Micah spoke to Arturo behind her. "You said Kassius sensed something when he bit her. That Zack has somehow gotten tangled in her magic."
Arturo grunted. "But he has no idea what that means. Nor do I."
"His eyes . . ." Micah's voice rose slightly as he addressed her. "Quinn, I've seen magic poisoning before. If we don't figure out what's causing Zack's, Ax is right. He's going to die."
She straightened slowly and turned to face them with a you've-got-to-be-kidding look. "So his leaving town didn't cause it? That was just another lie?"
Arturo shrugged, a hint of a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. A smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I prefer to call it a lucky guess."
She just stared at him, the fury seething, burning. "What in the hell did you do to him?"
His expression turned serious, perhaps even puzzled. "Nothing. I do not know why he's sick. Perhaps it was leaving the area. Perhaps it was leaving Vamp City. Perhaps it was something else."
Damn him to hell. Lies, lies, lies. If there was any truth buried anywhere within that, how was she supposed to know? Whirling toward the window, she began prying one of the screen hooks loose.
"You would jump, cara?" Arturo asked quietly. "You will injure yourself. In Zack's weakened state, he might not survive at all."
She ignored him and pried the second screen hook loose, then glanced back to find the two vampires watching her.
Arturo's gaze caught hers and held fast, frustration and determination swirling in those dark eyes. "Even if you escape, you cannot hide from me, Quinn. After your last escape, I put a magical tracer on you. I may not be able to follow you during daylight, but come nighttime, there is nowhere you can go that I cannot follow. How do you think Micah found you so quickly?"
Unfortunately, this she believed because Micah had introduced himself to her just hours after Arturo freed them. As soon as the sun had gone down.
Her blood steamed. Maybe she'd shoot him after all. Shoot them both.
"I want to go back, Quinn," Zack said, sitting up slowly. "I want to go back to Vamp City."
Zack's quiet words stopped her cold. She met her brother's tired gaze. "They made you say that."
"No." He swallowed and looked away. "I want to see Lily again before I die."
"You're not going to die."
He turned back to her, his eyes older than she'd ever seen them. "Yeah, I am. Something's happening to me. I can feel it. And I'm not going to survive it."
Her breath caught. He sounded so sure, but he was wrong. He had to be wrong. "You'll be okay once the magic is renewed." Her own words, repeated so many times, came out automatically. But the moment she heard them, she froze. Her gaze flew to Arturo as the truth crashed over her with a shattering understanding. She was the only one who could renew the magic. Phineas Blackstone's sons couldn't do it. There was no escape. Not for her.
She sank down onto the sofa beside Zack, stunned. "I have to go back to renew it."
Her brother took her hand. "No. Blackstone's sons . . ."
"Can't. That was just another of Arturo's lies."
Zack said nothing for a moment, but his grip tightened. "Don't go back, Quinn. Let them die."
"Renewing the magic might be the only way to save you."
"Don't worry about me. Stay here," Zack urged. "No, leave here. Leave now and drive as far and as fast as you can. You can get away."
"I'm not leaving you." Certainly not to die. Just a month ago, she'd been bracing for the day he left her. When he graduated. When he moved to California with Lily. Lily. He said he wanted to see her again. Again.
Quinn turned to stare at her brother. "Did you find Lily when you were there?"
Zack released her and looked away. Slowly, he leaned his long frame back against the sofa and closed his eyes. "She was at Castle Smithson." Where he'd been a slave. "She was a maid or something."
Quinn felt the words like a blow. He'd known all along where the girl was, yet he'd said nothing. He'd left her behind. "Why didn't you tell me?"
His jaw hardened, tightening in that way it used to when he was small, just before the tears started. "What difference did it make? It's not like I could save her. I couldn't even save myself. I was fucking useless."
Oh, Zack.
Her gaze swung to Arturo on a surge of hope that he could help save Lily as he'd saved Zack. But as she stared at that handsome, charming visage, as the vampire's mouth began to open, she turned away, chastising herself for forgetting, even for a moment, that she couldn't trust a word he said. He would promise her anything to get her out of the sunlight and back within his reach. Then he'd take her back there, use her to renew the magic, then try to kill her so she could never be captured by Cristoff and reveal what she knew about her escape from his vile master.
