Makeda took a deep breath and realized that—though it was two months before the time line she’d set for herself and though yes, Natalie smelled highly appetizing—she did not detect any feral reactions to the unexpected stimuli. Her heartbeat after the initial shock of seeing her friend had slowed to three beats per minute, which was her typical baseline during waking hours. Her fangs were not extended. Her eyes remained undilated, and no evidence of visual exclusion was present.

“Barbecue, not burger,” she finally said.

“I could have told you that solely from the time it took you to answer me. Trust me, I’ve been around uncontrollable vampires before.”

Makeda held up a hand. “Stop. I really don’t want to know about your sex life.”

Natalie’s eyes widened before she burst out laughing. Makeda smiled herself.

She hadn’t seen Lucien in nearly three months. While her mate had remained in Europe, Makeda had returned to the US, longing for the calm isolation of her lab after the turbulence of the previous four months that had turned her world upside down. So while Lucien flew between Ireland and Greece, coordinating treatment for the Elixir patients and helping Saba with the political transition, Makeda had returned to the lab.

She worked every night with Ruben and the two other immortal assistants that Katya had hired. She continued perfecting the protein test for Katya, improving the detection factor for Elixir with the updated information on the virus and overseeing its production.

She worked. She slept. She video-chatted with her family on the new Nocht-compatible laptop she’d acquired.

And she missed Lucien.

“I missed you!” Natalie said, wiping her eyes. Walking over, she held out her arms, and Makeda carefully stepped closer.

“I just wanted to be sure,” Makeda said, hugging her friend. “You know hurting you or the children would kill me.”

“We’ll wait on the kids so you don’t stress out, but I’m so glad I can see you again.”

“You saw me before.”

Natalie pulled back, glaring a little. “With a glass wall between us. I felt like I was visiting you in prison.”

“Purely a precaution for your own safety.”

“Fine.” Natalie pulled up a stool and perched at the edge of Makeda’s worktable. “Can we just get back to being normal again, please? You’re safe around humans. George is more wild and crazy than you, Mak.”

“Again”—she sat on the stool across from Natalie—“I don’t want to hear about your sex life.”

“Too bad, because I want to hear about yours. Spill.”

Makeda smiled. “It’s pretty slow at the moment.”

Natalie’s expression was immediately sympathetic. “How much longer?”

“He doesn’t know.” She shook her head. “It’s turning out to be a lot more complicated than he thought.”

“Isn’t it always?”

She took a deep breath and battled back the curl of hunger at Natalie’s scent. “I miss him, Natalie. So much.”

“You sleeping okay?”

“Oh yeah. I mean, newborn-vampire sleep is kind of the best. I wake up at night feeling completely rested. It’s great. I still haven’t figured out if I’m having normal sleep patterns or not, but there must be some kind of pattern because without REM—”

“Focus, Mak. Lucien?”

She blinked. “Right. The short answer is, there are dozens of vampires petitioning Saba for healing, and he has to evaluate all of them before he sends them off to Dr. McTierney—Patrick Murphy agreed to continue treating the Elixir patients in his facility—and that takes time because he’s Lucien and he’s thorough.”

“Thorough is good.”

“It is. It’s also time-consuming. And in addition to all the medical stuff, he’s also trying to set up some kind of administrative infrastructure for the new council to deal with current business holdings. Not to mention all the responsibilities associated with overseeing what is basically a federal kind of government over the local vampire leaders in the Mediterranean. Though it sounds like Emil Conti’s been really helpful with that.”

“That’s all good, but—”

“And he has some leads on the business side too. I guess there’s someone in Cyprus—”

“Makeda.”

“Yeah?” She blinked and stopped tapping her fingers. It was a habit that had become entirely more destructive as a vampire. The edge of her desk was in splinters.

Natalie was staring at her with concern. “Baojia said you finalized the stuff the doctor in Ireland needed. Is that right?”

“I did. Lucien and I decided that since he was the one who’d run the vampire trials with Saba’s stem cells, he should run the human trials too.”

“That’s great.” Natalie smiled. “I’m so glad you’re back here and that you had time to… level out, you know? It was kind of crazy how you turned.”

“It was.” She nodded. “I needed to establish a regular schedule again. Change is always difficult for me, and when it all came so rapidly—”

“Stop.” Natalie raised a hand. “Listen. Love you. Glad you’re back, but… Honey, you need to go to your mate.”

Makeda’s heart started to beat more rapidly. “Do you think so?”

“Don’t you want to?”