A vampling, its rotten eyes filled with pus, its toothless maw wide open, lunged for me.

I shrieked like a girl and punched at it. My fist connected with something hard. Backing into a corner to keep the monstrosity from biting me, I gripped the lid to the toilet reservoir and held it like a shield.

When I looked around the bathroom, the vampling was gone. "Crap," I said. I hissed out a breath between my teeth as logic and reason kicked my brain in the cerebellum. The vampling curse enjoyed playing tricks on my mind. Sometimes the hallucinations were mild. Other times, they terrified me. Once they started, it was as if my brain couldn't differentiate between illusion and reality. I noticed a fist-sized hole in the wall and grimaced. Shelton wouldn't be pleased. I took a painting of a starfish from the wall over the toilet, pulled out the hanger nail, and, careful not to bend it, used my supernatural strength to drive it into the wall above the hole. After wiping away some of the tell-tale drywall dust, I hung the picture and nodded in satisfaction. Maybe Shelton wouldn't notice.

The signature at the bottom of the picture caught my eye: Martin S. I wondered if Martin's last name was Shelton or something else that began with the same letter.

The front door opened and shut, announcing the return of Elyssa and Bella. I assumed an innocent look on my face and went into the den to greet them. The nausea, thankfully, was already fading away.

"You're going to love this," Elyssa said, removing a men's suit from a bag. "Now you can take me to nice places where they don't allow cargo pants." She opened the coat and twisted a button inside. The dark material shimmered, changing to a disgusting light blue. "Isn't it cool?"

"Awesome!" I said, refraining from asking why she'd purchased me a suit, of all things. Why couldn't she be happy with cargo pants and T-shirts? "How does it work?"

"Just twist the button, imagine the color, and"—the suit changed to purple—"it will turn any color you want."

"Her dress is made from the same material," Bella said, holding up a silky outfit.

"Let me try it on for you," Elyssa said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. She and Bella took their goods down the hallway and into a bedroom.

Shelton shook his head, a grin on his face. "Give a girl flowers and clothes, and you're set for life."

"I wish it was that simple," I said, thinking back to my nerdy days when I couldn't have bought a date with a roomful of flowers. At least until I'd met Elyssa.

My girlfriend appeared a moment later, striding down the hall in a curve-hugging purple dress, her raven hair shimmering like a curtain across one shoulder. A slit ran halfway up the creamy skin of her thigh. I felt my mouth drop open and my eyes go wide at the sight of her. "Justin like. Justin like a lot!"

"You've reduced him to speaking caveman," Bella said with a proud grin.

Just the sight of Elyssa in the dress sent pleasant tingles to all the right places. "Why don't you show me the other stuff you bought," I said, trying to be casual about it. I took my hottie by the hand and led her back toward the bedroom we shared. I heard Shelton chuckle, but ignored him.

We entered the bedroom. I knotted my fingers in Elyssa's hair, pulled it back, raising her face, and took one of her soft lips between mine, giving it a gentle tug.

She exhaled a slow breath, eyes half-lidded, and purred. "I take it you like the dress."

"The things I want to do to you right now…" I let the thought hang for a moment. "Maybe we can get our own place soon. It sucks having roommates."

She traced her lips up my neck and bit an earlobe. "Oh? And what would we do with our own place?"

I smiled. Pressed my face against her neck and inhaled the wonderful scent that was her. "Well, for one thing, we'd spend a lot of time in bed."

She made an appreciative moan. "I like sleeping in."

"Oh yeah, sleeping in, video games, monogrammed towels."

Elyssa laughed. "Sounds like an adventure already." She pecked me on the lips one last time before grinning with excitement and showing me the new outfits she'd gotten. Amazingly, they were all very girly and modern, despite her love for Victorian-era dresses and other Goth attire. After pulling out the last garment, her forehead creased with confusion.

"What the heck?" she said, reaching in and pulling out a slender gift-wrapped box.

"Jewelry?" I asked, even though it looked too wide for that.

"I didn't get this. I'll bet Bella got it and put it in the wrong bag."

We walked into the den where Bella was having tea and talking with Shelton. It was obvious to me she had a thing for Shelton. He, on the other hand, seemed intent on staying distant.

Trademark Shelton.

"Did you leave something in my bag?" Elyssa said, holding it out to Bella.

The Colombian gave the package a surprised look. "No."

"You sure?"

"I certainly don't remember buying a gift."

"May I?" I said, holding out my hand.

