"Even if something happens to one of them?" Arianna was curious. Had he parents been mates? Was that why her dad never even considered remarrying?

"Even if something happens," Andrew replied, trying not to think of such an outcome. "You're stuck with me for life. I hope you're prepared."

"So what now? There's obviously no need to worry about the vrykolakas, since it looks like I already found my mate," Arianna used the same term as Andrew, though it now sounded different than before.

"That's the problem." Anger boiled beneath the surface again. Andrew was losing control of his emotions.

"Explain?" Arianna asked, not understanding where his anger came from.

"The clans don't recognize the mates our night human side chooses." Arianna kissed his bare chest and his anger boiled off a little at her touch. The thought of Andrew choosing someone else would make her angry too, but Arianna was still naive of the night human world. She a.s.sumed there was a solution to be reached.

"Then we make them listen. I'm the head of four different clans. I'll decide who I want to be with," Arianna logically replied. Andrew huffed a bit and kissed her forehead.

"That would work fine if you had more support and were at full strength. You have neither. The rest of the clans will unite against you, no matter who your choice is. They would rather have one ninth chance of winning you than zero chance with you choosing." Andrew sighed. The situation was not good right now. "And you can't just go into hiding. Gabriel can handle the Grace clan, but you're needed at the Randolph estate. Devin can do the work alone, but you're the head. They will revolt without you there. If Seeger takes over, then that would mean trouble for everyone you care about."

"Then we need to just run off and elope?" Arianna replied, going back to their original solution.

"Miss Arianna, are you asking me to marry you?" Andrew tried to lighten the mood. Arianna smiled and didn't blush this time. She didn't care if everyone in the house heard her. She now knew what she felt was beyond real; it was part of her. While it was strange to think about it, Andrew was her other half and always would be. It took seeing it with her own eyes to finally admit what she had been feeling for months when she was around Andrew.

"I don't think asking is necessary when you can't even tell one from the other," Arianna pointed to her light wrapped around his.

"I suppose not." Andrew nuzzled into her head and sighed. "We need to talk to Devin. He knows the politics better than I do. If running away and getting married will do it, then we will be gone before the noonday sun sets. I plan to be beside you forever Arianna Grace, as I can't live without you."

TWENTY-FIVE.

Devin and Turner were at the computer in the dining room while Devin was typing away. Turner was using his superior hearing to listen in to Devin's headphones without having any of his own. Devin didn't notice Arianna approach, but Turner did. He quickly moved over to make room next to him for her and Andrew so that they could see everything as well.

"Your new guest is unquestionably a child of the Katsulas family. He isn't the heir, Nik, but probably his younger brother. We don't have any facial recognition on the rest of the family aside from the dad and oldest son. The rest are kept hidden from the public. It would be either Cadmus or Polo since he's close to turning age. They are less than a year apart."

"From our sensors, I can say he's a fairly strong night human, but nothing compared to Arianna or Andrew. He's young and undeveloped. He will probably top out around Turner's strength. Rumor has it his older brother ranks in just below Andrew. Good thing Seeger didn't run into that one!" Mori said sarcastically.

"If he did, we might not be planning now," Turner replied, actually a bit sad Michael didn't run into someone that might have stopped the events from happening.

"Thanks Mori," Devin said while signing off the computer.

"So what do we do now?" Arianna asked. Devin stared at the blank computer screen, deep in thought.

Devin didn't reply and instead nodded to Andrew. Andrew momentarily disappeared but quickly returned. He bobbed his head at Devin before Devin would speak. Arianna moved to ask what had happened, but Andrew slid his hand up to the back of her neck and lightly squeezed, indicating he put all the guests in the house to sleep.

"How long?" Devin asked Andrew, gauging how much to talk to Arianna about.

"Fifteen minutes, minimum," Andrew replied. "I'll keep track of them and tell you when the first awakes."

"First off, did you get in touch with Gabriel?" Devin asked. "Any idea what he's planning for her safe keeping?"

"No, he hasn't responded," Andrew answered. Devin and Andrew had already been planning. Arianna looked over to Turner, and he was already in on the conversation. The three boys were already thinking as one but leaving Arianna out of the equation.

"Wait one second." Arianna put her hands up to interrupt their talking. "Is anyone going to fill me in here?"

"I'll explain in a minute," Andrew promised, trying to get as much said and out in the open as he could before the hostages woke.

"Do you know where Gabriel went off to?" Devin asked Andrew specifically, but also included Arianna in his question.

