"Someone told us earlier today that Xenides and Rahim have been inside a room at a nearby hotel," Deryn offered. "Probably where they planned all this," he jerked his head toward the rubble below while pulling me to my feet.

"Which hotel?" I asked.

"You can see it from here," Paul said, pointing off to our right. There was a tall building not far away and it was one of the nicest hotels in Paris. Well, nothing but the best for fanged terrorists, I guess.

"Either of you uncomfortable with being mist earlier?" I asked.

"Was that what it was? I just felt weightless for a few," Paul smiled slightly.

"Yeah, you were mist with me," I said. "Want to go again?"

"I'm game," he replied. Deryn nodded; he was ready, too. We sailed over rooftops, going right through the designated hotel itself. The man wandering around his room in the nude might have been quite surprised if he'd known we'd zipped right past him. He might have felt a slight breeze, but that's all.

Two werewolves and a female vampire stepping out of the ladies' powder room on the first floor might have caused a stir if anyone had actually seen us—who cared, anyway. The people there just turned their heads away and minded their own business. Maybe we would have raised more eyebrows if they'd known what we were. They didn't.

"The room is on the fourth floor and may still be cordoned off," Paul informed me quietly as we made our way toward the elevators.

The elevator dinged pleasantly as we got off on the fourth floor and walked silently down the hallway, the carpet nice and thick beneath our feet. Paul was correct; the room had notices hung on the door. I looked around carefully, making sure there were no witnesses or security cameras before turning all of us to mist again and going right through the locked door.

Paul and Deryn most likely thought I'd lost my mind as I rushed them out of the room, much faster than we'd gone in. They were dropped once more in the ladies' room on the first floor.

"There's a mister inside that room!" I hissed. "Go back to your hotel, now. I have to deal with this!" I turned to mist and left both of them gaping after me as I disappeared, flying right back to the suite on the fourth floor.

The mister was hovering near the ceiling, and I can only imagine he was waiting for me or perhaps Henri or Gervais; they were the only others who might be in danger from this one. Definitely one with Dark Elemaiyan blood; his mist was a purplish gray, just like others of his kind. Henri or Gervais would be a greenish mist, if it were one of the Enforcers. Knowing that I would have to do this sooner or later, prepared or not, I materialized inside the room. Looking around and scenting everything, I could barely detect Xenides' scent and even less of Rahim Alif. Yes, I knew Rahim's scent—he'd been inside the house in Georgia that I'd searched with Tony. And yes, I was still a little angry with Tony, but I was terrified for him, too. Shoving those thoughts aside, I turned back to the scents inside the room. Rahim Alif and Xenides' scents notwithstanding, there was another scent there and it was likely my mister. I was also doing my best to tick off seconds in my mind, knowing that the mister would take at least a couple of minutes to become solid. I was correct, but a couple of minutes, closer to three, to be exact, was what it did take. Much to my surprise, however, the vampire wasn't male, and that was the greatest shock, perhaps, in my career as a vampire.

* * *

"You're not going after her now?" Merrill was fidgeting a little and he never did that. He was usually the cool and collected vampire, even when Wlodek lost his temper.

Griffin sat at the kitchen island, eating spaghetti that Franklin reheated for him. Griffin loved Italian. "There's something she has to do, first, before we go," Griffin gave his friend a small smile. Gavin was standing in a corner of the kitchen, glowering over the entire delay. He wanted to touch Lissa; he'd only seen her briefly inside Wlodek's office and now he had groveling to do. The sooner the better, too.

"Things will happen when they happen," Griffin turned to Gavin. "I am more than a hundred thousand years old and have learned this during my long life. And you are not the only one with groveling to do, sir vampire. My little girl will not be happy in the least when I try to explain that as her father, I could not help her or her mother when she was young."

"Explain that to me," Merrill said.

"When Lissa's mother became pregnant, my direct supervisor, Thorsten, discovered it and declared that I had interfered. Of course, there was punishment and my punishment was that Lissa and her mother were hidden from me. I couldn't find them to check on them. It was as if they didn't exist for me. I didn't know what was happening or I might have committed other infractions. As it was, she ended up in your care, my friend, and when you called out to me the first time she became ill, I knew immediately who it was. Therefore, it was easy for me to check on her after that, although I was still prevented from doing anything other than the smallest of things for her. I got around the punishment because of you, my friend, and the help you rendered long ago. I am allowed to reciprocate, as you know." Griffin took a moment to drink a bit of the red wine Franklin served.

"However," Griffin continued, "when I convinced Thorsten to allow her to help Dragon, things came to the attention of Thorsten's supervisor, Belen. And Belen, after hearing everything I had to say, has determined that having a child is not interfering. The punishment was lifted. I cannot go back and change Lissa's past; that he forbade. I am now free to act as her father from this point forward; to tell her who I am and why I was prevented from seeing her when she was younger. We will see whether she accepts me or not." Griffin sounded a little wistful. "Amara already wishes to meet her; she has always wanted a child and desires very much for Lissa to accept both of us. We will see how that turns out."

"Amara is your mate? And she has no trouble accepting that you produced a child with another woman?" Gavin couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Our kind cannot experience jealousy, Gavin, and if you expect to keep my Lissa, you will have to set it aside as well." Merrill's head jerked around at Griffin's statement.

* * *

"So, it's Wlodek's little bitch." She was pretty—really pretty, with long, platinum blonde hair, had the stink of Saxom and the Dark Elemaiya about her and seemed nasty as hell—in temperament, anyway. Otherwise, she was dressed quite fashionably in designer clothing that had probably cost a fortune. I wondered who was footing the bill for her wardrobe.




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