Lines had been crossed. Everything had been said. There was no point in talking about it beyond that.
Nox reached out to touch a pink strand of hair. “I guess this is good-bye.” He dropped his hand. “Take care of Necro. And yourself.”
“I always do.” Her eyes lingered on him.
“I know,” Nox said.
He took a tentative step toward her.
“Do you mind?” He gestured awkwardly. “A real good-bye? Seeing as I may never see you again?”
“What?”
Nox extended his arms. One last embrace. A hug between friends. Rid couldn’t refuse. But she also couldn’t avoid looking over her shoulder before she moved any closer to him. Just to make sure the door was shut.
Ridley and Link might not have been together anymore, but he and Floyd would never let her hear the end of it if they walked in and saw her so much as touching Lennox Gates.
The candles flickered and smoked.
Ridley and Nox stood in the center of the circle—on the shore of the beach that was apartment 2D.
He drew her in for a hug. She could feel his powerful arms beneath his jacket. It seemed like so long ago that they had stood together on the dance floor at Sirene and shared that one exquisite, terrifying kiss.
She hadn’t realized it wouldn’t be the only one.
He leaned toward her.
His lips touched hers gently. A very different kind of kiss.
It was sweet.
Sweet enough for both of them.
Nox had hurt Ridley, and he knew it. He could feel it, the moment he kissed her.
If only he had told her everything he knew, right from the start.
If only.
He had thought that if he could have one last kiss, maybe it would be like a Cast. Maybe she would forgive him, and everything would revert to the way it had been before he screwed it all up.
But that wasn’t possible, because he had been screwing up from the beginning.
When I promised to deliver her to a Ravenwood Blood Incubus. Or when I watched her die in a fire in my own club and I didn’t warn her.
If I let it happen that way.
There was a special place in Hell for guys like Lennox.
It was called life.
The only thing he had left was a kiss.
This kiss.
Nox caught a glimpse of candlelight in his peripheral vision, and suddenly he was spinning out of control.
The fire.
The vision hit during the kiss, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The vision smoke cleared even as Nox tried to look past it. He was standing somewhere gray and filthy that reeked of garbage and sewage. A thin spray of mold was growing on the stone floor and ceiling.
No light. Underground. A prison cell, probably. It looks more like a dungeon.
Nox found himself standing in the corridor, looking down on the individual lockups. Every steel door was identical—heavy, barred, and bolted.
He walked away from the doors, toward the end of the hallway. At the very end stood two men who looked vaguely familiar. They looked with interest through a square window cut into the cell door immediately in front of them.
The first was a hulking figure, wearing a black suit and cheap leather shoes.
The other man was thinner but imposing, his face hidden behind a black fedora. The sleeves of his expensive dress shirt were pushed up above his elbows carelessly. He was the dangerous one. He stepped back from the door, smoking a cigar.
Nox recognized the gold crown stamped on the side.
Barbadian. He’s a Ravenwood.
Nox didn’t need to see the family crest stamped into the heavy silver signet ring on the man’s finger. There was only one person who fit the description, though Nox himself had never seen him in person.
Silas Ravenwood, the infamous and deadly great-great-grandson of Abraham.
“Keep her chained up until I tell you otherwise,” Silas said in a thick accent that Nox couldn’t quite place. “To say the Power of Persuasion is valuable to a man in my line of work is an understatement. And my last Siren was useless.”
The man in the cheap shoes peered into the shadows of the cell. “Do the chains leave marks?”
“Of course. But I’ll make her Charm them away herself. Or maybe I’ll let her keep them as a reminder.”
“You think this Siren will be better?”
“She comes from a powerful line. And she’s made some powerful enemies. How else would she have ended up here?” His voice didn’t betray a hint of emotion. “You know Lennox Gates?”
The big guy nodded. “I think I met him once, in one of his clubs.”
“His mother was my grandfather’s personal Siren, and she was a powerful bitch. The kid sold me this one.” Silas Ravenwood laughed.
“Expensive?”
“His life,” Silas said.
“You made him pay to keep his own life?” Silas’ underling looked shocked.
“Of course not. I made him pay with it.” He shrugged. “Never bargain with a Blood Incubus.”
The pit in Nox’s stomach hardened into a lump. It was the closest he’d ever come to seeing his own future, and he suspected it was because it wasn’t really about him.
This was Ridley’s vision.
She was the Siren they were talking about.
The one chained like an animal.
Then the smoke descended and the terrible faces of the two men vanished…
… and Ridley broke off the kiss.
“Nox? Are you okay?” Ridley stared into his eyes, though they didn’t seem to see her. She shook his shoulders, hard. “Nox. You’re creeping me out.”
He focused his eyes and pulled her into a hug. Now he was holding her so tight that it hurt. “I need to tell you something, Little Siren.”
Ridley pulled free from his arms. “What is it?”
“Something I should have told you a long time ago.” His eyes held hers. “I don’t want to do this. And I’ve never done it before.”
“Done what?” The way Nox was talking, though, Ridley wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
“My father warned me not to. Nobody wants to hear it.”
“Nox.” Ridley was frightened.
“Not even a Caster. We all want to pretend we will live forever.”
Ridley’s face was pale. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s a reason your kiss tastes like fire,” Nox began.
CHAPTER 32 
Disposable Heroes
Nox told Ridley and Link as much as he could from the relative safety of the Circle of Protection and fifty lit candles. Not that a Circle or a thousand candles could stop a Ravenwood.
Not even apartment 2D was safe, not anymore.
Ridley had to physically restrain Link until Nox finished talking. She would’ve had to hold off Floyd and Sampson too, except they were both too busy with Necro to care what Nox had to say about anything.
“So let me get this straight,” Link said. “You promised Abraham Ravenwood that you’d hand us over to his thugs. You already told us that part.”
Nox nodded. “One thug. Silas Ravenwood. His grandson.”
“The criminal,” Link said.
“Or the Capo. I’ve heard that’s what he calls himself.”
“Why me? For what?” Ridley was numb.
“What do you expect? He wants revenge,” Nox said. “Your hybrid stabbed his grandfather with a pair of gardening shears.”
“And Grandpa had it comin’.” Link shrugged. “Guess that makes sense, not that I’m goin’ down without a fight. But what does he want with Rid?”