Towering red brick buildings, each laid out in a square and open to a central courtyard, cut an imposing figure on the manicured lawn. A clock tower rose from the centermost building, its face engraved with archaic sigils rather than numbers, and magic pulsed in subtle waves as the second hand chased its tail.

Gardens so lush they might have inspired Maud when she designed the ones at Woolworth House had me gaping after them. Some of those flowers… I had never seen the like. I didn’t have species, let alone names, to call them. I took a step toward the enclosure, only to be halted by Linus’s hand on my elbow.

“Reardon is waiting for us,” he reminded me. “I promise you the full tour tomorrow.”

While I watched, he slid another mask into place, this one shades of the quiet academic I had come to know from my nightly lessons mixed with the rigidity of Scion Lawson. He was approachable, though you might think twice before you worked up the nerve. The flatness of his full lips implied you better have a darn good reason for talking to him, and an even better excuse for believing your time was worth a second of his.

The posture was looser, more slouched, but not normal. Comfortable, but not himself. The clothes were nicer than what he wore in Savannah except when visiting the Lyceum, but not so ostentatious you marveled that a professor would dress so well. The glasses and the crossbody bag made him more relatable, but I saw them as camouflage. Props meant to help him blend in with the faculty. Accessories that screamed scholar and hid the predator lurking beneath his polished exterior.

After Fredrick and Ernestine, there could be no doubt lethal magic prowled beneath his skin.

With Linus as my escort, we strolled down one of the many winding paths landscaped within an inch of its life. Guys stood taller as we approached while girls tittered behind their hands after we passed. Linus appeared oblivious to it all, but I couldn’t read him with that mask on, and eventually I stopped trying.

“Reardon’s office is this way.” Linus indicated a domed building on the outer fringes of the campus. “Are you sure you want to go through with this after last night?”

“I’m a necromancer.” I exhaled through my parted lips. “I can’t avoid vampires forever.”

“No,” he agreed softly, sounding more like himself. “But you can avoid this one.”

“I need answers.” And I would face a vampire to get them. “Amelie can’t live bound to me forever.”

Settling my concern on her made it easier to forget my own life hung in the balance.

“We won’t know for certain if the effects are permanent until she’s free to leave your house.” He let me consider that before shaking his head. “She might be fine away from Woolly, out of the protective circle of the wards. Or she might remain susceptible to your magical influence. There are too many variables.”

Leave it to Linus to force me to voice what I was already thinking. Dreading, more like it.

“This affects my ability to practice—” to live, “—and I want that.”

The Grande Dame might have plans for me, but I was starting to imagine a future for myself too.

All I had to do was survive. So pretty much business as usual for me.

“I understand.” Linus gentled his voice as he ushered me in the building.

A frazzled man greeted us in the hallway with a chewed pencil tucked behind one ear, and the zing of otherness skated over my skin. His shaggy hair, a muddy brown color, hung in his green eyes. His tan corduroy pants were tailored, and so was his short-sleeved shirt. The white button-down was wrinkled beneath his chocolate and mocha striped sweater vest. When he spotted Linus, he grinned from ear to ear, but the tips of his fangs lent his expression an edge.

The aggressive display had me bumping into Linus to put distance between Reardon and me.

“The fangs?” Reardon mused, raising a lip to tap one. “It’s rude to flash them at visitors, I know, but I wasn’t made in a controlled setting. I have…” he gave it some consideration, “…quirks.”

“I should have warned you.” Linus rested his hands on my shoulders, his cold a soothing presence at my back. “My apologies.”

“A heads-up might have been nice,” I allowed then addressed Reardon. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“My young friend tells me he has a puzzle for us to solve.” He focused on where Linus touched me until the latter removed his hands. “Are you assisting him in this matter?”

Relegated to the role of assistant once again. “Yes.”

Reardon grinned at Linus, his smile no less alarming for his assurances. “Does Meiko know?”

“Oh, yes.” I beat Linus to the punch. “She’s done everything short of scent marking him since I arrived.” I rolled a shoulder. “I also suspect she tried suffocating me in my sleep.”

There was no other reason to wake with all fifteen or so pounds of her pressing down on my chest.

“You’ve met her?” His shock conveyed a few things. That he knew Linus kept Meiko as a pet, and that if I had met her, then I had been to Linus’s loft too. On second thought, I should have kept my mouth shut. “Not many have had the pleasure.”

“Yesss.” I drew out the word, hoping Linus would rescue me from myself. No such luck. He was too busy pinching his lips together to avoid laughing. “Hey, that woman has claws, and I’m not talking about an acrylic manicure. I’m afraid to close my eyes to sleep around her.”

