His whole body tensed. Blood hit my tongue with the flavor of cloves and honey.

Adam’s throat muscles worked, pumping the blood into my mouth even faster. I swallowed greedily. The blood soothed my stinging throat and eased the pounding in my head. But I wasn’t content to just take from him.

My palm found his sex. I stroked him in time with my swallows. He groaned and his hand found my hair, pressing my face harder to his throat.

It didn’t take long until his body stiffened. I hadn’t taken more than a pint, but it was enough. He sucked air through his teeth and bucked his hips. I gave one last hard pull on his vein. Wetness covered my hand. Blood surged into my mouth.

He went limp and I let my fangs slowly slide from his skin. My arms curled around his back, holding him to my breast.

Adam’s blood sizzled through my veins, like a shot of adrenaline. My cells knit themselves back together and my thoughts became clear and sharp.

The mancy shifted and lifted his head from my chest. I tensed for his reaction. Would he regret letting me feed from him? But when he looked at me, a lazy smile lifted the corner of his lips. “Well, now…”

I licked my lips to capture every drop before kissing him. His tongue delved in farther. If the taste of his own blood bothered him, he didn’t show it. When he finally pulled away, we both let out long, contented breaths.

“Thank you,” I whispered. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. All of you.”

A surge of warmth flooded my chest and mixed his blood in my veins. The cocktail was potent and made me want him all over again, but I knew that even though I felt strong, Adam needed time to recover from the minor blood loss. So instead of attacking him, I pulled him closer.

He nestled between my breasts with a contented sigh. “See there, things are already looking up.”

“What do you mean?”

“You told Erron we were in the market for some miracles, right?”

I nodded slowly, not following his logic.

Adam wove his fingers with mine and kissed my knuckles. “The fact we’re still together after everything is miracle number one.”

I huffed out a laugh. When he said “everything,” he was referring to some pretty weighty shit: Me sleeping with another male and lying about it, Adam pressuring me to leave my vampire side behind and embrace mage life fully, and the father of the vampire race using my sister to try killing Adam for the crime of loving me. So, yeah, I guess he was right. If we could make this work despite all the odds stacked against us and our own emotional bullshit to contend with, I suppose we did count as a miracle.

“Okay, then, one miracle down.” I blew out a breath and rolled into Adam’s warm chest. “Let’s just hope the gods are feeling generous because we’re gonna need several more if we’re going to defeat Cain.”

Adam ran a thumb down my cheek. “If they’re not, we’ll just have to make some miracles of our own.”

Chapter 5

The sun burned like a demon in the eastern sky. Its evil rays came through the shop’s windows like laser beams. After the infusion of Adam’s blood the night before, I felt pretty freaking fantastic, but I didn’t want to waste his blood fighting the UV damage. So I wore dark sunglasses, jeans, boots, and my leather jacket.

It was two minutes until ten. I sat on the counter chugging coffee while Zen and Brooks made final touches on the amulets and Giguhl and Adam double-checked supplies. I blew across the top of my cup and tried to not look concerned that Erron had yet to show.

“Red, you’re not fooling anyone.”

I looked up at the demon. “What?”

“Please, if you keep glaring at that door, you’re going to burn a hole through it.”

My shoulders slumped. “Are you telling me I’m the only one who is worried Erron might skip out on us?”

“Yes,” Adam said. “He still has a couple of minutes.”

“We said we were leaving at ten. He should have already been here.”

“There are any number of possible explanations for his lateness.”

“Right, like he skipped town—”

The front door burst open, causing the bell overhead to ring frantically. A dark figure rushed in with the bright sun at its back.

I slowly set the mug down and rose. “Erron?”

The being had some sort of tarp draped over its body and wore a ski mask with sunglasses over the eyeholes. Leather gloves hid the skin of its hands. Everyone in the room tensed.

“Well don’t just stand there,” a muffled female voice yelled. “Close the blinds!”

I jerked in surprise. “Georgia?”

“Not for long if you don’t make it dark in here!”

I nodded at the others. “Do it!”

Giguhl, Brooks, Zen, and Adam rushed to close the wooden blinds and pull down the shade that covered the window on the door. Finally, the room was dark enough to be safe for the vampire. She pulled the ski mask off with a gasp. “Good gods, that sucked.”

