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The world is so much bigger than I ever thought.

“We can go to my main office,” Harry says. “I have access to cameras. It’s up to the others if they want to do the same, but I’ll give you access to all the cameras at my properties. Plus, I have access to some other networks. We’ll do what we can to catch this necromancer.”

“Thank you,” Roman answers, and he sounds sincere.

“I’ll get you access to mine as well,” Sysco takes Harry’s lead. “Though I’m not as techy as Harry is, so you won’t get as much coverage.”

“We appreciate anything you can give us,” Roman says with a nod.

“I’d give you access to the Hunt and Lonan properties, but my fiancé, the one who owns it all, is a little indisposed at the moment,” I say, trying to keep my cards close to my chest. When it comes to protecting Ares, I will always exercise caution.

That gets me an evaluative look from our white-haired newcomers. But neither says anything to that.

“We thank you for the cooperation,” Roman says. “If you don’t mind, could we handle this as soon as possible?”

Harry and Sysco exchange a look. This is all really up to them. I can’t help them out in this situation. But we were literally in the middle of something. And who knows how long we have until Ares wakes again. I want to be there when he wakes up. That doesn’t mean Harry or Sysco have to be, though.

“I can give you an hour,” Harry says. “No more than that, though. Not right now. As we said, we’ve got some things going on.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” Roman says with a nod.

“Let’s go,” Sysco says, apparently willing to operate in the same timeframe. “Lana, we’ll meet you back at the vault.”

“All right,” I say, standing with the others.

“Mind if I hang out with you?” Juliet asks, to my surprise, as we all head toward the elevator. “I’m not a whole lot of help to Roman when it comes to this stuff.”

“I guess,” I answer cautiously. I’m really not sure what to make of this woman. But we all file into the elevator and ride the few stories back down to ground level.

The moment we step out, all four of them slip on specialized sunshades. Out on the sidewalk, Roman pulls Juliet into his arms, pressing a kiss to her lips. “I’ll see you in an hour,” he says, and it sounds like a vow.

Damn.

I blush a little and look away. Is this how other people feel when they see Ares and me together?

“See you soon, Lana,” Harry promises, and his words sound pointed, as if he’s reiterating to Roman that there is a short time frame he’s committing.

“See you in an hour,” I say, nodding to the three men as they walk away.

Juliet and I set out in the opposite direction. I’m not exactly going to walk all the way back to Brooklynn, but we might as well head in that direction.

“You all are awfully active, considering it’s the middle of the day,” Juliet notes as she squints against the bright light.

“I take it Chicago operates more fully during the night?” I question.

She nods. “I mean, things still come up, and we deal with shit during the day, but we’re definitely more nocturnal there.”

I nod. “I’d never really thought about it before, that we’re pretty flexible here.”

“Especially you,” she says pointedly, looking over at me.

I’m not wearing any sunshades. I don’t need them. “Let’s just say it’s better if you don’t ask too many questions.” I raise an eyebrow.

She smirks at that. “Story of my life, babe,” she says without skipping a beat. “Trust me, I know a little about not asking too many questions.”

I find a smile tugging on my own lips. I can’t quite figure Juliet out, but there’s something kind of… familiar about her. And I think it’s a little bit of myself I see. “There’s definitely something up with Chicago, isn’t there? But for some reason, I feel like you wouldn’t tell me.”

Suddenly, lightning flashes through my brain, and I stop in my tracks. Someone bumps into me from behind, granting me a curse, but I don’t even notice.

“Chicago,” I breathe as Juliet stops and looks back at me with confusion. “Fuck. Ophelia is from Chicago.”

Juliet studies me with wary eyes, but she doesn’t hide it well. She’s keeping something from me. She knows something, but she doesn’t know how much I know either.

“I’m just figuring out that there are other things out there besides vampires,” I blurt, instantly in a hurry to explain so that I can ask.

“The necromancer, a lightning wielder, an influencer, and I’m not talking about the social media kind.

There… are there a lot of other kinds of supernaturals in Chicago? ”

Juliet’s expression is filled with caution. I see a million thoughts roll through her eyes.

And that is answer enough for me. I won’t make her say it. I won’t make her betray her city.

“Look, I’m going to extend some trust here,” I say, talking rapidly.