This tidbit succeeded in digging my hole deeper. Reardon now understood not only had I seen the apartment, but I was staying there.

“She blushes,” Reardon mused. “How lovely.” He smirked at Linus, who was starting to look a bit pink himself, thanks to his pale complexion. “What a handsome pair you make.”

“We aren’t a pair,” I informed him, then immediately regretted my decision when his smile revealed fangs.

“The reason we’re here—” Linus casually nudged me behind him, “—is a delicate matter.” He reached in his bag and withdrew a white metal box with KEEP REFRIGERATED written down the side. “Here is the sample we discussed. I gave my word that it wouldn’t leave my sight and that we would destroy all traces after you conduct your tests.”

“Interesting,” he said, his gaze fixed on me, almost like he could smell the magic in my blood. But that was silly. Paranoid. He hadn’t opened the container. There was no basis for comparison. It wasn’t even my blood. And yet…

Clearly, he scented something on me. Perhaps he was old enough to have known one of my kind, or clever enough to grasp I wasn’t what I appeared to be. Either way, I didn’t want him drawing any connections between me and what he might discover.

“I need to use the ladies’.” I clutched the strap on my bag. “Can you point me in the right direction?”

Reardon indicated the hall adjacent to this one, and I kept my stride casual until I rounded the corner. Maybe this wasn’t such a great plan. I had a theory about how to conceal my scent, but it might not work, and it might still land me in hot water later.

Once inside the restroom, I turned the lock and reached in my bag for the modified pen. I had no reason to hope it would work, but I closed my eyes and focused on the idea of a sigil that might do the trick, letting my hand follow the path mapped by instinct.

With that done, I lifted my wrist to my nose and inhaled. I smelled nothing. Perfume wasn’t my thing, so it might be best if I tried the one spot where artificial fragrance clung. Yes, my armpits. I sniffed them. Not one single whiff of the aerosol I’d sprayed on earlier lingered. The sigil had masked my scent entirely.

Triumph welled in me, and I allowed myself a short happy dance before capping the pen and returning to Reardon’s office. The man himself greeted me at the door, and I caught him leaning in to sniff me as I walked past him to join Linus.

The frown tipping his welcoming expression toward annoyance made the gamble all the better.

So maybe I would never have moves like Taz or encyclopedic knowledge like Linus, but I had one thing in common with Maud I never expected to claim. I was an innovator. An accidental innovator, sure, but an innovator nonetheless.

A pang of sadness pierced my heart that Maud wasn’t here to see what I had done, what I had the potential to do, but she must have suspected. It was thanks to her I was in this position in the first place.

“Forgive us,” Reardon said. “We got started without you.”

The box lay open on the counter, and a vial of bright blood had been slotted into a sleek machine that whirred happily at having been fed.

“Linus failed to introduce us.” He pulled out a stool and nudged it closer to me. “I’m Reardon McAllister.”

“I’m Grier Woolworth.” I offered him my hand, which he flipped over in an elegant move, exposing my wrist to the ceiling. He bowed low and pressed his lips against the network of veins, and I saw his chest expand as he inhaled. “Linus and I grew up together.”

There was no harm in telling him that since my last name would ring all kinds of bells for him.

Chair legs scraped behind us as Linus rose. “Reardon.”

“Fascinating,” he murmured. “May I continue to blame my poor manners on being shoddily made?”

“You’re old enough to know better,” I answered, “and smart enough to know how dangerous it is to provoke a necromancer.”

“An assistant.” He fed my title back to me, and it took every ounce of strength I had to keep from flinching. “You’re not quite so deadly as my friend here.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Linus extracted me from Reardon’s grasp and urged me onto my stool, drawing his beside mine. “I wouldn’t provoke Grier if I were you.”

“Oh?” Interest sparkled in the vampire’s eyes. “Why is that?”

Squirming on my seat, I pretended I was getting comfortable, but what I was really doing was wondering why the heck Linus would dangle that kind of carrot in front of a vampire.

“She’s got a temper.” He traced the perfect line of his nose. “She broke this once.”

Laughter exploded out of Reardon, and the tension in the room shattered around us.

“I confess, I’ve wanted to do that a time or two myself.” At Linus’s arched brow, he explained, “Linus is so very good at everything. He makes for an annoying friend.” His smile turned wicked. “Especially when I’m trying to impress a pretty girl.”

A flush brightened my cheeks. I would have scrubbed them to cease the tingling, but it would have made things worse. Nothing like blushing to draw a vampire’s attention to the fact you’re a walking, talking blood bag.

