Progeny.

My progeny.

Corbin Theroux.

Black edged my vision, and Linus cupped my elbow to steady me. “Why are you here?”

Never is a long time for a necromancer, but I hadn’t expected the Grande Dame to allow this meeting.

Labeling Corbin as an accident was harsh, but that’s how I viewed his creation. I had no memory of coaxing my first vampire into existence after his mortal death at the hands of a fellow inmate. Most of my time in Atramentous was spent in a drugged haze, and I hadn’t blinked clear of it when I made him.

“I escaped from my cell.” He flashed the keys in his palm. “I stole a car and drove to Savannah.” Bitterness tightened his mouth. “I can’t go home. Not like this. My parents would kill me.”

“You can’t tell them you’re a vampire,” I said through numb lips.

“They would see me coming from a mile away. My folks know all about you, and your world.” A world of pain darkened his eyes. “I’m not being dramatic. I’m being literal. They would see their son had fangs, and they would plunge a stake through my heart for the sake of my immortal soul.” He spread his hands. “That’s why I’m here. I have nowhere else to go.”

A human with working knowledge of our world was rarer than hen’s teeth, at least one not confined in a cell for life, but he wasn’t human. Not anymore. Thanks to me. “How…?”

“I come from a family of hunters.”

“Hunters,” Linus repeated softly.

“Break it down for me.” I massaged my temples. “I feel like my head’s about to explode.”

“That’s why he was in Atramentous.” Linus raked his gaze down Corbin. “Few humans are sent there. He must have committed a major crime against the Society. Killing vampires is the worst offense, due to the loss of revenue. It’s punished more severely even than the murder of a necromancer.”

The Grande Dame had once mentioned I might be surprised by the diversity of my cellmates. I don’t recall her ticking vampire hunters off her list, but there was a lot the night she reinstated my title that I had been too stunned to retain.

“I got sloppy. I was recorded beheading a vamp who had been preying on homeless kids. The clip went viral, and the Elite showed up at my day job two days later.” Corbin examined me with naked curiosity, his gaze roving my face. “If you hadn’t done what you did, I wouldn’t have seen the sky again. Granted, in my fantasies, it was blue, but I’ll take black.” A sigh moved through him. “That makes me the worst kind of hypocrite. Death over undeath is the family motto, but I didn’t hesitate.”

The twisting in my gut eased. “You…chose this?”

“Yes.” He looked at me oddly. “You let me decide my fate.”

Eyes pinched closed, I exhaled through the knot of guilt unfurling in my chest. “I didn’t know.”

A portion of that white-hot anger in him fizzled when he understood I had no idea what I had done.

“I don’t remember doing it.” Yet here stood the proof I held power over life and death in my hands. “Not that patchy memory absolves me from responsibility, but I didn’t know you existed until the Grande Dame informed me I had progeny.”

“The drugs.” Corbin raised his lip then tapped one of his fangs. “For a long time after, I thought these were a hallucination.”

Clear in his tone was the wish they had been. I had turned him into what he must hate the most.

Funny how relieved I had been a moment ago to learn he had chosen this life.

That small reassurance hadn’t lasted for long.

Linus derailed my guilt trip before I traveled far. “Mother will be searching for him.”

“The Grande Dame will be desperate to get him back,” I agreed. “He’s proof of what I am.”

“Clarice Lawson is your mother?” Corbin took an involuntary step back. “The Grande Dame?”

“Try not to judge him too harshly.” I smiled over at Linus. “You don’t get to choose your parents.”

“No,” Corbin agreed slowly. “You don’t.” His shoulders loosened. “She told me about you.”

Too bad she hadn’t returned the favor on my end. “I’m sure it was all very complimentary.”

“She explained what you are and how I came to be.” Laughter twisted in his throat. “She wanted me to understand, to be grateful.”

Having been on the receiving end of you can thank me now talks from her, I could sympathize.

“She told me you live in Savannah.” He raked his gaze over Woolly, the garden, and the carriage house. “I knew your last name, so finding you was easy.”

Woolly swung the front door in a questioning arc that helped me remember my manners.

Oscar shuffled over to me and latched his arms around my legs, his eyes heavy with sleep he had never required until now. I palmed the small knife I kept finding reasons not to return to Linus and pricked my index finger. I touched Oscar between the eyes, drawing on a crimson sigil supplied by genetic memory.

“Grier,” he rushed out on a shocked breath.

“I’m here, kid.” I kissed the top of his head. “Feel better?”

“Mmm-hmm.” He reached for me, and I boosted him onto my hip. “I’m sleepy.”

Pulling back, I fretted at the dull glow in his cheeks. “Do you want me to tuck you in bed?”

“Nah-uh.” He curled his fists in my hair. “I wanna stay with you.”

“You got it.” Holding Oscar close, I waved Corbin in. “This is not a conversation for the front porch.”

Behind him, Hood caught my eye and gave a tight nod while Lethe trotted off into the yard.

