“Sure. I’d welcome the big guy. The fact is, I can no longer be counted on to protect you, not without my powers. I’ll get him.”

As Vanzir moved back through our ever-expanding household, I slid my cape around my shoulders, then wandered over to the door and opened it, staring out into the darkening evening. Snow drifted down, softly kissing the ground, and the chill of the night embraced me like a silken shroud. I put on a pair of slippers and stepped outside, turning my face up to the flakes that whispered past.

So much had happened. So much was still happening. I longed for the comfort of our own home. For the familiar pattern we’d built over the months. For Maggie to be playing in her playpen near the stove, while Iris searched through catalogs for goodies she might want for the kitchen, and Delilah read computer magazines and watched trash TV.

As I leaned against the doorjamb of the barrow, staring into the darkness, I tried to wrap my mind around where we were. Chase was in trouble, and I had the feeling it was tied to his time in the spider freak’s house. But there wasn’t a damned thing we could do to help.

We were waiting on Hyto—and he’d find us, not the other way around, was my guess. And until he did, I was stuck with this fucking collar. Would it interfere with my initiation? Speaking of which, if I didn’t take care of this matter, would I even dare undergo an initiation at this time? What if Hyto came in charging, leveling Talamh Lonrach Oll?

At that moment, Vanzir and Shade appeared and we wandered out away from the barrow so Vanzir could put in his call.

“Carter left me a message and I didn’t have a chance to return his call till now.” He punched in the number to our main contact for the Demon Underground. I moved away, giving him privacy, and Shade followed.

“Do you know your dragon relatives?” I asked Shade. “Would they object to your relationship with my sister? It might be good to know up front if we’re only dealing with one set of insane in-laws.” I didn’t mean to sound snide, but I couldn’t help it. I was getting damned tired of bigotry. My own father refused to tolerate Trillian because he was Svartan. Smoky’s father hated me to the point of madness. The Rainier Puma Pride disapproved of Nerissa’s relationship with Menolly. We couldn’t seem to please anybody.

Shade held up one finger, then vanished back inside. Within seconds he’d returned, carrying a chair. “Sit down. I know you’re still pretty banged up.”

Grateful, I sat. “Thanks. You’re a sweetheart.”

He grinned. “I try to be.” Then, kneeling down by the side of my chair, the gorgeous man with the craggy scars leaned on one of the arms. “My family . . . my mother is dragon. My father was Stradolan. Not a common mix but one of the few you’ll see come out of the Netherworld. Black dragons live in the shadows; they run similar energy to the Stradolan and often pair up for working magic. My mother and father were one such pair. They fell in love during their work, and I am the result.”

“I knew you didn’t live in the Dragon Reaches.”

“No, shadow dragons do not put as much stock in the hierarchy that, say, silver or white dragons do. They exist in a slightly different plane than the rest of the Dragonkin. And Stradolan . . . how to explain—the Stradolan are solitary beings. We know and recognize our family, but seldom do we meet after we are grown and away from our parents. So my mother and father would not be averse to meeting Delilah or her sisters. They would be aloof, but no more than is their nature.”

I frowned, trying to wrap my head around the thought of an energy being falling in love with a dragon but then just stopped. It was no different than Smoky falling in love with me, or Morio and me.

“What about you? You don’t seem so aloof.”

He grinned then, and his teeth flashed brilliant white. “I was taken from my family very young and fostered in the Autumn Lord’s realm. He made me hang around the Death Maidens a lot. I learned very quickly how to interact. Especially when they used to play tricks on me.”

“So you grew up out of your natural element.”

Shade gave a little shrug. “Not so much. After all, Haseofon is a temple of the dead. The Autumn Lord is one of the Harvestmen, as well as being an Elemental Lord. But look, Vanzir appears to have finished his phone call.” He nodded at Vanzir, who was headed our way.

“I talked to Carter. He’s worried. He’s heard rumors of a rogue portal—roughly opened but usable—set up to the Subterranean Realms. It needs to be shut down, but first we have to find it. Someone mentioned they thought it was up in Shoreline, but there are also rumors that it’s over in the Lynn-wood area. Nobody really knows for sure.”

