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“Which is where?”

“We’re about halfway back to Vancouver. Far enough from them for the moment, I think.”

Halfway. In the middle. Like him. Balancing on an invisible edge. Not just between geographic locations, but between his sister to the east and Cassidy to the west, and more than that even—he balanced between his past and his future. Between day and night.

Between humanity and…not.

“You have to recover,” Jackson said as though reading his mind. “Don’t even think about going back for your sister while you’re like this. She has a couple more days.”

“Do you know how she got here?”

Jackson filled him in on Cassidy’s unthinkable news that morning about a compelled spy right there in his lair. Natalia’s and Ryan’s “escape” from the colony hadn’t been good fortune so much as it had been Esteban’s plot. The fragile little Russian blood-drinker was nothing but a tool used and disposed on a whim. Given what she and Ryan saw during their brief stay at Dominique’s house, it would have been simple to find vulnerable mortals with whom to coerce and torment him.

He scrubbed both hands over his face and let the frustration wash over him and away. His need to charge to his sister’s rescue bordered on overwhelming, but in his current condition, he would end up right back where he had been, hung up and drained. And this time Jackson would not be suffered to live.

There were other consequences as well. Through Natalia, Esteban had been a step ahead of Dominique almost from the moment she crossed Aubrey’s path. He must feel very sure of his victory to order his unwitting spies destroyed now. Also, he had been in Dominique’s muddled head. There was no telling what else he had learned, including Cassidy’s importance and location.

Reaching out to her, Dominique sensed she was safe—at least for now.

“Does Cassidy know what happened to us?” he wondered.

“Yes. You compelled Earl to give our phones back before we left. I called her as soon as I could get mine charged enough to turn on and find a signal. All is quiet in the city, but she’s beside herself with worry. Garrett said she even tried to badger Isao into coming after us.”

Dominique smiled wistfully. He almost felt sorry for the proud samurai, but was grateful for his steadfast vigilance.

Jackson pulled the keys from his vest pocket. “We need to keep moving. And I need to get some food.”

“As do I,” Dominique murmured.

“Yes,” Jackson said with a long exhale. “I imagine you do. I’ll find us a fast-food joint with lots of customers, but…” He drifted off and Dominique met his eyes. “If you need something right now, well…”

“Are you offering me—”

“My blood, yes.” He shrugged awkwardly. “If you need it. Like a snack, I guess.”

Before he knew he was doing it, Dominique embraced Jackson, his once-enemy who had risked his life to save him and risked it again now by offering himself to a starving vampire. For long seconds, Jackson’s pulse thundered in his ears, and the heat of his skin burned against his lips. But what Dominique savored most of all was the genuine affection behind this unexpected offer. Which is why, even though his belly cramped with hunger, he kept his lethal teeth firmly sheathed.

“Merci, mon ami.” He stepped back to meet Jackson’s eyes. “You have given me enough for one day. And…I will need far more than a snack.”

39

The End of Lies

AfterDominiquehadtappedenough veins to pass for a merely ailing human rather than one a step past death’s door, he drove the rental fast and sure along the winding highway back to Vancouver and Cassidy. Jackson succumbed to his exhaustion in the passenger seat, but Dominique’s mind spun faster than the wheels on the pavement.

The Lord of Night was not invincible. What a fool he had been to think otherwise and toy with the suppressant, a fire more dangerous than the sun. He had risked not only his life and Jackson’s, but the lives of every blood-drinker in existence. Even his human family was now in peril. All because he had been too bewitched by the promise of daylight to pay attention. He had underestimated Adilla and Esteban, and given them all the time they needed to uncover his weaknesses, even handed himself over to them at his most vulnerable.

His fault, all of it.

He cursed under his breath. Indecision. He wallowed in it. Ambivalence kept him suspended between worlds. It was a luxury he could ill afford.

And yet he wallowed.

The sun still called to him, perhaps more than ever.

A little after one in the morning, he pulled into the Pan Pacific’s parkade and woke Jackson. Then he tuned into the dark web to locate Isao. There were three others who now appeared to him as bright beacons instead of ghosts. They moved in various parts of the hotel complex, patrolling for threats.

My lord.