Nolan sat at the dining room table in Atticus's small house in the foothills. He hadn't wanted to go back home. It smelled too much of Rhia. This place smelled of her too, but not quite as concentrated. Other females, Atticus Dáithí... they were mixed into the building. Cameron was upstairs, sleeping away the daylight, and his own potent brand of shade magic was helping in covering her scent.

He worked the fabric of her baby blanket through his fingers, relishing in how soft it was and how much power was woven into it.

He was frozen to his seat. His mind unwilling to process everything and his heart fracturing to pieces.

An overwhelming amount of work was building up waiting for his attention.

He still had a thousand things to do at the hospital. His personal assistant was doing her best with the resources she had, but there was a lot she couldn't do without his direct approval or signature or something else that only he could provide. There were over a dozen voicemails from the dean of the hospital alone because he'd completely forgotten about the three residents he was supposed to be supervising. He didn't want to think about the number of consults he'd put off even before he was recalled to the Counsel.

He'd let Rhia take up so much of his attention right from the beginning. He'd done what every teenager did when they let their hormones get in the way of rationality. He did what every love-struck idiot in every romance novel did. He neglected his very real responsibilities, and now his world was beginning to fracture apart. Any hope of maintaining relationships with L.A.C., or any hospital in this country for that matter, was gone.

And that was just his career.

The Counsel and Constantine had their own demands.

Technically he still had all the paperwork and ceremony to take his seat back on the Counsel. He still needed a full debriefing from the three vampires that took over his duties when he left almost forty years ago. He still needed to connect with his old allies within the Counsel and make appointments to meet with the few new members.

He also needed to find time to apologize to Arkil. As irritating as the elf was, and as justified he'd been in aggressively acquainting his face with the desk... it was impossible to work with any of the elven clans if you didn't have, at a bare minimum, a working relationship with him.

On the purely vampire side of things... well... shit didn't just hit the fan. It hit a fan aiming directly into a thousand other fans until there were fine particles of feces hovering in the air and became completely impossible to avoid breathing it in.

Raphaël had made his biggest move yet. As the sun rose over California and set away from France, they raided the distribution warehouse in Paris. The warehouse that supplied blood to every vampire blood bank in mainland Europe. A year's worth of food... gone. Every vampire who had been working that evening was dead, their bodies less than charred heaps of ash by the time it was reported. Raphaël couldn't have picked a better, or worse, time. It had effectively taken Constantine out of the search for Rhia along with most of the vampires he'd brought with him.

All that work... and Nolan couldn't bring himself to focus on a single thing. Because doing any one thing that took his full attention away from finding Rhia... it felt like he was abandoning her.

She had fought so damn hard against the dark elf. He had watched her rake her claws across his face, and he had smelled the blood from him and the soldier she'd bitten. He heard her war cry, calling forth the dragonkin in the area. Drawing out his own dragonkin magic. Magic he never thought he'd have after he turned.

He had the chance to shoot the elf. He could have killed him. He had the gun aimed directly at Zenith. But... he couldn't take the risk that he would have hit her. Hurt her. He let them get away. It was his fault that Rhia was missing. Not just Rhia. Madeline and Maddox were gone too, along with Juniper, Dáithí, and the other seven from the compound attack. Sophie had been among them. Sophie and Dáithí were gone. His two best and oldest friends were gone. He didn't know what to do anymore.

A hand touched his shoulder and he jumped. He hadn't even sensed that Lysander was nearby. The dragon took a seat across the table and picked up a corner of the blanket. A smile tugged at his lips as he felt Luna and Nekros's power. The same power their blood passed to Rhia.

Rhia was a dragon.

Nolan couldn't decide whether he was in denial or in shock. When he'd been told she was a yfeerie, he'd cursed himself for not seeing the obvious. He should have recognized what she was when they made love, or when he fed from her, or the electrics in his house going dark. Her eyes... Her eyes alone should have told him everything. Only dragonkin had eyes as vibrant as hers.

