“Hopefully, he’ll stay alive long enough to be questioned,” I said under my breath.

“Another body?”

“Not yet, but our luck hasn’t been that good tonight.” I looked over my shoulder at the front entrance where a nightwalker bouncer by the name of Adam stood glaring at the crowd. His brown hair was cropped short on his head and his black T-shirt was stretched over bulging muscles, making him an impressive figure even if he hadn’t been a nightwalker.

Adam, tell Gregor that I want him to remain here when he arrives. Knox and I want to speak with him. This message was conveyed with a brief touch of my mind to his. Yet, no matter how brief, I could still feel the flood of fear that shivered through him at my touch. I tried to ignore it, but there were times when it ate at me nonetheless. I was trying to protect him and all of my kind, but he feared me like most nightwalkers feared the Coven. And after what had happened at Ravana’s, it was worse than usual. I could feel a wave of fear crashing off all the nightwalkers that saw me outside the club.

Turning my attention back to the road, I let off the clutch and jumped out into the traffic. We rushed down to the river, cutting down and around one street after another as we drew closer to Bella Luna. It took only a few minutes to reach the restaurant, leaving me to settle the car in a shadowy area in the back where the deliveries were made.

“Do I scare you?” I asked without warning after sitting in silence for several minutes.

“I beg your pardon.” Knox turned in his seat and looked at me, his lips twisting slightly as he was fighting to hold back a smile.

“Do I scare you?” It was harder to say the second time, but I forced the words out.

“Scare me?” Knox stared at me for a moment before a sigh finally escaped him. He leaned his right elbow on the door and shoved his fingers through his dirty, bloody blond hair. He had taken the time to clean up slightly while at the club, but he still looked ragged. “Mira, I feel like there’s no right answer here.”

Slumping in my seat, I relaxed my grip on the steering wheel, letting my hand fall into my lap. “You know me, Knox. I want the truth.”

“Yes, you scare me. You know you do. After the show of power at Justin’s, how could we all not fear you?” Knox said in a sudden rush as if the words were stampeding from his chest. “You’re the Fire Starter. You can kill us all with a thought. And even if you weren’t the Fire Starter, you’re still powerful enough to wipe the floor with any one of us. So, yes, you scare me.”

“But…” I inserted, prompting him to continue when he seemed to hesitate.

“But I know Valerio. I spent more than two centuries with my maker. You’ve known him for even longer. I think you’re more like him than you sometimes realize. You’re more emotional, but you can be just as methodical. Whether anyone else realizes it, there’s a method to your madness, like Valerio. You’re about protecting the secret and being honorable. As long as a nightwalker doesn’t cross those two lines, he’s going to wake up the next sunset. The others don’t realize it, do they?”

“I can feel it when I enter a room or when I touch their minds. I can feel the shiver of fear, the recoil when I get too close. I feel trapped. I don’t want them to fear me, yet the only way I can get their complete obedience is for them to fear me.” Each word was forced out between my clenched teeth. I was tired of being the outsider after more than six centuries of life. I was tired of being the outsider within my own domain.

“Do you know what would make it easier for them to accept you?”

I shifted in my seat slightly and looked over at my companion, surprised that he was willing to offer me a suggestion. “What?”

“Date another nightwalker.”

I chuckled softly to myself and shook my head. “You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m not. I’ve been here awhile and I’ve never heard of you with another nightwalker.”

I looked over at Knox again, stunned to find that he was absolutely serious about this ridiculous suggestion. “Not a chance.”

“Mira, dating another nightwalker within your domain might convince them that you’re not a heartless killing machine. That there is something feeling about you.”

“Mmm…your comments warm my cold, dead heart,” I mocked. This conversation was taking a turn that I wasn’t expecting. I turned the key in the ignition enough to get the clock radio to flash on. We had been sitting there for only a couple of minutes. Damn it! I had started this nightmare conversation.

“I’m serious.”

“So, what? Are you offering to be my boyfriend?”

Knox stared at me for a long time, his eyes moving over my face. I knew I looked like a mess. All the wounds I had sustained while at Bryce’s and Justin’s had healed, but I was still covered in my own blood along with dirt and a little of Knox’s blood. There was nothing attractive about me at this moment in time. But it was more than that. Knox knew better than most who I was. He knew of me before we had ever met. His maker, Valerio, and I had run together for a few centuries back in Europe. I had no doubt that Valerio had told his fledgling more than a few entertaining tales of the old days. Beyond that, Knox had been brave enough to try to get to know me when he arrived in Savannah. Unlike anyone else within my domain, I felt like a rejection from Knox would actually be a rejection of who I was, not necessarily of the image I presented to those in my domain.

And in truth, it had been a couple of centuries since I had last been involved in a serious romantic relationship. The last one had ended badly, and I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to put myself in that vulnerable position again. Certainly not when the peace of my domain was being threatened.

“Do you honestly want me to offer to be your boyfriend?” he finally asked.

I was saved from having to reply to his strange question when the heavy metal door leading into Bella Luna’s kitchen exploded open, banging against the brick wall of the building. A large mass came flying out of the doorway and landed halfway across the back parking lot. It rolled a few feet before stopping and groaning. Whoever it was, was still alive…for now.

A series of low growls filled the darkness, drawing my gaze back toward the restaurant. Three men stepped out of the restaurant, their eyes glowing a frightening copperish-red. They were all dressed in black slacks and pristine white shirts. The trio was followed by Barrett, who stood outlined by the light coming from the doorway. His broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist. He was one hundred percent hard muscle, and by the way he clenched his fists at his side, seriously pissed.

“Did the guy try to leave without paying his check?” Knox whispered below the blood-chilling growls.

“No,” I murmured, my concentration elsewhere. I had already reached out to the creature to discover the mass was human; he had pulled a knife on a female server in the restaurant—a female shapeshifter. Sifting briefly through the thoughts in his mind, I discovered that his name was Franklin Thomas and he was from the Daylight Coalition. “Shit,” I hissed. This lump of blood and stupidity was the one I had come to fetch.

Putting one sneaker on the soft leather seat, I launched myself over the door of the convertible. I had to get between the schmuck and the lycans before they tore him up. My stomach knotted and I struggled to keep my voice firm and even. “You can’t do this, Barrett.”

“I’m sorry, but our agreement is off,” Barrett replied in a low voice, not at all sounding sorry. “He attacked Erica, threatened her.”

Damn it all to hell. I didn’t know most of the lycanthropes by name, but I had made a point of learning the names of Barrett’s immediate family. Erica was Barrett’s younger sister. Of all the people the human could have picked, he chose a blood member of the ruling family. I was no longer sure I could delay his execution now.