Chapter 1

I answered my cell phone on the fourth ring, and a voice I hadn't heard in a long time said, "Justin, you have to leave your father, and you have to do it now."

A cup in my hand fell from nerveless fingers, clattering on the floor and spraying water everywhere. "Mom?" My legs turned to jelly. I staggered into the den and fell onto the ugly plaid sofa in front of the television.

Elyssa emerged from my bedroom, her face still pale from blood loss, and dark circles underscoring her eyes. She looked as tired as I felt. My father had been captured by a rogue vampire, Maximus, and our rescue mission last night had nearly killed the two of us. Somehow, we'd made it out alive with my father, but my brain felt like mush. A call from my mother was the last thing I'd expected. Elyssa gave me one look and furrowed her brow in concern.

"Yes, it's me," Mom said.

I clenched my phone. A fine line ran down the glass and joined two other stress cracks. "You abandon me a day before my birthday without anything but a crummy letter, and now you're calling me and telling me to abandon the parent who didn't leave?" My voice rose to a shout by the end of the sentence.

"Justin, I couldn't explain everything in the letter. If the wrong people discovered our secret—"

"You mean Ivy?"

She paused for the briefest of seconds before answering. "Yes, like the existence of your sister. I couldn't let your father's family find out about her."

"But it's fine if they know about me?"

"No, it's not. You were kept a secret too. Apparently, when your abilities bloomed, you caught the attention of someone in the supernatural community."

Something ripped. I looked down and realized my fingers had gouged the fabric of the sofa as they balled into fists. "Oh, so it's my fault."

"I'm not saying that at all." Her breath caught. "I don't have much time. Get out of the house. And whatever you do, don't—"

"Mom? Mom?" No answer. The line went dead.

"Is she okay?" Elyssa asked.

I shoved the phone in my pocket and turned to her. "I—I hope so." My forehead crumpled. I took deep breaths to keep the tears at bay. I couldn't afford to wimp out right in front of my tough ninja-dhampyr and all-around badass girlfriend.

She encircled me with her arms and pressed herself against me, soft, warm, and oh-so amazing. "Everything will be okay."

I pressed a stray lock of her raven-black hair behind her ear and pecked a kiss on her nose. "She told me to leave Dad."

Her left eyebrow quirked a notch. "Leave your Dad? After we just rescued him from a gang of rogue vampires? Why?"

"She didn't say. We were cut off."

"That's not good."

I shook my head. "Nope. But I don't know what to do. I can't just leave Dad."

The front door burst open and Dad bolted inside. "Justin, you have to leave now." His face looked pale and frightened.

I pulled away from Elyssa. "What the hell is going on? First Mom and now you?"

He drew in a sharp breath. "Your mother contacted you?"

"She just called and told me to leave you."

He streaked inhumanly fast across the kitchen, into the den, and took my shoulders in his hands. "Did she say where she is?" Hope and agony warred on his features.

"No, Dad." I repeated the conversation and each word seemed to dim the light of hope in his eyes.

He slumped to the couch. "She's right, son. You need to get out of here immediately. Pack light and leave."

I sat down on the easy chair and stared at him. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on."

"My family is coming."

"Is that bad?" My stomach clenched. It apparently knew the answer.

Elyssa shuddered. "Worse than you can imagine."

I looked from her to Dad. "You're coming with me, right?"

"I can't. Someone tagged me with a tracking spell and told my family where to find me."

My chin dropped a fraction. "A what? Who would do that? The vampires?"

He shook his head. "It must have been the sorcerer who tried to capture us."

"Shelton? But he just helped us rescue you."

"The tracker wasn't there yesterday, and I haven't been around any other sorcerers lately." He pulled down the collar of his shirt and revealed a tiny red and gold tattoo in the shape of a hummingbird on the back of his neck. The skin around it was slightly red. "Blasted thing itches."

I leaned over and examined it. A hummingbird seemed like a girly thing for a guy to have, and I wondered if maybe he'd gotten drunk, woken up with it, and was too embarrassed to admit the truth. "Uh, Dad, this is a tattoo. Shelton never had the chance to touch you much less ink your skin. Are you sure the vampires who kidnapped you didn't do this?"

