A new voice broke through the haze of pain around me. It was warm and rich, yet commanding. “Let me help her, warrior, if you want her to live.”

I tensed when a cool hand touched my forehead and then gasped as the stabbing pain rapidly drained away. A sob escaped me, and it was a minute before I opened my eyes to see Eldeorin smiling down at me.

“Hello, little Cousin. I told you I’d see you again soon.”

“H-how did you find me?”

His smile dimmed. “Your pain is like a beacon to any Fae within fifty miles of here. I was away from the city or I would have come sooner.” His hand stroked my cheek and each touch sent a wave of soothing energy through me. “I’m going to take care of you now.”

“You healed her?” Roland asked.

“No, I merely eased her pain. I will take her to Faerie where we will tend her.”

Nikolas stepped forward, towering over us. “She stays with me.”

Eldeorin did not cower or flinch from Nikolas’s anger. He continued to stroke my face as if nothing had happened. “Sara needs to be around my kind. She is going through liannan.”

“Liannan?”

“Think of it as the Fae equivalent of puberty. Her powers are experiencing a growth spurt, and her body cannot handle the sudden changes. If she was full Fae and had grown up among our kind, this would have happened slowly, over months or years, and she would have been better able to deal with it. We were not sure she could even enter liannan since she is half Mohiri and lives outside of Faerie. Only exposure to our kind or a prolonged visit to Faerie should trigger liannan. I did not sense it in her when we met, and our brief encounter was not sufficient to cause it.”

“What about Glaen?” Jordan asked him.

“What do you know of Glaen?”

“Sara drank a bunch of it at a demon party a few nights ago. She started getting sick a day later.”

Roland came to stand beside Jordan. “Don’t forget the times she glowed when she was asleep before she drank the Glaen. No way was that normal.”

Eldeorin nodded thoughtfully. “It sounds like she was already approaching liannan. Consuming that much of our drink at one time could be a catalyst to someone like her.”

“Will she be okay?” Roland asked, his voice strained.

Eldeorin gave me a reassuring smile. “Yes, but she needs proper care.”

Nikolas looked at me with a closed expression. “What kind of care?”

“She will need to be near our kind, at least until she passes through the most difficult stage. The best place for her is Faerie.”

“For how long?” Nikolas asked.

“I cannot say,” Eldeorin replied. “It may take weeks or months.”

Something unreadable flashed in Nikolas’s eyes. “Do whatever it takes to help her.”

“No,” I rasped. “I don’t want to go to Faerie.” As much as I’d love to see that beautiful place, I did not want to leave Nikolas again.

Nikolas sat on his haunches so his face was close to mine. “You’ll get better faster there.”

“I can get better here. Eldeorin will stay here with me. Won’t you?” I asked the faerie, silently pleading with him to say yes.

“I will stay if that will put you at ease, Cousin.”

“Thank you.” I tried to sit up, but my body was too weak to obey me. Nikolas stood and lifted me into a sitting position. His jaw hardened when Eldeorin sat beside me holding my hand, and I remembered what Desmund had told me about Mohiri males not liking another male touching their bond mate. I reached my free hand toward him, and he entwined his fingers with mine. Tugging gently, I made him sit on my other side so I could rest my head against his shoulder.

The tension in Nikolas’s body eased, and he looked at Eldeorin. “It’s not safe to stay in this apartment. Can you come to our stronghold?”

“That would be unwise. I and others of my kind will have to be near Sara for weeks. I don’t think a prolonged Fae presence at a Mohiri compound would be received well. And we don’t know yet how Sara’s liannan might affect your people.”

“None of our safe houses are big enough to hold all of us,” Chris said. “We could take a large house for a few months and bring in some people to help with security.”

Eldeorin shook his head. “That is not necessary. I have a place we can use, and it is big enough to accommodate all of us without Fae and Mohiri affecting each other.”

“Is it safe?” Nikolas asked skeptically.

“It is glamoured and well-fortified with faerie protections. No vampire would dare attack it.”

Nikolas’s thumb rubbed soothing circles on the back of my hand. “Where is this place?”

“It is near Santa Cruz.”

“We can be there in an hour on the jet,” Chris observed.

Nikolas stood, releasing my hand. “Chris, call the pilot and tell him to be ready to leave within the hour. Jordan, pack your things and Sara’s.”

Roland came forward. “We’re coming too.”

“Be ready to leave here in five minutes.”

I looked around the living room. “Where is Greg?”

Greg came out of the kitchen and approached me. His hair needed a brush and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

He knelt beside me. “You need help that I can’t give you, Sara. I wish I could after what you did for me. But just say the word and I’m there.”