Emme blushed. “Um…I just want to know what the glowing was all about.”

Tim rolled his eyes in the mirror, but then caught the aroma of Taran’s anger and rising magic and decided against further pissing her off. “All master vampires are soul takers—susceptor animae. They possess the power to take one’s soul in order to turn them vampire. Celia is the rare dantem animam—a soul giver. We felt the master’s aura return when she bit him; that’s when we recognized her power.”

Shayna thought about it. “But that seems like some pretty powerful magic. How does it not link them?”

Tim spoke like it was obvious. “Because Celia is not giving him a piece of her soul, just returning his own back to him.”

Shock spread across Taran’s lovely yet bloodlust-caked features. “Damn, Ceel. You sent a lot of vamps to hell today.”

I shuddered. Vampires were notoriously egocentric, but that shouldn’t have given them an all-access pass to hell—especially when their actions were a result of an infection beyond their control.

Tim groaned when he caught a whiff of my sadness. “For a tigress, you’re a real puss—” My growl cut him off. He cleared his throat. “The return of a soul is something only a master is capable of receiving.”

Shayna leaned toward Tim’s window. “So then she did return Zhahara’s?” She smiled weakly in my direction. “I’m not trying to upset you, Celia. But you did bite her.”

Tim shook his head. “No. Bloodlust is too powerful and foul for the soul to penetrate. Which goes to show the master has no trace of it—even after the level of exposure he had today.”

I thought about what Tim said. “So if direct contact with those infected doesn’t cause the bloodlust, then what does?”

Tim shrugged. “Who cares? The master is safe and it’s no longer our problem.”

“Way to be selfless, Tim.” My mind mulled over my strange newfound power until unease twisted my small intestine into a Christmas bow. I pictured master vampires from all over the world lining up in front of some whacked-out, supernatural kissing booth advertising soul returns for a buck…and me chained on the other side. “Tim, I want Misha’s word that no one else will find out about my dantem animam thingy.”

Tim chuckled. “Relax, Celia. Trust me when I say most masters would prefer not to account for their sins.” He turned onto the main road. “Besides, I suspect the master would prefer to keep the return of his essence to himself. A vampire with a soul juggles both life and death at once. Constant touch with such powerful forces grants him greater strength.” Tim fell into a more serious demeanor. “Thereby making him a greater threat to those who oppose him.”

Silence fell among us, yet the events of the day prevented it from lasting. Shayna flashed Emme a grin. “You were quite the hero, Miss Watch Me Lift a Bus. Thanks for coming back to save the day.”

“My power seemed to refresh the closer we got to the lake. Tim was scared to go back—”

“I wasn’t scared!” Tim insisted.

Yes, he was, Emme mouthed. “But I convinced him it’s what Misha would want. The bus was parked along the front driveway. Tim scaled the wall and looked inside. When he told me you’d trapped Zhahara in the floor, hitting her with something big was the only thing I could think of.”

I laughed. “Well, it worked. I’m so proud of you, Emme.”

Taran smirked. “You did good, baby girl.”

I hugged Emme close just as the phone inside the limo rang. Tim picked it up without hesitation. “Hey, Ana Clara. You still at Z’s?” She whispered something too low for me to hear. “What? Oh, hell, hold on.” He talked over his shoulder. “They found another cluster of infected vampires in the dungeon. They killed most of them, but two escaped.” He ignored our groans and returned to his conversation with Ana Clara. “Look, urge the master out before anything else happens. Tahoe’s magic will leave him soon. I’ll be back as soon as I drop them off. Later—Oh, yeah. I’ll take a brunette and a redhead. Make sure the master eats well before he falls into the sleep. Yeah, yeah, I know they’re pains in the ass, but the master will be pissed if I leave them on the side of the road.”

Taran narrowed her eyes. “And we shouldn’t kill this prick why…?”

Emme placed her hand over Taran’s. “I’m sure he doesn’t mean it. It’s probably just a front.”

Tim flashed more fang Emme’s way. It told me two things: No, it wasn’t a front. And, yes, he was a prick.

CHAPTER 18

I smiled at the sign announcing only three miles remained until we reached Dollar Point. A shower. All I longed for was a nice long, hot shower. It was so close, I could almost smell the olive-oil-and-juniper shampoo.

I made the mistake of examining my hands. There had been times in my life when I’d felt disgusting—after one of my more grueling runs in the sun or a particularly nasty delivery involving body fluids from every human orifice. Those moments paled in comparison to the putrid carnal waste dump my skin and hair had become. An irate woman beating me with her placenta would have been more welcome than the copious amount of Zhahara snot gluing my fingers together.