“Ah, there she goes again,” Reardon murmured. “You have stumbled across my greatest weakness.”

Referring to my earlier thoughts, I blurted, “Food?”

Laughter pelted the air once again, and he couldn’t seem to wipe the smile off his face. “Humility.”

“Reardon,” Linus warned. “Perhaps we should return to the matter at hand.”

Tearing his gaze from my glowing face, Reardon resumed his position at the counter across from Linus. Using a dropper, he began several tests on Amelie’s blood that left me puzzled as to their purpose.

Heads bent over their workstation, the pair discussed what Linus hoped to learn and the sample’s origin.

Past that point, they might as well have been speaking a foreign language. I had no clue what they were discussing, only picking up one familiar word in ten. Chromosome. Platelets. Antibodies. Thankfully, science appeared to be Reardon’s true love, and he forgot all about me once she took center stage.

I didn’t mean to doze, but that didn’t stop me from jerking awake seconds before the dream took me.

One minute, I was resting my forehead on my stacked arms. The next, I was catapulting backwards from my stool, tripping over its legs, and falling on the tile hard enough to bruise my tailbone.

Not even the fear twisting cold knots in my gut over what they might find had kept me from dozing.

Fed a steady diet of terror, I was too full to make room for more.

I sprawled there, panting and mortified, while I caught my breath.

Reardon knelt at my side as the scream died in my throat. “Are you hurt?”

“Only my pride, and there wasn’t much of that left.” I winced up at Linus, whose eyes had bled full black, and only a fool would have refused the hand he offered me. “I’m good, really.” I flashed them a weak smile that lingered on Linus, on where he still held my hand. “Serves me right for falling asleep in class.”

Linus smiled at the joke, faintly, but puckers gathered across Reardon’s forehead.

“There’s a coffee shop on campus. No hot chocolate, but their mocha lattes are popular. Cletus can show you the way.” Linus released my fingers after a beat too long. “Why don’t you go get a drink and stretch your legs?”

“I’ll take you up on that.” I resisted the urge to massage my aching tailbone. “You guys want anything?”

“My usual,” Linus said with a straight face.

“I’ll take a tall black coffee.” Grinning, Reardon reached for his wallet. “I like the smell.”

“My treat,” I assured him. “You guys enjoy your science while I’m gone.”

Outside, I chose a direction and started walking. At a fork in the path, I stopped to read a sign that might have been helpful had I known Lindbergh Hall from Heinemann Hall. Just as I was wondering where my promised guide had gone, Cletus joined me with a moaned apology for his lateness. Or so I imagined.

“Take me to your coffee shop,” I beseeched the wraith.

With a clack of his nails, Cletus billowed in the opposite direction from the one I had been heading.

Busy admiring a stone amphitheater sunk into the earth, I wandered off the path. A small gathering sat on the curved seats that functioned as steps to reach the floor, and each took turns reading from a book of poetry they passed around and around.

Distracted by their laughter, I almost missed the long shadow prowling across the quad in my direction.

Not everyone is out to get you. Not every shadow is nefarious.

Just to be on the safe side, I let Cletus usher me back on track with a gnarled hand on my shoulder.

Ignoring the twitching skin beneath my tattoo, I hit the coffee shop, where a flirty barista who knew how to earn a tip filled my order. Still smiling at her outrageousness and the stack of phone numbers jotted on receipts peeking from her skirt pocket, I experienced a pang on my way past the campus bookstore.

“Really, Cletus? You couldn’t have told me that was there?” I glared into the whirling darkness where his face ought to be. “I could have picked up a shirt or a keychain, a souvenir. Now it’s too late to browse.”

A low moan I interpreted as an apology had me sighing. I could always come back tomorrow.

“Cheese and crackers,” a high voice squeaked. “What is that thing doing loose?”

Glancing over my shoulder, I spotted a young man wearing the designer equivalent of my usual duds. Jeans, shirt, sneakers. His blond hair curled around his face in a mass of artful twists. His pink cheeks made him downright cherubic, and I wondered if many people asked to pinch them.

Clearly mothering a six-year-old ghost was having an effect on me.

“He’s tame,” I teased. “Don’t worry. He won’t bother you as long as you don’t bother us.”

“How can you be sure?” Squinting, the necromancer studied me. “You’re not bonded. Who does he belong to?”

I blamed his curiosity on his panic and figured telling him would calm him. “Linus Lawson.”

“Professor Lawson’s back?” His eyes lit up like stars in a moonless sky before crashing to the earth in meteoric indignation. “He loaned you his wraith?”

