“What happened to the witch coven?”

“Ryan said it looked like three of the original eight had been in the club that night and were killed by the fire. Two more were gutted, their hearts stolen,” she said, counting off each one. She didn’t need to go into any more detail than that. They had been killed by the naturi they served and their hearts harvested for spells.

“And the remaining three?” I prompted when she paused.

“Ryan says disbanded and scattered.”

My arms loosened and my hands slipped into my pockets. “You’re not hunting them?”

Mira cracked one eye open and turned her head slightly without lifting it from the glass to look at me, a grim smile quirking one corner of her mouth. “Why bother? The naturi will finish them. Let them die at the hand of those they serve.”

What she wasn’t saying was that she was confident that whatever death the naturi meted out, it would be slow and painful. What more could we ask for?

“Danaus?” The sound my name on her lips drew my narrowed gaze back to her face. For a moment, she sounded hesitant and even little lost. It was a foreign sound coming from her. Mira exuded strength and confidence in whatever she did, even when she hadn’t a clue, and her weakness made me wish for a knife, to defend her against whatever threat had caused the slight tremor in her voice.

“James said that you’ve been out hunting naturi throughout Europe,” she said then suddenly stopped, seeming to wait for me to comment. Placing her hand against the glass, she lifted her head and stared down at the city, her jaw tight.

“Since the door opened, they’re everywhere and they’re not limiting themselves to the woods,” I replied. “They’ve been creeping into the cities, killing humans and vampires when they can do it quietly. They don’t seem to want to be noticed at this point.”

“Aurora is still plotting,” Mira murmured. “She has her sisters to deal with now besides me.”

The queen of the naturi did have more than a few problems in her lap now that she was running free on Earth. Her younger sisters now stood opposed to her plans to destroy the human race, causing the naturi race to splinter into two factions. Where she had probably thought her only resistance would be the nightwalkers, Aurora now faced her own kind as well.

“It’s only a matter of time before she makes her move,” I said, but Mira shook her head.

“No, she’ll want to solidify her claim as queen first, bring her people back together and crush her sisters. She’s going to need as many of the naturi at her disposal as possible if she is going to destroy both the nightwalkers and the humans. We’ve got some time.”

Mira let her eyes sweep over the room, her fists balled at her side, but I don’t think she actually saw any of it. “Do you sense any more in the city?” she suddenly snapped, glaring at me.

“No. There are no more naturi in the immediate area,” I said.

Mira gave me a jerky nod and directed her gaze back out the window. The anger and frustration seemed to slowly ooze from her body. Yet when she spoke again, a cold chill crept up my spine and coiled like a snake around my neck.

“We have to get rid of them, Danaus. You have to help me. You may hate my kind, but we are no great threat to the humans you protect. The naturi will wipe us all out if we don’t act. You have to help me.”

“Have you spoken to the coven?” I inquired. Mira’s narrowed gazed darted back to my face and she took a small step backward so that her right shoulder touched the window behind her. The coven was the ruling body for all vampires under their liege, and last I heard, Mira ranked just behind the naturi, in their “least liked” category.

“What does that have to do with the naturi?” she demanded, her tone sharpening.

“I would like to know if I’m protecting you from just the naturi or if members of the coven are hunting you as well.”

“Your job is not to protect me. Your job is to help me with the investigation. If we can kill some naturi along the way, all the better. The coven is my business.”

“Is Jabari hunting you?” I pressed. Jabari was not only a member of the coven, but at one time the vampire Elder had been very close to Mira. The Egyptian vampire had been her savior more than five hundred years ago at Machu Picchu and then had tried to kill her just a few months ago in England.

“No, he needs me alive. He still has a use for me.” Mira looked away from me for a moment then looked back, lifting her chin a little, her lavender eyes narrowed. “I don’t know the coven’s plans and I don’t want to know. I have no doubt they would all rather see me dead, but the Elders have all seen more than a thousand years slip by them. Time means nothing to them. If they wish me dead, they will not rush it.”

“Don’t trust Ryan.” The words slipped out, surprising me. I hadn’t meant to say it. What did I care what she planned with the warlock? But I believed in a fair fight. I believed in knowing your enemy and honor and duty; things I knew that Mira believed in as well. She was being hunted by both the naturi and the coven because of her abilities. And for his own reasons, Ryan was aiming to use her for his own means. She at least should be aware of what she faced.

Mira pinned me with a surprised gaze, one corner of her mouth quirking in a smile. She tilted her head slightly to the left, sending her hair falling over her shoulder like a cascade of liquid rubies.

“If he has to choose between the support of the rest of the coven and you, he will betray you in a heartbeat,” I continued, when she refused to speak.

The nightwalker chuckled and took a couple steps closer to me. The scent of lilacs rose up around me as I sucked in a steadying breath. Her powers brushed against me in an almost nonexistent caress, leaving me wondering if I had actually felt something. “I have not lived this long trusting powerful creatures. I know Ryan will not hesitate to stab me in the back. It is how he learned to survive in my world.”

“It’s just that when I saw you in his office earlier tonight it looked like…” The words trailed off in the back of my throat. What was I supposed to say? That it looked like I interrupted a rather intimate moment between those two. That they looked like they were already lovers?

Mira just smiled a secretive little smile as she stared up at me. “Yes,” she purred. “Well, that was something else. Don’t worry, my handsome protector. I don’t trust your fearless leader in the least.” She extended her right hand toward me and I instinctively jerked backward out of her reach. She patiently waited until I had stopped moving and she slowly ran her fingers through my hair, moving it from my eyes.

“You’ve let your hair grow,” she said in an almost absent manner. “I like it, but it hides your face. I can arrange for you to see my stylist when you’re in town.”

“Don’t bother,” I spit out between my clenched teeth, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart. She was mocking me now, her dark mood lightening. I jerked my head to the side, moving an inch out of her reach.

Mira shrugged, returning to her usual unflappable manner. “As you wish.”

A knock at the door broke us apart, sending Mira back to her previous spot by the window, while I walked over to see who had interrupted us. James smiled at me when I jerked open the door. He was wearing a heavy wool coat, appearing for all the world as if he were preparing to go out for the evening. Stepping backward, I let the man enter and then followed behind him after shutting the door.

“Are we ready to go?” James inquired eagerly.

“We?” I demanded.

“Ryan wants me to tag along with you during the investigation. I will be able to provide you with valuable research information,” James replied, his smile crumbling as he spoke. “I’m guessing that he didn’t mention it to you.”

“No, it must have slipped his mind,” I said, frowning. My first reaction was to deny the researcher the opportunity to go hunting around the city with Mira and me for the killer, but I swallowed the words. The initial part of the investigation would be checking out the girl’s apartment and the body—two things that were unlikely to present any kind of significant danger to the human. Besides, James was looking to get more experience in the field, and it was better if he was at my side than wandering around at night alone down vampire-infested streets.