The angry vampire opens the metal door of my sister’s cell and stands aside. Kara sits inside on the thin mattress on her bed, facing the door. She glances up at me, her eyes red. A purple bruise blooms on her cheek. I glare at the vampire who holds up his hands and smiles, as if to say, “guilty.”

“Asshole,” I snap before rushing to my sister.

She stands, and we embrace. With her arms around my middle and her head on my shoulder, the tension in my body eases, and I heave a satisfied sigh. But it fades as I quickly remember why I’m here: to say good-bye. She’s always been my protector, my big sister. And now I have to protect her. I hope I’m as good at it as she is.

I lean back and stare at her colorful cheek. “What did he do to you?”

Her soft eyes turn cold. “He wanted to take a bite out of my neck, and I kicked him in the nuts. But even their nuts are as hard as stone.”

“They don’t call them stones for nothing, luv,” Michael says.

She glares at him before turning her attention back to me. “I swear to God, you should see the bruise on my knee.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My eyes lower to her neck. No marks of any kind, so whatever happened between them didn’t result in a bite. “You’re okay?”

“Yeah, no thanks to him. I’m going crazy in here. He wouldn’t even give me a book or a magazine.” She raises her voice so he can hear.

I hear him curse in the other room, while whispering some pretty nasty names under his breath. If I can hear, I suspect my sister can too. I step to the bed, and holding her hands, I pull her down to sit beside me. I want to tell her everything, but there is only so much I can say with Michael lurking behind us. He might be loyal to Alexander, but ultimately, he’s loyal to their elder master, the one I’m supposed to kill. It seems wrong to hide all I know from her, but I can’t risk my safety or hers, especially hers.

“They’re going to let you go,” I say softly.

Her eyes light up, and she almost lets out a squeal. She wraps her arms around my neck and squeezes me hard. When I don’t return the embrace, her mood dampens. “What am I missing? They’re letting us go?” She pauses a beat. “Wait. Why are they letting us go?”

I inhale and let it go slowly while I build up steam. She’s not going to like what I have to say, and she’s not going to leave me without putting up one hell of a fight. I’m prepared for it and for what I have to do to make this happen.

“Not us, Kara. Just you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I need to help them first.”

“Fuck them.”

I laugh without humor. “You’ve seen how strong they are, right? We don’t have a lot of bargaining power here.”

“I don’t care. I’d rather go down swinging together than leave you here with those bloodsuckers. Who knows what they’ll do to you if you stay or if they’ll ever let you go?”

I share the same concerns. The intense need to learn more about who I am and where I came from grows stronger every minute I spend with the vampires. She’ll want to understand, but I don’t think she really can.

Feeling choked up, I clear my throat and commit to keeping my voice even. “We made a deal. They’ll let me go when I help them.”

“They’re liars. Monsters! All of them. You can’t trust them.”

“Maybe not. But I have to do this. There is more that…” I lower my voice. “There is more to this than you and me—things I need to find out. Only they can help me with that.”

“Emily, don’t do this. They don’t know anything about your birth family.”

I pull her in for another hug and squeeze her harder than I ever have, even harder than the night we found out our parents had been killed. Tears threaten to fall, but I hold them back, needing to be strong enough for the both of us.

“Emily, no.”

“I’m sorry. I love you.”

I pull away, and she grips my hand, refusing to let go. I knew this would be hard, but now I’m in the moment, I know I never could have prepared myself for this heartache. She doesn’t want to leave me here alone, and I love her for that, but this is for her.

“It’s my turn to protect you for a change,” I say softly.

“Don’t do this.”

I uncurl her fingers from mine while she begs me to reconsider.

“Emily!” she screams at my back as I hold my head up and walk away. Sebastian meets me in the room, and he raises an eyebrow in question. I give him a little nod. As she runs for me, to hold me again, and convince me to change my mind, Michael steps between us and wraps his strong, muscular arms around her, trapping her. She fights against him. Tears materialize and streak down her cheeks. I don’t look away no matter how much it hurts. Lumps build in my throat, making it impossible to swallow. I can’t even choke down my guilt; it’s too damn big.

Sebastian stalks toward her, and his eyes flash crimson. “You’re going to sleep when I tell you to,” he says to her. “And you’re not going to wake up until Michael says so.” Her struggling weakens. She shakes her head, tries to look anywhere but in his eyes, but he holds her cheeks, and his eyes bore right into hers.

