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Janie’s attention to one of the vacant openings. Tall and whipcord thin, a Kurjan she didn’t recognize entered through the detector that would immediately vaporize him if he dared bring a physical or chemical weapon. Seven feet tall and dressed in all black, the white-faced predator had the typical Kurjan red hair with black tips . . . and purple eyes. He took his seat, obviously weaponless.
    Kalin, the current leader of the Kurjans, entered next, his odd green gaze immediately seeking her out.
    Her smile came naturally.
    His arrived with a flash of fangs. He bowed. “Janet. It’s good to see you again.”
    “You too,” Janie said, even though Dage stiffened next to her. She’d met Kalin in dream worlds since childhood, and they’d formed an uneasy, unlikely sort of friendship. He was a butcher, and he killed easily, but he’d also saved her life once. Maybe they could find peace together in order to save their families.
    He took his seat, his black hair and slightly darker skin a contrast to the Kurjan soldier sitting next to him. With a bit of makeup, Kalin might appear human.
    Janie said a quick prayer that Kalin really wanted peace. The Kurjans had created a deadly virus, Virus-27, which attacked the chromosomal pairs of vampire mates as well as witches, and Janie’s mother had the illness. Hopefully Kalin had a cure to share.
    “Now we just need the demons,” Moira muttered. “Are they still dressing, or what?”
    Dage growled low.
    Janie swallowed. Suri, the demon leader, had captured and tortured Dage’s youngest brother for nearly five years. Janie wanted Suri dead as badly as Dage did, because it had taken Uncle Jase years to recover.
    How were they ever going to find peace?
    Power permeated the air when Suri stepped into the cavern. Broad and tall, the demon had presence. White hair and black eyes showed his purebred lineage. He glanced around the cavern, and his chest puffed out.
    Dage shifted his weight next to Janie.
    She kept her gaze on the enemy. Whatever demon soldier he’d brought with him didn’t matter. Only this man did. If he would agree to peace, no more blood would be shed.
    He took his seat, his dark gaze landing squarely on her.
    Dage eyed his enemy. “You come alone, Suri?”
    “No. I brought my nephew.” Suri didn’t break eye contact.
    A large body suddenly overwhelmed the doorway behind him.
    Heat rushed down Janie’s throat to burn her lungs. A roaring filled her ears. Her hand involuntarily sought the necklace at her throat. The soldier standing behind Suri, so tall, broad, and deadly, was the one person she thought she’d be able to trust forever.
    “Hi, Janie Belle,” Zane said.

Chapter 2
    Zane’s a demon. A demon. A demon. A demon. The mantra ripped through Janie’s head in an endless loop of pain. A fucking demon.
    He sat directly across from her, the firelight flicking shadows across his familiar face. Somewhat familiar, anyway. In reality, in person, a hardness angled his features in a way the dream world had masked. A scar ran along the right side of his face, proclaiming battle and near death. He’d once told her a pissed-off demon had scarred him.
    Had he lied?
    The boy she’d known, the teenager she’d loved, had grown into a predator studying her with eyes a deeper green than she’d realized.
    Strength, power, and determination all cascaded around him, enhancing a wildness at his core he didn’t bother to conceal.
    Half-vampire and half-demon? What kind of power would mixing two such predatory races create? Even surrounded by deadly creatures, he stood out as something unique. Deadly. The mere uncertainty of his birth made him an excellent ally or a deadly enemy. As he sat next to Suri, the one being Janie hated more than any other, his allegiance became all too clear.
    Enemy.
    “Well, that explains why we couldn’t find Zane’s mother’s people when his father died,” Dage muttered quietly just for her.
    Janie lifted her chin. Even if she’d