I wake up coughing.

My eyes dart around as I look into Reina’s familiar, kind eyes. She’s wrapped a torn scrap of the t-shirt underneath her sweater around my wrist. My view is hazy, and my head is pounding, but I’m coming back to myself. She grounds me better than almost anyone else; that’s what a ride-or-die bestie is for, after all.

“What happened?”

“You helped save me,” Abe says.

He shouldn’t look dignified in a pair of discreet, grey slacks and a black sweater. He has Rowland’s coat on as well. While he’s not completely at one hundred percent---there’s grey at his temples and crows’ feet playing at the corners of his eyes---Abe is far from a dried-out exhibit in a dusty museum corner. His flushed cheeks remind me that he’s just fed.

On me.

Without a word, he moves to my side and helps me to my feet. Dark eyes regard me with concern and gratitude as he pushes a strand of blonde hair out of my eyes. “I thank you, daughter, for helping me. I, too, have waited long for the Drias to rise as prophecy foretold. Where are your sister queens?”

Swallowing hard, I force myself to stand steadily on my feet. “This is what we have. The other Drias we’ll find as fast as we can, and one of my consorts is in Morana’s grasp.”

“And a partridge in a pear tree,” Row says, checking his watch. “We’ve been down here way too long.”

“You guys made wicked amounts of noise, too,” Reina says. “I hurried down here while Lucian was talking about getting his lawyers in here to talk about ‘fraudulent representation of museum safety’ and that’s keeping them busy but not through a big huge crash…at least not forever. Let’s move!”

Abe looks at me once more, and something flickers across his face. I hope it’s not disappointment. I don’t know if one Dria, two vamps (only one her consort), and a Goth’ed out human are what he’s expecting. I know we could be a bigger cavalry, but if we don’t run fast, we won’t be anything at all.

Especially if the Draugurs of Romania get us on their radar too.

Last thing we need.

I shake my arms behind my back a bit, loosen the tight muscles of my shoulders. I think of Lucian above me, keeping the guards at bay with a silver tongue and, apparently, some hidden acting chops. Then, like always, I think of Carver. We’re going to save him. Abe’s the key to that, and I’ll have Morana’s head on a pike. I swear it.

“Then let’s get going.”

We rush through the back rooms and up the winding staircase. A small ping goes off in Reina’s pocket. Abe’s eyes widen, but I shake my head.

“Don’t worry, Abe. A lot has changed, but that’s helping Reina talk to Lucian, my consort. What did he say?”

“The guards and the executive board members all went to the main security office on this floor to review the tapes and bring him proof there’s no pickpockets. Long story short, we have a window to sneak back out to the floor and then book it.”

“Ready to do that,” Row replies, pushing on the door.

He takes the lead and Abe follows him, his face and head obscured by the scarf Row had given him. Reina and I follow out the same way, and I shut the door behind myself as gently as I can. It clicks into place and still feels too loud in the middle of a quiet exhibit hall. However, Lucian’s also ranting at one side, pretending to be on his cell to his business manager when I know he’s been using it discreetly to text Reina and keep her in the loop. My heart flutters---well, metaphorically---at the sight of him, and I hurry forward to meet him.

But my shirt sleeve catches on the alarm.

It doesn’t go off, but the fabric of my long, white-sleeved shirt tears and gets even more hopelessly tangled over the alarm mechanism on the so-called fire door. “Guys!” I hiss.

Reina scurries back to me while Row still supports Abe with an arm under the old king’s shoulder. My Dria blood might have wakened him, but he’ll need so much more to be strong. Fuck. Both of us will have to feed soon and, suddenly, I’m way too aware of not just Reina’s pulse as she hovers over me and tries to free me but of every human in the damn building.

Of how much I’d love to tear right through them and be strong again.

I force my vision to stay normal, for the silver haze and rage not to overtake me. But even as Reina finishes helping me with my sleeve, a wiry man with a thick, bushy mustache and in a cheaply cut suit coughs in front of me. He smells human, but the guards behind him are vampires, and not Kresova. There’s a subtle difference there, and I must keep myself calm. I still smell like Reina, thank God. If I can bluff my way through this, then we can get to Lucian’s waiting jet. Get our asses back in hiding.

“What are you doing?” Mustache regards me with disgust, like an insect to crush. Granted, he probably thinks I was trying to steal something. I did. I just bet that the curator doesn’t realize Abe used to be his prized mummy about fifteen minutes ago. “Are you trying to deliberately set off the alarm.”

“No,” I say. “I got caught on the stupid thing.”

He eyes the bar and then turns to me. “You, Miss Pickpocket complaints and your other American friend need to get out of here.” The curator squints down at the alarm, and he must notice that it’s red and inactive because he rounds on us fast and gestures for the guards. “Have you been tampering with this?”

Reina thinks fast as always and starts spinning her lies. “No, and deflection? Hello! My friend ruins her new shirt on your crappy door and you’re accusing her of breaking the alarm. What? With her magic ninja skills. Dream on, stuffy. You still haven’t found my wallet yet.”

I force a grin and grab Reina’s elbow. “Maybe we can call it even.”

We back up together and I stop only when a wall of solid muscle is behind me and one of the Draugur grab my shoulder. “She doesn’t smell human.”

The curator frowns but the rest of the room moves fast. The Draugur besides Mustache knocks him out. Human tourists still left run from the room screaming, and the Draugur behind me, grips me tight. I struggle, but he’s a warrior, probably their race’s answer to the Tiruer, and I can’t knock him away.

I don’t have to.

In an instant, Abe is on him and has ripped first his head off and the then other guard’s. He laps at the blood from the neck of his second victim, just a few feet from unconscious Mustache. I shudder as I watch him. A part of me, even now, is jealous and wants some fresh blood too. Most of me is terrified that maybe there’s a chance Abe has gone crazed and feral after all these millennia.

