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How the hell did these fuckers even know about this? We’d only discovered it because Archer had happened to go snooping in James’s office. It wasn’t some well-known myth or anything.

Maybe this was proof we used to work together, or at least had some shared origins. But I wasn’t looking to go rekindling any lost alliances.

“Yeah?” I snapped, crumbling it into a ball and throwing it in his face. “What of it?”

He winced and held back his tongue, simply readjusting his tie and continuing. “Then you are probably thinking as we are that your omega and her brother are the shifters that were foretold.”

“Look,” the young vamp interjected, thankfully getting to the point. “I did some digging around after the last fight, and the chest cam footage showed you guys being able to shift, and the twin alpha usingmagic. We also saw Mike going airborne before he was killed. It didn’t take me long to connect everything back to the omega. She’s special—not just because of her designation and her own ability to shift, but also in her ability to help others recover their lost abilities. You all bonded with her, Mike drank from her, and what do you know? You all can do shit we thought had gone the way of the dinosaurs. It’s in her blood.”

Before I could react another elder held out his hand. “We are not here for her blood! Please calm down.”

My heart pounded furiously, and my wolf was howling to be released, to feast on this bloodsucker’s flesh. But I kept him inside, getting up to pace beside the table instead. The cops were sneaking peeks into the room, and I snarled at them through the blinds before turning back to the vamps. “Then spill it already. We have plans today.”

The elders looked toward the younger vamp again and he pulled out a file from a bag next to his chair. “I’ve been following some threads. Some strange threads. Threads that give a different account of…”

“We didn’t fight against each other in the Great War, we fought side-by-side,” Archer interrupted. “To close the portals between our world and the world of the fae.”

The young vamp sat back, his eyebrow raised in surprise. “You already knew?”

“I made the discovery myself only recently.”

Well damn, I guess we were rekindling lost alliances today. But we still didn’t have time for this shit.

“Have you come to the same conclusion that sealing the portals is what probably led to the disappearance of our magic?”

I looked at Archer, who just shrugged. “I had a feeling, yes.”

“Fucking news to me,” I said under my breath. Although I supposed it made sense. Once our connection to the world where magic came from was closed, the magic in us would probably disappear, too.

“Wait,” Nolan said. “If a portal has reopened, why hasn’t our magic returned yet?”

The young vamp scratched his eyebrow and then looked at me. “This is just a hunch, but I believe the magic has become dormant in our species because it relies on proximity to the source. Even with a reopened portal, we need something to trigger it awake—a jump start, or catalyst, if you will.”

I bared my teeth. “Marlowe is not your catalyst.”

The elder who’d attacked Marlowe shifted in his seatuncomfortably. “I’m afraid she already has been.”

Elias’s chest heaved, his eyes narrowing in anger. “You drank her blood?”

“It was only a drop, I swear. You intervened before the bloodlust could take over.”

Julian rolled his neck. “You say that like it excuses anything. I just knocked out Eamon fucking Frost, I could easily wipe the floor with your fanged ass.”

The elders stood in their seats and hissed, while we met them with growls.

“Stop!” yelled the young vampyr. “Moon, get over yourselves. What’s done is done. My dad ingested her blood, discovered he’d regained long lost vampyric abilities, and has begun sharing his blood with us. We’re here to apologize and to help.”

I spit on the ground. “Why would we want or need your help?”

His eyes fluttered and the lights began to flicker. A long shadow grew from under the table, then wrapped itself around his father’s neck like a whip, tightening until his face tinged with purple. He reached up to grab whatever was on him, but his hand went right through the darkness.

“Point proven,” one of the other elders yawned, like he’d seen this show before.

The vamp’s eyes returned to normal and the shadow disappeared into the air. The elder coughed, staring daggers at his son. “Was that really necessary?”

Archer eyed the young vamp suspiciously. “How did you gain that much control of your powers so quickly?”

Elias had bonded with Marlowe weeks ago and had just learned how to throw a fireball. But this vamp seemed on par with Ezra after what was probably only a few days of exposure.