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Red leaned close, bumping his shoulder into Moon’s. “I just…I’m not in the mood to get drunk.”

Moon barely caught his shout of frustration. Going to Phoenix had been Red’s idea. In fact, the man had called and specifically said, “Let’s go to Phoenix. Get wasted. I need one night of not being worried about the fae. One last hurrah before they show up.”

He got it.

The fae were coming, and they were an enormous threat to all earth witches.

It was called Moving Day, which happened on May 1. Once every hundred years, a single door would open between the fae realm and the human realm, allowing the fae to invade. The door would remain open for ten years; then all the fae had to return to their home for another century.

From what little they all knew about the fae, they usually kept to themselves and avoided humans. There were few reports of them causing trouble. The only ones who had to worry were earth witches. Something about their type of magic attracted the fae. Since the first witch announced that the fae door would open on Moving Day in Connecticut this year, all the witches in the region had gone into panic mode.

Well, almost all the witches.

Sky wasn’t worried, but he was a necromancer, and there couldn’t be a bigger opposite to the fae than a death witch.

Moon wasn’t too worried either. He was a blood witch. His spells were closer to Sky’s than Red’s and even then, close was like an entire football field between them.

While the fae would have no interest in him, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be there for his friends. He and Sky had worked up some other protection spells and strategies to help keep Mad and Red safe. More than that, being there sometimes meant going out for drinks.

“You ready to call it?” Red asked in his ear. “I promised Mad I’d help him go over all his protective wards tomorrow.”

That was a good point. Moon had offered to help with that as well. Moon grunted and shoved off the dark-red wall. The world swayed a bit as he stood there, his eyes skimming over the people who filled the nightclub. A small crowd occupied the dance floor and most of the tables that dotted the places were full. The bar was nearly empty, and the bartenders were beginning their cleanup with the barbacks.

The only thing that gave him pause were the two assholes leering at him from where they stood at the far end of the bar. He was pretty sure they were vampires—something about their otherworldly paleness and the way their eyes seemed to catch and reflect the light like a cat’s. Besides the fact that they weren’t his type, he had no interest in picking up more entertainment for the night. Especially since he wasn’t sure whether they wanted some bedroom fun or just wanted to gnaw on his neck.

Shuffling out with his friend, they bickered for a few minutes about whether Moon should share a car with him. Unfortunately, he and Red lived in opposite directions. If he rode with Red to his house, he’d end up on Red’s couch. And Moon was not in the mood to wake up covered in cat hair.

Moon waited with Red until his rideshare arrived before strolling away from the nightclub. The air was mild with a hint of a chill. Car engines and the various city sounds remained subdued, as if all the inhabitants had settled into bed. A quick walk would clear his head. Afterward, he’d summon his own rideshare. There was no sense in getting sick in the back of a car and being banned. That would suck.

Nope. A short walk was all he needed.

Except he wasn’t alone.

The two assholes watching him and Red from their spot at the bar had followed him. At least they’d waited for Red to leave in his rideshare before picking up their pace to draw closer. Red had enough on his mind; he didn’t need to deal with vampires as well.

And these were definitely vampires.

Now that they were outside and away from the couple of hundred other people in the nightclub, he could smell them.

That was the nifty thing about being a blood witch. He could always sniff out a vampire. The scent of blood hung about them like a thick miasma. It wasn’t a distasteful smell. He’d grown accustomed to it over the years so that it held its own perfume. And the older the vampire was, the richer and more luxurious the scent became.

These two, however, barely counted as more than teenagers.

Blech. He was too intoxicated for this nonsense. While he needed to get rid of his buzz, this was not his method of choice.

“Hey! Hey!” one of the vampires called.

Their footsteps sped up, the sound bouncing from the sidewalk to rebound off the tall buildings surrounding them. Moon didn’t walk faster or turn to look at them. He dropped his head back and groaned. Annoying.