Every once in a while, Silas wondered if he’d chosen the right profession. Usually, these thoughts occurred when he was doing deskwork, like now, leaning over a massive tome titled Dr. Mortimer’s Potent Spells and Balms. He had skimmed the ancient text for the better part of three hours and had yet to find a single potion that could make a vampire stab himself in the heart.

“Knock. Knock.” Grateful Knight poked her head into his office, looking like she’d fought through a crowd of angry cannibals to reach him. Her honey blond hair was tied up in a messy bun that was messier than usual, and the skin under her eyes was a spectrum of purple hues.

“You look like hell,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said dryly. Her hand rubbed the top of her pregnant belly rhythmically. “Lucas won’t stay in his crib anymore. And he never sleeps. Ever. And the diapers. Oh gawd the diapers. And I am so ready to pop this kid out. What’s your excuse?”

“I was up late last night.” He told her about the stakeout and the suicidal vampire.

Her eyes widened. “Suicidal vampires are serious business, as is what I came here to discuss with you.”

“Do tell.”

She pulled a small vial out of her purse, filled to the brim with a black, powdery substance. “This is what I collected from your sister’s wound.”

“Uh-huh. So, what is it?”

“This is a rare mineral. So rare that most humans don’t know it exists. It’s called sulfralite.”

“Sulfralite? So where’d it come from?”

“I couldn’t figure it out. But Rick remembered the smell. Sulfralite is only found in one place—a place none of us ever want to go. The underworld.”

“My sister was injected with a mineral from hell?”

Grateful nodded. “My Hellmouth—the cemetery behind my house, the place I send supernatural criminals who break the natural law—opens at night. It’s why Rick and I have to police the gate. All manner of supernatural baddies emerge from the underworld after sunset. And they sometimes smell like this.”

“Do you think something escaped? Maybe a demon?”

“Rick and I weren’t aware of any breach from our Hellmouth, but as you know, there are others like me around the country. We followed up with a few witches in our network. No one is aware of any escapes. However, the Hecate from New Orleans passed on some interesting information on the properties of sulfralite, properties that are leveraged by the vast community of voodoo practitioners in her area. When sulfralite enters your blood stream, it has a toxic effect on the nervous system. It makes you tired, disoriented, and extremely vulnerable to suggestion. In high doses…”

“It can put you into a coma.”

“Exactly. I don’t think your sister is unconscious because of the stab wounds. I think it is the sulfralite in her blood stream. And I believe your vampire may have been infected with the same stuff.”

“So who did the infecting? You said this stuff is rare. I assume Alex couldn’t get it on any street corner.”

Grateful shook her head. “The New Orleans witch said there’s only one way to get it. You must conjure a demon from the underworld and ask it to bring the element into our world in hand. As you might imagine, this is risky magic and only delivers a limited amount. Ripping open a portal to the underworld dimension requires a blood sacrifice and the one performing it better be up to the task of controlling what passes into their realm.”

Silas’s stomach twisted. She’s dating a demon, Logan had said. He hadn’t seen Soleil for weeks and suddenly she shows up in his bedroom. She gives him a list of healers possibly helping Alex, but by some miracle, Alex always seems one step ahead of him. What if the demon was the source of the sulfralite? What if Soleil was under his spell?

“Does sulfralite work on all supernaturals?”

“Only the ones who have remnants of human DNA. Vampires, because they were once human. Werewolves and other shifters who were born human. Witches like me.”

“But it wouldn’t work on a fae?”

“Fae, sprites, leprechauns. Anything born or created supernatural is immune according to my source.”

“Humans?”

“Susceptible, although New Orleans said sulfralite is frequently fatal to humans and therefore has limited applicability. Infected humans are often mistaken for zombies until they kick the bucket.”

Silas groaned. Grateful stood and set her hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on Silas? You went green on me. Do I need to get my medical bag?”

“Can you save my sister?” Silas swallowed the lump in his throat. He could think of several reasons Alex might put that shit in Laina’s body, and none of them were good.

“I can. There’s a spell that will extract sulfralite from the body, but it requires a feather from an angel.”

“An actual, heavenly angel? Are they real?”

