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happening…I can’t…
    Listen to me carefully, Caleb, Elijah lashed out. We can’t go back to Aden yet. We’ll be killed.
    Killed? Caleb gasped. Figures. I knew we were going to die.
    What do you mean, killed? Julian snarled.
    I mean, we’ll be fine unless you two keep this up! Your panic is going to drive us out of Victoria, and we can’t leave Victoria. Not yet. So you have to calm down like I told you. Do you hear me? We can return to Aden later. After the…just after. So, Caleb, Julian, are you listening to—
    His speech ended abruptly. Caleb screamed, then Julian screamed, the sounds blending with Elijah’s sudden groan of distress. No, they hadn’t listened.
    Neither had she, apparently. Victoria was the next to scream, and the sound of that busted her eardrums. Loud, loud, so loud. Hurt, hurt, so hurt. Then, she didn’t care. The pain left, and her scream softened into a purr.
    Somehow, some way, absolute power was birthed inside her, blasting through her, fusing with her. Now, a part of her. Good, good, so good.
    Throughout the decades of her life, she had drained several witches. A bad thing for vampires. Witches were their drug of no-choice, and once sampled, it was difficult to think about anything else. She knew that very well. Though years had passed since her last bender, some days the cravings hit her, and she’d find herself running through the woods, searching, searching, desperate tofind a witch. Any witch. And that was reason number one why witches and vampires usually avoided each other.
    But, oh, this sudden burst of power…it was witchlike, intoxicating, warmth and sunlight, yet cold like a snowstorm. Dizzying, overwhelming, everything and nothing. She floated on clouds, swept away from the cave. She dozed on a beach, water lapping at her feet. She danced in the rain, as carefree as the child she’d never been allowed to be.
    Such a beautiful eternity awaited her here. She never wanted to leave.
    She thought she heard the souls crying, soft, almost childlike. Where they not experiencing this, too?
    A roar cut through her euphoria. That roar stretched out wispy tentacles, and those tentacles wrapped around her, surprisingly strong, tugging her away. Frowning, she dug her heels into the ground. I’m staying!
    A second roar inside her head, louder now, threatening, causing a chilled, clammy sheen of perspiration to coat her….
    In a snap, she was jerked back to the present. And just like that, her sense of tranquility vanished. No. No, no, no.
    Oh, yes. The souls were no longer chattering, screaming, crying, anything, and the sense of power hadevaporated with the tranquility. More than that, Chompers had returned, and he didn’t want her to hurt Aden.
    Before, each time her beast had returned to her, she had experienced a sharp lance of acknowledgment. Nothing more. Then he’d left her again. Then returned. An endless cycle as she and Aden endlessly drank. But this…this was something different. Something stronger. A passing of energy, perhaps. Or had that been a final break of the ever-changing cycle of possession?
    Chompers’ hunger blended with her own, familiar, yet utterly unwelcome because he would not allow her to do anything about it. He never did, not with Aden.
    Victoria blinked open her eyes, gasped. She had never left the cave, but she’d been busy. She was on her feet, her arms outstretched. A golden glow radiated from between her fingers, dimming…gone. Aden lay in a crumpled heap against the far wall. He was unconscious, unmoving, maybe even—no. No!
    Her bare feet dug into the rocks as she raced to him. The moment she reached him, she was crouching and feeling for a pulse. No, no, no. Please, please. There! Fast, too fast and too weak, but there. He was alive.
    Relief flooded her, followed quickly by remorse. What had she done to him? Beaten him? Drained him?No, she couldn’t have. Chompers