I jolted awake, chased from a blessedly dreamless sleep by the hand shaking me.

“We’re here.” Linus’s cool breath hit my cheek. “We’re also in a no-parking zone in front of my building.”

The numbness pervading the left side of my body clued me in to the fact I had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

“Parking here is a nightmare.” Our driver grinned at Linus in the rearview mirror. “Besides, you can afford the ticket.”

“You’ve created a monster,” I whispered, yawning as I sat upright and took in our surroundings.

“I think you’re right.” Linus passed him a fifty-dollar bill and a printout with a hotel logo in the top left corner. “Your reservation has been made, and your room paid for. You’re responsible for any room service you order, movies you rent, or other fees you incur during your stay.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got you, man.”

“Keep your phone on you at all times. You are only to accept fares from myself or Grier. Do you understand? No freelance work while you’re in the city.”

“I told you I got you. Sheesh.” His scowl tightened. “You need to take a chill pill, man.”

“Come on, man.” I shoved Linus out of the van, and we collected our luggage. “He’s got this, man.”

Linus sighed as he took my elbow and led me to the entrance. “I can’t tell if you’re mocking him or me.”

“Both?” I hopped onto the sidewalk, purple suitcase trailing at the maximum distance the handle allowed, like maybe I wouldn’t have to acknowledge it if it arrived after me. “Two-for-one special?”

“His name is Tony,” Linus informed me, flashing digits on his screen at me. “Put his number in your phone.”

Happy to oblige, I added Tony to my contacts list then included a pizza emoticon lest I forget him.

Air shimmered as Cletus materialized, brushed his bony knuckles over my jaw, then swirled into nothing.

Pressing fingers to my cheek, I turned to Linus. “What was that about?”

“I’m not sure.” The expression on his face was difficult to parse. “Wraiths aren’t allowed in the Faraday.” Amusement peeked through his eyes. “Odd, wasn’t it? Almost like he was saying goodbye.”

Nodding thoughtfully, I zipped my lips before I gave my part in Cletus’s newfound awareness away.

Though I doubted my doe-eyed innocence act had fooled Linus for a minute.

Fiddlesticks.

A giant of a man watched our approach through hooded eyes the tawny brown of crushed pecan shells. His sandy-blond hair hung in dreads down the small of his back, twisted into a loose tail. The crimson and black uniform did nothing to hide his muscular build or the menace in his bearing. How humans saw him and accepted him as one of them blew my mind.

“Mr. Lawson,” he boomed down at us, gripping the curved handle on the ornate glass door leading into a gilded lobby. “I wasn’t aware you were back in the city.”

“I’m only here for the weekend, Hood.” Between the curb and the door, Linus had donned one of the masks from his extensive collection. This was Scion Lawson, with a stick so far up his butt he probably coughed up bark, and a faint sneer tinged with just enough boredom to make you feel like simply addressing him was wasting his time. “This is Grier Woolworth. She’ll be staying with me. She has full access to the building and my loft, understand?”

Hood blinked once, but that was the extent of his reaction. “Yes, sir. I’ll make sure the rest of the staff knows to treat your guest with the utmost respect.” He turned his warm eyes on me. “Ms. Woolworth, it’s a pleasure to welcome you to the Faraday.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hood.” I wondered what on Earth he was but knew asking was gauche.

Hood pressed a button, and the door slid open, allowing us to step into the foyer.

The layout reminded me of every five-star hotel Maud and I had ever visited, including the check-in desk. There was an air of permanence about the place that suggested this was more than a temporary dwelling for those who entered, but the gleam of metal and sparkle of glass made it hard to imagine there were people who called such lush environments home.

A spindly man with a hawkish face popped up at the sight of Linus and rushed around his desk.

“Scion Lawson, what an unexpected blessing. So good to have you home, sir. The Faraday hasn’t been the same without you. The city herself has mourned your absence.” He bowed almost in half. “How is your exquisite mother? Lovely as ever, I’m certain.”

“Mother is well, thank you.” Linus dared me to laugh with a scowl, his mask slipping a fraction, before addressing him. “Hubert, this is Grier Woolworth. She is my guest. Treat her as you would treat me.”

