By the time the strangers entered the clearing, their faces were already so well known to me that it felt as though I were recognizing them rather than seeing them for the first time.

The smaller, ill-favored female started in the lead, but she quickly fell back in a practiced maneuver.

She was focused on our numbers, singling out the threats. She assumed we were two or possibly three friendly covens, meeting for the game. She was very aware of Eleanor, hulking beside Carine. And then me, obviously agitated; it was strange for a vampire to twitch in anxiety. None of them knew what to make of my cadenced tapping.

For the smallest part of a second, I struggled with the feeling that something was missing in her tally, but there was too much for me to concentrate on to have time to track down that impression.

The female in the lead was taller and more beautiful than average, even for a vampire. Her thoughts were very confident. Her coven meant no mischief here; though, naturally, this large grouping of covens was surprised to be approached by strangers, she was sure we would work it out quickly. She, too, reacted to Eleanor's size and my tension, but was then distracted by Royal.

I wonder if he's mated? Hmm, they do seem to be even in numbers.

Her eyes skipped over the rest of us, then settled on Roy again.

The male with the vivid red hair was tenser than any of us, his body nearly vibrating with anxiety. He had a hard time keeping his intense glare off Eleanor.

There're too many. Lauren is a fool.

He'd already catalogued a thousand different routes for escape. Currently, he felt his best chance was to sprint due north to the Salish Sea, where we couldn't follow his scent. I wondered that he wouldn't opt for the much nearer Pacific coast, but I couldn't see his reasons if he didn't think of them.

I found myself hoping the jittery male would break for cover and the others follow, but Archie didn't see that.

The redhead was watching the plainer female, waiting for her to run first. His eyes danced to Eleanor again, and he moved reluctantly as he followed the others closer.

The two females seemed unable to keep their eyes off Eleanor for long, either. I found myself appraising my sister. She seemed even bigger than usual tonight, and there was something unnerving about her taut stillness.

Still the leader, Lauren, was sure of her plan. If our covens could get along with each other, then we could get along with hers. Everyone would calm down and then we could all play. And she would get to know the glowing blonde...

She smiled in a friendly way, slowing her approach and then stopping as she got within a few yards of Carine. Her gaze flickered to Royal, to Eleanor, to me, then back to Carine.

"We thought we heard a game," she said. She had a faint French accent, but her internal voice came to her in English. "I'm Lauren, these are Victor and Joss."

They didn't appear to have much in common, this urbane traveler from the continent and her two more feral followers. The male was irritated by the introduction; he was almost consumed by the need to escape. The other female, Joss, was a little amused at Lauren's confidence. She was enjoying the unpredictable nature of this encounter and was keen to see how we would respond.

Vic hasn't split yet, she was thinking. So it probably won't come to anything.

Carine smiled at Lauren, her friendly, open face momentarily disarming even the frightened Victor. For one second, they all focused entirely on her instead of Eleanor.

"I'm Carine," she introduced herself. "This is my family, Eleanor and Jessamine; Royal, Earnest, and Archie; Edythe and Beau." She gestured vaguely in our direction as she spoke, not drawing attention to me individually or Beau behind me. Lauren and Joss were reacting to the information that we were not separate tribes, but I wasn't entirely paying attention.

In the second that Carine said Jessamine's name, I realized what I'd been missing.

Jessamine—lacerated with scars on every visible portion of her skin, tall and lean and fierce as any stalking lion, eyes brutal with remembered kills—should have been at the forefront of their assessments. Her warlike aspect should, even now, be coloring this negotiation.

I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, and found myself... so incredibly bored. It seemed as if there could be nothing less interesting in the world than this nondescript vampire standing docilely to one side of our grouping.

Nondescript? Docile? Jessamine?

Jessamine was concentrating so hard that, had she been human, her body would have been dripping with sweat.

I'd never seen her do this before, or even guessed that it was possible. Was this something she'd developed during her years in the South? Camouflage?

She was concurrently smoothing the tension surrounding the newcomers and making anyone looking in her direction feel singularly uninterested. Nothing could be duller than examining this nothing female at the back of the group, so unimportant...

And not just her... she was covering Archie, Earnest, and Beau in the same haze of tediousness.

This was why none of them had realized yet. Not because Beau was concealed in any way behind me, or my ridiculous tapping. They couldn't cut through the sense of overwhelming mundaneness to look at him closely. He was just one among many, not worth examining.

Jessamine was really extending herself to protect the vulnerable members of our family. I could hear her total concentration. She wouldn't be able to hold it if things got physical, but for now she had Beau encased in a more clever protection than I could have imagined.

Gratitude swamped me again.

I blinked hard and refocused on the strangers. They were affected by Carine's charm, though they did not forget Eleanor's intimidating size or my intensity.

I tried to absorb the soothing calm that Jessamine was exuding, but while I could see its effect on the others, I couldn't access it. I realized that Jessamine was presenting what she wanted, and that included me on edge, a threat, a distraction.

