“Drop him!”

I looked up. Dahlia entered, pushing Max ahead of her. She surveyed the scene coolly.

“Go help your friend,” she barked at Max, pointing at Nathan. “I want to have a word with Carrie.”

The last time I saw Dahlia, she’d been running from a horde of hungry vampires. Now the air around her seemed to vibrate with unchecked power.

Panic shot through me. I’d had more confidence fighting Cyrus, because I knew I would die, anyway. I hadn’t really given much thought to what would happen to Nathan and Max afterward. They might have been able to hold their own against Cyrus, but I was pretty sure that even together they were no match for Dahlia.

But Max was still alive. I guess that stood as testament to his way with the ladies. Hopefully it would get Nathan and him out of this mess when I’d burned to cinders.

Dahlia stood before me, her hands placed on her wide hips. “You marked me for death.”

Gasping for breath on the marble floor, Cyrus tried to grab my leg.

“Stay down!” Dahlia made a sweeping gesture with her hands and he fell back, pinned by invisible hands.

I swallowed hard. “I didn’t know exactly how the whole ‘marked for death’ thing worked. I thought he’d offer Ziggy to his guests, and turn you.”

“And then I’d get eaten by the Soul Eater?” There was a surprising lack of anger in her question. She didn’t accuse me so much as state a fact.

The least I could do was be honest. “Maybe. I thought Cyrus would change you, but as far as the rest of the plan went, you were on your own.”

“As usual.” She sighed. “It actually worked out better this way. I got my blood, I got my power—”

“And I’m assuming a random biker vampire got himself a very nice piece of ugly dragon jewelry in exchange for a few pints of blood,” I interrupted.

Dahlia raised an eyebrow. “Very astute of you.”

She must have released Cyrus from whatever spell she’d cast, because he climbed to his feet unhindered. Lifting a hand to his blood-streaked face, he pressed his remaining eye back into its socket. “You don’t think I turned her, did you? I wouldn’t waste my blood.”

I expected Dahlia to fly into a rage or strike him down or fall apart the way I’d seen her do before. But she just smiled. “Of course not. You never would have. You were just going to string me along until you got bored. Then you were going to kill me.”

“Oh, but for a while you believed you had me,” he said with a laugh. “God, but you were easy to manipulate.”

Cyrus turned to me. “That’s why I became so bored with her. The things I got her to do, Carrie. You thought what I did to you was bad.”

“I really don’t care to hear about it.” No matter what had transpired between Dahlia and me, she didn’t deserve whatever perverse torture he’d inflicted on her.