Sliding through an unlocked basement window, he dropped to the ground. The interior was dim, but not enough to keep the sunlight out. A door on the far side of the room beckoned and he jogged toward it. The knob turned smoothly in his hand and he stepped through into a fog of pot smoke and the distinct smell of an unwashed male body.

Holding his breath he shut the door behind him and made his way toward the closet on the right. The kid on the bed rolled, let out a fart, and then scratched his ass.

Faris grimaced at the back of his head. Disgusting human. Liam snorted, but kept his words to himself. No need to wake the kid up.

You need to feed.

He shook his head. Not a chance in hell he was taking blood from that kid.

Fair enough, but if you feed, we could jump the Veil.

Liam shut the closet door and slid to his butt. Scrubbing a hand over his face, he considered their options. At this speed, there was no way they’d make it back to North Dakota by the next morning. Even if they managed to hotwire a car, he didn’t think they’d make it.

“How bad will it be? How much of my soul will jumping take?” he asked softly. The black interior of the closet made it easy to feel as if he were talking to someone beside him, instead of inside him.

Faris gave a proverbial shrug. I don’t know. You saw Milly, she looked fairly intact and she had been jumping the Veil for a long time; even though I didn’t know it. Well before anyone of us ever met her. She hid her abilities well.

Liam grimaced. Using Milly for an example didn’t really set his mind at ease. She’d betrayed Rylee on more than one occasion, though she had always tried to make it right. And in the end, she’d done the right thing. But had any of that been tied to jumping the Veil and having her soul used up, or was it all Orion’s influence?

He knew he didn’t have a choice, not if he wanted to be there in time to stand with Rylee against Orion.

“Let’s do this.”

Faris gave a nod of approval as Liam stepped into the kid’s room. There was no choice, he was going to have to drink from the pot-smoking teenager and hope whatever was in his system was already through.

Three quick steps and he knelt beside the bed before he could talk himself out of what he was doing. The kid rolled toward him, muttered something about making a score, and Liam snaked his head toward the bare neck presented. His fangs popped through the skin, and the kid gave a little start.

“Not so hard, baby, you know that’s not how I like it.”

With his eyes squeezed shut, Liam had to fight to keep his mouth on the kid’s neck and keep drinking him down. In the back of his head, Faris laughed. You see, it’s not always glamorous to be a vampire. He paused, as if thinking. That should be enough, Wolf.

Wolf, was he even that anymore? He pulled back from the kid and wiped his hand over his mouth. There was a lingering taste of drugs on the back of his tongue. Faris giggled. I think the good stuff went right to me.

Shit. A high vampire in his head? Wonderful, fucking wonderful.

On the bed, the kid moaned and grabbed at himself. “Come on, baby, finish it off.”

Liam stepped back and Faris laughed even harder. Yes, do finish him off so I can tell Rylee all about it. Cheater, cheater, pot kid eater.

Rolling his eyes, he looked at the wall and the poster plastered to it. Rock bands, and a giant pot leaf in a myriad of colors were the main choices. “Faris, jump us to the barn on Rylee’s property.”

Only if you let me kiss her. By myself. No meddling from you. There was still an edge of giddiness to the vampire’s voice, but he was serious.

“As long as she knows it’s you and wants to, then fine.” It sure as hell wasn’t up to him who Rylee kissed. The part of him that was wolf disagreed, but there was no time for semantics. Rylee was his mate, but she was also a woman who could make fire-hardened steel look soft. And if she wanted to kiss Faris . . . he couldn’t really get pissy about it since he shared the vampire’s body.

Faris didn’t step forward, but he showed Liam how to open the Veil. With the latent necromancer abilities flowing through Faris’s veins, he was able to touch the layer of the Veil between the human world and the supernatural. Like touching cellophane stretched tightly on leftovers. Drawing his fingers together, he pulled it away while he thought of the barn and . . . there it was. Dim and shadowy, the interior of the barn beckoning him; North Dakota still held onto the night for an hour or so. Without a glance at the kid, he stepped through and let the Veil shut behind him.

“You bastard! You said you wouldn’t jump the Veil, that it would hurt Liam!” Berget’s voice caught him off guard and he swung around to face her. He held up his hands.

“I was in D.C., Berget. I had to get back here and there was no other way.”

“Liam?”

He nodded. “Faris has been taking a vacation. He showed up long enough to give me directions.”

Berget let out a sigh and shook her head. “No one else is here, Liam. Shouldn’t Doran and the rest from England be here by now?”

He looked around the barn, seeing only the automatic writer Jonathan asleep in the hay. “Rylee sent Charlie to get them. You think something went wrong?”

“Orion knows who’s a part of Rylee’s team. He’s going to try and stop us all. Like he tried to kill Jonathan.”

Liam ran his hands through his hair and began to pace. He could jump the Veil, though eventually it would cost him pieces of his soul. What would it matter if Rylee and everyone else were dead?