Belizar leaped. With third-mark senses, Jacob could keep up with most of their maneuvers, but some were even too fast for him to fol ow. At least his lady’s speed, while not the fastest he’d ever seen it, was enough to keep up with Belizar. The Council scattered further as they hit the crescent-shaped table, so hard it shattered down the middle, a startling symbolism. Mason joined Daegan in corraling their ranks as Jessica moved back into the knot of servants, the safest place for her now.

  Jacob bit back an oath as he saw it was Lyssa who’d broken the table, when Belizar hurled her into the stone. She rol ed back, made it to her feet. When he charged upon her, she cut under his guard and hit him hard in the solar plexus, seizing his arm to bend it back. It would have broken with a defining snap if he hadn’t twisted free with remarkable agility, turning around to plunge his fist squarely in her face.

  He realized he was struggling, Gideon holding him back. Anwyn’s hand was on his shoulder as wel , gripping hard, even as she held Kane on her hip. His son’s uncertain cry jerked his attention back. “Gotta be her fight,” his brother hissed. “Can’t watch al corners by myself. Get your shit together, bro.” Jacob shook himself free, tried to do just that as Anwyn pressed Kane’s head to her neck to hide his eyes, trying to calm him. He was having none of it.

  His cries were stuttering to a higher level. In a moment it would be ful fledged, ear splitting wails.

  Lyssa and Belizar’s fight took them across the room, Belizar driving her back toward the knot of servants. As the Russian turned, he flung her toward that stil group, as if he intended to knock them down with her body like bowling pins.

  Too late, Jacob registered Vincent’s tense, waiting posture. Saw the gleam of the polished stake in his fist. As Lyssa stumbled, pivoting away from Belizar, Vincent lunged forward. As one, Jacob and Gideon discharged arrows for the impossible shot.

  Lyssa fel back into Vincent, and he dropped behind her, providing a cushion as she rol ed away unharmed. One of the arrows had pierced Vincent’s shoulder. However, that wasn’t what had him flailing now. A steel shaft punched through his chest from the back. Jessica had not hit the heart, but she’d hit the spine, immobilizing him. She’d fal en with him so she was on the ground, holding the shaft in place and him against her in a way that looked almost compassionate. Jacob even heard her murmur, “Uh-uh. Nice try. Just sit there for a bit.” Jacob snapped his gaze back to the combatants.

  They were circling in the center of the room again.

  His lady’s mouth was bleeding, as was her temple, and it looked like Belizar had broken a couple of her ribs. She was limping. Belizar was almost unmarked, but he was holding one arm gingerly, because she’d succeeded in snapping it. His eyes shone with the light of victory. “You may beg my mercy now, Lady Lyssa,” he said. “I wil be more than wil ing to grant it. You know you wil ever be useful to this Council.”

  She came to a ful stop. Her fangs had lengthened, as they did before she fed. “I have one question for you, Lord Belizar, if you’l indulge me.”

  “Of course.” He nodded magnanimously, though the effort cost him, his face tight.

  “Are you done dicking around, or are you ready to fight?”

  Jacob didn’t know if the street language or the message itself was what threw Belizar. Or if it even mattered. Because faster than Belizar or any vampire he’d ever seen could move, she’d closed the distance between them. He saw the brief flash as she stepped inside his armspan, a frightening moment as Belizar swiped one of the wooden stakes at her chest, narrowly missing her. She turned, her back pressing into his chest, and then she’d caught him by the skul and neck. It was like a lover reaching back to caress his jaw, but she brought him over her shoulder, a graceful choreography that arced him high in the air and then slammed him with brutal force down on the tile floor.

  A web of cracks shot out from the impact point.

  Bones and tile broke together. The male’s neck was at an angle that only happened when the neck was snapped. Jacob knew the tile landing would also break ribs, hips and further points on the spine, immobilizing him for however long it would take the bones to heal.

  Belizar let out a strangled, agonized grunt, but Jacob saw there was no fear in his eyes. Only shock, anger and frustration, the realization he’d been soundly, clearly defeated. He was at the mercy of his opponent.

