Her son would be going to the court of the Demon King. Noah and his queen, Kestra, were the young boy’s siddahs. Kane would teleport the children later that night. No doubt after many tearful goodbyes. But it was for the best. They suspected the only reason Apep had not attacked them so far was because of his pregnancy. For all they knew, he’d already given birth and it was only a matter of time until the god got his bearings and came after them with guns blazing.

The thought pressed a sense of urgency onto Bella. She got up and abandoned her cup of coffee.

“Come on. The kids are almost all packed. I just need a few things. I want them out of here within the next couple of hours.”

“All right. Let’s go!” Jasmine levitated off the floor.

“Uh, Jas…we can’t fly, remember? We have to take a car.”

“Right.” Jasmine frowned with consternation. “I keep forgetting. Fine then, we’ll drive. Can we take the Cobra though? I want to drive a cool car.”

“Yes, you can drive the Cobra,” Bella said with an eye roll.

She snatched the appropriate keys off the Peg-Board by the kitchen door.

Chapter 5

Viève couldn’t believe what she had gotten herself into. Her mother had always told her she was nothing but trouble—that she was so stupid she wouldn’t know what to do in any situation, that she was useless to the Wraith race.

Now she didn’t know if all of that had just come true, or if she’d just proved all of that to be false.

She knew she wasn’t stupid. She was actually well read. But would a smart person have gotten mixed up in this mess? And she wasn’t useless; she tended the grounds and the garden with precision and grit. But she did get into a lot of trouble and this latest screwup was just one example.

If it was a screwup. This man…this Bodywalker…was telling her she was practically the savior of her whole race. She didn’t know if she believed that much. Certainly not that much. But if this did work out, she would have been useful. And that was all she had ever striven to be.

Useful.

“I don’t even know your name,” she said softly.

He looked sheepish. He had asked for hers but had not given his in return and she hadn’t thought to ask until right then.

“Kamenwati. Kamen is fine.”

“Kamen. Well, Kamen, what do we do now? It seems you’re kind of stuck with me. Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be sorry. I’m not.”

“Surely you’d be better off doing this without a Wraith by your side? I mean, one look at me and everyone’s going to go running. They’ll never give you a chance. I think that’s what the Doyen is counting on.”

“Perhaps,” Kamen said. “But we will foil that plan easily. You do not look like a Wraith right now. You look like a pale female human with gray hair. You don’t look like what I expect when I see a Wraith.”

“I know,” she said with a frown. She had been called human so many times it was like an epithet. The curse of her existence. If only she had looked more like a Wraith, her life would have been very different.

“This is a good thing,” he said intently, turning her to face him. He took the side of her jaw in his hand and tipped her head back. She found herself looking up into the brightest blue eyes she’d ever seen. They seemed…wise. Aged. Learned of the world dozens of times over. Which, if he was a Bodywalker, she supposed he was. He had black hair, cut crisply at the nape and the edges of his face. He was handsome in the way of humans, she supposed. He reminded her of one of those actors, only without the smile lines creasing his face. She got the feeling he did not smile often at all, because of that and because of his general demeanor.

It was a shame. With such a handsome face, he probably had a very attractive smile.

“You are very fair and quite beautiful. No one will be running from you in fear.”

To a Wraith that should have been an insult. They lived to put fear into others. They sometimes entertained themselves by haunting humans, scaring the hell out of them. But mostly they just wanted to be considered the most frightening Nightwalkers around. The bad asses that no one should mess with.

That was one of the reasons she was so surprised by the Doyen’s calm demeanor and even calmer negotiation. Wraiths were hotheaded. They reacted before they thought. It was one of the reasons why doing what he had done had made her really respect Kamen. For his bravery…or maybe his recklessness. She wasn’t sure which one to pay homage to just yet.

But his touch on her face was nice, she thought. No one ever touched her. They weren’t a touchy-feely race as a whole, except when it came to the deathtouch. But perhaps that was why they never touched. One bad mood and bam…dead.

Because the deathtouch worked on Wraiths just as well as it worked on all the other Nightwalker breeds. The only difference was a Wraith could avoid it by phasing his body, denying the ability to touch. But if a Wraith was taken by surprise in his solid form…

She shivered a little at the morbid thought.

“Are you cold?” he asked her thoughtfully. She wasn’t used to such kindness. She shook her head, the action making her jaw brush against the hand cupping it. The inadvertent caress gave her little goose bumps down the side of her neck.

“I’m just not used to being touched,” she admitted.

He immediately dropped his hand, making her feel instantly bereft. “I’m sorry. That was wrong of me.”

“No! I liked it!” she exclaimed. Then she realized what she had said and promptly blushed. “I meant to say, it wasn’t bothering me.”

He frowned a little as he studied her. “Just the same, I will not touch you again without your permission.”

“That’s kind of a silly statement,” she declared.

“How so?”

“Because on this little journey I take it we are going to have to touch for travel and touch for protection and touch for this and touch for that. Consider permission granted from now on,” she said with a definitive nod.

“Very well,” he said, again that thought-filled frown marring his mouth. She wondered why he frowned so much. Yes, they were in a serious situation, but surely one little smile…what would that hurt?

She smiled at him, hoping he would smile back. “Shall we get going then? Before those sentries catch sight of us?”