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  In a flash he was in front of me again, and there wasn’t much more than a whisper between our bodies. I leaned back, over the sideboard, but there was no getting away from him.

  “What do I have to do to convince you?” he growled. His breath was hot, but it wasn’t breath that concerned me. It was the rest of him. His warmth, his scent, the way my pulse raced out of control when he was this close.

  “You can start by answering the questions your father told me you’d answer. Why am I here? Why do you want to have anything to do with me? I want to go home. I have people who’ll be worried about me.”

  “If you were dead, they would have no one to worry about,” he whispered. “Which is why you’re here. Would you rather it were the other way?”

  “Why would I be dead?”

  “Because there are factions who would wish it so. Who planned to descend upon your cabin this very night. They were going to kill you and sweetheart, while I have no doubt you’re a skilled fighter when it comes to other humans, you would be no match for them.”

  His hand darted out, grasping my wrist—and the base of the glass I had only just wrapped my fingers around. “If you were to use a jagged piece of crystal as a weapon against me, you would bring the wrath of hell down around your head. I shudder to think how agonizing your death would be.”

  Agonizing? Then why did his words sound like the whispers of a lover? Why was there so much temptation there? A low, driving pulse of sensuality?

  “You keep talking about humans,” I whispered, trying to keep it together long enough to understand what I was going through. “Like you aren’t human yourselves.”

  “And what does that tell you?” he asked with a knowing look.

  “Something that can’t be true.”

  “There you go again.” He backed away, and I wasn’t sure whether I was glad or not. “You see it in front of you, but you refuse to believe it.”

  “How can I? Do you have any idea what you’re asking me to believe?”

  “You aren’t stupid.” He straightened his cuffs and smoothed his hair like he was worried he’d mussed it while practically attacking me. “Stop pretending you are. And for the love of everything, stop believing what limited things your human experience allows you to believe. You make a fool of yourself when you refuse to trust what’s plainly in front of you.”

  “It isn’t possible, though! Damn it!”

  “You honestly mean to tell me that after everything I’ve shown you so far, all the little clues and hints, you still won’t believe?” He looked me up and down. “How’s that hip of yours? And your femur. It was quite badly broken, from what I remember. Lacerations about the head and hands from falling and rolling into the brush, but it was that leg that posed the biggest threat. You would have bled to death with a bone sticking through your flesh if it hadn’t been for us, and you know it. You remember it. You felt the pain. You smelled your blood.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because I smelled it on you.”

  “I’m not even sure I want to know what that means.”

  He blew out a heavy sigh. “Your blood. Your sweat. It carries an imprint. My kind can pick up on that. It was… intense, what you suffered in the few moments you were conscious.”

  My legs were shaking. When he spoke, I could almost feel what it was like. The agony of it. Knowing I was going to die.

  “Your kind.” I didn’t bother trying to make it sound like a question.

  “Yes.” He leaned against what looked like a dining table across from me. “What do you think that means?”

  He didn’t look away. Neither did I. No matter how much I wanted to.

  They all seemed so much older, but they looked young.

  Their kind could smell things in blood.

  The eyes, the way they changed.

  The super speed.

  The strength.

  “Are you vampires?” It sounded so stupid. There was no such fucking thing as vampires.

  So why did he smile? “Thank you. You finally said it.”

  “How? I mean… how, for Christ’s sake? How do you actually exist when you aren’t supposed to? How many of you are there?”

  “How do we exist? We do. That’s all. Lucian turned me.”

  “Which is why you call him your father.”

  “Yes.”

  At least that part made sense in a twisted way. “When?”

  “Eighteen hundred and seventeen.”

  Sure. Sure, that made sense. This all made sense. I would keep telling myself that until it felt true.

  “And there are many of us. Not as many as there once were, but we exist in enclaves the world over. We are of the original line—Lucian himself is one of the three remaining vampires turned by Vlad the Impaler, who himself was of the original ancient bloodline.”

  “You’re fucking kidding me.”

  “I am not. He looks good for his age, doesn’t he?” When my mouth fell open, he shrugged. “You accused me of having a sense of humor. I thought I could try.”

  “I cannot believe this is happening and you’re joking about it.”

  “Believe it. You’ll save a great deal of time in the long run if you believe the things I tell you without arguing with yourself.”

  “I’m facing the biggest crisis of my adult life, and you’re telling me to go with the flow?”

  He lifted a shoulder. “If that’s how you prefer it, by all means. Go with the flow. We’ve already wasted a great deal of time trying to convince you of the truth.”

  “What's with the urgency? You’ve mentioned not having any time, wasting time. What’s that about? What do I have to do with anything?”

  “That isn’t such an easy question to answer.”

  “Try. I’m listening. And I promise to keep an open mind.” Or I’d try, anyway. This was all a little much to take in, but I’d do my best. What other choice did I have?

  He took a deep breath, and I couldn’t help but wonder why he had to breathe at all. He was dead. Or undead. But his chest rose and fell anyway. So weird.

  I almost laughed out loud. Yeah, like that was the weirdest thing about this.

