During the drive to Liquid Red & Blood Magic, I give Effie and Anders a rundown of how I overheard Rhyland and Kingsley being rude to Nadine. Then I tell them about how Rhyland grabbed me. By the time I’m finished, Effie is livid.

“Those assholes. I seriously can’t stand them.” She grips the living nightlights out of the steering wheel, the metallic black rings on each of her fingers glinting in the moonlight. “One day, I swear to God, I’m gonna …”

“Gonna what?” Anders asks from the passenger seat, cocking his brow. “I hate to be the one to ruin your evil plot fun, but Rhyland and Kingsley are emperors. And all we are is three normal, albeit weird and extremely awesome vampires. In terms of power, we can’t do much to them. Plus, there are laws and unless you want to be considered part of the rebellion, you don’t break the laws.” When Effie shoots him a warning look, he offers me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Raven. That’s probably not what you wanted to hear right now.”

“You don’t need to apologize for telling the truth.” I slump back in the seat. “I just wish we were stronger. Or, at least had an emperor or empress on our side.”

“Unfortunately, that’d require being friends with one of them,” Anders says, fiddling with a gauge in his ear. “And that doesn’t sound like very much fun.”

“They’re not all bad,” I tell him. “My mom’s one of them.”

“Fuck, I forgot about that.” He frowns. “I’m sorry. Again.”

“Stop apologizing for silly things,” I say. “Besides, most empresses and emperors aren’t like my mom. They’re big-headed and arrogant like Rhyland and Kingsley, so what you said is sort of right.”

Effie tucks a strand of her chin-length purple hair behind her ear while checking her reflection in the mirror on the visor. “I still think it’s a little weird that Kingsley and Rhyland were being mean to Nadine. They’ve always been nice to her, at least from what I’ve seen.”

“I know,” I agree. “She’s had them wrapped around her little finger since we were kids.”

Anders’ face contorts with disgust. “But she seems so vile.”

“She is vile,” I tell him. “But so are Kingsley and Rhyland.”

“They’re like three peas in a juicy blood pod,” Effie says as she steers the car into the back parking lot of the club.

The spacious area is crammed with cars and people dressed in various edgy, dress code appropriate outfits. Music is booming from inside the three-story, glittering midnight blue building, vibrating through the air. Glowing stars and swirling ribbons of violet and silver float above, a mirage painted by magic.

“God, this place is gorgeous,” Effie remarks in awe as she parks the car. Then she shuts off the engine and twist in her seat, glancing between Anders and me. “You know what I think? That we should say to hell with Kingsley, Rhyland, Nadine, and their evil games, down one of these little suckers”—she holds up a plastic bag full of small glass vials that she retrieves from the console—“march into that club, and dance until every single goddamn part of our bodies ache. Until we’re delirious on fun and dancing and laughing and living our goddamn lives without worrying about anyone else.”

“What about Austin?” Anders questions with a crook of his brow.

Effie shrugs. “I’ll deal with that cheating bastard when the time comes. Right now, my BFF is in desperate need of a forgetful night.”

I scoot forward in the seat and rest my arms on the console. “A forgetful night?”

“Yeah, a night so fun you can barely remember it.” She grins at me as she opens the bag of vials. “Trust me, it’s a rite of passage everyone needs to experience at least once.” She plucks out a vial.

Inside the glass, a silvery black liquid shimmers in the starlight filtering through the windows. I’ve never seen anything like it before and don’t immediately take it.

“What is it?” I ask warily.

“A blood boost.” She urges me to take the vial.

“What kind of a blood boost?” Because I’ve taken a couple of blood boosts before, usually when I’m tired and need an extra energy jolt. But with how excited she looks right now, I have a feeling the vial in her hand isn’t an ordinary blood boost.

“A boost of … emperor blood,” she answers with reluctance.

My eyes pop wide. “How the hell did you get ahold of emperor’s blood?”

She lifts a shoulder, shrugging. “I know some people who know some people. It’s not really that strange if you have the right connections.”

I cast a glance at Ander, wondering what he thinks about all this. He shrugs, seeming a little perplexed, but not as wary as me.

“Don’t worry; I’ve done this a couple of times before.” She presses the vial into my palm. “You’ll have a blast, I swear.” She hands a vial to Anders then takes one for herself. “Besides, if we were rich and wealthy, we’d be upstairs in your mom’s club drinking this from the vein.”

“I’m sure she’d let us go up if we asked.” I pull a face at my own statement. I act like I want to drink emperor’s blood, which I don’t. Well, I sort of do.

