The Vampires sat in silence long after Meghan and Isabel had finished speaking. It was difficult for Meghan to tell at first if the two believed them, but as Josephine reached for the bottle, cracked the seal, and poured a gss for herself, Meghan decided that she had. Seeing that Josephine had accepted what they’d said as truth---or at least enough truth to be concerning---River, the other Vampire, got up from her seat and took a gss of the blood as well.

  They drank in silence, staring into the middle distance at nothing in particur. Meghan and Isabel exchanged uncomfortable gnces. Neither of them was willing to break the retive silence in the office, insuted as it was from the pounding music on the other side of the circur window that overlooked the dancefloor.

  “Does anyone else know?” Josephine asked without looking at either of them.

  “Not to my knowledge,” Isabel answered. “We only know because we got the information from Ivan, and he was the sole survivor.”

  Josephine gnced at River, a beautiful woman in her own right with a distinctly studious aura about her. “When was the st time that one of them was spotted?”

  River blinked a few times, finishing her drink thoughtfully before answering. “Um. Outside of rumors and specution, I’d have to consult some texts, do a deep dive into the lore. But I don’t think I’ve heard of one in the States at all.”

  Josephine’s gaze remained fixed on River for a moment longer, just enough to make the other Vampire a little uncomfortable, before she finally turned her attention to Meghan. “You saw it before you woke up in Danvers?”

  “I believe so,” Meghan answered honestly. “It seemed to match what he experienced.”

  Josephine poured herself another gss of the blood, drank it, and took a long, deep breath as she thoughtfully held the empty gss against the side of her face. Meghan realized the strangeness of her actions immediately. Vampires didn’t need to breathe. While younger vampires still appeared to breathe, due to muscle memory more than anything, and elder vampires could fake it to pass for human, there was no reason for Josephine to do either. It appeared almost... natural.

  As she watched her, Meghan then realized that might have been why the Vampire enjoyed the fae blood so much. The Fae magic contained within it made her feel alive again, even if just for a moment. She was less pale, and her already incredible beauty became positively radiant. Once she realized she was staring at the woman like a sck-jawed schoolgirl, she looked away. Nervous that Isabel had caught her, she gnced in the Gnasci’s direction, only to see the same vague expression on her face as well.

  Isabel’s eyes met with Meghan’s, and the two abruptly looked away with some slight color in their cheeks.

  “This is what we’re going to do,” Josephine finally said, her eyes shifting back to Meghan, capturing her undivided attention once again. “First, you’re going to go introduce yourself to the Fae court. That much is overdue. Then, you’re going to tell them what you saw the night you woke up, but you’re going to leave out everything about Isabel, Ivan, and myself.”

  “W-what?” Meghan stammered uncertainly. Her first introduction containing such overt lies was bound to catch up with her sooner rather than ter. “That seems like a terrible idea.”

  Josephine gave her a pointed look as if to silently tell her to shut up. Meghan obeyed as though she had no other choice.

  “The politics of the Hidden is very different from what it was in the fifties. Things are sensitive right now, and there are concerns about the bance of power,” Josephine expined with an air of forced calm.

  “Mostly from the Magi,” River remarked bitterly.

  Josephine gestured toward the other Vampire while keeping her gaze fixed on Meghan. “Precisely. Now, I have already had to answer to the council for the incident at the Asylum, and I don’t know how long I’ll be able to sit on the situation with Ivan, considering how retively public all of that is.”

  “We don’t know which factions have operatives on staff at Mass General or in that precinct,” River crified, setting the gss down. “Even without something direct, there are a lot of other ways to come upon that information.”

  “So?” Meghan asked, confused. “Why should that matter?”

  “Because no one is going to believe I didn’t know from the start,” Josephine answered, slowly leaning over the desk, inadvertently treating Meghan to a tasteful glimpse of her cleavage. “I can barely believe it, myself. They’re going to wonder why I sat on the information.”

  “But you didn’t,” Isabel protested weakly. “You knew everything pretty much as soon as I did. Mostly.”

