I had no idea how to go about what she wanted me to do, and my mind was scattered with this last taste of her on my lips, so I threw caution to the wind and just walked towards the dozens of cells lining both sides of the corridor, hemmed in by heavy stone and thick metal bars that made the council dungeons look like a joke and I wondered if this place had been built with as much intention to house vampires as it was to hold humans. With her, I wouldn't be surprised.

I found Travis and Mark were in cells side by side, and Evan was across from them. I couldn't see Barb, but I had seen Vienne talking to her in one of the further cells,

Evan was sitting hunched over on his cot, and I didn't blame him. When she had removed her compulsion from me, I had felt nauseous.

"What are you doing here?" Travis demanded and I faced him.

Well, that was a good question. "I came to talk to you."

"Why?" Mark asked.

"She asked me to."

"She asked you to," Travis said with a scowl, the anger and mistrust clear on his face. He had been pacing the cell, and he went and slouched down on his cot, coiled fury as he pretended to ignore me.

"About what?" Mark said. He looked shaky, probably from Vienne's treatment of him and his confession. I could sympathize; she was exhausting, especially when she was in a mood.

"Well, about joining her fight against the bloodsucking council."

I ignored Travis' snort of derision, since it made perfect sense.

Mark was watching me. "What happened to you?"

"I found out the truth. She's working to undermine the other bloodsuckers."

"Yeah, right. Or more likely she compelled you to say that." Travis scowled.

"She didn't."

"Right," he said, and resumed his glowering slouch.

"I know it's unbelievable. But it's true. I staked her and—"

Travis snorted and Mark shook his head. "Then how are you alive?"

"She gave me a choice, to join her or stake her and escape, and I chose."

"Yet you're here," Mark pointed out.

I nodded. "After I did it, I ran, but a couple of the guards caught me. They dragged me to the rebel base. Then when she recovered, she let me go. Said I had won and pretty much threw me out."

Mark's look spoke the words he didn't bother to say, that he didn't believe a word I was saying.

Mark frowned. "Again, you're here, not out there."

"I killed the leech I had been hunting, and I came back to help take more vampires down."

"And you want us to believe that?" Mark shook his head. "You think we're stupid?"

This was not going well, and I wondered what Vienne had expected me to accomplish. I wouldn't have believed a human who said this to me, either, before I had seen everything with my own eyes.

"What do you really want from us, leech lover?" Travis asked, still slouching, but looking at me with a deep hatred. A part of me wanted to argue against the accusation, but it wasn't far from the truth, although the reality was much more complicated.

"Nothing. She thinks you have potential that would help the cause."

"The cause? To get rid of the vampire council?" Mark did not look convinced. "Does she plan to rule in their place?"

"It wouldn't be worse if she did."

"Yeah right. I don't trust that bloodsucker. I'd rather die down here." Travis had looked away again and I sensed he was talking more to his fellow prisoners than to me.

"She's probably controlling his mind," Mark commented back, as if I weren't there.

Listening to them was a lot like a review of everything I had thought about her. I had not believed anything that the other humans had told me, either. "I'm not, but there's no way to convince you of that."

"Well, at least your mind is clear enough to see that. That bloodsucker is a monster like the rest of them," Mark said. "And if you want proof, look at us. We've been locked down here for I don't know how long. If that's not enough, look behind you and you can see how she tortured Evan."

I turned then, in time to see the pale, shaking man raise his head. "I wasn't tortured. I was questioned and then she used her power to make me believe that she did. She just took it off."

"Or she put it on," Mark shot back. The first tendrils of frustration began to wind through me.

"Have you actually seen her torturing any humans?"

"Again, locked up down here."

"You're not being treated that badly," I said, although my own brushes with captivity pricked my mind with memories of being trapped in such a small space and uncertain of when I would get out. "She'll let you out if you decide to join her."

"Well, good thing this place has such a great view," Travis said, still looking vacantly into the corner.

Mark had stopped pacing and was leaning against the bars adjacent to Travis' cell. Evan appeared to be falling asleep. I walked down further to see the little girl who was isolated from the others, probably to grant her more privacy. "Were you listening?"

She shrugged. "Yeah."

"What do you think?"

"I'm surprised she hasn't drained me dry already for what I did."

I wasn't getting anywhere with these people. I decided to give up. "'Well, at least think about what I said.

