Sun streams in through the window behind the bed and shines down on my arms and face, waking me. After letting go of a deep yawn, I stretch out my arms and flutter open my eyes. Sebastian sits in a chair a few feet away from my head, staring at me. I gasp and jump up to a sitting position, clutching the sheets to my chest.

This stalking crap has to end.

“What are you doing?” I snap at him.

“Watching you sleep.”

“Because that’s not creepy or anything.”

He grins, his eyes alight with what feels like playfulness.

I hold up my hand to the sunbeam and watch the dust motes stir in the air. “Shouldn’t you be in a coffin somewhere, wasting the day away?”

“Coffins,” he says with a scoff. “They’re so restrictive.”

“I wonder how all these rumors get started.”

Grinning, he points to himself. “We spread a lot of rumors to confuse and give false hope.”

“Because humans are so interested in finding and slaying vampires.”

“You’d be surprised. There’s a website for believers: ashestoashes.com. We populate ninety-nine percent of the information there, just in case a human comes looking for us. I post there from time to time. I’m Nutcracker14, in case you want to friend me.” Wink, wink.

Nutcracker14? Well, I’m sure there’s a story in there somewhere, and I hope it has nothing to do with actual nuts. I chew my lip to stop myself from smiling. So the vampire can be funny. Well, what do you know? “Is all the information there bullshit?”

“There’s enough for you to trust the site, but not enough for a human to gain an advantage.”

I reach over to the nightstand and pick up the cell phone he gave me yesterday. To satisfy my building curiosity, I go the website and look for Nutcracker14. His profile image is of a wooden nutcracker doll with fangs holding a baseball bat. “Cute.” I turn the phone around, so the screen faces him.

He grins as he looks at the picture. “One of my best angles.”

“The likeness is remarkable,” I say with a smirk before pressing a button to snooze the screen. I’ll have to go through this site in detail when I have more time.

I swallow what’s left of the moisture in my mouth and cluck my tongue. I need a drink. The taste in my mouth is worse than cotton. Even from where he sits, he must think I have the worst morning breath.

“I need to get dressed.”

“Don’t mind me.”

Sigh. I kick off the sheets and pad to one of the armoires in my sock feet. The chilly hardwood sends shivers from the soles of my feet, up my legs, to settle in my back. I shiver all over and let out a brrr.

“Humans are so delicate.”

I ignore him while I root through the clothing. “Cassandra had…interesting taste.” I grab the only other T-shirt left in there: Metallica. I find a pair of leather pants and decide they’ll have to do. “Ballgowns, leather, and lace. Did she ever throw on a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt?”

He chuckles quietly behind me. “She slept in floor-length satin gowns. When she’d go for a run to vent out her frustration with Alexander or me, she’d do it in heels and a cat suit. So, to answer your question, no, she never wore leggings and a sweatshirt.”

He frowns out the window, and my twisting guilt resurfaces yet again. I change the topic to feel more comfortable. With a low voice, I whisper, “Thank you for the key last night.”

He clears his throat, and the chair creaks. When I start to turn, I jump again to find him standing directly beside me. “Jesus! Don’t do that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I frown as I look up at him. He wants to keep this quiet, but he’s going to have to talk to me about the stuff I found out sooner or later. At least, he’d better. I rifle through the underwear drawer and find a bra that is surprisingly my size, small. As for the underwear, well, used underwear will not be touching my ass. I have my limits, although going panty-less in leather isn’t my idea of a good time.

I grab the clothes and head for the bathroom. I feel his cool frame at my back when I stop at the door. I turn and glare at him. Getting the hint, he takes a step back, and I grip the door and slam it shut. “Have you ever heard of personal space? Geesh. Why are you here anyway?”

He doesn’t answer.

I change my clothes and brush my teeth after splashing soapy water on my face. I find a brush with no hair in it in a basket below the sink counter. Not a single hair. Did she use this, or do vampires not shed? Either way, I drag it through my messy, tangled curls. Then I sit down to pee, but nothing comes out. All I can focus on is him, outside the door listening to me, and I have stage fright.

