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attack?
    The final step in vanquishing this Underground?
    Already?
    “Did you get a location?” she asked, dogging him as they entered the main floor, with its stifling dark wood, bas- reliefs of friars, and angel heads, looming around like mean curly haired kids who kept constant watch.
    “I gleaned enough of a location from Claudius to justify action.”
    “Wait.” She pulled at the sleeve of his shirt, making him stop. “ Enough of one?”
    “Yes, enough.”
    He made as if to continue walking, but she cut him off by standing in front of him, palms over his chest. His heart beat placidly beneath one of her hands.
    “Costin, as far as I recall, the last time you ‘got a location’ in L.A., you meditated forever before you went on the attack.”
    “There was rather a lot to deal with before that particular siege, Dawn.” He was talking about having to come clean with her back then, about using her as bait. About telling her what he really was—a former vampire turned savior of the world in a race against the dragon’s rising.
    Then she remembered the rest of it.
    “Right,” she said, lowering her hands. “You didn’t know the location until you kicked my ass out of the L.A. headquarters, driving me to the Underground after you’d planted a locator on me without me knowing it. That’s how you got the location.”
    She could’ve sworn he looked guilty about that, but when it was weighed against all her own sins, it all balanced out.
    She stepped out of his way. “So you’re off.”
    “After some preparation, yes. I will have Friends with me, just as last time.”
    “It’s all set then.”
    “Almost.” He tilted his head, then seemed to catch himself, righting it.
    He’d been falling into the vampire habit lately.
    “With good on our side,” he said, straightening his spine, as if to get back to the righteous soldier within, “I hope to find the Underground while most of the schoolgirl vampires are emerging to track down our headquarters, provided they decide that Claudius is worth the cost of hunting.”
    “They might be coming with those shadow things,” she said. “You’re prepared to have us and the remaining Friends defend against all of that while you’re gone?”
    “Yes.” Costin paused, as if just now doubting his plan. But then he recovered. “Breisi has studied the boy’s body in our lab, and although the anatomy differs, she believes the custode s to be humanlike. You and Frank, with the great aid of Friends, should have no problem taking them down, especially with the arsenal we have here.” He paused. “You will be able to defend yourselves.”
    He went to the ornate stairway.
    “Costin,” Dawn said. “This isn’t like last time with an Underground. Or the time before. You’re not the same.”
    He slowed his steps. He didn’t like being reminded that Jonah’s vampire body had locked in Costin’s essence, which had always been able to emerge, full force, to knock out previous Underground masters. “Haven’t you wanted me to test what I can do outside these walls?” He hadn’t turned to look at her. “Haven’t you questioned whether I have what it takes to continue my quest?”
    She nodded, unable to speak. Her voice seemed too laden to get out of her body. She’d doubted his courage ever since they’d tracked this Underground to London. So why was she trying to hold him back from proving himself now?
    He was a warrior entrusted with a duty so significant that she was nothing next to it, and she suspected not only that he was going to emphasize that to her—and maybe to himself—but that he had no other choice. This was why he’d been saved by The Whisper, who’d offered him redemption if Costin would conquer the dragon and his ilk.
    She couldn’t and wouldn’t stop him. Besides, she remembered all too clearly what disobeying Costin had brought back in L.A., when she’d screwed things up so badly that she’d turned him into what he hated the most.
    Out