He stretched out on the chaise-longue, the back of his heavily embroidered leather cowboy boots hitting a protective cloth covering. By nervous habit, he ran his hand over the carefully styled wave of hair along the right side of his head. The motion soothed him, eased his nerves.

The time had come. He could feel it in a smooth vibration of energy through his body.

Something big had been moving through the future streams for the last year, big but invisible, like a leviathan that surfaced in the ocean to taunt sailing ships, only to disappear beneath the waves, always pursued, never caught. He felt pretty certain this had something to do with obsidian flame, which had finally lifted its head just a few weeks ago with the blood slave Fiona, as well as with Marguerite. The women had worked together, coordinating efforts. The demonstration of their combined power had been impressive.

Yet he also understood that obsidian flame always came in threes, so another woman was destined to form the third leg of the triad. To date, she hadn’t shown up.

He let his arms rest next to his sides. He closed his eyes. The strong scent of patchouli surrounded him now, and because the air-conditioning kept a gentle stream of air flowing around the room, he could see the candlelight flicker behind his eyes.

He took deep lingering breaths as though the bottom of his lungs were somewhere near his intestines.

Slowly he let his mind open. If he moved too fast, the future streams would crash down on him, rendering him immobile and vulnerable. This at least he’d learned to manage over the centuries.

With his Seer’s eye barely open, he saw a broad spectrum of color, ribbons of light that went on, yes, forever, away from him, away from this point in time. His heart swelled and pleasure flowed through him. This was what he enjoyed most, this unexpected connection to what was his most essential gift.

He released a deep purifying breath and opened his mind just a little more. The ribbons began to move now, shimmering and rippling in waves. From his Seer’s eye, he moved to stand before the ribbons and lifted his right hand as if preparing to offer a minister’s blessing.

He lived in extraordinary times, as though the future had suddenly gotten in a big hurry and rushed toward Second Earth and Mortal Earth. He recognized the power behind this force—and it emanated from Commander Greaves. He was putting pressure on the world, on two worlds. Greaves had not lacked for ambition or for money. He had acquired the majority of Second Earth’s mineral wealth long before the value of the minerals was known. He could afford to build an army, two armies, a thousand armies.

But in response, as though the earth couldn’t easily tolerate the ambitions of sociopaths, new powers had emerged to contest Greaves’s megalomania. The Warriors of the Blood, always an extraordinary if small force against Greaves, had begun growing in power with the appearance of powerful mates, or brehs, in their lives.

And now obsidian flame.

He still couldn’t quite comprehend what such a powerful gift, based on a triad of connection, would mean for Madame Endelle and her administration. If he’d understood recent events, the first of the obsidian flame powers, belonging to Fiona, gave her a profound ability to channel the powers of others and even to allow a possession, which increased the preternatural power of both parties exponentially. Fiona had allowed a possession of Madame Endelle and together they had folded twenty thousand people from an arena disaster to safety. He could not fathom this level of combined power.

He knew that Marguerite was the second leg of this triad, that she had the red variety of obsidian flame, which meant that her already significant Seer abilities would be enhanced by her obsidian connection.

He positioned himself across from Marguerite’s ribbon. She was incredibly powerful. In the Seer realm—and this perhaps frightened him more than anything else—he strongly suspected that because of obsidian flame, she would now have the capacity to reach pure vision, or 100 percent accuracy in her visions. It was something he could not do, nor could any other Seer he knew. A Seer who had the capacity for pure vision would be of inestimable value to the person who had charge of her: She would be able to see events as they unfolded in the future exactly as they would happen.

He was tempted to enter her future stream ribbon to see what she was up to, but he hesitated because of her power—and because he valued his own skin. Her level of Seer power wasn’t the only significant preternatural ability she possessed. A couple of weeks ago, he’d tried to abduct her from Mortal Earth’s I-10, a major highway that crossed the lower continental United States. She’d been driving a convertible, top down, in the New Mexico area when he’d stopped her car, ready to apprehend her. But she’d delivered a hand-blast that had shot him deep into the sky as though he’d been nothing more than a rag doll. He’d been able to fold to safety mid-flight, but it had required the rest of the day to heal from all the burns. If he’d been a lesser vampire, he would have ended up very dead.