I stared up at him. “Crap. Has anybody been using it, do you know?”

“Yeah, Carter says that someone in particular slipped through who we’re going to want to know about.” He glanced around to make sure we were alone, then leaned close enough to whisper without being overheard. “Telazhar.”

My stomach flipped. A necromancer from the Scorching Wars down in the deserts of Otherworld—Telazhar had long ago been sent to the Subterranean Realms and there, he’d trained demons, including Stacia Bonecrusher.

“Is Carter sure? Telazhar, loosed on the general populace . . .” Suddenly Hyto didn’t seem like our biggest enemy. I looked up into Vanzir’s whirling eyes. “We’re in trouble. Big trouble.”

He nodded. “Yeah. I wish to hell I had my powers back.”

“I wish you did, too.” I hung my head. The Moon Mother had done as she saw fit, but I couldn’t figure out how taking away Vanzir’s powers—ones he was already conflicted about—had done anything to help us.

“I don’t blame you,” he said. “Trust me, Camille—I don’t blame you for anything. I’d give anything to take back what happened. But I can’t. I’ll do whatever I can to help, though. I’m still working on your side, powers or not, soul binder or not. I just hope Smoky decides to let me stick around.” He bit his lip. “I’ll never touch you again. I promise.”

I licked my lips, feeling awkward. “Vanzir . . . if the circumstances were different . . . I guess what I’m saying is that although I would undo what happened if possible, it’s not because of you. You were incredible. Never doubt yourself. Never worry about . . .”

He laughed, a little too harshly, but he was nodding. “Same to you, woman. Just don’t tell your fire-breathing husband I said that.”

I nodded, then turned to Shade, who had moved back to give us some privacy. “We’d better get back inside to tell the others the news.” Telazhar was a necromancer so powerful he’d make Morio and me look like dabblers.

As we headed inside, we were just in time to see Smoky appear. He held up his hand as Delilah started in with a flurry of questions about how Chase was doing.

“I stayed for a few moments to find out what I could. But Sharah has no clue. She said it will be morning before she’s able to finish a battery of tests. Meanwhile, he’s stabilized and not in immediate danger.” He took off his trench coat and hung it over a knob on the coatrack near the door. Turning to me, he held out his arm and I slid beneath the shelter of his embrace.

“Sharah hopes to have some news by tomorrow morning, Delilah—she suggested you call her around nine A.M.” He paused, then looked over at dinner. “I’m still hungry; if you’ll excuse me, I’ll finish eating.”

I realized that I’d skipped most of my dinner, too, and joined him at the table, filling up another plate. Iris volunteered to heat it up, but I shook my head.

“This is fine. But I have some news for everybody.” I looked around. “Where’s Hanna? I haven’t seen her since earlier.”

Menolly spoke up. “She was feeling punky, so we fixed up a bed for her in a little cubbyhole the first level down. She doesn’t mind—she said she was used to being stuck in a cave.”

“Yeah, well, that needs to end soon enough.” I let out a short breath. “She suffered at Hyto’s hands for five years, though not in the same way I did. But she lost more than me.” I thoughtfully chewed a mouthful of potato.

“What was it you had to tell us?” Delilah asked. She looked worn out. We all did. Living in Smoky’s barrow was going to crowd us, but we didn’t dare go home.

“Vanzir has something to tell us, actually. News. Not good. Bad, in fact. Real bad. Hang-on-to-your-hats bad.” I decided, why get their hopes up? We were already facing a world of hurt, might as well Band-Aid it and just yank it off fast.

Vanzir cleared his throat and told them what Carter had told him. When he finished, everyone sat there, staring at him. Then at me. Then all hell broke loose and the barrow was awash with voices.

After a moment, I slowly, painfully climbed on top of one of the chairs and let out a whistle. Delilah winced—her hearing always gave her trouble with shrill noises.

