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As she came in to work, she felt such a relief at being like everyone else, showing up on time, putting things in her locker, talking about nothing in particular before the shift started.

Except then Catya came up to her when she was at the coffeepot, all smiles. “So…last night was…? Come on, do tell.”

Ehlena finished filling her mug and hid a wince behind a deep first draw that burned her tongue. “I think ‘no-show’ would cover it.”

“No-show?”

“Yup. As in, he didn’t show.”

Catya shook her head. “Damn it.”

“No, it’s fine. Really. I mean, it’s not like I had much invested.” Yeah, only a whole fantasy about the future that included things like a hellren, a family of her own, a life worth living. Nothing much at all. “It’s fine.”

“You know, I was thinking last night. I have a cousin who is—”

“Thanks, but no. With my dad the way he is, I shouldn’t be dating anyone.” Ehlena frowned, recalling how quickly Rehv had agreed with her on that. Even though you could argue that it made him some kind of gentleman, it was hard not be a little annoyed.

“Caring for your father doesn’t mean—”

“Hey, why don’t I go man the front desk during the shift change?”

Catya stopped, but the female’s light eyes were sending plenty of messages, most of which could be filed under, When Is This Girl Going to Wake Up?

“I’ll head out there now,” Ehlena said, turning away.

“It doesn’t last forever.”

“Of course not. Most of our shift is already here.”

Catya shook her head. “That wasn’t what I meant, and you know it. Life doesn’t last forever. Your father has a serious psychological condition, and you’re very good with him, but he could stay like this for a century.”

“In which case I will still have about seven hundred years left. I’ll be at the front. ’Scuse me.”

Out in the reception, Ehlena took up res behind the computer and logged in. There was no one in the waiting room because the sun had only just gone down, but the patients would start coming in soon enough, and she couldn’t wait for the distraction.

Reviewing Havers’s schedule, she saw nothing unusual. Checkups. Patient procedures. Surgical follow-ups…

The exterior doorbell chimed, and she glanced at a security monitor. There was a walk-in outside, a male who was huddled into his coat against the cold wind.

She hit the intercom button and said, “Good evening. How may I help you?”

The face that looked up into the camera was one she had seen before. Three nights ago. Stephan’s cousin.

“Alix?” she said. “It’s Ehlena. How are—”

“I’m here to see if he’s been brought in.”

“He?”

“Stephan.”

“I don’t think so, but let me check while you come down.” Ehlena hit the lock release and went to the in-house patient list on the computer. One by one she reviewed the names as she released the series of doors for Alix.

No mention of Stephan as an inpatient.

As Alix walked into the waiting room, her blood ran cold the instant she saw the male’s face. The vicious dark circles under his gray eyes were about so much more than lack of sleep.

“Stephan didn’t come home last night,” he said.

Rehv lamented December, and not just because the cold in upstate New York was enough to make him want to go stuntman with the pyrotechnics just to get warm.

Night came early in December. The sun, that fucking work-shy, bone-idle pansy, gave up its efforts as early as four thirty in the afternoon, and that meant Rehv’s first-Tuesday-of-the-month date-mares started early.

It was just ten o’clock as he entered Black Snake State Park after a two-hour drive north from Caldwell. Trez, who always dematerialized up, was no doubt already in position around the cabin, making himself scarce and preparing to act as a guard.

As well as a witness.

The fact that the guy who was arguably his best friend had to watch the whole thing was just part of the cluster-fuck carousel, an added ball crusher. The trouble was, after it was all over, Rehv needed help getting back home, and Trez was good at that kind of shit.

Xhex wanted the job, of course, but you couldn’t trust her. Not around the princess.