“Anna isn’t here to influence, just to help. No worries,” I assure her.

The Neoprys working on the dining room are dancing, and I turn up the music to drown Mom out, as I dance alongside them on my way through.

Then I dart into a closet, listening as Mom curses.

“Very mature, Violet,” I hear her saying as she paces, presumably searching for me.

She finally walks off, and I exhale in relief, as I push open the door…and run right into a very devilish looking vampire. Arion immediately pushes me back into the closet, and I grin as his lips come down on mine.

I feel his grin forming to mimic mine, as my fingers tangle in his hair. I jump up to wind my legs around his waist, kissing him harder.

“Arion! Get up here. She’s about to have an impromptu family meeting about the boundaries between your border and hers,” Emit calls very loudly from somewhere.

Arion groans into my mouth like he’s actually about to walk out of here and leave me hanging.

“Sorry, love. That’s unfortunately a very important matter,” he murmurs against my mouth, nipping my lower lip, before leaving me bereft, just a whisper of wind in his wake.

He’s gone so fast that I don’t even see him leave.

“What is happening right now?” I ask incredulously, adjusting my skirt.

Hell, I’ve even started wearing dresses and skirts to make it easier for them, and still get left hanging.

“The chase is over, and so they’re over it,” Anna supplies as she pops in next to me. “And by it I mean you. Obviously.”

“Thanks for clearing that up,” I state dryly.

“So that means I do influence the living after all. I’ve been a naughty girl. Let me possess you so they’ll spank me,” she adds very seriously.

“You have no excuse to be this ridiculous anymore,” I inform her as I walk out of the closet.

“Says the girl with her skirt still flipped up in the back. Newsflash, he ran away because of the granny panties you’re wearing right now,” Anna says very loudly.

Seriously? This day blows.

“Oh, you look like a dog chasing its tail right now,” Anna says, laughter belting out of her, while I turn a circle, trying to see if I’ve fixed my damn skirt.

“You’re exhausting,” I groan, wondering how many consecutive days someone can stay awake and still be considered sane.

“At this rate, you’re going to start spending time kissing your hand in the closet instead of real boys, if you don’t fight for them a little,” she says a little more seriously.

“Why compete with a woman they supposedly hate, Anna?” I ask just as seriously. “I have to know exactly what I’m fighting for, because there’s something a lot bigger that needs my attention.” I pause for a second. “And who the hell kisses the back of their hand?”

“Apparently every kid from the nineties, according to movies,” she deadpans.

Rolling my eyes, I turn and trip over the stack of wood that seems to just be randomly lying in the hallway, and my head slaps the wall hard enough to make my ears ring because I don’t get my hands up to catch myself in time.

“This, ladies and gentleman, is the future of your species,” Anna says as she mocks a clap.

“Har,” I groan as I push away.

Then I hear a hoarse, broken whisper through the wall that stops me.

“You’re losing them,” the wall whisperer tells me in her barely audible rasp. “You need them.”

I put my hand on the wall, about to speak, when my heartbeat drops as my knees wobble, and I fall forward again.

My head spins as the air around me thins. Dizzied, I glance around, seeing lightning flashing outside of a dark castle. I’m only confused for a second when I see Idun dragging a familiar girl down a hallway full of agonized screams.

Idun just smirks, as Caroline writhes, begging for mercy in a language I don’t understand, but the terror in her screams gives it away. My heart sinks as Idun drags her into a cell.

Bile rises to my throat when I see her patches of hair are few, and Idun tosses another handful of it away, as Caroline sobs, getting strapped down to a familiar metal chair.

Her skull has been cracked and lifted, and some sort of metal contraption keeps it there so you can see through to her brain. My jaw grinds when I hear Idun humming merrily, just before she jabs a metal rod directly into Caroline’s brain.

Caroline barely whimpers in pain, as though her tolerance is so high that it’s not even enough to cause her to cry out.

A man shoves Caroline’s feet into a pan of water, and then picks a piece of lint from his trench coat, as if this is all grown monotonous and boring. That’s Idun’s father—Clive.

I hear the thunder crackle a warning, and Idun continues humming, as she rips open Caroline’s shirt. Nausea sweeps over me when I see her heart beating, another metal contraption holding her skin and bones back so Idun has a clear view.

Idun says something to her father, and they both back away. I try to look away, but I’m stuck in a death window for a girl who can’t die, as lightning pours through the window and filters into the metal rod.

Caroline’s screams wreck me, and my heart feels like it’s being dragged out, as a putrid scent fills the air. The stench is so heavy, it almost seems to cast a filmy layer of oil into the air.