Well, I could certainly lean into that role.

"Do you have room for a few more players?" Lauren was asking, just as amicable as Carine.

"Actually, we were just finishing up," Carine responded, her tone oozing warmth. "But we'd certainly be interested another time. Are you planning to stay in the area for long?"

"We're headed north, in fact, but we were curious to see who was in the neighborhood. We haven't run into any company in a long time."

"No, this region is usually empty except for us and the occasional visitor, like yourselves."

Carine's easy friendliness, along with Jessamine's influence, was winning them over. Even the edgy redhead was beginning to calm. His thoughts tested this sense of safety, analyzing it in a way that was strange to me. I wondered whether he was aware of Jessamine's performance, but he didn't seem suspicious. It was more like he questioned his own gut feeling.

Joss was a little disappointed that a game did not seem to be imminent. And also... that the confrontation had eased. She missed the excitement of the unknown.

Lauren was absorbing Carine's poise and confidence. She wanted to know more about us. She wondered what subterfuge we used to disguise our eyes, and why.

"What's your hunting range?" Lauren asked. This was a normal thing, an expected question among nomads, but I worried that it would alarm Beau. Whatever he felt, he was motionless and silent as a human could be behind me. The rhythm of his heart, and thus my drumming foot, didn't change.

"The Olympic Range here, up and down the Coast Ranges on occasion," Carine told her, not lying, but also not disabusing Lauren of her assumption. "We keep a permanent residence nearby. There's another permanent settlement like ours up near Denali."

This surprised all of them. Lauren was merely confused, but anything unexpected seemed to turn to fear in the mind of the panicky male; for him, all the effects of Jessamine's efforts vanished in an instant. Joss, however, was intrigued. Here was something new and different. Not only was our coven immense, we were apparently not even nomadic. Perhaps this detour wasn't entirely wasted.

"Permanent?" Lauren asked, bewildered. "How do you manage that?"

Joss was pleased that Lauren had spoken, so her curiosity could be assuaged without any effort on her part. In a way, her reluctance to draw attention to herself reminded me of Jessamine's much more effective camouflage. I wondered why Joss would want to play it safe this way. It didn't seem to line up with her desire for diversion.

Or did she, like Jessamine, have something to hide?

"Why don't you come back to our home with us and we can talk comfortably?" Carine proposed. "It's a rather long story."

Victor twitched, and I could see that he was holding himself in place by will alone. He guessed what Lauren's answer would be, and, oh, how he wanted to run. Joss gave him an encouraging look, but it didn't alleviate his stress. Still, he would follow her lead.

Could it be this easy? It would be simple to split up if they accepted the invitation, with Carine and Eleanor safely leading the strangers away. Thanks to Jessamine, they might never realize what we were hiding from them.

I looked into Archie's view of the future—a little more difficult at the moment, as I had to ignore Jessamine's potent veil of tedium, which tried, with energy, to convince me that there must be something more interesting to do.

Archie was focused on the closest possible futures. It surprised me that they all ended in a standoff now. A few of the possible fights were clearer than before.

So it would not be that easy.

In Lauren's mind, I heard nothing but interest and the coming assent; Joss was in agreement. Victor looked for a trap, rigid with dread.

None of them had any intention to cause trouble or even examine our numbers more closely. What would change their minds?

I could think of only one factor that was so sure, so unaffected by any decision or whim.

The weather.

I braced myself, knowing there was nothing I could do. Jessamine's eyes flickered to me. She felt my new anguish.

"That sounds very interesting, and welcome," Lauren was saying. "We've been on the hunt all the way down from Ontario, and we haven't had the chance to clean up in a while."

Victor shuddered, trying to subtly catch Joss's attention, but she ignored him.

"Please don't take offense, but we'd appreciate it if you'd refrain from hunting in this immediate area," Carine cautioned them. "We have to stay inconspicuous, you understand."

Carine's voice was perfectly assured. I envied her her hopefulness.

"Of course," Lauren agreed. "We certainly won't encroach on your territory. We just ate outside of Seattle, anyway."

Lauren laughed, and Beau's heartbeat stuttered for the first time. The movement of my foot faltered quickly, trying to disguise the variation. None of the strangers seemed to notice.

"We'll show you the way if you'd like to run with us," Carine offered, and only Archie and I knew that it was too late for her plan to succeed. It was so close now—his visions were racing to collide with the present. "Eleanor and Archie, you can go with Edythe and Beau to get the Jeep."

It happened exactly as she said Beau's name.

Just a gentle breeze, a mild flutter from a new direction, an aberration caused by the tail end of the storm swirling westward. So mild. So inescapable.

Beau's scent, fresh and immediate, wafted directly into the strangers' faces.

