Can one lone werewolf stop the Falcars from destroying the immortals?

LOGAN IS A WEREWOLF tormented by his past and a need for revenge. The Falcar, half demon and half vampire, destroyed his life when they killed his entire pack. He's the last royal prince werewolf, and the Falcar were determined to end his bloodline once and for all. Logan goes on a mission to find the Falcar and destroy them forever. When he meets an Ankh witch named, Sophia, his world is turned upside down. Can she save Logan from himself?

Chapter 1

My name is Logan and I’m an alpha, a werewolf to be precise.

I lie in bed tossing and turning, sweat rolling down my face as I had that same nightmare once again. The memory seemed to haunt my dreams, that horrific nightmare of my entire pack being slain in cold blood while on a camping trip. I remembered it like it was yesterday; in fact, I remembered it so often, so vividly that it was completely destroying my life.

First, there was nothing, just the gentle sounds of the forest: birds chirping, leaves rustling in the autumn breeze, and children giggling, splashing, and playing by the pond.

The afternoon was like any other, a day bathed in sunlight and illuminated by glowing patches of blues and greens here and there. A perpetual blur of warm, familiar faces and peals of laughter brought life to the place as the forty or so people who had become the very world to me prepared the fire for dinner.

That dinner was why I was sent away in the first place or, more specifically, because of the fire. The night before, some of the other teenagers and I were roughhousing, horsing around a little too close to the angry flames. The huge stack of kindling the elders had gathered tumbled inside and went up in smoke before any of us could stop it. The others scattered to the wind the second the stack went down, but I froze in place.

I couldn’t just run like them, as much as I wanted to, because the man who peeled himself way from the other adults and started walking slowly toward me was more than just the leader of the pack. That man, the one with the furious scowl on his face, making a beeline in my direction and paralyzing me with that cold stare, was my father.

“Logan?” he questioned, his voice stern, though still harboring a note of amusement buried beneath the harshness. “Would you care to explain what’s going on?”

I gulped and looked down at the fire that was roaring away, crackling with delight as the burst of new fuel fed the flames and sent them stretching up to the trees. “I was...” I paused, my mind racing in panic. “I was just trying to add some more wood when the whole thing slipped inside. I’m sorry,” I added half-heartedly, as if my lie had even the slightest chance of passing his scrutinizing ears.

My father lifted his eyebrows in disbelief, and suddenly, his amusement was far more pronounced, almost sarcastic. It was as visible as the guilty shifting of weight I tried so hard to hide. “Really, son? That’s the story you’re going with?”

I sighed and lowered my voice, then cast a quick glance over my shoulder. “Look, it was an accident, okay? Me and some of the... I mean, I was just goofing around and knocked the pile over. I’m sorry. I’ll replace it tomorrow.”

He chuckled, deep and low, before glancing over my shoulder as well. It may have been my imagination, but I could have sworn I heard half a dozen pairs of feet scrambling back into the woods.

“You protect your friends,” he said softly, looking me up and down, with a strangely fond, proud smirk on his face. “That’s a good thing, Logan, but they are only one small part of this pack. To protect one of us is to protect all of us. We mustn’t ever draw lines from within. That only leads to infighting or...worse.” His dark eyes searched mine as his face tightened thoughtfully. “Do you understand?”

I nodded quickly, standing as straight and tall as I could. “Yes, sir.”

These lessons were given to me more than they were given to the others, but I cherished them. One day, my father’s job and responsibility would be mine, and I had to live up to some pretty great expectations.

He looked at me for a second more before nodding briskly. “Good...and yes, you will gather another pile before dinner tomorrow night.” When a high-pitched cackling echoed behind him, he grimaced in pain. “In the meantime, I must now listen to Mrs. Catterly’s story about her tone-deaf niece.”

“Haven’t you hear that story before?”

“Only nine times,” he said, shaking his head.

I grinned and watched as he headed slowly back to the others, flinching every time the old woman’s voice soared above a certain decibel. I knew that would be me someday, but I really couldn’t wait. But in the meantime...

“Logan!”

I turned around and saw five pairs of bright eyes gazing back at me from the dark.

“Dude, is he, like...really pissed?” asked Isaac, my best friend.

I shrugged and pasted a cocky grin on my face, then returned to the others. We continued our fun without a care in the world, each moment as blindingly utopic as the next. What we didn’t realize at the time was that fate had a cynical side, a way of taking all that away from us in a heartbeat.

It was that unfortunate convergence of events that carried me out to the woods the next day. To gather the kindling, I had to wander through the trees, picking up random bits. I tilted my head up to the setting sun and listened to the sounds of the woods.

My father had taken me out there often, ever since I was a boy. He always encouraged me to close my eyes and let my other senses range out around me, picking up on everything. I heard the birds, the wind, the distant brook. I even heard the gentle, muffled footsteps of a lone fox padding the forest floor a half-mile away. Then I heard a sound I had never heard before out there. Screams?

The kindling dropped from my arms in what felt like slow motion, before I even made a conscious decision to let it go. For a split second, I just froze. I couldn’t move even if I wanted to; it was as if I had simply forgotten how.

Then, again without conscious thought, I looked down and saw my legs running, my feet pounding the ground faster than I had ever run in my life, as fast as my father. The trees streaked by, blurring into a single wall of green, until I came to a sudden stop. I looked around in horror and confusion at the place where our camp was supposed to be. “What the...?” I muttered, shocked beyond belief.

All I could do was gaze around in utter heartbreak, taking in the sight of the smoldering remains of what had been my life. The burning cabins and scorched grass were littered with the mangled bodies of my kin, my friends, all torn up beyond recognition, massacred and bloody. The few who weren’t yet casualties were doing their best to fight, but it was doing little good, and it was clear that they were about to join our fallen comrades. It all happened so fast, and some just stood there, as stunned as I was. Five old women were piled up beneath a picnic bench with an ongoing game of poker on top; I doubted they’d even had time to look up from their cards.

Almost worse and more unsettling than the carnage was the fact that I had no idea who the enemy was. Who—or what—the fuck are they fighting?

One of them blurred past me, and I stumbled instinctively away. The thing laughed, emitting a cruel high-pitched sound, before returning to its deadly dance in a flash of red eyes and fangs.

Never before had I seen any living thing move so quickly, nor anything that killed so quickly. The creature didn’t hesitate to take a life, not for a single fraction of a second.

I watched in paralyzed shock as James Tallert, a man I’d known since I was a child, my father’s second-in-command, flew through the air, hurled with ease by one of the creatures. Before he even hit the ground, the creature was there again, ready to catch him by the neck and legs with an impossible strength. Its lips twisted up into a smile at his tortured gasp of pain, and then, before my very eyes, it slowly tore him in two.

That horrible sound—skin ripping, bones separating, and sinews tearing—seemed to permanently embed itself in my ears and my mind, the dying gasp of a man who was deemed my when I was two weeks old.

Finally, my feet started moving again, and after a bloodcurdling scream, I launched myself into the fray. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I just kept kicking, punching, crying, swearing, and pounding my fists on anything and everything that moved.

It wasn’t easy; they were just as strong as they were fast. I dived between one of them and its intended victim, a little girl of no more than seven.

As I threw her to safety under the deck of a nearby cabin, the thing straightened up and stared at me, wearing a sardonic smile. “Well, this one certainly has spirit,” he hissed.

He walked slowly forward, but I refused to let myself back away. I stood as tall as he was, glaring at him with great angst as my heart thundered in my chest. It wasn’t until we were standing toe to toe that I realized I wasn’t even breathing.

“I’m guessing you disapprove of this, dog?” he spat, more of a dare than a question.

I took a wild swipe at him, but by the time I did, he had somehow moved behind me. A deep chuckle raised the hairs on the back of my neck, and I whirled around.

“Dog!” he chided, then shook his head. “More of a pup, really.”

I was already furious over what they had done to my friends, my family, and his insults were just salt in the wound. Too full of rage to even speak, I just stared at him, ready to take him down.

“Do you know why I’m here?” he asked.

“No,” I muttered.

“I mustn’t have any competition,” he said. “You have royal blood in your veins. If I am to rule, I must destroy this royal lineage once and for all...and you along with it.”

“We don’t rule anymore. All that was centuries ago,” I retorted. “We’re just living in the woods, trying to live in peace, and—”

“And your royal lineage will end today, wolf!” he cried, ignoring my words.

Suddenly, a house behind me burst into flames and fell, and one beside it looked as if it would soon follow suit, crumbling to ash before my eyes. The little girl I’d tried to save began to scream, but a second later, the only sound that could be heard was the crackling of breaking, burning timber. I jumped in to save her but it was too late. She was lost to the fire and my heart broke.

“She never had a chance,” the thing said.

“You’re not a vampire,” I said, staring at the creature before me, every bone in my body trembling beyond belief. I was beyond scared, beyond any emotion at all other than wrath and vengeance. All fear had melted into an inferno within me, one far hotter than the flames licking across the homes of my fallen loved ones.

His lips twitched up in a little grin that sickened me to my core. “You’re observant too. Most of these furry beasts were too panicked to realize that we were even throwing the fire.” Then, as if to prove his point, a ball of green flames sprang suddenly from his palm, and he launched it at a young boy trying to get away.

“You bastard!” I screamed, throwing myself at him once again.

He deflected me as easily as if I was moving in slow motion, chuckling all the while. “No, I’m not one hundred percent vampire, little wolf,” he mocked. His eyes glittered as he studied me speculatively.

“You’re a demon from hell!” I cried.

“Congratulations! Right again! I’m actually a Falcar, part vampire, part demon, but I commend you for your educated guess.”

“I don’t care what you are,” I said with a growl, my eyes glowing gold as my fingers curled into manic fists. “You won’t leave this place alive.”

This time, my hands made contact, and I held on for all it was worth. We tousled there for a minute, with me hitting him with every bit of my might, ignoring the pain. He seemed to absorb each punch with a silent breath, which only urged me to strike faster and harder.

When I finally came up for air, he hit me only once. Then, as if someone had blown out a flickering candle, the world went as black as his soul.

Chapter 2

I remembered sailing backward, landing somewhere in the ash of the fire. As I struggled to lift my throbbing head off the ground, images and confused memories of mayhem, death, and chaos flooded my mind in random order: fires raging, buildings falling, and children screaming and dying. I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to focus on what was around me, and the second I did, I instantly regretted it. “No!” I cried, clawing my way back to my feet. “Wait! Please!”

