“Nonsense.”

  “Hmm,” Malek whispered, his breath against her cheek. “What is your repulsion for rejoining the fold, Molly? We can only help you achieve greater power.”

  “I don’t want more power.” Molly stared directly into his eyes. “And I certainly don’t want you.”

  “You say that, but I feel your body betraying you. You need me.”

  “I need nothing but a good night’s rest and some peace and quiet, none of which I am getting with you here.”

  His lips were so close. She wondered if he would try to kiss her. Malek had never been one to be so forward in advances. He always let her make the final decision of how far they would take it, but it had been nearly a century since she’d seen him properly, and he’d just shown up at the door like a lost boy needing a bed and food. She’d regretted every moment allowing him into her house, and the fact he hadn’t left yet only irked her more.

  “I’ll see you in the morning then.” Malek pressed a kiss to her cheek and then stood up straight, still staring at her. “Until then.”

  Molly wisely didn’t answer him. As soon as he was out of her sight, she turned back to watch Faye in the room opposite, expecting to find her still asleep. Instead, Faye stared directly at her through the glass. Molly’s heart raced. Once she was sure Malek was gone, Molly pushed herself up from the bed and hobbled through to Faye’s room.

  “Hey there.”

  “Hey back,” Faye answered. “What the hell happened?”

  Molly smirked. “You went off the rails.”

  “I…I what?”

  “You really don’t remember?”

  Faye shook her head.

  “Did you take something tonight?”

  At Faye’s silence, Molly had her answer.

  “What was it?”

  “Something new. I haven’t…I swear I haven’t done drugs since we came back here.”

  “I know.” Molly stroked the back of her fingers against Faye’s cheek then twined their fingers. “Malek thinks he’s the big hero of the night.”

  “Is he?”

  Molly sighed. “Probably, though I could have handled it.”

  “I have no doubt of that.”

  “What did you take?”

  “Don’t know.”

  “Faye—”

  “I swear. I have no idea what it was. I just got it and thought I’d try it.”

  “Where’d you get it?”

  “Downtown.” Faye licked her lips. “Do you mind? I’m awfully hungry.”

  Molly cocked her head to the side. “You want blood?”

  “Yeah. I just…I don’t know. I feel weird.”

  “Faye, you fed already, twice over, and we gave you some when we returned, and it made no difference.”

  “Really?” Faye’s slate-gray eyes widened. “Can we try again?”

  Bending down, Molly pressed her lips softly to Faye’s. Faye didn’t wait as she curled her fingers into Molly’s hair, holding the back of her head as they continued to kiss. At some point the embrace moved from soft to sharp. Faye’s teeth had elongated and scraped at Molly’s lips exactly as she liked it.

  Moaning into the embrace, Molly pushed into Faye and hoped beyond hope that her blood would at least do something. She opened her power to the moment as it was happening, twining her magic with the blood sacrifice Faye was taking. Drawing in a sharp breath, Molly carded a hand down Faye’s front, over her breast and settled it on her hip. She had no energy beyond anything except what they were doing, but she wanted to make sure Faye could get what she needed and that she herself got something in return.

  Faye’s sharp nails dug into her tender side, and Molly gasped as pain coursed through her. Faye didn’t stop though. She just barreled forward right like Molly expected her to. They liked pain, the both of them, and although this was different, they needed it.

  Molly shifted, offering her neck, the same place Faye had taken from her earlier. Faye didn’t wait as she plunged her teeth into Molly’s skin. This time, instead of hurt like it had been down at the docks, it was pure pleasure like it was meant to be. Faye’s tongue soothed the burn Molly had come to love and crave. Faye’s hand moved back up, cupping Molly’s breast and carding her thumb over her nipple through the thin fabric of the scrubs Amachon had given her to wear.

  They stayed that way for some time before Faye gasped and jerked back. Then she licked along Molly’s neck after a moment’s hesitation and sealed the wound so it wouldn’t bleed. When she moved away again, Faye traced her thumb over Molly’s lips and shook her head.