I start walking again, and she follows by my side.

“My fiancé hasn’t been himself for a bit now.

He’s been doing… dangerous things he would never normally do.

Turns out my former best friend, who really, really hates vampires, did something to him.

She somehow used this supernatural influence she has on him and made him do these things against his will.

And I just remembered that Ophelia is from Chicago. ”

Juliet takes a second to process this information. I glance her way to see her gaze fixed on the crowd ahead, but she’s not really seeing it. She presses her lips in a thin line, debating something. “What’s her last name?” she finally asks.

“Bennett,” I answer. I’ve thrown all caution to the wind. I’m putting way too much trust in this woman I just met, but desperate times make people desperate.

Juliet pulls a cell phone out from her back pocket. She taps the screen a few times, then holds it to her ear. She waits three seconds before someone picks up the other end.

“Sigrid,” she says. There’s a comfort to the way she speaks. Whoever she’s talking to, they’re close. “I’ve got a question about someone. Do you know of any Bennetts?”

There’s a few moments of silence while Juliet listens to the woman on the other end.

“Does the name Barbara Bennett sound familiar?” Juliet asks me.

“I’m pretty positive that was Ophelia’s grandmother’s name,” I say, and my heart rate doubles.

Juliet relays this information to Sigrid and continues to listen for a minute. “How about an Ophelia Bennett?” Once more, she listens. “Okay, thanks. Love you, too.”

Hmm, maybe this Sigrid she was talking to is family.

“Okay,” Juliet says as she steps down the sidewalk, resuming our walk. “Sigrid knew Barbara before she died, and yes, it sounds like she did have a supernatural gift. Did Ophelia’s mom or dad have a gift too?”

I shake my head. “I mean, Ophelia obviously never mentioned anything about gifts. Her mom was an addict who died when Ophelia was little. Her dad was a drunk who was never around. Ophelia’s grandmother raised her for a while, but it wasn’t a great situation.

She never mentioned if her grandmother was particularly influential. ”

Juliet shakes her head. “It doesn’t work that way,” she confesses. “You don’t necessarily get the same gift your parent had. In fact, it doesn’t really ever happen that way.”

She’s revealing so damn much without really saying the direct things. But holy shit. It feels like my brain is expanding by the second.

There are supernaturally gifted people out there, and it tends to run in families.

And apparently, there are more than a few of them in Chicago.

“Have you heard of someone who could do something like this?” I ask, speaking faster by the moment as my hope and excitement build. “She just tells them what she wants or what she wants them to do. She said it tends to work better if she touches them.”

“Not exactly, but similar,” Juliet admits.

She cringes a little, as if realizing how much she’s revealing by the minute.

“Please tell me you’re a good person because somehow you’ve got me blabbing about things I never talk about, and I really don’t want to have to kill you.

This shit… it’s important. And really secret. ”

I shake my head. “I have no desire to expose whatever secrets Chicago is keeping, so long as you’re not doing shady shit there. I just want some help fixing my fiancé.”

“Ophelia can’t just undo it?” Juliet asks, looking over at me.

I shake my head. “Not so far. But when we said we were in the middle of something, we were literally in the middle of this shit. Ares has kind of been on the run for the last few days, and I finally just caught him and brought him to where we can contain him. So, we were just testing if she could undo what she did. But she’s never tried to undo anything before. ”

“Shit,” Juliet says, raising her eyebrows. “This sounds like a damn mess.”

“They haven’t stopped happening lately,” I say through gritted teeth.

“I know a little something about that,” she says, and I can just hear it in her tone—she does in fact know.

“Do you think you could help me?” I ask, hoping and praying she’ll answer yes. “So far, you know a whole lot more about this stuff than anyone else, including the person who did it. And I’m feeling really fucking desperate.”

Juliet looks over at me, caution in her expression. But I see it there. She’s a good person. Complicated? Yes. But somehow you can just tell sometimes when someone is a person who is good at their core. And I can tell that about Juliet.

“Just, try not to ask me too many questions, okay?” she says, the conflict in her tone obvious. “You get me talking too easily.”

“I’ll try,” I say with a smile tugging at my lips. “But don’t expect me to be very successful.”

Juliet just chuckles at that and follows me down into the subway to head back to Brooklynn, where Ares is waiting in the vault.