I woke up early to run the next morning. Two hours later, I still didn’t have any new ideas. My bug in the Sea King’s office hadn’t yielded anything more interesting than a planning session he’d held late last night to organize New York City’s annual Water and Ice Ball. The meeting had included a whole lot of tabletop decorations and menu options—but no deep, dark secrets. I was this close to bugging the office of every supernatural leader in the city.

I poked my scrambled eggs in frustration. I was eating breakfast alone this morning. The breakfast rush hadn’t yet started.

“Leda.” Harker sat down opposite me.

“Good morning,” I said brightly. My foster mother Calli had always told me to start off each morning with a smile.

Harker wasn’t smiling.

“Well, don’t you look cheerful this morning?” I commented. “What’s wrong? Didn’t you get enough sleep?”

“I read your report before bed.”

“That explains it,” I said seriously. “Did my vivid descriptions of the battles give you nightmares?”

“Your report was colorful.”

“I aim to please.”

“Colorful but without substance,” he continued. “It read like a teenage soap opera.”

“That’s what it was in that meeting hall with those supernatural leaders. It’s like high school. No, that’s too mature for them. It’s like a freaking kindergarten.”

“Fix this,” Harker told me. “Use that creative, out-of-the-box thinking you’re famous for.”

More like infamous. The Legion was very much in the box—in their box.

Harker stood, repeating, “Fix this.”

As he walked away, Ivy and Drake sat down beside me. They weren’t holding hands or kissing. They were acting like they were still in denial—in other words, the new status quo for them. It seemed nothing had happened after I’d left them last night. I was going to have to resort to extreme measures.

Except I didn’t have room in my brain right now for romantic schemes. It was already overloaded trying to figure out Angel Fever. Yep, Marina had been right. The name was spreading fast. And I’d been right too. The angels didn’t approve of the term. They didn’t appreciate being compared to wild, out-of-control supernaturals.

“How is Charlotte?” I asked Ivy.

“Our witchy guest eventually fell asleep this morning. We gave her a strong sedative to keep her that way. It’s worked so far.”

“Nerissa must be happy. She said the witch’s banging against the barrier was driving her crazy.”

“It was driving us all crazy,” said Ivy. “You could hear it across the whole floor.”

“We could even hear it in the gym last night for target practice with Alec,” Drake added. “It’s louder than gunfire. That’s just not natural.”

“Where is Nerissa now?” I asked.

“In her lab. She kicked me out again. Said I was distracting her by breathing or something. But she’s still testing Charlotte’s blood. She’s determined to find something.”

I grabbed Ivy’s arm and looked it up and down. “At least she didn’t give you Dragon Pox.”

“She still might.”

Drake rose from his seat. “See you later, ladies. I have to go change for a mission.”

“You already have a mission: working for me,” I told him.

“Sorry, Leda. Harker’s orders. He says it’s your job to grill the city’s supernatural leaders. He’s sending a bunch of us in teams of two to scour the city, looking for wild supernaturals. We’re bringing along Magitech traps.”

I poked my eggs again. “Well, at least he listened to my idea.”

“I figured it was your idea. Those generators aren’t exactly portable. I guess that’s why no one else thought of using them as traps. But we managed to make them portable. Somewhat.”

“Ah, you’re carrying them. You’re the muscle,” I realized.

“You know I am,” he replied, grinning. “But those generators are so heavy it takes two of us to carry one. Alec and I are one of the teams.”

“Have fun.”

“You know I will.”

Ivy caught his hand as he stepped back. She met his eyes. “Be careful.” When she realized she was holding his hand, she hastily dropped it.

Drake gave her a smile and left.

I smirked at Ivy.

“What?” she asked me.

“You two sure are acting strange this morning,” I told her.

“No, we’re not.” Her voice broke. “Not at all.”

“Ok.” I went back to eating my eggs.

“There’s nothing strange going on,” she insisted.

“I said ok.”

“Your lips say ok, but your eyes say something else.”

I shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a complicated person.”

“I’m not going to argue with that. And speaking of complicated, your angel is coming this way.”

I turned in my seat. Sure enough, Nero was heading straight for me.

