And he was skilled. Every fluid movement and graceful gesture spoke of strength and stamina, both in battle, and- "Mind if we join you?" Urseya, dressed in a stunning brocade gown of rust and gold, joined Jasmine on her bench without waiting for an answer. Leo, accompanied by two of the Symbiont riders, took the remaining space on Jasmine's other side.

An unaccustomed stab of jealousy groped at Jasmine's heart, but she pushed it aside. There was no reason to feel that way, and she wasn't about to start playing the clinging, insecure wife at this late date.

"I understand that congratulations are in order." Urseya glanced at Jasmine's stomach, and for a moment a flash of something dark and glacial surfaced in her eyes before swimming away from the light.

Jasmine stilled and searched her face. Her brain had instantly labeled the dark thing malice, and her every instinct told her not to relax, to search below the surface of Urseya's now placid face. "Yes."

"I suppose Keilor is very happy," she said, watching him demonstrate a movement without expression. "If the child survives, I'm certain that its...mixed blood will barely bother him."

"Why wouldn't it survive, Urseya?"

Indifferent eyes moved again to Jasmine's stomach. "We've only the history of the by-blows, of course, but the odds of you carrying the baby through the third month are astronomical. No human woman has ever carried a Haunt child past the fourth month. Didn't you know?"

Leo cleared her throat. "The symbiont might make all the difference, Lady Jasmine," she said quickly, touching Jasmine's shoulder. "You've seen yourself what they can do. I wouldn't concern yourself too much about it."

Urseya's voice dripped false concern. "I'm certain Keilor only wished to protect you by not telling you this."

A low sound of fury escaped Jasmine's lips as she rounded on Urseya. "Do not pretend to be my friend. Now leave!"

"Do not presume to order me around, charmer," Urseya sneered, allowing gold to flicker in her eyes. Isfael took a warning step nearer, and she eyed him with contempt, standing up. "Do not worry for her, charmer's pet. She faces no danger from me." She cast one more mocking look at Jasmine's belly and turned on her heel, leaving in a swirl of rust brocade.

Still simmering, Jasmine saw Keilor approach from the corner of her eye. "Your best defense is silence," she warned him before he could say a word. Standing up, she told him with barely suppressed fury, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go check on the fragile sticker apparently glued to my forehead. I think I feel it peeling off."

Keilor, of course, did not leave her to simmer, but fell into step at her side. "It's a well known fact that even strong women behave oddly when they're breeding. Just look at Rihlia."

"I did, I have, and I'll forgive you on those grounds this time only. Do you understand? This is my body, Keilor! You can't just demand courtesy without giving any in return." She took his silence for agreement. "Now, don't you have a class to run?"

"What did Urseya say to you?" he asked, ignoring her hint.

Her lips tightened. "I think you got the gist of it."

A gentle but firm hand on her arm pulled her to a stop in the shadow of a garden archway. "I'm not interested in the *gist' of it, Jasmine. I need to know details." His serious, concerned expression told her without words why.

"You're afraid that she..." she whispered, unsettled. She wanted to protest, to say that even Urseya wouldn't sink so low as to betray her family, but the words died unspoken. With everything that had happened, dare she dismiss Urseya's actions as simple jealousy? She touched her stomach, remembering the dark thing in Urseya's eyes, and clenched her jaw. "Why don't we go find some privacy?"

Jayems rubbed his lips with his thumb, his face grim as Jasmine finished repeating her brief exchange with Urseya.

"I've already assigned the necessary personnel to look into it," Keilor assured him, crossing his arms as he waited for Jayems to respond.

Jayems glanced at Jasmine, who was seated in a chair in front of his desk. His gaze cut to Keilor. "Are you prepared to use the option we discussed now?"

Keilor closed his eyes and sighed in frustration. "Jasmine."

She looked at him expectantly. She'd never seen him so tense, and she braced for the worse. "Yes?"

"Knightin is not dead. We have him in custody." When the blood drained out of her face, he took her hand and knelt at her side. "Easy. He can't hurt you now."

She nodded. She trusted him.

"But he has given us no useful information, and right now we need detailed, accurate facts. You could help us with that, if you're willing." At her mystified look, he explained, "You could command him to speak, to tell us what we wish to know."

Misery settled over Jasmine's expression. She'd thought she'd left that sort of thing behind when she'd married him. Do I have to? her expression said, but out loud she answered, "I guess so."

He was silent for a moment, and then he touched her cheek. "I'm sorry."

CHAPTER 29.

Keilor did not like taking her here, to the interrogation room on the prison level. It went against his every instinct to expose her to this white-walled dungeon, even if, with the exception of Knightin, she'd never see the prisoners.

Knightin was already manacled to a chair when they entered the bare room, and before he could register his danger, Jasmine did as she'd been instructed, saying quickly, "Don't turn to Haunt."

