Page 69

I touch his arm. “What about Daniel?”

“Right,” Noah groans, and then he looks at Cassian. “Did you send him our location?”

“I didn’t.”

“You were supposed to?—”

“Piper told me you’d found Sophia, and I lost my head.” He stares down his friend, unrepentant.

Sophia’s eyes fly wide at the romantic declaration. She bites her bottom lip and looks down at her lap, blushing like the southern belle she must have been at some time.

And then Cassian goes and adds, “If someone is going to kill her, it’s going to be me.”

Her sweet smile turns into a scowl.

Okay then.

“Who’s Daniel?” Sophia asks.

“My friend in NIHA,” Noah says. “He has hunters on standby.”

Though it’s obvious Sophia is trying to be nonchalant about it, she’s nervous. “What will you tell him?”

“That we met an anonymous informant who had news about the rogue vampires. For now.”

Relieved, she nods.

Noah sets his hand on my shoulder, silently telling me it’s time to leave. But as we walk toward the door, he turns around like he’s just remembered something. “Listen, if we’re going to work together, you can’t make any more vampires. Before I leave tonight, I need you to agree to that.”

Sophia’s face falls. “What about Richard? He’ll die if he doesn’t get the final dose.”

I glance at Noah, my heart pinching. His eyebrow twitches, and he works his jaw.

“Who’s Richard?” Cassian demands.

Sophia answers, “I met a woman at a coffee shop in Savanah last year while I was visiting home—Gladys is her name. Oh, Cassian, you would just adore her. She’s so genteel—a proper lady. We got along splendidly. Well, her husband?—”

“Get to the point, Sophia,” Cassian cuts her off. “Richard is her husband?”

“No.” Sophia fidgets with her cup. “Richard is her husband’s cousin’s uncle.”

“Sophia,” Cassian says, annoyed.

“He was a tech-ed teacher for thirty years—they do that woodworking thing, with the tools and the saws and…I don’t know. Hammers, I suppose. Anyway, two years after he retired, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. Obviously, he didn’t have the funds for my services, so I offered to give him the virus for free. Richard, lovely man that he is, refused. He said he worked his entire life and wouldn’t accept charity now. So, I hired him—and now he’s dying. I must uphold my end of the bargain.”

“Sophia, it’sillegal.”

Her eyes flash. “It’s only illegal because Andrei put vampirism on a pedestal.”

“What is she talking about?” I quietly ask Noah.

“Andrei Nicolau, the archduke whose reign stretched from the early nineteenth century into the beginning of the twentieth. He soothed the fears of several monarchies and governments, agreeing that vampirism should be regulated as much as possible. But many claim he was gatekeeping.”

“What if I bite him on accident?” Sophia asks Noah, practically begging. “I could trip and accidentally latch onto his arm as I fell.”

“It’s not an accident if it’s premeditated,” Noah says dryly.

“Please, Montgomery.” Eyes glossing with tears, Sophia sets down her cup and saucer and presses her hands together. “Just this one time. Cassian said it himself—the courts are lenient when it’s a life-or-death situation, and thisis.”