Gunnar stepped forward. "You killed my best friend back there. I wish I could watch you die."

Mikhail raised a dismissive brow at him and rolled his head toward Halverson. "New York doesn't want your land. House Faustin never attacks sovereign territory unless there is compelling reason. I'm sorry you gave us one. The code we all must live by is discretion."

"I'm sure sorry, too. But folks have a right to live as they see fit without other folks coming from hundreds of miles away to tell them how to do it. Our kind keep to themselves. Always have."

"You are eating animals. By choice."

"We've come to realize it's the right thing to do."

"Humans are our perfect food. Swallow anything else and it degrades you."

"And I'd say it's degrading to hunt our close kin."

Every so often a group of vamps would get it in their head that it was wrong to feed from humans. As if they hadn't evolved side by side to do just that. As if all vampyr society wasn't built around the safe and controlled consumption of human blood. Idealistic vamps who decided to live on animal blood inevitably became animals themselves. Blood was not just so many liquid calories. Vamps quite literally were what they ate.

Mikhail was sure the degradation had already begun in these families. That's why they weren't even cleaning up after themselves anymore.

Curious about their reasoning, he said, "The media has picked up on the carca.s.ses. That's our immediate concern."

The boy smirked. "They blame it on Satanists-or s.p.a.ce aliens."

"How long do you think those answers will satisfy them?"

The boy lifted his chin. "When they realize we eat animals, like they do, they'll be okay with us. One day we won't have to hide anymore."

Mikhail sighed. The Halversons hadn't been reading their history books.

Alya finally spoke-he wondered how she'd managed to keep her mouth shut so long. "b.l.o.o.d.y f.u.c.king h.e.l.l. Why don't you just kill us now so I don't have to listen to this idiocy anymore."

Anna stepped forward. "You know, I'm real tired of taking my marching orders from people I've never met. You have nothing to do with us. We ask you for nothing and we've never caused you harm. And yet you decided to put a hit on my husband, Miss Adad. Why?"

Had she? Mikhail wondered why she'd targeted Halverson.

Her voice dripping with scorn, Alya drawled, "Oh, I don't know. I suppose I thought it would be fun to declare open season on lunatics."

Anna took hold of her husband's arm. "And you call us animals."

It was hard to make convincing threats when you were naked and strapped to a table, but Mikhail gave it a try. "If you go through with this, I promise you my family will seek revenge. Faustin revenge is extracted straight from the flesh. I a.s.sure you they will not stop until they slaughter you and all your kin. I'll die now, but you'll not live another week."

Halverson smiled under his mustache. "Now why would your family think we have anything to do with your death? Our intelligence told us you and Miss Adad were fighting. And in fact, it looked like you'd been fighting before we got there."

Mikhail bit the inside of his cheek. There was that. They might think he and Alya had killed each other.

"And Miss Adad doesn't have any family to speak of-or at least that's what we understand." Anna Halverson smiled sweetly at Alya. "At least, not since your father disowned you for being a wh.o.r.e."

Mikhail's hands curled into fists. Halverson jabbed a finger at him. "Don't look at my wife like that."

"Tell your wife not to speak to my" The word mate came to his tongue, the certainty of it surprising him. In an instant he recovered, rephrasing the sentence. "Tell her to apologize to Prince Adad."

Halverson chuckled. "Sorry. Don't think I can do that for you."

"Don't worry, Mikhail. I'm not impressed by apologies from filthy animal eaters."

The Arabic tinge to her English came out under stress. It pained him to hear it. She was his mate, and he'd failed her back at the house. When she crept into his arms, exhausted and vulnerable, instead of making her safety his first priority, he'd fallen asleep. He couldn't stand the thought of the sun blackening her skin. Lord, take me. Let her live.

"That's enough." Halverson put up his hand. "Each to his own, that's what I always say. You think the way I eat is an abomination. We think the same of you. I'm not even going to exsanguinate you, Miss Adad. Or you, Faustin."

"In a couple of generations, you will be animals," Mikhail said with absolute certainty.

"We'll see about that." Halverson took his wife by the arm and popped a toothpick in his mouth. "We'll just see."

The vamp named Frank started to slink away.

"Enjoy yourself while you can, you sneaking rat b.a.s.t.a.r.d!" Alya called after him.

Frank stopped and turned around. He pointed at her, opened his mouth, then closed it again. His face flushed purple and he began to shout. "No more high and mighty threats from you, your royal b.i.t.c.hiness. No. It's over. Sometimes the little guy wins. Like now. So...so...f.u.c.k you." He gave her the finger, stepping backward as he did, ruining the effect.

Alya said, "I should have killed you for biting Jason Biggs."

"You should have, 'cause I did it on purpose," Frank said. "But I gotta go. Sun's coming up. That always makes me a little, you know, edgy."

Frank left his field of vision. Mikhail heard a door slam shut behind him.

Alya said to the Halversons, "I'll give you all one more chance. Let us go, and we'll call it even. Force me to take matters into my own hands, and I won't answer for the consequences."

Halverson laughed. "You've got a pair of bra.s.s b.a.l.l.s on you, missy, I'll give you that. But nope, best you both just die quietly, so we can sort out our own business in peace."

Anna added, "Better than war, you know?"

