The visions cleared and I sat on Allcot’s tile floor, stunned. The only thing I could focus on was Seth’s face peering at Bandu and Carter through the window. What had he been doing there? Had I imagined it? Was he undercover, tracking their movements and trying to stop this just as much as we were? But if so, how come he’d been missing for so many years? The questions would not stop running through my head and I reached up, grabbing fistfuls of my hair, trying to stop my mind from spinning.

“Holy shit. I think we just entered the fourth dimension of crazy,” Imogen said, her voice bringing me back to the matter at hand.

I glanced around the room, taking in the shocked expressions on everyone’s faces. And it wasn’t because they’d seen Seth. It was the insane plan of the shifter and his vampire lover that had them all frozen with shock. All of them but one.

Bandu.

His head was bowed and silent tears were streaming down his face.

“You’re a disgrace,” I said quietly.

The shifter nodded his agreement.

“Weak. Selfish. A complete and total fraud,” I continued.

“People looked up to you,” Leo called from across the room. “We believed we were called to be better people. But you… You used us, lied, and—” Leo shook his head, too outraged to continue.

Pandora moved slowly, taking her time, eyeing the trussed-up shifter. “So all that was to get to Willow and Talisen? I was just a distraction?”

The defeated shifter nodded.

“What a grave mistake you made, shifter,” she hissed. “You and your vampire lover are both going to die tonight. And those plans you made, they’ll die right along with you. By tomorrow morning, all your followers will know what a hypocrite you are. All that shit about how evil vampires are and this whole time you’ve been fucking a vampire of your own.” She tsked. “Why is it always the hateful ones who are so hypocritical?”

Bandu didn’t acknowledge her words. He just continued to stare at the ground, his tears falling.

“You make me sick.” Then she reached down, grabbing my cursed blade off my belt. But before she could strike, Allcot was there, his hand wrapping around hers, stopping her fatal blow.

“Not yet, love,” he whispered tenderly. “We need him a bit longer.”

“Why?” she asked incredulously. “We know where Mizer House is.”

I was glad someone did, because I’d never heard of it.

“The sorceress,” he said. “They are connected. If we end him now, she’ll end up here to avenge him, and we don’t have time to deal with that just yet.” He walked over and opened the door. “Harrison?”

“Yes, boss,” the tall man said.

“I need you to gather a team and get this shifter down. Keep him restrained—he’s highly dangerous. We’re taking him with us. Got it?”

“Got it.” Harrison pulled out his phone and began to punch in a message.

Allcot turned to us. “Be ready in ten minutes. We have a couple of fae to retrieve.”

---

By the time we rolled up to Mizer House, I was convinced I’d hallucinated Seth’s face in Bandu’s memory. I’d asked Dax and Imogen if either of them had seen someone in the window, but neither had noticed. I’d decided I was half delirious with lack of sleep and was grateful when Imogen supplied me with an herb to keep me upright a little longer.

I glanced over at the French-inspired château as we rolled by and grimaced. Of course a shitty vampire would be holed up there with my best friend, waiting to sacrifice her for his lover’s eternal life. Wolves couldn’t be turned into vampires, so Carter had done what he had to in order for Bandu to live alongside him. If the pair hadn’t resorted to killing innocent people to keep Bandu alive, I might’ve actually had sympathy for their situation. As it was, they could both burn in hell.

“What’s the plan?” I asked Dax. He was driving the Trooper. I was in the passenger seat and Imogen, Leo, and Link were in the back seat. I’d wanted to leave Imogen back at the house, but she’d insisted she tag along just in case she was needed. Considering we were going to be trying to take down the one vampire that was immune to my cursed blade, she was probably right to insist on joining us. We were going to need her.

“Allcot’s mission is to basically storm the castle,” Dax said. “He’s recruited about a half dozen of his vampires, all the daywalkers, to help us apprehend Carter.”

“You mean take him out,” I said.

“Yeah, that. He’s just going to walk up to the door with Bandu and force Carter to open up. Considering all the lengths that vampire has gone to in order to keep Bandu on this earth, there is no way he’s going to leave him on his own when Allcot has him. That will easily get us in the door.”

“Seems risky,” I said, already getting my blade and dagger ready.

“Got a better solution?” he asked, parking the Trooper four blocks away on another street.

“Nope. I’m ready to kick some serious vampire ass.” I glanced back at Link. “Ready for Willow to come home?”

The wolf let out a high-pitched whine, and I took that as a yes.

“What’s going to happen to Bandu?” Leo asked.

Dax and I shared a glance. Then I cleared my throat and said, “Allcot’s going to end him.”

“Not if I get to him first,” Leo cried, then pushed the door open and jumped out of the vehicle.

“Damn,” I muttered and slipped from the SUV. Dax and Link joined me. I poked my head back into the Trooper. “You gonna be okay in here?” I asked Imogen.

“Do I have a choice?” she said, obviously annoyed.

I let out a sad chuckle. “Of course you do. Eadric thinks it’s safer if you stay here. But then you’ll be by yourself and… Well, it’s probably safer, but we never know for sure.”

“Then I’m coming with you.” She scrambled out. “I’m not helpless, you know.”

“No one thinks you are,” Dax said, smiling at her. “Now let’s go get us a couple of fae.”

Up ahead, I barely made out Leo as he leaped forward and shifted into his wolf form. Then he was gone, off like a rocket into the night. “Does he have any idea what he’s getting into?” I asked Dax.

My partner shook his head. “But we have to let him do this. It’s a terrible thing to have your idealism ripped from you so suddenly. And, Phoebs, I gotta tell you, Bandu talked a good game. I was even falling for his scheme.”

“I know you thought he was a decent guy who only had the pack’s best interests at heart,” I said diplomatically.

He snorted out a laugh. “You know, I think that’s probably true. It’s too bad he was also willing to lie, cheat, and murder to get the results he wanted. And damned if he wasn’t good at the lying.” Dax shook his head and let out an embarrassed laugh. “I didn’t get to tell you. Earlier in the day, he made me his beta. Wanted me to be his second-in-command.”

My eyes widened. “But he knew you were with the Arcane. And you’d only been with the pack for a short time. Was he serious?”

Dax shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah. He fed me a bunch of bullshit, which I swallowed hook, line, and sinker, and I guess he thought he had me completely snowed. I’m embarrassed to admit that for a few hours there, he did. But then things started to not add up, and that’s how Leo and I ended up following Dali out to English Turn. I guess you could say my Spidey-sense was tingling.”

“I bet it was,” I said, leaning into him and slipping my arm through his. “I’m sorry about our fight at the safe house. I just did what I had to do.”

He paused and moved me to stand right in front of him. “You have nothing to apologize for. Your instincts were spot-on, as usual. I was the one who let my bias against Allcot get in the way.”

I pressed one hand to his cheek and lifted up on my tiptoes to give him a soft kiss. “It’s over. We’re both back on the same team. Now let’s go get my best friend and her husband out of there.”

His dark eyes bored into mine for another moment.

Imogen cleared her throat. “Um guys, I think you might want to save the relationship talk for later. Because right now we have a problem.”

I spun around, realizing we were only a few houses away from the French château–style mansion, and then spotted them. “Fuck. Can’t we catch a break?”

“Not tonight,” Dax said and dove forward, instantly shifting into wolf form just as Leo had done a few minutes earlier. He took off like a lightning bolt, and Link followed him.

I glanced at Imogen. “Ready to kick some demon ass?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Good. ’Cause right about now, I’m really glad you didn’t stay in that car.” I grabbed her hand, tapped into her power, and poured every bit of raw magic I could muster at the dozen shadow demons headed straight for us.