  The wooden stakes had fal en free from his limp hands. Retrieving them, she laid them on his chest.

  Squatting at his side, Lyssa lifted his arm and brought his wrist to her mouth. She drank, the ritual spoils of a victor, and though she sank in with a deep, painful clamp, she didn’t take long. She withdrew, delicately licking her lips, then took up the two stakes, angling one against his chest. She swept her gaze over the silent, assembled vampires, meeting Uthe’s gaze before she lowered her attention back to Belizar.

  “I am now head of the Council. I wil have final authority on al its decisions, and who serves upon it.

  You wil continue to do so, Lord Belizar. You’re an old war horse, like me.” A faint smile touched her bloody lips. “And you stil fight passably wel . But one of my conditions for al who serve on this Council is that I wil take the right of a sire’s marking. I wil have the ability to be in your mind, know your heart and soul. If I sense you resisting any intrusion of my mind into yours, at any time, concealing things from me, then I wil remove you from this Council.”

  “I’m guessing she’s not offering a great severance package if that happens,” Gideon muttered to Jacob.

  He wanted to smile, but there was stil too much going on in the room, too much blood and heat.

  She’d taken Belizar out in one stroke, as if she’d been capable of it al along, but he knew what her state had been only a couple days before, newly transitioned. Right now her mind was closed as a trap, and she might have used the last reserve of her strength to make that move. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice in his concern for her, though, thank the gods for Jessica. He kept his attention firmly on the servants, trusting Daegan and Mason to handle the vampire end of things.

  She straightened then, glanced toward her son, who had tears on his face and was wailing like a banshee. When he saw her looking at him, she pursed her lips, made a soft shushing noise and gave him a half smile, entirely at odds with the violence lingering in the room like the smel of a bomb blast. It startled him enough that he bit off midcry, hiccupping uncertainly. “That’s my good boy,” she said softly. “Easy there.”

  Then her attention landed on Vincent, stil in Jessica’s lap. “You may remove the stake, Jessica.

  He wil need his Master’s blood, and his Master needs a great deal as wel .” Her gaze shifted to Torrence, Helga’s servant. The male was built like a mountain, shown to good effect in white shirt and dress kilt. Even as a mere human, he probably could have swung a claymore like a feather. “Go advise the staff that three donors are needed to restore his strength. You others, help carry him and Vincent to a suitable room to use as an infirmary and make sure they are comfortable.”

  She glanced at the Council members. “If you wil not serve under my conditions, then you wil not serve. You wil be stripped of any territory or overlord titles you carry, and relegated to a territory of my choosing, where I know the overlord or Region Master is loyal to me. I wil know the truth of it when I am in your minds, so you might as wel speak now.”

  “She has proven her worth on the field of combat.” Belizar’s voice was a weak rasp of sound. His expression showed his agony, on several levels.

  While a vampire would survive and heal multiple bone breaks, Jacob knew it was not going to be an easy or pleasant few hours for him. “She is worthy to take the leadership. You are al vampire again, my lady.”

  “I was always al vampire. It is what my soul is, no matter my blood.” She gave him a hard look. “I am also Fae. You’re going to have to accept that, what it means. I brought a correspondence from the Fae queen, indicating her desire for a liaison between our two worlds. While I was intended to be that liaison, in light of my taking the head position, I wil ask that another Fae be assigned that role. I wil be recommending the Fae Lord Keldwyn, who already serves as liaison between the Seelie and Unseelie court. He considers this world his home much of the time anyway.”

  She let her gaze rove over al of them. “We wil always be vampires, with predatory drives and dominant attitudes, but there is room for other things.

  With only five thousand of us in the world, survival is everything. We cannot stagnate. We can be strong, true to our nature, and yet stil consider changes that augment that strength and nature. This is one of them.”

  At her nod, Uthe came forward, as did Lady Barbra and Lady Carola. Lyssa straightened on the other side of the injured vampire, giving them room to check Belizar’s injuries so they could instruct the staff when they arrived with stretchers to move him and Vincent.

  Belizar made a strangled noise, and Jacob fol owed the wild flicker of his gaze as Lyssa turned to speak to Mason.

