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closer to a roar than I’d ever heard it. I’d have screamed right back at him but for the note of desperation I heard threading under the anger, brightening his eyes to the color of flames.
    I thought about it. Why would a woman who’d pissed off her employer enough that he’d abandoned—but not fired—
    her, come trudging back to his door? She probably needed the work. And there was her husband’s job to consider.
    Plus maybe she felt loyal to Helena. More likely it was a combination of al of those reasons plus a few others I could name. But there was only one that real y mattered.
    I looked into the face of the man an old Italian housekeeper had stared at over two hundred years ago, and before thought could move me I was standing so close to him I could’ve felt his chest rise into mine if he’d chosen that moment to sigh. I looked down, momentarily fascinated by the sight of my slender white fingers, not hanging empty at my side, but instead wrapped around his broad, workingman’s hand.
    I said, “Until this moment I never completely understood why my Granny May sat by my Gramps Lew in those last days of his life, when he couldn’t talk anymore and she knew he wouldn’t wake up. Why every single morning she rejoiced that he was stil there with her. To hold hands with.
    It was enough for her. You know?”
    That line between his brows—how can you love a man’s frown? But I saw it and was glad. It meant he was tuned in—to me. I went on. “Some people, yeah, you catch the first coach outta there and you never look back. But some…” I paused to lock on to his gaze. “You can somehow see past al the bul shit to a soul that shines so bright it brings tears to your eyes. And that’s why you stay.” I dropped my eyes to our interlocked fingers. “Even if al you have left is holding hands.”
    Because I knew it would break my heart when he pul ed away, I slid free first. When I looked up again, Vayl had stepped back, made his face into the mask he’d worn constantly in the first months of our partnership.
    But I could hear a new thoughtfulness in his voice when he said, “You must understand that I was angry because you are Helena’s sole model of virtue and genteel behavior.
    If I cannot count on you to provide a proper example for her I fear this whole facade I have built for her wil crumble on her head and she may never recover. We must teach her how to survive in this society. How to be strong and flourish.” He emphasized his words with pumps of his fist, like he’d beat down anyone who came against his ward, even if it was a sharp-tongued socialite with a reticule ful of invitations and the power to withhold them al from Helena.
    I said, “She means a lot to you, doesn’t she?” His shrug barely creased the seams of his coat. It seemed like none of us could purely explain our feelings anymore. But we could stil make concrete gestures. Which he did now, by turning back toward our hotel.
    We walked in silence until, again, we stood in front of Riad Almoravid. Vayl’s golden eyes climbed wal s so old that, if they could, they’d double over and chuckle at his immaturity. He took a quick breath as a shadow passed in front of the drawn curtains of Bergman’s room. Miles wouldn’t leave his den wil ingly, which was why Cole and I were now signing to each other, arguing silently about which one of us would be the loser who had to go drag him out. We shoved our hands into our pockets when Vayl turned to us suddenly and said, “I never thought to have another child. Not just because I am a vampire. But because I performed so poorly as a father with my first two.
    If I fail with Helena, I wil never forgive myself.” I hadn’t heard the girl’s story before. And the fact that he’d never mentioned her didn’t leave me much hope for a happy ending. So instead of reassuring him I said, “We al know you’re doing your best by her.”
    “It wil mean nothing if Roldan takes her.” As if I needed