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“We didn’t have a choice. Over 300 of us have died at your kind’s hands this year. We had to take precautions. We keep losing people, and there won’t be any of us left. Then what? Your kind takes over humanity. I did what I had to do,” Pete says.

Cyrus walks past me, picking up Addie off the ground. Her frail body looks tiny in his arms as she hangs limply. Pete stares at her, a frown slipping on his face. We’ve always known he has a soft spot for Michael’s girls. Even if they don’t know him, we know he always keeps tabs on them. Pete is also how I got most of my information on her family; he is still friends with Debbie and is also the one who told her of Michael’s passing.

“Go. Take care of your mate. I will make sure Sam gets dropped to the supernatural council when I go hand myself in,” he says.

I am not happy, but we have laws. Nobody wants to anger the supernatural council or give them a reason to kill you. Sam would now have to stand trial, but that also means Addie is now going to have to testify against him, which could speed up the process of us having to change her, a topic I know she will never agree to.

* * *

Adeline

I wake to the feeling of warm hands brushing my face.

“Addie, wake up. Open your eyes for me,” Cyrus says.

My head is pounding, my eyes pulsating along with the throbbing of my head.

“That’s it. Wake up for me. I need you to drink,” he says, pressing a bottle to my lips.

Opening my eyes, they feel like sandpaper. He tips the bottle to my lips, and I choke and sputter on the water, making me cough as it goes down the wrong pipe. The coldness is soothing despite nearly drowning me, and I grab the bottle in my shaky hands, gulping it down.

It tastes funny, metallic, but I don’t care. I am thirsty. I would drink from a puddle to quench my thirst.

“That’s it. Good girl,” he says, rubbing my back.

I stare at the bottle in my hands and see the water tinged red. My heart is pounding as the events of the nightmare I have been living come forward, smashing me in the face, and I jump, looking around for him, the man who has tormented me for God knows how long.

I expect to be in the forest still, but looking around, I see I am in a car sitting on Cyrus’s lap. Eli is driving, and my heart rate slows. Cyrus grabs my face, making me look at him.

“You’re safe now. You’re with us,” he says.

“Sam?” I ask, swallowing the bile in my throat.

“The hunters took him. They will deal with him,” Cyrus answers, his eyes flickering red, and I let out a breath.

It’s over. He can’t get me now.

I stretch my aching limbs only to find they no longer ache, my skin no longer marred from Sam’s punishments.

“I gave you my blood. It was in the water,” Cyrus says, pulling me back against him.

“I want to go home,” I tell him, resting my head on his shoulder.

“We are taking you home,” he says, but I shake my head.

“No, I want to go home. I want to go home to my family,” I tell him, and Eli growls softly, but I don’t care.

“Let’s just get you home first. Then we can figure out what to do next. If you want to go home tomorrow, I will take you home,” Cyrus says.

“You know that’s not an option, Cyrus,” Eli says from the front of the car.

“Yeah, well, everything has changed now. The options have changed. I won’t argue over this, Eli. Now, eyes back on the road,” Cyrus tells him, rubbing my back softly.

I feel his lips press to my head, tingles spreading across my forehead. Eli doesn’t say anything, but I can tell he is angry at me for wanting to go home from the way he speaks to Cyrus.

* * *

It is nightfall by the time the car stops. I stretch, and the car door opens. I climb off Cyrus’s lap and step out of the car. Cyrus drapes a jacket over me to shield my bare skin from the cold breeze.