“Here comes Sleeping Beauty,” Ruric joked. “We already had breakfast. Do you want some tea?”

  But Stasio was frowning at Arman and looked a little worried. Maybe because Arman felt so agitated and Stasio sensed it.

  Likewise, Levka furrowed his brow. “What’s wrong?”

  Arman didn’t take a seat with his friends and ran his hands through his hair. “I’ve…I’ve got to go to Portland, Oregon.”

  “What?” Ruric wasn’t joking about anything now.

  “I need to be gone for a while and I need to do it alone.” Arman knew they wouldn’t go for it as soon as the words left his mouth.

  Levka folded his arms. “What exactly are you saying, Arman? You know we always stick together. We watch each other’s backs. We’re safe here. Jasmine has her assassin job here and is taking down murderous rogues. Caitlin’s learning new witch’s skills every day. We’ve overthrown the League of Vampire’s old guard and we’re doing well for a change. Why would you want to go to Oregon?”

  “Where are Caitlin and Jasmine?” Arman asked, surprised they weren’t there.

  “Caitlin is buying more ingredients for her potions in the city and Jasmine is trying to track down a rogue vampire that she needed to eliminate. Jasmine left a couple of hours ago. Even though Stasio wanted to go with her, he isn’t in the assassin’s guild and besides, she prefers going it alone,” Levka said.

  Arman was surprised Levka hadn’t gone with Caitlin. Even though she could manage on her own now, he still worried about her overly much.

  Unable to come up with a really good reason that Arman had to go alone, he shrugged. “Sometimes we need to take a break from each other.”

  Stasio shook his head. “When we fought the Marcher Lords, you were on hiatus that time, too. And we had to rescue you from the earl of Chester’s wrath when he caught you with his daughter.”

  “A duke had torn the girl’s gown. It wasn’t me who did such a thing. How many times do I have to remind you of that? Just because I heard the girl screaming and showed up to aid her, the earl of Chester thought for certain it was me who had been the culprit. The girl was too scared to speak out against the duke who had done the deed since her father owed allegiance to him.”

  “Yeah, well, the duke wouldn’t have gotten away if we had been with you,” Stasio said.

  “That was centuries ago,” Arman reminded him, knowing that Stasio would use yet another history lesson to deter him from leaving them behind.

  Ruric cleared his throat, and everyone glanced at him. He had a mop of wavy red hair that he said made him look more like his Viking ancestry, though Arman still thought he might have Celtic origins.

  Arman raised his brows at Ruric who had their attention, but still didn’t speak.

  “What?” Arman couldn’t help feeling annoyed. He had to do this, and he didn’t need his friends to get involved this time. Especially if this all turned out to be dreams or nightmares and none of it was real.

  “I’m ready to make plane reservations, if we’re all going to be flying somewhere,” Ruric said, opening his laptop on the coffee table.

  “This isn't about some girl, is it?” Levka’s dark eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward on the chair. “You can’t go back to the States. Not without us.”

  They heard footsteps and everyone turned to see who it was. Smiling, Caitlin entered the living room, carrying several small sacks of herbs and other items she needed for her potions. “I picked up some essential ingredients for my new online assignments and…” She paused and considered everyone’s dark expressions. “What’s wrong now?”

  The princes were so often in trouble that it wasn’t hard to presume that something was gravely the matter. Again.

  Levka rose and joined Caitlin, giving her a searing kiss on the lips, which caused a few woots from the other guys. She deposited the bags on the floor and then he moved her to the sofa to sit with him. “Arman wants to return to the States.”

  Caitlin didn’t say anything for a moment, then she smiled brightly. “Okay, so we go.”

  “Alone,” Arman said, pacing. “I’m going alone.” He just knew Fiona desperately needed his help, and he hadn’t seen his friends in the dreams at all. That must mean he had to do this on his own. Not only that, but she seemed to really be into him. Kissing him even. All he knew was he was in love. So he thought. What if when he went to rescue her, she didn’t feel the same about him? That it was all just a dream? Or that she wouldn’t even be where he thought she should be? That it was just a mixed-up manifestation of having really liked her from the first time he’d seen her.

