she explained to iliana the steps she'd taken to identify the hairpin's owner, and the other woman nodded in satisfaction. "very good. when angelica and voss arrive, we can send word to giordan and chas."

maia wondered about this woman, and certainly not for the first time. she spoke of the vampires and their world with such familiarity. "who are you?" maia asked. "you aren't really corvindale's aunt, are you?"

iliana laughed. "no, of course not. that would make me more than a hundred twenty years old, and a crone-or a dracule-at that. no, indeed. i'm merely one who understands the threats of his world, and an old friend of dimitri's. i helped to raise mirabella after he found her. she needed protection from the earl's enemies, and i needed a place to live away from-well, that's another story for a time when we have time. suffice to say," she said, "i've learned to protect myself to some extent from the beastly ones. even your brother admitted that i'm quite capable."

maia looked at her. "could you teach me something?"

the older woman opened her mouth, likely to decline, but maia pushed on. "if i'm to live in this world where my sister is to wed a former vampire, my brother hunts them and my so-named guardian is one, i think it only proper that i know something about protecting myself. especially since there are vampires who are coming after us. my father taught me how to shoot a pistol when i was twelve," she added when iliana began to shake her head.

"your brother would never allow it."

"he doesn't have to know," maia said firmly. "no one has to know."

iliana frowned and then threw up her hands. "very well. but don't tell the earl."

maia awoke with a start, sitting bolt upright.

her heart was pounding and her body slick with perspiration.

that had not been a pleasant dream. the darkness still lingered, wrapping the frightening images through her mind. not of a warm, red world with sensual lips and tongue, the easy and welcome slide of fangs, but one of tearing flesh and screaming pain. violence and violation.

she couldn't catch her breath, and maia threw back the covers of her bed, trying to jolt the last vestiges away with sharp movement. it didn't work instantly, but slowly the ugly feelings eased.

moonlight shimmered over her empty bed and the table next to it. maia's attention fell on the two new additions to her bedside table: the ruby hairpin and a slender wooden stake.

true to her word, iliana had taken maia to an empty chamber in the servants' wing of blackmont hall. the room had no furnishings to speak of, and was windowless. there, she'd shown maia how to hold a stake the proper way and where to aim when stabbing at a vampire.

"in the heart," she said, "and they die instantly."

a little shudder ran through maia when she recalled how chas had launched himself across the room at white's and thrust his stake into dewhurst's torso. if he hadn't been wearing armor, he would have been dead.

maia and iliana had practiced awhile, with maia surprised by the other woman's speed and agility, and learned that she did quite a bit of training for this skill. maia realized that her own days spent with merely a bit of walking, some riding and much sitting, had left her much less fluent in body movement. and although she was uncomfortably warm and damp after her session with iliana, maia also realized she felt energized. and now, however, her own body was a little sore.

she decided then that she would practice every day, with iliana if possible. but now, maia was unsettled and felt the need to get out of her bedchamber.

she left the stake on her table and padded down the hall to the stairs. perhaps a book. or a cup of milk or even a slice of cheese and an apple might help to distract her mind.

as she reached the bottom of the stairs, she heard voices. her heart leaped and she hurried down and along the hall, her nightgown flowing around her ankles. a light poured from beneath the door of corvindale's study, so, without much thought in regards to her attire and the mortification of the last time she'd seen him, maia flung the door open.

"oh," she said, freezing in the entrance. not corvindale.

it was dewhurst...and angelica. they were standing in the middle of the chamber, in an embrace whose image immediately replaced the last bit of horror from maia's dream.

"maia," said angelica, pulling away from what looked like a very passionate kiss...among other things. her lips were swollen and her cheeks a lovely dusky rose. dewhurst didn't release her, and she didn't seem to be interested in putting space between them, either. "is everything all right?"

maia swallowed, trying to ignore the heat that had rushed to her face and surely made it bright red. "i heard voices and thought perhaps the earl had returned, or been found."

dewhurst shook his head, and maia couldn't tear her eyes from the way his elegant hand curled comfortably around her sister's neck, a finger sliding up into the loose braid at her nape. it was such a simple gesture, yet very intimate. so casual, bespeaking of a deep and comfortable connection.

a rush of envy shuttled through her and she was instantly ashamed. alexander was a good man and he cared for her.

he might not make her insides billow and burn when he kissed her, but he was financially comfortable and unfailingly polite and rather boring. she stopped any further thoughts right there.

