“And just what is wrong with this?” I demanded.

“On the hanger? Nothing. On you?” Slick looked me up and down and shook his head.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Two words: ‘foundation garment,’ ” he said, and snatched it back.

“There are such things as strapless bras, you know!” I told him furiously.

“And do you own one?”

“That’s also none of your—”

“That would be a no, then,” he said, and swept out.

I was about to chase him down and possibly beat him to death with a shoe—assuming he’d left me one—when Jonas piped up. “Of course, there are those who will agree with Niall,” he said diffidently.

I narrowed my eyes. “What is this?”

He took off his thick glasses and polished them on an already rumpled sleeve. Maybe they really were dirty, but it looked like a stalling tactic. Like he knew I wasn’t going to like whatever he’d come to say.

“This is my pointing out, however clumsily, that when one is Pythia, personal relationships are often . . . tricky.”

“Like yours was with Agnes?” I asked archly. Because Jonas and the former Pythia had apparently been an item back in the day.

“Yes, in fact. That was why we kept it a secret, from all but a few very close associates. Had we openly been a couple, people might have thought that she was under the influence of the Circle.”

“People already thought that,” I pointed out. “They think that about every Pythia.”

“No, they suspect. Which is a very different thing.”

“So you’re saying what? That I can’t date Mircea?” I asked, and heard someone outside smother a laugh. I suspected Marco.

Jonas apparently heard it, too, because he shot an irritated glance in the direction of the living room. “No, dating can be spun as savvy intelligence gathering on your part. Or as an attempt to bring the vampires into a closer alliance with the Circle. Or as a way of showing your impartiality toward the species.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“There isn’t one. As long as your liaison doesn’t become more . . . permanent.”

My hand went unconsciously to the marks on my neck, the two little scars that were the physical manifestation of Mircea’s claim. Because we were already about as permanent as it got. Wedding rings could be taken off, just as marriages could end in divorce, annulment or separation. But the marks I wore, I would wear for life.

Diamonds might not be, but a vampire’s claim? Now, that was forever.

“A formal claim is about as permanent as it gets,” I admitted, not really wanting to get into it, but not seeing an alternative. I’d known this was bound to come up sooner or later.

“A formal claim?” Jonas sounded as if he’d never heard the term.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering for something like the hundredth time how the different supernatural groups had survived this long when they knew almost nothing about each other. And, frequently, what they did know was wrong. It was no wonder they were at each other’s throats half the time.

“It’s sometimes used to bind nonvampires to a vamp family,” I explained.

“For what purpose?” Jonas asked narrowly.

“For a lot of purposes. Say there’s a particularly strong magic user that the family has relied on for a while to do its wards. They want to make sure he stays around, that some other family doesn’t steal him away. But they can’t just absorb him, because mages lose their magic when Changed.”

“It is also illegal!” Jonas said hotly.

“Not if the person involved agrees to it. But—”

“As if any mage in his right mind—”

“—but if the mage can’t be Changed,” I said, talking over him, because I wasn’t in the mood for that particular conversation today. “Then the next-best option is a claim. It makes him a formal part of the family, and vampire laws don’t allow poaching from other people’s families.”

It also had another use, being the method traditionally used for marriages between two highly ranked vampires. It united them and their families but left them as equals, with neither having to be blood bound to the other. But if Jonas wanted to know about that, he was going to have to do his own damn homework.

Jonas frowned. “Then why haven’t I heard of this before, if it’s so common?”

“I didn’t say it was common,” I said, taking an armful of my clothes back where they belonged. “It isn’t.”

“And why not, if it’s so useful?”

“Because a master vampire is accountable for his family members, whether claimed or Changed. Their actions reflect on him, and he’s answerable for them to the Senate. But someone who has been claimed doesn’t have the blood tie to him that ensures obedience, giving him a lot less control over that person’s actions.”

“But senior-level masters within a family can also challenge their sire, can they not?” Jonas asked, surprising me.