The man, who’d seemingly already forgotten me, turned around, wearing a look of utter surprise on his face.

“You survived that?” he asked, sounding almost impressed. “That’s...unlikely.”

Really, it wasn’t his taunting that concerned me. It was the man lying prone and broken in his arms, the man bleeding out in front of my very eyes, a man I knew well.

“Please,” I said again, my voice barely just over a whisper. “Please don’t.”

The monster darted his eyes from me to my faltering father, then back to me again before his face twisted up into another smile. This one was brighter and more animated than anything I’d seen yet, and I realized, with a wave of nausea, that this was the part that fiend lived for—not for the death itself but for the moment right before. It was a game to him and nothing more, and he basked in his would-be victory and the heartbreak, pain, and demise of the loser. “Your father?” he guessed, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “And if I’m not mistaken, the pack leader as well. I suppose that makes you a wolf prince, little pup.”

“Please,” I said again, ignoring the mayhem going on around me and focusing entirely on my newest nemesis, “take me instead. I’ll go willingly. I swear.”

The man threw back his head and laughed.

Still imprisoned in his arms, my father jerked painfully as more blood spilled from a giant tear in his neck. His eyes fluttered open and shut, but he could not mutter a word.

Suddenly, without even thinking about it, I reached out to him, tears spilling down my face. “Dad...”

His eyes opened for a split second and finally found their mark. “L-Logan?” he stuttered, his voice scratchy and pained.

My whole body seized, and I stared pleadingly at the man again. I was willing to beg, to die, to do whatever I had to do to keep my father alive, and I tried to communicate that to him with the intensity of my gaze. “Please...” I stepped forward cautiously. “I won’t—”

Before I could finish my solemn vow, a tearing sound ripped through the air around me, followed by a sickeningly unforgettable, strangled gasp. The last sound was a dull thud as my father’s ravaged body hit the ground.

The world around me spun, but I didn’t fall. In fact, I found myself hurtling forward, flying as if the devil himself had launched me right out of the pit of hell, propelled by a rage the likes of which I had never known.

The man looked up in surprise. He shouted something to one of the others, but it was too late; I was already tackling him to the ground.

I had no idea how long we were down there before the man cried out in agony and fury, trying to shove me away with all his might. With a surge of adrenaline that almost lifted me off my feet, I managed to hold on. My next attack didn’t involve my fists; I used my teeth instead and managed to get in a really good bite, filling my mouth with the salty taste of his blood mingling with my own.

In an instant, I flew backward, only to land on the broken rubble of one of the houses that had caught fire. All the air seemed to flee my body as I came down hard on my back on top of that smoldering debris. I tried to cry out, but I was too weak to muster even a whimper. It made no difference, because even if I had screamed at the top of my lungs, no one was alive to hear it. In the end, I simply stared up at the shuddering foundations above me, knowing the structure was doomed to collapse on top of me, crushing me under its weight and sending me to rejoin my father and the rest of my people. That fall, though, never came.

Instead, I felt a gust of fresh air in my face, a sweet, clean draft that pushed away the ash and filth that had settled on my sweaty skin. As that breeze helped to clear my thoughts, I realized that the horrific grunts and groans and clanging of fierce battle had faded to a dull humming. Beneath me, I realized the heat from the scorched earth had cooled to the forest’s welcome embrace.

With the greatest possible effort, I forced open my eyes. A blurry world swimming in blues and greens greeted me, along with something else: the silhouette of a person, someone I couldn’t quite make out in the light.

The stranger leaned closer, filling the air with a beautiful scent, a soft, floral aroma that sent chills of relief through me, a feeling that something good still remained in the cruel world. Dark hair spilled across my chest, and I gazed up in a daze, trying to understand what has happening, wondering if I was even alive.

“Logan?” a familiar voice said, as sweet as the scent wafting into my nostrils.

My lungs opened for a breath that seemed too stubborn to come. Little did I know that as hard as I tried to pull air into my lungs, I’d be suffocating for the next few years.

There was a distant pounding, an interruption to that temporary bliss, that unexpected burst of peace. Something was drifting down from somewhere in the sky, threatening all hope of happiness or survival once again.

“Logan!” the owner of the silhouette cried, pulling back and taking that flowery scent with her.

“Wait! Come back!” I wanted to say, but I wasn’t strong enough to speak. If only that damn pounding would stop, maybe I could get a second to—

“Logan! Hey!”

My eyes shot open as I bolted upright in bed. There was a dull ringing in my ears, and my heart was pounding like I’d just run a marathon. Around me, the sheets were drenched in cold sweat, and there was a pale pallor to my skin. “I...” I stuttered, baffled and confused. It was just the dream again, I told myself, running my trembling fingers through my damp hair. Same damn dream as always. Just breathe, Logan, I tried to coach my body, but that was easier said than done.

“Logan!”

The doorknob shook, and the door rattled on its hinges again, and it didn’t take me long to identify the voice of the sudden perpetrator behind the pounding.

Cindy.

“If you don’t open this door right now, I’m gonna break it down!”

I bit my lip and tilted my head back to glare at the ceiling. It had been two weeks since I was banished there, since I was first trapped in my best friend’s house with his insufferable girlfriend. Two whole weeks, and I’m about two seconds away from losing my freaking mind.

“I’m not kidding, Logan. It’s seven p.m. You’ve slept all day! It’s time you get your lazy ass out of bed!”

Seven? Really? Where has the day gone? I glanced guiltily at the half-empty bottle of Jack lying on its side. Oh, that’s where, I thought, grimacing as I placed my feet tentatively on the floor.

I was too tired to make much of an effort to dress myself, too hung over and perhaps still a little too drunk to do anything more than shuffle over to the door as Cindy continued her relentless, rude banging on the other side.

“That’s it!” she shouted. “Listen, I’m coming, Your Majesty, whether you like it or not. One...two—”

“Your door, lady. You wanna break it down, that’s fine with me,” I said, then paused on one side while she paused on the other, as if weighing the consequences of her threat for the first time.

Cindy and I had recently sworn a false oath of peace to appease the glue that held us together, my best friend, who just so happened to double as the love of her life. Finally, she realized the last thing she wanted to do was explain why pieces of the house were lying in splinters on the floor, so she cleared her throat softly and took a moment to reevaluate her options. “I’m serious, Logan! Don’t make me—”

“Make you what?” I screeched, yanking open the door and wearing a falsely cheerful smile. “Do something you’ll regret?”

Her raised fist dropped slowly back to her side, and she ran her eyes up and down my body, wearing a look of distinct disapproval. That disdain only deepened when she completed her analysis of my red, bloodshot eyes.

“And please stop it with the royalty jokes. That was ages ago. We were just normal wolves.”

“With a royal lineage. You are the son of a king. Your pack is pure, and you didn’t marry outside it. You followed strict laws to keep your bloodline pure. You’re from the House of Sanguis d’Anu, Logan, the spawn of a pack that used to rule half of Europe, so—”

“Used to,” I cut in. “That’s the keyword there. Anyway, enough about me. You’re a gargoyle princess yourself. Wanna trade royalty jokes, Your Highness?”

“I’m not really royalty anymore. When I left France, I gave it all up.”

“But it still runs in your veins, Princess.”

“With all due respect, oh royal one, you look like royal shit,” she snapped, crossing her arms.

My smile fixed caustically in place. “And you look like such a drop of heaven. Honestly, Cindy, you must stop going to such great efforts to flatter and compliment me. It goes right to my head...and don’t think I don’t know you’re trying to change the subject.”

“Are you drunk?”

“Not anymore...I don’t think.” I pulled the door closed a bit, so she wouldn’t see the bottle lying in the middle of the floor. “Why? Should I be? Are you?”

She tightened the fold of her arms across her chest and began tapping her foot impatiently. Her eyes shot angry daggers at me. “Some clothes would be nice, Highness.”

I glanced down and saw no problem with my attire. “Everything is covered that needs to be,” I said, pointing at my boxers.

“It’s underwear,” she snidely retorted.

“Like what you see, darling?”

“Logan!”

“Well, maybe I’m trying to start a movement,” I muttered, pushing my hair out of my eyes. “It’s a live-free kind of thing. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Logan—”

“Listen, Princess, you stormed into my territory—my castle-without any warning. If you’re gonna trespass, expect the unexpected.”

“What I expect is for you to be—dressed.”

“Frankly, I don’t care what you expect. Now, what do you want, Cindy?” I snapped irritably. “Why are you here?”

Her eyes narrowed with equal irritation. “I live here, remember? This is not your castle, sir.”

I let out a soft sigh and silently prayed for more liquor. “Yeah, well, maybe you’re right. I’m sure Fred didn’t pick out the floral curtains.”

Her blonde curls quivered with weeks of pent-up frustration. “Must you be so...” Her voice trailed off before she could choose an appropriate adjective.

We both glared at each other in a tired ceasefire. No matter how many times we fell into the same loop, the same old argument, the result never changed. We were the living manifestation of insanity every time the two of us were together.

“What do you want?” I asked again, making an effort to sound more polite.

She, on the other hand, made no such effort. “We have a case,” she said, then turned on her heel and stomped back up the hall, “another murder.”

A case? Great. I pounded my forehead silently against the doorframe. Another useless bit of policing for the illustrious Immortal Council. It was a decrepit organization I no longer wanted to be a part of, especially after they basically rendered me a prisoner in my best friend’s townhouse. I took on a few job assignments for them over the last few years. But they let me go because of my reckless behavior.

“Maybe you have a case,” I argued, following after her down the hall, stressing the distinction. “I don’t work for your precious Council anymore.”

“Oh really?” She turned around and stared at me, donning a dangerous smile. “As long as you’re under our temporary custodianship, you will do as the Council says.”

Temporary custodianship. Yeah, that majorly sucked big time.

I discovered that apparently, when one accidentally sets fire to the local tavern after drunkenly swearing one became a dangerous predator, a wolf, by the light of the full moon, one is required to have a guardian from that point forward. Nevertheless, I was none too happy about my incarceration, no matter how PC they tried to sound about it. “First of all, I’m under Fred’s custodianship,” I called as she headed to the car, “since he was the only one who took my side and spoke up for me. You seemed content to let me rot in immortal prison. And second, I’m pretty sure your name isn’t on the mortgage for this place—”

A wad of clothing suddenly smacked me in the face. Shit. I didn’t remember leaving those in the hallway.