“Shut up. Everyone just shut up. There isn’t much we can do about it now. There isn’t much we can even discuss doing about it. Tomorrow, we put out feelers. Hunt around, see what we can find. We do our best to trace the rogue portal—but I guarantee you, Telazhar isn’t going to be hanging around waiting for us. I have no doubt he’ll make himself known, however.”

“Do you think he’s working for Shadow Wing?” Roz began to carry plates into the kitchen for Iris.

“I don’t know. Stacia was working to edge Shadow Wing out of his position. Telazhar trained her. Chances are he’s on a rogue mission, but then again—we can’t be sure.”

I tried to run through all the permutations. Telazhar could be working on his own, or for Shadow Wing. For all we knew, Trytian could have coaxed him to come over. No matter which way you cut it, it added up to a very dangerous sorcerer hanging around Seattle, and that just wasn’t going to fly.

“All we know is that he’s trouble and we can’t let him stay over Earthside. If he tries to make it back to Otherworld, they can deal with him—and will. He’ll be put to death if he tries to reenter OW.”

A knock on the door interrupted me. Smoky answered it, cautiously peering out into the night. Almost immediately, he pulled back and opened up the door, allowing Estelle and St. George to enter. Georgio looked up at Smoky and began to sputter, mingled wonder and fear spreading across his face. He’d recognized Smoky as a dragon from the first time he saw him. Sometimes those who walked with one foot in another world—whether it was the world trapped inside their own minds, or another realm—could see beyond the superficial.

“What brings you to my barrow?” Smoky asked.

Estelle shook her head, tears streaking down her cheeks. “Someone came to the house. Someone I did not recognize. He was average height, bald—except for a long ponytail hanging from the center of the back of his head—”

“Asheré! It’s Hyto’s snow monkey!” I turned to Estelle, panic rising. “What did he say? What did he want?”

“He indicated we’d better get out of the house if we didn’t want to be . . . how did he put it? Cannon fodder. He told us to bring you a message, Lord Smoky.”

Smoky looked seconds away from losing his cool. I took his hand in mine and held it tightly. He glanced down at me and I stepped closer to him, the barrow suddenly feeling all too exposed.

“He said to tell you that your sire is coming, and if you don’t want to see the surrounding area razed, you are to meet him in the clearing yonder—with Camille—tomorrow morning at dawn. If you don’t show up, then Hyto will begin to systematically destroy all the houses and humans around the area. And then he vanished.”

My breath caught in my chest, and the collar around my neck began to pulse. I reached for it, trying to yank it off, but it just throbbed, slow and steady, and I couldn’t breathe. I fell to my knees, gasping for air, the room spinning.

“Move, move and give her space,” someone said.

“Get out of the way!”

“Let me in there.”

The words became a whirl as I fought for control, fought for consciousness. Hands lifted me and I wasn’t sure where they were taking me, but I found myself in a dark hall, staring down a long corridor. Behind me, Smoky and Trillian begged me to open my eyes, but something from the darkness beckoned and I felt that I had to go ahead, follow the trail of twinkling lights that spread out in front of me.

I teetered on the edge of a black, vast abyss, and then went spiraling into it, head first, swan-diving into dark sparkling night.

The sparkles floated, dancing through the darkness, whispering my name. They dove and whirled, spun in a vortex of delight, shivered around me and through me as they swept me into their midst.

Come, come . . . follow our trail . . . follow us into the grove . . .

I hesitated, then—feeling no sense of Hyto nearby—decided to do as they asked. I’d reached the point where I had to run on instinct because I was certainly not in control of my life anymore. Everyone else was taking a bite out of me; maybe if I just gave in and did what they wanted, everything would be okay. Hell, the damned collar around my neck was proof that I no longer could count my life my own—not until it was off.

Allowing the sparkles to drag me along, I found myself almost giddy. I finally wasn’t fighting. I was giving in—letting the universe do what it would. Even though I was afraid, whatever happened would happen and I could only react. There was no control here to fight for.

The sparkles led me through the dark until I could see a ring of trees ahead. Were we outside? Inside? I didn’t know, but I followed the lights and suddenly found myself outside under the night sky.