"It seems right. I want to-what is all that shouting?"

They walked to the window to see Blair going toe-to-toe with Larkin. Moira stood, hands fisted on her hips.

"Speaking of rituals," Glenna commented.

"Looks like the head-b.u.t.ting portion of the daily training's started without us. We'd better get down there."

"She's slow and she's sloppy, and slow and sloppy get you dead."

"She's neither," Larkin shot back at Blair.

"But her strengths lie in her bow and in her mind."

"Great, she can think a vamp to death. Let me know how that works out. As for the bow, yeah, eye like an eagle, but you can't always kill at a distance."

"I can speak for myself well enough, Larkin. And you-" Moira jabbed a finger at Blair. "I don't care to be spoken to as if I were addle-brained."

"I've got no problem with your brain, but I've got a big one with your sword arm. You fight like a girl."

"So I am."

"Not during training, not during battle.

Then you're a soldier, and the enemy doesn't give a rat's a.s.s about your plumbing."

"King had her working on her strengths."

"King's dead." There was a moment of utter silence that couldn't have been sliced through with Cian's battle-ax. Then Blair sighed. That, she could admit, had been unnecessarily harsh.

"Look, what happened to your pal is terrible. I sure as h.e.l.l don't want it to happen to me. If you don't want it to happen to you, you'll work on your weaknesses-and you've got plenty. You can play with your strengths on your own time."

She planted her feet as Hoyt and Glenna came to join them. "Did you put me in charge of this?" Blair demanded.

"I did," Hoyt affirmed.

"And we've nothing to say about it?"

Fury tightened Larkin's face. "Nothing at all?"

"You don't, no. She's the best for it."

"Because she's your blood."

Blair rounded on Larkin. "Because I can put you on your a.s.s in five seconds flat."

"Sure of that, are you?" He shimmered and changed, and the wolf he became crouched and snarled.

"Excellent," Blair said under her breath, with temper smothered by pure admiration. "Oh, Larkin, leave off, would you?"

Obviously out of patience, Moira slapped a hand at him. "He's only angry because you were rude to me. And you've no cause to be so insulting. It happens I agree with you about working on the weaknesses." And Cian had said the same, Moira recalled. "I'm willing to practice, but I won't be after standing and being berated while I'm about it."

"More flies with honey than vinegar?"

Blair said. "I always wondered why the h.e.l.l anyone would want to catch flies. Look, you and I can paint our toenails and talk about boys when we're off the clock. While I'm training you, I'm the b.i.t.c.h because I want you alive.

Does it hurt when you do that?" Blair asked Larkin when he changed back. "Shifting bones and organs and so on?"

"Some actually." He couldn't recall anyone ever asking him. His temper cooled as quickly as it had flared. "But it's fun, so I don't mind so much."

He slung his arm around Moira's shoulder, gave her arm a little rub as he spoke to Hoyt and Glenna. "Your girl here took out four of them in the forest. I took a fifth myself."

"This morning? Five?" Glenna stared at Blair. "How close to the house?"

"Close enough." Blair glanced toward the woods. "Lookouts, I figure, and not very good ones. Caught them napping. Lilith's going to get word of it. She's going to be unhappy."

It wasn't a matter of killing the messenger; not in Lilith's long-standing opinion. It was a matter of killing it as painfully as possible.

The young vampire who'd foolishly gone back to the nest after Blair's morning foray was now on a slow roast, belly-down, over a simmering fire. The smell wasn't particularly pleasant, but Lilith understood command required certain sacrifices.

She circled him now, careful to keep the hem of her red gown away from the lick of flames. "Why don't we go over this again?" Her voice was melodious, somewhat like a devoted teacher speaking to a favored student. "The human-female-destroyed everyone I'd posted, save you."

"The man." Pain turned the words to guttural rasps. "The horse."

"Yes, yes. I keep forgetting the man and the horse." She stopped to study the rings she wore. "The one who came along after she'd already cut down-what was it now-four of you?"

She crouched down, a spider of stunning beauty, to stare into his red, wheeling eyes. "And she was able to do this because? Wait, wait, I remember. Because you were sleeping?"

"They were. The others. I was at post, Majesty. I swear it."

"At post, and yet, this single female human lives. Lives because-do I have this detail correct? Because you ran?"

"Came back... to report." Its sweat dripped into the fire, and sizzled. "The others, they ran away. They ran. I came to you."

"So you did." She tapped him playfully on the nose with each word, then rose. "I suppose I should reward your loyalty."

"Mercy. Majesty, mercy."

She turned around with a silky rustle of skirts to smile at the boy who sat cross-legged on the floor of the cave, systematically ripping the heads off a pile of Star Wars action figures.

"Davey, if you break all your toys, what will you have to play with?"

His lips moved to pout as he beheaded Anikin Skywalker. "They're boring."

