I woke up inside a very familiar house in front of a very familiar nude painting.
Everett was bent over me, glasses perched on his nose. His dark hair hung off his forehead as he stared where I’d been shot. Something cool brushed against my shoulder. “Don’t move, Miss Ashby.”
Even though curiosity and fear begged me to move, I didn’t. The pain in my shoulder was gone, but the area where the bullet had torn through my body felt heavy. The hard tile beneath me brought awareness back slowly, the cold spreading inch by inch up my arms and legs.
Zephyr had found me, and I wasn’t dead.
“What happened?” My voice came out a dry rasp. Another one of Zephyr’s servants came to Everett’s side and set a glass of water on the tile.
“Zephyr found you on the brink of death. Drastic measures were taken,” Everett said clinically, like I’d asked him to detail to break down a bank statement. “Your lung and other internal structures were shredded, but you survived to see another day.”
The cold thing he slapped against my shoulder turned out to be a wet rag. I wanted to look around for Gemma, but his command kept me still. “How long have I been out?”
“Not long. Zephyr’s method of healing takes a few moments.”
Oh, thank God. “Then why bring me here?”
“It may only take moments, but it isn’t something he can do out in the open.” Everett stared at me pointedly. A look that said stop asking questions about it.
After they’d saved my life, the least I could do was not pry. “Where is Zephyr? And Gemma?”
“Zephyr is getting cleaned up. You were bleeding everywhere.”
Which meant I’d bled all over him. Embarrassing.
“The werewolf was taken to a restroom to change. Or, rather, to get dressed. She only had on a shirt.”
“Things didn’t exactly go to plan. That was probably the only thing she could find to wear after she shifted back.” I licked my lips, mouth dry and coppery. Jeez, how much blood had I coughed up? “How long is this going to take?”
“Almost done.” Everett sat back on his heels. “The wound is almost closed. We want to make sure everything is stitched together properly.”
I turned my gaze to the ceiling to keep from being awkward. Instead of asking all the questions building up inside, I traced the crown molding, following the swirls and dips on the carvings with a slow, steady stare. Thanks to Zephyr, I was healing and hadn’t been gone from the casino long, which meant that there was a chance that Samson and the others were still alive.
Number one priority? Get out of here and find them. But even when I got back to Shreveport, how would I figure out where Nero had taken everyone?
“Are you ready to sit up, Miss Ashby?” Everett asked, interrupting my growing panic.
I nodded and carefully pressed my palms to the cold tile, leveraging myself off the ground with a push. He put a hand between my shoulder blades and lightly guided me up.
“Thank you.” I looked down, dismayed at the state of my body. Blood was smeared everywhere. Legs, chest, arms. My black dress had ripped at some point, giving everyone an eyeful of my bra and panties. If I hadn’t almost died, I would’ve been mortified. Ashbys did not walk around naked. “I don’t know what happened.”
“You had a run-in with an extremely dangerous group of people and lived to tell about it. There is no shame in that.” Everett picked up the water and pressed it into my hands. “Here.”
I didn’t have it in me to argue. Between the overwhelming thirst and the constant, nagging taste of copper, my mouth was in desperate need of a drink. The cool water hit my tongue like I’d never had it before, the drink in the desert that kept one on the mortal coil.
“Thank God!”
I choked on the water, sending some of it in my lap. Everett beat on my back with his hand, and despite not seeing his face, I somehow knew he scowled at the werewolf who inflicted a coughing fit on my newly healed lungs.
“Sorry, Matilda. My bad.” Gemma had emerged from the door that led to the piano room wearing a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, both too big. She kept her distance, and I had a feeling that had to do with Everett. I took another drink of water, hoping to settle the shake in my limbs. “I about lost my shit when that fae dumped some of his blood into your mouth, but then I heard your breathing turn normal, so I let him continue. Glad that wasn’t a mistake.”
Zephyr did what? The water I drank turned thick on a gag, and I choked again. Everett sighed and smacked my back, grumbling under his breath.
Please let Gemma be wrong. “What, exactly, did Zephyr do?”
“I saved your life, Miss Ashby.” His deep voice sent a bolt of apprehension through my body. “You are welcome.”
Zephyr had entered the room through the same door Gemma had but looked much less thrilled about my return to consciousness. Or maybe it was the state of my body.
Thanks to Everett, I made it to my feet. My Louboutins were gone, leaving me with my bloodstained feet and toes. Instead of a suit like the last time we met, Zephyr had on dress pants and a button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. The two of us could not look more different at that moment.
Revulsion coursed through me. I’d apparently drank Zephyr’s blood, which…ew. But he also saved my life, so showing some gratitude was in order regardless. “Thank you, Zephyr. I mean it.”
“Hm.” He didn’t look convinced. I probably should’ve been more worried about saying thank you to a fae, but it was too late for that. “What happened?”
I rubbed my arms with my palms and pattered over to the fae, feet slapping against the tile. “A necromancer happened.”
Zephyr’s lip peeled back in disgust. “There are few things that annoy me more than humans. Necromancers are one of them.”
I decided to ignore his insult. “Then I imagine you’ll be pleased to know that the necromancer who shot me also prevented your picture of Samson from reaching Frank and instead used it to lure me and Vee into a cross-country escape from certain death.”
The fae stilled. “Did he now?”
“He did.” A chill rolled up my back as memories of the past days came back in quick flashes of fear and pain. The farmhouse. The supermarket. The casino. How had all of this happened in so short a time? “His name is Nero. One of Frank’s cambions. He’s a telepath, but not a very good one, which turned him to necromancy.”
