"I protect Erus Veneficus when he use cane as weapon," Ivanka added.

"You mean you fought a mortal man when he attacked the Erus Veneficus?" Mero asked.

The pointed and accusing nature of his comment wasn't lost on either Goliath or Ivanka. Goliath knew Ivanka's abilities as a sentinel were among the best in the haven; she'd taken his instruction flawlessly. He also knew that she knew she was among the best.

She looked up from the floor for the first time since entering and her brows were knit together tight. "Yes," she snapped at Mero. "He is mortal. As per standing haven orders, I did not harm him, just subdue. Not so easy as beating him black and blue. And zis"-she lifted her casted arm-"make even more difficult."

"Did he use magic against you?" Mero asked.

"Beauregard was Bindspoken years back," Goliath said. "He cannot use magic."

"Why would he attack the witch?"

Goliath shrugged.

"He say his son is cad . . . cad . . . " Ivanka paused, snorted a self-critical breath as she tried to remember. "Catatonic. He blame vitch for zis." She added, "While we fight, she sneak out. I try to follow, but she get to cab," Ivanka added.

Mero shifted his weight again. "Did she happen to mention why she was leaving or where she was going?"

"Say she haf meeting, but not vhair." Ivanka's gaze shifted to Goliath. "If she said, I already go there and bring vitch back."

Goliath nodded. "You may leave."

Ivanka rose and turned to the door. Before opening it she said, "She say she come back."

"Of course she did." Mero didn't sound convinced.

"Thank you," Goliath said and gestured her out. When Ivanka had gone, he faced Mero. The bruising Liyliy had caused around the vampire's eye was finally diminishing. "If my E.V. said she'd be back, that's what she'll do," Goliath assured him.

Mero met his gaze squarely. "I have not seen Menessos around the haven tonight."

Goliath remained calm. "I sent him on an errand."

"If he has gone to her and told her what we are deliberating about, she will flee. He could have told her that last night when she made her brief visit here. He could have told her to escape while we were yet under the sway of the death. She might have planned the escape with the old man."

"You make valid points." He broke his pose and strolled away with his hands clasped behind his back, thinking.

This was the unavoidable moment where he had to let Mero know where he stood. He'd bought time with his diplomacy yesterday, but that time had run out.

Goliath thought of his confrontation with Menessos earlier and what his Maker had said about the witch. Menessos had made no secret about his opposition to her being taken to the Excelsior when the three of them spoke yesterday evening. The question was, as Haven Master, should he support Menessos? His Maker was starting down a path at odds with the hierarchy of their kind. It was not completely unlike him, but it was rash. Menessos had been acting more and more rashly since he'd met Persephone . . . conceivably since she'd marked him.

"She could have lured him out of this room," he said. "She could have used her influence to make him reveal any threats. She could have started planning to abscond right then. She could have lost all the integrity I've come to know she possesses due to the desperation of the moment." He turned back. "But I've seen her in desperate moments. She paused to save my life in a desperate moment."

Mero lifted his chin and squared his shoulders. "Do you feel you owe her loyalty for that?"

It seemed Mero was preparing himself for a confrontation, in case Goliath felt it necessary to subdue him.

"We all have to make our own choices, Mero. Yours is evident." Goliath smiled. "My Maker Made you. That makes us brothers of a sort. Out of respect for you, I will not try to stop you, but out of respect for our Maker, I will not help you, either."

Mero said nothing, but he did not move to leave.

Goliath said, "I can see that you are now considering whether or not you should use your rank and authority against me. Commandeering my haven and claiming my people to use them to aid you as you try to seize the Lustrata is a wise-even shrewd-move. Although you certainly should not underestimate her. Still"-he strode around the master's chair and lowered himself into it with all the regal poise he possessed-"I promise you, brother, if you try to take what is mine, I will give you a war."

She will destroy us. Does he not see that? Mero wondered as he left the Haven Master's chambers. He glanced up the stairs at the doorway to the Erus Veneficus's chambers, irritated that they were empty. She'd slipped through his grasp.

