She laughed. “Of course I like it. Did you not hear all those times I screamed your name?”

He covered her body with his, his mouth finding her throat, and then he bit down. Hard. She shrieked, not expecting that. He wasn’t going to think about what he was doing or why he just had to mix their blood and make sure it stuck. An internal monologue had started, insisting he mark her in a real way. He didn’t have a knife handy, but he was pretty sure this would work.

He bit into his own wrist and pressed it against her neck, both to blend more of their blood together and to heal the damage he’d caused.

She scrambled away when he released her, her hand going protectively to her throat. “What the hell was that?”

“You. Are. Mine. Now you’re going to the caves where you’ll be safe, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.”

She was nearly wiped, but she managed to create another energy ball. Without hesitation, a fireball flared to life in Cain’s hand. He threw it to disarm her. It burnt her arm and knocked her back in the sand.

When she was down, he picked her up to carry her the rest of the way to the caves.

There were tears in her voice when she spoke. “I hate you. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I hate you.”

It didn’t matter what she felt now, some part of him had decided he wasn’t letting her go. She’d get over it. There would be plenty of time to sort out their issues if he could keep her away from The Cycler.

When they got to the caves and he’d opened a pod in the wall, she made one last attempt to sway him.

“Please, Cain. You don’t have to do this.”

He ignored the pain that had started in the center of his chest, right around the region where his heart was supposed to be but probably wasn’t. He shoved her in and tossed her shirt at her, then he sealed the pod.

The demon started to walk away, but the sound of creaking rock stopped him. He turned back, shocked to find her standing there with her hands on her hips, so much anger simmering in her eyes, he thought they might glow red with fire of their own.

“It appears the cave’s magic is incompatible with mine. I’m not a demon or part demon, so I guess it can’t hold me. I never want to see you again.”

He should have turned back around and walked out. He had work to do before the meeting. There were too many humans in power out there who knew too much. Damage control had to be done. He didn’t have time for this. But instead, he strode toward the witch and pulled her toward him, his mouth finding hers.

She resisted at first, but soon enough, she was kissing back, moaning against his lips, her hand sliding down his pants. Sexual heat rose off her without thrall, without him doing anything preternatural to elicit it. He broke away from her mouth and whispered in her ear.

“You want to see me every day for the rest of your life, and you know it. You want me to fuck you like a bitch in heat, and if you say anything different, we’ll both know it’s a lie. Now go back to your tent and stay there. No wandering until we get this situation under control.”

He turned and left the cave, one of her energy balls hitting him in the back on the way out.

Chapter Twelve

Hadrian stood by the pool on the roof of Anthony’s penthouse. Jack was waiting for him in the forest near the portal point into the demon dimension. They’d discovered it while tracking the werewolf pack alpha. The sun had set less than an hour ago, but it wasn’t quite time for the meeting. Would it look suspicious being up here this early? He adjusted the Roman collar on his clerics.

The metal door slammed against the brick. Anthony’s dress shoes clicked over the concrete as he reached the conference table. Why he preferred open air meetings, Hadrian had never bothered asking. It seemed strange for a man who otherwise seemed so intense about security.

“Where’s Charlee?” he found himself asking. He didn’t care where Anthony’s mate was, but making small talk would make him look less nefarious.

“She’s in her room, taking care of the baby.”

The vampire king seemed tense. For a moment Hadrian wondered if just taking out the infant would end the police state—even though the idea made him recoil. That child had done nothing wrong, no matter who her father was.

There was no way to anticipate what was going on with vampires in other countries—how tight the control was—but in the U.S., more magical barriers had started cropping up to keep therians in pens like cattle. Vampires could pass freely—for now—but they were under Anthony’s thumb in other ways, and Hadrian feared that by the end, the vampires would be cattle to the vampire king as well. He’d seen the plans for the vampire barriers in Anthony’s vault.