Grateful shrugged. “I’ve never seen one. Luckily, New Orleans has a feather she’s willing to lend me in exchange for a future favor. I’m heading down there tonight. If everything goes as planned, I should be able to fix your sister by the end of the week.”

He reached across the desk and squeezed her hand. “Thank you, Grateful. I don’t know what I would do without you. You know you can always count on me, don’t you? For anything.”

“Careful. I may take you up on that, and it will almost certainly involve babysitting.”

Silas smiled. “I’ll take care of the little guy. How hard could it be?”

Grateful closed her eyes for a moment, then gave a slight shake of her head. “I’ll be in touch.” She adjusted her yoga pants and smoothed her tunic style T-shirt on the way out the door. He noted she took the vial of sulfralite with her. Good thing. He didn’t want the responsibility of guarding the stuff.

Leaning back in his chair, he thought about what Grateful had said. Sulfralite came from demons. Soleil was dating a demon. Influenced or not, something was up. Tonight he wouldn’t scrutinize the next healer on the list. Tonight he’d follow Soleil.

* * *

Meredith refused to be marginalized. After what happened to her family, she had the same right to take revenge on Alex as Silas did. Only, since the incident with the vampire, her partner had been distant and secretive, avoiding her at every opportunity. She hadn’t become a detective by allowing things to go unnoticed. After tailing him all afternoon, her effort paid off when she caught him crossing the parking lot to the unmarked.

“Hey! I thought you were going home for the night. Don’t you think you should take your own car?”

He groaned and tipped his head back, rolling his eyes toward the heavens. “I have something to do, but I don’t need company. Not tonight.” Silas refused to meet her gaze.

She planted her fists on her hips. “Because you didn’t need me last night when that vampire staked himself?”

He shrugged. “Frankly, no, I didn’t. The outcome would have been exactly the same with or without you.”

She paused, thinking about it. Considering the vamp had staked himself, she supposed he was right. “Maybe”—she held up one finger—“but things could have gone differently. I might have saved your butt. Anyway, I thought we resolved this last night. You admitted I belonged on this case. I want to find Alex as much as you do. It’s not fair for you to deny me this.”

He frowned. “I’m taking the night off from Alex-hunting.”

“Then why are you standing next to the Family Truckster?” She tapped the side of her fist against the Ford Transit. “I have to warn you. Every time you drive this thing your sperm count drops. You’re flirting with disaster here.”

The corner of Silas’s mouth twitched. The guy had perpetual stubble thanks to his werewolf genes, and the effect was annoyingly sexy. She internally slapped herself for noticing.

“I’m following up on a long shot. Trust me, you don’t want to get involved,” he said.

Meredith crossed her arms over her chest. “Does this have to do with why Grateful Knight came to visit you today?”

Silas squinted. “Were you listening outside the door?”

“A lot of good it did me. She must have used an enchantment. I couldn’t hear a thing.”

He snorted. Good one, Grateful. “This doesn’t concern you. It isn’t even police business, to be honest.”

“Listen, if you’re doing something shady to find Alex—”

“It’s not shady—”

“Whatever it is, I’m in. This is more important than the law. We’ve got to try everything.” She blocked the door to the Ford with her body and tapped her foot.

Silas glanced at his watch, apparently calculating how long it would take to get rid of her against how much time he had to waste. She glared at him as if to say she didn’t plan to make it quick. “Okay. Get in.”

With a tempered squeal, she danced around the car and jumped into the passenger’s seat. Silas climbed behind the wheel and started the engine, wasting no time exiting the lot.

“So… who are we staking out if not Alex?” she asked.

“The bordello.”

“Maison des Étoilles?”

He hummed in affirmation.

“You’re checking up on your ex-girlfriend!”

Knuckles whitening atop the steering wheel, he said, “Additional information came to light that makes me believe my source may have been compromised. Tonight, I’m attempting to verify or disprove that theory.” He sounded defensive. Why was he defensive?

“Right.” Meredith leaned back in her chair and fumbled with the edge of her blazer for a moment. “I could see this coming a mile away. Last night, Alex knew we were coming.”

