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  Luke tried to picture the queen bitch as the woman Rain described and failed.

  "When I was about sixteen, I’d had enough. We're only one year apart, so she didn't have much of a head start. I was at her level by then, and still, she just wouldn't be my competition. I felt like I wasn't taken seriously. So, I started to bug her in a personal way. If I pranked her around her friends, she’d get pissed enough to actually fight me seriously for a little while. But that passed, too. After a day or two, she'd call me a brat and go back to being Saint Michelle. When I did worse stuff, like making eyes at her boyfriend, or ask her father if he could show me how to drive, and shit, it lasted longer. She fought harder against me. Somewhere along the line, she started to hate my guts. And I deserved it."

  Honestly? She really did. Luke kept his mouth shut because telling her that wasn't going to help.

  "It took me a while to realize why I'd been that way. Michelle and I have the same amount of power; no one else in the seventy-three clans could have aspired to rule the Nola witch society someday. Only one of us could be head of the coven, and I wanted it to be me. For the first time, I spent a bit of time outside of Nola right after high school, and my thirst for power disappeared the moment I passed the borders of the city. There's something here, something that calls to the darker part of me."

  "So, you left."

  "So, I left," Rain echoed. "As soon as I could.

  And that was why he liked her.

  Maybe he should cut Michelle some slack, though.

  Luke was glad he'd asked her to go first, because, after all that crap, his story didn't feel like it was that bad. At least, he hadn't been the bad guy in the scenario.

  "My brother was a dick. A womanizer who didn't like to be told no. He was a born alpha, and he ticked all the boxes for the bad characteristics you can imagine for dominant shifters. We lived in Scotland, in a wild, open land our pride had owned for centuries, and we were relatively happy, although no one was looking forward to the day when Craig would take over from our uncle. One day, a small group of strangers came. They offered money and asked if they could rent part of our land for a little while. Shifters don't like sharing their territory, but we had plenty of space. There was the ruin of a castle south, near the coast. That's where they wanted to stay. Craig convinced our uncle to say yes. We should have wondered why."

  He marked a pause as the memory came back to him.

  "Among the strangers, there was a woman, a lass who was maybe twenty, and so fucking beautiful. Different to the girls you get up in Scotland, that's for sure. She had big eyes, and dark skin a bit like your sister's and Niamh's, you know? I think she said her family came from India, I don't remember. Anyway, my brother was sniffing around her. Of course he was. Thing is, she really wasn't interested at all. He didna' like that, my brother. So, one night, when she was a little tipsy, he just took her, and then got his fucking cat to mark her, too."

  Rain was hanging on to his every word.

  "We knew by then that most of the strangers were scions. We knew. We'd chatted together, drank, and ate at each other's places often enough. They were good company, really. All of them, even Ajax." To be fair and truthful, Luke amended, "Especially Ajax. He had funny ideas, not quite right. Like, he said regular humans were beneath them and what-not. He didn't mind shifters at the time, though."

  He must have stopped for longer than he thought, because Rain prompted, "What happened?"

  Luke didn't want to say it, but he had to. "The woman killed herself. Actually killed herself. And there was my family, knowing Craig had hurt her, discussing how it was cowardly to just exit life like that without fighting. I was saying that they were a bunch of cunts and that Craig should be fucking locked up. Ajax walked in on us that night. He killed them all. He said I was only alive because I was the only one of our disgusting breed worthy of breathing. He told me I should tell others what happens to those who go against his kind so that when the time came, we knew what side we should be on. And then, he left."

  A heavy silence stretched between them. Maybe his story had been worse than hers, after all.

  He was about to say something, anything, just to fill the silence, but before he added another word, Rain's attention snapped left, and her eyes brightened as she called out her little sister's name.

  Luke turned to the club entrance and frowned.

  The girl walking toward them in a red dress was, indubitably, Rain's sister. Unlike Michelle, she truly resembled her. But she didn't, by any stretch of imagination, resemble the description Rain had given him.

