“Kisten?” I stifled a jerk. I’d be glad to see him, but I was afraid of the answers he would have for me. I didn’t want him to have planted that bomb, but Ivy had said he did. Damn it, why did I always fall for the bad boys?

While the three men waited, I stood and gathered my things, hesitating before I stuck my hand out. “Thank you for your hospitality … Trent,” I said, pausing only briefly as I tried to decide what to call him. “And thanks for not letting me freeze to death,” I added.

A soft smile quirked the corners of his lips at the hesitation, and he met my firm grip with his own. “It was the least I could do, seeing as you kept me from drowning,” he answered. His brow furrowed, clearly wanting to say more. Breath held, he changed his mind and turned away. “Jonathan, will you accompany Ms. Morgan to the gatehouse? I want to talk to Quen.”

“Of course, Sa’han.”

I glanced back at Trent as I followed Jonathan to the stairs, my mind already on what I had to do next. I’d call Ed-den first, at his home number, soon as I got to my Rolodex. He might still be up. Then my mother. Then Jenks. This was going to work. It had to.

But as I quickened my pace to keep up with Jonathan, a wash of concern went through me. Sure, I was going to get in to see Saladan, but then what?

Twenty-Nine

Kisten had the heat on full, and the warm air shifted a strand of my shorter hair to tickle my neck. I reached to turn it down, thinking he was laboring under the false assumption that I was still suffering from hypothermia and warmer was better. It was stifling, the sensation only strengthened by the darkness we drove through. I cracked the window and eased back as the cold night slipped in.

The living vamp snuck a look at me, jerking his gaze back to the headlight-lit road as soon as our eyes met. “Are you okay?” he asked for the third time. “You haven’t said a word.”

Shaking my open coat to make a draft, I nodded. He had gotten a hug at Trent’s gate, but it was obvious he felt the hesitation. “Thanks for picking me up,” I said. “I wasn’t too keen on Quen taking me home.” I ran my hand across the door handle of Kisten’s Corvette, comparing it to Trent’s limo. I liked Kisten’s car better.

Kisten blew out his breath in a long exhalation. “I needed to get out. Ivy was driving me crazy.” He glanced away from the dark road. “I’m glad you told her as soon as you did.”

“You talked?” I asked, surprised and a little worried. Why couldn’t I like nice men?

“Well, she talked.” He made an embarrassed noise. “She threatened to cut off both my heads if I jerked your blood out from under her.”