I scowled, but picked up the shirt and slid it back over my head. “Toss me your cell phone,” he instructed. Crap. He could use that to text someone as me. I thought about dashing it against a rock . . . but Jesse could track the phone. As long as I had it turned on, I had a lifeline.

Aldric turned his body sideways and held out a hand for me to walk up the path. “After you. Stay six feet away from me, please, or Roland might grow . . . uneasy.”

As I started up the path, Aldric glanced at Shadow and yelled, “Bargest! I’m leaving behind a watcher. If he does not call every twenty minutes and tell me you are still on that platform, she dies. If you get off the platform, she dies. Sit if you understand.”

I couldn’t resist looking at Shadow. She looked terrifying, literally drooling with rage, but she sat. Only she did that insolent dog thing where her back haunches barely skimmed the ground.

“I’ll come back for you, Shadow,” I called. “Me or Jesse, okay?”

That made her relax into an actual seated position. She licked the air in front of her.

“She seems to respond to you,” Aldric observed, like he was doing a clinical study. “Interesting.” He turned his back on Shadow and motioned for me to continue up the hill.

Aldric directed me past the downed fence and through the path between houses. There was a strange-looking black Mercedes waiting at the curb: shorter than a limousine, but longer than a sedan. As we approached, a uniformed male driver climbed out and rushed to open the door. “After you,” Aldric said, gesturing me into the car.

I balked. The one thing everyone always says about kidnapping is don’t let them take you to a second location. Don’t get into the windowless van—or in this case, tinted luxury vehicle. But the driver pulled a Glock out of a side holster and stood with it pointed at the ground in front of us. The implication was clear.

I climbed into the car.

It was definitely the most luxurious vehicle I’d been in, all plush leather seats and glossy fixtures. There were two sets of seats in the back, and they faced each other for conversation. Aldric slid into the seat across from me, his knees cracking a bit. Before I could come up with a decent plan other than punching his stupid face, a hard-looking man with pale eyes and hair opened the opposite door and slid onto the seat next to me. Neither of them buckled their seat belts, so I didn’t either.

“Miss Bernard, this is Roland, my bodyguard,” Aldric said politely.

Roland didn’t speak. Or deign to look at me. He simply adjusted his suit coat in a way that fully displayed the handguns he wore on shoulder holsters.

“You know,” I said conversationally, “only a few years ago, you’d never see guns in the Old World. They were considered . . . uncivilized.”

“You don’t strike me as a particularly civilized person,” Aldric responded. “Personally, I happen to agree that they are gauche, but unfortunately, that seems to be what you bring out in people. Why did you tell the bargest you’d return for her?”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“You told the bargest you’d come get her, you or Mr. Cruz. To what purpose?”

“I . . . so she wouldn’t be as upset,” I said. Did he really not understand the concept of lying to make someone else feel better?

“Why does it matter if she’s upset? She’s a monster.”

I gave him a look. “Well, isn’t that Dr. Frankenstein calling the Creature black?”

It was his turn to say, “Excuse me?”

Obviously, I had always expected to hate this guy, but even so . . . I was really starting to hate this guy. “Forget it. Could you just tell me what I’m doing here?”

I was back on script, which seemed to put Aldric at ease. “I want to make you an offer.”

I probably should have seen something like that coming, since I wasn’t dead and all, but that genuinely surprised me. “You want me to work for you?”

“Don’t laugh.” He said it politely, but with an undercurrent of Seriously, I’ll fuck you up if you laugh. “This is a very real offer.”

“Okay . . .” I forced myself to take a deep breath. “What would be in it for me?” I said carefully.

He smiled. “Better. As you said, I’m deeply interested in ‘squashing my insolent enemies.’ One way to do that would be to terrorize your city with the Wild Hunt, an option that’s certainly very appealing.”

He waved one hand. “Then again, I have already gotten so much of what I want. Petra is free and has learned the cost of her mistakes. The city leaders have been embarrassed. Perhaps it would be enough if their prize null defected to the other side.”

I stared at him. He wanted me to trade myself for everyone he was planning to kill? The idea was horrifying, but at the same time . . . what was my happiness compared to the lives of hundreds of people, many of whom I considered friends?

It might have been a very tempting offer—if I believed for one second he’d stick to it. I glanced at Roland to see what he made of all this, but he didn’t seem to have moved.

As if reading my mind, Aldric said, “You’re thinking I would go back on my word because I would need to prevent them from coming to save you. But I’m not talking about a kidnapping, Miss Bernard. There would be no manacles, no chains. I’m talking about you leaving them of your own free will. You can even say goodbye if you like.” He shrugged. “We could be on a plane or a ship this evening, and you can start a new life working for me in France.”

“Doing what?”

“Why, the same thing you do now, but on a much larger scale.” He smiled in an indulgent, grandfatherly way. “The world is changing, Miss Bernard. Four hundred years ago the Vampire Council fell, and the Old World has had to make do without leadership. But as technology advances, we need better strategies to remain hidden. We need new leadership. A new council.”

“The Luparii,” I said. That was why they wanted so much power. They were literally going after world domination. Well, Old World domination, at least. I would have laughed if it weren’t so fucking terrifying. “You want to be . . . what? The new government?”

“Someone has to lead,” he said patiently. “Now is not the time for supernatural factions to be divided. Now is the time for working together.”

Now I did laugh. “Says the guy who came here to kill a bunch of us.”

“But you can stop all that,” he said, so serious that it scared me. Well, scared me more. “All you have to do is say yes.”

I stopped laughing. “What’s to stop me from running away once we get there?” I asked. I wasn’t even sure if I was just playing along now, or if I meant it.

He looked as if he’d expected the question but was still disappointed by it. “Do you have any idea how easy it would be for me to have Mr. Cruz killed? Or Mrs. Hayne? Hell, I’ve wanted to kill Will Carling for quite some time. And I’ve had people in this city for years. If you tried to run, how long do you think it would be before your friends no longer drew breath?”

I tried to keep my breathing even, to keep the stricken look off my face. “Why me?” I said. “There are other nulls.”

“None as powerful,” he replied. “And you’ve proven quite resourceful.”

“I killed Killian and Sabine,” I pointed out.

“And if you hadn’t, I likely would have,” he said casually. “Once we understood your inherent worth, Killian was instructed to take you alive. Instead, he planted a bomb in your vehicle.” Aldric shook his head. “Sloppy.”

I had a sinking feeling in my belly. “What do you mean, my inherent worth?”

He shifted in his seat. “Oh, pardon me. The deal I’m offering isn’t only for you. It also includes the child you carry.”

Chapter 38

I was too shocked to respond. How did they know about the baby?

How did they know about the baby?

Jesse. The twisted slumber. They’d taken it out of his brain, and then pretended not to know.

“Of course, I can see why you might be hesitant to accept an arrangement of this nature,” Aldric said, smoothing nonexistent wrinkles from his pants leg. “But please understand, you will not be a prisoner in a castle tower. You will have minders, but you can come and go as you please. Most importantly, your child will want for nothing. She shall have money and doctors and nannies. Anything you need. Anything the child needs. All you have to do is work for the Luparii cause.”