  “Once every ten years, our kind gets together with those of other factions. Other… species.”

  “There are other species?” I touched a hand to the side of my head for fear it would fall off unless I held it in place.

  “Naturally. Lycans, witches, fae—”

  “Okay, too much information all at once. Let’s keep talking about you.”

  “My point is, once a decade we all convene. This is the only time we are all together in the same location—rather, representatives of our species. No location anywhere in this world could hope to hold all of us at once.”

  Again, his choice of words made something ping in the back of my mind. Anywhere in this world. As if there were more worlds. I wished I could let little things like that roll off my back, but I always did have a curious mind.

  One of the ways people tried to be nice when they were really complaining about what a pain in the ass I was.

  “When we convene, the elders of our kind—tribes, we call them, our word for the various factions which comprise our ranks—determine laws for the upcoming decade. Laws dictating the manner in which we deal with each other, not to mention how we interact with the human world. Typically these laws remain the same. There hasn’t been any major upheaval in our ranks in thirty years, with the birth of the internet.”

  “Why?” Then, in the next breath, “Because a witch or a seer saw into the future and knew how we’d all be connected, so you had to learn to keep yourselves secret better than ever before.”

  We stared at each other. His brows lowered a fraction. “How did you know that?”

  “A guess? It makes the most sense.” Fact was, I had no idea how I’d come up with that. Not the first clue. It had all poured out of me before I knew what was happening. As natural as breathing.

  “Hmm. You’re correct
. It makes the most sense.” He folded his arms. “Your already strong instincts are sharpening, the way we knew they would once you took your place.”

  “Excuse me? My place where?”

  “With us. Among us. Where you belong and always have.” He shrugged when my jaw dropped. “You requested answers. At the heart of the situation, there is one irrefutable fact. You belong with us, and you always have. Since the day you were born. You are of our blood, and we intend to announce you coming into the fold at the Summit taking place in another day’s time.”

  Thirteen

  SOPHIE

  The door opened. I heard it but didn’t see it.

  I was too busy staring at Dominic. No, gaping at him.

  “Oh, I see you’ve told her.” Jessabelle slinked into place next to him, perching on the edge of the table. I could see her from the corner of my field of vision, draping an arm over his shoulder. “She has that glazed look about her. I can tell.”

  “Quiet.” Dominic’s eyes never left mine. “Allow her to absorb what she’s learned.”

  “Did he tell you he gave you his blood?”

  “For fuck’s sake.” He whirled on her, which was a good thing since it meant breaking eye contact. I couldn’t have done it on my own. How did I know that? No idea. I didn’t know how I knew that stuff about the witch, either. I didn’t know how I could possibly be standing here, with these people—vampires, not people—and I didn’t know how vampires could exist in the world, not to mention all the other supposedly mythical creatures Dominic had named.

  “What?” She flung her hands into the air. “What do you want me to say? She needs to know. The fact that she hasn’t figured it out by now is almost sad.”

  I snarled. “Fuck off.”

  “Oh, there she is.” That earned me a slow smile. “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if you ever developed social niceties.”

  “What is she talking about?” I looked to Dominic. “Your blood? You gave me your blood?”

  He wore the look of a guy who wished he was just about anyplace else. I knew that feeling, but that didn’t make me want to smack the shit out of him any less.

  “There was no other way to spare your life. You were on the verge of death. I could nearly feel it wrapping its arms around you.”

  “He isn’t lying,” Jessabelle added. “You had mere minutes left. Before we even moved you from the side of the road, we allowed you to drink.”

  Bile filled my throat, raced up into my mouth. I clamped my lips shut as tight as I could and even held a hand in front. I was that determined not to throw up all over myself and that close to spewing anyway.

  “Breathe.” Dominic moved toward me, but all that earned him was a quick step back from me. The glasses tinkled behind me as my ass hit the sideboard.

  He pulled his hand away. “You have no memory of that, don’t worry.” He was a little tighter now. More clipped. Offended? Possibly. What was I supposed to do? Act like it was super cool that I drank his blood? Like it was super special and a delicacy or whatever?

  I breathed slowly through my nose and eventually the urge to puke all over the place passed. I lowered my hand. “You wiped my memory?”

  “Of that, yes. I didn’t want you to be upset when you remembered.”

  “Looks like that was a waste of time.”

  I shot Jessabelle a look that managed to shut her mouth. “Says you. I’m pretty grateful.”

  Dominic snickered. “It takes a special person to make Jessa look like she wishes her foot hadn’t fallen out of her mouth.”

  “Silence, you.” She went to the window and made it a point to toss her hair from one shoulder to the other when she did. Very dramatic. I almost wanted to laugh at her and might’ve laughed if it hadn’t been for the whole I just found out I drank blood thing.

  “You healed me using your blood.” I tried the words out and wished like hell they didn’t sound so foreign and disgusting.

  “Which is why you survived,” Dominic reminded me. “And what Kristoff referred to when he remarked on how our blood suited you. Naturally, it would.”

  “Why, because it heals people super fast?”

