Darius scrubbed himself raw in the shower, unable to shake the dirty feeling he always got now after feeding. His skin crawled.

After sleeping with Kat, he had fasted for a few days, but the Lord General noticed and ordered Darius to eat. It had been miserable. He didn’t bother going out to hunt and used house feeders instead; taking what he needed before tossing them out, keeping the transaction as short as possible.

The last week and a half, he’d thrown himself into work, hoping to find something that could remove Kat from his thoughts.

Nothing helped.

He reminded himself that she had chosen to walk out. He had considered going after her, fighting for her, but what’d be the point? He couldn’t stop being an incubus. He couldn’t force her to accept him.

Guilt racked him. He should have told her about feeding from the beginning. He shouldn’t have lost control. He shouldn’t have risked hurting her.

He swallowed hard and dried off.

Sulking would get him nowhere.

As he finished buttoning up a suit shirt, an outline of green light lingered for a moment in the air. A hunter cadet appeared. It took Darius a moment to recall the hunter’s name. Javi. From Ashwood Red. Kat’s team.

Darius finished tucking his shirt into his slacks. “Cadet, this is a breach of about a thousand protocols.”

“Yeah, do me a solid and don’t report it.”

“Why wouldn’t I report this?”

Javi looked around and grimaced. “Have you seen Kat by any chance?”

“What?”

“I thought maybe she’d come here. Look, report me if you have to, I need to go.”

Darius grabbed the hunter’s arm. “Tell me what happened.”

“She’s on the run.”

Darius went cold. The Lord General didn’t tolerate any hunter who deserted the corps, and he mercilessly hounded them until they were found…then killed. Often by his hand.

There’d be nothing Darius could do to stop that.

“I don’t like repeating myself. Tell me what happened,” he ordered the cadet.

Javi rubbed his face. “We had a live training tonight. She took a look at the vamp and split but not before telling Chase to fuck off. Listen, if she’s not here, I need to go.”

“You’re training to be a tracker?”

Javi nodded.

“There’s an easier way to find her.” Darius picked up his phone from the nightstand and dialed dispatch. “5521 Delta Tango, this is Lord Darius, I have a code red from the general,” he said when the dispatcher answered.

“Go ahead Lord Darius,” a female voice said.

“I need you to turn on the GPS for Cadet Kat’s phone and tell me where she is.”

The dispatcher paused. Damn it. If the dispatcher double checked with the general, it’d put Kat in jeopardy. And Darius would be in deep shit for abusing his authority.

“Is there a problem?” he asked.

“No, my lord. She’s in the training arena.”

“Thank you.” Darius hung up.

Javi—who had been using his rune to listen into the phone call—met Darius’ eyes. “I need to get her.”

“No. I’ve got this one.”

* * *

Darius knocked softly on a door, waited a moment, then entered one of the hunter meeting rooms that lined the arena. This one had a white projection screen with chairs and a couch facing it.

Kat was in the corner of the room on the floor, hugging her legs, face buried in her knees. She looked up at him. Her eyes red and wet. And angry.

“Go away,” she said.

Darius pulled a chair in front of her. “If I leave, then you get to deal with your teammates instead. Or an instructor. Or worse—Commander Cullip.”

Her face twisted.

“Yeah,” he said. “Cullip is one of the best hunters in the corps but watching him try to comfort someone is…awkward. I honestly think being shot in the foot would be less painful than sitting through a conversation with one of those veteran hunters.”

The edges of Kat’s lips broke, pulling up slightly, then faded. He had her for a moment and lost it. Still, he took a seat.

“Is that why you’re here?” she asked. “To comfort me?”

Darius shrugged. “If you’d let me.”

“You going to try to fuck me too?”

“You know I’m capable of being around others without trying to fuck them.”

“I haven’t seen it.”

“Fair enough.” He leaned forward. “Can you at least tell me why you told Holden to fuck off?”

She sniffed. “Holden?”

Damn. Darius grimaced and rubbed his forehead. He had forgotten Ashwood Red’s team leader went by a different name now. “I mean Chase.”

She let out a single heh. “His real name is Holden? Really?”

Darius nodded. “It’s better than Chase. I laughed for a solid ten minutes straight when he told me his hunter name. He wasn’t amused.”

Again, a ghost of a smile crept over Kat’s face. “I don’t think he’s capable of being amused.”

“You’re wrong. Years ago, I saw him smile. Once. Realms parted. Guardians sang. The Pit froze over.”

Her expression dropped, and she pressed her palms against her eyes. “It was my dad. The vampire. The one they wanted me to stake.”

Darius’ heart hurt for her. He couldn’t imagine the pain she felt. “Devil…”

“Why would they do that to me? He could have at least warned me instead of springing it on me. I thought—” her voice hitched. “I thought he was dead. That Lock had killed him years ago.”

Darius wanted to hold her and take away her pain. But, she wasn’t an incubus…she’d misunderstand his intent. She didn’t know how much his race touched. Incubi enjoyed being close to each other and often needed contact when in pain. He wondered how she’d react if she ever saw him kissing the Lord General’s neck—a submissive act to an older incubus, not a sexual one.

“I had no idea he was alive either. Lock never mentioned it to me. Give me a few moments. I’ll go find out what happened. Okay?”

Her shoulders slumped a little, and she nodded.

Darius left the room, keeping his temper in check until he shut the door. Then he marched to Javi. “Tell Chase to get his ass over here.”

Javi lifted his comm to his wrist. “Boss, can you meet me outside Arena Room 14?”