Silas groaned. “Yes, Meredith. My ex-girlfriend may have given me tainted info, and yes I should have suspected it earlier. ’Kay?”

She smiled smugly, then fought the wave of guilt that flooded her. Way to kick him while he was down. Goddess, she could be a pain in the ass.

“Sorry,” she said. “That’s a tough thing.”

Silas leaned an elbow against his window. They drove the rest of the way in silence. He parked around the corner from the bordello and was quick to get out of sight. Meredith followed his lead and climbed into the back.

“How did you meet this chick anyway?”

“I investigated an attempted murder in the alley behind the bordello. Part of the investigation required me to interview the madam. The attraction was… well… stellar.” He laughed at his own joke. She did not. “You know, because they’re celestial fae.”

“Oh, like the source of their power is the planets and stars and such? Mansion of the stars. Huh.”

“Right. Soleil draws her power from the sun, so my attraction to her was inevitable.”

Meredith’s mouth twitched. “Why?”

“When I was with her, physically, it was never night. I avoided an entire shift once. All three days.”

“You don’t like to shift?”

“You do?”

“Hell yeah. I shift every month, and I don’t even have to. If I wait too long, I start to feel claustrophobic.”

“But the loss of control, the inconvenience of losing yourself, you don’t think of that as a curse? I mean, before we perfected the Rivergate boundary, I used to wake up worrying I might have hurt someone.”

“You hate who you are, and you love her because she makes you not you. That’s understandable, I guess. But surprising. You seem so confident.” Meredith crossed her legs at the ankle.

“I don’t hate who I am!”

“But you’d change it if you could. You’d give up the night air in your nose and the thrill of running as fast as your four legs will carry you. You’d give up the freedom and the intimacy with your packmates.”

Silas thought for a moment. “No. I wouldn’t give it up. Not permanently.”

“Then what’s the draw for you? Is it because she’s… you know…” She turned toward him and bobbed her eyebrows lasciviously. “Experienced?”

Silas did a double take. “I am not talking about this with you.”

“Truly, why did you love her? You’re an alpha werewolf, and she’s a prostitute. You could have anyone. Why her?”

Taking a deep breath, Silas parted his lips to answer but ended up sighing heavily. “What does it matter? It’s over. I asked her to marry me, and she said no. That’s all she wrote.”

Meredith tucked her chin, her expression morphing from smug and teasing to horrified. “Can you even marry her? Would the pack allow that?”

“It’s a moot point, isn’t it?” he said harshly. “She said no.”

Meredith grimaced. “I am the world’s biggest asshole,” she said. “I’m sorry, Silas. I didn’t realize it was that serious between you two.”

He nodded slowly. “Was is the key word in that sentence. I’m glad it didn’t work out. The further I get away from it, the more I realize it wasn’t meant to be. And yep. You are the biggest asshole.”

She flipped him the finger. A beacon of light washed over them—light that came from a woman who was descending the steps of the bordello.

“That’s her isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“She’s beautiful. It’s like… It’s like…”

“Staring into the sun,” Silas murmured.

“Yeah.”

A limousine had pulled up to the curb at the end of the walkway. The demon? The door opened without any assistance from the driver or anyone else for that matter. Soleil slipped into the back, and the limo took off. Silas closed the laptop. Behind the wheel again, he tailed the limo, careful to keep his distance.

“I had a boyfriend like that once,” Meredith said.

“You had a boyfriend who glowed in the dark?”

She snorted. “No. Like, you looked at him and everything just seemed easier. It was like you weren’t in reality anymore but in a movie where everything was scripted, and you knew things would turn out all right because this guy… this intensely attractive guy… loved you.”

“So what went wrong?” Silas asked.

“Oh, he was as dumb as a box of rocks. Accidentally lit himself on fire.”

Silas raised an eyebrow at her.

“Okay, I set him on fire.”

“You set—”

“I set myself on fire.”

Silas curled his upper lip.

“Figuratively. He broke up with me for someone prettier and more agreeable. I imploded.”

“But no one actually burned?”

“It was a metaphor for my emotional pain. No. No one was burned in this story.” She rested her forehead against the window. Why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut?

