it was ray's blood.

there was no mistaking it. i came along the edge of a shallow boulder and closed my eyes. he was behind it. his scent was all over the place. i didn't really want to see. he was human, and therefore his weakness had always been a liability. this was the probable outcome of the journey. i'd known it going in-not that he would be eaten by a vampire, but that his chances of surviving this were slim to none. i had no idea how he'd found his way in with tyler and danny. i'd have to ask them. my best guess was that naomi must have inadvertently dropped him by a backdoor entrance and they had met up in the maze of tunnels. this mountain clearly had many.

if he'd stayed on top of the mountain like we'd instructed him to, he'd be alive right now, complaining about how long it had taken us to get back. but, in the end, he'd done his best to help me. "ray, can you hear me?" i called. there was no answer. of course.

i stepped slowly around the boulder.

his broken body lay on the ground. his neck had been ripped open in several places, savaged and mutilated. even his hands were bloody and torn. he'd tried to fight. eamon's persuasion, a vampire's automatic defense, must not have worked. i didn't doubt it, because eamon had become unhinged in the end. his love for a goddess who had tortured him had been his undoing.

but persuasion had never worked on ray as long as he'd lived, and if eamon had used it, ray would've hated every minute of it. i grinned in spite of the situation, enjoying the fact that it must've pissed eamon off as this human fought for his life.

i drew closer and knelt. "oh, ray," i said on a small breath as i crouched down by his side. "i'm so sorry it had to end like this. if you can believe it, i was actually beginning to like you." i placed my hands carefully on his broken body and cocked my head. his heart had just given one single, strangled beat. "what are you doing, ray? trying to survive at all odds?" i smiled. "you are one stubborn mother. i'll give you that." i lowered my head to his sternum. there wasn't another beat for several long seconds. i lifted my head. "ray, i can't fix this." i swallowed, angling my face up toward the ceiling in frustration, trying to clear the ball in my throat. "even if you're holding on as hard as you can, i can't help you." i forced myself to look down at him again. he was ravaged beyond repair, the wounds deep and deadly. "you're human, and this kind of damage can't be fixed even by the most skilled doctor in the world, even one of our own. there is nothing i can do. i'm so sorry. i really am."

"i can fix it," a voice said behind me. "if you'll allow it, ma reine."

28

"what the-" tyler slammed on the brakes. the ridiculous canary-yellow humvee skidded to a stop right in front of my office building, tires jacked halfway up the curb, rocking us all on our seats.

it was three a.m.

every light in my office building was ablaze.

my head shot off rourke's lap, his growl of displeasure reverberating around the truck. i squinted out the window, rubbing my eyes. "damn, what's going on? did anyone call us?"

we'd left selene's lair, tired and bedraggled, without naomi or ray. i had no idea if ray would survive the transformation into a vamp or not, but there was nothing more we could do. we'd been in the truck for eighteen hours straight, stopping only for gas and a shower at a local ymca at my insistence.

"my phone is dead," danny said. "i didn't remember to pack the bloody charger."

i sat up straighter while tyler evened out the beast. i reached for my cell phone in my backpack. i'd spoken briefly with my father on the sat phone once we'd emerged from the mountain, and told him we were on our way home. "i don't have any messages and nobody's called since i talked to dad."

"this looks like it happened recently," tyler said as he shut off the engine. "likely no one knows what's happening yet. it's the middle of the night. i'm going to look around. stay here." i was tired enough to let him figure it out.

"there are no other visual disturbances," danny said, scanning the building. "does nick usually work this late?"

"no," i said. "something's definitely happening. every light is on. in the entire building. to do that, someone had to access the main housing. or they spelled the entire thing. looks like they were trying to find something. or someone." likely me-who was i kidding?

rourke opened the door. "i'll go too," he called to my brother, who had gotten out already. as he got out, he leaned over to kiss me first, lingering for a long moment.