As soon as Corbin stepped across the threshold, Woolly snagged him in her wards like a gnat on flypaper. His eyes flared with betrayal, pinning me on the spot like we were trapped together. Loathing morphed his features next, and that he hurled at Linus.

“This won’t take but a minute,” I reassured him. “I have to know I can trust you before I let you in.”

A quiver rose through my feet from the hardwood, a tremor of anxiety from Woolly that she would pick wrong. Again.

“You got this.” I placed my hand on the nearest wall. “Volkov tricked his way in. That wasn’t your fault. Trust your instincts.”

The tremble beneath me eased, and she refocused her energy on scanning Corbin from top to bottom.

After much hemming and hawing, she concluded he wasn’t a threat. And with his energy signature humming at a similar frequency to mine, we couldn’t deny he was my creation.

Corbin stumbled upon release, but he recovered before tipping into me. “Your home is alive?”

“You’re a vampire, he’s a ghost, I’m a necromancer, and a haunted house is what you find odd?”

“We all have our hard lines.” He scanned the room. “Guess mine gets drawn at animate buildings.”

Welcoming our second-ever vampire guest into the living room, I indicated the sofas. “Have a seat.”

Warily, he sank onto the cushions, muscles tense and ready to uncoil if the couch so much as twitched beneath him.

I could have explained the phenomenon was limited in scope to Woolworth House herself, not her contents, but I figured keeping him on his toes was a good idea.

Eyelids lowering, Oscar levitated out of my arms as if he were a feather blown on an air current.

Woolly rustled the curtains in the nearest window, and I nudged him in that direction. She wrapped him up tight in the scratchy fabric, allowing him to drift nearby while I returned my attention to our guest.

Linus indicated I should take the chair, and he perched on the armrest. Bracing my elbow on his thigh, I propped my chin in my palm and awarded Corbin my full attention. “Start from the top.”

“Like I said, I got caught taking out a vampire.” His voice came out strained. “The Elite arrested me, tried and convicted me, and then they tossed me in Atramentous.”

Black edged my vision, and the room shrank until I was back there, sitting in my familiar cell.

The cold seeps into my bones. The putrid stink of my own filth clogs my nose until I part my ragged lips and suck in rank air swirling near the floor where I press my cheek.

With a violent tug, I wrested myself out of the memories before they sucked me down into oblivion.

Cool fingers brushed my cheek, smearing tracks while hot tears dripped off my chin.

The stairway into my mind, the one curving away from my problems, loomed. The path was a quick escape from what I longed to forget even when I barely remembered the details. But instead of retreating, I set my jaw and linked hands with Linus. Tears wet his skin, and I used his touch to anchor me in the present.

The time for burying my head in the sand had passed. Chin up, I had to see where this journey took me.

“You claim you escaped.” Linus addressed Corbin while tracing an absent line from my elbow to wrist. I wasn’t certain he was aware he was doing it, but it soothed me. “Where were you held?”

“A facility in Reno.” Corbin clenched his hand around the keys, and blood leaked between his fingers from the strength of his grip on the jagged metal teeth. “The Grande Dame offered me a deal. If I allowed them to study me, my condition, they would call my time served in one hundred years.”

“You took the deal.” Otherwise, he wouldn’t be sitting here. He would be chained in a cell.

“What choice did I have? One hundred years in the span of forever is…” A shiver rippled through him, like the thought of eternity chilled him to the bone. “I obeyed their every order and smiled while I did it. Faking compliance earned me extra privileges. Laundry detail got me access to the docks and the trucks.” He noticed his hand and wiped the blood on his pants. “One night, I wheeled in my last cart of dirties then crawled under the semi and worked out hand and footholds. The trailer skirt hid me, and I held on until the driver stopped for the night.”

“They didn’t search beneath the trucks?” Linus cocked his head. “What about the dogs?”

“Cadaver dogs.” Corbin snorted. “I don’t smell like a vamp to them. I noticed it my first time in the yard, and I tested the theory for weeks before I tossed away my only avenue of escape.”

“A soul has to leave the body before it can return,” I said, thinking it through. “You died, and I brought you back. You ought to smell the same as any vampire, or close enough for the dogs to point when they scent you.” I shared a look with Linus. “Woolly recognized similar notes in his energy to mine. Do you think that might have altered his scent as well?”

Linus pursed his lips in consideration. “We’ll have to ask the gwyllgi for their opinion.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.” Corbin shrugged. “I discovered a loophole, and I exploited it.”

“A loophole that size is unlikely.” Linus radiated calm. “Society prisons are very good at what they do.”

“Call your mom and verify my story,” Corbin taunted. “She’s probably spitting nails right about now.”

Used to taking hits below the belt where his mother was concerned, Linus raised an eyebrow as if to ask, Is that the best you can do?

“When I call, should I mention you’re here?” Linus kept his tone cool, but black gathered in the corners of his eyes. “That you’re my source of information?”

The vampire swallowed hard. “No.”

“How else would I explain my sudden interest in a minor facility in a town clear across the country?”