  Then again, he hadn’t had any dreams of her until more recently and then the blond-haired guy seemed to confirm she was in trouble. Arman still needed to learn the truth. If she was in Portland, and she needed him, he would help her no matter what happened afterward.

  “What is this truly about?” Levka asked. “Ruric will make our plane reservations, but we need to know what is going on and where we actually need to go.”

  Arman sat down on one of the soft plaid sofas. “Fiona Wilder needs my help.”

  “Fiona Wilder?” Ruric said.

  “Yeah. She’s in peril,” Arman said. “I just keep having dreams of her and then I had one last night of a man who said I need to save her before the blood moon. That she was in trouble. He said to bring her to the safe house⁠—”

  “Fiona Wilder?” Stasio snapped his fingers. “The girl who ran into you, literally, at the Dallas mall and she dumped a cup of icy soda all over you? That was the night we had to save the teen girls in the warehouse district from some guys, but then we had to flee, right? We all knew she had intrigued you, but she was just human. But…you’re having dreams of her? Like of the soda-spilling incident?”

  “No. It has been different. Like current dreams. She’s nearly eighteen.” Arman wasn’t about to tell them that he had been kissing her in his dreams. He knew they would think he was just dreaming what he wanted to see, not what was potentially going to happen. He had never had premonitions of anything before. “It started several weeks ago. I think they’re dreams, but what if they’re visions, premonitions of something to come? I can’t stop thinking of her. But last night, a man came to me, beseeching me to save her. Then I saw her, and I tried to take her away. In the dream, I know she’s in trouble. She was…”—he knew they would really think he was off his rocker—“surrounded by dead people who were dancing.”

  Arman swore everyone’s jaws had dropped at the same time. But no one was laughing, which surprised him. “I have to help her.”

  “Tell us more about what happens in your visions?” Caitlin asked, completely serious.

  “A vampire family has taken her prisoner. They’re evil to the core. They’re the worst kind of vampire scum. They’re a powerful family. Regina and Tobias.”

  “Even I’ve heard of them. Why do you think you can handle this all on your own?” Ruric asked.

  Stasio was on his laptop, tapping away at his keyboard.

  “I could slip in more easily if all of us aren’t there,” Arman insisted. “And what if these are just some kind of crazy dreams I’m having and there’s nothing to it? That Fiona is still in Dallas and not anywhere near Portland, Oregon? That none of what I’ve seen has any merit?”

  Jasmine entered the living room and must have caught some of the conversation as she joined Stasio on the sofa and kissed him. “What have you seen that might not have any merit?” As an assassin, she was used to doing that and truthfully was an excellent asset to their little pack of vampires.

  “Did you take down your assignment?” Levka asked.

  “Yep. And I got paid for it.” Jasmine slapped an envelope of cash on the table.

  Ever since Jasmine had joined them, she always shared her money with them, though they were all wealthy as many centuries as they had lived and had their money in investments. So did she, but she just was generous that way with them, which was a complete change for them from when they had first met her. She’d been a lone vampire hunter, taking down the worst kind of vampires for a bounty.

  “He’s having nightmares about a young woman who has been taken hostage by a vampire pack,” Levka told Jasmine. “Well, it sounds more like he has been having visions, premonitions of her.”

  “I will go with you. If they’re evil vampires, it’s my job to assassinate them,” Jasmine said.

  Arman was glad she was with them and on their side, even though he had been worried about her initially, since they were still considered rogues in Wales and Dallas, and she took down rogue vampires.

  “In your visions, do you see that you’re doing this alone?” Levka asked, trying to get to the bottom of this.

  “I don’t see anyone else but Fiona and me and the wicked vampiress who holds sway over her. But she isn’t the only one to worry about. Tobias, blackhearted devil of a vampire, is running the show.”

