“I’m so sorry,” she said through their bond. “I was angry and frustrated and I was so ugly to you.”

“Shh,” he soothed. “We are both at fault. I should have told you regardless of what Vasile wanted. I respect him, but you are my mate. I should have put you first.”

Jennifer shook her head. “I don’t want you to feel like I’m going to throw some raging, bratty fit every time you don’t tell me something,” she said, her words a little muffled because her face was pressed against his chest. She pulled back to look up at him. “I am sorry I said those things, B. I was wrong. I know that I made you feel like you aren’t capable of leading. I de-manned you in front of our friends and I was wrong.”

“You know I don’t expect you to be a quiet mouse who simply nods at everything I say and never gives your opinion, right?” Decebel asked her as he tucked her hair behind her ear. “You are my guide, my compass when I veer off course. I need your input more than anyone. I also need your respect more than anyone and you need mine as well as my love. I disrespected you by not being open with you.”

“I forgive you,” she told him as she rose up on her toes and kissed him softly on the lips. “Can you forgive me?”

“Yes, baby, I forgive you. I’m sorry that I stayed away. I just needed to clear my head.”

“A break was good,” Jennifer admitted. “I know this won’t be our last fight, nor will any of the ones to come be any tamer than they usually are, but I’m glad that I know you are always willing to work through it with me.”

“I don’t expect you to change who you are. You’re hotheaded,” he chuckled when she frowned. “But that’s one of the things that drew me to you. You’re impulsive, which I at times find unbelievably exciting because I never know what to expect. You’re bold, outspoken, confident, and most importantly, your mine. Any changes we make, we make them together and for the good of us, not just the good of one or the other.”

She smiled up at him. “The Great Luna did a damn good job when she gave me you. No one else would see some of those qualities as positive. And you are right, I am, without a doubt, yours.”

Decebel took her face in his hands and held her still as he kissed her. The wound that had been aching inside of him was closing as Jennifer poured her love into him.

“Take me to bed, Dec. Let me love you.”

“Thia?” he asked as he scooped her up and entered their suite.

“She’s already asleep.”

He set his mate down on the bed and lifted her chin with his finger. “Give me one minute to kiss our daughter goodnight. Then you’re all mine.”

Ontario, Canada

Cain looked out over the sleeping city as he stood on the rooftop. It was peaceful. At least it was for those humans who were tucked away safely in their beds unaware of the dangers that lived among them. It was that very danger that stared out at them now seeking a different prey this night. He felt a snarl curling his lip as he thought about the little intruder who had nearly found him the night before. He had been careful. He was no fool. If the world found out about vampires, well, the panic that would ensue is a problem he and his coven didn’t need. But somehow, a pixie, of all things, had flitted itself through the open window just as Cain was stepping out from behind the bush he'd landed next to when he'd exited that very window. Of course, the pixie probably didn't see him because very few could move as fast as a vampire, but the little being might have sensed him. Cain had stood there watching and waiting for the pixie to leave, but if and when the little creature left, it wasn't in the same way that he had entered.

From the moment he returned to the coven, he'd put his best trackers out to hunt—either information on the pixie or the pixie itself. Though most of his kind couldn't be out during the daylight hours, there were some, older and with special abilities, that could. These were a well-kept secret that no one outside of the vampire race was aware of.

Now, twenty-four hours later, he still had no information on why the pixies were involved in vampire business. It was a frustrating situation to say the least, especially since they were just beginning to venture aboveground for the first time in centuries. For so long they’d created traps to lure their prey to themselves, but there had been stirrings that dark power was once again beginning to take hold in the human realm. The tides were turning and the time of the wolves and fae was coming to an end. The reign of darkness was coming and his race, as well as some others that practiced dark magic, would soon take over. There would be no more hiding in the shadows, sulking like worms beneath the ground.

Cain smiled and felt his sharp teeth pressing into his lips. Soon those who had oppressed them would pay for their insolence.

“Very soon,” he muttered into the dark night.

Peri, Alston, Gwen, and Nissa all stood on a rooftop in the dead of night. Peri’s jaw was clenched tight as she stared out into the city outlined by the night lights that dotted the buildings and homes in the outlying suburbs.

“Why Phoenix, Arizona?” Nissa asked, her own voice tight with emotion.

“Other than Mexico City, Phoenix has had the most child abductions in the world over the past few months. Now we know why, even if the humans never will,” Alston answered.

“Too bad we don’t have the manpower to take out the humans who abduct children as well as the vamps,” Peri growled. She hated the idea of any child being hurt by anyone, supernatural or otherwise. The only mercy from the vamps was that they were killing the children for food, not abusing them in any sick way for their gratification. Well, she supposed drinking them dry was for their gratification in a way, but at least it was a quick death. Most vamps, as in all of them, didn’t have the self-control to drag out a feeding. They struck fast and drank just as fast.

“So Phoenix is home to the largest vampire coven in the human continent of North America?” Alston asked her.

Peri nodded. “According to my little pixie peepers. They’ve been busy searching out every city with large numbers of unsolved abductions. The vamps don’t leave a trail so they will never find the bodies of the children they take.”

“No closure for those poor families,” Nissa said. “Not only do they lose their child but they don’t even get the peace of mind to know that their child has gone to be with their Maker. They will live thinking there is a possibility that their child is in the clutches of a horrible person enduring who knows what.”