Okay, truthfully, I’ve always been a tiny bit curious what that sort of power tastes like. But after what happened when I left the house, I feel like I’ve been around emperors too much for one night.

I shake my head at myself. Look at how you’re already letting them affect you? A night ago, you would’ve been into this. You need to let it go, and not let them ruin your night, your week, your life.

Effie’s face bursts with excitement. “Are you being serious? You could really get us up there?”

“I’ve never asked her before, but I know she’s let Nadine a couple of times, so I’m sure she’d say yes.” I flick a glance in the direction of the very long line wrapping around the building. “Although, it might take a while with how busy it is tonight.”

“You don’t seem like you want to,” Effie observes. “Maybe we shouldn’t.”

“No, it’s fine. I was just thinking about dipshit emperors one and two. I’m not going to anymore.” I wrap my fingers around the vial and shake off my sullen mood. “Let’s make this an awesome forgetful night.”

Effie’s lips spread into a grin. “There’s my awesome best friend. I thought she was going to be sad all night.”

“I’m fine,” I promise her. “I just let them get to me. Now I’m over it.”

She eyes me over with a hint of skepticism. “Are you sure?”

I nod. “Positive.”

“All right, then.” She unscrews the lid off the vial. “I say we take these bad boys, go inside, and dance until we can get upstairs and get the live thing. Then we’ll dance until our feet can’t remember how.”

“It’s a good thing we don’t have classes tomorrow.” Anders pops the lid off his vial. “Not that I don’t mind missing a class or two.”

Effie grins at him then looks at me. “You in, Rave?”

I nod, though I’m nervous. I mean, I’ve gotten blood drunk a couple of times, and my body is still humming from the blood buzz from earlier. Now I’m about to drink emperor’s blood—powerful blood.

I shiver, not necessary in a bad way, and untwist the cap off the vial.

Effie clears her throat and raises her vial in the air. “I’d like to make a toast to Raven, who’s the best BFF I could ever ask for. Before you came along, I spent way too many hours listening to Anders yammer about all the hot ass and perfect tits he saw in a day, and how hard he got every time that stupid bathtub mat commercial came on.” She puts her hand to the side of her mouth and leans toward me, stage whispering, “I think he might have a thing for bathmats.”

Anders stares at her, unimpressed. “It was the woman in the commercial that was turning me on. Not the bathmat.”

“If you say so.” She grins when he scowls at her. “What? You did stare awfully hard every time that bathmat showed up on the screen.”

Anders just shakes his head.

Effie flashes him a grin then turns serious again. Well, as serious as she ever is.

“Anyway,” she says, looking at me. “My point is that while I love Anders, I love that you’re part of my life and that you don’t have a thing for bathmats.”

“Oh, my God, you’re insane.” Without waiting for her to finish, Anders tips his head back and throws back the blood boost.

“Fine, ruin my toast.” Effie playfully glares at Anders, then she clinks her vial with mine and downs the emperor’s blood in one long gulp.

They both look at me, waiting.

“Well, here goes nothing.” Letting out an anxious breath, I put the vial to my lips and tip my head back. The warm liquid spills down my throat and passed my lungs, settling in my stomach. As I lower the vial from my lips, I hold my breath and wait for something dazzling and magical to happen.

And wait.

And wait.

“Does anyone feel anything yet?” I set the empty vial down on the backseat.

Effie shrugs. “No … But I heard it takes a minute to kick in.”

We wait a minute. Still nothing.

Effie begins to frown while Anders mutters something about getting duds.

“Maybe we should go inside while we’re waiting for it to kick in,” I suggest.

We all agree and hop out of the car, surpassing the long line and walking straight up to the entrance. I nearly do a double-take at the presence of ten bouncers lined up in front of the entrance. Normally, only two are stationed at the front doors.

Hawk, the main bouncer who’s in his early twenties and is all muscles and intricate tattoos, greets me with a welcoming, fangy smile as I approach the velvet rope. “Well, well, look who decided to finally come check out her mom’s club.”

“I’ve been down here before,” I remind him. “Just not at night. I’m not really much of a night person.”

“Raven, you’re a vampire, which by definition means you’re a creature of the night,” he teases, wrapping his fingers around the rope. “Or, did you forget?”

I smack the heel of my hand against my forehead. “Man, I completely forgot. Thanks for reminding me. I was really starting to get worried about these fangs that keep slipping out of my gums and my uncontrollable desire for blood.”