“Yes, sir.” Hubert unfolded and eyed me as if I were the morning sun rising. “Madam, you are glorious. I see why Scion Lawson favors you so. Your hair—like the darkest chocolates. Your eyes—like spun gold. Your—”

“If you’ll excuse us,” Linus cut in before Hubert broke out the full-on sonnets, “we have plans this evening and would like to freshen up before we head out.”

“Of course, sir, of course. Let me take your bags.” He reached for our luggage. “It’s my pleasure, truly.”

“We’re good,” I found myself saying, unnerved by the adoration shining in his eyes. “Thanks, though.”

“As you say, madam.” Crestfallen, Hubert slumped his shoulders. “I am yours to command, should you need anything, anything at all. Your slightest whim is my greatest desire.”

Pretty sure I’ve never powerwalked to an elevator so fast in my life.

Once the doors slid closed behind us, I lost my grip on my laughter and brayed to do Maud proud.

That was all it took, like I had taken my fingers and pried off the mask to find Linus underneath.

Lips twitching, he was fighting a losing battle with a smile that had me grinning back at him. His starched posture had wrinkled into comfortable lines, and I saw so clearly the moment he sank into his skin and became simply himself that my heart pinched that this Linus was the one hidden away. Except from me.

“Wow. You’ve really been slumming it with me. I had no idea.” Straightening my spine, I pushed my shoulders back until the blades rubbed. “Sir, it’s such a pleasure to have you home, sir. Do you have any boots in need of licking, sir?”

Linus wiped a hand down his face. “Living at the Faraday was part of the deal I made with Mother.”

“Ah.” I counted the floors as we rose higher and higher. “That explains Hubert.” I pulled out my phone and shot off a quick text to Amelie and Odette to let them know we had arrived safely. “I’m sure he called your mother the second our backs turned.”

“You’re probably right.” He sounded tired. “He’s not usually so obnoxious.”

“Hood seems cool.” Again, the temptation to ask what he was had me tasting curiosity. “Hubert is probably not going to be my favorite person, though. I dealt with enough sycophants on Maud’s behalf to last me a lifetime, and he had a smudge on his face from all the brownnosing he’s been doing.”

“I’ve never brought anyone home with me.” He allowed himself a tiny smile. “Outing one of my lovers to Mother would be the highlight of his career.”

“Surprise.” Jazz hands. “Mother already knows all about me.”

And one of his lovers? Just how many did he keep? Or did he mean that in a general sense?

“Not all about you,” he corrected me, snapping me back to attention. “But she knows you’re here with me. There was no point in not telling her what her spies will make sure she finds out eventually.”

Keeping secrets from his mother was dangerous, even for him. I guarded a few I hoped she hadn’t learned, but I had no idea if he was doling them out to her when she got hungry for progress, or if he played his cards close to his vest with her, maybe especially with her—as he’d instructed me to do—and that meant hoarding my secrets until he could use them. The notion he might keep them without expectation…

It was a fairy tale, and I had never believed in those.

“The penthouse.” I pretended shock. “Ding, ding, ding. Top floor.”

His soft groan humanized him. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Immensely.” I raced him into the hallway. “If it seems like I’m making fun of you, it’s because I am.”

“Really?” He pulled a keycard from his pocket. “I couldn’t tell.” After swiping it, he passed it over to me. “Keep this on you at all times. This is your ticket in and out. There are wards set to scan for keys.”

“I got in without one this time.” I wasn’t arguing, just wondering how it worked.

“Hood let you in.” He opened the door to his darkened loft but stood there obscuring my view. “He’s the most mellow of the watchmen, but his temper can be short. Remember your key, and try not to talk to them.”

“Are they like the guards at Windsor Castle?” I rose on my tiptoes to peek over his shoulder. “They can’t talk or blink even if you hang from them like a monkey?”

“No.” Linus thwarted me by blocking access to where I imagined the switches to be. “They’ve been known to eat visitors they don’t like, and they’re contractually permitted to do so.”

“You aren’t serious.” Stepping into Linus’s world was like strolling into one of those fairy tales I didn’t believe in but felt realer by the minute. “Management would never go for that.”

“Residents pay a premium for security, and it doesn’t get safer than this. No one will harm you within this building, or they will be executed. The mingling of species requires harsher laws. That’s why no humans are allowed. We all sign the same paperwork before buying or leasing in this building. We’re all aware of the consequences if we—or our guests—misbehave.”

