I ignored the question and stood erect again as I finally pried my fingers loose from the table. Silently, I removed the necklace and earrings I had been wearing, shoving them into my front pockets. They would only get in the way. “There’s a small church just a couple blocks south of here. Go there and stay inside until dawn,” I directed, staring straight ahead instead of at him.

“I’m going with you.”

I spun around to face Danaus, standing a few feet away now. His black brows were drawn together over his nose, and his jaw muscles hardened as he clenched his teeth. His fingers deftly attached his leather knife sheath over his belt as he prepared for the coming fight. He had made his decision to follow me into whatever battle I now faced. My own frown eased from my lips and something light swelled in my chest, pushing aside the anger and fear that had been weighing me down during the past few nights. He didn’t know what we faced or how bad our odds, but he was willing to follow me.

Unfortunately, he could not come with me this time. “That’s not an option,” I said with a slight shake of my head. “Our business is getting rid of the naturi.” My voice had grown as cold and unyielding as the Russian tundra. I couldn’t let him accompany me; both for Tristan’s sake and my own. “This is nightwalker business. You’re not going. Go to a church. I don’t want to worry about someone coming after you while I’m gone.”

He refused to be put off by my tone, and roughly grabbed my wrist when I tried to walk away from him. “What’s going on, Mira? First Nicolai, and now this. Where are Tristan and Sadira?”

My gaze met his narrow blue eyes and for a moment I longed to sink into their cool depths. I wanted to forget about it all and go back to playing cat and mouse with him through the historical district of Savannah. I knew he would willingly walk in the main hall and protect me with his last breath.

Of course, his protection of me had nothing to do with me per se, but with the protection of the human race. I was the key—the weapon that would beat back the naturi. For half a breath I wondered if he hated me all the more for it. A creature he perceived as completely evil, now the savior of mankind. A vampire hunter forced to protect his chosen prey.

“Sadira has taken Tristan to the Coven,” I whispered.

“Why?” His deep voice had also dropped to hushed tones, as if we were sharing secrets. But we had already done that tonight, and most of what we’d said shouted at the top of our lungs for all the heavens to hear.

“Punishment,” I murmured, forcing the word past a clog in my throat. “I stole Tristan from her, so she must strike back at me.” My gaze wavered and darted across the room to stare out the windows that overlooked San Marco Piazza. The warm yellow light glowed in the square, beckoning the late night revelers.

“Will they kill him?”

“Yes, but not until I get there.” My voice hardened and my hands balled into fists as I stared blindly out the bank of windows. “She’ll want me to see it; to know that I failed to protect him.”

Danaus’s thumb rubbed the inside of my wrist in a light caress, drawing my gaze back to his face. “Will they try to kill you?”

A half smirk tweaked the right corner of my mouth, pushing aside the concern that had undoubtedly drifted across my features. “They can try, but I doubt it. It’s time for the Coven to bring me to heel. They will try to break me and remind me that I serve them.”

“I can’t go,” Danaus whispered, releasing my wrist. His hand fell limp back at his side. He finally understood that I had to prove my strength. It was a test. If he walked in and guarded my back, it would be taken as a sign of weakness on my part. Any help he gave me would cause more damage than good.

“No.” I walked toward the door, refusing to look back at my partner in crime. They were going to hurt me. They were going to make me wish I was dead, but they wouldn’t kill me. Tonight was just a bit of fun. If I somehow managed to survive the next few nights and stop Rowe’s plan to free the naturi, then it would be open season on my head.

With one hand on the open door, I looked over at my shoulder into the room, suddenly hating its opulence. My eyes still refused to find his face. “It’ll be over before dawn.”

I wasn’t exactly sure what “it” was, but I was sure that before the dawn came, someone was going to be dead. I had known Sadira would strike back at me. Beyond the fact that it was her way, it was the way of all nightwalkers. I had stolen something that belonged to her in front of a member of the court. It would have been no different if I’d walked up to her and spat in her face. Of course, word of my theft spread like wildfire through the nightwalker legions.

But, stupidly, I had thought I would have more time. Sadira was usually an extremely patient creature. She toyed with her prey over decades if time permitted, letting them dangle on a thin strand of hope for years before finally crushing them. I thought she would wait until after we finally defeated Rowe. Apparently she didn’t think she’d get another shot at me so she rushed things. That, or someone else was pulling the strings.

I shot across the Lagoon in record time. I knew these waters. Maybe not as well as the streets of my beloved Savannah, but enough that I could push the little boat to her limits as I sped to the island. Circling around to a small, attractive stone landing closer to the main hall, I eased the tiny speed boat to the dock. It was crowded with boats of different shapes and sizes, but there was still one spot open. They were waiting for me.

Still in the boat, before stepping onto the stone pier I scanned the island one last time. Everyone was pulled back to the Great Hall of the Coven. I could vaguely pick out Elizabeth in the lower levels that served as the daylight chambers. Macaire was also there, but he was moving, heading for the lower levels. Jabari, of course, was nowhere to be found. It had been years since I was last able to sense him. He kept his protective cloak up constantly now, hiding from something.

As I was pulling back, a scream of pain tore through my brain, sending me to my knees. Searing pain ripped along my flesh as if the claws of a thousand cats were using me as a scratching post. Muscles trembled and my stomach clenched and unclenched, quivering under the onslaught of pain with no source. I tightly clutched the steering wheel, trying to regain my balance as the last wave of pain and terror swept through me. I had found Tristan.

A knot of fear twisted in my chest, but it was melting under the heat of the rage building in my veins. Sadira had pulled back the veil blocking Tristan from my senses. They had been torturing him, waiting for my eminent arrival. I could feel the pain as it coursed through his lean frame and the crippling exhaustion as his body strained to heal the assortment of wounds that had been inflicted. I hopped off the boat and walked briskly up to the main hall. There was no need to rush. The assembled vampires had stopped their amusements as they waited for me.

The same pair of humans from earlier in the evening pulled the massive front doors open, their muscles jumping under the effort it required to move the thick combination of wood and iron. A nervous look danced in their dark eyes, which darted only briefly to me before returning to intently stare at the ground. They knew something was happening inside, something gruesome. They had heard Tristan’s screams even through the thick doors and were simply grateful they weren’t the focus of these grim activities. Yet, there were still several hours before the night finally withered away, plenty of time for them to fill in.

The chandeliers dangling overhead had been extinguished, the long hallway sparsely lit with a scattering of iron candelabras holding thick yellow candles. Even after living in the glory of the electronic age, there were certain things that would not be shed, particularly in the Great Hall. The little flames danced on their precarious perches, throwing long shadows that congregated in the deep corners, plotting their own secret schemes.