Four days had passed since we left the lake. We had been back in St. Louis, returning to work and training like always. I reconnected with Annabelle and Bartley as soon as we stepped inside the house. They informed me that the few surviving Grimwoods had no useful information on Peter and were as surprised and shocked by his survival from all those years ago. Annabelle was staying in close contact with them as the time progressed, assuring them that if Peter survived, and she needed help dealing with him, she’d call.

  Allen and Eloise returned to Jane’s. The full moon was approaching and would sit high in the sky in only a few more days. This wasn’t the first full moon with Jane’s pack; she just needed to have them close for the first year or so. I knew Jane had their best interest at heart, so I never second-guessed her decisions, and shockingly, neither did Allen. He was very strict about staying within the boundaries Jane had set for him and Eloise. As long as she knew they could keep themselves controlled, or at least restrained, she’d have even more leniency with them. When I thought about it, I liked the way Jane was dealing with my son and future daughter-in-law. She was a strong leader with years of experience, and she knew what she was doing. Allen and Eloise could both learn from that experience to become as strong-willed as Jane one day. If that were possible, Allen could become the strongest and most deadly hunter our family has ever seen.

  Frank reunited with Jane as soon as we all got back from the tense family gathering. They quickly disappeared back to Frank’s place. I’m sure the few days he was gone had been a strain on their physical relationship, especially with the full moon approaching. Frank told me once that as the moon grew fuller, so did Jane’s lustful nature. He said that Jane had told him that it's just a part of the wolf, and she couldn’t help it. Every month since they had been back together, Frank would always be walking around for a few days with the biggest grin smeared across his face. One day, we were watching a truck unload lumber at a new construction site, and he couldn’t pay attention to anything that was going on. He looked like a little kid about to get out of the last day of school as he prepared to see Jane. That was the night before the full moon, when she was at her closest to the wolf. He almost got run over by the eighteen-wheeler as it pulled away.

  Autumn, however, was as visibly drained and worried as Eleanor. They both roamed the house, reading anything they could find that they thought might hold answers about Sam. They were trying to do something, anything that they thought would help after we met with Uncle Chris and his family. We all wanted to talk to him, but he hadn’t been answering our calls. We didn’t even know where he was. Martin wasn’t answering our calls or responding to our texts.

  Autumn and Eleanor just couldn’t sit still while they knew he was out there alone, under the beck and call of that overwhelming force from that other plane of existence.

  Our time at the lake was a well-needed break, that was certain. But it was also a time to answer questions. Uncle Chris and his side of the family knew something was going on. They were front-loaded by Zeke and Arthur before we even got there. I thought Zeke would hold off and let me explain everything first, but he didn’t. He decided to be a little bitch instead, running to tattle like he did when we were kids.

  When we got there… I’ll never forget the first thing Uncle Chris said to me. The look in his eyes said enough. His words just boosted the feeling of disappointment.

  “What did you let happen?” he asked me.

  What did I let happen? He didn’t know jack shit! I was pissed. Mad at Zeke for not being able to keep his damn mouth shut, mad at Arthur for letting him do it, and Uncle Chris… for always acting like I had to control every millisecond of what went on in our lives. That’s how he ran his family, but that’s not how I handled mine.

  It took a lot of talking throughout our time there. We played out everything that happened over the past year. We told them everything, literally everything. The only things we were able to keep a secret were the two main key points Sam had always stressed. We kept his family a secret, and we didn’t tell anyone about the Entity from the Fields. Eleanor glazed over a lot she remembered from that other world, still playing like she hadn’t recovered her memories as much as she had.

  Uncle Chris and his side didn’t believe that Eleanor was brought back to life. They think it had to have been something Phineas did to her that wore off. We let them find their own truths to believe. It was easier for us than trying to convince them of the real facts.

  In the end, however, Uncle Chris and his side only wanted one thing from us. They wanted to meet and observe Sam. They didn’t want us to be so tightly wound with him, obviously, but they knew they couldn’t control us. Uncle Chris always acted like Zeke and I were still kids, not treating us as the heads of our own families at times. Zeke might go running to Uncle Chris like a child when he can’t control things, but not me.

