Bai shifted beside Stefan. It was the first time he’d moved.

She leaned back in her chair. “Oh. You intend to use Bai.”

He gave her a brutal little smile and inclined his head. “After a fashion.”

“Speaking of Bai.” She shifted her gaze to the Atrika and narrowed her eyes. “Let’s talk about you a little, shall we? So? What do you want with me?”

Sarafina stared up at Bai and refused to look away, no matter how badly she might be trembling with fear. She clenched her fists in her lap to hide it. Having Bai detect her terror would be akin to a shark scenting chum in the water.

Or maybe it was more the equivalent of a striptease?

“I told you at the Coven before you threw your fire at me,” said Bai. His voice was low and flat, expressionless. She’d been told the Atrika were all about emotion, but there was none in his voice. “I want nothing with you; I simply want you.”

“Well, Bai.” She leaned forward and raised a brow. “You can’t have me. Option B?”

His face clouded with anger. Ah, so there was the emotion. It simmered under the surface of icy stoicism. How oddly familiar. “You have no choice in this matter.”

“I am a free being, Bai, and I won’t be pushed into doing something I don’t choose. Be more specific about what you want me for.”

Oh, God, she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer now that she’d asked.

“I wish you to bear my children.”

THEO SLAMMED HIS FIST DOWN ON THE DASHBOARD of Darren’s sedan as they squealed through the gates of the airport just in time to see Stefan’s plane taking off.

If he’d had his cycle, he would have been able to dodge the traffic and would’ve made it here sooner. Although arriving any earlier probably wouldn’t have mattered unless he’d planned to stow away in the luggage compartment.

Theo watched the plane lift off and sail into the blue sky while the bottom dropped out of his stomach.

“So much good the charmed pendant is doing us.” Darren brought the car to a halt. “We need an alternate plan and fast.”

“We get the log and find out where they’re going.” He paused, watching the plane disappear into the horizon. “Then we follow them.”

Darren watched the jet disappear on the horizon. “And we call Thomas.”

“DID YOU REALLY THINK I WOULD BRING YOU WITH me all the way to my final destination?” Stefan said, as they pulled up in front of an understated, yet clearly posh hotel in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. The tires came to a stop on a narrow cobblestone street, office buildings rising on either side of the car, and sandwiching the hotel between them. “I have sensitive things to do here. Things I don’t trust you enough with yet.”