All of them were affected, but while Lauren and Victor were predominantly confused by the delicious smell coming out of nowhere, Joss shifted instantaneously into hunting mode. Jessamine's camouflage wasn't strong enough to deter that kind of focus.

There was no point in pretending any longer. As if she were reading my thoughts, Jessamine pulled her concealment back in that second, leaving only herself and Archie still hidden. I realized it was better that she do this, that it would only alert these nomads to her extra talents if she tried to keep Beau obscured now. Yet I still felt a weak prick of betrayal.

But that was only the smallest part of my awareness. Most of my faculties were overwhelmed with fury.

Joss thrust forward into a crouch. Her mind was empty of thought besides the hunt, intent on immediate gratification.

I gave her something else to think about.

I crouched in front of Beau, ready to launch myself into the hunter before she could get any closer to him, all my abilities concentrated on her thoughts. I roared a warning at her, knowing only self-preservation had any hope of distracting her at this point.

My rage was strong enough that I half wanted her to ignore my threat.

The pinpoint focus of her eyes widened out, away from Beau, as she appraised me. A strange flicker of surprise wove through her mind. She was almost... incredulous that I had moved to block her. I could only guess that she was used to acting unopposed. She hesitated, wavering between prudence and desire. It would be foolish to ignore the others—this was not a contest between just the two of us. But she could barely resist my challenge. She wasn't sure she wanted to resist.

"What's this?" Lauren cried. I didn't waste any attention for her reaction.

I saw the ploy in Joss's thoughts before she moved. I was in place to block her new angle before the movement was finished. Her eyes narrowed, and she adjusted her evaluation of the danger I posed.

Faster than I thought. Too fast?

She was suspicious of me now. Of all of us. Why hadn't she noticed the boy before? He was so obvious, his apricot skin soft and matte in contrast with the shine of the rest.

"He's with us," I heard Carine warn in a new voice, friendliness gone.

Joss flashed a glance at her and was aware again of Eleanor looming, massive and eager, beside Carine.

I was surprised at her frustration. Joss didn't want to be careful. She was anxious for a fight. However—still poised to strike—she spared part of her focus to tune in for some movement from Victor, but he was frozen with fear.

My own attention was compromised as Lauren finally reacted.

"You brought a snack?" she asked, disbelieving.

Like Joss, she moved a step closer to Beau, though her move was more instinctual than aggressive.

That didn't matter to me. I twisted slightly, my eyes never leaving the greater threat, and snarled my rage in Lauren's direction, baring my teeth at her. Unlike Joss, Lauren immediately retreated.

Joss shifted again, testing my concentration. I was in place to answer her maneuver before the motion was complete. Her lips pulled back over her teeth.

"I said he's with us," Carine repeated, her voice closer to a growl than I'd ever heard it before.

"But he's human," Lauren pointed out. There was still no aggression in her mind. She was only baffled and frightened. She couldn't make sense of this situation, but she realized that Joss's ill-considered offensive might get them all killed. She glanced toward Victor, checking his reaction much as Joss had. As if he were some kind of weathervane.

Eleanor was the one to respond to Lauren. I didn't know if it was Jessamine who made it feel as though the ground shook as she took one step closer to the conflict, or if it was just Eleanor being Eleanor.

"Yes," she rumbled, her tone absent of all emotion and inflection. The steel of her voice seemed to cut straight through the center of the confrontation, evoking a sudden chill in the air.

I was pretty sure that was Jessamine's work, but I didn't split my concentration to be sure.

It was effective. The hunter straightened out of her crouch.

I read her reactions minutely, holding my defensive position against the possibility of a trick. I expected anger, frustration. I'd seen before that she was arrogant, not used to being obstructed. Having to concede to a larger force than her own would surely infuriate her.

But instead, a sudden excitement jolted through her thoughts. Though her eyes never entirely left Beau or me, she was cataloguing in her peripheral vision the threats facing her. Not with fear or annoyance, but with a strange, wild pleasure. Her eyes still skipped over Jessamine and Archie, seeing them only as numbers in a census. Eleanor's threatening mass seemed abruptly exhilarating to her.

"It appears we have a lot to learn about each other," Lauren observed in a mollifying tone.

And then Joss's inexplicable elation gave way to planning. To strategy. To memories of past victories. And for the first time, I realized—with dread and panic—that she was no mere hunter.

"Indeed," Carine agreed, her voice hard.

I desperately wanted to know what Archie was seeing now, but I couldn't afford to miss any detail in my adversary's thoughts.

I listened as she remembered cornering target after target, as she relived the lengths of her more exhaustive pursuits, as she catalogued the opposition she'd overcome to get to her prey. None of the previous challenges were greater than what she was looking at now. Eight—no, seven, she corrected. A coven of seven—certainly with some talents among them—and one helpless human boy who smelled better than any meal she'd had in the last century.

Thrilling.

She couldn't start here, with so many protecting him.

Wait until they separate. Use the time for reconnaissance.