“You’ve never seen a vampire. They don’t exist. You were never captured and neither was your sister. You’ve been ill and in bed for days, and when you wake, you’ll feel better. You’ll remember your sister won a trip to Europe, and she’s always wanted to go, but it was only one ticket, and you made her go because you want her to be happy. She’ll be gone for weeks, and you won’t worry. You won’t try to call her. She’s too busy for that. You won’t worry about her at all. Do you understand?”

She stops struggling, her eyes lock open, and her arms hang limp at her sides as Michael lowers his arms and steps away from her.

“Now sleep.”

Her eyes flutter closed, and her legs give out as she falls into Michael’s waiting arms.

---

It’s colder in Sebastian’s SUV than it is outside. Since he’s a vampire and I doubt he notices the cold, he doesn’t turn on the heat so I sit bunched up while I stare out the window. My eyes burn, and stray tears slide down my cheeks, but I refuse to bat them away for fear he’ll know what I’m doing. Tears would likely seem weak, and that’s the last thing I want. When I clear my throat to disguise a sniffle he says, “I don’t understand why humans cry. I don’t think I ever cried as a human.”

“Then I guess being cold comes natural to you,” I say, not appreciating him adding to how wretched I feel. I wipe my tears away with the sleeve of my borrowed leather jacket.

“I don’t see why you’re so upset. Your sister is in one piece, and she’ll go about her merry life, blissfully ignorant of vampires and all this bullshit she was never meant to be a part of.”

There’s truth to what he says, but it doesn’t make it any easier. No matter the justification, I allowed them to mess with her mind. I feel sick about that. And she’ll never know about them and what I am. There will always be a part of me I keep from her—a wedge. We’ve never had anything between us before, and I’m not sure how to handle that going forward when she’s the only person I’ll ever want to talk to about my surprising new life. So, mingled with my guilt, I feel intense loneliness. For her safety, I’ll never be able to fix what I’ve just done. Sebastian can’t understand, not when his relationship with his brother is as weak as it is.

We say no more words for the next hour. Although the next time a shiver runs through me, he reaches out and turns up the heat on the dash and then on the seat. Before long, my whole body is nice and toasty, including my butt.

It pains me to thank him, but I do. Quietly.

“You’re no use to me if you’re a block of ice.”

He can’t just say you’re welcome and clear the air. No, he decides to push my buttons instead. I narrow my eyes at him. Play it cool, Sebastian. I don’t buy it anymore. Now I know he thinks I’m his long-lost love.

We turn off the highway some time after seeing a sign that reads “Valley Stone.” The path he follows isn’t a road, much less a path. Good thing we’re in an SUV or we’d never get through these patches of muck. At one point, the tires spin, and I’m sure we’re stuck, but he rocks the car with the gentle application and removal of pressure from the accelerator, and we make it out—barely.

“Where the hell are we?”

“Seafoam.”

“Never heard of it.”

We continue off road a good ten minutes, through muck and overgrown grass and trees. When we reach a clearing, we come upon a run-down community with homes that could use a fresh coat of paint and cars that should be labeled antiques. But apart from that, there are rows upon rows of vegetable and fruit crops that are brown and dormant, ready for spring. They line the single curved gravel street between the houses. Some kids run around with sticks and a ball. A couple of older ladies with white hair sit rocking on the veranda of a faded blue bungalow. They watch us with wary eyes.

“This is where your witch friend lives?”

He wobbles his head to the side. “I wouldn’t exactly call her a friend.”

“You said—”

“I said a witch owed me a favor. There’s a big difference.”

In front of us stands a small yellow bungalow with white shutters and planters at the base of the windows with old, wilting flowers inside. In the white house to its left, a tall woman comes out carrying a rug. Her long black hair flows with the wind, and she ties her brown knitted sweater around her slim waist and beats a rug against the metal bannister of her front steps. She narrows her dark eyes to watch us, though I think it’s to avoid the glare from the sun behind us until I see her frown and yank the rug forcibly under her arm. She goes back into her house and slams the door.

“Something tells me she might not be ready for you to collect.”

He nods. “You might be right about that.”

Sebastian throws the car into park in front of her home and turns off the engine. We linger as he stares at the front door, thrumming his fingers along the steering wheel. I’m not sure what he’s waiting for. If it’s an invitation, I don’t think he’s going to get it.

“What’s the worst she can do? Turn us away?”

“Turn us into toads.” He considers this a moment. “It wouldn’t work on me, but you… I’d watch my tongue.”