She turned to Zack. "You can't go back there. Your chances of seeing Lily are next to zero, you know that." If the girl was even still alive. "You'll just be enslaved again."
"I will find her for him," Arturo said quietly. "And I will keep all three of you safe."
Zack's eyes snapped open, hope flaring within those sickly depths.
Quinn threw the vampire a look of disgust. "He's a liar, Zack."
"He freed us, didn't he?"
"Did he? And yet, here he is."
In the distance, she heard the wail of sirens.
Zack took her hand again. "Leave, Quinn, I mean it. Let that godforsaken place die."
"And let you die with it? I'd give my life for you," she whispered, emotion clogging her throat. "You know that."
He dropped her hand, pulling in on himself as he scowled. "Why? I'm nothing. You're the one with the X-man-like power. Figure out how to work it, then come back and kill the vampires that survive Vamp City's destruction. You'll be a hero, Quinn. Why waste all that on me?"
"Because I love you."
"I love you, too," her brother said matter-of-factly. "So do what I want this time. Let me go."
Let him go.
Swallowing hard, Quinn shot to her feet and turned away, staring, unseeing, out the window as her emotions knotted together until she didn't know what she was feeling, let alone what to do. The last thing, the last thing, she wanted was return to Vamp City. Nothing good awaited her there, only the threat of torture and the risk of death. But how could she walk away, run away, knowing Zack was going back there? Because whether or not going back there cured him, Zack's chance of survival in that place was miniscule unless she went too.
Her magic wasn't much, but it had saved him once. And maybe he really did need her to renew Vamp City for him to be okay. Assuming she could figure out how.
The sirens were growing louder. Glancing down at the sidewalk, she saw people hurrying away from the building as if they'd heard a fire alarm.
Or gunshots. Crap.
She whirled back. "The police are coming."
Arturo nodded toward the door. "Come, cara. We cannot leave the building in daylight, but you'll be safe in Micah's apartment."
She just stared at him. "From the cops, maybe." The wail of the sirens tore at her eardrums, and her nerves. Dammit, dammit, dammit. "Can you use your mind control to make them believe nothing happened?"
"Slowly, yes. But not if they grab you. Then I may have no choice but to fight them off."
And then cops could get hurt. Or worse.
"Come, cara. Quickly."
The moment she got within his reach, she'd be going back to Vamp City. But maybe Zack wouldn't have to. And the alternative was an almost certain trip to the local police station. And maybe jail.
She huffed with resignation. "All right. Let's move this discussion to Micah's." Fortunately, his apartment was just across the hall.
Quinn strode back to her bedroom, grabbed the small duffels she'd packed days ago in case they had to run at a moment's notice, then returned to the foyer. Arturo watched her as she approached him, his eyes dark and enigmatic.
Her heart began to beat crazily as she closed the distance between them. She told herself it was from the adrenaline and the sirens. It had nothing to do with the chemistry that had flared between them from the start, or the whiff of his scent, familiar and heady, that triggered memories of pleasure, of friendship, of betrayal.
"The coast is clear," Micah said, peering out the door. They crossed the hallway into an apartment lit only by lamplight. Room-darkening curtains had been nailed across the windows, canceling out every hint of daylight.
Micah closed and locked the door, then turned to her, his eyes serious, yet gentle with the concern she'd seen in them so often. "You're safe here, Quinn. Please believe that if you believe nothing else."
For a moment, he was her writer friend again, and she found herself asking him the question she most needed an answer to.
"Will Zack get better if I renew the magic?"
Micah hesitated, as if weighing his words. "I don't know. It's likely. It's also possible that he'll get better just by returning to V.C. Regardless, there are people there who might be able to figure out what's wrong with him." His mouth tightened with regret. "I'm sorry, Quinn, but he needs to go back."
Her instincts told her he spoke the truth, yet all he'd really told her was that Zack might die either way.
She turned to her brother, who'd sunk down onto the sofa. "Stay here. Stay in D.C."