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“You trust Harry with this, though?” I ask, knowing it’s a hard question. “I definitely like Harry enough, but I’ve only known him for a few months. What do you think?”

Sysco takes a moment to consider it, holding my gaze. But he nods. “Harry’s a good guy. And he likes Ares. He understands there’s nuances to life. We can trust him.”

“You’re sure?” Florence asks, concern etched into every inch of her expression. “This is my brother we’re talking about. I don’t take any uncertainty when it comes to my family.”

Sysco meets her gaze, his eyes narrowing for a moment. His eyes flick to me and then back to Florence. Oh shit. He’s piecing things together. “I’m sure,” he says with confidence.

“Can you call him when we’re done here?” I ask, relying on Sysco completely in this situation.

Sysco simply nods. “Are we going to talk about it now? Because I’d really like to know what the fuck happened to you, Lana. And is it because of Gio?”

I feel it like a change in air pressure—the whole atmosphere of the room changes in an instant.

Once more, I look back at Florence. How the hell do we proceed?

We protect those we love, and I don’t know what the consequences of outing Florence might be.

What she’s doing is groundbreaking, yes.

But it’s also wildly experimental. Who knows the long-term consequences.

And I don’t know how the hell the rest of the Born are going to feel about it.

“Don’t look at her, Lana,” Sysco says, his tone warning. “Tell me why you smell different. Tell me why your heart is beating differently. Tell me why you’re talking differently. Tell me why you look just a little bit different. Lana.”

My eyes slide back to Sysco. His expression isn’t vengeful. It isn’t suspicious.

It’s worried.

It’s scared.

Sysco has my back. I just have to trust that.

“It is because of Gio,” I say, honestly.

And, as I begin, Clementine steps closer to Florence, her stance shifting a little more protective.

It feels wrong that my hands aren’t shaking a little, that they aren’t sweaty.

I’m nervous to tell Sysco the truth. But my body functions completely differently now.

“I think you were trying to call me to warn me that Gio knew that Ares killed Luciano?”

“I did,” Sysco confirms. His name had displayed on my phone at the same moment Gio showed up at the Hunt house. “He was spouting some crazy shit. Said he was going to even things out.”

I swallow once and nod. “He tried. He showed up to Florence’s house, where I was, and he said ‘a love for a love.’ He gutted me. Sliced me from the throat down before plunging the blade into my gut.”

A curse slips from his lips as his eyes slide down to my stomach. But when he doesn’t see any kind of damage, they rise back up to meet mine with confusion.

“You know my family has had a pharmaceutical company for ages,” Florence says.

Her voice shakes a little, but she pushes authority into her tone.

She is ever the confident boss. “We conduct all kinds of research. When I was holding Lana in my arms, watching the life fade from her eyes, while I was trying to hold her intestines inside her body, I knew I could not let her die.”

The moment hangs suspended for a bit. Florence is extremely good with words and fantastic at painting a picture. I felt something bulging out of me. I knew I was losing a lot of blood. But the thought of my literal intestines falling out of me, of Florence trying to hold them in… it’s… visceral.

“What did you do, Florence?” Sysco says, his tone turning accusatory.

“Do you really want all the answers?” I ask him, taking a step in his direction.

“Sysco, I’m not going to let you touch Florence or Clementine.

What’s done is done, and I’m alive because of it.

If you hear the answer, you’re accountable for the information.

You’ll be sworn to secrecy. Do you really want all that, Sysco? ”

My whole body is humming with the importance of my words. Sysco holds my gaze the entire time, never once looking away.

“I trust you, Lana,” Sysco says, emphasizing that it’s me he trusts. His eyes flick up to Florence for a moment, evaluating everything I just said. “If you’re cool with all of this, I promise I will be, too. But don’t leave me in the fucking dark. I want to know.”

I hold his gaze again for a solid minute, evaluating the man. I’m not one who trusts easily or quickly. People are generally unreliable. People lie. People are selfish. People let you down.

I’ve only known Sysco for two months. But in that amount of time, he’s always had my back. He’s always had Ares’ back.

So, I’m going to trust him.

I give Sysco the simplified version of the truth.

I tell him Florence took me to her lab. Florence explains what she’s been studying; how she’s been working to create a biological vampire.

She explains the ultimate regeneration process.

And I see it as Sysco starts piecing it all together. The fact that I’m now a vampire.

But an entirely new kind.

When we’re finished, Sysco just stares me down. He chews the inside of his lip. He blinks three times. And then he looks over at Florence.

“You just went and made a whole new kind of vampire?” he asks, his tone a little deadpan.

“I did,” Florence answers. Her tone tells me she’s not backing down, and she won’t be intimidated.

Sysco’s eyes slide over to me. He looks me up and down, but there’s nothing sexual about it. He’s taking in all those little differences he noticed immediately. He’s evaluating the reality that’s right before his eyes.

