Ever After (Rachel Morgan)

like burnt amber and that the window was open. “Fine. Play with the master vampire. But don’t do it here. I put you back together once. I’m not going to do it again if you go out looking for it!”
    Somber, Ivy turned to me, her hair swinging. “I—”
    “Don’t tell me you know what you’re doing,” I said, angry that she’d knowingly pushed Nina into something that might get Ivy hurt. “He’s a master vampire, and he’s not even yours!”
    “Since when do you have anything to say about what I do!” Ivy exclaimed, her eyes flashing black.
    I stood even with the center counter, measuring the space between us. Worlds, there were worlds there. “Since I am your friend,” I pleaded, letting go of my anger so my concern could come forward. “I know I said to try to help her, but goading her master like this? Proving he doesn’t have control? He’s going to be furious. Cormel can’t protect you from everything. He’s pissed you left!”
    Turning away, Ivy ripped open an envelope, sorting everything into keep and toss piles.
    “Ivy . . .” I pleaded. “You’ve come so far. Why? Is it because you love her?”
    “I don’t know!” she said, her eyes black, not in fear, not in hunger, but in heartache. “It didn’t work out between me and Glenn and Daryl, okay? We tried, and it all fell apart. Bad.”
    I slumped. This was where her turmoil was coming from. “Your needs are not wrong—”
    “Then why couldn’t I make it work, Rachel?” she shouted, and I drew back. “Why did they have to move halfway across a continent to get away from me?”
    Throat tight, I crossed the room to her. “Because you need someone who needs you, and I don’t anymore,” I whispered. “Ivy, I’m sorry.”
    Her shoulder under my hand trembled, and she backed out of my reach. “There’s no reason to be,” she said softly, hair falling to hide her face. “I have to do this. I like Nina. She’s alive, smart, always moving but never toward anything that doesn’t have meaning. The way she loves life reminds me of you, and she is good at making me do things that I’m afraid to do. But what Felix is doing to her . . . It draws me to her as much as it disgusts me. She’s so much like a master, but innocent.”
    Eyes bright with unshed tears, she looked at the ceiling. “I left for a week, and I came back to find he’s in her thoughts almost every waking moment the sun is up, and half the time at night, filling her with power and desire as he sucks in the memory of the sun and love. He won’t leave her alone. I don’t think he can anymore.” Again she looked at her fingers among her mail, shifting them aimlessly. “The man is using her like a drug. He’s not tapping her for blood anymore, which might mean she’s become an extension of himself in his mind. Nina is balanced on a fine edge of control.”
    “And you like it.”
    Head down, she nodded, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She felt better for having told me. I could tell. Or maybe it was because I was asking about what she could do, plan . . . fix. “She’s as dependent upon him for control as he is on her for stimulation at this point. He can die twice for all I care, but I don’t want her to pay for his mistake. The only chance Nina has to survive is to take control and tell him no for as long as she can. Even if it puts her in more danger.”
    And it would. I could tell. This wasn’t good.
    “Nina’s control when alone and under stress is almost nil,” Ivy said, eyes lowered toward the table. “That’s why I asked Jenks to go with her, to buffer any conflicts. I know I can help her learn control if I can keep them apart long enough.” Her head came up, meeting my eyes fully. “She has a chance. If she really wants it, she has a chance.”
    I managed a smile to match her own tremulous expression. Ivy had a tremendous need to give, to lift others above the muck she had pulled herself out of. Watching Nina innocently and willingly slip in over her head had been hard. Accepting the challenge to help her was even harder. “Be careful,” I said as I reached across the distance between us and touched her arm. “I’m proud of you, Ivy.”
    Her smile slowly vanished, and her dark eyes drifted aimlessly over our kitchen, touching parts of our lives as if she’d never seen them before. “Felix is going to be looking for her tonight. I have to get her to a safe house, but I’ll be back to help plan the museum job.”