“I can’t go back to that life. I’ve outgrown it. This is my home now,” I said. Leaning forward, I brushed my lips across his cheek. “Why can’t you stay here?” I whispered. “You’ve been with the Coven most of your life. You’ve got to be growing weary of it. Stay here with me. Make this your new home.”

“And go from being a messenger for the Coven to being a flunky for the Fire Starter? Not likely,” he said snidely.

“No. Just live here. Be your own person.”

Bishop stared silently at me for a minute, the skepticism clear on his face, but I could also see the hope in his eyes. The offer was appealing. Bishop had a lot of freedom due to his position within the court, but not true freedom—not like what I was offering.

“It’s tempting, but not everyone’s master is as forgiving. My leash is not quite as long as yours,” he said, releasing my hands as he stepped away from me. And it was true. I didn’t belong to Jabari in the same way Bishop belonged to Macaire. Yet if Jabari demanded I return to Venice, I would out of loyalty and a good dose of fear.

“Then all I ask is that you be fair about this,” I pleaded, cupping his face with my hands. “Give me a chance to fix this.”

“You’re flailing.”

“Temporarily. I can fix this.”

“One more dead body not of your own making and you’re going back with me,” Bishop warned, gently lowering my hands from his face.

I nodded, pulling from his grip. “The offer still stands. You’re welcome here.”

“Maybe someday, but not now, not like this.”

5

I was done chasing my tail. I was ready to take the fight to the one person who had the most to gain from my removal. Justin Ravana’s three-story brick house was located on a hill on the outskirts of the city. Its location not only allowed him to easily sense the approach of any nightwalker, but he could watch them crawl up his hill like a supplicant coming to request a boon.

Driving up the hill, I realized that I had made a mistake in the handling of him. I had thought that he would be content to rule over his family, and for a time he had been, but now he wanted to take all of Savannah from me. For him, the easiest way to claim it would be through the Coven. I had little doubt that he had been the little bird chirping in the ear of Macaire, telling his lies so that I would be drawn back to Venice and all her horrors.

My temper was barely caged when one of Justin’s fledglings showed me to the main parlor where Justin sat waiting for me. The air in the house was thick with the scent of blood and fear. Muffled screams and heavy footsteps could be heard on wooden floors about me.

“Mira, this is a surprise,” Justin opened, pushing slowly out of his cushioned high-backed chair as if he was reluctant to rise to his feet in my presence.

“It shouldn’t be. Bryce belonged to you, didn’t he?”

“And so did poor Heather. Savannah has certainly become a dangerous place to live,” he said with a shake of his head.

“I’m sure your fledglings would argue that it always has been.”

A smile toyed with his lips as his eyes traveled over the length of me. “Yes, well, one has to do what one must to keep the young ones in line.”

“And what did Bryce do to deserve the death he received?”

“You think I had something to do with Bryce’s death?” he gasped, looking honestly surprised. “Mira, you know my methods.” Again, the same dark grin spread across his lean, angular face, reminding me so much of an animated skull. “If Bryce had crossed me, I would have taken care of the matter here, in the privacy of my own home. I would have kept the matter in the family.”

“So the fact that Bryce had come to me looking to make his own fledgling didn’t bother you?” I asked.

Justin sat back down in the chair he had been seated in, his sharp gaze drifting away from me to a spot on the floor. His left hand curled into a fist on the arm of the chair, but his voice was calm, even when he spoke again. “I was…unaware of his request, but Bryce knew that I would not object to expanding the family. I would have welcomed his fledgling.”

“Maybe that’s just it. He didn’t want this fledgling to be a part of the Ravana family. He possibly wanted something outside of your reach,” I said, purposefully twisting the knife in his chest as I struggled to keep the smile off of my face.

“Then I would have killed him, but again I would have done it my way. Here and slowly. I’m afraid if you came here looking for Bryce’s killer, you have come to the wrong place.”

Unfortunately, I believed him. “No, that’s not the only reason why I’m here,” I said with a smile. I was about to comment on his recent trip to see the Coven when a bloodcurdling scream rent the air, effectively silencing me and wiping the smile from my face. We both looked up at the ceiling. I got flashes of a naked female chained to the brick wall in the attic being tortured by a lycanthrope and three other nightwalkers. She was streaked with blood, and her face was swollen to the point that she could barely see out of her puffy eyes. One of her tormentors was projecting the fight for Justin’s benefit since the master of the family was stuck dealing with me.

“Who?”

“A new fledgling that has elected to join the Ravana family. She’s being broken in. Would you like to help?”

“No.”

“But it’s been so long since you took the time to appropriately break in a fledgling. These young ones have no concept any longer of what it means to exist in our world. They don’t respect you as they should.”

“I want no part of your games,” I growled.

“But you must. My fledglings ask that you show them what you truly are capable of, great Fire Starter.” There was no missing the sarcasm that was etched into every word he had spoken. A knot twisted in my stomach, and for the first time, I fully scanned the house. There were close to thirty nightwalkers in this house. I had walked into a trap he had been waiting years to spring. Justin hadn’t been building a family; he had been building an army of fledglings for the sole purpose of killing me.

Two sets of doors opened on the parlor as Justin rose and walked over to stand near the wall next to a fire extinguisher. A smug smile lifted his features at the same time more than a dozen nightwalkers rushed into the room. There was no time for clear thought, no room for delicacy. Each one of Justin’s fledglings wanted to kill me.

I dodged fists and clawing nails as I quickly delivered as many blows as possible. There was no time to punch into a chest and rip out a heart. I could only try to knock out as many as possible. I grabbed one snarling body and threw it into the crowd, hoping to create a hole so that I could make a mad dash for the front door. I needed to get out of this room and into a more open area. But the crowd bounced back as quickly as it crumbled, keeping me trapped in the confines of the congested parlor.

There were too many of them. Pain rippled through my body as fists connected with my vital organs and rained on my head and face. I held my own until someone grabbed a chair and hit me in the back, knocking me to my knees. Another kicked me under the chin, throwing me to my back. A cry escaped me as pain flashed through my body. While I was down, a large, hulking nightwalker straddled me and raised his hand with the intent of plunging it into my chest.

Time slowed down for that second and the world drifted away so that there was only that blond nightwalker with a look of triumph on his face. Fear brought a scream to my lips as he erupted into flames. As I expected, he was immediately hit with the white spray of the fire extinguisher, but that didn’t stop me. I focused my powers, burning him on the inside and out. He howled, rolling off me. The nightwalker clawed at his chest until fire finally peeked through his blackened skin. The other nightwalkers drew back, but that didn’t save them.