No one answered, unless I decided to count Travis' sarcastic chuckle. It didn't seem surprising that they would not be moved by words, but would she be disappointed? I reminded myself I didn't care. She had set a seemingly impossible task for me.

I walked past them and traced my way through the corridors and up the stairs to the busier parts of her home. When I arrived at her chambers, the guards let me in without question, although Mantis seemed amused by my arrival.

I ignored them and walked inside, surprised to see that she was not in her usual spot. I called her name, and her response trickled out from further in her rooms, somewhere I had never been. "Come here, Jamie."

A thousand possibilities wandered through my mind, but I shoved them away as I moved forward until I found her, and I was surprised to find her sitting at a writing desk, scratching away on a piece of paper with a pencil, something I never would have imagined her doing. She glanced up at me and smiled at me without any trace of mockery, which she ruined as her lips pulled into her usual smirk. "So, how did it go?"

"I bet you can guess."

She grinned. "Not good, then? That's how it always starts, with lots of fear and hostility. To tame feral humans, one needs to be persistent in order to teach them they can trust you."

I found myself annoyed at the idea of being spoken about like a wild animal. "I don't remember your persistence."

"I am very persistent at a very select few things," she insisted. "Although, you're a special case, of course. I did nothing right with you and I don't even regret it. You're just too fun. Oh, but, why don't you take a seat if you want?"

She paused to scribble something else down while I went and sat on an ornate couch. Still not looking up at me, she asked, "So, give me your recommendations about those four you spoke to."

"Well, they think you're controlling my mind."

She raised an eyebrow. "Every human thinks that. How unoriginal. It's not like our powers of compulsion are limitless, although, they do improve with age like most of our abilities."

"Evan is probably the only one who's willing to be convinced of anything at this point."

Her warm eyes found mine. "I'm not surprised, he's had the most contact with me. Which of the other three is most pliable after Evan?"

"Not Travis. Barb or Mark, but neither of them were interested in being convinced either."

She looked off into the corner of the room for a long moment. "I think I'll go with Mark. I'm pretty sure he and Travis feed off each other. I don't really have time to play around with them anymore."

"What are you going to do to them if they don't give in?" I asked.

She shrugged. "They always do, one way or another. And since you ended up on my side, I believe my powers of persuasion have been proven invincible. Of course, it helps that humans don't really have any better options at this point. It's easy to win when I have no competition. It was a lot harder to get humans on my side when they had a lot of good choices."

"I can imagine."

"I always kept a couple dozen go to humans who I got along with and would let me drink from them for a price. A nice, professional transaction. I used to have a secretary who would schedule my feedings for me. A lot of vampires used to drink from donated bags, but there's the possibility of tampering. Straight from the vein is the best way to feed. It's so good. Blood loses something over time."

Was she angling to propose that I feed her again? It had almost slipped my mind, because her habits had almost started to seem normal.

The pencil continued to wind across the paper, and I settled back and relaxed while I watched her. Vienne's eyes followed the pencil and her forehead scrunched slightly in concentration. Her hair was loose and a few pieces slipped forward onto on the surface of her desk.

As I waited, I began to wonder if this was just another means for her to test me. It seemed exactly like the sort of thing she would do, deliberately ignore me to get a reaction. I would take a page from her book and see if I couldn't push her a little bit.

I got up and walked over to stand behind her and leaned down over the back of her chair. She was such a large presence that it was strange how delicate she looked when I was above her. The list she was writing seemed to be supplies, some innocuous like tech, others dark, like the damned collars. The fact that I could get myself out of mine now did not make following council's rules much sweeter.

"Curious?" she asked, looking up over her shoulder at me innocently, confirming that she had indeed been waiting me out.

"Bored. You know something about that, don't you?"

She smiled. "I certainly do. When I'm bored, I work to find a new outlet. Boredom is deadly."

"Terrifying."

Her smile grew into a grin. "I do live for my amusements. If I got too bored, what more reason would I have to go on?"

"I don't know, an entire rebellion you started?"

She shrugged. "They'd manage. They'll have to, if it comes down to it."

Her relaxed attitude bothered me.

"Don't look so vexed. It's very unlikely that I'm going to end up cooperating with the council. I've always landed on my feet. If anyone should be afraid, it's the council, because I always keep an ace up my sleeve."

"And what's your ace?"

"Sorry, Jamie. It's a surprise, unless I need to use it. But don't worry, I always play to win." She winked at me.