My knees grew weak and relief washed over me as I watched Nikolas fight. He was magnificent. And he was safe. All I wanted to do was run to him, but I remembered in time that he couldn’t know I was here.

His eyes swept the yard and settled on me. It was hard to read his expression, and I wondered what I looked like to him, or if he connected me with the vigilante whose movements they had been following.

“Who are you?”

My voice refused to work for several seconds. “A friend,” I managed to say.

“That doesn’t answer my question.” He waved a hand at the bodies littering the yard. “No human could do this. What are you and how did you find us?”

“That is because I am not human. As for how I found you, I have my ways.”

His furrowed brow told me he wasn’t satisfied with my response – not that I’d expected anything else. He took a step toward me, and I suddenly realized the situation I was in. I couldn’t outrun him, and I couldn’t just disappear in front of his eyes either. That was a Fae ability, and he was too smart not to put the pieces together.

“Nikolas,” someone called from inside the house.

He didn’t take his eyes off me. “What is it, Devon?”

“We found a tablet and some other things, but she’s not here. Looks like she got away.”

Of course, she had. Madeline had done what she was best at and saved her own ass. Why would she care about the lives of people she knew, including her own daughter, when she’d never cared before?

Glass shattered loudly followed by screams, and Nikolas forgot about me to speed around to the front of the house. As soon as he was out of sight, Eldeorin appeared and laid his hand on my shoulder. “Time to go, Cousin.”

We reappeared in the kitchen, surprising the hell out of Heb who was taking a large sheet of cookies from the oven. The metal sheet clattered across the tile floor, and the noise brought Jordan running into the room.

“You’re back!” She skidded to a halt and her eyes swept over me. “You look amazing. Well, except for the blood and... is that a vampire fang in your hair?”

I thought she was kidding until I reached up and felt the sharp tooth tangled in my hair. My stomach churned and I threw the thing away from me, watching as it bounced across the kitchen floor. Wordlessly, Heb used a paper towel to pick it up and throw it in the trash.

“Say something. What happened up there? Is the team okay?”

Now that it was over and I knew Nikolas was safe, the weight of the night’s events came crashing down on me. Killing vampires didn’t bother me, but the sheer number of them that had attacked Nikolas’s team scared the hell out of me. And then there was Madeline. After all the months of searching for her, I finally find her and she gets away. After this, I wouldn’t be surprised if she fled the continent and disappeared for good.

Eldeorin waved his hand to clean me up, and then sat me at the small breakfast table. Jordan sat across from me with an expectant look on her face.

Desmund appeared in the doorway and started yelling at Eldeorin. “She looks terrible. I told you she was not up for this.”

“Desmund, I’m fine, just a bit wiped.” I smiled at Jordan. “Nikolas and the others are safe. At least I think everyone is safe. We didn’t stick around long once it was over.”

Jordan raised her hand in a high five. “I want to hear every detail.”

I told her and Desmund everything that had happened from the moment we left here to the moment we returned. Jordan was wide-eyed as I recounted each fight, especially when Eldeorin added his own embellishments.

She muttered a few obscenities when she heard about Madeline. “I thought my mother was bad. Are you sure she knew who you were?”

I remembered the recognition in Madeline’s eyes. “She knew.”

“And Nikolas had no idea who you were?”

“None.”

“What about the bond thing? Can’t he sense you like you do him?”

“Not through a faerie glamour. I couldn’t sense him either.”

A phone rang and Heb went to answer it. He reappeared a minute later with a cordless phone, which he handed to Desmund.

Desmund spoke briefly to whoever it was, then hung up and smiled at us. “Nikolas called Raoul to let him know the team is safe. The Seattle team has just arrived on site, and they are taking over the cleanup operation.”

Even though I’d been there and talked to Nikolas, it was still a huge relief to hear that the whole team had made it out. “Did he say when he’s coming back?”

“They should be here sometime tomorrow morning.”

I sagged in my chair, and Desmund laid a hand on my shoulder. “I don’t like you going into such dangerous situations, but I understand why you had to do it.” He looked at Eldeorin over my head. “Thank you for keeping her safe.”

“You do not have to thank me, warrior. Sara is stronger than you could possibly imagine. One day, she will realize that as well.”

Eldeorin spoke with such conviction it was impossible not to believe him. Training with him had shown me I was capable of more than I’d ever dreamed, but tonight had taken it to a whole new level. The whole time I was out there, my fear had been for Nikolas, not for me. When had I stopped being terrified of vampires? I still feared them, yes, but I was no longer the defenseless, frightened girl Eli had pulled into that alley.

I stood, covering a yawn with my hand. “If you guys don’t mind, I think I’ll go to bed.”