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away in an hour. Where you and I are concerned, it doesn’t ever go away. I wish you would believe it.”
    “I do,” I protested.
    “Then have a little faith,” Aric teased. “I don’t want anyone else. I could give a crap about some little star-struck idiot who thinks being a senator’s son is something special. I am who I am. And, who I am, is in love with you.”
    “You’re never going to let me live this down, are you?”
    “Probably not,” Aric said, tilting my chin up so he could kiss me. “I like knowing you’re jealous. It makes me feel all manly.”
    “Ugh. You’re such a tool.”
    Aric kissed me again, sharing his body heat with me. “You make me laugh.”
    We snuggled together, the quiet of the night washing over us. After a moment, Aric’s body stiffened in my arms. “What?”
    Aric turned, peering into the dark. The distance between the two houses was narrow, like an alley. The traffic on the far-off road was sporadic at best, but the streetlight offered a hazy illumination.
    Two figures were moving toward us. They were close. As they neared, I recognized one of them. I disengaged from Aric, throwing my arms around Rafael when I finally caught sight of his face. “You came.”
    Rafael seemed embarrassed by the greeting. “You invited. I came.”
    After pulling away, I fixed my eyes on the woman next to him. She wasn’t a woman. Not really. I knew that right away. She was a vampire. Her pale skin was ethereal in the night, her dark eyes mercurial. She looked me up and down, curiosity rampant, but she didn’t immediately speak.
    “This is Fiona,” Rafael said. “Fiona, this is Zoe and Aric.”
    Fiona shook my hand, but her eyes were trained on Aric. “So, you’re the wolf?”
    Aric moved in behind me, his hand protectively planted on my waist. “I am.”
    The situation wasn’t tense – but it wasn’t comfortable either. “How has your summer been?”
    “Much more relaxing than last summer,” Rafael said. “There were no parties on a golf course, for which I’m eternally grateful.”
    Aric barked out a laugh. “Those parties still happened this summer.”
    “I figured.”
    “You guys need to stop hating on the eighteenth-green parties,” I said. “Those are memories. Precious memories, at that.”
    Aric and Rafael rolled their eyes simultaneously.
    I focused my attention on Fiona. “So, how did you and Rafael meet?”
    “We’ve known each other for … a long time. We just recently reconnected.”
    “I’m glad,” I said honestly. “He deserves someone that gets his sense of humor. Are you as fascinated with television as he is?”
    “It’s a marvel,” Fiona said, smiling. She didn’t want to like me, I could tell, but she was trying.
    “How was your summer?” Rafael asked.
    “Lazy,” Aric replied. “Nothing happened. How about from your end?”
    “Things were quiet here,” Rafael replied. “I kept my ears open and I was … diligent. There’s been nothing. No nests have been taken. No power plays have occurred at the Alpha Chi house. I have no idea why. Zoe might have scared everyone into submission.”
    “Or?” Aric prodded.
    “Or they’ve just been waiting for her to return,” Rafael conceded. “We have no way of knowing.”
    “What about Blake?”
    Rafael met my gaze. “Are you wondering what I made him believe?”
    “Yes.”
    “I thought about convincing him that he was a dogcatcher or, worse, a teenage girl,” Rafael said, shooting me a wide smile. “Instead, I just wiped the night from his mind.”
    “Why?”
    “Because knowing your enemy’s face is better than not knowing it,” Rafael said. “If Blake was gone, an unknown entity would have filled the vacuum. I thought that was more dangerous than leaving him in power.”
    Aric nodded, rubbing the back of his neck as he mulled things over. “I hate to say it, but that was probably smart.”
    “Are you saying that because you believe it, or because you’re trying to placate me?”