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"There were always those who rebelled," Maggie said "Those ould kill indiscriminately, wantonly, cruelly"

"And those who don’t accept the fact that we are in the twenty-first century, and there are alternatives, so many alternatives!" Sean said

"Sean wrote the book, Jordan, and Jade, who has a set it out in the er Only in the last few years, because of science and the media, has a clearer line been drawn between those of us who see ourselvesfor sie portions of straight whiskey, Jordan didn’t knohether to laugh or cry This had to be a masquerade, a charade, an entertainment Here she was in New Orleans with a cop and his publisher and God knew exactly who else and what else Even after all she had seen, all she knew

"So, you are the king," she said, looking at Lucian She stared at Ragnor "Then what exactly is your role in all this?"

"Ragnor is the enforcer," Lucian said softly "He was born the seventh son of the seventh son, and his father had a treth and power, passed down"

"And your father, then, was the wolf, which made you Wolf’s son?"

"I enforce the decisions we ry with herself She was beginning to sound like a parrot "It was you," she said coldly, "at the contessa’s ball The wolf"

"You shouldn’t have been there"

"You’ve been the fucking wolf I’ve seen, in the streets at night"

"It’s a ht, and what’s in the ht, oryour room by the , before you invited ht you’d read the book," Sean said

"The contessa was after you?in a personal vendetta," Ragnor explained "I had been watching her, through the city I knew that she and her followers intended to strike the night of her ballI just hadn’t realized quite how large her cult had grohat she had done What they had done"

"They?"

"Nari is never alone," Lucian said "Throughout time, she has searched out the most depraved companions"

"You shouldn’t have been there, not in the section of the ball where you were," Ragnor told her "Even with the belief that she’s a predator, and like a lioness, entitled to the hunt and kill for the si, she’s not usually stupid She likes a fine and elegant lifestyle, and that can only be achieved when you’re accepted in your chosen community So to hunt, for her feasts of this type, she seeks out foreigners without relatives in the country The poor, the lost, prostitutes, known crooks, drug dealers, murderers, and more The disappearance of a bad seed is seldos about a belief that she asked for what she got"

"So you decided to save e," Jordan murmured "How lucky for oing to happen; you let all those people die" He shook his head "I didn’t know exactly as going to happen I had just discovered that she had escaped, and I was afraid that she ith soreater power than her own"

"Escaped?frolanced at Lucian, who replied, "She had been entombed in a lead coffin at the bottom of the Adriatic for two hundred years Somehow, she escaped"

"If she’s a horrible creature," Jordan said, "Why don’t you stop her?and then stop the others?" Ragnor shook his head "Nari herself is being used?yes, she’s a horrible creature But without her, we’ll lose the power behind her"

"Why didn’t you tell me?"

"You would have believed all this?"

"I saw all this!"

He shook his head "I couldn’t just walk into an office of the Venetian police and convince them that Nari was a vampire I have the ability to kill Nari, yes?"

"Except that it’s against the ancient rules," Jordan interrupted "But I just saw you attack a lancing at Lucian and shrugging "Our old order has fallen into a certain chaos So we have changed the rules But at first, I thought that you had wandered into the wrong place at the wrong time I was afraid that you would put yourself into continued danger by insisting that so be done But that wasn’t the case at all You were meant to be there; it was planned that you should be there Either way, I had to try to follow Nari until I found out as really behind as going on"

"What do you mean, it was planned that I should be there?"

"Your cousin Jared set you up Why, I don’t know But he is under Nari’s influence" She felt a chill "Jared isrelative He wouldn’t hurt nor told her

She stared into his eyes "Why should I believe you? Why should I trust you nohen you lied to me