"bloody hell, do we have to stand witness to every single kiss?" danny grumbled. "i'm surprised your lips haven't melded together yet with all that snogging."

i broke first, chuckling.

rourke's eyes seared me, sparking emerald. he gave me a wicked grin before slamming the door. i was starved for him. as in, if i-didn't-get-him-soon-i-might-die kind of starved. but we hadn't had two seconds of freedom since we'd all trudged out of the mountains. by the look in rourke's eyes, if we didn't find some privacy soon things were going to happen whether anyone liked it or not. my wolf licked her lips. we are ladies; we can wait. she growled. in all honesty, i was with jezebel on this one. my wolf wasn't the only one who wasn't going to care if anyone was around.

"danny, if you'd had a chance, you would've ridden horizontal on top of the coolers in the back with naomi. don't even pretend you wouldn't have. i saw all the flirting going on. you don't offer to save a woman's life if you're not interested." wolves had very little modesty when it came to sexuality. they liked sex. end of story.

"damn right i would've, but that's not the blasted point." his tone held a note of remorse. a vamp and a wolf would be a hard pairing, even if their personalities seemed well suited for each other. "i still don't want to witness all your lovemaking. i'm of a delicate nature, and seeing it makes me cranky."

i chuckled as i turned back to the window and focused on rourke, watching him move around my building wearing tyler's t-shirt, which was stretched to a comical degree over his huge body. he moved gracefully, like a predator. my wolf growled. yes, we get to taste him soon. "we're going to see naomi soon, you know," i said, glancing at danny. "maybe you can ask her on a date."

danny let out a strangled sound before he answered. "yes, i just might just do that."

i peered at him, curious about the reaction, but he had turned away from me.

we'd arranged to meet naomi at rourke's cabin in the ozarks in a week's time, it being the only secluded place to rendezvous that we could come up with on short notice. if ray survived the transition, naomi said he would need space away from any humans. it might be risky to return there, but it's where they least expected us to be, so it was a unanimous decision.

i leaned forward in my seat. "look, someone just walked into my office." my office was situated on the corner nearest to where we were parked. the figure started rummaging through my desk. "hey! what is she doing?" i peered closer. "at least i think that's a woman." i edged up to the window. "seems too delicate for a guy, right? could be a kid." it was hard to tell because the figure was short, no more than five feet tall, and had a black skull cap pulled down low over their face. "there's nick!" before i knew it, i'd opened the door and shot out of the truck so fast i couldn't hear any protests. the brief thought skittered through my brain that i really shouldn't be racing through the night toward an obvious problem not knowing who or what this threat was, but my body didn't seem to care. that was my best friend in there. my wolf growled in agreement, urging me on.

i skidded to a stop just outside the building door, an arm catching me around the middle before i bounded inside. "jess," rourke purred into my ears. "taking it a tiny bit slower might be a good idea. wouldn't hurt to use a little more caution." i turned around in his arms. he was grinning and his scent washed over me for the millionth time. my wolf yipped in delight.

"someone's in my office with nick and we need to get in there," i argued, facing him. "whoever's in there is having a party with my files. there can't be that much danger if nick's up walking around and not tied up in the back room."

"whoever's in there with him is extremely powerful. i smell witch and a very strong one at that."

"witch?" i inhaled, forcing air over my tongue. it prickled with the residual power left in the air from a recent spell, likely the one that had opened all the locks and blasted on all the lights. i also scented heavy rosemary and herbs, similar to marcy's signature, but not exact. i tilted my head up at him, since he was almost a foot taller than i was. "i think we might have a problem. nothing feels very dangerous to me. i taste the power, but it doesn't seem to register. i feel no urgency and very little fear." my wolf yawned to accentuate the point. "i'm sure the witch in there is extremely powerful, but it's not sparking my warning bells."

rourke growled. "it doesn't matter if you don't feel a threat. you still can't take risks that could get you killed. i rarely feel any real threat from any supe, but you learn to be cautious all the time no matter what. they can still be tricky."

tyler and danny rushed up behind us. "what's going on?" tyler asked. "there's a big signature out here."

"i smell a witch," danny said, turning in a circle. "and it smells a bit familiar."

"it smells like marcy," i said grimly. "and that can mean only one thing."

"there's a blood relation inside," rourke said, releasing his arm reluctantly from around my waist.