Caleb needed to run an errand, so he left me at the lobby of the housing building. When I got back up to the apartment, our apartment, only Cole was there, sitting on the edge of the coffee table as he tied his sneakers.

“Vixen.” He smiled as I came into the room, and I smiled back brightly. “You look considerably better. I take it you and Caleb found a spare moment on your tour of the training facility?”

“We did...” I trailed off and bit my lip, not totally sure how okay the guys all were with our unusual relationship.

“Lucky fucker,” Cole muttered, finishing tying his shoe, then he stood and grabbed me for a kiss. “This is going to take some getting used to, but we’re in. One hundred percent. Never doubt that, Vixen.”

My eyes narrowed. “How did you just know what I was thinking? Oh fuck, do not tell me you can hear my thoughts or something now!”

“As much as I’d kill for that ability…” He pondered for a moment. “No, I can’t. Yet. Ever since you healed me though, I’ve been able to kind of feel your emotions. Like right then, I could feel you were nervous.”

“Ah, I see. So when the car crash happened, you could...” I trailed off as I thought this new development over.

“Feel your pain?” he finished for me. “Yeah. I imagine Vali could too, which is why my phone has been blowing up all day.”

“It has? How come you haven’t answered?” I pulled back from his embrace and scowled at him while he looked unapologetic.

“Because he’s an asshole, and it’s going to take way more than a black eye to mend shit between us.” He grabbed his phone off the coffee table and tucked it in his pocket. “Come for a run with me, and you can call him back.”

“Why not now?” I asked curiously, but he just shook his head.

“Go change. There should be clothes for you in the closet through there.” He pointed back through to the bedroom I had woken up in with Wesley.

“Fine, but can we call Lucy too? I just want to make sure she’s still safe. That Finn guy being one of her therapists cannot have been a coincidence.” I started to make my way to the bedroom, but Cole grabbed me by the hand and tugged me back to him for another kiss.

“Of course we can. Now hurry up; I want to be back when the guys are.”

I sighed and rolled my eyes, but once again I could feel that same dazed sort of smile on my face, like I was a loved up schoolgirl with her first boyfriend. Boyfriends. As if finding out I was a Ban Dia wasn’t confusing enough, now I had to remember to pluralize “boyfriend” in my own head.

“Okay,” I huffed when Cole eventually stopped. “Why did we have to go so damn far before calling Vali back?”

The Omega Headquarters was not technically in Seattle like the guys had said; it was on the outskirts, surrounded by some hundred and fifty acres of forest and fields. Definitely the perfect location for a spy facility and training ground.

“Because we are at the headquarters of the leading private security firm in the world, Vixen. Surveillance tech to spy on our calls is a given.” He stretched out on the grass beneath a huge oak tree and looked up at me.

“Private security, huh?” I teased. “That what we’re calling espionage these days? And why would being out here be any different? We’re still on Omega property and it’s a cellphone, so wouldn’t it still be tapped?”

“This isn’t Get Smart, Vix. Our phones aren’t tapped. There is a system in place that allows Omega to listen in to any phone conversation within a certain radius, regardless of whose phone it is. That way we don’t have to go to the trouble of tapping every phone that enters the premise.” He yawned and folded his arms behind his head, causing his colorfully inked biceps to bulge.

“You totally just said tapped, too,” I grumbled, “But I assume we’ve come this far to be outside the, um, field?” I was going to need to brush up on my spy terminology if this was my life now.

“We have. Given my older brother’s profession, I thought maybe it wasn’t a good idea to have his calls recorded.” Cole scowled when I looked at him in surprise. “I’m not a total dickhead, Vixen. Just because Vali and I have our differences doesn’t mean I want to see him put in jail for our father’s crimes. I have it on good authority that he’s actually working to legalize all of the Balaur income streams.”

“Balaur?” I repeated, and he grimaced.

“It’s the name of Vali’s organization, which was founded by our grandfather back in Romania and brought to America by our father when we were just kids. It means “dragon” in Romanian. The dragon was always on our family crest, and when we were little our grandmother used to tell us tales of how our family was descended from dragons.” His lips quirked in a half smile. “Guess that doesn’t sound so crazy now.”