Zephyr stood silent, lips pressed into a tight line. Gemma and Everett didn’t move either, which made me wonder if they knew something I didn’t.
His silence compelled me to keep talking. “Nero does this thing—” Zephyr’s gaze cutting to mine tensed my shoulders. “He does this thing where he…eats people’s souls. I don’t really know how to describe it. He just sucks them out of their mouths.”
Zephyr’s brow twitched. “It does not kill him?”
“No. I watched him do it.” A memory I would never forget. “His partner, Quinn, told me it would make him easier to kill in the long run, but I’m not sure how true that is.”
“And your companions?” His voice tightened. “Vee?”
Something about his question surprised me. “Nero took them someplace. Said something about a family reunion. Vee was hurt pretty bad. Samson is unconscious. Cliff—”
“In what way was she harmed?”
“I’m not entirely sure, but definitely a broken leg. Bleeding everywhere.”
Zephyr ran a hand along his jaw and abruptly turned around. Gemma took a step back, which meant I needed to do the same. Something about Zephyr had put the teenager on edge.
Fighting a scowl, I watched the fae pace. “Are you okay?”
“Do you know where they might have gone?” he asked.
“No. Nero just mentioned a family reunion.”
“Which means Frank will be in attendance.”
I blinked rapidly, staring but not seeing. Frank hadn’t been on my radar for Nero’s power play, which was stupid because it was the next logical step. If Nero wanted to simply kill Samson and Vee, he’d have done it at the casino. He killed Leopard Shirt in no time at all.
Despite Zephyr’s theory, there was something that didn’t fit neatly into it.
“Frank being at this so-called reunion makes sense, but Nero has gone rogue in every sense of the word.” When Zephyr didn’t turn around, I dared to close the gap between us. He was angry. Hell, I was angry too. While I didn’t know what had caused him so much turmoil, I could hazard a guess. “I’m sure you know his number one rule—secrecy. Nero has abandoned that tenet twice now. He even told me he saw no need for it or Frank’s old-fashioned rules.”
Zephyr still kept his back to me. “Then what are you suggesting?”
There had been several similarities between what Nero was doing and what Hudson had done to my family, or at least enough similarities to make me draw my own parallels. Hudson had hated my father and his decisions, so he’d tried to take control of the family wealth on his own. However, unlike Nero, Hudson had done his dirty work behind the scenes. He hadn’t wanted to get credit for taking the Ashby Corporation and our father’s money. He’d simply wanted the material things that came with killing off me and Gerard.
Nero, on the other hand, did his work openly and brazenly, which meant he wanted to be acknowledged. By Frank? Maybe. He might only care about his necromancers. In any case, he wanted people to pay attention to him.
He wanted Samson and Vee’s souls—their powers—and the recognition that came with possessing them.
“Nero wants someone to see that he’s a worthy asset. It might be Frank, or it might not, but I think Frank makes the most sense. I know once Frank found Samson, he more or less abandoned Nero, which means—”
Realizing I was an absolute idiot kept the words I meant to say from coming out of my mouth. How could I be so stupid?
This whole time I had been comparing Nero to Hudson.
I should’ve been comparing Nero to me.
The weight of the room pressed down on my shoulders as the obvious similarities presented themselves with breathtaking clarity. Nero had been ignored. Left behind. Once a better telepath came along—Samson—he’d been kicked to the curb. So he worked and worked and worked to be stronger. Couldn’t hack it as a telepath? Didn’t matter. He could become a necromancer. Just like I worked my ass off to be better than Hudson. The degrees behind my desk, something I’d once been so proud to hang on the wall, were monuments to the years I wasted trying to please a man who would never be pleased with anything.
But Nero hadn’t had that realization yet. He didn’t know that people like my father or demons like Frank wouldn’t know value if it punched them in the face. Nothing could please them, and it took me almost dying in my father’s office to figure that out.
“Frank.” I wrapped my arms around myself. “It has to be Frank.”
Zephyr whipped around, eyes cold. “Which means what, Miss Ashby?”
“It means Nero is going to try to get the respect he’s been searching for.” My heart squeezed, suddenly too big for my body. “And when Frank inevitably does not give it to him, Nero will realize his father never truly cared about him, and then he will abandon everything his father built.”
Just like I’d been thinking about doing.
Leaving the Ashby Corporation for good.
“None of this does any good if we don’t know where they went.” Gemma stomped toward us, hands in the air.
“You are a wolf. You could track them for us.” Zephyr ran a hand through his hair, dark hair grazing his pointed ears. “Finding them will not be an issue unless they took a private plane.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. Zephyr intended to come with us without a bargain? “I’m pretty sure the humans wandering around Shreveport would notice a werewolf stalking the sidewalks.”
Zephyr smirked, his typical arrogance back in a heartbeat. “Are you willing to bet on it, Miss Ashby?”
No, I was not.
Gemma braced her hands on her hips. “Well, I might be missing something here, but if we don’t kill Nero the right way, he’ll keep following us forever, especially if there are any dead bodies he can jump into. Then when he finds us, he’ll suck our souls out.”
Any dead bodies he can jump into.
Hope surged within me. “Gemma. Do you have the bracelets?”
“Yeah.” She pointed to a murder backpack sitting against the wall. Thank goodness she’d had the foresight to bring them. “Why?”
“I don’t think there’s a way to ensure the rest of Nero’s bodies are gone before we kill him.” I stalked over to the backpack and unzipped it. The bracelets and my unshapely clothes were inside. I picked up the golden bracelets and stared at them. “But I think we should try something unexpected.”