We circled each other, my growls challenging her hisses. My suspicions were verified. The bulging green fluid beneath her skin distorted her formerly slender features. Except traces of the once beautiful vampire still remained. Run a brush through the matted and bloodstained chestnut hair, throw on a powdered wig, slap on a long velvet robe, and voilà, all stand for Judge Sofia.

I shifted, hoping to surface behind her, but her heightened senses must have felt the gentle stir of the soil when my head broke through. She pounced on me. I allowed the momentum of the tackle to spin me so I ended up on top. We clawed and swatted each other, both of us vicious and screaming for blood. My beast matched her power almost equally. She would have been hard to take down, but then, I was no longer alone.

Koda, the red wolf, appeared, just behind a powerhouse gray wolf a good two hundred pounds bigger than my tigress. Aric made a gruff sound before he and Koda bit into Sofia’s upper arms and yanked hard. An oil spill of green fluid sprayed in their direction, yet their efforts seemed worth it. Bloodlust vampires were a hell of a lot easier to kill when they lacked limbs. I broke through Sofia’s chest at almost the same moment Aric severed her neck in a single bite.

The three of us shook off the ash that blinded us in a windstorm of decay. Aric approached me, nudging my nose with his.

I smiled as much as a tigress could. I’m all right, wolf.

The thought formed in my brain before I realized he wouldn’t be able to understand. Without thinking, I rubbed my face against his neck and purred, comforted by his strong presence. His warm fur slid like silk across mine. My God, I didn’t want to leave him.

Aric wagged his tail, melding his body against mine. His throat vibrated long and deep, releasing soft wolfish sounds that filled me with peace…until he licked a scratch on my face.

Holy…

The tingling warmth from his taste spread down my spine in a flash of searing heat, pounding my girl parts like the beat of native drums. My lids peeled back and so did his. Koda backed away into a white fir sapling in his haste to escape whatever the hell had ignited between Aric and me. Six hundred pounds of red beast scurried over the plantlet. It bent from his weight and rebounded back with a whoosh. He took off toward the house. I blinked at Aric’s stunned beast before chasing after Koda and passing him like my tail smoked with fire.

Oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh…crap! Someone else’s baby daddy should not have had this effect on me. My muscles burned as they stretched the claw marks Sofia had dug into my skin. Aric’s…lick…caress…kiss—whatever it was pushed my beast to race faster than I had when I chased the judge.

I was less than a quarter mile from the house when I caught the scent of the wereraccoon who had rifled through our garbage a few weeks back. What the hell was he doing here? I roared. He jumped before changing and leaped through the trees like a flying squirrel.

Yeah. That’s right. Don’t piss off the angry tigress who wants to mount a wolf who knocked up someone else.

I slowed when I reached our back lawn. My sisters waited on the rear porch. Taran paced, rubbing blue and white flames between her palms. Shayna stood on one of the patio chairs with her new bow out and an arrow ready to fire. Emme remained tucked beneath the crook of Liam’s big shoulder. His amber eyes narrowed when he saw me. “Did you get her?” I nodded and leaped onto our wooden deck. “Are Koda and Aric behind you?”

I didn’t have to answer; Aric and Koda jetted across the lawn. Taran extinguished her fire and opened the back door for me. Emme followed behind me as I barreled up the stairs. As soon as she finished healing me, I rinsed the ash from my skin and rushed us downstairs. “Come on, Emme. I need to talk to Aric.”

All the wolves donned sweatpants. Aric and Koda stood at separate sinks wiping off the bloodlust goop with old towels.

“It was Judge Sofia.”

Aric stopped midwipe. “Are you sure?”

I nodded. “I recognized her scent first, then her face.”

Koda swore.

Taran moved over to Emme. “I can see that.” She drummed her nails nervously against the granite counter. “She wanted Emme back in vamp court; of course her hunger would make her want her even more now.”

Liam pulled Emme closer and growled. “They can’t have her.”

“That doesn’t make sense.” Aric folded his arms. “Bloodlusters seek large clusters of humans to feed their hunger. She could have targeted any of the bigger communities in the area instead. Why come here specifically for Emme?”

“Magical beings emit a stronger, more attractive aroma—infected vampires prefer mystical blood.” Liam’s hand swept around the kitchen. “There are seven us gathered here. She could have fixed on our collective scent and just spotted Emme first.”

