“I’d just like to know,” I said in an undertone to Ellis while we were on the outskirts of Rome, riding to Villa Luna, “why Merrick felt it was OK to lie to me about the portals.”

“Oooh, he lied? Interesting,” Ellis said, eyeing me, his voice also lowered so that the taxi driver wouldn’t hear us. “Do we think the honeymoon is over already? Has the bloom gone off the rose so quickly? Is it your blue coochie that drove him away?”

I poked him with an elbow. “No to all of those, and there’s nothing blue down there anymore, as you well know since you helped me pick off all the lint.”

“What did Vamp Boy lie about, then?”

I patted Kelso, who had his nose out of the window and was snuffling like crazy. “He said portals wouldn’t take animals, and the shop we went to said that only applied to animals being sent solo, and so long as I was holding tight to Kelso, he’d be fine. And he is. And while we’re on the subject, jumping beans, was that portal neat. I wish I’d known about that before, because I’d have put that right at the top of my bucket list.”

“It certainly was interesting. Have you tried your walkie-talkie again?” Ellis asked.

“Huh? Oh. I’ll try it again, although he didn’t answer when I tried at the portal shop.” Merrick, I know we’re not super near each other, but I’m twenty minutes away, and surely that’s close enough for you to hear me.

Silence was my only answer.

Dammit, don’t shut me out like this! I’m so worried about you that my stomach is all wadded up into a little ball, and I think I may throw up. Please, just say hi, just one word to let me know you’re OK.

“Well?” Ellis asked.

“Nada,” I said with a sigh, worry clamping down tight on me until I felt like I couldn’t draw a proper breath. “What if he’s ...”

“Armande assures me that it’s hard to kill us. Us being vampires, that is.” Ellis patted my knee. “If the boyfriend is protective, maybe he’s just not answering in order to keep you from fretting.”

“I don’t know,” I said, trying to feel Merrick’s presence. There was nothing. It was as if I was on the edge of a deep abyss filled with a complete absence of Merrick.

Armande, who was sitting in the front with the taxi driver, turned around to say, “What are we going to do when we get to Carlo’s villa? It’s fine for you to say that we’re going to fight Carlo, but we have no weapons. We have nothing we can use to fight him or the dreadful Giovanni. We are dancers, not soldiers.”

“You’re vampires,” I told him, trying to sound like I had confidence in them. In myself. “You’re immortal. You drink people’s blood. You can ... er ... I’m not sure what else you can do, because Merrick is kind of reticent to tell me that sort of stuff, and Dante doesn’t mention anything like that.” I glanced at Ellis. “Do you have other powers?”

“You’re asking entirely the wrong person, darling,” he answered, shaking his head. “I’m just the comic relief in this scene. A dashing and urbane comic relief, but one nonetheless. I do like a plan, though, so let’s figure out what we’re going to do once we get to the villa.”

The rest of the journey was spent arguing over whether it would be better to go in with (metaphoric) guns blazing, or if a stealthy attack would be best. In the end, we decided on a three-pronged approach.

“Think of yourselves as bloodthirsty pirates,” I said in a little motivational speech when we were deposited at the villa. “Imagine yourself about to pillage a rich vessel, a dagger clutched between your teeth, and your trusty scimitar at your side.”

“But we don’t have any weapons,” said one of the dancers (the one whose testicles were still visibly noticeable through his booty shorts).

I averted my eyes from his nether bits, and gave them all an encouraging look. “Pick up whatever you can find outside the house, and use it to your advantage. Be creative! Be resourceful! But above all, take down those auction dudes.”

“Yar!” one of the men shouted, and although we had to immediately hush any further such noises, I promised them all they could yell as loudly as they liked when the actual attack took place.

“I know some karate,” Ellis offered. “I used to do it after school so that I could keep from being beat up by all the homophobes. I must have watched Karate Kid at least a hundred times back then. Do you remember, Tempest?”

“I remember you swanning around in a white outfit whenever you got a new belt, but that’s about it,” I admitted.

He tried to look modest. “I went all the way up to a brown belt before my mother took me out of the class.”

“Good. You and Armande can attack from the side opposite our dancing pirates.”

We synchronized our watches, and scattered.

“Hello,” I said a minute later when the front door of the villa was opened. It wasn’t a huge house, smaller than Merrick’s, but I could see the turquoise glint of a swimming pool behind it, and a stepped yard that dropped down to reveal a view of Rome in the distance. Huge, deep fuchsia bougainvillea lined a crazy tile walkway up to the door, filling the air with its heavy honeysuckle scent, while the villa itself rose with cream stone magnificence three stories above my head.

