"It is."

Sarah's hazel eyes met his. "Then what are you waiting for? Go ahead and transform her."

Bastien pointed at Roland. "I want him to do it."

"I don't give a f.u.c.k what you want. I'm not transforming her. I don't want to be the one she guts if she changes her mind afterward. You're the one who cares for her. You do it."

Bastien met etienne's gaze. For once, I need you to trust me. Read my mind, read my intent, and do as I ask. Tell Richart to help you restrain Roland and ask Lisette to keep Chris and his men out when the s.h.i.t hits the fan.

Are you out of your mind? Roland will destroy you.

Not if you restrain him. Just do it. You know actions speak louder than words with him. This is the only way. We're wasting valuable time.

etienne glanced at his twin.

After a moment, Richart looked at Bastien as if he were nuts, shook his head, then moved closer to Roland. etienne surrept.i.tiously approached Roland's other side as Lisette frowned and eased backward toward the door.

Bastien drew two daggers. "Transform her . . . or I'll destroy you."

Roland laughed. "You couldn't if you tried."

Sarah did just as Bastien had hoped. She stepped in front of Roland. "What are you doing, Bastien?" She always tried to keep the peace between the two of them.

"Only what I have to." Without warning, he leapt forward, swinging his blades.

Sarah's eyes flashed green as she drew two sais in a blur of phenomenal speed and met him head-on.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Richart and etienne fight like h.e.l.l to hold Roland back as that one released a roar of fury that would rival a grizzly bear's.

After that, Bastien had to focus all of his attention on keeping Sarah from slicing and dicing him. The newest immortal was a foot shorter than he was and half his weight, yet Bastien knew there was a good chance he wouldn't come out of this intact.

Sarah was incredibly fast. And so strong. Quite a bit stronger than he was.

One of her blades sank deep into Bastien's chest, and he was reminded of the night he had kidnapped her. Even as a mortal she had been a force to be reckoned with. And now she thought he intended to kill the man she loved?

Pounding erupted on the door.

Sarah tossed Bastien across the room, where he knocked over rolling trays of surgical instruments, slid two yards, and hit the wall, cracking the sheetrock.

Leaping up, he charged her again, swinging his daggers, confident she could fend them off without suffering an injury. And fend them off she did. Every blade he drew, she sent sailing. Every kick she blocked. Every punch she ducked and countered.

Those tiny hands of hers were like rocks, pummeling his face and torso.

s.h.i.t!

No bodies swarmed into the room, ready to fill him full of bullets, so Lisette must be succeeding in keeping the door closed. Likewise, Roland wasn't removing Bastien's head from his body, so Richart and etienne must be holding their own against the older immortal.

Sarah kicked Bastien in the chest, breaking several ribs and puncturing a lung. The wall behind him buckled and broke in a cloud of dust and sheetrock shrapnel as he went right through it, tumbled over a counter on the other side, and hit the floor.

Across what appeared to be a small break room, Linda sat at a small round table. Eyes the size of saucers, she gaped at him, a bagel poised halfway to her mouth.

Bastien staggered to his feet and shook some of the dust from his hair. "Don't let anyone come through here."

Dropping the bagel, she swallowed and nodded.

"I'm doing this for Melanie," he panted.

She rose and sidled over to the door to close and lock it.

"And stay away from this wall," he added. "You might be seeing me again." Struggling to breathe, Bastien dove through the large hole in the wall and confronted Sarah once more.

"Why are you doing this?" she demanded furiously.

"Because I have to," Bastien rasped and attacked.

A slew of curses and dire promises of vengeance steadily spilled from Roland's lips, encompa.s.sing pretty much everyone in the room except his wife and Melanie.

Bastien began to lose speed and strength as blood oozed from the dozens of wounds Sarah inflicted.

d.a.m.n, she could fight.

Blocking another thrust, she knocked the dagger from his grip and-in a heartbeat-broke his arm. More cuts. More punctures.

Another of those powerhouse kicks sent him sailing across the room to plow into a floor-to-ceiling cabinet full of medical supplies. Before he could regroup, she zipped over to his side, tore the built-in cabinet from the wall and toppled it onto him.

Bastien grunted. Done.

It took real effort to drag his a.s.s out from under that cabinet and stand. His ribs hurt so much he couldn't straighten all of the way. But he did what he could and squinted at Sarah through bleary eyes.

Her clothes were damp in places. He hoped that was his blood. The tiny hands that clutched sais were b.l.o.o.d.y, the knuckles swollen and split. Thankfully, those minor wounds healed while he watched. Her pretty face was flushed. Her chest rose and fell with deep breaths. Flyaway strands of long, brown hair stood out around her face and poked out of her braid.

"Stop!" she said, part command and part plea. "I don't want to kill you."

"Do it!" Roland snarled. "Kill the f.u.c.ker! You can do it, Sarah!"

"Yes," Bastien wheezed and swiped a damp sleeve across his face to wipe the blood from one of his eyes. The other eye was nearly swollen shut and the virus was taking its time healing the damage. "She can. That was my point."

Sarah's brow furrowed. Relaxing her fighting stance, she glanced over her shoulder at Roland.

"Don't turn your back on him!" her husband shouted.

Sarah spun around and faced Bastien, ready to fight.

Bastien shook his head and held up the hand on his unbroken arm in surrender. "I don't want to fight anymore."