  “That’s not the sort of thing we can sell with tensions being as high as they are right now,” River interjected with a slight frown. “But if Meghan goes to the Fae and gives the impression all this information is coming from her vision, or whatever we want to call it, they’ll think they’re the first to be hearing it. Indeed, they’ll be so pleased that the information slipped through Josephine’s fingers that all suspicion will be deflected from her entirely.”

  “Unless they know I’m lying,” Meghan scoffed, shaking her head. “This is a terrible idea.”

  “Are you a terrible liar?” Josephine pressed, her brows furrowing. “You’re not full-blooded and not Unseelie, so what’s the problem?”

  Meghan stared back at her, trying not to look as offended as she felt. “Ma’am, Your Grace, whatever... I just... don’t make a habit of lying very often, especially about matters as dire as this.”

  The Vampire Bishop’s expression softened, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips before she lowered her head.

  “Great,” she muttered, sliding back into her chair, nearly slouching. “Of all the Changelings in all of Boston, and I get the one who’s a stickler for morality.”

  “I’m sorry,” Meghan muttered sincerely. “I could try, but it would only make things worse.”

  Pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration, Josephine shook her head. “Don’t. You’re right. It would only make it worse. Try to be evasive, if you can, I suppose. Perhaps downpy what aspects of our involvement you can, but don’t get caught outright lying. That’ll send red fgs up, and the st thing I need is for Ciaran Calhan to be seeing red at a time like this.”

  Meghan swallowed uncomfortably. “The Calhans? They’re still around?”

  “You know them?” Isabel asked with a little curious smirk.

  Josephine smoothed out her blouse, drawing gnces from Isabel and Meghan alike. “Yes, unfortunately, the Sidhe are as long-lived as we are, so I’m afraid they’re still in charge. Are you familiar with Ciaran?”

  “Only a little,” Meghan admitted uncomfortably. Not all of the Calhans were trouble, but the boys of the cn had a tendency to get into bad situations and throw their weight around in their attempts to get out of them. “His brother was Baron back then.”

  “I remember,” Josephine nodded, pinly reading the discomfort Meghan wore on her face. “You might be able to get away with introducing yourself to his wife, Naoise, instead. She runs the Liberty Tree Tavern down on Washington.”

  “I know it,” Meghan confirmed rigidly. “Can I go in the morning?”

  Josephine gnced at Isabel as if to ask her if the Changeling would be staying with her. The Gnasci nodded. “Yes, that’s fine. But first thing, understand?”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” the Changeling answered, unclenching a little. She wasn’t dying to reinject herself into the Fae community, but being able to put it off just one more night came as a huge relief. “What are we going to do about the Fallen?”

  “Without knowing what they’re truly capable of, there’s not much we can do,” River answered for the Bishop, who was pouring herself another gss of blood. “I’ll do what research I can, but once you alert the Fae to it, they’ll likely have their own researchers dig into it even as they present the matter to the council.”

  “Then I offer my assistance,” Josphine interjected after downing the entire gss. “With us then presenting a somewhat united front, the Magi will be disinclined to bogart their resources quite so much, and we might actually get somewhere.”

  It was as good a pn as any, Meghan supposed. The Magi, despite cking the lifespans of many of the Hidden, kept meticulous records in their secretive and mysterious libraries. If there was information anywhere in Boston pertaining to the Fallen and how to deal with them, they would have it.

  “There’s also the Demons,” River added, her tone ft. “They might know something.”

  Isabel and Josephine’s heads both turned to stare at the woman in utter disbelief that she would even suggest such a thing. River held her hands up defensively. “You know as well as I do they’re not the same thing. Demons are from before Earth, and the Scatter separated. Fallen are explicitly divine entities that were punished for their betrayal. A lot of Demons may have flocked to their cause back then, but it’s been a very, very long time.”

  “I’d rather drink holy water,” Josephine snapped. “No. No Demons. I hate dealing with Demons, and it’s been my good fortune to have so few of them in the city for so long.”

  Isabel gnced between River and Meghan, biting back something that danced on the edge of her tongue. It was already quite clear how Josephine felt about the subject, arguing it wouldn’t do anyone any good.

