And I'd seen how they treated Alex when he tapped into his dark side. How even Aunt Judy had a touch of fear in her blue eyes when he argued with her now because she was afraid of him and what he might do if he lost control.
Talin noticed, though. I felt her eyes on me whenever we were in the same room. Maybe she could feel something was off with me, just like I did with her. Or maybe I just looked as exhausted as she did.
But I knew it was more than that. She was keeping secrets too. I could sense it. The way she flinched when anyone mentioned visions or prophecy. The careful distance she maintained from certain topics.
We were both terrified of what we were becoming.
"Are you okay?" she asked, because Talin always asks, even when she's falling apart herself.
"I'm fine," I lied, because I couldn't burden her with this. Not when she was already carrying so much.
She studied me for a long moment, and I wondered if she believed me. But then she nodded and let it go, and we sat in companionable silence while I cataloged everything I couldn't tell her.
The Purple Fang was nearly empty when I arrived, the lights still low, the stage dark. It smelled like liquor and leather and something distinctly vampire. Like old blood and the combination of their own scents, the ones designed to lure humans to their deaths. Not unpleasant, exactly. Just... different from the herbs and candles I was used to.
I shouldn't have been there. Aunt Judy would have lost her mind if she'd known I'd come to the vampire's territory alone, without permission, without escort. Again. But Talin had been sneaking into The Quarter, and I needed to know what she was doing. Who she was seeing.
What she'd found.
The bar gleamed in the dim light, every bottle perfectly aligned, every surface spotless. Elias's handiwork, no doubt. He seemed to take his bartending duties very seriously.
"We're closed."
I spun toward the voice and found Dae-Jung emerging from the back hallway, carrying a box of clean glasses. He stopped when he saw me, his dark eyes widening slightly before a wide grin spread across his face.
"Alice Moss," he drawled, setting the box on the bar.
My eyes were drawn to the tensed biceps of his arms, and I snapped them back to his face before he noticed.
"Never expected to see you here. Did you come to see the show? I've got some new moves to show off."
I frowned at his obnoxious grin, shaking my head. "No. I'm looking for Talin."
His grin faded, replaced by something more guarded. "Yeah. She's not here."
I moved closer to the bar, studying him. Dae-Jung had always been different from the other male vampires. Where Killian brooded and Jamal hated everything and everybody and Brogan covered pain with jokes and Elias obsessed, Dae just... existed. Happy. Light. Like being undead didn't weigh on him the way it did the others.
But I could feel what was beneath the surface. The turmoil coiled inside him, patient and waiting. Not dark or evil. Not exactly. Just… there. Waiting.
It reminded me uncomfortably of myself.
"She's been coming here, though," I said. "Hasn't she? Every night?"
"Not every night." He started unpacking glasses, arranging them with the same precision Elias would have demanded. "And when she does, it's just to work with Elias on her visions."
"Visions of what? What is she seeing?"
His hands stilled on the glass he held. When he looked up, his expression was serious in a way I'd never seen from him. It was his turn to frown. "Your brother."
Alex.
I gripped the edge of the bar with one hand to steady myself. "What has she seen?"
He hesitated. "I think you should ask her."
"I'm asking you."
Dae set the glass down carefully, then leaned against the bar, studying me with an intensity that made my pulse quicken. Not from fear. From something else entirely.