"But we'd like to accept your invitation," Lauren was saying to Carine. Joss was only superficially aware of the conversation; she was absorbed in her planning.

Until Lauren added, "And, of course, we will not harm the human boy. We won't hunt in your range, as I said."

This broke through both Joss's new exhilaration and her vigilant focus. She turned away from me to stare at Lauren with amazement, but Lauren was facing Carine, and she didn't see as the shock turned to loathing.

You dare speak for me?

The heat of her reaction made it clear that the coven would not stay intact. I heard Joss's resolution to use Lauren as long as she was convenient, but she would rather kill her than leave her behind when that usefulness was over. It appeared that her desire to destroy Lauren was based entirely on this one comment; I couldn't find another source of resentment. Joss was easily provoked, I decided, and unforgiving. Perhaps I could use that.

Joss had no thought of Victor choosing Lauren. I wondered whether they were a mated pair, but her thoughts didn't give away any special feeling for him. They must have been together longer than the alliance with Lauren. They were the original coven, and she the interloper. It fit with how easily Joss contemplated disposing of the newcomer.

"We'll show you the way," Carine said, less like an offer and more like a command. "Jessamine, Royal, Earnest?"

Jessamine didn't like this—separating from Archie, especially when things were going poorly. But she couldn't argue with Carine now. We needed to present a united front, and she didn't want to draw attention to herself. Carine had no idea of the cover Jessamine was generating. Jessamine resigned herself to keeping up the concealment as long as necessary; if a fight was coming, she intended it to be an ambush.

She looked at Archie, who nodded at her. He was confident he wasn't in danger. She accepted that but was still unhappy. He darted to Beau's side.

Without needing to discuss, Jessamine, Earnest, and Roy moved together to obstruct Joss's view of Beau as they joined Carine.

Joss was not perturbed. Her desire to attack had vanished. She was plotting now.

Eleanor retreated last, her eyes on Joss as she moved backward into position beside me.

Carine gestured for Lauren and her coven to lead the way out of the clearing. Lauren complied quickly, with Victor right behind. His mind was still full of escape routes.

Joss hesitated for a fraction of a second, and her eyes returned to us. I knew Beau was invisible behind Eleanor, but she wasn't looking for him this time. She stared directly into my eyes and smiled.

Something caught her attention—Archie, uncloaked as Jessamine moved away from him. There was a flicker of surprise as she took in his face for the first time, perhaps wondering why she hadn't thought to appraise him before, but that surprise did not resolve into words before she turned and dashed after the others. Carine and Jessamine ran close on her heels, Roy and Earnest following.

I had to work to keep my voice from coming out as a snarl or a shriek. "Let's move, Beau."

He seemed paralyzed. His wide eyes were so blank that I wondered whether he even understood what I was saying. But I didn't have time to soothe him, or treat him if he were in shock. Right now the only priority was escape.

I took his elbow and pulled him in the opposite direction from where the others had just disappeared. After one staggering step, he found his footing and half ran to keep up with me. Eleanor and Archie moved behind us, hiding him, just in case.

I was positive Joss would not follow Lauren back to our house. When she found an opportunity, she would break off and circle back to catch Beau's trail. I couldn't know how long it would take her to find that opportunity, but I had to act as if she were already watching. If she were, it would be better to let her think that we would move at Beau's speed. I doubted she would be surprised for long when his scent became suddenly tenuous in the trees, but if we could obscure how we were traveling, she would have to pause to reassess.

Her thoughts were too far away for me to pinpoint her now, though I had a sense of where the larger group was. I couldn't be positive she was still with them. If she ran up the side of one of these peaks, she'd have a good view of our movements. Still, I chafed at our velocity—or lack thereof.

Eleanor and Archie didn't comment on our pace. They were both aware that we might have an audience, though Archie couldn't see clearly what Joss was doing. Her path wasn't going to cross ours here, nor in the near future. He'd only seen the strangers in the clearing in the first place because they had decided to interact with us. It wasn't easy for him to see outsiders unless they were with a member of his family. Joss would be mostly invisible until she decided to accost one of us.

Here, let me carry him so we can get moving, Eleanor offered.

"I'm faster," I snapped. As soon as we were deep enough into the trees to be invisible to any watcher, I lifted Beau and settled him against my back. He understood, not too far gone into shock, then. He wrapped his legs tightly around my waist and locked his arms around my neck. His face was tucked down against my shoulder blade again.

I thought it would feel better, safer, when I was running, when we were racing away from the danger at an acceptable speed, but the momentum did nothing to dissolve the solid block of panic that seemed to weigh me down. I knew this was an illusion—I was flying through the trees as fast as I could go without hurting him—but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was making no progress at all.

Even when the Jeep appeared, and in less than a second I had Beau in the backseat, it felt like I was lagging behind.

"Strap him in," I hissed to Eleanor. She'd chosen the back with Beau, recognizing that she would be his bodyguard as long as I needed to drive. She was willing, even eager.

