Loren chastises Darien for irritating her plants at the apothecary. He tries to ignore his attraction to her as they head back to Hell’s Gate. Ivyana calls, summoning them to a large park where the other Devils tracked and killed a demon with unusually human-like eyes. The demon was also oddly challenging to kill, according to the Devils’ report. The Devils take blood samples before cremating the body. Another contact summons Darien to a tattoo parlor called Diablo. Loren and Darien enter to find a hellseher named Kyle. When the clientele ogle Loren, Darien threatens them, angry when they imply that Loren has invited this negative attention with her attire.

Kyle shows them an image of a phoenix tattoo and reports that two clients came into the parlor and asked a coworker to put the image on their necks. Kyle doesn’t know their identities, but he recognized them as half-hellseher, half-vampire. They were twins, one male, one female. Darien hears a scream, which he follows to find the other tattoo artist with his throat slit.

Darien realizes that he has been tricked: The Demon Twins came to Kyle to figure out who was protecting Loren. They now know that the Devils are helping her. He quickly chases the twins, afraid that they will escape and tell others how to find Loren. The Devils chase after the twins, who can fly. Koray, the female twin, attacks them from above, seizing Loren. Darien grabs them before they can fly away, then breaks Koray’s wing, sending him and Loren through the window of a tall building.

Loren huddles on the floor of the building as Darien shoots Koray with stakes through the heart, killing her. Loren is covered with many small cuts from crashing through the glass window. Darien carries Loren to the ground, where Ivy reports that Xander, the male twin, was captured alive. Darien takes Loren back to Hell’s Gate, where he carefully pulls shards of glass out of her wounds. They both apologize for challenging each other during their stressful quest. When Loren cries, overwhelmed by the exertions of the day, Darien hugs her.

Max, Tanner, and Travis drag Xander into a basement room. Darien encourages Loren to go upstairs while he beats Xander to get information. He knows little, but he reveals that the abducted werewolf, Chrysantha Sands, “had gotten in deep with the wrong people” (292). She was suspected of selling illegal Blood Potions, which Darien intends to verify before telling Chrysantha’s brother, Logan. Darien goes to bed, thinking about how much he enjoyed hugging Loren.

Loren is anxious while sleeping back at her dorm during the week. She and Darien text one another; they discuss deciphering the scroll, though their conversation includes flirtation.

Dallas casts an invisibility spell over herself and Loren so they can sneak into the restricted section of the library and seek books that will help Darien translate the scroll. Despite their invisibility, they are quickly caught by the headmaster. Dallas claims that they were seeking something that could help translate a dead relative’s journal. The headmaster lets them check out the book, threatening expulsion if they break the rules again.

Loren spends the week missing Darien. She frets about the burden of her quest, as the Devils now all wear expensive shielding amulets and alternate “watch duty” at the Academy. She uses this opportunity to give the restricted book to the Devils. Loren struggles with guilt that Sabrine was kidnapped instead of her and flees one of her classes in a panic. Darien arrives to comfort her. He cautions that Sabrine’s abductors are unlikely to free her even if Loren turns herself in and believes that “there’s something larger at stake” than Sabrine’s life (303).

Darien takes Loren and Dallas to the club where Chrysantha worked. It’s in the Meatpacking District, which still operates slaughterhouses, including ones that kill humans. Despite the horrifying environs, Loren feels safe with an unbothered Darien. Darien insists on seeing Dennis Boyd, Chrysantha’s former boss and a suspected newcomer in the Blood Potion trade. Dennis reports that nothing strange happened the night of Chrysantha’s disappearance. Darien uses his magic to make Dennis tell the whole truth: The night she disappeared, Chrysantha entered a strange van after staying late at the bar. The drivers had phoenix tattoos. Dennis denies selling Blood Potions but directs Darien to speak to Casen Martel, the lead Blood Potion dealer known as the Butcher.

Loren and Darien go to the Umbra Forum, “a clandestine market where anything could be bought” (318). Loren wears Darien’s clothes to hide that she is human. A voice that sounds like a crying child almost lures Loren into a demon’s grasp, and Darien warns her against following anything she hears. Only Darien is given entrance into the Butcher’s warehouse but is not allowed to see the Butcher himself; Loren and Dallas anxiously wait outside as various marketgoers taunt Loren threateningly about being human.

