Linus arrived ten minutes later dangling a large paper shopping bag from his fingertips. He held it as far away from his body as the length of his arm allowed to avoid contaminating its contents. It hit the floor when he spotted me sitting in my magic bubble on the toilet.

“Have any luck?” I indicated the toppled contents spilling across the floor. “I’m getting chilly.”

“What happened?” He righted the bag, but his eyes never left mine. “You’re in a circle.”

Using the edge of my towel, I rubbed off the sigils. “I sensed a presence and called out, but they didn’t respond except to laugh at me before they left.”

Thankfully, he paid me the courtesy of not asking if I was certain my mind hadn’t played a trick on me.

The vampire archers hadn’t attacked since the incident on River Street, the truce with my grandfather appeared to be holding, and the Marchands hadn’t left their sprawling family estate in Raleigh since the night of my ball. A necromancer pressing their case was a possibility, but why would he—and the laugh had sounded masculine—flee after cornering me in a vulnerable position?

The lull in activity was one of the reasons Linus embraced me joining him on his patrols. All the trouble we found was someone else’s drama. A refreshing break from the insanity that was my own life.

“I want to hold you.” He lingered in the doorway. “But you’ve showered, and we don’t have much time.”

“You can make it up to me on the ride home.”

I eased around him, gathered the clothes, and carried the bundle into the master bedroom. I left the bag with its contaminated handles on the floor. We would have to come back later and clean up after ourselves.

A flicker of black near the tall window startled me.

“Oh, Cletus.” I exhaled with relief and waved him in. “It’s just you.”

This building wasn’t warded against wraiths, not yet, so he drifted through the glass and joined me.

Hopefully, this meant Hood and Lethe were safe and not that Cletus had abandoned the gwyllgi for me.

“Turn around, please.” I sorted my clothes from Linus’s. “This won’t take but a minute.”

The wraith faced the window, the wisps of his cloak more substantial than the first time we met.

I pulled on clean underwear, each piece taken from a padded hanger, and slid a floral sundress over my head. A pair of classy flip-flops, a thing I hadn’t known existed, had been wrapped in the material. The dress would have been too small if not for its trapeze cut, and the toe thong pinched the top of my foot, but all in all, he did good.

“All right.” I started finger-combing my hair. “Let’s clear out and give Linus the room.”

I bumped into him in the hall, and I wish I had bumped him a little harder, maybe copped a feel in the bargain.

A large towel wrapped his hips, and the intricate tattoos branding him were on full display. I pretended not to gawk. It didn’t go very well. Despite the number of times I had seen his bare chest, I couldn’t get used to the sight.

So much skin. So much corded muscle. So much ink.

“You can’t look at me like that when I’m only wearing a towel,” he said, water dripping from his damp hair. “Let me get dressed first.”

“The fact you aren’t dressed is what’s causing the problem.” I fanned myself. “I’m getting hot flashes.”

The wall kissed my spine before I saw him move, and then his lips were on mine. I took it as an invitation to explore his back with my fingertips, and I moaned into his mouth when he broke away to plant stinging bites down my throat.

Heat pooled low in my gut, but I startled when icy fingers brushed my shoulder. Weird. Linus was gripping my hips, pinning me to the wall, and he hadn’t sprouted a third arm that I had noticed.

The wraith faded through Linus until I was almost kissing the black hole of his fathomless cowl.

Recoiling from the grim visage, I gagged. “Cletus.”

A flick of Linus’s wrist ordered the wraith away. “I’ll try not to take triggering your gag reflex personally.”

“I like Cletus, but I’m not ready for that level of kink.” I laughed. “I still have my training wheels on.”

Linus made a pleased sound low in his throat as he rested his forehead against mine and shut his eyes.

“You sound happy,” I pointed out. “I didn’t just greenlight a threesome with Cletus, did I?”

“Ah, no.” A powerful shudder rippled through him. “Necrophilia isn’t a fetish of mine.”

Snorting at the comment that left me wondering where vampires fell on that scale, I smiled. “Glad to hear it.”

“And…” he kissed the tip of my nose, “…I am happy.”

Heart full to bursting, I jerked my chin toward the wraith. “What blew smoke up his cloak?”

“He’s concerned about us staying here.” Linus withdrew, but the pleasant chill of his touch lingered. “He shouldn’t be capable of worry.” He cocked an eyebrow at me. “He shouldn’t have emotions at all.”

“Oops?”

“Oops indeed.”

“Does the fact he’s back mean Lethe and Hood are with the healer?”

“Hood has finished treatment, and they were on their way to Woolly when Cletus left them.”

The wraith would have escorted them all the way home if he hadn’t picked up on Linus’s concern and come to investigate, but this latest evidence of Cletus’s independent thought process made me wonder.