Goliath was young, but Menessos had trained him well. The diplomacy he offered was smart. It let him stand his own ground among all sides, yet clearly revealed which side he'd choose tonight if forced to.

Mero knew what he needed to do. He'd started toward the stage when a cacophony of excited sounds arose in the theater house beyond. Proceeding cautiously, he peered around the backstage wall and saw Menessos carrying a child. He was accompanied by a pair of women as different as night and day.

Seven, with her willowy figure and long, straight black hair worn in a ponytail, was on his right. Though a high-ranking vampire in this court, she wore jeans and work boots with her turquoise tank top; her primary job was overseeing the construction and renovation of the bar upstairs called Haven.

On his left was the red-eyed half-demon Risque, her blond ringlets bouncing. At any given time her curvaceous body was barely covered. Since Mero had arrived he'd seen several different colors of ruffled panties on her. And clear platform heels. The ringlets usually covered her breasts, but when she was on the move, like now, her nipples peeked through.

Seven had gone into interrogation mode. "How long has she been unconscious?"

"About an hour and a half," Menessos answered.

"How long will she continue to be out?"

"I do not know. She may sleep through the night, as it is her custom."

"She will have to be watched around the clock."

Mero wondered what had happened to the girl.

"Indeed." Menessos was coming up the ramp to the stage. "That is why I brought her."

"You do not intend for her to stay in your chambers, do you?"

"No. The child will stay in Persephone's rooms."

"Alone?"

Menessos paused to face her. They both turned to Risque.

She glanced back and forth between them. "No." Her pouty lips were pursed and her hands were planted on her hips. "No, no, no. I am not hanging out with a . . . child."

Menessos and Seven were not fazed. He said, "You are not dead for the day and you are magically proficient. You can keep her under control."

Under control? Mero's curiosity was piqued.

Menessos continued walking. "Besides, I think she'll like you."

Risque's shoulders slumped. "But I hate wearing shirts," she whined.

Mero passed through the doorway as the others neared it. "Pardon us," Menessos said and continued on without offering an explanation. Mero hesitated for an instant, then was on his way across the theater. He made his way to the common area one floor up where he had earlier seen Talto and Ailo.

It was an open space with a beige and scarlet color scheme, creating a comfortable living room. The elegant atmosphere was marred, however, by the small group of Beholders playing cards in the far corner. They clustered around an elaborately carved and red felted poker table, but the beer cans, cigarette smoke, overflowing ashtrays, and colorful cheap chips drained all the sophistication from the room.

Those he sought were sitting closer to the room's entry, on a leather couch in front of the large-screen television. They were watching a news channel and soundly ignoring him.

He approached. "Ladies."

Only Ailo acknowledged him, and that was a simple sidelong shift in her eyes. Before she looked away, he said, "Did you learn anything about a young girl when you read Menessos?"

"The former court witch is the foster parent of a girl with dark hair."

"Aha. Thank you." Mero smiled. This was good news. Perhaps Goliath was correct. If her foster child was here, surely Persephone would come back. "The E.V. will likely be returning soon, then, as the child was brought in moments ago."

"I doubt it," Ailo murmured, looking back at the screen and smiling like she knew a secret.

Mero took that to mean that Liyliy was on her way to the witch. Probably to kill her. They needed her, alive, and marked by the Excelsior.

He stepped in front of the television. "Where is she?"

Ailo and Talto both kept staring at the screen as if he was not in the way at all. He turned, frustrated, and when he couldn't find the television's power button, he jerked the cord from the wall. "Where, Ailo?"

Both shabbubitum glared up at him. Ailo zoned out for a moment. When she blinked, she said, "She's at home."

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE.

I stood up faster than was wise. My head spun and I stumbled to the wall.

Propped against the wall, I touched my head and felt warm wetness and a lump. Great.