For once, Eleanor's disposition toward humor was quelled—a mercy, as I would not have been able to bear it now. Her temper was roused, and her thoughts were all directed toward violence.

Archie sat by me, and without my asking, he was sprinting through all the futures we could face now. Mostly there was a dark road ahead of us, flying away under the tires, with no clear destination in mind. But there were other futures going in the wrong direction, back in Forks, inside Beau's home and our own, though I couldn't imagine what would turn me around.

We lurched and careened across the rough road as fast as I dared go without chancing flipping the Jeep, but it continued to feel like I was losing a race.

While Archie kept searching—there was the blistering sunlight again, why would we choose that kind of location when it would trap us indoors?—I focused on the road. Finally we were back to the highway, and I wished fervently we were in another car, any other—mine, Roy's, Carine's. The Jeep wasn't modified for racing. But there was nothing for it.

I was vaguely aware of the sound of my own voice, snarling out half-articulated obscenities, but it felt distant from me, as though not under my control.

That was the only sound besides the roar of the engine, the tires moving against the wet road, Beau's uneven breathing in the back, and his thudding heart.

Archie was seeing a hotel room now, but it could be anywhere. The curtains were closed.

"Where are we going?"

Beau's question sounded like it was coming from a distance, too. My thoughts were too wound up inside Archie's visions or frozen with dread for me to compose an answer. It was almost as if the question didn't apply to me.

His voice had quavered, little more than a whisper. But now it turned hard.

"Is anyone going to tell me what's happening?"

I pulled away from the confusing swirl of Archie's futures so that I could be present. Beau must be terrified.

"We have to get you away from here—far away—now," I explained.

I would have thought the idea of being far away would be a welcome one, but he was suddenly shouting, his hands fighting with the harness as he tried to loose himself.

"What? But I have to go home!"

How did I explain to him that he'd lost his home for now, that the loathsome hunter had stolen more than that from him tonight?

The priority for the moment, though, was keeping his from throwing himself out of the Jeep.

Eleanor was already wondering if she should restrain him. I spoke her name, low and hard, so she would know that I wanted her to do this. She caught his wrists carefully in her huge hands and immobilized them.

"You can't go home, Beau."

"I don't understand, Edythe. What do you mean?"

Archie spoke for this first time.

"Pull over, Edythe."

The calmness in his voice irritated me. He was thinking about what Beau was saying, though—clearly—none of those concerns meant anything. Archie should have known better. Beau didn't grasp what had happened. How could he? He had no context for any of this.

I gunned the engine automatically, suddenly realizing that Archie didn't have all the context, either. For all his prescience, there were things he couldn't see.

"Edythe." Archie was still calm, his tone so reasonable. "Look at all the different ways this can go. We need to think this through."

"You don't understand," I exploded. "She's a tracker, Archie! Did you see that? She's a tracker!"

Eleanor reacted more powerfully to the word than Archie did. Because of course he had seen that—the moment I'd decided to shout it at him.

We'd not had a great deal of exposure to trackers, aside from stories. The most powerful of them were far away, serving in Italy. Carine knew one, but as she was the furthest thing from sociable, none of us had ever met Alison. Eleanor and Archie only knew trackers as those with a talent for finding things, finding people. They didn't understand the concept in the more dynamic sense. Joss didn't just have a talent for finding people. Tracking was everything to her.

"Pull over, Edythe," Archie said, as if I hadn't spoken.

I glowered at him while urging the engine faster.

That's not how tonight goes, he thought with perfect assurance. "Do it."

"Archie, listen!" I seethed, wishing I could put everything I knew directly into his head for once instead of the other way around. He didn't get it. "I saw her mind. Tracking is her passion, her obsession—and she wants him, Archie—him, specifically. She's already begun."

He was unmoved by my outburst. "She doesn't know where—"

I cut him off, impatient with his refusal to see. "How long do you think it will take her to cross Beau's scent in town? Her plan was already set before the words were out of Lauren's mouth."

Beau gasped, "Charlie," and then he was shouting again. "Charlie! We have to go back. We have to get Charlie! Edythe, turn around!"

"He's right," Archie said. Still too calm.

My foot eased off the accelerator without my giving it that order. Obviously, I couldn't have Charlie in danger, either. But how could I be in two places at once?

"Let's just look at our options for a minute," Archie coaxed.

I was shocked by the image suddenly in his head. I'd not seen him tracing this future—I would have interrupted, and violently, if I had—but he somehow had it all laid out. Complete.

Archie saw one version of the future in which the tracker lost interest and abandoned the chase.

It's meaningless to her without the prize, he explained.

It looked just like the old vision, but I could tell it was new. Freshly generated. Beau, his eyes blazing a red so bright it nearly glowed, his features as sharp as though they had been chiseled from diamond, his skin whiter than ice.