Corbin had no answer for that.

Linus knew his mother better than anyone. He was Corbin’s best hope of avoiding detection, assuming we decided to help him evade capture. I wasn’t sure I wanted Clarice Lawson as an enemy, even if I was responsible for Corbin’s current predicament.

“I’m sorry for being an ass.” Corbin raked his fingers through his hair, tugging on the ends with frustration. “I haven’t eaten since I broke out six days ago.”

A hungry vampire was a dangerous vampire. Corbin was a ticking time bomb until he fed.

“I don’t know how to…” A grimace twisted his features. “They didn’t teach me to...”

“Feed,” I finished for him.

“Yeah.” Relief he didn’t have to say it bowed his shoulders. “That.”

Vampire hunter or not, sympathy welled in me. “They served you donor blood?”

“Yeah.” He wet his lips. “Heated. In a mug.”

Not teaching a vampire how to source his own meals wouldn’t handicap him in the long run. When they got hungry enough, they turned savage. Their biology demanded blood, and their brains flipped a switch to make sure they got it. Rip out enough throats and rogues learned finesse. That or they got put down.

“Look, I get that I put you in a tight spot.” Corbin stood with a resigned sigh. “You’re under no obligation to help me, but I don’t want to hurt any innocents. Can you at least point me in the right direction?”

I hooked a thumb over my shoulder, indicating the stairs. “Fifth room on the left.”

“You’re going to let me stay?” He glanced between us. “Here? With you?”

“With us.” I patted Linus’s thigh. “He lives here too.”

Corbin wisely kept his mouth shut about our living arrangements.

“Dawn is four hours away, and you chose a heck of a city for your escape.” Vampires aware of his family ties would kill him on sight, and most necromancers would pay someone to do it for them. Being Deathless didn’t mean he couldn’t be killed. It just meant he wouldn’t die on his own. “Giving you a place to crash for the day is the least we can do.” Stashing him also meant we knew where to find him until we decided what to do about him. “Linus and I have errands to run, but we’ll leave Lethe and Hood with you in case there’s any trouble.”

“To keep an eye on me.” His eyes glinted in a flash of temper. “That’s what you mean.”

“That too.” I gestured around the room. “This house isn’t just my home. She’s family. Hurt her, and I will deliver you to the Grande Dame with a big red bow stuck to your forehead. That goes for Oscar and the gwyllgi too.”

Squeaky barks carried from the bay window where Keet bounced along the bottom of his cage, snapping his beak at the bars.

This was all Lethe’s fault. I told her not to sneak him pieces of hamburger patties. Now she was his hero.

“The same goes for the parakeet.” I indicated the small banana-yellow bird scratching his earhole with his foot. “Usually, he has grand delusions he’s a bat. Right now, he believes he’s a dog. Just go with it.”

“Oookay.” Corbin looked ready to bolt out the door and take his chance with the dawn. “I guess.”

“I’ll bring up a towel and fresh sheets in a minute.” I hadn’t changed the ones in that room since Amelie moved into the carriage house. After getting to my feet, I crossed to the window and unwrapped the bundle of ghost boy cradled in Woolly’s embrace. “Oscar, can you show Corbin to Amelie’s old room?”

His mumbled reply sounded mostly like a yes, so I nudged him toward the stairs.

Corbin stared at me a moment too long then ran his tongue over his teeth in preparation for what he was about to ask.

Linus picked up on the tension between us, and he slid his hands into his pockets. It did nothing to hide the way his fingers curled into fists, but no black clouded his eyes, and I doubted Corbin noticed the slip.

“I need…” Corbin’s gaze caressed the length of my throat. “I can’t put it off any longer.”

“I’ll bring you dinner,” Linus said in a voice that threatened my ears with freezer burn.

A soft growl tickled the back of my throat, and he whipped his head toward me.

“Not you.”

“I offered to bring him dinner.” His tone thawed, his eyes dancing. “Not be his dinner.”

The temperature in the room cranked up a few degrees as I blushed. “Nanny nanny boo-boo?”

The joke was weak, but it was all I had to offer after snarling over him like he was a bloody steak caught between the jaws of two ravenous dogs.

After Oscar tugged on his sleeve, Corbin took the hint and headed upstairs, leaving Linus and me alone.

Linus waited a minute before allowing his lips to curve. “I don’t mind you being possessive.”

“You’re not a hunk of meat.” I exhaled through my teeth. “You act civilized, so can I.”

“Don’t feel the need to conform on my behalf.” He eased his fingers under my hair, cupping my nape, his fingers spreading chills. “No one has ever wanted me for myself. I don’t mind. You wanting me.”

“Good.” I let him guide me against his chest, where I buried my face in his shirt and linked my arms at his spine. “I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.” I felt the hitch in his breath, the uptick of his heart. “One day, you’ll believe that.”

He hummed an answer that didn’t satisfy me, but it’s not like I could beat him over the head with a stick. I mean, I could. He would let me. But it wouldn’t drive home his worth. It would only prove I was a crazy girlfriend.