Knightin blinked at her.

Flanked by Jayems and her husband, Jasmine sat down in the chair across the table from Knightin and studied him for a moment. His long red hair was unkempt, hanging loose around his shoulders, and his face sported the beginnings of a beard and fading bruises, but his blue eyes held a startling lucidity.

She cleared her throat. "Tell us the names of those who've worked with you against my family." Obediently he began to rattle off a list of names. Jasmine watched him for nearly a minute. "He's lying."

"How can he be?" Keilor asked, sending her a sharp look. "He's not mated."

"Look at his eyes. No dilation," Jasmine insisted, even as Keilor started swearing. Jayems called for a guard and began questioning him, but Jasmine barely paid attention. "Who's the girl?" she asked, looking into Knightin's mocking face.

He blew her a kiss.

"Enough of this." Keilor took her arm and assisted Jasmine out of her chair. A medic entered the room with a syringe and Keilor subtly maneuvered so the instrument was out of her sight. "Call me when you need me," he told Jayems, leading her out the door.

Jasmine craned her neck to get another look at the needle, but Keilor hurried her on. "What was that?" she asked, a sick feeling in her gut.

"Truth serum," Keilor answered, never slowing in his brisk walk.

"Why didn't you use it before?" Jasmine asked, puzzled. "Why bother with me?"

His nostrils flared. "It's clumsy, as well as fatal. He might not have given us the information we needed before he expired."

Jasmine froze in her tracks. "You're going to kill him?"

"It is what we do with traitors and murderers."

She shivered. When he'd led her out of the prison level and into the sunlight, she broke away and jogged towards a bench set up in a nearby grove of orange trees. She sat down and hid her face in her hands.

The general public did not see condemned men in the society that had raised her. She'd always believed in the code *an eye for an eye', but seeing that code in execution brought death much closer to home than it had ever been before. Even her near-death in the swamps had been a dreamy, almost peaceful thing. The stark walls and ugly needle she'd just witnessed were no dream.

A vision of Keilor's sword came to mind, and her breath hitched and came much faster than it should have, making her dizzy. He'd been in a war. He'd spoken of killing, but she'd never connected his words with the vision of carnage spilling into her mind at that moment. Blood on sparkling steel, blood everywhere...or would the energy blades cauterize the wounds? Then there would only be piles of mangled bodies...

Keilor put his arms around her. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

She buried her face in his chest. "Would you have killed me, too, if Rihlia hadn't made you promise? I understand now-you hated what I was."

He stilled. It was a while before he spoke. "It's better not to look back, Dragonfly. I don't want to think about it."

She sighed heavily. It was as she'd thought.

He met her eyes and brushed her hair gently behind her ear. "Would you like to visit my parent's memorial? It's past time I introduced you."

She gave him a sad smile. "I'd like that."

He offered her his arm. After they'd walked a little while in silence, he said, "I've never taken a woman to see them."

"Well," she demurred, "You've never had a wife before."

"I was engaged once, a long time ago," he said, surprising her. "She never saw them."

"Oh." The rest of the walk was made in silence.

The memorial was one among many in a lovely plot of mossy ground. It was nothing more than an obelisk of polished granite with a plaque, but Keilor caressed the stone with tenderness and a hint of longing. "My father, Dais, my mother Jacqueline and my brothers, Ellis and Mick. My mother was pregnant with my little sister, but she never had a name."

Jasmine took his hand and kissed it. "I've always liked the name Rain."

His brows shot up. "You wish to name her?" he asked, as if the idea had never occurred to him.

She shrugged. "Why not? It beats calling her baby, doesn't it?"

He inclined his head with a wry smile. "Rain it is." He pulled her to him, resting his hand against her stomach, holding her close.

His life had come full circle.

Keilor had further business to attend to that afternoon, so Jasmine decided to pay Rihlia another visit. Heaven knew she must be bored out of her gourd being cooped up in bed so much.

Rihlia's mother, Lady Rhapsody, was just leaving as Jasmine arrived, and she looked relieved to see her. "Jasmine, dear, you're just the person I needed to see," she said, taking Jasmine's hands. "I am so worried about my daughter. Could you spare a little time to take tea with me? There are some things I'd like to discuss with you."

"Uh, sure," Jasmine agreed, pulling her hands discreetly from Rhapsody's dry grasp. She'd never been comfortable around the stately older lady, something she'd attributed to the aura of royalty that cloaked her. However, if she were worried about Rihlia, Jasmine would be glad to give her all the help she could.

The suite of rooms that belonged to Rhapsody was close by, and within a minute Jasmine entered the main living quarters. It was very...white.

Snow-white walls broken only by crystal framed pictures of family members held a room full of ivory wood and white upholstery. The carpet was white. A regimented row of white statue-topped pedestals marched along the walls.