Sure enough, the tracker disappeared from this version of destiny.

And Beau's brilliant eyes stared at me coldly... accusingly.

I wrenched the Jeep onto the shoulder and braked hard. We jerked to a stop.

"There are no options," I snarled at Archie.

"We're not leaving Charlie!" Beau yelled at me.

"We have to take him back," Eleanor interjected.

"No."

Eleanor looked at me in the rearview mirror. "She's no match for us, Edythe. She won't be able to touch him."

"She'll wait." She enjoyed the waiting.

Eleanor smiled without amusement. "I can wait, too."

I wanted to rip my hair out in frustration. "You didn't see—you don't understand! Once she commits to a hunt, she's unshakable. We can't reason with her. We can't scare her off. We'd have to kill her."

Eleanor looked at me like I was being slow. "Yes."

Of course we have to kill her, she thought.

"And the male," I reminded her. "He's with her." This didn't affect Eleanor at all, so I added, "If it turns into a fight, the Lauren will side with them, too," though I doubted that.

"There are enough of us."

Did she count Roy and Earnest in her tally? Of course not. She thought she could do it alone, as if they would stand and face her directly, without subterfuge.

"There's another option," Archie repeated.

It's coming anyway. Why not embrace it and make him safe now?

The fury that gripped me felt dangerous, as though I might actually hurt Archie now, despite loving him. I tried to contain it, letting it vent only in words.

"There is no other option!" I roared, inches from his face.

Archie didn't flinch.

Don't be stupid about this. There are too many futures, too many twists and turns that I can't unravel. It's too far-reaching. You're right that she won't give up... Unless she has no motivation to continue.

In Archie's head, I could see decades of Joss hunting Beau while I tried to hide him. A thousand different traps and ruses. Clearly, she'd be harder to kill than Eleanor imagined.

Well, I had no problem being vigilant for decades. I wouldn't trade his life for an easier future.

A small, shaky voice interrupted us.

"Does anyone want to hear my idea?"

"No," I snapped, still glaring at Archie. He scowled back.

"Listen," Beau continued. "You take me back—"

"No."

"Yes! You take me back," he insisted, his voice stronger and angrier now. "I tell my dad I want to go home to Phoenix. I pack my bags. We wait till this tracker is watching, and then we run. She'll follow us and leave Charlie alone. Then you can take me any damned place you want."

So he wasn't thinking entirely irrationally, offering himself as a sacrifice in exchange for Charlie's life or our protection. He had a plan.

"It's not a bad idea, really," Eleanor mused. She had little faith in the tracker's abilities; she'd rather leave a trail to follow than have no idea from what direction the enemy would appear. She also thought it would be quicker this way, and despite her words before, Eleanor really wasn't much for patience.

Archie considered, watching how Beau's resolve shifted his futures. He could see that, if nothing else, the tracker would be there for the performance.

"It might work," he allowed. New visions were crowding fast upon the old. We'd split up, three different directions, leaving only the trail we wanted to leave. He saw Eleanor and Carine hunting in the forest. Sometimes Royal was there, too, sometimes it was Eleanor and Jessamine, but no grouping held stable.

"And we can't just leave his father unprotected. You know that, Edythe," Archie added, still watching the play of the images. This part he was sure of. We would go back and give the tracker something to focus on besides Charlie.

But in these very clear visions, the tracker was too close to Beau. The thought strained my already raw nerves.

"It's too dangerous," I muttered. "I don't want her within a hundred miles of Beau."

"She's not getting through us." Eleanor was frustrated by what she saw as my trying to prevent a fight. She didn't feel any of the stakes.

Archie worked through the immediate outcomes of this decision—a decision he was making now, seeing that I was frozen with uncertainty. There was no version that ended in a fight at Charlie's house. The tracker would only wait and observe.

"I don't see her attacking," he confirmed. "She's the kind that goes around, not through. She'll wait for us to leave him unprotected."

"It won't take long for her to realize that's not going to happen."

"I have to go home, Edythe," Beau ordered, working to make his voice sound more assertive.

I tried to think through the haze of panic, desperation, and guilt. Did it make sense to set our own trap rather than to wait for the tracker to set hers? That sounded right, but when I tried to imagine allowing Beau to be in closer proximity to her, essentially making him bait, I couldn't force the picture into my mind.

"Your plan takes too long. We've got no time for the packing charade."

"If I don't give him some kind of excuse, he'll make trouble for your family. Maybe call the FBI or something if he thinks you've... I don't know, kidnapped me."

"That doesn't matter."

"Yes. It does. There's a way to keep everyone safe, and that's what we're going to do."

I thought of the tracker finding Charlie at home alone. I knew this must be in the forefront of Beau's mind. I could only imagine how panicked and desperate it would make him. None of my family was vulnerable that way. Beau was my only vulnerability.