The man who answered the door was short, stocky, and had the sort of cauliflower ears that made me think he spent a lot of time in a boxing ring. “Who are you?” he asked, suspicion fairly dripping from every pore.

“I’m Tempest, and this is Kelso. I’m here to ask if you’ve seen my boyfriend. Well, fiancé, really, although he hasn’t asked me, but I’m not going to shack up with him without being married, because I think marriage shows a certain level of commitment, don’t you? Besides, getting married is number twelve on my bucket list, and if there’s anything I’m serious about, it’s crossing things off my bucket list.”

Cauliflower Ears stared at me like I was a two-headed blue whale, then started to close the door. Praying that the other two prongs were doing their things, I pushed my way past the man before he could shut me out.

“Did I mention that Carlo is my cousin? No? Well, he is. COUSIN CARLO!” I bellowed the last few words while taking a few steps into a foyer that had beautiful mosaic tile on the floor. “I thought you’d be worried about me, so here I am!”

To the left, double doors were flung open and Giovanni appeared, his dead, flat eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?” he asked, shifting to block me when I tried to peer around him. Kelso growled, distracting Giovanni for a moment.

“Oh, I think we both know what I’m doing here, so you can just tell me where Merrick and his friends are, and we’ll be on our way.” Merrick? You here? I know you must be, because I can feel something warm in my brain, and that can only be you, so you might as well answer me.

Giovanni glowered.

Merrick?

Several things happened at that moment. First of all, I was mentally forming a scathing sentence to let Merrick know that if he was conscious and able to answer me, but chose not to, he had a few things he was about to hear, and none of them were any too nice. Second, Giovanni, evidently deciding that capture was the better part of valor, grabbed my arm and jerked me forward into the room. And third, Kelso’s low growl became a savage snarl when he leaped forward and flung himself at Giovanni.

All hell broke loose then. There was a crashing of glass and several bloodcurdling whoops as the vampire dance squad flung themselves into the room, brandishing various garden implements. Behind me, from the opposite side of the house, I heard Ellis give his best Karate Kid yell, and the loud urging of Armande for Ellis to beat the tar out of the man at the door.

I had a brief glimpse of my cousin Carlo and another man at the back of a long narrow room filled with two rows of chairs, from which a half-dozen men in dark suits were in various stages of rising. Beyond them, a big black table lurked, and upon that table was the trussed-up form of a man. For a moment, my heart leaped, but the man’s hair was blond, not as black as a crow’s wing.

Carlo took one look at me and escaped out a door on the far end, his buddy looking startled for a moment, but following. The man on the table didn’t move.

It was a glint of metal in Giovanni’s hand that pushed me over the line. I had started past him to rescue whoever it was who was tied up, but from the corner of my eye I saw Giovanni twist away from Kelso and pull out a switchblade.

“No one hurts my dog!” I roared in a voice that surprised even me. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d kicked Giovanni’s knee, flinching at the horrible crunching sound that followed. He collapsed and started howling, but I stomped on his hand twice until he released the knife, at which point I snatched it up and ordered Kelso to follow me.

The vampire dancers moved in, shouting and waving garden tools at the men who were still gathered around the chairs. I paused long enough to leap to a chair and yell, “Let them go if they’ll leave peacefully. If not, take ’em down, boys, take ’em down!”

The vampires whooped and moved forward en masse. The men, who I gathered were there to purchase vampires for nefarious purposes, glanced at one another, and all lifted their hands in surrender.

I hopped down to check the man on the table. It was Ciaran, and I sagged a little in relief when I realized he was breathing, although he appeared to be unconscious. I used the knife to cut through the zip ties binding his hands and feet and, with a mumbled apology for leaving him, ran to the door through which Carlo had escaped, Kelso on my heels. We emerged in some sort of a back hall, with a staircase on my left, and a closed door on my right. I took a quick glance through the door, but it led to an empty kitchen.

“Up we go,” I told Kelso, and we leaped up the stairs, the switchblade in my hand, and my heart in my throat.

Please tell me you’re all right, Merrick. Please don’t be dead. Not now, when I realize that I’m falling in love with you, and that I need you, and more importantly, that you need me so you won’t be a sad, lonely old vampire who lives by himself with no company but fifteen cats and a stray otter named Aloysius.