  “You didn’t tell me I nearly killed you.”

  “I’m harder to kill than most people think.”

  “Yet, also easier than you think.” Faye smirked. “In my head, everything was wonderful and perfect.”

  “What do you mean?” Molly shifted back up and took Faye’s hand in hers, folding their fingers together again.

  “I mean, what I remember is the polar opposite of what you remember.”

  “How do you know what I remember?”

  Faye raised a thin eyebrow at her. “You just…I just…I don’t know. I just saw it, when we were kissing.”

  “Interesting. I didn’t share it with you.”

  “Then who did?”

  “Perhaps it was your latent memory coming back.”

  Faye shook her head. “I think you shared.”

  “I promise you, Faye, I didn’t.”

  “Malek certainly did come to the rescue.”

  “I suppose he did.”

  “You still don’t trust him?”

  Leave it to Faye to avoid the one subject they should be talking about and switch it to another. “I don’t. He’s here for a reason, and in four months, I still haven’t figure out what that reason is.”

  “Want to tag team this?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Faye grinned. “Well, he’s a witch, Molly, like you, so I can get out of him the same I do you, minus the beauties of a woman which I have come to be near addicted to. But perhaps I can get some information from him that you’re struggling with because of your own hesitation.”

  “What are you thinking?” Molly curled her hair that had fallen forward behind her ear. She knew what Faye was suggesting. She’d even thought of it at one point and then dismissed it because she didn’t want to share, and she certainly didn’t want Faye to get a taste of his blood in comparison to hers.

  “I will seduce him. Men always share their secrets in the throes of sex.” Faye looked damned pleased with herself. “Unlike you, it should be easy to get something out of him.”

  Molly laughed, genuinely. “All right. You work your magic there, though I suspect he’ll be harder to fuck than I am.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I know one reason Malek is here is to try and get me to rejoin the fold. The only way for that to happen is for me to make the final commitment to him.”

  “Final commitment?”

  Molly trailed a finger down Faye’s cheek again. “Yes, to become his mate, his pair, his partner. Whatever it is you want to call it. I was about to make the final commitment when I left the fold and never looked back. He obviously still wants me back.”

  “They’d be stronger with you.”

  “Yes, they would.” Molly smiled down at her. “And I would be weaker.”

  “O…kay?” Faye looked confused, but Molly didn’t want to explain any further.

  “Right, so he wants me in the fold, meaning he’s less likely to fuck you since he knows it would piss me off.”

  Faye grinned. “Then give permission. Come on, Molly, I want to know why he’s here, and I don’t think it’s just to get you back into the fold.”

  “I agree with you.” Faye’s hand squeezing hers drew her back to the moment. “So let’s do this. You work from one direction, and I’ll work from the other. We’ll hopefully meet in the middle and have some information to share with each other.”

  “Yes, let’s.”

  “How are you feeling now?”

  Faye grinned broadly, and Molly knew in an instant Faye was much better off than she had been before. “Fantastic. You?”

  “Better.”

  Molly was surprised by Faye’s hand at the back of her head again dragging her down until their lips connected. This time Faye was far more insistent than she had been before. Molly lost herself in the moment, like she always did. Faye was the one person who had been able to do that for her since she’d first met Malek, but even then, she’d found herself eventually.

  “Do you think we should take this somewhere else?” Faye whispered into Molly’s ear, her breath heavy.

  “Yes,” Molly hissed back. Then she kissed Faye again, really not wanting the moment to shift or end, or to have to walk up the stairs to her bedroom on the second floor of the house. It would take a lot of her energy out of her. Faye would be doing all the work for certain.

  Faye smirked. “Should we piss Amachon off then?”

  Giggling, Molly grinned. “Yes. Come on.”