Had the wraith come to me because Linus was rattled or because the wraith itself worried?

And how much trouble would I get in if the answer turned out to be the latter rather than the former?

“Get dressed.” I shoved Linus through the bedroom door then regretted putting my hands on him again. More to the point, I regretted not putting my hands on more of him. “I have to get home before Oscar and Woolly blow up the house. Plus, we need to check on Corbin.”

Fine, so she was the house. I doubted she would set herself on fire or allow Oscar to manifest near a box of matches, but I still didn’t trust those two. They were troublemakers, the both of them.

Linus dressed in the time it took me to work up the nerve to investigate the stairwell for signs of my visitor. No convenient footprints led the way, no lingering cologne perfumed the air, and there was no message written in the settled dust.

“See anything?” He examined the walls and steps as well. “I didn’t notice any oddities on my way in.”

“Nothing.” I rubbed the base of my neck. “I’m starting to wonder if it was a figment of my imagination.”

Yeah, yeah. Him doubting me was one thing. Me doubting me was—any day ending in Y, honestly.

“Don’t discount your instincts. You wouldn’t have raised that circle if you hadn’t been certain someone was there.” He took my elbow and guided me downstairs. “I believe you.” He held me close, and I suppressed a grin at the subtle protective gesture. “We’ll set wards before we begin rehabbing the building.”

Outside, I used his keys to lock up the place while he scanned the street for lurkers. “Who’s giving us a lift home?”

“You’ll see.” Having deemed the area safe, he escorted me to the curb to wait. “It’s a lovely night.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” I tipped back my head. “Clear skies. Bright stars. Quarter moon. Not bad.”

That’s when I heard our ride approaching with the clip-clop, clip-clop of hooves on asphalt.

Laughter bubbled up in me. “You booked us a horse and carriage?”

They were popular with tourists, and I loved watching them parade around downtown, but I hadn’t ridden in one since the year I begged Maud to rent one for my birthday. I was nine or ten, I think. I had fallen asleep on the bench seat, curled around Amelie, and Boaz had to carry me in before dawn.

Pleased with himself, Linus waved to the coachman. “I thought the fresh air might do us good.”

And the longer trip promised extended cuddle time. “This is perfect.”

“Evening, folks,” the older gentleman said with a syrupy drawl. “These are my friends, Prince and Bowie, and we’re pleased to be your escort home.”

Linus opened the half door on the carriage and helped me up onto the bench facing forward. He joined me a moment later, and I tucked myself under his arm before he finished lifting it.

“I won’t break,” I promised. “You can hold on as tight as you want.”

Permission granted, he pulled me across his chest and rested his chin on the crown of my head. His arms came around me, and he held me like he might never get another chance.

Maybe my run-in with the chuckler in the hall had made him nervous, but a tiny part of me worried there was another reason.

These were the moments when I braced for the worst, when I expected the other shoe to drop. I waited and waited, and the longer I kept vigil, the more convinced I became that the impact would level what I was building with Linus.

He told me once that he was a secret bound in a thin skin of humanity.

I knew that. I accepted that. I respected that.

But I had been hurt so many times I couldn’t shake the dread this would be the deepest cut yet.

Linus might worry that I would get tired of him, that I would leave him, but I was the one who hadn’t burned our marriage contract.

After the driver set out, I took the liberty of testing a sigil I had been toying with for the past few days. I used the modified pen to draw it on each of us then settled in to discuss options for dealing with Corbin.

“How certain are you that this sigil works?” Linus twisted his hand back and forth, admiring my work.

“I tested it out on Hood. I figure if a gwyllgi can’t hear me blasting music through my Bluetooth speaker, then a human won’t hear me having a conversation.” I worried my bottom lip between my teeth and then admitted, “I’ll be honest. It’s had a fifty percent success rate. I also tried it on Lethe, but she found me.”

“Why do I feel there’s more to the story?”

Pulling back to see his face, I tried to act offended. “Why are you so suspicious?”

“With you two, there’s always more. Hood had no idea what he was unleashing when he introduced her to you.”

“I might have been eating a cheeseburger at the time,” I confessed. “She sniffed me out.”

“That I can believe.”

“She’s eating for two,” I reminded him in the same tone she used. “She needs those extra calories.”

“Mmm-hmm.” He tightened his arms around me. “I’m glad they’re your responsibility and not mine.”

“On the topic of responsibilities…” I buried my face against his chest. “Corbin needs to learn how to vampire. He’s a danger to humans until he’s taught how to feed. He needs outside connections for blood when donors aren’t an option. Given his history, he’ll never forgive himself if he hurts someone.”

“We could send him to Reardon.” Linus cupped the back of my head. “He would be safe at Strophalos.”