  “Who?” Jasmine sounded like she was ready to add him and the woman to her terminal list.

  “Regina Peckinpah and Tobias Farrington. They’re vampires through and through, turned at the time of the Black Death like us, but they’re evil to the core,” Arman said. “Fiona Wilder is human, as far as we know.”

  Levka cleared her throat, “Good. Then we’re on a mission to⁠—”

  Jasmine said, “Eradicate them in⁠—”

  “Portland, Oregon,” Arman said.

  “I’m on it.” Ruric got on his phone to make their plane reservations. “I’ll get a rental home near where these people live.”

  “You’ve found their address?” Levka asked.

  “You bet. Regina’s anyway. It’s in a really nice neighborhood bordering Forest Park. She appears to be living high on the hog,” Ruric said.

  So at least the part about Regina living in Portland, Oregon was true as far as Arman’s dreams or visions were concerned.

  Stasio was still tapping away at his computer and shook his head. “I found the information on them. Fiona’s family was cursed.”

  Cursed? Everyone looked at Stasio for clarification.

  “In the histories of vampire families, at least the really powerful ones, the Peckinpah family is one of the most controlling.” Stasio was the historian of the bunch so he would know. “But Fiona isn’t a vampire. She’s a huntress. Supposedly, her parents died in a car accident and her brother died in a separate auto accident. Then suddenly she has these new relatives who appear out of nowhere and take her in? They move her from Dallas, Texas to Portland, Oregon.”

  “She’s a huntress?” Arman asked, shocked. No wonder he was having so much trouble compelling her to come with him in his visions. Vampires couldn’t use mind control on hunters.

  “So she is a hostage?” Caitlin asked.

  “Or the vampires convinced her they were her relatives,” Stasio said.

  “But she’s a huntress?” Arman couldn’t believe it. If she knew he was a vampire, she wouldn’t have been kissing him, he didn’t think. He was disappointed to be sure. Then again, a human wouldn’t be happy with it either if she knew the truth. But of course, it could still be just a dream as far as the kissing part was concerned.

  “And the curse?” Caitlin asked.

  “That only a vampire who is good of heart can save Fiona from the curse,” Stasio said.

  Everyone smiled.

  “So you are that vampire?” Jasmine asked Arman, sounding surprised.

  “I’ve been having the visions.” Arman knew he had to be the one.

  “Tell us exactly what you see again,” Caitlin said.

  “It’s Halloween. I’m at a party. I see her. I try to get her to go with me. But it doesn’t work out. The next thing I know, I’m at the Peckinpah home and I’m trying to entice her to leave, but it doesn’t work either. But I have to get her away from them. The dream is in a different order each time, one time at the party, one time at the house first.”

  Stasio said, “An Egyptian girl is living with Tobias. She’s bad news and works with them, doing anything they ask of her. She’s our age and you better believe that they’ll use her to watch Fiona’s every move, so no one can get to her.”

  “Then you’ll need us to help you out.” Levka appeared a bit exasperated with Arman for even thinking he could do this alone.

  That was decided then. Levka often made the decisions for the group, though he did listen to everyone’s suggestions, and they were not only ready to go, but everyone insisted on it.

  Arman sighed. “If this is all a mistake⁠—”

  “Then we’ll have had a great adventure out of it,” Caitlin said, “and I’ve never been to Portland, so maybe we can do some things there if this turns out to be nothing at all.”

  “I agree with Caitlin,” Jasmine said. “I don’t have any cases right now. So I’m free to go and take care of these vampires.”

  Arman sighed. “If I don’t save this girl, it’s on your heads.”

  Levka slapped him on the back. “If you don’t save her, it’s because one of us do the deed instead. We will free her and protect her, never fear.”

  2

  Dreaming, Fiona Wilder tossed and turned. She’d been having weird dreams, well, weirder than usual. A blond-haired man told her to get out of the house as soon as she could. That a man would come for her. A man she’d met before. But who?

