“I’m saying I believe he’s in trouble,” Lysandro said.
“But I repeat, there’s no way my cousin will want to go where he is.”
Lysandro cleared his throat. “Even though his Master left before they bonded, he did give Ego his first taste of blood. The tie between sire and fledgling can be…almost impossible to resist. Plus, Ego’s so new to this, and there’s so much he doesn’t understand. He may not be able to resist the compulsion any more than one of you.”
“But you could?” Benji asked.
Lysandro licked his lips again. “It was many years before I learned to resist my Maker’s compulsion.”
“So vampires really can compel humans?” Cassi asked.
Lysandro stared at her, then slipped his gaze to Marc, the most harmless and nonmagical of us. “Hello, Marc,” he said in a silky-smooth voice I’d never heard him use before. “Please be a dear and stand on your head.”
Marc rose instantly. “But I don’t think I can.” He shook his head. “It’s been years since I tried that level of activity.”
Lysandro reached out a hand to him, imploringly. “But it would make me so happy if you tried. You can use the wall. I don’t mind. I just need to know that you’d do anything for me.”
“Of course, I would,” Marc responded. Then he ran to a blank spot on the wall, dropped to all fours, put his head on the ground, and attempted to heft his lower body above him. He kicked out like a mule over and over before we heard him whimpering. “I’m trying,” he said frantically.
“Enough!” Elyse’s voice cracked like lightning from the heavens. “You will not humiliate my husband.”
Lysandro bowed to her. “Of course.” He turned back to Marc. “You tried so hard. Thank you so much. You can stop now and go sit back with your wife.”
Marc scrambled up with a big, goofy grin on his face, tripping over his own two feet in his haste to sit back down by Elyse. As soon as he sat, the glazed look left his eyes, and he startled. “What just happened?” He glared at the wall. “Why did I do that?”
Elyse cupped his face in her hands. “Are you okay, Mr.?”
Looking uncertain, he said, “Of course, Mrs.,” reassuringly.
Elyse turned her fiery gaze back on Lysandro. “You’ve made your point. And if you ever do anything like that again to me or mine, I will light your ass up.”
Lysandro bowed again. “I know. As you should, and I would never. In fact, it’s been years since I’ve done anything like that.”
“If you ever need practice, I volunteer as tribute,” Benji said with a smirk.
Ignoring him, Lysandro continued, “But I’ve made my point, and you see my problem.”
“Our problem,” Chance corrected.
Lysandro’s shoulders came down from around his ears as some of his tension drained from him. “I was hoping you’d say that, and it’s why I’ve called you all here.”
“Can’t Scotty help him?” Stevie asked. “He’s his anchor, right?”
“Mhm, and I believe that’s why his Maker’s only been able to disturb his sleep but not actually summon Ego to him. If he’d still been in the dark space where he’d started, I don’t believe he would’ve resisted at all.”
“Yeah, not being a sound witch anymore really screwed him up,” I said, gnawing on my bottom lip. I couldn’t lose my cousin. I just couldn’t. I had this wonderful found family, but Ego was my only blood relative who’d been there for it all.
“What do you mean?” Delaney asked. “What happened to him being a sound witch?”
“Well, you know,” I said. I clawed my fingers and opened my mouth wide and hissed. “Vampire.”
Delaney blinked at me, then looked to Lysandro, who merely stared back, then blinked at me again. It was probably the most impressive slow blink I’d ever seen. I’d be more in awe if Lysandro wasn’t making this situation sound so dire.
“Is that why he told me to lay off his whole crew and cancel all the things and whatever?” She fluttered her hands like I’d seen my cousin do so many times that I almost laughed. “I mean, I know he said he wasn’t a sound witch anymore, but I thought it was because he felt a stronger pull to his vampiric nature.”
She snorted elegantly. “I can assure you that your cousin is still one hundred percent a sound witch. Have you seen what he’s been producing onYouTubelately?”
“As Dead Air?” I asked.
