He smiled. “You didn’t miss anything you’d want to know.”

I puzzled through that for a second and then shrugged. “I don’t understand what that means, Nathaniel.”

“It means that he confided in me and he talked to me about things that would embarrass you coming from Peter. You’ve known him since he was thirteen or fourteen, so to you he’s a little kid. What he needed help with was grown-up stuff that he couldn’t have talked about with any woman, let alone you.”

“Okay, what does that mean?”

The smile faded around the edges and he shook his head. “I am not going to talk to you about what Peter and I discussed. It’s private and it would bother him a lot if I broke his confidence to you.”

“And what does that mean?”

“It means the topic is closed, because I am not going to let you ask questions until you figure out things from my answers. We’re done talking about Peter.”

“So serious all of a sudden.”

He raised both eyebrows and looked at me very steadily.

“What?” I asked.

He pushed his chair back, stood, and offered me his hand. “Let’s go find Sin and the rest and find out if Pierette knows as much about Ireland as Damian does.”

“You really don’t want him to go with me.”

“Damian feels he barely escaped She-Who-Made-Him once. Sending him back where she could physically touch him again seems like a bad idea.”

“He didn’t escape. She let him go, because she was done with him. If he’d escaped, I wouldn’t take him back there.”

“I still hope Pierette can give you intel about Ireland so you can leave Damian at home.” He waggled his hand at me.

After a moment’s hesitation I took his hand in mine. Yes, I did think about not taking it, but that would have been childish. I was trying to be better than that. We walked through the door together this time. The gym was still empty and seemed very quiet without all the hustle and bustle of other people.

“Edward may talk to Peter about what you said,” I said.

“No, he won’t,” Nathaniel said.

“How do you know that he won’t?”

“Because he’s relieved that Peter has someone to talk to about this stuff.”

“If he tells Donna, she’ll pester Peter about it.”

“If he tells her.”

“You think he won’t?”

“I think Edward will do what he thinks is best for Peter.”

“And you think that doesn’t include telling his mother that you’re his confidant?”

“Don’t you?” Nathaniel asked.

I thought about it for a minute and then nodded. “Donna wouldn’t be able to leave it alone. It would bug her that her son is able to confide in you more than in her.”

“Even though the topics he’s needed help with would have been wildly inappropriate for a mother/son talk?” Nathaniel asked.

“You’ve talked to Donna enough on the phone and via Skype while you’ve been helping with the wedding; what do you think?”

It was his turn to think, and he finally said, “You’re right. She would have to poke at it.”

“So you’re right. Edward won’t mention it to her, because he’d know better than we do that she wouldn’t be able to leave it alone.”

We walked into the hallway outside the gym area, and it felt like a tunnel after the wide-open spaces of the gym. I heard Sin’s voice, though I couldn’t pick out the actual words. A woman’s voice answered him, but it wasn’t until they came into sight that I could see it was Sin and Pierette. Nicky and Magda were nowhere in sight. Pierette was talking earnestly to him. He nodded as if encouraging her to go on. All the anger seemed to have seeped away from her; what the hell had Sin said to Pierette to get her so eager to tell all?

She saw us first and almost startled, standing taller, as if she were coming to attention. “My queen,” she said, and bowed.

Nathaniel and I exchanged a look. If I hadn’t known she would hear me, I’d have suggested it was pod people, because Pierette’s entire attitude had changed in just minutes. Sin could be charming, but he was a twenty-year-old man; he hadn’t had enough life experience to be this charming. Hell, Jean-Claude couldn’t have pulled this off without using vampire mind powers on her.

“Pierette,” I said, and inclined my head to her, though honestly I never knew what to do when someone referred to me as their queen. I let them use the title because that had been the Mother of All Darkness’s title, and it was very much a case of “The queen is dead. Long live the queen.”

Sin glanced back at us with a smile. “Pierette has been telling me about all her travels around the world with her master, Pierrot.”

“Are any of those adventures set in Ireland?” I asked.

“Yes, my queen,” she said.

“Ireland was one of the places that Pierette and Pierrot policed for the old vampire council,” Sin said.

“Police arrest people. They save lives. Did you arrest people, Pierette?”

“There was only one punishment for vampires who had overstepped themselves, my queen.”

“And that was?” I asked.

“The same as it is now: death.” I couldn’t really argue with her reasoning. I was a U.S. Marshal, but really my job description hadn’t changed. I was still a legal executioner with a badge.