Taran grimaced when I tried to pry them apart. “Celia, you’re flaking that shit all over the place. Just stop already.”

I ceased my efforts and sighed softly. Nitpicking over grime that would eventually scrub off seemed like a waste of energy. We’d survived, after all—thank God we’d survived. But the danger threatening Tahoe remained.

“There’s still so much we don’t know,” I said aloud.

Tim shrugged. “Yeah. But like I said, what’s important is that the master is safe.”

“I don’t get how he’s safe. We didn’t exactly figure out how the bloodlust spread.” Shayna fished around in her bra. She paused when she gripped something in one of the cups, and paled to the color of chalk when she pulled out some poor sap’s finger. She rolled down the window, tossed the digit, tossed some cookies, and slumped back into her seat. A flock of crows wasted no time fighting over their incredible find.

I rubbed her shoulder and set my frown on Tim. “What’s the next step?”

Tim smiled in the rearview mirror. “One of the family will notify the master’s superiors. Ash from an infected vampire coats the surrounding air with an aroma of boiled anise. With the high levels of bloodlust infection and the number of kills we made, the scent should linger for the next month. That alone will trace the start of the infestation back to Zhahara. And once the human remains are discovered, my master will be perceived as not only a hero, but as the one who avenged their deaths and saw that justice was served.”

Taran scowled. “You, Misha, whoever the hell can take all the credit, for all we care. Just don’t bother calling us again. Your favors have been used up for the next goddamn century.”

Tim regarded us through the mirror, running a hand over his shaved head. “The master is in your debt. You know this.” His eyes met mine. “Don’t expect him to vanish from your lives. Especially now.”

“Home!” Emme tugged Shayna’s sleeve excitedly as we pulled into our neighborhood. “Shayna, look! We’re home.”

The sparkle returned to Shayna’s eyes when she smiled. Except her smile didn’t last. “Oh…no.”

I jumped out of my skin. Four shiny hybrids—a Highlander, an Escape, a Yukon, and an Escalade—hugged the curb in front of our house. There on the front steps sat Liam, Koda, Gemini, six other weres I didn’t know…and Aric.

Good thing I didn’t look like hell or anything.

Taran desperately yanked at Tim’s destroyed sweater. “Drive. Now. Just keep going. Whatever you do, don’t stop!”

“Where—”

“I don’t give a shit where! Just get the hell out of here. Now!”

Tim started to turn the cruise ship he called a car around, but I stopped him. “Tim, just…don’t go anywhere.”

He stopped in the middle of the cul-de-sac, pissing Taran off further. “Celia! I—”

“Taran, we have to get out. The weres need to know what’s happening. And…we need to…shower.” Like I mentioned, I’d never cheered a team on to victory, and I sure as hell didn’t belong arguing before the Supreme Court. Emme and Shayna blinked back at me like I’d suggested a sleepover at Zhahara’s and reminded them not to forget the marshmallows and Ouija board. “We’re getting out.” I meant to sound firm, but my voice trailed off when I noticed Aric had leaped off the steps and now stood next to the door.

My door.

Tim coughed into his hand, trying not so hard to hold in his laughter. “May I get the door for you, ladies?”

“I got it. Thanks, moron.” I opened the door and slowly ambled out, yanking at Misha’s sweater to keep my bare backside covered. Those steamy brown eyes I hadn’t been able to erase from my thoughts widened before locking onto mine with all the power of a bulldozer. I tried to convince myself I had nothing to be ashamed of. So what if I smelled like sewage and dead, festering things and donned nothing but the clothes of his mortal enemy? These things happened. “Hey,” I mumbled.

Aric’s knitted brows told me nothing I could say would piss him off any more than he was. I angled around to allow my sisters out. Funny thing, none of them seemed excited about leaping out of the car and doing the runway walk for the wolves.

“Damn,” Koda muttered when he got a good look at me.

“What. Happened?”

Aric’s deep voice mimicked the same tone he used when he’d asked what I was doing at Misha’s pad. Gee, I wondered why. Could it be that beneath all the grime, blood, and lingering aroma of gruesome death, he still managed to draw in Misha’s scent?

I sighed. “Misha’s innocent. Zhahara’s compound was loaded with vampires in various stages of bloodlust. They’d been hunting humans for weeks and bringing them back for her to eat. We wiped out most of them, but at least two got away.”