Zhahara’s legs stayed fixed to the floor. Part of her spine remained attached, spinning in circles, searching for her other half, while her torso lay sprawled behind the bus.

Soft footsteps crunched over the chunks of gravel. Emme ambled in, blinking and coughing through the cloud of dust. Tim remained close to her side, his rifle aimed at Zhahara.

Emme fell onto what I prayed wasn’t Zhahara’s disintegrating stomach. “I found the bus,” she mumbled.

The vampires moved off my sisters, slowly at first, until Zhahara pushed up onto her arms.

She. Still. Hadn’t. Died.

Tim fired his last round into her head. Only a portion of her skull broke off. She spun on her hands, baring her fangs and hissing through her skinned face. Emme screamed. The vamps attacked. Shayna sprinted after them, a sword in each hand.

Taran scrambled to me, her eyes bulging wildly as they swept across my injuries.

The vampires piled on top of Zhahara while Misha bashed her skull with the butt of the rifle. In the middle of the pile, Shayna lifted her swords and plunged them into Zhahara’s heart. The mound of bodies shuddered fiercely for a moment. Then, one by one, everyone climbed off the giant pile of green ash.

Shayna, Emme, and Misha ran to us. Misha grabbed the piece of railing jutting out of my chest and pulled. I growled and instinctively bit him. He jerked back in shock, staring at his bleeding arm and glowing in a strange white haze…just like his vampires.

“Dantem animam,” his vampires all said at once. They hurried to Misha, kneeling at his feet and kissing his hands as their collective light receded.

The hellish agony shooting through my chest and leg forced me to turn away. Emme touched my furry face. The pain gradually receded as her gentle yellow light surrounded me. I changed back, lacking the strength to keep my second form.

Misha knelt beside me, regarding me with awe. “Salvation granted by a golden tigress.” He covered my na**d body and carried me to where a fleet of limos waited near a set of open garage doors. “It is time to make our departure,” he murmured.

Misha placed his hand over the hood of the largest vehicle while continuing to hold me with ease. The engine started with a hum and the locks disengaged.

Misha Aleksandr, key fob. Must be nice to harness Tahoe’s magic.

Tim slipped into the driver’s seat while my sisters piled into the back. Misha gently laid me across Emme’s lap. Our bodies were caked with blood, ash, and monster juice, but I couldn’t help the soft sigh that parted my lips. Once again, we’d survived.

“I will not forget what you did for me,” Misha said before he shut the door.

I couldn’t tell for sure whether it was a good thing or bad, but resolved to think it couldn’t be that bad.

Tim nodded at Misha before rolling out of Zhahara’s compound.

Shayna wrinkled her nose. “Hey, Tim. Why did you guys all start glowing when Celia bit Misha?”

Tim glanced over his shoulder, fangs sparkling. “Simple. Celia just stimulated the return of the master’s soul.”

CHAPTER 17

“What?” I sat up, clutching Misha’s sweater against my bare skin. Funny how certain things, like passing a test you thought you’d fail, finding a twenty-dollar bill in your pocket, or learning you were capable of returning a vampire’s soul, could give a girl her second wind.

Tim drove along like I was Miss Daisy. “I said you stimulated the return of the master’s soul.”

Taran’s glare sparked her eyes with danger. “We heard you, dipshit. But what the hell does it mean?”

Tim’s voice turned hollow and distant, as if he were speaking from the end of a long, dark tunnel. “It means Celia and the master are forever linked—in spirit, in heart, in marriage—from this day forth until eternity.”

Audible clicks signaled our jaws dropping in unison. “Oh. No. Hell. No.” Taran faced me, fury angling her brows like an American Idol reject. She pointed a nasty finger at me. “You better get that shit back. I’m not having the Prince of Darkness for a brother-in-law—no matter how hot he is.”

I threw my hand out. “How can I get something back if I’m not sure how I gave it in the first place?”

Shayna gripped the edges of her seat. “Tim, Celia can’t marry Misha! She doesn’t love him or anything. And…and…and…stuff.”

Who needed a defense attorney with Shayna around? Emme blanched worse than when she’d sat on Zhahara’s insides. “There must be something we can do. Celia has a huge crush on Aric. And I’m sure he wouldn’t want—”

I cut her off with a “please don’t drag Aric into this crap storm” stare. I tried to keep my voice calm, but it cracked the minute I spoke. “I refuse to be Misha’s vampire soul mate. Now tell me what I have to do to stop, reverse, or terminate the process.”

Tim’s voice resonated in that same eerie tone. “There is no end. There is only eternity. A love for eternity.”