I would never name my otter Aloysius.

Joy flooded me at the soft voice in my head. You’re alive!

Yes. Barely. I feel like I was hit on the head with a piano.

Where are you? I paused at the top of the stairs, looking wildly up and down a hallway filled with closed doors.

I don’t know. It’s dark, and my hands are tied. I don’t appear to be able to move.

I looked at the doors, and glanced upward where the stairs continued. “Attic,” I told Kelso. He looked as eager as I felt when we dashed up a second flight of stairs, and started down the hall throwing open doors as we went.

Merrick was, indeed, in an attic room tucked up way under the eaves, lying on the floor under a rickety iron bedstead. On top of the bed was Han, also tied up, and unresponsive.

“What happened?” I asked Merrick as soon as I cut away his bonds. I winced when he rolled over and I saw his face was splattered with blood. “Glorious grand geese, Merrick! You’re bleeding!”

Unable to stop myself, I covered first his face in kisses, then went for his lips. His mouth was warm, and wonderful, and tasted like he’d been eating cloves. He moaned as his mouth parted, allowing my tongue to make tentative little dabs inside. This is so ... I’ve never done this before! With my tongue in your mouth, I mean. It’s ... mrowr!

It would be better if my head didn’t hurt so badly, he said.

I released his hair. Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know I had grabbed your head.

“It’s all right. The kiss was worth it, although ...”

“Although what?”

“Nothing.”

“You know I’m not going to be happy with a ‘nothing,’” I pointed out.

“I know that very well, but it’ll have to wait.” He winced when he touched his forehead.

I tsked. “You poor thing. What happened?”

“Your cousin happened. Or one of his men. Ciaran and I were ambushed while Han and Nico were disabling their security.”

“Who’s Nico?” I asked, helping him sit up before moving over to remove Han’s bonds.

“Another Horseman.” Merrick wiped blood from his face, and glanced around the room, stiffening. “Where are the others?”

“Ciaran is downstairs. He’s out, but he’s breathing, so I assume he’s OK. I don’t know where this Nico person is.”

Merrick leaped to his feet, an act that he clearly regretted when he wobbled a little, clutching me for a few seconds before regaining his balance. “Where is your cousin?”

“I don’t know. He ran out when we attacked.”

Merrick, who had given Han a fast examination, had turned and started for the door while I was speaking, but paused to look back. “We? Who is with you? And speaking of that, what are you doing here?”

I pointed the switchblade at him. “Do not even think about telling me I should have stayed in Nice, because you know that’s only going to piss me off.”

He thought about it for a moment.

I can tell what you’re thinking, you know.

I know, he said with a mental sigh. God help me, I know. Just as I know that I’d move heaven and earth to keep you safe all the while you’re going to be running headlong into danger. You’re going to lead me a merry dance, aren’t you?

I smiled, and handed him the switchblade. “That depends if you like to dance.”

He started to leave, checked himself, then scooped me up for a kiss that fairly scorched the hair right off my head. You’re going to exasperate me, annoy me, and fill my days with danger, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I love you, too, I said, kissing him with enough passion to ignite a bonfire.

He froze. Tempest ...

I know. Loving you wasn’t on my bucket list, but it just kind of happened. One moment we were friends with beneficials, and then boom. I knew it was love. Not the movie star sort of love, either. This is bigger. More encompassing. I want to share everything with you, even when you’re making me angry. Stop making that face like you’re annoyed, because I can feel how warm and squidgy the fact that I love you makes you feel.

It’s not wise at all.

“Like that stopped anyone from falling in love?” I smiled at him, allowing him to feel the blossoming love that started in the tiniest atoms of my being, and grew out until it filled my body. “And don’t think I’m going to demand that you tell me you love me, too, because I’m not. I know you’re fighting centuries of conditioning to not feel anything for anyone. I’m content to wait until you come to your senses and realize that you can’t live without me.”

He sighed dramatically. “I have no doubt you’ll remind me of that daily until I tell you something suitably romantic, like the fact that you brought light and warmth to a life of despair and hopelessness, that you fill my thoughts until nothing has much meaning unless it can please you, and how the merest thought of you can ease the pain that is my constant companion.”

I widened my eyes. “Was that a declaration of love, or were you saying that’s what you will say when you realize just how much you love me? Because if it was the former, it was the most romantic thing ever, even better than something that one of C. J. Dante’s vampires would say. I think I might cry. Or tear off your clothes and have my womanly way with you.”