  Ditzy, adorable, artistic, clumsy, carefree. None of those terms fitted the graceful young woman making her way to them through the crowd.

  Luke's cheetah watched her closely, like it watched all threats.

  Something was very wrong with Sara White.

  Wrong Sister

  The girl kissed her sister's cheeks and said all the right greetings, claiming that she was glad to see her, although her eyes betrayed her. She wasn't.

  "Sara, meet Luke, my very own shifter bodyguard. Luke, here's Sara White."

  He shook her extended hand and felt colder when his skin touched hers. His animal growled. Luke had to ask him to calm down, tell him that here and now wasn't the time for shifting.

  The beast obeyed reluctantly but watched Sara with all his attention. Something told him to take Rain and run out of the bar, out of the city, out of the damn state, returning to Lakesides. He really couldn't tell how a small twenty-year-old girl made him that fucking wary, but he knew better than to question his instincts.

  "I would never have guessed that you'd come here during the solstice. Has Michelle called you?" she asked, her eyes narrowing a little.

  Luke thought about kicking Rain under the table, telling her to stay quiet, but he didn't need to.

  "Nope. Long story, I'll tell you when we get out of here. Never mind me, though. You're the one living in the viper's nest, tell me how it's going."

  Sara smiled pleasantly. "Well. The vipers have their uses. Erin and Francesca have been helping me with my spells. You'll find that I've improved a lot."

  Rain's brows hiked up on her forehead.

  "Oh?"

  "Why so surprised? I'm also a White, after all."

  Rain was now cautious and watching her sister with as much attention as Luke. Good.

  "Of course. What do you want to drink, wine? I'll order for you."

  "No, thanks. I can't drink before the solstice, you know."

  "Why, because you're preparing to channel the ancestors?" Rain chuckled. "Why do you think I'm here? I'll do it. You can knock yourself out."

  Sara blanched, all color leaving her. Luke noted that her hands started shaking, and her eyes lost their presence for an instant. It didn't last longer than a fraction of a second, but he caught in nonetheless.

  Shit. He knew what was wrong with her. He had never seen it with his own eyes, but he'd heard of it.

  He glanced toward Rain, frustrated that they couldn't directly communicate mentally.

  "Oh. I...I expected..." Sara caught herself. "Sorry, I need some air."

  She turned in the direction of the smoking area. Rain followed her, and Luke reluctantly let them go.

  Time to find out what the hell was happening around here.

  “Okay, fess up, what’s wrong?”

  Sara hadn’t been this closed off, this hesitant the last time she’d seen her. Something was up. Rain understood why she wouldn’t have spoken about it in front of Luke, in a bar, but now she should have unloaded.

  She didn’t.

  “Nothing. I’m fine, really. And thanks for coming, Rain. I would have managed anchoring, you know—you protect me way too much. But with you, it’s going to be spectacular.”

  Everything in her lit up, but even then, it didn’t quite feel like Sara, the Sara Rain knew.

  Sara lit up when she spoke of shoes and boys, not rituals, dammit.

  "Of course," she said auto
matically.

  "But you're not going to come back every year, are you? I have an idea. We could both anchor the spell. That should take less of a toll on you and that way, I can learn from the best for the future."

  Rain didn't ask Sara what had happened to her plan to apply to NYU and leave the clan. She didn't demand to know what had changed and since when.

  Because this wasn't Sara at all.

  She'd felt Luke tense the moment she'd entered the club, and now she knew why. Something, something very powerful, that they should be wary of, had taken her little sister's mind and body. That thing was talking to her now. Now Rain was aware of the issue, she could almost feel, see, the presence of the nefarious force.

  So, she forced a smile, and said, "What a marvelous idea!"

  They soon returned to the bar. Keeping the conversation centered on trivial things, she somehow managed to last a good hour without punching Pseudo-Sara in the teeth.

