“He will have you too if you run out of here screaming.” His fingers bit in. “Listen to me, Dru.

We’ll get your loup-garou back. I swear it on my blades and my bloodline. But there’s nothing you

can do right this moment.”

I knew he was right, but it didn’t help. The numbness was over, and my entire chest was cracking

open. Hot water slicked my cheeks. Was I ever going to stop crying? Jesus.

“I swear it.” Christophe stared me down like we were the only two people in the room. “The rest of

the Council will swear, too. Won’t you?”

A long, tense-ticking quiet moment went by. I couldn’t look away from Christophe. He stared like

he had X-ray vision and was checking out my brain folds.

“Because,” he continued inexorably, “they are offering me a seat on the Council, since two of their

members are, to put it kindly, unfit. And they were about to tell you that you, dearest one, are the

head of the Order now.”

“Screw their Order.” And I meant it. “They can put their Order where the sun doesn’t—”

He lifted his hand, and I subsided. It was just like having Dad give me the Meaningful Look. Bite

your tongue, Dru.

“The Order is a massive organization, well-funded and—once we finish rooting out Anna’s holdouts—well-trained and loyal. You stand a much better chance of finding your friend and surviving

with them on your side.” He paused, and the next thing he said held no shade of businesslike mockery. It was the gentle tone he’d never used around anyone but me before. “And if you do not trust

them, skowroneczko moja, try to trust me.”

“I—” But the protest stopped before I could even find words. His blood was still tingling through

my veins, whispering to me. I knew what it was like to have fangs in my wrist and to feel the awful,

horrible, draining and ripping sensation. He’d done that for me while I lay dying on an operating table. Anna had been shooting with an assault rifle, for God’s sake, and Christophe had hunched over

me. Protecting me with his own body.

He’d been there at every turn, watching out for me. And coming back for me, time and again.

There was just one question I could ask right now.

“If I stamped out of here right now, Christophe, what would you do?” For once, I didn’t care that

everyone was watching.

“You wouldn’t be so foolish.” Amazingly he smiled. It was a slow, very private expression, and it lit

up his eyes for a bare moment before it vanished. “If you did, skowroneczko moja, moja

księżniczko, you would not go alone.”

“Now hold on just one moment—” Bruce began.

“Shut up.” There was no joy in snapping that and having someone shut his mouth so fast he almost