“Hello, stranger,” I greeted him as he stopped beside our table.

“I need to speak to you.”

“Ok. Sure.”

“Come with me.”

I stood up, dropping off my tray on the way out of the canteen. We walked the halls in silence.

“I know you’re feeling lost, not being familiar with the players in the supernatural community,” he finally said.

“They’re certainly a lot to take.”

“I did this for years. Getting them to behave is a challenge. How are they acting?”

“Petty,” I replied.

“They are always petty. What else? Are they scared? Excited?”

“The Sea King is definitely worried about something. Something he doesn’t want the other elemental clans to find out about.”

“How do you know?” he asked.

I folded my arms across my chest and smiled. “A magician never reveals her secrets.”

He stared at me for a moment, then declared, “You bugged his office, didn’t you?”

My smile turned upside down. “How did you know?”

“I know you better than you think.”

Magic swept across my body, tingling my senses. I couldn’t tell if it was his magic or mine.

“What else?” Nero asked me.

“The vampires have been trading insults with the witches. The elementals have been trading insults with one another. And Stash doesn’t seem to know anything. The shifters obviously just sent him because they had to send someone. He tries to make the others get along, but there’s no hope of that.” I paused. “And I hear news has gotten out to the general public about Angel Fever.”

“You shouldn’t use that name,” he said sternly.

“I actually kind of like it. Angel Fever.” I let the words roll off my tongue. “I was wondering if I could catch it.”

He stopped walking. “Pandora, you already have.”

I felt something strange, a hot breath whispering his words across my skin. I realized it was him. His magic. And he wasn’t referring to the contagion. He was talking about a different kind of Angel Fever.

I leaned in to him, speaking against his lips, “You know, I think you’re right.” I looped my arms over his shoulders. My fingers stroked through his hair, hair almost as soft as his feathers.

He captured my hands in his and gave me a hard look. “What do you want?”

“What do you mean?” I put on an innocent face.

“You’re not fooling anyone, Pandora.”

“What? I can’t want to snuggle up to my man?”

“You usually put up more of a fight. You enjoy this game.”

My mouth brushed his neck. “So do you.”

“Yes.” His green eyes swirled with gold and silver magic.

I gave his lip a final nip, then lowered down from my tiptoes. “Fine. I do need your help. I want you to step into that conference room, with your big, badass magic and big, badass body. And I want you to make those supernatural leaders behave themselves.”

“That’s your assignment,” he told me.

“I’m not a diplomat. And they are driving me mad.”

“You need to find a way to get through to them, to make cool heads prevail.”

“Do you know me at all? I don’t even have a cool head,” I shot back. “And after a day cooped up with them in that room, I’m ready to murder the whole bickering lot of them.”

He chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Being an angel isn’t just about setting your sword on fire and bashing heads. You need to be able to command. You have powerful siren magic. And I’ve found you can be very convincing.”

“If I were so convincing, you would have agreed to help me,” I pouted.

“See this as preparation for the next level, as a way to grow your mental magic. Telekinesis is a mental magic skill. You will need a lot of mental control to level up your magic.”

“Every challenge in life is an opportunity for more training?”

“Yes.”

“See, I have a better idea. An opportunity for you, if you will.” I traced my fingertips across the collar of his leather jacket. “You help me, and I’ll buy that lacy two-piece you want me to wear.”

“You misunderstand, Pandora.”

I planted my hands on my hips and smirked at him. “Oh, is that so?”

“Yes. If I wanted you to wear that lingerie, I’d buy it for you, and you’d wear it.”

I laughed.

But he wasn’t laughing. His mouth was hard, unforgiving. And his eyes burned with cold fire. My laugh caught in my throat, the smile dying on my lips. It was then that I realized he was right. If he told me to wear it, I would.

A feverish heat flushed my skin. Just thinking about it made me want to put it on now. I saw myself in front of him. Nero slipping his hand under the lace, sliding the strap off my shoulder. His mouth dipping to my neck, biting into my soft flesh. A surge of heat cascaded in me, drawing me under.

“Stop,” I choked out.

“Stop what?”

“Stop putting those images in my head.”

