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tree, his head bouncing off of its trunk. The sharp section of branch was ripped from his hand. And when he looked at what it was that had pinned him, his heart sank. His throat closed with heartbreak and sorrow. His entire being filled with confusion. The fight had left him—something that filled him with shame as well. Because a Slayer should fight. A Slayer would fight. Especially in this situation.
    The eyes were just as kind, just as sympathetic as Joss could remember. The mouth—Joss couldn’t look at it for long, due to the horrible fangs inside—was the same. Everything about him was the same as the last time that they had spoken. The lines in the face no worse, as the man was now frozen in time. A vampire. Forever. And there was nothing that Joss could do to reverse his condition. When Joss spoke at last, his voice came out shaking from utter shock. “Sirus?”
    Sirus nodded slowly. He looked to be sizing up how much danger he was in. Joss shook his head, not knowing if what he was seeing was real, or some twisted image his sleep-starved brain had conjured. “Sirus? I thought you died. That explosion. I thought I—”
    â€œYou didn’t kill me, Joss, but you did do a lot of damage.” Sirus relaxed his grip on Joss, and gave a small, grateful smile. Joss could only assume that Sirus was grateful that Joss had engaged him with words rather than combat. When Sirus smiled, it broke Joss’s heart a little bit more. Sirus said, “It’s good to see you, too.”
    Joss had so many questions, he didn’t know where to begin. Sirus had survived the explosion in the cabin? How? And what was he doing here now? Where was Kat? Did she know her father was still alive? What was he here to do exactly? The questions jumbled around in his mind, until they were all just a big blur. He stammered. “H-h-h-how?”
    â€œJoss, I’m sorry about your cousin, and about your head, but I don’t have much time and I had to get him out of the way and you unarmed. I’m here to warn you. There’s . . . something in the woods. It’s coming for you. And it’s far worse than Em.” Sirus looked sharply to his left then, deeper into the woods. The look in his eyes was one of sheer panic.
    Joss glanced around, but saw nothing. “How do you know that? And how do you know that Em’s after me?”
    Henry moaned softly from where he lay at the base of the tree. Slowly, he was stirring into wakefulness, but he wasn’t quite there yet.
    â€œListen to me.” Sirus pressed him against the tree again, with more force than Joss wagered he’d intended. It was his vampire strength—probably difficult to control. Sirus moved so close that Joss had a brief worry that he might bite. Instead, Sirus gripped Joss’s collar with one hand and pressed his stake into his palm with the other. His words were those of absolute sincerity. “Trust your dreams. They’re more real than you realize.”
    â€œHow did you know where to find me?” Silently, Joss swore not to report this part to the Society. Not yet. He needed some time to wrap his head around the strangeness of it all, and to make certain that he hadn’t lost his mind entirely.
    Sirus smiled again, and oh, how Joss hated that his heart lit up to see it. Sirus. Still alive. It was a miracle. “We share a friend who told me where to find you. By the way, Dorian sends his greetings. He says he looks forward to seeing you again.”
    Then, in a light breeze, Sirus was gone. The stake felt heavy in Joss’s hand. He spun around, searching the trees for any sign of his long-lost friend. “When will I see you again? I have things to ask you! Sirus? Sirus? Sirus!”
    But Sirus was gone.

6
    THE FRAGILE LIAR
    J oss brought the ax down hard, splitting another log, this time with ease. As he did so, he was reminded of his initial Slayer training, and how horrible