We had to lead the tracker away from Charlie. That much was obvious. This was the only part of his plan that actually mattered. But if it didn't work the first time, if the tracker didn't see our performance, I wouldn't push our luck. We'd come up with another version. Eleanor could babysit Charlie as long as necessary. I knew she'd be happy to take on the tracker alone. I was also sure, given Jessamine's enhancements in the clearing, that the tracker would never willingly put herself within Eleanor's reach.

"You're leaving tonight, whether the tracker sees or not," I told Beau, feeling too defeated to look up. "Tell Charlie whatever you want—as long as it's quick. Pack the first things your hands touch, then get in your truck. I don't care what Charlie says. You have fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes from the time you cross the doorstep or I carry you out."

I revved the engine, then executed a tight U-turn, in a different kind of hurry now. I wanted to get the bait part over with as quickly as possible.

"Eleanor?" he asked.

I could see in Eleanor's mind that he was looking at his fettered hands.

"Oh, sorry," Eleanor muttered, freeing him.

She waited for me to object, then relaxed when I didn't.

Now that the decision was made, I focused on Archie's visions again. There weren't very many options, maybe thirty solid versions. In most of them, the tracker would show up at Charlie's house about two minutes after we did, keeping a safe distance. In a few, she came after we were gone. But even in those, she ignored Charlie and followed our trail.

After that, the possibilities narrowed further. We would go home. The tracker would stay even farther back, not wanting to risk a confrontation. The redhead would be waiting for her there. My family would split up. In no version did Lauren help Joss and Victor. So we would only have to split into three groups.

The one thing I didn't understand was how the makeup of those three groups kept shifting. It didn't make sense.

Regardless, the next part was very clear.

"This is how it's going to happen," I explained to Eleanor. "When we get to the house, if the tracker is not there, I will walk Beau to the door. Then he has fifteen minutes." I met Beau's eyes in the mirror again. "Eleanor, you take the outside of the house. Archie, you get the truck. I'll be inside as long as he is. After he's out, you two can take the Jeep home and tell Carine."

"No way," Eleanor objected. "I'm with you." You owe me one, remember?

It shouldn't surprise me she would want that. This was probably why the future groupings were confused.

"Think it through, El. I don't know how long I'll be gone."

"Until we know how far this is going to go, I'm with you."

There was no wavering in her mind. Maybe it was for the best. I let it go.

In Archie's head, it was Carine and Jessamine hunting in the forest now.

"If the tracker is there," I continued, "we keep driving."

"We're going to make it there before her," Archie insisted.

It was ninety-nine percent certain, but I wasn't taking any chances with some outlier version that was less clear than the others.

"What are we going to do with the Jeep?" Archie asked.

"You're driving it home."

"No, I'm not," he said with absolute certainty.

The vision of how we would divide shifted around again.

I growled a string of archaic curses in his direction.

Beau interrupted in a low voice. "We can't all fit in my truck."

As if we were going to make our escape in that geriatric sloth. I said nothing, though, knowing how sensitive he was about his truck. I didn't have the energy for a pointless argument.

When I didn't respond, he whispered, "I think you should let me go alone."

I'd missed his meaning again. Naturally, he'd think it was his job to sacrifice himself so that Charlie could have a redundant number of bodyguards.

"Beau, don't be stupid," I begged, though it didn't sound like pleading when the words came through my clenched teeth.

"Listen, Charlie's not an imbecile. If you're not in town tomorrow, he's going to get suspicious."

There were so many layers of meaning I missed entirely with him. Was this the real reason for his willingness to endanger himself, creating a believable alibi for me?

"That's irrelevant," I said in a tone that was intended to sound final. "We'll make sure he's safe, and that's all that matters."

"Then what about this tracker?" he countered. "She saw the way you acted tonight. She's going to think you're with me, wherever you are."

All three of us froze, surprised by this direction. Even Archie. He'd been paying attention to other futures than this conversation.

Eleanor embraced the logic immediately. "Edythe, listen to him. I think he's right."

"He is," Archie agreed.

He could see that Beau was right: whichever grouping I was part of was the group the tracker would choose to follow. It would undermine the plan and make an offensive all but impossible. Worst of all, it would make him bait again, and this time there were too many futures to be sure he'd be safe.

But what was the other option? Leave Beau?

"I can't do that."

Beau spoke up again, his voice as calm as if his first pronouncement had already been accepted. "Eleanor should stay, too. She definitely got an eyeful of Eleanor."

"What?" Eleanor demanded, stung.

But Archie knew what she was really objecting to. "You'll get a better crack at her if you stay."

The divisions, fluctuating so wildly before, seemed to be settling. He saw me with Eleanor and Carine, first fleeing through the forest, and then changing course in order to hunt.

Where was Beau in this future?

I stared at Archie. "You think I should let him go alone?"

I saw the answer in his visions before he could say it out loud. A standard room in a mediocre hotel, Beau curled into a tight ball as he slept, Archie and Jessamine frozen sentinels in the other room.

