“That narrows it down,” Jacob noted dryly.

Keldwyn shot him a glance. “Yes. I expect you will have to spend some time finding the right place. But you cannot take too long. The queen will not wait beyond the next ful moon on your attendance.

Samhain approaches and other events of importance take place in the Fae world. At that point, she will get tired of your fumbling attempts to find a gateway and bring you to her. In that case, the crossing will be a far more unpleasant experience.” Because it already sounds like the perfect vacation hot spot now.

Once his message was delivered, Keldwyn headed back toward the forest, making it obvious he intended to depart, irrespective of whether they had further questions or need of him. It wouldn't matter regardless, Jacob knew. He didn't serve their interests, but that of an unknown monarch. And his own.

Though Lyssa asked Mason to remain at the grove, Jacob stayed a close step behind her, and she didn't discourage him. When they reached the edge of the forest, Keldwyn paused, those onyx eyes settling back on Lyssa's face after a brief flicker at Jacob's. “Long ago,” he said, “a woodsman fel in love with a beautiful and mysterious girl he found in the forest. She agreed to marry him on one condition. She had to leave him from midnight to dawn every night, and he couldn't ask her whereabouts or try to fol ow her. Since he loved her, he agreed. They were very happy, for a time.” He paused. “Eventual y, they had a child together.

Since the woodsman had been busy with his trade, upon the child's birth they only had an old cradle loaned to them by the vil age wise woman. One night, while his wife was gone, he couldn't sleep, for he never slept well without her. He decided he'd pick out a tree to make a new cradle. Putting their daughter on his back, he carried her into the woods.

Not too far away, he found one that was perfect, the wood so smooth beneath his fingers. The baby smiled and laughed when he touched the tree, reaching toward it, so he was sure it was the right one. He chopped it down and made the cradle in that one fateful night.”

Now his gaze shifted back to Jacob, flat, unreadable. “His wife was a hamadryad, her life essence connected to a specific tree. To maintain that life essence, she had to return to a tree form for a certain amount of time every night. As I'm sure you guessed, he mistakenly kil ed her to make a resting place for their child. Fae lore is fil ed with many such cautionary tales about the wisdom of love between the species.”

“Perhaps if she'd just told him who and what she was, it never would have happened. Honesty is the best policy and all that,” Jacob suggested. As he met Lyssa's bemused green eyes, he thought of how much he liked the porcelain smoothness of her face, the delicate features. “The problem I have with that old folktale,” he added, “is how long he accepted her being gone at that time of night. When it comes to love, you don't accept rationing. Over time, you want it all. He would have fol owed her.”

“He would have lost her that much sooner.” Keldwyn's lip curled. “The Fae can make man or vampire believe what they want them to believe. For instance, you believe you and the Lady Lyssa are meant to be together forever. That you can have a happily ever after, like the fairy tales humans have bastardized. But in the end, if her path lies in our world, you and the half-breed infant will be left behind. Just like the woodsman and his daughter.” Despite Lyssa's sudden stil ness, a warning, Jacob stepped forward. He and Keldwyn were of like height, though the compressed energy of the male Fae was like standing within the incineration range of a star. It didn't matter. Jacob was a ticking bomb himself. “At some point,” he said quietly, “you will acknowledge Lady Lyssa's son.”

“Not as long as he is yours as well. Lyssa, you would do well to tel your servant to stand down, before there's one more tree out there. One that can be snapped like kindling.”

Jacob, there's a time for this. Go back to Mason. I need a few minutes of privacy, and I do not want you to listen in.

It was a firm order, but there was also a caress behind it, tel ing him she was quietly pleased he'd stood up for her and Kane. He rarely doubted her wisdom, though there were times it was hard to stomach, like now. He nodded to Keldwyn, his jaw tight. “I've said my peace.”

Turning, he sketched a bow to his lady. I'll respect your wishes, but I'll be close, my lady. I don't trust your welfare to him. Not now, not ever.

He returned to his place on the concrete rubble, finding Mason back in his own place there. Though he gave him a nod, Jacob kept his attention trained on Lyssa and Keldwyn. They spoke for only a few moments, and he could tel nothing from their expressions. At length, Keldwyn vanished into the rainforest.

“I'l leave you two to talk,” Mason said, correctly interpreting the mood as Lyssa moved back toward them. “We'l discuss plans shortly.”

