"lok," i went on, staring at my plate of food, "we may be in terrible trouble if what i think about this warlock is true."

"that idiot warlock managed to tap karathia's core," lendill appeared at my elbow. "do we have more?" he eyed my plate of food.

"take this, i'll make more," i sighed, slipping off my stool. "and i guess it's too bad that wylend banished me, isn't it?"

"reah, he just lost his grandson and heir." lendill chastised me gently.

"i know." i rubbed knuckles against my forehead. "will somebody contact teeg to see if he has time for me today? i have to talk to him-ask him and astralan some questions."

"what do you mean, see if he has any time for you?" lendill huffed.

"i have to take what i can get from all of you," i said, putting more eggs on to cook. "we have sex and then you're off to work. i don't get any days where we get all day, now do i?"

lendill dropped his fork. "is that what you think?" he asked, lifting the fork again and cutting into his meal.

"it's what i get. what else am i supposed to think? when have we gone shopping, lendill? or went anywhere just for fun?"

"did we wake grumpy today?" teeg appeared with the requested astralan. lendill must have sent mindspeech.

"sit down, i'll have a plate ready for you in just a few ticks," i said. i busied myself at the stove, preparing three more plates. i didn't tell teeg what i thought until i placed his plate in front of him. astralan was smiling as he ate-i hadn't cooked for him in a while. i almost missed those early days with arvil san gerxon-at least i'd seen teeg and the others every day.

"what did you want to talk about, sweetheart?" teeg asked as i took a stool next to his.

"i need to ask astralan a question first," i said, cutting into my egg. astralan gave me an expectant look. "how long does a soul-shift take, once you have the triangle drawn out?"

"only a tick or two," astralan frowned at the question.

"and does the targeted body have to be right there next to the warlock?"

"as i understand it, never having done it, of course, you have a bit of space-perhaps thirty or forty of teeg's feet," astralan replied.

"teeg, how big were those rooms at the hotel in sharaan, on kareed?"

teeg blinked at my question. and then blinked again. "maybe twenty feet across, or so," he whispered. yeah, he was about to become frightened, too. "what are you saying, reah?"

"here." i drew a comp-vid over and pulled up the information i'd compiled. "child disappearances, occurring after zellar's death on kareed, including one from the same hotel around the time of zellar's recorded death. everybody assumed the boy ran away, but they never found a trail to follow. all the other disappearances occurred on non-alliance worlds at the time, so the information wasn't disseminated. but," and i pressed a button to pull up other information, "look at this. before, adults came up missing, here and there. always six at a time, spaced three days apart. now, maybe i'm wrong, but i think normal ra'ak feed every third day."

teeg was staring at me now, as were astralan, lok and lendill. "we may have killed zellar's body on kareed," i said flatly. "but zellar's soul is still alive and living inside a child's body somewhere. he hasn't been tapping cores to throw us off track and make us think it was somebody else. he's desperate now, since those creatures are crazy, and i think he may be trying to get away from them. that's why he tapped karathia's core."

"oh, my toes and stars," astralan breathed in alarm.

"what's this?" norian appeared, followed closely by lissa, gavin, erland, kiarra and a roomful of others.

"our warlock is zellar." teeg tossed his fork onto his plate and stood. "we thought we had the fucker, and he fooled us every step of the way."

"willem said somebody was tapping into the telling winds, and that things were happening that shouldn't be," lissa said. i stared at her-i hadn't heard this before. willem drifft-the prince of a lesser house of elves and ildevar wyyld's assistant, was an elvish seer. few were able to tap into the telling winds-lendill said that they were often referred to as akashic records on many worlds, but a very rare seer could see forward and backward in the winds. the enemy was reading our every move and staying one step ahead of us as a result.

"then one of those ra'ak fuckers is doing it, or was doing it," i snapped, angry that information had been withheld, for some reason.

"that makes sense." willem appeared-lissa had likely sent mindspeech. "if a ra'ak turned a humanoid who could read the winds, and nurtured it instead of letting it fight and die with the others, they'd have a weapon in their hands," he said. "this is awful."

"awful doesn't begin to describe what this is," lissa rubbed her forehead.

