IN ALL OF THE excitement, my body hadn’t remembered I ate earlier, but now it decided to make that ungodly noise, followed by the heartless cramp signaling I needed a bathroom now.

“Excuse me,” I blurted and bolted up the stairs with everyone’s eyes on my back.

“What’s with her?” Johnson asked just before I slammed the bedroom door.

The mad dash across the bedroom was on and made all the more difficult as I attempted to unbutton my pants as I moved. I made it to the commode and started chuckling. If this had happened in the park, I would have been shit out of luck.

I snorted laughter even as the cramp escalated, bending me over with it until I purged the culprit causing my insides to go crazy. Maybe I wouldn’t eat real food anymore. Because this side effect sucked.

I cleaned myself up, buttoned my pants, and headed back downstairs. The minute I stepped into the living room, three smirking faces glanced my way. I ignored them and made my way to the far side of the couch that had been left open for me.

“So, what is going on at the agency?” I stared at Johnson. “What changed?” I leaned on my right side so my tattoo wouldn’t get more uncomfortable. I’d have to have Robby clean it again before bed. All the excitement of this evening had irritated me enough to warrant another cleaning.

Johnson sighed and glanced at Judy before he moved his gaze to mine. “Manny changed my perception of the agency, and then you changed my perception of who fell into the true category of monsters.” He wiped his face. “I knew they had archaic rules, but locking up Manny instead of putting him out of his misery...that fucked with my head.”

“What are they doing with him, anyway?” Robby asked.

“Studying him, I guess.” Johnson gave a shrug. “But every time I have to deliver blood to him, it gives me the creeps. He begs me to let him out. I don’t think he’s sane anymore.”

“I would imagine not,” I said. “I wouldn’t do well locked up like that for over a year.”

“You survived,” Judy said, as if she knew the details of what went down at Cassius’s place.

Robby laughed and glared at her, leaning forward in that feral way that made me tense up. “Barely,” he growled.

Judy recoiled into the couch, like the soft cushions could protect her from Robby’s wrath.

“Ease up, boss.” Johnson put his hand out like a stop sign, calling Robby’s attention to him.

“Excuse me?” he snapped. “You allow those things to roam around the city without so much as a leash on them, and you’re telling me to ease up?” He pointed out the window. “You casually remark how awful it is to see Manny caged and then have the audacity to wave aside the mind-fuck we went through with a ‘oh well, you survived’ statement?”

I reached out and put my hand on Robby’s knee. He knocked it away.

“I’m not going to lose it. I’m just angry right now. Angry that you didn’t let me rip those vampires to shreds. Angry that you didn’t fucking toast them to ash. Angry that I ate rats for six months. Angry that I had to watch you die countless times and couldn’t do a goddamned thing about it. And I’m angry that my father gave my place away without so much as taking a memento of some kind to remember me by!” He drew in a breath and closed his eyes, along with his fists. “I’m just fucking angry!” he bellowed at the ceiling.

By the time he finished his rant, we were all leaning back away from him. I didn’t dare reach out to touch him, not with how quickly he knocked my hand away before. His visible tremors had the three of us trading glances. Robby kept his eyes closed and drew in slow, deep breaths like he used to whenever he was close to getting sick to his stomach.

Soon his hands uncurled.

“I’m sorry I upset you,” Judy said, and both my gaze and Johnson’s swiveled to her and darted back to Robby.

His piercing blue eyes zeroed in on her and his jaw tightened. “You didn’t piss me off. The whole situation tonight has.” He stood and nearly toppled over the chair. He grabbed it before it lost its teetering to gravity, and righted it, before he started pacing the room.

I tracked his movement and kept silent. I had an opportunity to kill the mother of the vampires and did not take it. Despite the consequences, I was a little irritated as well. “Robby, if I had taken them out...” I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth against the anger welling up inside me. “I would have killed far more than they will. Plus, there is no guarantee that I would survive.”

He stopped halfway across the floor and glared at me. He chewed on his lower lip as he mulled over my words.

“But you survived your master’s death,” Johnson said.

Robby waved at him and raised both eyebrows in a silent challenge.

