When hell freezes over, Barrons.

Same bloody page, Ms. Lane. Same bloody—

I turned my gaze away in the middle of his sentence, the ocular equivalent of flipping him the bird.

Ryodan was watching us, hard.

“Butt out,” I warned. “This is between him and me. All you need to do is keep my parents safe and—”

“Little hard to do when you’re such a fucking loose cannon.”

The door burst open, and Lor and two others stalked in. Tension rolled off them, so thick it seemed to suck the oxygen right out of the room.

Fade followed behind them, carrying a pile of sheets and a roll of duct tape.

“You’re never going to believe what just walked into the club,” Lor told Ryodan. “Tell me to change. Say the word.”

My eyes narrowed. Did Lor need Ryodan’s permission? Or was it a courtesy in his club?

“The Sinsar Dubh, right?” Ryodan gave Barrons a pointed look. “Because it skimmed Mac’s mind and now it knows where to find us.”

“You are so frigging paranoid, Ryodan. Why would it even want to find you?” I said.

“Maybe,” one of the other men said, “we’d make a damned good ride for it, and we don’t like being used.”

“Have you taught her nothing of strategy?” Ryodan fired at Barrons.

“I haven’t had all that much time,” Barrons said.

“A Seelie. A fucking prince,” Lor said. “He’s got a couple hundred more Seelie from a dozen different castes waiting outside. Threatening war. Demanding you shut the place down, stop feeding the Unseelie.”

I gasped. “V’lane?”

“You told him to come!” Ryodan accused.

“She knows him?” Lor exploded.

“It’s her other boyfriend,” Ryodan said.

“Besides Darroc?” one of the other men demanded.

Lor glared at Barrons. “When are you going to wise up and shut this bitch down for good?”

The testosterone level was rising to a dangerous high. I suddenly worried they might all transform into beasts. I’d be stuck in the middle of a pack of snarling monsters with talons and fangs and horns, and I didn’t think for one minute Barrons’ brand would protect me from the other five. I wasn’t even sure it would work on him.

“You think it’s the Seelie you need to be worrying about?” said Fade.

“What the fuck do you think we should be worrying about?” Barrons said impatiently.

Fade swung his gun up and pumped a half dozen rounds into Barrons before anyone even managed to move. “Me.”

The only reason it worked was because Fade caught him off guard. Barrons can move so fast that shooting him isn’t the easiest way to kill him.

But he didn’t expect Fade to shoot him, and Fade is as fast as Barrons.

I don’t know what Barrons and the others are, but until someone tells me otherwise, I’m going to assume they’re all the same. They have heightened senses: smell, vision, and hearing. Barrons has the strength of ten men, and his bones are extremely resilient. I imagine they have to be, so he can transform the way he does. I’ve watched Barrons drop thirty feet and land on his feet, as light as a cat.

Fade surprised them all. He managed to gun down Ryodan, too, before the others attacked him and took his gun away.

Fade stumbled back against the wall, and I thought how strange it was that he’d lost his weapon but was still hanging on to the sheets.

“What the fuck, Fade?” Lor snarled. “Forget your meds again?”

Fade looked at me. “Your parents are next,” he purred. “I will destroy everything you love, MacKayla.”

I sucked in a horrified breath. Ryodan wasn’t paranoid. He’d been right. The Sinsar Dubh had skimmed me, lifted information about them from my mind, and acted on it swiftly.

It was right here—in the room with me!

It had learned about Chester’s and had come to take a look around, see what it might see.

I’d been out of the Silvers for three days—and this was the third day in a row it had found me!

Was it really my fault that it had gone to the abbey because it hadn’t been able to find me in Dublin? Was I indirectly responsible for all the sidhe-seers who’d died that night? How long had it been here, moving from person to person, working its way closer to me all the while?

Long enough to have discovered my parents—

“It’s in the sheets,” I cried. “Get the sheets!” I regretted the words the instant I said them. Whoever touched it would also be possessed, and the other men still had guns. “No, don’t touch the sheets!” I screamed.

Fade flashed into motion and was gone.

The others followed, leaving me alone.

I dashed for the door, but it slid shut before I could get there, and I had no clue how to open it. I pressed my palm frantically to half a dozen places, with no success.

I whirled, staring into the other room. If the Sinsar Dubh got to my parents … if Fade carried it in there … if it killed them …

I couldn’t bear to think about it.

My parents were standing up, looking at me, but I knew they couldn’t see me. They were merely staring in the direction from which the gunfire had come.

The door hissed open and closed behind me.

“I have to get you out of here,” Lor growled.

I spun around, spear in my fist. “How do I know you’re not the Book?”

“Look at me. Where could I hide it?”

His pants and shirt clung to his muscular body like a second skin. I checked his shoes. Boots. “Take them off.”

He kicked them off. “Now you. Lose the coat.”

I slipped out of it.

“Skirt, too.”

“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped. “My parents—”

“Fade left the club. They’re safe for now.”

“That’s not good enough!”

“We’ll take precautions. We’re on guard now. Someone has to carry it in. No one will enter the upper levels of the club or your parents’ cell with clothes on.”

My brows shot up. That was going to be a real shocker for my mom.

“I said lose the skirt.”

“How could Fade have passed it to me?”

“Minuscule possibility. I take no chances.”

Sighing, I unzipped and dropped it. My sweater was snug. I had on a black thong. My boots clung to the shape of my legs. No place to hide a book. “Happy?”

“Hardly.”

As I zipped my skirt back up, I took a last longing glance at my parents and turned away. My gaze hitched as it passed over Barrons’ crumpled body, and I flinched violently.

Here I was with Barrons dead. Again.

I knew he wasn’t really dead, or at least he wouldn’t be for long, but my grief was too fresh and my emotions too complicated.

“How long until he—” I broke off, horrified to hear the catch of a sob in my voice.

“Why do you give a fuck?”

“I don’t, I mean, I just—shit!” I turned and beat at the wall with my fists. I didn’t care that my parents could hear the dull thud or that the wall shuddered beneath my blows. I didn’t care what Lor thought of me. I hated Barrons being dead. Hated it. Beyond reason. Beyond my understanding.

I punched until Lor caught my bloody fists and pulled me away.

“How long?” I demanded. “I want to know! Answer me or else!”

He grinned faintly. “What, you gonna feed me bloody runes?”

I scowled. “Do you guys tell each other everything?”

“Not everything. Pri-ya sounded pretty fucking fascinating to me. Never did get all the details.”

“How long? Answer me.” I used Voice to force him.

“Not sure this time. But it won’t be as long as last time. And if you ever try to Voice me again, woman, I’ll kill your parents myself.”

“What must a prince do to get a Valentine’s Day kiss, MacKayla?”

The words floated out of the darkness, Eros skittering across my skin, pricking me with a hundred tiny little Cupid bows. Even with Pri-ya-induced immunity, I still thrill to the musical, sensual sound of V’lane’s voice. I no longer begin stripping when he appears, but deep down inside me there’s a summer girl who never stops wanting to, especially when he’s being playful, seductive.