“What are you going to do with her?” he softly asked when I finally had my wits about me again.

It was on the tip of my tongue to say that I was going to do to her what they did to me, but I couldn’t utter the words because I knew it wasn’t the truth. Torture was a dark path I had left behind me some years ago. Now, when I killed something, it was a quick and merciless action. There was no torture, certainly not like what I endured. I liked to think that I no longer had the stomach for it.

“I plan to see if she has any useful information to give us and then I’m going to kill her. Nothing more,” I said, turning back around to face the hunter. However, I couldn’t quite meet his gaze. I simply shoved my hands into my pockets and stared at the sidewalk in front of me. “I can’t imagine that she can honestly be used as a bargaining chip with the naturi.”

Danaus placed his hand under my chin, forcing me to raise my eyes to meet his piercing gaze. “What if she truly doesn’t know anything at all?”

“Then she’ll die a quick death.”

“And if she is what she says she is, a traitor to the naturi?”

“Then we might finally have something interesting on our hands,” I said, forcing a smile onto my lips. I slowly took a step backward, removing my chin from his light touch. “Watch her for a while. I need to see to something.”

“Will you be back tonight?”

I glanced up to the night sky, catching glimpses of starlight as the dark clouds floated by. We still had a few hours until sunrise. “I honestly don’t know.”

Danaus nodded and stepped aside so I could walk past him to the car. As I reached it, he handed me the keys, a worried look passing over his stony features. It felt as if something was hanging unsaid in the air. I didn’t know what it was that he wanted to say to me, but he never spoke a word as he climbed the front stairs and entered the town house.

Heaving a soft sigh, I got into my car and drove quickly to my home just outside the city limits, where I knew Tristan would be waiting for me. I had only to briefly touch his mind to realize that the night was not going well for the young nightwalker.

As I pulled into the garage, I opened my mind and followed the path back to him. He was standing in front of one of the windows on the second floor looking out on the front yard, his emotions a mass of pain, anger, and confusion. The naturi might have taken only Amanda, but they had hurt Tristan as well.

The only light in the room poured through the window, giving his pale skin a faint glow. His arms were crossed over his chest and his shoulders were rigid as tension hummed through his entire body.

Frowning, I watched the young nightwalker in silence. I couldn’t leave him brooding over whatever dark thoughts plagued him. Since coming to my domain, I had yet to see him actually happy. Sarcastic, bitter, worried, and melancholy were the emotions he seemed to be limited to despite my efforts to make him feel welcome. Yet, it was understandable. He was still dealing with his new position in Savannah, as well as his past with our maker, Sadira. We all had ghosts that haunted us in some manner, and most were not that easy to eradicate.

“How is Amanda?” I asked, knowing she was somehow at the root of his dark mood.

“I have no idea. You would need to ask her or Knox.” He refused to look at me as he spoke.

“What happened?” I stepped farther into the room, to stand beside the large king-size bed that had never been slept in.

“The naturi happened,” he snarled at me. “I’ve gone from having Sadira ruin my life to having the naturi mucking up this too-long existence.”

“What did she say?” I pressed, inwardly dreading the response.

“She won’t come near me,” he said. Tristan whirled around to face me, his blue eyes glowing in the darkness. “She would allow only Knox to help her; only Knox could touch her.

“She’s been through a lot, Tristan. Knox is familiar to her,” I coaxed, trying to calm him down.

“No! It’s because I failed to protect her from the naturi and the shifters. When they attacked, I should have been able to handle the situation and stop the naturi. But I couldn’t. I failed her and she was taken.”

He picked up a delicate snow globe from the end table near him and hurled it across the room, aiming to smash it against the far wall. I took a quick step to my left and caught it awkwardly before dropping it safely to the bed.

“Sadira kept me weak,” he continued to rage, his hand shaking before him.

“You’re still young,” I countered.

“I’m weak for someone my age. Don’t deny it!” he said, pinning me with his angry gaze.

“I won’t deny it,” I replied with a shrug. “You are weak for a nightwalker of your years. But that’s not your fault. That’s Sadira’s doing. She wanted to keep you weak because she got burned by me.”

Tristan shoved both his hands through his shoulder-length brown hair and turned back toward the window. “I’m useless,” he murmured. “She made me useless.”

“Stop it!” My voice cracked across his shoulders like a whip, causing him to flinch. “That’s nonsense and you know it. You’re not useless. I don’t waste my time with useless creatures.”

“Why?” he said with a shake of his head as he turned back toward me. “Why did you save me from Sadira? I’ve never understood it.”

“Because I saw in you the potential to be something great and I wanted that person on my side,” I admitted, with a cocky smile lifting one corner of my mouth. I thought he had great potential if he could finally escape Sadira’s long reach. But we were all damaged in our own unique ways. Tristan had to find a way to use that damage to his advantage.

“What about Amanda?” he asked. The glow had faded from his eyes, and his shoulders slumped under the weight of his concerns. The rage was gone for now.

“Give her time. The naturi are still haunting her thoughts,” I said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

“And if she can’t forgive me?”

A heavy sigh slipped past my lips as I looked down at my empty hands. It was a possibility. “If she understands you that little, then she doesn’t deserve to have you in the first place, and you’re both better off.”

“I hope you’re wrong.”

“So do I, because if I’m not, it means I sorely misjudged her.”

Tristan gazed back out the window, the fingers of his right hand pressed to the glass. The only sound for several minutes was the gentle hum of the air conditioner pumping cold air through the house. Both of us settled into our own thoughts.

I could understand why Amanda was so important to him. It was more than finally meeting a creature that was interested in him and he was interested in as well. It was the ability to make that choice to pursue or walk away. It was the excitement of slowly developing an emotional bond with someone over time. Sadira had directed all of his interactions—told him who to kiss, touch, and sleep with. In the end even our relationship had been forced upon him. Amanda represented his first choice as an individual in more than a century. I could understand why he didn’t want to lose his chance at that.

“Did you kill it?” he suddenly asked, crashing into my thoughts. It took me several seconds to realize he was talking about the naturi we had found captive with Amanda.

“No, not yet,” I said, shaking my head. Laying my left hand on the bed comforter, my fingers aimlessly traced over the pattern.

Tristan turned away from the window, his brow furrowed in confusion. “You’re kidding, right? How could you have not killed it?”

“She’s a potential source of information. She may be able to tell us something about the naturi’s plans.”

Taking a few steps closer to me, he leaned forward, bracing his hands against the back of a chair that stood between us. “You expect her to tell you the truth?”