Hmm.

“Am I your girlfriend?” I mumbled against his shirt. “We didn’t exactly define this.” I swallowed. “Us.”

“I don’t require a label,” he said, tension drawing his back tight against my fingertips.

“What if I want one?” I peeked up at him. “Do you have any objections?”

“No,” he breathed, the word softer than the relieved exhale that parted his lips.

“Wait here.” I ducked into the kitchen and dug out a permanent marker and a pack of yellowed labels Maud used to stick on preserves and various other concoctions. Linus kept a wary eye on me while I filled in the blank space where he couldn’t see. “Done.” I peeled it off, walked over, and stuck it to his shirt with a pat. “There.”

“Grier’s boyfriend,” he read, his fingers tracing the curling edge. “I suppose that means the reverse is true for you.”

“I’m not sure.” I gestured to all the empty real estate on my shirt. “I don’t have one.”

Unable to stop the smile crinkling the corners of his eyes, he walked into the kitchen and jotted down a line. He peeled off his label, returned to me, and smoothed it on my shirt, right over my heart. I worked up the nerve to glance down, uncertain what title he had settled on so quickly, and my voice broke when I read simply, “Mine.”

I had never belonged to someone before and had them belong to me too.

This felt big, larger than stickers and more permanent than the markers we used to stake our claims.

“You guys heading out?” Lethe strolled into the room and plopped on the couch. “Or making out?”

Huffing in annoyance, I picked up a pillow and threw it at her head. “Ever hear of knocking?”

“Ever hear of not inviting strangers into your house?” She caught the pillow and tucked it under her head. “Oh! Or better yet—ever hear of not inviting strangers to sleepovers? Seriously. You have trust issues. As in, you’re not suspicious enough.”

“Woolly cleared Corbin,” I reminded her.

“He won’t cause any problems,” Linus agreed. “We have too much leverage over him.”

Hearing his certainty bolstered mine. “If he shows his butt, we’ll toss him out on it.”

Linus excused himself to the kitchen.

The fridge opened, glass tinkled, and the microwave hummed.

Lethe examined her fingernails. “What do I get for babysitting your spawn?”

“Whatever you want from Black Dog Brewery.”

Her eyes lit up, and she rubbed her hands together.

“Keep it under a hundred this time,” I warned. “I can’t afford to keep bribing you otherwise.”

“I did,” she protested. “My bill was like ninety-nine dollars and ninety-six cents. A new record.”

“The charge was for two hundred and sixty-five dollars.”

She twirled a strand of vibrant blue hair around a finger. “I can’t help that you didn’t put a cap on Hood or Baby Kinase.”

“One hundred dollars,” I said slowly. “Total.”

“Fine,” she huffed. “I’ll go light.”

“Thank you.” I lifted a finger. “On the topic of my spawn, how does he smell to you?”

“Like he spent one too many days in a car without taking a pee break.”

“I meant species-wise.”

“Oh.” She thought about it a minute. “Mostly, he smells human, but not human. Know what I mean?”

“Uh, no.”

“Vampires carry this undertone of humanity in their base scent. It sours over time, but it’s still present, even on fledglings. Decay starts as soon as they turn. Corbin smells like you, but not like a necromancer, and like a vampire, but not a dead human.”

“As confused as that explanation makes me, I’m guessing inhaling it would also give a cadaver dog pause.”

“Probably.” She snickered. “They’re not exactly gwyllgi to know the difference, are they?”

Linus returned with a steaming mug he raised to Lethe. “Can you run this up to Corbin?”

Nose wrinkling, she reached for it. “Sure thing.”

Arm extended as far as it would go, she couldn’t run up the stairs fast enough.

Eager to get out of my head for a few blocks, I turned to Linus. “Do we patrol, or do we run away?”

Locks snicked on the front door, and I realized my mistake, but by then Woolly had latched the windows too.

“I’m kidding,” I told her. “It was a joke.”

The old house was not amused, and she refused to budge.

We were locked in for the night thanks to me and my big mouth.

“There’s more than enough to keep us occupied in the basement,” Linus pointed out.

Basement access had been a tender spot between us, but relationships were built on trust, and he had earned mine ten times over.

“That works.” I massaged the base of my neck. “I wanted to stretch my legs, but it’s probably smarter to stay home considering we have an unexpected guest.”

The chandelier in the foyer dimmed with Woolly’s suspicion that I had accepted being grounded so well.

Little did she know alone time with Linus was far from a punishment.

The lock on the basement door got thirsty from time to time, and tonight it must have been parched. That, or it tasted the remnants of old blood on my hand from where I pricked my finger to give Oscar a boost and got a hankering for more. I had to reopen the cut, stick the persnickety brass key in the lock, and bleed liberally on both before I could twist the knob.

“That never gets easier,” I grumbled.

“Paying a tithe never does,” Linus said, then took my hand, turning it over in his. He knew better than to offer to take away the pain, and it was too minor for a healing sigil. Before I could tell him so, he guided my finger into his mouth and swirled his tongue across the hurt. “Better?”