He thinks he’s frightening me, and maybe I am a little scared, but I’m also excited. Real witches in front of me, a whole community of them—and I’m just like them.

“Why are you grinning like an idiot?”

I grimace at him. “Nothing.” I wasn’t grinning, exactly. It was more of a soft smile. He’s taken me here to get my magic back and maybe get some real answers about my blood family. I can’t help feeling excited about that—not that it completely overshadows my apprehension. What if something goes wrong? What if we all realize this is a big mistake, and I’m truly not who they thought I am? Blood tests can be wrong, sometimes. Why not the one that compared me to Penelope? Then what? I go back to my normal life at the bookstore? Wow. That was just a few days ago, and it feels like years, like that life was a dream, and I’ve finally awakened.

“Let me do the talking. She might try to befriend you, make you believe you’re the same and you share similar goals. I promise you that you are nothing like these witches. They won’t want to help you when they find out what you are. And they won’t keep you safe, no matter how much they promise they can.”

I didn’t think we’d bond like old friends, but knowing people who are like me won’t want anything to do with me is upsetting. “Do any supernaturals like me?”

He flashes me a wink. “I know one.”

Sigh. “Why do witches hate people like me?”

“Witches are fairly solitary. They mind their business and keep their noses down. Someone like you…well, you bring them an awful lot of unwanted attention from some very dangerous people.”

“Vampires.”

He nods solemnly. Then he takes a deep breath as if mentally preparing himself before he opens the door and gets out. The old women on the rockers continue to glare. I slide out of my seat and jog up the stairs after him. He knocks forcefully, three times. I hear life inside, but no one comes to the door. He knocks again—harder.

“I know you’re in there, Justine. I need your help.”

The door swings open, and she stands on the inside with a red face and slitted eyes. She folds her arms across her chest, and her gaze shifts to me and then back to him. “New toy?”

He sighs and holds up his hands. “I come in peace.”

She focuses on me. “I bet he promised to make you a vampire, didn’t he? Told you how you’d live together forever like Romeo and Juliet.”

I bite my tongue as I decide it’s unwise to tell her that her comment doesn’t make sense because Romeo and Juliet died at the end of their story. That’s not important right now. What’s important is information. I’m not sure why I thought this would be easy. He thinks I like the hard way? Seems he enjoys it a little himself.

“Is this another woman who helped you get over Penelope?” I lean toward his shoulder and whisper behind one of my hands. I face the witch. “Trust me when I say the last thing I want is to spend five minutes with this vampire, let alone forever.”

Her posture eases, and a small smile curves up along her full lips. She’s a little old for him, maybe in her late forties with faint wrinkles beginning around her eyes and mouth. Sebastian’s body’s age doesn’t look like it’s aged a day over twenty-five. Maybe twenty-six. Does he like older women? Or was their romance long ago, when they were closer in physical age? Not that I care. I really don’t.

“We’ve all been there,” the woman says, almost sadly. “But he grows on you.” She narrows her eyes. “Eventually.”

“I doubt that.”

To my surprise, she lets out a quiet chuckle, although Sebastian couldn’t look any less amused.

“Well, if you’re not here to make me jealous, then why are you here?” she asks him.

“Can we come in?” He glances at the old ladies still rocking hard in their chairs to a beat faster than “Staying Alive.”

She drops her hands and releases a resigned sigh. “Five minutes. That’s it. Don’t make me kick you out.”

He holds up his hands again. “Wouldn’t want that, sweetheart.”

“And don’t call me sweetheart,” she says gruffly. She waves us in. I attempt to take off my boots, but she tells me the floors are dirty anyhow. She leads us to her kitchen, off the front entryway. In the center of a floral-wallpapered space straight out of the sixties, there’s a small table with mismatched chairs. She takes a seat in one and reaches for the cigarettes sitting in the center of the table. After lighting one up, she lets go a ring of smoke and moans with pleasure.

Sebastian sits to her right, and I sit at her left. Sebastian reaches for one of her cigarettes, and she snatches them away and shoves the package down the neck of her black V-neck T-shirt. Her breasts are impressive. They sit high and bloom around the neckline of her shirt as her sweater puckers and falls open. I glance down at mine, wondering when I missed puberty.

“Five minutes,” she reminds him.

“And I thought we were friends,” Sebastian says dryly.

She clucks her tongue as she rolls her eyes. “Not by a long shot.”