Killing the baby wouldn’t change things—not now with Jack involved. There was no turning back, and Hadrian was determined to see this through.

“How is she?” he asked.

“Charlotte or the baby?”

“The baby.”

The vampire king shrugged. “She’s as to be expected. Weak. Needs a lot of blood. Sleeps all the time. She’ll have to be protected. Always. Kept out of the sun. Kept away from anything stronger than a human female that might wish to hurt her. She’s got her mother’s physical strength and all of a vampire’s weaknesses. That’s how these things work. I don’t know how long she’ll live. I don’t recall an abomination being allowed to live long enough to find out. She could be effectively immortal, or she could have a human life span. Is it wrong that I’m hoping for the latter? I can’t imagine the stress of worrying about her for centuries.”

Hadrian shrugged. “I really wouldn’t know, sir.”

It was clear the vampire king didn’t see his daughter as an abomination, even though he’d used the word. He was prepared to protect his offspring, even if it was against every vampire instinct to let something weak and frail live. But then, Anthony had always had that weakness. He’d been a king mated with a human female.

Taking humans was still frowned upon. They weren’t considered equals. And yet, Charlee had held her own most of the time. Though many of the vampires who followed her orders probably would have slaughtered her in a heartbeat if not for fear of Anthony’s wrath.

The two of them stood awkwardly, having exhausted all conversational topics that wouldn’t reveal Hadrian’s contempt for Anthony’s policies. At least the vampire hadn’t pulled out a wallet full of baby photos with cute little fangs popping out of its gums. Vampires couldn’t reproduce like this with other vampires. And there was a reason. It was freakish and disturbing.

Thankfully they were interrupted by the metal door clanging against the brick. Cole. Hadrian tried not to look anxious. The portal charm was on the werewolf.

“Where’s Jane?” Anthony asked, looking up from the projector. He’d most likely been briefed by guardians on what had been happening while he’d slept. It would be a big meeting tonight with a new death and a greater pressure to come up with ideas on ways to find The Cycler.

The kill site was different each time. Jack would tease and taunt them, but he’d never give them a chance to find him until he was ready to bring the fight to them.

The werewolf grunted. “She’s out doing Cain’s bidding.”

Anthony arched a brow. “Oh?”

Cole flung his jacket over a chair, causing the leather cord from the portal charm to spill out of the pocket. Hadrian’s eyes flicked to it for a moment, but he quickly made his face go bland, pretending to be interested in what Cole and Anthony were discussing, trying to look like it was all news to him.

“Cain is trying to do as much damage control as possible. They’ve been at it all day. Politicians, people with power, news media. The demons have been covering all locations where the sun was out. Vampires hit the parts of the world where it was night. The people have seen what they’ve seen. We can’t stop that, but we can at least set up strong denial and retractions among those in authority to slow it down,” Cole said.

Even if they wanted to, vampires couldn’t go about during the day. The sun being up nearly killed them, slowing their respiration to almost nothing. It was the moon that resurrected them again. It was a law they couldn’t breech. The best they could do was go underground, or black out their windows and lock their doors and hope no one suspected what they were. More than most preternaturals, vampires were always vulnerable to the truth coming out.

“Have you seen any of the news since you rose?” Cole asked.

“No, I was being briefed for the meeting,” Anthony said.

“You probably should.”

The vampire king followed the werewolf back inside the penthouse. He turned at the door. “Hadrian, are you coming?”

“In a moment. I want to read the new letter if you don’t mind.”

The transparency was already up and ready. Anthony shrugged and went inside.

Hadrian couldn’t have planned this better. He couldn’t have planned it at all. Cole showing up early, being left with his coat. He thought he’d have to pull off a bump and grab like the pickpockets he’d so often fed from in the alleyways of big cities.

He took the portal charm and slipped it into his pocket, then stood on the ledge and looked down onto the small alley between the apartments and the next building over. The next building was only four stories, instead of six. As a vampire he could make a four story jump without much trouble. He leaped to the neighboring building, then jumped down into the alley from there.