“Put some fucking pants on, would you? We have work to do. Believe it or not, I do think you have an occasional intelligent thought in your head, and I would appreciate your insights on this case. You are a smart person, Logan—too smart to be drowning yourself in bottles and accidentally committing arson in a drunken stupor.”

“Wow. Are you going to give me a Milk-Bone if I help you sniff out your so-called killer?” I said snarkily.

“I just want to help you out of your...slump,” she said, looking back at me. “If you do something productive, you’ll feel better.”

“Nothing can make me feel better. Trust me on that. It’s easier not to feel anything, and good ol’ Mr. Daniels is keen on helping me with that.”

“Do you intend to waste the rest of your life getting drunk and sleeping the days away?”

“Maybe.”

“Logan, I’ve been where you are,” she said, suddenly finding some compassion. “I know how you feel. I lost my entire family too.”

“Lost is different than dead,” I spat. “At least yours is alive somewhere.”

“They are dead to me,” she said sadly, “or at least I am dead to them. They abandoned me, just gave me up as a peace offering to the royal family, so there wouldn’t be war between the gargoyle clans. They didn’t care that the man I was betrothed to was beating me, hurting me daily. If Fred hadn’t rescued me and taken me out of France, I’d be married to that monster now, bound to him forever. I don’t regret leaving with Fred, but it meant leaving my entire world and all my family behind. My family may not be dead, but my pain and loneliness is the same as yours. If anyone understands how you feel, it’s me.”

“It’s not pain really. I prefer to be alone.”

“Liar,” she muttered under her breath.

“You don’t know me as well as you think. I’m a loner.”

“Not tonight, you’re not. We need you.”

“But I don’t even like you.”

“Great. Tell me something I don’t already know.”

Slam! Slam!

A moment after the front door and the car door slammed, the pounding on the door was replaced with an incessant honking, an unnerving, loud concerto guaranteed to drive me mad.

I grimaced and shut my eyes as my fingers came up to rub my temples, where the throbbing ache of alcohol still lingered, only exacerbated by the ear-shattering wails of the car horn. Okay, fine. I’d go just to shut her up and get her off my back.

The beep grew louder. So I gulped down a few shots to calm my nerves so I didn’t kill the gargoyle. I should’ve done one or two, but I ended up doing triple that.

“It’s gonna be another long night,” I said with a sigh, then reluctantly turned the doorknob to join my so-called guardians.

Chapter 3

The drive to the crime scene was a silent one. Neither Cindy nor I had anything to say to each other, and after staring for a few minutes through the rain-streaked windshield and out into the dark night, we both surrendered our thoughts to other things.

I, for one, couldn’t shake the feeling that I was caught in some lame, never-ending episode of COPS. The calls seemed to be coming in daily, our damn phone ringing like that red telephone on Batman at all hours of the day and night. Why Fred and Cindy saw fit to volunteer for such a depressing role in an equally depressing organization, I would never understand. Apprehending culprits accused of petty supernatural crime? It seemed so beneath them, a far cry from their actual crime-fighting days of the past. The two were basically legends and not just in their own minds. My best guess was that after being chased around the globe for so long by leagues of twisted creatures determined to end them, they wanted a little break. For the life of me, though, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t just retire to the tropics, vanish to some white, sandy beach to drink frosty things with little umbrellas in them and fuck themselves into oblivion. It wasn’t as if they didn’t have the money, the motivation, or each other.

My eyes flickered sideways to Cindy, who was obviously tense as she clutched the steering wheel, keeping a steely gaze on the road before her. A surge of guilt welled up in me, and I stifled a sigh. The truth was that Cindy wasn’t so bad, not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that I was temporarily trapped in her townhouse, always falling to pieces under her critical stare, I actually would have liked her quite a bit. She was a good match for Fred, and there was no higher compliment I could give than that.

The incident at the bar seemed like my rock bottom. It happened at the end of a particularly earth-shattering day, a day when my last hope of finding the band of people responsible for my little recurring nightmare just fizzled away in a dead end. The whiskey helped some, or at least I thought it did. Then again, by the time I knocked a man’s cigarette into the broken bottles of booze, I wasn’t thinking that much at all.

Fred somehow got there just a moment before the cops, and they were definitely the wrong kind of cops, considering they were associated very closely with the Council. He didn’t say anything about the bar or my part in burning it down. He just simply knocked out a guy who was lunging for me, and asked if I was okay. “Don’t say anything,” he told me softly, straightening my jacket without looking me in the eyes. “When they arrest you, which they will, just keep quiet and leave the talking to me.”

I did as he asked. It was the least I could do, considering everything he’d done for me in the past and everything I was sure he’d do for me in the future. Sure enough, Fred didn’t disappoint. In the end, instead of receiving a four-year sentence, the standard punishment for those who risked exposure to the non-magical world, I was placed under temporary custodianship. That little slap on the wrist was really only a testament to Fred’s stellar reputation and the power of his word; it had nothing to do with me.

The Council did send out a contingent of guards to survey the damage and track down any obvious clues. That was how they found me, lying in a pool of my own blood in the woods, and from there, they hauled me off to a sanctuary, because I was in need of medical attention.

No matter what the circumstances, no matter how deep down the rabbit hole I recklessly threw myself, Fred was always there. Fred was the ever-present conscience on my shoulder, the warrior by my side. He was my best friend, really my only friend, and he was deeply in love with a gargoyle named Cindy—a creature that seemed to be as unnerved by me as I was by her.

Don’t be an asshole, Logan. You’re living in her fucking home. She has done her best to be sweet to you...and she’s the love of Fred’s life, for fuck’s sake.

“Hey,” I began softly, a half-hearted attempt at an apology. “About earlier...I—”

“We’re here,” she said flatly, cutting me off.

The car swung into a gravel driveway as I looked up with surprise. Has it really been forty minutes already? Her door flew open, giving access to a rush of cold air, and I followed her quickly out into the dark. Whatever damage there was between us, it clearly wasn’t going to be resolved that night. There was far too much work to be done for us to worry about our drama.

I’d thought we were headed to a diner; I could have sworn that was what she told me, but instead, she led me to a private residence with a smashed door and a tell-tale trail of blood running down the side of the frame. The blood grew darker and began to pool as it traveled past the flowerbeds along the side of the house, winding its way into the garden out back. We’d all played a little game called follow the blood trail many times, and it always seemed to end the same.

The two of us walked around the house, careful to avoid the streaks of crimson that painted the tall grass. The salty, metallic smell tickled my nose and set my teeth on edge, but all I could do was continue following Cindy and try to hold my breath.

Fred turned and looked at us when we entered the back yard, but he didn’t say anything and just nodded wordlessly as a Council representative muttered something quickly in his ear. Both of them were staring down at carnage, bloody stumps and pieces, and their expressions bordered on disinterest.

Since his transformation to a vampire, gore had ceased to bother Fred in the least. The witch in him would have bolted toward the nearest exit, but his fangish parts set him at ease and made it quite easy for him to tolerate the sight of blood and ravaged, torn flesh.

If only we were all so lucky... I took an automatic step back when I saw the corpse for the first time, my lungs tightening almost painfully as my eyes swept over the disassembled anatomical portions. Frankly, Fred and I had the reverse problem. I had never had any trouble with that sort of thing growing up. Our pack was attacked many times, and as the teenage son of the chief, my place was by my father’s side. I was out there fighting with the rest even before my thirteenth birthday. I was sure they’d shielded me from the worst of it, but honestly, blood and guts was part of my childhood, a normal thing, something that never before would have given me a moment’s pause. Now, though, something had changed. 

The noxious aroma hit me again, and I took another step back. I kept my eyes on the ground while the edges of my vision tinted black. Thankfully, most didn’t notice, as they were all too focused on the crime scene, trying to solve the case—all of them except Fred, of course. Fred always, always noticed.

“Logan...” my best friend said quietly.

I looked up, and the two of us locked eyes. There was nothing overtly unusual about his tone, nothing anyone else would find strange, but there was an unspoken understanding between us, a knowing and a stomach-turning realization.

“Why don’t you check out the house, see if there’s anything inside? I couldn’t get in there,” he added as an afterthought, since his tragic bite had rendered him incapable of entering places he wasn’t specifically invited to enter. He shrugged it off, but I knew it bothered him more than he let on.

“Nah, that’s all right,” I said, exhaling a deep breath. “There’s nothing and no one in there, or I would have smelled it.”

He shot me another appraising look as I moved to join him, a split-second chance of escape if I wanted. When I didn’t flee and only moved closer to his side, without a thought as to the grisly proximity, he knelt down to examine the bloody pieces, frowning as he did so. Once or twice, he used his fingertip to flip the flesh, peering thoughtfully at the wide gashes within it. “Wolf,” he muttered, more to himself than to anyone else.

Typical, I thought. “Oh sure. Blame the wolves.”

His eyes shot to me, and I flushed guiltily when it suddenly dawned on me that I’d actually said that last part out loud. “There’s blood everywhere, Jacob,” he retorted, gesturing around the soaked and sticky grass. “That basically rules out vampire. It wasn’t a feeding frenzy.”

“Are you suggesting that vampires only kill to feed?” I shot back with a snicker and an eye-roll, trying to defend my race. The fact that he was probably right made no difference to me.

Cindy gave me an eye-roll of her own before sinking to the ground beside him. The mangled corpse didn’t unsettle her either. By now, we were all used to such things, even if I had grown a bit squeamish. “No teeth marks,” she observed. “I mean, no signature vampire punctures.”

Fred nodded. “That’s exactly my point.”

“No canine prints either, no claws,” she said, pointing to the frayed edges of the skin, still dripping occasional dots of blood onto the ground. “Clean tear. Wolves always leave marks, Fred. It had to be vampires.”

Fred shook his head and donned a bitter frown. “Vampires don’t...slash like this.” He cocked his head to the side, examining the damage. “Maybe it was a wolf who didn’t fully transform.”

Cindy put her hands on her hips, clearly ready to challenge him round for round.

Meanwhile, I found myself suddenly drawn to the body. Something Fred said sparked a hint of a memory, and before I knew what I was doing, I was kneeling on the ground beside the rest. Slashed? This body was slashed! What the...?

It wasn’t common, even in the supernatural world. Vampires bit, and wolves ripped. To be honest, my best guess would have been a gargoyle attack, but whether it was out of deference for Cindy or not, neither of them seemed to even consider that. Upon thinking it through a little more, I realized why: Slashed. Hmm. A gargoyle didn’t do this. It was something else, something angrier, something...very, very strong. My eyes clouded over as I lifted a tentative hand to the corpse. I’d seen the same macabre scene before, the same modus operandi and the damage it left behind. What I couldn’t fathom as that it was actually happening again.