  Autumn, El, Frank, Clara, and Wayland were all in agreement with me. We’d play along and let the rest of them think we’d listen and heed their wishes, but only to calm things down. We wanted to see and spend time with our family, but we had to get through the tough parts first. We all knew how apprehensive our family could be about things they didn’t understand, us included. They would never understand Sam until they met and had experiences with him.

  When things finally settled, we got into Allen and Eloise. That was more of a believable story for them to accept. They didn’t like it, hoping they could reverse the curse somehow. Aunt Raven had contacts, others similar to her own family, that she thought could do something. I doubted it. Not that I didn’t want that for my son, but if it were possible, the Wicklows would have found a way to reverse the Talbots' burden already after all these years.

  Throughout the rest of our time at the Lake of the Ozarks, I never heard from Sam. At first, I thought that was a good thing. He was doing as I asked him to. But then Autumn said he wasn’t replying to her, and then Eleanor. Frank tried too, but nothing. He called Jane, but she hadn’t seen him either. Something just felt… wrong.

  We still didn’t have full answers to his curse, if you want to call it that. I don’t know what else you could call it. But we knew enough that things just weren’t adding up. Even if he got a vision and left the city, he should have still been able to call or text at the very least… maybe.

  We hadn’t learned what he was any more than he had. He told us what he knew, and what he knew wasn’t much. Those other people who talked to him in the other place didn’t give him real answers. He told us that they said he’d learn everything on his own. I didn’t like that. What were we supposed to do if, as he learned things, he changed? What did we do if the Sam we knew faded away behind an evolving monster that took away his control, eclipsing his human side from sight… forever?

  Autumn had sucked Kayla into her search for answers as the days passed. She came back with us after the lake, but only her. Zeke and Arthur planned to stay as long as it took to resolve our current problems, but they ended up elsewhere. Uncle Chris was coming to St. Louis, and they were helping him get situated in a place he had on the other side of town. Plus, I don’t think Zeke wanted to be alone with me after he spilled his guts to our Uncle. They wouldn’t leave us until we knew the Peter Grimwood problem was dead and buried as much as we hoped he already was.

  On that fourth day, we were visited as soon as the sun came down. When darkness cloaked the expanse of grass between our house and the trees behind the backyard, Martin and Alex rushed towards our home in a blur. A dark silhouette shot out from the trees quickly, trailed by another shadow that had a crimson hue. I knew they were coming, so I waited on the back patio with everyone. They said they had some information on more human trafficking and other things they had learned since we left for our lake trip.

  “Carter,” Martin greeted coolly as they arrived. “It’s good to see you all. I hope your vacation was… soothing.” The old vampire smiled, unaware of everything that had happened.

  I hadn’t found the time or thought it essential to tell him about what happened while we had our less-than-accepting side of the family around. Martin was a very sore subject for our Uncle. He never liked the fact that my father kept ties with him, or that I seemed to carry on that tradition.

  “As much as we could,” I offered. “It’s nice to see you again, Alex.”

  “Hi,” Alex didn’t say much, only standing beside her ancient friend as he did most of the talking.

  Her red hair flowed down around her shoulders and barely covered her chest, which was exposed from the revealing clothes she wore. She never seemed like she wanted to look presentable in typical situations. She was a strange one, but she was with Martin to help, so I couldn’t complain.

  “Martin,” Eleanor cut in, “have you heard from Sam yet?”

  Martin was quick, “Heard from him? I thought he was with you all?”

  “No. He never came,” Eleanor replied. “We’ve all been trying to get a hold of him, but he hasn’t answered.”

  “What?” Martin huffed. “I was certain he left the city.” Martin began pacing around our living room. “The last time we saw him was about a week ago. We three went out to hunt down any clues that we might find regarding Peter.”

  “You three?” Eleanor asked.

  It was weird, Sam teaming up with the two vampires. He had never done anything like that before.

  “Yes. He thought that if we all combined our efforts, we might uncover something to actually help find him. But at the end of our time together, he left abruptly. Alex and I tracked him, but he went into the river. That’s where we lost him. He hasn’t been to the safehouse since…” Martin fell short. He didn’t know anything else.

  “Something happened to him while you were away,” Alex opened up, surprisingly.

  “What happened?” Eleanor asked worriedly.

  “He was attacked,” Martin answered. “He said they were like shadows standing behind him.”

  “Did they hurt him?” Autumn cringed.

