Kat hurried down the hallway toward Julius’ cell, a satchel filled with herbs and oils and first aid supplies clutched to her chest. They hadn’t told her what was wrong, only that something was wrong. She turned the corner and paused.

Trina waited in the hallway, blocking her path. “I need to talk to you.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s remembering.”

Kat’s gaze flashed to the cell door behind Trina. “Is he okay?”

“Um, he’s resting now.” Trina winced and explained what happened. “Duncan panicked when Crowley tried to stand and knocked him out.”

“Gaia.” What the hell was going on? These people were supposed to be on the same side. Friends. Allies. So far they’d done more damage than good. “Where’s Lilith?” She’d always been gentler than Trina. She’d much prefer if Lilith was here to keep things calm.

“We decided it would be best if she, I, and Julius didn’t share the same space. At least for now. She’s with Brenda, on Earth, working with the human’s regulation committee on daemon affairs.

“You’re afraid of him. You and Lilith can’t touch without merging into the Original and you’re afraid the same thing will happen with him!”

“Until we know for sure whose side he’s on and if he’s a threat, there’s no reason to risk everything.”

“He’s a vampire, same as your mate, not an infectious disease.” She tried to storm past.

“Wait.” Trina caught her arm and stayed her. “While we have a second alone, I need to talk to you. Your mate will be fine for a few minutes. He’s asleep.”

“Fine.”

Trina raised a brow at her clipped tone. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you angry.”

“Angry doesn’t begin to cover it. You and Lilith said you’d help me. This” —she motioned to Julius’ cell— “is not helping.”

“Okay. Fair enough. Now try to see things from our point of view. We’re in a sticky spot. The humans expect us to hand over Crowley. The Scenter is aware of Julian and can tell the difference between the two. Quite frankly, no one has any reason to think Julius isn’t a psycho-killer. His behavior hasn’t been helping his cause.”

Kat drew in a deep breath. Trina wasn’t saying anything she didn’t already know. “That doesn’t help me at all.”

“I know. What I need is for Julius to prove himself worthy of rescue. So far, he’s not showing me any reason why any of us should risk everything to help him.”

She scoffed. “Like he can do that in a cell.”

“I know.” Trina pressed her lips into a thin line. “None of this is working in his favor. He’s remembering being possessed for three hundred years—that would fuck up anybody. He’s hooded, chained—”

Kat gasped. “Chained?” They chained her mate?

Trina sighed. “From what I’ve heard even the Scenter had a go at him.” She shook her head. “We’re playing a dangerous game with a losing hand.”

Kat stilled. “You’re giving up?”

“No. We’re not. We don’t know what our next move is. What I wanted to say to you is that I need you to stay out of it. Don’t tip our hand, not to Julius and not to the others.”

“Including your mates?” From what she’d seen thus far, she didn’t think either Trina or Lilith had talked to their mates about the possibility of Julius’ innocence in all this.

“Including them. If you do, I won’t be able to trust what I’m seeing. Do you understand?”

She nodded. Oh, she understood all right. She understood Trina wouldn’t take her at her word that Julius was sane. This was bullshit. She drew in a deep breath. Yeah, it was bullshit. There wasn’t another word as appropriate.

“What’s that little smile for?”

“I thought ‘This is bullshit,’ and I didn’t flinch. Didn’t feel guilty. Nothing. Because it is.” She folded her arms over her chest. “It’s bullshit.”

Both Trina’s brows rose high on her forehead. “Let’s hope you’ve had as much influence on your mate as he’s had on you.” With that, she turned and led her into the cell.

Julius was slumped over—well, as much as his restraints would allow—his hooded head hanging limp on his neck. Duncan, Harry, James, and Scott all stood against one wall. None of them would look at her.

“What did you do?” She lifted Julius’ head and eased him back against the angled plank of the . . . it wasn’t a chair, more like two planks, one to sit on and one to rest back against. Whatever it was, it didn’t look comfortable. She glanced up at the others. Aside from shifting their weight, none of the males moved. “Is this a new thing we do, beating up males while they’re restrained and helpless?”

Duncan shrugged. “He went for Trina. I reacted before I thought it through.”

“Seems to be a lot of that going around.”

Julius took a deep breath and all eyes in the room turned to him. He rotated his head on his neck. Tried to move his arms which made the chains clatter against the wall.