***

When Hadrian reached the portal point in the Cary Town forest, Jack was waiting. He’d created a circle with salt, and lit candles. Incense burned in a censor, and he had a dish with an unidentified herb crushed in it.

“Did you bring it?”

Hadrian passed the portal charm to the sorcerer. Jack’s eyes lit as he looked at the circular golden object with runic markings and a dial.

“Let’s find out your secrets, shall we?” He placed the charm on the ground inside the circle and sprinkled it with the herbs in the dish while chanting: “Revelare tuum secreta. Revelare tuum secreta. Revelare tuum secreta...”

A pure white smoke rose out of the herbs, swirling into runic markings, forming the combination for the charm. The sorcerer stared at it for a few moments, memorizing the symbols and the order they came in, then he brought down the circle and blew out the candles.

Hadrian stayed out of the way as Jack turned the dial on the disc to the correct combination and a shimmery film appeared—the doorway into the demon dimension.

Jack tossed the charm to Hadrian, not having any pockets for it himself. “Are you coming? I need you to persuade her out. It’s less fuss that way, if she’ll fall for it. Who knows with her?”

Hadrian hadn’t looked forward to seeing Tamara again—not under these circumstances. It wasn’t as if the vampire had started with the intent to betray her. He’d been curious and searched for another cycler until he’d stumbled upon Jack in the seventies. The Cycler had been on a break from hunting, but his interest had renewed upon hearing of Hadrian’s encounter with Tam.

The vamp had known from the beginning the man was crazy, but now, well... they wanted the same things. At least temporarily. They both wanted Anthony out of power. Their similarities in goal ended there, but for now it was enough.

He stepped through the portal after Jack, into a dimension that felt like a past he wasn’t old enough to remember. Jack stayed a distance away, keeping an eye out for Tam while Hadrian poked his head in tents and wandered. A few demons milled about, but most of them seemed involved in their own activities, wrapped up in the humans they’d brought back with them. One of them stopped.

“What is your business here?” the demon asked, suspicion in his eyes.

Hadrian looked around him, but Jack had slipped between a couple of tents out of view. The vampire pulled out the portal charm. “Cain sent me. I need to speak with Tam. It’s of an urgent matter regarding the investigation.”

The demon made a face at the mention of the blonde witch. “She’s one street over, about halfway down, in a purple tent with two demon guards outside. You can’t miss it.” He turned and went off in the other direction.

The vampire wasn’t sure if Jack had heard all of that, but he followed the directions to the tent. He had to go through the same explanation with the guards to let him pass.

Tam looked up, startled, when he entered.

“Do you remember me?”

“Of course I do. You still wear the same clothes,” she said. “I may be old, but my memory isn’t shot.”

Hadrian chuckled. It was regrettable that this woman had to be in the middle of all this. He’d promised to keep her secret, and now he was working directly with the man she’d been running from, the one she’d thrown herself at Hadrian’s fangs once to avoid. He just hadn’t been old enough or strong enough to kill her for good.

“Why are you working for him? I don’t understand why you’d betray me this way. What have I done to you?” The calmly spoken words caught him off guard.

So much for convincing her and luring her away. Still, he made an attempt at a lie. “Cain needs you.”

She shook her head. “No. He would have come for me himself. He never would have sent someone, and he wouldn’t want me to leave the dimension. He was insistent about that point. Your face lies. Even without using magic I can see your guilt. Do you think I’ve existed this long while being repeatedly duped by those with bad intentions? Tell me why. I deserve that much.”

But he couldn’t tell her. All he could do was yell for backup. “Jack!”

She tossed an energy ball at him. Hadrian dodged it. He heard Jack outside the tent, chanting, no doubt incapacitating her demon guards. Tam raised her arms and started her own chant. “Jack!” Hadrian shouted, not sure what the witch was about to do to him, but not wanting to find out.