I turned from hanging the stuff back up. It had been quick, since my old governess had always insisted that the hangers all go the same way, and I’d never gotten out of the habit. “Yes. Which is why a lot of senior vampires are emancipated by their masters. Most of them, in fact.”

“Except in Lord Mircea’s case,” Jonas said darkly. “There seem to be quite a few upper-level masters in his service. In fact, I have yet to meet a low-level one!”

“The low-level ones wouldn’t be much use here,” I pointed out. “And Mircea is a senator. He needs more senior vamps to help with his work. But he’s the exception, not the rule. Most masters cut loose anyone strong enough to challenge them, just like they think twice before putting a claim on someone.”

Jonas sat a while, absorbing that, while I tidied up the rest of Niall’s mess. “If I understand you correctly,” he finally said, “the vampires consider you Lord Mircea’s servant, almost his property.”

There was no “almost” about it, I didn’t say, because he looked ruffled enough. “In a sense,” I said, knowing where this was going.

“And property is expected to work for the good of its owner, is it not?”

“Yes.”

“Then they believe they’ll control the office of Pythia!” he said, as if he’d suspected this all along.

I shrugged. “Probably.”

“And this doesn’t concern you?” he demanded, as outraged as if he weren’t planning to do the same thing himself.

“Jonas, I’m expected to work for the good of the family. Not the Senate.”

“And you really think they’re going to make that distinction? You think that Lord Mircea will make it?”

“I’ll make it.”

“And you believe you can divide your loyalties so easily?”

“Why not?” I asked, suddenly angry. “Every Pythia has had a family, hasn’t she?”

Jonas looked taken aback for a moment. “Well, yes. But this is hardly the same—”

“It’s exactly the same!” I thought of the vamp who’d had half his leg taken off last night. It would eventually grow back, but others hadn’t been so fortunate. One of Mircea’s older masters, a vampire named Nicu, had died protecting me barely a month ago, and Marco nearly had, too.

If that wasn’t family, I didn’t know what was.

“They’re my family,” I repeated flatly. “And I’ll treat them as such. But it doesn’t mean that I’m going to be the Senate’s happy little puppet.” Or the Circle’s.

Jonas looked far from satisfied. “That’s easy to say, but I think you may have more of a struggle establishing your independence from the Senate than you seem to think. But, in any case, we’re talking about appearances, not esoteric facets of vampire law. And the fact is that you . . . belonging . . . to a vampire, however you define it, is not going to sit well with the supernatural community as a whole.”

“So what do you expect me to do about it?” I demanded.

“I’m not saying don’t date the man, Cassie—”

“Then what are you saying?”

“Merely that it would be helpful if you were seen to be dating others, as well. A Were, perhaps, or a mage. It would make it far easier to sell the idea that your private life has little to do with your decisions.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t really know any—”

“I could send you some.”

I blinked. “Some what?”

“Some . . . suitors . . . if you will.”

“You could send me some suitors,” I repeated slowly, while outside, it sounded like someone was choking to death.

“You wouldn’t have to date any that you didn’t like, of course,” Jonas said, without the faintest hint of irony. “I could send a selection, and you could choose one.”

I had a sudden, crazy image of recruitment posters plastered on the walls at war mage central: BOYFRIEND WANTED. HAZARDOUS-DUTY PAY. Only it really wasn’t funny. Because I could see Jonas deciding that that was a perfectly reasonable way to proceed.

“Or you could choose two,” he said, warming to the idea. “A mage and a Were. Covering all the bases, so to speak.”

“How about half a dozen?” I asked sarcastically, only to have him blink.

“Oh, no. That might get you a bit of a reputation, as it were.”

“And we wouldn’t want that.”

There was some sort of commotion going on outside, and I decided I’d had enough. I went to the door and stuck my head out. Marco was gasping for breath on the sofa, and two of the other guards were bent over a cell phone.

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

“Trying to record this,” the smart-ass from the shopping trip told me. “Nobody is going to believe us otherwise.”