I walked to the sink, pulled a clean rag from the drawer, wet it, and held it to the bleeding goose egg on the side of my head as I leaned against the counter.

That bitch said Johnny had a son.

He hadn't denied it.

A son. How old is he? My mother and Nana had teased me that maybe since Johnny is the Domn Lup he was somehow immune to the nonprocreating rule. I didn't buy that idea at all. Because Johnny's memory was blank except for the last eight years, the kid would have to have been conceived eight years ago or more.

My stomach did a flip when I worked my way around to wondering who his mother was.

He has a family somewhere.

I filled a glass with water, added ice from the fridge, and drank it down. Swallowing hurt, but the cool liquid eased my throat. I dumped the ice from the empty glass into the rag and alternated holding it to my head and throat.

I'm a liability to Johnny.

I'd already proven what a burden I was for Menessos. He'd lost his haven because of me. It hurt to know what I'd cost him, but even though the power Johnny was attaining was changing so much about him and our relationship, I didn't want to cause him problems. More than that, I didn't want to be the reason he-or his son-were in danger.

That meant I was alone.

That shouldn't have bothered me. I'd lived by myself for years before all this Lustrata business crashed into my life and took over.

I'd been so worried about Johnny's new title and responsibility changing him, but this destiny of mine was certainly changing me, too.

Not only had I been forced to expand my skills as a witch-skills that included sorcery and the manipulation of dangerous ley line energies-but I'd reconnected with Eris, the mother who had abandoned me. It hadn't ended like a sappy and uplifting Lifetime movie, either. It turned out she was the artist who had tattooed Johnny-her magical artwork locked up all his power and subdued his beast. He'd also been left with no memories. We more or less bullied her into undoing the bindings. Certain complications in waere politics resulted in her losing her right arm.

Sure, it was the bullets the Rege fired that did the damage, but he was there because he was after Johnny, and Johnny was there because my witchery had discovered who'd inked him in the first place. Essentially, I brought danger and misfortune into Eris's home.

I'd also learned I had a half-brother-Lance-who now hated me. Nana was with Eris and Lance now, cleaning up my mess and mending family ties.

I'm a magnet for destruction.

It was probably for the best that Nana stay far away from me.

Hell, everyone should avoid me.

Maybe Johnny should be with someone else.

I grabbed the chair from the floor, righted it, and shoved it into its place at the dinette wishing it was that easy to put the pieces of my life in their proper places. I sank onto the bench seat at the table.

Torrid nights with Johnny had made me feel deeply attached and desired in a way that I had never felt before. As far as Menessos was concerned, after bonding magically with him and discovering I'd flipped his mark back onto him, I'd given him my own mark atop it, and now I felt him awaken every night.

In truth, I was anything but isolated.

With Johnny, the moments of seeing groupies fawning over him, of finding them kenneling with him, had hurt me badly, but I believed we could survive the rough patches. Then his beast got the best of him. I wasn't sure I could ever forgive an attack like that, but here, earlier in my kitchen, for a fleeting moment, I'd believed I could.

Before Aurelia arrived.

Not now. Now I knew the Zvonul had given him Ms. Hot-Body McMistress as an assistant. It was an altogether new kind of hurt. Like all those who Johnny was destined to lead had conspired against me and left me no hope of "us" surmounting their will for him.

With Menessos, I'd felt twinges of jealousy knowing Eva was in his bed. I'd been more than angry with him for working the in signum amoris spell over Johnny and me without permission, and for being manipulative in general. Even though he'd pulled Beverley from the ley line and surely saved her life, he'd also taken her away and basically forbidden my coming to the haven while telling me I had no choice but to run to the Witch Elders Council.

Wouldn't it be best if I kept them both out of my heart and at arm's length emotionally?

In spite of our triangle-no, because of the corollary effects of it-I didn't just feel alone, I was alone.

Alone in this big empty house.

Alone in facing this big empty feeling.

Alone with my "what am I gonna do" decision.

My decision.