“There is no debate. She stays here,” Nikolas stated unwaveringly.

It was time for another tactic. “Alright Mr. I Know Better Than Everyone Else, what will you do when you find them? I bet they didn’t teach you in warrior school how to handle a bunch of frightened troll kids.”

“Your troll friend will come with us.”

“And who will stay here with me while you guys are on your rescue mission?”

“The werewolves should be able to keep you safe here for a few hours,” he replied as if that settled everything.

“Really? And what happens if that witch finds us again? Wouldn’t I be safer with a bunch of warriors, two werewolves and a troll?”

“Sara come. I keep her safe,” Remy vowed firmly and I saw Roland shiver at my troll friend’s fierce face. No one in the room could argue that there was a better bodyguard in the world.

Nikolas glowered at me for a good ten seconds. “You do not leave his side.” His tone brooked no argument and for once I conceded without a fight.

I grabbed my coat from the hall closet and felt the comforting shape of the Mohiri knife in the inside pocket. I really hoped I did not have to use the knife tonight, but lady luck appeared to have deserted me lately and I’d hate to be caught out without a weapon.

Peter called shotgun and I glared at him when I was forced to share the back seat with Nikolas. Remy refused to go anywhere near the car and said he would follow us on foot.

I looked around for Chris and Nikolas said, “Chris will follow us.”

A tense silence fell over the car as we headed for the interstate. I looked out my window, intending to ignore Nikolas the whole way to Portland. So much for the olive branch I’d offered him the night of the storm. The whole damn tree was going up in smoke now.

Peter lasted a whole ten minutes before he turned in his seat to fix me with a ‘don’t you think you have something to tell us’ look.

“What?”

He shook his head. “Really? That’s all you have to say about the troll who was just sitting in your living room?”

I felt Nikolas’s eyes on me and I saw Roland darting glances at me in the rearview mirror. “I met Remy not long after I moved here to live with Nate, before I met you guys. I used to go exploring down by the old lumber mill and one day he saw me and just decided to show himself to me. He was only a year older than me and pretty adventurous for a troll.” What I did not tell them was that Remy had spied on me healing a squirrel with a broken leg and he was so curious that he’d watched me for a few weeks before he finally decided to introduce himself.

“Weren’t you scared?” Roland asked. “I would have wet my pants if a troll walked up to me in the woods when I was that age.”

Peter snickered. “You still would.”

A smile broke over my face as I remembered that day. “I was scared at first. Even back then Remy looked pretty fierce. But he knew some broken English so we were able to talk and I found out he was as nervous as me. It was a… pretty hard time for me. I’d just lost my dad and moved to a strange place and I was lonely. Remy was my first friend here.” My chest tightened. It was the first time I’d ever talked to anyone about those dark days when I first came to New Hastings.

“But trolls don’t like anyone, especially humans,” Peter protested. “They kill anyone who gets near their young. Weren’t you afraid of the adult trolls?”

I laughed. “I didn’t know any better at first and Remy didn’t tell me. He was a lot of fun to be with. I taught him English and he taught me all about the real world. He was the one who told me that vampires really did exist and most likely killed my dad. By the time he took me to meet his family, I didn’t know I was supposed to be afraid of them. They weren’t happy but they didn’t threaten me either. Maybe it’s because I was a little kid or maybe they knew all along I wasn’t human – I don’t know. Anyway, I don’t see them very often. Usually, it’s just me and Remy.”

“Okay, you are officially the most badass girl I’ve ever met,” Peter declared. “To think we were worried you’d be afraid of us when you found out what we are.”

After that Roland and Peter peppered me with questions until I threw up my hands and said no more. Nikolas remained silent throughout the entire conversation but I felt his gaze on me the whole time. It took a lot of effort not to sneak a glance at him to see what he was thinking. He was probably finally asking himself what the hell he had gotten himself into.

I hadn’t been to Portland since that night at the Attic and I thought it would bother me, but I was too worried about Remy’s cousins to feel anything but worry for them. My hands clenched painfully in my lap while Roland drove around looking for the address Malloy had given me, and there were fingernail impressions in my palms by the time we found the gated estate. We drove by once to check it out then parked the car in a new development a street away to avoid detection.

Remy ran up to me as soon as I climbed out of the car. “Little ones close!”

“I thought you couldn’t track them,” Roland said.

“Not unless they close,” Remy explained. He touched his chest. “Feel them here.”

A spark of hope lit in my chest. “Malloy was right.”

Chris joined us a few minutes later after he did a bit more surveillance. He described what he’d seen to Nikolas. “The place is heavily guarded but nothing we haven’t dealt with before. I’d say a dozen or so armed men on the perimeter with more inside the house.”