“Leaving.”

“You can’t! You heard Kist. They’re waiting for you!”

“Better to die knowing my enemies then to die sleeping innocently beside them,” I retorted, thinking it was the stupidest thing I’d ever said. It didn’t even make sense.

I jerked to a halt as she slipped in front of me and shut the cupboard. “Get out of my way,” I threatened, my voice low so she wouldn’t hear it shake.

Dismay pinched her eyes and furrowed her brow. She looked utterly human, and it scared the crap out of me. Just when I thought I understood her, she did something like this.

With my charms and finger sticks out of reach, I was helpless. She could throw me across the room and crack my head open on the oven. She could break my legs so I couldn’t run. She could tie me to a chair and bleed me. But what she did was stand before me with a pained, frustrated look on her pale, perfect, oval face. “I can explain,” she said, her voice low.

I fought off the shakes as I met her gaze. “What do you want with me?” I whispered.

“I didn’t lie to you,” she said, not answering my question. “Kist is Piscary’s chosen scion. Most of the time Kist is just Kist, but Piscary can—” She hesitated. I stared at her, every muscle in my body screaming to run. But if I moved, she would move. “Piscary is older than dirt,” she said flatly. “He’s powerful enough to use Kist to go places he can’t anymore.”

“He’s a servant,” I spat. “He’s a freaking lackey for a dead vamp. Does his daylight shopping for him, brings Papa Piscary humans to snack on.”

Ivy winced. The tension was easing from her, and she took a more relaxed stance—still between me and my charms. “It’s a great honor to be asked to be a scion for a vampire like Piscary. And it’s not all one-sided. Because of it, Kist has more power than a living vamp should have. That’s how he was able to bespell you. But Rachel,” she rushed as I made a helpless noise, “I wouldn’t have let him.”

And I should be happy for that? That you don’t want to share? My pulse had slowed, and I sank down into a chair. I didn’t think my knees would support me anymore. I wondered how much of my weakness was from the spent adrenaline and how much was Ivy pumping the air full of soothing pheromones. Damn, damn, damn! I was in way over my head. Especially if Piscary was involved.

Piscary was said to be one of the oldest vampires in Cincinnati. He didn’t cause trouble and kept his few people in line. He worked the system for all it was worth, doing all the paperwork and making sure every take his people made was legal. He was far more than the simple restaurant owner he pretended to be. The I.S. had a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on the master vampire. He was one of the aforementioned people who moved in Cincinnati’s unseen power struggles, but as long as he paid his taxes and kept his liquor license current, there was nothing anyone could—or wanted to—do. But if a vampire looked harmless, it only meant they were smarter than most.