“No offense, but your judgment is the least of my worries.” Alice leaned back in the chair. “Why did you come back?”

  “For you,” she motioned towards her. “And Lizzy, and Finn, and everyone else that Cain has taken, either by coercion or force. Fane is going to destroy this place, and if he doesn’t, Peri will.”

  “That would be bad.” Kara’s eyes widened. “We do not want Perizada coming and doing a cleanup, as she would no doubt call it.”

  Sally nodded. “Agreed.”

  Alice’s face scrunched up. “She’s a bit off her rocker, isn’t she?”

  “Girl, she tossed the rocker off the side of a mountain and hopped on the crazy train.” Sally’s words might have been funny, but Kara saw the worry in Sally’s brown eyes. Whatever was going on with Peri, it was affecting all of them.

  “Can you tell us about Lizzy and Finn?” Sally changed the subject. “Are they ready to bust out of this place?”

  Alice nodded. “A hundred percent. Finn’s already killed a handful of vampires.”

  Kara’s brow rose.

  Alice looked at her. “Cain separated them.”

  “Ahh, that makes sense.” Kara shrugged. “Is Cain dumb, or does he just like poking dominant, newly mated males?”

  “He’s let them be together now. I asked him to,” Alice told them.

  Kara’s heart beat a little faster as she thought about how close she was to seeing Lizzy again. “How is Lizzy doing?”

  “She’s strong, mentally, emotionally and now physically. Feisty.” Alice smiled.

  Kara chuckled. “That sounds like her.”

  Alice frowned. “You know her?”

  Kara nodded. “I’m pretty sure she’s the same Lizzy I grew up in the system with. We were best friends.” Kara told Alice about how she’d thought Lizzy had died at the hands of one of her foster parents. “I’m so scared to see her, but I’m also desperate to lay eyes on her.” Nick’s phantom arms enveloped Kara, and his scent surrounded her. “I’m okay.”

  “I’m not. Hush and let me have a moment.” His voice was gruff with emotion. “You’ve been in her head long enough. Come back to your body, and let’s go to bed. I want to hold my girls.”

  “Lizzy won’t blame you. I haven’t known her long, but what I do know is that she’s a better person than that. She’s going to be thrilled to see you.”

  “Thanks, Alice.” Kara lips turned up in a small smile.

  “Is there a number you can give us that’s secure so Fane could call you? You’ll need to know when the cavalry is coming.” Thankfully, Sally was able to stay focused.

  Alice rattled off her cell phone number, and Kara gave the number to Nick so he could write it down.

  “We’ll be in touch,” Sally told Alice as she stood from where she’d been sitting. “You just hold on. And don’t be too hard on yourself.”

  Alice snorted. “That’s one of those easier said than done tidbits.”

  “Try it anyway,” Kara demanded, suddenly very agitated and frustrated with the scientist. Damn pregnancy hormones. She grumbled her new mantra. Out loud, she grumbled some more. “You’re not going to be able to walk away from him unless you decide what you really want in this life, Alice.” Kara’s tone was firm and no-nonsense. “If we send our mates in here to rescue your ass and you haven’t made a decision, and that indecision causes one of ours to get injured, I will come back here and drag you out by your cute hair. Are we clear? Because I don’t play when it comes to those I love.”

  Alice’s eyes widened. “Which one is the real you? The quiet, soft spoken one, or the one who just handed me my ‘pity party’ having ass?”

  Kara’s voice grew cold. “I cut my captor up into pieces. Which one do you think is the real me?”

  Alice stared at her for a minute. “I think you’re capable of being whomever you need to be in order to survive or keep those you love alive.”

  “Then I think you know that I will do exactly as I threatened.” Kara stepped up beside Sally. “Make your choice, Alice. We want you to be with us because it’s where you belong. But we won’t force you.”

  “If I choose him, I’m choosing to be your enemy. That’s how Fane will see it, won’t he?”

  “You will be held to a different judgment because you haven’t killed anyone or abducted anyone,” Sally answered. “But yes. If you choose Cain, you are an enemy of the Romanian pack.”