When Darien returns, he is approached by Dominic, a member of the Angels of Death Darkslayer group. The two banter familiarly, and Darien trusts Dominic enough to tell him about their quest. Dominic leaves, and the Butcher emerges and allows them entrance. Darien, Dallas, and Loren enter the Butcher’s filthy office. The Butcher denies that Chrysantha was selling Blood Potions at his behest but confides that an “anonymous client” with a phoenix tattoo purchased the potions and large quantities of chemicals from him recently. The Butcher reveals that Ivy owes him a large sum of money, which she used to protect her ex-husband from debts. Darien offers to pay what Ivy owes, but the Butcher instead wants Darien to battle to the death against four dangerous opponents in an arena. Darien agrees, pleased to have the opportunity to fight.

Loren, Dallas, and Darien leave the Butcher’s hideout after Darien easily kills the opponents. Loren is optimistic that they are getting answers, even though they now must wait for the Butcher’s information about further Blood Potion orders. Werewolf Logan Sands calls Darien, reporting that he thinks he has found Sabrine.

Loren, Darien, and Dallas go to Logan’s house, where he has been tending to an injured Sabrine. He illegally changed her into a werewolf to save her life. While the friends embrace, Logan explains that Sabrine escaped, but the place where she was hiding was magically protected against clues like fingerprints or DNA. Sabrine has no recollection of her captivity, but a doctor found that she’d been dosed with a plant that magically concealed her from Darien’s Sight. There was another substance she ingested, but the doctor couldn’t identify it. (In the novel’s climax, they learn that this was an aura-revealing substance that lured Logan to find Sabrine as part of vampire Calanthe’s plan to use the alliance to find Loren.) Darien criticizes Logan’s foolish decision to illegally change Sabrine into a werewolf.

Though Loren is glad that Logan saved Sabrine, she is sad that Sabrine no longer shares a human side with her. Loren and Dallas insist on staying the night with Sabrine. Darien insists that Logan turn himself in, as this will hopefully encourage more lenient punishment for the illegal transformation. Darien watches over the three friends while they sleep, though he focuses on Loren.

Loren wakes early; she and Darien talk privately about their hopes that Sabrine’s rescue will lead to discovering the perpetrators and preventing further abductions. When Loren asks why Darien cares if she is safe, he doesn’t answer, though he feels more peaceful after spending time with Loren.

Sabrine goes to Hell’s Gate with Loren so that they are safe from any vampire retribution after the police decided not to arrest Logan. The three girls gossip about Loren’s attraction to Darien and Sabrine’s attraction to Logan. Loren asks the house hob, Mortifer, to tell her when Darien is having a Surge. Despite his loyalty to Darien, Mortifer agrees.

Darien waits in the werewolves’ district as a group of vampires arrives to parlay with Logan and his pack. Calanthe Croft, the leader of Angelthene’s vampires, arrives with Emilie, her heir and Logan’s friend. Calanthe confides that her sources told her that the Phoenix Head group is searching for “an ancient artifact called the Arcanum Well” (354). She proposes uniting with the werewolves to catch the phoenix group, which shocks the werewolves, but Calanthe doesn’t want to risk her power if the Phoenix Heads use the Arcanum Well to turn themselves (or other humans) immortal. She also admits that a vampire has been abducted, and a human girl was brutally murdered in vampire territory. She wishes to avoid a scandal.

Tanner wonders if the Arcanum Well can help with the Tricking, the wasting disease that kills immortals. (This is later confirmed and is Randal’s primary motivation for finding the Well.) Calanthe has heard rumors that only Loren has the power to track and find the Well, which she inherited. Calanthe also implies that Emilie and Chrysantha are romantically involved; an accord between the vampires and werewolves would allow them to bring their relationship out in the open. The Devils, vampires, and werewolves agree to an alliance.

Loren and Darien use the restricted library book to try to decipher the Dominus Volumen scroll, which leads them to understand that the chemicals purchased by the Phoenix Head Society are the same ones needed to make the Arcanum Well, but a specific vessel is still needed. Darien wonders how Loren, a human, could be involved. Loren translates enough to determine that the scroll is a riddle. Part of the riddle implies that the Well cannot be destroyed, which makes Darien fear that Loren will never be safe, though he promises himself that he will always protect her.