“I can’t believe your mother lets you live here,” I squeaked, grateful Boaz wasn’t here to call me on it.

“I’m shocked she does too.” He glanced around the hall. “Every day.” His gaze fell on me. “I think she hoped the terms and conditions would terrify me, and they did, but this is what I want.” His half-smile was heartbreaking. “It’s as close to freedom as I’ll ever get.”

Pity would earn me his anger, so I ignored the heartfelt sentiment and nudged him out of my way. I ran my hands along the walls in search of a switch, bumping art with my fingertips, and almost swallowed my tongue when illumination spilled throughout the room from the recessed lighting tucked in the flat spaces between thick, whitewashed beams.

“Grier…”

“Hush.” I drank it all in. “I’m absorbing.”

The far wall and the one behind us were hung with sheetrock and painted a soft greige color. The other two showcased original brick with plaster patches that softened the look. The floors were polished concrete and dazzled. A narrow staircase with glass panels in place of rails had been built along one wall. To maximize space, its interior had been hollowed out and transformed into a series of bookshelves overflowing with tomes. The elegant climb led up to the bedroom, a true loft space open to the rest of the apartment.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

The wood and brick combination saved his home from being sterile, but the contemporary furniture and modern art pieces made me wonder if the space had come furnished. Since he had no eye for design, as evidenced by his support of my wardrobe, the magazine ad results probably bothered him less than they did me.

Or maybe this was more evidence of his chameleonic nature. Maybe this was his preference, and I was all wrong about how well he fit into the quirky vintage style at Woolworth House. But I didn’t think so.

Drawn across the living room to the floor-to-ceiling windows, I stutter-stepped when movement caught my eye up in the loft bedroom, and I got an eyeful of a different view than the one I had expected.

An Asian woman lounged fully nude on the bed, her artful pose an invitation to gawk, and gawk I did.

“Hello,” she purred, twining the silky ends of her ombre hair around a delicate finger. “I wasn’t expecting Linus to bring home company.” Her brilliant green eyes sparkled almost as brightly as the elegant emerald collar around her throat. “This should be fun.” She wet her lips. “Do you want to be on top first? Or would you prefer to be topped first?”

Linus didn’t spare her a glance as he wheeled my luggage to the base of the staircase. “Meiko, no.”

Above him, Meiko climbed onto all fours and stalked down the length of the mattress. She hissed at him through needle-sharp teeth then leapt onto the floor. The resulting thud sounded more like a shoe dropping than a woman landing. About the time I got curious over what was happening up there, a furry leg banded with tabby stripes stretched for the topmost step.

“Um, Linus?” I felt my eyes widen. “What is that?”

“She’s a nekomata, and my second familiar.” He tapped his foot, waiting as the massive cat slinked down to greet him. “Meiko, Grier is our guest. No more pranks.”

The cat stuck its tails, and there were two, in the air and twitched them once as if to ask where’s the fun in that?

“Can she not talk when she’s…?” I gestured to what appeared to be either a Maine coon on steroids or a runty bobcat, “…like that?”

“Meiko can talk in any form,” he assured me. “She’s being catty.”

Literally in this case.

“You’ll be staying in my room,” he told me, and the cat yowled with indignation. “It’s the only way you’ll have any privacy. Meiko and I will stay down here.”

“Where will you sleep?” The sleek, angular sofa looked about as comfortable as a cardboard box with a sheet draped over the top. “We can always pick up an air mattress and pump while we’re out.”

Ears perked upon hearing we didn’t plan on sleeping together, the cat snapped her jaws shut then glanced between us, the light catching on her collar.

“I have a Murphy bed for guests.” He indicated one of the built-ins I had assumed was an armoire to hide his television since I didn’t see one mounted on the walls. “It’s never been used.” He pulled his luggage over and parked it at his new digs. “Now I can say it’s been tested at least.”

“I can stay down here. I don’t mind. I don’t want to run you out of your room.”

“You’re not. I’m offering it to you.” He indicated one of two closed doors. “There’s only one bathroom. We’ll have to share.”

“I can do that.” I bet it was every bit as lavish as the rest of the space. It wouldn’t beat the clawfoot tub in Maud’s bathroom where I used to beg to soak, but I could make do. “I’ll check in with Neely and see if he’s arrived yet.”

“All right.” He took his suitcase into the bathroom with him. “I’ll change.”

