As if I didn't feel bad enough, Courtney couldn't resist the opportunity of serving me an extra helping of steaming hot guilt like I was next in line at an all-you-can-eat-buffet. Losing Vycandor didn't just hurt. It crushed me. Not only because he was the one angel I was born to love, but because he was the other half of my soul.

How was I supposed to exist without him? 

"No. I'm not going to let this happen." My voice broke on a sob. "I refuse to let him die like this."

Courtney climbed into the back of the truck in an attempt to block me. "It's a little late for that, don't you think?"

Angrily swiping the tears out of my eyes with the back of my hand, I stared at her accusingly. "You're in love with him! It's the only thing that makes any sense. That's why you're so pissed off at me."

"If that were even close to being true, I'd have to fall from grace first." She made a face as if the mere thought of giving up her immortality left a bad taste in her mouth. "And, anyway, angels aren't allowed to commingle with humans. That's how we ended up with you half-breeds in the first place."

"You did not just call me a half-breed," I flared, shooting a blazing current of energy in her direction. Even at such close range, the shot missed horribly.

Courtney grinned devilishly. "You can't hurt me, Chaos. You're not allowed to use your powers against other angels." She nodded her head in the direction of the parking lot. "Unless it's to use them against angels that have already fallen from grace. Like the Angels of War. In which case, you have my full permission to go murder crazy and send them straight back to hell."

I shook my head to disagree. "But they didn't fall. They were poisoned. It's not like Serenity gave any of them much of a choice."

She rolled her eyes at me. "Again, if that were true...then you wouldn't be sitting here beside me." She waved an arm in the direction of the angels with their huge gargoyle-like wings waving back and forth in the darkness like a silent threat. "You'd be standing over there with them." The blank look on my face must have spoke volumes. "You refused to give up your soul," she insisted. "You had a choice, and so did they. All of the Angels of War chose to align themselves with the power of darkness. And now it's your turn to do the same."

My voice went high. "Excuse me?"

"It's time to align your powers, Chaos."

A growl erupted with such force that it took Courtney and I both by surprise. When it happened again, it took a moment for us to realize that the loud, reverberating gurgling sound was coming from Vycandor.

Courtney craned her neck to listen. "I can't believe it. Is he...is he...snoring?"

I exhaled sharply with a sigh of relief. Vycandor was alive, and that's all that mattered. Shaking my head in dazed confusion, I remembered that Chevauna had called him a Polar-beast. Just as I'd expected, the word had meant nothing to me at the time.

It meant everything to me now.

"Courtney, do you happen to know what kind of animal is Vycandor's to call?"

She answered without ever meeting my stare. "What do you mean?"

"I've watched drinkers and drainers shape-shift into all kinds of different animals. Jade shifted into a panther, Chad and Miguel shifted into a pair of mountain lions, and Chevauna turned into a wolf. But what I don't know is what kind of animal Vycandor can change into. I mean, I've watched him morph into a beast more times than I care to count. I just can't quite put my finger on what he is."

A flash of recognition lit up Courtney's angelic face. "I understand your confusion. Vycandor never shared his secret with you."

"Did so," I shot back automatically, sounding like a five-year-old. "He told me that his mother is a ruthless, blood-thirsty drinker who left him with his Uncle after he refused to become a killer like her."

Courtney leaned against the wheel cover for support. "That's only part of the story. Drinkers need to shift into their true animal forms to feed. Vycandor doesn't have the ability to fully shift into another form."

"Yes, he does," I countered. "I've watched him do it."

A frown dominated her full lips. "No. What you saw was the effects of the poison Serenity used on him. Vycandor wasn't just her Guinea Pig, he was also her son."

My head started to spin. Everything I thought I knew up until then had been a lie. "How could Serenity poison her own son?" I started to feel like I was going to throw up.

"She realized that Vycandor had abilities far beyond anything she could have imagined the minute he turned sixteen. Soon after that is when her beloved mother died from cancer, and the loss threw her into a tailspin. Filled with jealousy and rage, she hatched a plan to assist the Dark Ones in their quest for world domination. In exchange for her efforts, she would finally achieve the one thing she always wanted."