“Can you not listen to me right now?”

“I don’t hear a thing.”

Right. I must sit here for ten minutes before I finally manage to relieve myself. When I open the door, he’s still standing there, grinning at me.

“Do vampires pee?” I ask. Is that a silly question? But then I remember us talking about this briefly at dinner the other night. He made it seem as if they did.

He scratches the side of his face and wipes off his grin. “Only on Thursdays.”

“You’re a jerk. It’s a valid question.”

“If we consume…beverages other than blood, then yes, it has to come out somehow.”

“So your…organs work?”

He leans in, and I swallow hard as his blue eyes sparkle. The corners of his mouth twitch. “My organs work just fine, thank you.”

I clear my throat and look away. “I’m sure they do.” Without meaning to, my eyes automatically train to the bigger-than-average bulge in his jeans. Holy hell. How big is he with an erection? My cheeks burn, and I need to escape his gaze so I attempt to push him out of the way. He humors me, because let’s face it, I would have more luck moving a boulder.

“We need to talk about those lab results,” I say as I reach the door. It’s shut, still locked from the inside. A gust of air whips my hair about my face to settle in front of my eyes. I push it aside. He’s in front of me. Again.

In a low voice, he says, “About what, in particular? I told you you’re a blood hunter. Isn’t that enough?”

With my hands on my hips, I shake my head at him in frustration. Lowering my voice—for his benefit, I say, “Then why did you give me the—” key.

He cuts me off, putting a hand over my mouth. Stunned, I’m not sure how to respond. I could push his hand away, but the warning in his eyes has me retreating. He holds up a finger to his lips, and I can’t keep the confusion from my face. He helped me last night, he’s helping me now, and I’m sure it’s because of my connection to Penelope, but what will Alexander do if he finds out he’s feeding me more information? It’s not as if he’d hurt Sebastian, his own brother. But then, maybe it’s something else. Maybe his brother doesn’t know about all of my lab results? That doesn’t make sense either. I turned on the computer, and there they were. Alexander could easily find them.

When he’s confident I’ll stay quiet, his hand lowers, his fingers lightly brushing against my lips.

“What now?” I ask softly.

“You guaranteed freedom for your sister. I’ll take you to her if you’d like to say good-bye.”

“Yes, please. I want that more than anything.” But the way he says it, it’s like I’m going to say good-bye forever. That’s not the case at all. Or is it? I never agreed to stay here after I killed the vampire. Perhaps Alexander has other plans for me. Maybe his favor will come sooner than I expect.

We don’t run into Alexander on our way out. The same big black SUV we used yesterday sits outside the mansion, and I jog down the stairs to it. In the car, Sebastian plucks aviator sunglasses from the console above his head. He slides them on and, of course, he looks like he belongs in a commercial. Every man would buy a pair if they thought they could look as good as he does.

“I thought you didn’t mind the sunlight.”

“My eyes are stronger than yours. You see sunbeams and golden light. I see a super nova.”

I didn’t see daylight while the effects of vampire blood still ran through my blood, but my new sight made the world come alive, like seeing rainbows in the night. I can’t imagine how incredible the day would look with his eyes.

I’m not sure where Alexander is or how far we need to be from him to keep our conversation private, but I wait until we reach the end of the driveway before I open my mouth. I can’t stand the suspense any longer.

“Is it safe to talk now?”

He arches an eyebrow. “Yes.”

“Are you going to admit you dropped me that key last night? Or are we going to keep beating around the bush?”

“You know very well I left that key.”

“Then why lie about it? Why are you lying to your brother? If you can lie and sneak around behind his back, how am I ever supposed to trust you?”

He relaxes his hands on the wheel after glancing in his rearview mirror. With one hand, he clutches the gearshift, using it as a sort of hand rest. “There are several things Alexander doesn’t know and can’t know.”

