Ma louloute. The feral werewolf, Loulou. Darcy's meaning became clear. I wouldn't get the chance to help Zyr, my family, or anyone else. I would be locked in the wolf's body until he needed me. Indeed, his docile, well-kept pet.

"You bastard!" I spat through clenched teeth.

Darcy wheezed a laugh around a sip of cognac. "I've been called worse."

My face contorted as I felt myself snatched, and my body folded backward at the waist. My mouth gaped in a soundless scream. The music that was pulling me yanked harder. The wolf in the other ritual space let out a chilling howl and jerked against the leash, but she could no more escape than I could.

The loa Samedi paced the space between us. The tall, stately black man cast a glance at Brigit, and she sang louder, making the power rip me sideways toward the canine, warping my face. I bawled in furor and agony. I begged for them to stop.

"You said...it wouldn't...hurt," I wept.

Darcy shrugged. "Ignorance isn't dishonesty."

"Mwen pa renmen," Sam mumbled to himself. "I don't like it. I think we got a problem."

"What do you mean?" Darcy arched a brow at him, covering his mouth with his kerchief as he continued watching my body be ravaged by the loas' undisputed power. His look of disgust told me the sight was as disturbing as it felt.

Brigit unexpectedly went slack and stopped singing. The invisible hands tugging me dispersed as soon as the silence descended, and I fell to my knees with a drained whimper. "What in the five fucks of Lucifer! What's what with her, lovey?" she asked Samedi.

Darcy rushed forward. "No breaks. This is time-sensitive. I have another appointment, Baron Samedi. I want the job completed."

Fanning her florid face, Brigit snorted. "Oh, eat it, Nightwalker."

"Watch your mouth, Maman," Sam chuckled. "My apologies, Monsieur Cyprian. Lì can't resurrect her. She's...not my province."

"What? Do what we agreed, Sam!" Darcy sputtered. I stared between the two men from my position huddled at their feet. I didn't understand what was happening.

Samedi spread his arms and backed away. "My province is the dead. Keep the offering for another rainy day, Monsieur. Come along, Maman." He bowed low to Darcy, somehow managing to make a mockery of the gesture.

"God damn you, Samedi!" the vampire roared, pointing a shaking finger at him around the glass of cognac. "You better not step one foot off these grounds! We will discuss this in my office!" He slammed the tumbler on a side table and stormed from the room.

"If you insist, Monsieur." Sam chuckled, but the sound was laced with ire. His dancing black gaze met Brigit's. I cowered on the floor as they stepped over me and followed Darcy. I had no doubt the vampire would find a way to convince them to do his bidding. He was persuasive like that.

I traced the meandering path that had brought me to this altar—from Darcy's stupid business card for the loas, to his promise of Resurrection, to the visit with the voodoo priestess. At the thought of the old woman in the projects, I remembered her cryptic advice: "The lantern don't always light the way, chile. Some secrets you must travel into the wild dark to uncover."

Apparently, Brigit was the lantern, but she couldn't take me to the Other Side. How did one "travel into the wild dark"? I was in so much pain—after weeks of experiencing little to no physical discomfort in the Afterlife—that I couldn't think straight. I felt like even if there was an escape plan tucked into the words, I was too blitzed to figure it out.

I locked eyes with the baleful black and grey wolf. When a servant scurried in to take her away, the canine made a whimpering sound. I worried about what would happen to her, but I almost cried when she glanced over her shoulder, looking as if she felt sorry for me.

I was shocked out of self-pity by the sound of someone whispering my name. My eyes doubled in size as a woman made a crouching run into the room. "Tegan?!" I gaped.

"I'm gonna get you out of here," she hissed, blindly reaching toward me.

She couldn't see or hear me, but it didn't matter. "Oh, my God! I've never been happier to see you!" Shuffling to a sitting position, I also realized what the loa had really been doing when they stepped over me. The line of salt closing the ritual space was disrupted enough for me to get out! I clamped a hand over my mouth to hush my excited breathing.

"They're right in the next room," Tegan whispered. "We'll have to be careful. Follow me."

I crept after her. Both of us surveyed the creepy corridor to the foyer. I don't know what I expected to see when we rounded the corner. Definitely not the front door wide open. With a gasp, Tegan and I leapt behind a tapestry as the women of the house entered the foyer and looked around. Rain poured through the open door, soaking the hardwood.

