“We’re hunted,” he muttered with his back to her. “And not by humans. I was trained to protect the species. It was what I used to do.”

“No longer, then? You’re doing something else now?”

She sounded almost relieved, as if she recognized the danger he had faced.

“I’m not fighting anymore.” He focused on the target straight ahead of him and hated himself. “I had a problem.”

“Physically?”

Could he still shoot well, he wondered. That target was fifty yards away. There was a time when it would have been no big deal for him to hit a thimble at that distance.

He thought about that first slayer’s backup nearly killing him at point-blank range. If John hadn’t come along when he did, by some stroke of luck … Murhder would be dead now.

“What kind of problem did you have?”

“A mental one.” As he touched the side of his head, he could not bear to turn around and look her in the eye. “I lost my mind. Just cracked.”

“Because of PTSD? From fighting.”

“No.” He shook his head. “I just couldn’t pull myself together anymore.”

“That’s not uncommon for people who—”

“It wasn’t related to my job.” He paused. “Xhex was sold to BioMed—you remember, she told you she’d been experimented on? Well, I was determined to find her … a lot of things went wrong. She ended up getting herself out and then I couldn’t—I just didn’t let it go, you know. I needed to make sure they didn’t do anything like that to anyone else. So I kept hunting the humans who hurt her, the humans you work for.”

Now, he glanced over his shoulder. “That’s how I knew Nate’s mahmen. I knew her. I failed to rescue her. But she ended up getting out and eventually found me.”

“So that’s why you were at the lab that night.”

“Yes.”

He went back to staring at the targets. It was a safer bet for keeping his composure. Sarah’s eyes were too … kind.

“You and Xhex …” she started.

“We were lovers. Not any longer, though. Those times are far in the past for she and I, and there are no regrets on either side. We’re just friends.”

“I’m glad. Even though I have no right to be.”

“You have every right.”

“We both know that’s not true.” Before he could say anything else, Sarah crossed her arms and stared down the target range, too. “What kind of enemy does the race have?”

“Sarah …”

“I can’t talk about us right now. I will break down in tears and I’m too tired for that. Please … just tell me who your enemy is.”

Murhder cursed under his breath and tried to remember something, anything about the Lessening Society. “It’s all a source of great evil. And by that, I’m not talking about a human with a mean streak. The Omega is much, much worse, and he can turn men into killing machines that are as immortal as he is until you stab them home. He is pure malevolence and has special powers to act on it.”

When she didn’t say anything, he rubbed his aching head. She was just staring straight ahead of herself, but obviously not seeing anything.

“This really is a different world,” she mumbled. Then she shook herself and looked at him. “Is that what’s in John?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s some version of the Omega. They aren’t really telling me much.”

The shake of her head was not encouraging. “I wish I had more time.”

Murhder thought about what Xhex had said about Sarah, about him doing the right thing by the woman. Erasing her memory. Sending her back to her own world.

Then he touched the sacred shard of glass at his throat and looked back at the targets. He thought about getting Sarah out of that lab. He would have fought anything that came at her, protected her with his life.

Why was the Brotherhood’s decision about her staying any different?

This was bullshit. She didn’t have to go back, any more than the other humans working here did.

“I’m going to go talk to the King,” he announced. “And change his mind. You should be able to stay here as long as you like.”

There was a tense silence. And then she said the words he wanted to hear.

“I would like … to stay.” Her eyes were pools of warmth as she looked at him. “With you.”

Striding over to her, Murhder kissed her and brought her in close to his chest. “I’ll change their minds. I don’t know how, but I’ll do it.”

“Can I come with you?” she said into his shirt. “I’ve got some stake in all this—especially because Kraiten is going to want to take care of me—and by that, I don’t mean a conventional severance package. More like my head in a box.”

He pulled back. “You think you’re in danger?”

Fucking finally, Xhex thought as her phone went off with a text from John. It was the work of a moment for her to peel off from shAdoWs and dematerialize back to the mansion, and as she re-formed on the front steps of the Brotherhood’s great Gothic manse, she didn’t feel the cold at all. A combination of anger and relief made her numb.

He was back home apparently. Had been for a little while and had only just now thought to check in.

Like it was any other night. Like he didn’t have that shoulder wound no one could explain or heal. Like he hadn’t taken off without telling her a goddamn thing.

Racing up to the entrance, she yanked open the heavy door and shoved her face into the vestibule’s security camera. As soon as Fritz opened things wide, she burst into the grand foyer, the multi-colored, Russian tsar–like interior making absolutely no impression on her at all.

“Are you looking for the sire?” Fritz said as he jumped back so he wasn’t mowed over.

“John—yes, I’m looking for John.”

“He’s in the playroom.”

Xhex stopped. “What’s he doing there?”

“He just sent down an order for hot cocoa.”

Xhex thanked the doggen and took the palace-worthy staircase two at a time. As she hung a left in front of the closed doors of Wrath’s study, she could feel her temper rising, and the anger got worse as she hotfooted it down the Hall of Statues and punched through the double doors at the end. On the far side, there was what had originally been solely a staff wing. In the past few years, however, things had been renovated extensively, first to accommodate a state-of-the-art movie theater … and then, with all the babies that had come along, a playroom.

Striding past the entrance to the theater, she headed toward the two-bedroom suite which had recently been converted into a land of plush toys, dancing robots, iPads, Legos, art supplies—you name it, the Uncles Brotherhood had ordered it off Amazon.

She even knew what Melissa & Doug was now.

As she closed in on all the cheerfulness and whimsy, she didn’t need her vampire hearing to pick up on the sounds of cooing babies and adult talk. The door to the space was wide open, and the scents suggested someone had cut up strawberries and someone’s diaper was fresh: She could smell the sweetness of both—and scent her mate.