"There are some of them who would kill her faster than Marsilia ever would.
A coyote? Please." His voice softened.
"You know she will die.
If Marsilia wanted to kill her for slaying Andre, how do you think she'll feel now that you've taken the coyote for your own? She doesn't want you, but our Mistress has ever been jealous.
And you protected this one for years when you should have told us all that there was a walker living among us.
You took chances for her--what would have happened if another vampire had noticed what she was? Marsilia knows you care for her, more than you ever did the sheep you fed off.
Eventually, Mercedes will die, and it will be your fault." Stefan flinched at that.
I didn't need to look at his face to see it, because I felt him jerk against me.
"You need Marsilia to die, or Mercy will," Bernard said.
"Whom do you love, Soldier? The one who saved you or the one who abandoned you? Whom do you serve?" He waited, and so did I.
"She was a fool to let you go alive," Bernard murmured.
"There were two others she trusted with the place she sleeps.
Andre is dead.
But you know, don't you? And you rise a full hour before she does.
You can keep this from being a bloody battle with many casualties.
Who will die? Lily, our gifted musician, almost certainly.
Estelle hates her, you know--she is talented and beautiful when Estelle is neither.
And Marsilia loves her dearly.
Lily will die." Then he smiled.
"I'd kill her myself, but I know that you care for her, too.
You could protect her from Estelle, Stefan." And he went on naming names.
Lesser vampires, I thought, but people Stefan cared for.
When he finished, he looked at Stefan's stubborn face and shook his head in exasperation.
"Stefan, for God's sake.
What are you doing? You belong nowhere.
She doesn't want you.
She couldn't be more plain if she had killed you outright.
Estelle is foolish.
She thinks she can rule when Marsilia is gone.
But I know better.