I managed a whimper.

“Grier?” He caught me around the waist as my knees liquified. “What’s wrong?”

“Her ovaries exploded,” Lethe called from the living room, having returned from her errand in record time to torment me. “I heard the blast from here.”

“How do you know what happened?” I yelled back at her. “You don’t have super vision.”

“I smell blood, and I heard you gasp, all breathy-like. It wasn’t hard to figure out what you’re up to back there.”

Linus’s cheeks managed to redden within a shade of his hair. “Oh.”

“No, no, no.” Lethe cackled. “It was more like Oooh, Linus.”

I died on the spot. I was dead. Done. That’s how it felt anyway.

“I’m just going to…” I indicated the open door leading downstairs. “Uh, basement.”

The claustrophobic press of a starless night sky swirled around me as I descended into what had been Maud’s private sanctuary. The walls closed in on me, the maw as cruel as my cell in Atramentous, the abyss ready to swallow me whole.

Usually, I darted straight through the enchantment that discouraged nosy visitors to the bottom. Tonight, I lingered in the magical gloom while my blood cooled from Lethe’s taunting.

The problem with hiding in absolute darkness is no one can see where you’re standing.

Linus bumped into me, and I stumbled down a few steps. He caught me in a steely grip and lifted me back onto the stair below his. “I thought I gave you enough time.”

“You did,” I panted, clinging to him now that I had lost my sense of place. “I was dragging my feet.”

More certain in the dark than me, he took my hand and escorted me into the library.

The spell dissipated on the lowest stair, and Woolly flicked on the lights, her consciousness hovering.

“We’re not going to jailbreak,” I assured her. “There’s no way out of the basement.”

Unconvinced, she settled in to watch us start cataloging the treasure trove that was Maud’s life’s work.

“This is where we left off.” Linus dropped a box onto the research table where we had taken our lessons with Maud. “Do you want to skim or sort?”

“You read faster.” I pulled out the chair for him. “I’ll sort. I want to burn off some of this energy.”

Floor-to-ceiling bookcases lined the walls. Scrolls and books and pamphlets overflowed the shelves. We had never paid much attention to the upper rows. I say we, but Linus would have asked about them. She must have kept their contents to herself since he appeared as overwhelmed by the process as me.

Necromancers lived a long time, and we accumulated a lot of junk during those years. People like Maud, the academics, the innovators, collected more than most. Their private thoughts carried weight, and she had safeguarded every single handwritten note by sealing it in the library, the lab, or her private office.

“These are letters from her former lovers.” Linus tossed a packet of envelopes bound with twine on the table. “I would rather not read those if it’s all the same to you.”

Wrinkling my nose at the content, I lifted them with a fingernail hooked through the knotted bow.

I didn’t want to read about more of her exploits in graphic detail. Once was plenty. More than enough. We had stumbled across enough love notes between her and her beaus to realize she enjoyed describing her sexual encounters down to her partners’ recovery time.

A few of the racier excerpts included sketches and read like instruction manuals for new hires.

It was more than any child ever needed to know about a parent.

“I’ll file these under Naughty,” I said, wishing for hand sanitizer, “and we’ll keep going.”

“We’re within two years of when your mother arrived in Savannah,” he offered. “We’re getting closer.”

The goal was to reach the point when Mom and I showed up on Maud’s doorstep. The hope was we could determine if Mom had written to Maud about her condition—or mine—prior to her arrival. Then we could read forward, absorbing Maud’s observations over the years in the hopes we could learn what she had discovered and build our knowledge base on hers.

“Are we not going to talk about Corbin?” Linus asked into the quiet. “You must be reeling.”

With my back to him, I took longer than required to tuck the letters into the correct box.

“I never thought we would meet. That was silly, wasn’t it? He’s immortal. I’m the next best thing. It makes sense that he would seek me out eventually. He would have been curious about me, about his unicorn status, even if his resuscitation happened under normal circumstances.”

“You prioritized. There’s no shame in that. It’s not like you’ve been sitting on your hands all this time.”

“No,” I agreed, facing him. “I’ve been trying to survive.”

“Do you feel drawn to him?” A hint of the clinical seeped into his voice, the professor at work.

“He makes my back teeth ache.” I turned to him and leaned my hip against the box. “Is that normal?”

“Each practitioner has a different response to their progeny. This might be normal for you. It’s hard to say without a second progeny for comparison.” He drummed his fingers on the table. “How do you feel around Keet?”

“My heart gets squishy, and I want to coo at him, even when he’s being a weirdo. Can you believe he barked at Corbin?”

“That’s not what I meant, and yes. I can.”

“Keet and I have been together since I was a kid.” I rolled a shoulder. “I might have grown used to him over the years.” Linus inclined his head, awarding me the point. “What are we going to do about Corbin?”

“We?”

“Pretend this is dodge ball. I picked you first. You’re on my team. Sorry not sorry, Grande Dame.”