Taran swore when Emme fell against her. The events of the day hit me all at once. We hadn’t slept in more than twenty-four hours, and we’d just helped bring down a close-to-indestructible vampire chock-full of nastiness. Karma alone should have allowed me to swing by the nearest drugstore and buy the winning lottery ticket—as in the Powerball, not a master vampire for a lifelong snuggle bunny.

I buried my face in my hands. “This isn’t happening to me.”

“You’re right. It’s not.” Taran squirmed her irate butt across the length of the limo to the open chauffeur’s window. “Damn it, Tim. Unless you want to receive the deepest tan of your life via my sunshine borne of magic, you better tell us how Celia can get a quickie divorce.”

Divorce. The word echoed in my head. I’d only ever slept with one guy. How had I ended up married to a master vampire?

Tim’s demeanor turned deadly calm. “Do you realize what this means to the master? A chance to redeem his past sins and join his beloved family in heaven should he die. Until then, his beauty and youth remain. He has an opportunity none of us have. You cannot refuse him!”

Taran thought I could. “The hell she can’t. Let me spell this out for you. Celia is not birthin’ no babies with fangs.” She snapped her fingers to stimulate her fire. “I suggest you start talking, and start talking now.”

Tim pulled off to the side of the road as I hurried to yank Misha’s sweater over me. Loathing tightened his jaws when he faced me. “The only way to break the bond that you started is through death.”

Shayna jumped in her seat next to me. I couldn’t jump. I needed a pulse to jump, and my heart had stopped functioning. “Death? Did you say death? You mean one of us has to die? There’s no other way to reverse this?”

Tim turned away, took a breath, and faced me once more. “Perhaps…No, never mind, it is too dangerous.”

I hurried to move closer to him. “How can it be more dangerous than dying? Tell me how to fix this!”

Tim’s face set like a frozen tundra. “There is only one way, but it involves the darkest of magic. Demonic possession and loss of limbs may occur.”

My tongue and throat dried and I lost the ability to blink. “Demonic po-possession?”

He frowned. “Do you want to end this or not?”

“Um, yes. Yes, I do. Tell me.”

“There are many steps, and it’s rather complicated.”

Emme took out her phone and hit the “Notes” icon. “Go ahead. I’m ready.”

Tim’s slow, drawn-out breath made me believe he was sharing something he shouldn’t—and in doing so would release a chain of events no one could stop. I listened like my future depended on it. Because, God knew, it did.

“The spell must be performed on a high peak at the rise of the next full moon.”

Which meant I’d be married to Misha for a freaking month. Still, it beat eternity.

Shayna gripped my arm. “That means either Mount Whitney or Mount Williamson. They’re the tallest around.”

Emme typed feverishly. Tim ignored Shayna and continued. “You will need to gather herbs: wolfsbane, belladonna, nightshade…”

Taran tapped her ruined nails on the leather seat. “There’s an organic vitamin shop in South Tahoe that sells herbs. I bet we can find that garbage there.”

Tim’s scowl deepened. “There’s more. You need a piece of alabaster, the whitest you can find.”

Alabaster? I gave my sisters a blank stare.

Shayna pointed an excited finger at me. “Ooh—eBay. You can get anything on eBay!”

Shayna’s logic kick-started my heart. “Right, eBay. Of course. Okay, what else, Tim?”

“Last—and most important—you will need two virgins and a goat.”

My head slowly turned to meet Tim. He burst out laughing. His whole body shook with hysteria, and tears streaked down his face. I crossed my arms and glared. “You a**hole!”

Emme stopped typing and exchanged confused glances with Shayna. Taran launched herself onto Tim, smacking the back of his shaved head like a set of bongo drums. Tim cackled, failing to notice. “You girls are so gullible. I was ready to sell you swampland in Jersey.”

Shayna wrinkled her brow. “So Celia’s not engaged?”

Tim continued to laugh. “Of course not, the master wants a bang, not a bride.”

I debated whether I should feel deeply disturbed that a master vampire wanted to sleep with me or deeply relieved that I didn’t have to decide on a ring bearer. Knowing Misha and I weren’t going to be picking out china made me lean toward deeply relieved. Though that didn’t stop me from punching Tim in the back of the head.

“Ouch!”

“Quit whining and drive,” I snapped.

Tim pulled back onto the road, muttering how I couldn’t take a joke.

“Excuse me, Tim—”

“Emme, tell me you’re not being polite to this prick!” Taran shook out her hands, which were bright red from beating on Tim.