I woke with a hot, puffy face and dry eyes, which cracked open to see Bryn standing by the bed. I sat up in a panic, the fog of sleep cluttering my mind and speech. “What? Why did you let me fall asleep?”

How could I have fallen asleep at a time like this! I flung my legs over the side of the mattress, cursing my own stupidity. My daughter was out there, needing me, and here I was sleeping like a baby. I was sick, a horrible, horrible mother.

“Charlie.” Bryn stepped in front of me, preventing me from standing. “It’s okay. You’ll do her more good by clearing your head and having had a chance to rest. You were only sleeping for an hour.”

An hour. I rubbed my eyes. It felt like days.

My shoulders slumped, and I knew she was right. There wasn’t anything I could do until Hank and Zara came through, hopefully with a location that fit within Bryn and Rex’s scrying area.

Bryn must’ve sensed the direction of my thoughts. “Hank and Zara are on their way back now.” Then she moved aside and motioned over her shoulder. “This one showed up about twenty minutes ago.”

Filling the open doorway, Carreg gazed down at me, his dark features unmoving and blank. The soft light of the bedside lamp caught a glint in his unfathomable eyes.

A thought raced across my mind, shoving aside any lingering traces of sleep. If I wanted, I could see his aura. And I wanted. My strong, inquisitive nature needed to crack the mystery of this quiet Charbydon noble. So I remembered the same cleansing openness I had discovered in the League’s library and used it to see Carreg’s true self. Auras couldn’t lie.

Mesmerizing midnight blue shot with silver threads. Just like the color of his eyes. It was like staring up at a clear, starry sky on a cold winter’s night. It took my breath away.

“Charlie.” My name came through his lips like the purr of a giant cat. His intensity, an air of strength and power and magnetism, reminded me of those beautiful predators of our world; the wolves and big cats, those that could transfix another by the beauty of their stare and the stillness of their being.

“Carreg,” I greeted him neutrally as Bryn gave me a quick nod before leaving us alone. “A little risky to be here. Aren’t you afraid Mynogan will find out?”

That made him stiffen a fraction. “Mynogan does not inspire fear in me.” He moved to the window and pushed the curtain aside with the back of his hand, glancing out calmly. His suit jacket was gone, and he wore a clean white dress shirt, untucked, with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. The white made his olive skin glow and his hair look like black satin. He turned back to me, tucking both hands into the front pockets of his black slacks, and leaned against the dresser. Such a casual, easy gesture, one that seemed at odds with the powerful being in front of me. “He is, however, a cause for concern.”

I braced both hands on either side of my thighs and gripped the edge of the mattress tightly, remembering the images that filled my head when he’d grabbed my hand at the lab. He’d saved Hank, like he said, but was it a ruse? Something to gain my trust, perhaps? “Do you know where my daughter is?”

“No. I didn’t realize he’d taken her until I arrived here. Your sister told me.” A rueful smile tugged on his mouth. “She also had me sit down and write out every address known to Mynogan and the CPP.”

“That proves nothing.” I stood, preferring to be on even ground with him as I attempted to gather my power and search beneath the beauty of his aura. What I found was a massive roadblock. “What are you hiding?”

A raven black eyebrow lifted. “I am a private person. I have much to hide.” He pushed away from the dresser and took two steps closer. “How are you feeling, Charlie? Any sudden urges for blood?”

What? God, I’d never understand off-worlders. “Only Mynogan’s and those who aid him.”

A silky chuckle escaped him. “I’m going to let you in on a little-known fact, Detective Madigan. After all, you’re now one of us. The noble Houses are cursed. Abaddon must take blood to survive. It stands to reason; the curse also extends to you.”

“Blood,” I repeated bluntly. “Are you trying to tell me Abaddons are vampires?”

“Not in your sense of the word, no. They abhor Elysian blood, and while humans are a step up, most nobles wouldn’t stoop so low unless starved to the brink of death. No, they take it mostly from Charbydons.”

Was this what Mynogan had referred to in the limo? The powers he spoke of. The threat to take my blood there and then if he wanted.

I cocked my head, refusing to be daunted by Carreg’s words. It might be true, but I had no desire whatsoever for anyone’s blood, so he could shove his words up his ass for all I cared. “And you? You said our Houses, so what is your House cursed with?”

“Life,” he joked softly, dipping his head closer so that the warmth of his breath brushed my ear and neck. Shivers danced along my spine as subtle notes of sage and cedar enveloped me. I couldn’t move. “That spark inside every spirit, that light that feeds and energizes, makes a being want to live. A fulfilled spirit, an excited spirit” —he drew in my scent and then lifted his head to pierce me with a challenging gaze—“has enough life force in it to share with those of us unfortunate enough not to have any at all. And, unlike Abaddon, we have no problem with humans.”

Breathe, Charlie.

Whatever the hell he was doing to me, he needed to stop. Now.

Refusing to step back, I ducked around him, dragging in a deep breath of air and composing myself before facing him again. Damned if I’d be drawn into his innuendo and talk of blood and excited spirits. I’d kill myself before taking another’s blood to feed some curse.

“Mynogan has defied the agreement made between my House and his,” Carreg said easily, as though he hadn’t just come on to me. “For the first time in ages, we stopped bickering and made a pact to work together to save Charbydon. What he has planned now will leave our world to ruin and cause greater destruction here in yours.”

“And why do you care?”

“Because I know our moon can be saved. Charbydon is my home. It has been home to my family for untold millennia. To give up our history, to let the blackness consume all of it without trying is the highest grievance there is.” He took another step closer, staring down at me with hard, penetrating eyes. “Would you let your world go? Walk away from it without trying? Would you take another that is not yours to take?”

“Of course not.” Perhaps we weren’t so different after all.

“You are right to be wary of me, Detective.” His voice dropped an octave to an intimate tone usually reserved for conspirators or lovers. My mouth went bone dry. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I forced myself to keep his gaze and not back down. “But in this, your war against Mynogan, I am on your side. I take great risk in aiding you. He must believe I’m with him in his endeavor. Make no mistake. I’m not doing it for you. I help you to help myself, nothing more.”

I cocked my head. “We’ll see.” He wanted me to trust him, yet he was warning me not to misinterpret his motives. Fine, then I’d warn him right back. “Turn against me and it’ll be the last thing you do in this world or the next.” I gave him a pointed stare and then walked away, just catching the hint of approval in his expression before I opened the door and stepped into the cool air of the living room.

Being close to Carreg was like standing in front of my Uncle Walter’s pizza oven during Friday night rush. I headed for the fridge for cold water.

A few seconds later, Carreg entered the living room.

“How long until Hank and Zara get back?” I asked Bryn, sliding onto an empty counter stool as she set down a mug of coffee for Aaron at the kitchen table. She offered me one, but I shook my head, lifting the water.