But I understood them just fine.

“She is mine.”

The power signature Alana had emitted reeked of alcohol, of all things. I righted myself quickly, but Rourke was one step ahead of me. Yuri was down and Rourke was already by his side, kneeling at his chest.

There was only one problem.

Houdini had escaped her chains and she wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

The room wasn’t that big.

There were various shelving units and darkened areas stacked with goods, but I should be able to get a bead on her. “Um, Rourke?” I said as I inched forward cautiously. “Where’s Alana?” I glanced toward the door of the storage room, but it was closed and had no sign of a forced exit. She wouldn’t have had enough time to go through without us seeing her. “I can still smell her all over. It would be impossible for her to become invisible right—”

With a wicked shriek, she dropped from the ceiling onto my shoulders.

We tumbled to the floor as my mate yelled, and pandemonium hit the storage room.

Goddammit. I hadn’t looked up. That was the oldest trick in the book. But now that I was on my back, I could see the old rafters cut deeply into the weathered ceiling. Perfect place for a crazy lady to hide.

My wolf snarled fiendishly, trying to roll her off of us. Adrenaline raced through my system as my body morphed. “What are you doing?” I yelled at Alana as we tumbled. “Ow!” She’d locked her skinny arms around my neck and plunged her fangs deeply in my neck.

I gave a strangled howl.

“I can’t tear her loose,” Rourke shouted from above us. “There’s no space between you.” He clutched her around the waist, but her legs were locked like a vise around me, and we both rose in the air as he lifted, her fangs tearing deeper into my flesh.

“Gag, stop,” I gurgled. He set us back down carefully. “You can’t get her off me,” I gasped, trying to force her head backward, my claws digging deeply into her back, “because she’s not trying to fight me. She’s trying to eat me!”

Alana had clamped herself onto me like a vampire second skin and she was a lot stronger than she looked. Her power needled into my skin as she drank, her head buried so far in the crook of my neck her face wasn’t showing. I rolled again, trying to shake her loose. We knocked into crates and boxes, but she held on. Rourke swung his fist down on her head and then on her back. I heard bones break, but she didn’t move. Not even an inch.

“She’s not reacting,” Rourke yelled. “I don’t know how to get her off without ripping open your neck.” Her fangs were embedded so far into me, tearing her off would cause major trauma and take me too long to heal. Plus, it would hurt like a mother.

“Let me … try something.” I raked Alana’s back with my claws, using all my strength, tearing what little clothing she had. She gasped and writhed but wouldn’t unlatch. I turned her on her back, managing to make my way to my knees. Once up, I slammed her down. “Get off me!” I shouted.

Rourke was behind with something in his hand. “Look out, Jessica. I’m going to smash this—”

And just like that, she unlatched.

Once free, I jumped off the floor, my hand covering my dripping neck as I backed away.

Alana staggered like a drunk and laughed like a possessed cartoon character. She sounded like Woody Woodpecker on acid.

My gaping wound healed quickly, but for some reason I felt dizzy. She must have taken a gallon. Rourke was in front of me, throwing what appeared to be an ice pick into the corner. That would’ve been gruesome. “Are you okay? Did she take too much?” he asked. When I didn’t answer right away, he put his hands on my shoulders and urged, “Jessica, answer me. Are you hurt?”

I shook my head.

He didn’t need any more than that. He let go of me and turned, bearing down on Alana fast. “I don’t care what you are.” She didn’t make a move to dodge him. He took her by the throat, lifting her off the ground, shaking her thin body. “You do not get to do whatever you want.”

“You are too late,” Alana gasped, her teeth stained red with my blood. She ran her tongue over her pointed canines to prove her point. “I already took my fill.”

Those were coherent sentences.

Spoken from someone who had been mostly nonverbal a few short moments ago. I angled my head toward Alana, wiping the blood off my neck with the collar of my shirt. My eyes were semiunfocused, but I was regaining my strength by the moment. I narrowed my line of sight with effort so I could take in her appearance. Her head was almost fully back to normal. She was changing, morphing into what must have been her old self as I watched. My blood was healing her too quickly.

I inhaled, and her real scent hit me.

It was crab apple.

