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“I loved the monkeys too. And the macaws,” Jasmine said. “With the kind of work I do, I never just take the time to sightsee, and I’ve never been to Texas before. So this was fun for me.”

Jasmine sounded sincere also, and Fiona really liked both of them.

None of the guys said anything, so Fiona suspected they were worried about hanging around here for too long.

They had missed the ferry, which was probably just as well. Arman had told her they couldn’t fly over big bodies of water, so if they’d had to leave in a hurry, they wouldn’t have been able to.

Stasio handed Jasmine his phone and said, “I’ve been trying to learn anything I can about your foster brother, but I thought this was interesting. The news report should have mentioned he was survived by a sister, but there’s no mention of you like you didn’t even exist.”

“Because…because like you wiped out Emma’s memory of me, Regina made sure no one knew I had existed?” Fiona asked, astonished. Why worry about her ability to work some magic on people’s dreams when they could wipe out people’s memories all on their own?

“Right,” Arman said, then took another bite of his pizza.

“But if I’m a hunter, then shouldn’t they be afraid of me because I could eliminate them for being rogue vampires?” Fiona asked, trying to wrap her mind around this whole new world she’d found herself in.

“You haven’t been raised as a hunter and trained as one, killing rogue vampires from an early age,” Levka said.

“But I’m a black belt in several forms of martial arts, and I can wield a sword.”

“Why?” Stasio asked. “How come you went into martial arts training?”

“My mother said I would love it. Ohmigod, because my real parents told her I should be trained in it? To eventually fight vampires? Rogue ones, I mean?” Fiona just couldn’t come to grips with all this. She had done several sword demonstrations, but the idea of actually using one on someone to terminate him or her? She shuddered.

“Well, it’s good to hear that you can wield a sword and you know martial arts. You’ll be much better trained than Caitlin was,” Jasmine said. “No offense to Caitlin. She was thrown into this business so all of a sudden, but like she says, she has her own witchy talents.”

“No offense taken,” Caitlin said, smiling.

Fiona saw Jasmine as a take-charge person who had goals in mind and accomplished them. Fiona couldn’t even imagine how brave she had to be to confront and take down rogue vampires. That would be a scary business. Caitlin was more—sweet and cheerful and…human. Even though she was a vampire now like the rest. But she also had this fun witch’s side to her that made her less human and more capable of handling trouble. Fiona was kind of like her in that she hadn’t had the experience of fighting bad guys with her abilities. But her abilities weren’t magical in the least. Well, except for the dream powers she might have, though she wasn’t sure everyone knew what they were talking about.

“So what do you all think about the possibility of me having this dream persuasion power?” Fiona wanted to know if they thought she should get rid of it, or could she maybe use it for good? That’s what she was thinking of. If she chose which way for a character to go in a book she was reading that had choices, she always chose the right path. Well, except when she wanted to see what would happen if she made wrong choices just for fun. She handed Stasio’s phone back to him.

She had taken martial arts classes from the age of three on. In school, she had always stuck up for kids who couldn’t or wouldn’t defend themselves. She wasn’t afraid of bullies, though she had to make sure she didn’t look like one in return.

No one said anything. They probably didn’t know what to think of her having such a power.

“Okay, so, Stasio, the historical genius…,” she said.

Stasio smiled.

Fiona smiled and continued. “What have you learned about my dealing with the power? A way of ending the curse? Or a way to control it for the benefit of others, not using it for bad?”

Then Stasio sat up taller and finished his slice of pizza. He drank some of his soda and said, “You have to find your dream mate.”

She raised her brows.

Stasio shrugged. “That’s what the ancient book said. The one afflicted with the ability must find his or her dream mate and that will end the curse.”

“There are others who have this ability?” Fiona was surprised. She had the notion she was the only one. That she was special. She felt deflated all at once.

“We’ve never known anybody that has that ability,” Levka said, “but you and Arman have had the dreams connecting the two of you, right?”

She nodded.

“That’s not to say he’s your dream mate,” Levka quickly said. “But that’s what made us research your existence and learn all we could about you. That’s how we learned you have this curse.”

“Isn’t it illegal for a vampire to turn a hunter?” Fiona asked, suddenly thinking that it should be if it wasn’t already.

“Aye,” Levka said. “But rogues will do whatever they want to gain any power they want. That’s what makes them rogues and dangerous.”