I slap the side of my head that is getting foggy…or maybe the air is getting foggy.

“Jack!” Vance shouts in the distance.

I wobble around, trying to process the major change in scenery.

Shit. Did I really send him back into the trance?

I run down the streets, wondering what the hell this has to do with apples and oranges.

“Jack!” Vance roars. “This ends tonight.”

Who the hell is—

My breath rushes out of me, and my eyes go wide once more, only this time, it’s because there’s a man. A man who is dragging two mutilated women’s bodies.

He grins with more menace than anyone I’ve ever seen, as he drops the women and adjusts his hat, as though those two motions go together.

My hands tremble, because this guy seems pretty unafraid of Vance. Is he another alpha?

Jack’s eyes turn to meet mine, and he grins a smile that chills me to my bones.

Vance’s head turns as well, all of it confusing the hell out of me. How does a memory see me?

Vance is dressed in something much fancier than his last wardrobe. This suit was meant to make James Bond jealous…before James Bond was born.

His lips move, and true horror lights his eyes, as Jack lunges for me. Vance throws himself at Jack, blade raised, but Jack dodges it and crashes into me so hard it sends me—

I bolt upright, my eyes flying open, and my head feels like it cracks, when it hits a hard surface that’s as unforgivingly rigid as a brick wall. Pain sears through my face and skull. Someone grunts and curses, and I immediately realize the vampire’s forehead is what has possibly broken my face.

The numbness fades, and pain slices through me long enough for my eyes to water.

“Shit! You just woke up and I now have another thing I have to apologize for. You need a warning bell strapped to you, you dangerous fucking woman,” Arion says very seriously, rubbing his forehead, while looking positively exhausted.

I glance over, spotting the clock, and cringe.

“What day is it?” I ask…and then notice how Damien and Emit are staring at me with what can only be shock.

“What the hell just happened?” Damien asks, scrambling up to his feet.

“I’m not sure, but one of the memories saw me, and attacked. The next thing I know, Arion is breaking my nose,” I point out, shoving my nose back into place, admittedly wincing when the bones crack back together.

“No. No. No. You can’t go and do something impossible, and expect me to expect you to wake up when you shouldn’t have, and then move so fast,” Arion says very quickly, jumping up and pointing a finger at me like he’s accusing me of something.

His eyes narrow on me.

“You can’t do what you just did,” he adds with a rather passionate delivery.

“Sit up too fast?” I ask in confusion, feeling my heart still racing from the scary looking dude who came after me.

I’m way more scared of him than I am Idun. Who the hell was he and what does he have to do with anything?

Why does Arion look angry?

Why does Damien look too tired to have an expression?

Why is Emit covering his face and shaking his head?

“No! You can’t go into another person’s head, Violet. Damien’s not that fucking powerful!” Arion insists.

“But he was. Tonight, anyway. You guys really underestimate him a lot. He’s a Head Alpha too,” I remind him. “And clearly more dangerous than I realized.”

Damien grins like I’ve complimented him in some way.

“Don’t smile, Morpheous! She’s flattering you to distract you from the fact she just broke all the rules of our universe. This time, we get answers, January Violet Carmine,” Arion goes on, getting louder and slightly more frantic.

“The vampire hasn’t panicked like that since…I think he was mortal. He’s not himself right now,” Emit mumbles, but then he glares over at me. “But you do have to explain this time, Violet.”

I half wonder if they’ve gone crazy or something.

“Why in the hell do you think I know anything about this stuff? Damien took me in there. The rest I sort of winged, even though I thought I had a great plan, and clearly did it wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Damien asks me, sounding mildly calm.

“I mean…you were right. Memories couldn’t attack me,” I explain.

“Of course they can’t. That’s why this was doomed for failure, even though it never made a damn bit of sense in the first place,” Arion rambles on, tearing his tie off and tossing it to the ground, before running a frustrated hand through his hair.

“But then I sort of woke Vance from the trance, enough to make him think I was a witch with an agenda. He tried to kill me, since you apparently can’t have orgasms in the mind without Damien’s help, so I finished singing the gypsy song because I panicked. When we flipped scenes, a dude named Jack did attack me. But…then I ended up crashing into Arion, so…”

I let the words trail off, since everyone is blinking at me in a way that suggests I currently make no sense.

“Jack?” Emit asks, not sounding entirely sure he heard me right.

“Yeah, do you know him?”

“I’m sorry, but are we really moving on from the fact she bloody just came out of Vance’s head instead of being stuck there?” Arion asks.

“I’ve never heard of a Jack,” Damien says, frowning. “But I hadn’t ever heard of Talbot, either, and he’s genuinely legendary among the entire community.”

“Not the important part,” Arion points out, kneeling in front of me, while I remain sitting on Vance.

His eyes level mine, and I feel a pulse of something in my skull.

“Tell me what you just did.”

Word for word, I repeat everything I’ve already said, and I also get really pissed at him for using that power on me again.

He curses and stands up, shaking his head.

“Violet, you make impossible things sound easy, and that’s simply not the way it works. Edmond is right; we turn a blind eye too often. Now you’ve erected a House, stolen Idun’s alphas that she used like betas, and made her look a fool to over half of the upper level monsters,” Arion tells me in a tone that definitely means he’s serious.

I hold my breath, worried what he’ll say next.

“We need to see your fucking monster,” he says, surprising me so much that I’m the one left zigging to someone’s zag.

He crosses his arms over his chest and gives me a firm nod.

“Right now. Let’s see it.”

“Are you kidding? She just came out of the Portocale curse, and you think provoking her and going on the offense is the best idea? Interesting strategy, vampire,” Damien muses, glancing over at Arion.

Arion bristles, and I…get more confused.

“Emit’s just going to wait to see how we both fuck it up, and then he’s going to slide in there like the sneaky asshole he is,” Damien carries on, eyeing Emit in suspicion.

“Are you fucking serious right now, Damien?” Emit asks him.

“She’s my Flame. I’m going to be twice as competitive with her mate. Simple math, mutt. I’m not letting you play your game anymore. You get to fuck up before me, so you handle this,” Damien tells him, gesturing toward me like I’m the ‘this’ that needs handled.