“Then you’re in the clear,” Tristan said, drawing our combined gaze over to him as he balanced on the edge of his chair. “If it’s not getting any more power from you two, then it can’t be a threat here.”

“But it’s got enough strength to create one more massacre and it plans to start tomorrow night if we don’t kill the naturi soon,” I argued. Looking down at my hands, I remembered the bori’s threat. “Gaizka stated that if we don’t kill naturi, it’s going to start killing tourists on River Street tomorrow night. It will create a massacre large enough to shine a light on the nightwalker community, risking total exposure. It plans to start a war if it doesn’t get freed. Gaizka believes that if we’re forced into a war, we’ll have no choice but to use our powers and it’ll be freed regardless of our attempts to stop it now. But first, the bori said it will come after Lily before wreaking chaos on Savannah.”

“No,” Mira gasped.

“I should never have taken her from the police station,” I muttered, mostly talking to myself. “It only succeeded in drawing more attention to her. If I hadn’t promised to protect her, Gaizka might have finally lost interest in her. Whatever we try to protect is destroyed.”

“That’s not true,” Tristan said firmly, drawing my eyes back over to him as he rose to his feet. “Both you and Mira have protected me on more than one occasion and I’ve survived. Lily will too.”

“Then we fight it. We go looking for it tonight before it can destroy my city,” Mira said, pushing to her feet. “We’ll kill it tonight.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll find a way. We can go back to my place and search through the journals. Maybe there’s something in there that will tell us how to send it back to its cage,” Mira suggested. She was grasping at straws, desperate for anything that might protect that young girl who was currently pouting upstairs.

“We don’t have time for that,” I snapped, shoving to my feet so that I was standing in front of her. “Besides, I don’t think we can beat it. I think it can control any nightwalker that it runs across the same way that the animal clan naturi can control the shifters. You wouldn’t be able to stop it no matter how hard you tried. It’s stronger and faster than anything I’ve ever encountered. It tossed me around like a rag doll.”

“Then we’ll get someone stronger.”

“Who? The only people I know who are stronger than me are nightwalkers, and they are helpless against the thing. The only natural predators the bori have are the naturi, and I don’t know of any naturi that would help us take out Gaizka.”

Mira turned and paced away from me, her hands fisting in her hair in frustration. We were trapped. We had nowhere to turn. “Aurora could beat it,” Mira murmured.

“I don’t know. You nearly beat her,” Tristan said softly.

“Under very special circumstances,” Mira pointed out quickly.

“I don’t think Aurora would be willing to help us even if it means taking out a bori. Besides, we haven’t a clue as to where we can find her,” I reminded her.

“I-I don’t know what to do,” she stammered, shaking her head as she flopped down in her chair. “If this were any other problem, I would bring it before the coven. Let them handle it.”

“But you’re on the coven now and the nightwalkers can’t fight the bori,” I said. Frowning, I looked back over at Mira, who was staring at the ground. I didn’t want to utter aloud the next few words, but I had no choice. It would break Mira’s heart, particularly since her memories of Calla had been running so fresh in her mind during the past few days. “Lily can’t stay here,” I forced myself to say, finally.

“I know,” Mira whispered. “It’s not safe, not if it comes to fighting a bori that’s going to use her as a bargaining chip. I was thinking that I could send her out to Alex in Portland for a few days, just until we get Gaizka taken care of.”

Something in my chest tightened and I fought the urge to lay my hand on her shoulder. “I…” I started and then paused, trying to find the words. “I was thinking of something more permanent.”

Mira jumped to her feet and paced away from me before spinning sharply on her heel to face me. Several feet of charged air separated us. We were squared off in the small living room and I just hoped that we wouldn’t come to blows.

“What are you talking about?” she demanded, struggling to keep her voice from rising.

“I know you like Lily, Mira, but you can’t raise her,” I said calmly.

“You don’t think I’m capable of raising a child?” she said, pointing toward her chest as she took a step forward. “I’ve already had one child and she was just fine under my care before I was taken. How could you possibly know what it takes to raise a child?”

I flinched. “I’m sure you could have raised a child just fine while you were human, but you’re not any longer, Mira. You’re a vampire. A nightwalker. You’re limited in what you can do for her.”

“I would be just fine!”

“What if she needed you during the day while she was at school?” I quickly countered, trying to leave her with nowhere she could run with her argument. “What if she was sick with a fever? What would you do? Nothing. There’s nothing you could do to help her.”

“I’ve got Gabriel. He could help,” she said.

“You’re going to turn your bodyguard into a nanny? How do you think he would feel about that?”

Mira growled at me as she paced a few feet away, but then quickly turned back to me. “Then I’ll hire an actual nanny for a few years. Just to have someone around during the daylight hours.”

“And what about Jabari? And the coven? What if they come calling? Don’t you think she’ll become a target? Isn’t it enough that Tristan is in danger because of his association with you?”

“Don’t drag me into this!” Tristan said, pointing at me. “I chose to be with Mira.”

I ignored the young nightwalker’s outburst and pressed on. “He can at least take care of himself against other nightwalkers. Lily can’t.”

“Then what do you propose?” Mira demanded, crossing her arms over her chest as she closed herself off from me as I continued my attack. “Stick her with another so-called normal family? We’ve seen how well that works. She feels like an outcast, when she’s really a precious gift. We see that. We understand her. We stick her with a normal human family and she’s either going to feel like a freak when she reveals her gift, or worse, she’s going to hide it from the world and never develop her talents.”

“You’re right in that we can’t send her to a regular human family,” I agreed, stunning Mira into silence. “She needs to be with people who will appreciate her gift and help her to expand her talents.”

“What do you have in mind?” Mira slowly inquired, some of the tension slipping from her arms.

“Themis.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Mira screamed, finally losing her hold on her temper. “You’re taking her away from me so you can raise her with Ryan. Neither one of you knows anything about children. She would be a mess when you two were done with her.”

“Do you consider James a mess?” I countered.

“What are you talking about?” Mira demanded, confused.

“Lily wouldn’t be the first child Themis has taken in. While it’s rare, it has happened in the past. James’s parents were killed when he was only eight years old. Both were werewolves. They had been killed by a farmer who thought they were after his sheep one night. Unsure of whether James actually carried the shape-shifting gene, Themis offered to take him in and raise him in the event that he did grow up to be a lycanthrope.”

“Why didn’t his pack take him in?” Mira inquired.

Shoving my hands in the pockets of my pants, I shrugged my shoulders. “James’s parents didn’t belong to a pack. There are very few packs in the U.K. and none where James lived.”

“Since I’m unfit to raise Lily, you plan to take her back to Themis so you can raise her among the researchers.”