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“Thanks.”

I could almost hear the smile in her voice as she said, “And the second?”

“Do you know anything about astral summoning?”

“Other than what is taught in university, I take it?” She was obviously forgetting I’d never finished high school, let alone gone to university. “As it happens, I did dabble in the practice when I was much younger.”

“You did?” I asked, surprised.

Her soft laugh ran down the line between us, briefly stirring memories of Christmases when I was a kid. Not all of my childhood had been bad, and I needed to start remembering those times more.

“I was once a bit of a wild child, though many might find it hard to believe these days.”

“Well, I had to have gotten my rebellious streak from somewhere, because it sure as hell didn’t come from Dad.”

“No, although he did have his moments before we were married.” Her soft sigh spoke of gentle regrets. “My dabbling involved a boy I was rather attracted to. I would have been only nineteen or twenty, so well before your father came on the scene.”

They’d met in their third year of uni, I knew, and while their marriage had definitely been a financial arrangement designedto benefit both families, there’d also been a deep attraction, even if it had now devolved into nothing more than a working partnership.

“And was this boy someone you shouldn’t have been associating with?” I asked, my smile growing.

“Oh indeed, my parents would have been mortified.” She lowered her voice, sounding conspiratorial and so much like Catherine—the sister I’d lost when I was barely sixteen, and who was now a spirit guide-in-waiting—that tears stung my eyes. “He was a Sarr, after all.”

Andthatprobably went a long way to explaining why she’d never held the same prejudices as either her family or my father’s when it came to Belle. She’d been in lust with a Sarr. Who’d have ever guessed that?

“So how did the whole astral summoning come about?”

“Our … liaisons were by necessity rare, but he was not only a spirit talker but a spirit walker. Which meant he could astral travel and fully interact with those who joined him on the plane.”

“Fully interact, as in sex?”

My voice was somewhat incredulous and her soft laugh decidedly wicked. “Indeed, and astral sex is … well, quite satisfying.”

“Well, that’s good to know, but I have absolutely no intention of fucking this vampire, astrally or not.”

She laughed again. “Of course not. The point, though, is that while I couldn’t initiate an astral session, once I was summoned, I could fully interact with those on the plane. Rodrik theorized the skill had to lie in my bloodline somewhere, even if somewhat diluted. That would make sense, given the psi skills you inherited, which certainly did not come from your father’s bloodline.”

Andhe’dcertainly made his opinions about those psi skills very clear over the years. I couldn’t help but wonder if he’dhave ever married Mom had he been aware that the “stain” of humanity—the only way psi talents could enter a witch bloodline was via a witch either marrying or having a child with a psi-gifted human—was in her family’s past.

“Astral travel isn’t one of them, though.”

“It could be latent, or it could be reactionary, like mine.”

“How do I stop it?”

“If it is reactionary, you probably can’t. Not unless you uncover how you are being called.”

I frowned. “Meaning?”

“Rodrik summoned me via a lock of my hair. When our relationship ended, I took that lock back.”

“I don’t believe any of them has something like that.”

“A personal item is not always necessary. Sometimes, all it takes is an understanding of a person’s resonance.”

“Resonance as in magical or spiritual being?”

“Either. Were you placed in a situation recently where the vamp that calls you was able to taste the rhythm of your magical or psi aura?”