“Logan?”

I jerked my hand back with a start and looked up to see both Fred and Cindy curiously staring at me. Cindy’s face was strained with impatience, but Fred looked genuinely concerned.

As I reached out to the body, he half-reached out to me. “Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes tightening into a worried squint. “You wanna wait in the car?”

“I-I know what did this,” I breathed out, rising suddenly to my feet. My chest rose and fell with quick, halting breaths, but my eyes were steady as I gazed back at him.

“What?”

“Falcar.”

Chapter 4

I sat in the back seat of the car, tracing Nordic profanities into the steam on the window as Fred and Cindy argued quietly outside. At that point, I didn’t know why they even bothered to lower their voices; I heard every syllable they shouted and said, punctuated by head shakes and foot stops and crossed arms every now and then, along with Fred turning several shades of red, which was odd for his pale complexion.

“...been like this for weeks now,” Fred muttered, running his long fingers through his hair with obvious frustration. “He sees them everywhere, can’t get away from it. I swear, Cindy, I think he dreams them up!”

Under normal circumstances, I would have slumped against the window in defeat. He was right, and he had been from the moment I set foot in his house. I was obsessed, unnaturally, unwaveringly, and unrelentingly. I felt a deep desire, a yearning to track them down, the heinous Falcars, an insatiable desire to kill every last one of them. Under normal circumstances, I could have been accused of chasing shadows, hunting ghosts, but that was not the case this time. This time, there had been a real attack, and the evidence was strewn about the bloody grass. I knew what I saw, because I’d seen it before. I knew exactly what had ripped that man apart, right next to his hydrangeas.

“You’re right. He’s been a complete mess.” Cindy’s eyes drifted almost nervously to the car before returning to Fred. “Still, what he says makes sense.”

My head lifted in surprise, and I stared at her with wide eyes through the window. On the other side of the glass, my best friend was just as surprised as I was, as well as dismayed; Fred suddenly looked like a little boy just finding out that Santa Claus wasn’t real.

“Are you serious right now?” he asked incredulously. “Why the hell would you encourage him? He’s still drunk, for fuck’s sake. I can smell it on him.”

She shifted uneasily on her feet and looked at him with an expression I’d never seen her give him before. The two of them bickered as much as any couple, but they’d never argued over anything so serious. In that way, they were completely unique. Their relationship had already been put through every imaginable and life-threatening test, so they were usually completely, unceasingly aligned.

“Yes, I’m aware he is a bit...tipsy, but, Fred, you can see the attack pattern here. It doesn’t match any of the usual suspects. It is too sloppy for a vampire, too neat for a wolf, and—”

“What about a gargoyle then?”

I straightened in my seat and gazed at Fred with doubled surprise. I couldn’t believe he went there, and it was an indication that he was far more upset than I thought. I had never heard him speak an unkind or accusatory word about Cindy or her kind in general, and it was quite shocking to hear him do so.

Cindy bristled defensively but held her ground. “The tears are too small to have been made by one of us. I’m afraid we cannot exercise such control once in a rage.” Her eyes flashed as she looked him over. “You have seen me in combat, but I can show you a reminder if you like.”

Fred dropped his eyes apologetically, then stared quickly back up at her with dark earnestly. “The Falcars are extinct. What happened to Logan’s pack was unthinkable, and he has every right to swear revenge, but there is no one left to take it out on. If there was, I’d be the first to help him.” He shook his head, looking suddenly tired. “Lord knows I’ve tried.”

I dropped my eyes as well, glaring fixedly at the floor of the car. Fred really did stand by me through everything, and never questioned my word before, not for a single second. Together, the two of us had gallivanted all over the country, tracking down leads, putting bad guys in the ground when we could. Then, when they came back up, immortal as they were, we dragged them to the Council, where they would be sentenced to imprisonment for all eternity behind magical curses and hexed bars.

A few years ago, though, the trail went cold. They just disappeared. Rumors had it that they were killed by an ancient ankh artifact. I never believed it for a single minute, but Fred naively fell for it hook, line, and sinker. The Falcar ranks had already been almost completely decimated by the ankh witches, so those who assaulted my pack were assumed to be among the last. As far as Fred was concerned, the game was over, and our everlasting search had come to an end.

I, on the other hand, didn’t believe that, not for one minute. In my heart, I knew there were more out there; I could feel them prowling in the shadows, as if they were right there in front of me, always just out of reach. Fred, being the friend he was, indulged my bloodthirsty vengeance for a long while, and that was pretty remarkable, considering that I’d basically asked him to dedicate his life to nothing but a hunch.

Then came Cindy, bringing logic and reason along with her sex appeal. Fred tried desperately to get me to lay the past to rest and move on with my life. He even took me out to meet girls, hoping one of them would catch my eye and serve as a distraction from my bitter quest. At one point, the Council even forced me to see a psychiatrist. That disastrous, one-time occurrence did nothing to help me to put my demons to bed. Of course it wouldn’t, because those devils followed me there. They were forever with me, even chasing me in my dreams, assaulting me with nightmares and horribly vivid visions of the past, each as fresh and alive as my desire to destroy them.

Now, I was sure at least one Falcar was on the loose, because only a Falcar could have done such damage. Neither Fred, Cindy, nor anyone else was going to convince me otherwise.

“Fred, you know I would not try to mislead you,” Cindy said more gently, trying to reason with him. “I am not suggesting that I am one-hundred-percent sure it was Falcars. It is just that—”

“Bullshit!” I cried, slamming the car shut behind me as I launched myself into the fray. The Council head had banished me to that back seat when I apparently suffered some kind of mental breakdown near the flowerbed, but I simply couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Fred, I know what I saw. It was exactly like what happened before. I’d know that shit anywhere.”

“Logan...” He ran his hands over his face, already tired of the argument.

I pulled them away, forcing him to look at me, all the while wishing I didn’t smell like stagnant whiskey. “Look, Fred,” I said, then took a deep breath and tried to sound as rational as I could, “I know how this sounds, okay? I also know how patient you’ve been with me, and... Well, I appreciate it. I really do.” I paused, and my eyes burned into his, desperately searching. “This is different though. There’s evidence, solid proof. I swear it was them. I know it was.”

“Honey,” Cindy said gently, placing her hand tentatively on his arm, “the least we can do is—”

“You’re not helping Fred by encouraging him that the Falcar are alive,” Fred said.

Both of us fell silent.

“This discussion is over,” Fred said. “Cindy, call it in.”

“And tell them what?”

“The damn truth!”

“Which is?” she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

“Tell them we’re not sure what it is, but I’ll be checking with the immortal coroner.” He then turned to me, and his eyes searched mine for a long moment before he shook his head, weary with frustration.

“I thought you were open-minded,” I said.

“And I thought you promised to stop drinking so much.”

“I’ll try to do better.”

“You drank before you came on this investigation, didn’t you?”

“Maybe a few shots, that’s all. And what I do and how I live my life is none of your concern.”

“I think it is since the Council assigned me to take care of you.”

“Nobody needs to take care of me. I’m a grown man.”

“Who gets drunk all of the time.”

“Fuck you.”

“Sober the hell up! Get your life together.” With that, he flipped up his collar and stormed back to the crime scene, taking only a moment to throw a few more harshly spoken words over his shoulder. “So you can get the fuck outta my house.”

Chapter 5

Dinner that night was a subdued affair. Cindy and I picked halfheartedly through leftovers, while Fred’s blood bag sat untouched before him. The second Cindy set her fork down, he was up from the table, leaving the two of us sitting in alone charged silence.

Things had been tense lately. I had to give him that. To be fair, I wasn’t exactly doing anything to help the situation. On the contrary, I was making it a lot worse. I didn’t mean to, but I was lost, not to mention absolutely miserable. If there was one thing misery loved, it was company.

Every time Fred and Cindy got it on, I blasted heavy metal to drown out the noise. My supernatural hearing drove me crazy, and while my motivation for wanting to silence them was understandable, the volume at which I counteracted the act could have been seen as excessive.

Every day for the last week, I’d gone out to pick up Chinese takeout, Fred’s old favorite but something he’d never be able to eat again. While he sat calmly across the table with his blood, I methodically dug through every white carton, picking out the miniature corn cobs and sugar snap peas and bits of pork or pasta and washing each bite down with a shot of whiskey.

Miraculously, it didn’t seem to bother him. Better than most, Fred understood what I was going through. He saw right through my rather transparent attempts to lash out, and he let them roll right off him. Once or twice, he even picked me up from the table, passed out drunk, and carried me to bed. He dealt with the mood swings, the insults, the misdirected bouts of rage, and the passive-aggressive remarks.

“Fred is pissed at me,” I said.

“He’ll cool down sooner or later,” Cindy said quietly, but the tremble in her voice betrayed just how shaken she was. Throughout the darkness that had slowly tried to envelop our lives, Fred was a constant pillar of light, and she, like me, was finally seeing that, now that it seemed to be in jeopardy. “He’s just...stressed out about work. They’ve been adding more and more to our caseload, and—”

I nodded silently to cut off her excuses but kept my eyes graciously on the table. It wasn’t very often the two of us found ourselves alone, and I didn’t know how to handle it or what to say. “I’ll, uh... Let me just clean up,” I mumbled, a perfect diversion. I rose to my feet and cleared away the dishes in a rare act of contribution. To say I hadn’t exactly pulled my weight as a roommate would have been underselling it by several hundred degrees.

Cindy didn’t even look up. Instead, she just kept her eyes trained on the table, frowning at some invisible spot as her mind seemed to race a million miles a minute.

I paused, holding a half-empty plate in each of my hands. I had seen that look on her face before. Unlike the rest of us, who merely investigated and then fought our way out of things, Cindy was a scholar. She had an academic mind, one she’d fed with almost 500 years’ worth of books. When she had a hunch, she couldn’t let it go, and when there was any inconsistency or unsolved mystery like what we’d gone through that day, she couldn’t rest until she’d solved it.

“Cindy?” I asked quietly. I wasn’t sure if she even noticed what she was doing, but her hands were gripping the edge of the wooden table so tightly that a small pile of shavings was falling beneath.

She looked up at me, dazed and still lost in her own little world. “Are you sure, Logan?”

“Sure about what?”

