“Lilith,” he said, knowing deep in his bones that it was her.

“I am, though most would have me forgotten. They called me monster, when I was the first, when they could not exist without me.”

He could hear the anger in her voice, ancient and terrible, as well as the love she bore her kind.

“What do you want from me?” he asked, hearing Lily’s distant laughter as she grew farther from him, racing through the garden. It filled him with unimaginable longing.

Lilith regarded him with shrewd, glittering eyes. They saw more than he wanted them to see.

“She has chosen you, the final child of all the many children that have come before her. I had begun to wonder if the blood would ever again be strong enough to manifest the mark of my dynasty, the mark given me by my only love. And yet the time of that rising has come round at last. Lily, of all of them, is truly my heir. So, of course, you are of great interest to me. You will help remake what was broken so long ago.” She paused, arching an eyebrow. “If you are strong enough.”

He knew he should tread carefully with such a creature. And yet there was so much he needed answered. His heart aching at the receding sound of Lily’s voice, he took a chance.

“How is it possible?” he asked. “How can a mortal woman like Lily carry your blood?”

Even in the depths of shadow, Ty could see Lilith’s mouth curve up in a bitter smile.

“Do you truly want to know of the ritual? I doubt it. But what came before and after, I can tell you. A beautiful demon, one of the Fallen, fell in love with me. From him came the dark gift of immortality so that I could be with him always. And so,” she said with a sigh, “I am. No longer living, but without a true death, even now.”

“Then how did the others destroy you? And why? No one talks about it,” Ty said, knowing that this had ceased to be a dream, eager for the answers only Lilith could provide.

Lilith waved an elegant hand dismissively. “Petty jealousies. Desire for power and control. Fear of my Fallen lover, Seth, when he would harm none of them. I underestimated my enemies then, as so many others have in years since. At least I had the foresight to preserve something of what was. No matter the cost.”

“So this Seth gave you a child,” Ty said. Maybe Lilith was right. The sort of demonic ritual that could impregnate a vampire was something he didn’t want to imagine. Such a thing would require enormous power and would be dark… very dark.

“Indeed. But sadly, it could have no part of him. Some things truly are impossible. There was a human man involved, of course, but he was willing enough, at least at first. A means to an end,” she said, an expression passing briefly over her fine features that might have been regret. “It doesn’t matter. The blood has been passed to the eldest child, always a female, down through the ages. The power has always been there, sleeping, waiting for one who could awaken it. I knew, when Lily was born, that she was the one. The first who actually manifested the mark. My mark.”

“You watched her?”

Lilith’s voice was sharp. “I can do little but watch, these long years. Though as you have seen, when I must, I can protect my own. Even if it takes everything I have.” Her tone softened, grew weary, and Ty finally had a sense of the agelessness of this woman. And he felt a sort of pity for her, though she reminded him far more of the highbloods he had known than of Lily. There was a ruthlessness about her, a knife-edged drive to preserve what was hers that he knew would slice right through anyone who got in her way.

He recognized it. Just as he recognized that the human part of Lily’s lineage had been essential in forming who she was. Her softness, her empathy.

Lily was so much more than the one who had come before her, Ty realized. And Lilith knew it. Perhaps that had been the plan all along.

Lilith nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I know what you’re thinking. And you’re right. She is more than I was. I shed most of my humanity—maybe all of it—in becoming the first of the vampires. I have few regrets, but I will always long for the parts of myself that were lost. This child, my Lily, has the strengths and weaknesses of both worlds.” Lilith tilted her head, considering him, shadows playing over her face. Even here, in this place that was neither sleep nor waking, Ty saw that the moonlight passed right through her.

“You will balance each other,” she said. “A good match, if you can hold her. If you prove yourself worthy of my prize.”

All the years of ridicule pressed in on him, threatening to suffocate him. Worthy? He, a lowly cat?

“My bloodline—”

“Is one to be proud of,” Lilith interrupted impatiently. “As are they all. Other gods, other demons, all saw what Seth had done and created their own ideas of immortal perfection through their blood. Companions, rivals, friends to me, and I was grateful. How could the diversity not be wonderful? Our differences, together, make us strong. There will always be those who would rather divide and conquer. My Lily will always need protection. But there are allies to be found in unexpected places, if you’re willing enough, and wise enough, to look.”

