"You are very calm for someone who awoke in chains," she said, searching my face for some hint of what I was really thinking.

I tried to shrug but mainly made the chains rattle. "Not being calm won't change anything."

"Such possession of self is rare."

"Thank you," I said.

"I hope you do not mind the change of clothes, but your others had become quite . . . disheveled."

"I appreciate your thoughtfulness," I said. I'd shared enough of Damian's memories to know that being nice to her was my best chance at not getting hurt. It might also make her more talkative, and I needed more information. Where was I? What day was it?

She watched me with those pale blue eyes that she'd worked so hard to make bluer in our shared dream. "There is no fear in you now. Perhaps I have been too generous and should have hung you up nude."

"I said Thank you."

She frowned.

"Allow me, mistress," the second man said.

"Not yet, Keegan." She walked closer until she was only about two feet in front of me. I could have kicked her, but I didn't see what it would gain me. They hadn't hurt me yet; if I hurt them first that would probably change.

"As my mistress wills," he said, but his face showed a sour disappointment. Whatever he had offered, he enjoyed doing, and I would probably not enjoy it at all.

"The first time I touched your energy through our shared vampire, you were nearly helpless before my terror. Now you stand before me and there is no fear in you. How can this be?"

I just looked at her, willing myself to be calm and patient, and wait. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for, but I was hoping I'd know it when it happened.

"Lay your hands upon her, mistress, and her calm will shatter," Keegan said.

"I would not recommend that, M'Lady," Hamish said.

She turned and looked at Hamish. "Why should I not touch her?"

"You have both drunk deep of the powers of the Queen of All Darkness."

"What of it?"

"Her powers will grow with touch as well. I told you what she did to Rodrigo."

I so wanted to ask what I had done to Roddy, but I didn't. They'd assume I knew exactly what I did, and either they wouldn't believe me or they'd know just how new I was to some of my powers.

"He is weak of will," Keegan said.

"Rodrigo is petty, cruel, and nearly honorless, but he is not weak," Hamish said.

"Are you saying I am no stronger than Rodrigo?" she demanded.

Hamish bowed and said, "I would never say that, M'Lady. We are all your humble servants and pale in comparison to your greatness."

I half-expected her to call bullshit on the pretty speech, but she didn't. She seemed to take it as her proper due. "Then I will put the fear of me into her."

"I advise against it," he said.

"You dare to doubt our Queen," Keegan said.

"I never doubt the Queen of Nightmares, or we would not have come halfway around the world to serve her."

"Then watch and learn," Keegan said.

She reached one pale hand toward me. I waited for her to hesitate at the sunlight, but she didn't. She moved through it as if she'd never seen a vampire go up in flames from it before. She touched my face and it took a lot not to pull away, but I knew that would amuse her and I didn't want to amuse anyone here.

She caressed my cheek and said, "Such a pretty girl. I normally don't think dark hair and eyes are striking, but you are quite lovely."

"Thanks, you too-on the lovely part, I mean. You're as pale as I am dark." I remembered through Damian's memories and Asher's story that she was very insecure, insanely insecure. When dealing with a crazy person, it's always safer to go along with the delusion, as far as you can. If she wanted to be the fairest of them all, I would be her biggest cheerleader.

"We would make a fine pair of opposites for some man's bed, you and I." I didn't like that idea at all; I fought not to show it but apparently failed, because she smiled and said, "That bothers you. I would have thought that sex would not bother you, being of Jean-Claude and Belle Morte's bloodline."

I tried to think of a polite way to put it, still trying not to trip her crazy. "We just met. I like to get to know someone before I have sex with them. You know, at least a coffee date."

"Coffee date," she said. "What is a coffee date?"

A woman's voice from the stairs said, "When people meet online, or in a place where they don't know each other well, they will often make their first private meeting in a public place like a coffee shop or cafe. They will have coffee, or tea, and talk. If the talk goes well, then they will plan a more traditional date."