  “They did mess him up pretty good, according to what he told us. But you know Sam, nothing can take him down. He said they attacked him with a passing storm. He said they pulled lightning from the sky and hit him with it. Then somehow, they sent him through a portal. He dropped out of the sky somewhere outside the city,” Martin recounted what was told to him by our friend.

  “He was still healing when we found him at the safehouse,” Alex added.

  “What could do that?” El asked in fear.

  “We thought it might have been Peter, if he was still alive. We hoped to find him once we all decided to go out together. But he never said anything about leaving the area. After that night, I just thought he needed some time alone. He didn’t leave on very good terms. He seemed… very distressed.”

  “Carter, you don’t think?” Eleanor began to wonder.

  I shook my head, “I don’t know, sweety… I hope not.”

  We both feared that he had left again. Did he get a vision and have to leave us again? How long would it be this time? Would it be another ten months until we saw him again… a year? I hoped not. Maybe Uncle Chris would get what he wanted in the end.

  Autumn stormed away in a huff. I saw her face before she turned up the stairs; she was about to cry. She held it in until she was out of sight. She was upset and didn’t want to be around us. I heard her slam her door shut upstairs so hard that something glass in her room shattered. She thought she would finally get to figure out what she was supposed to do with Sam.

  I knew she still had feelings for him; she spoke to El about it often, unsure what the right thing to do was. I didn’t want that for my daughter. Sam wasn’t human, and he couldn’t give her a life like I wanted for my daughter. We didn’t have a normal life, but we had something as close as you could get when you knew the truth. With Sam… she wouldn’t have things. But… I didn’t want Autumn to feel what she was feeling. I wished there was something I could do.

  "Well, I’m sorry to hear about Sam. However, we all knew that he was an unknown. We still have no idea what he truly is,” Martin said. “I wonder where he has gone off to?”

  After an awkward moment of silence, Martin returned to speaking about what he came for.

  “Well, what is it you've discovered?" I asked my old inhuman friend.

  "More people have been taken. Not as many, but since you've left for the lake, there have been four disappearances. They all have the same look and feel of the human trafficking from before," Martin suggested. “If so, it very well may be Peter.”

  "I followed a few vampires from the bar the other night. They led me to a sewer system in the downtown area. I saw them take a girl down there. I tried to run after and stop them from killing her. But as soon as I went down into the tunnels, they were gone.” Alex recalled the events strangely, "It was like they disappeared out of thin air. The trails they left just ended randomly inside the stone tunnels."

  “I, too, have had trouble tracking individuals through the subterranean levels of the city,” Martin said. "I think there are secret paths and doorways within the caverns below that are known only to certain beings from down in the pits... ways to go deeper beneath the city. I'm starting to think that this might not all be just Peter Grimwood. The creatures that came up from the depths; Fitz, the youngbloods, and those two feral vampires all came from areas within the caves that I could not determine,” Martin explained. “They must have been told or taught how to navigate the tunnels using the hidden paths, probably by someone much older and more experienced from the pits. I don't think even Peter would have known these things on his own. Yet, he is equally as involved as the creatures Sam slew.”

  “Do you think Peter is alive? Could he be working with someone else? Maybe that’s how he’s come back before…” Eleanor thought out loud.

  “I do not know those things, Eleanor. However, we need to go check out this area around the tunnels beneath that part of the city. If they are taking humans down below, then maybe there is a staging area somewhere close by on the surface. I believe that is what the Lemp Brewery was, a place to corral the victims before taking them down for whatever purpose they’d serve,” Martin suggested.

  “You want us to go beneath the city?” I asked. “We can’t do that… we’d be slaughtered.”

  Martin laughed lightly, “No, Carter. I have a plan that won’t require you to enter the caves. You will all be topside, scouring the city above for signs of a new staging area. Alex, Jane, and I will enter the caves.”

  “No,” Frank ordered. “Jane’s not going down there. You can’t fight in that place… you’ll all be killed.”

  “I apologize, Frank, but Jane has already agreed. She wants to help put an end to whatever is happening in the city.” Martin actually seemed sorry for having to be the one to tell my brother the truth.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Frank was pissed. He wasn’t mad at Jane, but he was worried beyond words. He was silent for the rest of the conversation.

  “We’ve worked out a plan and an area to sweep already. Let’s all go over the details and, if you are all willing, we’ll execute,” Martin offered.

