My lungs constrict, fear stretching its sharp claws in my chest. I push away instinctively, and she closes a hand over my wrist, her grip enough to bring me to a trembling standstill. I refuse to believe my eyes. I won’t. “No…”

“Don’t lose your shit, Auggie,” Daphne says with an amused look. “You should know by now that I’m not going to hurt you.”

Riveted in place, I just stare at her, aware of nothing but the pressure of her confident grip—of that telltale whispering sensation that never went away when Jude departed. Her features are off somehow, her cheeks a little sharper and her hair a darker shade of blond, but it’s unmistakably Daphne Banks. And she is unmistakably a vampire.

“What did he d-do to you?” I barely get the question out, my insides rioting, all my fluids wanting out by their most convenient possible exits.

“You mean Rasputin?” Daphne gives a derisive snort, rolling her eyes. “Please. He got lucky because I was pulling my punches. If you’d run when I told you to”—she gives me a reproachful look—“we wouldn’t even be sitting here right now. His pathetic, three-card-monte ass would be a pile of bones.”

“You’re a vampire,” I whisper.

“Okay, Auggie, I’m really sorry to have to do this, but I need you to calm down so you can hear me out.” Daphne looks me in the eye, gold light shimmering across her irises—and just like that, she’s in my head.

It’s as familiar as her scent, the delicate way she plucks at my thoughts, a harpist searching for the sweetest notes; and a bottleneck forms where I fight against the bliss she wants to let into my body. This is what I did to the crowd last night—this is what Jude said he could have withstood if he’d wanted to. And as the pressure builds, a tranquil happiness spreading wide and waiting to envelop me, I understand why Jude gave in to it.

When I stop fighting, the tension floods out of me in an instant. Even as my heart rate slows, my body relaxing with a rush of dopamine, I know this is all false. I’m being manipulated, but I don’t care, because for the first time all day I’m finally not drowning in terrified misery. Taking a breath, Daphne exclaims, “Wow! That was some impressive resistance, mister. Pretty soon, I bet tricks like that won’t work on you at all.”