“That Falcars did this,” she said, her voice so soft that I doubted even Fred could hear it with his magic ears in the other room. “Are you sure that body looked the same as the others you saw?”

For the first time in what felt like years, a tiny spark of hope stirred inside me. I set the plates down on the counter and nodded slowly, maintaining eye contact the entire time.

She considered that for a split second, before nodding suddenly and pushing to her feet. “It’s late,” she said abruptly. “I’m going to bed.”

Just like that, the hope vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and I took an angry step back and stared at her accusingly. “What!? Why the hell did you bother asking me if you aren’t even going to—”

“What are you doing tomorrow?” she inquired, cutting me off.

I paused, a little thrown off my game. “Uh...tomorrow? I wasn’t... I mean, I don’t really have any plans or whatever.”

“Good. Then you’ll join me in the immortal library.”

My eyebrows lifted slowly, and a tiny smile spread across my face. Much to my great surprise, my smile was mirrored by one of her own, but mine quickly faded as a thought occurred to me. “I thought Fred said—”

“He said not to talk about it anymore,” she emphasized, her eyes twinkling with mischief as she headed off down the hall. “There’s no talking allowed in the library, right?”

Chapter 6

I thought about my father, my mother, my friends, my family and my pack. I missed them terribly. Tears welled up in my eyes as I punched a hole in the wall. Why couldn’t I have done more to help them? I couldn’t forget about how they were brutally murdered. I reached for more liquor and drank until I passed out. I loved falling asleep that way, so the dreams and nightmares wouldn’t plague my sleep.

Morning came faster than I ever anticipated.

Being woken up by a gargoyle was not the most pleasant of experiences. When I first pried my eyes open the next morning, the first thing I noticed was sunlight pouring unabashedly in through the wrong set of windows. In the guestroom, one set of windows opened to the east and the other to the west. It had been a long time since I’d seen anything through that eastern set, because most days, I got up sometime after the sun had already slipped below the western horizon. For that reason, the light gushing in from that odd direction threw me for a loop. Then, as if that wasn’t disorienting enough, my bed appeared to be experiencing a small earthquake.

“What the fuck!?” I yelled, reflexively pulling my legs up to protect them from the little blonde sprite making a trampoline out of my mattress. Her spirally curls fanned out behind her, and a wickedness danced in her eyes.

I knew gargoyles were built for strength most of all. Of course they could fly, and their glowing, crimson eyes were enough to scare a demon shitless, but it was their strength that was their greatest attribute. On the outside, Cindy looked like a regular human, but there was great power in those tiny muscles, a might that I was sure even surpassed my own—nothing easy to admit for a man with a supernaturally large ego himself.

“Cindy, stop!” I yelled.

She didn’t comply. In fact, my plea seemed to urge her on. She simply let out an ornery giggle and jumped even higher. It had been ages since I’d seen that playful side of her, but the awkward dinner of the previous evening seemed to be some kind of turning point. All of a sudden, she was the Cindy I knew when I first moved in. Even though she had a demented way of showing it, she was still empathetic, still trying to help.

My body rocked back and forth, and I hurried to pull the sheets up to my waist; the last thing I needed was to have to explain to Fred why his girlfriend and I were having what looked like a half-naked pillow fight early in the morning.

“What time is it?” I said with a groan, squinting painfully as the bright light assaulted my perpetually hung-over eyes. I bounced again to the side under her deceptively heavy footfalls and felt vaguely like I might throw up. “And where the hell are my curtains?”

“My curtains,” she corrected smugly. “If you must know, it was recently pointed out to me that the men who live in my house don’t quite appreciate the floral prints as much as I do. Thus, to accommodate my guests better and make them feel more comfortable, I decided to tear them all down and put in an order for new ones, a more uniform, gender-neutral color.”

I covered my eyes with one set of fingers as the other clung precariously to the sheets. “And you decided to do all that this morning?”

The bouncing momentarily stopped.

I took advantage of the chance to catch my breath, then used the opportunity to glare up at her radiant smile, growing more agitated all the while.

“No, silly.” She dropped down on her knees beside me, grinning from ear to ear like the annoying little sister I was always glad I never had. “I decided last night. I only ripped them down this morning, but I thought it was for the best. They had to come down, and you have to wake up. Consider it multitasking. Come now. We’re wasting time.”

“For goodness sake, woman.” I cringed and pulled the sheet up over my head.

The sheet vanished with one mighty tug, leaving me scrambling to cover myself with a solitary throw pillow.

“Cindy! Do you not see that I’m—”

“Lazy? Sloth-like? A perpetual thorn in my side?” She flashed me another smug grin before hopping off the bed and shuffling toward the door. “Yes, Logan, I see all those things.”

The sheet sailed back through the air, and I caught it amidst an impressive balancing act with the pillow, stretching up just far enough that I could tug it back down with a jerk of my fingertips.

“You’ve got five minutes,” she called over her shoulder. “I’ll be waiting in the car.”

The old, playful Logan would have risen to the occasion and taunted her right back, tossed her around through the air like a ragdoll until she passed out from laughing. That Logan, though, was nowhere in sight.

My blood rose to a boil as I wrapped the sheet tightly around my waist, glaring at the empty doorway in case she decided to come back. Every part of me wanted to resist just on principle, to petulantly go back to sleep like the rebel I usually was. I wanted to barricade the door with the dresser and force her to knock till her hands bled. I wanted all that, but there was one thing I wanted more, and I knew Cindy could help me get it: Falcars.

With another painful sigh, I pushed myself gingerly to my feet, taking the bedding with me like a bedraggled toga as I crossed from one side of the bedroom to the other, in search of clean clothes. When I first arrived, Cindy did my laundry just out of pity, but she soon tired of that. When that happened, I started just buying new clothes rather than bothering with the old, dirty ones. Now, though, with my bank account dipping dangerously low, it was a balancing act. I sneaked down in the dead of night to learn to operate the washing machine, then quickly mopped up the laundry room floor before Cindy and Fred got up every morning. If there was any evidence to conceal, I simply hid it beneath the back porch, just normal roommate stuff.

Exactly five minutes later, I ambled down the front walkway with my hands stuffed in the pockets of my hoodie, making my way to the car. Fred was already gone, but I thought that to be a good thing, as it freed us from having to explain why she was in my room so early and why we were heading into town at the crack of dawn.

I pulled open the door, prepared to give her a piece of my mind, until she ironically cooled my wrath with a very hot and inviting cup of coffee, served with an enticing smile. The scent of cinnamon and hazelnut were already wafting around the inside of the vehicle, soothing my anger while electrifying my deadened nerves with anticipation.

“It’s your favorite, no? I brewed it myself this morning.”

A thousand sarcastic retorts rose automatically to my lips, but they all died in the wake of the unexpectedly sweet peace offering. In the end, I merely took the cup and offered her a tentative smile of my own, along with a sheepish, “Yeah, this is great. Thanks,” then took my first life-affirming sip as the car shot off down the drive. The caffeine raced through my system, much faster than it would enliven any normal human, and I literally felt my body waking up. By the time we pulled into town, I’d decided that if anything ever happened to Fred, I would happily marry Cindy myself, as long as she made coffee like that for me every morning.

“So,” I said, gazing around the mysterious morning world, feeling alert and awake for the first time in what felt like months, “about this library idea...”

“You will sit quietly and not say a word unless I ask,” she instructed sternly, pulling inexplicably into the farthest parking space from the door.

“Fair enough,” I said. Libraries were here domain after all. At that point, I was just happy that there was even a chance someone believed me.

I slipped out of the passenger seat and followed her at a measured pace up the cobblestone steps. We were almost to the door when I turned to gaze down at the top of her bouncy little head.

“What section of the library can you get bitten by a snake?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Hissssssstory,” she said with a hiss.

“Ha, ha.”

Chapter 7

After five hours of sitting at a research table on the lower level looking through books, I was beginning to seriously rethink my whole marriage-for-coffee idea. By the sixth hour, I was beginning to regret accompanying the bookworm gargoyle at all.

In spite of my angst and dismay, we were really getting a lot done. Over the course of those hours, we’d perused dozens upon dozens of texts, picking up more random minutia than I thought was possible for any single subject matter. Werewolves had always had a natural talent for picking things up quickly, and Cindy’s perpetual quest for ancient knowledge was insatiable. Between the two of us, we completely cleared out the section on supernatural phenomena just a little while after lunch. The problem was that I didn’t see how any of it was going to help.

The library we went to was certainly not the run-of-the-mill, next to Town Hall kind. It was a specially designed, Immortal Council-approved collection of ancient texts, many of them leather-bound, with yellowed and brittle pages, the kind that had to be handled as carefully as they were interpreted and translated. It was the kind of thing Cindy lived for, but it was also the type of place I had diligently avoided for the better part of my life. No matter how many hours we put in and how many details we stumbled across, one thing was clear: Any and all information on the Falcars was ancient history.

“What about that one?” Cindy asked suddenly, glancing down from her multi-book perch to peer over my shoulder at a geographical genealogy of all the known demonic hives.

I shook my head and flipped it shut in frustration. “Nothing new—just past sightings, old haunts, and things Fred and I already investigated ages ago.”

She closed her own book and let out an exasperated sigh. “Same here. The most recent confirmed incident happened about seven years ago, and we already know what that was all about.”

I bowed my head stiffly as she made mention of the bitter attack on my pack, a painful memory I did not want to relive.

“Other than that, it’s as if the entire race just died out. Maybe the rumors are true. An ankh artifact took out the remaining Falcars. And according to these books, the Falcars have been extinct for a long, long time.”

My heart sank because I wanted revenge against the Falcar who ruined my life, but I tried hard to keep a bit of lightness in my voice, as I didn’t want to discourage the only person on the planet who still seemed willing to help me. “Guess we’ll just have to keep looking then, huh?” As soon as the question left my lips, I realized it sounded far more defeated and depressed than I meant it to, but before I could backtrack, Cindy’s hand shot out and landed on top of mine.

“We will,” she said, inclining her head and offering me an encouraging, kind smile.

I blinked for a second, as stunned as I was when she handed the coffee to me. When I regained my senses, I had to ask, “Why are you being so nice to me?”

She let go of my hand, and her smile turned into a wounded smirk.

“I’m serious, Cindy,” I pressed. “I’ve been nothing but terrible to you and Fred, even while you’ve gone out on this massive limb to help me.” I gestured to the mountain of books scattered across the table. “Now this. Why?”