  Chapter

  Six

  “In all my decades upon decades of living, I have never felt more conflicted than I do now. I’ve never questioned who I am or what I am. She has changed everything. I don’t know if I like it.” ~Cain

  Cain stared broodingly into the flickering fire, turning the glass of blood in his hands, swirling it like a fine wine. He should feel triumphant. His plans were coming to fruition. Slower than he wanted, yes, but he was almost there.

  Instead, he felt … unsettled, restless. He was keeping something from Alice, and he felt guilty about it. Why? Keeping secrets was commonplace for a vampire lord. But he didn’t like the idea of keeping one from Alice. Not anymore.

  Cain dragged a hand over his face. These tangled emotions were foreign to him, and they were threatening to break the veneer of numbing detachment he’d built up over centuries. After he’d lost his first Alice to the werewolves, he decided that he’d never allow himself to become attached to a female again. He preferred the simplicity of wanting, taking, having. Clean, transactional, no bothersome entanglements. At first, he’d been sure that he wanted this new Alice as his mate. The prospect had seemed fun. But that was before any genuine emotions got involved. Now the idea of not having her left him feeling violent. That should be reason enough for him to cut her loose. She could easily become a weakness for him, something for an enemy to exploit.

  So why did part of him ache at the idea of losing Alice’s comforting presence? He’d tasted her blood, and yes, she tasted divine, but that wasn’t reason enough for him to be so attached. Admittedly, when he’d experienced it again, following Claude’s near-fatal attack on her, Cain fully realized the extraordinary nature of the gypsy healer’s blood. Was it then that Alice’s fate was sealed? “No,” he said roughly. “There’s more to it.”

  He craved more stolen moments curled up together with soft conversations that flowed easily. She’d slipped past his defenses, leaving him off balance. He’d kept her in the coma-induced state by using the sire bond, mostly because he wasn’t sure what would happen when she woke. But then he’d come to love the way she trusted him, even if it wasn’t real. He hadn’t wanted to let it go. And now, because of his selfishness, she might never trust him again, not that he blamed her.

  A log shifted in the fire, sending up a burst of sparks. Cain watched them whirl upward, only to gutter out. Chaotic, brief flashes were soon swallowed again by darkness. Much like any bonds he tried to form.

  Perhaps it was for the best that Alice had awoken before he grew even more attached. Cain had walked a solitary path too long to share it now. His goals required sacrifice, a willingness to use people for his ends, then discard them when convenient.

  Still, he couldn’t shake the lingering regret that Alice coming into his life put her in danger. At first, she’d just been a pretty yet necessary nuisance. But then he’d gotten to know her. She was smart, brave, determined, inquisitive, and kind—despite having a jackass for a father. And then he’d tasted her, and her blood had given him something he hadn’t felt since before he was made a vampire. True fulfillment. His hunger, the constant need for the next drink of blood, was gone—at least for a little while. When it came back, he simply took a small sip from her again and the hunger was completely appeased. “Dammit.” She deserved better than him. She deserved honesty, at least. But the instinct for secrecy and manipulation ran deep in vampires. Trust did not come naturally to his kind.

  Cain thought back to their last confrontation in her mindscape. The way she’d looked at him there with such wariness, such disappointment.

  “Don’t act like you don’t know I was visited by a healer and a high fae while I was in whatever stupor you put me under. I saw you there. And stop pretending you actually care. I know what you’ve done to me. Keeping me unconscious, invading my mind. It ends now.”

  She’d been deceived and let down too many times already—by her father, Claude, and finally Cain himself. He couldn’t fault her for wanting to protect herself, for refusing to play the puppet any longer. She was owed that autonomy after so much was taken from her.

  Perhaps he should just let her go, stop this fruitless pursuit. She would find her true mate eventually, a wolf who could give her the openness and equality she deserved. Not remain shackled to a manipulative vampire obsessed with power.

  The very thought twisted Cain’s gut. With sudden clarity, he realized he didn’t want to lose her. His life seemed unbearably bleak without her quick mind and shy smiles. For the first time in forever, he yearned for a connection not built on lies or control. She’s a gypsy healer, he reminded himself, not meant for you. Cain ignored the reminder.

