of his eyes. A stranger wouldn't have seen it, but I'd spent months reading his face. He walked wide around the desk, so he'd be out of reach of Merlin. He'd learned to be a better person, and a worse victim, living with me. He came around, and put his hand on my arm, underneath Asher's jacket. Having them both touch me was as if someone had stuck an electric plug in my spine. It made me jump, but underneath the rush of power was the feeling that it was going just one way, into me. Shit. I was really, really going to have to get better at this energy thing.

"You are very new at being the center of this triumvirate of power," Merlin said, like he was certain of it, and like it was interesting to him.

"Yeah, there's a learning curve."

"There are ways to keep the good mother from feeding upon your energy."

"I'm all ears," I said.

He frowned at me.

"I mean, I'd love to hear it." Sometimes I forgot that slang does not travel well, not across countries, or centuries.

"A holy item hidden inside at least two layers of pillows will keep her it bay."

"That sounds risky," I said, raising my newly marked hand. The move-nent made Damian move, almost a stumble. I felt Nathaniel reach for him, cnew when he had put an arm around the taller man's waist.

"Even vampires can sleep thus, if they believe and they do not call their )wn power."

I needed to feed, but I didn't want a mistake here. I bunked with too many empires to want a holy item going off at the wrong moment. "A vampire :an sleep with a holy item under his pillow?"

"Yes, or underneath the bed, though pillow is better."

"What happens if the holy item touches vampire flesh?"

"Look at your own hand for that answer," he said.

"Are you saying that the cross burned me because of my own power, not /lommie Dearest?"

"You are a succubus, Ms. Blake; that has long been a power associated nth the demonic."

"I've come up against demons. Vampirism is a contagion, not a demonic nything. It's a blood-borne disease. A doctor back in the 1900s sort of fig-red out how to cure it. You don't cure demonic possession with a blood •ansfusion."

"Cured it?" Merlin said. "With a blood transfusion, truly?"