The room seemed to be spinning, even though it wasn't. I was never human? She had to be toying with me again. My entire family was "normal," that I knew of. How could I be any different? Besides, witches and clairsentients weren't inhuman. In fact, most of the psychics and witches I know are purely human.

"Why do you think I allowed Normani to kiss you?" Lauren asked.

"I have no idea." My words had an irritated edge. My wolf was unsettled, pacing, testing the walls of my shield. I was ready to hunt, and now I was pissed off because of yet another fucking surprise. A surprise my own lover had known but not bothered to tell me.

"Camila, I tasted your power when I kissed you. There is fey blood in your veins."

I bit my bottom lip, then laughed, full-throated. "You're insane. I'm not a faerie."

"She didn't say you were a faerie," Vanessa commented. "She said you have fey blood in your veins."

"What is your ancestry?" Normani asked, watching me as if gauging my every reaction.

"Spanish, Cuban. Hell, I don't know for sure. I'm a mutt."

"How much do you know of your Cuban descent?"

"Very damn little."

"Normani," Lauren addressed her, "tell Camila what you know. If you openly place your cards on the table she will be more receptive to hearing your words. If she is to call on the raven tonight, she needs to know sooner rather than later."

I gave Lauren a look that said she should tread lightly, but, of course, it didn't faze her. She was made of stronger stuff. Then again, as a Countess, she has to be.

Normani nodded, pushing the aubergine-tinted tresses out of her face. "Your Goddess calls to you through your blood. Your blood is genetically receptive to her magic. This does not make you a pure-bred." The words sounded a little condemning and I did my best to ignore her arrogance. "An ancestor," she said, "and a pure-bred faerie would produce a human and fey being such as you are."

"So you're saying one of my long-lost ancestors fucked a full-blooded faerie? If that were true, wouldn't the blood run throughout my entire family? I've heard stories of faeries running off with humans before." I tried to remember everything I'd read, but it'd been a long time. "I was under the impression that when a fey chooses a human consort the human never steps foot out of Tir na nÓg, the otherworld, or whatever."

"Human and fey blood mingle unpredictably," she said, answering my first question. "The gene may be passed unnoticed, diluted in one body and undiluted in another. It is unpredictable," she repeated. "No, it would not be obvious in others in your family. Also, practicing witchcraft and being more sensitive than the rest of your family may have awakened the ability, triggered the gene, so to speak." She gave me a serious look. "There is some truth to every myth. Some fey, however, choose to spend only one night with a human outside of the fey realm. Thus, your ancestor may not have been captured. In fact," I gave her my full attention, "you may well descend directly from a fey, and not the human side. Have you ever heard of a changeling?"

"A changeling is a faerie child swapped with a human child."

"Or a mixed-blood child left outside of a human household to be adopted and to live among the humans."

"What about being a werewolf?" Shawn asked. "I thought only one virus could exist in a host?"

That was a very good question.

"You speak of a virus," Vanessa said, "not of genetics."

"Lycanthropy is not generally genetic. Only a few branches are," Normani said. "Neither is vampirism genetic. The fey are an entirely different species, with a DNA structure similar to humans'. This is why we have been able to breed with them much like the elves."

"You're fey," I accused her. "That's how you know so much about this, isn't it?"

Normani smiled widely. "It took you that long to figure it out, little witch? If you had known yourself, you would've recognized what I am."

"Well, excuse me for having never met a faerie before."

"And now you can say you have had such a pleasure."

"You're awfully tall." My words sounded casual, but the look I gave her was not. I knew the truth, but I was partially trying to be irritating. Normani probably wouldn't like being reminded that most people thought faeries were small and cute. No, if one actually studied, the first fey to set foot on Irish soil were a tall and very advanced race known as the Tuatha Dé Danann.

"Many different species of faerie exist," she said. "I thought you studied mythology?"

"I did, but forgive me for being a little rusty, oh great faerie poo-bah."

Faeries and elves, like werewolves and vampires, had been accepted into our culture, but we didn't see much of them. They kept to themselves, preferring isolation from their human cousins. Some fey were far stranger than human, but the sidhe and the elves resembled humans enough to be able to procreate with them.

"Camila, do not seek to play games with me or I too will play games with you," she warned.

"Fine. You're Tuatha Dé Danann. You're sidhe?"

"That is what the mortals began calling us."

"Hell," I said, "it's written in every mythology text I've found—Daoine Sidhe, Tuatha Dé Danann... What's the other one?"

"Aes Sidhe," she pronounced smoothly. "There's also the Leanann Sidhe. They began calling us sidhe based upon the mounds we sought sanctuary in once the humans began to overpopulate the land of Eire. If you must know, we prefer being called the Daoine Maithe."

"The Good Folk?"

I was rewarded with a slight nod for my translation.

"You're making my head spin," I told her. "This is way too much to take in right now."

"You chose a path that awakened your blood, not I."

"True enough, but I am so not in the mood for a history lesson right now. There are so many damn accounts it's difficult to discern the truth from fiction."

"I am glad you are able to perceive that much, witch."

I narrowed my eyes at her and said bluntly, "You're a cold bitch, Normani."

"The coldness that runs through my veins runs through yours."

"I am not cold."

"I'd argue that," Shawn said. "You can be cold."

"I'm pragmatic, not a cold-hearted bitch."

"And you think the fey are not pragmatic?" Normani shook her head.

"She's right," Dinah said, meeting my gaze. "Some would misinterpret your pragmatism."

"As what?"

"As being cold."

"Whatever." I directed my gaze back to Normani. "Where were you going with the little history lesson?"

"You have powers available to you that you have yet to uncover and learn to harness. I can teach you how to use the magic that your blood, and your Goddess, grants you."

"And what do you gain in return?" I let my suspicion cloud my tone.

"Something to occupy my time."

I didn't really believe her. I was sure she could find other things to do, but whatever. She was willing to teach me a few things. Where was the harm in that?

She interrupted my thoughts. "There is much for you to learn. I can teach you how to come out of a shift fully dressed." It was like a carrot dangling in front of my nose. How spiffy would it be to avoid future embarrassments and setbacks based upon nudity? Public indecency is so overrated.

"Fine," I said, looking to Lauren. Somewhere in our conversation, she had moved back near the fireplace.

Normani looked at her too. "Camila learns quickly, so I don't think it'll take long to teach her how to manifest a few articles of clothing. An hour or two, perhaps. If we can accomplish that, it would indeed be a good idea to send her as the raven to scout."

Lauren asked me, "Is this what you want?"

"It's not a matter of what I want or don't want." I tucked a stray hair behind my ear. "I really don't like being nude after a shift. I already get that with the lycanthropy. If I can avoid it... Then yes, this is what I want, but it's also what I need to do in order to save Jacob and Beatrice. If it doesn't work I could always fly back to the club and change there."

"That's not really convenient," Dinah said. "We should wait a few blocks away. We'll let Camila find the church, do a little spying, and then we'll follow her in."

If I really, truly wanted to avoid a little lesson session with Normani I could've told someone to ditch some clothes for me in the alley, but again, that was out of the way, and I could still get caught. Being charged with public indecency isn't really my cup of coffee.

"Let's just do it and get it over with."

"Shall we go somewhere more private?"

"Yeah, that would be ideal."

"You may use my room," Lauren said. "I will be there in a moment."

I got up and went to her, standing on my tiptoes to press a gentle kiss against her pale cheek. "Wish me luck."

"All of the luck in the world," she said, her fingertips stroking over my shirt and to my lower back before I regretfully turned and followed Normani to Lauren's bedroom.

On the way down, I kept reminding myself it was worth it.