  My lady. His warning shot into Lyssa’s mind. In the same moment, Barbra closed her hand on one of the discarded stakes and surged upward toward Lyssa.

  Once again, Jacob didn’t even see her move, which made him wonder if Lyssa had left the stakes there, anticipating Barbra’s move. She held the vampire female by the throat, her other hand clamped on that wrist. Her green and bloodred eyes frosted, and that chil Jacob remembered wel fil ed the room. It was a Fae power, yes, but since she’d been known for it even before she’d embraced her Fae side, she didn’t mind using it in ful force now.

  “You are very foolish,” Lyssa said. “That might be excused, but I know your heart, Barbra. I don’t have to take your blood to know your mind. Thank you, therefore, for making this so easy.”

  Twisting the stake clutched in Barbra’s hand, she shoved it up under the rib cage. Since she held on to Barbra’s wrist, she broke her forearm like a twig.

  Barbra gave a short scream that became violent twitching, bare heels scraping the stone as she fought Lyssa’s grip. The death throes kicked her shoes free, one of them rol ing across the floor. At length, the life dying out of her eyes, her legs sagged, bending limply. Lyssa dropped her then, several paces from Belizar.

  Jacob noticed her gaze shifted to Daegan. As she gave a near imperceptible nod, a look of satisfaction crossed Daegan’s face, and Gideon’s as wel , tel ing Jacob they’d had unresolved issues with Barbra.

  Intentional y or not, Lyssa had apparently honored their loyalty by bringing that matter to a close.

  The servants shifted back as Barbra’s servant, a slim redheaded male, dropped to the floor with a similar strangled cry. A tal blonde knelt at his side, her hand on his shoulder, her face reflecting quiet, neutral compassion as the inevitable happened and he fol owed his Mistress to the other side.

  Kane had started up his wailing again, so Anwyn moved to a corner positioned behind Daegan, a protected place where she could better keep the babe’s focus on her. Moving to her side, Jacob brushed his knuckles along his son’s cheek, a reassurance to calm him, even as he kept his right wrist gauntlet poised toward the cluster of servants, ready if needed.

  The doors opened, Gideon and Daegan permitting the staff to enter with two stretchers, Torrence fol owing in their wake. They al hesitated at the sight of a lifeless vampire and the dead servant, but when Lyssa beckoned to them, they came forward, albeit cautiously. “When Lord Belizar and his servant are cared for, come back and retrieve her and her servant. You may place her in the inner courtyard for sunrise disposal and bury her servant where appropriate for his loyalty to her. Jacob?”

  “My lady?” He left Kane with a tug of his short hair, a further reassurance. The toddler was playing with the necklace Anwyn wore, the sparkling amber distracting him. As Jacob stepped to Lyssa’s side, he was calmly solicitous as a servant should be, despite the emotions roiling through him. A grim smile slid through her eyes, stil more than a bit dangerous. You have ever failed to have a poker face, Sir Vagabond. There was never anything to worry about.

  If that were the case, you’d let me see all the way into your mind, into your physical well-being.

  At the proper time. “Once we deal with things here, contact Dev and advise him his mistress, Lady Daniela, has been appointed to the Vampire Council. I wil expect her here as soon as she can choose an acting overlord to handle her territory’s affairs. She should plan to stay here several weeks to orient herself as a junior member, until I decide where to move the Council’s base. We definitely need a change from this depressing environment.” Her gaze flickered distasteful y over the heavy stone wal s, the ominous darkness of them.

  A pained grunt drew their attention. It was Vincent, reacting as Jessica slid the steel shaft out of his back so the servants could move him onto a stretcher. She also removed that one stray arrow from his shoulder, and as she did, she made a smal noise of distress. The arrow, shot at such close range, had pierced through Vincent’s shoulder and plunged into hers when she grabbed him. Blood bloomed on her blouse, but she gave Jacob a reassuring look as she tossed the arrow aside.

  “I wil meet with Lord Mason, Lord Daegan and Lord Uthe now,” Lyssa told the rest of the Council.