I want to ask if they’ll put their foolish relationship aside a moment, but that wouldn’t be smart. I play the nice card instead. She seems like she’s still in love with him, whereas he clearly feels little, if nothing, for her. She needs to let it go. Her bitterness only makes her look ugly, though I’m sure Sebastian deserves every stab of her sharp, pointed hate.

“All right, I’ll get to it then, shall I?” Sebastian says.

“Oh, please do,” she says.

“This woman is a witch, and yet she doesn’t have any magic. I need you to fix her.”

She stares at him for a true moment before she breaks out in laughter so fully I swear she might bust her gut. And in case we didn’t notice how funny she finds this, she slaps the table for effect. I don’t see what’s so funny, and apparently, neither does Sebastian. I watch the corners of his eyes as they twitch, and I grip the edge of my seat, expecting him to start swinging. He’s a vampire, after all. And he can be cranky.

“If she has no magic, she’s no witch.”

“Her tellurium level is forty-two.”

At this, she freezes. The deep smile on her face fades to a thin, perfect line. “Forty-two?” she chokes out.

He nods. Once.

“And she can’t do magic?”

“Not even a little,” I say. “I didn’t even know I was a witch until he kidnapped me.”

Sebastian narrows his eyes at me, but I shrug him off.

She lowers her hands on the table then splays them as she takes a moment to process. “Why would he kidnap you?”

“That’s hardly important. What is important is that we fix her,” he says quickly.

Justine takes a long drag of her cigarette before butting it out in a glass ashtray on the table. She chews on her bottom lip and leans back in her seat. “A witch can’t lose her magic. It’s always there. And I can’t think of a good reason why someone would want to hide it, unless…”

“Unless…” I say eagerly.

“Unless someone meant to protect you from someone or something.” Her gaze intensifies. “What did you say your name was?”

I open my mouth to answer, but Sebastian interrupts me. “We didn’t.”

“No,” she says quietly. “You didn’t.”

She stands and goes to her dark-stained kitchen cupboards. She rifles through some jars that are perfectly lined up on a shelf. One by one, she slides her fingers across the labels until she stops on one with brown liquid inside.

“She’s not taking anything,” he says.

“If I fix your witch, I need something in return.”

He lets out a low chuckle. “Everybody always wants something, don’t they? Yet I’ve left you alone for fifteen years. I would have left your debt to me unclaimed if I wasn’t desperate for your help, and now you try to use my need to your advantage.”

She holds up a hand and mimes talking with it. “Spare me the lecture. You want me to help or not?”

“Name your price.”

“We’re square, for one.”

He nods. “Done.”

“And I want a drop of her blood.”

“No.”

She smiles wide, her pearly whites shining brightly.

“Shouldn’t I have a say in this?” I ask.

Sebastian silences me with a single look.

“Next.” Sebastian’s chair squeaks in protest as he shifts his weight and leans back. He stretches out his arm along the back of my own chair. Even though he likely means nothing by it, it causes Justine’s nostrils to flare.

“Turn me. Like you promised.”

With his free hand, he scratches the scuff on his chin. “Done.”

“The next full moon.”

He groans in frustration. “Whenever you wish.”

Her smile builds until it’s ear to ear. All these people eager to be vampires—I just don’t get it. “Why the full moon?” I ask her.

Sebastian speaks for her. “A witch can only keep her magic if she turns on a full moon.”

“You can be both?”

She nods and then hurries forward, unstopping the glass container with the fancy teardrop-shaped cap. “If you want to know what’s wrong with her, she has to drink this. We both do.”

“I said no,” Sebastian says.

“Listen, I’m going to get what I want if I help you. If I betray you, you won’t turn me. Have a little faith. We used to be friends.”

Friends? I cluck my tongue in disbelief, and their eyes train on me. I shift nervously and clear my throat. They can stare at me all they want. There’s no way they weren’t sleeping together.

He nudges me with his elbow. “Drink it.”

“Only half,” she says. “I’ll need the rest to read you.”

Sebastian straightens in his chair. But before he can tell me to stop, I snatch the bottle and chug it, handing it to Justine after I’ve finished my half. Nothing will stop me from learning the truth, especially not Sebastian. The liquid goes down with a burn, but there is no taste or smell. I might as well be drinking hot water.

Justine raises the bottle to her pink lips and drains it. She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand. “Now, give me your hands.” She rests her hands in the center of the table with her palms facing the ceiling. My stomach rolls, and my hands shake as I reach out to lay my hands over hers. With her eyes boring into mine, she takes a deep breath and closes her eyes before telling me to do the same. Then I wait.