Yet she’d drugged him instead. She shivered. There’d be hell to pay, and hopefully she’d be the only one to pay it. But repercussions were for another day.

She’d kissed him. He’d kissed her. The thought was almost unthinkable. She’d once had a mate, and in the immortal world, mating was forever, even past death. If a mated being touched another, or was touched by anybody other than the mate, a terrible, life-threatening allergy normally occurred. Until a virus had been unleashed that ultimately broke the mating bond.

The cure, a mutation of the virus, had worked on her. Unbelievable. She’d lost her mate eons ago and had resigned herself to being alone for eternity. Yet now, after allowing the vampire queen to infect her with the mutation, Cee Cee could touch and be touched. Damn, she wished she could’ve stayed and touched every inch of Daire Dunne before turning him into her enemy.

If he was as meticulous in fighting his enemy as he was with organizing his apartment and business files, she was in deep trouble. What kind of wild male witch kept such a rigid control on his environment, anyway?

Right now, she was driving a Harley for the first time in her life. Rushing through the city to Seattle’s underbelly was an undeniable pleasure. Nice apartments sped by, and soon enough small houses with peeling paint and brown yards lined the street. Finally, when she arrived at the seedy motel on the outskirts of the rough end of town, she cut the engine and disembarked with genuine regret.

Puddles littered the broken concrete where three older vehicles had parked. A porch light flickered in the middle of the building; otherwise, the motel was dark. Not even an old television droned into the silence. Any strangers paying to stay in the dump had given up life for the night to sleep, while her men had better be awake.

A vampire, a young one, ran out of room thirteen. “Mission successful?”

“Yes.” She tossed him the keys. “Return the bike to a secured parking area and call Dunne with the location. Far away from here.” She paused and slid the backpack of perfectly organized papers off her shoulders. “Were the surveillance videos confiscated?”

The kid nodded, not meeting her eyes. She had a team of four soldiers, Jon, Jay, Sal, and Simon, and none of them ever met her gaze. Darn vampires.

Jon cleared his throat. “We got all videos from Dunne’s building and the surrounding areas, so you won’t be identified. Also, we confiscated two new videos of Apollo victims, ah, ma’am.”

She stiffened. Her chin went up. “Did you just call me ma’am?”

He blushed so hard and fast, her own cheeks hurt. “Sorry, ah, Cee Cee.” Without meeting her eyes, he jumped on the bike and ignited the engine, swiveling the machine around and taking off.

“You’re supposed to be a badass,” she yelled after him, happy she’d only given him her nickname. Imagine if he knew her entire name.

The door to thirteen opened, and Jay glanced out. “You’re screaming.”

She pinned the young vamp with a hard stare.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Well, you are.”

For Pete’s sake. She sighed and stepped over cracked concrete, careful not to scratch her boots. “You’re supposed to be a vigilante band of vampires too tough to align yourselves with the Realm,” she muttered, sweeping by the kid, who had to be around nineteen years old. “Which was a mistake.”

“I know.”

After the war, which had basically just ended a year ago, most vampires in the world had made peace with the Realm, which was a coalition of vamps, shifters, and witches headed by the Kayrs family. Her current followers had thought themselves too tough to align themselves with the Realm until a rogue band of shifters almost ate them for dinner. Of course, it was her good fortune to need a band of Merry Men right at that time.

Her nose twitched as she entered the stagnant hotel room. A dingy flowered bedspread sprawled over what appeared to be a lumpy mattress, and the orange shag carpet had turned to a dirty rust. Thank God she didn’t have a blacklight with her, because she truly didn’t want to see beneath the surface to the germs and bodily contaminants.

Two other vampires, both young and blond, fiddled with connecting a brand-new laptop to an ancient television set. “Let’s see the recording of the victims,” she ordered.

Jay shut the door behind her, smelling like French fries and pizza. “Our deal stands?”

She barely kept from rolling her eyes. “Yes. You helped me with the mission, and now I’ll make sure the king lets you into the Realm.” By all that was holy. If the kids just showed up at King Dage Kayrs’s house, he’d feed them dinner and provide lodging for them, making sure they were trained. Hell, knowing Dage, he’d adopt the young warriors into his own vampire family. They didn’t need her introduction.

Good thing they didn’t know that. They’d been invaluable in scoping out Titans of Fire, the Dunnes, and the Apollo drug. After she sent them to Dage, she should probably let him know some of the outliers didn’t realize he welcomed all vampires into the fold.

Something to worry about another day, and only if she survived double-crossing Daire Dunne, which seemed to be a bit impossible after meeting the guy. It was too bad the only kiss she’d had in eons had come from a witch who no doubt was about to put a bounty on her head and then collect it himself.

It wasn’t like she could blame him, because man, had she worked him. Who would’ve thought, her biggest curse and greatest regret would be an advantage in subterfuge? She might be damaged, and she might be weak, but this time, she was going to win. Finally.

It was odd how life worked out.

Hers was no doubt reaching its expiration date, but she had one job to do before she could rest, and Daire Dunne or no, she was going to do it.

The old television sprang to life, and a grainy video took shape of a couple of twenty-year-old girls dressed in shimmering tops and high heels hanging out in the private lounge area of Tod’s Bar in lower Seattle. They smiled and flirted with men in suits, and the shortest girl finally drew slim vials of bright orange liquid from her knock-off purse. Apollo. The newest drug on the market.

They drank the entire vials.

Jay glanced over his shoulder. “This gets bad, Cee Cee. Sure you want to watch?”

If the kid had any idea what she’d seen through the years, he’d feel like an idiot asking the question. Yet she appreciated his concern, even as her stomach rolled. “Yes,” she murmured, her gaze remaining on the screen.

The girls continued to party, one even making out with a much older man in a corner booth. An hour passed and the room began to clear out. Soon, the girls began to wobble on their heels while returning to the bar.

For water, probably. At that point with Apollo, their spit would be drying up.

Sparks crackled on the shorter girl’s arm. Then waves of fire, blue and orange.

Her friend gasped and stumbled back, only to shoot plasma, oddly purple, from her fingertips.

A bouncer quickly reached the girls, but it was too late. Fire cascaded around them, on them, even inside them. Soon they both dropped to the ground, scorching the carpet around them.

The bouncer, a huge bald man with multiple earrings in each ear, shouted orders and sent the few remaining patrons scrambling for the door.

He didn’t reach for the phone.

The taller girl went into convulsions, and fire roared from her fingertips to scald the far wall. Then she went silent and still, her eyes open in death. Colorful striations marred the whites of her eyes.

The other girl gasped, smoke streaming from her mouth, and tried to crawl toward her friend. She almost made it before collapsing in death, a trickle of flame burning out the side of her mouth.