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blood. His face blanched even paler as he looked around at the destruction and chaos.
    By this point, Ben Sadler wasn’t the only one with a headache. “Jeez, people,” I muttered. “It’s over. Stop screaming already.”
    One of those screams, more of a roar actually, was from one guest in particular, and those roars were in Russian, so I couldn’t understand a word except a couple that I’d picked up from a friend and fellow SPI agent who was Russian—and a werewolf—and a believer in expressing himself fully in his mother tongue.
    I held my breath. It was Viktor Kain, and he was just around the corner, at the remains of the display case that’d held the pride and joy of his hoard.
    A shadow fell over me.
    “Where are my diamonds?”
    And now he was here.
    Each word, in precise, heavily accented English, came from the Russian standing not five feet away. My heart rate shot from eighty to eighty gazillion, and I was dimly aware that I couldn’t feel my legs.
    What wasn’t so dim was the question that was bouncing around in my head: why the hell was he asking me?
    He was close enough to inflict more than one kind of violence, but he didn’t have to touch to terrify, and he knew it. The reason had everything to do with the dragon aura that reared behind him and loomed over the entire Temple of Dendur. I realized with a flash of panic that somehow the Russian knew I could see him for what he really was. Knew it, and was happy about it.
    Viktor Kain reached out, not with his hand or fist, but with his mind. He didn’t use words; he didn’t need to. In a mere flicker of thought, the Russian dragon showed me what he had done through the centuries to those who had defied him, and what he was fully prepared to do to me with no more thought than squashing a bug.
    I knew I should be afraid. I was.
    There were supernatural beings that could project their thoughts and words into the mind of another. It took a level of magical skill that was as rare as it was dangerous. I assumed that Vivienne Sagadraco had that skill. I knew her sister, Tiamat, did. A creature so ancient and powerful that the Babylonians had worshiped her as a goddess.
    Viktor Kain was probably accustomed to getting the same treatment in the form of bowing, scraping, and cringing from his employees. His three men who’d failed to stop those harpies looked like they were ready to start groveling the instant Kain turned his attention from me to them. The Russian may have caught me kneeling on the floor, but if I was to keep one ounce of my self-respect, I couldn’t stay that way. I fought to shove down the whimpers that were trying to escape from my vocal cords. They weren’t gonna give up without a fight. Neither was I.
    “As you can see, I seldom need to repeat my requests, but for the benefit of your uninformed companion, I will. Once.” His dark eyes fell on Ben Sadler and glittered with something ugly. “Where are my diamonds?”
    My whimpers turned into a “Huh?” Ben Sadler had tried to stop the robbery. Though if Kain knew I was a seer, knowing appraising diamonds wasn’t the only talent in Ben Sadler’s skill set would be a no-brainer, and the Russian definitely had a brain.
    I put one hand on the table to keep myself from stumbling—or shaking—and got to my feet. It took everything I had and then some to not only stay on the floor, but to go facedown in a full groveling bow. I kept my eyes on his the whole time. Though truth was, I didn’t know if I could look away, but I wasn’t going to try, and give the Russian the satisfaction if I failed.
    He wasn’t going to like my answer, but it was the only one I had.
    I swallowed on a dry mouth, and hoped my voice didn’t shake. “He tried to keep your diamonds from being stolen, Mr. Kain, and nearly got himself killed for it. I would think that deserves thanks, not accusations.”
    Viktor Kain smiled as he saw through my mustered-up courage.
    He could smile all he wanted. It wasn’t