  “Just a suggestion,” River murmured, taking a step away from Josephine’s desk. “I should probably get going on that research. Will you be alright if I go?”

  “Yes,” Josephine answered apologetically, evidently regretting her tone a moment ago. “Bring Sys up to speed before you do. He should know what we’re dealing with.”

  Isabel shifted uncomfortably in her chair as Josephine leaned back again, her breasts straining against her silk blouse. “What would you like us to do?”

  For a moment, Meghan could have sworn she saw something lecherous in Josephine’s eye. It was difficult to pce because with Vampires, everything had a predatory edge to it. They had dozens of ways of looking at a person as though they were prey, without ever having the intention of feeding upon them.

  “Go,” Josephine finally said after some brief consideration. “Eat, drink, sleep. You’re no good to me running on fumes.”

  Suddenly pulling a drawer of the desk open, Josephine grabbed a crisp stack of cash held tightly together with a white band. She tossed it to Isabel. “Your payment, by the way, for all your work. Maybe get this one some clothes of her own before sending her over to the Court of the Elm in the morning.”

  Isabel caught the stack awkwardly with both hands as though it might burn her to the touch. She seemed just as surprised and impressed with the amount as Meghan was, which told the Changeling she didn’t see that sort of pay very often. “Um. Thank you?”

  “You don’t want it?” Josephine asked dryly.

  Isabel ughed, waving the stack around briefly before jamming it into her jacket pocket. “Oh, I definitely want it. Just wasn’t expecting it, is all.”

  “Your work might not be perfect, but there’s no questioning your loyalty or the danger you’ve been in,” Josephine expined with a calm and even tone, nodding gently toward the money in the Gnasci’s pocket. “Try not to spend it all in one pce, alright? Otherwise, you might be tempted to put yourself in danger again to make more, and we can’t have that, can we? Not so soon, anyway.”

  Isabel opened her mouth to say something, but Josephine shut her down with a gesture of her hand, then motioned for them to be on their way. Meghan got to her feet and fell in behind Isabel without another word. Clearly, the Vampire was no longer in the mood for company.

  “How much did she give you?” Meghan asked once they were back out on the street. The pn for getting a little free food at the bar had been scrapped.

  “Five,” the Gnasci responded, holding a hand out to hail a cab. Meghan supposed neither of them was in the mood to wait for a bus or train after everything they’d been through that day.

  “Hundred? Wow.” Meghan murmured, nodding approvingly. “That’s great!”

  Isabel gnced at her as a yellow car with a taxi light on the roof approached, her face scrunched up. “What? No. Thousand. Five thousand.”

  “Holy sh---!” Meghan cut herself off, gncing around conspiratorially toward the line waiting outside the club before lowering her voice dramatically. “Are you serious? That’s more than I make in a year!”

  Isabel looked thoughtful, as though just remembering what time Meghan was effectively from. “Huh. I guess that’s true. Well, it’s not quite as much now, but still pretty significant. Much more to cover my rent and bills for a few months.”

  The cab rolled to a stop, and the Gnasci opened the rear passenger side door for Meghan. “After you, madam.”

  The fact that she’d affected an “old timey” way of speaking was not lost on Meghan, but she ignored it. She climbed into the cab and slid across the backseat before the Gnasci joined her. She gave the driver the address, and they were off, allowing Meghan a moment to rex and take in the lights as night settled in across Boston.

  Arriving at the apartment after a brief stop at the nearby corner store for some light groceries, the two sat down to a te dinner and chatted for a while about nothing in particur. It was nice to be able to talk about things that weren’t so serious or pressing. In truth, Isabel didn’t know for certain when she would see Isabel again after the next day. Once she reported to the Court of the Elm, it would be rgely up to them what to do with her. She had very little to work with in obtaining a pce of her own, so she was essentially at their mercy.

  “I should probably get set up on the couch,” Isabel remarked as she set her pte in the sink. “Probably better to get up early for the clothes shopping before we get you to your people.”

