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Looking around the bar, absorbing everything we’d done and where we were right now, my heart and head were content. I’d never felt better. Maybe it was the afterglow from fantastic sex, or maybe it was because I was exactly where I needed to be.

Zee was on stage, owning his unique rendition of “Feeling Good.” Victor had casually propped a hip against the bar, and held a sophisticated Bloody Bitch in his hand. Behind him, Tom Collins fixed drinks for his customers, right where he wanted and claimed he needed to be.

Life buzzed in every corner of the hotel.

The vampires were still outside, waiting for their queen who definitely was not coming back. Victor would speak with them soon, while adding some mental persuasion to convince them Daisy had already left.

We were in a good place, the three of us.

What had I been afraid of?

Look at what we’d made.

A home. A family of orphans, misfits, and outcasts.

Everything I’d fought for . . . everything all Lost Ones had fought for was here, under this roof. New lives played out. We’d made a whole new world for ourselves. Gideon Cain wasn’t going to take all this from me—from us. He didn’t get to ruin it.

I was going to stop him . . . We were going to stop him.

And I had an idea how to do it.

I pushed from the table and headed for the bar where Victor noticed my approach, his eyes as hungry now as they’d been earlier.

“Tom, can you unlock Daisy’s phone?” I took the pink Hello Kitty phone from my pocket and handed it over. Zee had noticed it slip from her pocket just as he shoved her body through the portal. He’d retrieved it after our shower session, when he’d asked Jimmy to help with the closet cleanup.

Tom studied the pink Hello Kitty phone. “Now, why would I want to do a thing like that?”

“Daisy coming here had nothing to do with a truce,” I explained, as Victor sidled over. “She made it clear, the vampires have never been interested in letting any of us go. I suspect it was Gideon who suggested she agree to our meeting.”

Tom considered it while turning the glossy phone over in his hand. “Seems likely.”

“She came here to capture me, assuming I’d roll over because I’m human now, then she’d take me to Cain. I need you to unlock her phone, so we can send Cain a message.”

“A message that relays what information?” Victor asked, all caught up on our conversation.

“She’s got me.”

“I can do that,” Tom agreed. “But there’s no signal in here. I’ll need to be outside the wards.”

“I’ll transport you outside the wards in my phone,” Victor said, but then turned back to me. “It will likely take more than a text message to convince Gideon Cain you’re caught.”

“It will, and that’s where you come in. You’re going to mentally control the vampires waiting outside, and take me to Vampire Mansion. We don’t need to make it all the way, we’ve just got to make it convincing.”

“As a . . . gift?” Victor asked, eyebrows lifting.

I smiled. “Exactly.”

“And what of our Zodiac?”

As if on cue, Zee finished up his performance to thunderous applause. His wings pulsed, absorbing the adoration. Sensing we were talking about him, he glanced over, and grinned.

“I need him to get in touch with some old friends.”

While Victor took Tom on a little trip outside the wards to make a phone call, I told Zee to gather the troops.

Outside, a line of black sedans waited. We wouldn’t have long before the vampires started asking a whole lot of awkward questions.

But we were going to need them for what came next.