Kat followed Trina upstairs. “I don’t understand why you’d make a threat like that. The last thing Jules needs is to be worrying about me.”

“He may be crazy, honey, but that male isn’t stupid. He knows if we hand him over to the humans, he’s as good as ash. I had to give him a reason to come back.”

“You’re worried his Vampiric survival instinct will kick in.” Much stronger than a human’s survival instinct, vampires couldn’t kill themselves, which is why the Watcher cursed Julius to cut out his eyes, not to kill himself directly. His survival instinct would’ve overcome the latter directive.

“There’s only one thing more powerful than survival instinct.” Trina shrugged. “A male vampire’s need to protect their mate.”

She shook her head. “I hate you a little for this.”

“But you’ll love me again if everything works out the way I’m hoping. Julius now has a way to prove himself. It’s all up to him.” She paused to purse her lips. “We’ll figure this out. I swear we will.”

Kat nodded.

“Now get some rest. I’ll let you know as soon as they’re back.” Trina walked down the hall and entered her room.

Kat opened the door and stood in the entry to the room she had used prior to Julius’ exorcism. It was much the same. Her travel kit still sat on the worn vanity in the corner. The novel she’d brought was still lying open over the arm of the chair in the corner. Blue, smokeless flame danced in the fireplace. She walked inside, closed the door and leaned back against it.

“You look sad, butterfly.”

Her gaze shot to the big four poster bed and froze. “What are you doing here?” Had Trina found a way to switch them after all? Was all that talk earlier about not being sure if she could help for the benefit of someone else?

“Where else would I go?” He winked.Julius sat propped up with an abundance of pillows, his legs stretched out and his bare feet crossed at the ankles. He stretched his arms up and stacked them behind his head, which made his unbuttoned black shirt pout open. He wore a patch over one eye. Winked at her with the other.

She frowned. Where were the bandages she’d put on him? Where were the scars on his chest? Jules had been wearing jeans and a sleeveless white tee.

This was Julian.

“You look displeased.” He sat up, resting his arm on one of his knees. “I did everything you said.”

“I never told you to get yourself arrested.” She sucked in a quick breath. What was she doing? This was her projection. The embodiment of her imagination. And she was arguing with it. Madness lay down this path. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need you anymore.” How did she get rid of him? What had Tamriel told her? To pour her emotion into the thing? Or was that to create a doppelgänger?

He got to his feet and rounded the bed. “Now, that’s where you’re wrong. Things may not have worked out the way you wanted, but I did what you said—”

What had she said? She’d told him to learn his part from her memories and to make himself known to everyone at the Citadel. So, yeah, he had done that.

“—and while things may not have worked out how you hoped, there’s no reason why I can’t stay.”

She narrowed her gaze. What was she missing? Had Trina told him to be here? Had she programmed him to say certain things for the Watchers’ benefit? She backed up a step. “Explain.”

One corner of his mouth tipped up. “I liked watching you in the tub.”

Wait. Trina couldn’t have known about that.

“You know how much I liked watching you.”

Why was he talking in the first person about Julius’ experiences?

“And I know how much you enjoyed the results.” He sauntered closer.

She backed away, coming up hard against the wall. “What are you saying?”

He shrugged. Smiled. He behaved so damn similar to Julius, it hurt. “You call me Jules.” He flattened his hands on the wall to either side of her. “I’ll call you butterfly.” He leaned in. “And I’ll do what I was created to do . . . please you.”

Oh, Gaia. This was bad. She put her hand on his chest and pressed. His skin was smooth. Why was his skin smooth? She’d gotten the scars on his face correct. Julian looked more like her mate than Julius’ did right now thanks to Trina’s glamour.

“That’s right. I’m like him, only better.”

She shook her head. “I’m trying to figure out why I didn’t give you all the scars.”

“Why would you? You don’t even see them.”

He tipped his face closer to hers. He wasn’t breathing.

No sooner had the thought entered her mind, than his chest rose under her hand as he took a breath.

“All you have to do is tell me what you want, butterfly.”

“I want you to never call me that again. I want you to go away.” She wanted her mate, damn it. Not some half-imagined doppelgänger.

He shook his head. “I’ve been studying you for a while now. Noticing all the things about you that you ignore. I think I know you better than you know yourself.” He leaned in to kiss her.

