My breath exploded out from me, and I hesitated. Sweat trickled down Trent’s face where it had beaded. His grip was white knuckled on the vampire under him, pinned to the center counter with a savage force. There was a small crescent shape of red under the vampire’s eye, hardly worth calling a burn. It was more of a pressure mark. It was all show. Everything.

The terror, though, was real.

“Who!” Trent shouted, the vampire moaning under him. “Why!”

Trent pressed the cooled spoon under his other eye, and the vampire screamed again. Lip between my teeth, I darted a glance at the window. They weren’t going to wait for sunrise if they knew we had one of their own.

“My eye!” the vampire howled, struggles growing violent. “You took out my eye!”

His eye was fine, blind under that last spoken charm, but I didn’t like this side of Trent.

“Tell me, or I’ll take out the other!”

Jenks shivered, his wings making a cool spot on my neck. “Tink’s a Disney whore, Rache. Your new boyfriend is kind of scary when he’s pissed.”

“Tell me,” Trent threatened, pressing into him. “Now!”

“It’s the elves!” the vampire screamed. “The elves.”

My lips parted, and I met Trent’s suddenly ashen gaze as he let up.

“Some elf called Landon. He said you’re lying,” the vampire gushed. “He said you know how to bring back all the undead souls and you lied that it would send them into the sun. He said he’d bring all the undead souls back from the ever-after, but we had to kill you first to keep you from reversing his magic. He said you want us to die without our souls! That you’re a demon!”

“He’s the one lying!” I exclaimed, and Jenks darted out. That scream had probably traveled. “Landon wants to wipe out the masters. He’s the one who put them to sleep last July!”

Trent let go and the man dissolved into a sniveling whimper. I could see Trent’s self-disgust, and I brought his hand to my lips, startling him. He hadn’t hurt the man babbling before us. He’d tricked him, tricked him to save our lives.

“You lie,” the would-be assassin said, his fingers feeling his face. “I saw Felix. He has his soul. He doesn’t hunger. He’s whole.” Fear flashed over him, stark and ugly. “I don’t want to lose my soul. You’re a monster! You took my eye!”

Trent frowned. “Landon betrayed you,” he said, making a decisive ending gesture.

The vampire gasped, hunching into himself as the spell broke. Slowly his hands fell and he looked straight at us, wonder in him. “I can see ...”

Expression still holding that awful hardness, Trent turned to Bis. “If he moves, claw his eye out for real.”