"Thank you. I'll need two keys."

"Of course." The girl handed them to her. Not modern plastic key cards, but actual keys hanging from tags with numbers on them.

"You'll find the number to call when you want to arrange housekeeping service, a schedule of events, a listing of restaurants and another of all our vendors waiting in your cottage. We have boat rentals, Jet Skis, surfing, snorkeling-"

"Yes, thank you. I'm just too tired right now to even think about all that."

The girl smiled and nodded. "Of course. Buenas noches, then, senorita."

"Good night."

Taking the keys, Topaz went back to Jack's car and got in. He didn't take off right away, just looked at her. "Are you okay, Topaz?"

She glanced at him and nodded. Even knowing it was a lie. She'd never been less okay. She hadn't been okay since he'd walked out on her. And sometimes she wondered if she ever would be again.

Aloud though, she only said, "That way. Cabin Three."

He looked at her for a long moment, then finally nodded and put the car into motion again. It was only as they pulled up in front of the cabin that Topaz felt the presence of the others. Other vampires lingering nearby in the night. Several of them. She tensed and quickly opened her mind. She'd been trying so hard to block out her feelings for Jack that she'd failed to scan the area.

"It's okay," Jack said, reaching over to pat her hand as if she were a frightened child. "It's just the gang."

Frowning, Topaz opened her door, and even as she got out of the car, they came walking from the cabin right beside hers.

Reaper, Roxy, Vixen and Seth. She couldn't move for a moment, she was so surprised to see them there. And then, as they closed in around her, and as Roxy wrapped her in a warm embrace, Topaz burst into tears, in spite of her best efforts to hold them back.

Jack felt a little bit unwanted, like an outsider, an interloper. The others were like a family as they embraced her and all talked at once. He was unreasonably relieved when he heard someone say that Ilyana and Briar were inside. They were outsiders, too.

And in fact, of them all, he thought he would be happiest to see Briar again. So he headed into the cabin marked with the green 2 in search of her, and left the little group to catch up in their sappy way without him.

The cabins were made of adobe, forty by forty or so, with two stories each. They all looked pretty much the same; full front porch, big windows on either side of a red door, clay pottery overflowing with exotic-looking plants, and rattan lawn furniture on each porch.

Jack opened the red door and stepped into the large living-dining area, and looked around. He didn't see anyone, but he could feel them. Ilyana, the newcomer to the group, was mortal. One of the Chosen. Her energy was impatient, frustrated, a little bit afraid. She was nervous around vampires. She had every reason to be, having served as Gregor's bedtime snack for G.o.d only knew how long. She was presently in one of the rooms off to the right of this one. A kitchen, he thought.

Briar's energy, on the other hand, didn't even feel like her. It was dull, and had a sickly element to it. It was contained, reserved, quiet, withdrawn. None of it was Briar. At least, not the Briar he remembered.

He followed his sense of her energy all the same, up the stairs to the second floor and along a hall with four doors, stopping at the third. The door wasn't locked, and he didn't bother to knock. He had let her feel his approach, so she knew he was coming. He opened the door and let his gaze sweep over the small bedroom. She sat on the bed, knees drawn to her chest, eyes on him.

"What do you want?"

Jack lifted his brows and went inside, leaving the door open. "Nice to see you, too, Briar. I've been fine, thanks. How about you?"

She didn't react, aside from the slight flaring of her nostrils as she exhaled.

"I can see you haven't been fine at all," he said.

"What is there to be fine about?"

He shrugged, crossing the room. "I don't know. We're alive. Eternally strong and young and powerful."

She turned her head slightly toward the window, and he followed her gaze to the small group gathered on the lawn. "What good is it? This world isn't worth living in. There's nothing good about it."

"Never knew you were so into goodness."

She shot him a look. "What good is strength if you aren't allowed to prey on the weak? What good is eternal life, when it's only filled with people who'd just as happily kill you as look at you?"

He sighed. "You trusted the wrong guy, Briar." And it occurred to him that he could say the same words to Topaz, and they would be just as true. "He turned on you. But it was Gregor, for G.o.d's sake. What did you expect? He's evil."

"So am I. So are you."

"I'm not evil. Selfish, maybe, but not evil. And I don't think you are, either."

"No? What am I, then?"

He shrugged, opened his senses to hers, then lowered his head. "You're in pain. And it's intense. Excruciating. You need to let it go, Briar, or you're not going to last. No one can hold up under that kind of anguish."

"And how do you suggest I let go?"

"I don't know. Stop focusing on it. Find something else, something you can get a little pleasure out of, a little joy. Focus on that, and the pain will start to die. It can't live if you aren't feeding it. It'll starve without your attention."

"So you've turned from a heartless con man into some kind of philosopher now?"

"Not really. It's just the best suggestion I can come up with on short notice."

"Yeah, well, it's a lousy one."

"Why?"

"Because if there were anything in this world capable of giving me joy or pleasure, I would have at least caught a glimpse of it by now."

He sent a meaningful look toward the window. "I think maybe you have. You're just too busy wallowing in misery to let yourself see it."

"I should get off this bed and hit you." "But you can't even work up the enthusiasm to do that, can you, Briar? And that should tell you something."

