I want Lucian with me.

Maybe it’s because I already feel naked and vulnerable with Carver locked away to suffer under whatever tortures Morana’s inflicting on him.

Maybe it’s because I just need his strength alongside mine and Row’s.

Maybe if I’m even more honest with myself, it’s because he’s my chosen, and I feel out of step when he’s gone almost as much as I do when Carver’s away from me. Part of me feels lost without him next to me. Like physically lost. Not like I can’t take care of myself, but like a piece is missing.

But he has to stay away, to run interference with the museum staff and his party guests. Within hours of Reina’s brilliant suggestion, Lucian had his office set up a wine and cheese party for tonight in the next gallery over from the American space. His cover? A party for his private investors in Romania.

I can imagine his entire office turned over in the project, from ordering food and drinks, waiters and tables, to plates, glasses, and silverware. No doubt another bank of people worked the phones finding a flock of investors that would keep the staff of the museum busy.

Lucian wanted to call the museum director himself to impress upon the man that his investors wanted the utmost privacy, and they were inclined to give a generous donation to the museum if they could enjoy the evening incognito. But he couldn’t, not without tripping a “we are here to steal the patriarch of all the vampires alarm.”

My normally calm and stoic lover had paced the floors until his Managing Sales Director of Investments called and told him that everything was set.

And now, he’s playing the distraction while Row, Reina, and I go for the more daring breakout of Abehartach.

I worried about those statues reporting back to Morana, but at the last minute, hit upon an idea from my time with Leander. He said the incantation he gave me should undo any magic spell. Which meant if we could ‘touch’ the statues without using our flesh, we could still cast the spell and ‘blind them’ from spying on our every move. Reina came up with the idea of using spring water in spray bottles, and we both snuck out an hour before our stakeout to collect what we could from a nearby river.

Now, we walk into the museum, each of us on our mans’ arms, carrying our bottles as casually as possible within the tiny clutches we’ve brought. We hang back as Lucian and Row talk with the museum director who greets us, ushering us toward the gallery where the party is being held.

We briefly lose ourselves in a tangle of similarly attired guests and let them pass by before we split off toward the American gallery. Outside the entrance, we encounter the first set of statues flanking either side of the wall.

I nod to Reina and as we slowly approach, we tug out our bottles and splash water on them. Their eyes seem to open with surprise, and we chant in a hurried unison, uncertain of how much time they need to send info back to their master.

“I snuff the magic that enlivens you; I drown the light that fills you, I cast out the power within you.”

I swear I hear a far off scream. But when I look, the statue seems as lifeless as it should be.

“I think that worked,” Reina smiles at me.

I grab her arm, “Let’s not sit around and test the theory.”

Unexpectedly, a finger taps my shoulder and I spin around, practically punching Row, who’s just joined us, square in the nose. “Holy fuck, dude!” I yell-whisper at him.

He raises his hands palms out, “Sorry. Shit, I thought you heard me coming.”

“No. I didn’t” I take another swing at him but he moves out of the way.

Reina squeezes in between us, clearly trying protect her vampire from me. “That’s enough. You can kick his ass another day.” She glances from him to me, “Right now, we have more important things to do, right?”

“Right.” I say, dusting off imaginary dirt from my dress, “Let’s go find Abe.”

* * *

The three of us trail down the hall and into an empty bathroom, slipping off our formal wear and into more appropriate clothes.

I have no idea what condition we’ll find Abe in or If I can even raise him alone and without the other Drias. Lord knows he’ll be so effing disoriented. The last place he remembers is that fortress stronghold in Romania that was a total bust. He’s been moved since then and centuries upon centuries have passed.

I know Abe’s been reaching out to me, mind to mind, but how much of that is instinct? How much of a sentient and hopefully benevolent king is left behind in him?

Can we even get him out?

I don’t know what to expect, and I wish I had all my team with me. Sighing, I keep my head down and, like Row, gather closer to Reina.

Row nods to a far door, a heavy, metal number with a fire alarm bar across it. “That’s the one on the plans. It’ll lead straight to basement storage. The damn fire alarm is a decoy and a way to sound out against thieves.”

I reach into my pocket. The device there is heavy in my palm.

Lucian has great contacts. Once, his firm helped set up the finances of one of the biggest tech billionaires in Silicon Valley. Oh yeah, I won’t name names, but there’s a famous tech genius who also only drinks O+ blood to unwind. Anyway, that guy was able to give us a small electromagnetic pulse device. Nothing over the top, just a small pulse that would knock out nearby electronics. But this device was expertly calibrated and localized.

As Row sets it casually on the alarm box of the fake emergency exit door, it activates. The alarm light goes from green to red without a sound.

Perfect.

“Reina,” I say. “You know what to do. Be careful and once you find a good place near the door, be on look out.”

Reina flips her dark blue-black braid over her shoulder. “Bitch, no one can put on a distraction like me. You just get good ole honest Abe up and walking, I’ll take care of the distraction. Now go!” She eyes Rowland for just a minute, a longing look that I assume is Reina for “be careful and I love you” all in one.