Basically, he’d given up on acquiring her, so he now turned his attention toward locating, if possible, a group of Seers that might be living in some kind of protected facility on Mortal Earth. If they existed, he’d find them in the future streams. Very little was hidden from him once he entered the ribbons of light.

So instead of taking chances with anything having to do with Marguerite, he focused his thoughts very specifically on hidden Seers of power.

As he let his mind go very loose with this thought held foremost, the future streams began to move slowly, then gathered speed until he was watching a blur of color that became very light in hue, almost white.

Hidden Seers of power.

Finally, the line of ribbons began to slow and to differentiate into specific colors until the entire band stopped and a ribbon of burnished dark gray metal rose above the rest directly opposite him.

A female, a Seer, became visible to him.

He smiled. Yes, he enjoyed his power very much.

The woman was tall with some freckles, straight black hair to her shoulders. She had tattoos, and a hair-sized silver loop pierced her right eyebrow. She also had a small amber jewel just above her left nostril on the side of her nose. Her eyes were an unusual color: gray. A very pure gray.

Her name came to him.

Brynna.

He picked up the ribbon and it was like fire in his metaphysical hands, a wicked amount of energy flowing through his fingers.

He let her future come to him, images that began to move very swiftly; daylight, a cabin, a woman behind her, a knock on the door. He tested the women. His heart began to race. They were both Seers.

The location? He panned around and saw forest, a very thick dark forest, not pine, more like fir. He looked up toward the sky and saw mist, but not the usual white lace pattern, something with a strange green hue. He panned back and the door opened: Marguerite stood there, behind a screen door. He held his breath, waiting to see what would happen next, but Marguerite’s Seer power, whether activated by her or not, could have an effect.

He saw her lips move. The stream began to fade until it disappeared.

He cursed. He needed to know where this was and what had happened, or rather what was going to happen. Because of the strange mist, he thought this place might be exactly what he was looking for: a hidden colony of some kind.

He had to continue. Had to learn more.

He still held Brynna’s ribbon, so he ordered his mind and began to rewind the image, letting it flow backward until he could see the mist again. He had some skills when it came to the future streams and he used them now. He held the ribbon steady and froze the moment while still inside the vision.

This time, he focused on the location again and panned skyward, pulling back and back as though rising into the air, higher and higher until the mountains grew small and other towns appeared, until he could see the coastline of, yes, the Pacific Northwest. This colony existed in the Cascade range in the state of Washington, Mortal Earth. He then concentrated on the timing of this meeting. He could feel that the women would meet … tomorrow.

When he sat up, the incredible nature of his discovery flew around in his chest like a bird that had just been set free. He was astonished at his find. He ran a hand lightly over his wave. So there was a hidden colony, with Seers in residence, on Mortal Earth.

His mind began to order his next steps. He would confer with the leader of his small attack force, comprising eight powerful death vampires. He would make an advance visit to the location and establish the when and where of the attack.

He grew relaxed and content now that he had a plan. His new life on Mortal Earth commenced tonight. There would be no bureaucracy to manipulate, no Madame Endelle to sidestep, no Warriors of the Blood to avoid. He could do what he wanted because these Seers were living under the radar. With a little care and planning, he could simply appear, search through the colony, and take what he wanted.

He smiled as he left his meditation room and moved to a veranda that wrapped around the entire central courtyard. Very clever, these houses that looked like nothing from the outside but were elegant and lovely inside. A deception. He loved deceptions.

He crossed the courtyard to the large room opposite where his Mexican death vampires lived and plotted their nightly forays into the surrounding communities. The size of Mortal Earth’s population, especially the number of people living in major cities, made for easy pickings for the pretty-boys.

* * *

Marguerite had been in the shower a long time and still she scrubbed herself silly.

She was so pissed.

She couldn’t believe that José, a mere mortal, had actually told her to get out. She’d never been more shocked in her life. She’d had her own speech ready, right on the tip of her tongue, to the effect that she’d had a great time, but she just wasn’t interested in seeing him again. Then José had said he had to split and she shouldn’t be here when he got back.

The nerve.

At last, she turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. As she did, her fury eased up and in its stead was something very close to remorse. Essentially she’d just cheated on Thorne, even though she’d already dumped his ass. But then, the fact that she felt even a nanosecond of regret pissed her off all over again. She’d already told Thorne to get lost. She’d made it clear in a thousand different ways that she was done with him and her life on Second Earth.