(Thanks for all your patience! I've gotten a ton of the next few chapters typed, and I'm working through final edits! I also lied. This book has like 7-8 chapters left ((not 3 >__<) Happy Reading!)

"How did you manage that in the day we let you alone?" Neil asked, eyeing the bite marks on either side of her throat with his creepy red eyes as an annoyed growl rumbled the words. The man was dressed to the nines in one of his fancy black suits, embroidered with a gust of wind that collided with a branch of exploding leaves on the other half. Even with his silver hair tied up, it fell to his lower back. "Just say it wasn't one of mine. They should not have touched you."

Silvia elbowed him in the side so hard that he whined and held his ribs. She was dressed just as fancy, in white mage attire sprinkled with vines, and Tara wondered if they weren't just going to have a party as they sent her to her death. Maybe brings some champagne to crack over the void's opening before it sailed away into nothingness.

Now she was being petty.

"You know how close she and Jesse are," Silvia responded to Neil so Tara didn't have to. Can't you just make normal assumptions instead of pestering her?"

"Jesse? Why would he weaken her when he knows what she faces today?" Neil asked a completely reasonable question, and Tara shoved her eyes into the tile of their transportation room. Surrounded by an octagonal array of white walls over a transportation spell carved in stone, there was nowhere to go as the Silence pervaded. "You didn't tell him."

"No, Neil. I didn't," Silvia said, casting the spell at their feet to take them out of the vampire territory. Night had fallen so it was dark when they arrived, and they slinked out of temporary mage complex in Levisca to head to the tear. "Jesse needs his rest, and I'm still hoping for a miracle here."

"That makes one of us," Tara said more to herself, gazing at each street lamp they passed. The sun burned on the horizon beyond the buildings, still allowing just a simmer of light into the streets, but it would fade in minutes. It was the last light she'd see before the other side swallowed her and she soaked in what she could as she walked. Perhaps they sensed her depression or just empathized with her situation, but both Neil Arc and Silvia flanked her as they ventured deeper into Levisca.

It had only been a little over a week since she'd last been here, but it felt like years. Everything had been so small then. Work had taken up all of her time, and her biggest worries had been figuring out what the creepy crawlies called vampires were and whether or not she'd go to jail for killing Matt eventually. By the time they reached the broken cobblestone and marble from what used to be the decorative dais of the mage complex, Tara's arms were trembling.

Memories flooded into her mind and her leg ached sympathetically as she thought about Dev. The man wasn't going to forget about them according to Tanya who was floating behind her in the air. Apparently, the closer Tara got to Jesse and the more of her he consumed the looser Tanya's leash became to follow what Jesse perceived as a mate. Tara didn't pretend to know the ins and outs of ghosts, but so far, Tanya had been protective of her even if she was grueling to be around.

Every time she glanced back at Tanya's dark skin, it made her think of Jesse and the way he'd fallen asleep with such adoration in his eyes. He'd already been on the verge of not wanting to live when they'd rescued him, and she felt like this would destroy him. If she didn't go into the void though, there wouldn't be a world for him to live in. While she was resigned to her fate as a rock to chuck in the proverbial pond, she hadn't given up on the idea of finding a way to swim out. As much as she told Silvia otherwise. Mostly she didn't want the woman to feel guilty when there was no way out but her death/

Neil held his hand back to stop their advance so abruptly that Tara nearly tripped over a small piece of rubble. Silvia closed the distance between them in a snap that had Tara cringing closer to Tanya. Static rolled on her arms as her ghost hooker sank to the ground and prepared for what was to come. They huddled under a street light as Neil focused on the alleyways ahead, back where the void had opened up, but nothing here appeared dangerous. Just broken buildings, some dead downed power lines, and a whole lot of crime scene tape.

A cold sweat rolled down Tara's neck as a rush of indescribable death ran down her veins and sweltered in the air around her. The void was open. There was no mistaking the chill of hell freezing over coursing through her body or the feeling of someone pulling her innards out her mouth.

"Vincent," Neil said so quietly that Tara had to lean in just to make out the word. A move she regretted when a specter landed in the center of them. Light magic singed Tara's shoulder as Silvia pulled her behind her back protectively. Neil only gave the newcomer a quarter turn, but Tara's eyes were peeled.

The ones from the scuffle before had all seemed crazed and warped, unable to move on to the afterlife and hungering for chaos. This one was utterly composed, his deathly energy cycling around and inward instead of spreading out to consume those around him. Silver ran from the specter's scalp to near his feet in a shimmer that echoed with less grandeur in Neil, and the bubbling crimson of his eyes was too similar for them to be anything but related. Silvia regarded the man as a threat though.