The limo turned into the circle drive of a brownstone deep within the vampire district.

“There’s no sign,” she said. A wooden panel swung from a hook over the door, displaying a symbol of three overlapping red triangles. “Oh, wait. There’s a symbol. What does that mean?”

Silas didn’t answer. Soleil and a man in a dark suit exited the limo and were ushered inside the stone building by three men in suits. Meredith strained to see the man’s face, but it was hidden by shadows that clung to him despite Soleil glowing on his arm.

“We’ll have to go inside.” Silas unbuckled his seatbelt.

“What is this place?” Meredith asked, squinting at the stunning historical architecture.

“I have no idea.” He climbed from the van and straightened his clothes. She followed his lead, hooking her arm into his as they rounded the corner together on foot. Silas glanced down at her hand around his elbow and gave her a warm smile.

“To look the part,” she said.

He nodded once.

A man in a black suit stopped them at the door. “Observing or participating?” he asked.

A chill coursed through Meredith. She still wasn’t sure what this place was, but with options like that, she could guess. “Observing,” she said quickly. Silas flashed her a completely confused look.

“That’ll be fifty,” the man said. “Strict confidentiality is enforced. No pictures or recording devices of any kind. There’s a spell on the place so don’t even try it.”

While Meredith accepted two red wristbands from the man, Silas pulled out his wallet and handed over the cash. Her heart sank. He had no idea what he was in for. She took him by the elbow and led him inside.

“You may not want to see this,” she whispered in his ear. The dark paneled walls and dim lighting reminded her of a reception hall or maybe a funeral parlor. It had the quality of an ancient castle or the type of old building you would find on Ivy League campuses. High end. Above the fray. Classical music played in the background. Several other guests strode past them in suits and gowns, seeming to know exactly where they were going. “Do you know what this place is?”

“No. What is it?” he asked. By his expression, he didn’t have a clue. “We’re underdressed, that’s for sure.”

They came to two doors. Most of the guests filtered through the one with a red X carved into the wood. But Meredith tugged him in the opposite direction, to one labeled with a carving of an eye. As she opened the door, an elderly man behind them chuckled and whispered to the woman next to him. She flashed a little fang and adjusted her fur stole.

“Enjoy the show,” she crooned.

Meredith nodded dumbly and ushered Silas up a flight of narrow steps and into a dark room. “Thank the goddess, we’re the only ones up here.”

“Why? What the hell is this place? Why would Soleil come here with that guy?” Silas glanced around the room, taking in the red velvet seats, the floor-to-ceiling observation windows.

“I wasn’t sure at first. I’ve never actually been to one, but you hear things as a woman, you know.” She pointed to the windows. One-way glass like the kind they had in the interrogation room at the station. She could see out, but the people on the other side would only see a mirror.

Silas shuffled to her side, looking stiff. They peered down into a circular room with a narrow padded bench at its center and multiple racks of instruments: floggers, canes, chains, and cuffs.

“It looks like a torture chamber,” he said.

Meredith sighed. “Not torture. Sex.”

Silas whirled to look at her.

“And blood,” she said. “This is a fetish club. A vampire fetish club.”

She’d never seen the warmth drain from someone’s eyes so quickly. The deep green went stone cold. He stared at Meredith for a beat, all levity draining from his features, then turned back to the room.

Soleil was there now, at the center of it all. She wore a silvery white mask, but there was no disguising her glow. A dozen or so couples fanned out, taking seats on the bench that lined the periphery of the room. They’d donned masks of all shapes and sizes. Black, all black, aside from Soleil’s. When the crowd had settled in, a man entered the room and approached Soleil wearing a mask of red silk. He took her hand. The demon, Meredith presumed.

“We don’t have to stay,” Meredith whispered. “She’s a prostitute, Silas. She’s working.”

Silas seemed to hear her, but he didn’t look away from the scene below. He’d gone still as a statue. Meredith thought he looked vacant, impassive. She wondered what he must be thinking. Soleil was his ex, but he’d cared for her once.

The demon kissed Soleil on the mouth in a greedy, violent way that made Meredith’s stomach turn. His barbed tail wagged behind him like a dog that had found a bone. This was not going to be pretty.