“Reardon is a dysfunctional vampire, and a shut-in.”

Reardon McAllister was a made vampire with no clan affiliation since his necromancer wife turned him against his will after he sustained life-threatening injuries in a carriage accident early in their marriage. He was a human victimized by vampires, and that placed him under the Grande Dame’s purview. Since Corbin was running from the Grande Dame, no matter how secure Strophalos was, he wasn’t safe there.

“I will admit Reardon might not be the best choice to teach a fledgling vampire to hunt when he can’t leave campus. The faculty frowns on eating students.”

“I have a crazy thought.” I looked up at him. “What if we dump him in Grandpa’s lap?”

“Your grandfather would take him in.” His lips thinned. “He would love to have a Deathless in his ranks. I worry what it would mean for your relationship with Mother. She won’t take kindly to losing her prize.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.” I sat up straighter. “You had trouble believing he busted out of prison. I can’t speak to the facility where they sent him—it sounds like minimum security at best—but I can tell you the sentinels take their jobs seriously. I can’t see him escaping without help. I’m not saying he’s lying. He might believe he got lucky, but I don’t.”

Any narrower and his mouth would disappear. “You think she let him go.”

“Why would she feed him all that information about me—down to my city—if she didn’t intend for him to run straight to me? She knew his history, knew his family would shun him, knew the vampires would kill him outright, knew the necromancers wouldn’t dare hide him for fear of retribution. He has no one, nothing. He’s alone in the world, and she knows me well enough to guess I would take him in.”

“You saved his life.”

“Did I?” Life was a loaded word for the existence he faced now. “Or did I condemn him?”

Most humans would be grateful for this turn of events, but most hadn’t grown up hunting the very thing he now was either.

“Ultimately, that’s up to him to decide. Eternity is what he makes of it.”

“You’re very Team Grier.” I leaned in closer. “Has anyone ever told you that?”

“No.” He pitched his voice low. “Though I’m sure others have suspected.”

The reality of what we were contemplating sank in as the humor of the moment faded.

“Your mother knew I wouldn’t shelter him long term.” I might help him disappear, but I wouldn’t make a production out of it. “Given Lacroix’s doting-grandparent act at the ball, she must be gambling he would be eager to make amends for his transgressions. He wants to give that appearance anyway. She expects me to yank on those family ties to protect my progeny out of a sense of obligation.” I whistled softly. “She wants a plant among Lacroix’s vampires.”

Lost in thought, he let the scenery draw his eye. “The trap does appear to be set.”

“Corbin fosters with Lacroix, learns the ins and outs of vampirehood, and maps how the organization works.” I put it all in words to test how crazy it sounded. “Assuming the intel is good, your mother offers him amnesty for his past crimes.”

The sales pitch was easy to imagine with all the Society’s resources at her fingertips.

Join the Undead Coalition.

Have your pick of clans—or maybe even start your own.

Just keep playing mole, stay buried, and share all the dirt on Lacroix’s plans.

“The timing is suspect,” Linus admitted. “Mother met Lacroix at the ball, and a week later your progeny arrives on your doorstep with him the logical haven.”

“Hmm. Then it’s decided.”

A wary expression crossed his features. “Dare I ask?”

Snuggling in for the remainder of the ride, I confessed, “I’m going to make Corbin an offer he can’t refuse.”

Corbin was sitting on the couch, watching television, and eating a bowl of cereal left over from Amelie’s marshmallowism days. I watched through the window, expecting a flash of red or pink to coat the small frosted pieces, but when he turned up his bowl to slurp, milk dribbled down his chin.

Plain. White. Milk.

“Are you seeing this?” I murmured to Linus. “He’s eating. Actual food.”

Volkov once ate a grilled cheese sandwich in my kitchen, but he was a Last Seed. They were born from a newly turned male vampire knocking up a willing surrogate before his sperm died too.

Deathless, even though they were made, must share more traits with LS than your standard vampire.

“Interesting.” Linus came up behind me. “The blood wasn’t enough.”

“This might explain why your mother left hunting out of his curriculum. He can’t require much blood to survive if he can still process food for nutrients.”

We watched a moment longer before Corbin felt eyes on him. He wiped his mouth dry with the back of his hand then scowled at our huddle and started for the kitchen with his bowl.

The eaves creaked overhead, Woolly snickering at us getting caught, and she opened the front door.

Once inside, I glared up at the foyer chandelier. “You couldn’t have flicked a curtain to hide us?”

The crystals tinkled with her laughter, and the sound made my heart light.

“How’s Oscar?” I glanced around, but he hadn’t come to greet us. “Still sleeping?”

The floorboards made a groaning noise that conveyed her worry over the ghost boy.

