“But we wil address this later. What’s going on? Where’s Morio?”

“Fox Boy almost got himself kil ed,” Tril ian said softly. “We’ve had one hel of a time the past couple of days.”

“Sharah says he can come home tomorrow, but he’l be out of the action for a couple of months.

Delilah, just as you’re coming off bed rest, he’s going on it. Menol y’s blood saved his life, but he’s not going to be doing much of anything for a while.” Camil e glanced up at Smoky anxiously.

“Please, treat him with care—we almost lost him to a hungry ghost.”

Smoky gave her a kiss on the head. “Understood, my love.”

“At least the kil er’s gone,” I started to say, but my cel phone jangled. I glanced at the ID.

Roman. “Excuse me, I need to take this.”

Moving to one side, I answered.

“You stil want in on taking Terrance down?”

“Yes.”

“Then be ready. My limo wil pick you up in ten minutes. My driver is on the way. Dress for speed and action.”

“Need any other help?”

Roman laughed. “No, my dear. This is for you and me. Alone.” And he hung up. I stared at the phone. Once again, I had to go into battle without my sisters, and it felt odd. Lonely, even. But this was not my cal to make, so I decided to make the best of it.

“I have to go. Vampire business with Roman.”

“You sure you don’t need help?” Camil e gave me the soft doe eyes that usual y cajoled me into letting her take part in whatever I was doing. But this time . . .

“I wish you could—I’ve missed having you with me. But you stay and help Iris get ready for Morio’s return. He’l need a bed set up and everything else . . . and you and Smoky may want to . .

.”

Smoky let out a loud guffaw. “That we do.”

Camil e cleared her throat. “I’m actual y pretty tired. Let’s get Morio’s bed ready, and then we’l see about anything else.”

As I headed toward the door, it occurred to me that our lives were slowly peeling off. We were stil united, stil had each others’ backs, but we were finding our own ways in the world, as wel .

Someday, perhaps we wouldn’t be living together like this. What then? Where would we go?

Unaccountably saddened, I headed out the door to wait on the porch.

A moment later, the door opened and Camil e slipped out on the porch. She shivered under Smoky’s heavy white trench, which dragged on the floor, and pul ed it around her shoulders as she sat on the porch swing beside me.

She glanced at the fine white mist of snow leisurely drifting down. “Winters are getting harder here.”

“Yeah, they are.”

“Why are you upset? I know things have been rough lately, but they’l work out.” She slid one hand over to hold my own. “I promise, I won’t let Smoky kil Vanzir.”

“Isn’t that Delilah’s job? To bring on the ridiculous optimism?” But even as I said it, I felt a little lift. Camil e’s hand felt warm and alive, and thoroughly welcome in the cold night. The chil didn’t bother me—I was as cold as the frozen snow—but sometimes even the pretense of warmth brought bloom to the spirit.

“What’s wrong?”

I ducked my head. “Everything is changing. So much flies in at us. Delilah and Shade watch Jerry Springer together. He’s bored by it, but he does it because he loves her. That . . .” I was almost ashamed to admit I was jealous of him.

“Was your job until he showed up?” She grinned.

Nodding, I didn’t answer. It was embarrassing to be jealous of her boyfriend. But Kitten and I didn’t get much time to spend together, and it seemed she’d been so thoroughly caught up in her new romance that she’d barely had the chance to hang out with me lately.

“The sparks wil fade to a passionate ember, and she wil come up for air again. Look at me—

“The sparks wil fade to a passionate ember, and she wil come up for air again. Look at me—

three men. I must have been unbearable for the longest time.” She cleared her throat. “What else?”

I gazed into the sky. The colors of silver and white merged on the skyline and it was difficult to tel where the cloud cover ended and the ground began. “We’re moving apart, aren’t we? Look—

I’m waiting to go out with Roman to trounce Terrance. And you and Delilah aren’t coming with me.

Wade and Chase and I took care of Charles.”

