Something for everyone, it seems.

“I feel like I’m missing something. Is she extending Sanctuary to the dead as well?” Emit asks.

“Why not? She makes the rules up as she goes,” I mutter, smirking when I spot our high-maintenance little monster glaring daggers at Damien.

Damien is still cackling like I’ve never seen him cackle before. My gaze bounces between them, as my smirk fades, because I’m in the dark. Again. I can’t even hazard an educated guess about what’s lit her fuse, while leaving him in a fit of laughter.

“What’d we miss?” Emit asks, fortunately just as in the dark as I am.

Damien heaves for a breath of air, working hard to answer through his guffaws, but only manages to wheeze out two words, before he’s cackling once more.

“I think I know a way to break Vance’s curse, but I need Damien’s help. However, it seems like he’d rather laugh about something he’s not even willing to try—”

“She wants me to transport her conscious into Vance’s unconscious mind, so she can enact her plan,” he says, barely straining the words out, his face turning red with the effort.

His laughter erupts in a loud, obnoxious sort of way I haven’t heard him do in years.

My eyebrows lift in surprise, since the little monster clearly overestimates Damien. No one ever overestimates Damien. If anything, it’s quite the opposite, in most cases.

I glance at the clock, seeing the encroaching midnight hour. This could be the trick to getting Damien to stand down, instead of charging in to go after Idun. She’d kill Damien just for his audacity, and that would devastate Violet.

Clearly, I don’t overestimate Damien.

“There are very restrictive boundaries to what Damien can and can’t accomplish. His power is extremely limited,” Emit tries to explain, as I study the determined look on Violet’s face.

We never fare well when she’s wearing that look. We really have spoiled her by giving in to all her many demands.

“What’s your plan, Violet?” I ask, talking over Damien’s laughter.

She cuts her gaze to me, almost surprised to hear that asked.

“I go in and let him save me. Simple as that,” she states with absolute genuineness.

My lips twitch, but I resist the urge to smile.

“Simple as that,” Damien echoes through his laughter.

Running a hand over my jaw, I watch as Violet gingerly strokes Vance’s cheek, even as she resumes glaring at Damien.

“The best he could do is project your image into Vance’s unconscious mind, but that won’t be enough to shake him from the trance. He’s actually living those memories. Not just watching them play out,” Emit explains. “Even if by some miracle he managed to notice you, he’d never know who you are, and it’d likely only confuse him until the curse pulled him back into the trance. There’s no miracle cure in that route.”

“Hence the reason I want him to transport my conscious mind, just like he did when he entered my mind after…” Violet’s words trail off.

After Dorian’s attack. I assume that’s what she was going to say.

I’m still in the dark about some of those details, because it makes me want to stab something with something worse than a volatile pencil when I think too much about it. I’m not ready for too many answers on that just yet.

Damien sobers almost too quickly.

As Damien’s laughter tapers off, I give him my attention. “Out of all the centuries you’ve lived, you’ve surely given thought to how to do something like this before.”

He turns his eyes on me like I’m suddenly a fool tosser.

“Of course I have,” he confesses, rolling his eyes. “And I determined I was crazy for ever having even considered the concept, because it takes all my strength just for me to fully enter an unconscious mind. Breaking into Dorian’s conscious mind depleted me from a full charge. Breaking into Vance’s mind, while he’s stuck in a trance, will take all I have. I certainly can’t take another active, conscious mind with me.”

Emit strokes his beard, just as the clock begins to chime, announcing the midnight hour.

“I need to handle something I can actually do,” Damien says, eyes on the clock.

“Nothing is more important than Vance. You’re the strongest you’ve ever been right now. All the stars have aligned for you to make this happen for him.”

“Emit claimed you as a mate, and he’s vertical instead of horizontal and in agony—”

“But Vance can’t even offer a beta immortality; only an extension of their lives. A shallow attachment, just like his sacrifice. He can’t do something impossible on a cosmic level, because he can’t claim me so permanently as you just did. Something I currently have a pin in, but really, in a crazy sort of way, am excited about,” she says, adding that last part in a tone much softer.

Morpheous damn near melts as he sways toward her, lips catching hers almost too roughly, and her arms go to his shoulders, as she draws him closer.

I’m going to make this girl my bride, and then I’m setting my sights on our lad. It’d be any omegas dream to have their child raised by alphas.

She shoves at his chest, and he groans as he breaks the kiss.

“Please try,” she whispers so softly.

“Do it, Morpheous. At least give Vance his shot,” I chime in, my eyes on Violet, when she cuts her gaze to me in surprise.

He narrows his eyes over at me, something I only notice in my peripheral as I get more comfortable.

“For once, just give her what she wants without a fight,” I add, training my gaze on Damien.

I’ve boxed him in now, giving him no choice but to royally piss her off, break her heart, and end up in trouble, or use all that extra power on Vance instead of his suicidal mission against Idun.

Violet’s heart will be crushed if he dies.

I’ll not allow it.

“Lie down. Head to head with him. If this is going to even stand a chance at working, I need the linked minds to be as close as possible,” Damien tells her after a beat of silence, though he grinds his jaw and glares at me in a way that suggests betrayal.

He’s going to punish me for this one.

I grin in anticipation.

Violet immediately complies, crawling on top of Vance, who is on the sofa. She snuggles up on his chest, putting her head on the pillow directly beside his.

She turns his face toward her and touches their foreheads together, looking all too cozy.

Damien turns, exhales, and puts his hands on both of their heads, kneeling on the floor in front of them.

Violet’s body almost immediately goes limp, and Emit moves closer.

Slowly, I stand, my gaze flicking to the mirror in front of Damien. His expression is almost surprised, and then frustrated, and then really pissed off. Then he looks downright horrified.

His pupils are nearly nothing, meaning he’s definitely gone full dive.

Violet’s body is far too limp.

It’s not usually like this when he attempts to dive. It’s been a while since he did it so often and so invasively, due to lack of feeding, but I’d remember this if he’d ever been guilty of it before.

“This is getting concerning,” Emit states with some worry.