The woman was slender, taller than me by a few inches, but still shorter than everyone else in the room. She had soft white-blond curls spilling around her face in an artfully styled cloud that brushed her shoulder. I got to her face and had a moment of wondering if Rodrigo was cross-dressing, because the face looked identical to his, but the body underneath seemed female. Some cross-dressers are better at the switch than others, but still I was betting I was looking at his twin. She was wearing black-on-black clothing top to bottom and it looked a lot like what I normally wore to hunt vampires in, including the boots being more work than club. Her eyes looked as black as the clothing; in this light I couldn't be certain, but I remembered staring up into her brother's eyes and I was betting hers were as black as his. Eyeliner and mascara made her eyes look larger and even more of a contrast with her pale skin with that smattering of freckles.

"Rodina, what are you doing here?" Keegan demanded. He seemed to demand a lot.

"I wanted to see the witch that has made my brother so useless. I would have said that no one could move Rodrigo, not like this, so I had to come see for myself."

"This coffee date, why would they do such a thing?" the Wicked Bitch asked.

"They believe that meeting in public, during the day especially, will keep them from being carried off by people who mean them harm. Dating when you are alone with someone means you have no one to come to your aid if they decide to do terrible things to you." Somehow as Rodina said it, the likelihood of terrible things happening seemed to grow. I wouldn't have wanted to be alone with either her or her brother.

Those black eyes stared straight at me as she came down those last few steps and glided across the floor. She looked past her supposed queen as if she weren't there. I met her bold gaze and said, "I bet you and Rodrigo are killers on a coffee date."

She smiled, pleased with herself. "We like good coffee. Be a shame to waste it on violence; so many things can get spilled."

"So that first date," I said, "must be a lulu."

"Lulu. I haven't heard that used in decades," Rodina said, rolling her eyes.

"Do not play the teenager here. You are older than I am," Hamish said.

"But I was a teenager when I stopped aging, when we stopped aging. I'm sorry that your master did not find you sooner, Hamish," she said, trailing her fingers along his arm as she passed him. He turned so that he kept her in view like you did when you sparred. Once the gloves went on, all bets were off.

"You seem not yourself, girl," Keegan said.

"I feel very much myself today," she said, moving past Hamish so that she was closer to their mistress and me than anyone else.

"Perhaps I should remind you that being too much yourself does not meet with my approval."

Rodina gave a small bow. "I am, as always, at your disposal, M'Lady."

"You know I prefer that you curtsy, even when you are dressed like a man."

Rodina dropped into a low, perfect curtsy, even mimicking holding a long skirt out to the sides. "As you wish, M'Lady, so shall it be."

The would-be queen did not offer the other woman a hand up, and by rules of etiquette Rodina was stuck in that very uncomfortable low curtsy until her mistress told her to get up or offered her a hand up. The vampire that didn't look very much like a vampire at all turned back to me.

"Do you know why they all refer to me as M'Lady?"

"An endearing nickname?" I said, trying to sound casual, because I was pretty sure we were getting closer to the painful part of things.

She smiled, looking down demurely, though it looked like a practiced gesture and not a real one. Something you do because it's expected, but you don't mean it. "Because to say my name aloud is considered bad luck. To come to my attention at all is considered ill fated."

I licked my lips and fought to keep my pulse even. "I heard that," I said.

"Allow me to demonstrate." She offered her hand to Rodina, who raised a slightly startled face, but she had no choice but to take what was offered. M'Lady helped the other woman stand but kept their hands entwined.

"M'Lady, what have I done to offend thee?"

"I do not like your attitude today, and your brother's loyalty is in question. Do I need to question yours, as well?"

"No, M'Lady, you do not."

"We shall see," the vampire said, and one minute Rodina was standing tall and sure of herself, except for a slight uncertainty in her black eyes, and then her knees buckled. My skin ran with goose bumps just being close to whatever was happening.

"Please, mistress," Rodina said through gritted teeth.

"I like my servants humble, Rodina, and you and your brothers never quite get there."

The kneeling woman's face was so pale that her freckles stood out like ink against her skin. She looked as if she might faint. "Please." She hissed it, as if words were about to fail her.

"Say my name, girl."

"M'Lady," she said, sweat breaking out on her face as if she had a sudden fever.

