She turned and followed Edge into the kitchen. As they wound their way around an annoyed chef, Cinn was a little more optimistic. “I like Wade. He looks like the kind of man you can depend on.”

Edge shrugged. “Yeah, he’s okay for a demon.”

Chapter Six

Dacian dragged himself up through the layers of nothingness that held him captive each day. Even as the layers thinned and he drew nearer to the surface, he sensed it was still daylight. The force of the sun battered him.

Why was he waking up? He tried to force himself back into the soft cocoon of sleep, but something wouldn’t allow him.

He lay quietly, trying to analyze even as his mind still clung to the safety of the darkness. There. It came again. A light brush against his mind. And then a whisper, so soft he strained to hear it.

“Help. Cold. Box.“ The voice was thin and reedy, weak. And it had a shiver to it. Vince’s voice.

Vince. Cinn. Cinn. In a moment he was fully awake. Had something happened to her? Something must have happened, because she’d never leave the plant unprotected.

Sitting up, he rubbed a hand across his face. Damn, whenever he rose before sunset he felt like someone had slugged him with a baseball bat. Over and over and over.

He was in complete darkness. Ganymede had given him one of the vampire rooms. It was next to the dungeon—handy if he needed to be restrained fast—and had no windows. But he could still feel the sun even if he couldn’t see it.

No help for that now. He had to know what had happened. He turned on the bedside light, picked up the phone, and called Sparkle. “What’s happened to Cinn?”

A few minutes later he put down the phone, grabbed his clothes, and dragged himself into the shower. He didn’t want to waste time on a shower, but he needed the driving water flowing over him to make him functional until the sun set.

Once dressed, he glanced at his watch. Only an hour until dark. He could do this. Bracing himself, he pulled open the door and headed upstairs.

He tracked Cinn down in a corner of the great hall where she was busy arguing with Holgarth as castle employees scurried around them, getting ready for the night’s fantasies.

“I will help you search for your plant, madam, after I interview my last wizard.” Holgarth sniffed his contempt of anyone who could get so upset over something so trivial. “And no, you may not borrow any of the castle employees in the search.”

Cinn was practically vibrating with tension. “You don’t understand. Sparkle, Ganymede, Edge, and Bain have helped me search, but we haven’t found anything. We need more people.”