I’d also felt something jump in his blood at my question. Like he hadn’t wanted to answer but had been compelled to do so. Naomi had knelt next to me. She’d had my blood, too, but nothing like that had ever happened to us. “Naomi, I have to ask you something. I gave you just as much blood to heal your wounds as I did to Ray, but Ray and I seem to have an internal connection. I can feel Ray’s emotions, almost like I can with the wolves, but I don’t get much of anything from you. Do you know why that is?”

She shook her head. “I do not. But I’m very old and have drunk from many, including some very powerful supernaturals. My blood is a thousand times more potent than any human’s. I would likely need to drink much more from you for us to forge the same kind of connection. But, again, your blood is an anomaly, so it’s hard to know.”

“Hannon,” Ray said. “I don’t care about all this other bullshit. I want out of here.” He rattled his chains. “I promise to follow your program, but I’m done with the prisoner routine. I deserve time to myself to process this like a grown-up. I’ve been on your leash for weeks now and I want my life back, starting right now.”

“How do I know you won’t get into trouble and that you’ll come back?” I asked.

“Where the hell else would I go?”

“It’s not that easy,” I replied.

“Of course it is. You let me go and I come back. End of story.”

“When?” I asked.

“When I’m good and goddamn ready.”

“I don’t think so.” I put up a hand to quiet his protests. “And before you go off on another tangent, consider what we just talked about. You’re too unpredictable. We need one more day to see how things settle, see how this is going to work.”

He leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “If you don’t let me go now, you will regret it. I can feel the bond between us, and it’s not like it was with her”—he nodded toward Naomi—“but I want to be free. I’m not going to compromise. You can’t keep me locked up here like an animal.” He strained against his chains, some of the links bending. “You want me to follow your program, but you’re not willing to give me a chance to prove I can. Looks like the shoe’s on the other foot and you’re the one who needs to trust me. It’s either that or we keep fighting.” His fangs snapped down and he hissed. “And I get out of here on my own and don’t come back.”

I threw my hands up in the air. “Gods, Ray, why do you have to be so damn bullheaded? This would’ve been so much easier if Nelson were here instead,” I complained. Chris Nelson had been Ray’s partner when I’d been on the force. He was a mild-mannered cop who’d transferred willingly to traffic violations after two years with Ray.

“Nelson was a putz. He had no gumption,” Ray retorted. “Consider yourself lucky I’m strong and capable and not going to be some ninny vampire.”

“Why can’t you be like all the other fledglings?” I said. “I want a puppy, not a hound from hell. Is there any part of you that feels the need to obey me?” I pushed power into the last words and I watched Ray react as the echo of my voice bounced around the cave.

He’d tried to cover it, but he hadn’t been fast enough.

“Raymond Hart, if I let you go, will you come back here in a few hours?” I shoved as much emotion as I could into the words.

His eyes went full black. “I already told you I would. What else do you want?” He gritted his teeth as he fought against my question, his features shifting slowly, but I knew he was answering truthfully.

“If I let you go, you can’t go near humans.” I continued the onslaught of power, until he was cringing back into the cave wall. “You can’t get into any trouble and you can’t feed from anyone.”

“I’m not fucking hungry. I just ate,” he snarled.

This was working, but I needed him cooperative in the end, not hostile.

I glanced at Naomi and she shrugged. “I’m obviously getting through to him, but he’s still as pigheaded as ever,” I said. “I don’t think the Master shtick is going to work. If I continue to use it, we’ll be at each other’s throats when this is all over. Literally. We’re going to have to think of something else.”

“Oui,” she replied. “It is quite shocking.”

In the meantime, Rourke had leaned over and hauled Ray up by his dirty shirt. The chains cinched tightly around Ray’s middle, causing him to gasp. I guess that counted as something else. He brought Ray close to his face and snarled, “If we let you go, you return in two hours. Don’t go anywhere near humans. If you’re not back on time, we hunt you down and kill you. Understand, vamp?” He shook him hard. “And I will make it personal. You will hurt like you’ve never experienced, and I will start by removing your feet at the ankles and move my way up.” Rourke’s power pinged around the cave. Ray felt it too. But this may work, because it was pure strength and not a Master’s order. “This is your test. The only one you will get. You pass it and you’re free. You don’t, you die. This is it, so don’t fuck it up.”