Meiko exploded into sex-goddess mode as the door clicked shut. “So, you’re Grier.” Her eyes glittered. “Want to know a secret?”

Unsure what her angle was, I shrugged. “As long as you don’t expect me to reciprocate, sure.”

“Follow me.” She crooked a finger in expectation I would trail her sashaying hips. “This is Linus’s home office, broom closet more like it, but it doubles as an art studio.” The door opened under her hand, and she flipped on a light. “Notice a theme?”

Gazing into his office was like staring into a mirror. On the back wall, hung above his desk, was an oil painting. The woman wore my face, but she wore it better than me. Happiness shined through her eyes, and a mischievous quirk lifted one corner of her mouth. She looked like she had a good secret and was seconds from sharing it if only you would lean close enough to hear.

This must have been his last memory of the girl I used to be.

“There are more,” she confided. “You’re his muse. You have been for as long as I’ve known him.”

“How long is that?” I rasped, unsure what else I ought to be asking.

“Four years,” she admitted. “Why he fixated on you when he has me is unfathomable.”

“I shouldn’t be in here.” Viewing this without his permission was worse than Boaz thumbing through Linus’s sketchbook in front of him. This was… More. A shrine—or mausoleum—where that past Grier remained entombed. “He won’t want me to see this.”

“Whyever do you think I showed you?” Delight rattled in the back of her throat. “Do you know what a nekomata is?”

“Not offhand, no.” I backed from the room, and she followed, closing the door behind her. “Are you a true shapeshifter, or do you use glamour, like the fae?”

“You’re a smart cookie.” She tapped the end of my nose. “No wonder he wants to eat you up.”

Heat flooded my face, part embarrassment over what she was telling me and part—I don’t know what—at seeing his memorial. Though her diversion almost worked, I noticed she hadn’t answered my question. “I’m guessing you trade in mischief.”

“Right again, Cookie.” Her husky chuckle, like she was sizing up how many bites that might take, made me uncomfortable. “I show people what they expect—”

“I did not expect a cat lady.”

“Oh, Cookie, but you did expect a beautiful woman in his bed.” Her eyes glimmered, the pupils dilating. “You must have put a lot of thought into his tastes in women.” She raked her claw-tipped fingers through my hair. “I plucked the image out fully formed, no embellishment required.”

“You’re wrong.” I backed away, but her fingers tightened on the ends of my hair to hold me still. “I have a…” boyfriend didn’t feel like the right word, “…Boaz.” Maybe if we had made it to our second date, or if he picked up a phone sometime, I might have had a different label for him. Right now, I wasn’t sure what we were or weren’t. Too much had changed that night in the Lyceum. He had changed. Given all that happened, it would have been impossible for him not to be altered. “Linus and I aren’t like that.”

“Yet.” She twisted in on herself until a fluffy too-big-to-be-a-house cat sat at my feet. “Brrrrrt.”

“Back at you,” I mumbled, relieved when she padded into the kitchen. Antsy at being left alone in a strange place, I dialed up Neely for comfort. “Hey, where are you?”

“I just rolled up to a café on Peachtree Street Northwest. I couldn’t remember where you said you were staying, and since you forbade me from hunting down my sugar lump, I figured I would fuel up while I waited.”

A look down at my clothes had me second-guessing the need to change. Unlike Linus, I wasn’t headed for a meeting, and there was only more of the same in my suitcase. With that reminder of why we had planned this outing in mind, I decided there was no reason to keep Neely waiting.

“Hold on.” I located Meiko, who was busy lounging on a black mohair throw draping the couch, and waited while she decided whether to acknowledge me. “Can you tell Linus I left? That I’m going to meet Neely? He’ll know who I mean.” And since we hadn’t nailed down our plans… “He’s welcome to join us if he wants.”

“He won’t.” Meiko yawned, baring a mouthful of teeth. “He’s not a joiner.”

“He did mention a meeting,” I conceded.

“There you have it,” she purred. “You best run along to meet your little friend.”

“Grier?” Neely buzzed in my ear. “Are you coming or…?”

“I’ll be right there.” I checked my pockets for my debit card and room card. “Order me something hot and sweet to go while you’re at it.”

“Aren’t you wicked?” He chuckled. “I’ll see who I can rustle up.”

