“Myrnin explained that,” Hannah said. “The bracelet Amelie gave you to wear. It’s a kind of draug early warning system. It inoculates the wearer to be able to see them clearly. You wore it long enough for the effects to still be in your system. Myrnin’s right, Claire. Wherever you’ve gone since Magnus realized you could see him, he’s sent his creepers after you. Or even come himself.”

“He must come himself. With his spawn dead, he cannot hide in numbers,” Myrnin said. He was speaking to her directly now, and earnestly, as if he really wanted Claire to understand why he was doing all this. “You can see him, and he cannot hide. Nor, in Morganville, can he easily flee. This is the first time that we have ever had this advantage over him. We’ve never been able to destroy his thralls without damage to ourselves; we’ve never been able to hunt him. It equals the contest, you see. He won’t have it.”

“And this is why you tied me up. For bait?”

“Well,” Myrnin said, very apologetically, “it does keep you in place. I believe he sees you as a genuine threat. He killed you, and yet you are here, taking action against him. That makes you very nearly a master draug yourself. I suppose it’s a bit of an honor, if you look at it that way.”

The urge to scream was coming back, fast. Claire yanked against the ropes convulsively. She just couldn’t help it. “You’re using me as bait! It’s not an honor!”

“Well, not if you equate yourself to a worm. That’s a terrible self-image, Claire.”

Nobody knew she was here, she realized with an awful sinking feeling. Amelie probably wouldn’t have ever allowed this; even Oliver might not have. But Myrnin and Hannah were acting on their own. Myrnin was always—well, crazy; Hannah wasn’t thinking straight. She’d just had Richard die in her arms, and—“Oh God,” Claire said softly, looking at the woman. “You think it was my fault. My fault that Richard died.”

“They were coming for you,” Hannah said. “They didn’t go for the wounded men on the street, they didn’t go for me. They went for the car. Where you were.”

“Myrnin was in the car! They were going for the vampire, not me!”

“Think,” Myrnin said quietly. “You know it’s true, Claire. Magnus has sought you out for a reason. And now we must use it to bring him here.”

“You think you can kill him.”

“Well,” he said, “I certainly think this is our best and only chance. Once his spawn are dead, he will have to run—for the first time in their history, the draug will have failed to conquer vampires. We cannot afford to let him leave Morganville alive. Or find a hole in which to hide and hibernate and rebuild his hive.”

“You’re wrong,” she said. “He’s not going to come here. Not for me.”

“Then there’s nothing risked,” Myrnin said. “And I chose you a very comfortable chair.”