I served a Tavern customer one of the standard fares—beans with rice, and a pint of cheap beer—unable to keep myself from looking over my shoulder every couple of seconds. I couldn’t explain it, but I hadn’t been able to get rid of the feeling that someone was watching me.

It had started soon after Mike left for his job in the palace, and it was growing stronger and stronger each day. Even while I was alone reading.

I chalked it up to the fact that it was my first time since being kidnapped that Mike hadn’t been around to look out for me. Each day he was gone, I got more and more worried about where he was and what he was doing.

Now, on top of that, there was Jake.

After Jake had left last night, I’d climbed out of the window and come inside normally. The Tavern had been nearly empty since most people in the village had still been out partying. I’d gone to sleep before they’d returned.

But Jake was so strange and mysterious, and since he’d left, I hadn’t been able to get him off my mind. I was like an elementary school girl with a crush.

I hated how vulnerable it made me feel.

“Has everything been okay with you recently?” Tanya asked as I returned to my spot with her behind the bar. The lunch crowd had just finished up, so we busied ourselves by cleaning glasses.

“Yeah.” I forced a smile, but it felt fake, and I knew she could see through it.

“Are you sure?” she asked, softer now. “Because if you need to talk, you know I’m here for you, right?”

“I know.” I glanced around, but there were no new customers, and the ones I’d just served were taking their time with their meals. And Tanya did want to genuinely help.

Maybe it would be good to talk with her.

“I’m worried about Mike,” I started. “He’s been gone for so long, and I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“How long did the witch make it sound like he’d be gone for?” Tanya asked.

“She didn’t give a specific time frame,” I said. “But I assumed he would be back by now. It’s been nearly a month… I thought we would have at least heard from him.”

“If this job in the palace is as secret as it sounds, the vampires probably aren’t letting him contact us,” she said. “But he’ll be back soon. He wouldn’t leave us all here on our own forever.”

“I hope so.” I sighed and focused on cleaning the rim of a beer mug. The more days that passed, the worse I felt for not encouraging him to take more time to think about the offer.

“Hey.” Tanya placed her glass down and looked at me. “Mike’s tough. And his family’s been in the Vale for generations—he knows how to handle himself around vampires. He’ll be fine.”

“Of course he will be,” I said, as if saying it out loud could make it true.

“Worrying won’t change anything,” Tanya said. “So let’s talk about things you do have control over.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like that mysterious guy you danced with at the Christmas party last night,” she said, a mischievous glint crossing her eyes.

Heat rose to my cheeks, and I picked up another mug, even though it was already clean. “What about him?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

“Where did you guys go?” she asked. “One second you were dancing with him, then the vampires showed up, and you were gone.”

“Why did the vampires show up?” I asked, since it had been nagging me since last night. If I knew why they’d showed up, maybe I would have a better understanding about why Jake needed to get away from them.

“They were checking to make sure we were all safe,” she told me. “They walked around the party for a bit and then they left.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

“Weird.”

She leaned closer to me, looked around the bar as if checking to make sure no one was listening, and lowered her voice. “A lot of people think it has to do with the wolves,” she said. “Everyone’s been on edge since the attack.”

“Did another one get in?” I asked.

“Not that I know of,” she said. “But after what happened, it makes sense to heighten security.”

“I suppose it does,” I said, although it hardly explained why Jake had such an intense desire to not be seen by the vampires. Something more was going on… and next time I saw him, I intended on finding out what it was.

“So, what happened with the guy?” she returned to the original subject. “Where did you two go all night?”

I couldn’t tell her the real reason we’d needed to leave, but she wasn’t going to rest unless I told her something, so I searched my mind for a plausible explanation. “We went for a walk,” I said, since it wasn’t a total lie.

“And…?” She raised an eyebrow, waiting for me to continue.

“We talked,” I said.

“Did you kiss?”

I laughed, because of course that was what Tanya wanted to know. She’d probably been planning on asking since we’d started our shift.

“Is that a yes?” She brightened.

“No.” I frowned, since I’d wanted him to kiss me. At one point I’d thought he was going to… but instead he’d told me to forget we ever met.

It was so confusing.

I wanted to confide to Tanya about it—to get advice—but I couldn’t do that without telling her the truth of what had happened last night. And I didn’t want to get her tangled up in whatever trouble Jake might be involved in. I also didn’t want to betray his trust.

“Really?” she asked. “You were out with him for hours and you didn’t even kiss?”

“No.” There were no more glasses that needed cleaning, so I turned around and wiped down the back counter instead.

“But you wanted to kiss him,” she said, continuing before I could answer. “Are you going to see him again?”

I paused, not sure what to say. That was the same question I’d been wondering since last night. He’d gone from wanting me to forget him to promising we would see each other again, so I wasn’t sure what to believe.

I wanted to believe we would see each other again.

But who knew what would happen? I especially hated that even though it hadn’t been twenty-four hours since we’d met, my time with Jake felt like a dream that I would never be able to get a proper hold of again.

“Well, I guess we have your answer,” Tanya said, amusement filling her tone.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You’ll never guess who just walked through the door.”