“I’ll check on him before I go to bed.” I lingered in the foyer. “What about Corbin?”

The lights brightened, giving the impression the old house liked him. How much of that was my energy coursing through him versus his own merit, I wasn’t sure.

“We’re not keeping him,” I warned her. “We’re not running a B&B here.”

Odette once accused Woolly of being a halfway house for broken dreamers. She wasn’t wrong. We had taken in our fair share of strays. I preferred to believe most would be rehabilitated during their stay, and I could release them back into the wild.

Thinking of Odette made my chest pinch until I rubbed the spot, not that it soothed the ache.

Corbin was loading the dishwasher when I came upon him. Tidy. I liked him better already.

“You eat,” I stated the obvious. “Actual food.” Well, cereal. “You couldn’t have mentioned that sooner?”

“I’m a freak of nature.” He leaned against the counter. “I didn’t want to spook you.”

“Hey, freak of nature is my line.” I dropped onto a barstool. “And you’re not going to scare me. You can’t be worse than I am. I made you, remember?”

“Hard to forget.”

Ouch. “Last Seeds can eat food. Most don’t. It’s so plebian.” I snorted. “All this means is you’re more like them than made vampires.”

“Last Seeds? What are those?” He looked at me funny. “Aren’t all vampires made?”

“They didn’t tell you anything.” I groaned, letting my head fall back on my shoulders. “No wonder you’re so confused.” Linus stood in the doorway, giving me the floor, but I waved him in. “You’re better at lectures than I am. You’ve had a lot more practice. Would you care to fill in the blanks for him?”

Linus smiled a tiny smile that told me he was aware I was teasing him. “I’m happy to be of service.”

While he began outlining Vampire 101, I slipped onto the back porch and squinted into the darkness. Hood and Lethe hadn’t been with me long, but I had grown to rely on them so much. I would have felt braver with one or both by my side, but I had to do this right. That meant I had to do it alone.

I walked until my spine tingled, took a breath, and stopped where the garden ended in a copse of trees.

“I need to speak to my grandfather,” I said in a cool voice. “Tell him the matter is urgent.”

“Yes, mistress,” two voices replied in tandem.

Keeping my shoulders squared, I walked back to Woolly as Amelie opened the carriage house door.

“Any news?” she ventured, her gaze sliding past my shoulder to the trees. “Did you find Odette?”

“Boaz was right. The house has been cleaned out.” And doctored to screw with the gwyllgi, meaning we couldn’t track her using our best resources, but I couldn’t tell Amelie that. “There were complications, so we just got back. I was going to text you before bed.” At least that had been the plan up until I had forgotten with everything else going on. “I’ll update you in a few days, unless we find her before then.”

“Okay.” She attempted a smile. “I’ll do the same. When I hear back from Boaz.”

“I’d appreciate it.” I hesitated before producing the shell from my pocket. “Does this ring any bells for you?”

“You’re joking, right?” She sobered upon realizing that no, I was not. “There are a million of these on Tybee, holes and all. It’s where a moon snail—”

“—drills a hole with its radula so it can slurp out the clam.” Odette had taught us that when we used to spend the summers gathering shells and stringing necklaces on her porch. “Just thought I would check.”

“Send me some pictures in better light,” she said after a minute. “I’ll look them over and see if it shakes anything loose.”

“Sure.” I waved then rocked back on my heels toward Woolly. “Night.”

Guilt prickled my nape as she watched me go, but I had nothing left to give her.

Linus strolled out the back door, hands in his pockets, as I hit the steps.

“You didn’t run screaming into the woods after me,” I observed. “Impressive.”

“I did consider it.” He swept his gaze over me. “Any minute now, I was going to start flailing.”

“Just make sure you wait until I have my phone ready and my camera on.” I climbed the stairs to meet him. “Can you imagine the boost in your rep when the denizens of Atlanta see their potentate shrieking and doing the ants in my pants dance?”

A tic in his cheek betrayed the smile he was hiding. “Evildoers will tremble with fear.”

“Hey, it’s my duty to send you home in better shape than when you arrived.”

The joke fell flat, and I gritted my teeth to avoid apologizing or compounding the faux pas.

“I have to go back,” he said softly and gathered me in his arms.

“I know, I know.” I rested my cheek over his heart. “I don’t want to think about it. Or talk about it. Which is why I’m amazed it keeps popping out of my mouth.”

“Corbin is ready to discuss his options.”

Grateful he didn’t press the issue, I packed away all those messy emotions and nodded. “Good deal.”

I pulled away, and he let me go. I tried not to read anything into the moment, but panic beat against my breastbone every time I thought of him packing his bags.

Lethe had advised me to give him a reason not to go.

She never explained what would happen if I wasn’t enough to make him stay.