  Was it even possible at this point, after so much damage? Could he change enough to be worthy of her? The long abandoned human part of him wished desperately it were so. But the vampire scoffed at the idea. You are Death’s soldier. Any light you touch turns to ash.

  Cain stared sightlessly at the dwindling fire, turmoil raging inside him. Perhaps it was already too late to turn from the path he’d chosen so long ago. Some stains could never be erased.

  But he found himself unwilling to relinquish this fragile spark of hope Alice had ignited in him. He would try, at least, to become someone she need not fear. Even if he must eventually relinquish her to another, he could make this effort. For her sake … and perhaps his own. But what did that mean for his hybrids? Could she come to accept this part of him? He chuckled to himself, a humorless sound. “You’re a fool, Cain,” he said into the quiet room.

  He needed a distraction. Cain pulled out his phone and sent a text to Willis. The man was a brilliant scientist. But beyond that, he was simply food. Wouldn’t Alice love to hear him say that? He shook his head, attempting to dispel her from his mind for just a little while.

  A hesitant knock interrupted his brooding. “Come in,” he bit out.

  Willis edged into the room, a look of trepidation on his face. “You, uh, wanted to see me?”

  When Willis had first come to work for Cain, he’d been goofy, a little naïve, and unaware of what was going on around him most of the time. But now he was like a damn mouse in a room full of elephants.

  Cain motioned for the scientist to close the door. He never thought the day would come when he’d willingly talk to his food and actually want their opinion. What the hell had she done to him? Mentally cursing himself, he stood up and swallowed his considerable pride. He had to confide in someone before he lost his damn mind.

  Pacing to the window, Cain crossed his arms. “I find myself at a crossroads. For the first time in recent memory, I’m unsure which path is best.”

  He turned to pin Willis with an intense stare. “Tell me, do you think a man can change his nature?”

  Willis’s eyes widened slightly at the philosophical tangent. “Well, I suppose over time, with effort⁠—"

  “No.” Cain sliced a hand through the air. “Not over tedious years. I mean a fundamental shift in one’s character. Is such a thing possible?” A voice in the back of his mind laughed at him, but Cain shut it out.

  Willis pondered the question seriously. “Past behaviors and thought patterns become ingrained. But some catalyst could theoretically spur an abrupt realignment.” He eyed Cain curiously. “Why do you ask?”

  Cain resumed his restless pacing. How to explain feelings he scarcely understood himself?

  “Since claiming Alice, I’ve considered … re-evaluating certain priorities. Adjusting long-held assumptions.”

  At Willis’s baffled look, Cain suppressed a growl of frustration. He was talking himself in circles. Time for blunt honesty.

  “I find myself dissatisfied with who I have become.” Cain was shocked he hadn’t choked on the words. “I want things I believed myself no longer capable of wanting. But old habits die hard.”

  Understanding brightened the scientist’s eyes. “This is about Alice.” A stupid, huge grin formed on Willis’s boyish face. “She’s definitely a woman worth changing for.”

  Cain’s hands fisted at his sides, even as her name seemed to knock the breath from his lungs.

  “She makes me question everything,” he grated out. “Makes me wish to be better for her.” As if such a thing was possible for a vampire—better, good, selfless. None of those words had ever been used to describe one of his kind, and he doubted it would start with him.

  Willis nodded slowly, taking a seat. “Love can have that effect on a person. Makes you re-examine your life.”

  “Love?” Cain spun on him. “What would a vampire know of love?” His gut twisted with something akin to disgust. Not because he loved Alice, but because he didn’t know if he was capable of such an emotion. Did he want her? Yes. Was the idea of her with another male enraging to him? Absolutely. But did that mean he loved her? Was he selfless in his desire? Of course not. Love was definitely not what he felt. Possession. That was a far better word. Cain wanted to possess Alice.

  “Maybe more than you realize,” Willis said carefully. “If she’s inspiring these changes in you.”

