Laney sat on the side of the bed staring at the nightstand. On it laid her copy of Goodnight Moon. The rest of her stuff was in her backpack on the floor. A glass of juice waited for her to drink it. It had all been there when she’d woken up. She also had one of Dante’s T-shirts on over her jeans. It nearly swallowed her whole, but she didn’t change out of it.

She’d woken up with a sense of panic, shooting straight up in the bed. The first thing she noticed was that the sun was up, and she quickly scanned the room, looking for Dante. But he wasn’t there.

However, the female vampire and two others were waiting for her, sitting on the floor against the wall. “It’s okay,” the strange dark-haired woman had said. “You’re safe.”

“Where’s Dante?” Something was wrong. Laney could sense it. He’d seemed okay before she’d passed out. “Is he okay? Where is he?”

She smiled. “He’s fine.”

“I’ll go find him,” the vampire assured her, rubbing the dog’s ears on the way out. She didn’t appear worried.

Still, Laney couldn’t relax. “Why am I here? In the apartment,” she clarified when the other two looked at each other and then back at her in confusion. “Why is my stuff here?”

“Dante brought you here and brought your stuff up for you,” the same woman answered.

“Why?” That sense of panic increased.

“I don’t know,” she answered. “But I’m glad he did. We were worried about you.”

The other woman nodded and smiled in agreement. She had long mahogany hair and an “I love girls in wellies” T-shirt on. It was too big on her. “Can we get you anything? Are you hungry?”

Laney shook her head. Her stomach was in knots.

The first one got up off the floor and came to sit on the side of the bed. “You’re Laney, right?”

Laney nodded, looking around the room nervously. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. It wasn’t the women, she felt nothing negative coming from them, only warmth.

“Laney, I’m Keira. Keira Moss. I’m a witch. As are you.” She smiled when that got Laney’s attention. “And this is Grace Moss.” The woman on the floor, Grace, gave a little wave.

Wait. “Moss? Your last name is Moss?”

Keira smiled. “Yeah. We’re family.”

Laney looked at her again, closer this time. She couldn’t deny the uncanny resemblance. “How is that possible?”

Making herself comfortable, Keira tucked her legs to the side and leaned over onto one hand. “From what I was told growing up and from the guys here, the Moss witches all belonged to the local coven in this area until it was overthrown by the new High Priest. A few of the families scattered, taking their children—us—with them. Fate and a little help from yours truly here has brought us all back together. Here and now.”

Laney rubbed her forehead. It was gritty from the seawater. As a matter of fact, her entire body felt salty. “I don’t understand—”

“We were scattered all over the world,” Grace spoke up from her spot on the carpet. “Four of us have found our way back to each other. Keira and Emma are sisters. Ryan and I are cousins.”

Laney tried hard to stay focused and keep up. “There’s more of you?”

“Five. Including you,” Keira said.

“Where are the rest? Your parents?”

“They’re gone,” Keira said sadly. “All taken by ‘accidents’.”

“Doesn’t seem very accidental to me,” Grace muttered.

“And there’s that,” Keira agreed. “But we can get more into the family history later. So, what happened out there? Luukas said when they found you that Dante was beaten to a bloody pulp and you were trying to protect him. He also said there were dead vampire bodies littering the ground, curiously empty of their demons.”

“I don’t really know—I think I killed them,” she said in a small voice. Glancing at them each in turn, she confessed, “I don’t really feel very bad about it.”

Keira sat up and touched her leg through the comforter. “Can you tell me what happened?”

Laney tried to put what she’d experienced into words. “Um. I heard them threatening Dante, and everything just got really sharp and clear. I wasn’t scared, or angry, or anything. And it was like the air turned purple, and I could see their…spirit? Aura? I don’t know. Then I just imagined it being squeezed from their bodies.” She hung her head and plucked at a loose thread. “It’s not the first time this has happened.”

“Laney, those things that took you? They were vampires that were created by Luukas, but they’d left this colony to serve another vampire.” Her voice dropped. “A real bitch.”

“They were also possessed,” Grace said.

“Possessed?” Laney asked.

Keira nodded. “That bitch I just mentioned, she found an ancient altar hidden deep underground. There were demons chained to it, well, their spirits were anyway. At least, until she figured out a way to free them. And she did that by finding bodies for them to live in. Vampires created by a powerful Master Vampire work the best and last the longest.”

Laney recalled the stench of rot and the decomposing bodies. “They didn’t seem to be taking very good care of themselves.”

“I think the bodies are dying, because Leeha—the aforementioned bitch—is dead now. And since she was technically their creator because she re-animated them after the possessions with her own blood, they won’t survive long in those bodies.”

Vampires, demons, witches…if Laney hadn’t seen the stuff she’d seen with her own eyes, she’d think these two were crazy. But she had seen it. Still, she was confused. “What happened to the original owners of the bodies?”

The two women looked at each other. “We’re not sure, “ Keira admitted.

“Um, one thing you should know,” Grace said. “My mate, Aiden. British, dimpled chin, sexy grey eyes…he has one of those things inside of him.” Her face grew cautiously hopeful. “Maybe you could get it out?”

Laney stared at her.

“Grace, I think we should wait,” Keira said quietly. “We don’t know enough about Laney’s magic. None of the vampires survived her exorcism.”

Grace refused to be deterred. “Can you do it, Laney? Can you get that fucking demon out and leave my Aiden in there?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“You said this has happened before,” she coaxed. “What happened? Were they humans or vampires or…?”

“They were humans,” she told her.

“And?”

“They died,” she whispered.

A heavy silence descended upon the room.

“Well, shit.” Grace covered her face with her hands.

“Grace, it’ll be okay,” Keira got up from the bed and went over to soothe her. “When you’re cleaned up and fed, we’ll talk more about this,” she said to Laney. “See what we can figure out.”

Laney didn’t respond.

Eventually, they’d gone to let Luukas know she was awake, and with nothing else to do, Laney had taken a quick shower and put Dante’s shirt back on over her last clean pair of jeans. Now she sat staring at the book on the nightstand with one hand clenched in the comforter and one hand over her stomach, trying to hold in the butterflies.

She wanted to see Dante.

The front door opened and closed, and Laney jumped up off the bed and ran out to the other room in her socks. It wasn’t her male, but the female vampire. “Where is he?”

She smiled and opened her mouth. Then she snapped it shut and the smile fell from her face. “He’s not coming.”

“What’s your name?”

“Oh, sorry.” She strode forward on long, graceful legs and held out her hand. It was pale and delicate, but her grip was strong when Laney took it in her own. “I’m Shea.”

“Hi, Shea. I’m Laney.” She gave her a small smile. “Do you know where he is?”

“Sure do,” Shea said. “But I think you should wait for him to come up here.”

Laney laughed. It sounded bitter to even her own ears. “Yeah, no. Dante has no plans to come here. Take me to him. Please,” she added. “I need to see him.”

Shea eyed her up and down. She must have passed the inspection. “He’s underground. I’ll get you in there.”

“Thank you!” Acting on impulse, Laney hugged her.

Shea stiffened for moment, then her arms came around her and she hugged her back. “Go get your shoes,” she told her.