“I can’t afford to have Nathaniel roll me while I’m working the case. I mean, how would the Irish police react if their two vampire experts got mind-fucked by their leopard and lost hours while they were supposed to be crime busting?”

“I didn’t mean to make us lose hours,” Nathaniel said.

“I know, but when the metaphysics first come online like this, there’s always a learning curve. I don’t want that curve to be when the police or Edward needs me most, needs us most.”

“I thought I knew exactly what had happened and what needed to happen. I felt so certain that I should stay with you and Damian, that you’d need me there. He’d need me there. Am I wrong? Am I just wanting our triumvirate to work that way?”

“What way?” I asked.

“So that I’m essential, and that the three of us being together does raise power and strength for all of us.”

“You’re essential to me,” I said, smiling, and rubbing my hand up and down his thigh.

He smiled and patted my hand where I touched him, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. They stayed serious and unhappy.

“Let’s talk to Jean-Claude,” Damian said.

“Why?” I asked.

“He knows more about controlling a triumvirate than we do. If anyone will know the answer to our questions, it’s him.”

I couldn’t think of a better idea. I thought Damian would insist on getting clothes, but he didn’t. He seemed just fine with tightening the towel around his waist and padding barefoot up the hallway to Jean-Claude’s room. Nathaniel would have been fine with it, but it wasn’t like Damian at all. Nathaniel gave me a sad look and mouthed, I’m sorry.

I shrugged, because maybe it was temporary.

Damian looked back at us; his longer legs had taken him effortlessly ahead of us down the hallway. He flashed a grin so big it showed off the dainty points of his fangs. I could count on one hand the number of times that he had done that when he was in his right mind. Crap. Then he waited for us to catch up with him, and he took Nathaniel’s hand in his and we went hand in hand down the corridor. He started humming under his breath. I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen him so relaxed and happy before. Nathaniel and I exchanged a look.

“Don’t be gloomy,” Damian said to us both. “I remember now what else I was thinking: that I wanted to be happy.” He swung Nathaniel’s hand in his as if he were about to start skipping down the hallway. “I am happy. I feel happy, just happy with no guilt, no fear. We’ll go to Ireland and it will be all right. Now that the human police know about her and the rest of us, doesn’t she fall under human law just like the little people who deal with the human authorities?”

“Yes, it should work that way,” I said.

“Then she’s holding people against their will, and that’s illegal, right?”

“Yes,” I said, studying his happy face.

“Then the police will help us free the people I left behind.”

“Theoretically,” I said.

He shook his head, and his hair was still so wet it clung to his neck and shoulders rather than moving with the gesture. “Or maybe just telling the Roane that She-Who-Made-Us has lost control of the city and can’t stop an invasion of foreign vampires will be enough.”

“Enough for what?” Nathaniel asked.

“Only fear of her power and obedience to their ruler keep the seal folk from fighting against their enslavement.”

“You think once you tell them she’s losing power, that will change,” I said.

The happiness in his eyes changed to something closer to rage. It flashed in green fire for a moment deep in his eyes, and then he was smiling again. “Yes, yes, they will rise up if they think they can win.”

“You seem very certain,” I said.

He swung Nathaniel’s hand again. “I feel very certain of a lot of things today. I didn’t when I first woke up for the night. I didn’t when you came to talk to me, but somewhere in all the talking I just started feeling better and better. I think it’s seeing the two of you.” He actually raised Nathaniel’s hand as if he meant to kiss it, then stopped himself with a bemused smile on his face. “This isn’t like me at all, is it?”

“Nope,” I said.

“No,” Nathaniel said.

He looked lost for a moment and then laid his lips gently to the back of the other man’s hand. He rose back up and started walking down the hallway with us, still hand in hand. “I don’t care. I feel . . . hopeful for the first time in centuries. We can do this.”

“Do what?” I asked.

“Stop the vampires in Dublin and rescue everyone that I left behind.” He sounded so certain. Nathaniel looked at me and I gave a small head shake. We’d let Damian have his moment. Who were we to rain on someone’s moment of unadulterated happiness, hope, and certainty of victory? Moments like that were too rare to spoil. Usually they came with good antidepressants, or alcohol, that rush after great sex, or the first blush of being in love when all things seem possible, and apparently, vampire mind tricks. Who knew?

23

DAMIAN LOUNGED IN the second big chair by the electric fire in Jean-Claude’s room. He was still smiling, happy, and relaxed. He sat in the chair wearing nothing but the towel and even his mannerisms were more like Nathaniel’s, or maybe Jason’s, or even Jean-Claude’s if he was trying for nonchalant. Either this was a part of Damian that I’d never seen, or he was being seriously impacted by whatever Nathaniel had done to him.