“Could you describe these images?” His voice hummed with a dark and ruthless sensuality. “What am I doing in them?”

I could feel him drinking from me, my pulse synching to his. I arched my back, pressing myself against him. Yearning for his touch.

Hot, heavy breaths puffed out of me. “You are a wicked man…Nero Windstriker.”

“And don’t you forget it,” he whispered into my ear.

The image in my head popped, but the feeling of intense longing lingered on. I was standing there, in the hallway where anyone could see us, my leg wrapped around Nero, my nails drilling into his back. I cleared my throat and stepped away from him.

Nero leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips. “I have work to do. See you later.”

Then he turned and walked back down the hall, leaving me in that raw, senseless state of arousal. He loved playing games all right.

“I’m going to get you for this,” I called out to him. Then I took a deep breath and entered Nerissa’s lab.

She sat behind her desk, bent over her computer. She was so absorbed in her work that I had to call out her name a few times before she looked up. On the bright side, at least that meant she hadn’t seen or heard me and Nero making out outside her office.

“How’s it coming?” I asked, trying to clear my head of Nero. Except thoughts of my revenge. I was going to get him good.

“These samples from the infected supernaturals are baffling,” Nerissa said. “I’ve never seen anything like Angel Fever.”

She’d been stuck in this lab for days, and she still knew the name? Well, she wasn’t known as the Legion’s queen of gossip for nothing.

“The cocktail of supernatural powers in Serenity was positively baffling,” Nerissa continued. “That is, until I had a good look at Charlotte. The witch’s body is changing. The magic in her blood is changing.”

“Evolving?”

“Yes, just like you said. Your instincts were dead on.” She rolled her chair to the other end of the desk. A collection of labeled vials were stacked there. “I have been tracking her. She is slowly getting new powers. One-by-one, they are changing her. Sound familiar?”

“Like a Legion soldier gains powers, one by one.”

“Yes.”

“You’re saying that some infection is changing supernaturals’ magic like Nectar or Venom does to us?”

“Like I said before, it’s not Nectar or Venom. There isn’t any of either in their blood. And no natural infection works like this. This is engineered. It is a spell designed to rewrite their magic, very similar to Nectar or Venom.”

“But who is behind it?” I asked.

“I don’t know.”

“How can anyone have this kind of power? And what are they trying to do?”

“I don’t know.”

My hoped deflated. “Well, let me know if you find out anything else.”

I left Nerissa’s office, my mind swimming with possibilities. I sure had a lot to mull over. When I entered the ballroom, the supernatural leaders were already trading insults. Or still trading them. I didn’t know. Nor did I care. I slammed the door shut behind me.

That got their attention. They stopped bickering and turned to stare at me.

I debated how much I should share with them. The Legion wasn’t big into sharing because that tended to tip off the bad guys. But sometimes you had to go against the grain.

“Charlotte, the witch we’re holding, has been going through some changes,” I announced. “She is gaining powers one-by-one, going madder with each new boost in magic. This isn’t a natural occurrence. Someone has engineered it.” My eyes panned across my captive audience. “I invite the culprit to step forward and confess. You know the Legion will find out eventually.”

Shockingly, no one spoke up. I considered following Nero’s suggestion and using my siren magic to compel them. No one was wearing an anti-compulsion amulet today.

The doors to the ballroom burst open and Toren, a guy who’d been in my initiate group, rushed inside. “Angel Fever has spread to the Legion,” he told me. “Alec Morrows is infected.”

I just stared at him in shock. How could that be? The Nectar in our blood was the poison of all poisons. It should have made us immune to Angel Fever.

“How is Alec handling it?” I asked Toren.

“The angels have him contained. He’s obviously trying to fight it, but he’s losing the battle.”

“Do they know how the spell spreads?”

“They believe it might be spread through blood.”

The wild vampire had bitten Alec. Oh, shit. He’d bitten Drake too. I had to check on him. I rushed past Toren, sprinting down the hall and up the staircase. Drake had to be in our apartment. He was going there to change before his mission.

I kept running. Almost there. I zigzagged down the hallway, cutting around everyone I passed. I reached for the knob.

My apartment door exploded in my face.