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W e end up at Harry’s building, one we’ve met in before. We take the elevator up four floors to that elegant room with no windows. It’s weird, going to a Barons meeting without Ares. We’ve always been a team. We’ve gone through all this together. But now I am one of them, all on my own.

Sometimes life is so damn wild.

Clementine practically forced Florence to go home with her. There was nothing they could do to help at the moment. They were only in danger of getting in the way. I saw them off with the promise to call when anything changed with Ares.

When we walk into the meeting, my eyes immediately go to the two figures across the space.

A man, tall, strong, tattoos rising from the knuckles of his right hand, all the way up his arm and reappearing on the side of his neck, quite similar to Ares’ tattoos, except his left arm is clear of ink.

Then, there is a woman with him. She’s not very tall, probably two inches shorter than my own short frame.

But the striking thing about them is that they bear identically white hair. It’s hard to describe. It isn’t like the white of age. It’s just pure and blinding. I’d almost wonder if they were siblings with how identical their hair is, but it’s literally the only thing about them that looks similar.

“You asked to meet with us?” Harry asks, getting straight to business, as I’d expect.

“You know, we’re pretty used to big cities. Chicago isn’t small. But New York is really damn big,” the woman speaks up, and somehow, she sounds exactly like I expected. Spark and sass. “So, it seemed wiser to work smarter, not harder.”

Harry raises an eyebrow at the crass and bold woman. “Names might be a good place to start.”

“Sorry,” she says with an amused chuckle. She steps forward, extending a hand. “Juliet De Luca. And my husband, Roman.”

“For real?” Sysco asks with a smirk. “Roman and Juliet, married in real life?”

“In the flesh,” Juliet says with a smile that nearly rivals Sysco’s. She shakes his hand, then turns and shakes mine.

“Harry Kim,” he introduces himself as Roman shakes his hand. There’s something wildly evaluative in Roman’s eyes, like this guy should be on a SEAL team, not doing whatever it is he’s doing in our city.

“Sysco,” my friend introduces himself, though he doesn’t offer his last name.

“Lana,” I take cues from Sysco as I shake Roman’s hand. He studies me with vivid, powerfully blue eyes. Yikes. The man is intense.

“Shall we sit?” Harry asks, extending a hand toward the couches. Juliet nods and sinks onto one, Roman sitting beside her. He’s stiff, vigilant, prepared.

I thought Ares was intense, but he’s a golden retriever compared to Roman De Luca.

I take one couch, sitting beside Sysco, and Harry takes the third.

“You asked to meet with us,” Harry says, taking lead in an uncertain situation. “I’d like to know how the hell you even knew about the existence of the Barons. We don’t exactly advertise.”

Juliet leans back into the couch, crossing one leg over the other. There’s something relaxed about her, or maybe it’s confidence. Like she’s untouchable. Like she doesn’t have anything in the world to worry about. And maybe that’s because of her German Shepard husband beside her?

“My best friend, Elena Godfrey, has been doing business in New York for years,” she says. “She met some asshole named Augustus who bragged about being a Baron, said he ran this city.”

A sound of disgust comes from my lips. “Did he try to proposition this Elena?” I ask.

“He did, actually,” Juliet says, raising an eyebrow to accompany her disgusted smirk. “Said he’d prefer she were human. Said all kinds of other disgusting things. I take it you know Augustus?”

“Knew,” I answer with a sneer. “He was going to be my father-in-law. My fiancé took him out for some other disgusting behavior.”

“Glad to hear Karma is still doing her job,” Juliet replies. “Though, I’m kind of surprised Elena didn’t take him out herself. She’s never had much tolerance for dicks like that. Anyway, that’s how we knew about the Barons. I take it that’s what the rest of you are?”

“We’re missing one other, maybe two, but Cliff’s whereabouts are unknown at the moment,” Sysco answers. “But you’ve got the rest of us.”

“Interesting how things seem to stay consistent without any kind of communication about it,” Juliet says, and it looks like she’s fighting a smirk.

“Juliet,” Roman warns.

“They’re practically the same,” Juliet counters her husband.

“Don’t,” he says, unconvinced by his wife.

I raise an eyebrow. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell us about your secret council of vampires in Chicago.”

Roman’s look is deadly serious and utterly annoyed. But I just smile and shake my head.

“Look, we can all keep our cloak and daggers, but how about we get down to the reason you asked to meet with us,” I press on. “We were kind of in the middle of something.”

