The scent of cooking flesh brought my head around, ignoring the hand now climbing up over my shins to my knee.

A crackle of flame reached my ears.

“Ah, shit.”

I reached down and grabbed the hand, wrenching it off me and throwing it across the room. Moving carefully, avoiding the bodies as best I could, I worked my way to the door. Out of the darkened room, my eyes adjusted a little more, and the haze of smoke climbing up the stairwell was clearly visible.

A voice barely audible over the crackle of the flames reached me.“Rylee!”

That was Pamela.

“Stay out of here!”

“I’m sorry, I tried to do the light show, but it spilled out more than I could stop—”

“Get out of here, right now!” I hollered, coughing on the last word. With a groan, I stumbled half-blind down the stairway, making it to the third floor where the smoke filled the lower landing. Coughing and hacking, I dropped to the floor where the air was only a minuscule better. More like a bonfire and less like a house burning down around my ears. I never should have asked Pamela to help, she was untrained and powerful—a deadly combination.

I slithered on my belly down the next set of steps to the second floor, where the smoke was black and thicker than one of Alex’s farts. There was no way I’d make it to the first floor. Still on my belly, I could feel the heat through the floorboards from the fire below; the house was going up fast. I worked my way along the wall, eyes burning, lungs aching from the smoke filling them.

My fingertips found the edge of a door and I lifted up just enough to get the doorknob open.

Nope, my luck was gone. The door was locked. Pushing to my feet I snapped my leg in a front kick, breaking the door open. I nearly fell through the doorway, kicking the door shut behind me. The smoke was less in this room and I took a deep breath, coughing hard on the smoke leaving my lungs. Across from me was a stained glass window. Without a second thought I grabbed a blanket bunched up on the only piece of furniture—a hard backed rocker—and wrapped my hand in it. Three quick punches and the window was gone, leaving just a few ragged edges. As I went to drop the blanket, but a name etched into it caught my eye.

Sophia.

15

Pamela and Alex swarmed me as I dropped to the ground from the second story window. Rolling to take the velocity and impact out of the fall, I still managed to hit hard enough to knock the wind out of me. Alex bounced in front of me.

“Alex wants to jump!”

“Knock it off, you goof.” I grunted, dusting myself off.

Pamela’s eyes were wide, brimming with tears.

“I’m so sorry, Rylee. I shouldn’t have tried again once you were in there.”

I waved her off. “Listen, nobody got hurt. Now let’s get the hell out of here before the cavalry shows up.”

My eyes still stung from a combination of smoke and light burn, so I had Pamela lead the way, and I kept a hand on Alex’s collar; surprisingly he was relatively quiet. I tucked Sophia’s blanket under my shirt. When we found her, it was something to wrap her in. I had to believe I would find her and the other kids. But what the Necromancer had pulled, how he’d jumped through the Veil with no trace . . . I had no idea how he’d managed that.

Sirens in the distance drew closer, and before they reached us, I pulled Pamela and Alex into an alleyway. The fire trucks and police cars zipped past us.

“You weren’t supposed to go by yourself, were you?” Pamela asked.

“Not really.”

“Are you going to get in trouble?”

Shit, this kid had more questions than Alex Trebek.

I peeked out around the edge of the building to make sure the vehicles were all out of sight. “Probably. Won’t be the first time, so don’t worry about it.”

What I wasn’t telling her was that it was the first time I’d been involved in burning evidence. That was not going to look good on the old permanent record.

Without further ado, we made it back to my blue suite, an early dusk falling with the heavy cloud cover. There was no way I’d be able to go back to the station without showering and clean clothes. If I could smell the smoke and rotting flesh, there was no way Will would miss it.

Leaving Pamela in the main room with Alex, I stepped into the bathroom, and cranked on the hot water. The bite from the zombie stung like a bitch and was oozing a nice yellow pus. What a fan-fucking-tastic addition to the day.

With the water going full bore, I soaped up, re-hashing what I’d seen. The Necromancer knew how to use the Veil to travel in such a way that I couldn’t find the entranceway, he had an undead set of guards to cover his back trail, and now he knew someone was onto him. I had f**ked up—royally. There had to be something good that I could squeeze out of this day. Wasn’t there?

Smoke and rot washed from my body, bandage and herbal poultice on the bite, and clean clothes on, I was ready to head back to the station. A quick glance in the bathroom mirror showed no cuts or bruises on my face, nothing that would give me away.

My hand was on the doorknob when the soft rumble of a man’s voice reached out from the living area. A voice I wanted nothing to do with.