Mortifer wakes Loren to alert her to one of Darien’s Surges. She finds Darien preparing to go out to fight but convinces him to let her guide him through a meditation. They are both astonished when it works.

Loren and Darien go shopping in the city when suddenly someone attacks Loren. Darien kills the demon who attacked her, surprised to find himself terrified that she is injured. Loren postulates that demons shouldn’t be able to get into the magically guarded city center and speculates that the demons are the kidnapped students, transformed into something terrible. Their supernatural origins explain why they are so difficult to kill. Darien is deeply upset that Loren is hurt, even though her injuries are minor.

Darien teaches Loren, Dallas, and Sabrine how to use weapons to defend themselves. Loren is enjoying herself until she hears Darien gossiping with the other male Devils about a woman who wants to date him. Ivy scolds Darien for being oblivious to Loren’s distress. He admits to his sister that he was trying to push Loren away, as his dangerous life will always put her in danger if they are together. Darien equates his potential to hurt Loren with the way their father “ruined” their mother; Ivy counters that Darien is different from their father. She encourages him to speak honestly with Loren.

Loren is packing when Darien interrupts her. He confesses that he doesn’t actually want to have sex with another woman; she admits that she doesn’t want to leave Hell’s Gate. He apologizes for trying to make her jealous, and they both insist they are “just friends.”

Darien gets a call from Benjamin, the grave robber. Darien, Loren, Travis, and Max go to an empty grave in the national forest. There is one tooth inside, which they hope will provide sufficient bone to trace Loren’s ancestors. Loren is both eager for information about her past and frightened by what she might learn. They get a call from the Butcher, summoning them that evening.

Loren, Dallas, and Sabrine dress provocatively, as part of their plan for the evening is to try to get information out of Baylor, who runs the club where they’re meeting the Butcher. They will need his permission to get into the club’s back rooms to learn about the Butcher’s clients. Darien is jealous that others will flirt with Loren. When Loren doubts that she will be able to attract Baylor’s attention, Darien compliments her looks, which pleases her.

Loren is nervous in the club, which is full of immortals. She, Dallas, and the Devils find a booth, where they get drinks and wait for Baylor to notice Loren. Aspen Van Halen, now allowed to associate with Lace due to Malakai’s permission, approaches and flirtatiously introduces herself to Loren. When Baylor notices Loren, Darien pulls her onto his lap to make Baylor jealous. With her permission, he caresses her provocatively, which Loren finds arousing. They both admit that their attraction is not just for show, and they kiss. They admit to their sexual desires, which Darien insists he will enact privately, not when they have an audience. Loren spots one of the warlocks who was present at Sabrine’s abduction. Logan and Travis pursue him while Loren approaches Baylor. He lets her into the back rooms.

Darien finds the hedonistic pleasures of Baylor’s club familiar, even though it has been a long time since he visited. He frets that Baylor will harm Loren, but Max and Ivy reassure him that Loren is competent and will sedate Baylor per their plan. The power goes out, indicating Loren’s success. The other Devils sneak into the club’s back rooms while Darien and Max wait for Loren’s return. As Loren crosses the club, she is intercepted by Valary, a former fling of Darien’s. Ivy calls to report that the Butcher’s clients got away undetected. Travis and Logan have abducted the warlock and will question him.

Darien hangs up and finds Loren gone. Valary approaches but refuses to reveal what she said to Loren. He panics when he can’t find Loren, especially after he realizes that Valary stole the shielding talisman Loren wears. He calls her, urging her to meet him at the exit, then fights his way through the crowd as he sees three men approaching her.

Loren, feeling suddenly ill, struggles for the exit. Several people try to intercept her, but Darien reaches her, threatening anyone who tries to touch her. Loren is only semi-conscious as Darien carries her out of the club. She is disoriented as Darien gives her a pill to counteract her illness. Darien is angry to learn that Logan spoke to Calanthe about the events at the club, but Logan reassures him that he didn’t tell Calanthe about Loren. Darien, still outraged, promises to murder Logan viciously if Loren is harmed. He demands that Logan get approval from Darien before speaking to Calanthe.

