There was that same worried wrinkle above his eyes. I’d seen it before when he’d talked to me about Nick, and my pulse quickened. He wanted me to say no. “Do you?” he asked earnestly. “Don’t mistake my apparent simple nature for stupidity. Vampires have existed nearly as long as we have. We aren’t immune to their charms. And Ivy is charming.” His jaw tightened, and I flushed. “She’d treat you well until she died, and likely thereafter as well.”

I held Rex close, feeling her warmth. “Ivy and I …,”I started, then mentally backed up. “It’s complicated,” I came out with instead. “But there’s nothing between us but space, now.”

His eyes never left mine as he evaluated my words with what he had seen the past year. “Do you love her?” he insisted. “More than a sister’s love?”

My thoughts went back to the kiss she’d given me. And the moment in the kitchen when we had tried to share something without her losing control and failed. The sensations she pulled from me were forever entwined with the vampire who had tried to bind me to him and blood-rape me. More than a sister’s love. I knew what he was asking, and though I knew the answer was yes, I shook my head, thinking that what I felt meant nothing if I wasn’t going to pursue it.

“I don’t swing that way, Pierce,” I said, voice quavering as a sudden anger took me—anger for my not being smart enough to find a way to be the person I wanted to be as well as the person Ivy needed me to be. “Thanks for the reminder.”

Ticked, I turned to open my charm cupboard, the cat squirming. “I’ve got a burn charm in here somewhere,” I said tightly as I let Rex go. “I probably have a few minutes before my assassins show.”

A wave of sound shook the pots hanging over the counter, and I heard the discordant jangle of a hundred wind chimes.

Or not, I thought, eyes going to the garden window.

“Jenks?” I shouted, darting for the back door.

The bright glow of a pixy pulled me to a skidding stop in the back living room. It was Jax, and his blade was bared, already sporting a red sheen.

“Fairies,” he all but spat, face twisted. “The coven sent fairies. They’re attacking the garden. An entire spawn of them!”

Fairies. The word slid through my mind, chilling me. Matalina and the kids. Damn it, I was going to get everyone killed. I grasped the knob to the back door and pulled. It slipped from my grasp as Pierce pushed it shut, it having only opened inches.

“It’s a lure to draw you out,” he said, gaze fierce as he stood with his hand on the door.