"Of course not. Jess and I will take him."

"I can't do that." But my voice was hollow now. I couldn't see another way. If the tracker was going to choose me as the mark, then I should be far away from Beau. I would have to control the panic, the anguish, and be a hunter. I tried to quash the small amount of pleasure in the idea of destroying the vampire who'd ignited this nightmare. Beau's safety was the only factor.

Beau was not done with his suggestions.

"Hang out here for a week," he said quietly. I glanced at him again in the mirror. How little he understood about what had been started tonight. "A few days?" he offered, seeming to think I was objecting to his timeline. I could only pray this would end in a week.

"Let Charlie see you," he continued, "and lead this hunter on a wild-goose chase. Make sure she's completely off my trail. Then come and meet me. Take a roundabout route, of course, and then Jessamine and Archie can go home."

I looked through Archie's reaction to this plan, and felt the first relief of the night when I saw that this was possible. There were futures where I would find Beau with Archie and Jessamine. The particular destiny I traced resolved into going underground in the long term. The tracker had evaded me. But there were many other threads weaving and unweaving in his mind. In some of them, I found Beau to take him home. Again, the brilliant sunlight intruded, disorienting me. Where were we?

"Meet you where?" I asked. Beau's decisions were the ones driving the future. He must already know this answer.

His voice was certain. "Phoenix."

But I'd seen the next act in Archie's head. I'd heard the cover story Beau would give Charlie, and I knew what the tracker would hear.

"No. She'll hear that's where you're going," I reminded him.

"And you'll make it look like that's a trick, obviously." He drew out the last word, sounding annoyed. "She'll know that you'll know that she's listening. She'll never believe I'm actually going where I say I am going."

"He's diabolical," Eleanor chuckled.

I was not so convinced. "And if that doesn't work?"

"There are several million people in Phoenix," Beau said, his tone still irritated. I wondered if it was fear that was sapping his patience. I knew it had exhausted mine.

"It's not that hard to find a phone book," I growled.

He rolled his eyes. "It's called a hotel, Edythe."

Archie decided to interrupt our pointless bickering. "Edythe, we'll be with him."

"What are you going to do in Phoenix?"

"Stay indoors."

Eleanor didn't have access to Archie's visions, but the picture in her head was close to what I knew was coming. Eleanor and I in the forest, hot on the tracker's trail. "I kind of like it," she said.

"Shut up, El."

"Look, if we try to take her down while he's still around, there's a much better chance that someone will get hurt—he'll get hurt, or you will, trying to protect him. Now, if we get her alone..." The picture in her head morphed as she imagined the tracker cornered now, herself closing in.

If we could manage it, if we could deal with the tracker quickly, then this would be the right choice. Why was it so painful to make?

I would feel better if there was any evidence that Beau was concerned about his own safety at all. That he understood everything he was risking. That it wasn't just his own life on the line.

Maybe that was the key. He never worried about himself... but he always worried about me. If I made this about my distress rather than his actual mortal peril, perhaps he would be more cautious.

My control was weak. I spoke in barely more than a whisper, worried that I might scream otherwise. "Beau."

He met my eyes in the mirror. His were defensive rather than afraid.

"If you let anything happen to yourself—anything at all—I'm holding you personally responsible," I said softly. "Do you understand that?"

His lips trembled. Had he finally realized the danger? He swallowed loudly and muttered, "Ditto, Edythe."

Close enough.

Archie's mind was in a million places, many of them a sunny freeway viewed through dark-tinted glass. Beau always sat in the backseat, Archie's arm around him, staring blankly ahead. Jessamine watched from the driver's seat. I thought of my sister, trapped in a small vehicle with Beau's scent for so many hours.

"Can Jessamine handle this?" I demanded.

"Give her some credit, Edythe," Archie chided. "She's been doing very, very well, all things considered."

But his mind flashed through a dozen future scenes, just in case. Jessamine didn't lose focus in a single one.

I appraised Archie. The tiny exterior made him look fragile, but I knew he was a fierce opponent. The tracker or anyone else would underestimate him. That should count for something. Still, I felt uneasy picturing him having to physically protect Beau.

"Can you handle this?" I muttered.

His eyes narrowed in outrage—put on; he'd seen the question coming.

I could take you blindfolded.

He snarled at me, long and loud, a disturbingly ferocious sound that echoed against the Jeep's glass and pushed Beau's heart into a sprint.

For half a second, I couldn't help but smile at Archie's ridiculous display, and then all humor vanished again. How had it come to this? How would I let myself be separated from Beau, no matter how lethal his guardians?

Another unpleasant thought flickered through my brain. Beau and Archie alone, embarking on their foreseen friendship. Would Archie tell Beau his solution to this nightmare?

I nodded once, a sharp jerk, to let him know that I'd accepted his role as Beau's protector. "But keep your opinions to yourself," I warned.