Whose side was he on?

"Dev is here with a posse of orphaned soldiers from the northern and southern houses." Vincent's voice was low and attractive, but the sharp flick of his gaze and shrewd lines of his face said he was anything but. Another nice looking vampire with a heart of rotten mush.

"You're dead. Could you not handle them?" Neil asked with a measure of frustration that had Vincent baring his fangs. Neil took a step back, and Vincent dropped the expression.

"Forgive me," Vincent said, and despite Tara's initial thoughts, genuine regret rang in his voice as he dipped his head. "If we hadn't moved from the gate, Dev wouldn't have been able to open it, but Falz is an imbecile. They collected the mages guarding the area and slit their throats one by one until Falz moved to save what was left. I urged him to stay sentry, but mages are overly sympathetic beings. The fate of the worlds hangs in the balance and the man couldn't let a few die for it."

Falz had fought for the living, defending Ezra when the specters had come for him despite his being a vampire. Even though Selena couldn't hear him over the screams of the other fallen Aurions, Falz had stood by her in silence, watching and waiting for any opportunity to help her. It was no wonder he'd save any of his own that he could. While Tara was pragmatic and understood Vincent's point of view, he could have made it without insulting the man's sentiment. Vincent clearly had nothing honorable left in him, if he'd had anything to begin with.

"So what are we walking into?" Neil asked calmly despite the crease forming in his brow. The tiny vampire's expressions were markedly less threatening than his relative, but not by much. They both could scare a bunch of kids shitless with a backhanded glance.

"You shouldn't walk into anything," Vincent snapped. Patience was not a virtue this man knew of. "Specters burst from the void the moment Falz moved, and I can't toss Phoenix around like a toy to put them back. These are not drifting spirits lost to sentience but powerful apparitions who learned the void has an escape."

"What the hell is Dev thinking? Does he not understand that he'll die too if the void crashes into the living world?" Silvia asked with disgust, and Tara turned back to where Tanya had returned to hovering in the air.

"Dev does not want to live, but to join his house in the grave," Tanya hissed as she dropped to her feet. "The man will take everyone with him out of spite. It's still the best course of action to get you into the void and deal with any escaped souls after, but these two won't risk your life unless you put it forth." Tanya was right, and Tara steeled herself as she moved around Silvia and approached the tall, slim man ahead.

"Tara," Silvia warned, but she had to do this.

"I have the power to return them to the void," Tara said, grabbing the specter's attention. She'd done it before, cursing out the Aurions as they heckled Selena, though those ghosts has been on their own plane. "I'm not great at it, but I can manage until we find a way to get me into the void."

"You're the medium my sire was looking for," Vincent said, dismissing anything she'd said as he looked her up and down before cringing in disapproval. "You're a useless human. We can't waste time on something that will die in an instant. Neil, you'll die protecting her if you try to get her into the void. Dev has it covered with his own, and the specters are having fun tossing Falz around."

"I don't have another choice," Neil growled low, and Vincent crossed his arms stiffly as he stared her down. That was when the specter's crimson eyes focused on Tara for real.

Claws slid across her throat and blood flew into the air in an afterimage that had her yanking her entire body back to dodge the real thing as he came at her. A hair's breadth was all that divided her and death, and Vincent paused for a millisecond as he realized he'd missed. A growl rolled out his throat, drowning out a curse from Neil, and Tara pretended that wasn't one of her limbs flying through the air, or two in a gruesome foretelling of her fate. Tara could only flatten herself to the ground as the man pounced on her, and his feet crashed into tile before he spun on her.

"Let me in," Tanya hissed, static coursing up Tara's spine as an afterimage of claws plunging into her chest and tearing out her flesh flashed in her vision.

"Holy hell, go ahead," Tara screeched as Vincent dropped his claws for her life.

Fire burst in her veins and Tara lost sight for an instant as Tanya took her body for her own. By the time Tara regained visual function, Vincent's claws were thrust into the solid rock below. Tara's leg lifted up, grabbed Vincent by the throat, and slammed him down into the ground with a crunch that had her inwardly cringing.

Tanya wasted no time, searing pain down Tara's arm as she formed a weapon with magic and flew at Vincent before he'd recovered. Everything went so fast that Tara could barely follow the movement, but a chain wrapped Vincent's neck, barbs intersecting the links and stabbing into his throat with undead energy that had him clawing to get it off in vain. A cackle came out of Tara's lips that curdled her stomach as Tanya put a foot square between Vincent's shoulders and yanked.

