“Why?” I whispered.

His jaw worked. “Because if you didn’t, you would’ve died.”

I shook my head. Disbelief coursed through me. His blood healed me? How was that possible? But then I remembered the Black Underbelly and how he’d healed after the half-demon attack. Healing like that shouldn’t be possible.

I tried to push him away, especially when I realized how intimately we were entwined, but a memory of that rich liquid pouring down my throat, and the absolute bliss it had created, made me grow completely still.

He’d just saved me.

“I don’t understand,” I finally said. “You weren’t here.”

“I called him to help.” My twin sister twisted her hands and glanced at us, then at my ex- boyfriend.

Carlos stood immobile at her side, his gaze shifting between me and the hunter. An unreadable expression covered his face.

Tessa wrung her hands more. “I didn’t know what to do, so I called everybody.”

“What happened?” I didn’t know why I asked. I knew what had happened. I remembered it, but none of this could be true. Surely this was all just another dream. No, a nightmare. Not a dream. The dream I’d had before, when the Fire Wolf had been holding me, fucking me, that had been a dream. That was fantasy, but surely this was too fantastical to be reality. His blood had healed me.

“I heard you scream,” Tessa said quietly. Her body slackened, her hands falling to her sides. “I stumbled out of my bed into your room, but when I opened the door—” Her eyes grew distant, her expression haggard. “Two men were shoving you out the window, but something was happening to them. I didn’t understand it, but all I saw was you being shoved out the window and you were so close to falling.” Her face twisted, her lips turning into a grimace. “But I was too late. One of them pushed you, and then you were gone.” Her voice broke in a sob. “I ran to the window hoping that I could grab you, but I was too late. There was nothing I could do.”

The Fire Wolf stiffened, his arms tightening around me.

Tessa looked down, her chest heaving, and her lips trembled as she continued. “Those two men stopped moving after you hit the ground. I could hear when your body hit.” She shuddered. “And when that happened those men just . . . died.” A haunted look flashed across her face. “And I knew you were going to die too. I was frantic. I was in a panic, but then I saw your phone. I unlocked it, and the Fire Wolf’s contact was on your screen.” She looked at the hunter. “I called him and told him what had happened. And then I called Carlos because I knew he was in town too. And then I called the Supernatural Forces. I was going to call an ambulance, but then the Fire Wolf was just here. He was in your room, and when he saw you, he leapt out of the window, so I rushed downstairs, and I was going to call for more help, but he said he would take care of you.”

The Fire Wolf’s arms grew warmer around me.

I lifted my gaze to his, to the fire in his eyes, to the strength in his features. I licked my lips, and some of his blood coated the tip of my tongue. That luxurious burst of flavors again hit my senses. “But how does your blood heal?”

“I have exceptional healing abilities, but I can’t heal others. The only way for me to do that is to share my blood.”

Is that something you do regularly, I wanted to ask, but I didn’t voice the burning question.

I shifted slightly, testing my limbs and joints. Everything rolled and moved smoothly, as though I hadn’t just fallen three stories, landed on concrete, and shattered everything. “And the men that attacked me? Where are they?”

“Still in your room,” Carlos replied. He stood off to the side, watching my every move. “The SF will dispose of the bodies after we’ve studied them. We’ll want to check their identities in the database and decipher what magic they used to gain access to your apartment. Three stories up along a smooth wall is a feat even a skilled supernatural would struggle with.”

“They had an enchanted carpet.” The image of the thick fabric hovering outside of my window popped to the front of my mind.

“They did? On earth?” Carlos frowned. “Are you sure? Maybe you’re not remembering—”

I waved at the carpet lying beside me. “It’s right there.” Admittedly, the carpet now looked like a used, discarded old rug. There didn’t appear to be anything magical about it.

Carlos’s frown grew.

I brought a hand to my head, then realized I was moving my hands. But they’d cuffed me.

“What happened to the cuffs?” My gaze skittered to the shattered metallic pieces on the ground. Tiny shards lay everywhere. A fractured memory returned of hitting the ground on my back with the cuffs beneath me. Had the impact shattered them or had the magic from the sorcerers being snuffed out nulled the cuffs’ power, making them easily breakable?

I had no idea.

I waited for a headache to begin, to throb in my temples, given all that had happened, but I still felt good. So normal. No, not normal. I felt energized, invincible.

“I think the men who broke into my room are tied to Jakub,” I said to the hunter.

Flames erupted in his eyes. “I’d assumed so. I’m guessing these metallic blue shards on the ground were the cuffs?”

I nodded, then cursed my stupidity. “I should’ve put protective wards around our apartment before I went to bed. I knew it, but I was so tired. All I wanted to do was go to sleep so I didn’t, and look what happened because of it.”

Tessa rushed forward, collapsing onto the ground beside me just as a flurry of activity erupted near the mouth of the alleyway. The SF had arrived.

“You couldn’t have known,” she said in a soothing voice as she placed her hand on my shoulder. “None of us could have.”

The familiar touch and feel of her helped quell some of the uneasiness that was blazing through me. I grasped her hand, unable to believe that we’d argued yesterday. How could we be fighting when twice now our lives had nearly been snatched from us?

I shifted, unwrapping my legs from around the hunter, but he still held on to me in his lap, as though reluctant to let me go.

The group of Supernatural Forces’ members strode briskly toward us as I pulled my sister into a hug. “I’m sorry about yesterday,” I whispered.

She gripped me tighter, the familiar feel of her making my heart ache. “I’m sorry too.”

Hearing her apologize made my eyes scrunch closed. Tessa very rarely apologized for anything. It seemed the both of us were realizing how closely we’d come to losing each other.

I pulled back and licked my lips. “But I have to ask you something. Did you tell Jakub about—” I eyed Carlos. Even he didn’t know the extent of my power. He knew I was more magical than I let on, but he didn’t know about all of it.

But I didn’t need to continue. Tessa knew I was asking if she’d told the supernaturals in New York that it was actually me who harbored what they craved.

She shook her head vigorously. “No, I didn’t. I swear I didn’t, not even when they were threatening me.”

When I saw the sincerity in her eyes, I knew she wasn’t lying. “Then they must have mixed us up, thinking I was you.” It wouldn’t be the first time something like that had happened. Being identical meant it was hard for others to tell us apart, but this was certainly the most dangerous mix-up we’d ever been in.

I pulled back from her when Commander Klebus reached us. She led a group of six squad members. They had weapons drawn and glowing devices around their wrists. They all wore the signature black SF suits, the obsidian fabric gleaming like night.

“We had a call about another abduction,” she said briskly, her astute attention appearing to assess everything at once.

“That was me!” Tessa squeaked. “I called you. Those men came back, but they tried to take Tala this time, not me.”