Shit, all I had with me was my big bowie knife; my two swords I’d left in the bedroom, which was adjacent to the bathroom. But if I tried to get them, I would be visible to the main living area and he would see me. Not to mention there was no way I could leave him there with Pamela all alone.

“I can hear your heartbeat escalate, Rylee.”

Fuck!

I stepped out of the bathroom and eyed up Faris. The vampire looked the same as the last time I’d seen him; eyes a piercing ice blue, blond hair and stunning smile with only a whisper of fangs. I had to work at slowing my heart rate, at which Faris gave me a slight nod of acknowledgement. This was so not good in so many ways.

“Pamela.” I held out my hand to her and she stepped toward me, but Faris barred the way with his arm. Alex shook where he sat, but his lips were slowly lifting back over his teeth.

“Come now, I was just getting to know the girl,” Faris said, reaching out to stroke Pamela’s hair. She cringed away from him.

I pulled out the bowie knife. “Let her pass . . .”

He laughed. “Or what, you’ll stick me with your butter knife?”

My eyes narrowed; I had nothing to threaten him with, no weapon that would truly hurt him, no blackmail to make him do what I wanted.

“I could use another witch,” Faris said. “The one I have is a pain in the ass. And this one is young and teachable . . . malleable.”

He spoke like we were business associates out for lunch.

Alex sidled up to me, pressing himself against my legs. “Smells like Milly.”

If there had been a light bulb over my head, it would’ve exploded. Milly had a way to locate me, via my left over blood, and if she was working for Faris, he had access to that ability. That was singularly disastrous in my mind. If he could find me anywhere . . . it was almost as bad as him being able to Track me.

Only one way to find out if that was the case. I managed to keep my voice even. “Milly’s working with you?”

Faris nodded, though his eyes never strayed from Pamela, and I saw her sway. He was enthralling her.

No time to waste, I took two steps toward them and threw my knife, catching Faris along the side of his face and cutting off the rim of his ear.

With a roar, his head snapped around and his eyes all but nailed me to the spot. “You’d dare attack me when I come with terms of peace?”

My jaw clenched and unclenched, fear pooling in my belly. I had no weapon now and nothing close at hand.

I was in deep shit.

“You can’t have her. Bad enough you already took Milly from me.”

His blood dripped on the floor, leaving a trail as he stalked toward me. “She was already taken by darkness when I found her. You’re blind, Tracker, when it comes to those you love. You never see them for what they truly are.”

I stepped back for every step forward he took, my mind racing to find a way out of this. A glance over at Pamela showed her sagged against a chair, eyes glazed over. Alex moved with me, his hackles up and a low growl rumbling through his chest.

“No hurt Ryleeee!” He howled as he launched himself at Faris. Even with his teeth and claws bared, the werewolf was knocked aside as if he were a bothersome fly, not a two hundred-pound supernatural. Alex was thrown across the room, his back slamming into the corner of the door frame with a sickening crack of bone. Limp, he fell to the ground and lay there, unmoving.

“You really should be wiser in choosing your friends. They are weak, young, and so easy to turn against you.” He smiled and in a flash pinned me against the wall, yanking my wrists above my head, and holding them there with one hand. We’d been here before, him and me. It hadn’t ended well.

“Thanks, I needed the stretch,” I said, sweat dripping down my sides. I was so f**ked, there was no way out, no lifeline I could grab. I couldn’t even get my foot up to boot him in the knee. Doran had given me that tidbit and it had, I was sure, saved my life the first time I’d met Faris. But not this time; Faris was working me over very carefully.

Faris continued to smile. “Do you know how vampires share information?”

I tried to swallow; I did, but I had no spit left.

Did it matter that he was going to kill me, then Alex, and put Pamela into some sort of servitude? Yes, it did matter, yet I couldn’t stop myself.

“I’m going to go with smoke signal for the win.”

“Do you ever learn?”

I did my best to shrug. “Only when I want to.”

His lips pulled back from his fangs. “I want to share with you all I know, Rylee. It’s a gift, one I do not bestow lightly. Even Milly hasn’t gained this honor.”

“I’ll pass. You go give your cooties to someone else.”

Even if he bit me, he couldn’t turn me. But I had a bad feeling that it wasn’t a bite I was about to get. Faris’ tongue flicked out over the tip of his left fang, drawing blood. With an infinite slowness, his head lowered to mine, his one hand held my jaw still, and his body easily kept mine pinned to the wall.