When he turned back to Skye, her sad smile told him that, somehow, she knew exactly what he was feeling; she understood him more than he’d ever thought a human could. Perhaps more than he’d thought anyone could. “I saw Dakota,” she said. “While I was on the riverbank. Brothers and sisters … the bond doesn’t go away when you die.”

“Or long after death,” Balthazar said. “What did you see?”

Before Skye could answer, Craig and Britnee entered the room, Craig with a tray of steaming mugs in his hands. “Okay, who wants hot chocolate?” Britnee chirped.

Skye went straight for it; she needed the heat. Though human food had little taste for Balthazar, he wouldn’t mind some himself—vampire bodies were slower to chill but also slower to warm again. When Britnee cheerfully handed a mug to Charity, his sister stared down into it suspiciously, as if they might have spiked it with holy water. But she held on to it, and he could see a small smile of pleasure as a few curls of steam wafted past her face.

While everyone settled in, Craig said, “Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Skye’s got psychic powers, and that does something amazing to her blood, so a vampire was trying to capture her and make other vampires follow him just to get some of the blood for themselves. But now that vampire’s dead, so everything’s okay?”

Balthazar had been feeling better before Craig said that. “The first part is right. But Redgrave’s death doesn’t make everything okay. Not by a long shot.”

“They’re still coming,” Charity confided. Good God, she was actually trying to be helpful. He could see her struggling to be clear, to behave well. “So many vampires. They won’t know what to do without Redgrave, but they’ll look and they’ll look.”

“And Black Cross is on the way,” Balthazar added. Charity startled; Craig and Britnee looked confused. To explain to them both, he said, “Vampire hunters. Armed and extremely dangerous. Our old friend Lucas used some old contacts to send them this way. They’ll take out any vampire they find, present company included.”

Britnee said, “Are we about to be in a vampire war or something like that?”

“Are all the vampires going to come after Skye?” Craig said. Charity nodded, almost gleeful, before apparently realizing that wasn’t the right reaction and sobering herself.

Skye and Balthazar looked at each other; in her eyes he could see the mirror of his own dismay. They’d long known this crisis was coming, but he’d always believed Redgrave would be in charge … which, ironically, had given him a false sense of security. With Redgrave claiming power, the other vampires would have been held in some kind of check. There would have been some chance to control them, to guess what the dangers might be and when they might fall.

With Redgrave gone, everything changed.

Every vampire or tribe that came to Darby Glen would be independent, seeking Skye for its own use. They would make wars on one another. Form alliances and betray them. There was no saying when or how they would attack. This town would be more than endangered; it would become a battleground once again, just as it had been during the French and Indian War. Except now the battles would be between the dead—with untold human beings at risk as well. The only way to prevent that catastrophe was for Skye to leave.

Quietly, Balthazar said to Skye, “You can’t stay here.”

“I can’t leave Mom and Dad,” she insisted, as stubbornly as she always had. “Not after they lost Dakota. It’s too cruel, Balthazar.”

“Too cruel,” Charity agreed, in such a singsong tone of voice that Balthazar at first thought she was simply parroting words she’d heard, as she often did. But then she continued, “Crueler if they die because of you.”

That got through to Skye as nothing else had, Balthazar realized. She paled at the thought. Redgrave would have spared her parents because it suited his absurd ideas of his own nobility and fairness; the other vampires descending on the town would have no such qualms.

Craig suggested, “Take them with you.”

“Mom and Dad?” Skye considered this for a moment. “You mean, tell them the truth about all this?”

“Maybe they could handle it?” Britnee said. “I mean, we’re kinda catching up?”

Craig nodded, deep in thought. It occurred to Balthazar that, as Skye’s ex-boyfriend, Craig probably knew the Tierneys better than anyone else in the room besides Skye herself … and his view of them might be less clouded by guilt and grief. “I know they’ve been acting weird since Dakota—well, since Dakota,” Craig said. “But this stuff you’re dealing with is too big for you to carry alone, Skye.”

Balthazar could imagine it now. Spiriting Skye and her parents somewhere out of the way, an unknown location where they could still lead regular lives. He could make sure they remained safe—perhaps allow himself the luxury of remaining with Skye a while longer before letting her get back to being the normal girl she deserved to be.

At that moment the front door opened. Balthazar went for Charity’s blade, now in his own coat, but the new intruders weren’t from Redgrave’s tribe. They were people he’d never seen before—

“Mom! Dad!” Skye’s eyes lit up as she put down her mug and rushed into her parents’ arms. “We were just talking about you.”

“Honey, we came as soon as we could,” Mrs. Tierney said. “The bill’s up for a vote tonight, but we just said, screw it.”