  “Shortly thereafter, I wil visit each of you to mark you as I’ve designated, so you should go to your personal chambers and remain there until I come to you. Later tonight, we wil have a civilized, pleasant dinner, vampire style.” She flashed fang. “It wil be a celebration, so dress accordingly.”

  The Council members exchanged glances and moved toward the door with their servants, while those commanded to remain held their positions.

  Jacob could tel Mason had his attention divided between the retreating vampires and his own servant. Jessica had put herself into one of the few chairs that had not been knocked over. Though she held her hand over the wound in her shoulder, the blood had already slowed. She was healing, and from her internal expression, she was reassuring her Master of that. Jesus, she was tough, but Mason was going to tear him a new one. Jacob decided then and there he’d tel him it was Gideon’s arrow.

  As the double doors closed securely behind the vampires and their servants, Mason was already going to her. Lyssa nodded once in satisfaction, as if to herself.

  Jacob, I’m going to fall now.

  He was there in a flash, catching her. Daegan brought another chair, placing it near Jessica. Lyssa glanced at the girl as Mason knelt by her, jerking open the first two buttons of her blouse to push it off her shoulder and see where the arrow had gone through the flesh, just inside the line of her lacy bra strap. “Wel played, Jessica,” Lyssa noted.

  The young woman lifted the other shoulder, turning her gaze to Jacob with a smile. “When it comes to a fight between vampires, never forget the servants.

  That’s what he told me.”

  “And who do you think taught him that?” Gideon said gruffly, but he gave her hair a gentle tug where he stood to her left, positioned between both Lyssa and Jess. Jacob’s concern for the young servant reflected in his eyes as wel .

  “My lady, are you al right?” Mason was obviously steadier now that he had his hands on his servant and could physical y assure himself of her wel -being.

  “Nothing draining my servant dry won’t cure.” She gave a wan smile. “These first few days as a ful vampire again, I apparently need three or four on standby.”

  “Did you know what she was going to do?” Daegan asked Mason.

  Mason shook his head, locked gazes with Lyssa.

  “She told me once she was in range of my mind.

  We’ve been linked for several centuries now. She trusted I would fol ow her lead.”

  “And my trust in you is never misplaced. Not ultimately. Though for an interminably long time, I do remember you stubbornly refused to support having a Council.”

  “If you’d done something like this a few decades ago, maybe I wouldn’t have.”

  “You’re right.” Lyssa’s admission surprised Mason, Jacob could tel . “You were always right about their nature. I think it took immersing myself in what the Fae nature is to understand ours better. But I think there wil be room for both our viewpoints, in time.”

  Leaning forward, despite her obvious weariness, she closed her hand on his, while giving Jessica’s arm a brief touch. “I am very sorry I put your servant in danger. I would never have asked that of her, or you.”

  “She pretty much took matters into her own hands.” Mason gave Jessica a brooding, stern glance, but one with pride in it. “She does that, no matter how often I beat her.”

  Jessica had only a smile for that. Caressing her Master’s face, she trailed her fingers through the long copper-colored strands of his hair. “Jacob had excel ent aim, my lord. Nothing to fear.” Jacob winced, and her eyes laughed at him, tel ing him she’d intentional y busted him. But if she was teasing him, she was okay. Perhaps Jessica, like Gideon, was more comfortable in a situation where she was fighting, rather than waiting for things to happen to her.

  Daegan snorted. “We al seem to have found servants with an incurable streak of disobedience.” He gave Gideon a shove. The hunter grunted.

  “Yeah, aren’t you lucky that way?”

  “That is not the word I would have chosen.”

  “Anytime you want to switch out a pit bul for a fucking arm poodle, nothing’s stopping you, Mr.

  Wear-Armani-to-a-Fight. Good thing you didn’t get blood on it.”

  “The night is stil young.”

  “I have to be able to walk out of those doors as strong as I walked in,” Lyssa said. She gave Gideon an amused glance. “I’ve had enough of your blood for now. Too much of it and I’m afraid I’l start swaggering and cursing like a sailor. I’l get some from Jacob, but I need more. Lord Uthe?” The quietest member of their group stepped forward now. “My lady?”