It was almost midnight before Sasha felt free to leave the girls Masenak had upset so terribly in the prisoner tent and make her way back across the camp to her own tent. Not that she’d been able to do very much to soothe them, she thought wearily. What she’d told Masenak about the wariness and resentment the girls felt toward her had been true. She could only try to intercede if the guards became too brutal, heal what wounds she could, and listen to them when they poured out all their fear and bewilderment. The listening was the most painful, because she was totally helpless to do anything about the ugliness and desperation that surrounded those girls.

Try to sleep and forget that helplessness for a few hours. Think of Chaos and how she felt when she was riding across the hills. How the wind felt in her hair, and that smooth, joyous togetherness she never knew at any other time.

Back in the tent, she stood there letting her eyes become accustomed to the darkness. Masenak had supplied her with this tent but no lantern, and she didn’t like to use up the batteries in her flashlight. She didn’t mind the darkness when light revealed only—

She wasn’t alone in the tent.

She froze.

She could hear someone breathing.

A shadow near the back of the tent!

One of the guards? Masenak?

Her grip tightened on her flashlight, getting ready to swing it when he leaped for her.

A hand clamped down on her mouth from behind!

“Shh. Not a word. I won’t hurt—”

Her teeth sank into his palm!

He cursed, but his hand remained on her mouth.

And she recognized his voice. She reached up and tore his hand off her lips. “What the hell are you doing here, Gilroy?” she hissed.

“Bleeding, at the moment,” he whispered ruefully as he lit his small pocket flashlight. “I risk my life to see you and you sink your fangs into me.”

“Because you’re incredibly stupid and shouldn’t be here. Masenak has had the camp in an uproar since last night, and I don’t know how many search parties he’s had out trying to find Baldwin. And you come back and park yourself in my tent? You’ll spoil everything Alisa was trying to do.”

“No, I won’t. Because from what I’ve been told, Alisa’s main objective was to do whatever Korgan wanted her to do with Baldwin. I’d say that’s definitely been done. I just came back because Korgan added a few other things to our list.” He was pulling her away from the door to the other side of the tent. “Now will you sit down and let me tell you about them so I can get out of here?”

“Go now. I don’t know how you got in here to begin with.”