She rubbed his cheek through the hood. “Are you okay, Jules?”

He cleared his throat. “Fine.” He stretched his neck one way, then the other. “What the hell did you drop on my head?”

Harrison grinned. “Duncan’s fist.”

Kat scowled at him until he stopped grinning.

The hood bobbed as Julius nodded. “That explains a lot.”

Trina came around and sat on an overturned bucket in front of Julius. “Kat’s going to take care of that cut on your chest. Now that you’re talking normal again, can you tell me what you remembered?”

Kat gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. Please cooperate. Please, please, plea—

“I think something possessed me.”

She stared at Julius, dumbfounded that he planned to cooperate and zeroed in on one word in particular. “Something?”

The others must have caught that two, because three other voices echoed hers.

Kat sat the medicine satchel on the bench between Julius’ legs and opened it.

“You’ll think I’m bat-shit crazy.”

Kat sighed. “No, we won’t. You were possessed by—”

Trina cut her off, “Don’t you dare.”

Really? They wouldn’t let her help him at all? After a hard stare down, she turned her attention to Julius. “No one is going to think you’re crazy. Tell the truth, that’s all we ask.” She lifted the hem of his shirt as high as it would go, bunching the material, so it stayed out of her way.

He shifted, which made his shackles rattle. “I, uh . . . .”

“You saw something in the shadows, right?” Trina asked. “What did you see?”

He lifted his head and turned his face from left to right. No doubt checking out each daemon and human present. “It may have been my imagination. I was a little spooked, I think. Expecting an ambush. I went into the vacant tower and—”

“What vacant tower?” Duncan folded his arms over his chest.

Kat opened the jar of arnica, grabbed a towel and set to cleaning out the knife wound on his back below his shoulder blade.

“It’s gone now.” Julius winced and sucked in a breath as the medicine seeped into the cut. “Back in fifteen eighty-seven, it was more ruin than anything. Crumbling in places. No name over the doorway. The torches inside were still lit, casting shadows, and I saw . . . .”

They all leaned forward. All eyes intent on his hood.

“What’d you see?” Even Scott was caught in the tale.

“It was . . .” He shook his head. “Alien. Skeletal. It didn’t have any eyes in the sockets and when I met its gaze I saw . . . something.”

Kat set the jar down and took out a bandage.

Duncan glanced at his mate, and when Trina met his gaze he raised his brows.

What were the two of them chatting about in their minds? Trina could see the Watchers, both she and Lilith could. Was he asking her if what Julius had seen matched up with her experience?

Trina nodded before turning back to Julius. “Tell me more about the skeletal thing you saw.”

Kat got down on one knee next to him and wrapped the bandage around his chest. They’d left him sitting here all this time with an open wound. All of them should be ashamed of themselves.

“It was twisted. Kinda burnt around the edges, especially the wing bones. The eye sockets were more oval than round, slanted. That’s why I said alien.”

Trina glanced back and nodded.

Duncan rolled his eyes. He leaned back against the wall. “What happened then?”

“I woke up on the floor. I kept saying ‘I saw something in the shadows.’ I couldn’t make myself say anything else. My body wouldn’t work. Everything hurt, like when you eat too much, except everywhere, not only in my belly.”

Kat picked up the jar again and began cleaning the deep slash across his chest.

“I ended up in the colony of Roanoke and I had another attack like the one in the tower. It felt like something was squeezing through my pores. I was exhausted, couldn’t even stand up. People were screaming and I crawled to a door. Something was out there in the dark. Lifting humans up, biting them. There was blood everywhere. They transformed into . . . those creatures. Nephilim.”

Kat squeezed his arm to let him know she was there and began to work on the scratches and puncture wounds left by the Nephilim’s nails. From what she’d seen when she’d cleaned Harrison’s wounds, they itched if not sanitized, so she took extra care cleaning them.

“Everyone transformed. There was no one left.”

When he stopped talking, James asked, “You haven’t said yet, what do you think it was?”

“Everything in me says the Watchers are on our side. They’re our allies. We’ve been working with them since the beginning of time, trying to maintain the balance, trying to keep daemon kind from human consciousness. But what if it was? What if there was a Watcher in that tower?”

Harrison cleared his throat. “There was.”

Julius turned his head toward James. “You knew me. I wasn’t in trouble. There was no kill orders with my name on them.”