One side of his mouth twitched. “Much as I’d like that, we can’t stay up here if Carlo is about.”

“You’re right,” I said, putting aside the need to kiss and touch him, and tell him again how much I loved him. “Let’s go catch my evil cousin so we can turn him over to the cops.”

There was a whisper in my mind, a faint shadow of a thought that said, He won’t end up with the mortal police, but I decided it was better if I ignored that and focused on being helpful.

There would be time later for me to molest Merrick as he so very much deserved.

Wrapped in a warm glow of happiness, I helped Merrick check all the rooms on both the top and second floors. Ellis and his friends had cleared the ground floor of the auction people, and had Ciaran propped up, giving him copious amounts of advice.

“Beefsteak. Beefsteak is the answer to any crisis, or so my daddy used to swear,” Ellis was saying when we entered the main room. “Mind you, he said the same thing about Jack Daniel’s, cocaine, and trips to the local strip club, but the man knew how to take the redness out of a black eye.”

“He doesn’t have a black eye,” Armande pointed out, tsking when Ciaran, still obviously a bit rummy, brushed a clumsy hand over his twisted-up shirt. “No, no, you are making it worse. Allow me.”

“How are you?” Merrick asked his friend. Ciaran looked up and grimaced, putting his hand to the back of his head.

“Something hit me.”

“Carlo?” Merrick asked him.

Carefully, Ciaran shook his head. “I don’t think so. I could see him in the doorway when we came in the back. There was someone behind me. Behind Nico and me. Another man.”

“I had the impression of two men, as well.” Merrick eyed the vampires collected. Who are these Dark Ones? I don’t know any of them.

The one in the yellow shirt is my friend Ellis.

He shot me a look of surprise.

That’s what I wanted to tell you. Carlo had Ellis turned into a vampire.

Dark One.

When I rescued Ellis, he was with Armande and his band of dancing vampires.

I beg your pardon?

That’s what they want to do—be exotic dancers. Vampire ones. They don’t like being prostitutes.

Merrick rubbed his face. I must have been hit harder than I thought. Prostitutes?

I patted his arm. I know it sounds unlikely, but to be fair, the whole day has been weirder than ...

An otter named Aloysius?

You got it. “Ellis, have you seen Carlo at all? Or that other man who was with him?”

“No. We put Michel on door duty at the back. Michel? Has anyone tried to leave?” Ellis called.

“Non,” came the answer.

I looked at Merrick. Do you think he’s still here?

We searched the two upper floors. He glanced around with speculation. “The one on the couch, who is he?”

“Giovanni the sociopath. I see Ellis and friends tied him up. He’s Carlo’s henchman, so it was probably he who attacked you guys. Although there was another man with Carlo when we burst in.”

“A third man.” Merrick eyed Ciaran, and said, “Perhaps one of the Dark Ones would help you upstairs to check on Han. He was not awake yet, but should be coming around soon.”

“Sure,” Ciaran said, groaning when he slid off the table to his feet. One hand was gingerly feeling the back of his head. “I’d like to know what they hit us with.”

“Monsieur needs help?” one of the dancers asked, giving Ciaran a long look. “I will be happy to be of service.”

“Thank you,” Ciaran said politely, then added as the two men started up the stairs, “Is there a reason you have hearts cut out over your arses?”

“Is there a basement to this house?” I asked Merrick, puzzling over where Carlo and the other man had gone.

He didn’t answer me, one hand absently rubbing dried blood off his face.

Penny for your thoughts.

Hmm?

I asked you if this villa had a basement.

Ah. I don’t know.

What were you thinking so hard about?

I was wondering what happened to Nico. He was here with Han. I wonder if they captured him, too, or if he escaped?

“Oh man,” I said, suddenly sick to my stomach. “What if they already auctioned him off?”

“Auctioned?”

Ellis and I quickly explained what Carlo was up to.

“Laboratories,” Merrick said slowly, then stiffened. “Genetic experiments. No, he wouldn’t...”

He spun around and ran off toward the back of the house.

“Merrick?” I blinked a couple of times, then looked at Ellis.

“Should we go after him?” he asked.

“I guess so.” Merrick, should we go with you?

No. It’s dangerous.

“Come on,” I said, gesturing to the vampires. “Sounds like we’re going to be needed.”

