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“We’re not,” Bastian admitted. “But the humans we sometimes sub out to are.”

“Shit,” I said, slamming my palm against the steering wheel. “Shit, shit,shit!”

I didn’t really need my phone. I had memorized the only number that truly mattered to me long ago. But we were a few blocks from the rendezvous point. If the Sun assassins could track the phone this far, would they be able to find me?

I pressed the button on the door to lower the passenger side window, and Bastian flung the phone outside.

“You didn’t have tattoos before, when we . . . when you . . .” I cleared my throat and refocused on the road. “How did you hide them?”

“Shifter trick,” he said.

My brow furrowed, but I assumed this was one of the many,manythings I didn’t know about the immortal world.

“Could an undead vampire tell you’re a shifter when you’re in your house cat form?”

The corners of Bastian’s mouth tensed, and he nodded. “He’ll be able to smell my true nature.”

I pressed my lips together and flipped on the blinker, then turned into the parking lot of theWallingford Veterinary Hospital. A quick scan of the dirty and older model cars present made it glaringly obvious which belonged to the vampire. I pulled in next to the slate-gray Tesla and shut off my car.

After a deep breath, I pushed open my door and stepped out.

The vampire—Gavin—emerged as well, just as mesmerizingly beautiful as he had been at the bar and in my dreams. His stark gray stare shifted past me, locking on the naked man in the backseat of my car. “Is that a gift for me?”

“No,” I said, glancing at my car as Bastian opened the back door and slowly stepped out, hands raised. “He saved my life.” I shrugged one shoulder, exhausted by this situation. “It’s a long story. Please don’t kill him.”

Gavin clenched and unclenched his jaw, then shifted his focus to me. “Get in,” he said. “Both of you.”

11

Iexchanged a nodwith Bastian before turning to retrieve my purse from the floor of my car. I slipped into the passenger seat of the Tesla while Bastian eased into the back. Gavin settled in the driver’s seat, barely waiting until my door was shut to back out of the parking spot.

“What happened?” he asked as we sped down the street, heading in the general direction of downtown Seattle. The vampire eyed the shifter in the rearview mirror while flawlessly navigating the road.

“They knew,” I said, buckling my seatbelt. “Somehow, they knew I wasn’t just heading out for a trip to the vet.”

Gavin continued to stare at Bastian.

“It wasn’t me,” Bastian claimed. “I was in cat form. I didn’t have any way to communicate with them.”

“Itwasn’thim,” I echoed. “He jumped between us when one of them—a wolf—attacked me.”

“A house cat fighting off a wolf,” Gavin commented dryly, his focus finally shifting to the street ahead. “Impressive.”

Bastian jutted his jaw forward, looking like he was debating speaking. “I wasn’t a house cat, then.”

“He was a panther,” I added, trying to be helpful.

Gavin’s stare snapped back to the rearview mirror. “You have multiple forms?”

Bastian nodded.

Gavin’s eyebrows rose. “You’re of the original line.” It wasn’t a question.

“Veris is my father,” Bastian admitted reluctantly.

I turned in my seat and gaped at Bastian. “King Verisis your dad?”

King Veris was the head of the House of the Sun and the asshole who had ordered the global strikes on all vampire queens two decades ago. He was the bastard responsible for the deaths of my mother and sister—and likely for Javier’s as well, though I never let myself think of him as dead. He had disappeared, and I would believe he was still out there, undead, until either I saw his lifeless body, or I died myself. And one day, I would kill King Veris for what he had done.