The ease with which I chatted openly with this guy about Linus and his wraith drove home how foolish I had been to ignore the early-warning signs with Amelie. There was just too much history there, too much unhappiness. It had been easier to avoid the cracks in the façade of friendship than face what was happening. But there was nothing for it now, and this guy wasn’t going anywhere until I answered his question, judging by the look on his face.

“Yes, he did.” I lifted the tray of coffees. “Nice bumping into you and all, but I need to get back.”

“I’ll come with.” He grabbed for the tray and frowned when I didn’t hand it over, but I didn’t want to explain about the empty cup when he tried passing out the drinks. “Where are you headed?”

“To Professor Reardon’s office.”

“Have you had him yet?” The guy groaned as he fell in step with me. “He’s a GPA torpedo.”

“I’m not a student here.” I saw no reason to lie. “Though I did fall asleep listening to him bat theories around with Linus. I fell off my stool and busted my butt, the whole nine yards.”

“You came here with Professor Lawson?” Any rounder and his eyes might pop from overinflation. “As in, you’re with him?”

“Well, thanks for chaperoning me.” Ignoring his question, I picked up my pace to a near sprint until the squat building came into view. “I’ve got it from here.”

“Let me get the door.” He rushed ahead and held it open. Darting in on my heels, he jogged past me on his way to Reardon’s room. With an apologetic look flung over his shoulder, he hammered on the wood. “Your hands are full.”

“Thanks.” This kid had a serious case of hero worship. He was giving me flashbacks of me at my most obnoxious, when I would have done anything to catch Boaz’s eye. “You’ve done your good deed for the day.” I smiled tightly. “You can get back to what you were doing before Cletus and I derailed you.”

“Cletus?” The guy divided his attention between me and the door. He was worse than a dog pawing to get out when he had to pee. His focus snapped into place when Linus appeared on the threshold. “Professor Lawson.”

Arching a brow, he glanced between the two of us. “Do I know—?”

Linus didn’t finish asking before the guy swung out his arm, metal glinting, and sliced a thin line through the shirt over his chest. Stunned by the sudden violence, Reardon froze. Or perhaps it was the scent of fresh blood that immobilized him.

Determined not to freeze too, I pried out the tall black coffee, flipped off the lid, and flung it at the back of the guy’s head. He screamed, twisting to look at me, but didn’t lift a hand to stop me as I splashed my mocha latte in his face.

Arm swinging in protective arcs, he kept Linus back while he dried his eyes on his sleeve, but his face was a mottled red, and his vision was shot. He cranked his head back toward the doorway, squinting to relocate his target, in time to intercept Linus’s fist across his jaw. He took the hit and crumpled to his knees.

Tossing the tray and empty cup aside, I used Taz’s favorite move and kicked him so hard in the ribs, I felt the reverberation through my aching tailbone. He slumped onto the floor, hand fisting the knife, fingers twitching on the handle.

I took a healthy step back, not out of fear, but to escape the seething fury in Linus’s limpid, black eyes.

Strolling forward, he stepped on the guy’s wrist, applying pressure until his fingers flexed open, and the knife clattered onto the tiles. He kicked it away before squatting near his head, forearms resting on his thighs. Black wisps pooled around his ankles, the hem of a cloak that climbed up his shoulders in a creeping fog that had the man babbling for mercy.

The wasteland of eternity shadowed his eyes. There was no mercy to be found there.

With the attacker subdued, Reardon turned his back on us and focused on deep-breathing exercises that did nothing to bolster my confidence in his ability to not eat me.

“Who sent you?” Linus demanded, his voice as hollow as a tomb and just as resonant. “Who escorted you onto school grounds?”

Trembling, looking anywhere but at Linus, at that living fabric, the guy kept his mouth shut.

“Are you willing to die for your secrets?” His tone hardened. “Who. Sent. You?”

“Linus,” I whispered, unsure what I was asking, if I was asking anything at all.

“The punishment for treason against your potentate is death.” He cradled the man’s skull in his elegant hands, the ones capable of producing such beautiful art. “Speak now, or your sentence will be carried out where you lie.”

Tears pricked the corners of his eyes, but he locked his jaw.

“Justice is served,” Linus murmured. “May the Goddess grant you peace.”

The crack of vertebrae splintering was deafening, and my ears kept ringing long after Linus lowered the man’s head gently back onto the floor.

This violent side of him I had, on an intellectual level, known existed. A new mask. One I had yet to see how well it fit. He was the champion of a city, the Society’s own law made flesh. Enforcing those rules would come at a cost. What I hadn’t expected was the cold light that gilded him the moment he decided the man’s fate or the indifference that smoothed his features as the spark went out of his eyes.