“What the hell are you doing traipsing around in the daylight like a damned fool?” Brooks demanded.

Georgia threw the tarp to the ground and pointed an accusing finger at me. “I need to give Sabina a piece of my mind!”

I crossed my arms and sighed. “Here we go. What’d I do now?”

She waved the envelope I’d left on her door around like a smoking gun. “If this is some sort of sick joke, I really don’t appreciate it.”

I tilted my head and frowned at her. “What? I told you, Mac asked me to bring it to you. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“Bullshit! Mac would never be this cruel. It has to be a fake.”

“Georgia, I know you’re hurting,” Adam said. “But think about what you’re saying. Why would Sabina come all the way to New Orleans to deliver a fake letter from Mac?”

The vampire deflated a fraction and her eyes swiveled to take in all of us. Brooks and Zen were watching her with looks bordering on pity. Adam and Giguhl were puffed up, ready to defend me. And me? I watched her with my hands on my hips. We were burning daylight, Erron had yet to show, and we needed to get to Italy ASAP so we’d have the whole night there to make headway in finding Cain.

“Look, Georgia, I don’t know what to tell you. Mac asked me to give you that. I had no idea what was in it. I’m sorry if it upset you—”

“Upset me?” she yelled. “I’m not upset. I’m pissed! How dare she do this?”

I frowned, curious despite my best intentions to stay out of the middle. “What’d she do?”

Georgia was red-faced and sputtering now. She held up the letter. Adam came forward and grabbed it. His eyes scanned the stack of pages for a few moments before widening in shock. “Mac signed the building and the license for Lagniappe over to her.”

I frowned at the vampiress. “Let me get this straight. You’re pissed that Mac ensured you had an income and a place to live? How dare she?” I said with exaggerated indignation.

Georgia threw up her arms. “How am I supposed to hate her now?”

My mouth fell open. “Ah.”

“Ah?” Adam asked. “I don’t follow that logic at all.”

But I did. People always say anger is the strongest emotion. They’re wrong. Anger is the easiest emotion, the least complex. When other feelings are too difficult to bear, you can wrap anger around you like insulation. Like a shield to deflect more complicated and hurtful emotions—like sadness and fear.

I sighed and stepped toward Georgia. “She loved you in her own way, Georgia. It wasn’t the love you needed, but it was love. This is her way of proving that.”

“Fuck that,” she said. “I’m putting the building on the market ASAP.”

“Like hell you will,” Brooks said. His hands were on his hips and his head was swiveling with attitude. “You can’t put all those proud queens out on the street!” he said, referring to the drag queen corps who lived and worked in that building. Since Brooks was also employed by the club, he had a personal stake in Georgia accepting Mac’s gift.

“Besides, where are you going to go, baby girl?” Zen said, in full maternal mode. “That building is your home, too.”

Georgia’s lip trembled. “I don’t know! It’s just too hard.”

“So give yourself some time. A month, three. Whatever,” Zen said.

Brooks added, “Yeah, girl, don’t throw away this gift just because it’s easier than working through your shit.”

Georgia wrapped her arms around herself protectively. Her expression was abashed, like she finally realized she’d been making a scene. “I’m sorry. I just… it was a shock.”

Giguhl put his arm around the vampire. “Don’t worry. Love makes fools of everyone.”

The vampire blinked at the unexpected depth of the demon’s statement. “I guess you’re right. I just wish it didn’t hurt so much.”

“Trust me, it passes.”

“You sound like you speak from experience.”

The demon looked into the middle distance. “Even us badass demons aren’t immune to heartbreak, Georgia.”

I rolled my eyes. It’s not that I didn’t feel for Georgia or that I didn’t remember how hurt Giguhl had been when his demon girlfriend dumped him, but with each passing minute I was growing more and more aware of Erron’s absence.

“Look,” I said, “I know this has been rough on you. But Zen’s right—give yourself some time.”

“I guess you’re right. Thanks, guys.” Georgia sighed. Then she looked around and noticed the supplies and baggage littering the story. “What are you guys doing?”

“We’re going to Italy!” Giguhl said excitedly.

“Sabina mentioned you were leaving. Vacation?”

“Hardly. We need to see a mage about murdering the father of the Lilim,” Adam said, using the ancient term for the vampire race.