  I looked at Eleanor, who was hesitantly nodding in agreement. We wanted to help save the lives of these young people who had been swept up in a cruel world that wanted them dead. But as always, I worried for our family. We both did. When push came to shove, we had to stop the evil in the world. We’d do it, as long as we all agreed that Martin’s plan was solid.

  “Okay. But first, we have to get everyone over here. They have to hear the plan and agree for themselves,” I told Martin.

  “Certainly,” Martin knew this was how we did things.

  “Okay. What’s the plan?” I asked Martin.

  We took the rest of that night and the next day to plan our mission. This was going to be a big one, and we determined early on that we’d need to call in the Wicklows. We needed some of that gypsy power to fill in the gaps where we thought our strategies were weakest.

  I was hesitant to call and inform my cousins, but thankfully, once I told them the circumstances, they were quick to fall in line. Uncle Chris wanted to stay in the loop, but he wasn’t coming. He and his daughters were looking into a few things in the area. I assume they were digging into anything they could find about the strange events in the city over the past few years, since Sam’s arrival.

  The following day was mostly filled with mapping out that section of the city, determining getaway routes, assigning positions, determining teams, and many other aspects of the hunt. Our hunting party was massive, numbering sixteen total. We had two main groups: one above and one below.

  There were three drivers and three teams above on the surface. The drivers would be Shelta, Bartley, and Patrick. The gypsies could use their powers to keep us all linked like they had that night in Annabelle’s yard. Hopefully, this night would go smoother. The area we would be covering was so large that each team would need one of the Wicklows nearby to act as a repeater for their strange power. One gypsy wouldn’t be able to maintain that area of coverage for long enough. Having all three Wicklows as drivers, staying locally around their corresponding team would spread out the load amongst their collective power. Annabelle would be somewhere in the mix, roaming randomly at her leisure to assist in the massive effect we’d be creating in the area. She wouldn’t take orders, though. She agreed to help, but she knew what she was doing. I worried about her the least of all.

  Each gypsy driver had a team of three hunters to keep psychically linked to the rest of us. Shelta had Clara, Autumn, and me; Bartley had Arthur, Kayla, and Zeke; Patrick had Frank, Eleanor, and Wayland. Each of the hunting teams consisted of a long-range shooter, a medium-distance hunter, and a close-combat fighter. We split everyone as evenly as possible to have at least three different specialties per team, along with their Wicklow. This was the most efficient and strategic way we had determined to progress with Martin’s plan.

  The team below consisted of Martin, Alex, and Jane. Martin and Alex had distinct skills that would keep them alive down below. Frank was anxious about Jane. However, the full moon had just passed. It was still so close that Jane’s strength and inhuman power were near Martin’s. I still wasn’t sure exactly how powerful Alex was, but I’d bet that Jane would be able to win in that fight as long as it was on a full moon. Frank didn’t need to worry about her.

  The question of whether we should bring in Allen and Eloise had come up, but we decided against it. Jane didn’t want to test them out in the city too close to a full moon. Eleanor and I were both in agreement, but I think we had our own reasons to hide them from the danger. I think we both were scared of losing our son again after we had just gotten him back.

  Once we had our teams, we knew what to do. We split the search area into three sections and would scan and sweep the city in the darkness of the midnight hour. We were in the general area of Metropolitan Square. Many large buildings in the area shot up into the night sky. We rolled across the empty streets below the metal and glass titans as we searched for our starting point.

  Once in position, Shelta came to a stop between the tight brick walls of two buildings. We slipped out of the black Suburban without saying a word. We were all linked in together, and we began at Martin’s order.

  “We’re in,” Martin informed the surface teams.

  This was the cue. Clara, Autumn, and I distanced ourselves from our vehicle as Shelta pulled back out of the shadowy alley. The dark-haired gypsy would stay close enough to maintain the effect on us. Still, she’d patrol the area for any incoming problems.

  We were in the northernmost section of our sweep area. We moved above the city streets while Jane, Martin, and Alex scoured the wormholes beneath the city for any signs of a formidable presence that could hinder the surface operations. We three were on the move. Clara and I moved forward first, Autumn maintaining about thirty yards distance between us to stay effective at long range. My daughter was a crack shot, and I knew nothing would get close to us as long as her equipment functioned correctly.

