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Richard and his bodyguards had moved around Jason. They might not protect Asher, but they would protect Jason. Barnaby moved to one side, trying to get around me. I was forced to jump on and over the bench to put myself in his way again.

I put my left hand against that decaying chest. The right was on the butt of the Browning. I made sure he saw it.

Colin spoke. Though Barnaby’s body should have blocked his view, it was almost as if he could see through the other vampire’s eyes. “If you shoot one of my vampires, then you will have broken truce.”

“You sent Nathaniel back to us dying. Asher said it was a compliment of sorts, that you truly thought we could cure him.”

“And you did, didn’t you?” Colin said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Well, let me pay you the same compliment. I think if I shoot Barnaby point-blank, he’ll survive it. I’ve shot rotting vamps before, and their clothes took more damage than they did.”

“You can taste the truth in her words,” Asher said. “She believes he’ll live, which means it is not a breach of truce.”

“She believes it, but she hopes for his death,” Colin said.

“Breaking the mind of one of our entourage,” Asher said, “will break the truce, as well.”

“I do not agree,” Colin said.

“Then we’ve got a stalemate,” I said.

“I think not,” Colin said. He turned to Verne. “Verne, earn your keep. Strip the young one of his protectors.”

Verne stood and his wolves flowed around him. They moved into the clearing on a roil of energy that made the nape of my neck dance and my hand go for a gun.

Richard said, “Verne.”

But Verne wasn’t looking at Richard. He was looking at me. He was carrying a small covered basket in his hands. I didn’t wait to find out what he had in the basket. I pointed the gun at his chest.

19

“EASE DOWN , GIRL,” Verne said. “It’s a present.”

I kept the gun nice and steady on the center of his body. “Yeah, right.”

“When you see what it is, you’ll know that we aren’t on his side.”

“Don’t pick the wrong side, puppy dog,” Colin said. “Or I will make you very, very sorry.”

Verne looked at the vampire. I watched his eyes bleed from human to wolf while he held that basket out to me. But he kept those angry, frightening eyes on Colin.

“You have no animal to call,” Verne said, in a voice gone rough and growling low. “You dare to stand in our place of power and threaten us. You are less than the wind outside our cave. You are nothing here.”

“She is not one of you, either,” Colin said.

“She is lupa of the Thronnus Roke Clan.”

“She is human.”

“She stands between you and a werewolf. That’s lupa enough for me.”

Barnaby had backed off. I don’t know if he thought I’d jump the gun and shoot him or if Colin had whispered a new plan in his rotting skull. I wasn’t sure I even cared. There was a glob of something heavy and wet sliding down into the bra. It was like feeling a tear slide down your cheek but worse, so much worse. I’d resisted the urge to wipe it away with Barnaby staring me down. As soon as he crept back to Colin, I used my left hand to scoop the leftover part out and fling it on the ground.

“What’s the matter, Anita? Too up close and personal for you?”

I wiped my hand on the leather skirt and smiled. “Fuck you, Colin.”

Verne stepped into the center of the triangle alone. His wolves stayed huddled in front of the far bench. He came to stand a couple of yards in front of our bench with that basket in his hands.

I glanced at Asher. He shrugged. Richard nodded like I was supposed to go meet him. A present, Verne had called it.

I went to meet him. He knelt, setting the basket on the ground between us. He stayed kneeling. I knelt, too, because he seemed to expect it. He just kept looking at me with those wolfish eyes. He still looked like an aging Hell’s Angel, but those eyes . . . I wondered if I would ever get used to seeing wolf eyes in a human face. Probably not.

I raised the hinged lid of the small basket. A face, a head, looked up at me. I scrambled to my feet. The Browning just appeared in my hand. I pointed it