My demon scar tingled at his words, and frightened, I pushed the feeling away. “Just how long were you standing there?” I asked, going cold with the thought that the nightmare might have been far more than Ivy simply losing control.

His grip around me tightened as his eyes failed to reach mine. “Long enough to hear her ask to make you her scion. I wasn’t going to stand in your way if it was something you wanted.”

My mouth dropped open and I pulled my arm from around behind him. “You would have walked away and let her make me into a plaything?”

A flash of anger flickered in his brown eyes. “A scion, Rachel. Not a shadow or plaything, or even a thrall. There’s a world of difference.”

“You would have walked away?” I exclaimed, not willing to get out of his lap for fear pride might make me leave his apartment. “You would have done nothing?”

His jaw clenched but he made no move to dump me onto the floor. “I am not the one living in a church with a vamp!” he said. “I don’t know what you want. I can only go on what you tell me and what I see. You live with her. You date me. What am I supposed to think?”

I said nothing, and he added in a softer voice, “What Ivy wants is not wrong or unusual, it’s a cold, scary fact. She’s going to need a trustworthy scion in about forty years or so, and she likes you. To tell you the truth, it’s a damn fine offer. But you had better make up your mind as to what you want before time and vamp pheromones make it for you.” His voice grew halting, reluctant. “You wouldn’t be a plaything. Not with Ivy. And you would be safe with her, untouchable by just about every nasty thing Cincinnati has.”

Gaze distant, my thoughts lit on small, seemingly unrelated instances of friction between Ivy and Nick, seeing them in a new light. “She’s been hunting me all this time,” I whispered, feeling the first hints of real fear.

The wrinkles around Nick’s eyes creased. “No. It’s not just blood she’s after, though an exchange is involved. But I have to be honest. You complement each other like no vamp and scion pair I’ve seen.” A flicker of unknown emotion swelled and died within his eyes. “It’s a chance at greatness—if you’re willing to give up your dreams and bind yourself to hers. You would always be second. But you would be second to a vamp slated to rule Cincinnati.”

Nick’s hand ceased its motion over my hair. “If I made a mistake,” he said carefully, not looking at me, “and you want to be her scion, then fine. I’ll drive you and your toothbrush home and walk away, letting you two finish what I interrupted.” His hand began moving again. “My only regret will be that I wasn’t enough to lure you away from her.”