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“I didn’t know it was you until today. I didn’t know anything.”

“And now you do.” She stepped closer, invading my space. I forced myself not to retreat. “Now you know that I hold your grace in my hands. That every stumble, every humiliation, every moment of clumsy despair comes from me. And yet here you stand, asking about my daughter.”

I went very still. “You know about that too.”

“I know that Carolina spoke to you. I know that she vanished rather than continue the conversation. And I know,” she said, her eyes narrowing, “that you haven’t stopped looking for her.”

“She’s my...” I caught myself. I couldn’t say mate. Not to this woman. “I need to talk to her. To understand what happened in that alley.”

“What happened,” Jacqueline said slowly, “is that Carolina made a mistake. She let her curiosity get the better of her. She saw a broken thing and wanted to fix it, as she always does.”

“She’s not a child. She can make her own choices.”

“She’s my daughter.” The temperature dropped ten degrees. “And you will stay away from her, or I will make your current suffering look like a vacation. Do you understand me, vampire?”

I understood. I understood that she could crush me without effort. That she had crushed me, systematically, for an entire year. That she would do worse if I disobeyed.

But I also understood that Carolina had looked at me like I mattered. That she’d almost touched my face. That she’d made my dead heart beat again.

“I understand,” I said.

“Good.” She turned away, dismissing me. “Don’t make me regret letting you walk away.”

I walked home in a daze, my mind racing. I’d faced the monster, and I’d survived. She knew Carolina had spoken to me, but she hadn’t named the bond. Hadn’t accused me of being her daughter’s mate. Either she didn’t understand what she’d sensed outside the bar, or she wanted me to confess it first. Jacqueline struck me as the kind of woman who preferred her victims to load the weapon for her.

The bond pulled at me even now, a constant tug toward the center of town, toward wherever she was. I could feel it strengthening, growing more insistent with every hour we spent apart.

I needed a plan. I needed allies I could trust. I needed Carolina.

Mack called before I reached my building. Apparently, Audrey had reviewed his you’re-on-your-own policy and found it severely fucking deficient. He offered emergency blood, somewhere to go, and a sensor outside my apartment that would alert him to sudden magical surges. I agreed to the sensor and the blood. Accepting that he actually meant the rest would take longer.

My phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number:

You shouldn’t have gone to her. Meet me at Midnight Brew. 2 AM. Come alone.

I stared at the message, my heart doing that impossible stuttering thing. I knew who it was from. I could feel it in the bond, in the way my chest tightened at the thought of seeing her again.

Carolina.

Midnight Brew was a twenty-four-hour coffee shop on the edge of the supernatural district, the kind of place that catered to creatures who didn’t keep human hours. At 2 AM, it was nearly empty, with just a few night owls and insomniacs hunched over laptops.

She was in the back corner, her red hair hidden under a baseball cap, her face pale in the fluorescent light. She looked tired. She looked beautiful.

“You look terrible,” she said as I slid into the booth across from her.

“Your mother threatened to destroy me earlier tonight. I didn’t have time to freshen up.”

“That isn’t what I meant.” Carolina tightened both hands around her coffee cup. “You look like you remembered something you wish you hadn’t.”

The fluorescent lights hummed overhead. Somewhere behind the counter, a milk steamer screamed with the enthusiasm of a soul being dragged into hell. I understood the feeling.

“I remembered enough,” I said. “Your mother came to Mack’s garage after Vivienne dumped me here. She offered to help. I told her exactly where she could shove her assistance.”

Carolina closed her eyes. “Of course you did.”

“In my defense, I had been a vampire for three days, hadn’t slept, couldn’t eat anything that didn’t come in a plastic bag, and had no idea whether my family thought I was dead or missing. My decision-making process was not operating at peak efficiency.”

“And Jacqueline responded with zero patience or emotional maturity.”