The taste of ashes lingered in Mara’s mouth when the door to the ghost apartment hissed open with a mechanical sigh. It wasn’t one of the guards stepping into the dim light; it was Damon.

He appeared as if he had stared into the abyss and found his own reflection gazing back with a haunting intensity. His face was like a bloodless mask, devoid of color, while his eyes were twin pools of frozen darkness that seemed to absorb all warmth and hope. Gone was the elegant suit that once marked ...