“That’s not what I meant.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “A drink, Neely. Not a person.” I retraced my footsteps to the elevator. “I’ve got my hands full as it is.”

“Do tell.” His interest perked faster than a fresh pot of coffee. “I thought you were Boaz forever?”

“He’s acting weird.” Granted, he had plenty of reason for that. “I’m not sure what’s going on there.”

Rushing to my bedside made me think he was serious when he made his promises to me. Refusing to kiss me in more than a platonic way made me think he had changed his mind. Though I had just suffered an injury to my jaw, which made getting hot and heavy difficult—and painful. But that still didn’t excuse the lack of communication since that night at the Lyceum. I didn’t need a phone call a day, but maybe once a week. Or a text? An emoji? Something. Goddess, I was giving myself a headache.

“Well, the boy’s got a reputation. I know you love him, that’s obvious, but do you love-love him?”

I mashed the button for the lobby hard enough my pointer smarted. “I haven’t figured out that part yet.”

“Fair enough. Do I get to know who his competition is?”

“Competition isn’t the right word.” The elevator stopped somewhere in the middle of the building, and a couple entered the booth, deep in conversation. A tingle swept down my spine, alerting me to the presence of vampires, and I tightened my grip on the phone. “I don’t have to choose.”

“No, you certainly don’t.”

“Goddess, Neely, that’s not what I meant.”

Busy choking on his coffee, he couldn’t answer.

“I meant I could stay single.”

The woman noticed me, and her stare intensified until I stopped counting down the floors. Murky green eyes swept over me, and a furrow gathered on her smooth brow. The coil of red hair crowning her head glistened under the soft lights and complemented her smart black pantsuit. Her bolero-style jacket, studded with silver, was the only flash in her ensemble, but the overall impression was stunning.

The man was her mirror image, red hair and all. Equally well turned out, he wore black slacks with a matching button-down shirt and boots. The silver flash in his outfit came from the studs adorning the wide leather belt slung low on his hips.

The couple held still the way predators do while hunting, and the man flared his nostrils, drawing in my scent.

“Are you new to the building?” Butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. “I haven’t noticed you.”

Unsure if that was an insult, I kept my expression and tone neutral. “I’m visiting a friend.”

“Some friend if he lets you wander unescorted,” the man huffed. “The Faraday isn’t a playground.”

“I’m not a child.” A clipped note sharpened my voice. “And I never said my friend was male.”

“She does smell of female…and cat,” his companion agreed. “That means she’s to my tastes and not yours, brother.”

“A pity,” he allowed, smirking. “Although, I am quite persuasive.”

“You didn’t hear the last five things I said, did you?” Neely buzzed in my ear. “Should I call back later?”

“No,” I all but croaked. “Keep talking.”

Concern at my voice breaking overrode his annoyance. “Are you okay? I hear voices.”

“A couple of Linus’s neighbors are introducing themselves to me.” I bucked up to keep them from closing in. “That’s all.”

The siblings recoiled at his name, their backs hitting the sides of the elevator.

The woman blanched as white as a corpse. “You’re the potentate’s guest?”

Holding on to the fragile connection with Neely, I nodded.

“Forgive our impertinence.” Her brother slammed his gaze to the floor at his feet and kept it there. “We meant no offense.”

“None taken,” I assured them, though my palms still sweated. “It was nice meeting you.”

The doors opened, and they huddled in their corner, allowing me to exit first.

Hubert looked up from behind his desk, spotted me, and charged across the marble foyer. “Are the accommodations to your liking, Dame Woolworth?”

Yep. He had spoken to the Grande Dame.

“Woolworth,” the woman gasped as the elevator sealed the siblings away from me.

The numbers ticked up—not down. They had decided against joining me in the lobby or sinking lower, into the parking deck, assuming that’s what the P button meant on the panel. For whatever reason, the combination of Linus’s name and mine had spooked them back to their room.

“Dame Woolworth?”

Swinging my focus back to Hubert, I told the polite lie. “Linus has a lovely home.”

“Are you going out? Alone?” Frantic to please, he trotted after me. “Shall I call your driver? Or would you prefer to use our car service? Only the best for our residents, and their guests of course.”

“I have a driver, but I appreciate the offer.” I picked up my pace to escape the lobby. “Still there, Neely?”

“Maybe? What I’m hearing on your end doesn’t make a lick of sense.”