  “You’ll know him when he comes for you. He’ll be persuasive, intriguing, and have your best interests at heart. You must trust him,” the blond man said to her.

  “Who?”

  “They’ve lied to you. Regina and Tobias. They’ve lied. They want you for their dark purposes. You have to get out of there while you can.”

  “Who is coming for me? What has Regina lied about? I don’t know any Tobias.”

  No response.

  “Hello? Who are you?”

  Again, no response. But then she was visited again by the guy from the mall. She was two years older, but he looked the same age as before. She’d been seeing him now for some time and every time he was just as intriguing. She wanted to kiss him again. Wanted to hug him and never let go. Only in her dreams did she escape her home life, and she welcomed seeing him again. But no matter how much she wanted to speak with him, she couldn’t. Just like he would look at her with his riveting gaze and wouldn’t say a word.

  “Arman,” she wanted to say. “Take me away.” If she could leave Great Aunt Regina’s home for good and join her brother in Dallas where he was in college, she would be thrilled.

  Arman was holding out his hand to her, willing her to go with him, bright lights flashing all around them. Where was she? Where were they?

  Off in the distance, she heard a car’s engine, the garage door rolling up, waking her, and she opened her eyes. She blinked. She had been having the weirdest dreams of late. She got dressed and headed into the kitchen and found a note from her great aunt.

  Gone shopping for Halloween. R

  Yes! Fiona loved it when her great aunt left the house and Fiona was alone. She rarely did, and the only time Fiona could really be away from her was when she went to school.

  Before she went to her high school-sponsored Halloween party that night, Fiona Wilder worked on some of her social studies homework, not wanting to do either. The only good thing was that her Great Aunt Regina wasn’t at home right now. Fiona still couldn’t believe Regina would give her permission to go to the high school for a party. Normally, once Fiona was home from school, her great aunt didn’t want her to go anywhere—not even to get a part-time job, and certainly not to socialize with anyone. But Fiona had convinced her she needed the extra credit for a class. Which was true, but it was like having to accept the lesser of two evils—attending a Halloween party at her high school with people she didn’t care for, or attending her great aunt’s party, and that could be even worse.

  Fiona was flipping through pages of her social studies book that she was supposed to be reading, looking for the answers to the questions at the end of the chapter when she suddenly saw him again. A guy with dark brown hair and entrancing eyes that watched her intently, not speaking a word as if he were afraid to approach her. One minute, he was far away, observing her, and then the next, he was right there, dancing with her. Dancing?

  He…he was wearing a black tuxedo and black shirt, and absolutely gorgeous. Where was she that he was dressed so nicely? The prom? She couldn’t even tell what she was wearing. Something…white, she thought. Why would she wear something white? If she even thought of going to the prom, if she even had someone to go with to the prom, she would wear green—to match her eyes. Green was her favorite color. Even now, she was wearing a green T-shirt featuring a kitty cat with big green eyes wearing a black cape and black witch’s hat and blue jeans.

  But why was she having these strange visions? Since…a couple of weeks ago?

  Everything would blank out when it happened and everything was strange in her visions—no background, no way to identify where she was, as if she were in a dream where the people were like scrap art—only parts of them really present, the rest a blur, blending in with nothingness.

  And the dreams at night—he would come to her, speaking to her, and she would talk to him, she thought—at least of what she could recall. But this vision was so real, like she no longer saw the dining room where she was seated at the table to do her schoolwork. Then the old and very annoying grandfather clock chimed six times, breaking her out of the vision. Ugh, she had to go.

  She grabbed her social studies book, notebook, and pen and ran to her bedroom. The room was decorated all in black and white, from her black comforter to the black and white photos of roses on the wall. At least the dresser and bedside tables were white so it wasn’t quite as gloomy in her room as some parts of her great aunt’s house. The whole place needed a makeover.