“I knew you’d escape,” Nick said, spittle at the corners of his mouth. “You’ve got a foolproof get-out-of-jail-free card. Rachel, you took a demon’s name? Why?”

My breath caught at the accusation in his rasping voice, and my anger dulled to shame. I had a demon’s name. He’d used it twice to summon me. “Let him go.”

Jenks spun in the air to me. “Rache …”

“Let him go!” I exclaimed, and Ivy took her fingers from around Nick’s throat. The man fell into a tangle against the fridge, hand over his neck and coughing. Head down, he mumbled to Jax, hovering by his face, his words indistinct. The imprint of Ivy’s fingers showed red and clear. Ivy turned away, shaking as she worked to bring herself down. Great. This was exactly what I needed. A jacked-up, hungry vampire and a traitorous ex-boyfriend in the same room.

Jenks wasn’t happy, and with an earsplitting whistle, he chased his family out—all but a defiant Jax and a heartbroken Matalina, now perched on the fridge. Her face was riven with tears. Jax’s homecoming had turned ugly.

Moving with that vampiric smoothness that gave me the willies, Ivy yanked my charm cupboard open and plucked an invoked amulet from my cache. Her eyes were still dangerously black as she strode across the kitchen and extended it. My shoulders eased as the smooth disk of redwood met my fingers. It was one of my own, and the relief from the pain was a blessing.

I’d been an earth witch long before I started dabbling in ley-line magic, and though the amulet didn’t completely block the pain, it helped. Dropping the cord around my neck, I snugged the disk under the orange jumpsuit where it could touch my skin. A puff of nasty air came up and I winced. Jenks wasn’t kidding. I needed a shower. “Thanks,” I said, and Ivy nodded, still trying to gain control over her instincts. Me being stinky probably helped.

“I had to give them something,” Nick said loudly as he pulled himself off the floor, his long pianist’s—no, thief’s—hands on his throat and his voice rough. “I’m sorry for summoning you to San Francisco, and I left so they wouldn’t force me to do it again. I risked airport security to get here in time to summon you home, if that means anything to you.”

“Yeah? You kept their money, I bet,” I said bitingly, and his eyes narrowed.

“I have to eat.” Shame, perhaps, made his voice harsh, but I doubted it. “Besides, I didn’t think it would be you who showed up that first time. I thought it would be Al and that he would tear them and me apart. End everything.”

His words hit me hard, and I looked away, sinking back down into my chair.

“You took Al’s name? Rachel, why?” he asked, his voice holding an unexpected hurt. “I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were the good one.”

I couldn’t look up, unable to speak. I was the good one. Wasn’t I?