Darien cares for Loren as she vomits repeatedly, a side effect of the pill he gave her to clear the drug that Valary gave her from her body. When Loren is asleep and in Dallas’s care, Darien confronts the captured warlock. The warlock readily agrees to answer all questions, insisting that violence won’t be needed. He confirms that Sabrine was not the target; the Phoenix Head Society sought Loren, who is “the key” to the Arcanum Well. He was promised use of the well, which would give him “unlimited access to [his] magic without the threat of contracting the Tricking” (438). The Phoenix Head Society has made a replica of the Arcanum Well, but it doesn’t work properly; it keeps turning subjects into monsters, as Loren suspected. The warlock no longer believes he will ever see benefits from participating in the Society’s schemes.

The warlock doesn’t know who runs the Society, as he was not trusted with this information before he left their ranks. He confirms that only Loren can track the true Well. He knows little else. Darien uses his magic to make the warlock forget the events of the evening and sets him free. He wants to enact less violence to be a better potential partner to Loren.

Loren wakes, groggy after being drugged. She admires Darien as he wakes beside her. They both confirm that they were not playacting the night prior, and they are still attracted to one another. He explains everything he learned from the warlock, then asks her out to dinner. She agrees, though she insists that they can only be friends, as she has a mortal lifespan, and he will live on. Despite this insistence, she spends her workday thinking about Darien and her attraction to him.

Darien takes Loren to a fancy restaurant, where he discusses his pain over losing his mother. He purchased the restaurant where they are eating because it was his mother’s favorite place to eat while she was alive, but he keeps his ownership anonymous, as it would enrage his father. Loren is touched when Darien asks many questions about her, compliments her appearance, and gives her a charm bracelet. As she is thanking him, screams erupt in the street. They follow the sounds to find the corpse of one of the missing girls hung on a wall, blood spread out like phoenix wings behind her. The words “WE’RE WAITING” are written in blood. Loren is sickened to realize that the message is for her. Gunshots ring out; one hits Darien in the shoulder. Darien ignores the injury and carries Loren quickly to safety. As they drive to see a doctor for Darien, he explains that the attacker was Tyson Geller, one of the Reapers. He doesn’t know about Loren but hates Darien.

Arthur Kind, an elderly human doctor, deftly stitches Darien’s wound. Darien tells Loren that many of his scars are from his father’s physical abuse. Arthur, who designs weapons for the military, gives Darien a ring that turns into a full suit of armor when turned. Arthur hasn’t yet gotten DNA from the tooth Benjamin found, but he looked up some names that Calanthe discovered related to the Well; they are possible ancestors of Loren’s, though they died a millennium ago. He also solved the scroll’s riddle, revealing that it refers to prima materia—a concept meaning chaos, or “the formless matter supposed to have existed before the creation of the universe […] the base material for all creation” (465). Arthur cautions against trying to tamper with the substance, even if they manage to access it somehow. Loren and Darien decide to speak to one of the dangerous creatures from the Crossroads, which can give information in exchange for an offering.

Loren wakes in the night to find the Devils debating how to handle Randal’s discovery that a human is staying at Hell’s Gate. Randal insists on meeting Loren. The Devils speculate over who might have told him about Loren. The Devils are uncertain what will happen on the visit, as Randal never invites anyone to his underground lair.

Darien, Loren, and the Devils traverse the labyrinthine tunnels of Randal’s lair. Loren is shocked when she sees Randal and realizes that he is Darien’s father. Randal is ailing from the Tricking. Randal uses magic to levitate Loren into the air, which infuriates Darien. Randal forces Darien to tell him everything, or else he will kill Loren. He explains that the Phoenix Head Society is after her, but that he doesn’t know why, as she doesn’t have any obvious powers. Darien promises Randal he will help find the Arcanum Well and will let Randal use it to cure the Tricking. He forces Darien to swear a binding Blood Covenant that magically forces him to continue searching for the Well until he finds it or dies.

As the group leaves the tunnels, a beautiful woman named Christa hails Darien, who, to Loren’s dismay, sends everyone ahead without him. She realizes that she cares more for Darien than she realized.