Jasmine felt as if she'd stepped inside a snowball. It was not a comfortable sensation.

Rhapsody directed her to sit in one of the wing chairs while she prepared the tea, and Jasmine twiddled her thumbs and eyed her colorless environment, trying not to shiver. Oh, what she'd give for a bucket of paint and a few brightly woven Indian blankets. Naughty thoughts of redecoration schemes involving stuffed moose heads, loud slip covers and a few busts of Elvis kept her occupied until Rhapsody returned with the tea tray bearing unadorned white china. Come to think of it, she was wearing white today as well.

I bet I can guess your favorite color, Jasmine thought, biting her tongue so she wouldn't say it. She might have grown up a hooligan, but she still had a healthy respect for her elders. "Thank you," she said instead, accepting the scalding cup of tea and setting it on her saucer to cool. "So what's on your mind?" she inquired as Rhapsody made herself comfortable in the chair opposite the tea table.

Looking a little surprised at Jasmine's disregard for the formalities, Rhapsody folded her hands in her lap and surveyed her guest. "I'm concerned with my daughter's despondency. She has been very emotional since the attack, and I can't seem to make her open up to me."

Jasmine raised her thumbs and shrugged her right shoulder. "Well, there's your problem right there. You don't make Ri do anything. Nobody does."

A hint of coolness slipped into Rhapsody's voice. "She responds well enough for Jayems."

Staring at the colorless tea set, Jasmine laced her fingers together over her stomach and twiddled her thumbs. "Granted, but there's elements there you just can't duplicate."

"She loves him, is that it?"

One look at Rhapsody's tight lips was enough to convince Jasmine that she was on shaky ground. "I'm sure she cares for you, too."

It was the wrong thing to say.

"Platitudes will not serve me."

Jasmine suppressed a shiver as her hostess took on the unyielding nature of one of her statues. If she'd ever harbored any doubts that Rihlia's mother disliked her, they were all wiped away in that instant.

Stalling for time, she dipped a finger in her too hot tea, started to raise it to her lips and then froze. She reached for her bone white napkin and carefully wiped her finger clean, and it was not because she'd suddenly remembered her manners.

The tea was poisoned.

She sat back, staring at Rihlia's mother for a long moment. Finally she said, "It's a bit harder to poison a girl when she's wearing one of these." She raised her clenched right fist, the back of her knuckles facing her would-be murderess, and the symbiont flashed with silver anger. It was comfortable, fat and happy, and it did not like threats to its tasty hostess. It had been the one to sense the danger and send a warning tingle of awareness to Jasmine.

The change came so quickly that Jasmine almost missed Rhapsody's shift from human to other. There was barely time to register shock at the sight of a white Haunt before she leapt for Jasmine's throat, claws bared.

There was no time to leap away.

The force of the dive took both Jasmine and the chair over backwards, shattering china and splashing poisoned tea on the way.

Keilor's friends had been even better teachers than Jasmine realized. Without thought, Jasmine's body braced for the fall even as her legs came up to shove Rhapsody off with surprising force. The white Haunt went flying, and Jasmine just made it to her feet before Rhapsody rushed her again. Forced to act, Jasmine sidestepped and slashed at her with the long knife her symbiont formed, and the Haunt hissed as raw wounds opened across her arm and abdomen, leaving the white gown in tatters.

Hammering started at the heavy door.

"That's two," Jasmine warned her grimly, blocking out the sound as an irritation that could cost her life. Mathin would have had her head for such hesitation, but she'd never taken a life, and she didn't want to start with her best friend's mother.

"Don't make me kill you," she grated, her voice raw. For her child's sake, she couldn't afford to hesitate again.

Rhapsody's lip curled, and a frightening madness flashed in her eyes as she charged.

The symbiont flashed as Jasmine struck back, aiming for the white Haunt's stomach. A second later her adversary was clutching her abdomen, trying in vain to hold in the spill of intestines. Blood ran down her legs, a spreading crimson stain on the white carpet.

The door burst open, and the Haunt barely checked before coming to Rhapsody's aid. One rough hand closed over Jasmine's right biceps just as her knees buckled.

Unfortunately, her faint lasted less than ten seconds, and she came to just in time to be hit full in the nose by the smell of slaughter. Dazed, she found herself on her knees beside the steaming body, emptying her guts. The blood from the carpet soaked onto her hands, and with a whimper, she crawled two feet away and pressed her head to her forearm, waiting for the surging darkness to stop.

"Here," someone said, grabbing her hair and coaxing her head up. Raziel wiped her mouth with a damp napkin. "What happened?"

"Poisoned tea," she stammered, so softly no one else heard. He let her go and went to collect a sample from the wreckage around the tea table.

The next few minutes were a confusion of raised voices, screams and accusations as Rhapsody's sister arrived on the scene and started demanding explanations and Jasmine's execution.