"Hey, KiKi! What are you doing in Finland?" Ashley had to yell to get his voice over the noise of the crowded venue.

The blonde smiled as she was pulled by her wrist to be pinned to Ashley's side. "Oh that's right. I didn't tell you."

That made Ashley pause. "Tell me what?"

"I'm Canidae adopted."

The deviant gave his oldest friend a long look, scribbled the last few signatures, then grabbed her by the wrist and shoved her into the bus. "You're what, now?"

Everyone on the bus turned to stare at the commotion, Andy even dropping his eyeliner pencil mid stroke. For a long moment, the pencil rolling across the floor was the only sound.

"I'm Canidae adopted," Kina repeated.

"But the Canidae aren't one of the high lines that adopts," Andy interjected.

"Actually," Jinxx interrupted, "they do. It's just very rare. Maybe two a century? If that?"

Kina's smile faded to a serious expression as she nodded. "I befriended the Prince, Timothy, when granddaddy shipped me off to boarding school here in Helsinki."

Ashley sighed. "Even so, the Canidae don't adopt another high line royal. Ever. Unless by mating and we all know you wouldn't do that to..." Ashley trailed off, not wanting to actually bring his cousin into this.

Kina nodded slowly. "I am aware of the irregularity of my adoption. Thank you, Ashley. But it doesn't change it." She swept her hair away from her neck and pulled the sleeve of her drop v-neck shirt down off her shoulder. Sure enough, there were the scarred stars linked together with lines to form the Ursa Major constellation; the mark of the Canidae proudly displayed down Kina's upper arm.

Andy stared, transfixed, at the marking. He seemed to float across the cramped bus space to brush light fingertips over the raised scars. "You saved their line."

Ashley groaned. He hated it when Andy could just SEE the answers.

"Timo and Jani and Leah and I all went camping for the summer holiday. There were hunters. I always carry weapons. Old Voltaire habit."

"Vampire hunters in Finland?" Jinxx asked, shocked.

Kina nodded with a sad smile. "They got Jani. Not fatally, but it'll be decades before that scar fully heals over. I managed to take the third - the last one down before she got Timo." She caught Andy's hand with her own when his mindless stroking over her scars became a tad bit too obsessive. She didn't let go, though. She seemed to be clinging to the Prophet's hand as if to ground herself. "There was so much blood. They were all pumped full of vampire poison. It burned wherever their blood touched. I even have some slow healing scars."

Ashley raised his eyebrows. There was a time he'd known almost all of Kina's body. He didn't remember scarring. He had just opened his mouth to express this when Kina cut him off.

"They're, uh...here..." She pulled her skirt down and her shirt up to reveal the white blotching across the tanned skin of her hip and lower stomach. "I was...with Leah...when they attacked. No shirt to protect my skin..."

Andy pulled away, sharply and scowled. "You knew who your intended was, and yet you slept with another woman, anyway?"

"Do we need to have a talk about all the women both you and Ashley slept with, both of you knowing you were to be mated?" Kina bit back.

The retort did nothing to soften Andy's glare. Sandra may be Ashley's blood, but she was family to them all. In Andy's book, the fact Kina had known for almost a decade and not approached the halfbloof regarding their bond was basically treason. Ashley may be the Deviant, but Andy was even more protective than his mate when it came to Sandra.

"Did I miss something?" The uncomfortable silence on the bus was abruptly broken by CC trudging in from the bunk area.

Jinxx gave a half hearted chuckle. "Kina's Canidae adopted."

CC's puzzled look was made almost comical by his half done warpaint. "Yeah, okay. So?"

Jake stood and softly whispered in the younger man's ear.

Big brown eyes grew to massive orbs sparkling with surprise, and the drummer's mouth hung open in a perfect O. He gazed at Kina in a sort of wonder. "You're a princess?" he finally squeaked.

Andy snorted. Ashley sighed in frustration. Kina simply stated "I wish I wasn't," with a wistful tone to her voice.

"Because then you would be able to mate to Sandra without complication," Andy filled in.

The vampiress shrugged. "I'm working on that. By being Canidae adopted, I have the option to be mated in their courts, so long as a Voltaire representative is present."

Ashley rolled his eyes and edged closer to his mate. "I take it you're attempting to talk one of your cousins into that?"

Kina shrugged a bit. "Whomever comes has to have permission from Granddaddy." Her tone was more telling than the words. The Voltaire patriarch was known for being rather dictatorial. Anything that didn't settle into his idea of what the world should be was immediately dismissed. In this case, his only granddaughter mating to a halfblood. Anything that could pollute the might of the Voltaire bloodline was absolutely not allowed.

"So you either have to talk to your grandfather or convince one of your cousins to commit treason," Ashley said with a deep sigh. He scrubbed at his eyes in frustration, wincing slightly when his fingertips ended up stained black with kohl eyeliner. "Why is nothing ever easy?"

"Traditionalists?" Andy offered, picking up his eyeliner and settling back down at the small table of the bus.

The rest of the group let out various noises of annoyance and distress. Kina's was more akin to frustration. CC's was borderline terror. But then, such traditions had been what put the man in slavery from age six.

Kina flopped into the couch. "Mind if I ride a couple hops with ya?"

"Yeah, sure," Andy responded absently.

"We'll be in Russia near the Healers' Mansion in a week or so," Ashely mentioned. "I'll have one of the techs drive out to the Canidae guest house with you to get your things if you'd like."

"Sounds good." And that was that.