Two days ago, we’d travelled to Seattle where I’d killed a vampire who was responsible for at least three missing teenagers. He’d been older than the vampires in Miami and he’d put up a little more of a fight, so the kill had been pretty messy. Eldeorin had to clean me up and heal a few scratches before he’d taken me home. But it had been worth it because I’d found two of the missing teenagers in the old house the vampire had holed up in. They’d been traumatized, but they were alive. Eldeorin used his magic to heal them and wipe their memories of their horrible ordeals before we’d dropped them off at the nearest hospital.

Every time Eldeorin arrived I had no idea what he had in store for me, and it scared me. At the same time, I couldn’t deny that I liked how it felt to kill those monsters and to save people from them. I felt like I had a purpose, like I was doing what I was born to do. Not to mention that unleashing all that power helped me focus during my training with Aine.

The only downside – and it was a big one – was keeping my adventures a secret from Nikolas. Whenever he asked me about my trips with Eldeorin I said we went to the desert to work on my power. Not telling him the truth gnawed at me, but Jordan reminded me I didn’t have another option, unless I wanted him to lose it. As much as I hated it, I decided to wait until I could prove I was capable of taking care of myself before I told him.

“So, Cousin, are you ready for our next little excursion?”

I waded out of the water and waited for Aine to do her little drying trick. “I don’t suppose we’re going somewhere fun for a change. They have vampires in Hawaii, don’t they?”

Eldeorin laughed and hugged me because he knew it bugged me when he did that. “Oh, I have something very fun for you today. You like snow, don’t you?”

“Snow?”

The word was barely out of my mouth when the world went black. I found myself standing in a foot of snow in the parking lot of what looked like a storage facility. I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered in the bitter cold as fat snowflakes swirled around me. “Are you trying to freeze me to death?”

“Oops.” Eldeorin waved a hand and I was suddenly wearing soft-soled boots that came to my knees, a warm jacket, and a knit cap that I pulled down over my ears.

I waved a hand over my form-fitting outfit. “What’s with all the black? I feel like a cat burglar.”

He gave me a lopsided smile. “I figured we might as well have some fun.”

“You always have fun,” I reminded him, sticking my hands in my pockets to warm them. “I do all the work, remember?” I looked around the empty parking lot. “Where are we, and what are we doing here?”

“We are in Minneapolis to see a gulak demon that has decided to enter the slave business.”

Anger burned away the tiny knot of fear in my stomach. “Human or demon slaves?”

“Both, most likely.”

“This place looks deserted. Where are they?”

He took my arm and led me around to the front of the building. Then he pointed to a two-story warehouse across the road. “They are in that building.”

I studied the warehouse. There were two loading doors and four upper windows on the side facing us, but I could see no sign of activity. Several inches of untouched snow lay on the ramps in front of the doors, indicating that no one had gone in or out that way in the last few hours.

The sound of an approaching truck broke the silence. A few seconds later, I spotted a white moving truck at the end of the street. “Um, shouldn’t we hide before they see us?”

“They can’t see us.”

“Oh, right, glamour.” I exhaled in relief. “When will I be able to do that?”

“Baby steps, Cousin.”

“You know, for a teacher you’re not that big on sharing.” I thought about our other excursions. “I’m not going to go in there and find a dozen gulaks, am I? It’s just one, right?”

Eldeorin shrugged. “A gulak usually has a second and third but they won’t be as strong as he is, and none of them is as strong as you.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel better?” I recalled the fight at Draegan’s party. I’d only had to take out one of the gulaks because Jordan had killed the other one. And neither of us had faced Draegan because he’d been unconscious. Something told me he would not have been an easy kill.

The truck reached the warehouse and the driver put it in reverse to back up to one of the loading doors. The doors opened and a gulak and a ranc demon got out.

“How are they able to drive around in broad daylight without someone seeing what they are?”

“Glamours,” Eldeorin replied. “Warlock made, if I’m not mistaken.”

Silently cursing warlocks everywhere, I watched as one of the gulak demons typed in a code on the panel next to the door and the door began to rise. The ranc demon moved to the back of the truck, and I heard the truck door slide up followed by the unmistakable sound of crying.

“You’re up, Cousin. Get in there and go all Fae on their demon asses.”

In less than a minute, I was across the street and crouched in front of the truck as the two demons led seven bound and shackled humans into the warehouse. The four women and three men all looked to be in their late teens or early twenties, and judging by their various states of undress, they had been taken from their beds. I watched a pale red-haired woman stumble only to be yanked up violently by the gulak demon. She cried out, and my nostrils flared in outrage. The bastard didn’t know it yet, but he’d just hurt his last human.