While Linus arranged for a cleanup crew, a service I shuddered to realize must be on most necromancers’ and vampires’ speed dials, I sank to the floor in the farthest corner of the room. Knees tucked against my chest, I had the phone in my hand before making a conscious decision to call Boaz.

“Hey, Squirt.”

“Hey back,” I rasped. “You got a minute?”

“Sure,” he said, distracted. “What’s up?”

“I’m having a bad day,” I confessed. “Two bad days, actually.”

“You okay?” A hint of his usual warmth surfaced. “Where are you?”

“It doesn’t matter.” I rested my chin on my knees. “Where are you?”

“My location is classified.”

“Yeah.” I exhaled, long and slow. “Yeah.”

“Talk to me, Grier.”

The brutal mask of executioner Linus had slipped on moments earlier shook me, and I couldn’t pinpoint why, but that coldness had seeped into me. “Have you ever killed anyone?”

“Yes.”

“A lot of someones?”

“Yes.”

“During your army days?”

“And as an Elite, yes.”

As the tension in me uncoiled, I realized this was what I had wanted to hear. Proof that black and white were myths. That only shades of gray existed. That good people did bad things, accepted malignant stains on their souls, when all other choices were stripped from them.

Linus was as much a soldier as Boaz, even if his battlefield was defined by city limits, and I had no right to judge either of them unless I picked up arms—made those same life-or-death decisions—too.

“You sound off.” A throaty horn that reminded me of a container ship blew in the distance. “Where’s Linus?”

“He’s disposing of a body.”

“Not funny.” A car door slammed, cutting off the background noise. “I’m serious.”

Tears threatened. “So am I.”

“Grier?” Linus called, and I sniffled before lifting my head. “Are you ready to go?”

Knuckles white, I clutched the phone like a lifeline. “We’re leaving. Call me later?”

“Sure.”

I signed off without saying goodbye, not seeing the point when I could hear the lie in his voice.

“Amelie?” Linus asked after I got to my feet. “How’s Woolly doing?”

“Boaz,” I corrected him.

The cleaners, whoever they were, worked fast. No signs of a life snuffed out marred the tiles. The corpse had been moved, and the floor glistened where it had been polished to a high shine.

Reardon, the coward, had escaped at some point. Vampires his age, made poorly or not, ought to be in control of their bloodlust. That he wasn’t had me questioning if this was his refuge or his prison.

“Ah.” Linus locked the office behind us then turned and painted a series of warding sigils on the door.

My jacket, splashed with coffee, bothered me, so I tossed it in the trash. “We’re done?”

“You are.” He paid the crumpled jacket more attention now than while I was wearing it. “Are you all right?”

“You beheaded two vampires last night.” I hadn’t meant to blurt it out quite like that, but there you go. “You executed a necromancer tonight.” I unclasped my red accessories and ditched those too. “Your life here isn’t how I pictured it. You—as this person—is not how I imagined. I’m not sure what to think.”

“I warned you.” Disappointment rang out loud and clear. “I explained there was a cost.”

“You did.” I owed him that much. “But this…” the killing, the darkness, “…it’s not you.”

“How can you be sure?” His honest curiosity made my heart ache. “Maybe this is who I am.”

“No.” I refused to believe this was the core of his apple. “This is a thing that you do, not who you are.”

“The city is unsettled.” The abrupt change in conversation left me no wiggle room to get us back on topic. “Part of that is due to my absence.”

“And the rest is my presence.”

“Yes.” He didn’t sugarcoat the truth. “Whispers about a goddess-touched necromancer are spreading faster than the Society can contain the rumors.”

The elegant neckline of my blouse might as well have been a noose. “I won’t be locked in a cage.”

Confinement made the most sense. It would be the next logical step once the streets became too dangerous for me to roam freely. Though Cletus negated that. Free wasn’t free when you were watched and reported on every second you spent outside your house. Still, it was a pretty illusion.

“It won’t come to that,” he vowed, and I believed him.

Holding tight to that hope, I had to ask, “Why did he attack you and not me?”

Hindsight, as always, brought clarity. The shadow near the amphitheater. Goddess, I should have asked Cletus to investigate. Going for coffee had given the would-be assassin a few precious minutes to bump into me. But there had been no time to mention the incident to Linus. Everything had happened so fast.

