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“You know him better than I realized.” Nova was still laughing. “Gosh, this man and his one-track brain.”

The group didn’t leave until after two in the morning. The conversations flowed so easily, Leslie lost track of time. As everyone headed for their vehicles, Philippa took her aside.

“You know about her,” she said. “Don’t you.”

“The person who got her name banned from your group?”

“That’s the one.” She bared her teeth in an expression that proved even empathic vampires were ultimate predators. “And you know how she treated him.”

“I do. He told me.”

“Good. He worried us for a while, but he came through it. And now here you are, and I wanted to say…I’m really happy for both of you. Thanks for treating my friend well, Leslie.”

“It’s my pleasure.”

On impulse, she drew Philippa into a hug. Nothing extraordinary conveyed between them this time, only the sense of a new friendship that would keep growing from tonight on.

When only Leslie and Ryker were left in the house, they wrapped in blankets and snuggled close on the couch. For maybe fifteen minutes they rehashed highlights of the evening with his friends. Then Ryker kissed her with something close to desperation.

“I don’t want you to go home tomorrow,” he said against her hair, his hands immersed in it.

“I don’t want to either.”

“Maybe you could…”

A heavy vehicle turned onto the street. For a second, Leslie ignored it, but—

Threat. The vehicle smelled wrong. Then it parked across the street from Ryker’s front door.

Her brain and body coiled for action. The power of the vampire built in her, freezing cold and intensely alive. She glanced to Ryker. Neither of them had risen from his couch yet, but he looked the way she felt. He was statue-still, gaze trained toward the street, fists curled tight at his sides.

“Threat,” she whispered.

He nodded.

Leslie’s senses widened, stretched out to pick up every possible detail. Six men inside the vehicle. Their sweat smelled of human nerves. The vehicle’s interior smelled of gunpowder; a weapon had discharged inside within the last week or so. And of course, they were armed now too.

And they were discussing Ryker.

“You know how to take one of them down, right?”

“I heard only a perfect head shot does it.”

“Right. It’s got to be instant brain death or they’ll kill youandthey’ll survive whatever wounds you give them.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they’re like roaches, keep jumping back up for more.”

They knew how to kill a vampire. They likely didn’t know that no human was fast enough on the trigger to manage a perfect head shot unless the vampire was already restrained, but their ignorance didn’t change their intentions.

They wanted to kill her Ryker.

“Angstrom?”

“Has to be,” he said.

“But how do they know it was you?”