“I like her,” Juliet says as she holds my gaze. “You’re different, which is good, and exciting. And you don’t beat around the bush.”

“A few years back, we had an issue in Chicago with a necromancer,” Roman says, taking control of the conversation before I even have a moment to process what Juliet said. The man is even more direct than I am.

“Excuse me?” I blurt. I blink at the beautiful man with white hair and icy blue eyes twice. “Did you just say necromancer ?”

“I did,” Roman confirms. Sysco swears, but Harry doesn’t seem bothered.

Not much rattles Harry. “He brought a really bad man back from the grave in Chicago. Wrecked a lot of havoc. It was all under the direction of someone else, someone worse. In the end, we caught the bastard and determined that he didn’t deserve to die. But we banished him.”

“From the entirety of the United States,” Juliet fills in details. “We told him if he ever returned, there would be consequences.”

Roman crosses one ankle over the opposite knee. “I have an extensive security team in Chicago, but my network runs… wider than the city. A week ago, facial recognition scanners picked up his face at JFK. A day later, we caught him on some cameras in Manhattan.”

“When you say necromancer, do you literally mean someone who brings back the dead?” Sysco asks. I can see his thoughts spiraling. “Like, they were in the grave, heart stopped, dead?”

“I mean, Markus Lontoc brought back a man who had been dead for five years,” Juliet says, her expression hardening. “The man was bones and some hair. And then he was a fully restored man capable of horrendous things, same as he was before he died.”

“Holy shit,” Sysco breathes, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Any idea what he’s doing in New York?” Harry asks.

“We haven’t been able to get much of any footage of him,” Roman admits. “I can’t just hack into every camera in the city. But the little bit I’ve been able to get ahold of, it seems like he’s looking for someone.”

“Someone alive?” I question. “Because Manhattan isn’t known for its graveyards. Bodies get hauled off the island elsewhere. There isn’t enough room to bury people here.”

“We don’t know yet,” Roman says. “Like I said, we’ve been unable to get too much footage. Markus has had some suspicious ties in the past. Run with some shady people. We were hoping you might have some ideas what he might be up to.”

“There’s plenty of despicable people in this city,” Sysco says, shaking his head. “You’re talking way too general right now. We’re going to need more to go off.”

“I know,” Juliet says with a nod. “It’s not much. But Markus has to know that he’s putting his life at risk. We made the ramifications of him coming back into the country pretty clear. So, if he’s willing to risk it, it isn’t for something good.”

“We were hoping that we could get your help, your cooperation, in finding the necromancer,” Roman says. I can tell he doesn’t like asking for our help. But I also see it in his eyes: he is not in his own city, and he knows it.

There is only one of us who can really help out with this, and Sysco and I both look at Harry at the same time.

Harry is quiet, evaluating Roman and Juliet. He isn’t one to show his cards too quickly. He’s cautious. Measured.

“What will this necromancer’s consequences be once you’ve got hands on him?” Harry asks.

Not what I was expecting.

“That’s for us to worry about,” Roman answers cryptically.

“Who in this city do we have to worry about being brought back from the dead?” I ask, turning my brain back through the possibilities.

“Only about a thousand mobsters, crime bosses, and assholes like Augustus,” Sysco says in a deadpan tone. “And who knows who else we don’t know about. It’s New York City. There’re eight million people who live here right now. And who knows how many bodies are hidden on this island.”

I don’t much like those possibilities. “What if it isn’t nefarious? I mean, I can think of some people I would want brought back, and they’re good people.” My entire family is dead—Mom, Dad, my baby sister. I’d do just about anything to bring them back.

“Don’t go down that rabbit hole,” Juliet warns. Her eyes flick over to me, and I see something chilled in her eyes. “It will drive you crazy, and only break your heart.”

Clearly, Juliet had the same thought at one point, and was let down. Who did she lose?

“Markus needs to be dealt with,” Roman warns. “I don’t expect you to reveal all of New York’s shit to us. Chicago can’t explain all of ours. But I hope you can trust us when we say it’s not good that he’s in your city, snooping around.”

The three of us are quiet for several beats.

It’s a lot to process.

By the day, we’re getting confirmation that there are other beings out there who have supernatural gifts.

They’re good at hiding. While vampires are pretty easy to classify, you’re either Born or Bitten, with the oddball exception of me, a Made; these others can be, well, just about anything, apparently.

So far, I’ve heard of a lightning wielder. Now Ophelia, with her influence. And a necromancer.

Holy shit.