  Molly took out the IV from Faye’s arm and settled it on the table next to the bed, so Amachon would know Molly had done it instead of Faye trying to escape his clutches. Without another hesitation, Faye stood up, cracked her neck, and then wrapped an arm around Molly’s waist gently as they walked together out of the medical bay.

  Chapter Five

  Ben sat in the middle of the medical bay three days after capturing the centivalk. It had taken him that long to get up the courage to even come down there and ask the questions that had been plaguing his mind ever since the failed creature capture and then the successful one even more so. What would the difference have been?

  He couldn’t stop. Joel had talked to him incessantly about it because his worry and anxiety had been so heightened that he needed to have an outlet and Joel was the perfect person for that. The room was cold like it always was, and he was sitting on the bed, waiting for Amachon to come in after Ben had requested him. He hoped that sitting on the bed would tell Amachon silently that he needed to be looked at instead of ignored and that he wasn’t there just for chitchat.

  He wrung his hands together, sweat slicking the skin as his nerves got the best of him. He had no idea how to make his request, but he knew something was wrong. He’d been off his medicine for months and there was no sign it was even out of system as far as he could tell. He wouldn’t be able to shift if he still felt like he was confined by the chemical concoction Molly had made for him.

  Amachon, thankfully, entered the medical bay and came straight over to him, concern written all over his large face. His eyes were soft as he stared down, and Ben tried to smile up at him but couldn’t muster it.

  “What’s wrong?” Amachon said before grunting.

  “I…I want to know what’s wrong with me.”

  Amachon cocked his head to the side, his oversized hand from his giant of a body crowding into Ben’s space, but it wasn’t anything Ben wasn’t used to. He’d been in the medical bay so many times he lost count, and Amachon was his best friend—almost. Had been a combination of a father figure and a friend. Faye was his best friend.

  “What’s wrong?” Amachon repeated his question from before.

  Ben rolled his eyes and flung his hands up in the air. “I don’t know. You’re the medic. I don’t know anything.”

  Amachon grunted loudly—his secondary way of speaking, or rather his primary if Ben thought about it. It was meant to silence Ben, to focus him, to narrow in on what it was that was bothering him. Ben suddenly wished he’d brought Joel because Joel would have been able to do all the speaking instead of Ben jumbling it up so bad no one knew what he was saying.

  “I can’t shift,” Ben finally muttered.

  Amachon narrowed his eyes and clapped Ben loudly on the shoulder. “You need practice.”

  “No…I guess…I don’t feel any different. Shouldn’t I feel different? I don’t feel anything. I’ve been off my meds for months now. Shouldn’t I feel something?” Ben refused to look at Amachon, wanting to have a giant black hole appear just under him and swallow him up before closing off to anyone and anything else. The conversation was utterly embarrassing.

  Amachon slid onto the bed next to Ben and stared out the glass window into the medical area. Ben usually hated coming down there. Everyone did, for that matter. Joel called it Amachon’s torture chamber. Ben agreed, but he wouldn’t dare call it that out loud. As they sat in silence, Ben realized just how tight his chest felt. Reaching up, he rubbed his hand against his breast bone and tried to ease the tension.

  “It takes time,” Amachon whispered. “You need to use muscles you haven’t used. Ever.”

  “So it’s not going to happen in an instant?”

  “Not at all.” Amachon still didn’t turn to look at him. “Why now?”

  Ben shrugged, realizing he hadn’t really explained it to anyone except Faye, Molly, and Joel. He barely wanted to think about it himself, but when they had moments like they did the other night, when he could have done something—anything—to make the situation better, to resolve it faster and sooner so no one got hurt, he felt he should.

  They sat again in silence, Ben contemplating what to tell Amachon. Why did he want to be able to shift, really? It wasn’t only because he wanted to be more useful. He was plenty useful doing all the technology for the house, with his inventions no matter how awry they went half the time. Molly always found a use for them. So why did he?

  Shrugging again, Ben turned to Amachon. “I want to be more me.”

  “And who are you?”