“Sil y girl!” Camil e stood up and the coat slid off her shoulders to the floor. Hands on her hips, she shook her head. “Listen to me and listen good. I couldn’t be there—not with Morio in the hospital. And Delilah’s not al owed to fight again yet. You think we would have missed the action if there hadn’t been a good reason? I’d love to go out with you tonight but I’m exhausted, and with Smoky just home . . . besides . . .” She sat down with a thud. “I need to make sure nobody tel s him about Vanzir and me yet. You and I both know Smoky would kil him, and I’m not sure what he’d do to me.”

“To you? It wasn’t your choice.”

“Technical y, it was. I could have let him feed on my magic. But I think Smoky would decide either sin was worth kil ing for. I have to impress on him first just how traumatic and horrifying the event was—for both of us, not just me. Then, he might understand.” She shrugged. “And if not, then Vanzir can at least run without the soul binder kil ing him. And he’d have to run long and hard to get away from Smoky’s wrath.”

I turned to her and took her hands. “What do you think about that? Vanzir is no longer under our control. I’m not sure what to think about that.”

“Me either, but he’s in pretty deep with the Demon Underground and I think that may come in handy. He seems to want to stay.” She hung her head. “If I could have it to do al over again, I’d come up those rungs, iron or not.”

I didn’t know how to ask the next question but final y decided just to blurt it out. “Was he . . . was it painful? Did he hurt you?”

Camil e’s eyes were wide as she shook her head. “No, in fact it was . . . exhilarating. I’ve been avoiding Vanzir since we first bound him through the Ritual of Subjugation, and now I know why.

When he was feeding on my energy, it was like he was a crazed monster—gobbling up every speck of light and bril iance in my soul.”

I winced, not wanting to hear but feeling like I had to. I had to understand what had gone on if I was going to help hold things together when Smoky found out. “That bad . . .”

“Yes. And then, when I forced his attention to my body, then he was overwhelming in a passionate way. I love sex, but he was . . . the attention, the focus and drive were almost too much.

It was as if he owned me in a way that I’ve never given anyone permission to own me before. He was . . . more than a part of me. I don’t know how to explain it—but I don’t think I ever want to experience it again, even though the actual sex was incredible.”

“He’s demon—that probably has some play into it. But Morio, he’s a demon, too. Isn’t it like that with him?”

“He’s a youkai—not the kind of demon that Vanzir is. There’s a difference.” She fel silent. After a moment, she added, “I feel like I’ve betrayed al three of them. Menol y, I enjoyed it.” She glanced at me out of the side of her eyes. “I don’t want to admit it, but the fear and the worry—I was so high-strung, and then Vanzir began to feed on me and I panicked.”

“I’d be surprised if some part of you didn’t enjoy fucking him. Camil e, look at who you are.” I bit my lip, trying to find a way to make her see what I could see. “You’re a highly sexual woman, and you are our father’s daughter. The Fae in our blood drives you. And any time you’re running an adrenaline rush, of course that side of you is going to be on high alert.”

She let out a shudder that was almost a sob. “I don’t want to tel them, but I have to. I know Tril ian wil understand, but Morio—how wil he feel knowing that he was lying there dying while I had my legs wrapped around Vanzir?”

I couldn’t answer. But I could tel her what she needed to hear. “It wil al be okay. Just wait for the right time. The rest of us won’t say a word. Just think before you speak. Don’t let your guilt eat at you. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”

Roman’s limousine appeared in the driveway. I pressed her hand, then stood. “I have to go.

What we’re doing tonight is important, not just for the vampires of Seattle, but for the FBHs, too.

Because vamps like Terrance feed on the innocent. Wish me luck. I’l be home before morning.”

And as I headed down the steps, leaving them to sort out the mishmash of things that had happened, I knew Camil e was right. She and Delilah would be at my back always. We might grow our own separate ways, but we wouldn’t grow apart. I just wished I could have made her feel better the way she had me. But that was my sister: always the rock of the family.

