We entered what seemed to be a sort of office, and the first thing I noticed was that they had electricity. I took that as a good omen for plumbing. An older dhampir woman, her blond hair streaked with silver, sat at a desk, clicking something on a computer. She too wore a blue-edged medallion. When she saw us, she stood up and looped her fingers through the belt on her jeans as she leaned against the wall, showing off tooled leather boots that further reinforced my Wild West stereotypes.

“Well, what did you turn up, Mallory?” she asked with amusement.

“Lana, you’ll never believe who this is,” exclaimed Mallory. “It’s—”

“Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov,” supplied Lana. Her eyes then fell on Sydney and me, and she arched an eyebrow. “And Adrian Ivashkov and his infamous wife. I’ve been to Court. I know who the celebrities are.”

“We’re not celebrities,” I assured her, putting my arm around Sydney and nodding toward Rose and Dimitri. “Not like those two.”

Lana’s eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled at us. “Aren’t you? Your marriage has been the source of a lot of speculation.”

“I think that makes us more of a source of a gossip than celebrities.” Although, as soon as the words left my mouth, I wondered whether there was any real difference between the two.

“Well, I’m delighted to meet you. All of you.” Lana walked forward and shook our hands. “I’ve also heard from Olive how you’ve done some pretty fancy work to create a Strigoi vaccine, Lord Ivashkov.”

I started to say we weren’t having much luck on the vaccine, but something more important in her words drew my attention. “You know Olive.”

“Of course,” Lana said. “I know everyone here.”

“Lana’s our leader,” explained Mallory.

Lana actually guffawed. “I’m more of an administrator. I assume it’s Olive you’re here to see?”

“If you’ll allow it,” said Dimitri politely. “We’d be grateful for any assistance you can offer.”

“Not up to me. It’s up to Olive.” Lana held us in her gaze for a few moments, as though deciding something. At last, she gave a small nod. “I’ll take you to her myself. But first, have some dinner and relax. I know it’s not easy getting here.”