“I know I survived his death, but I’m still a vampire. If killing her destroys all vampires, won’t that include me?”

“I’m not playing that game again,” he said with enough venom to shake my nerves. “I should have killed Cassius when I had the chance.”

I tilted my head. “We didn’t have the charms on. He would have killed you in an instant had I not forced you to come back.”

Robby growled at me. A deep and terrifying growl, like he would tear me to pieces if I continued. Both Johnson and Judy seemed affected by it as they rolled their shoulders in and dropped their gaze to the floor.

But I wasn’t having it. I stood and gave him an equally dark stare. “You want a piece of me?” I stepped outside the small ring of furniture and adopted my fighting posture with narrowed eyes. “Come and get it, alpha boy.”

I hadn’t called him that in years, but it seemed to break through the fury filling him to the point of not being able to contain it. It gave him a target to aim his frustrations.

“No, no, no, no. Not in the living room. You’ll break...everything,” Judy gasped as Robby stepped within arm’s reach of me.

I tuned out both Johnson and Judy’s emphatic pleas and circled Robby, both of us adopting fighting stances. This used to be our morning routine after the daily meeting when we were first in the agency. Hell, when was the last time we fought? The reality hit, bringing with it a fiery aggravation. When I met Cassius, I was too preoccupied to get in the sparring ring.

Damn that vampire.

Robby sensed my change in mood and threw the first punch. I parried and grabbed his arm just above the elbow, and yanked, using his momentum to throw him off-balance. Then I swept his feet out from under him.

He landed facedown on the floor with a “oof” of getting the wind knocked out of him. He rolled onto his back and before I could dance out of the way, he swept my feet from under me.

I landed square on my butt and let out a yelp at the pain now radiating from my tattoo. It only made me angrier.

“Stop!” Johnson yelled. “You haven’t destroyed anything yet, and I don’t want to deal with blood or stitches tonight!”

I climbed to my feet, rubbing my bum to get the sting out of it. Robby noticed and closed his eyes, as if he were mentally scolding himself.

“I’m fine,” I snapped, even though I wasn’t. That fall hurt enough for me to question whether I had broken the scabs on the tattoo or not. “And I’m not done kicking his ass.” I pointed.

“You are under my roof,” Johnson said, trying to exude authority.

“It isn’t your fucking roof,” Robby growled and stepped closer to me. “Let’s see what damage I did this time,” he said softer to me and reached for the back of my pants.

I swatted his hand away. “Who said I was done?”

Robby looked me straight in the eye. “I say.” He crossed his arms and crowded me in such a way as to almost be a silent dare.

I went to strike him, but he grabbed my hand and my opposite arm, turned and slammed me into the wall hard enough to rattle my teeth.

“Stop.”

His voice came out in that alpha command that I had no intention of following.

I lifted my leg, aiming for his balls, but he anticipated my move; his thighs clamped down on my knee, keeping me from nailing him. He tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

“Are you finished?”

I glared up at him. “How come you get to rant and rave and throw a fucking hissy fit and I don’t?” I struggled in his grip, but he just leaned his body against me, which not only infuriated me, but it started revving my engine in a whole different manner.

“Because.”

I stopped struggling and looked up at him. “Because why?”

“Because I’m fucked up worse than you are.”

I balked up at him and started to struggle again. I almost called on my fire, but although I wanted to kick his ass, I didn’t really want to hurt Robby.

He stayed still, staring down at me. “Plus, we really don’t want to start breaking furniture, do we?”

“Fuck you for being so goddamned levelheaded,” I spat up at him.

Robby grinned down at me and then glanced over his shoulder at Johnson. “Sorry.” He stepped away from me, far enough to be out of reach of a swing because he knew me well enough to know I might take a shot at him despite his disengagement.

I still huffed, with the heat riding my veins like a feral fire.

Robby met my gaze again. “Seriously, let’s go look at your tattoo to make sure I didn’t fuck it all up.”

“Fine.” I stomped up the stairs, sounding more like a mad elephant than I intended, especially because each step sent a web of irritation through my left ass cheek.