"You may have a concussion," he said, knowing damn well she didn�t. "I�ll keep an eye on you tonight."

She offered a watery smile, the first he�d seen since their encounter in the basement hours earlier. "Thank you, Dorian. I� I�m sorry for the trouble."

"It�s no trouble at all."

"Where is everyone else?"

"I sent them home."

Charlotte squeezed her forehead and groaned. "Oh, God. I ruined the whole party."

"Nonsense." Dorian knelt before her again, sliding his hands up her thighs. "It was the perfect excuse to cut short an otherwise dreadful evening."

She laughed, but it rang hollow, her eyes still glazed with confusion.

Dorian lowered his gaze, his mind racing. Other than a few cuts on her feet, which he�d already healed with his blood, Charlotte didn�t have any physical injuries�he would�ve sensed them. So why wasn�t she accepting the compulsion? Even if the ordeal had left her drained, her mind should�ve been clear by now.

"What�s wrong, love?" he asked.

"It bothers me that I don�t remember falling. I don�t remember you guys finding me, either. You said Gabriel was with you?"

"Yes. I was already looking for you�I ran into him on the path. That�s when we heard you calling for help."

She nodded, but Dorian sensed her mind was still spinning, working over the details and searching for the holes in his story. He was about to try another round of compulsion when Aiden entered the study, Gabriel and Malcolm right behind him.

Their grim faces said it all.

"Nothing?" Dorian asked anyway, rising and crossing the room to meet them. He didn�t want Charlotte to overhear.

"Not a trace," Gabriel said. The blood on his shirt had dried to a muddy black, and Dorian curled his hands into fists, another wave of fury rippling through him as he thought of the Duchanes traitors.

"How is Charlotte?" Aiden asked.

Dorian glanced over his shoulder and found her holding the drink in her lap, staring into the fire as if the flames held all the answers. "Hard to say. She doesn�t remember much."

"That�s a good thing, isn�t it?" Aiden asked.

Dorian sighed and shook his head.

"Didn�t you compel her?" Malcolm asked, unable to keep the superior tone from his voice.

Dorian glared at him. "Didn�t you seek an alliance with a murderer?"

"We don�t know that Renault gave the order for the attack," he said.

"Where is he, then? If he�s innocent, he should be just as eager to uncover the traitors of House Duchanes as we are. Instead, he�s fled the scene like a�"

"Dorian." Aiden gripped his arm, forcing his attention back to the matter at hand. "The compulsion. It didn�t take?" JrNovels.com