There’s not time for words.

She’s dashing to the far end of the exhibit floor to the nearest guard, whining up a storm theatrically about having had her cell phone stolen and railing on about how she’s going to call the U.S. embassy right away. I steal a glance at the guard who’s rolling his eyes. Apparently, Reina picked a good routine. There must be upset American tourists chewing guards’ ears off a lot. Great. We’ll blend right in.

Even if Row and I don’t have heartbeats.

Once the guard has his back turned to focus on Reina, we hurry through the door and down the stairs. The national museum was built into an ancient castle, an old Wallachian monument from centuries ago. The steps narrow and wind around into spires underground and, even with a flashlight and our own superior senses, it’s a trek to get down without tripping over ourselves. My sneakers squeak on the old stone and I almost slip once on an unexpected divot, but Row catches me.

He shakes his head and helps me to the level floor of the basement below. “Even as a vampire you’re clumsy.”

“Tell you what, next time you step on that and don’t fall and then you can snark at me,” I say.

That’s as much energy as I have for jokes. It’s not exactly a dungeon down here, but the area falls into subterranean maze territory pretty quickly. We wind through boxes stacked ten feet high, old weapons and ancient suits of armor, and even a room with royal family portraits. At least the slight hum and breeze around me seem to indicate there’s a cooling system or some kind of temperature control here for storage. Otherwise, these antiquities would have been toast. Still, I doubt an American museum would be quite as cavalier with its storage. Not exactly sure there’s a basement wing of the Smithsonian, but maybe there is. I’m not a curator either. However, the one thing we don’t see after rows and rows and several rooms of historical items is a single, fucking sarcophagus.

Reina’s good but she can only keep the guards distracted for so long. Eventually, someone’s going to notice we’re missing and that the emergency exit door alarm isn’t functioning. I want to scream as we pass what seems like the millionth useless box.

“Mother fucker. Where is he?”

Row shakes his head and checks the map. “The basement is as big as the museum, a full city block. We’re almost to the far end of everything but not completely there yet. Give it time, Aura.”

“We don’t have that.”

He nods to the far wall and at the old, stone door before us. “True, but we’re also to the last section of the museum’s basement. Either Abe’s here or it’s been another wild goose chase. Now, come on.”

I push the door open first and gasp at the tomb laid out before me. The sarcophagus isn’t intricately engraved. There’s no gold or jewels on it, and I realize that this giant, stone monolith has to be another part of the insult that Morana was trying to hurl at Abehartach. First, she buried him with his human family, as if he were no more than mortal, which, hey to me seems like a good deal. We all have human family we’re attached to. However, I’m starting to get for older vamps that’s a huge fuck you. But it’s more than that now. He’s been shuffled aside to some obscure corner of a museum, a relic so useless that he’s not even given adornments or a name plate.

God, I hate Morana.

The evil bitch needs to fry for what she’s done, and for what she’s doing even now to Carver and to Jolie.

“Are you ready?” I ask.

Row nods and grips his side just as I have mine. “Three, two, one!”

We strain at first but nothing budges. I want to scream. Fucking damn it! Of course, we should have brought Lucian with us. There was no way the sarcophagus was going to be an easy entry point for anyone. Morana would be sure that only her own elite guards and assassins could get into it. Hell, for all we know, maybe she had Jolie lower the lid with her freakish strength last time Abe was hidden.

I’m panting. A vampire that doesn’t need to breathe is panting hard. I only notice because beside me even Row is doing the same thing.

“It’s not enchanted.”

I stare at him. “What?”

“I’d be able to feel or sense if it were. She was good, but she didn’t enchant it shut. Maybe she figured it was too heavy anyway and no one would ever find it. Pride has always been a huge problem for Morana.”

“You don’t say?” I gasp.

“But it’s heavy. There’s no doubt about that. We’ll have to do the best we can. It’ll take everything you have so if you’ve been training hard with Lucian and before with Carver too, then you need to reach out to your inner Kresova. All that strength you reign in, especially as a fledgling, you need to get that wild now.”

I can’t help myself. Sarcasm is my refuge. “So, you want me to go wild with you, Row? What will Reina say?”

“Oh, ha-ha, I have one tough New Orleans girl. She’s all I can handle.”

“Right answer,” I reply. Then, I close my eyes. This time when I breathe, I’m doing my best to connect to that wild, savage soul who lives inside of me, the pure Kresova that I’ve only touched in battle or in bed. When I open my eyes, everything’s in a silver haze. When I speak, my voice is low and throaty. So hoarse, I barely recognize it. “Now!”

We heave together and slowly---damn it---so slowly at first, the top inches off. I dig harder, growling as I do, letting the dark soul inside me run free. Suddenly, there’s no resistance at all, and I cringe when the top spins out of both of our hands and crashes hard against the far wall. It crumbles into pieces, and I swallow hard.

Row shakes his head. “See, fledges have some brute power they’re just not used to tapping into. You add that with your Dria nature, and I knew we could get you there.”