Harrison folded his arms over his chest. “There is now.”

“Damn it, James. You know the Watchers had no reason to come after me.”

James nodded. “Which is why we’re all wondering why he did. Did you make a deal with him?”

“No.”

“Ally yourself with him?”

“No, damn it.” His hands fisted and Kat leaned down and kissed his shoulder. You’re doing good, baby.

“Can you explain why you see everything that’s going on when your eyes are covered? Seems more the trait of a Watcher than a Vampire.”

Julius stared at him for a long moment. Shifted his gaze to Scott and Harrison. To Trina. He looked away, silent.

Why wouldn’t he talk about his eyes? His sight? Unless . . . was he afraid of what he could do? Did he think they’d count it as another mark against him?

“There was no reason for that Watcher to attack me. I was working for the coven and the Guardian. I was supposed to . . . shit.” His chest rose and fell too fast. “I was doing something for the Vampiric Council.”

“Relax, Jules. It’ll come.” She gave his shoulder another squeeze, wishing she could curl herself around him, instead.

“Maybe not fast enough.”

Kat looked at Trina. If she wanted, she could help. Her chaos Magic allowed her to manipulate matter at an atomic level. According to Noetic science, thoughts held mass and Trina’s ability to read thoughts or to manipulate them supported the theory. “He needs a little nudge.”

Trina’s gaze shot up and tangled with hers. “Hell, no.”

“A nudge.”

Duncan shook his head. “It’s not going to happen. She absorbs what the person is feeling and there’s no way in hell she’s doing that with him. Not with everything he’s been through.”

They were right. She wouldn’t wish Julius’ history on her worst enemy much less one of her coven sisters.

“It had to do with Leo.”

Everyone’s gaze turned back to Julius.

He shook his head. “I was trying to convince Katherine to marry me. Katherine didn’t have time for much of anything but trying to get the Council to oust Leopold. She finally agreed to marry me, but only if I’d mesmerize Leopold first. I went to the tower to meet him.” His hands fisted. “I was supposed to meet him there, but he didn’t show. The Watcher was waiting, instead. I’m gonna ash the bastard.”

Duncan kissed his teeth. “You don’t have to worry about him no more. He’s ash.”

“How?”

“He kidnapped me mate.” Duncan shrugged. “Ashed him when I went down to the Council Chambers to get Trina back.”

Julius laughed. “Leopold isn’t dead.”

Duncan stood. “The hell he ain’t. I ashed the fucker meself.”

“His projection.” Julius let his head fall back onto the plank. “That’s why I was meeting him in Machon. Leopold never goes to the Council Chambers himself. He always sends a projection. I knew he wasn’t the real Leopold because I couldn’t mesmerize him.”

“No.”

The humor left Julius’ tone. “He’s still alive. After all these centuries, do you think he’d slip up now?” He curled his lip. “Don’t worry, Sinclair. I’ll kill him for you.”

“You?” Duncan leaned forward, glowering. “You ain’t going anywhere. I’ll take care of him meself.”

“He’s mine. There isn’t a chance in hell I’m telling you where he is.”

Duncan’s lip curled. “He killed me family.”

“He destroyed my life!” The clang of his chains punctuated his statement.

“You don’t get to decide that, you shite. I’m not even certain I believe you, but I’ll play your goddamned game. I’ll go back to their chambers to see for meself.” Duncan stormed out of the room.

“Shit.” Trina started to run after him and then stopped. “Shit! I can’t leave Machon. Lilith’s not here. One of us has to be in Machon at all times.”

James pushed away from the wall. “I’ll go with him.” He left the room.

A humorless laugh came from under Julius’ hood. “They won’t find him.”

Trina came closer. “But you can?”

“I know where he is.” He shrugged. “At least I know where his bolt hole is. If he’s not there, he’ll go back eventually. He won’t risk moving his wife in her condition.”

Harrison looked at Trina. “Tell me you’re not thinking about releasing him. This is a ploy to escape.”

Trina rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because he couldn’t have escaped ten different times as we brought him in.”

Julius chuckled.

Kat pinched him. If he started baiting them again, she’d whack him over the head with her satchel.

Harrison ignored him. “Duncan will blow a fucking gasket if he finds out you’re even considering this.”

“Then he shouldn’t have run off half-cocked.”