“I’ve been asking myself the same thing. He isolated you. He could have taken you at any time. There was no reason to confront me. Unless he was afraid of the wraith. But it doesn’t track that he wouldn’t fear me more. And yet he did escort you to the classroom.” Linus touched his chest, where blood stained the front of his shirt. “Incapacitating me appeared to be his top priority. Any designs he had on you were secondary.”

The bull’s-eye was still painted on my back, though. Not his. “He went out of his way not to harm me.”

“I wish I had a better answer for you,” he said, sliding a look at me, “but I don’t know.”

Unable to glance away, I couldn’t hide the truth from either of us. “All these deaths are on my head.”

Linus stopped in his tracks, and I paused at his side, glancing around the quad to see what he’d spotted that I hadn’t, but he turned to me and framed my face between his cool palms.

“None of this is your fault.” His thumbs stroked my cheeks, and I should have cringed away, the death still so fresh on his hands, but I couldn’t move. His open expression, all masks removed, held me rapt. “I killed those people for the choices they made, the actions they took. Their blood is on my hands.” As if realizing he meant it in the literal sense, he dropped them to his sides and left my face tingling. “The Society wants you seen as untouchable. For that to happen, an example must be made of those who try and fail to obtain you.” His dark blue eyes held mine. “I’m happy to provide that example.”

Heart crumbling around the edges, I linked my arm through his and led him to the parking lot in time to watch Tony cut off two cars and bump his passenger-side wheels on the curb. He raised his eyebrows and mouthed what before turning up his can of energy drink.

Linus and I didn’t speak during the drive back to the Faraday, and I hoped the silence wasn’t becoming a habit with us. He helped me out onto the curb, and I eased around him while he tipped the driver. I was making time toward the entrance when the spectacle unfolding in front of the building pulled me up short.

A frazzled man was being assaulted by one heck of a pissed-off woman. The pair blocked the front door, and Hood, who peeled from the shadows where he had been content to watch, seemed to notice this too.

“Take your domestic issues elsewhere,” he growled. “You’re blocking the entryway.”

“He pays your salary,” the woman sniped. “We can fight wherever we damn well please.”

A warning rumble pumped through Hood’s broad chest.

“Vi,” the man soothed. “This isn’t the time or the place. Let’s go upstairs and talk.”

“Upstairs?” She jabbed a finger toward one of the higher floors. “I saw that hussy napping on your bed. Naked. How could you? You better not have bought her that collar. Those were real emeralds, Ian.”

Oh, goddess. There had to be more than one collared hussy in the building, right?

Surely Meiko didn’t spend her days amusing herself by popping up in bed with Linus’s neighbors.

Then again…

“Ah, excuse me.” I hated to butt in when things had gotten so heated. “About the naked woman?”

That was as far as I got before the crazy lady whirled on me.

“Are you another of his girls?” Her fevered gaze swept over me. “How many are there?”

“Move aside,” Hood ordered, lumbering toward us. “Or I will clear her a path myself.”

Reaching the end of her rope, the woman swiped out with her arm, claws shining on her fingertips.

Our proximity allowed me to knock her hand aside without Hood getting shredded in the process.

Taz would have been proud of my quick reflexes.

Gently, he ushered me out of his path until he loomed over the woman. “This is your final warning.”

Sucking in a lungful of air, she screeched, “Bite me.”

Magic washed up his legs in a red wave that splashed onto his shoulders, climbing until it tickled his jaw. When the viscous liquid drained away, Hood did too, melting into a muscular form that was half bull mastiff and half Komodo dragon. His rust-colored fur gave way to heavy scales in strategic spots. Needlelike teeth filled his mouth, and his bloodcurdling bay as he challenged her raised chills down my spine.

The man turned on his heel and ran faster than any necromancer had a right to move.

I took one step back but froze when Hood swung his blocky head my way, and I rasped, “Good boy?”

Snorting out what might have been a canid laugh, he resumed his hunt.

After knocking the shrieking woman onto the ground, he clamped his wide jaws on her thin shoulder and bit down until crimson stained his mouth. He slung her between his paws until she fainted from sheer terror. With a disgusted huff, he released her then padded over to me.

A cool presence materialized at my elbow, but Cletus made no move to intervene. I was hoping that was a good sign.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Linus, but he too remained still. Tension lined his face, but he was absent his tattered cloak, telling me he hadn’t hit panic mode yet.

Ignoring the wraith, Hood snuffled my palm where it rested against my thigh until I lifted my hand. I gave his massive head a hesitant pat, and he licked me, smearing gore and drool from the wrist down to my fingertips.

“Oh, ick.” I flung my hand. “Are you serious?”