White hot rage blazed through her system. She focused the energy into her palms which she pressed against his chest and . . . and nothing happened. She didn’t have Magic anymore. She shoved against him hard, slipped past, and grabbed the brush off the vanity.

She threw it.

It glanced off his shoulder.

She grabbed the book. Threw it.

He kept coming.

The ewer broke against his stubborn head. “Go away!”

He crowded her back against the wall with his larger frame. She kneed him in the groin, which did nothing but make him laugh.

Gaia, he didn’t feel. He wasn’t real. She could knee him again and again and it wouldn’t phase him at all. A tendril of fear wound its way through her.

So focus. Get rid of it. She closed her eyes and focused all her emotions to a single point. Magnified them.

“I know what you’re trying to do, butterfly. It isn’t going to work.”

She did what Tamriel told her to do. Everything. Exactly like he’d taught her. Julian was still there.

She opened her eyes. Oh, Gaia. “No, no, no!” There were two them now! She’d created another Julian.

Someone knocked on the door. “Kat?”

“Trina?” Oh, praise Gaia. “Come in.”

She shoved Julian away and this time he allowed it, backing away as the door opened.

Trina’s gaze went from her to Julian to the new doppelgänger. “What is going on in here?”

“I was trying to get rid of it.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Then how did that happen?” She nodded to the new Julian.

“I did it wrong?”

Julian grinned. “How can two of us be wrong?”

Trina came in and closed the door. “Why is he even in here?”

“I don’t know. At first I thought you sent him here.” She pointed to the Julian with no shirt. “That one thinks he knows me better than I know myself and wants to . . . .” she sputtered, too embarrassed to say what he wanted.

Julian smiled. “I want to please you.”

Trina looked at her askance. “Look, Kat, what you want to do in your free time is none—”

“Nooo.” She shook her head, flicking her hand toward the doppelgängers. “Whatever you’re thinking is not what was happening here.”

Julian’s grin widened. “Sure it is.”

She turned on him. “You shut up.” She smacked him on the chest. “I have had enough. If you open your mouth one more time, I’m gonna . . . do something you’ll regret.”

Trina made a gurgling noise. When she turned back to her, she was hiding a grin behind her fist. “I’m sorry, it’s like watching a kitten try to roar at a tiger.”

“I don’t know how he ended up in here, but he has to go. Both of them. They both have to go. I’m going to freaking explode if one more stinking thing goes wrong today. I have no Magic, I don’t know how to protect myself from assholes like him.” She paused long enough to smack Julian One. “I’m being used as bait for my mate. I’m pretty sure you’re all lying to me and I’m scared, damn it. Scared and feeling completely inept.” She walked across the room and plopped down into the chair in front of the vanity. “I don’t want to deal with any of this right now.”

“Okay. I’ve got this. Stay put.”

Stay put? The Citadel was on lockdown. No one could leave without Trina knowing.

A second later, Trina popped back in, alone.

Kat had no idea where she’d left the doppelgangers, and she didn’t care.

“I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you say all at once.” She grinned. “And I know that’s the most complaining I’ve ever heard you do.”

“Great. Now I’m a whiner?”

Trina laughed. “No. But I think you’ve learned when to say no. Rowena always heaped shit on top of more shit with you. You never complained. Never disagreed.” She shrugged. “It’s nice to see you push back. That’s all I’m saying.”

A small smile tugged at her lips. “I had to argue with Jules non-stop that first day. All he wanted to do was leave.”

“Oh?”

She shrugged. “He’s easy to argue with. The worst thing he ever did to me was try to gross me out by licking my face.”

One dark brow rose high on Trina’s forehead.

“He ended up kissing me, instead. Once I quit casting him in the roll of the villain—once I quit expecting the worse, I discovered that he’s a good man. Unconventional. Stubborn. He has a naughty sense of humor. But under all that . . . he cares. That’s why he’s fighting so hard—he doesn’t want to care, but he does.”

Trina’s expression softened. “Then he’ll come back and prove us all wrong.” She smiled. “Come on. Lilith should be waiting for us downstairs. I let her know Crowley was gone for a while. She’s going to update us on what’s been going on back home.”