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He’s doped up on your blood. He could probably take the place down with his bare hands.

He is doped up on my blood to be the best guard for you and Francesca that he can be. But he is too fragile to face what we are likely to find.

The realization dawned on her with terrifying suddenness. “You’re going to take the suppressant again, aren’t you?” she said, all the air going out of her. “You’re going to walk into that mine with Jackson. In the middle of the freaking day.”

Dominique lowered his gaze. Behind him, Jackson looked aghast. Apparently, this was news to him, too.

“I keep my strength during the day.”

“But you don’t know you have it,” she burst out, gesturing with both hands. “Plus, your daytime self hasn’t seen Jackson since the day he tackled you in Mrs. Havashand’s yard. I’m the only one he trusts. You can’t let Jackson wake him up without me around. You just can’t.” She inhaled to say more, but then snapped her mouth shut and leveled a glare of pure challenge at him.And you sure as hell can’t be five-hundred-plus miles away from me. The link can’t possibly stretch that far. I’d go out of my mind not knowing what was going on with you.

Dominique pulled her into his arms. “I know,” he said, answering both her words and her thoughts. “Jackson will have to make him remember, whether or not he wants to, and you cannot be anywhere near these blood-drinkers. Please understand.”

She twisted her fingers into his shirt. An unsettling sensation stole over her, a feeling of being placed in a box and having a lid close over her head. A padded box for weak and precious things, locked up and guarded. What was she really, compared to Dominique or Jackson? Compared to all the forces at play here in the kingdom of night?

Nothing but an ordinary human woman. Apregnanthuman woman, God help her.

A liability.

His arms tightened around her.Non,he whispered in her mind.You are my queen, the single most important person in all of this madness. Without you, there is no me—and no kingdom.

28

The Element of Surprise

Jacksonwokefromthesort of deep, dreamless sleep he never experienced anymore. His demons, chained deep in the basement of his soul, wouldn’t let him. On some level, he always heard them howl and whine, whether he thought of them or not.

Not tonight. Tonight, though he couldn’t say how, they had been silenced by a vampire.

While driving east on the Trans-Canada Highway, they had discussed Dominique’s birthday gift. Jackson didn’t trust it. Dominique proved it by trying to compel him to sleep against his will. Sure enough, Jackson was awake for another two hours, thinking more than talking, aware all the time that Dominique could tune into his every thought and no longer caring. Sometimes Dominique even responded to questions Jackson dwelled on. After a while, he dozed off, feeling safer than he had in a long time.

An unfamiliar sense of peace lingered in him now as Jackson blinked at the traffic flowing around them in the predawn gray. Further out, hulking, jagged shadows loomed. The Rocky Mountains.

He stretched, his body stiff and uncooperative with sleep. Dominique didn’t look at him. He stared straight ahead, maneuvering the car with one hand. No radio. Only the sound of the engine and the wind rushing past outside.

Jackson considered his profile, the sharp bone structure softened by the untamed dark hair. A study in contrasts and air-brushed perfection. So easy to see how his victims fell in love with him on the spot—the way Jackson had. In a strictly bromancy sort of way, of course.

A tiny smile tugged at the corner of Dominique’s mouth, and Jackson busied himself adjusting his seat into an upright position. “How long do we have?”

“An hour before sunrise. Two until the lair.” He glanced at Jackson. “You slept well?”

Only the best damn sleep of my life, he thought, but he didn’t say so. He rolled his shoulders to limber them. “Get me some coffee, and I’ll be ready to go.”

“In the console.”

A thermos sat in a receptacle between their seats. When he unsealed it, the heavenly aroma of fresh brewed enveloped his head. “Oh God. Thank you.”

“There is some breakfast there for you as well. The best I could do with drive-through service.”

The tidy paper bag was still warm. A biscuit stuffed with scrambled egg and a slab of sweetly salted Canadian bacon. The meal was a far cry from his usual protein shake, but under the circumstances, he wouldn’t quibble. That Dominique thought about his mere mortal needs at all was amazing enough.

While he ate, Jackson checked his phone. A text message from Olivia—annotated with smiley faces, party hats, and happy hearts—had come in an hour ago and made him smile.

“Bon anniversaire,” Dominique said, echoing the message’s sentiment. “Happy birthday.”

“Thanks.” Jackson waved the phone. “Do you mind if I…?”

“Please do.”