“To battle!” Ellis called as I ran out of the room, the sound of several vampires following when I rounded the corner into the kitchen, where Merrick was wrenching open a door. One of the vampires, Michel, squeaked something unintelligible from his vantage point at the French doors that led out onto a patio, but I didn’t stay to find out what it was.

Kelso ran ahead of me down a flight of stone stairs into a fully finished lower level, clearly set up as a theater room. Opened doors on either end had me pausing for a moment, straining to hear. The sound of dog toenails scrabbling on a tile floor sent me running off to the right. “Go the other way,” I yelled over my shoulder to Ellis. “Kelso and I will do this side.”

I ran through a series of rooms, one opening onto the other, until I came to a closed door. Kelso stood outside it, whining and snuffling at the bottom of the door.

“OK,” I whispered to him. “We’re going to take them by surprise. Whoever’s in there, that is. When I open the door, you leap in and bark and I’ll disable anyone who might be hurting Merrick.”

Kelso gave me a look that said he didn’t have a lot of faith in my disabling abilities. Since I shared that opinion, I amended the statement. “Fine. We’ll provide the distraction and Merrick can do the disabling and disarming. Better?”

Kelso wagged his tail, and whined, looking expectantly at the door.

We’re coming in.

What? No, don’t! Nico is here, and I’m trying to talk some sense—

I flung open the door and charged into the room, screaming at the top of my lungs while waving my hands around in the very best “distract the bad men who might be holding your vampire” method.

Before I could skid to a stop, there was a dark blur and a man with dishwater blond hair had Merrick against the wall, a wicked dagger at his throat.

Beyond them, Carlo was stuffing a laptop and a handful of thumb drives into a black leather satchel.

“Who is this?” the man with the dagger snarled.

Yeah, who is that? I asked Merrick.

Nico, the fourth Horseman.

Oh. Is he normally this testy?

Testy doesn’t quite cover it. “This is no one, Nico. Just ignore her, and tell me why you’ve betrayed us. Betrayed your own people.”

Look, I know you said that because you’re trying to protect me and divert his attention from me, but just so you know, that shit don’t fly.

Tempest, he said, amused. Such language.

“Do you think I will be fooled by such obvious rot? This is your woman, isn’t it?” He sniffed the air a couple of times. “She’s a Beloved!”

Oh my stars and heavens! I clapped a hand over my mouth even though the words hadn’t emerged from there. Now I’ve got a potty mouth! Hey. Why aren’t you worried?

“She is, but I don’t want her. I’ve told her so frequently, haven’t I, Tempest?” About Nico? I can take him.

“Daily, if not hourly,” I said, nodding, my gaze flickering over to where Carlo was emptying out the contents of a few drawers into his bag. “He’s become a big pain in the ass, and I’ve decided I don’t want him, either.” What about my cousin?

If I was to ask you to leave—

No. You want me to sic Kelso on Carlo? I don’t want him getting hurt—Kelso, that is—but if it gives you a distraction, I’ll rush Carlo myself.

“I don’t give a damn what you think of each other. I’m done taking orders from you,” Nico snarled, and a line of red appeared under the knife. “You can be as self-sacrificing as you like, but I’d rather have a life, one filled with all the things I’ve wanted. And I’m going to have it, too. I’m going to have—”

Now! I shrieked in my head, and, without warning, leaped forward, yelling for Kelso to attack with me. I flung myself across the desk and tackled Carlo without much of an idea as to what I’d do once I got him, which of course meant that approximately ten seconds later I lay facedown on the floor, my arm twisted up behind me in a way that brought tears to my eyes, and Carlo snarling over me.

“Stay back, or I’ll blow her brains out.” A cold object touched my temple.

Did you disarm Nico?

Yes, although I wish you’d given me a little more warning that you were going to do that. I had the situation well in hand.

Where is he?

On the floor. Unconscious. With a broken nose and collarbone. There was a distinct sense of pleasure in Merrick’s voice that I couldn’t help but approve.

“Now here’s what’s going to happen,” Carlo said, his voice as cold as the gun pressed to my head. “You’re going to carry my bags out to the car parked in the back, and I’m going to take your little playmate with me to make sure you don’t get any ideas.”

Don’t listen to him, Merrick. I’m a Beloved, so according to C. J. Dante, I’m now immortal, too. That means his bullets can’t hurt me. Go ahead and grab him.

Er ...