"i've spoken with cale, and have sent word to chas-"

dewhurst was saying.

"how do you do that? do you know where he is?"

he looked uncomfortable. "there are ways we do it with blood pigeons and private messengers and other techniques.

but that's beside the point. i just came here to...er..." he looked at angelica and the heat that passed between them with a mere glance was enough to make maia's knees weak.

"he came to report that there isn't any news about corvindale," angelica said. at last she stepped away from her fiance, and for the first time, maia noticed that her sister was garbed in no more than a night rail, as well. "and to let me know that he was safe."

"we're doing everything we can to find him. when woodmore returns, i'm certain he'll have other ideas about where to look and how to track him. one would expect moldavi to be involved somehow, and since dim-corvindale isn't one to...uh...spend time around women, whoever was there and dropped the hairpin is likely in moldavi's employ. and now that i can move about in the day, it gives me more freedom."

angelica looked at him. "but you are no longer dracule. which makes you more vulnerable."

dewhurst waved this off in the way men did when a woman raised an issue they preferred to ignore. "but i'm smart and fast and i no longer have an asthenia."

"your asthenia now is a bullet," angelica reminded him flatly. "as well as a sword, a stake and many other implements. not to mention fire, and..." her voice trailed off. "please take care." these last words were little more than a heartfelt sigh, leaving maia to feel like more of an intruder than ever.

"and you, as well," he said, looking at both of them. "that's the other reason i've come. cale and i have arranged for more guards to keep watch over you now that corvindale is missing. both day and night. i suspect moldavi has had him removed so he can more easily get to one of you. so don't go anywhere without an escort-particularly at night."

"but vampires cannot move about during the day," angelica argued. "we're safe enough shopping and visiting the park."

"corvindale was taken during the day," dewhurst reminded her flatly. "do as i say, ange."

"i suppose i should return to my bed," maia said, turning toward the door. why she felt so bereft was one thing, but the other thought that followed her as she climbed the stairs was the realization that she, the very proper miss woodmore, had just left her sister and a man alone in the study with hardly a second thought. at night.

what had changed her?

maia slept fitfully for the rest of the night, and in the morning the first thing she did was send a message to alexander that the wedding would need to be postponed until her guardian returned.

and then she sat down at the breakfast table. alone.

maia couldn't remember ever feeling so...alone. angelica was clearly deeply in love with her viscount and didn't have time for sisterly talks-although it appeared that they might have much to talk about, if the position of dewhurst's hands on her last night was any indication.

even the thought of where they'd been made maia blush.

she sat down with another batch of invitations and calling cards, determined to remind herself where she'd seen the hairpin. only partway through her first piece of toast and cup of tea, the dining room door opened to reveal betty.

"i've got some news for you, miss," she said. betty was a plump, cheery woman old enough to be maia's mother-or at least a much older sister. her eyes were glinting with pleasure as she approached. "tracy mayes, who works for the gallingways-easy way to remember with a bit of rhyme-says that rosie over to the yarmouths' knows she's seen that same type of hairpin before. it didn't have no rubies, but sapphires, though."

maia felt a spark of excitement. "it was the same, just different gems? it must be made by the same jeweler. who had the hairpin?"

"that's what i thought, too, miss. i could send over to one of the servants at her house. it was a mrs. rina throckmullins, and rosie said as she met her and her maid at the milliner's last week. she remembered it because it was such a rainy day, and they shared an umbrella when they left the shop, so she had a good look at the pins in her hair, huddled as they were under it. mrs. throckmullins is a...well, miss, i'm not one to speak out of line. but she's a single woman who ain't looking for a husband, if you know what i mean."