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“No, a fury.” Lexi snorted a laugh. “But she could pull off cat ears. And a tail. She’s hot.”

“That would explain the wings, but not the, um, flock.” Bodie tossed a pair of floor cushions in front of the fireplace and grimaced as he lowered to sit on one. “Sorry, it sounds really sexist when I say it like that.”

Lana held her hand up, seeming to know Archer was almost back to her with a fresh drink. “Better than a gaggle.”

“What in the hell is a fury?” Archer came in from the kitchen will two full pints, passed both to Lana, and hopped over the back of the sofa next to her. One arm reached around her, the other took his beer back, and they were cuddling again.

Archer’s eyes glossed over, his movements fluid but careful. A concussion? They’d all been hurt today.

Few answers lit up on the hunters’ faces. Bodie’s aquamarine eyes glowed as he looked surprised at their lack of knowledge on the creature. “As in the Three Furies, right?”

“Yes,” Eryn answered. “She is Tisiphone. Her sisters are dead. Alecto’s anger got her killed. Magaera fell in love with… well, I’m thinking it was a demon hunter. Tisiphone killed the entire team. Whoever dubbed her the Fury of Vengeance must have known her well.”

“Fuck.” Bodie wrapped his free hand around Astrid as she joined him, and slipped the baby from her arms. “I’ve got my doctorate in paranormal anthropology,” he explained to Eryn, and with a nod to Lexi, then looked around at the others, soothing the infant back to sleep with a gentle rub on her back. “A lot of myth and not a lot of history on this one, but it’s likely the Furies were pure-blooded, immortal humanoid demons. They were enforcers—probably in the demon world, not here. They were said to be like cops—or, no, more like Judge Dredd or something. Judge, jury, and executioner. But… okay, and this is total conjecture based on a single, but reputable paper I read on the topic ages ago. As we know, banishment to our realm was a popular punishment before the veil ripped open. I suspect they were banished for being too, um, bloodthirsty, and for demons, that’s saying something.”

Vann seemed to have a bit more strength and sat up closer to Eryn. “That night. What did she do to you?”

Eryn closed her eyes as she leaned into him. Anchored and cozy and warm, she hated how cold she was making him with her proximity. How she must sap his strength by touching him.

“Hey. Whatever happened… it’s okay.” He kissed her temple as she melted back into him.

“I’m freezing. It can’t be helpful, having me this close.” Eryn couldn’t keep it from him. He had to know what she’d done to that man. “I absorb so much of your warmth, I must sap some of your energy or something, as I feel so… I don’t know.” She closed her eyes and pressed her face into his neck. Relief rushed over her. Balance against the killer Tisiphone had made her. “So much better, I guess, when I’m near you.”

He shifted just enough to meet her look, and smiled quietly. “I feel good with you, too.”

“Sated, in a way. It’s hard to explain. I’m not draining the life out of you or anything? I feel… cold, empty, and there are few things that fill it. When someone dies, I feel a sick sense of relief. Once… shit, um, I… when you found me in the locker room, in the shower, I’d just drained the last of a dying man’s energy. I don’t know how—”

“You what?” Vann sat up straighter and looked her in the eye. Instead of disgust, his decadent brown eyes melted with sympathy.

“He had only moments to live, and this instinct hit me. I don’t know exactly what I did, but I absorbed something from him, and I felt… amazing.”

The team looked at each other, but they let her finish.

She palmed Vann’s cheek. “When I’m near you, it’s like I can soak up some of the life that you exude, and I feel complete. Sappy, I know, but you won’t think so… not after what I did to that man. I don’t intentionally do anything to you, but the feeling is similar… but totally different. You’re sure I’m not hurting you?”

“No.” He pressed a long, soft kiss on her forehead. “You’re not hurting me. I feel better when you’re here, too. Fulfilled.”

“And, weird, I know, but all of you fill this weird part of me, similarly but not at all the same. Not like with Vann, and definitely not like with my patient. I’m sorry, I’m not making sense. But it’s like you’re all so alive. Bennett and Adair, not to be weird, but you exude so much life, it’s overwhelming. In a good way.”

“Vampires. Immortals. Undying. Like, the opposite of death.” Lexi lit up with a burst of imagination. “Eryn, stop freaking out. I mean, yeah, you can freak out, but this is a good thing. It’s not just death that fulfills you, but life. That’s pretty fucking fantastic.”

“Aren’t vampires undead? Like, the opposite of alive?” Eryn squinted at her sister.

Adair gleamed with a little delight and a little deviousness. “I can’t say why we feel so alive to you, but we’re not soulless monsters, and we are definitely not dead. I’d venture to say vampires have more of a penchant for life than even the most vibrant of humans.”

Bennett lifted his eyebrows with a laugh. “Not a penchant for other lives. The blood-sucking, murdering parts of vampirism aren’t myth.”

“Oh, I meant our own lives.” She glanced at her phone and winked. “When Blayk gets here, we’ll see if an ordinary vampire feels as full of life. He’s killed a lot more humans than I have, and much more recently.”

Years. Half of a lifetime, she’d believed she was alone. “I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. Vann, when your pulse was stopping, I had this overwhelming temptation to do the same thing to you as I did to that man. Tempted is too mild a word. It was a compulsion. I clung to what humanity I have left, the feelings I have for you, and I just talked to you.”

Lana leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, puzzled and calculating, with brilliant green eyes searching her. “Creepy as hell for you, doing what you did to that man, I’m sure, but if you feed on people who are going to die anyway, and it sates you, I mean, they are dying anyway, and you do work in an ER, and we see a lot of death, too—”

“I won’t hurt anyone. I… that was the worst moment… I…” Eryn’s eyes burned as she imagined the horrors she could inflict. “It felt really good. I felt complete in that moment, but… I felt icky. I can’t do that again.”

“Eryn?” Vann whispered, and met her look. “We need to know the rest. Did Tisiphone do something to you, or are you related to her?”

Eryn curled closer into him. She slid her fingertips down his forearm and linked her hands with his. In a moment, he’d realize she was more likely to be his prey than his partner. A lump lodged in her throat, and she looked up at her sister for help.