Jacob watched his lady come toward him, all sensual grace in slacks and a cream-colored blouse open at the throat. Her long black hair was clipped at her nape, the hip-length strands playing around her shoulders and the nip of her waist. She was so fine-boned and petite, the result of her Asian vampire mother, but only a fool would ignore the royal power that emanated from those jade eyes. The fact of her bare feet didn't impact that in the slightest. Of late, she seemed to prefer direct contact with the earth, another indication of the changes happening with her Fae blood. She looked pensive.

“Figuring out his motives is like trying to spear a fish with a straw,” he remarked.

Taking a seat on one of the lower concrete pieces, she crossed her legs and stretched her arms back to brace herself. Turning her face to the wind, she closed her eyes.

“Yes,” she said simply. Her velvet voice could caress a man's skin, her vampire all ure in perfect complement to the Fae. Though he was resigned to her ability to arouse with nothing more than her voice or her scent, long practice and intense servant training all owed him to focus past it, particularly when it was incidental, not targeted. When she wanted to arouse him, a battle against an army of Keldwyns would be easier than resistance. Her lips curved, tel ing him she'd registered his thought, though the pensive look remained. The private conversation with the Fae lord had bothered her.

“I know you don't believe his motives. Or his story about the dryad trapped in Atlanta.”

“As a queen, I know there are certain things you do and don't do. The Fae monarch has many to do her bidding. If she was truly fond of this dryad, she would have sent someone after her long ago, even if she could not risk herself. I think it far more likely the queen imprisoned the girl there as a punishment, and Keldwyn has his own reasons for wanting us to free her, perhaps to rouse the queen's ire, chal enge her.”

“But you stil think we should do it.” She glanced up at him from under thick, dark lashes. “You already know that.”

“Which is why it wasn't a question.”

His tone won an imperious arch of her brow, but she nodded. “Keldwyn is duplicitous, secretive.

However, every piece of advice he's given us contains a certain degree of wisdom. If I am able to release her and bring her to the queen, doing what another Fae can't or won't dare to do, then there is a status to that even if I anger her.”

Jacob snorted. “Only another queen would think about it that way.”

“But that is how I need to come to her. Not as a supplicant, but as an equal.”

He slid down next to her. Stretching out his legs, he rested on his elbows, tangling his fingers in a lock of her long hair. As he twined it around his fingers, he gave it a tug. She laid her palm on his abdomen, slipping her fingers beneath his T-shirt to trace the ridges of muscle. Jacob didn't want to say it, but he knew he had to do so.

“You are superior in all ways, my lady, but what if your new powers are not equal to hers? What if she feels compel ed to teach you a painful lesson? Set you back on your heels for freeing this Fae girl?”

“That's a risk I must take. Far better to appear assertive in such a situation than meek and scraping.” One long-nailed finger teased beneath the denim waistband, tracing his bare hip bone. “And that applies not only to queens. Not too long ago, I remember an insolent young man who presented himself to be my servant. Respect he had, but not an ounce of true submission.”

Jacob gave a half chuckle. “Yeah, and I remember how that night went. I got my ass kicked.”

“But it turned out all right in the end, didn't it?” He looked up at her. Despite her Fae abilities, he could stil get the jump on her with his vampire speed. Sometimes. Like now. In a blink, he'd moved them off the concrete and down below the mangroves, into the cultivated gardens where there was a patch of soft grass. He'd left her on top, but had her pul ed down against his chest, his arm around her back, his mouth warm on hers. She stirred against him, and he felt her pleasure with his

body against the softer curves of her own. His cock hardened as her own flesh dampened, readying itself for him. Even when he'd been a third-mark human servant, he'd had the senses to smel her arousal. A third-mark was equipped to mostly keep up with a vampire's insatiable carnal appetities. Now that he was a vampire, he had those appetites in spades himself. So her arousal was an irresistible perfume, an acceptable invitation to deal with the tension of the past couple hours.

But more needed to be said first. Seeing it in his lady's eyes, he braced himself, pretty sure he wasn't going to like whatever it was.

Lyssa pushed herself up, straddling his hips, but flattened her palms on his chest, a mute order to stay where he was. “Jacob, you know you're staying here.”

“Like hell .”

She pressed her lips into a thin line. “You sound more like your brother, Gideon, than the servant Thomas trained so well for me.”

“Gideon and I have more in common that most people realize. Particularly Gideon.” His eyes didn't waver. “I'm going with you.”

“We both know how the Fae feel about vampires.