Page 40

“I’m a scientist. It’s what I do.”

Julian sighed, which was quite the dramatic act, considering he barely needed to breathe, and held the door open for me.

When we’d resumed our drive, he spoke. “It couldn’t have been one of the ones who were drugged. They didn’t know what they were drinking.”

“True,” I said, hating to scratch Carmichael off the list but knowing that we had an eye witness to him drinking the tainted champagne. “Is there a way to find out who else was in the mansion tonight? Cameras?”

“Wards,” Julian said with a grin. “We can use magic to replay the reaction whenever anyone crossed them, successful or not.” He pulled up in front of my house, unable to get closer than two feet from the curb.

That was it. I was pissed as hell after all I’d been through, and my family was done insulting Julian, whatever he was to me. He was a good person, and they were about to suck it up.

“Stay here. You’re coming in,” I told him, storming from the car before he could respond.

I marched up the pathway, stomped up the steps, and knocked. If Julian wasn’t welcome, then this wasn’t my home, and I’d treat it as such.

Zoe yanked the door open, sticking her bleary-eyed face out to look around. “It’s one in the morning,” she said when she focused on me.

“And we have a problem that needs your help. So stop being a racist baby and lower the wards. Julian’s coming inside.”

Zoe’s mouth dropped open as she straightened, looking more alert than moments before. Her cheeks appeared blushed beneath the porch light.

“What is going on out he—” Mama stopped short when she caught sight of my face.

“Wards down. Now. Julian saved my life and the life of just about everyone on this island tonight,” I said. “He’s coming in, you’re apologizing, then you two are helping us figure out the real bad guy.”

What I didn’t expect was Mama to smile like I’d just told her I was marrying a wizard and hoping for a gaggle of babies. But she did. Then she snapped, startling Zoe.

“You heard her. Lower the wards.”

Chapter Thirteen

Worlds Collide

My mother offered Julian tea. In the middle of the night. In our house. Julian. A vampire.

“I apologize for our overabundance of caution,” Mama said, setting down a plate of apricot cookies she’d baked from scratch. “I might have overreacted slightly. And it isn’t that I trust vampires, it’s that I trust my daughter, and she’s adamant that you’re a decent person.”

“Ouch.” I yelped after pinching myself, and when they all looked at me in concern, I shrugged. “I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”

Mama waved me off, and Zoe rolled her eyes before sitting on Julian’s other side at the table and snatching a cookie. I sipped my own mug of chamomile and honey—or more accurately, honey with some chamomile—and tried to relax.

“It’s quite understandable,” Julian said, looking out of place and stiff-backed as always in the chair, sipping tea in a bloodied and torn shirt. “I, too, am sorry for what happened to your husband. Please know I would not abide by anyone of my kind doing something so horrible.”

Mama blinked a bit too rapidly but otherwise showed no signs of distress. “So you say the vampires at the estate were drugged?”

“Correct. And after questioning some, we have come to the conclusion it was intended for me so that I would lose control around your daughter.” Julian’s eyes flashed red as he sat down his cup.

Zoe threw a hand over her mouth, and Mama wrung a napkin between her fingers. “How did you manage to control yourself, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Julian is strong. He has a will of iron,” I said, then stuffed a cookie in my own mouth. No way I was telling her we had sex to take the edge off.

She narrowed her eyes at Julian in suspicion.

“Your daughter used her abilities to command me not to. She’s the strong one, Mrs. Devaux.”

Mama nodded and sat back in her seat. “You could have torn her throat out if she hadn’t acted fast. What if she hadn’t seen it coming, Lieutenant?”

Julian flinched.