“Excellent.” Laroque smiled as he poured himself a brandy. He sensed there was more that the shape shifter had to report. It annoyed him to have to quiz this fledgling. “What is it? Speak up!”

“The word out there is that some other magickal beings are getting sick-Sirens, plus the fae and Empusas.”

Laroque spun around, studying Raul’s aura. He would be showing signs of the virus soon. It took only a few days at most before the symptoms were evident. He wondered why the disease was affecting other beings. He’d been very specific when encoding the DNA of the virus. It was to attack only shifters and Lamai.

Laroque snapped, “And Tobias?”

Raul caught the fury in Laroque’s eyes. “He dropped off the radar. No one knows where he is.”

The bokur’s eyes continued to burn with a hateful fire. “Find him and his bitch daughter.”

“Yes, sir.”

Solaris started her car as Tobias carefully took his daughter out of the boat and placed her in the backseat of the car. A cool breeze blew off the water, and the sun had begun its descent into the early evening sky. Solaris turned on the heat in an attempt to get some of the chill out of the air.

Tobias had cleaned as much of the blood from his daughter’s body as he could. All he could do was pray to his gods that the change did not kill her. He knew of only one other person in his hundreds of years of existence who withstood the transformation-only to die a few hours later.

“Let’s get her to the hospital,” Solaris said, watching Tobias cradle his daughter’s head on his lap in the back of the car.

“Where is she?” Bo demanded, struggling to get out of bed. “She’s in trouble, I know it. I can feel it. Tell me…is she…dead?” His voice choked up at the thought of his beloved, gone forever. Throwing off the covers, he tried to stand.

“Bo, don’t make me sedate you. You’ve already been through a lot. We’re trying to locate her. Relax,” Ian said, nudging his patient back onto the pillows.

“I feel fine. Really,” Bo said as he grabbed his faded jeans draped over the back of chair in the corner of his room. “I have to see her.”

“And you will. Soon enough.”

His eyes flashed to gold. Words pounded in his mind, reaching out to Raven’s. Mine. I must get to what’s mine. My mate. “I’m good, believe me.”

The old man smiled. “I’m sure you are, but you’re still staying right there.” Ian’s beeper began to sound as he had the technician draw more blood from Bo’s arm.

“You were near death, young man. Just hold still and I’ll be back,” the doctor called over his shoulder as he headed toward the ER. Bumping into Bo’s grandfather on the way, he warned, “Keep that stubborn grandson of yours in bed.”

The ER was especially busy this morning. Dr. Odin’s pale blue eyes scanned the area. He spotted his co-worker limp in the arms of her distraught father.

“Take her to exam room one, Jennifer.” He barked out the orders as he headed for the room, his white hair like a cloud atop his head.

Tobias was in the room before Ian, using his preternatural abilities to move faster than human eyes-or wizards-could see. After Tobias placed her on the bed, Jennifer stood beside them with gloves and mask on. She held cotton cloths, ready to wipe Raven down.

Ian’s thin fingers grasped his stethoscope. “What happened?” he asked, listening to her heart and respiration. “No, let me guess. She saw Kate, the goddess of the island.”

Tobias confirmed Ian’s suspicion. His voice was tinged with ire. “She certainly did.”

“You’d have done the same,” Ian snapped back. “Or worse.”

Jennifer looked wide-eyed at Ian. She read the chart again.

“She’s got a totally human heart rate,” Ian exclaimed in astonishment. “Do these tests over. It can’t be. I want a CAT scan of her chest area.”

Jennifer added, “And her temperature is ninety-eight point six. That’s not her normal temperature, and I took it twice.”

“Take it again,” Ian said.

“Yes, sir.”

He continued to check Raven’s vitals. “This would explain Bo’s miraculous recovery,” Ian stated. “It’s the only logical explanation, the only thing left for her to do. We did everything within our power medicinally.”

Through a haze of disbelief, Tobias tried to explain. “You’re correct. She made a deal with Hekate. She traded her Lamai immortality for Bo’s life.”

“That would mean she lost a lot of blood,” Jennifer surmised. She undressed Raven and cleaned her quickly. Ian inserted an IV with glucose.

“Her blood pressure is a little low,” Jennifer said as she removed the cuff of the sphygmomanometer, “by human standards.”

Maureen hurried into the room. “I heard Raven was admitted. Why is she unconscious and where’d the blood come from?”

“If you had seen what she went through… She’s exhausted,” Tobias said with a sigh.

“What did happen? She’s full of dried blood. I don’t understand.”

“Hekate,” Jennifer whispered to Maureen.

“Oh, you mean she…”

Jennifer nodded. “Yeah, she made a deal with Hekate to save Bo.”

The curtain separating the area where Raven was located from the rest of the ER flew open. Bo rushed to Raven’s side and gently gathered her into his strong embrace.

“My love, what happened?” he whispered in her ear. A tear escaped his soft brown eyes. “What did you do, Kagi Taka?”

“She saved your life,” Tobias answered, watching a slow smile pull at his daughter’s lips.

Bo nestled his face in the crook of Raven’s neck. “I know, my grandfather told me, but how? How did she do it?”

Tobias rested a strong hand on Bo’s back. “She went to see Hekate and made a deal with her to save you.”

“Bo… You’re alive… B-bo…you’re here.” Raven tried to raise her arm to rub his back, as if wanting to make certain he was really there and not a dream, but she was too weak.

He kissed her cheeks and lips. “I’ll always be here.”

Remarkably, by the following morning, Ian Odin had discharged both Bo and Raven. The doctor had repeated all tests numerous times. With MRIs showing everything within the normal range, he saw no reason to keep the two apart another night.

At Bo’s unrelenting insistence, naturally.

Solaris drove them to Raven’s home and made sure her friend was snuggled into bed before heading off to the grocery store to fill Raven’s empty refrigerator. She checked Raven’s temperature four times before she left for the store. By that time, the sun had darted behind afternoon clouds.

The shades shut out the light in Raven’s bedroom. The only illumination in the house came from the hallway skylight and a few candles Solaris had lit. Raven’s canopy bed provided a safe cocoon as she laid under homemade quilts the colors of autumn. Outside, the October winds blew menacing clouds across the sky.

Bo hadn’t left Raven’s side since he’d charged into the ER the day before.

“Bo…”

The tough, strapping shape shifter looked up. “Tobias. How long have you been standing there?”

Tobias walked over to watch his daughter sleep. She looked as she had when she was four years old and still afraid of the dark. “Not long. I wanted you to know something.”

“What is it?”

“It’s about Raven. She is in more danger now than ever before.” The ancient vampire sounded desperate.

“What do you mean?” Bo absentmindedly stroked Raven’s hair while she slept. He was just grateful to have her alive and home with him again. He wanted to start his life with Raven. No more delays, no more setbacks-this was to be their time. Bo would be unwavering in his effort to do whatever it would take to keep his mate safe.

Tobias let out a long sigh before he answered. “You can be certain that Laroque will be back, and Raven is no longer protected by Lamai blood. In fact, if she is bitten in an attempt to change her back, she will die.”