So he isn’t just feeding me more information than his brother would like him to. He’s lying to his brother. “Such as?”

Sebastian’s jaw tenses before he speaks. “That the hunter’s blood I compared yours to is the same woman I spent a considerable part of the sixteen hundreds with.”

“Penelope Scott is the woman you loved all those years ago.” A vampire and his hunter lover—I can’t even imagine how difficult that must have been for the both of them.

He glances at me, his expression thoughtful. He offers a slow nod.

“It makes sense. You’ve been kind of weird about me since I got here. I mean, Alexander doesn’t follow me around the house.”

“That you know of.”

I open my mouth and snap it shut. I hope he’s kidding. “How is it possible that I am a one hundred percent match with her DNA? She was born hundreds of years ago, so we can’t be twins. Am I a clone? Do they exist?”

“No, you’re not a clone. Not a twin. Exactly.”

I raise an eyebrow in question.

“Penelope told me she couldn’t die, that when a body fails her, she starts over in a new one. She said she never remembers who she was in her past lives, and when she died she said we’d meet again. I wanted to believe her, but hundreds of years later, I still hadn’t come across her. I thought she was mistaken until Felix came home the other day with a dying Cassandra in his arms. I hoped it was you, but I still couldn’t let myself believe it until I tested your blood.”

“You think I’m your reincarnated lost love?” I can’t hide the skepticism in my voice.

“I know you are, at least on a cellular level. Everything else...is different.”

I chew on my lip while I consider this. And I squirm a little in my seat. “Even if I’m her, I don’t have memories of her life. You’re a stranger to me. I could never feel…the way…”

He chuckles quietly. “Calm down. I’m not proposing.”

At the mention of a proposal, I can’t help gasping as I stare at his amused face.

“I put my feelings for her to rest a long time ago. I swore to her I would help her remember who she is if I found her again. That’s all I’m trying to do.”

“No. You’re also using me to kill an elder.”

“What can I say? I’m a multi-tasker.”

I snort at his attempt at humor. I don’t believe him. Not entirely. I’ve never loved a man before, but I’ve loved my family, and I don’t believe that love dies with time. If I live another four hundred years, I think I’d still feel sad when I thought of them, and it would always sting to know I could never touch them or see them again. Time might dull those feelings, but I doubt it removes them entirely. But I take his words at face value, mostly because I don’t want to deal with the idea that the vampire beside me might care for me much more than he should. Yes, he’s handsome in a sexy, primal way, but I have no interest in a relationship with a vampire—least of all this one.

“I’m not sure I believe you.”

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. It’s unusually messy and sticks up in parts. “Listen, I cared for her, okay? I promised I’d always help her, no matter what. That’s all I’m trying to do here.”

“Whatever you say.”

Birds fly low overhead. The sun shines in. It’s warmer today than it has been the last few weeks, and it feels good on my face. Driving in cars always makes me sleepy. It gives me the urge to close my eyes and sleep, but my mind is too busy for that today.

“Sebastian?”

“Yes?” He taps his fingers on the wheel to the rock song quietly playing in the background.

“Tell me more about blood hunters and witches in general, every detail you can think of, no matter how small.”

We’re not far from the underground bunker now. No houses line the road, no stores, no traces of a town, just woods and random swamps.

“There are two kinds of witches: those who use spell books and potions for a purpose and those who have natural magic in their blood. There is no contest between the two. A natural witch can be powerful and a deadly match for mortals and immortals alike. You, Emily, are the natural kind.”

“I don’t understand how that can be. I have no more magic than this car.”

He turns down the pockmarked gravel path leading to the bunker. As we pass the mouth of the makeshift road, he slows the car and pulls over to the side. Branches from a nearby tree hang low, near the hood, and with a slight breeze, they wave enough to force the branches to tap the hood of the car. If he cares about this expensive car getting scratched, he doesn’t show it.