Aric shook his head. “Her condition was advanced enough to leave a death trail on her way here. Any attacks would have been reported to me by now.” He double-checked his cell phone before focusing back on Liam. “What happened upstairs?”

Liam rubbed Emme’s arm. “We were about to take a shower. I scented the vamp just as Emme passed the window. She dug her nails into me when I hauled Emme out of the way.”

Koda’s fury filled the room. “Aric, you came from the outside. She should have sensed you and gone after you first. Why wait to eat? Patience is a foreign concept to a famished bloodluster. I think she specifically targeted our girls.” The thick muscles of his forearm wrapped around Shayna’s slender waist. She trailed her fingertips along his wrist until her small hand covered his at her hip.

I hopped up on the counter. “Someone has to be controlling the vampires. It’s the only possible explanation.”

Aric moved next to me. Unlike my sisters, who welcomed the closeness of their wolves, I squirmed away from mine. Aric dropped his head and sighed. Guilt stabbed my chest like one of Shayna’s daggers. The dagger twisted deeper as I took in the disapproving faces of the other wolves.

Aric ignored them. “No one has ever been able to control an infected vampire.”

My fingers knitted together. “I know that’s the theory. But none of this has followed the normal path of bloodlust—even the method of infection.”

“I’m not saying it’s not possible,” Aric snarled.

The tension between Aric and me exploded in the kitchen like a barrage of firecrackers. My tigress snapped to attention and so did his wolf. We locked gazes, but the anger that riled our beasts slowly disappeared as those brown eyes softened beneath my stare.

Koda cleared his throat. “I want to stay here, Aric. Just in case something else shows.”

“Fine.” Aric didn’t look away. “You and Liam can both stay. I’ll call Gem and the rest of the pack. We’ll search the surrounding area and see what we can find.”

Taran tapped an irate foot. “You need to go after the other judge.” She glanced in my direction. “And Misha’s master.”

Koda scoffed. “We can’t. The treaty between our kind and those leeches prevents us from interrogating the masters unless we witness a direct violation. Our Elders will have to speak with their grand masters. It will take some time before we can seek them out.”

Time we don’t have. I twisted around and disconnected my phone from the charger plugged into the wall, finally breaking my eye contact with Aric. “I’d better call Misha and tell him what’s happening.”

“Why are you calling him?”

Aric’s growl kept me from dialing. I jumped off the counter. “He has a right to know. This is the third judge. It affects him, too.” Aric’s eyes narrowed further, like I’d somehow betrayed him. “God, why does everything have to be a fight with you? I know you hate him, but…” I stopped. His piercing gaze went right into my core, stirring more emotions I couldn’t bear to hold on to and keeping me from gathering a single breath. I stomped up the stairs to my room, taking my phone with me.

Liam’s words slowed my steps as I reached the landing. “Damn, Aric. What is up with you and Celia?”

I hurried into the solace of my room and fell against my closed door. I hated fighting with Aric. And I had the feeling he hated it, too. Worse yet were the final words he spoke before leaving our house: “Keep Celia safe.”

The touch screen on my phone locked out twice before I finally dialed.

“Hey, Misha,” I said when I heard his voice.

There was a brief pause. “What troubles you? Are you hurt?”

It bothered me that my voice shook so hard, but Aric—God—Aric had taken my feelings for him on an emotional loop-the-loop. I tried to relax as I explained to Misha what happened.

At first I believed Misha would erupt like an earthquake and the floor beneath me would tremble. I could almost smell his seething anger on the other end. A very long and very tense minute passed as I paced around my bedroom, waiting for him to respond. But the outburst I expected never came. “You have to investigate the remaining judge, Misha.”

“I. Can’t.”

“Why?”

“My master, Uri, fears I am too invested and my anger will cloud my judgment. He has ordered me to stay on my premises. His plan is to return to the Americas in three days’ time. At that point he will decide how best to proceed.”

“Three days? A lot can happen in three days.” I wanted to flop onto my bed, but decided against smearing it with the bloodlust. “Do you think…do you think he’s behind this?”

He paused. “It remains a possibility I cannot ignore.”

The pain in Misha’s heart resonated through the harshness of his voice. Someone he loved likely wanted him dead. “If it is Uri, is there any way you can stop him?”

“No. He gathers his strength from all in his keep. My power fuels his.”

I groaned. “And now you have more because I gave you back your soul.”

Misha’s tone softened. “Do not ever apologize for granting me such a gift.”