"Immortality," I breathed, hanging my head. "I knew Serenity was a wheel-barrel full of crazy. I just didn't know that her elevator didn't go all the way to the top."

"That's one way of putting it," Courtney agreed, trying to hide a knowing smile.

"Lemme guess...Serenity's animal to call was a Siberian tiger."

She sucked in her breath. "How did you know?"

I shrugged. "Between the predatory vibe I always got from her, not to mention Vycandor's extreme frost factor, it just makes sense. And besides, I know from experience that it's possible to survive a hypothermia-induced coma. Even if it's self inflicted for the purpose of slowing down ones breathing and heartbeat to conserve energy so they don't starve to death, especially to the point that they appear to be dead, when actually they are very much alive."

Courtney gave a not so feminine snort. "You make it sound like he's hibernating."

"Close enough," I pointed out, trying to decide the best way to wake him up. My chest tightened with anxiety. It was becoming more and more apparent that I was going to end up needing to feed him after all. Before I gave him a third round of my blood, I just had one more burning question on my mind. "Where did the drinkers and drainers come from? Vycandor only explained what they are. He never mentioned how they got here."

She tilted her head thoughtfully to one side. "By now you've probably figured out that there are certain kinds of people in this world who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Even if that means potentially wiping out an entire species in an effort to control it."

My skin began to crawl with heat. "You're talking about a witch, aren't you?"

"Not just any witch," Courtney whispered. "The Grand High Priestess. The name alone evokes images of mystery and magic, of ancient knowledge of the Earth, of primal wisdom and inner knowing. However, when light is overcome with darkness, even the most powerful witch can succumb to pure evil."

"So what happened?" I breathed, urging her to continue.

"Her name is Lisette. She's a pampered and glamorous London heiress who idolized her father, despite the fact that he was a notorious big game hunter. He later left London to travel the world and eventually settled down with his family in Kalamazoo. Arguably one of the world's most destructive hunters, he joked that his enormous collection of animal heads on display in his sprawling mansion put the "zoo" in Kalamazoo. However, at the time of his death, Lisette's father came to believe that his soul would never truly be at peace because the spirits of all the animals he had killed continued to haunt him."

Testing my understanding, I narrowed my eyes. "So what you're saying is, all the drinkers and drainers are the result of spirit animals?"

Courtney shook her head absently. "No. That's not what I'm saying. When Lisette's father died, she began to practice the dark art of witchcraft, focusing on a form of religious magic and the notion that  supernatural powers can be compelled, or at least influenced to act in certain ways for both good and evil intentions. Her rapid ascent to the position of Grand High Priestess within her coven, led Lisette to believe that she was capable of saving her father's soul and releasing him from eternal damnation. In order to do this, she made it her mission to continue to carry out the work her father had started and began to hunt down big game. But instead of killing animals for sport, she collected them and then put a curse on them."

I had a light-bulb moment. "The curse is not only what allows her to control the animals, but it's also what allows them to shift into human form to do her bidding."

"Exactly," Courtney agreed. "By turning some of the animals into drinkers and others into drainers, Lisette thought she could create a sin-eater."

I crinkled my brow in confusion. "What's a sin-eater?"

"It's someone, or in this case something who, through ritual means, has the power to take on the sins of another, thus absolving the tortured soul and allowing that person to rest in peace."

Before I could ask whether or not Lisette had been successful in her efforts, Vycandor began to stir from his comatose sleep and repeatedly lick his once cherry red lips that were now the exact same color as shriveled up blueberries. Swallowing hard, he grimaced in pain before opening his cat-like green eyes and blinking rapidly in surprise.

Pausing to sniff the cold night air as dawn approached, he smiled hungrily. A deep bass growl rumbled in his throat, replacing the brief smile with a rising wave of apprehension that swept me off my feet. "I knew I smelled the scent of Chaos."