Seraphine brought the food.Klaus had not expected that. He thought it would be a servant, one of the quiet vampires who moved through the lower levels doing their work without drawing attention. But instead, it was her.She carried the tray easily and set it down on the small table. Then she stepped back, hands together, watching him the same way she had been watching him since the forest."Dorian sends food and you bring it yourself," Klaus said."Dorian sends food. I came on my own." She sat in the chair Dorian had used, much more casually. "I wanted to talk to you before the meeting later.""About what he said.""About what he left out." She nodded toward the tray. "Eat. I'll talk while you do. You will need your focus, and you cannot do that hungry."Klaus started eating. The food was good, much better than what he had been living on. Real food, properly made. He kept watching her as he ate."The inner sanctum," she began, "is not for guests. It is not for refugees. It is for thi

The formal meeting ended.Dorian stood to indicate it and the room responded to him the way rooms responded to Dorian, immediately and without discussion. Corvus gathered his papers with the energy of someone mentally reorganizing his question list. Seraphine rose with the particular efficiency of someone who had been in a great many meetings and had developed a reliable method for exiting them.Klaus stood.He was still processing the arrangement. The word asset sitting in the back of his mind in the specific way that words sat when they were true and uncomfortable and you were going to need to decide what to do with them. He was also very tired, in the way he had been tired since the attack in the clearing, the specific exhaustion of a body doing significant repair work while also being asked to function.He was heading for the door when Dorian spoke again."There is one more thing."Klaus stopped, and turned.Dorian was standing beside the table with both hands resting on its surfa

Seraphine was already in the training room when he arrived.He had expected a room that looked like a training room. He had spent fifteen years in training rooms and had a clear internal picture of what they required, open floor space, enough ceiling clearance for a shifted wolf, surfaces that could take impact without damage, adequate light.The room Seraphine had brought him to had none of those things.It was small, smaller than his quarters. The walls were close enough that he could have touched both sides simultaneously if he stretched, which he had no intention of doing but the option was there and the room made sure he knew it. The ceiling was low. The floor was stone, smooth and cold. There was one sconce on the far wall burning its blue-white light. There was nothing else in the room except Seraphine, standing at its center with her hands clasped behind her back and her crimson eyes on him with the particular attention she gave to things she was about to take apart and study.