He nodded.

“Is it true—about the blood oath?”

“Unyielding,” David murmured, struggling to breathe as well as speak. “Didn’t know he’d done that.”

“It hurts you that he did?”

“My fault,” he rasped, tapping his chest. “If I’d helped him with the…with the…” he coughed, rolling up off his back a little.

“David, just rest.” I laid him back. “We can talk later.”

“No. Now.”

I held his hand tight as he caught his breath, wheezing and gasping under an external calm. “You okay?”

“Better,” he said, swallowing whatever he’d coughed up.

“Do you need a drink?”

“No.” His voice sounded clearer. “If I’d helped him with the law, he wouldn’t have needed to join the Council.”

“With the law? Do you mean the human-relations law—so he could be with Emily?”

David nodded.

“I’m sorry, David.” I breathed out, shaking my head. “I’m sorry this all happened.”

“Not. More. Than. I,” the whisper came from his lips, sounding like wind through a grater again.

“Sleep.” I kissed the tip of his good finger. “We’ll talk about it when you’re better.”

David was given no choice; his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and the loneliness of my constant isolation took hold of the room once more.

“Hey, there’s a face I haven’t seen for a while.” Eric grabbed me and spun me onto his lap at the dining table.

“Yeah, hi guys.” I rubbed my eyes and tried to tidy my hair a little. “I didn’t think it was a good idea for this scary-vampire-head to come out in the daylight.”

Mike and Morgaine rolled their eyes, but at least Eric and Emily laughed—a little. “How’s the man?” Eric asked.

“He’s good. His hair’s growing back a little.”

“Good.” Morgaine smiled. “Because we want our princess back. We need to start creating this army, Amara. I have a thousand men waiting to be bitten.”

“A thousand?” I moaned. “Humans?”

Eric stiffened under me.

“Yeah. Why? What’s wrong?” Morgaine said, and we both looked at Eric’s pale face.

“Morg,” Eric said, “human blood burns Ara.”

“It does?”

“Yes.” I dropped my head into my hands. “This is gonna be hard.”

Morgaine looked at Mike who looked at Eric, then, they all looked at me.

“It’s okay, Ara. We can find another way.” Mike reached across the table and took my hand.

“There is no other way,” Morgaine said.

“But, I’ve been extracting venom for the sword-tipping,” Mike said, “can’t we just use that?”

“Wait!” I jerked forward. “You’ve been extracting venom—from yourself?”

“Yes.” Mike looked down.

“But. Why, Mike, it’s really painful?”

“I’m fine, baby.”

“It doesn’t matter, anyway,” Morgaine said. “You can’t create a vampire of any sort with a syringe of venom—it doesn’t work that way.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Try it—we don’t know. It just doesn’t.”

“But biting them will?” I asked.

“Yep.”

“That’s it? Just a bite?”

“Yes, Amara. What’s your point?” Morgaine asked.

“How come Lilithians change so easily, yet turning a human to a vampire is some great secret?”

“We’re a different species. Lilithians are pure of heart and soul. But vampires?” She shrugged at Eric. “They’re parasites. It’s natures pest control, I guess.”

“It’s nature’s way of keeping only the best in a small class. We wouldn’t be special if there were thousands of us,” Eric said. “Like there will be of your kind, once you’ve sunk your teeth into the issue at hand, no pun intended.”

I sighed. “A thousand is a big army, Morgaine. I can’t bite them all in one day. I’ll need time.”

“Well, then, with all due respect, Majesty, we need to get a move on. Word has it Drake plans to attack while we’re weak. We need to get to him first.”

“He thinks I’m dead, doesn’t he? Why would he attack?” I stole my hand from Mike’s and left it on the table.

“This time, it’s not you he’s after. It’s us—the Lilithian people. We dared to go against him, and now we have to pay. Plus, he wants Loslilian manor back.”

“Why?”

“Because the forest surrounding it guards the stone of truth.”

“Guards it?”

“It’s said to be—” Mike cleared his throat. “Enchanted.”

“The forest?”

“Yes.”

Why am I not surprised? “Okay, so what’s the plan—how do we evade attack?”

“With an army. We’re already training them—we just need them changed. They’ve been suited up, and—”

“Suited up?” I interrupted Morgaine.

“Yeah, uniforms.” Mike grinned, raising his brows a few times.

“They have uniforms?”

“Have done for the last few thousand years,” Morgaine said.

“Cool. Sorry.” I smiled sheepishly. “Continue.”

“So, the army awaits transformation; once that’s been done—”

“The real training begins.” Mike’s face lit with a wide, eager grin.

“What then? When they’re ready, what’d we do about Drake?”

“Well, the only thing we can do—turn his people against him one by one, then invade La Château de la Mort, capture him and hold him prisoner until the catalyst arrives.”

“By catalyst, you mean my child?” I stiffened.

“Yes.”

“So, I have to have a baby sometime in the next year or so, teach it to kill before it can walk, then, if I’ve done my job as a teen mum, my daughter will grow up without fear of death by the evil villain and hopefully make her parents proud by becoming a big bad vampire killer?” I looked around at all of them. “I’m not ready for a baby.”