"No, my real name."

"Moroven."

"No, my real name."

"Nemhain," the kneeling girl said in a voice that was strained as if she were in pain.

"Scream my name, girl."

"Do not . . . make me . . . do this, please!" Her words were pulled from between her teeth as if she were afraid to open her mouth too wide, for fear she'd throw up. I could feel the power rolling off Nemhain, but I still didn't know what she was doing to the woman on the floor.

"I will pull every horrible moment in your long life from your mind and make you relive the terror of it. All you have to do to stop me is to do what I ask. Is that so harsh a burden, Rodina?"

The girl shook her head, lips tightly closed. She was swaying on her knees now. She kept shaking her head as tears started to roll down her cheeks. "Nemhain! Neeemhaaainn!" She screamed the name until it echoed against the stone walls.

The vampire let go of her hand and Rodina fell to the floor, one shaking arm catching her just before she would have lain on her side. She looked like what she really wanted was to curl up in a fetal position and weep, or throw up, or all three, but she fought to stay upright. She fought not to faint; she fought to save as much of herself as she could from what had just happened.

Nemhain turned to me with a smile, most unpleasant. "Now, it's your turn, Anita. I suggest you call out my name much sooner than she did; after all, you are merely human and do not have the reserves of strength that a shapeshifter does."

I tried not to tense up, but I couldn't help it. I breathed out fast and tried to relax into it. It helped with a beating sometimes, and this was just another type of beating.

She reached out that pale hand, and I couldn't help but jerk back from it. She laughed, high and wild, the kind of laugh that only comes out of supervillains and the truly insane. "Keegan would enjoy holding you for me, Anita, or you can take your medicine like a big girl like Rodina did."

Keegan came up behind her, and there was something in his brown eyes that made me not want him to touch me, ever. Rodina's voice came shaking and weak sounding, but she still said it. "Just take it. Don't make it worse."

Strangely, in that moment I trusted the crazy bitch on the floor more than the one standing in front of me. I looked into Nemhain's pale blue eyes and said, "Just do it."

"So brave. I will break you of that before I am done."

"Talk is cheap, girlfriend. Do it, or don't."

She frowned at me as if it wasn't the reaction she wanted, but she laid her hand against my face and called her power. We were both done being nice.

79.

MY SKIN RAN in shivering goose bumps with all the power she pushed into me, but it was like standing in the middle of a river that flowed past the rock of me. I could feel the water, knew I was getting wet, but I was still above water, still safe and unmoved by the torrent.

I looked into her blue eyes from inches away, with her hand cupping the side of my face, and all that energy flowing around, but not into me. Just like in the dream, she couldn't get past my shields.

"No." She whispered it.

I looked at her and said, "Do you still want me to say your name?"

"This is not possible," Keegan said behind her.

"I cannot see into your mind. I cannot draw your fears to the surface of it. The chains you wear are like the blade that slew your tiger. They are enchanted to separate you from all your other parts. Jean-Claude cannot help you while you wear them. You are a vessel for power, nothing more. I should be able to do with you as I like once you are shorn of all the other powers that aid you."

"Surprise," I said softly.

She poured more energy down her hand and put a second hand on the other side of my face so it looked like she was moving closer for a kiss. "No!" She shouted it, so angry, centuries' worth of rage. I could smell it like something sweet and bitter rising off her skin. She was right on one thing: She had cut me off from all the other people I was connected to metaphysically. It was supposed to make me weaker, but in that moment, I realized I was like a loaded gun, and whatever she had done to me had taken off my safety. For the first time, I had the ability to feed on anger, thousands of years of untapped rage, and had no one in my head or heart with more practice at controlling their hungers.

I didn't think it was a bad idea, or a good idea. I just fed on her. I fed on her hands as they cupped my face. I fed on the look in her pale eyes as they widened in surprise. I fed skin to skin, draining her down as she held me. So-much-anger. I felt my eyes fill up with my own power. I watched her face grow peaceful as she fell into my gaze, and still I drank her rage. I'd never tried to drain anyone like this, but then I'd never had anyone who'd offered such a feast of time and ire.