“This is Linus’s world.” I shoved out into the fresh night air and sucked in lungfuls. “It makes no sense to me either.”

This whole trip was beginning to make me feel like a country mouse to his city mouse.

Savannah’s supernatural population averaged three necromancers to every vampire, which was to be expected in a city under necromantic control. But we didn’t get much variety outside that.

Mom and I had always played human, so I hadn’t come across more than the occasional necromancer or candidate for vampirism during our traveling years. We kept our heads down, settling in small towns and avoiding big cities. Even later, with Maud, we made social rounds together, and she kept to Society functions or human amusements like museums and libraries, things that fit the role she had carved out for me.

Linus was coaxing my eyes open to all the things Maud had hidden from me, starting with an education and ending with exposure to the world beyond the Lyceum and its rules. His break from Savannah ran deeper than I first realized. This wasn’t a rebellion against his mother, this was him thinning ties with her and the Society. He truly was living his own life here rather than coddled in a Society enclave like me.

“This is the real world,” Hood rumbled from his station near the door. “Your Society owns a chunk of it, but not all. Take a look around, Ms. Woolworth. What you see might surprise you.”

Startled he had spoken to me, I nodded my thanks for the advice. “I’m working on it.”

On my right, Cletus rippled into existence and evaluated Hood with a tilt of his head.

Hood’s answering chuckle allowed me to exhale with relief that I hadn’t inadvertently insulted him. “You do that.”

The doorman melted back into the shadows, and I started ambling with no destination in mind. Mostly I wanted to escape the Faraday and its menagerie of peculiar residents before having my reality stretched thinner. Cletus stuck to me, allowing me to walk off some of my jitters.

“I’m putting you on hold,” I warned Neely. “I have to call for a ride.”

“Don’t you dare.” He clicked his tongue. “I’m halfway to the car. I’ll pick you up.”

“Thanks,” I said thickly. “I could use a friendly face.”

I located a MARTA bus stop and collapsed on the slatted bench where my right leg started bouncing like it was pumping a bicycle tire.

Neely arrived fifteen minutes later, and I sprinted for the passenger seat of his car with all the grace of an antelope a hairsbreadth from being dinner for a lion. With the door shut behind me, I buckled up and exhaled like I’d run a marathon.

“I need to call Linus.” Severing the connection, even with Neely beside me, was hard. Vampires spooked me these days, a serious failing for a necromancer. “Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea.”

“You’ll feel better after some retail therapy,” he assured me. “I always do.” He pressed a to-go cup into my hand. “Perk Up’s hot chocolate isn’t up to your Mallow standards, but it’ll do in a pinch.”

I drained half the cup before dialing Linus. “Hi.”

“You left without telling me.” A door slammed in the background, and a cat yowled with muffled rage. “What were you thinking? Did you listen to me at all?”

Never in all our time together had he used this tone with me, and it felt like a slap in the face. Perhaps a deserved one, under the circumstances, but that didn’t lessen the sting.

“I heard your warnings.” I stared at the ceiling of the car, wondering if Neely was aware there was a soda-colored stain in the shape of a giraffe up there. “I brought my keycard with me.”

“Tell me exactly what happened from the moment you left my apartment.”

“Yes,” I feigned cheer. “I am with Neely, and we are going shopping.”

“I see.”

“You’re more than welcome to join us.”

“I planned on it,” he clipped out. “I was changing so I could go with you.”

Meiko was a dirty, rotten liar.

“Oh.”

“Yes, oh.”

“You mentioned a meeting. I assumed we were parting ways at the Faraday and would rendezvous at dawn.” The temptation to fling Meiko under the bus was strong, but I managed to suppress the urge. “I didn’t think you’d want to be stuck with us for hours and hours.”

Neely nodded support in my half of the conversation. “Guys hate that.”

“You’re a guy,” I pointed out. “Shopping is your number-one hobby. Probably two and three too.”

His harrumph killed all support on that front.

“I don’t want to trespass on your time with your friend,” Linus said at last, “but this isn’t Savannah.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” We zipped over asphalt marked with rubber skids and debris from accidents past, and I kept wishing for the bump-bump-bump of cobblestones. “How about we get started and you join us?”

“Let Cletus keep an eye on you.” His sigh blasted over the line. “I’ll be there shortly.”