The demon pulled the tie on Soleil’s wrap dress and slipped it from her body. The woman was stunning. Meredith had to stop herself from going down the rabbit hole of self-deprecation. Soleil’s body was perfect, long, lean, with the straight spine of a ballerina. Every inch of her golden skin was flawless. There wasn’t a wrinkle, freckle or mole anywhere on the woman. Well, that was that, she thought. She had no chance with Silas. What man would want her after having that?

Meredith shifted uneasily. Of course, she had no future with Silas. He was her partner. She had no business even considering the possibility of a romantic relationship. She shook her head and forced herself to watch the trainwreck below.

Now completely nude aside from stilettos and stockings, Soleil allowed the demon to lead her to the padded bench. He spun her around violently and shoved her between the shoulder blades.

“Yes, Sir,” Soleil said, although Meredith had to read her lips; she couldn’t hear through the thick pane of glass. Soleil’s abdomen slapped the brown leather, her breasts dangling on the opposite side as her feet. Methodically, the demon bound her wrists behind her back with a red silk rope. He tapped the inside of her stilettos. Soleil smiled as she spread her feet, giving the room a clear view of everything between her legs.

The vampires in the room dropped fang. Other guests, young and old, began touching each other, shedding clothes and locking lips.

Meredith touched Silas’s arm. “Silas, what else do you hope to see? This isn’t healthy. We should go.”

Silas didn’t respond. He stared absently through the glass, a look of disgust on his face.

The demon dragged a pointed nail down Soleil’s spine, leaving a red trail behind. When he reached her tailbone, his hand drew back and connected with her backside in a slap that Meredith could hear through the glass. Soleil arched slightly from the pain, tugging against her restraints, but if it was painful, Meredith couldn’t tell from her expression. She was smiling, a sultry, heated grin. Her lips formed the word more.

With a wicked smirk, the demon selected a flogger from the wall to his left. This seemed to excite the crowd. A vampire at the back of the room sat on one of the benches and pulled his middle-aged human escort onto his lap. The human’s lips parted as he entered her and the vampire ran one fang along her throat. He continued to watch the show over the human’s shoulder.

As the demon whipped Soleil, her nipples extended and she arched with pleasure. Until, with his last thrash, he broke her skin. A bead of sunlight dripped from her flesh. The vampires in the room cringed. But the demon rubbed the light away and licked it off his thumb. He tossed the flogger aside.

One of the vampires sank his teeth into his human escort, spraying blood across Soleil’s back. The demon was far from disturbed. He untied the belt of his robe and allowed it to fall open. As he entered Soleil from behind, more red droplets sprayed across his chest. Blood and sex filled the room. Couples joined other couples. Vampires fed on multiple hosts. The entire room became an orgy of pleasure and pain. Only Soleil and the demon remained exclusively with each other, showered in the blood of the surrounding guests.

“Silas, please,” Meredith pleaded. Tears had formed in her eyes, spilling over and tracing a trail down her cheeks. It was all too much. She didn’t want to be here anymore. She shook him by the elbow, hard.

He turned then, blinking his eyes like he’d just woken up. He lifted his hand, touched her face, and stared at the tears on his fingertips like he didn’t know how they got there.

“I can’t take it anymore,” she said. “This is not my thing.” Although she held no judgment against the consenting adults in the room below, there was too much pain here for her tastes. Too many head games.

He nodded, then gestured toward the staircase. The air felt dense as they exited the building, the men in black at the entrance giving them a strange look. Silas tugged at his collar. Meredith took a full, deep breath, the cool night air flowing into her lungs, bolstering her. She wiped the tears from her face.

Wrapping one arm around her waist, Silas tugged her to his side. “I’m sorry,” he said. When she didn’t respond, he hooked a finger under her chin and made her look at him. “Meredith, I’m sorry.” He wiped away her tears with his thumbs.

She nodded. They climbed into the van. For several minutes, they sat beside each other, staring out the windshield without making a sound.

“Hey, you want to get a drink?” Meredith finally asked.

Silas answered immediately. “Yeah. I know a place.”