"here, now, little one." one of lissa's larentii appeared, lifting her and placing gentle fingers against her forehead. i knew he was removing the headache for her.

"so, now that the warlock has tapped karathia's core, he may hit others," i said, my stomach rebelling. "he'll keep trying to get away from these ra'ak, but as long as the one who can read the winds is alive, he'll lose that battle." i thought i was going to be sick. pheligar appeared, lifting kiarra and rubbing her back. i felt dizzy now, in addition to feeling nauseous.

"little one, this stone floor is not a pleasant place to fall," nefrigar's voice came from far away.

"huh?" i stared up at him. how was i in his arms? when had that happened?

"and you must eat, lara'kayan. bearing twins is never easy on a female's body. you must take better care of yourself."

"twins? you're joking," teeg was standing next to nefrigar now, even as my eyes filled with tears. "i mean, i knew she was pregnant again, but twins?"

"hush now, reah," nefrigar said, and then began to hum. i'd heard rumors about the larentii trilling, but i'd never heard it before. i was asleep in very little time.

"they're tory's," teeg muttered, watching reah's eyes close as nefrigar held her.

"do not fret, young vampire," nefrigar said softly so as not to wake reah. "yours will come someday. the high demon race is in peril, and reah must help rebuild it. do not begrudge them this. you will get your child."

"i will?" teeg's voice nearly cracked, he was so surprised.

"when the time is right," nefrigar's eyes were unfocused for a few moments.

"but what about karathia's core-wylend has banished reah. even if he lifts that banishment, she may not be willing to go back there," lissa voiced another concern.

"unless he wants karathia to die, he'll be forced to lift the ban. but that will have to take a back seat for now-his heir is dead," astralan observed.

"something else that was not supposed to happen-not like this," willem said quietly.

"tell me how great a fool i am." wylend gave erland a hopeless glance. erland was helping wylend into dark robes for wyatt's funeral.

"love, we all make mistakes."

"but this mistake cost wyatt his life. if i'd just listened, instead of demanding my own way. amara has left griffin. she'll come for the service, but she'll sit with lissa's group-she's already asked for that favor. griffin and i were so set on wyatt having this that we overrode his feelings in the matter. belen took away the oracle's ability to see the future where his son was concerned. now, griffin and i pay the price."

"i asked gavril to tell reah that you've rescinded the sentence and the banishment," erland said softly.

"erland, it's too little too late, and everything we do from now on will be suspect. she doesn't know me as you do-she doesn't know to wait out these little fits of paranoia and jealousy. and i'm afraid that i complicated things further, before her words and thoughts became a painful truth to me."

"love, what did you do?" erland lifted wylend's face with a gentle hand.

"i listened in at other times. i heard her tell gavril that torevik was too young in her estimation, when he fathered her first child. she and gavril discussed tory's maturity since then. i'm afraid i only took those words of hers regarding his immaturity to my great-grandson. i had to send corolan yesterday to find out what sort of damage that might have done."

"wylend, you didn't." erland backed away, a concerned frown on his face. he hadn't yet told wylend that reah was pregnant with tory's twins.

"erland, i don't know what possessed me to do it. reah will pay for private thoughts and words."

"what has torevik done?" erland was almost afraid to ask the question.

"you will find out at the funeral, i'm afraid. it's a good thing reah isn't planning to attend."

erland shivered. if tory were plotting some sort of revenge against reah for wylend's invasion of her privacy and reported half-truths later, erland didn't want to witness it.

a four-hundred-year-old clock ticked in the background inside merrill's study. griffin sat at merrill's desk, gazing at the lawn outside the window without seeing anything. although griffin and merrill had barely spoken for years, he and amara still lived in the old mansion merrill owned in kent. until amara left him after wyatt's death, anyway. griffin brushed wetness away from his face. his mate and his son-both gone in a blink. he couldn't even look to see if amara might come back to him eventually; that ability to see her future had been taken from him after she'd left.

"now you get to experience a little of what you handed out to others," a woman's voice snapped. griffin turned quickly before rising in a blink, claws and fangs out. it had been years since he'd let the vampire in him loose, but the fangs and claws disappeared quickly. there was no mistaking this one, shining brightly from across the desk.