“I appreciate all your hard work, Edith.” It was a lame response, but it was all I could manage.

Edith pulled me into a tight embrace before skipping off in her thigh-high stiletto boots.

Danny nudged me toward the bathroom. “Why don’t you get a shower? It might help you relax.”

I opened the doors to more pink. Edith had redecorated the entire suite. As I pushed soap out of the pink unicorn dispenser I began to think I’d put the wrong vampire in charge of maintaining Misha’s homes.

I went to help with Bren’s care following my shower. Emme had already taken care of him, just not in the way he would have preferred. He slept in a king-sized bed wearing blue silk pajamas. And although he was in adult diapers, it was damn obvious he’d missed Emme.

A twin bed had been brought in and set up on the opposite side of the room. Emme and Danny argued over who should sleep with Bren. For a moment, I thought the matter might come down to blows. Emme crinkled her nose at him. “He’s your best friend!”

Danny pointed to where Bren lay snoring. “He has an erection—we’re not that close!”

Hank entered and flashed Emme a panty-dropping smile. “Forget the wolf. Spend the night with me.”

Emme’s entire face reddened. “That’s not something I do with someone I barely know.”

Before you could say “There’s a virgin in the house,” all of the Catholic schoolgirls were ringside. Maria eyed Emme like she was the freak. “You can’t be serious.”

Emme sidestepped her way closer to me. “Yes, I am.”

Edith turned to me. “So does that make you the whore of the family?” she asked with a little too much enthusiasm.

Danny clasped my arm while Emme defended my honor. “Celia’s only slept with two men.”

“At the same time?” Liz asked, confused.

My cheeks burned. “Of course not!”

“Don’t worry, Celia,” Agnes said. “Sexual incompetence is nothing to be ashamed of.”

“Yes, it is,” Maria muttered.

“I never claimed to be bad in bed!”

Liz ignored me. “But we can fix that—Tim, get up here!”

Tim appeared before I could blink. “What?”

Liz yanked off his skin-tight T-shirt. “Celia wants to be better in bed. Be a dear and help her, would you?”

I backed away when his jeans hit the floor. “What the hell are you doing?” I smacked his hands away when he reached for me. “Tim, stop! I’m not having sex with you.”

Tim shrugged and left with his clothes wadded up in his arms. “Fine. Call me if you change your mind.”

“Would you prefer a human?” Edith asked.

“No. I prefer you get the hell out of here.”

I slammed the door behind them. It did little to silence Liz. “She’ll be in a better mood once we get her some.”

Emme’s expression split between horror and worry. “Celia, you can’t assume the care of them—you’re nothing like them.”

Danny, who had been at a loss for words, finally spoke. “They’re trying, Emme. In their own way they’re trying to be kind to her.”

“But Danny, they’re all so…bizarre. What if she’s stuck with them for the rest of her life?”

“The way things are going, that won’t be much longer.” Emme’s sweet face creased with sadness. I didn’t mean to sound so melodramatic. Embarrassed by what I said, I left them and went to cuddle with a stuffed unicorn.

Danny entered the room a few minutes later and crawled into bed with me. He knew I was awake. “You’re not giving up, are you, Celia?”

I gripped the fluffy pink monstrosity against me. “No, it’s just that things seem so bleak. Every time I manage some degree of peace, it’s robbed from me.”

Danny pushed my hair from my face. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

I turned and stared into the soft dark eyes of my friend, whose messy curls always made his hair appear unkempt. Danny’s face was so different now that he no longer needed glasses, but his expression carried the same compassion it always had. He didn’t want me to suffer in silence. So I took a breath and told him exactly what I was thinking. “I want Misha not to die. I want the scary things to stop finding me and trying to kill me. I want my baby to be safe and grow up happy.” I tried to stop my tears, but they fell anyway. “I want Aric to hold me and tell me he doesn’t hate me. I just want everything to be all right.”

Danny hugged me tightly and kissed my forehead. He didn’t tell me things were going to get better. He only gave me the comfort I needed to get through one more night.

Chapter Seventeen

The vampires I assigned to handle Misha’s affairs took turns traveling the world to keep things in order. Or at least that’s what I hoped they did during their long periods away. To add to my stress, they constantly bombarded me with requests to contact Misha. I tried to reach him through our call. Yet despite my best efforts to focus and connect with him, I failed to sense anything. Still, I remained certain he was alive—tortured and no doubt suffering, but alive.

Uri hit a wall everywhere he turned. The European Alliance Leaders refused to meet with him to discuss Misha. The collective thought was that now that the Tribe numbers had dwindled, it was time to strike and eliminate every last threat. No Alliance members would be spared to help find one master vampire.

Even with my constant worrying about Misha, Anara, and the things that went bump in the night, my thoughts always returned to Aric. It hurt to know he despised me. But he was alive, and that gave me hope that should I survive, maybe one day Aric would meet our son.

Son? I touched my belly and smiled. Are you a boy, little one? Will you look like your daddy?

Danny staggered into the suite, interrupting my thoughts. “Hey. Do you mind if I crash in here again tonight? Bren went into full salute the moment he heard Emme’s voice.”

His bleary eyes blinked back at me and he clutched a pillow, ready to keel over. He’d spent another day researching shifters and trying to locate their strongholds. “Sure, but if you want more privacy Emme could sleep here and you can take the other bed in Bren’s room.” His shoulders drooped slightly. “What’s wrong?”

“Celia, Liam pitched a major fit when Emme decided to live here with you. He’s worried about her safety and made her promise she wouldn’t sleep with you in case…”