Loudreux sniffed. “I see our Southern charm is wasted on you.” He took the tea Fellows brought him, sipped it, then put it on the side table. “Fine, business it is.”

At last.

“Sklar, the current guardian of our fair city, is worthless. Unfortunately, he’s also the son of the elektos Prime.”

Mortalis exhaled. “Sklar’s a smokesinger. That explains the band of juvies Mal ran into today.”

“Let me guess.” Loudreux addressed Mal. “They let you go for a bribe.”

Mal leaned back. “Yes.”

Loudreux shook his head, disgust bracketing his mouth. “That’s been the way of it since that slack-wit took over. He’s a disgrace to this city. A hollow threat. He lets more vampires in than he keeps out. Meanwhile the elektos have their hands tied because none of us dare speak against the Prime’s son.” Loudreux cursed in faeish.

Chrysabelle held her palms up. “Fae politics mean nothing to me. Why are you telling me all this?”

Mal put his arm across the sofa back. “He wants you—us—to get rid of this problem for him.” He gave Loudreux a bitter look. “Then you’ll get the ring back.”

Loudreux smiled. “It would be a great boon to New Orleans to have a proper guardian in place.”

Chrysabelle’s hands ached from clenching her fists. Her back ached because it just did. “Mal is right, then?”

Loudreux nodded and sipped his tea.

Mortalis shook his head at the cypher. “Taking bribes bothers you but assassinations are fine? So long as the greater good is served?”

“Now, you just wait a minute,” Loudreux barked. “I never called for anyone’s assassination. How you go about fixing this problem is your business, not mine.”

“As long as you don’t get your hands dirty.” Mortalis stood. “Nothing’s changed, has it?”

Loudreux pounded his fist against the arm of his chair. “Plenty has changed. You think this city stood still waiting for your return? No. Life here goes on, with or without your family.” He twisted in his chair to reach up and pat Blu’s arm. “Don’t you mind that statement, sugar. Wasn’t meant for you at all.”

The barbs on Mortalis’s forearms flexed in and out. Chrysabelle tried to refocus the situation. “I’m not killing anyone for you.”

Loudreux shrugged. “Your vamp friend brought that up, not me. You can remove the guardian any way you like. As far as replacements go, there are a few people on my short list, but they may take a little convincing. That’s the second part of your assignment.”

She had to talk her way through this or she was going to blow up. “Why do the fae even need a haven city? Most vampires can’t stand the taste of fae blood. It’s not like you’re getting picked off by nobility in this part of the world. I can see the lure of being able to daywalk, but are vampires really that much a threat to your way of life here?”

With thinly disguised contempt in his eyes, Loudreux tilted forward. “Cheri, the haven city isn’t to protect the fae, it’s to protect the rest of you. Some of the kin contained in these city limits make your shadeux friend here seem about as dangerous as a bunch of daffodils. We don’t even like to speak their names lest they hear us and think we’re calling them, so you don’t worry about the why, just the doing.”

Maybe she should just run her sacre through this cypher’s gut and be done with him. But then she wouldn’t get the ring, and her chances of finding her brother would disappear. “Where do I find the current guardian and the possible replacements?”

“So you accept?” Loudreux looked surprised.

She scowled at him. “What choice did you give me?”

“You could always abandon the ring.”

The comment snapped one of her few remaining threads of control. She leaped over the table that separated them, coming down inches from Loudreux. His cup and saucer rattled on the table beside him. Blu whipped out a knife and poised to throw it, but Chrysabelle ignored her, leaning down and confronting the wide-eyed cypher as face-to-face as a person could get. “That ring is mine. You have no claim to it. None. In fact, the only ones who seem to have any real claim to it besides me are the Kubai Mata. Would you like me to tell them where their ring is? Because I’m sure they’d find a way to get it back.”

“You wouldn’t,” Loudreux breathed.

“Not yet, I wouldn’t. But I’d like to point out that you should be very glad I’m not willing to abandon that ring, because if I was, I’d have no reason to keep you alive.”

Loudreux closed his mouth and swallowed. Without taking his eyes off her, he lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. “Fellows, that envelope from my desk.”

Chrysabelle straightened as the butler left. She kept her eyes on Loudreux while Fellows was gone, enjoying the way the cypher’s discomfort grew with every passing second.

Finally, Fellows returned. “Your envelope, sir.”

Loudreux took it and held it out by the end toward Chrysabelle. “All the information you need is in there.”

Chapter Twenty-two

Svetla met Tatiana and Daci at the front door of Grigor’s estate. Tonight she wore crimson silk. The color made her already pale skin chalky, washing her out in a way that made Tatiana smile. Svetla didn’t return the expression. “The council is waiting, as they have been for the last eighteen hours.”