My heart clenched then. I missed my father … even my mother, although she hadn’t been in my life for long, so it wasn’t that strange to not have her around. But Jonathon, well, we were a team, and I was missing the heck out of him. I knew he would be worried about Mischa and me too. I hoped Louis was keeping him updated.

Louis. That damn sorcerer.

He was moving us around like chess pieces and it pissed me right off that half the board was hidden. It meant I had no idea when I was about to become a pawn.

I was no one’s pawn.

It was time to start demanding answers. “Is Louis coming here?”

Quale looked uncomfortable, shifting on the spot from one foot to the other. “I’m actually unable to contact him right now. We spoke yesterday, but since your arrival, no response.”

That better mean he was currently twenty thousand feet in the air flying himself and my parents to Romania. I knew he could step through one of his portal things, but I wasn’t sure he had enough power to move three supernaturals this sort of distance. He’d most probably be on a plane.

“I’m sure he is on his way here,” Quale said, following my train of thought. “It will be very strange to meet him after all these years of simply being pen pals of a sort.”

My mind flashed to the tall, powerful presence of the violet-eyed sorcerer. He was nothing like the semi-timid Quale. I wondered why the mystics had inferred that Quale was a badass who listened to no one. Heck no! He was more like a nerdy airhead who wandered off and got lost a lot. Either that or he was hiding his true self from us, and doing a damn good job at it.

My eye caught on Maximus. I sidled closer to the vampire. “You need to feed.” His fangs were partially extended. Normally, I couldn’t see them unless he wanted me to.

He brushed aside my concern. “It’s fine. I’ll find out soon enough what the vamps do for blood here.”

I swung around, my gaze hard on Quale. “Where is your feeding zone?”

The fey shifted toward the massive vampire. “We don’t have blood donors here, you will need to find a willing partner, or we have bottled available in the Redcell Restaurant.”

Maximus’ lips curled in a sneer. He hated the taste of old blood.

“I volunteer.”

My eyes flicked to the left. It was Cardia again, and I could see by the way she was eye-effing the heck out of Maximus that she was hoping to get plenty out of this offer. Two vampires feeding from each other probably seemed like an endless cycle of stupid, but as long as one of them, at some point, also fed from other supes, they could sustain each other.