  “You don’t have to sleep on the couch,” Meghan argued, finishing off a second gss of soda.

  Isabel quirked a brow. “What, you wanna snuggle or something?”

  Meghan’s cheeks grew a little hotter. “I meant that I could sleep on the couch and you could sleep in your own bed.”

  “Mhm,” Isabel countered skeptically, reaching out and brushing a lock of hair behind Meghan’s ear. “I’m sure. Don’t think I didn’t notice how hot and bothered you were getting with Josephine. I bet you’d love to work out that sexual frustration with someone, wouldn’t you?”

  The Changeling stared for a moment before snorting with ughter. “You’re one to talk! I saw the look on your face!”

  Meghan did her best impression of a love-sick puppy, jaw practically hanging to the floor. Isabel shoved her arm pyfully. Meghan ughed and shoved back, nearly knocking Isabel back onto the floor.

  “Whoa!” Isabel held her hands up. “Easy! You nearly id me out. You’re a lot stronger than you look, you know?”

  Confused, Meghan gnced down at her hands. She knew she could be strong when she had to be, it was part of her Vi nature, but most of her strength was in her legs. Even so, she never had trouble controlling it, not since she was a kid, anyway. “Come to think of it, I guess I don’t know what’s going on with my body. At the Hemogarden, I shouldn’t have been as quick as I was. I’m not even sure I should have been able to knock that Vampire’s teeth out.”

  “Mm,” Isabel grunted in agreement as she nodded. “Yeah, that was a little weird. You said your power was mostly withheld because of the iron, so I was really surprised to see you Bruce Lee’ing everyone like that.”

  Meghan stared bnkly, having absolutely no idea who that was. Isabel waved a hand dismissively and then retreated to the bedroom, chuckling to herself. Then, after a moment, she popped her head back out.

  “Were you cleaning my room?” The Gnasci asked with an incredulous look.

  Meghan pursed her lips and shrugged. “It’s a Fae thing.”

  “I thought that was Brownie’s or something, not Vi,” Isabel specuted before waving it off. “Whatever, come to bed.”

  “Come to---?” she murmured in response as Isabel stepped out of the room wearing nothing but a loose shirt and fresh panties. Meghan didn’t move until Isabel started brushing her teeth in the bathroom.

  She thought everything they’d said earlier had just been pyful teasing. Were they sleeping together? Were they just sleeping in the same bed? The thoughts and specution came at the Changeling at breakneck speed, but none provided answers.

  In the interest of pying it safe, Meghan affected her most convincing casual demeanor and made her way to the bedroom. There she... froze. She didn’t have pajamas, and she didn’t think that stripping down to nothing would be appropriate when sharing a bed with the Gnasci.

  “PJs on the dresser,” Isabel said from the bathroom. “All yours.”

  Meghan breathed a sigh of relief before changing into the loose-fitting pajamas and sliding under the bnkets on the right side of the bed. Shortly after, Isabel killed the lights in the apartment and returned to the bedroom, sliding into bed alongside Meghan in the dark.

  The Gnasci reached over to the glowing clock and clicked a button. “What do you think? Eight? Nine?”

  “Eight’s good,” Meghan responded quietly, her vision quickly adapting to the dark, allowing her to see Isabel as clearly as she did in the light. She had to remind herself not to stare, as Gnasci likely saw well enough in the dark to catch her if she wasn’t careful.

  Meghan rolled over with her back to the woman, knowing it was the only way to get through the rest of the night. It wouldn’t be right for her to get too attached. There was no way of knowing what tomorrow would bring. Even if everything lined up in a way that she remained with Isabel, how would they ever make something like that work? It wasn’t common for romances between factions to go anywhere. It would be unfair to make her think otherwise.

  Sighing, Meghan closed her eyes, thinking it impossible to fall asleep when lying next to such a beauty as Isabel.

  “You could just take her anyway,” a voice whispered behind her ear.

  Startled, Meghan turned to see who was speaking and found that she wasn’t lying in bed anymore. She was standing in a subway, of all pces. It looked simir to one of the ones she’d been to earlier that day, but not quite the same. The entire ptform appeared empty except for her and one other person at the far end.