  His brow creased. “… yes.”

  “That took too long. What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Tell her.” Jessabelle didn’t turn away from the window.

  My insides went cold, which was saying something since they were already pretty freaking cold. “Tell me what?”

  His mouth opened—then, it closed. His brows drew together, his eyes moving over my face. “You tell me.” When his cousin whirled around, he held up a hand but didn’t look back at her.

  “I’m supposed to tell you? How would I know?”

  “You’ll know. I’m certain you will. Once you stop telling yourself you don’t know, once you stop discounting the deep understanding in your soul, it will all be clear. Get out of your own way and know.”

  So much easier said than done. I rubbed my bare arms to kill the goosebumps all over them and tried to ignore the way I shivered. “You’ve got to understand something about me. I’ve spent a lot of my life on my own. I had to take care of myself.”

  “All the more reason to trust your intuition.”

  “No, that’s not the way it works. I’ve questioned everything. Been skeptical of everything. I had to be. And when things got too hard, I drank to dull it. I took any kind of drugs in front of me, so long as I could forget and let go. That was all I wanted.”

  He let out a sigh. “We know that. I should say, I know that.”

  “You’ve been—”

  “Following you for years. Searching for you, actually, since you dropped out of my awareness for a very long time.”

  Tears came to my eyes. I didn’t expect them and sure as hell didn’t want them. This was no time to fall apart. I wiped them away with my knuckles before they could hit my cheeks. “Why would you do that? Why were you stalking me?”

  “Searching for you is not the same—”

  “Why?” It was a shriek. It was the sound of my heart breaking because oh, help me God, I knew why. I knew it all, just like he knew I would once I got out of my way and stopped refusing to believe.

  “I already told you, didn’t I? You are here to take your rightful place with us." He lifted his chin. "As our leader.”

  I barely had time to understand that before Jessabelle snorted. “Our leader. Some leader. I’ve lived centuries and have never met anyone as ill-suited to leadership.”

  “I don’t remember asking you a damn thing,” I snapped. “When I want your opinion, I’ll be sure to ask for it.”

  “So touchy.”

  I lunged in her direction, but Dominic stopped me. “You know as well as I do how that would turn out,” he whispered. His mouth was close to my ear, his breath warm. “Don’t waste your precious energy.”

  “I’m one of you, aren’t I?” I looked at him. His face was inches away, close enough to kiss if I leaned in just a little further. The impulse tugged at me. It was seductive, that impulse. It would be so easy to give in…

  His lips barely moved, but I could hear every word. “You are one of us. You are of our blood. Descended from the ancients. You belong with us and always will.”

  “How?” It was all I could manage.

  A scream pierced the air. One of Graz’s screams. I would know it anywhere, already. After having just met her.

  Nobody screamed like Graz.

  “Damn it.” Jessabelle was by my side in the blink of an eye, and I knew what she was going to do before I caught a glimpse of her hand lifting.

  “No, wait!”

  It was too late.

  * * *

  DOMINIC

  “Must you?” I turned to my cousin with Sophie draped over my arm. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “If I had to listen to more of that, I might’ve started screaming, too.” She swept across the room, holding the door so I could carry Sophie out into the hall.

&nb
sp; Kristoff shook his head hard as we met him out there, slapping his palms against his ears. “Damn it. I doubt I’ll ever get used to that.”

  “Why did she scream this time?” Jessabelle asked.

  “It had to do with him.” His eyes were like slate, narrowing my way. “Your brother.”

  “Could we not?” We reached the bedroom designated as Sophie’s. I deposited her on the bed as gently as I could, then brushed errant curls away from her face.

  So perfect, that face. I had long since memorized every pore, or so it seemed. Ever since I’d finally found her at a twelve-step meeting in Philadelphia. The years had hardened her some, understandably so, but there was a beauty about her that still blazed as brilliantly bright.

  The sort of beauty that made a centuries-old vampire question whether he could ever be worthy. Whether so much as touching her hair would sully her forever.

  I’m not supposed to love you. I tucked her curls back. But if I had a soul, it would be yours forever.

  Fourteen

  SOPHIE

  I was in the dark again. That pressing, suffocating darkness. I panicked for what felt like a year but might’ve been a few seconds, then deliberately focused on what was under me.

  Bed. Silk. Soft. I was in bed again, in that strange bedroom with no windows.

  My pulse slowed to a normal rate. I forced myself to take deep breaths.

  Okay. I’m in a mansion with vampires. They haven’t tried to kill me. According to them, they saved my life. I don’t have anything to be afraid of.

  So why did my stomach toss and turn?

  Because vampires were real. Lycans—werewolves?—were real. The stuff of nightmares, legends, scary movies. It was all real, and I was in the middle of it, and I had never felt more alone in my entire life.

  What would Poppy say if she knew what was happening?

  Shit. Poppy. What if she tried to call while I was… wherever I was? She’d freak out. She might drive up, even. What would it look like when she found the empty cabin? The ice cream I had dropped on the floor? The cell I had left behind? My car, just sitting there out front?