“No asking,” I said. “You’ve got to tell him. Make him think you’re strong enough to walk away if he doesn’t keep his promise.”

“But I’m not,” she said in a small voice.

“It’s okay, Beth,” Jen said, her tone gentle. “He doesn’t have to know that. You just have to make him believe it.”

She hesitated. “You swear this isn’t a trick? You won’t, like, try to deprogram me or send me to rehab? You’ll let me go anytime I want?”

“Yes!” both of us said in unison. I was pretty sure both of us were lying through our teeth. I knew I fully intended to research breaking a blood-bond at the first opportunity, and I wouldn’t put it past Jen to lock her sister in the basement. But we’d deal with that when the time came.

“Okay.” Bethany came to a decision. “But only for a few days. And I have to tell Geoffrey. I can’t just leave.”

Great, back into Twilight Manor. “I’ll go with you.” I didn’t trust her not to change her mind.

“So will I,” Jen said with determination.

The blond vampire looked irritated to see all three of us back on the doorstep, and all the more irritated when Bethany announced her intention in a tremulous voice, but he went to fetch her boyfriend into the foyer.

Geoffrey Chancellor had the whole Edwardian-rake look going: fancy suit, waistcoat with a chain and watch fob, immaculate ascot, and slicked-back hair. He was very good-looking in a totally supercilious way. I’d met him before and I didn’t care for him. From what I could tell, the feeling was mutual.

When Bethany told him she planned on visiting home, he scowled at her. “It is foolish and unnecessary. Everything you need is here.”

“It’s just for a few days,” she pleaded.

“It is contrary to my wishes.” From the way he said it, I was pretty sure that if we weren’t there to witness it, he would have forbidden her outright.

Bethany wilted anyway. “All right. It was just a thought.”

Geoffrey smiled with satisfaction. “Good—”

“No,” I interrupted him, laying my hand on dauda-dagr’s hilt. “Not all right. She expressed a clear desire to leave.”

He looked down his nose at me. “She changed her mind.”

“I changed my mind,” she agreed weakly.

“You changed her mind,” I said to him, ignoring Bethany. “Do you want me to inform Hel that the House of Shadows is now detaining mortals against their will?”