Of course, paying your dues didn’t guarantee you admittance on any given night. If the place reached capacity—which was relatively low, in an effort to avoid confrontations—you couldn’t be admitted. Also, if you had recently pissed me off, you were on the no-admittance list until I said otherwise.

I stood at the entrance to the main room for only a moment before a tall, lean nightwalker stepped out of a shadowy booth and stared at me. I hadn’t told Knox I was coming, so my presence at the nightclub naturally surprised him. He tilted his head to his right before turning and walking in that direction. I cut across the dance floor, weaving through the crowd, to meet him as he opened a door at the back of the building. There were several private rooms in the club that were used for feeding and other activities. However, feeding was the only thing specifically outlawed in the main room.

As I stepped past Knox, he ran an index finger down my bare arm, wiping away some of the blood I had missed. “Looks like you’ve had an interesting evening,” he slowly drawled. “The Butcher?”

I roughly seized his wrist as he raised his finger to his mouth, halting him in the act of tasting what he assumed to be a very messy meal. “Naturi.”

Knox stumbled backward from me, jerking his wrist from my grasp. He frantically wiped his hand and wrist on his dark slacks while a string of low German curses escaped him. I gave him a few moments to collect himself.

At just under six feet, Knox had a lean, narrow build, a mix of bone and hard muscle. He was nearly two centuries old, still somewhat young, but very powerful and intelligent for his age. But that was no great surprise considering his maker. Valerio very rarely converted a human, but when he did, it was always with a great deal of care.

Knox moved into my domain less than two decades ago, and has served as my nightwalker assistant almost that long. While we had no official name for it, he served as a type of second-in-command. His mere presence helped to maintain the peace. Yet, I never used him as an enforcer. While he was more than strong enough for the task, I preferred to handle such things personally.

“The Butcher is in league with the naturi?” Knox asked when he was finally calm again.

“Actually, the naturi was a gift for me,” I said with a light shrug. I turned and walked past the black leather sofa and matching chair to the far wall. Putting my back against the wall, I slid down until I was seated on the floor with my knees bent before me. I was tired and needed a few moments to think.

Knox pushed the ottoman closer to me with his foot and sat on the edge. “He comes into your domain, kills five nightwalkers, and then gives you naturi as a gift. Forgive me if I’m slow, but what the hell?”

“It’s more complicated than that,” I murmured, dropping the bloodstained T-shirt I’d been carrying next to me. I threaded my fingers through the thick charcoal-gray carpet that stretched through the room and helped to muffle our conversation.

“I sincerely hope so,” Knox said.

Resting my head against the wall, I looked up, watching him brush some sandy blond hair from where it fell across his forehead. I had grown accustomed to his dry wit and calming influence during the past few years. It took a great deal to rattle him, but it appeared that the naturi was one of those things, given the lines of strain around his mouth. I was grateful Valerio had at least taken the time to educate Knox on that dangerous bit of history.

“I have to leave town for a while,” I said, pulling my fingers into a loose fist. I hated not being here if the naturi were running around my domain, but they had to be stopped, and the answers I needed could not be found here.

“Are you leaving because of the Butcher or the naturi?”

“Both. While I am gone, spread the word that I want everyone pulled close to the city. No one is to hunt alone until I return or send word that it is safe. And do not mention the naturi. I don’t want a panic.”

Knox rubbed his temples and forehead with one hand, staring off into space for a moment. “This will make things…difficult.”

I knew what he meant. While we frequently congregated at the Dark Room, nightwalkers were solitary, independent creatures by nature. Forcing vampires to stay within close proximity for an extended period of time was asking for trouble. But telling them that the naturi were close would only make matters worse.

“I hope to get this taken care of as quickly as possible. Where is Amanda?”

“Concert at SSU,” Knox quickly replied, referring to Savannah State University. The college was relatively small, but frequently played host to a variety of bands, both known and unknown. The college also made for a great feeding ground for nightwalkers. “Do you want me to summon her?”

“No, talk to her after the concert, fill her in. Get her to help you keep the peace.”

While they looked nothing alike, I frequently referred to them as my Doublemint Twins because they both had the same shade of blond hair. Amanda wasn’t quite fifty years old, but had taken to vampirism like a fish to water, seemingly without the struggles many her age went through. I had no idea who her creator was. She had simply appeared in my domain ten years ago and seemed to instantly fit in. Of course, her sunny yet positively brutal personality won a special place in my heart. Despite her youth, she managed to keep a tight rein on some of the younger nightwalkers. If Knox was considered my second-in-command, then Amanda had managed to quietly attain a type of sergeant-at-arms position.

“What about the Butcher?”

“He will be gone from my domain before I leave.” I hadn’t yet decided how I would take care of the hunter, but I would not leave him here while I was away. Right now, he was balanced between too dangerous to leave alive and too important to kill. I was still waiting for the scales to finally tilt in one direction.

Knox opened his mouth to say something, but the words were halted by a knock at the door.

“Show him in,” I called, quickly pushing to my feet. I had sensed the approach of the bouncer and knew he would come to that room for only one reason—my invited guest had arrived.

“Use your best judgment.” By the finality in my tone, Knox knew he was being dismissed. The blond vampire nodded once and then left the room as Barrett Rainer entered.

Given his broad shoulders and somewhat stocky build, it was no surprise that Barrett Rainer was a werewolf. The man was more than 250 pounds of pure muscle, but he moved with a subtle grace, dancing between animal and man. What was surprising to most was that he was the head of one of the most powerful packs in the country. The Savannah pack wasn’t the largest—that honor belonged to a pack in Montana—but its members had been carefully bred, trained, and in some cases selected for their strength, speed, and intelligence.

And at the top of the heap was Barrett Rainer with his burnished gold hair and copper-colored eyes. Like his predecessors, Barrett had been groomed since birth to assume his current role. Of course, the Savannah pack was unusual in that since its very beginning, it had always been run by a member of the Rainer family.

It was this steady consistency over the years that had enabled me to strengthen the relations with the lycanthropes in the area. In most cases, nightwalkers and shapeshifters didn’t generally play well together, as each side attempted to carve out a territory of its own. Only through steady negotiations with Barrett, his father, and his grandfather had I been able to work out a stable peace. That’s not to say we didn’t have our occasional scuffle, but at least it wasn’t the secret wars and strained truces found in other regions around the world.

Barrett dragged his stubby fingers through his short hair, leaving it standing on end and slightly disheveled. He wore a gray suit, but his tie was missing and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. It was nearly two in the morning. Judging by how quickly he had gotten there, I was willing to guess I’d caught him as he was leaving his restaurant, Bella Luna, on the other side of town.