My eyes widened. Why are you concerned about me? I can feel you are worried. Wait, what do you mean by thinking “irreparable brain damage”? I’m immortal now, aren’t I?

Considering the fact that you must have taken in some of my blood when you kissed my face, and thus have completed the steps to Joining, yes, you are a Beloved.

Is that why you tasted so spicy? Wow. Do you have your soul back?

No.

What? Why not?

I don’t know, and now is not the time to worry about it.

He had a point, although I felt oddly cheated. What are you going to do? I don’t want to go away with Carlo. I want to stay with you and make you say those romantic things over and over again until you can easily admit that you love me. You do love me, don’t you? Just a little bit?

He sighed in my mind. Would I risk sounding like I should be in one of Christian’s damned books if I didn’t?

I giggled at him, something Carlo evidently found objectionable.

“Up,” he snarled, jerking me up to my knees. He caught my hair in the process, yanking on it painfully while he tried to pull me upright. A little exclamation escaped me, and suddenly, my mind was filled with rage, a red, boiling rage, and just as suddenly, I was free.

I spun around to see Carlo against the wall where minutes before Merrick had been, only Carlo was a good two feet off the ground, and was being throttled. His face was blotchy and he struggled against the one hand that Merrick used to hold him.

“Wow, that is seriously impressive, Merrick. I can’t believe you can hold him up like that. But don’t you think you should, you know, let him have a bit of air? Otherwise he’ll die, and we won’t have the satisfaction of turning him over to the police.”

“We aren’t turning him over to the police,” he answered, but loosened his grip and allowed Carlo to slide down the wall to a gasping heap on the floor. “Both Nico and he will be going to see the Council.”

“What council?” I asked, moving over to tsk at the thin line of blood that had dribbled down Merrick’s throat. “Wait, back up a bit. I don’t understand why your Horseman guy is here. Was he trying to get Carlo?”

“No. He was working with him. What are you doing?”

“Dabbing at your neck.”

He had stopped me when I pulled a tissue from my cleavage and was fussing over his slight wound. “Why?”

“Because it’s what a Beloved does. We worry.”

A corner of his lips twitched. “Did you get that from Christian’s books, too?”

“No.” I leaned forward to kiss him. His mouth was as hot and sweet as I knew it would be, and just the taste of him was enough to make me want to strip off every bit of his clothing, and rub myself all over him.

I’m quite willing to let you do that, but I would suggest you wait until we are in a less public place before doing so.

Stop reading my smutty thoughts.

Why? You are enjoying them.

Yes, but you’ll think less of me if you know I want to lick you. All over. Hoo baby.

He laughed aloud. “I assure you that I enjoy your smutty thoughts as much as you do, and I would never think ill of you. Now if you’re done wiggling against my cock in a manner guaranteed to make me throw you on the nearest couch and do exactly what you’re thinking about doing to me, then I really should make some calls and have these two bastards taken into custody.”

I glanced over at Carlo’s now empty table and thought seriously about making love to Merrick.

“Tempest,” he said in a warning tone, but there was laughter and heat in his eyes.

“What? Your buddy is out, and I bet we could knock out Carlo easy enough.”

“Garg!” Carlo said from where he was prone on the floor, wheezing like an elderly bulldog.

You’re a bloodthirsty little thing, aren’t you?

Just in love, my darling vampire.

Dark One.

“If you want me to keep my hands off you, you’re going to have to distract me,” I said when he hauled the still unconscious form of Nico over to a corner, and swiftly used the man’s own tie to bind his wrists behind him. “Are you certain your buddy wasn’t trying to capture Carlo?”

“I doubt that he was.” Merrick’s voice was grim. He glanced up when Ciaran, with his arm around a stumbling and bleary-eyed Han, appeared in the door. “I think Nico sold us out to Victor.”

“So Carlo is Victor?” I asked.

“I don’t think so. He would have had many more men at his disposal if he led the organization. I think, judging by the fact that he was taking the laptop and records, that he was in charge of this arm of the Revelation.”

I felt a tiny bit of relief that my cousin hadn’t been ultimately responsible for the death of Merrick’s sister. “That means Victor is still to be found?”

“Yes,” Merrick answered. “Unless Nico can tell us where he is, and somehow, I doubt if he was given that information.”

Ciaran looked from Carlo on the floor, to me, then over to Nico. “Bloody hell. That would explain a lot.”

“Money,” Han said, letting Ciaran assist him to the chair behind the table. “Nico always wanted money. Never was happy with what he had. Always wanted more.”