"I'm guessing the lodge," Andrew replied. "It would be where I'd take her. It'll buy us some time, but not much. They found her here, and no one was supposed to know where this safe house was. They've obviously been tracking her while they experiment on gaining the power to take her by force." Arianna looked between them as Andrew's idea that the whole mutant experiment everyone was trying was just to get to her. It never occurred to her that people would have to experiment to get enough power to take her by force. She just a.s.sumed that since she had her team protecting her, no one would try again.

"Is it safe for me?" Arianna was concerned. Her first experience at the Randolph estate ended in her kidnapping, and she wasn't eager to try it again.

"We already have one traitor, maybe we have another," Turner suggested, sitting at the table across from Devin and the computer. "We need to be positive she's protected before we do anything."

"Then we shouldn't take everyone with this time," Andrew replied, pulling out a chair and joining them.

"That would be a bad idea. We'll need all the manpower we can get when we defy them." Devin checked his phone. Gabriel hadn't called in yet. Gabriel was setting up where they needed to go, but there wasn't much time to act. If the Katsulas family was any good at tracking, they'd be at their door looking for the prisoner sometime tonight.

"Please, someone explain to me," Arianna begged. She needed information, but she also needed to be included on their cryptic talk. Information wasn't helpful if she only understood a sentence here and there.

"We are going to move you to another safe house once Gabriel gets back and avoid the Katsulas boy," Devin explained. "You're far too sick for us to even consider confronting the clans at this point. If they find us now, they'll start a fight because you can't help us fight back."

"Maybe sick would be better," Arianna suggested, grasping at straws. "If I was sick, who would want to marry me?" She heard her own words and hoped they would be true.

"That would attract even more suitors," Turner replied. He wanted the fight. Once they put everyone in their place, no one would bother Arianna. But that meant waiting for her to heal. She was getting somewhat better, but she wasn't back to her normal strength. A fight right now wasn't an option.

"Why would that attract more people?" Arianna asked.

"The weaker you, are the more likely someone will marry you with the intent to kill you off after the wedding. If you seem a strong opponent, the safer you'll be. Night humans value strength and dominance. Every clan works that way. The strongest lead and the lesser follow," Thomas explained as he sat down on the table and nodded to Devin. Thomas had just returned from Molina's room.

"She won't talk to me," Thomas replied to Devin. "She only wants to talk to Arianna."

"Well, that's not happening after she sabotaged Ari's health." Devin turned back to Turner and Andrew to continue planning.

"Wait," Arianna cried out. "These are my choices. Stop making them for me."

"You have no idea what you're getting into, so that's a no," Devin didn't even look away from Turner.

"I have no idea because you never tell me anything. You treat me like a child. I'm not a child." Arianna stopped herself from stomping a foot to emphasize her point. That would be childish, even if it would make her feel better.

"You've made enough of a mess, now please just let us sort this out to get you out of it," Devin replied under his breath. He didn't have time to argue with her.

"If you'd have told me to begin with, I might not have done this." Arianna tried to stare Devin down, but he was done with her at her first protest. Arianna hated it when he dismissed her and her thoughts. While he had been in the night human world years more than her, Devin wasn't perfect.

'Might not have?' Andrew smiled. No matter what, Arianna would have saved the outsider. It wasn't within her to let people suffer or die when she could help. Compa.s.sion made Arianna different from the rest of the night human world.

"She does have a point. She needs to know more so that she doesn't accidentally do something again," Turner said, finally coming to her side of the argument as he emphasized accidentally for Devin's benefit.

"Fine, we only have a few more minutes anyway before people start to wake up. Thomas, explain anything to Arianna that she wants to know and the three of us will plan more," Devin divided the work. Thomas was in on the plan thus far as well. Her four keepers worked as a cohesive team. She didn't ever think it would be possible to see such a sight when she entered the night human world of warring clans split against each other a year ago, but here they were now.

Arianna wanted to complain but Devin had already turned his back to her.

"Short lesson?" Thomas asked, and Arianna nodded. Thomas stood and directed her to the couch where they could sit together.

"There are thirteen clans, four of which you're the head of," Thomas began.

"Got that already." Arianna wanted to move the story forward.