A peculiar expression flitted across Cindy’s face, and I was suddenly reminded of the fact that she had hundreds of years on me. “Logan, do you want to know what I saw yesterday, when you were so upset about that corpse at the crime scene?”

“Um, a precautionary tale against the dangers of alcohol poisoning?”

Her eyes sparkled as she leaned closer to me. “I saw hope. For the first time since you came to us after that night after the bar, perhaps even longer than that, I saw hope in your eyes, heard it in your voice.” She took in my blank expression and shook her head, then let out another sigh. “It may seem that I pray every day for your grisly demise, but that does not mean I don’t want to see you happy.”

I cocked my head thoughtfully to the side, trying to follow that particular brand of logic.

“You’re in Fred’s life, his best friend.” She flashed me a sudden smile before returning to the stack in front of her with fresh determination. “That means you’re in mine as well, for better or worse. I love Fred, so I have to...care about the people he loves.”

I was touched sincerely by those words, in a way that didn’t happen often, and I didn’t know how to handle it gracefully. My ears pricked up at that last bit, and I turned to her wearing a roguish grin. “You know, it’s really weird that you should put it that way.”

“Why?”

“Well, off and on today, I’ve been thinking about what it would be like to be married to you.”

She stared at me incredulously for a moment, then let out a snort of laughter as she returned her attention to the dusty tomes. “It was the coffee, wasn’t it?”

I grinned and picked up another volume. “Well, now that you mention it...”

* * *

BY THE TIME THE LIBRARY lights flickered to signal that the place was closing, Cindy and I had compiled a stack of eight or nine thick books to take home for further research. In spite of what Cindy said about hope, I really didn’t have a lot. Those old, outdated migratory patterns hardly indicated new ones, but all we could do was try.

“We will pick up again first thing in the morning,” Cindy said, in a way that left little doubt that she wholeheartedly meant it.

At least it’s a start, I thought as I slowly gathered up the books. Meanwhile, Cindy headed outside to heat up the car. I remembered her dawn jump attack, and a maniacal grin crossed my face as I decided, right then and there, that I simply had to think up something equally treacherous to do to her the following morning, assuming I was able to shake myself awake so early. Perhaps some sort of indoor bonfire or a built-in pond in the parlor, or maybe—

Before I could even finish my plotting, a piercing scream ripped through the quiet library and echoed off the shelves before fading away in the cold night air. In the next second, the books I was gathering were on the floor, their pages fluttering and their covers opening and shutting, seemingly of their own volition; I had dropped them without a moment’s thought and was already in a full-tilt sprint, making my way to the door. Even among all the danger the three of us had faced over the last few years, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d heard Cindy scream, and the shrill sound of that chilled my very blood.

I practically flew out to the parking lot. The frigid air bit into my face as my eyes swept from corner to corner. Then I saw them, hovering above the empty parking lot, a group of black shadows, their glowing eyes peering back at me.

Falcars!

Shrieks echoed through the air as I watched them fade into smoke and disappear. Then I saw a traumatized Cindy huddled in a patch of shadow, bent over at the waist, and cradling herself in a childlike way. The sight of her in such a vulnerable state frightened me all the more.

“Cindy!” I called as I rushed over to her, but she didn’t seem to hear me. I noticed her eyes darting wildly up and down the deserted road. “Cindy, are you all right?”

In the next second, I was flying backward, only to slam into the car, hitting the driver-side door with a sharp crunch. The air seemed to fly right out of my body, and I slid down to the ground, letting out a stifled cry. When I looked behind me, I saw in my blurred vision that my shoulder blades had made actual imprints in the metal. For a moment, I just lay there, too confused, hurt, and disoriented to stand up.

“Logan!”

“Hey,” I said, pulling myself painfully to my feet, keeping one hand on the dented door to steady myself. “I was just trying to make sure you’re okay,” I stuttered.

“Logan,” she said, suddenly right in front of me, staring straight into my eyes with an expression that raised the hairs on the back of my neck, “you were right. It was...Falcars.”

I felt like something in my brain skipped a beat. I’d heard the words, but I needed to hear them again. My head shook quickly back and forth, and I raised a solitary hand between us. “I know,” I whispered.

“They just...attacked me,” she said, darting her eyes frightfully from side to side, as if she could still see them. “There were four, maybe five. It was hard to tell. They move so fast!”

My mouth fell open, and I realized I was literally standing on the tips of my toes, hanging onto every word that came out of her mouth.

“One of them h-hit me,” she said with a shudder, absentmindedly rubbing an egg on the back of her head. “I don’t think he wanted to hurt me though.”

“You don’t?” I asked, confused. “Why then?”

“A message,” she said. “They were only trying to make a point.”

A message? Am I hearing her right? We spent all day researching the damn things in that musty old library, and they paid us a visit to send us a message?

“Logan, I think—”

“What was it, this message?” I asked impatiently, in a demanding, rude voice quite unlike my own, a gravelly, rough voice that sounded as if I’d just been roused from a very deep sleep. “What did they say?”

Her eyes widened, and her face grew pale as she stared out into the night. “Simply two words.”

Our eyes locked.

“And what words were those?”

“We’re back.”

My knees buckled, and I realized with a sudden stab of awareness that I had tilted back suddenly onto the car. Part of me was horrified that the impossible had happened, that a horde of faceless demons had just attacked my friend. Still, another part was thrilled. Now I can finally have my vengeance, that part said. They were back, and since Cindy had seen them herself, there was no need to leave it up to guessing games or interpretation. I did find it somewhat ironic that they gave the message to the gargoyle, not the crazy werewolf with the tunnel vision, his heart set on revenge, the one who saw Falcars wherever he went and even in his dreams. They delivered that message to Cindy, the reputable one, the one who could truly convince Fred.

“We have to call Fred.” The words came out in a gasp of pent-up emotion.

“Yes, we should,” Cindy said, then pulled her cell phone out of her pocket with trembling hands. “I’ll just...” Her voice trailed off, and what little color was left drained right out of her face.

“Cindy?” I stared at her nervously and reached out to take her hand. “What is it? What’s—”

A sound halfway between a shriek and a sob escaped her lips, cracking through the darkness around us.

I leapt back a little, staring at her like she might explode.

She handed her phone to me and pointed to the text message splashed across the screen. It was from a blocked number, but when I ran my finger nervously over the screen, it lit up with an ominous glow, and I read the horrible threat aloud: “Meet me at the Bagwell mansion if you ever want to see him alive again.”

Cindy sank to the ground in a sudden crouch, staring at the pavement like she couldn’t believe how quickly her entire world had flipped upside down. “This can’t... Why? It can’t happen like this, not to us.”

I just stared at the phone, unable to move or even breathe, let alone put a coherent thought or sentence together.

“Fred, Logan! They are talking about Fred!”

“I-I know,” I stuttered, “but it doesn’t make sense. I kept my eyes on the phone as I spoke, still staring down at the screen as if the gadget was going to give me some kind of answer, some kind of solution. “Why would they—”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter,” she screamed, suddenly a blur of movement. “Get in the fucking car!”

“Can’t you fly us? It’s almost dark.”

“Not until nighttime. So we’re forced to take the vehicle. Get in!”

“No, I’ll drive this time,” I said, snatching the keys away from her and forcibly tossing her into the passenger seat.

It was a testament to how shaken up she was that she didn’t even protest; she could have easily thrown me off of her. Panic and semantics aside, I was the more reckless driver, and at that moment, the more reckless, the better.

“Fine. Just hurry,” Cindy whimpered, slumping despondently against the door.

I cast her a quick look and nodded. Then, with reflexes as quick as a bullet, I threw the car in drive, and we went screeching back out onto the main road.

The first few minutes were dead silent as we streaked out of town and into the forest. I opened my mouth a million times to demand that she call the mysterious number or send a text in reply, but every time I began to speak, I came up short with words. I really didn’t think she had it in her to honor such a request at that moment, and I wasn’t sure I had it in me to hear the answer when they picked up. She did call the Council to tell them what was going on, and they assured her that they would be there to back her up. They also told her not to worry, but that was not the point; both of us loved Fred, so we were worried to the core.

I tried to set that worry aside and drive as fast as the laws of physics and gravity would allow, as fast as our hydroplaning car would carry us. “Bagwell... Bagwell...” I muttered over and over again, as if willing the vehicle to get there more quickly.

The car slowed infinitesimally about twenty minutes later, when I spun off the interstate and down an unmarked country road. The trees were so thick in that part of the forest that it was almost impossible to see any stars. All around us, the sounds of the night blasted our ears in a full symphonic chorus.

“It’s right up this lane, isn’t it?” Since I didn’t get an answer, I turned sharply, only to see Cindy weeping silently into her hands. “Cindy? It’s this way, right?”

She lifted her face momentarily and nodded, then pulled her jacket on and prepared herself to jump from the car as soon as I put it in park.

Bagwell mansion was a massive Victorian, about a half-hour outside of town, deep in the heart of the woodlands. Corporate managers and wealthy socialites often rented it for parties and get-togethers. The ballroom and twelve guestrooms that lined the third story made it ideal for all sorts of events. I had only been there once before, when I tagged along with my friends to a forbidden high school party. I never expected to return, especially not for the reason I was there now.

The second I killed the ignition, Cindy and I exited the car and broke into a sprint, moving as fast as our legs could carry us. Night had now fallen. When we reached the massive stone steps, we took them two at a time. All the lights were off, and there wasn’t a single car in the parking lot other than ours. All in all, it looked deserted, and if it wasn’t for the text, I would have believed no one was there.

“Logan,” Cindy said, panting as we made it to the top step, “no matter what happens—”

“I know, I know. We have to get him out,” I finished for her, locking my gaze on hers. “We will, Cindy. I swear we will.”

Despite our unholy host of differences, the one thing we had always agreed on was Fred. It was a strange sensation to feel so protective of someone who could usually easily protect himself, but we were both willing to risk absolutely everything just to ensure his safety. That was our bond, if we had any at all.

On the silent count of three, we kicked down the door together. A blast of warm air shot out toward us, and for a split second, we peered silently into the shadowy darkness.

“Surprise!”

Cindy doubled over and let out another scream, and I flew back into the banister as the lights snapped on, flooding the glorious ballroom with a sparkling golden glow.

“What the fuck!?” I said, my heart racing.

Cindy let out an enormous squawk. She maintained her human form, for the most part, but her humongous wings sprouted and slowly began to spread. It was so amazing that I couldn’t stop staring, especially when she started to flap them and hover a few feet off the ground.