A moment later Chase teleported in. He did a double take when he saw Darius. “Did you find her?”

“She’s in there.” Javi motioned his head at the room.

Chase looked to Darius. “Did you find out what happened?”

“Yeah, that vamp you pulled was her dad.”

“Chingada madre,” Javi spat out.

Chase balled his hands. “I didn’t know.”

“The goddess wouldn’t have been able to save you from me if I thought you had. Who assigned the vamp to you tonight?” Darius would make whoever did this pay.

Chase shook his head. “The first thing I did when she teleported away was ask for the paperwork. It’s all sealed. General’s eyes only.”

Darius frowned. That meant he couldn’t access it either. “Alright. Wait here.” He re-entered the room.

Kat had a blank expression, staring at the wall.

“Chase didn’t know.”

“I know,” she said and tapped her ear. “I have these new kickass runes that let me hear through walls.”

“Oh. Right.”

She took a deep breath and tilted her head back, fighting tears. “I don’t know why I’m so upset. It’s not like it’s really my dad.”

“I’d be upset. If it were my father…” Darius sat back in the chair. “I miss them. My parents that is.”

“They were both incubi, weren’t they?”

Darius placed his hands together. “Yeah. They were…commoners. Lived in suburbia among humans. Did you know that vampires don’t need to be invited into incubi homes? And my parents weren’t able to afford protection runes. But the Lord General had assured everyone in that city that they were safe. The area was fortunate enough to have regular hunter patrols.

“But the vampires attacked anyway. Overwhelmed the hunters and killed over twenty incubi families. Mont made me watch as he ripped apart my parents. Made me watch them beg for my life. I was eight.” Darius paused and swallowed hard. “‘Tell the general none of his people are safe.’ That’s what Mont said to me before turning into bats and flying away. A few minutes later the Lord General showed up…I’d never seen a warrior incubus full form before. It was awe-inspiring. I wanted to be like him when I grew up, so that I could avenge my parents. But”—Darius motioned to his body—“turns out wishing doesn’t change genetics.”

A warm hand covered his. “It wasn’t your fault,” she said.

Darius relished the contact she offered. He met her eyes. It’d been so long since he’d found anyone he could talk to about this. Someone who understood. “What happened to your parents isn’t your fault either.”

Her face flared with rage like the wildfire she was, beautiful and untamed. “Maybe not, but one day I’m going to end the bastard.”

“I know.”

She stood. “I need to see him.”

Her dad. Or rather, the monster that he’d become. Before Darius could open his mouth to object she marched from the room. He trailed after her.

“Take me to him,” she said to Chase.

Chase’s eyes landed on Javi, who nodded, acknowledging the silent dismissal, and teleported out. Chase motioned down the hall. “This way.”

He led Kat and Darius to a heavy-duty elevator, and the three went down a few stories.

Stationed behind thick glass, a guard team stopped them when they exited.

“Orders?” one of them asked through a speaker.

“We’re going to go see a vamp I pulled earlier today,” Chase said.

“I have to call it in,” the guard said.

“No. Let us through,” Darius said, daring the guard to challenge him. Ashwood housed the highest population of vampire prisoners, and the guards here took their job seriously, but Darius still outranked them.

The guard paused as if considering the consequences of disobeying a lord. The heavy door buzzed open. “Apologies, my lord.”

The place was like a maze, concrete hall after hall, all outfitted with runes, designed to keep vampires imprisoned. They made their way to a single holding pen lined with silver bars.

Kat’s father was the sole occupant.

Awake.

His eyes widened with recognition when he saw her.

“Kat. No,” he said. “Get away from me.”

Then something changed. The recognition turned to hate; anger. And he began to hiss at her through growing fangs. Feral, it lunged at the bars of the cage, trying to get to Kat.

The silver burned his skin, the foul stench filled the air, but the creature didn’t seem to care about the pain.

“He’s hurting himself. Why?” she asked. “Why does he want to kill me so badly?”

“It’s in Vampire Hunting Manual Volume I if you had read it,” Chase said. “Turned vampires are compelled to kill their family. They can’t help it.”

Kat removed a stake from her belt and gripped it tight. “Is he still in there somewhere?”

“No, vampires are pure evil. Your father’s gone,” Darius said.

“I don’t mean to contradict you, Darius, but—” Chase fell silent when Darius sneered at him.

“Okay, now you have to tell me,” Kat said.

Darius stopped sneering. He shouldn’t be keeping stuff from her, but vampires were everything he hated. “There are rumors that if a sire dies, the vampire no longer tries to kill its family. But he’d still be a vampire—and without a sire, a vampire his age can’t feed on humans without killing.”

Kat watched her father pound against the bars, his skin sizzling.

Green light flashed, and Kat appeared behind her father. Before Darius could do anything, the vampire turned on her.

She knocked away its claw, using her newly enhanced strength, and drove a stake into its heart. The vampire dropped to the ground, unconscious. She crouched and put her hand on his face. “I’ll kill him, Daddy,” she whispered. She teleported in front of Chase. “I told you I know how to stake a vamp.”

Pain and anger pulsed from her and crashed into Darius so hard he almost staggered backwards before he could shut himself off from her emotions. She turned and left without giving him even a second glance. His mouth went dry as he realized that he had no place in her life. He’d been holding onto a small thread of hope that maybe she’d forgive him…want him…but she didn’t have room for anything except her desire to kill Mont.

He had to move on.

Later, when he got back to his room, his phone buzzed.

A text.

From Kat.

Thank you.

His heart ached.