  Luke and Rain watched her retreat and the moment she'd left the club, both of them sighed in relief.

  Rain held his gaze for a long time, without saying anything. There were too many eyes, too many ears around them, and they didn't know what they'd walked into. The presence Rain had identified around Sara hadn't entirely disappeared. It could still be paying attention to them, using the eyes of someone else in the club.

  It could be anyone or everyone.

  Rain paused. The moment she'd said, that a little voice corrected, no. There was one person too stubborn to get possessed here.

  “There’s something wrong. I can feel it, almost taste it. And it’s time to ask someone who will give me answers. Wait for me a minute," Rain said, before striding resolutely toward the owner of the club.

  She planted herself in front of Charles, who wasn't surprised at all. If anything, he seemed to have been waiting for her.

  "What do you think about the DJ, Rain White?"

  "It's Phillips, and you should fire him. Potentially shoot him, too."

  Charles' smile showed his fangs again. "Funny, isn't it? How there are about three hundred young people in here, and yet no one is complaining about the seventies disco tunes."

  It was. They acted casual, normal, but something was missing.

  Soul.

  "Tomorrow. Meet me in front of the cemetery on foot around midday. I'll take you and your man on a little walk," the vampire told her, before turning, getting up from the stool where he'd sat since she'd arrived, and heading to the back of the club, disappearing behind a door with a red "private" sign.

  So, he had really been waiting for her.

  Rain couldn't help but ask herself if it was a trap, but one fact remained: she didn't have a choice if she wanted to know what the fuck was going on. She was going to have to play the vampire's game.

  She returned to Luke and downed her beer in one go.

  "Shall we get back to the hotel? I'm getting a little tired," she lied.

  She just wanted out of this place. Luke jumped on the suggestion.

  "Hell, yes."

  They walked slowly, taking in the heavy city air. In many ways, it hadn't changed. There was still jazz and food, colors and magic.

  But there was no doubt in her mind that this wasn't the New Orleans she'd left.

  The Vampire

  The cemetery where Rain had agreed to meet the bloodsucker felt a little too alive for a place where the dead were supposed to be at rest. Although it was empty, Luke would have sworn that he heard whispers.

  "How long is the sucker gonna make us wait?" he asked, somewhat nervously.

  "Are you afraid of ghosts?" Rain asked, smirking.

  He shrugged. "Not afraid, no. Understandably concerned, though. This is a witch burial ground, isn't it?" he guessed. "You guys take powers from those dead folks underground. To me, that seems to suggest they're pretty damn strong."

  "You aren't wrong," said Rain. "But they need a living thing linked to them to be able to do anything. Linked by blood, most of the time, although a fatedmate bond does the trick too."

  "That's what your little ritual is about, right?"

  She scoffed. "There's nothing little about that damn ritual, trust me. And yes. All year round, the witches of Nola use ancestral magic, and by summer, it's somewhat depleted. The entire clan basically seals the area, to make sure that their power is contained, and summons the ancestors. The anchor takes in the powers, and the person who cast the spell redistributes it to all the clans."

  Luke could imagine just about a billion ways this plan could go wrong. What if the shields around the area failed? What if the anchor wanted to keep the powers? What if the caster didn't distribute it? Michelle could just absorb them if she wanted to.

  "So, you'll be the anchor. You do your thing, and then we get you out of there, yeah?"

  Rain hesitated. Shit. He should have counted on that.

  "You're not leaving until you know what's up with your little sister," he guessed.

  She nodded. "It's not what you signed up for. I'd understand if you—"

  He didn't let her finish. "Oh, come off it. I ain't leaving you in this mess alone. Now if only that poser would show up..."

  "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear," said Charles, appearing behind them.

  Shit. Luke and his animal never even smelled, heard, or felt him. One of the reasons he disliked vampires was because they were so fucking sneaky.

