"The lady is none of your concern beyond making her a passport," Adrian growled.

Seal's smile grew broader until it was like looking at a grinning death's-head. "So she is your Beloved. The Betrayer has found his Beloved. And if I am not mistaken, she is a Charmer as well. How very interesting." He held up his hand quickly as Adrian took a menacing step forward."I meant no disrespect, of course. My price, ah, yes, my price. For this special rush job, for the exacting nature of the work you demand, my price is naturally higher than a lesser job."

"Naturally," Adrian said dryly.

Seal transferred his grin to me. My creepy shivers went into overtime. "You would not want me to provide your Beloved with a product that would not pass the scrutiny at the airports."

"Get to the point," Adrian snapped, moving closer to me.

"My point, Betrayer, is that my time, my expertise, and my resources do not come cheap. My price is not payment in coin, but payment in service."

"Service?" I asked, my German sounding thick and awkward in the strained atmosphere of the apartment. I cleared my throat. "What sort of service do you want? I can't charm anything, and my ward drawing is limited to a slippery containment ward and a binding ward."

Seal's smile dimmed significantly. He glanced quickly at Adrian before looking back at me. Leaning against Adrian's leg as I was, I knew the minute he picked up the scent of fear that Seal was exuding. "I find myself in the unenviable position of having attracted the attention of a member of the Eisenfaust. A most unwelcome attention, caused by a minor financial transaction gone awry."

"I told you I have money," Adrian said.

Seal's gaze slid away from Adrian as his large hands waved expressively. "The nature of the man in question has driven me to take drastic actions. He will no longer be satisfied with a mere repayment of the amount I owe him. He must be destroyed."

"Destroyed?" I asked suspiciously. "Financially, you mean?"

"Destroyed as in destroyed," he told me, his murky brown eyes meeting mine for a moment. The avarice still glowed behind their depths, mingling with a cruel satisfaction that had me even more worried.

"Killed," I said.

"Destroyed," he repeated, emphasizing the word. He glanced at Adrian again. "Killed would lead directly back to me. The rest of the Eisenfaust would come after me. The trail must not lead to me. He must be turned."

"Turned? What's that?" I didn't like the way Seal was looking at us any more than I liked the way Adrian moved away a step so I wasn't touching him. The fact that he didn't want me to feel his emotions was suspicious in itself.

"I agree to your price," Adrian said. "You will give me the man's address now, then you will begin work on the passports immediately."

"You will not get them until I have proof that the matter has been taken care of," Seal warned, scurrying around Adrian to unlock the many locks on the door.

"I will attend to it by sunset tonight," Adrian agreed, his voice as grim as the flat blue of his eyes.

I held my tongue, not wanting to grill Adrian in front of the creepy Seal, but the second the door closed I turned on him, clutching the arm of his coat. "OK, dish. What's this turning business?"

A glossy eyebrow cocked. "I'm surprised, Hasi. You seem to be so knowledgeable about vampire lore, I assumed you would know what it meant to turn a person."

"You're a Dark One, not a vampire," I said, poking him in the chest. He captured my hand in his, his fingers stroking mine. "And, as has been pointed out, I can no longer rely on Buffy to keep me au courant with matters vampiric."

He shooed me down the hallway. I skirted the pile of garbage that rustled ominously, racing down the stairs to the next floor before I added, "If you mean turning the way I think you mean turning, the answer is no. I won't let you make someone else a vampire."

"Dark One."

"Whatever. I won't let you do that. It'll screw up the whole soul-retrieval thing we have going on. Besides, I thought you told me Dark Ones could only be created by a demon lord or born to an unredeemed vamp."

"That is so."

"Then how does Seal expect you to turn someone?"

Adrian gave me a short, piercing glance. "I will turn the man over to a demon lord."

"Absolutely not!" I said quickly, giving him a fulminating glare. "Not on your coffin, you won't!"

He sighed. "I don't have a coffin, Nell."

"Well, thank heavens for small favors."

Adrian stopped on the landing to the floor below, taking my arm and turning me so I faced him in the dim light of the bulb overhead. "Hasi, we do not have a choice. I do not like this bargain any more than you do, but it is a price I can pay. We must have those passports. To delay will bring disaster upon our heads."

I touched the tip of his nose, smiling determinedly into his midnight-blue eyes. "I know that, and believe me, I'm just as anxious as you are to get my hands on your tricky brother, but there has got to be a way to pay Seal without damning yourself any further."

"Other than the fact it must involve a demon lord, you do not even know what a turning is comprised of," he answered, following me as I trotted down the remaining stairs to the street.

"Ungrammatical, but true. However, I can guess most of it, and I don't like the answer." I wrapped my arms around myself against the cold, sticking close to Adrian as he stalked down the street. We were in the bad part of Cologne, the part the tourists seldom see. The streets here were dark and narrow, the buildings all wearing a decrepit, abandoned air, the people on the street either brazenly soliciting, offering illicit substances, or scurrying by with heads down, trying to avoid catching anyone's attention. It was thoroughly depressing, and I said nothing more to Adrian until he found us a taxi.

Before he could give the driver the address Seal had given him, I told the driver where I wanted to go, then sat back against the shiny plastic upholstery to find Adrian glaring at me.

"Hasi, you heard Gigli. She cannot help me with the price I must pay Seal. To return to her house now is to delay the inevitable, and we do not have the time to spare."

"She said she couldn't help you, but she said nothing about me—"

"This is ridiculous," Adrian interrupted. "I know you do not approve of what I must do, but we have no choice. It must be done." He leaned forward to tap on the glass between the driver and us. I yanked him back.

"No, it mustn't. I mean, it shouldn't. You shouldn't."

"I am the Betrayer—"

"Which has nothing to do with why you're doing this," I interrupted him this time, my fingers skimming over his face so I could feel his emotions. "You're doing this because you think we have no other way to pay Seal, but we do."

I smoothed the frown that pulled his brows down. "Seal said he did not want money. What do we have to pay him with if not that?"

"Me." I smiled as I kissed his chin. "And you can stop looking so indignant, I don't mean sexually."

He looked even more outraged. "My Beloved would never even consider being with another man, for any reason!"

"Think so?" I choked back a gurgle of laughter at the fury that flashed in his eyes, and kissed him properly, my lips caressing his as I added, "You're absolutely right, I would never consider being with anyone but you. I was just teasing you, Adrian. A little touch of jealousy always looks good on a man, I think."

"I do not like to be teased. You will not do it again."

"No, I won't," I soothed. "At least, not until we catch up with Saer. Then all bets are off."

"If you are finished joking about the circumstance we find ourselves in, we will proceed to the German's house."

"I wasn't joking," I said, pulling him back again, this time draping myself across his front to keep him from leaning forward. "I would never joke about your redemption, Adrian. I'm very serious when I say that I think we can fulfill Seal's request without putting any more black marks on your soul."