As far as the eye could see, there were smiling faces, each holding up a flute of celebratory champagne. Their eyes flickered curiously over to mine before returning to Cindy, practically beaming with delight at their own cleverness to have caught her off guard.

It was then that I saw the poster. “Cindy,” I said, then turned to her slowly, piecing two and two together, “is it your birthday?”

Her eyes widened as they came to rest on the “Happy 500th” banner strewn across the ceiling. Her shoulders relaxed as she took a halting step forward. “Yes, I suppose it is,” she murmured, still staring around in a daze as people rushed forward to hug and greet her. “I guess after you pass 400, you don’t really remember the rest.”

“Well, I think it’s safe to put your wings away,” I said.

“Oh! You’re right,” she said, then alighted on the floor again as her poised wings began to retract. “My apologies, everyone. You startled me.”

A bright face pushed his way through the crowd, and in the next second, Cindy was swept into the air again, this time lovingly cradled in Fred’s arms. “Happy birthday, my love!” he said, then kissed her gently on the lips.

“You scared me to death,” she said.

“Jack texted you. He told you to hurry up and get here for an urgent manner.”

“No, he said you were kidnapped.”

He blew out a long sigh. “I’m so sorry. He took it one step too far.”

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. I’m very touched by this huge party you’ve thrown in my honor. It is so sweet and I can’t thank you enough.”

He laughed delightedly and offered her a flute of bubbly before slowly registering the twin expressions on our faces. His smile froze, then eventually dimmed and died as he gazed fearfully between us, the magic of the party melting away. “I sense there’s more. What is it?” he asked in a completely different voice, far more downcast. “What happened?”

Cindy and I exchanged a quick look. I took a step back, and she placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. The relief that he was safe and alive had temporarily held our fears at bay, but there were still monsters out there, prowling around in the dark.

“Actually, honey,” she said, biting her lip nervously, “we have a bit of a surprise for you too.”

Chapter 8

“You can’t be serious!” Fred said.

Cindy and I waited anxiously in the corner of the ballroom, shooting nervous glances at the oblivious supernatural crowd while Fred sank into a chair between us, running his long fingers through his hair. We’d only managed to speak two sentences: “The Falcars are back,” and “I saw them,” before he’d set the champagne back on a passing caterer tray and retreated to a table near the stairs, overwhelmed with the impossibility that lay before him.

“I mean...” He gazed up at us entreatingly, silently pleading for us to share a joking “Gotcha!” hoping none of it was true.

“Logan and I went to the library this morning,” Cindy explained quietly, sinking into a chair beside him while I took up position on the other side. “We stayed there all day, poring over everything we could get our hands on about the Falcars. It wasn’t—”

“Wait...” Fred said, his voice sounding even more surprised, if that was even possible. “You both went?” He looked at her blankly before turning his gaze to me. “You were in a library?”

I bristled defensively but said nothing on my own behalf.

Cindy slapped him on the knee, bringing him back on point. “We did not discover much, so we planned to return tomorrow. Unfortunately, I found all the research I needed in the parking lot. I saw them, Fred, with my very own eyes.”

At that point, Fred’s expression changed entirely, as if his confusion was melting way and he was entirely focused anew. It was the same look that always came over his usually jovial face whenever we were zeroing in on a target, so close he could smell it. “You saw them for yourself?” he asked shortly.

She nodded. “I did, very up close and personal.”

Once again, he turned his piercing gaze to me. “Where the hell were you?”

Again, I stiffened, ready to defend myself, but Cindy again came to my rescue.

“He was inside,” she said, snapping her fingers to get his attention. “I asked him to gather up some books to bring home. Logan’s whereabouts are not the point.”

“What is the point then?” Fred asked impatiently.

“The point is that I was attacked by a swarm of Falcars. I know it was them.”

I bit my lip to conceal a grimace.

“Attacked!?” Fred half-leapt to his feet, pulling her up with him. “Why didn’t you... You didn’t say you were attacked!”

Half the heads in the crowd turned curiously our way, and I waved them off with a nervous smile. “Roleplaying,” I said with a shrug. “Even after 500 years. I guess it never gets old with these two.”

“Honey, please,” Cindy commanded through her teeth. “Calm the hell down!”

It took all of her not inconsiderable strength to shove him back down in his chair. Once he was there, I took my seat again on the other side, cloistering the three of us together.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured, staring down at his hands as he tried to gather his thoughts. “I just can’t... It is not easy to put all this together. You say you joined forces in what I can only assume was the most preposterous alliance of all time and spent the day reading about Falcars in the library, only to be attacked by a horde of those foul things the second you stepped outside?”

It did sound rather unbelievable when he phrased it like that, but we were too shaken up to not be convincing. While my reputation might have taken a big hit lately in regard to Falcars, Cindy’s word was still above and beyond reproach.

She shook her head wearily, her fingers reaching gingerly up into her hair. “I have the marks to prove it.”

At once, Fred sprang into action, his face paling with rage. I couldn’t help but feel a stab of guilt as he tilted her head forward to check for damage, something I should have done myself and probably would have if I wasn’t so overwhelmed with the demons of my nightmares coming suddenly back to life.

“Do you believe me now?” Cindy asked carefully, eyeing him with open curiosity as his fingers raked delicately through her blonde curls.

When Fred found the wound, his face tightened with a wave of fury, but none of it was directed at either of us; for the first time, it actually seemed to be directed at the people who were directly responsible. Without saying a word, he wet a cloth napkin in a tumbler of sparkling water and pressed it gently against her injury. Then, once our anxiety threatened to overwhelm us, he shook his head and let out a soft sigh. “Of course I believe you.”

Really? It was that easy?

I might as well have spoken that out loud, because he glanced up and read my expression with a wry smile that didn’t meet his eyes. “What do you want me to say, Logan? You’ve been crazy half the damn time and drunk the other half. I hung in there with you as long as I could.”

My head bowed down to my chest, and a rare smile curled my lips. “Yeah, you did...and thanks for that.”

“Go on and say it already,” he said, closing his eyes in a preemptive grimace.

“Fine. I will. I fucking told you so!” I said.

Cindy rolled her eyes in exasperation, but for the first time since we’d burst in on the surprise birthday party, Fred actually managed a small laugh.

He was still donning a grin when a serene-looking woman detached herself from the crowd and began to float toward us, causing the three of us to straighten at once. It wasn’t just that she was walking gracefully; she was actually floating. It was Tabby from the immortal Council. She was half-petal witch, half-vampire, and as old as she was powerful. “You all seem to be having a fine time, now that the initial shock has worn off,” she said, giving each of us a smile in turn.

Cindy leapt to her feet with a pearly smile and threw her arms around the woman’s neck. “Thank you so much, Tabby! The party’s wonderful!”

Unexpected and badly timed maybe, I silently refuted.

Of course, even if Tabby wasn’t part of the Immortal Council, and even if she didn’t have enough magic in her little finger to knock all of us on our asses, Cindy still would have smiled. She and Fred had a special connection with the woman, and the affection that they felt for her was real. After the most unlikely rescue attempt in the world, when Fred busted Cindy out of the high-security gargoyle palace, the two went to stay with Tabby for a while. Not only did the woman offer her their undying affection and the protection of her coven, but she also opened the very doors to her home. Even I had to admit that she was one of the good ones, and since our fallout, I had no lost love for the Council or most of those involved with it.

“Fred!” Tabby said, rustling his mop of curls with a lighthearted fondness. “We really must get you a haircut. This seventies rock-star look went out a long time ago.”

He laughed and ducked his head playfully.

When she turned her attention back to me, she didn’t offer me a hug, and I certainly didn’t move in to encourage it. Still, her eyes twinkled knowingly as she looked me up and down. She shook my hand with a grip as strong as my own, and I stifled a grin. Why do all these all these seemingly delicate-looking immortal women have the strength of the Incredible Hulk? If I’m not careful, I’m going to develop some kind of a complex. 

“Hello, Logan,” Tabby said.

“Hi.”

“I hope you’re not mad at the Council for the decision they made. Living with Fred is going to help you settle down.”

“Are you mad I quit doing assignments for you guys?”

“Of course not. Your punishment had nothing to do with leaving us. I hope there are no ill feelings between us.”

“When do I get my freedom back?”

“When I think you’re good and ready. Because right now, you are out of control.”

“And that’s why I quit doing missions for the Council.”

“You almost got teammates killed with your reckless behavior. Your stunts have made you infamous in our immortal world.”

“And now you know why I quit. I had to do it before I hurt anyone else.”

“Take some time off. When I feel you’re ready, I have a special ops team I want you to try out for.”

“Which one?”

“The Blue Devils?”

“Only a crazy person would apply. Because the missions are beyond dangerous.”

“You’d be perfect, Logan. Are you interested?”

“Hell yes.”

“Let’s talk again in a few months, shall we?”

“Indeed we shall. And thank you for considering me. It’s quite the honor.”

Tabby handed Cindy an elegant gown and she left to change. I was given a tux and changed in a dressing room two rooms over. It wasn’t my thing but I didn’t want to spoil Cindy’s birthday. I waited for her to come back. Meanwhile, I downed two glasses of champagne. When she came back, she looked beautiful in a long, flowing, strapless, red gown. She wore her hair up with diamond earrings and a matching diamond necklace.

“You look stunning,” I said.

“Thank you. And so do you. It’s not very often we can get you into a tux.”

“This is your birthday present.”

She laughed.

“Are you enjoying the party, Logan?” Tabby asked.

I shifted uncomfortably as my eyes flickered around the room full of ball gowns and tuxedos. In the corner of my eye, I could see both Fred and Cindy biting back smiles.

“It’s, uh...fancy,” I sputtered, the only word that came to mind. The truth was that such glamorous gatherings set my nerves on edge. I had grown up as a werewolf prince, the pack leader’s only son, so I was not a stranger to the finer things in life, but after the tragic demise of my pack, I saw no glory in it. I was far more at home in dive bars, prowling about for fights to waste the time, and I had no need for uppity soirees that resembled congressional dinners.

Tabby laughed lightly, thoroughly tickled by my response. “We did our best.” She then turned back to the other two. “Well, now that the obligatory pleasantries are out of the way, why don’t the two of you tell me what’s really going on here? And, Cindy, don’t tell me it’s nothing. I have known you long enough to know when something’s wrong.”

