Jezza looked worried, but she was nodding too.

Ruby was just staring at her.

“Ruby?” Barb prompted.

“Could mean the death of us, our entire coven wiped out, all of this in less than two weeks,” Ruby replied.

“Could also mean, we don’t do what we can, we don’t help, next month our coven is hiding our magic, serving tea to an immortal, and doing that crap until the day we die,” Barb replied.

“See your point,” Ruby muttered.

“So, you’re in?” Barb pressed.

Ruby hesitated.

Then she nodded.

“Good,” Barb said and turned to the vials filled with fizzing pink liquid that were on the dresser in her bedroom. She passed them around, saying, “I’ll get Aurora’s to her.” Her eyes slid through Flo and Jezza. “You’ll take care of the wolves and the brothers Jin?”

At their nods, she gave them more vials.

When she gave Ruby hers, she asked, “You’ll speak to Teona?”

“Yup,” Ruby answered.

Barb gave her a second vial.

In their thoughts, preparing for what was to come, they all went to the blessed instruments sitting on Barb’s bed, chose one, and moved toward the door.

“See you in your dreams,” Barb called to their departing backs.

Ruby, the last one out, caught her gaze.

“See you in your dreams, my beloved sister,” she whispered.

Then she closed the door.

The minute she did, Barb went to the bed, made her choice and slipped the blade under her pillow. She would sleep with her hand around the handle.

Then she did what she very much as a mother did not want to do but had to.

She left her room to find her daughter.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Pray with Me

Leah

Lucien moved his lips and tongue at my neck where I knew the wounds he’d given me but moments before were gone.

He lay atop me, one arm curved around my back, the fingers of his other hand laced in mine and pressed to the bed at our sides.

He was still buried deep inside me, unmoving, keeping us connected, giving me much of his weight, his warmth. His fingers tangled in mine, holding so fast that the rings he’d given me as a symbol of everything that was us dug into the base of my fingers.

He’d also marked me so our hearts were beating as one.

Beauty.

As for me, with the one arm I had free and both my legs, I held him tight to me.

“We’re going to be okay,” I whispered in his ear.

He lifted his head to look down at me.

He was troubled.

I hated to see his face that way. In fact, I wasn’t certain, even with all that had happened, that I’d ever actually seen his face that way.

The Mighty Vampire Lucien, who was the strongest, fastest, and smartest of his kind, didn’t get troubled.