Alexis looked over to the window, but she didn’t see anything amiss. She reached out her hand, asking Katie to take it. Katie looked at her hand, grasped it, and as she did let out a breath. Katie’s hand was still feeling cold.

“Everything’s not right,” Katie said.

Alexis remembered this afternoon when Katie said she was fine, she’d felt Katie was hiding something. But she had to get her to relax before she could talk properly.

She lifted the mug of tea and put it into Katie’s hand. “I’ve got your cup of tea. I know you don’t go to bed without it.”

Katie felt the warmth of the mug enter her hand and travel up her arm. It along with Alexis’s presence made her taut muscles relax, and she slid back down the bed. She brought the hot tea to her lips and the warmth seeped into her bones, brought her back to the present.

“What happened, Katie?”

Katie rubbed her forehead. “I was dreaming, I think. I thought I could see Josie at the window, and then I woke up and Tyler was standing over me. I thought it was Josie.”

“Listen, Josie can’t get in here. I have a guard on your room door, and I’ll put two guards on patrol under your window. She won’t get near.”

“Thank you, and thank you for the tea. How did you know I have it every night?”

“I noticed,” Alexis said simply.

Katie was taken aback. “I didn’t think you noticed anything about me.”

“I notice everything.”

Katie’s thoughts and emotions were so mixed up, she didn’t know what to think about that answer. She would think about it more deeply another time.

“When you said everything’s not right, what did you mean?” Alexis asked.

How could she explain how she had been feeling since she woke up after the attack? She hadn’t articulated it to anyone. Could she now? How could you explain that you felt like you had lost a part of yourself?

“I don’t know how to explain—I haven’t told anyone this.”

Alexis gave her a lopsided smile. “We may not have always been the best of friends, but I think you’ve always known that you could trust me.”

That was very true. Despite butting heads on occasion, Katie had looked to Alexis since she was a little girl as the protector in the clan, and one who was steadfastly loyal to all in the Debrek family, be they vampire or human.

“I do trust you. It’s hard to put into words. I feel disconnected, out of sync.”

“In what way?” Alexis asked.

Katie put her cup down on the bedside cabinet and held up her hand. “When I look at my hand, it doesn’t seem like my own, like I’m not fully in my body, like I’m in a movie watching myself from above.”

“It’s probably a symptom of being pulled back from the brink—”

“Of death? That’s what worries me. I feel like I lost a part of myself to death, and I’m frightened that I’ll never get it back.”