She walked over to the drinks table and poured out Wulver Whisky, given to her by Kenrick Wulver at her wedding. It was a one of a kind tipple, and Byron had promised herself to ration it. She didn’t have that many cases, and rationing was not going well so far.

Byron took a sip and closed her eyes to appreciate the flavour. “Hmm.” She picked up the more than half empty bottle. Maybe Kenrick could be persuaded to keep this whisky on continuous order for her. Byron would pay anything for this blend.

The door to the drawing room opened, and Amelia led Daisy into the room.

“Ah, good afternoon, Daisy.”

“Hi.”

“Sit down here, Daisy,” Amelia said. “Tea won’t be long.”

“How are you, Daisy?” Byron asked as she sat down next to Amelia.

“Okay, thanks.”

Daisy usually had a cheeky or punchy reply, but not today. She sounded down, worried, and that made Byron worried.

Amelia put her hand on Byron’s knee then said, “What did you want to talk about?”

Instead of answering, Daisy took off the scarf around her neck. Amelia gasped, and Byron felt like gasping herself when she saw that the vampire bite Victorija had given Daisy at The Sanctuary had not healed. The full implications hit Byron like a ton of bricks.

Amelia got up quickly and went to Daisy. She sat down next to her and touched the wound on Daisy’s neck.

“Tell me this is not—”

“Victorija’s bite? Yeah, it is,” Daisy said.

Amelia looked back to Byron quickly before saying, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I didn’t believe it at first, and then I was too scared to face it. I told Katie, and she told me I should tell you, but I begged her for time to get my head around it.”

Amelia couldn’t believe this was true. Daisy was bonded by blood and fate to Victorija Dred just like she was to Byron.

She turned to Byron. “Byron…”

Byron got up and said, “You should have told us straight away, Daisy. You could have been captured by Victorija by now. You probably would have been if she wasn’t missing in action.”

“Byron, I have a lot of experience chasing the paranormal and occult. I won’t accept there isn’t a way to stop this. But I tried to research and find something that could break this, and I found nothing.”

“Do you think she knows?” Amelia asked.

Byron let out a breath. “She’s got to be having some serious problems by now. It explains why Victorija has been quiet, but her clan is attacking at will and not being careful. I’m now sure someone else is giving the orders at the moment.”