“We have no problem with Tristan,” Amanda said with a shrug. “He’s welcome here.” I didn’t miss the tiny smile she shot him over her shoulder before looking innocently back up at me.

Something in my stomach twisted and I reflexively clenched my teeth. That would not do. A pairing of Amanda and Tristan wouldn’t be a good thing, would it? I mentally shook my head at myself and my silly thoughts. I was acting like a protective mother hen with Tristan. After what had happened with Sadira and the court of the Coven in Venice, I was wary of anything that could potentially harm my ward. He was still healing from his latest trauma, and I didn’t see Amanda as the best influence or the sanest choice for a love interest. But then, such a thing had to be Tristan’s choice, not mine.

“We’re getting off topic,” I sighed, briefly trying to remember what the topic was as I rubbed the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger. “The world is changing, as you’ve obviously seen tonight. The naturi are openly hunting us now. For the most part, they are searching for me, but that doesn’t mean they won’t take down any nightwalker they run across along the way. As a result, there is a good chance the order that we have established here may begin to fray.”

“Like following the attack at the Dark Room,” Knox said. He leaned up against one of the bookshelves, folding his arms over his broad chest. The blond-haired nightwalker had been there when a pair of naturi and several lycanthropes ripped through the exclusive nightclub in search of me. Ever since, tension had been running high between the shifters and the nightwalkers.

“And the Docks,” Danaus added solemnly. Several humans had been killed at the human nightclub that evening as the naturi attempted to track down Danaus and myself.

“Yes.”

“But things have gotten better,” Amanda countered.

“It’s not enough, and things are going to get a whole lot worse in the coming months,” I said. Crossing my arms under my breasts, I resisted the urge to pace the Persian rug. “What I am offering is the protection of my name, in a sense. In an unspoken way, you both have been my representatives within the city, but by joining my family, it makes it more official. If you are a part of my family, your actions are the same as what my actions would be. Your words are my words. But by that same token, if you do something in my name that I don’t approve of, I will rip out your heart. No hesitation. No quarter. No questions asked.”

I paused and looked at Amanda and Knox. Both seemed to shrink back from my gaze, but they said nothing. I didn’t expect either to ever cross such a line, but then, the words had to be said. The warning had to be allowed to hang ominously in the air, if only to give them reason to pause when in the middle of a somewhat questionable act.

“Besides that, being in my family changes nothing else. You will not be required to sleep within this house—”

“Not like that would be such a bad thing,” Amanda muttered. I tried to glare at her for the interruption but failed rather miserably. My home was a beautiful, antebellum three-story house, with rich dark woods and a grand winding staircase. It was magnificent, and it was a shame that I spent more than half my hours of the day locked within the basement.

“Nor will you be required to answer to me in any way other than you do at this moment,” I continued.

“Interesting,” Knox began, sliding his hands into the pockets of his navy trousers.

I arched one brow at him, daring him to continue. There were moments that he truly reminded me of his maker, Valerio.

Knox took a step away from the bookcase and cocked his head at me, sending a lock of short blond hair down in front of one eye. “You’re offering us all the benefits of a family without any of the usual drawbacks.”

“Yes, I do.”

“What’s the catch?”

“The Coven,” Tristan answered for me.

The Coven. The ruling body that oversaw all of my kind consisted of four nightwalkers called Elders. And now I was considered one of them, after a moment of desperation in Crete. To make matters worse, the second that Jabari agreed to my request to take the open seat on the Coven, he blasted it telepathically to any nightwalker within the vicinity that I was now a member. He ensured that there was no way I could weasel out of it after we defeated the naturi that night. Bastard.

“I am now considered a member of the Coven,” I admitted, hating to say the words out loud, as if they carried a type of slow-acting poison. “There are many who would have trouble accepting such a fact. If someone decides to strike at me and take my seat, the first place they will strike is at my family. Being in my family puts a target on your forehead.”

“Any more so that being a nightwalker when it comes to the naturi?” Amanda asked, perching on the arm of the chair that Tristan sat in.

“In that case, you are simply being hunted by the naturi,” Tristan said before I could reply, “and for now, they are content to hunt Mira alone. Tonight, we simply got in the way. Join Mira’s family and you will be singled out by very powerful nightwalkers. You will be hunted by two sides instead of just one.”

Amanda shrugged off his warning, but I noticed that the smile she forced on her lips didn’t quite reach her blue eyes. “It’s the risk you take when joining any family.”

“Not quite, but similar,” I corrected. “Go home and think about it. Tristan will take you back to the city. I’ll come to you in a few nights for your answers.”

Neither looked happy about the sudden dismissal, but at this point there was nothing else I was willing to discuss. They were receiving an option that Tristan had not been given, and it made me extremely uncomfortable. I wished I could give the same choice to Tristan, but if he said no, I knew I would not have the strength to let him go yet.

“And Knox, if for some reason you should hear from Valerio, please pass along the message that I need to speak with him as soon as possible. That’s an official invitation into my domain, if he should ask.”

“I haven’t heard from him since I left him, but I will keep your message in mind should something change,” Knox said before leaving the library, followed by Amanda.

Tristan pushed out of his chair and walked over to stand before me as I continued to lean against the desk. My shoulders were slumped, weighed down by too many questions and too many solutions that I found unacceptable.

“That went well,” he teased, drawing my narrowed gaze to his face.

“Don’t push me, Tristan. Our arrangement could easily change.” I tried to threaten him, but his grin only grew. Neither of us believed my hollow threat.

“You’re not Sadira,” he murmured. He took my left hand in his and rubbed his thumb over the silver band I wore on my ring finger. “And you’ve not offered them a sugar-coated death sentence. This is for the best.”

I woodenly nodded, hoping he thought the same about our own arrangement. “Get out of here.”

I pulled my hand from his and walked over to one of the bookshelves. Picking up a large silver hourglass, I turned it over so the white sand inside poured into the empty container. Time was slipping away from me. We hadn’t located Rowe yet. I had half expected the naturi to appear in my territory looking to remove my head from my shoulders after all the chaos I’d added to his life. But he hadn’t appeared, and a part of me was glad.

A sigh passed over my parted lips as I walked over to another hourglass in my extensive collection and turned it over. Danaus…

The hunter and I had parted ways long before I reached Savannah. He flew with me from Crete, but got off the plane in Paris. I knew he had returned to Themis. It wasn’t so much the researchers that worried me, but the leader of Themis, Ryan, and his misinformation. During our time together, I felt as if Danaus was finally beginning to learn the truth about nightwalkers; he had begun to understand that we were more than bloodsucking monsters from human mythology.