“Wait!” I shouted at Rourke. He had backed her up against a wall. Her eyes were beginning to roll back in her head. “Put her down. It was her ward we just felt in the hallway. She can cast spells, and she’s a vampire! Just like the Queen.”

“Are you sure?” Rourke replied through clenched teeth. “I’m having trouble … wanting to let her go. She’s a menace and needs to be stopped. What if she goes after you again?”

I placed a hand on his outstretched arm, his muscles corded like steel, just like he’d proven to me a few minutes ago. Alana was no match for his strength, which is why she hadn’t struggled. The hierarchy was certainly in place here. “I’m sure. Let her go. We need information more than we need to take her life. If she can cast spells like the Queen, I want to know why. There’s a link we’re missing. Let’s fill it in and then we can decide what to do after we hear it.”

Yuri staggered to stand, finally recovering. His face was bloodied, but he was rallying. “Yes,” he urged. “Please let her go.”

Rourke released her and took a step back. She dropped to the ground.

Alana stood for a second, a lopsided grin on her face, and then she began to clap like a little girl. She gazed at me. “Bravo! It is exactly as I had hoped it would be. Your blood is like an ocean of power coursing through my veins. I’ve waited so long for this. Oh, how I can see again! It’s like a miracle, only not really, because, of course, I knew this was going to happen.”

I tried not to show my surprise by her complete 180, or her predictions. “How is it that you can cast spells?” I asked, ignoring the comments about my blood. Having it running through her veins was not at all optimal. I had no idea what she would be capable of now, or if we’d be linked, and I really didn’t want to think about killing her. One thing at a time. “Are you related to the Queen by blood?”

“Of course I am,” she replied. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“That’s not really an answer,” I pointed out. “If you’re both related to the Queen by blood, that means”—I turned my head toward Yuri, who looked agitated—“you married your cousin.” I glanced back at Alana. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Yes,” Yuri said quietly. “We are distant cousins.”

I turned back to Alana. “What are you? You were turned into a vampire, but you were supernatural already. If Eudoxia could defeat Vlad as a fledgling, and she can cast spells, you both have to be something more.”

Alana sized me up, still grinning. “We are fae.”

23

My mouth hung open. Fae had not been the answer I expected. I don’t know what I’d been expecting, but possibly something along the lines of nymph or pixie. “Fae have been rumored to be extinct for centuries. There hasn’t been a single sighting of one since before the birth of my father,” I said, still feeling slightly astonished. “How can this be?”

Alana strode from the wall and Rourke shot his hand out in warning. She stopped. “We are half fae, if you must know,” she said, “which you do, so I will tell you. Long ago our race was in threat of dying out and we were forced to breed with humans or become extinct. We chose humans with wealth and power, naturally, and kept our existence well cloaked.” Her hair had darkened considerably, and her cheeks had become a more palatable color than dead, bleached bone. Her eyes were now a luminous brown, not glowing pewter.

She appeared … strangely normal.

Not someone who’d spent eons as a spooky ghoul locked in a cell. She continued. “I am telling you this because it will aid you later. Much later. But we are running out of time and you must go or things will shift once again.”

Shift? “I’m sorry, but I’m not going anywhere until I understand what you’re talking about,” I said firmly. “You’re a seer and blood-kin to the Queen, but she kept you locked up. Why did you continue to aid her?”

“It was necessary,” Alana replied. “After hundreds of years of cruelty at the hands of Valdov, my mind had shattered. A newly made vampire starved for blood becomes damaged beyond repair, but a fledgling vampire who is also a seer who is also half fae is irrevocably lost. Because the Queen is powerful, and my kin; she alone could coax me into intermittent sanity. But she could not stay with me twenty-four hours a day.”

I nodded, not because I understood, but because it was all so insane. “So the Queen knew Valdov was a spy.”

“Of course,” she said. “She knew his true nature when she found out about us. But she needed to keep him for this very day. So he lived.”

“The Queen orchestrated the events today. Why?”

“Valdov and Eudoxia would’ve ended you together if you had come when your oath demanded. When you showed up early and unannounced, it put their plans askew. She came down to consult with me once you were granted entrance into the mansion. I told her what must be done.”

“She wants my blood.”

“She needs your blood,” Alana said, holding up a single finger. “There is a distinction.”

My eyebrows arched. “She needs it like you needed it?”