⚠️Trigger Warning: Control and manipulation. Abuse of power.
CH 1 Sc 1… | CH 2 Sc 1… | CH 3 Sc 1… | CH 4 Sc 1 | Sc 2 | Sc 3 | Sc 4 | Sc 5
Previously on Trancing Miranda
Nick goes to VCU (Vampire Crimes Unit) Headquarters and meets with his friend and colleague, Special Agent Ed Harris. Harris got information on both Miranda and her attacker, Tony Gyari. The information on Gyari is unremarkable. But Nick learns that Miranda has been in trouble before and that is the second-cousin of Regio Authority, Daniel Boucher. He sees a picture of Miranda and Daniel coming out of a club together and is curious about their relationship. In the world of the immortali, relationships between second-cousins are as accepted as they were in medieval times.
Of Energy and Emeralds
Miranda was half-way through her shift when she heard him say her name, but she didn’t look up.
She didn’t have to. She knew who it was. He’d cloaked his energy coming in. Now he let her feel it.
Daniel.
Her heart picked up speed, building steadily until she was breathless. But she kept right on pouring drinks. Move by move. Order by order.
He knew she’d been outside the gate—in defiance of his orders—that was a given. He wouldn’t be happy about it, but he wouldn’t overreact.
The thing at the Black Goddess was another story. If he knew she was swapping again, he would have a stroke. Hopefully, management at the Black Goddess had been too worried about the optics to loop him in.
Miranda went up and down the bar, passing out the drinks.
Finally, when there was nothing left to do, she came back and faced him.
His moonlight blond hair was shorter, parted on the side and cut blunt at the jaw, tucked back behind one ear and hanging down past the other.
He gave her the ghost of a smile. “Could you take out the earplugs?”
“I can hear you.”
“I don’t want to shout.”
She took out the earplugs and stuffed them into her pocket.
“You’re pale,” he said. “Under the makeup.”
The bandage was hidden by the ribbed black turtleneck she was wearing. Miranda knew he couldn’t see it, but she had to stop herself from touching her neck to double-check. She felt the sweat pop up on her upper lip, and she knew that Daniel had noticed. “I’m fine.”
“Even though the bathroom at the Black Goddess was full of your blood?”
Miranda swiped at her sweaty lip. “How did you—“
“They called me, so I swung by.”
He’d seen it then. Her blood traveling out along the grout lines. Her vomit backing up the sink. He’d seen it and he’d smelled it, and known it was her.
Then he would have found out who was responsible. There was absolutely no chance that he would let it slide.
Miranda took a slow, steadying breath. “What did you do?”
“What could I do?” He gave a small, graceful shrug. “Tony Gyari didn’t even know you were my cousin.”
Meaning that Tony was probably still alive, but wishing he wasn’t. “I guess it makes you look kind of bad, either way.”
“Thank you for noticing, Miranda. But I’m used to it.”
He probably was. She had been swapping off and on since Julien. It was old news. But that didn’t stop people from talking.
“I didn’t mean for it to turn out like that,” she said. It wasn’t an apology exactly, but it was as close as she was willing to get. It was her blood on the floor, after all, not his.
“I had my guys out looking for you. Imagine my surprise when I learned you had left the Regio.”
“I needed stitches.”
“So you went to the emergency room? In the city?”
“No.” There was no point in lying. His men had seen her coming back with Nick. “There was a vampire. He sewed me up. At his house.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about him. I don’t know his address. Or his—“
Daniel held up a hand, and Miranda stopped talking.
“I know who it was, Miranda. What I don’t know is why an old-school immortali like Nicolai Markovich would go out of his way to scrape you up off the floor.”
It wasn’t a nice thing to say, but Daniel wasn’t wrong. It was out of character for any blueblood, let alone some top-tier kind of guy like Nick.
She picked up her chin. “Maybe he likes me.”
“Maybe.” But his voice was skeptical. “Does he know who you are?”
“I don’t think so.”
“When you see him again, tell him. He'll find out anyway. It's better if he hears it from you.”
“I’m not seeing him again.”
“Yes, you are. I want you to. The sooner the better.”
“No.”
The chatter and the music stopped like someone had thrown a switch.
And that someone was Daniel.
Miranda knew that people were still talking, but she couldn’t hear them. And now there was a different noise—like the noise inside a shell, but louder—Daniel’s energy seeping into her mind before she could even think about keeping him out.
And then there was a voice.
I need you to see him and report back.
It wasn’t a compulsion—but it was a reminder of what he could do.
Not that it mattered. She wouldn’t have held out. She never did. Because the truth was that she owed Daniel, and she owed him for a lot more than rehab.
“All right,” she said. “I’ll do what I can.”
The energy faded, and the sounds of the club rushed in to fill the void.
Daniel was leaning toward her, forearms on the bar, smiling widely. His eyes were absolutely, perfectly green. Clear as emeralds, bright as sunlight. And for a moment, she loved him as she had once, in the sweet purple and white summers of childhood.
Then he was gone, his tall, lithe body weaving gracefully through the crowd.
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© 2025-2026 Barbara Graver. All rights reserved. This is an original work of fiction. Do not reproduce or redistribute without written permission.