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“If I could attack her, I would not be standing here talking to you.”

“It’s daylight?—”

“That is no impediment for the likes of me and her.”

“Sunning your toes is a far different prospect to stepping fully into sunlight, though. Not even the most ancient vampire can survive that.”

“The most ancient vampire probably couldn’t,” she replied, tone coldly amused. “But we are more than merely ancient vampires.”

Ah, fuck …

I opened my mouth to reply, then stopped, unsure what to say, and in that brief silence, I heard it.

The rattle of chains. The shuffle of feet. A low rumble rising from a throat that wasn’t human.

The hairs along the back of my neck rose. “Maelle, what’s that odd sound?”

“That is my vengeance.” Just for an instant, there was a crack in her coldly calm tone, and I very much suspected it was theonlysign we were ever likely to get that her sanity had well and truly tumbled. “It will be unleashed on all eventually.”

Dear God, no … I swallowed heavily and somehow said, my voice thankfully void of the horror churning through me, “You’ve got the Átahsaia leashed at the club?”

“Where else could I keep it? I can hardly send it back when its work here isn’t done.”

I closed my eyes and wearily rubbed my forehead. We needed to end this, quickly, before things really got out of hand—and certainly before she could unleash her monster on all of us.

Onme.

I shivered, but did my best to ignore the trepidation tripping through my soul.

“Now, dear Elizabeth,” she continued, “do please find Jaqueline and bring her to me. I will not be best pleased if these delays continue.”

The restrictions that apply to you hunting Marie do not apply to your daughter, so why don’t you damn well do it,I wanted to say but wiselydidn’t. The truth was, she basically had us over a barrel. We would do anything in our power to keep the reservation safe, and she was well aware of that. She’d always had the capability to cause havoc, but had been held at bay by her vow to the council not to cause harm to anyone living in the reservation. And while she might have inferred that breaking the vow would have dire consequences to herself, I suspected that, with Roger gone, she was no longer overly concerned about repercussions.

“I will try, Maelle, but?—”

“Don’t try. Do.”

“Why?” I asked. “What do you want with her? I would think it’s far too late to get back into her good books now, especially if, as you say, she has inherited your ability to hold a grudge.”

“What I intend with my daughter is none of your business.”

“It is if I’m leading her to her doom.”

“Her doom and her fate have always been mine to decide. She knows this—why do you think she wishes me dead? It is a desire that stems not from the need to avenge a lover, but rather a need to shatter an agreement made before she was born.”

“What sort of agreement?” I asked, even as something within me twisted. In very many ways, there were echoes of my ownsituation in Maelle and Jaqueline’s. I just had to hope that the resentment the daughter had for her mother wasn’t one of them.

“That is also none of your business.”

And with that, the bitch hung up on me again.

My grip tightened on the phone, and it was all I could donotto throw it in frustration. I swung around and returned to the house, stopping beside Belle. Ashworth and Monty had descended into the pit, with Eli and Jaz manning the ropes.

I stepped forward carefully and peered over the edge. It reallywasa long way down. “Anything?”

“The remains of some sort of snare down at the base of the hole, which suggests we were dealing with some sort of spirit.” Eli grimaced. “But aside from a few bits of hair and bones, there’s nothing left of Roger. How did Maelle take the news?”

“With scary-as-fuck calm. Our next mission—which we have no choice but to accept—is to find Jaqueline. Or else.”