“Tomorrow, I’m going outside,” I said. Direct sunlight would be even harder on me, but I had to get myself up to speed. Fast. As it was, a human could kick my ass from dawn to noon.

“Do you have any idea how remarkable it is that you’re even awake?” Bones said, gesturing to Mencheres. “Tell her. I slept from dawn until dusk for the first two months. It was considered admirable progress for me to be about during daylight at all in my third month. This is only your second week, Kitten.”

“It’s unprecedented,” Mencheres agreed.

His tone made me glance up at him. I caught a flicker of something on his face that quickly smoothed into impassiveness. Bones must have caught Mencheres’s tone, too, because he arched a brow.

“Is there something else you’d like to add, Grandsire?”

An unfamiliar vampire coming into the kitchen interrupted whatever Mencheres’s reply might have been. Must be another of Mencheres’s staff, though he bowed to Bones instead of the Egyptian vampire.

“What it is?” Bones asked.

“Pardon me, but there’s someone on the phone who says they have a call for you.”

My brows went up. So did Bones’s. “There’s a call to tell me I have a call?” he asked with heavy skepticism.

The vampire looked uneasy as he held out a cell phone. “It’s my friend Lachlan. He called me to say he’d been contacted by Chill, a vampire he knows, who was called by Nathan, who’s a member of Kyoko’s line, who says a vampire named Rollo contacted him because he met a ghost who claims to be yours—”

“Fabian!” I exclaimed, just now realizing I hadn’t seen him since the fiasco of the party.

Bones took the cell from the vampire and everything changed.

We waited two miles away from the craggy house in Moldova where Gregor had my mother held captive. Rodney crouched to my right, weighted down with multiple wickedly curved silver blades. Bones hunched to my left, his body so still that he might have been carved from stone. I tried to duplicate that same immobility, but I couldn’t. My gaze kept flicking around in impatience. Where was Fabian? He should be back by now.

Spade crept up from the brush. He’d been making sure no enemy forces were sneaking up behind us while we waited for Fabian’s report. At Spade’s nod, we were the only ones stalking others in the chilly surrounding countryside. Wind blew Spade’s inky hair back from his face as he set his gaze ahead in the same direction Bones stared.

After what seemed like an eternity, a hazy flash appeared in the trees, and we saw Fabian streaking just above the frost-covered ground.

“Gregor isn’t here, but from how Cannelle’s acting, he’ll be back soon,” the ghost said when he reached us. “Right now there are about a dozen guards. More will be with Gregor when he returns.”

Bones didn’t glance away from whatever he’d been looking at in the distance. “Then now is the best time. Fabian, keep a lookout on the road. At the first sign of Gregor or his men, you come warn us.”

The ghost nodded, his see-through features taking on a determined expression. “I won’t fail you.”

For about the dozenth time today, I wished I could hug Fabian. Never did I expect to be so indebted to a ghost, but I owed Fabian more than I could repay. After the disastrous party, Fabian had the presence of mind to follow Gregor, haunting the trunk of whatever vehicle Gregor drove or hitchhiking on various people who happened to be near Gregor. True to undead prejudice, Gregor hadn’t seemed to realize he was being spied on, even if he or one of his people might have glimpsed the ghost. Always pride before a fall.

Fabian’s hardest task after finding Gregor’s hiding place was to contact us and let us know about it. It’s not like a phantom could use a phone, e-mail, or pass on a letter. Factor in the same dismissal of ghosts that had made his spying possible, and Fabian had had a hell of a time getting a vampire ally to listen long enough to start the chain of calls that eventually reached Bones.

Until we arrived, we hadn’t even been sure that Gregor would still be in this house. It took a full day and a half from the time Fabian left the vicinity to the time Bones was handed that cell phone from the very bewildered member of Mencheres’s staff. Then another several hours to get to Moldova, then a couple hours of reconnaissance to determine this wasn’t a trap. Not that I doubted Fabian’s loyalty, but there was always the chance that Gregor had recognized the ghost and put two and two together. So far, though, it seemed like those in the house had no idea they were about to be attacked.

I gave a worried glance at the sky. All that was good news. The bad news was, dawn was only about half an hour away.

As if hearing my thought, Bones met my gaze. “You should stay back, Kitten.”

My first instinct was to argue. Vehemently, and with lots of profanity. That was my mother trapped in the house, so I damn well wasn’t going to sit back and just hope things went okay.

Then I looked around the faces staring back at me. Everyone here was risking their lives on my mother’s behalf, plus breaking undead laws on top of that, and I was the only one susceptible to the dawn. Sure, now I could stay awake and even walk when sunlight hit, but fight? No. Not even if my mother’s life—or mine—depended on it.

“I’ll stay,” I said, seeing Bones’s brows go up like those were the last words he expected to hear from me. “Give me the detonator. We might need the diversion if Gregor returns before we have my mom safely away.”

Spade nodded, handing over the detonator he’d had located in his belt. Several packs of TNT had been strapped to the trees, as close to the house as we dared to plant them without being seen. In a fight, the explosions wouldn’t harm any vampires or ghouls, unless they happened to be right next to the trees when the bombs went off, but they would make a hell of racket. And sometimes, distraction made all the difference between life and death—or escape and capture.

Bones gave me a quick, hard kiss. “I won’t return without her,” he promised.

“Don’t say that.” The words were out of my mouth at once. “If something happens, if it’s too dangerous to get her now, you come back to me. We’ll find another way.”

Rodney began crawling through the brush. Spade gave me a somber look and followed. Bones caressed my face once, then left as well. So did Fabian. I stayed where I was, not needing binoculars to watch their progress toward the house. There were four guards outside and, according to Fabian, at least eight more inside, plus Cannelle. The element of surprise would be all the advantage they had, outnumbered four to one, and I doubted Gregor had left weak vampires or ghouls as guards.

Even though the distance was less than two miles, it took the three men over ten minutes to crawl there, barely disturbing the long grass around them. I was almost a wreck by the time they approached the house. A jumble of fear, hope, frustration, and nerves made me feel like I could jump out of my own skin. Did the guards have instructions to kill my mother at once if there was an attack? Could Bones, Spade, or Rodney get to her in time, without getting themselves killed in the process? Oh God, please, let this work.

I couldn’t help it; I began to crawl closer, promising myself to only get within a mile. Just close enough to really see what was going on. The scattering of trees made for a skewed view of the house.

The ground was free of tall grass within thirty yards of the house, so there was no more coverage for Bones, Rodney, and Spade to sneak up in. Everything in me tensed as I saw the three men rise at the exact same time to charge the house.

Shouts of alarms came from the four guards, but I was savagely pleased to see how fast they were cut off. Bones took two down himself, one from a distance by throwing silver into his chest, and the other by an up-close twist of the same metal through the guard’s heart. Spade and Rodney made short work of their two guards, then, from different angles, the three men entered the house.