A gleam of pride entered Roland's glowing amber eyes. "Because she just wiped the floor with your a.s.s and you know she can do it again."

"Which, as I said, was my point."

"I don't give a f-"

"Wait a minute, sweetie," Sarah said, eyeing Bastien thoughtfully as she halted her husband's tirade. "I want to hear what he has to say."

"He can't be trusted."

"He can tonight," etienne volunteered.

Roland speared him with a glare. "You think I'm going to take your word for it? f.u.c.k you! You just allowed him to attack my wife."

"Look at her," Richart said. "She doesn't have a scratch on her."

"Because she's stronger than he is!"

Bastien's sigh turned into a grunt of pain. "Do I really have to say it again? That was my point."

Sarah backed over to her husband with caution as Bastien shuffled toward Roland.

Bastien hadn't experienced this much agony since the night he had been captured by the immortals. "That's why it has to be you. That's why you have to be the one who transforms Melanie. Sarah is two centuries younger than I am. She's only been immortal for going on two years. I should have easily been able to overpower and defeat her. But she kicked my a.s.s."

Bastien paused, gritting his teeth against the pain as the bone in his arm shifted back into place and began to mend. "If Richart, etienne, and I all attacked her together, there's a d.a.m.ned good chance she would still come out on top because she's as strong as you are. As fast as you are. And heals almost as quickly as you do. Such has never happened before. Newer immortals are always weaker than older ones."

Though Roland's eyes continued to glow brightly with rage, he seemed to be listening. "It's probably because she was transformed by an immortal instead of a vampire. Any immortal could have transformed her with the same results."

"You don't know that. None of us do. You've stubbornly refused to let Melanie or anyone else at the network run tests on you and Sarah to see what they can learn. It could be your healing ability. Or something unique in your DNA."

"Or it could be something unique in Sarah's DNA," Roland pointed out.

"That's less likely, I think, considering her bloodline has had centuries more of being diluted with ordinary human DNA than yours has."

Sarah sheathed her weapons. "So you're hoping if he transforms Melanie, she'll be strong like me? Why didn't you just say that, Bastien? Why did you make me hurt you?"

Bastien wanted to laugh. The boys he had sparred with in his mortal youth would've never let him forget he had been bested by a girl. "Roland wouldn't have listened." He motioned to the two telepaths. "They wouldn't have either if they couldn't hear my thoughts. They all look at me," he said with no self-pity, "and see nothing but the murderer of a friend. The leader of vampires, of your enemy. An outsider who can't be trusted."

Sarah looked at the others, who offered no denials. "I don't know that that's true. They listened to you at the meeting."

"Because Melanie, Seth, and David backed me." Enough talk. Bastien looked to Roland. "Our existence has never been as treacherous as it is now. I want Melanie to be as strong as possible. As safe as possible. I want her to have a greater tolerance for sunlight and the tranquilizers. I want her to have more speed and strength than I do. I want vampires to pose no threat to her in small numbers. Wouldn't you want the same for Sarah?"

Roland moved his shoulders and arms. "You can release me now."

Richart and etienne glanced at each other uneasily, then released their hold on him.

"Will you do it?" Bastien asked. He would beg if he had to. This was for Melanie.

Roland cupped Sarah's face in one of his hands. "I would want the same for you."

"I know," she said softly.

"Would it trouble you if I transformed her?"

Her brow furrowed as her gaze slid to Melanie. Resting her hands on Roland's hips she drew him closer and looked up at him. "Would it . . . bind the two of you in some way?"

"No."

"It bound us."

He shook his head. "Our love bound us, not my transforming you."

"So you won't . . . feel her emotions or . . . develop an attraction to her?"

"No, sweetling. My heart is yours and yours alone. My desire only for you. And it will remain so always."

Her forehead smoothed out. "Then I think you should do it. And, after this, I think we should let Melanie run those tests."

He kissed her lightly on the lips. "As you will."

When he would have pulled away, she grabbed his belt loops and stopped him. "Wait. Could you maybe bite her on her wrist or arm instead of her neck?"

He smiled. "I intended to."

Sarah rose up onto her toes and kissed him. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

She released him.

Roland lost his faint smile as he turned away. So quickly Bastien almost missed it, he slammed his fist into Richart's, then etienne's faces. Both immortals flew backward, hit the floor, and skidded away several feet. "Don't ever restrain me again!"

Neither answered. They were too busy groaning and cupping their mouths and noses with their hands.

Lisette tilted her head to one side and raised one eyebrow, daring Roland to do the same to her.

Roland settled for a glare. "I'll let you off with a warning." She grinned cheekily. "Chicken."

That almost made the dour immortal smile again. Until the door shook.

Lisette grimaced and braced her feet. "Now they've gone and gotten a battering ram. How rude."

Roland crossed to her, planted a hand on the door beside her head, and motioned her aside.

She straightened cautiously, as though she expected the guards to burst through if she abandoned her post.

Six centuries older and stronger, Roland held the door effortlessly while she moved to stand over her brothers, who remained where they had fallen.

Roland yanked the door open and bellowed "What?"

As one, the soldiers recoiled and stood in the hallway, eyes wide, fingers on the triggers of the automatic weapons they carried.

While the soldiers here at the network disliked Bastien, they outright feared Roland.