“To the point of turning us over to the enemy?” Ciaran shook his head, winced, and put a hand up to the back of it.

Han made an aborted gesture toward the traitorous Horseman. “I agree that he’s a bit unbalanced, but if he was working with Victor, he has the blood of several dozen Dark Ones on his hands.”

Ciaran walked over to where Nico was slumped, and squatted next to him. “If he’s betrayed us, betrayed our own people, then he should die.”

“That’s not for us to decide,” Merrick said, a note of warning in his voice. “We’ll leave it to the Council to weigh the evidence and make a decision. I have no doubt they’ll find he’s guilty, though. He’s always preferred to go it alone, and never wanted us to come to search in Italy or France.”

Ciaran squinted down at the prone form. “Let me kill him just a little.”

“No,” Merrick said firmly.

“Just a few pokes with a knife. Or a sword. Han, you have a sword?”

“Not on me, no. My gun was taken away when someone bashed in the back of my brain. Ow. There’s a huge lump there. And speaking of being bashed ...”

“That was probably Nico, as well,” Merrick said, his jaw tight. “No one else could have taken us unaware. He knew we were coming here, and obviously got here before us, lying in wait to pick us off one at a time. Tempest says they had Ciaran ready to be handed over to one of their buyers.”

Ciaran grimaced, but sent a grateful look my way. “I’m delighted you interfered when you did. I will be forever in your debt.”

“Stop looking at her like that,” Merrick said, his lips thinning.

Oooh, are you jealous?

Not in the least. He simply needs to stop looking at you like he has the right to do so.

I laughed in his mind. You are beyond adorable.

“I guess that means we’re now the three Horsemen,” Han said, looking a lot less groggy. “We’ll have to recruit a new member.”

I raised my hand.

“Absolutely not,” Merrick said, glowering at me.

“Oh?” I lifted my chin and glared right back at him. “You wouldn’t be trying to tell me what I can and cannot do, would you?”

“No.” His jaw worked a couple of times. “It might seem like I am, but the simple fact is that you can’t be a Horseman. You’re not a Dark One.”

“I’m a Beloved!”

“But not a Dark One. I know full well you’d be able to fight even the worst threat to our people, but Horsemen must be Dark Ones. It is from that we draw our strength.”

“Hrmph,” I said, unconvinced.

I was about to point out that there was no valid reason for them not allowing me to join their group when Merrick, who had been keeping an eye on Nico, suddenly spun and leaped forward, calling out, “Tempest, move!”

I turned, and time seemed to do that slow-motion thing that you see in the movies. Carlo had crawled over to where his gun was, and was rising up on one knee, aiming it at Merrick and Han. I knew with every ounce of my being that he was going to shoot Merrick in the head, and that it wouldn’t be a wound he could recover from. Without being aware I was moving, I dove forward toward Merrick, intent on knocking him out of the way.

A ridiculously loud explosion hurt my ears, followed almost immediately by a searing, burning pain in my left arm.

Merrick flashed past me, slamming Carlo into the wall, clearly intent on bashing the ever-living life out of him. Han and Ciaran pulled him off before he could do more than knock Carlo out, but I felt the rage in Merrick, rage and anguish and, oddly, a sense of brilliant gratitude.

What is that? I asked, wondering at the lightness that filled him, driving out the dark stain of despair and pain that had filled him ever since I had first met him.

A soul, my goddess. You’ve given me back my soul. Instantly I was pressed up against Merrick, his arms hard around me. Are you hurt? You’re thinking hurt thoughts. Why are you thinking hurt thoughts? How bad is it? I refuse to let you die, do you hear me? You’re my Beloved now, and thus you cannot leave me, so stop thinking about pain and go back to thinking about molesting me with your tongue. Christos, I will never forgive myself if Carlo’s harmed you. I should have picked up that gun he dropped.

I’m OK. I think ... I pushed back from Merrick and looked down at myself. A patch of blood bloomed against my sleeve, and was growing at the same rate as the burning pain. “I think I’m about to strike number seventy-seven off my bucket list.”

“Being shot?” Merrick asked, tearing my sleeve off in order to examine the wound.

“No.” My voice seemed to come from quite a distance away. I weaved, unable to keep the black splotches that appeared in front of my eyes from spreading. I gave in to their promise of insensibility; the last thing I heard was my voice saying, “Seventy-seven is fainting.”