Tara had never seen a guy's head pop off before, let alone twice. Her sad power of short premonition still worked with Tanya inside of her body, she guessed, but it wasn't doing her any favors. Tara was just glad Tanya had control of her physical reactions as the man's headless body fell to the ground. It avoided her retching all over the ground.

"Pop goes the weasel," Tanya tittered in Tara's voice, and Tara didn't have it in her to explain what the phrase originally meant. Literary intellect would be wasted on a dead bitch anyway.

"What the hell?" Vincent's voice came out of nowhere, and his body sank into shadow before it reformed in front of Tanya. Those murderous crimson eyes had lost a deal of hostility as he gave Tara a few yards of space. She wasn't as harmless as he'd thought.

"Aw, poor baby vampire," Tanya said, and Tara no knew what she'd sound like as a movie villain. The woman spun a ghastly half scythe at the end of the chain she'd used to execute him. The other end weighed a ton, and Tara found a round weight in the other hand.

"Vincent!" Neil snarled so close to Tara's ear that Tanya leaned back and covered it. "We need her! Why would you attack her?"

"I thought she was going to get you killed." Vincent was so nonchalant about blatantly trying to gut and dismember her, sliding a hand on his hips. "Didn't expect her to dodge, let alone rip my head off." Vincent laughed, like she was nothing but a toy, and Tara wanted to do it again, to sever his limbs and rip them off one by one as he'd intended for her.

"Vincent is a puppy, a vampire with so few years I could spit on him and he'd fall at my feet. If you want him dismembered, you merely need ask." Tanya was talking to her, but aloud, and Neil turned with worry as Silvia's light energy edged back. "What? It's not like he can die, and I haven't had fun for a while."

"I'm not maiming anyone, dead or alive." Tara found she could speak, and she used what will she had to shove Tanya out of her body. The ghost left willingly, which was good because it was like thrusting her hands into a pile of needles and pushing them. A shiver ran over her as she regained control.

"That weapon was Tanya Zehir's," Neil said, and she ignored him to sit right in the dirt. Her head was throbbing and she wanted to throw up again.

"Yes, Tanya has a vested interest in getting me into the void and has been hanging around since Jesse returned," Tara managed, looking up to Neil from the ground. For the first time, his stature worked in her favor as she didn't have to crane her neck.

"She possessed you." Neil said as a statement, but she understood that he was asking another question.

"It's not like she can jump behind the wheel and start offing people or she'd have done that already," Tara replied, careful with her words. The tiny one was assessing her as a threat, and considering how brutal his father was, she didn't want to play games. "I let her use my body when I saw I was about to be popped like a blood balloon. Real great allies you have." Tara couldn't stop from spitting the last of her words.

"My father has never been an ally, but he's what I have," Neil retorted, not at all helping himself. This Vincent would kill her in a heartbeat if it came between her and his son, which made getting to the void that much harder. "That being said, there is wisdom in his caution. Allow us to go in first and wait on the sidelines for an opportunity. If Silvia trails me by some distance, and I'm with Vincent, Dev won't even notice you. Humans are like background noise alone. We'll try to give you a chance to slip in unnoticed, but if you can't, you may have to use Tanya."

"It takes a toll on you," Silvia said, coming to her side to offer her a hand up. It was the first show of concern for her as a person, and Tara accepted in only to appear stronger than she was. As soon as she was on her feet, she wanted to hurl her innards.

"It just makes me feel wrong and a bit nauseous, not weak," Tara said honestly to Silvia. She was the only one here who cared if she died. While Neil could play up sentiment for his mate, Tara knew he'd toss her down a cliff if it served them. "My body doesn't like the different essence at the wheel and really doesn't like magic flowing through it, even if contained within a specter."

"Tara," Silvia said her name with concern, and she lifted her eyes for meaning. The woman's brow crinkled and she flattened her mage attire down, lingering on a vine down to her hips. "Could a specter take control of you, one that wasn't Tanya?"

"Not easily," Tanya answered for her as Tara comprehended Silvia's question. She was about to head into ghost central as a free bus for anything ghastly. "It would be like kicking down a dead-bolted, chained door for someone with human strength. Eventually a specter could wedge their way in, but by the time they managed, this world will have been saved or fallen."

"No." Tara decided to take Tanya's word for it. Thus far, despite being the most deplorable thing to ever die, she'd been upfront with her. Too much at times. Tara really hoped that was the case as Silvia nodded and Neil gave her the side eye. No one knew how this worked, least of all her, but the stage was set and they had an act to perform, ready or not.

Here was to hoping that ghost didn't cohabitate.

One inside of her was enough.

Word Count: 2965