Roman was dressed in black jeans and a tight black sweater, and his hair was caught back in a French braid. I gazed at him.

“I should tel you, I’m going through with a pledging ceremony with my girlfriend come spring. I can be your official consort, but I can never be your wife.” Camil e’s words about betrayal were ringing in my ears, and though I’d already talked to Nerissa about Roman, I wanted to make my stance perfectly clear.

He inclined his head. “And as I said, I have no problem with that. I wil place your intended under my protection, as wel . I assume she is not vampire?”

“No, she’s a werepuma.” I paused, staring out the tinted windows. “We caught the serial kil er.

He’s dead.” I gave him a quick wrap-up of what happened. “Do you think we should look for his sire?”

“Why would we do that?”

“I don’t know . . . she’s siring innocent victims. Look what her actions cost—five lives. Six, if you count Charles.”

“No need. If she continues to be a problem, we’l take action, but for now, let it be.” He gazed at me with his frost-ridden eyes. “Once the Regency is secure, she won’t be welcome in the city.”

After a moment, I looked ahead through the dividing glass at the driver. “Who is your driver? He a vampire, too?”

“Yes. His name is Hans, and he’s been with me for three hundred years, as a horseman, a buggy driver, and now, my chauffeur. He was turned in the year 1210, on a raiding party.”

Old. These were old vampires. “How old is Terrance? I don’t know much about him. Delilah tried to ferret out information but couldn’t find more than a scrap or two on him.”

Roman shifted. “Terrance is not so old—younger than Hans, even. He was born into his second life in the year 1815. He was a petty thief, a con man, and a murderer in his former life. He lived in the Southwest—was born and bred there. Died young, around twenty-five. He had aspirations, shal we say, to become a famous card player. He didn’t play wel enough to keep from getting run out of every town he drifted into. The last one, he was forcibly evicted by the sheriff late one night and fel into the hands of a vampire.”

“How did he become so . . . so . . .”

“So worldly? So educated?”

“I was going to say so popular, but that works, too.” The Terrance I’d met seemed older than a scant two hundred years, minus a few. He came across as smooth, suave, and sophisticated, not like some two-bit con man traveling from city to city, trying to make a buck.

“A man may become educated through school, he may learn manners through a tutor, but he wil never develop class unless it is in his nature and heart. And Terrance has no class. He’s greedy, grasping, and though he’s not an actual threat to the throne, he’s an impediment.”

Roman shifted, crossing one leg over the other. “My mother is harsh, but she has a regal air that Roman shifted, crossing one leg over the other. “My mother is harsh, but she has a regal air that lends itself wel to her position. She is never crass or boorish. Terrance is a poor specimen to represent our kind, and that is why he must die. For, unlike your young friend, he wil never step down if asked.”

“What’s the plan?”

“The plan is, we meet my associates at the club, walk in, and take out Terrance.”

“I’ve been in the Fangtabula before. There’s a lot of security there.”

“You were not there with me, or my guards.”

“True.” Actual y, he’d piqued my curiosity. Just how big was his army, and who was in it? Before I could ask anything, we pul ed to a stop.

The Fangtabula was down in the Industrial District—in south Seattle. This was an area of town you didn’t want to go strol ing through at midnight. Although there was talk of expanding the district to include more residential areas, it hadn’t happened so far, but if people kept moving to the city, no doubt the high-rise condo buildings would find their way down into the grungy concrete jungle that was a maze of train tracks and old warehouses. In fact, the Fangtabula was in what had once been a meatpacking plant.

As we pul ed into the parking lot, the club stood out as it always had, with bright red doors against wal s patterned with black-and-white stripes. Three stories tal , the Fangtabula did a lot of business, even though it was on Chase’s to-close-down list. A number of underage girls and boys were rumored to hang out there, and though Chase had managed to cal a couple raids on the place, Terrance was always two steps ahead and nobody carded ever came up as a minor.