**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Has it been six months since you read Cheating Death and you don’t want to reread it? 

I got you! Here's a quick refresher on the events that have brought us to this point. Spoilers for book one—it's kind of the point. Oh, and it’s long. There were just a few things that happened. 

Sunday Prescott is a buyer for an auction house in Las Vegas. She’s having a normal day in an average week until her brother Colton and his best friend CJ show up. It’s late Wednesday night when Sunday discovers that Colt is in the lock-up under the Ruby Star Casino. He likes to gamble but subtlety is not one of his gifts, so she heads off to rescue him. 

Grayson Marchese is the owner, CEO, and head vamp in charge at the Ruby Star. While Sunday is making friends (Ben) and annoying the security guards (Tomas), Grayson’s chyld Vivien decides to have a nibble on Colton, allowing them both to be pulled into an orange portal by a hooded figure. 

Sunday uses her empathic powers to barge into Grayson’s meeting with his very evil vampiric sister (and ex-wife from his human days) Roxana. In a moment of inspired pettiness, he announces that Sunday is his fiancee, though he’s never met her before. Sunday is okay with this; Grayson is hot as hell and if he owes her a favor, he might release her brother. Sunday learns that vampires and shifters exist, then discovers that Colt and Vivien have been taken.

Ben tells Sunday that she’s his mate, Grayson is suspicious of her motives, and Tomas is just suspicious. And Tomas doesn’t need any more problems. He was meant to be the Alpha of a wolf pack in Alaska. Instead, he’s Grayson’s unacknowledged mate and his role as the head of security for the House of Marchese is the only way that he can stay close to Grayson and keep his wolf satisfied. 

Sunday spies a beautiful but sickly-looking shifter on the vampire King of Texas’ lap during a formal ‘meet and greet’ and she can’t not do something to help. The jaguar shifter is Xavier and he’s a venom-addicted mess. Officially, he’s part of the royal guard but he’s treated like a sex slave. Sunday uses her power to compel him, and he moves to her side (expected), then licks her face (unexpected). Now he’s Grayson’s problem, exactly what Sunday was hoping for. Ben takes Xavier upstairs while Grayson tries to depart with the excuse that he needs to punish Sunday. But Roxana inserts herself and gravely injures our girl while Grayson, prevented by a geas and vampire protocol, is unable to stop her. Sunday is healed with Grayson’s blood in an intensely intimate exchange that also involves Ben.

Xavier shows off the shadow weapons and shadow-walking abilities of his rare omega designation and then pledges himself to House Marchese. Sunday reveals her empathic powers to the group and tells them about her family and cousin Annabelle, who has psychometry. They all make plans to travel to Mississippi the next evening and make use of Annabelle’s gift to locate Vivien and Colton.

The next morning, Thursday, Grayson is seemingly secure in the vault beneath his office when demons break in. He’s injured and Sunday fights off the demons then gives him her blood, healing and briefly waking him despite it still being daytime. Tomas, Xavier, and Ben fight off the rest of the demons before they make a panicked escape from Las Vegas on a borrowed jet.

Grayson wakes early to discover that he now has a full first blood tie with Sunday, and that she can resist his call and glamour. He heals Xavier, further sharing his blood across the group. The very un-Grayson-like actions and total departure from their normal routine is making Tomas a very snarly wolf.

Sunday picks up on X’s pops of interest in Ben and Gray and asks Xavier if he’s gay or perhaps non-binary, then offers him his first choice in many years: How does he want to be gendered? He chooses they/them pronouns. (Then I spend the rest of the book trying to make sure I have their pronouns correct.)

Thursday night, Sunday’s father Wade is waiting for them at the regional airport and thanks to his own gift he already knows that they’re supes. Tomas makes an appointment to have friendly demons visit on Saturday night and answer some questions for them. Grayson glowers and Xavier brats. Foreshadowing!

Gray nearly drains Sunday while feeding before things get hot and heavy in the backseat of Sunday’s beloved muscle car, Xavier and Ben start a bromance that fast becomes a romance, while Tomas is juggling his responsibilities with his growing jealousy over Gray’s interest in Sunday.

On Friday, Sunday takes Tomas and Xavier to check on her Aunt Sue and twin sisters Lily and Gemma. They’re five years old and adorably precocious. Tomas is shocked to hear them telepathically via his pack link, leading to the discovery that they’ve both been hiding their psychic abilities from the adults. Sue seems to be a normal human but she’s fantastic, so we’ll allow it.

Grayson rises early again and thanks to some out-of-control fangs and Sunday’s propensity for biting they manage a second blood tie. One more and they will be permanently bonded. Neither of them seems at all concerned by this.

Annabelle shows up to do a reading on Vivien and Colt. She’s kind of awful but it’s worth putting up with her to get the assurance that everyone is alive and hopefully safe. After Annabelle leaves, Sunday and Ben decide to take advantage of the full moon to complete their mate bond. They hike into the woods behind her family farm. A primal chase scene gets a little out of hand but eventually bonding is achieved and X joins them in the tent for a short but sweet threesome.

Then a Mississippi flash flood (who knew?) necessitates Ben shifting into an elephant. Xavier shifts and heads out ahead of them, but becomes distracted by scents of apple blossoms, and old magic. Once back at the house, Xavier is in trouble for wandering off, and the rain continues.

Saturday morning finds Ben and X still at odds, Tomas having inappropriately sexy thoughts about Sunday, and Grayson dead to the world in his travel pod. X volunteers to guard Grayson while the rest go to town to fill sandbags. In town, Sunday collapses in pain, scaring Tomas and Ben. Then as quickly as it appeared, the pain is gone and so, it seems, is her bond with Grayson.

Grayson awakens on the stairs leading to the sunlit ground floor with Xavier fighting to keep him from descending and immolating; his maker is summoning him home to Italy. With Xavier’s shadow walking help, Grayson starts his trek eastward. He closes his bond to Sunday to protect her from feeling the pain from his maker’s call, then decides that cutting all contact with the others will protect them from Roxana. But he indulges himself, cracking the bond open to revel in Sunday one last time. 

Sunday, Ben, and Tomas return to an empty farmhouse and Xaviers’ blood in the stairwell. Tomas loses control and almost hurts Sunday before running off. 

Sitting around the kitchen table, Sunday feels Gray’s bond open and sends him all the affection she can before he closes it again. Then, they make plans for getting all of their people back again.

Deep breath and curtsy. So, that’s got y’all caught up! Are you ready? It’s gonna be a wild ride.