Given the fact his wraith was on guard duty, he didn’t have to ask where we were going, not that I had a clue. Cletus would tell Linus, or show him. I wasn’t clear on how their bond worked, if they conversed or traded thoughts, sensations, and images between themselves the same as Woolly and me.

Buildings whooshed past in a brick and metal blur. “What about your meeting?”

“I can make time, Grier.”

Home for the first time in months, a meeting on the horizon, and he was prioritizing my vanity.

Being prioritized for a change felt…nice.

“Tell him to meet us at Haywood Square,” Neely prompted me. “They have the best selection.”

The mall was a Society holding, and it kept much later hours than the surrounding shopping centers. And Neely was right. Thanks to its investors, Haywood had the best of everything Atlanta had to offer in order to please its nocturnal clients.

“I heard,” Linus informed me. “I’ll see you soon.”

I sat there after I ended the call, staring at the phone, the blacked-out display and its reflection of me.

“Girls do call boys these days,” Neely suggested. “It’s modern, not desperate.”

I squinted at him. “What makes you think I’m waiting on a call?”

“Please,” he huffed. “I haven’t been off the market that long. I recognize that face. I used to see it in the mirror every time a cute boy forgot my number.”

“Boaz has been busy.” The defense sprang to my lips with ease. “He has a lot on his plate right now.”

“How long has he been busy?” Neely cut his eyes toward me. “You’ve been wearing that expression for weeks.”

“You’ve barely seen me,” I argued. “Maybe you just caught me in a weak moment.”

“You’re a lot of things, Grier, but weak is not one of them.”

Knowing he was thinking of Volkov, of the story I had spun about the vampire being a controlling boyfriend I had escaped with only a few bruises, made me think of him too.

He was out there, somewhere, locked in a cell I was certain lacked the amenities lavished on me. But bars or not, a cage was still a cage.

“Forget I said anything.” Neely made the peace offering, but his eyes remained troubled, and it didn’t escape my attention he hadn’t asked about Amelie. According to our cover story, she was here in the city working an internship. Yet he didn’t offer to include her in our outing. It made me wonder if he was avoiding the topic. Maybe he was hurt to have lost her too. “Tell me what we’re shopping for and how much money I get to spend.”

The budget was a good question. Too much would make him suspicious, but too little wouldn’t get me the polish required to pass among High Society. I might as well get more jeans and tees while I was at it. I could use some underwear with elastic too. All mine had been stretched and washed past the breaking point. One pair I tied on over my right hip with the lacy detail unraveling from the waist.

“This asshat won’t get off my bumper.”

I checked out the mirror and winced from the bright lights. “Maybe they’ll take the next exit.”

“Maybe.” Neely accelerated, nudging us a few miles over the posted speed limit as he took an overpass. “Let’s see how he likes that.” Flicking on his blinker, he changed lanes for good measure. “We’ve got two more exits until our next turn. We’ll just chill over here and— Grier.”

Metal screeched, and the car lurched sideways. I was falling, and then the seat belt yanked me back, its edge cutting into my throat. But we kept tumbling, over and over. Glass crunched and scattered, pelting my face and neck. An explosion whited out the corner of my eye—the airbag deploying—and Neely lost his grip as his head shot back.

Blood scented the air, almost indistinguishable from the hot metal smell permeating each breath.

Dipping my fingers in a gash across my cheek, I swiped a protection sigil on Neely’s arm and then mine.

What damage had already been done was beyond help, but it might save us from breaking our necks.

Impact, harder than all the rest, made the frame surrounding us groan, and the car rocked to a stop.

I must have been screaming. My throat hurt like it did when I woke from the dream. Silence descended, a cocoon that wrapped my senses, the utter quiet only punctuated by Neely’s too-sharp breaths. “Neely?”

A low moan was his only response.

With a grunt of effort, I reached out and mashed my thumb against his pulse. Quick but steady. That was all the energy I could scrounge together while my heart raced so fast my legs felt the burn.

Treading the familiar path to the door in my head, my consciousness locked me away from the pain.

* * *

“The Master will kill us for this,” a masculine voice hissed from the shadows.

“The Master wants her,” a woman answered. “Well, there she is.”

The crunch of approaching footsteps shocked me back to my senses, and I forced myself to assess the situation.