I tore open the packaging to reveal a lidded box, set it on the table, and removed the lid.

Inside lay what looked like a Barbie doll with olive skin. But that wasn't what made my forehead pinch tight. The doll had been decapitated and the head taped to its feet.

"What in the blazes?" Shelton said, finally taking notice.

"Justin," Elyssa said, "doesn't that doll look a lot like—"

"Nightliss," I finished.

Chapter 3

Beneath the doll, I noticed a folded piece of pink paper and reached toward it.

Shelton grabbed my wrist. "Are you crazy? What if that thing is booby trapped?" He cursed a few times, grabbing his wand and muttering an incantation under his breath. A translucent dome appeared over the box. He pulled his arcphone from a pocket and set it next to the dome. "Let me scan it before you do anything else. I hope it doesn't have a damned tracker on it."

"Were you followed?" I asked.

Elyssa shook her head. "You know how careful we are."

"Did you ever leave your bags unattended?"

She tapped her chin, eyes looking to the side. "I left them outside the changing room for a couple of minutes but Bella was there."

"Oh, dear," Bella said, an apologetic look on her face. "I wandered off to look at lingerie. I found a really cute set of lacy pink panties with bows on them, too."

Shelton's eyes went a bit wide. He cleared his throat a couple of times. "Oh, really?"

Bella's violet dhampyr eyes lit up, as if she'd suddenly struck gold. "Why, yes, Harry. Would you like to see them?"

He made a choking noise and shook his head like a wet dog. "Darn it, woman, I'm trying to make sure you weren't tracked here."

The Arcane reached down her shirt and brandished a shiny gold chain with a cross and the Cyrinthian symbol for "obfuscate" on it. "I doubt the tracker could overcome my charm," she said.

Shelton nodded and seemed mollified. "You ever make charms for these two?"

Bella sighed. "I simply haven't had the time."

The dome over the package blinked green. "Whew." Shelton flicked his wand, and the shield vanished. "Looks like Bella's charm fried the magical tracker on the package once she got in range of it. It's clean."

I breathed a sigh of relief along with the others. There was a reason we were staying with Shelton in his super-secret hideout. All sorts of nasties would love to get their hands on us—one I could think of in particular, Daelissa. I removed the doll and set it aside. With a slight tremble in my hand, I took out the pink paper. I saw writing on the other side and had a sinking suspicion I knew who had written it.

You shouldn't hang out with evil little Darklings, bro. I still owe you for messing up my spell and disappointing Bigdaddy. Peekaboo! I'm gonna find you. <3 Smoochies <3

Ivy

Shelton took out his phone, started to dial, and abruptly stopped with a grimace. "I don't think I should be the one to call Meghan."

Elyssa took out her phone, dialed.

I gave Shelton a cool look. "You need to clear the air with her. She still thinks you had a hand in letting Vadaemos eat her father's soul."

"How many times—" Shelton began.

"Meghan, hey this is Elyssa." My girlfriend smiled. "I'm great. Yeah, did some shopping with Bella. Got this really cute dress."

I made a hurry-up motion with my hands.

She gave me an apologetic look. "Say, is Nightliss still there?" Elyssa made an affirmative noise, a look of relief crossing her face. "Is she doing any better?" She frowned. "Okay, well, we got a suspicious package from Ivy." She described the doll.

I heard Meghan on the other end, but the Arcane healer was apparently using a muffle spell on her phone, because even with my super hearing, I couldn't make out a word of the gibberish coming from the speaker.

Elyssa hung up after speaking with Meghan for a few more minutes. "Nightliss is still feeling pretty sick, but she hasn't been attacked by any blonde girls."

"She still isn't back in the saddle, eh?" Shelton said.

"Whatever Daelissa did to her messed her up pretty bad," Elyssa replied. "When Nightliss cured Felicia of the vampling virus, it took everything she had. Meghan thinks she's getting worse."

"You realize if we don't unlock the angel inside you, we're screwed, right?" Shelton said looking squarely at me. "Without Nightliss, Daelissa and the Conroys are gonna crush us."

"No pressure, right?" I said, rolling my eyes. It felt like too much depended on me, and I was still a freaking teenager. Foreseeance 4311 indicated I was supposed to make some earth-shattering choice that could save or doom the world. I tried not to think about it, especially since the experts told me these prophecies weren't the most accurate things in the world. Then again, Bella had a foreseeance about me showing up in her two-horse town down in Colombia, and that had obviously come true.