Sure, it was too short and stopped above the middle of my thigh, but the skirt was fabulous. Black crinoline held the green material of the dress out just enough to accentuate how tiny my waist was now above the swell of my hips. The skeletal image I’d been only a short time before was replaced with a soft hourglass. I smoothed the dress along my new curves and peeked into the closet. At the back was a pair of four-inch green heels that sparkled with glitter.

“Oh my heck, Mom would flip out if she saw me in these.” I grinned. “Fricky dicky, why not?” I grabbed the shoes and slipped them on. With only the slightest of wobbles, I walked to the door and took a breath. “New life, Alena. New life, new you. You can do this.”

Right, as if it could be that easy.

I put my hand on the doorknob, turned it, and pushed it open. I stood in a long wood-paneled hallway. The ceiling was easily ten feet tall, and from it hung a skinny chandelier with mismatched gems that cast light here and there. As the only light source it didn’t actually illuminate the entire hallway, only the center. I stepped forward, my heels clicking on the wood.

The steady thump of music and distant sounds of laughter and voices tugged at my ears and reverberated in my chest. A pulse of life that called to me, even though the music was anything but proper. The words were low and seductive, the rhythm that of things done in the darkest of the night between sheets of silk. My whole body flushed with the imagery that ran through my head.

Focus on something else. Anything to stop hearing the music so clearly. To my right hung several old paintings of men in black robes with severe faces and Merlin’s nose.

Where was this place? Was it his house?

The hall ended in another door, this one with no knob. On the other side, the music played and the voices were clearer. A party, then? I put my palms against the door and pushed.

The door flicked open, and several faces turned toward me. All men, all Super Dupers by the teeth, eyes, and claws I caught glimpses of. A fricky-dicky den of iniquity.

I was going to hell in a handbasket woven with my own fingers.

Eyes widened, and two of the men grinned as they stepped in my direction. The door swung shut and I let it. I took several steps back into the hall before I forced myself to stand still.

That was the old Alena. The one who would have run from any Super Duper for fear of what it would do to her soul. “You get out there. You’re one of them now,” I whispered.

The words didn’t really help.

Like diving into the coldest part of the river, I stepped forward and pushed my way through the door. Several of the men whistled.

A hand grabbed my wrist. “Beautiful, where the fuck have you been all my life?”

“Don’t you use that language with me.” I jerked my hand out of his. That was what I thought I was doing. But he hung on to me, his fingers digging into my arm. Taller than me by a foot, he was easily the biggest man in the room. Or not so much a man. A faint, musky odor permeated the air, and I breathed it in. A picture flickered in my mind.

Thick fur, big paws, rounded ears, sharp claws and teeth.

Maybe some sort of bear shifter then, because obviously he wasn’t only a bear. Even I knew that much.

“Now, now. Don’t get sassy. Merlin said you’re a good girl. Obedient. Well trained. He said you would be as submissive as they came—”

I jerked my hand again, this time putting my weight into it, flexing my new muscles for all I was worth. Bear Boy gripped me, but that did him no good as he sailed through the air, all the way across the room and into the wall. He hit a picture about five feet in the air and slid down in a groaning crumple.

The room went silent and I swallowed hard. Time to make myself clear. “I said, don’t use that language with me and don’t touch me.”

The men backed up a step. Except for one.

Merlin. He grinned at me. “What did I tell you? Beautiful, exotic, and they all think you’re human.”

“Shit, you didn’t tell us she was one of us.” A blond man grumped. His blue eyes roved over me as he put a tongue to a fang. Vampire. I couldn’t stop the gasp.

“I’m leaving. And I am not one of you.”

Laughter followed me as I strode across the room to the only door I could see. Of course it was locked. I looked over my shoulder at Merlin. “Either open it, or I’ll open it for you.”

“Look at her, getting all tough chick. Two minutes as a Supe and she’s bossing us all around.”

Merlin walked toward me, a key hanging from his finger. “Your benefactor isn’t going to like you leaving before he can say hello. And don’t you want your welcome package?”

That did stop me. “You aren’t going to tell me who it is?”

“No.” He grinned. “Which means if you want to meet him, you need to stay here.”

A slow, low hiss slipped out of me, a noise that came out of nowhere and sounded a great deal like . . . no. That wasn’t possible, because there was no Super Duper that was reptile, not that I knew anyway. I put a hand to my throat.

“What did you do to me?”

Merlin took a step back. “You are my special snowflake, Alena. One of a kind. Or close to it.”

Behind us the door opened. “That wasn’t the deal, Merlin. You were supposed to make her a naga, like me.”

I knew that voice. Five years, a hundred years, it wouldn’t matter. I knew him.

CHAPTER 5

I spun around and stared. His hair was jet black and his eyes green; his facial structure was different, as was his voice, but I would know him anywhere. My best friend was alive and standing right in front of me. I flung myself into his arms. “You’re alive.”