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The vampire shrugged as he considered Garrett. “Maybe I like him better this way.”

“You fucking little—”

“Jack,” Sam cut in. “Why don’t you tell us what you remember now? Where is Cassidy? And did you see Dominique?”

Cassidy. The memories rushed in, ridden hard by guilt and fury.

“I don’t know where she is. Last I saw her, she was sick and getting sicker on that yacht. That was a couple of nights ago—” Another memory. “He’s turning her. She told me so. I wouldn’t listen. Fuck.” His hands balled into fists on the countertop.

She wasn’t compelled. She knew damn well what she was dealing with. Still, she fought and spoke her mind with a courage that now took his breath away. “You’re not worthy!” she had told the most dangerous vampire in history. She might as well have been talking to Jackson.

Sam came to his side and put her hand on his hard-as-rock shoulder. “You didn’t have a choice. You were up against way more than you knew how to handle.”

He shook his head. “I should have—”

“Where is the blood-child?” Serge demanded.

“Who?”

“Dominique,” Sam translated, and more memories crystallized.

“He’s aboard. He…he sent us here, I think.” Jackson shook his head to dislodge all the tattered cobwebs. Just how many vampires had messed with his head? Even Bijou added her compulsion when she ushered him and Garrett into a hired limo and sent them on their way. She had made her vow quietly, sweetly, and with her green eyes as hard and cold as emeralds. “Never let me see, hear, or smell you again. If I do, you, your family, and everyone else you know and love…will be dead.”

They had smiled and nodded.

Now he groaned.

“He sent you to me,” Serge confirmed.

“We were there when he spoke to Kambyses about something.” He remembered the ancient vampire clearly now, a striking presence that eclipsed his short stature. Nick, too, his shoulders hunched, beaten, as he spoke to his sire, who looked inordinately pleased at what he heard. “Fuck no. Nick agreed to give Cassidy his blood. He’s committed them both to stay with that demon.”

“No, that can’t be right,” Sam said. “He would never do that.”

Serge backed away and tugged at the front of his Hawaiian shirt. “Tomorrow night. He will do it tomorrow night.”

“No,” Sam said again as tears pooled in her eyes. “That can’t be the destiny you saw for them, Serge. It can’t be.”

“Together they will change the world of night forever.” His voice dropped to a hushed whisper. “So many ways to do that. So many ways”

Jackson slashed the air with a flat hand. “Okay, enough. I don’t give a shit about what you two think is going on here, but I’m guessing that if Cassidy doesn’t get the blood tomorrow night, she’ll die.” Though that would be preferable to being turned into a vampire. “We’ll get her back.” If it killed him, he would get her out of this, human and alive. He’d promised. “We’ll get her back.”

Everybody, vampire included, looked at him, hushed expectation on their faces. Even his uncle, bemused though he was, uncrossed his arms, leaned on the counter, and waited for Jackson to continue, to speak, to spell out the plan. To save the day. Jackson felt the mantle of responsibility settle on his shoulders with an unaccustomed weightiness.

Taking a deep breath, he gathered his thoughts. “We have this one day to get our shit together, and we’re going to start right now. You. Serge.”

The vampire blinked as though coming out of a trance.

“Fix that mess masquerading as my uncle.”

Serge didn’t hesitate. As he passed Jackson on his way to comply, Jackson grabbed him by his shirtfront. “Then do whatever you have to do to be there tomorrow night. You’re the backup plan. Got it?”

The vampire gave a dazed nod.

“You think you can save her?” Sam asked and swiped at her eyes. “If you get to her in time?”

Could he? There was no record of anyone coming back from a turning gone as far as Cassidy’s probably had. Jackson was willing to gamble that this was only because no one had tried.

Garrett, pinned up against the stainless steel fridge with Serge at his throat, cursed vehemently as he fought the darkness chasing him out of his happy place. The scene brought to mind another memory for Jackson, this one of his twin brother fighting, just like that, in a vampire’s clutches.