“It sure doesn’t, but it is an awfully large coincidence, don’t you think?” I sat down under the tree and leaned my back against it, catching the phone that Cole tossed to me.

“No such thing as coincidences. Make your call; he’s in the contacts under Dick. I’ll give you some privacy.” Cole pushed up off the ground in a stupidly impressive body roll and stalked off into the forest.

Tapping the phone against my palm, I watched him walk away and thought about what he’d just said. He was absolutely right. Given everything going on, with the Blood Moon testing, the Ban Dia, the magical plague... there was no such thing as coincidences. So how did Jonathan and Omega Group play into it all?

My thoughts were broken by the phone vibrating in my hand, showing an incoming call from Dick. I smiled at the stupid insult Cole had saved his brother under and answered the call.

“Andrei, you little shit! Why haven’t you been answering your goddamn phone?” Vali’s polished, international accent clipped angrily. He had the type of accent that couldn’t be placed anywhere, which was probably a result of moving from Romania as a kid.

“Well hello to you too, Dragomir,” I teased and was met with a long pause.

“Dragă, you have no idea how relieved I am to hear your voice. I have called my dickhead brother some fifty times today, and he hasn’t picked up. What happened? Why were you in so much pain?” His voice came down the line in a rush of concern, and I was struck by how much he genuinely seemed to care.

“I’m fine, Vali. It was nothing. Just a little incident with a truck hitting our car on the way from the airport.” That was easily one of the most ridiculous sentences I had ever said.

“Was anyone else hurt?” Vali asked, in a quiet voice.

“Caleb and Wes. I needed to heal them both, or they would have died. The driver did die.” I suppressed a shudder. That poor man could have been any one of us.

“Ah, that was the exhaustion I felt from you then. I am, of course, assuming this isn’t news to you? Cole must surely be having these same... side effects?” he asked tentatively, and I chuckled.

“Side effects? Yeah, he mentioned it. You could have told me sooner, you know?” My tone was scolding, but I wasn’t all that mad. We hadn’t really had a huge amount of time to shoot the breeze over pizza and beer.

“Yes, absolutely, I do apologize for that. So you’re all okay? Everyone is... whole?” he clarified, and I smiled again to myself.

“Everyone is whole. Except River, who looks like he has a broken arm but hasn’t let me heal him yet.” I huffed a little at this. Damn stubborn man. I’d need to corner him when I got back to the apartment.

“I’m not surprised.” Vali snorted, and in the background there was the muffled sound of voices. “Dragă, I do apologize, but I must go. Business calls.”

“Oh, of course. Totally understandable,” I said, and there was another pause on his end.

“Will you—” he started, then had to answer someone in the background in Romanian. “Would you maybe call me again when you get your own phone? I wish we had gotten you one before leaving Alaska.”

My teeth caught the edge of my bottom lip, and I tried to hold back that damn goofy smile that kept appearing on my face all of a sudden. Our departure out of Harrow had been so quick that there had been no time to buy a phone for me, even if there had been somewhere to buy one, but I’d assumed Jonathan would have one for me.

“Of course. Um, tomorrow night okay? I have to start classes with the recruits tomorrow.” I tried to sound upbeat about it, but I really wasn’t looking forward to being the new kid. At least I’d have one of the guys with me, though.

“Tomorrow night is perfect. Please remember though, dragă. I almost got on a plane to that damn headquarters myself today when Andrei wouldn’t call me back.” He laughed as he said it, but I had no doubt he was telling the truth.

“Don’t do that, Vali. You’re a known crime lord; you’ve probably got a bounty on your head or something!” I was only marginally exaggerating. I knew first hand about bounties, as I’d acquired a couple myself in my double life as The Fox, international thief extraordinaire.

“Well then, don’t forget to call me.” He paused. “Sleep well, Vulpe.”

The dial tone sounded in my ear before I had a chance to respond, so I disconnected the call and quickly Googled the phone number for Lucy’s fancy rehab in New York. To my disappointment, it rang through to an answering service advising that the receptionists were currently on other calls.

“You ready to head back?” Cole asked, appearing from out of the trees with barely a sound—which was damn impressive given the size of him and the amount of dead twigs and things on the ground.

