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“Don’t you understand yet? The Traveler, Balthasar’s master, blocked my powers and the powers of my vampires, and kept them from reaching out to me.”

“Your wolves. You should have felt something from your wolves. They’re your animal to call,” I said.

Jean-Claude turned to Asher. “Only one vampire could have kept my wolves from calling out for help. The Master of Beasts.”

Asher rested his chin on the back of my seat. I felt him nod.

“Get off my seat,” I said.

He raised his head but didn’t really move back.

“They must think me powerful indeed to send two council masters,” Jean-Claude said.

Asher made a harsh sound. “Only you, Jean-Claude, would be arrogant enough to believe that two council masters came to this country just for you.”

“If not to teach me a lesson, then why are they here?” Jean-Claude asked.

“Our dark queen wished to know how this legality is working for the vampires in the States. We have traveled from Boston to New Orleans to San Francisco. She chose what cities we would visit, and in what order. Our dark queen left St. Louis, and you, for last.”

“Why would she do that?” Jean-Claude asked.

“The Queen of Nightmares can do anything she likes,” Asher said. “She says go to Boston, we go.”

“If she said, walk out into the sunlight, would you do it?” I asked. I glanced at him. He was close enough that turning my head was enough, no mirror needed.

His face was blank and beautiful, empty. “Perhaps,” he said.

I turned back to the road. “You’re crazy, you’re all crazy.”

“Too true,” Asher said. He sniffed my hair.

“Stop that.”

“You smell of power, Anita Blake. You reek of the dead.” He traced his fingers along my neck.

I swerved the Jeep purposefully, sending him sliding around the backseat. “Don’t touch me.”

“The council thought we would find you stuffed with power. Bloated with new-found abilities, yet you seem much the same. But she is different. She is new. And there is that werewolf. Yes, that Ulfric, Richard Zeeman. You have him bound to you, as well.”

Asher pulled himself back up to the seats, though not so close to me. “It is your servants who have the power. Not you.”

“Is Padma anything without his animals?” Jean-Claude asked.

“Very true, though I might not say so in front of him.” He leaned on the back of the seats again, not touching me this time. “So you admit it is your servants who have given you the power to take a council member.”

“My human servant and my wolf are merely extensions of my power. Their hands are my hands; their deeds, my deeds. That is council law. So what does it matter where my power comes from?”

“Quoting council law, Jean-Claude. You have grown cautious since last we met.”

“Caution has served me well, Asher.”

“But have you had any fun?” It was a strange question coming from someone who was supposed to hate Jean-Claude.

“Some, and you, Asher, how fares it with you? Are you still serving the council, or did you come along on this mission to torment me?”

“Yes, to both questions.”

“Why have you not fled the council?”

“Many aspire to serve them,” Asher said.

“You didn’t.”

“Perhaps revenge has changed my aspirations.”

Jean-Claude laid his hand on Asher’s arm. “Ma petite is right. Hatred is a cold fire, and it gives no warmth.”

Asher jerked back, sliding as far back as the seat would let him. I glanced in my rearview mirror. He was huddled in the dark, hugging himself. “When I see you weep for your beloved, I will have all the warmth I need.”

“We’ll be at the Circus soon,” I said. “What’s the plan?”

“I am not sure there is a plan. We must assume they have all our people in thrall. So it will be only what the two of us can do alone.”

“Are we going to try and take the Circus back, or what?”

Asher laughed. “Is she serious?”

“Always,” Jean-Claude said.

“Fine. What are we supposed to do?”

“Survive if you can,” Asher said.

“Shut up,” I said. “This is what I need to know, Jean-Claude. Do we go in there kicking butt, or crawling?”

“Would you crawl to them, ma petite?”

“They have Willie, Jason, and who knows how many others. So, yeah, if