“I’m always on your team.” He leaned forward in his seat. “I always have been.”

A burst of warmth ignited in my chest and spread through my limbs. “You’re spoiling me.”

“No.” Wisps of black swirled through his eyes, there and gone. “This is how relationships work.”

The mention of his greater experience doused the heat suffusing my limbs with icy reality.

It was stupid, I was stupid, for wanting him to be a paragon of virtue to spite Boaz. Linus had had a life before I crash-landed back in his. He had no reason to hope he would ever see me again. He had been free to pursue whatever, and whomever, he pleased, and it was obvious he had taken lovers.

He had told me as much himself.

“I bow to your wisdom,” I said lightly. “I don’t have much to compare us to.”

Hands braced on the tabletop, he rose. “I didn’t mean—”

“That wasn’t an invitation to share.” I swatted the air like it might knock down what he wanted to say. “I really don’t want to go down that road with you. Memory Lane is my least favorite street for cruising.”

“All right.” His lips thinned. “Back to the matter at hand. Corbin. What do we do about him?”

“How much trouble will we get in when your mother finds out we aided and abetted him?”

Linus sat. “A significant amount.”

“You have a firmer grasp on the political ramifications of whatever choice I make. What do you think?”

“You sound like you’ve made up your mind to help him disappear.”

“Unless there’s reason to believe he’s a threat to innocents, I won’t return him to a cage. I just…can’t.”

“I know.”

“You have more to lose if this goes south. You don’t have to back up my decision with your mother.”

“Yes,” he said, his fingers pressing along the peeling edge of his name tag. “I do.”

Unable to resist the temptation, I crossed to him and plopped down on his lap. “I like you.”

“I like you too.” He leaned forward, his mouth an exhalation from mine. “Very much.”

“Kiss me already.” I threaded my fingers through his silky hair and guided his face down to mine, our lips brushing as I spoke. “I’m tired of doing all the work for you.”

“This is a dream.” His cool breath whispered across my cheeks. “That I can touch you, that you want me to touch you...” He laughed softly. “None of this feels real. One wrong move and I’ll find myself in bed, alone.”

The roots of my heart twisted until I worried they might snap. “You haven’t slept since the ball. Not once that I’ve seen. Please tell me this isn’t what’s keeping you up days.”

“I’m afraid of waking.”

“Oh, Linus.” He was breaking my heart. “I’m sorry for this in advance.”

While his brow gathered in neat little rows, I pinched the soft part of his upper arm with a vengeance.

The shock blasted him out of his seat, dumping me on the table as he stood. “Why did you—?”

“Congratulations!” I clapped for him. “You’re wide awake.”

And he had probably bruised my much-abused tailbone. I really had to add some padding back there.

Note to self: Eat more churros. Add extra caramel. With a side of chocolate sauce.

So far, I had gained fifteen pounds thanks to the high concentration of Vitamin L in my diet, but I wasn’t as curvy as I used to be even with the blood smoothies Linus blended for me at breakfast. I missed having boobs. A butt would be nice too. Most of my hard-earned weight was settling in my hips and thighs. I never had an hourglass figure, but I was starting to look like the bottom half of one. Until I turned sideways. Oh well. Curves were curves.

Maybe I expected Linus to laugh. Maybe I expected him to rub his arm and scowl. Maybe I expected more sweet words exchanged in whispers. However I expected he would take the wake-up call, it hadn’t been like this.

The darkness in him beat like a second pulse in his temple, his tattered wraith’s cloak a smudge across his shoulders. Black churned in his eyes, devouring the blue, and he flattened his palm against my sternum. He pressed, not hard but firm, forcing me to lie back on the table. Bracing his palms on the wood to either side of my shoulders, he lowered his head until I could have stuck out my tongue and licked his chin. I was tempted to do just that.

Linus gazed down at me, ravenous, a buffet of his favorites he wanted to savor one item at a time.

I joked to cover my nerves. “Cletus isn’t going to get an eyeful of what’s happening down here, is he?”

Mentioning the wraith broke the spell, and Linus blinked his eyes clear. “No.”

Gathering my wrists in his hands, he hauled me into an upright position and claimed my mouth in a blistering kiss full of sharp edges and flavored with hope. I didn’t understand where either came from, but they both cut just as deep. His blood hit my tongue from where my teeth clashed with his lips, and my head spun, my stomach tightening for an entirely different reason.

The force of his embrace had me reclining again, this time with a smile on my face.

Tap-Tap-Tap

“Ignore it,” I breathed into his mouth, hooking my legs around his hips. “Whoever it is will go away.”

“Sun’s up,” Lethe yelled against the door. “Corbin’s out cold. I’m heading to bed.”

Footsteps thumped away from the basement door, and I relaxed into his embrace with a low moan.

“Ha!” Lethe shouted loud enough to raise the dead. “I thought I heard heavy panting down there.”

“I give up.” I dropped my legs, scooched off the table, and sidestepped him. “I’m going to die a virgin.”