  We swept the area, building by building, street by street, until we came to the last building in our area. The other two teams had swept the outer edges of their zones as well, coming inward to the central parts of our middle ground where all three regions met. The very middle of this vacant downtown area was ominously quiet. We were as silent as church mice as we moved in and out of buildings with our weapons drawn and ready, quickly and tactically clearing them at the street level. We were looking for any signs of entrances to the subterranean levels beneath the city.

  We had one last building left. In the bottom corner of the skyscraper was a part of the building that was boarded up, like it used to be a separate business, apart from the main structure itself. There was a metal side door in an alley that ran parallel to the main street on the other side of the building. The door was rusted with dark orange-brown corrosion, but the hinges shone clean metal at the pivoting mechanisms. This door had been used quite a bit.

  “Autumn,” I spoke quietly to my distant cover, “Keep eyes on this door. We’re going to check it out.”

  “I’ve got you,” her voice rang in my mind.

  I heard her quickly scaling the building just across from the rusty door. She slung her rifle across her back as she used a drainpipe that descended from the roof to make her way to the top of the adjacent building. She was up there on the third floor in seconds. She had an eagle-eye view of every available angle the door offered. Once inside, she’d be no help, only able to keep others from following us in.

  “Clara, let's go. Stay close and don’t get separated.” I pulled my silver blade from behind my waist. “If anything kicks off, we’ll retreat through this door, and Autumn can take out anything that follows,” I said to them both.

  “Got it,” Clara assured as she stepped forward to grip the coarse metal handle.

  “I’ve got you both,” Autumn was in position.

  “In three, two, one, go,” I counted us down and then rushed in like a ghost behind my sister.

  As soon as we stepped into the room, we were hit with a sight and smell that wrenched us both in horror. At our feet were bodies of mutilated human beings. We had no idea who these people were or how many were there on that floor. Bodies lay severed, heads were separated from necks, and blood pooled beneath it all as a growing pond of biological fluid. Arms and legs that were still connected to larger chunks of the human form were twisted and bent into strange positions. The smell was intense, choking Clara and me as soon as we took our first breath.

  “We’ve got a problem,” I choked out to everyone through our link.

  “What do you have?” Zeke asked before anyone else.

  “What is it, Carter? Are you alright?” Martin was right behind him.

  “Bodies, lots of them,” I told the teams. “There’s blood everywhere. I think we’re too late. Most of them, from what we can tell, look young.”

  “Shit,” Alex screamed aloud, allowing us all to hear her frustration and rage. “Those mother fuckers!”

  “Autumn,” Jane spoke clearly through our minds, “Don’t shoot, we’ll be coming up out of the manhole cover on the north side of your alley in a few seconds.”

  “Roger,” Autumn acknowledged.

  Clara and I backed out of the creaking door to meet the fresh air again. It couldn’t fill my lungs quickly enough. All of those bodies, lying twisted and mangled, put off a smell that disrupted my mind. It was good to breathe again.

  “What the fuck was that?” Clara spoke loudly, bending over to breathe clean air. “What would do that to people?”

  In only moments, all the other teams converged on us for the first time since we all split up into the vehicles we left in. Jane, Martin, and Alex all climbed to the surface of the city again. It had been a long night of sweeping the city, and we finally found something. We were all tired from the work it took to scan the massive area throughout the night, but we had to keep going. What did it all mean? Why did those people have to die like that?

  “They’re not humans,” Alex said as soon as she walked up to our massively growing group.

  “What?” I asked, ready to say more.

  “I can smell them. There are vampires in there, lots of them,” she said as she peered her head into the rusty door. “What a shame,” she seemed saddened by the carnage. “I could have fed for a week on them all. What a waste…”

  “But why?” Martin spoke aloud, more to himself.

  “What is it?” a dirt-covered Eleanor asked our oldest friend.

  She was climbing in and out of the filth of the city, and it had rubbed off on her clothes. She’d need a shower, as well as I.

  “Why would they kill the vampires?” Autumn answered her mother’s question as she hopped off the drainpipe back to the earth below. “Why not just humans…”

  “Exactly,” Martin spoke inwardly.

  “Oh, you guys…” a stranger’s voice called out from the end of the alley, mocking us.