“Fine,” Ray bit out. “I’ll be back in two hours.”

With his other hand, Rourke pulled the chains from the wall in one tug, demonstrating in a single instance what he could do that Ray could not.

The chains dropped to the cave floor, unraveling at once, and Ray shot out of the tunnel before I could take my next breath. He disappeared into the night without looking back, no doubt testing to see if we would go after him.

Naomi made a move to follow.

“No.” I held her arm. “He goes alone. Rourke’s right. This is his test. If he’s not back in a few hours, we’ll decide what to do then. I can’t be in a constant head battle with him. I’ll kill him myself before that happens. Let’s go back to the cabin and figure out the plans. We leave for New Orleans at dawn. You and Ray can meet up with us after nightfall tomorrow.”

Naomi cleared her throat. “It will not be necessary for us to wait. We will accompany you when you leave.”

“What are you talking about? Don’t you have to sleep during the day?”

“Not anymore,” she replied.

Everyone was gathered in the cabin except for Ray. “Run that last part by me again,” I said to Naomi. My hips were pressed against what was left of the counter, my arms folded. “I don’t quite understand what you’re telling me.”

“As vampires age, our abilities strengthen, like most supernaturals. One of those abilities is our tolerance of sunlight. We mainly feed on human blood, which is weak, but as our own body ages, we eventually strengthen ourselves: bones, skin, everything.”

“But sunlight is your ‘vice,’ right?”

“We cannot die from sunlight exposure,” she said. “Or explode as some myths like to portray. Our skin simply gets severely burned, a reaction to the sun’s strength. Our skin is very thin and it’s painful. It takes time to heal, but nothing more. We are also very sleepy during the day; it’s our natural time of rest. We are nocturnal by nature, but we are not comatose when the sun rises. But your blood has strengthened me. I do not feel pain when sunlight hits my skin.” She smiled shyly. “It is quite wonderful to feel it again. It has been a very long time.”

“I understand why this may have happened to you. You’re hundreds of years old and have had time to strengthen your body before you drank from me. But how do you know Ray will have the same reaction? He’s only had my blood for a few hours.”

She shrugged. “I do not. It is purely an assumption. But if your blood worked that way on me, it will likely do the same for him.”

Ray hadn’t returned, but he had a half hour left before his imposed deadline. “Okay, things my blood can do is ramping up to fantastical levels, but more importantly, we have to keep it all a secret,” I cautioned. “Does everyone understand?” I glanced around the group. “We’re heading deep into vampire territory, and if word gets out that I can break bonds and allow them to walk outside during the day, there could be an uprising. The Queen won’t tolerate a single vampire defecting.” If they found out, I imagined it would be like a gaggle of vampires running after me with their fangs out, screaming for sunlight.

A chorus of voices agreed.

I turned to my brother. “After you found Hank, did you find any trace of the wolves who were sent here by Dad to find him?”

Tyler had dealt with Hank. He and Danny had just come in a few minutes ago. “Yes,” he said grimly. “He’d broken their necks and tossed them over a cliff.”

“Did you know either of them?”

“We couldn’t get down close enough to them to get a facial ID, but going by scent I only knew one,” Danny answered. “He’d been a nice enough fellow, but too young to know any better.”

“Dad should’ve known.” Tyler shook his head.

“Those were likely the only wolves he could spare at the moment,” I replied. It was very unfortunate. I pushed away from the counter. “I want you to try and get in touch with Dad one last time before we move out. Go shift while we start to hammer out the details. We need to figure out how to handle the Vamp Queen and get us all safely to New Orleans. We can’t waste any time if Dad’s in trouble—”

Something thudded loudly on the roof. The ceiling beams cracked, but held. Dust and dirt rained down on us as someone walked across them.

“Ray’s back,” I announced. I shouldn’t be surprised that he would make an extreme entrance. This was so typical of him.

Tyler opened the door and we all filed outside.

Ray stood on the roof looking quite proud of himself. I rested my hands on my hips. “I see you’ve learned to fly,” I called. “That’s fairly impressive, but it seems your landing skills need a bit of work. The front door is down here.”