Neely and I hung upside down, suspended by our seat belts. The car had flipped so many times the doors were bowed out and the glass had shattered in all the windows. Neely was alive, but hurt. I was alive, but so weak I must be losing blood. Or I had a head injury making me sluggish. With the ringing in my ears, I conceded that maybe it was a little bit of both.

“A salt circle won’t keep out that wraith forever,” the man warned. “We need to leave.”

“We will,” the woman soothed, “as soon as we have our prize.”

The familiar tickle down my spine confirmed my worst fear. These were vampires, come to fetch me. Part of me had hoped I’d hallucinated the first part of their conversation, but there was no denying biology.

Fingers trembling from shock and fear, I wet my fingers against my cheek and started drawing.

Cletus might be out of action, but he was still broadcasting to Linus. Help was on the way if I could just hang on.

“Ah. You’re awake,” the woman crooned. “Fear not, mistress, we’ll have you back where you belong in no time at all.” Recognition kicked in a heartbeat later. The elevator. She was one of the siblings who’d panicked upon hearing my name. “The Master has been beside himself since you left. He forgives all your transgressions. He only wishes you to return home where you will be kept safe and cherished.”

Returned to a gilded cage, that’s what she meant. I would rather die than hear a lock turn at my back.

“Fuck.” I dipped my fingertips in the blood running up my jaw and finished my sigil. “You.”

“That’s not very nice,” she gritted from between clenched teeth. “I am here to serve.”

“Linus is coming.” I spoke with absolute conviction. “Leave now or suffer the consequences.”

“We can’t be here when the potentate arrives,” her brother pleaded. “He’ll kill us.”

“We won’t be if you’d get over here and lend a hand,” she snarled. “Give me your knife.”

Metal glinted in her palm as she reached through the busted window, blade aimed at my throat and the seat belt cutting into my neck. Light exploded in a blinding flash from the frame as the wards ignited, and the vampire howled in agony then fell on her butt in the gravel.

I shouldn’t have laughed, goddess knows I shouldn’t have laughed, but I did. I kept going until I hurt all over, but I couldn’t stop. The manic relief bubbling up my throat kept spilling over until both vampires took wary steps away from me.

“She’s unhinged,” the sister lamented. “Do you think she was like this before?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care,” the brother countered. “Come on, Ernestine.” Shuffling ensued, but all I could see were two pairs of black-clad legs tussling. “The wraith is like a beacon. The potentate will come for her.”

“We’ll never get another chance as good as this one,” she argued.

“You’ll never get another chance period,” a new voice, dripping with ice, assured them.

The night came alive around us, shadows roiling, darkness rippling. A bone-deep cold pervaded the car until my teeth chattered from the sudden temperature drop. The hem of a wraithlike cloak swept into view, black tendrils whipping out, striking at the fractured light from the streetlamps overhead.

“We meant no harm, Potentate.” The brother was quick to drop to his knees. “Have mercy.”

There was no hesitation, no deliberation. “No.”

Moonlight glinted off a wide blade as it completed its arc, and the man’s head rolled to a stop against the car door. His disintegration was a slow, pathetic thing. He was new. Still juicy. Only the cast-iron stomach that came standard on necromancers kept me from spewing my hot chocolate.

“Frederick,” Ernestine wailed. “You killed him.”

“You almost killed one of mine,” Linus snapped. “You would have returned her to her cage.”

“The Master wouldn’t have harmed her.” She protested the second charge, knowing there was no wiggling out of the first. “She is his. We were doing as we were told.”

“Grier belongs to no one.”

Metal sang, and a second head joined the first. This one crumbled until the vampire was dust.

A distant part of my brain noted I had been wrong about them being siblings. Their deaths proved that much. Whatever game they had played with each other had been set into motion centuries apart, and it was done.

A familiar apparition peeled from the hem of the roiling cloak, and Cletus drifted over to me, running his skeletal knuckles across the wound on my cheek. Linus trailed him, the blanket of night sky unraveling as he approached, and knelt at my window, ducking until his forearms mashed into gravel, and we made eye contact.

“Thank Hecate,” he breathed. “I got here as fast as I could, but I thought for certain I would be too late.”

“Linus,” I murmured, giving my eyes permission to close. “What are you?”

All the blood had rushed to my head, drumming in my ears. That’s the only reason why I thought he replied yours.