"Well, we can only hope that is true," Joscelin agrees. "For all of our sakes."

Because Natasha had picked a side. Despite her other allegiances and suicidal aversion to blood, Natasha had thrown in her lot with Jean-Claude's partisans and the old status quo.

"Why did you come here tonight? Besides the obvious, of course. You say that you are uninterested in joining the Nest, and yet whenever there is trouble here you are not far behind."