“Do you wish I weren’t here?” I asked quietly.

He laughed. “You must think me very selfless.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“You have changed this place, Leda. Your passion, your stubbornness, your humanity, even that attitude of yours.”

He brushed his fingers across my lip, stirring memories of the last time we’d been this close, of his blood in me. And mine in him. My mouth throbbed, and I struggled to push back my emerging fangs.

“Captain Somerset says you are drawn to the darkness inside of me,” I said.

Nero laughed. “I’ll have to have words with Basanti about her betrayal. Yes, I’m drawn to your darkness. It is my dark side that seeks the darkness. But how I feel about you…it’s not like she thinks.”

“So it’s not my impeccable behavior and deep respect for authority?”

His laugh was both sharp and sexy. “I’m afraid not.”

“Good. Because those things are really boring.”

“There is nothing boring about you, Leda, nothing typical. You are in perfect balance: light and darkness. You prove that both can exist in harmony inside of one person. That one does not have to consume the other. People of light often are arrogant and self-righteous. But you are neither. Just as you do not take pleasure in losing control, in excess, in pain as those ruled by darkness do. For so long, it’s been a battle between light and darkness, between gods and demons. We’re forced to pick one or the other. We all fall somewhere on that scale of darkness and light, but none of us are balanced. Except you.”

“You can see this?” I asked.

“I can feel it, yes. The gods would call it blasphemy, the demons madness, but I think your perfect balance is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. You, Leda. You make me feel like there is hope for humanity, for all of us.”

He dipped his mouth to kiss me on the cheek, then he walked away, leaving me still whirling with the most romantic speech I’d ever heard. I stood there for a while, my mind trying to sort through everything Harker and Nero had said. It finally gave up trying to resolve my conflicted feelings about them—and about myself. I returned to my dormitory.

I’d been gone so long that the healers had transferred Ivy in that time to our room. She was awake and happy and healed. She and Drake sat crosslegged on her bed, the now-open box of cookies wedged between them.

“I’m sorry,” I said guiltily, sitting down beside them. “I got held up. I wasn’t here to welcome you back.”

“You don’t ever have to apologize to me, Leda.” She hugged me. “You saved my life.”

“Drake might have helped a little,” I said, squeezing my thumb and index finger together.

Ivy and I laughed.

“That’s right. Laugh all you want,” he said, nodding. “But don’t you come to me the next time you have werewolves that need tackling.”

“Do we expect this to be a regular occurrence?” Ivy asked.

“This is the Legion of Angels, not the Girl Scouts,” Drake told her.

“Well, I’m still keeping my cookies.” As she reached into the box, a silver bracelet with a tiny charm slid down over her wrist.

I blinked, clearing my vision. I’d seen the symbol on that charm before.

“How long have you had that bracelet?” I asked her.

“Awhile. I don’t often wear it, but I put it on because it’s supposed to speed my healing by cleansing my aura.” She shrugged. “At least that’s what my mom says. She made it for me a few years ago.”

“What is that symbol?”

“I’m not sure. It’s my mother’s symbol.”

“I’ve seen it before.” I stared at that symbol of a flower of never-ending layers, the symbol I’d seen painted on the door of the ghost’s shop.

“What’s wrong?” Ivy asked me.

Everything. “Do you have a picture of your mother?”

“Sure.”

Ivy pulled one up on her phone and showed me the screen. The face of Calli’s friend Rose stared back at me.

“Leda?”

“I know her.” I swallowed hard. “And I saw her die.”

“That’s impossible,” Ivy protested. “She’s been writing to me since I came here. I’ve even spoken to her a few times.”

I grew very cold as the world clicked into focus, as I realized what was going on.

“Your mother is working for the demons,” I told my friend.

18

Sweet Dreams

“That’s not funny, Leda,” Ivy said, furrowing her brows.

I pointed at the photo on her phone. “I saw that woman die in front of my eyes.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Your mother is named Rose,” I told her. “She runs a cheesy psychic readings shop in the city, but she is the real deal. She’s a telepath—a ghost—but she’s been hiding her gift because if the gods found out about her, they would take her away.”

Ivy’s mouth dropped. “How can you possibly know about that?”

“I know because your mom is friends with my foster mother Calli. And because when we paid her a visit in New York, we found her dying in a pool of her own blood. She said a dark angel attacked her.” I shook my head. “No, something else is going on here. You petitioned the Legion to heal your mother’s cancer by turning her into a vampire. When your petition was rejected, she must have taken matters into her own hands. She made a deal with the demons. In exchange for them healing her, she agreed to help them.”