  We all spun around to see someone standing at the end of the alley. It was a man with a dark suit and hair parted on his left side. His eyes flashed an eerie green, like the sun's reflection shining on a closing door. It was Peter Grimwood… and he was smiling ear to ear. There was blood dried on his hands.

  “Can’t you see, I don’t need just humans anymore. I can take all life,” the eerie man looked back to the door where all his mutilated bodies lay. “They have a potent life-force inside of them. The strongest I’ve felt… except for him,” he thought out loud. He looked crazy; that smile, his voice… he wasn’t right.

  I wish Sam were with us at that moment.

  “How are you alive?” a voice emanated from thin air. It was Annabelle as she watched us from within her own mind.

  “Well, hello,” Peter’s grin only grew more insane with time. He looked around the surrounding area, “Come now… show yourself, Annabelle. It’s no fun to guess where you are. Don’t you want to face down your enemies?” Peter mocked the eldest gypsy.

  “Your one to talk, you fuckin’ asshole,” Zeke spat at the lone gypsy from across the darkened, silent alleyway.

  “Such anger,” Peter grinned. “Why are you so worked up over a few vampires? Aren’t I doing you all a favor?”

  “We don’t care about them, Peter.” Annabelle’s voice rang out through the alley like she was standing right there, “We want the humans you took. We know you’ve been collecting again. How are you alive?” Annabelle’s voice held an unusual tone of fear that she had never had since the day I met her.

  “Now, why would I tell any of you my big secret? It would be like knowing you’re going to your own surprise party, no fun at all.” Peter started stepping towards us in that black suit, his teeth smiling bigger the closer he got. His eyes were growing wider the closer he got to us. Something was different this time; Peter was different. He felt more dangerous.

  There was a feeling in the air. Something wasn’t right, and it was familiar. I had felt it on a few hunts before. The night my father was killed, the night Eleanor was killed, and again right at that moment. Someone was going to die… I just knew it. It was like I could feel it in my bones.

  “As for the humans… I only needed a few more. I took them as soon as they were brought to me, then I killed their captors.” Peter turned his hands over, looking at his bloody palm. “What I have now… It’s like nothing I’ve felt before.” He was in awe of himself and whatever he had going on inside. He looked up sharply, no more grinning, completely serious, “Where’s your friend? The one that killed me before… I need to try this on him.” He was frantic, like he couldn’t get killed by Sam quickly enough. He snapped his fingers, “Oh, that’s right… he won’t be joining us tonight. So we can all have fun without getting interrupted…”

  Zeke looked at me in the fear and chaos of the moment and nodded. I knew what he meant, but I couldn’t choke the words out quick enough to stop him. I knew he’d never change… he was always rushing in.

  Zeke threw his arm up around Kayla and shoved her back into the rest of us as he fluidly pulled his pistol. Kayla flew back and landed on her backside after the unexpected shove from her father. She was just as confused as the rest of them. I knew what he was doing.

  Zeke ran forward into the warped gypsy and fired every silver bullet in his clip at Peter. Every single bullet whizzed into the chest cavity of the smiling man. He never stumbled or faltered as the hot metal ripped into his chest. Zeke had made it to Peter and had swung his silver blade at his neck, but was stopped by a single touch.

  Peter's eyes pulsed green, for only a second, but it reminded me of that night at the cave. The man standing with the Olitiau. He had an eerie calm around him while his hand rested on Zeke’s knife arm. He intercepted the swinging blade with stopwatch precision. He had no physical power like Zeke; this was something else. A force other than physical is what restrained my cousin… something unseen.

  “I guess you’ll have to do for now,” Peter smiled back towards us all as we watched.

  In only seconds, the strange green glow burned continuously in Peter’s eyes as his grip tightened on Zeke’s arm. Zeke turned back to us for only a moment as it happened. He looked at Kayla and Arthur one time in his fearful panic.

  “I’m…,” was all Zeke spoke in our minds. Then his eyes went blank, and his face slightly relaxed. His body looked completely fine, but he was gone.

  In only moments, Peter let go of my cousin… Zeke… and dropped him to the ground. He fell over like a tree being cut down. Zeke was unable to move or break his fall. I didn’t have to touch him to know… Zeke was dead.

