Thank you.

As his attendant’s quiet footsteps receded, he and Melly looked at each other. Her loose braid had slipped out a little, and gentle curls framed her face. He brushed one back, marveling at the softness of her hair.

“I think it was worth getting kidnapped,” she told him.

He raised his eyebrows. “Really? In spite of everything? The fear, the danger, and if what you believe is true, finding out about your sister?”

“Well, I’m not going to deny it, some of it really hurts right now. I need to hear the truth directly from Bailey, and I need to find out if my mom was involved in any of it. But in the end, it’s so much better to know the truth about something rather than living a lie.” She tilted her head. “And then there’s you and me.”

You and me. Not that long ago, he never would have conceived of saying those words.

“You better be sure about this,” he said. “Because I’m not going to let you go again. I’m never going to doubt you. I may not know anything else about what’s going to happen, but I know that much is true.”

A slow, sweet smile broke over her face. It turned a touch wry, which was purely Melly. “You can hold on to me as tight as you need, because I’ll be holding on to you just as tightly. I’m okay with the future being an uncertain place. We’ll figure things out. Answers to questions always come with time. But I know one thing, and I have to tell you right now — I am not going to live in Evenfall. I considered it for a while before, but that ship has sailed, soldier. There is too much drama that comes out of that zip code.”

A ghost of a laugh shook through him. “Don’t I know it.”

He pulled her close for a deep kiss. It quickly turned urgent. He fell into the dark intimacy of her mouth while she grasped the back of his neck and arched to get closer.

As her breath shuddered against his lips, he forced himself to pull back. “It’s okay,” he murmured. “We have time now. We’re going to get all the time we didn’t get before, and then some. And we will, by God, carve a niche for ourselves out of the universe somehow. I’ll fight the world to see that it happens, and damn anybody who tries to get in our way.”

She let out a deep sigh, and the tight grasp at the back of his head eased. “I’ll be fighting right by your side,” she whispered. She slipped her legs out of his lap and stood. “I need to freshen up before I go down.”

He rose to his feet. “Want me to wait for you?”

“No, that’s okay. I don’t want to keep Graydon waiting any longer than necessary. You go ahead. I’ll be right there.”

“All right.”

While she went into the bathroom, he opened the door to the hall. A Saks bag waited on the floor, along with a smartphone. He tucked the phone into his pocket, took the clothes in to her, then went to slip on a T-shirt, socks and boots and headed downstairs.

Gregoire had shown Graydon into the library, a large, comfortable room that faced the north of the house. As Julian strode in, he glanced out the open windows at the sunny day. While he might have to contend with sunshine, so did Justine, along with any other Vampyre.

He wondered where she was sheltering for the day. The citywide search would have begun by now, but San Francisco was a massive place and it would take time. Too much time.

The city was also bordered by water. If she grew desperate, all she needed to do was slip into the Bay and swim away. She would have the strength and the stamina to reach the East Bay, or even Marin County, to the north, or further down the coast. She had no need to breathe, so she could stay underwater and undetected for miles.

The trick would be emerging from the water, but she could do it, if she had managed to acquire more sun-protective clothing and knew where to take shelter.

Graydon stood near one of the windows, looking out at the grounds, his tall, burly figure outlined against a backdrop of the green tended lawn and colorful flowerbeds. He turned as Julian entered the room.

The sentinel was dressed much as Julian was in tough, practical clothes, in a T-shirt, jeans and boots. He wore a gun in a shoulder holster, and a battered jean jacket lay tossed over the arm of a nearby chair.

Julian strode over to shake his hand. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Julian, I’m glad to see you’re all right,” Graydon said. “I got worried there for a little while, when I lost your trail at the museum.”

“Melly is on her way down — she wants to thank you too for everything that you’ve done.”

“It’s my pleasure. I was glad to help.” Graydon paused. “I’m about to head back to New York, but first I wanted to ask you something.”

“What’s that?”

“At the museum, your scent stopped on the sidewalk right at the place where there was a distinctive magical residue.” The other man’s keen, gray gaze studied his expression. “It was Djinn magic, wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” he said. “It was, and that particular Djinn is a nasty, malicious fucker.”

“Was it someone named Malphas?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, it was.” Julian raised his eyebrows. “How did you know?”

Graydon turned away, looking out the window again. “Malphas and I go way back,” he said grimly. “I recognized his magical footprint.”

Julian paused as he took that in. He’d had no idea that individual Djinn could be detected by their magical footprints, or that Graydon had the ability to track at such a sophisticated level. It was never a good idea to underestimate the abilities of one of the Wyr sentinels.

“If you’ve had dealings with Malphas before, you have my sympathies,” Julian said. He walked over to a liquor cabinet and poured himself a glass of bloodwine. “I suppose it’s too early to offer you a glass of scotch.”

“Hell, no. I haven’t been to bed. Man, it’s late for me.”

With a chuckle, he splashed some scotch into a tumbler and walked it over to the other man. “I don’t know how much you know of what happened.”

“Tatiana filled me in on the bare bones.” Nodding his thanks, he sipped his scotch.

“So you know that Justine kidnapped Melly.”

“Yeah. That’s fucked up.”

“Malphas agreed to help Justine without an exchange of favors. He transported me to where she was holding Melly captive. He did it to retaliate for some things that have happened here recently.” Julian tossed back his bloodwine. “We forced him into a bargain with Soren as a witness, and I don’t think he took too kindly to it.”

“But Malphas is a pariah,” Graydon said slowly. “How do you know he’ll honor that?”

Julian’s eyes narrowed. Graydon seemed to be listening intently for his reply. Something about Julian’s answer mattered a great deal to the other man.

“He’ll keep this bargain. Malphas believes that Soren is in possession of information that could be damaging to his interests. Xavier has a new attendant who used to work for Malphas. Tess gave Soren a sealed envelope. If anything happens to her, or to anyone in the Nightkind demesne for sheltering her, Soren opens the envelope and distributes the contents to all the gaming commissions in the world.”

Julian shook his head as he remembered how Tess had bluffed with both Djinn. With a sleight of hand and a little misdirection, she had slipped a blank sheet of paper in the envelope and sealed it, while retaining the real information on another piece of paper. It had been an insanely gutsy move.

Slowly, Graydon lowered his glass. The sentinel’s normally good-humored expression had turned sharp and cold. He said, “I would very much like to know what that information was.”

Julian cocked his head. Sometimes you had to work for years to get a little payback. And sometimes the opportunity for payback fell in your lap out of a bright blue sky.

“Tess can never talk about the contents of the envelope she gave to Soren,” he told the other man. “That was her side of the bargain. But I might have in my possession some other information about him, if you’re interested.”