  Charles wore a long leather jacket, jeans, boots, and no top. He had a top hat on his head and sunglasses on.

  Luke looked him over from head to toes.

  "Seriously? Leather, in this heat?"

  The vampire was unapologetic. "Beats sunburn."

  "If you're so concerned about sunburn, why aren't you wearing a damn t-shirt?"

  Charles shrugged. "It's hot."

  That made zero sense. Zero.

  Luke didn’t like anything about Charles.

  Not his look, not the familiar way he spoke to Rain and touched her casually. And certainly not the fact that he was a goddamned bloodsucker. His animal bared his teeth, observing Charles cautiously. One wrong move and he’d be ready to pounce on his undead ass.

  He kissed Rain's cheek, before gesturing them to follow him as he walked inside the cemetery.

  "Where are we..."

  Luke let his voice trail off when Charles opened the door of a crypt. The white stone building had an angel sculpted on either side of its metallic door. The name "Blackstone" had been engraved on top of it.

  "Let me guess. Your place?" Rain asked.

  Charles smiled, walking in. They found the crypt to be entirely clean, and empty of anything, except a trap door in the floor.

  "I had this built on top of underground tunnels leading to most relevant places," he told them, holding his hand up to help Rain walk down the set of steep stairs. "I'm afraid the journey won't be pleasant. I don't let anyone else take my passages, and I've never been one to do housekeeping."

  To Luke's surprise, the vampire also held up his hand to him, letting him pass before him.

  Luke narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

  "Chill, kitten, if I'd wanted to, I would have gobbled you up by now."

  Kitten.

  Never, in living memory, had anyone called Luke "kitten."

  It might have happened before he was, like, three, but he wasn't acknowledging that.

  He stared at the vamp in disbelief.

  "I'm six foot three. Over two hundred pounds," he explained, just in case Charles hadn't noted.

  The vampire smiled.

  "You're cute, and you turn into a cat. Therefore, kitten. Move that noteworthy ass. Rain's down there with too many spiders."

  Letting him lead them through dusty passageways in the belly of the city wasn’t his idea of a good time.

  “Is that a skeleton?”

  Luke heaved, but neither Charles nor Rain so much as lifted a brow. It was a fresh, juicy skeleton, and they didn’t mind.

  She had had a point about the
paranormal Nola world being a little more hardcore than it was in the rest of the world.

  “Where are we going, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  “Out,” was Charles’ only answer.

  Luke considered pressing, but Rain sent him a glace that, in any language, translated to, “shut your trap”.

  She knew what he was up to, then.

  Finally, after encountering more worms, spiders, snakes, and skeletons than Luke ever wished to face, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Through a heavy metal door Charles pushed like it was made of paper, they got out of the city.

  The air had changed. A lot. Some of the weight he’d felt since their arrival in town had lifted.

  They walked in silence in a dry woods, and at each step, Luke’s animal felt less on edge, freer. He would have killed for a run right about now.

  Luke didn’t ask where they were headed again. Eventually, they must have arrived there because both Rain and Charles stopped together.

  “Okay, what the fuck is going on?” she finally demanded to know.

  "Nola is under the influence of a greater being. Stronger than me. Definitely stronger than you. I don't know who, I can't tell what its source of power is, but every day it's becoming stronger. Most of the witches have fallen for it. Your sister, Sara? One day, she was wearing a cropped top and downing sangrias with her girlfriends from school; the next day, she was an integral part of the coven, wanting to get involved in all their spells. It's not just her; even some vampires in my den are acting out of sorts."

  Shit. What had they walked into?

  “Is that why we’re meeting here?” he questioned.

  Rain pointed to the ground, to something he couldn’t see. “A long time ago, when the city was being built, the witches shielded it, not only so that nothing bad could come in, but also so that their powers couldn’t just escape its wall. It’s a two-way wall. Whatever is going on inside Nola can’t affect us here in the bayou.”