  “Daddy,” Kayla yelled from her position on the ground. It was a shrill and disbelieving scream. She tried scrambling to her feet to go to him. I had to grab her.

  “Kayla, he’s gone,” I urged her to calm down.

  Her hands clawed against me to let her go. She had to get to her father. She had to see him… touch him one last time.

  I remembered what that felt like from the night that Eleanor had died. I knew all too well what Kayla felt. Then, at that moment, I realized something else. This was Martin’s plan, but they all followed me. They weren’t following Martin; they were trusting and supporting me after I approved of the hunt. I had pointed fingers at Zeke for so long about the way they planned and hunted that I didn’t see it until that moment. I was the reason Zeke had died. I rushed into the hunt, I didn’t plan enough, and I had become what I accused Zeke of being.

  “I’m going to fucking enjoy this!” Arthur started stepping forward, about to make his last stand against the strange gypsy.

  He was walking straight into his own demise. I had to stop him.

  Thankfully, a grey SUV barreled into the alley, scraping and skidding down the tight brick passageway between the buildings. Sparks and material flew off the doors and fenders that ground down the expanse towards Peter. The grey SUV collided into the gypsy with phenomenal speed, rag-dolling his body momentarily until it twisted and cracked beneath the tires of the moving vehicle. The SUV came to a halt as soon as the thudding of the human body left the undercarriage of the car, skidding to a stop as the front bumper hit a dumpster close to our group.

  Blood and hair were smeared across the bumper and grill of the silver SUV. The driver's door flung open to let Bartley step out from behind the wall.

  “I’m sorry, I came as soon as I saw it. He must have been blocking us from seeing him somehow. Mom didn’t even know he was here…” Bartley was talking, and we were all easing into relief that Peter had been dealt with, even if it was for the time being.

  Bartley grabbed his head, “Shelta… I need you here now!”

  We all heard it within our thoughts.

  “On my way,” I could hear the panic in Shelta’s voice as it echoed across my brain.

  Then, a twisted corpse was standing behind Bartley. The beaten and bloodied man had a grin hiding behind the blood and flayed skin.

  “Bartley, watch out!” I screamed at him.

  Bartley turned to see the half-exposed skull looking at him, point-blank. The bloody carnage looked back at Bartley with a sickening smile. The twisted and broken hand shot up to Bartley’s neck too fast for him to escape. The raw fingers gripped the gypsy’s neck tightly in that quick moment, turning his face to meet the skull. Another flash of sickly green emanated from out of the corpse’s eyes… and Bartley went limp.

  The corpse's body and skin began slowly lifting and mending itself before our very eyes. The blood receded into its veins and arteries. At the same time, the flesh tucked and threaded itself back into one unbroken membrane to form Peter Grimwood's face.

  As soon as Peter’s likeness had come into focus, he dropped Bartley from his grasp… dead. He lay there, only a few feet in either direction from us, or to Zeke.

  I quickly looked to everyone else, making eye contact with Autumn and Eleanor, “Fall back, now!”

  The panic and fear of it all had our judgment shaken. This was no hunt we were on; it was a slaughter… our slaughter. We needed to get out, but how?

  Jane, Martin, and Alex stepped up as we stepped back. They were throwing themselves forward as our defenders. They had strength and power, unlike even the boldest humans. Peter would be no match for them.

  I felt a vibration start to shake the ground beneath us. The dumpster sitting by the wall to our left started rolling away. Peter looked around, still smiling, to figure out what exactly was happening.

  “Not Bartley… never my brother…” Shelta’s voice appeared out of thin air like her mother’s, “You are going to pray for death this time!”

  “Now this… this is what I’m talking about, Shelta!” Peter laughed, excited at what was to come.

  We used this moment to retreat a little. We wouldn’t leave entirely, only back out for Shelta to do her thing. Plus… we needed to get Zeke and Bartley. We couldn’t leave them here in the alley… by themselves. We needed to take them home.

  As the shaking of power derived from the most potent of gypsy blood filled the air, I doubted myself. Was I any better than what I had thought of Zeke all these years? Was I ever the kind of hunter, no, the type of man that I thought I was? How would we explain this to everyone? How would we tell Sarah? What did we do from here?

  As we backed down towards the far end of the alley, I could hear footsteps running overhead.

  What was coming out of the darkness for us now? Who else had Peter brought with him from the depths of the city?