Scott held up a hand to stay Harrison’s next retort. “Why do you believe him, Trina?”

“Why don’t you? Should we wait around to see? The wayward Watcher has been trying to break out of his tower. Tonight, we caught a Nephilim wandering nearby. What if he escapes?” Her lips pressed together in a sarcastic smile and she motioned to Julius. “Are you not up to the task of managing one hooded vampire?”

Harrison’s gaze narrowed. “Summon Leopold. That would be the quickest way to find the son of a bitch if he’s still alive.”

Shut up, Harrison! Kat held her breath as she waited for Trina’s decision.

Julius cleared his throat. “You know his full name, pup?”

“He’s right, we’d need his full name and we don’t have that.” Trina looked at Julius. “But somewhere, locked inside that head of his is not only Leopold’s name, but the Watcher’s name, too.”

Kat squeezed Julius’ knee. He was remembering quite a lot now. Did he remember the Watcher’s name? Maybe withholding that last little tidbit as something to negotiate with?

“If Leo is the one who made an agreement with the Watcher, he can damn well be the one we hand to the humans.” Trina nodded. “And maybe seeing Leo will shake loose the remainder of Crowley’s memories. Either way, whether he’s telling the truth or not, Leo is the only one who can tell us. Personally, I’d like to know for sure that we’re handing over the correct daemon.”

London, England.

---

He was free.

He’d escaped his tower, left Machon, and traveled all the way to Leopold’s bolt-hole without anyone being the wiser.

“During my time within my last host, I experimented quite often.” Azazel swaggered through the front rooms of Leopold’s abode in his new host. The underground dwelling took up a full cistern, with smaller rooms in the tunnels leading off to other parts of the city. Thick carpets covered the cement floors. Deep, plush couches and chairs formed a sitting area. A grand piano sat off to one side. Leopold had all the comforts of the surface down here. “Humans have a soul, you see, and at the time of death, the soul escapes its mortal shell and transports itself to heaven.”

It’s a fairy tale. Even in their shared mind, Leopold’s voice sounded weak and uncertain.

“It’s a planet, same as Machon.”

Azazel walked down one of the tunnels, pushed open the bedroom door and leaned against the doorjamb. A large bed dominated the space, with wardrobes off to one side. The far wall held a weapons rack with blades of various sizes and shapes. Evelyn sat at a vanity, trying to button her blouse one-handed. Her hair hadn’t been combed yet. Her body was too thin, her skin too pale. Everything about her reeked of weakness.

She isn’t weak. She’s the strongest person I know.

Azazel ignored him. “Heaven is a planet and if humans ever discover it, they’ll view their long-dead relatives as a new species for the simple reason they look different.” He shook Leopold’s head. “At any rate, the point I was trying to make is that the soul does escape. It leaves. Moves on to another existence in another place. I assumed there was an exit somewhere within the human body.”

Is that why Crowley is so scarred up?

He wandered closer to Evelyn. Walked around the chair she sat in. She’d mis-buttoned her blouse. “No. Not at all. I dismembered several humans looking for it.”

For what?

“The door.”

“H-H-H-Who are y-you talking t-t-to?” Only one side of her mouth worked, the other hung limp.

“Your husband. Be quiet now.”

You’re insane. There’s no such thing. There’s no soul. No exit. No heaven.

“I’ve seen heaven. It is quite real, even if it’s nothing like the story books say.” He took a Guardian blade off the wall and returned to Evelyn. “Some say the soul resides in the Pineal gland that sits in the center of the brain, near where it attaches to the spine.” He put the tip of the blade at the soft spot at the top of her neck, below her skull, just to the side of the spine—not that she had either. “If she were human and we shoved this in here at an upward angle, we’d hit the Pineal gland. We’d split that gland wide open and free the soul.”

Not truly. She was a vampire and didn’t have a soul. The blade had wood caught between the halves of silver so as soon as the wood touched her skin, she’d dissolve into ash.

The blade shook in Leopold’s hands. I did what you asked. I’ve upheld my part of the bargain, you’re free.

“Nothing in our bargain protects your wife.” He shoved the blade in to the hilt.

Instead of dissolving into ash, she screamed. A high-pitched, ear-splitting noise that made both him and his host wince. She jerked to her feet and tried to grab at the knife with her one good hand.

Azazel took a step back. “What in the hell?”