When Adele’s husky voice called for us to come in, I moved next to Nikolas so I entered right behind him.

The blond succubus was lounging on her couch, wearing a long red dress and a sensual smile. “Nikolas, what a pleasant surprise! How can I be of service to you tonight?”

Adele’s tone left little doubt about what services she wanted to provide. My Mori growled so loudly that for a second I feared the sound had come from my throat. I clenched my hands at my sides as I stepped out from behind Nikolas and stood beside him.

Adele’s violet eyes could not hide her shock. “And Eldeorin’s little cousin? This is a surprise.”

“Hello, Adele,” I said with forced politeness.

A door at the other end of the office opened and a tall man with long black hair came out holding a brown leather satchel. “Adele, do you have –?” He stopped when he saw she was not alone, and his brown eyes narrowed immediately on me. “You!”

“Nice to see you again, Orias.”

He hugged the satchel to his chest, and I knew it held his demon. “Because of you, I have no home and no business, and every vampire in New Mexico wants me dead. You are a menace!”

“Maybe you should be more careful about the people you do business with,” I retorted.

Jordan came forward. “Yeah, and you shouldn’t have tied us up either.”

Nikolas stiffened beside me, and I laid a hand on his arm. “He was going to turn us over to Tristan for the reward money.”

Orias sat on the other couch, clutching his satchel. “And you upset my demon so much that it took me a week to get him to calm down. I wish I’d never laid eyes on you.”

Adele, who had been listening to our exchange, spoke up. “This is the girl who killed Stefan Price? You didn’t tell me she was Fae.”

“She’s not Fae. She’s Mohiri.” Orias huffed in irritation. “And I couldn’t tell you because she put a gag on me.”

Nikolas gave me a questioning look, and I shrugged.

Adele’s eyes came back to me. “But that means you are not Fae as you and Eldeorin led me to believe. What game are you playing?”

“This is not a game to me,” I replied.

Her eyes narrowed. “Why did you lie to me?”

“I could ask you the same question.” I pulled three photos from my pocket and tossed them on the coffee table.

Adele picked them up, her slender fingers almost caressing the edges. “Where did you get these?”

“From a box of things my mother left behind.”

“Your mother? What would your mother be doing with...?” Her gasp was almost inaudible. “You are Madeline’s daughter.”

“Yes.”

Adele recovered quickly. “You look nothing like her.”

“I know.”

She sank back against her cushions, still holding the photos. “Madeline’s daughter. Pardon me for staring, but in all the years I’ve known her, she never once spoke of a daughter. I knew she was married to a human for a few years, but not that there was a child.”

“I’m not a child anymore.”

Her eyes flicked from me to Nikolas, and she gave a knowing nod. “So it would seem.”

Nikolas pointed to the photos in her hands. “Tell us about your history with Madeline.”

It wasn’t a request. Adele looked down at the photos for a long moment. “The story I told you about Madeline saving my life from a vampire was true. That happened years after we met.”

She smiled as if she was reliving the memories. “It was nineteen seventy-one and I was living in San Diego when I met Madeline at a party. We were the only nonhumans there, and we were drawn to each other’s company. We hit it off immediately and spent the next few months partying and having fun. It was the best summer of my life.

“When I moved here, she came with me and stayed for a few years, but then she said she wanted to travel. She said she’d spent all her life in a stronghold and she wanted to see the world. She travelled for years, and she came back here between trips.

“She surprised me when she said she was enrolling in college in Maine of all places. Madeline was more adventurous than academic, and she liked warm sunny places. It was around that time that I lost touch with her for a few years. She sent a few letters, but she stopped visiting altogether for about four years. One day she reappeared and told me she’d gotten married but it hadn’t worked out. She never said his name.”

I swallowed the bitterness that welled up inside me. My dad had loved Madeline until the day he died, had kept her picture on his dresser and his wedding ring in his nightstand. She hadn’t even bothered to tell her best friend his name.

Adele went to a sideboard and poured herself a glass of wine. She offered us a drink and we declined.

“Madeline was different after that, quieter. Sometimes she got a sad look in her eyes, but when I questioned her she never wanted to talk about it. I figured she still cared for her human ex-husband and I left it at that. She continued to travel and return here three or four times a year, until about ten years ago. I barely see her these days.”

“What did she tell you about the Master she was running from?” I asked.

Adele’s fingers tightened almost imperceptibly on her wine glass. “Madeline told me she’d had a run-in with a Master, but she didn’t say more than that.”

I turned to Orias. “Were you selling Madeline glamours to hide her from the vampires?”