  Could it be so simple? Cain resumed pacing, emotions warring within him. He wanted to deny it, reject this weakness. But the truth refused to be silenced.

  Coming to an abrupt stop, he met Willis’s patient gaze. “I don’t know how to reconcile what I feel for her with who I am, what I want. She deserves more than a soulless monster.”

  Willis’s expression turned sympathetic, which thoroughly annoyed him. “From what I’ve observed, your soul is still very much intact. Buried perhaps, but not destroyed. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have saved her after Claude’s attack.”

  “I saved her because she’s the key to the hybrids.” A half-truth instead of a complete lie.

  Leaning forward intently, Willis continued. “You stand at a crossroads, as you said. Will you continue down the path of destructive selfishness or open yourself to a new way forward?”

  Cain stared at the man as those simple words struck like arrows. A new path. Could it be possible? Could he change for her?

  Turning back to the window, Cain watched dusk settle over the desert. For so long his course had seemed immutable, his destiny set. But perhaps fate had something different in mind for him now.

  A light knock interrupted his reverie. Speak of the devil. Alice hovered hesitantly at his door.

  “Do you have a moment?”

  Cain moved swiftly to usher her inside. “Of course. Come in.”

  If Willis was surprised by her appearance, he didn’t show it. Gathering his notes, he offered Alice a polite nod, considering Cain had threatened to pull out his eyeballs if he looked for a second too long. Then he slipped discreetly out and closed the door behind him.

  They stood in awkward silence until Cain prompted gently, “What do you need?”

  Alice bit her lip, worrying the tender flesh. Cain suppressed the urge to run his thumb over it, to take her in his arms. But since she’d awoken, she’d not let him touch her. Patience.

  Finally, she met his eyes. “I want to know your intentions. For all this.” She gestured around vaguely. “For me.”

  Cain weighed his words. “My intention is for us to find a way forward. Together.”

  Her brows drew down. “As prisoner and captor?”

  “No,” he said fiercely. Taking her hands, he compelled her to believe. “As equals. Partners.”

  Wonder sparked in her eyes, but she still looked hesitant. “That’s quite a change of heart. How do I know it’s real?”

  Stepping closer, Cain lifted a hand to cradle her cheek. “You make me want to be better. I cannot promise I will succeed, but I want to try for you.”

  Alice wanted to believe him. She wanted to be cared for, not for what she could give to someone, but because she just mattered to them. As she searched Cain’s face, she wondered if he was capable of such emotion. To care for someone more than he cared for himself? After speaking with Sally and Kara, she had little hope for the vampire king. She felt like the boy in the story about the snake. The snake promises not to hurt the boy if he will help him, but in the end, the boy gets bitten, and the snake tells him, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.” I know this, but there is still something inside me that doesn’t want to give him up.

  “You said I didn’t know the whole truth,” she reminded him. “That I needed to get the full story before I decided on whether I wanted to stay. You also said you wouldn’t let Lizzy and Finn go.”

  Cain’s eyes took on a weary look. He motioned her toward a chair. “You might want to sit down for this conversation.”

  “They’re back,” Costin said the moment Sally opened her eyes and took a deep breath. “Why were you gone so long?” he asked her gruffly. Anxiousness worried his brow.

  “We had a lot to talk about.” Sally sat down on the couch next to Costin, and he pulled her tightly to his side.

  “How long were we gone?”

  Sally watched as Nick picked up Kara, and then he sat down where she’d been sitting, placing her onto his lap, one hand resting on her small baby belly.

  “Nearly forty-five minutes.” Nick didn’t sound pleased.

  “Let me get everyone in here before you guys get into it.” Fane looked first at Sally and then at Kara.

  Fifteen minutes later, the room started filling up. The usual council filed in: Wadim, Zara, Bethany, minus Hope, but with Drake right behind her, then Sorin and Elle. Right as the door closed, it opened back up, and in came Thad and Jezebel. The door closed again, and then Cyn and Thalion appeared, flashing right into the middle of the space. Sally waited to see if Peri and Lucian would show up. But the next group to arrive was Tenia with the warlock queen’s entourage, as Sally had come to think of them.