“Then I’ll give him blood. It worked with the spider guardian.”

“This has been too long, the venom will be through his whole system by now; ah, here he is.”

Finally, the sound of a truck reached my ears, the soft flicker of headlights. The truck stopped about twenty feet away, the headlights on us. “Faris, help me.” I ran to the truck. Doran was the only one who knew how to lay in the opal, the spell that would bind it to her. Even if he wasn’t my friend, I couldn’t let him die, not today.

Surprising the hell out of me, the vampire did as I asked and ran ahead of me, pulling Doran out of the truck. In the headlights, everything was illuminated, and not kindly.

Doran was limp in the vampire’s arms, his body convulsing, blood trickling from his ears. His white shirt was stained red over his heart. Tespa had stabbed him in the heart with her fang?

“He’s still breathing, but not for long. There is nothing we can do for him.” Faris laid Doran on the ground in front of the truck and I knelt beside the Daywalker.

“Doran, listen to me. You know there is a way to save you, don’t you? That’s why you let her do this, isn’t it?”

Please let me be right about this.

“Let him have peace in his final moments, Tracker,” Faris snarled, his hand clamping on my shoulder. “Give him that much, at least.”

I didn’t have to say anything; Alex did it for me, as he shoved the vampire backward with a big paw. “Fuck off, Faris.”

Doran let out a low moan. “The bag. Do it.”

There could be no more hesitation. He’d known what the choice was; he’d known there would be no turning back. “Alex, get the bag o ge it.ut of the truck!”

“What are you doing?” Faris drew close as Alex dropped the bag in front of me. I yanked it open and poured out the contents, my brain scrambling with the recipe. Please, gods, let me get it right. I mixed the ingredients, used the mortar and pestle. “Doran, the moon dust.”

He tapped his front pocket and I slid my hand in, feeling a thin paper bag. Faris let out a long, low hiss. Of course he would know, or at least recognize this recipe. He’d been planning on using it on a Daywalker himself. Which was how I’d gotten my hands on it.

“You planned this all along, you were going to turn him and let him take the throne instead of me.”

“Give the vampire a prize,” I snapped, ignoring him, pouring the dust into the pestle, the air snapping with sudden ozone. Above us, clouds rolled in, blocking the stars. Shit, this was going to get ugly.

“Yes, I have the recipe that will turn a Daywalker into a vampire.” I stared at Doran, pale and unmoving on the ground. “Who better to lead the vampires than one who is powerful both in mind and magic—and has no desire to lead?”

Faris’s jaw dropped and then he slowly closed his mouth. “Mother of the gods, it might work. Technically, he has not drunk any blood the entire time he is a vampire. Yours does not count as it is what will make him a vampire. That should be good enough to meet the requirements. Stunningly simple and … brilliant.”

Shocked he would compliment me, I ducked my head and focused on the ingredients going into the shallow bowl.

“He could drain you completely.” Faris dropped to a knee beside me, a look of concern etched around his eyes, softening them. Concern, for me.

I didn’t take my eyes from him. “I trust him with my life.”

“But I don’t. I won’t let him live to lose you. None of us will survive if you die this night, Tracker. You understand that, don’t you?”

Unfortunately, I did. All too clearly, I knew what was in the balance. But if I was willing to let my friends and loved ones die without fighting for them, what the hell was I fighting for in the first place?

“Believe, Faris.” I pulled my sword free and laid the blade gently against my forearm, over the scar where I’d given Doran my blood the first time we’d met. What seemed like eons ago.

My skin split and I held my arm over the pestle. There were no words, no incantations, just the potion, and the timing.

His heart had to stop beating, his life gone, but only for a split second. Any sooner this would fail, any later, same fucking result. I slowed my breathing and put two fingers to Doran’s throat, felt the slowing throb of his heart. In my other hand, I held the small pestle poised over his lips. Faris moved around me, ripped away a thin strip of his shirt and then wrapped my dripping arm with it.

“It will not be your arm he pulls from, but your neck.”

“I know.” And I did. I Tracked Berget and Jack, felt them closing in on us, a few miles at best. But they still had to get past Tespa.

Time, I had to believe we had enough time.

Under my two fingers, Doran’s heart beat once. Twice. Nothing.

I didn’t hesitate. With a single swift motion, I poured the concoction down his throat. “Come on, Doran. Don’t give up. Not yet.”

Alex sat across from me, his lower lip stuck out. “Doran’s gone.”

"18" align="justify">I swallowed hard. Had it been too soon? Fuck me, how were we going to know? I looked at Faris in time to see his eyes widen, just as a set of fangs drove hard into my neck, bowling me over.
Dragging me down into memories that were anything but my own.

“Milly, are you sure those weren’t all the coven members?” He strode beside the witch as they searched the warehouse for Ingers.

“Positive. They’ve been actively recruiting for years, stealing children, and even taking adults fully trained.” Her skirts rustled as she did her best to keep up to him.

“How the hell could they take adults?”

Pamela moved up beside them. “I didn’t think there were that many bad people in the world. How could they all be black witches to start with?”

Milly lifted a hand, stopping them, her head cocked to one side. “Do you feel that, Pamela?”

The young witch went still, but Liam could tell what they were tapping into. Someone was throwing around a lot of magic, a lot of power, and they were close. The hairs along his arms stood at attention. That was more power than even Milly and Pamela had combined. This was not good.

“Yes,” Pamela whispered, her eyes widening, “I feel it. That is a great deal of magic.”

“That,” Milly said, “is the rest of the coven. They no doubt know we are coming. There are too many for us to take. We must leave.” She turned to seemingly do just that.