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revolution," Braith informed her.

Gideon shrugged as he leaned forward. "Perhaps, but it still would have been a long time coming. Our numbers are not as strong as we would like, and to reach out to your little rebellion would have been risky."

"Little rebellion?" Aria demanded in indignation.

"Even you must admit that you don't accomplish much more than being a thorn in the king's side."

Aria's jaw clenched as she leaned across the table. "At least we're not hiding in the middle of the desert!" she snapped at him. "We're there, we're fighting now, and we've come to you to join this fight!"

Gideon arched a brow at her as he leaned closer. Braith rested his hand on the table, twisting so that his shoulder was in between them. Aria sensed no hostility from the man across from her though, just a desperate need for her to understand something. "You have no idea what the king is capable of, what humans are capable of when their livelihoods are threatened. Rushing into something, and getting ourselves killed, wouldn't do anyone any good.

"The king has a way of drawing everyone in, of making them believe things that they wouldn't normally believe. It is how he was able to wrest control, how he was able to inflict the damage upon the world that he did. By the time any of us realized what he had in mind, and the lengths that he would eventually go to, to get it, it was too late to stop him. We were outnumbered and overpowered, getting ourselves killed by rushing heedlessly back in would not help us one bit. Of course not everyone was on board with the king at first, which is why your mother was killed, something I think you now realize was your father's doing."

"Yes," Braith acknowledged.

"Vampires gobbled up the crap the king was spewing, bought it hook, line, and sinker. Even then the king was the most powerful, the oldest, and though he didn't control everything, we looked to him for leadership and guidance. We were fools. He took everything. And when he was done with the humans, he turned on his own kind. There were those of us that disagreed with what he was doing all along, and those that realized to late what he intended. The world had gone to hell, blood and death ruled. Though I do enjoy my fair share of blood, killing indiscriminately was never my forte, or anything I took pleasure in.

"These people, and these vampires," he gestured around the restaurant, "Are the survivors, and their offspring. The factions surrounding us are led by the other aristocrats that escaped, and the humans that fled from the fallout of the war. Some of the humans are descendants of the early escapees from the palace."

"My great grandfather escaped the palace when he was thirteen, he started the rebellion," Aria muttered.

"So you've always had rebel in your blood?" Braith inquired as his finger briefly rubbed the back of her hand.

She smiled as she shrugged at him. "I guess so."

Gideon shook his head as he took a sip of blood and looked at Braith thoughtfully. "If it hadn't been for Ashby's bomb, I think you would have come to see what your father was a lot sooner. I still can't believe you survived that thing. You were a mess; your arm was barely attached, your torso... We all thought you were as good as dead."

Aria didn't like the picture that Gideon was painting. She couldn't imagine Braith so vulnerable and broken. "So did my father," replied Braith. "I think surviving it in the first place, even more so than mastering my blindness, was the thing that convinced him to let me live."

"Your blindness?" Gideon inquired, though his gaze was focused on Aria.

"Don't play stupid Gideon, I heard you questioning Ashby about us." Braith's body vibrated like a tuning fork as his chest pressed against her shoulder. His hand fell to her waist, pulling her possessively closer to him. "I think you've figured out the extremes that I will go to, and that there isn't anything I won't do, any one I won't destroy, to protect her."

The words, growled and cold, caused the hair on her neck to stand on end. Gideon quirked an eyebrow, a small smile of amusement flickered over his full lips. "Easy there watchdog, I mean no harm, to either of you. Like I said, we've been waiting for your arrival. I'm not going to ruin that now. Yes, I already