He was not being so hard on himself now that he knew the truth. How could he? Five billion years went by with only nine dragons. Five billion years went by with several of them in mated pairs. Quin and Luna. Ozin and Tiamat. Nekros and Phoenix. None of them had ever been successful in laying viable eggs. There was no indication that the dragons were anything but barren and sterile.

But she... Rhia... she was the first.

And he... he had no idea how to feel about it. He loved her. He knew that. But he was slowly starting to wonder... why? She had been able to unlock his dragonkin magic. What else was she able to do without even realizing it? When he tried to break up with her and she'd gotten angry... was it just the dragonkin blood inside him answering to her pure dragon magic?

Was... was any of it... real?

"You are a very loud thinker." Lysander said softly. "Tell me what's on your mind?"

Nolan looked up at him again. "Why didn't the dragonkin know who... what she was?" he asked the question plaguing his mind since Lysander had told him.

"Because Quin made them forget."

It was such a simple answer filled with so much implication it made Nolan's head spin. Lysander's glassy blue and pink eyes met his. It was hard to tell... but there was so much sadness... so much regret in those eyes.

"It wasn't just his own dragonkin. It was all of them. Quin took advantage of our grief and took control of our bonds. He made all kin forget that Rhiannon had ever been hatched, that Phoenix had even laid an egg. There are only a few who were able to resist his commands and broke away. We could have... should have stopped him."

"Why? Why make them forget."

"Quin fears the lack of control and we were all... I guess you can say we were in shock. None of us could believe that Nekros and Phoenix..." he shook his head. "We couldn't believe that anyone would have the ability to overpower any of us like that. The ultimate hubris. Like we had all forgotten that we were the original targets of the elven wars. Or any number of times we had been hunted, however unsuccessfully. The older we got and the less magic the newer species had, the more we believed ourselves invincible. Until humans, who had little to no magic at all... I would be lying if I said I didn't believe we were untouchable once."

"Once? Not anymore?"

"Oh, not for a long time." Lysander chuckled and looked back at the blanket. "Not since before I went into my 'sleep'." he raised his hands and made air quotes around the last word. "Quin and I used to fight about our position among other intelligent species. I didn't think it was right for us to stay so separated from the rest of the world. Not that I believed we should join the Counsel or align with human politics... but we should have established a much better working relationship with them. It should have been how things were during your time. We were separate... but approachable.

"When I decided I had enough, it was not of the world. It wasn't because the world was changing too quickly... I was sick of Quin. The idea of spending five more minutes around him made me homicidal. I don't have the power to challenge him, so I retreated to my home, and I limited the number of kin in my command to my elites." He laughed again, this time a bit more genuine. "Nekros never once fell for it."

"So, you... You were never asleep?"

"For a short time, I was. Long enough to weaken the bond between myself and the others. It wasn't even a full week after I rose when Nekros came to see me the first time. He kept my secret. He didn't even tell Phoenix that I was awake. He visited plenty of times over the years. He really is the best of us. The only one, I think, who deserved to have hatchlings at all. When he shared the news with me... I'd never seen him so proud and excited." Lysander gave him a slightly guilty look. "I don't... suppose you have a picture of her?"

An unwitting smile spread across Nolan's face as he pulled out his phone. He hadn't wanted to do it, but Rhia had insisted on a selfie on one of the nights they spent just talking. They were, luckily, wearing enough clothes that he didn't feel uncomfortable about showing it to anyone.

Lysander's smile could have lit the world. "She looks like him." he breathed in awe.

Nolan raised a questioning eyebrow. "You think so?"

He'd met Nekros in his human skin a few times and, sure, Rhia definitely had his eyes, but other than that there was nothing to show they could be related. He was a towering male at six-foot-six, broad, and black-haired. Rhia was tall, sure, but she was slim, and her hair was the colour of fire. He'd never seen Phoenix's human form, but he imagined they were much more alike in appearance.

"Yes," Lysander nodded, zooming in on her and Nolan's smiling faces. "You can see it in her eyes, the way she smiles. She and Nekros have the same soul. Kind. Warm."

Nolan couldn't help the laugh. "Yeah... That's Rhia... and stubborn as hell. I'm guessing she gets that from Phoenix?"