  “I’m Ben. I’m techie, and geeky, and funny.”

  Amachon tilted his large shoulder into Ben’s, nearly knocking him onto his side. Ben rubbed his arm and stared up at Amachon, the giant’s body towering over him.

  “What was that for?”

  “Feel better?”

  “No.”

  “You sure?” Amachon grunted.

  “I mean, I feel better, but I’m still not shifting.”

  “Time.” Amachon pushed up from the bed and stood. He gave Ben one more glance before he shuffled his way out of the room.

  Ben sat on the hospital bed for another ten minutes before he realized that was all the help he was going to get. He wasn’t quite sure what he expected. They checked his blood weekly, so if there was anything up in that they would know already. But God, he didn’t want to have to wait any longer to shift. Once the decision had been made, he just wanted to get it done and over with. He wanted to know how to control and contort his body.

  He was twenty-seven-years-old. He should know how to do this by now. Everyone else in his family did, at least, he thought they did. The ones who were Tainted. But he didn’t really know, did he? He hadn’t seen his family since he was a little boy and had come to live with Molly, no one except his Aunt Deidre.

  Climbing off the bed, Ben meandered out the door and instead of going down to his work area, he went up to Joel’s room. Joel’s room was always his sanctuary, his one place of calm in the entire house, and Joel would find him soon enough if he went there. He always did.

  Sliding into the bedroom, Ben laid down on the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. He closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, his nostrils filling with the scent of Joel—his cologne, his shampoo, his sweat. It was almost near perfect. If only he knew how to morph his body into another creature.

  ###

  Faye had spent the week annoying the crap out of Molly, as much as Molly would let her anyway. She checked on their centivalk friend, but mostly Faye had kept checking in on Molly, and every time Malek showed up to talk to Molly, Faye made sure she was there to break up the chit chat. She wanted his attention on her. She’d taken what Molly and she had discussed to heart, and she was going to figure out what he was up to.

  She hadn’t expected to ever see him again after they had relieved Molly of her curse, but she wouldn’t lie if anyone asked because she had felt a tinge of a thrill when he’d shown up at the door all those months ago. Since then, he had kept his distance from her, which she found odd considering the shared history between vampires and witches.

  Malek was the one who had shattered that glass for her. She had no idea of it until she’d convinced him to help Molly. Faye tapped her finger against her lips as she contemplated what to do next. Molly was good at manipulating, not only with her magic but with her wit. Faye was equally good at manipulating, albeit without magic.

  Seduction was her preferred method. She would need to seduce him to get the right information, but Malek was also a witch, meaning he was good an manipulating with magic since that was all magic was. Faye pressed her back against the wall to the elevator as she waited for it to take her up to the main floor.

  Making her way to Molly’s office, she heard Malek’s smooth voice and Molly’s prim and proper one. Just from Molly’s tone, Faye knew she was annoyed. Malek either knew that or he ignored it. Wiping her hands on her tattered jeans, Faye walked into the attic office at the top of the staircase without any warning.

  Molly’s office was huge and comfortable. Often the crew would hang out there, either in the middle the day and do their own work or chat with Molly if she was there. Faye smiled at Malek as he turned to face her with a sour look—it didn’t suit his chiseled chin at all. Faye ignored it and stepped forward, swaying her hips more than necessary. Molly’s eyes went wide before she covered her smirk behind the back of her hand.

  “I’ve done my rounds,” Faye announced for no other reason than to break the awkward silence and change the subject from whatever it was.

  “Well, good.” Molly’s eyes were light with excitement.

  Faye stopped walking just in front of Malek and pressed a hand to his forearm. Contact. That was always what men wanted. Molly wanted it fast and hard, usually, but men wanted to know she was interested instead of just being taken.

  “Have you seen the centivalk in full daylight? He’s beautiful.”

  “Beautiful is not the word I would use.” Malek straightened his posture, that odd glare and sour look back on his face. “Molly and I were just discussing something—”