"What, pray tell? What gem of wisdom is my lack of enthusiasm supposed to impart?"

He met her eyes, saw the pain in them, felt it. "Only that what you've been doing up to now isn't working for you. So you might as well try something else. What have you got to lose?"

"Self-respect. Dignity. Pride. My mind...Should I go on?"

He shook his head. "Why are you still with Reaper? I'd have expected you to run away again by now. Particularly if you're so miserable."

She lowered her head, focused on her hands where they were clasped around her knees. "Sooner or later, he's going to get back on Gregor's trail," she said. "Reaper's good. I don't have any doubt that he'll find him. And when he does, I intend to be there."

Jack sensed the feelings she still had for that s.a.d.i.s.t and rolled his eyes. "I'm the last person who should be saying this, but how stupid would you have to be to go back to that idiot after what he did to you?"

"You're right. You're the last person to be saying it. Your precious Topaz did the same thing, didn't she?"

"Not by a long shot. And all I did was take her money. Gregor tortured you, Briar."

"If you don't think what you did to Topaz was torture, you'd better think again," she said. "Women like her fall hard when they fall for a man. Thank G.o.d I never have and never will."

"Not even for Gregor?"

She snapped him with a look, like snapping someone with a rubber band. "It's not what you think. It was never...that way between Gregor and me."

"Not because he didn't want it to be."

She was quiet.

"And yet you want to get back with him," he said with a slow shake of his head as he lowered it.

"No. I want to get back at him. You're right, he tortured me. I owe him."

Jack snapped his head up, met her eyes, saw a dull glow of anger, of hatred, simmering in their almost black depths. He felt his lips lift at the corners. "Now that's the Briar I know and...know."

She held his gaze for a moment, then sighed and lowered her eyes.

"What about the others? Reaper and his pups?"

"What about them?" she asked.

"How do you feel about them?" he asked.

"I don't like them. I don't like him. I don't want to be friends, not with any of them. Not with you, either, for that matter. I never trusted anyone in my life, until Gregor. He taught me what a mistake that was. It's not one I'll ever make again."

He nodded slowly. "Not everyone is like him, you know."

"Yes," she said. "They are. And the ones who pretend otherwise are hypocrites." Sighing, Jack got up from the bed.

"Why did you come in here, anyway?"

He shrugged. "Of all of them, we're the most alike. I just wanted to see how you were doing, that's all."

She frowned, as if puzzled. "What's happened to you, Jack? Have you gone soft?"

He shook his head, even as the question echoed in his mind and he found himself wondering about the answer. "Never happen."

"Are you working a con, then?"

"I was, but-" He broke off. "Doesn't matter. I'm not at the moment."

"Then what are you doing here? With them?"

He walked to the window and stared down at them, where they were still deep in conversation below. "I guess I'm trying to make up for some of the harm I've done in the past. Not sure it can be done. But I'm trying."

"You have gone soft. In the head, as well as everywhere else."

"Maybe I have."

As the group broke apart, Topaz saw Jack leave Cabin Two and head toward Three, with the key she'd given him in hand. Her eyes followed him, in spite of herself.

"We can split things up differently, you know," Seth said. "If you're not comfortable having him in your cabin."

She met his eyes. "No, it's fine."

Seth probed, and she guarded. That should have told him to mind his own business, but he never had been the sharpest tool in the box, she thought with an exasperated sigh when he spoke his question aloud.

"You're not falling for that jerk again, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Good, 'cuz I don't trust him as far as I can throw him, Tope. I never have, and I trust my gut on this."

Vixen put a hand on Seth's shoulder. "He's not all bad," she said.

"Maybe not. But he's not all good, either," Seth said. "Better to err on the side of caution where he's concerned."

"Hey, you don't have to convince me," Topaz told him. "I know better than anybody."

Seth nodded. Then he reached out and hugged her, and she was so surprised that she stiffened at first, then sighed and hugged him back. "He gives you any c.r.a.p, you let me know, okay? I'll knock him into next week."

"My hero," she told him, loading a heavy amount of sarcasm into the phrase.

He grinned, and then he and Vixen turned and headed for the beach, arm in arm. Roxy came over and gave her a hug, too. "If you want advice about men and relationships, sweetie, you come to me. Don't waste your time listening to that young pup, Seth. He only wound up with Vixen by the skin of his teeth, through dumb luck and my help."

Topaz nodded, and then Roxy left her and headed for her cabin. Leaving Topaz alone with Reaper.

He studied her face for a long moment, his expression pensive.

She was almost afraid to ask the question, but she forced herself. "Did the CIA show up in Philly?"

"Not yet."

Relief nearly melted her muscles. She closed her eyes and felt it washing through her like a balm.

"That doesn't mean they won't, nor does it mean he's innocent of feeding them information prior to this."

She gnawed her lip. "Why are you so sure it was him?"

"I'm not," Reaper admitted. "I don't have a shred of evidence, let's be clear on that. I just think...I think you should be very, very careful where he's concerned."

She lowered her head. "Thank you. I will be."

He nodded. No hugs, not from him. He wasn't comfortable with casual physical contact. She'd learned that about him early on in their time together. "Let me know if you need anything, all right?"