“Yeah, no one is answering at Lucy’s rehab, so I’ll try her again later.” I shivered a little, noticing for the first time how freezing cold my butt was where I’d been sitting on the ground.

Cole reached out a hand and pulled me to my feet. “Let me know, and we can come back out here. She’s bound to ask questions about what you found out in Harrow, and I feel like you’re not ready to share that information with anyone outside our circle?”

“Pretty much. I don’t know; Jonathan has been acting really weird ever since he picked me up from Vali’s place, don’t you think?” I left my hand in his as we started slowly making our way back to the buildings at the center of the Omega grounds.

“Very much so. He’s all but interrogating the guys right now, you know.” Cole glanced at me, then tugged me in close to his side, wrapping an arm around me.

“Seriously? What about?” I was getting such a bad feeling about his behavior. It was like he’d been body snatched or something. “And how come not you?”

Cole huffed a rather dragon-like laugh. “I went first and said nothing, so he gave up. He knows better than to try and interrogate me, of all people.” He planted a casual kiss on the top of my head as we walked. “But he’s really interested in hearing about your healing abilities. None of us are cracking, obviously, until we know what you want said, but he knows more than he should.”

My heart sank with the poisonous feeling of betrayal. “Do you think he had anything to do with the car crash? Or the bomb?”

There was a long pause before he said anything.

“Vixen,” Cole sighed heavily. “I think he loves you. But I think you should be careful around him until we figure out what’s going on.”

“I agree.” I nodded, but my stomach was twisting up in knots so hard it felt like I was going to vomit. Surely the man who’d rescued me from Suzette’s and raised me for the past five years couldn’t be a bad guy. I’d have known. Right?

“Did you speak with Vali?” Cole asked, changing the subject.

“I did. Oh, actually that reminds me, I was meaning to ask him but forgot.” I paused and looked up at him. “When I was at his place in Vegas, there were a couple of times that he knew I was in trouble before I was. How is that even possible? Is it, like, a dianoch thing? Like, do you know when bad shit is about to happen to me? Or, did you before I healed you?”

“Vixen, you need to stop acting like we were all fated to be together. You chose, consciously or not. So no... it has nothing to do with Vali being one of your dianoch, and it’s unfortunately not a skill any of the rest of us have.” Cole scowled. “But it would be damn useful.”

“Huh. Okay so, what is it then? Do you know? I guess I should have just asked him on the phone.” I shivered and cuddled into Cole’s warmth. Now that we weren’t running, my thin sweater wasn’t really enough.

“Ah, yeah. You still should, next time you speak to him. I assume he made you promise to call him practically every hour?” Cole huffed, tightening his arms around me and surrounding me with his burning ember smell. Like an old campfire.

“Tomorrow night, not every hour. So you won’t tell me then?” I pulled back from his warm chest to narrow my eyes at him. “What if I asked really nicely?”

“Vixen.” He grinned. “Is that an offer of bribery?”

I shrugged and winked at him, causing him to bark a laugh.

“You know I can never say no to you,” he muttered, bending down to kiss me. His lips caressed mine gently, slowly, in a way that he knew full well was making me want more.

“I can’t tell you everything,” he said, breaking from our kiss and leaving me a bit dazed and out of breath. Damn man. “You know we have different mothers?”

“Yes.” I nodded, retrieving my train of thought from where I’d dropped it during Cole’s kiss. “Vali’s mom died after he was born, and your asshole father got re-married to your mom?”

“Exactly. So I couldn’t say for sure, but I suspect his ability to sense danger is from his birth mom. She was Romani, and our grandmother always used to tell stories about the Romani people’s magical powers—the most common of which is their power of foresight.” Cole tucked me back into his side and started walking again.

“I see.” I pondered. “And that’s why fortune tellers always seem to be Gypsies?”

“It is. But some people consider Gypsy to be a derogatory term, so stick with Traveler or Romani.” He sounded like he was rolling his eyes, but I couldn’t see from where I was glued to his side while we walked. “Come on, Vix. Let’s get back and see what the guys have to say about the grilling from Director Pierre.”