"Both." Lysander looked reluctant to return the phone. He met Nolan's eyes again. "We will find her, Nolan."

Nolan swallowed the lump quickly forming in his throat and stared at the image. "I know." he said in a raspy whisper. "But... what condition is she going to be in when we do?" Unable to look at her smiling face anymore, he dropped the phone on the table before running his hands through his hair. "She doesn't remember the first five years of her life. Nothing except the pain of being ripped away from Nekros and the pain of whatever experiments they put her through. She is terrified of being a patient in a hospital because it brings back all those memories."

Nolan half expected Lysander to reach out with his magic, the way Quin liked to do when anyone's emotions started getting out of hand. Quin preferred rational thought over emotional reactions. Almost to his detriment.

Instead, Lysander reached out and made a physical connection. His hand touched Nolan's elbow. He was warm but the touch did nothing to help Nolan come back to the moment. "What are you really afraid of, yfeerie?" he whispered.

More emotions than he knew how to handle flooded his system faster than he could handle. He stood up sharply and started to pace. "She is a dragon." he gasped. "And I'm... I'm just a vampire."

"No, Nolan, you are-"

"Don't!" Nolan roared. "Do not call me yfeerie! I have clung to that for so long, justifying my fucking existence. I did everything Quin asked because I wanted to believe that it didn't matter. I spied on Constantine and Luna for him. I swayed the opinions of the Counsel to benefit his agenda, even when I knew it was the wrong decision. But I'm not yfeerie. I'm not dragonkin. I'm just a vampire. A parasite. How could she ever want...?" He ran his hands through his hair again and forced himself to stop pacing. He took a deep, shuddering breath. "Even if I were still yfeerie... the honorable thing to do would be to let her go. She deserves someone stronger. Someone better than a half-breed."

Lightning arched between his fingers and danced up his arms. He shook his hands sharply, trying to shake off the magic. He needed to kick the way it made him feel. He couldn't depend on it. Every hour that past, it got weaker and weaker. Soon he wouldn't have it at all.

"That does not look like a vampire's power." Lysander raised an eyebrow, his voice taking on a curious tone. "Nor is that the power of a mere yfeerie."

"My mother had lightning." He bit back. "People always forget there's another generation between me and my grandfather." He swore as more lightning crackled in his palms.

"Of course... what was her name again? Do you even remember? It's been so-"

"Ainsley." He snarled, an old anger rising in him now and the lightning began to leap to other metal objects in the room. The lightbulb over the table exploded while the others began to flicker wildly. His heart slammed painfully against his chest, just like before. Just like when Rhia woke this magic the first time.

"Yes... I remember now. She was the timid one, right? No wonder she mated a human. I doubt she would have been able to handle a dragonkin mate."

Lightning exploded from him in reaction to his anger. Without thinking, he rushed at Lysander. The dragon did nothing, letting Nolan grip him by the throat and slam him down over the table. He snarled viciously, sounding more beast than anything else.

"There it is." Lysander's voice was barely a whisper. He did not fight against Nolan's tightening grip. He gazed up at him with wonder in his eyes as Nolan's pupils changed shape. "There's the dragonkin I always knew you were."

"Get it through your fucking head!" Nolan bellowed. "I. am. a. vampire!"

Lysander reached up and touched his thumb to Nolan's forehead. He was suddenly thrown back into his oldest memories.

He sat on the edge of a cliff. It was a moonless night, but he could see the wave of the ocean crashing against the rocks below. The sunrise was moments away, he could feel it. These were his last moments. Cold and alone, in a body that no longer felt like his own. A hunger ached deep in his gut and his gums burned. Only a few more minutes of this torture. Then it would be a moment of hot, burning pain. Then the black maw of death and it would be over.

"They told me you would be here."

The deep, rumbling voice of his grandfather had him spinning around to sit on his knees and staring up at the male. He looked the same as he always did. Deep, bronzed skin. Wild black hair. Eyes that were almost identical to Quin's, much to the dragon's distaste.

