She gave a half-smile. “Because like me, they were stupid and told me not to use my magic. I had to obey them, even when they screamed for help.”

Pamela laughed, and even Tara smiled, though it see th and tolmed forced. “We still have to stop Ingers, before the equinox.”

“Do I want to know?” I stood and Blaz trundled around the corner, his mouth blood stained. Alex pranced at his side, tail flagging high.

“Alex kills bad witches.” He snapped his teeth, and fuck me if he didn’t have blood on his lips too. “Watches boss. Learns.”

Again, an ache shot through me. He would always be Alex, but to see him lose some of that gentleness that was a core side of him was a physical pain.

Milly put a hand on my arm. “Liam will be unconscious for awhile, he’s been healed twice in a very short time from major injuries. He can’t be here for the rest of this.”

“Tell me about Ingers. Who is she, why are we going after her, and why the time limit? Blaz, take Liam back to Giselle’s then come back to us.”

Bossy. But he did as I asked, scooping up Liam in his front claws.

Milly and Pamela filled me in on Ingers, the guns, and the potential Army connection.

“What does she look like?”

“Tall, mocha skin, pretty, dark hair and eyes—”

An image of the woman in the sedan on the highway came back to me. “I’ve seen her.”

Pamela’s eyes widened. Apparently we’d all had a run in with the same chick. Awesome. I locked onto the image and name in my head, Tracking Ingers with ease.

She was about a half-mile away; hopefully far enough she hadn’t heard the commotion and wouldn’t know we were coming. “Come on, let’s end this, I have things to do.”

That stalled Milly. “What do you have to do?”

“I’m taking a fucking vacation.”

Alex moved ahead of us, nose to the ground, and he snickered. “Yuppy doody, taking a vacay.”

The other three kept up with my slow jog, I couldn’t do much more than that. “Rylee, are you hurt?” Milly caught up to me, putting up a hand to slow me.

“Just. Yes, I don’t know. I had to donate a lot of blood.”

“I can’t heal that, I’m sorry.”

I didn’t answer. No point and talking would take more air than I wanted to use.

The fatigue rushed through me out of the blue and I wobbled mid-stride, stumbling to my knees.

“Rylee!” Pamela grabbed at me and I remained down, breathing hard, my heart pounding in overtime. My gorge rose and I knew I was done. I was at the end of my stamina.

“Just give me a second.”

A second turned into a minute, which turned into five. I couldn’t pull it together, and I was trying. Alex circled us and I found myself lying in the snow. “How long before the meeting?”

Milly crouched beside me. “A few hours.”

I Tracked Ingers. She was so close, yet she might as well have been on the other side of the continent. “She’s human, but has guns that work; is she cocky?”

I was stalling and the look in Milly’s eyes told me she knew.

“Rylee, we can finish this.”

“You can’t find her.” I pushed to my feet and called Alex. Using him, I started forward again. No one argued. We were far slower, but at least I was moving. And fuck, just moving at all at that point was a bonus.

We reached the building as t buin.he sun began its dip below the horizon and shadows stretched around us. Like fucking déjà vu.

“Let’s hope there are no vampires this time.” Shit, was that my outside voice?

“What?” Tara squeaked.

“Never mind, just reliving an equinox past.” No need to mention it had only been the night before.

“Well, I’d think you’d like at least one or two vampires to show up.” I turned my head, unable to spin around. Doran stood behind me, grinning. Berget and Faris stood behind him, and although Faris was not grinning, he gave me a nod.

Berget moved to my side with the speed her kind were known for. Pamela took a step lifting her hands as her eyes narrowed.

“Stop.” I laid a hand on Pamela’s shoulder. “Things have changed. This is my sister, my real sister, Berget. No longer a puppet of the Emperor and Empress.”

The two girls were close to the same age, but I saw Berget had more control. She’d learned it at the knees of two monsters.

“Pamela, another time we can discuss this, but I believe we have things to accomplish tonight.” I watched as Pamela’s face shifted from wariness to reluctant agreement.

She let out a slow breath and then nodded. “Yes. That’s true.”

“Rylee,” Doran said. “Let me give you a hand with this.” He winked and a flood of strength rippled through me, washing the fatigue away in less than a heartbeat.

“You invoked the bite?”

He gave me an oversized grin, more than flashing his fangs. Tara squeaked and stepped further back. “My soul is intact, and it was you who kept it grounded. I owe you my life and my soul. Seems like I should at least invoke the bite when you needed it.”

With Doran’s bite invoked, I temporarily had a burst of strength, speed and stamina that would rival any vampire. This was what I needed to get through the next few hours.

Feeling like myself for the first time in what seemed like forever, I snorted and turned away from him. “Well then, let’s deal with Ingers.”

What came next was almost boring compared to everything that had happened so far. Ingers was waiting in a small office, oblivious to what had been going on. No witches were waiting with her, which surprised me.

A small cage held two tiny, what I learned were half-breed, children.

Ingers never even got a shot off. Tara saw her, saw the children, and went mental. Literally tore the agent in half. Messy, but effective. It made me think a few trolls, or even half trolls on our side wouldn’t be a bad thing.

We let the children out and they clung to Tara. Orphans who needed a mother, and a mother who needed wounds to heal.

All we had to do was wait for the Army contact who was supposed to show up for his “meeting.”

Again. Boring. The vampires fed well that night, and we staged the scene to look like a lover’s tryst gone very wrong. Mind you, we had to put Ingers back together again, which Milly was able to do.