“Whoa.” Lethe sucked in a sharp breath. “I’m really going now. As you were, lovebirds.”

More footsteps tromped away from us, but I called out, “No one believes you.”

She answered a heartbeat later, “I was totally leaving that time.”

After jogging up the stairs, I shoved open the door, which bounced off her forehead.

“Fuck.” She rubbed the red spot between her eyes. “That fucking hurts.”

“Such language,” I said sweetly, not feeling the least bit sorry for whacking her. “Think of the baby.”

“You weren’t thinking of the baby when you gave his or her mother brain damage.”

“You’re fine.” I pried her hands away from her face to examine her. “You’ll have a goose egg, but that’s it.”

“I wouldn’t have bothered you if I’d realized that’s what Linus meant about you two staying occupied.” She sighed with her whole body. “Okay, I still would have done it, but I would have quit after the first time.”

“No, you wouldn’t have.” I took the modified pen out of my pocket, grateful each time I used it that I didn’t have to resort to brush and ink to draw on sigils these days. “Hold still.”

“You just want to erase the evidence before Hood sees what you’ve done to his darling mate.”

“You’re not wrong.” I tapped her on the end of her nose. “Now stop wiggling.”

“I have to pee. The baby is jumping up and down on my bladder.”

“You’re not that far along yet.” I narrowed my eyes as she darted a quick glance out the window and then to the door, as if measuring the distance. Motion caught the corner of my eye. Hood, strolling into view as he made his rounds. “You’re trying to beat me to Hood and get me in trouble.”

“You’re not wrong,” she parroted, baring her teeth in a grin. “So long, sucker.”

Faster than anyone on two legs had any right to be, she bolted out the front door.

Before Woolly could latch it behind her, I leapt over the threshold and skidded across the planks.

Lethe was fast, her feet hitting the grass as she sprinted toward her mate, who stopped to watch our mad dash with an indulgent shake of his head.

“You’re teaching our child to be a tattletale,” Hood warned, amusement brightening his eyes.

Five yards ahead of me, Lethe slid to a stop, almost knocking him to the ground. “I have a boo-boo.”

“Poor baby.” His arms came around her, steadying her. “Did you drop another cookie?”

“That was one time,” she protested, “and it was still warm.”

Mallow hired a new baker last week, and he worked magic on the selection of cookies, brownies, and cake pops they sold. Usually, I was all about the hot chocolate, but Lethe was broadening my horizons.

The incident in question occurred when she promised me the last cookie then waited until I left to pour us glasses of milk before she stole it. Suspecting treachery, I ducked back in the room and caught her with her hand in the glassine bag. I tackled her from behind, and she dropped the prize, which rolled under the coffee table. After a growl to warn me away from her food, she wedged herself under there. When she popped the treat into her mouth, she cracked her head on the underside of the table.

Leaning down, he kissed his mate’s forehead tenderly. “Better?”

“That’s it?” A growl revved up her throat. “I’m injured.”

“The rest is waiting for us at the gate.” He indicated the driveway with his chin. “I ordered breakfast.”

“I love you more than bacon,” she said, peppering his face with kisses. “More than ham. More than hot wings. More than steak.”

“Let’s not go overboard.” He took her hand then pointed a finger at me. “Get in the house.”

“You’re not the boss of me.”

Woolly opened the door, beckoning me back in, but a throat cleared behind us.

Amelie stood in the doorway of the carriage house dressed in nice pants and a cute top with her hair pulled back into a neat tail. “Do you have a minute?”

Already tired from the early hour and goofing off, I slumped. Her appearance exhausted me. “Sure.”

For the first time since moving her into the carriage house, I entered its living room. I paused on the threshold and shot a glance at the kitchen, but it was just a room filled with appliances. Without Linus, the warmth was gone. The heart of this home now beat in his childhood room in Woolworth House.

“You look nice,” I told her when she didn’t manage to come up with a reason for wanting to see me.

“Online classes.” She smoothed her hands down her pants, and I noticed her feet were bare, her toenails painted a flaking orange color. “Usually I can fudge it with brushed hair and a clean shirt, but tonight I had a presentation.”

“Your brother stopped by,” I said, and I could have strangled myself for providing the segue.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She reached out, her fingers curling, like she worried I might sprint for the door and she planned on stopping me before I escaped. “Not him, I promise.”

Unable to bring myself to sit, to get that comfortable around her, I stood with the backs of my knees pressed against the couch cushions. “I’m listening.”

“Odette is gone.”

Happy this was one mystery I could solve on the spot, I let the coil of tension in my chest unwind.

“She’s visiting a client,” I informed her. “Trips are so unusual for her, she warned me ahead of time.”

“Her house is empty. There’s nothing left.” She tore her fingernail to the quick. “She’s gone, Grier.”

The room spun, and I was grateful the couch caught me when my knees buckled. “How do you know?”