Nolan trembled and lowered his forehead to the ground to honour the wyvern. One of the most powerful dragonkin to ever live. A dragon in his own rights. Someone who could rival any one of the dragons in straight combat. Nolan had once been proud to say he was this dragonkin's grandson. Now he was ashamed to be in his very presence.

"Do you feel that?" Lysander's voice whispered in his head as his grandfather walked slowly towards him. "Do you feel the power of your bloodline? The power of your grandfather? Your namesake?"

Nolan sat back and watched as he dragged a blade across the base of his palm. "Drink." He said simply.

Nolan's mouth watered and he forced himself to look away from the bright red liquid. "No." he gasped. "I can't, grandfather. Please... just let me die."

"There will come a day," the wyvern said quietly. "Where you will have to face the truth of what you are. Today is not that day."

"Tell me, do you even remember his name? The name you, his youngest descendant and only half-blood grandchild, inherited?"

"I am offering you life on your own terms." His grandfather's blood dripped from his fingers to the grass at Nolan's knees. "There is more for you in life than death. I have not turned my back on you."

Nolan reached out with trembling hands and looked into his grandfather's eyes one last time. Who knew better than he? The dragons certainly wouldn't give him this chance.

"Tell me your name, yfeerie."

Slowly, tentatively, he reached out with his tongue and lapped at the trail of blood across his hand. His first taste of blood as a vampire. The taste exploded in his mouth, and he lost any semblance of control. His fangs descended and he sank them into the hand before him, feeding deeply and relishing in the pleasure, the power, the magic. His grandfather rested his hand on the back of his head and pulled him into his body, embracing him as he fed.

"I am begging you to live, Erebus." He whispered, emotion drenched in his deep voice. "Live for yourself and no other."

"Tell me your name!"

Nolan pulled back and out of the memory, gasping the name in a painful rasp. He tripped and landed hard on his ass, panting and clutching at his heart. What the ever-loving fuck was that?

Cameron appeared at the top of the stairs, his hair tousled from sleep and looking disoriented from being woken up too early. "What's going on down here?" he muttered.

Lysander ignored him and held out his hand for Nolan to take. "What would Erebus think if you were willing to give up on what you have with Rhia because of what she is?" he asked softly. "What would he think of you wallowing in your own self-pity?"

He met the dragon's glassy eyes and reached out to take his hand. "He would be fucking pissed."

Lysander smiled and pulled him back to his feet. "Rhiannon needs us to stay focused." He looked between the two vampires. "We will find her. You have to trust that she strong enough to survive."

Nolan's phone range before he could say anything more. He crossed the room to answer. "Nolan, it's Atticus," the shifter's voice came through the speaker before he could say anything. "We have a lead on Maddox. The shifters and I are on our way there now."

"You were tracking him?" Nolan pressed the speaker icon and placed the phone on the table.

"Of course, I was tracking him." There was a verbal eyeroll with the statement. "I hoped the kid wouldn't do anything stupid, but I was prepared for the kid to do something stupid. My people finally reported in. They lost his scent in Tahoe National Forest, but they're setting up a grid from where they lost him. I know Cameron is restricted by the sun, but if you leave in the next few hours, it should be dark by the time you get there. They weren't able to find the exact location, so if you have any tracking specialists, bring them too."

"We will. Keep us updated."

"Of course. Hey, is Lysander there?"

"I am." Lysander answered.

"I hate to ask this, but could you get a dragonkin or two to keep an eye on the Zesstra? Her people were not happy to be called on their debt and they've been stalling on revealing what they know about Zenith. It's just a gut feeling, but I wouldn't be surprised if the dark elves were planning on packing up and leaving the moment they can. I have some of my people with her, but if those dark elves want to go, there is not much they can do to stop them."

"I already have two of Keoni's elites monitoring them."

"Thanks. I'll call you in a few hours with an update."

He hung up and Nolan stared blankly at the phone. "Gut feeling..." he muttered quietly and turned slowly to Lysander. "The hatchlings that were taken... were any of them named Etienne?"

Lysander's eyes narrowed slightly. After a minute of silence, he spoke with noticeable hesitation. "No. Why?"