfway through dinner, the conversation slowed down for a minute. During the pause, Kane turned to Gwen.
    “I enjoyed meeting your aunt last month,” he said.
    Gwen stiffened, but Kane didn’t notice.
    Oh, no. Don’t bring up Mab. Not when everything was going so well. I tried to kick him under the table and missed.
    “I don’t think—” I began, but he talked over me.
    “Wales is such a beautiful country, and her home is magnificent. I know Vicky used to visit Mab every summer. Did you also spend a lot of time with your aunt when you were growing up?”
    Gwen’s face was ghost white. She bit her lip, and I could almost hear her mentally count to ten. Very precisely, she laid her fork on the edge of her plate. “We do not mention that woman’s name in this house.”
    Kane froze. Then he glanced at me, perplexed.
    Damn it, I should’ve warned him. I’d been so caught up in thoughts of Pryce and the Morfran and the South End Reaper that it hadn’t occurred to me to tell Kane to leave Mab out of the conversation. My aunt had trained me as a demon fighter; I’d been her apprentice for seven years. She was tough and strict and rarely showed her emotions, but I loved her like a second mother. Kane had liked Mab, too, during his brief visit to Wales. He’d never have suspected how much my sister hated her.
    There was no way I could explain it now.
    Kane’s eyes darted back and forth between me and Gwen. Nick reached over and put his hand on Gwen’s, but my sister stared at her plate like she was trying to set it on fire with her eyes. The silence extended, then graduated to a whole new level of awkward. I flailed around for a safe topic.
    “Gwen,” I said, reaching for the bread basket, “this bread is delicious. Did you get it from that new Italian bakery near the train