"Sorcerers don't need to touch you to tattoo you," Elyssa said, her eyes growing cold and hard. "They only need to be close enough to see where they want the tracker to reside."

"But it's a stinking tattoo. Why don't they make it invisible if they're gonna track you?"

Dad sighed. "I don't know. Maybe it requires more power." He scratched the tattoo and scowled. "In any case, there's no telling how long this thing will last. My family has the scent now and they'll find me wherever I run."

I pressed a hand to my forehead as if it might help me soak in the onslaught of revelations. "Didn't you tell me this house is on a magical ley line? I thought all the energy confused magical tracking."

"It does, but since they know where we live now, they don't need the tracker, just a GPS. If I run, then the tracker will make it just as easy to find me. I might as well wait for them here."

"Are you kidding me?" I grunted in frustration. "What about a backup plan? With all the money you and Mom have in the bank, surely you bought a backup house somewhere on another ley line."

"We have—had two others."

"Why didn't you say so? Let's go!"

He slammed a fist on the couch armrest. "They're already compromised. I checked them out and both places were trashed. That means this house is next on the list."

"Son of a—" I paced the room, wracking my brain for answers.

"Justin, you have to go. Now."

"I just got you back, Dad. I'm not leaving you again."

He groaned in frustration. "Then both of us should pack." With that, he stalked into his bedroom.

"Maybe Shelton can help," Elyssa said.

"And what if he's the one who tagged him?" I thought back to the fight with the vampires when they'd kidnapped Dad. Had Shelton tossed a tracker on him then and not told me? Or had he possibly put one on Dad when we rescued him? It would have been the perfect time. Shelton had driven me, Dad, and Elyssa to my house. I'd been exhausted and barely able to think straight. If Shelton had marked Dad before the vampires took him, maybe that's how he knew where they were keeping him. If that were the case, I wouldn't be as ticked off. But if he'd put it on after the rescue, Shelton wasn't getting away from me without a mouth full of broken teeth.

Elyssa put her hands on my neck, tugging down my collar.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking you for tattoos."

A chill ran through me. It would be really, really bad if we were both tagged. "I didn't even think about that."

"It's a good thing I'm around, then."

The touch of her warm hands on my back and neck were almost enough to make me forget the oncoming danger. I'd had such high hopes for the day. We'd snuggled down and watched the Princess Bride, made out a little, and planned to grab some Chinese food for dinner. In the back of my mind I'd even envisioned what would happen later. How I'd kiss her, unclothe her, and we'd lose our virginity together, the way it was meant to be. She was The One.

"What are you thinking about?" Elyssa said in a low voice.

I realized how strongly my body was reacting to the fantasy playing out in my head, and my face burned with embarrassment.

"Just you."

Elyssa smiled and kissed me on the cheek. "You should pack."

"Yeah." My voice was hoarse at the thought of leaving home with my demon spawn relatives hot on our tails. But I had to face reality. I dashed into my room. Grabbed my large green duffel bag and shoved underwear, socks, shirts, and anything else I could fit inside. Elyssa came from the bathroom with my toiletries kit packed full to bursting and shoved it inside the duffel. I was zipping it up when another thought occurred to me. I sat down in my closet, removed a panel of drywall, and grabbed the stacks of money behind it.

"Did you rob a bank?"

"My parents." It had been their rainy-day fund before Mom left either to rescue my little sister, Ivy, from her parents, the Conroys, or to join them. I had a feeling she'd joined them, though not by choice—or so I hoped. I shoved the money into the duffel and reached back inside the wall for one more thing—a flash drive. I'd copied some files off my mom's computer a few days ago and forgotten all about them. The files looked mostly like gibberish and some kind of programming code when I'd opened them in a text viewer, but at some point I intended to sit down and go through them thoroughly. I dropped the flash drive in the duffel and zipped it shut.

Dad emerged from his room, a stuffed backpack slung over his shoulders.

I looked at the tennis shoes he'd put on instead of the casual sandals he usually wore. "You're coming with us, right?"

He shook his head. "I'm heading away from you. Whatever happens, I won't let them take you."

"Let's go to Shelton first. Maybe he can remove the tracker."

"And if he can't, I'll be a sitting duck along with him and you."

"I'll protect you."