“What are you doing here?” demanded Eddie.

“Saving your ass,” said Angeline. “I knew there was something going on.”

“I’m not talking to you,” he snapped. He threw down the stake and strode past her, toward the entrance of the alley. I followed with my eyes and saw a tall, slim figure standing there, her hair glowing in the light of an overhead lamp. Jill. I remembered the water on the ground turning to mist, and it all made sense.

“You have no right being here!” exclaimed Eddie, coming to a halt in front of her. It was one of the few times I’d ever seen him angry. I’d certainly never seen him angry at her. He cast a glare back at Angeline before returning to Jill. “They shouldn’t have brought you.”

“I have every right to be here,” she retorted. “When Angeline finally convinced us, I knew we had to help. And we did.”

Eddie was undaunted. “I don’t care what they  do. If they want to endanger their lives, so be it. But a princess of her people has no business putting herself in danger.”

“A princess of her people has no business sitting off to the side while said people are in danger,” Jill returned.

“Do you have any idea what could have happened if–”

“Oh, shut up,” she said, reaching for him. He flinched in surprise, but once she started kissing him, the tension left his body. I shook my head and looked away.

“Oh, man,” I said to no one in particular. “This night is just full of surprises.”

With the immediate danger gone, I was able to examine Neil more closely. He was weak and groggy from the blood loss and Strigoi endorphins, but he’d survive. “Hey,” I said, gently touching his face. He looked up at me in a daze, not seeming to know me. “You did it. You proved that the tattoo worked. We have a way to keep Strigoi from drinking from us.” Even if Olive’s blood couldn’t technically stop turning, it seemed pretty unlikely a Strigoi could stomach draining anyone in order to complete the process.

Neil gave me an addled smile and closed his eyes. “We need to get him fluids,” said Eddie. Jill was standing a couple feet from him now, but he had a dazed, starstruck quality to him. “Back to the car.”

As he and Trey helped Neil up, I took care of the Strigoi body, destroying it with Alchemist chemicals. As I watched that gruesome face dissolve into smoke, I had a surreal moment of clarity. I remembered those frantic seconds when I’d thought all I loved and knew, all that was Sydney Sage, would be lost from this world. My battered friends and I had just had a brush with death, dancing with this evil. We’d destroyed it, but it was terrifying how touch and go it all had been. At any moment, the Strigoi could have gained the advantage and killed one or all of us. Life and death were inextricably bound together, and we wavered between them. But we’d triumphed over death tonight. We were alive, and the world was beautiful. Life was beautiful, and I refused to waste mine.

As we returned to the cars, Angeline and Trey bragged how they’d been lying in wait to follow us. “I knew,” she said. She was holding Trey’s hand, which I didn’t have the mental energy to ponder right now. “I knew something was going down tonight.”

“You did good,” I told her. “Really good.” The widening of her eyes told me she’d been expecting a lecture. Maybe she deserved one, but I just didn’t feel it. We treated her like a joke, but she was a fighter against evil, every bit as tough as Eddie and Neil. Glancing over at Trey, who was trying to keep his sword obscured under a coat, I realized he was one of us too. Even Jill was.

“I actually didn’t believe it,” Jill said with a small smile. “When Angeline told me she was taking off, I went to your room to let you know. Zoe said you were out for the night, and that’s when I realized something might actually be happening, so I went and caught up.”

Angeline gaped. “You were going to tell on me?”

Jill shrugged. “It all worked out.”

“This time,” I said. I wasn’t up for any lectures, but one would be needed. Eddie was right. It was fine for the rest of us to do foolhardy things, but our sole purpose for being here in the first place was to protect Jill. If that Strigoi had broken loose . . .

At my car, we patched Neil’s wound and plied him with water and orange juice. He gradually shook off the endorphins and grinned as the impact of what we’d accomplished hit him. I don’t think he’d yet realized Jill was along, or he wouldn’t have been so giddy. “It really worked. We did it.” He gave a soft laugh, and I tried to remember if I’d ever heard him do it before. “We’re going to get yelled at when we report this.”

Eddie smiled back, and I saw genuine friendship between them. “I doubt it’ll last for long when they get the results.”

“What’s the plan now?” asked Trey. “We’re out way after curfew.”

“Did you sign out?” asked Eddie. They shook their heads. “Neither did we. The plan was to stay out all night and then slink back tomorrow when things are busy so that they hopefully won’t notice anything. None of our roommates is going to tell on us.”

“We could go to Clarence’s or Adrian’s,” said Angeline.

“I’m hungry,” muttered Neil.

“I know a great twenty‑four‑hour place,” said Trey. “We’ll have a victory meal of fried food.”

We made plans and headed back to Palm Springs in our respective cars. As soon as I was on the road with Eddie and Jill, I told them, “I need to see Adrian. Drop me off and take my car. He’ll give me a ride back.”

Eddie looked totally surprised by that. “Why do you need to see him?”

“I just do.” I didn’t feel like attempting an excuse, and Eddie wasn’t the type to badger me. The most I got was a curious look when we reached the apartment. His curiosity turned to panic when he realized I’d be leaving him alone with Jill.

“Good luck,” I said as I got out, not entirely sure who needed it the most. “Call me if anything goes wrong with Neil.” He’d ridden back with Trey and Angeline, and I didn’t expect him to have any issues. He’d been on his own two feet when we parted, and dhampirs were fast healers.

Eddie pulled away, and I strode up to Adrian’s building, my heart racing. I still hadn’t shaken that earlier exhilaration from having been so close to having my life snatched away.

I let myself into the apartment, which was dark and quiet. It was still amazing to me how well he slept. I crept to his bedroom and found him lying there in just boxers, the covers tangled up and one arm thrown over his head. A streetlight outside shone faintly on his face, illuminating a rare moment of peace. He was so breathtakingly gorgeous that I could almost buy into his earlier comments about us living in a dream.

But this was real. It was real, and we were alive. We were alive, and I desperately needed to be reminded of that. Without further hesitation, I stripped off my clothes and slid into bed with him.

CHAPTER 21

ADRIAN

“SYDNEY–”

The word came groggily to my lips as I felt her get into bed. My sleepy brain didn’t have a chance to come up with anything more because my voice was lost as she leaned over and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around her and had the extremely pleasant surprise of finding her naked.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Not that I’m complaining. It’s more of an intellectual curiosity.”

“I did something potentially dangerous,” she said nervously. “No, there’s no ‘potentially’ about it. It was dangerous and actually pretty stupid.”

She then proceeded to tell me an unbelievable story about how she and Eddie had thrust Neil into the path of a Strigoi. It was all I could do not to leap up and rage at her for risking herself like that. A terrible memory flashed through my mind of the time she and I had been trapped by two Strigoi, and one had bitten her. I couldn’t even comprehend a repeat of that.