Is it possible we’ve let something even worse out?

There’s a lull, as Row takes Reina in his arms and, finally, Lucian’s strong arms circle my waist. His jaw is set in a hard line and his chestnut eyes flash with danger and warning. “King Abehartach, are you all right?”

Abe drops the dead Draugur and wipes at his messy, blood-stained chin. “I am. Who are you?”

“Lucian DeFontaine,” I say. “He’s my consort.”

“And I was running this extraction operation. We were trying to go under the radar, majesty, but we’re in Romania, deep in the territory of the---”

“Draugur. Yes, I tasted that on their blood,” Abe says.

“And we have to move.” Lucian sighs. “Luckily, I had a Plan D.”

* * *

The Aston Martin Vanquish gleams a bright silver under the lights lining the darkened Bucharest streets. We shouldn’t have been able to cram five people into it and probably wouldn’t have if Reina wasn’t scrunched up on Row’s lap. She’s screaming loudest of any of us, probably because as the human, she’s the only one who can really be hurt if we crash. I doubt we will. Lucian is driving, his keen eyes focused on the road in front of us even as it winds up hills and through buildings twice as old or older than the entire United States. Abe’s in the back and he’s quiet, and I feel better with him so close to Reina now that he’s fed. He has Dria blood and two Draugur warriors filling him. After that, human couldn’t be very appealing, could it?

“So,” I start, as I grip the dashboard. “You didn’t trust my plan?”

“I did, and you got remarkably far, sweetheart, but I didn’t make it through centuries without a plan B, C, D, and you get the idea.” He spins the wheel wildly, and we duck around the side of an ancient, Orthodox church, its large silver crosses gleaming in the streetlights. The contrast of the medieval world with the nightlife of Bucharest. “So, I made sure I had my fastest car for getaway purposes. The jet’s already waiting. We get there, and we can be wheels up in fifteen minutes.”

“Jet?” Abe asks, his voice low and gravely. I turn to look at him and the wrinkles are no longer there, his skin appears a healthy bronze, and his hair is jet black and sleek. “I do not understand.”

“It’s complicated,” I say as we race through a stop light. Reina squeals behind me. Concentrating hard, I take advantage of the mental link between us and broadcast an image of a plane taking off for Abehartach to “see.” “Do you get it now? It’s flight.”

“What marvels,” he says.

“Yes, King, and as long as Lucian doesn’t splat us, we can all enjoy that soon,” Row says. “Seriously, Lucian, my lover’s mortal. We don’t want to smoosh her and, just because I can survive a car accident, doesn’t mean I want to.”

“We have to keep racing. The Draugur will be hunting for us by now and…”

He stopped and slammed on the brakes as the earth in front of us opened up. “Fuck!”

“I’ll top that with a holy fucking shit,” I say as the ground still crumbles and shakes before us. As we watch, four Draugur warriors step out from the shadows and the ground rocks harder. “I…are they doing this?”

Lucian nods. “Carver was very precise with how he explained our races to you. The Draugur can manipulate the elements. Not for long, it exhausts them, and they’ll need to drink for days after to feel normal and steady, but in concentrated battle it’s their biggest advantage.”

“Great,” Reina says. “Because I always wanted to get into a fight with an Airbender.”

“What?” Abe asks.

I roll my eyes. All things aside, I have the sinking suspicion that Abe, since he’s roughly a million, and Reina’s pop culture addiction won’t ever mesh. Of course, if the Draugur cause a rock slide and kill us all, that won’t really matter.

“What do we do?” I ask.

“There’s a back way to the airfield,” Lucian says. I can double back through the last few blocks to reroute, but they’re not going to let us.”

“Let me out,” Abe says, his voice is a low growl.

“I…” The hesitation is clear in my voice. He made mincemeat out of the last two Draugur he fought, but he’s still so feral. How do we know this isn’t a trap? How do we know that if he starts killing, Abe can even stop? What if we let him out to save us all but end up losing him all over again in Bucharest, leaving him as some prize for the Draugur royal line? “We can’t.”

A click sounds behind me, and Row eases Reina up to me in the front seat. The position is awkward, but we manage.

“He won’t be alone. We’re fast. We beat the hell out of these guys, I hotwire a car, and we meet you at the airfield in a few,” Row says, helping unhook Abe.

Vicious immortal vampire king a bit confused by the seatbelt.

God, my life was such an effing shit show.

Reina’s upset, worry in her eyes. “But they could…”

“I’ve got this, kitten,” Row says as he and Abe hop out. The ground shakes again even as Row pulls a long dagger from his waistband. “Lucian, get them safe. We’ll follow.”

My consort doesn’t hesitate, even as Reina cries and begs. He flips the Aston Martin into reverse even as the earth shakes under us and huge rocks, bigger than fucking bowling balls soar towards us. Lucian dodges it expertly, and I’m going to have to grill him on his driving experience because he could win NASCAR right now or best any stunt driver in Hollywood. Looking over my shoulder, even as the ground grows still, I watch Abe and Row descend on the Draugur. While I’m worried for Rowland, I’ve seen that feral, silver glint in my King’s eyes. This won’t last long.

Good, I hope it hurts.

We speed through the rabbit warrens and hidden streets of the town. I hold Reina close to me and reassure her. I can’t see through Abe’s eyes, and he’s not actively communicating with me, but I’d know if he were dead. We’re connected now, and if the life were snuffed out of him by the Draugur, I’d feel it as if it were my own. The lights flash by in our race and the ancient architecture from the city rises up to meet us like ghosts from the past. All the while, my wrist aches, and I wish I could have helped Row and Abe more.

Then again, I’d never want to be the idiot who crossed a famished vampire king either.

Those Draugur are toast.