The burden she wanted to place on him was overwhelming. To be Lily’s protector, her lover, her mate, to rebuild all that was lost in the face of terrifying odds… and he from a bloodline that would make the other highbloods laugh.

And yet, how could he do anything else? There was no other for him. He loved her.

He loved her. And accepting it, embracing the truth, lit a fire inside him. Suddenly, everything was clear. He knew what he needed to do, no matter how crazy it seemed.

Lilith watched him and smiled. “Awaken her blood, Tynan of the Cait Sith. It is for you, and no other. Be worthy of the gift I give to you. And beware. The danger to you is so much closer than you think.”

The night garden vanished around him, and suddenly Ty was in the temple that Lily had described, full of fire and death. Lilith was before him on a platform, a goddess presiding over a losing battle. And he saw, rising behind the woman who gazed at him with terrible hope, the face of one he had never expected to see. Not here. Not like this.

“I warned her my house would rise again,” Lilith said, her voice as clear as a bell above the din. “My child will begin to heal what was sundered so long ago. She has begun already. Your blood is no shame, Tynan of the Cait Sith. Power of the vampire, magic of the Fae, beauty of the cat. All these things I would welcome as my dynasty awakens. Do not falter. Be true.”

He watched in horror as Arsinöe, teeth bared in a fury that was almost madness, severed Lilith’s head from her body with a single stroke of her curved blade.

“Well, don’t you two make a charming picture?”

Ty’s eyes snapped open, screams still ringing in his ears. The first thing he registered was that Lily was still safe and warm in his arms.

The second thing was that the two of them were no longer alone.

Damien perched at the edge of the bed, watching him with the cool detachment that Ty had once thought him incapable of. But there seemed to be no feeling left in the vampire he had known. Damien was all Shade now. And he had them cornered at last.

“Stupid of you, really, to go and get involved this way. But you always did have an insufferable soft streak.”

Ty tried to clear the sleep from his mind quickly to figure out how to get out of this, how to react. One of them was going to come out of this dead, and he would rather it not be him.

“Rogan sold me out,” Ty said, trying conversation to buy himself some time. But if softness was his weakness, Damien’s had always been a love of displaying how clever he had been. And this time seemed to be no exception.

“Not at all,” Damien said with a curve of his mouth. “Rogan, or should I say, Rogan’s headless body, is still tucked into bed, utterly unaware that its head will be prominently displayed on a pike as a warning to lowbloods who think to hide from justice. I’m sure it will cause quite a stir. I’m just happy I could pick up some extra cash by rolling that job into this one. Rogan made a lot of people very unhappy. Important people. And the son of a bitch never did a thing for us, so don’t waste any more of your precious time mourning his passing. He’s better off gone. And there’s always another rat-infested safe house for those who are looking.”

There was a crash downstairs, followed by shouting and the thundering of feet.

“What the bloody hell is this?” Ty asked, feeling panic begin to rise like bile in his throat. “Did you bring the entire House of Shadows this time?”

Damien’s expression revealed him to be extremely irritated, if not surprised. “Shit,” he hissed. “Ptolemy.”

Ty stared incredulously as Lily stirred beside him, her blue eyes fluttering open first with warmth, then slow blooming panic as her gaze shifted to Damien.

“Oh God,” she said.

“Hardly,” Damien snapped at her. He turned his accusing eyes back on Ty. “You can thank your little freak of nature for this. She’s got some friend from that hellhole in Massachusetts who’s been all over the news, telling how her missing friend called her to let her know she was all right but was in some sort of trouble. The wonder of caller ID identified your location as Chicago. Not information I needed, of course. I’ve been following your trail all over this godforsaken city. But I would assume your whereabouts were a little bit of a surprise to any Ptolemy who knew what you’d been up to in Massachusetts.”

Ty cursed and barely heard Lily murmur a name.

“Bay? You called your best friend?”

Lily’s eyes were purest misery. “She thought I was dead. I… I couldn’t just leave it like that. She needed to know I’d be back. I’m so sorry, Ty. I didn’t know she’d call the police. I told her not to.”

The apology so clear in her voice did nothing to assuage his helpless anger, though most of it was directed at his own accursed luck. That such a little thing, a small and sneaky thing, could bring down everything for him, for both of them, seemed desperately unfair now. And that she had kept it from him burned more than he’d thought such a thing might.