“I don’t know!” she said, her eyes black, not in fear, not in hunger, but in heartache. “It didn’t work out between me and Glenn and Daryl, okay? We tried, and it all fell apart. Bad.”

I slumped. This was where her turmoil was coming from. “Your needs are not wrong—”

“Then why couldn’t I make it work, Rachel?” she shouted, and I drew back. “Why did they have to move halfway across a continent to get away from me?”

Throat tight, I crossed the room to her. “Because you need someone who needs you, and I don’t anymore,” I whispered. “Ivy, I’m sorry.”

Her shoulder under my hand trembled, and she backed out of my reach. “There’s no reason to be,” she said softly, hair falling to hide her face. “I have to do this. I like Nina. She’s alive, smart, always moving but never toward anything that doesn’t have meaning. The way she loves life reminds me of you, and she is good at making me do things that I’m afraid to do. But what Felix is doing to her . . . It draws me to her as much as it disgusts me. She’s so much like a master, but innocent.”

Eyes bright with unshed tears, she looked at the ceiling. “I left for a week, and I came back to find he’s in her thoughts almost every waking moment the sun is up, and half the time at night, filling her with power and desire as he sucks in the memory of the sun and love. He won’t leave her alone. I don’t think he can anymore.” Again she looked at her fingers among her mail, shifting them aimlessly. “The man is using her like a drug. He’s not tapping her for blood anymore, which might mean she’s become an extension of himself in his mind. Nina is balanced on a fine edge of control.”

“And you like it.”

Head down, she nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She felt better for having told me. I could tell. Or maybe it was because I was asking about what she could do, plan . . . fix. “She’s as dependent upon him for control as he is on her for stimulation at this point. He can die twice for all I care, but I don’t want her to pay for his mistake. The only chance Nina has to survive is to take control and tell him no for as long as she can. Even if it puts her in more danger.”

And it would. I could tell. This wasn’t good.