My vision is still a filmy silver, and I bare my fangs at him and his. “Hungry.”

Holding both his hands up, palms flat, Rowland stares me down. “No. It’s not the time for that, Aura. Calm down. You let the Kresova out, now push her back in. We have to think our way through this if we’re going to smuggle Abe out.”

I hiss again and crouch, readying myself to spring forward.

Then a crackling blare goes off in Row’s coat. He pulls out the walkie talkie that ties us directly to Reina and to Lucian. It’s her voice I recognize on the other end though, her voice that brings me back.

“Guys? What the hell is going on? Everyone heard a massive crash down here. I texted Lucian first, and he’s coming down here as a ‘potential investor’ to see how secure the facility is and rant about pickpocketing or some bullshit, but we can’t keep the guards from checking down here for too long. You have to motor!”

Rowland presses the button on the side. “Getting the top off took longer than we thought. Don’t worry. We’ll feed him, slip in him the spare clothes I have sewed in the lining of my jacket, and get Abe out of here.”

“Lucian’s already here doing his upset rich guy act, which, hey is even more distracting for the guards than my pissed off American princess act. So that’s good, but you have to hurry!”

I blink, and my world comes back in normal colors again; no silver haze colors and distorts my vision. Reina’s voice brought me back as it tends to do. That’s what I needed to hear. I’m Kresova, but I’m also Aurora Hedvidge, and I need to think my way through this.

“Sorry,” I say as Rowland presses the button on the side of his bluetooth, clicking it off.. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s understandable. It’s heady tapping into that side of things. All that matters now is that we feed Abe and get him up and moving.”

I lean over the coffin, and I have to stifle back vomit. Abe’s too dry to reek, but the body laid out before me is nothing more than a desiccated husk. He looks exactly like the mummy before its resurrected in that old Brendan Fraser movie, like a could breeze might blow the rest of what’s left of Abe to dust.

“There’s no way. I can’t…how can he even still be alive…undead…whatever the fuck it’s called?” I ask.

Row shrugs. “He’s the oldest vampire on Earth. If he’s been sending you visions via the psychic hotline, then there’s more to him than we think.”

I gesture to the tomb. “There has to be. I know my Dria blood has to be powerful, but I don’t know if I can raise the dead. He seems more than just a long sleep to me.”

“He hasn’t drunken since before the Romans were around. Give the guy a break, Aura. We need you to do this. Please.”

I close my eyes and bring my wrist to my mouth. There’s no way I expected Abe to be this gone, not when I felt his mind reaching for my own. I’m not sure I can help him, but I have to be strong. The only hope I have---the only hope we all have---is for Abe to rise. We need him. The resistance needs him. Even if I feel like it’s hopeless, I have to try. My fangs tear into my skin and blood drips down my arm; its coppery scent fills my nostrils. It might feel hopeless, but I have to be brave. Carver’s risked everything for this movement. He’s a prisoner even now under Morana’s power, and I have to help him, be the warrior he sees in me already. Lucian’s up above doing everything he can to distract the guards. He’s shown me every day since this nightmare began, especially after Carver was stolen, how brave he is. The least I can do is take my strength from their strength.

Try the impossible.

Hell, hasn’t my life been impossible since that vamp bit me?

Bringing my bloody arm to Abe’s dried, deformed lips, I lay my wrist across his mouth and…Nothing. Panicked, I eye Rowland. “What do I do?”

“Press harder? I don’t know. You have to keep trying. Aura!”

No shit. We’re close to having the guards track us down, and the last thing I need is a rival vampire royal line hunting me. I already have Morana’s crazy wrath to worry about. I take a breath and calm myself, focus on Carver and on Lucian. Neither of them would give up if there was still an unbroken bone left in their body. They’d do anything they could. I owe them the same in return.

I press my wrist harder and call to Abe with my mind. He’s been communicating with me in dreams, and it’s not exactly telepathic, but it is mind to mind. I hope I can catch his attention while I’m awake. Reaching deep within myself, I call to him, Abehartach, please, it’s Aurora. You need to eat.

He moves so fast then that even I with all my vampiric reflexes can’t follow what’s happening. One minute, his body is lifeless before me, and the next, his jaws are clamped on my arm, his teeth deep in my flesh. My heart doesn’t beat anymore---can’t---but I can feel the force of the way he drains me, the blood ripped from my body. It’s not an erotic act like with Carver, and it’s not the sharing of blood ritual I think other Kresova must share. No. It’s raw, painful, and violent, and it’s sweeping me under with it.

No! Stop!

I want to scream, want to pull away, but Abe’s more powerful even asleep for thousands of years than I’ll ever be. If he wants to drain me dry right here and make me the husk, then there’s nothing I can do about it, no way to defend myself. My vision swims and my ears ring. Through the din, I make out someone shouting. My dimming mind thinks it sounds like Reina, but that can’t be possible.

It just can’t be.

Then there’s darkness, and it’s all I know.