Chuffing under his breath, he walked off wagging his tail, leaving the woman to bleed out on the sidewalk.

An ambulance pulled curbside within seconds, and Hubert exited the building in a huff. Two paramedics jumped out with a stretcher hung between them. They checked the woman’s vitals, scooped her up, and vanished all in the time it took me to remember how to shut my mouth.

“Hubert would have called them once Hood got involved,” Linus told me. “A precautionary measure.”

“Hood savaged that woman.” I held up my arm, crimson drool stringing between my fingers. “He could have killed her, and no one came out to stop him. No one told him no. They just watched.”

I had watched, too terrified I might be next to intervene. But as the adrenaline ebbed, the excuse felt flimsy to me.

“The Faraday has its own laws, and she broke them.” Linus cast the darkest shadows a wary glance before guiding me into the lobby. “I’ve seen Hood do far worse with much less provocation.” His cool fingers brushed the small of my back, and he guided me into the lobby. “I’m not certain why he finds you so interesting, but it’s for the best that we’re returning to Savannah tomorrow.”

Savannah, not home. This—this topsy-turvy mess—was his haven.

“Thank the goddess.” I wiped my hand on my pants. “I take back what I said about wishing I had never come here. I’m glad I did. I was chafing against the bonds holding me in Savannah, and this cured me of that. I’m more of a homebody than I imagined.”

This side of Atlanta was not a facet I ever needed to see again.

Linus shuffled me into the elevator. “Do you still want to tour the campus before we go?”

“I’m good.” I waved away the offer with a sticky hand. “Maybe some other time.”

“I ruined this for you.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I wanted to show you the best of my city, but it seems determined to only show you its worst. My worst.”

“Hey, I meant what I said.” I caught his eye. “We can try this again after things calm down.” I smiled to make sure he understood I wasn’t laughing at him when I added, “But next time I’ll be getting a hotel room across town.”

“I hoped you might see a different side of me,” he said softly. “Not this one.”

“Don’t all those sides get confusing?” I bumped shoulders with him. “Can’t you ever just be the real you?”

“Real is an abstract concept. Are we ever ourselves, our whole selves, except when we’re alone?”

Once, I told Boaz that old Grier was a shirt I pulled on when I expected company and warned him that eventually it wouldn’t fit me anymore. One day, I would be forced to wear a new one or remain exposed. I had never considered that the alternative might be investing in a closet full of new shirts to wear when the mood struck me. Not until I glimpsed Linus’s wardrobe.

“I want to believe we can all find at least one person to show our true faces.”

Curious, he glanced over at me. “Boaz is that person for you?”

“Sometimes.” I mulled over my answer. “I show him the best of what’s left, but he’s seen the worst too. We’ve known each other forever. It’s impossible to hide your whole self from someone for that long. You can keep corners of your heart secret, but that’s about it.”

“Hmm.”

The flashing number slowed as we reached his floor. “What does that mean?”

“I envy you,” he confessed. “I don’t have that. I have too many secrets to be open with any one person.” He followed me into the hall. “You’re the closest I’ve gotten.”

“Oh, come on.” I forced a laugh to shatter the quiet moment. “You can’t tell me you and Meiko don’t do the pillow-talk thing. I’ve seen your pillowcases. They’re covered in cat hair.”

Card in hand, he hesitated. “I’m not sure it makes any difference, but I want you to know that Meiko and I…” A flush rose up his pale throat. “She might appear as a woman when the mood strikes her, but it’s an illusion. Beneath her magic, no matter how real she might otherwise appear, she’s anatomically a cat.”

Embarrassment flared in my cheeks, because I was mortified to realize it did matter. “I’ll admit I was curious.”

“I’ve long believed that’s how her favorite game developed,” he admitted. “She was gifted, or cursed, with higher awareness, and she wants to be more. She wants to be human, or something like it.”

“She got someone hurt tonight,” I reminded him. “There’s no excuse for that behavior.”

Smile curling his lips, he huffed out a laugh. “I’m open to suggestions.”

“I’m willing to design wards to keep her out of your apartment,” I said sweetly.

“Don’t tempt me.” He let me into the apartment. “I must return to Strophalos. A few of the tests we initiated earlier will be ready by now, and Reardon can’t enter his office until I remove the wards.”

“I can entertain myself,” I assured him. “I brought a book to read. I might go soak for a while and lose myself in a small town where only a postal worker and her dog can unravel the mystery of who is killing the people on her route.”

His eyes sparkled. “Sounds riveting.”

“Don’t mock me,” I said primly. “I’m expanding my intellectual horizons.”