“Always knew you were meant to be one of us,” Sysco finally says. “Just never thought it was fucking possible.”

A relieved laugh chuckles out of me. A smile cracks on Sysco’s lips, and he steps forward, pulling me into a massive hug. “Ares is going to lose his damn mind when he finds out. For good and bad.”

“Yeah,” I say with a pained chuckle of my own. I hug Sysco tighter, so damn grateful for this wildcard man who has become one of my very best friends. In fact, all my best friends are in this room with me. “But we have to find him first.”

Sysco releases me and backs away two steps. “With how stealth Ares is being, we’re going to need some more help. We’re going to need to give a heads-up to any other vampires we know to be on alert. We’re going to have to tell Harry too, Lana. We need his help.”

I nod and swallow nervously. “If you could tell immediately that something was different about me, he will be able to as well. But not Cliff. I don’t trust that little shit.”

“Me either,” Sysco admits, which makes me smile. “But Lana, before we meet with Harry, you need to think about what you want to happen with Gio.”

My brows furrow.

“He tried to gut you, Lana,” Sysco points out, arching a brow at me. “His intent was to kill you. If it wasn’t for this mad scientist here, we’d be planning your funeral. So, you need to think about what you want justice to look like.”

My eyes flick to Florence and Clementine, who have been mostly silent observers the last few minutes. “It’s fair,” Florence says, nodding. “But if you ask me, the answer is pretty obvious. The man was out of his fucking mind. He kicked in my front door. He did the deed and ran.”

I swallow and feel my brain spinning with the possibilities.

Giovanni Bosco is a family man. He’s been with his wife, Francesca, forever.

She now looks old enough to be his mother, and Gio isn’t young looking.

They have eight kids together. When Francesca couldn’t have more herself, they had a surrogate help them out.

Gio killed me because he was avenging his son, Luciano. Ares killed Luciano.

What’s fair in this situation? Everything was done out of love, followed by vengeance. I’m familiar with both emotions.

I don’t have an answer in this moment, so I just nod my head.

“I’m calling Harry,” Sysco says as he pulls out his phone. “You feel good enough to go to a meeting? No primal urges to drain half the population?”

I shake my head, once more doing an internal survey of how my body feels. “I feel just fine. Amazing, if I’m being honest.”

Sysco shakes his own head, laughing. “Wild. I tore through eight people in my first week after Resurrection. A couple of bags, and you’re satisfied?”

“She’s going to have to drink every day,” Florence points out the difference, my disadvantage that kind of cancels out the other option, in my opinion.

Sysco shrugs at that. “Better than killing people when you’re not meaning to. ‘K, I’m calling Harry.”

Sysco wanders down the hall as he presses the phone to his ear.

“Your friend is… surprising,” Clementine says, keeping her tone low. “I think most anyone else would be freaking the hell out hearing there’s a new kind of vampire.”

“He’s a good guy,” I answer, nodding. “He’s been a good friend to me, and to Ares. We can trust him.”

“I sure hope so,” Florence says, eying Sysco. I can tell she’s trying to overhear his conversation, but I’m sure she can’t. I, however, catch every word. Sysco is simply telling Harry that they need to meet, and it’s urgent.

Sysco hangs up just a few seconds later and walks back toward us. “Harry can meet in an hour. I vote we go look for Ares while we wait.”

“That sounds perfect,” I say with a nod. “Florence, Clementine, you’ve had a hellish evening. I’ll stick with Sysco. You guys should go home.”

I see conflict in Florence’s eyes. She wants to keep control over the situation. She always has her fingers on everything. But she’s human. The only one in the room now. And she looks like she’s barely staying on her feet.

“Fine,” Florence concedes, even with her chin lifted. “I’m going home to take a shower and a nap. But then I’m headed out to look for Ares too.”

I give a nod. “Thank you. Both of you. I appreciate everything you did for me.”

“It wasn’t even a thought,” Florence says as she steps forward and wraps her arms around me in a hug. She presses a kiss to my temple. “Love you, Lana.”

“Love you, too,” I say, and it feels like my entire body warms with the words.

Clementine hugs me next, telling me to be careful and to take care. And I watch as they walk out the front door.

“So, that’s Ares’ sister,” Sysco says as he keeps looking at the closed door. “I see it.”

“Oh, shit, sorry,” I stutter. I didn’t even consider the fact that they’d never met. “Yeah, Florence and her wife, Clementine.”

“I got that much,” Sysco says with a chuckle. “Now, you have got to shower and change before we leave. I’m not looking to get arrested as responsible for how you look.”

For a moment, I look down at myself in confusion. Oh yeah. My shirt is sliced, and I’m covered in my own dried blood.

“Got it, give me ten minutes,” I say as I stride down the hall and shut the bedroom door behind me.