“Brigid…”

“Quiet,” she whispered, curling her hands around the guard’s neck. “Sleep.”

The human went limp, and she placed him on the ground behind the door.

With quick hand movements, she entered the dark stairwell and motioned for Lucien to follow. Since she was doing an excellent job so far, he decided he’d let her take the lead. Baojia was below, already working to isolate the plant from the city water system. Tenzin was… somewhere, doing things Lucien decided he probably didn’t want to know about.

When they reached the floor, he saw some of them.

Five humans were stacked like cordwood against one wall.

“They’re not dead,” came a whispered voice from above. “But they’ll be out until dawn at least.”

Tenzin swooped down and grabbed another human. As she rose in the air, the man’s kicking legs fell still. “They all keep coming to look, then I can grab more of them.” She grinned. “It’s very entertaining.”

Brigid hissed. “But what about—”

“Vampire.” Lucien grabbed Brigid’s shoulders and angled her toward the swiftly approaching immortal in black. Brigid’s fire shot out and engulfed the running vampire. He screamed and the fire alarm blared, all at the same time.

“Oh sure,” Tenzin yelled. “And she was worried I wouldn’t be stealthy enough.”

“Shut up, Tenzin!” Brigid looked up as the pipes above her hissed. The sprinkler system kicked on, a dense mist that enveloped Brigid and the surrounding area but did not flood the warehouse. “Oh, for fuck’s—”

“Here!” Tenzin blew the mist away, and Brigid emerged looking like she’d just walked through a wind tunnel. “You’re welcome.”

“Let’s not delay,” Lucien said, running toward an office he saw in the distance. “You two take care of the guards, and I’ll find the finished product. We’ll need to destroy all the records too. Tenzin, start moving the humans to a safe location. Once Baojia makes the water safe, Saba wants this plant razed to the ground.”

“We’ll be there by tomorrow evening,” Carwyn said. “There’s nothing else to do tonight.”

“When will we hear from Bulgaria?”

“I don’t know.”

She was staring into the distance at a horizon that was speeding ever closer as they neared a battle she couldn’t even begin to comprehend. They would be anchored off the island of Alitea by nightfall the next night. Makeda knew she should go below and secure herself in her quarters, but the bed felt too empty without Lucien.

“So,” she said, “any tips about being mated to a really old guy?”

Carwyn chuckled. “Be patient with us. We don’t generally know what we’re doing any more than the young ones do.”

“That’s almost inexcusable considering how many years you have on us.”

“Ah, but my dear girl, a woman is the greatest of adventures. No relationship can prepare you for meeting the love of your eternal life.”

Makeda smiled at Carwyn. “Smooth.”

“I try. She won’t let me get away with anything.” He winked. “I love her madly.”

“You’re both very lucky.”

“It took us a while to come to grips with it,” he said. “We fell in love at a distance, my Brigid and me. Actually living together was a thing neither of us were prepared for. Hence my advice for patience.”

She thought. “Lucien and I have spent a lot of time with each other. We worked together for months before I turned.”

“Well, you’re ahead of where Brigid and I were then.”

“But we fought most of the time.”

Carwyn said, “That just makes things interesting, doesn’t it?”

“Do you ever see the dark side of a situation?”

Carwyn burst out laughing. “What would be the point in that? My Brigid is the pessimist. No use having two of them.”

Makeda wondered who was the pessimist between her and Lucien. Probably her. Maybe him. Maybe they could just take turns.

“I can’t imagine being with the same person for eternity,” Makeda said. “Just the forty-some years my parents have together seems crazy.”

“But it’s life, isn’t it? I don’t think any of us can grasp living with and loving a person for that long. But then you turn around, like one of my daughters, and you’ve been with the same person one hundred years. And they’re the other part of you. You wake up one morning and it’s been four hundred. Then five.” He smiled slowly. “What glorious fun! To have a partner like that. To know without a doubt that there is one person in the world who always has your back. I can’t imagine a greater adventure, Makeda, than the one you and Lucien have just begun.”

“If we can survive this battle.”

He threw an arm over her shoulder. “Stick with me, my girl. You have nothing to worry about.”

Lucien stood surrounded by empty crates, Baojia standing next to him, his hands on his hips. “It’s not here.”

“Nope.”

“Is the factory disconnected from the local water lines?”

Baojia nodded. “Even if we blow the place sky-high, nothing will leak.”

“Then let’s do it,” he said.

“What?”

“Blow the place sky-high.” Lucien had already destroyed the servers where the formula was kept, taken any documentation on how to produce it to Brigid, who delighted in lighting it all in a great bonfire in the center of the factory. She didn’t even make a face when the fire sprinklers went off anymore. She and Tenzin were having too much fun.