“You’re wrong. You’re one of the strongest witches I’ve ever encountered. Most have tellurium in single digits or the teens. I’ve never seen the blood of a witch register higher than a thirty-two. You beat them all.”

“Then why can’t I do magic?” But when I think about that, I’m not sure what I mean by that. Levitate objects? Set things on fire with my mind? Knock people on their asses or open locks?

“You need someone to show you. I can help you with that. I have a friend who owes me a favor.”

“Really?”

“I plan on taking you to see her today after you say good-bye to your sister.”

“That was the other thing you had planned for today?” I’m practically bouncing in my seat. Yes, today is definitely a good day.

He nods.

“Thank you.”

He hitches a shoulder like it’s no big deal. Finding out who I am is huge for me.

“So this tellurium...it’s magic?”

“Yes. That’s what’s toxic to vampires. Witch blood makes us sick, but a blood hunter’s will kill us. A very powerful coven of witches cast a spell hundreds of years ago to increase their magic’s potency to lethal doses.”

“And Penelope was part of that coven?”

He nods.

“Other than being a witch, who was she?”

He glances at me for the briefest moment, and then the car falls silent. I patiently wait for a response, and he takes his time. “She was the daughter of the coven leader who made the blood hunter spell. After several of the members died trying to take out elders, they considered abandoning their fight all together, but she persisted. She refused to walk away. In the end, it was only she who hunted—she was stubborn like that—and the rest of the coven transferred their magic to her to help her win the war they’d declared against vampires who preferred to kill rather than bleed.”

“How did she die?”

He makes a face and slides his hands over the wheel until they’re at ten and two. “She lived a very long life, her magic making her near immortal. She never aged a day after the spell was cast. And as she trained, she only grew stronger. In the end, all elders sought her out, and one ultimately ended her life with the help of his children. Hundreds against one, she never had a chance.”

“If she died hundreds of years ago, how were you able to compare my blood to hers?”

“When she died, they left her to be picked at by animals. The threat was gone—or so they thought. I buried her in an unmarked grave and cut a lock of her hair to keep with me.” His voice is soft, and though it doesn’t lend itself to sadness, his eyes do.

“How is it possible that Alexander doesn’t know this about you?”

“We were very secret about it, for obvious reasons.”

I would say. The vampires would likely have killed him too, and her kind would likely have disowned her.

“And he doesn’t know you compared my blood to hers?”

He slowly shakes his head, his eyes serious. “And he can’t know. He thinks I stole the hair from the grave of some random hunter as a souvenir. I did…kill some, after all.”

“You killed members of Penelope’s coven, and she still had a relationship with you?”

“She couldn’t resist me.” He flashes a devilish grin.

“Don’t do that. Don’t cheapen what you had with her. It had to be special for her to overlook that and for you to ignore what she was.”

He clears his throat and stares straight ahead. He rolls to a stop with the door to the bunker a few feet ahead of us. With his hand on the key, he hesitates and then turns off the car, but he doesn’t get out. I keep my hand on the door, anxious to see my sister, but follow his lead, curious about what he’s about to say. It seems as if it might be important.

“What is it?”

“She got the better of me,” he says softly. “And then she stopped with a stake inches over my heart.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure. And she never said in the years that followed. One day, we were enemies, and the next I was protecting her. Over time, we became friends and then something more.”

“I’m sorry you lost her.”

“Hmm. Well, everyone dies in the end unless you’re immortal. And she wasn’t interested in that.”

“I don’t suppose she would have been.”

“But she was still fierce, and you will be too.”

At this, I chuckle softly. “Me? How could I possibly be?” But his words instill hope in me. “It’s funny. I would never know who I really am if I hadn’t seen those vampires in the alley the other night. And you’d still wonder if the woman you loved came back to life.”

“Life’s like that. As for whether or not you can live up to Penelope’s reputation, I guess we’ll soon find out.”

“How do you mean?”

“The witch. We’re not just going for a chat. She’s going to help you get your magic back.”