“Maybe,” I said, and then I had another idea. I wasn’t sure it was worse, but it scared me more. “Her first idea was to take over my body. She wanted to kill me only after she realized I was too powerful for her to move into me.”

“Are you as powerful out here hundreds of miles away from Jean-Claude and the rest?”

I thought about it, really made myself look at it. “Metaphysically, no. I’m safer if I can touch my master and animals to call.”

“Maybe they’re killing the tigers to keep you out here.”

“You think they’ll try to kidnap me?” I asked.

“If she still wants your body, yes.”

“And if she just wants me dead, then that works better out here, too,” I said.

“It does,” he said. He was looking out at the edge of the field. He was checking the perimeter for danger, trying to see the Harlequin hiding in the trees along the edge of the green, summer field.

“I don’t sense any wereanimals,” I said, “and walking in full daylight is incredibly rare. I’ve only met three vampires that could do it.”

“If they’re these ultimate spies, would you be able to sense them?”

“I think so,” I said.

He glanced at me, then went back to scanning the area. “That’s pretty arrogant.”

“Maybe, but I’d still know if there was a preternatural close to us.”

He spoke without looking at me, “Please, tell me this isn’t the first time you wondered if this was a trap for you.”

“I thought they didn’t know the gold tigers were in St. Louis. They should have stopped killing the others after they learned that. It’s one of the reasons we made it public.”

“So either it’s a trap to keep you away from St. Louis or Mommie Darkest forgot to rescind her order.”

“What do you mean?”

“Would they slaughter the weretigers until she ordered them to stop, even if it made no sense?”