Alya said nothing more. Mikhail said nothing. He wanted them to go, but they just stood around. Apparently they intended to stay out there until the last possible moment. Close to writhing with impatience, he forced himself to be still and profoundly uninteresting. They had to leave. If they left, Alya might be able to escape. The awkward silence grew and grew until the parents began to look like they might go inside, but then the boy plopped himself on the corner of the table.

"So, does that A on your chest stand for a.s.shole?"

Alya let loose a long, trilling cry, as wild as a coyote's, but far more menacing. Mikhail's hair stood on end. The Halversons instinctively moved closer together. At the end of it, Alya gulped a huge mouthful of air and began to chant-pray-rant-he didn't know what, because it was in Arabic. It sounded like a curse. Her chains creaked and groaned as she rocked against them, her words fast and husky with emotion.

Anna Halverson mustered a weak smile. "Well, time for us to go in."

Mikhail twisted to see Alya. She leaned against her chains, snarling and spitting as she screamed, her eyes burning. He'd go inside, too.

"Wish it could have been otherwise," Halverson said to him.

"No you don't," Mikhail said. "If you did you'd let us go."

"Got me there." He touched his forehead in a brief salute and ushered his family off the roof.

"Have a nice day," Anna called from behind him.

When the door slammed closed, Alya stopped ranting. "I thought they'd gloat until we were ash."

"What did you curse them with?"

"I don't know any curses. I was just making s.h.i.t up."

Mikhail grinned. He enjoyed smiling, now that he'd remembered how to do it. "How long until sunrise, do you think?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"That building to the east will shade us from the first rays, give us a few minutes more. Can you get out?"

Alya had always been an escape artist. When she was a teen, she'd had a poster of Houdini on her bedroom wall. Every bit of his hope rested on this memory.

"I'm working on it. What about that thing they've got you in? It looks like they bought it at a Star Trek convention."

"Wish they had. I know this manufacturer. These are state-of-the-art locking mechanisms. They can't be picked or broken."

"What if I smashed your hands and feet? Could we pull them through the cuffs?"

His toes curled at the idea, but he liked her thinking. She would have been a good wife for him.

"Not going to work here. The cuffs contract automatically. They keep constant pressure on whatever is inside them."

"f.u.c.king h.e.l.l." He didn't know if she meant his situation, or if she was just struggling with her chains.

"Alya, what are the odds you can escape?"

"Not too bad. I'm going to dislocate my shoulder. I don't see any cameras. Do you?"

"No, but they could be around. We could be miked. There could be lookouts in the adjacent buildings."

"We'll find out, won't we?" He heard her grunt and a length of chain clanked to the ground. "Progress."

"Excellent." If she could escape, he knew what he had to do. The horizon glowed purple. "I'm going to finish the story."

"Roland and Illysia? Now? Ow! Son of a b.i.t.c.h."

"You'll understand." Mikhail rushed through the story as fast as he could. "Roland found her at last. She'd taken shelter in a monastery. He came to her a walking skeleton, repentant as h.e.l.l, but he came too late. She was dying."

"Dying?" Another chain hit the ground.

"She'd eaten poison mushrooms. It doesn't matter. Point is she accepted Roland's apology. And she gave him a choice. Either die with her, or drink of her and be free."

"'Drinking of her' is what f.u.c.ked him over to begin with."

"The choice she offered was to drink her to the dregs. Take her soul."

"He wasn't a prince, she wasn't a combatant. He had no right to do that."

"He was her bound mate. Listen to me. One mate can free themselves from the bond by exing the other."

Even the chains went silent while she considered that.

"You understand? If you swallow the soul, you won't pine for it."

In a quiet voice she said, "You could have done that right off. You could have finished me by the pool and walked away."

Mikhail jerked against his cuffs in frustration. "No! Well, yes. I could have. But that's not the point right now. Not at all."

"Hold on a second. I've almost got it." Then lower, to herself she said, "This is going to hurt." He heard a soft pop, and she shouted, "Motherf.u.c.ker! c.o.c.ksucking Minnesotans! G.o.dd.a.m.n them!"

Suddenly she was above him cradling her arm, tightlipped with pain, but free. "Open your hand," she said. "Hold this." She put her elbow in his palm. He clamped his fingers around it, and she used the leverage to pop her arm back in its socket.

When it was done she sighed and smiled at him gratefully. The beauty of her smile took his breath.

Her gaze lingered a beat too long on his face, and then she turned away, coloring. She made a show of trying out her arm. "All better. Now how are we going to get you out of this?"

"You're not."

"No?"

"Adrenaline can only get you so far. You have no weapons."

"I'll take a length of chain."

"And they have guns."

"Maybe they cleared out. Maybe there's no one down there."

"I doubt it. They won't go until they know we're ash."

"But I need Halverson to open this lock."

"Give it up. I want you to think about yourself. How are you going to make it past them? Think. They'll be in there, the three Halversons and five others that I know of, probably more. All men. All strong. And you've been tapped, Tasered, shot-"

By me. Gritting his teeth, he slammed his head against the table.

"Mikhail!" She slid her hand beneath his head. "Don't. I'm going to get you out."

"No. You're not. This is my fault. I'm going to get you out. Listen to me." He held her eyes. She had to understand. "You're going to make Roland's Choice. You're going to ex me."

She blanched.

"It will give you the strength you need to get out of here. And if you take my soul, you'll not suffer afterward."

"Not suffer?" She shook her head. "No. That's not even an option."

"I'll live on inside you."

"I'll get Halverson. I'll make him-"