“You’ll have to loan it to me when you finish. Perhaps I’ll pick up some sleuthing tips.”

The reminder of his job curdled my stomach, but I tamped down the roiling so as not to wound him.

“I’ll do that.” I did a cursory check of the loft and found it empty. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Name it.”

Sucker. “Can you keep Meiko busy for a few hours so I can enjoy some peace and quiet?”

“I’ll bring her to Strophalos with me.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I can set up temporary wards to prevent her from escaping my office. Her magic nullifies mine, so I can’t promise how long it will last.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask what good a familiar that nullified rather than amplified magic was to him, but every second the door stood open was an opportunity for her to snake between his legs and ruin my relaxation time. “Your sacrifice is greatly appreciated.”

“Cletus will remain in the area, and I’ll check in before I return home in case you need anything.”

“That sounds perfect.” I cheered up on the spot. “Be thinking about food.” I rubbed my hands together, stomach growling. “I vote you pick up takeout on your way back, and we binge on cartoons until dawn.”

And pretend today never happened.

“We can do that.” He ducked his head, but it failed to hide the curve of his cheek. “Enjoy your evening.”

“You too.” I waved him off then got down to the business of bumming around. The one thing missing from my stash was bubble bath, but shampoo would do in a pinch, and I had no doubt his was top-drawer. “Relaxation, here I come.”

While the tub filled, I gathered pajamas and toiletries. Stripping out of Meiko’s selections made me feel lighter. It wasn’t, I assured myself, because of what Linus had confessed. With a hiss, I sank into the hot, fragrant water and allowed its warmth to lull me. Aches and pains deep in my muscles, reminders of the accident, had flared up during the scuffle with the guy on campus, and the heat felt delicious.

I closed my eyes long enough to gather my willpower to not think about what Boaz was doing that was so much more important than calling me, but when I opened them, darkness shrouded the room.

“Meiko,” I growled. “This isn’t funny. Turn the light back on.”

Aggravating cat must have given Linus the slip and sneaked back up to the loft to torment me.

“Meiko?”

A rattling noise curved my hands around the edges of the tub. Thanks to my keen night vision, I could tell the doorknob rattling wasn’t the one in here, but that meant…

Someone wanted in the apartment.

Meiko had a keycard. I’d seen her brandishing it earlier. Otherwise, she couldn’t come and go as she pleased while under residential protection. And if she hadn’t answered the door, that meant she wasn’t here.

There was no love lost between us. I had no doubt she would swing it wide open if a vampire horde descended upon the Faraday in search of me. Her absence erased any hope the lights might be a trick. The power had either been cut to the apartment or to the entire building. Not good.

Quick as I dared, I stood and toweled off, yanking on my pajamas and twisting my wet hair into a soggy bun I secured at my nape. I sucked in a deep breath and cracked open the door, exhaling when no one jumped out to grab me.

On tiptoe, I crept up into the loft where I kept my bags and pulled out the travel kit I used to bring Eileen, ink, brushes, and the modified pen and its parts with me. I shoved them into my purse, swung it over my shoulder, then climbed back down to hide in the maze of clothing racks Meiko had yet to return.

The rattle escalated to a fist pounding on the door in a steady beat that set my pulse hammering.

The same wards that kept sound from escaping must not work in reverse since I heard it all so well.

Whoever—whatever—was coming, I had to get out of here.

The front door was the only way in or out of this apartment that I had seen, but that couldn’t be all. Linus was too paranoid for that. But first, I yanked on the pair of flats I’d discarded earlier and picked a knee-length jacket to shrug on over my pajamas. There was no time to change. I had to move. At least this would keep me modest if I lucked up and managed to hit the street.

“Cletus,” I hissed. “Where are you?”

Viscous darkness whirled on my periphery as he took form on the other side of the window.

Fiddlesticks.

I had forgotten he was banned from the building.

Hand pressed to the glass, I peered down at the sheer drop to the alley below. “How do I get out of here?”

The wraith indicated the latches and made a flipping motion.

“I…don’t think that’s such a good idea.” Wood groaned and splintered behind me. “Okay, so maybe I’ll give it a try.”

Once I wedged open the window, Cletus drifted closer, beckoning me to join him with a curl of his fingers.

“I can’t fly.” I gulped as the warm breeze whipped stray hairs in my eyes. “You get that, right?”

A moan sounding suspiciously like a sigh moved through him as he pointed down.

“Yeah, I don’t want to go down.” I sank my nails into the windowsill. “Down bad.”

Quicker than I could escape his chilly grasp, Cletus circled his bony fingers around my wrists and yanked me out the window.