  The person was draped in an old, bck hooded cloak that concealed their face entirely, but Meghan recognized it. It was the stranger from the bus---the Fallen.

  “You,” Meghan muttered, her brow furrowing. She gnced around for any sign of people that could possibly be harmed by the Fallen, but again, there was no one. She did notice, however, that she couldn’t actually make out the text of the nearby signage for the ptform. “I’m dreaming.”

  “Indeed,” the Fallen said, slowly approaching her. “I sensed you earlier, when you made a connection with my acolyte. You could be my acolyte, too.”

  “What do you want?” Meghan asked impatiently. Knowing that she was dreaming didn’t set her mind at ease, despite it being a pce where the Fae theoretically wielded more power than most. The fact that the Fallen could just reach into her head and intrude upon her dreams from some unknown distance was rather unsettling. “Who are you?”

  “You may call me Reym,” the Fallen responded, reaching up and pulling her hood back. Rather than the eye-burning, mind-shattering beauty that Ivan had witnessed on the bus, she appeared to Meghan as a beautiful blonde woman of preternatural beauty. Even without the benefit of her aura upon Meghan, she was still painfully beautiful in a lot of ways. “And I want what you want. Whatever it is that you desire, I wish for you to have it.”

  “Why?” Meghan wondered, trying to think of a way to effectively wake herself without doing any psychological harm. “You don’t know me.”

  “Don’t I?” Reym asked, her lips puckering pyfully. “You’re the eldest daughter of Mererid, originally from the Court of the Silver Lion. Your father is the so-called Unbreakable One. Your sister Gwendolyn is---.”

  “None of that means you know me enough to want anything for me,” Meghan interrupted irritably.

  Reym blinked slowly in acquiescence to the point. “True enough. I want for you what I want for all among the Hidden: to no longer be Hidden. I want to reunite the worlds and set everyone free of the social moorings that have bogged supposed civilization down into drudgery, devoid of any spark.”

  “This is starting to sound familiar,” Meghan said, wagging a finger at the Fallen before turning away. “No. No way.”

  Reym was there waiting for her at the exit. “You would refuse my offering out of hand before knowing what gifts I am willing to bestow upon you?”

  “I don’t need any gifts,” Meghan countered, backing away from the Fallen as quickly as she could. But it wasn’t enough. In dreams, things like speed and distance were all subjective, and Meghan was far from being in control of either.

  Reym wrapped an arm around her to hold her in pce, practically towering over her in height with a body beneath the cloak that was both soft and powerful all at once. Meghan felt her breath hitch at the electric feeling of the Fallen’s hand upon her cheek, stunning her into complete silence.

  “Be not afraid,” the Fallen whispered against her lips as she threw her cloak open to reveal the perfect nudity that awaited the Changeling beneath. Not only did the Fallen possess rge, full breasts topped with perfect, pink, erect nipples, a slender waist, and the genitalia of both a man and a woman, but her arms and legs were covered in glowing lines like a cooling va flow---if va was bluish green. Her halo emerged from seemingly nowhere, broken yet brilliant as it hung behind her head.

  Reym took Meghan’s hand and pced it on her Angelic abdomen before pushing it lower. “May you know the joys of my gifts, Changeling, so that you may know the truth of my words and the intent of my heart.”

  “Ah...” Meghan gasped, feeling something deep inside her beginning to squirm and writhe against the temptations and promises of the Fallen. She felt the smooth but firm shaft of Reym’s erect cock upon her fingertips before the creature suddenly recoiled.

  “What is this!?” Reym seethed, her eyes glowing the same blue-green as her limbs. “What are you doing?”

  Meghan’s body wrenched and jerked from side to side, as though something inside were trying to crawl out. Without anything else she could do, the Changeling arched her back and let out a tortured scream.

  The Fallen’s hands cpped down over her ears in agony. “Stop this!”

  Meghan continued to scream as golden blood oozed from the Fallen’s nose and eyes. “Stop this at once!”

  But all Meghan could do was scream.