I looked down, finally coming to the party, albeit late. Scrawled in Dahlia's hand was the heading "Vitality Elixir," and, after a lengthy list of ingredients and incantations, "used on that Movement guy. Didn't work."

"What the hell could that mean?" I guessed "that Movement guy" could have been Max, but "Vitality"?

Nathan took the book, his eyes moving so fast as he scanned the words I wasn't sure he could possibly be processing the information. "This is… What the hell was she trying to do?"

He strode to the living room and grabbed a notebook. On a page he drew three columns. "There are so many different components… I don't know them all. I'll divide up the ingredients list by three. I'm going to have to contact one of my customers versed in Roman magic and curses for the incantations."

"Don't bother," Cyrus said, finding his voice. "Look."

Nathan glanced up from his notebook and I leaned over the spell book. In the margin, in cramped, tiny handwriting, Dahlia had added: "For forging the 'sword' (born vampire). Used on Cyrus. No effect. Used on blond vampire. No effect. Needs work."

"What is it?" Nathan asked, coming to stand in the doorway. Nausea gripped my stomach as I continued to read.

"Perhaps it will work in cross-species breeding, human-to-vampire or vampire-to- werewolf."

Cyrus's voice was hoarse. "She used this on me?"

Nathan frowned at the writing, scrubbing a hand over his face. "There are definite fertility elements to the spell. It looks like she was trying to make exactly what it says, a born vampire."

"She used it on Cyrus. The other vampire… I bet that was Max." My thoughts spun faster and faster, rushing to a horrible conclusion I knew I didn't want to reach.

Nathan shook his head, forehead still creased in concentration. "It says here it didn't work. But… oh."

Bile rose in my throat. "It didn't work because she was a vampire, too. But she gave it to Max."

Max. Bella. Her unexplained fatigue and carsickness.

But it wasn't carsickness at all.

Bella was pregnant.

Chapter Sixteen
Vitality

They arrived in Danvers the night before the full moon.

"You're not going to go all, you know—" he gave a mocking, horror movie version of a wolf's howl "—are you?"

"Max, imagine if I behaved that way toward your customs and traditions," Bella admonished, grabbing her bag from the car.

"You do! You hate vampires." He slammed the trunk closed and followed her inside. The place was pretty standard—two beds, a television with bolted-down remote, a sink outside the bathroom for no reason that made sense. But if anything could be said for the East Coast, at least their cheap roadside motels were clean.

Bella began unpacking. He'd only ever seen her remove clean underwear and a toothbrush from her bag, but apparently it held all manner of interesting things. Like a studded collar and wire cable leash.