"Each clan has unmarried male heir to the family or even a few clan heads are unmarried. They are all male. Like the baku, strong genes in most of the families run in the male lines. You're an unwed night human female of great strength and even more power because you control four clans. All other heads control two at most. All those men are interested in marrying you. They have all been trying to get near you for the past year, but they have been pressing us for an audience with you for these past few months. They have even begun experimenting to be like you in combining night humans. From our intel, we think they're trying to entice you to wed the one that has the most likely chance to add more night human characteristics to your heir. In reality they realize they need more strength to take you by force. Their goal is to control more clans and create a superior heir from their linage. They all think this will be done through you. We've been doing our best to keep them away, but obviously it didn't work last time, or this time," Thomas spat out all the info quickly as their time was running out.

"Why didn't they propose the challenge when they met us before in the park, if this is what it's all about?" Arianna replied.

"They were uninvited. You can only call a challenge when invited as a guest to our property. The Katsulas boy will propose marriage to his family. When you decline, he will contest the right to challenge. If you outright say no, then others have a right. All they needed was one clan to make it in. Once he invokes that, there's nothing we can do but bring the clans together and hold a challenge." Thomas looked over at Andrew to gauge his time. Andrew nodded that they were fine before Arianna could speak again.

"Nothing? Do I not have any rights? Is this the dark ages or something where women are property?" Arianna couldn't comprehend the situation.

"Dark Ages? We are night humans after all," Thomas tried to joke. Arianna didn't laugh.

"What if I leave?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter if you leave or not, he has the right to an answer now that he's a guest in our home. The answer doesn't have to be from you now as you were the one to bring him back. The clan will speak for you if you're not there." Thomas couldn't say much more to make her see the gravity of the problem.

"He isn't a guest; he tried to attack one of my people. I brought him back to question." Arianna wanted to get out of the situation any way possible.

"And he will dispute it. Whether he attacked Seeger or not, doesn't matter. He will say he didn't, and there's nothing but his word against Seeger's. Mori can't trace where the fight started. At the park, there was both you and Turner on Grace Lands-but now it is only Seeger's word, and we know he can't be trusted." Thomas looked back to Andrew again who was now quietly debating with Devin.

"What if my whole house disappeared at one time? Then we can deny anything happened." Arianna threw out another option.

"Not possible. Just as you can see inside people's minds, so can others. They will look within the Katsulas boy and see that he met your people. Disappearing wouldn't matter now. All he has to do is present his request. We can't ignore him. It would have been better to leave him out there to burn. Now we can't change that." Thomas wanted to do all of Arianna's suggestions, but they wouldn't matter.

"What if I tell them I already married Andrew?" Arianna was ready to marry to get out of the mess.

"They won't care, it needs to be made public by the clans to be official. Nothing was done before meeting him, so that won't work." Thomas had also gone through all the options.

"What if just Andrew and I disappear?" Arianna wanted to run away now.

"Then you forfeit your right as clan leader, and thus the baku will revert to Gabriel and the dearg-dul will be up for vote as to which family will take over. More than likely Seeger will win that one since most of them follow him anyways. The lives of everyone you care about will be left to Seeger, and you know he is just biding time to start a war again with the baku again. Not just your dearg-dul, but all four clans will be at war again." Thomas didn't like either plan. Seeger would make a horrible leader, and Gabriel was getting old and his son Patrick wasn't high enough in power to be the next leader. It would be back to war for the four clans.

"What if we just say no?" Arianna was grasping at straws.

"Then the clans will unite and force us into war." Thomas wanted a solution also, but there was none. The options were to accept the challenge or go to war, either between their own clans or with the other clans.

"There would really be war over the right to marry me?" Arianna had always thought the Greeks going to war over Helen of Troy was completely unrealistic. Now she could see it happening firsthand. It was a ridiculous notion to her. There was nothing special about her. It was all about her blood.

"It's not the right to marry you they want." A growl across the room brought her head up to notice Andrew was listening to both conversations at once. He wasn't happy at what Thomas was saying.

"Don't get mad at the messenger," Turner warned Andrew, bringing his anger back down to a normal level. Thomas nodded. The tengu and the lycan could get along if needed.

"What do they want?" Arianna innocently asked, turning back to Thomas who was more in control than Andrew to answer her question.

"They want you to have their child. In fact, none would even care if you told them you married Andrew and wouldn't leave him. They would invite him to stay around as your lover. They don't care who you have as a keeper or a lover. You can have as many people around you as you please, as long as you have their child. You don't see how special you are. Every single one of the thirteen clans want the ability to fuse their night human traits to yours. They want you to have their child so that it would be even more powerful than you." Thomas' words hung in the air as, stunned, Arianna couldn't reply.

