Lee Charvez sat straight up with a scream on her lips.

“Lee!” Alex sat up from a dead sleep, landing on the floor, ready to defend her. Aidan came rushing in at preternatural speed, incisors out, bloodlust gleaming in his eyes. “What is it?” he asked, alarmed.

Lee was shaking so hard she could barely speak. The dream wouldn’t let go. She tried to wake up, tried to shake free of it. Running her hands up her arms, she expected to find blood caked there.

Aidan grabbed her upper arms and put his face close to hers. “Lee, wake up. Darlin’, wake up! It’s a dream. We’re here. You’re safe.”

Her eyes slowly lost their panicked terror and gained focus on him. Her muscles relaxed and she took in a huge gulp of air.

“Blood,” she managed to say through chattering teeth.

Aidan brought his wrist to his mouth and sliced it open and held it out to her. She recoiled with a cry of dismay, the scent making her gag.

“Baby? What is it?” Alex said calmly, quietly. Shoving his own fear as deep as he could, he reached out slowly. She was cowering against the headboard. He’d never seen her like this. Even while facing a demon he’d never seen her so scared. Aidan’s hurt feelings at Lee’s flinching away from him tore at Alex. But he shoved that aside and put his concern for Lee’s panicked state ahead of that. He reached back, squeezed Aidan’s hand quickly and turned all his attention back to his wife.

“I’m going to touch you, okay?” He brushed against her leg with his fingertips.

“Lee, honey, focus on me, okay? It’s all right. I’m here. Aidan is here. We’re in our house. Nothing can hurt you. Wake up, baby, it was just a dream.”

She blinked several times and grabbed his hand, pulling it to her cheek and he moved then, embracing her and murmuring against her hair. Aidan hung back. Not entirely sure why she’d been so panicked by his blood—god knows they’d exchanged blood during sex many times before. But not wanting to make it worse, he watched Alex comfort her, trying to ignore the ache he felt at being excluded.

After several minutes, Lee kissed Alex’s lips softly and pushed him back. “I’m okay. It was a dream. It was awful. There was so much blood. My god, it was everywhere. So much it coated every inch of my skin. It was in my throat and nose. The stench. It was death blood. Torture blood. Pain. So much pain and suffering. I couldn’t stop it, I couldn’t help and I felt so ashamed.”

Aidan sat on the edge of the bed and she leaned in and touched his hair. He moved his head into her hand, feeling calmed by the reassertion of their connection.

“Aidan, it was vampires who did it. He saw it, they left him for dead.”

Aidan’s gaze, which was on hers, slid away for a moment. “Darlin’, who are you talking about? Who was left for dead?”

“It was a little boy. Just a little boy.” Her voice caught as the memory slid through her.

“Lee, was it happening now? Will it happen? Can we do anything?” Alex asked urgently.

“I think it was a memory.” She grabbed Aidan’s chin and turned it so he was looking into her eyes. “Aidan, it was vampires. They slaughtered an entire family. They laughed. They laughed as they tortured and maimed and murdered them. They did it for fun.”

He sighed deeply and nodded. “Yes. They did. They do. They’re Oathbreakers, Lee. The scourge of our kind. They are an embarrassing reality that we do our best to eradicate and failing that, ignore.”

Surprise made her face blank for a moment as she tried to process what he’d just said. “What? I thought you said vampires don’t take blood from the unwilling.” She was on her knees now, facing him, trying to understand.

“We don’t. Most of us don’t. Lee, you have your rules, we have ours. We live by an oath. The Oath. Those of us born to it are raised with it much as you are raised with your values. When vampires are made, they are schooled in the Oath by their Scion.

“But some of them…some of us…are Oathbreakers. The Oath—it’s hard to explain but it’s more than just words to live by. There’s a magical component to it that ties us to our power—to our existence. Oathbreakers repudiate that and then they are forced to gain their existence through death and terror and fear. They feed on it like junkies.”

Alex stared at him, agape. “Jesus. Aidan, if the humans knew about this…” He didn’t need to finish, they all knew the potential for danger.

“Much as you have Keepers of the Accord in the wizarding world, we have Oath enforcers—Oathkeepers. A kind of police force of hunters. The Oathbreakers run in gangs. It’s my guess that the dream you fell into was an attack by them.”

“The question is, why?” Alex asked, concern still etched on his face.

“I don’t know. But I never dream like that without a reason. Something is happening…will happen…I don’t know. But it’ll involve us. God, it would be nice to have just a year without drama.”

Aidan kissed the top of her head and let himself be comforted by the texture of her curls beneath his lips. It had been seven months since Conchobar had woken from his coma and they’d celebrated his and Em’s marriage. They’d hoped the quiet would remain, hoped to have a nice, normal life. He sighed, knowing something big was coming and that it didn’t bode well.

Simone Charvez walked hand in hand with her date through the thick night air. The deep-wine-colored dress she’d designed herself draped over only one shoulder and the hem was cut on a bias so as she walked a lovely slice of her thigh showed. The shoes had delicate straps and tied around her ankle. Her lipstick and nail polish matched the dress. She was as lovely as the evening smelled.

New Orleans was throbbing with life once again. The tragedy of Katrina brought the residents of the vibrant city to their knees but the city hadn’t given up and so they hadn’t either.

Music danced on the evening breeze and stars were bright above their heads, even with the light of the city. Magnolia and honeysuckle enveloped her senses—seduced her.

In fact, the heady scents of New Orleans were doing a far better job at seduction than the man at her side. Empath that she was, Simone could feel his calculations at how he’d get her into bed. And it bored her.

She was more than what he thought her to be. More than the voluptuous woman with big golden eyes and deep brunette hair. More than the sexy, smoky voice and the sensual way she walked. Yes, she was beautiful—she knew that—but she was more. Why didn’t they see that? It was like they were all hypnotized by her breasts or something.

It wasn’t that she thought men were all the same or that they were bad. No, it’s just that dating when you were aware of the other person’s feelings was a minefield of all sorts of unpleasant surprises. She didn’t mind that they wanted to have sex with her. Fine. She wanted to have sex with some of them too. No, it was the calculation. The intense mental planning they did. Some men spent so much time with their intricate plans at bedding her that she wanted to nominate them for the Nobel Prize. Geniuses really, some of them.

Oh, and well, the ones that just sort of muddled through were bad too. It wasn’t that she was high maintenance really. Oh, all right, so she was high maintenance! But darn it, if you don’t have high standards for the person you want to spend your time naked with then why have standards at all, she’d like to know. Unlike her cousins Em and Lee, she didn’t have dreams of the perfect man. Unfortunately, also unlike them, she didn’t have any prospects for a husband much less anyone long-term.

And so okay, she was just fine without a man. She had The Grove with her family, she had a fairly booming side business as a seamstress and she was opening her own shop within the next few weeks. Professionally, she was quite satisfied.

Family-wise, it was good. Although she’d lost her father two years before, she was very close to her mother and brothers and cousins. The Charvez women were a law unto themselves—strong, powerful, close-knit, magical—special. She belonged to them as assuredly as they belonged to her. The unity of her family provided much sanctuary in her life and she was quite aware and thankful for it. But she wanted to share her life with a mate, a partner. She was fortunate enough to be surrounded by loving relationships and she wanted that for herself. It wasn’t that she thought she’d be lost without it, but she wanted to wake up next to someone, to memorize every line in his face, to be thrilled and comforted by his taste, the sound of his voice.

She sighed and her date turned to her with a handsome smile and she weighed just how horny she was.