"Are you done, Master Cyprian?" the dark-haired one snarked.

Darcy stuck his head out of his office. "Something has come up. I'll need another hour."

"What? No, I don't think that can be arranged. We have business."

"Another hour, Mal!" he shouted.

She pulled herself to her full height. Either she gave him side-eye, or she saw us. I shrank deeper into the shadows as the woman gave a nonchalant shrug. "It's your call," she grumbled. Mal and her sisters dispersed throughout the house, but they left the front door as it was. Open. I had a suspicion it was done intentionally, if only to spite their charismatic leader. It was our way out.

We stepped from our hiding place. "If the barrier still prevents you from leaving, don't worry," Tegan said over her shoulder. "Keep out of sight. I'll get in touch with the Council, like we discussed, and I'll bring Zyr to save you as fast as I can."

"Don't be ridiculous, Detective Stoney." Darcy Cyprian disengaged from the shadows of the great hall, and we stumbled to a halt. Believing his lawyers were trying to help us had been wishful thinking. Chances were, Mal had looked in our direction to signal him. The vampire's beautiful face radiated ebbing patience. "I made it clear Aurie Edison isn't going anywhere, and neither are you."

He stalked toward us. Behind him, Baron Samedi and Mama Brigit played audience to the game of cat and mouse, wearing matching expressions of disinterest. Darcy avoided the patch of floor bathed in the weak light of the storm. At his hesitation, I nudged Tegan. However, my hand went through her body.

No, not now, I thought. As I mustered the energy to regain my powers of touch, a movement on the staircase drew my startled attention. One of the Ashivant sisters—the blonde ingenue—descended sedately with Loulou on a leash. She looked about my age, or barely older, but something in her expression held more childlike wonder. She paused when she saw the group of us.

"Cherie? Where are you going?" Darcy snapped in annoyance.

"I'm taking her for a walk," she said.

"In a hurricane?" Samedi asked with a blithe smile.

Brigit chuckled, swatting his arm. "Leave at it, Sam."

While they were distracted, I willed Tegan to make a run for it. Unfortunately, Darcy seemed to read my mind. His attention whipped back to us, and he forgot Cherie. "You." He pointed at me with contempt. "Aurie, I'm beginning to think you're more trouble than you're worth. Did you honestly think you could get away with it? That I wouldn't find out?"

My whole body went slack. God, no. He had figured out I wasn't the witch. I stammered for something to say to keep him from connecting the dots and realizing it was Haley he wanted. Darcy took another menacing step toward me, but Tegan braved his wrath and stepped between us.

"Leave her alone," she demanded. He glared at her with enough malice to kill.

A shrill scream from the blonde shattered the silent stand-off. Even Darcy jumped. Cherie stumbled backward into the foyer. When she turned to face us, her maple eyes bore delight instead of distress. "More wolves!" She gleefully pointed toward the door. The leash trailed from her delicate fingers. Loulou was free.

"What do you expect me to do about it, ma petite?" Darcy blew an exasperated breath.

When I peered outside—where the vampire didn't dare approach—sure enough, there were several wolves frolicking in the rain. One blacker than night, and the other a ruddy shade of brown. The grey and black Loulou had joined them, and the three seemed to take to each other like a ready-made pack. I squinted at...

"Go get them for me," Cherie pouted.

"We've been over this, pretty one. You can't have every pet you lay eyes on. Besides, it's daylight, and I don't have time for this. If you're going with Loulou, get the mongrel and get out," Darcy ordered. His gorgeous, but vacant companion seemed to give up on the idea. She turned away from the door and ran back upstairs. "Cherie!" he called after her in annoyance.

She gave a penitent smile and returned to close the open door, but the wolves. The wolves were suddenly there. One of them bayed, and the others answered with hair-raising growls. Darcy appeared unnerved as he flapped a hand at Cherie to hurry. Instead, she ran.

Tegan backed into me in retreat when the wolves advanced. I was almost afraid, but my head filled with words from what felt like a past life. I am the big bad wolf, Zyr had said after shifting into a big, black Canis lupus remarkably like the one growling at Darcy Cyprian right now.

"Shut the door for me, Sam," Darcy bid anxiously.

The cocky loa put his hands on his hips. "You may be the master of this house, Monsieur, but not of me."