"Yes, I know." She ran a loving hand over his sunny hair. "And you've been cooped up too long, haven't you?" "Can we go outside now?" He bounced, and his eyes went round and wide at the prospect of a promised treat. "Can we go outside and play? Please!"

"Not quite yet. Now don't sulk." She tipped his chin up to peck a kiss on his lips.

"What if your face froze like that? Here now, my sweet boy, what if I gave you a brand-new toy?"

Round cheeks bright with temper, he snapped Han Solo in two. "I'm tired of toys."

"But this will be a new one. Something you've never had before." She turned her head, and with her finger still on his chin, turned his until they both looked at the vampire over the fire pit.

And on the spit, seeing their eyes, it began to struggle and thrash. And weep.

"For me?" Davey said brightly.

"All for you, my own dumpling. But you must promise Mama not to get too close to the fire. I don't want you burned, my precious one."

She kissed his little fingers before she rose.

"Majesty, I beg you! Majesty, I came back to you."

"I dislike failure. Be a good boy, Davey.

Oh, and don't spoil your dinner." She gestured to Lora, who stood quietly by the door. The screams began before it was closed behind them. And locked.

"The Hunter," Lora began. "It had to be.

None of the other women have the skill to-"

A single look from Lilith silenced her. "I haven't given you leave to speak. My fondness for you is all there is between you and the pit.

And my affections only go so far."

Lora bowed her head in deference and followed Lilith into the adjoining chamber.

"You lost three of my good men. What can you say to that?"

"I have no excuse."

With a nod, Lilith roamed the chamber, idly picking a ruby necklace from the top of a chest. The single thing she missed of life was mirrors. She longed, even after two millennia, to see herself reflected. To be wooed by her own beauty. She had hired-and fed on-countless sorcerers, witches and magicians over the centuries to make it so.

It was her greatest failure.

"You're wise not to offer one. I'm a patient woman, Lora. I've waited more than a thousand years for what's coming. But I won't be insulted. I dislike having these people pick and pluck us off like flies." She threw herself into a chair, tapped her long red nails on its arms. "Speak, then. Tell me about this new one. This Hunter."

"As the seers prophesied, my lady. The warrior of old blood. One of the hunters who has plagued our kind for centuries."

"And you know this because?"

"She was too fast to be a mere human.

Too strong. She knew what they were before they moved on her that night, and she was ready.

She completes their number. The first stage is set."

"My scholars said the black man was their warrior."

"They were wrong."

"Then what good are they?" Lilith heaved the necklace she still toyed with across the room. "How can I rule when I'm surrounded by incompetence? I want what's due me. I want blood and death and beautiful chaos. Is it too much to ask that those who serve me be accurate on the details?"

For nearly four hundred years Lora had been by Lilith's side. Friend, lover, servant. No one, she was sure, knew the queen better. She poured a gla.s.s of wine, carried it to the chair.

"Lilith." She said it gently, offering both it and a kiss. "We've lost nothing important." "Face."

"No, not even that. They only believe what they've done in these past weeks matters.

It's good they do, because it makes them overconfident. And we killed Cian's boy, didn't we?"

"We did." Lilith pouted another moment, then sipped. "There was satisfaction in that."

"And sending him to them only demonstrated your brilliance, and your strength.

Let them take dozens of the meaningless foot soldiers. We cut their heart."

"You're a comfort to me, Lora." Drinking her wine, Lilith stroked Lora's hand. "And you're right, of course, you're right. I'm disappointed, I admit. I so wanted to break their number, to foil the prophecy."

"But it's better this way, isn't it? And it'll be the sweeter when you take them all."

"Better, yes, better. And yet... I think we need to make a statement. It would improve my mood, and morale as well. I have an idea. I'll think it through a bit." She watched the wine swirl in her gla.s.s. "One day, one day soon, this will be the sorcerer's blood. I'll drink it from a silver cup, and nibble on sugar plums between sips. All that he is will be in me, and all that I am will make even the G.o.ds tremble.

"Leave me now. I need to plan." As Lora rose to go to the door, Lilith tapped on her gla.s.s. "Oh, and this irritating business has made me hungry. Bring me someone to eat, will you?"

"Right away."

"Make sure it's fresh." Alone she closed her eyes and began to plot. While she plotted, the screams and squeals from the next chamber battered the cave walls.

Her lips curved. Who could be blue, she thought, with a child's laughter ringing in the air?

Moira sat cross-legged on Glenna's bed and watched Glenna work on the magic little machine she called a laptop. Moira was desperate to get her hands on it. There were worlds of knowledge inside, and so far she'd only been allowed a few peeks.

She'd been promised a lesson, but just at the moment, Glenna seemed so absorbed-and they only had an hour free.

So she cleared her throat.

"What do you think of this one?" Glenna asked and tapped the image of a woman wearing a long white dress. Angling her head for a better view, Moira studied the screen. "She's very lovely. I was wondering-"

"No, not the model, the dress." Glenna scooted around on the chair. "I need a dress."

"Oh, did something happen to yours?"