He chuckles, shaking his head. “For the record, I didn’t mean night person, as in, simply a night person. I mean the night crowd.” He gestures at the people in line. “The party time crowd.”

“Party time crowd?” I arch a brow at him, smiling. “You’re making my mom’s club sound like a place where vampires go to throw their offspring birthday parties.”

His lips quirk. “Fine. Keep teasing me. At least I got you to smile.” He lifts the rope up to let me through.

“These guys are with me.” I gesture at Effie and Anders, who are both giving me goofy grins.

Great, did their blood boost kick in? Because mine still feels dormant.

“What?” I mouth. They both just giggle in response.

I shake my head and turn back toward Hawk just in time to see his gaze jerk upward. I glance down at the ground, wondering what he was looking at, but I can’t see anything except pavement.

Hawk clears his throat and motions for us to come through. “Does your mom know you’re here?” he asks as I start to step by him.

I stop beside him and shake my head while Effie and Anders bounce past me. “I’ll tell her. I need to talk to her, anyway.” My gaze strays to the extra bouncers. “So, what’s up with all the extra security?”

“Too many rebellions going on these days.” He heaves a sigh. “Last week, we had three fights break out within one night. They tore up the club and injured at least ten vampires. Your mom hired extra security, hoping it’ll scare all the vampires’ fangs back into their mouths. But I don’t know … I worry things are only going to get worse until we can find a way to get some more orders and laws in motion.” He pauses, considering something with uncertainty. “I heard a rumor that supposedly, maybe, possibly, Fate proclaimed a king the other day.”

My jaw nearly smacks the ground. “Seriously?”

He wavers. “Well, that’s what I heard. But I heard the story from a friend of a friend who heard it from their friend who wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, so I’m not sure how much truth there is to it.”

I tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear. “Still, it’d be good if it were true, right?”

“I agree. I don’t think we’ve ever needed a king more than we do right now.”

As if to prove a point, a fight breaks out across the street. Growls fill the air and blood splatters across the pavement as bites and punches are thrown.

Hawk sighs heavily. “We need a queen, too. Maybe even more so than a king. That’s kind of why I’m not sure if the story I heard is accurate. Normally, a queen is chosen first.”

“Maybe she’s already been chosen. Maybe your friend of a friend of friend or whatever,” I say and he smiles, shaking his head, “didn’t hear that part of the story.”

“Well, that, or the council is keeping it secret.” He eyeballs the fight across the street, his fingers drifting toward the gun in his shoulder holster.

The gun doesn’t carry normal bullets, but wooden ones sealed with demon venom powerful enough to knock a vampire out for days.

“Why would they keep it a secret?” I inch forward as one of the other bouncers storms by me and strides toward the brawl.

Hawk tenses as the fight moves across the street toward us. “A lot of reasons, but mainly because her powers won’t manifest for a couple of weeks after she’s been announced queen, which puts her in a vulnerable position to be assassinated. So, to protect her, they might keep it a secret until she gains her powers and can protect herself.”

My eyes widen. “Why would anyone want to kill her?”

“Because she has enough power to put a stop to everything—the madness, the chaos, the murders.” He gives an insinuating look at the fight going on, which has gained momentum with at least ten people joining in. Blood is beginning to pool the night-kissed streets and the metallic scent strangles the chilly air. “And not everyone wants that to happen.”

I watch the fight grow more violent, bones snapping and blood spilling everywhere. The sad part is, at least one of them will probably die. And for what? Because some vampires want to throw their fists around and prove they’re tough?

Right as I’m about to turn away, a male vampire amid the fighting mob snaps his head up. He sniffs the air, and then his red eyes lock on me. I’ve seen him before. It’s the emperor who was with Rhyland the day the demon attacked the school. He looks different, though. His red eyes are filled with untamed hunger, as if he hasn’t eaten in ages or has drank too much powerful blood and now lives in a blood frenzy all the time.

As he stares at me, unmoving in the mayhem, his lips curl upward, his fangs glinting in the moonlight. I want to look away, but I can’t get my gaze to budge, as if my eyes are bound in some magical trance.

I only blink my gaze away when Hawk nudges me forward.

“Go inside before things get worse.” He has his gun out. “You should be safe in there.”

Nodding, I hurry for the doors as a blood-curdling scream shatters the air.

I start to look over my shoulder to see if the emperor is still there, even though I know I probably shouldn’t, but right then, the blood boost kicks in.