Worrying about Christa keeps Loren awake late into the night. She sits in the kitchen with Ivy, who discusses her hatred for her father and her love for her human mother, Emberley. Emberley tried to take her children away from their cruel father, but Randal tracked them down. Emberley reportedly died by suicide, but Ivy suspects that Randal killed her. Ivy wants Darien to kill Randal, but Darien fears the repercussions from Randal’s supporters. Ivy explains that Christa and Darien had a sexual relationship, but she believes Loren is the only woman Darien has ever truly cared for.

Darien enters after returning from a mission to kill a demon. He flirts with Loren, causing Ivy to call them “adorable.” Ivy worries about the Blood Covenant, which will cause Darien increasing pain the longer he takes to fulfill the oath. Calanthe calls, summoning Darien. She has captured and sedated one of the demons that was created from the abducted humans and the false Well. She has already begun running medical tests to see if the transformation is reversible. They suspect they can reverse it only if caught early, which gives Logan limited hope for Chrysantha. The Devils spend weeks capturing the transformed demons, and the vampires begin to develop an antidote.

One night, while Loren is researching the “prima materia” substance that makes up the Arcanum Well, Darien comes home looking defeated. He embraces her and asks her to distract him; she sings a nursery rhyme she remembers from childhood. She collapses while singing, lightheaded, which alarms Darien. They relax and watch a movie together, which they both find comforting.

Darien teases Loren for celebrating her dog Singer’s birthday. Loren feels guilty that the dog lives primarily at the apothecary, so Darien offers to let Singer stay at Hell’s Gate whenever she wishes. To Loren’s dismay, Singer knocks a near-dead plant off the windowsill, which she quickly repots.

Darien takes her on a surprise date outside city limits, which Loren has never visited due to the many dangerous creatures that live beyond the city’s shields. She is amazed by the stars’ visibility away from the city’s light pollution. They kiss, which Loren finds emotionally intense. She is hurt when Darien pulls away, implying that it is “wrong” for them to be together. She ignores him during the ride back to the city. Darien eventually explains that he doesn’t want to drag her into his life of perpetual violence. Loren remains angry that he is deciding without her input. She storms into the Academy, both of them angry and hurt.

Darien goes to the Pit, battling many demons to distract himself from his hurt feelings. When he leaves the Pit in the wee hours of the morning, he finds the rabbit messenger waiting for him. She offers him five-million mynet—two million more than he was previously offered. He pretends he is still searching for Loren. He receives a call from Detective Finn Solace, who wants to frame Cain for the abductions, since he cannot get enough evidence of the crimes Cain actually committed. Darien refuses but promises to tell Finn if he gets any information the police need to arrest Cain legitimately.

Two weeks after her failed date with Darien, Loren is still hurt about the rejection. She repeatedly listens to his messages, in which he apologizes profusely. Loren frets when she is late picking Singer up from the groomer, as this puts her on the streets as it is growing dark. She has almost made it back to the apothecary when she hears demons rustling nearby. She huddles in a pool of light as the demons herd her away from safety, then frantically calls Darien. He rushes to her, but the streetlight goes out, leaving her susceptible to the demons. She uses the pistol Darien gave her weeks ago to fight off the pack of demons, but they injure her and Singer both before Darien finds them.

Darien is alarmed to see Loren and Singer covered in blood. Loren weeps and sings to a bleeding Singer as Darien tries to find an available veterinarian, but Singer dies. Darien embraces her, then takes her back to Hell’s Gate, where they bury Singer in the yard. Darien worries over Loren and blames himself for not protecting her and Singer.

Darien takes a contract to kill a vampire, which he does mercilessly. He works to convince himself that he is unbothered by the bloody work. He goes to meet Arthur, who laments Loren’s absence. Arthur argues that Darien’s plan to spare Loren danger is causing her emotional pain. He encourages Darien to give a relationship with Loren a chance. Arthur shows Darien plans he found in his company’s database for a replica of the Arcanum Well; he plans to continue searching for the owner, who must be someone high up in the military. (Briefly, Arthur believes this to be Taega, who later turns out to be set up. The true perpetrator is unknown at the end of the novel.) Arthur analyzed the tooth that Darien gave him, which led him to identify Loren’s father. (This turns out to be Erasmus Sophronia, the maker of the Well.)

A week after Singer’s death, Loren goes to an abandoned well, where she throws in two pieces of silver and some of her blood to summon a Crossroads demon. It addresses her as Liliana Sophronia.