“I’ve been talking to her every Monday for weeks. This last time, she promised to visit, to teach me control…” She made a vague gesture that I assumed referenced Ambrose, her dybbuk shadow. “I worried when she never got back to me, so I asked Boaz to drive out to Tybee and check on her. That’s why he stopped by tonight.”

“He didn’t say a word about this to me.”

“He brought the matter to his commander’s attention and requested permission to launch an investigation into her disappearance.” She linked her hands at her navel, and her knuckles turned white. “He wasn’t going to bring this to you until he had answers, but Odette is your family. You deserved to know, so I overruled him.” She smiled to herself. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”

“I appreciate the heads-up.” I propped my legs under me. “I’ll go take a look around at dusk.”

“Let me know what you find?” The hope in her expression gutted me. “I’m worried about her too.”

“I’ll give you an update when I have one.” I started for the door, intending to walk right through without saying goodbye, but guilt cramped my belly. “I hope this won’t cause problems between you and Boaz.”

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.” A self-deprecating laugh escaped her. “There’s not much else to do in here.”

The taste of old pennies flooded my mouth as I bit my tongue to keep from pointing out she wouldn’t be exiled to social Siberia if I could trust her.

“I have a chance to reinvent myself.” She dragged her gaze to mine. “I made a list of traits I think a good person should have.” Her smile went limp and sagged on her mouth. “Honesty was at the top.” She unlinked her hands, and they trembled. “This is my first step on the path to a new me.”

A new me.

Soon she would cease to exist as Amelie Pritchard—no, that version of her had already been erased. She was Amelie Madison now. The reminder left me with a ringing in my ears. She stood in front of me, an arm’s length away, but I couldn’t have crossed the yawning abyss stretching between us if I had wings.

“It’s dangerous wanting to be someone other than yourself,” was all the advice that popped into mind.

Amelie wanting the elusive more was what had gotten her into this mess.

“I’m a caterpillar these days. First Ambrose turned me into his host, and now Adelaide is turning me into her dead sister.” Her toes bunched on the hardwood. “When I burst from my cocoon this time, I’m hoping for butterfly instead of moth wings.”

“I want that for you too.” And I meant it, every word. “I want you to be happy.”

But until she loved herself, the person she was born to be, I worried misery was all she would find.

“Thanks,” she said softly. “You’ll let me know about Odette?”

“Yeah,” I promised. “I will.”

The walk across the lawn to Woolworth House was too short to grind down the edge of my panic. I strode in, jogged the stairs, and took advantage of Linus’s open-door policy. I found him propped up in bed, wearing black-framed glasses, dressed in a white tee with striped pajama bottoms. The book in his hands drooped at whatever he read in my expression.

“Odette is missing.”

He set aside his research and opened his arms to me. He didn’t have to ask me twice. I climbed up the mattress and rested my head on his shoulder.

“How do you know?” he murmured against my hair. “Who told you?”

“Amelie.” I breathed in his scent and relaxed. “She got worried when Odette wouldn’t return her calls and asked her brother to check out the house on Tybee. That’s why he came out earlier. That, and to spend some time with her.”

“How does he know she’s gone?” His fingers traced soothing lines down my arms. “You mentioned she was traveling. Does he know her well enough to tell what’s missing?”

“No, they aren’t close.” I shivered in his arms, the chill of his skin clearing my head. “That doesn’t matter in this case. The house was empty. Cleaned out, according to Amelie.”

“I’ll check it out.” He kissed the top of my head. “You go rest.”

Jitters prompted me to offer him company. “It’s not far. I could go with you before I crash.”

“Your truce with Hood is delicate.” He set me aside with gentle hands. “It’s in your best interest to remain here.”

True, Hood was still sore about me trapping him in a circle while I faced off against vampires solo, and I had given my word not to interfere with him protecting me again, within reason, but he had extended my leash a bit. He didn’t shadow me everywhere I went, so long as Linus or Cletus did the job for him.

Unhappy to be rousted from my spot, I frowned. “Are you telling me to stay put?”

“No.” He stood and selected an outfit from his closet. “I’m making an observation.”

“Hmph.”

“Come with me,” he offered. “I won’t stop you.”

“This is a trap,” I grumbled. “You’re using logic against me.”

“I will support whatever decision you make,” he said on his way into the bathroom to change.

The old house groaned through her floorboards until I worried they might snap.

“I’m not going with him,” I assured her. “I respect Hood too much to sneak out without him.”

Plus, the guy had really sharp teeth, and he knew how to use them.

When Linus reemerged, dressed and ready, I let him reach the door before clearing my throat and pulling out my pen. “Where do you want your sigil?”

When he glanced back, his eyes were warm. “I thought you might have forgotten.”

“You’re going to examine the scene of a possible crime. Alone.”

“I’ve done it many times over the years.”

“Yes, well, you didn’t have me then. You’re going to have to suck it up and learn to live with it.”

“Somehow,” he said, his fingers working over the buttons on his shirt, “I think I’ll survive.”

“You better,” I growled, then set to work on the sigil that would keep him safe when I couldn’t.