We roll into Albuquerque just before the sun begins to rise. Rath checks into a hotel, getting two rooms. When he returns with keys, we park around back and I carry Eshan into one of the two.

“I can stay,” Rath says as he hesitates in the door, looking down at my brother on one of the two beds.

I shake my head. “You smell too human,” I say. “Things might be…different between us, but I won’t risk him hurting you. Let me deal with him until dark.”

Rath meets my eyes, and I can see he wants to argue. But he just nods.

He reaches into his pocket and removes another one of those darts. “If he gets too difficult to handle, you can use another one of these. I have just one more. It won’t cover our entire journey back, but it will help.”

I take it, careful not to prick myself. “Thank you. I can manage.”

He gives a little nod, and walks out the door, to the next room over.

Almost as if on cue, the moment I close and lock the door, Eshan’s right foot twitches.

I cross to the insulated bag lying next to the door. The House of Valdez gave me a cooler with six bags of donated blood before we left. I pull one out now.

I sit on the edge of the bed, looking down at my brother. His eyelids twitch once. His hand curls into a little fist.

And with a gasp, he sits up, his yellow eyes flying open. His fangs lengthen, and he goes to leap out of the bed.

I slam my hand against his chest, pushing him back down. I shove the blood bag toward him. One sniff, and he can smell what it is. His instincts take over, and he bites into it. He sucks hard, his eyes sliding closed and a little moan draws over his lips.

A streak of blood slips down his chin.

I watch him as he drinks. I try not to feel sick. I try to keep the horror from my face. I try to remember that I’ve dealt with this before, on dozens of occasions.

But all I can see is my baby brother drinking human blood.

When he’s sucked it dry, he flops back on the bed, dropping the blood bag. His motions are very slow. He wipes at the blood on his chin, looking at it smeared on his fingers.

His hand shakes.

“Eshan,” I say quietly.

As if he forgot or didn’t realize I was here, he startles, his eyes jerking to me. He scrambles back, curling in on himself against the headboard.

“Lo…Logan?” he says, eyeing me with fear. “What’s going on? What happened to me? To you?”

I feel my face blanch. “Me?”

His eyes narrow. “Don’t play dumb with me, Logan,” he says accusingly. “I followed you the other night. I watched you…bite that guy. Drink his blood. And then just after you went back into the casino, some woman grabbed me and bit me! What…” he struggles to find the words. “What the hell is happening all of a sudden? The world is getting taken over by vampires?”

Vampires. Without a word of explanation, he jumps to the right conclusion.

How couldn’t he? He knows what he just drank, what he’s still craving now. He’s seen what he’s seen.

“It could be taken over, but we’ve been keeping them under control for a long time,” I say, looking away from him. “This, what we are now, it’s been going on in the shadows for thousands of years. We just didn’t know about it before.”

I look back up at my brother. His face is contorting with anger. Confusion. Rage. “This has everything to do with Collin, doesn’t it?” he says, his voice accusing. “I knew something wasn’t right with him. He was just too…too… He did this to you, didn’t he?”

My mouth opens, but I’m not sure how to answer that. “No,” I say. “Yes. It’s…Eshan, this is huge. There’s so much to it and I’m still figuring it all out myself. And what about you? What the hell were you thinking? Following me? Do you have any idea how mad Mom and Dad are?”

Sheepishly, he looks at me. “I was worried about you. I knew something wasn’t right.”

I let out a slow breath, shaking my head.

Dumb, sweet little brother.

“Well, don’t turn your phone back on for a while,” I say. “We can’t have them tracking us until we figure some things out.”

Slowly, Eshan relaxes. He looks toward the window. He takes in a deep breath, smelling the air. “What about Eli? I know it’s crazy, but I can smell him. He doesn’t smell like you, or me, but he doesn’t smell like all those people in the casino, either. Is he like us?”

I shake my head and shrug. “I’m not really sure what he is,” I say honestly.

His eyes slide back over to mine. “Well, can you please explain what you do know?”