TWENTY-SIX.

Devin, Turner, and Andrew stopped talking as someone in the house stirred. Andrew nodded, and they continued where they left off. Arianna searched the house and found the first to wake was Molina. She wasn't stronger than their guest, but probably more used to the baku tactics to make one unconscious. They obviously had pa.s.sed the details Molina would need to know to stop them. They continued to plot out the last details.

'Ari, I have to talk to you,' Molina pleaded to Arianna as soon as she was coherent. 'Please. We need to talk.'

Arianna looked across the room where Thomas now was part of the conversation with her keepers. He was giving his tactical opinion since Arianna had no more questions. No one heard Molina but Arianna. Arianna moved across the room and pretended to be listening to the guys while she responded to Molina.

'You poisoned me. I don't think we've anything more to talk about.' Arianna was hurt by Molina's betrayal.

'Ari, I did that for you. Please come talk to me.' Molina needed just a chance to explain.

'How can making me sick be for me?' Arianna still didn't listen to the boys, concentrating instead on Molina.

'Ari, I love you like my own sister. I'd do anything for you. This was the only way. Devin refused to tell you the truth about anything. He wanted to protect you from it all, but I knew better. You need to know the truth, and hopefully, now they have told you everything. If that's the case, then we don't need to talk.' Devin wouldn't have told Arianna the whole truth. Molina waited patiently upstairs for Arianna to come to her.

Arianna thought back to when she entered Devin's mind. There were so many locked doors. They must be filled with all the knowledge and memories he was hiding from her. He had a way to lock everything out of his conscious, but that included the information Arianna might need to make good decisions. Of everyone, Devin knew best what she always needed. He knew dearg-dul better than they did, and he wasn't even one. He seemed to also know the rest of the night humans too. Devin was a great source of knowledge, but he kept it all hidden away from her.

'Then, why didn't you just talk to me?' Arianna reasoned.

'What you need to know isn't something I can just talk to you about. Randolph forbade it. And Devin still follows all his rules. Haven't you noticed he's the only one that protects you that doesn't carry a bit of your blood around to increase their strength? He's still following Randolph's orders. He only uses Randolph's dried blood as an energy source if needed. He will never use yours because Randolph told him not to.' Molina wanted to beg Arianna, but at this point, Molina needed to use reason, not begging.

Lord Randolph had many rules, and Arianna was used to coming across them every day. No one specifically told her any of them, but Arianna heard talking every now and then from the people around the estate. They often would give away small details. The only one thing Arianna knew was that Randolph expressly forbade talking about the actual legend behind her eyes. Beyond a small phrase she heard from her grandfather's singing, no one would, or could, tell her the truth behind the legend. Now she realized there must have been more rules, and Devin was still following them.

'And making me sick was the answer?' Arianna still couldn't understand why Molina would poison her.

'It wasn't supposed to make you this sick. Everything I researched on it said that it would only make you slightly sick. And I figured Devin would give in and let you try to cure it with the blood of five. By drinking from all five, you will never get sick again if the legend is correct. Blood of five will protect the legend from all disease. It will be virtually impossible to kill you by poisoning you. It would keep you safe forever. You wouldn't die like Lord Randolph did. The clans are all coming for you. I want you to be able to protect yourself, and you need the power of the legend to do that. I want you to be happy and safe. That's all I wanted. That's what I thought we all wanted.' Molina's pleading could be heard even in her thoughts. 'I guess I was wrong. Devin was never planning to tell you the truth.'

'How do I know that's true?' Arianna couldn't tell what was true or not at this point. Even if it was supposed to be just a little sick, Molina was openly admitting to setting the poison, and that hurt Arianna more than she ever wanted to admit.

'It's part of the legend. Each night human family was given part of the legend originally. The lycans had the first line which you, along with everyone else of the Randolph clan, have already heard. The dearg-dul had the second line explaining why you'd have to have five keepers. Each family has more of the legend. I overheard your grandfather once telling Devin, and swearing him to secrecy. He might have even had heard the whole legend.' Molina tried to convince Arianna.

"Ari?" Devin asked a second time, finally realizing she was talking to someone.

"What?" Arianna asked, coming back to the conversation between her keepers.

"Were you talking to Gabriel?" Devin asked. "Is he close by?"

"No. Why?" Arianna replied, shutting out Molina's pleas for the moment.