For the first time, I looked at the woman with a hint or respect. At first, the party seemed very poorly timed, but now I realized it might have been the best timing for an event in the last 500 years. The place was crawling with Council members, and representatives from every immortal race were milling about. There really was no better moment to share our discovery, while all the VIPs were in place to hear it.

“Well, Tabby, you might want to sit down,” Cindy said, easing back into her own chair.

Chapter 9

Ten minutes later, I found myself literally on the outside, looking in. Needless to say, news of the Falcar resurgence had everyone worried. I paced the front porch, furious over the exclusion and aching with curiosity all at the same time.

Tabby listened carefully to every word Cindy told her, nodding when appropriate. She even mimicked Fred’s onceover to check the back of Cindy’s head, and when the story reached its completion, she sat silently for a good five minutes, long enough to drive the rest of us slowly mad. “I will take this to the others,” she finally said, pulling herself gracefully to her feet. “I will speak with the Council and the other immortal high-up’s.”

“Of course,” Cindy said.

While Tabby went upstairs with to meet with the big-wigs who could hopefully help somehow, we stayed and enjoyed the party. For the next hour, we laughed, drank, and danced. Sure, the Falcars consumed my mind, but I wasn’t going to ruin Cindy’s birthday. In the end, another couple hours wasn’t going to make much of a difference.

“I’m sorry about this,” I told Cindy. “I know today is your birthday, and—”

“What? I’m having such fun, Logan. I am just happy someone is taking us seriously, and I cannot think of a better someone than Tabby! She will figure out our next move, and whatever she decides will be the wisest thing we can do.”

A few minutes later, Tabby came down the stairs and walked up to me. “We have much to discuss, Mr. James. I have to ask you to go on home.”

If not for the fact that Fred instinctively grabbed my arm, I would have smacked the woman upside the head right then and there, petal magic or not. “Are you fucking kidding me!?” I shouted. “This is my fight more than anyone else’s. I’m the only one who’s been investigating this all the time, while the rest of you wasted time on your precious causes and your fancy parties.”

Fred’s nails dug into my wrist, and I fell momentarily silent, but my eyes still shot daggers as the centuries-old witch stood in front of me, toe to toe.

“We all know about your legendary temper,” she murmured, more curious than aggravated by my outburst. “No doubt, it will serve you well in the days to come.”

I took a step back and stared down at her in confusion.

She suddenly spun around on her heel and called over her shoulder for the others. “Fred, Cindy, come with me. Logan, you may stay if you wish, but you will not be permitted inside. You made it clear that you prefer to work outside the realm of the Immortal Council, and we will honor that wish.”

“Because you wouldn’t help me find the murderers of my pack!”

“We ran a very thorough investigation.”

“Not good enough.”

She ignored me and walked off. 

I stayed, paced, cursed, and seethed on the other side of the paned glass, glaring inside at the rest of them. And cursed. And seethed. From what I could gather just from reading lips, since Tabby had used magic to soundproof the place, the news of the Falcars return didn’t go over well. More than once, I could tell Cindy was asked to repeat her story. Other than that, though, whatever they were discussing inside was a total mystery to me.

They sat in a circle, as was their custom, with Tabby at the top and Fred and Cindy pushed rather reluctantly into the center. Fred was also asked to speak, and he seemed to do so very uncomfortably, shooting discreet looks at me every once in the while. From the way he was shifting his weight back and forth, I assumed my name had probably been called into question.

Then, just as quickly as it had started, it was over. The front doors flew open once again, and the porch flooded with a sudden barrage of sound, the noise of a dozen whispered conversations and fearful speculation. I sorted through it as best I could while elbowing my way through the crowd to get back to my friends. I found them speaking with Tabby in hushed voices, looking uncharacteristically serious.

Fred brightened immediately when he saw me. “Good news,” he said. “Not only does the Council believe us, but they are taking the threat very seriously. They are going to assign a few teams of their best and brightest to track the bastards down.”

My heart froze in my chest, and I paused mid-step, looking from one to the other. “And that teams consists of...?”

“Us, of course!” Fred said, giving my shoulder a playful shove.

Finally, I could breathe again. After all those months and even years of uncertainty, the threat had been reaffirmed, and we were back. The gang was reassembled, and the hunt was on. A feeling of ironic relief, the likes of which I hadn’t felt in quite some time, radiated down my neck and through my shoulders, and I found myself grinning from ear to ear.

“That’s... I mean...that’s great to hear.” The excitement was contagious, and before I knew it, I was shoving Fred back. “Just like old times, huh? Just you, me, and—”

“Me!” Cindy interjected pointedly.

The two of us shared another smile, and I had to admit that the gargoyle really did deserve to be part of our team. As much as I hated to say it, she had proven herself to me long ago.

“A few others will join us,” Fred said quickly, casually attempting to avoid my gaze as he hurried to move on. “We’re going to set up headquarters right here in the mansion, and—”

“Wait!” I stopped him quickly, my grip tightening on his arm. “What others?”

His pulse quickened, but he shrugged dismissively, ignoring the vise-like grip already cutting off circulation to his hand. “Just a few other representatives, no big deal really. We’ll convene here tomorrow, and—”

“Fred...” I said, tightening my grip so much he simply had to look at me. “Who are these other people?”

“Look, Taylor. We’ve got a team mascot,” a familiar voice said.

“Julie?” I said, aghast. I knew the two of them were still pissed at me, because the mission I went on with their husbands the year prior didn’t go so well, and they were almost killed. I was sure they hadn’t forgiven me for that little escapade, and I had no idea how I could be expected to work with anyone who didn’t trust me. My eyes snapped shut in a grimace, and I turned slowly around to see them walking toward me, the last women in the world I wanted to see.

“Now, Julie, don’t be unkind.” Taylor flipped back her long, dark hair and looked me up and down with a distinct smirk. “He’s not a mascot. He’s more like...a pet.”

Julie nodded with her in perfect, sarcastic synchronicity. “Awesome. I’ve always wanted a dog.”

A low growl rumbled deep in my chest.

She grinned but took a step back, wary despite her teasing. They were only doing it to rile me up.

I released Fred, and he grabbed me instead, taking a firm hold on my sleeve to prevent any catastrophes if my teasing escalated into something worse. “Logan,” he began cautiously, “I believe you already know Taylor and Julie, petal witches.”

Our eyes met briefly, theirs full of unbridled mischief and mine full of haughty disdain, and I nodded stiffly. Only Tabby’s presence and Fred’s iron grip kept me in check as I said, “Yes, we’ve met. And from their banter, I can tell they’re still very pissed at me.”

It really was a massive understatement. After the Council officially closed the investigation on the mass murder of my pack, in what could best be described as an overreaction, I went on a rampage through a sanctuary. As luck would have it, it just so happened to be Taylor’s old stomping grounds, and that left her less than pleased. Her best friend Julie, a wolf-witch-demon hybrid, seemed to take supreme pleasure in backing her up all the way.

“Why are they even here?” I asked Fred in a low undertone.

“We’re here,” Taylor interjected sharply, “because you weren’t the only ones who were attacked. My sanctuary was hit last night, so we came to talk to Tabby about what can be done...that and your birthday, of course,” she added hastily, looking at Cindy.

Cindy shook her head dismissively.

As if on cue, though, at that very moment, the caterers, who had been jerked around one too many times, took it upon themselves to present their final burden so they could go home. The massive cake was so big that it had to be rolled in on wheels, and the top read: Happy 500^th birthday.

Fred’s face flushed scarlet, and even Julie and Taylor had to smile as Cindy turned to him tenderly, her face illuminated with an aura in the glow of the candles. “The woman at the bakery was mortified,” he murmured with a grin. “She was sure she made a huge mistake, and I practically had to beg her not to change it.”

“It’s perfect,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for a more gorgeous cake! Thank you so much!” Then, with that impossible gargoyle strength, she took a deep breath and blew out all 500 candles at once. In the next breath, she was planting a kiss on Fred’s lips.

There was a polite smattering of applause as the smoke cleared.

When everyone quieted, she tilted her head to look up at him once more. “What do you think, luv?” she asked quietly. “Do we have another fight left in us?”

His eyes warmed with a tender smile as he leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “One or two, I’d say. I hope you made a good wish!”

“I’ll never tell,” she said with a smile.

Chapter 10

Cindy’s party was a huge hit, even with prospect of an upcoming fight with the Falcars. Cindy was so happy that nobody had forgotten her birthday. She laughed and smiled all night and I hadn’t seen her so happy in a long time. She had been stressed out from working so many hours for the Council. She was carefree as she drank champagne, laughed, and danced the night away.

Finally, the party came to an end.

Everyone wished us all the best of luck, then hurried out into the cold to get home. I was invited to stay the night after all the alcohol I’d consumed. I thought about it. But why stay by myself in such a huge mansion?

Julie nudged Taylor approvingly as the five of us gazed out from the front porch. “Still can’t believe you cloaked all these cars.”

“Cindy would’ve caught on if she saw cars and lights.”

“Not a bad bit of magic.”

Taylor shrugged dismissively but looked pleased. “I do what I can,” she said, then turned to the rest of us. “On that note, we need to meet back here at ten a.m. Once we’re settled in, we’ll round up some supplies, come up with some sort of plan, and figure out our next step.”

“Brilliant but vague,” I muttered under my breath. “Come up with some sort of plan?”

“As for you, dog,” she said. “I expect you to be a good little doggie and do as you’re told...and stay out of my way while you’re at it. You’re lucky the Council even put you on the taskforce.”

My eyes flashed dangerously, but I gave her an innocent smile. “Oh, don’t worry about a thing. That’s been my plan all along, to obey all my masters’ orders...and stay as far away from you as possible.”

“Logan, drop it,” Fred chided softly.

“She’ll never forgive me.”

Fred looked at Taylor. “Come on. Please don’t tease Logan. It puts him in a bad mood.”

“I’m sorry.”

“We all have to get along.”

“I realize that.”

“It’s good to see you. Cindy and I have missed you terribly.”

“I miss you too. But you’re never in Big Bear Lake. You’re always running around all over the globe on assignments.”

“We love the danger and excitement.”

“I stay put because of the family,” Taylor said.

“How is Lysander?”

“Growing up fast. And he looks just like Jesse.”

She showed us pictures, and then finally said her goodbyes. I know her and Fred and Cindy used to be tight.”

Without another word, Julie and Taylor locked hands and disappeared in a blast of green light. Their departure was so abrupt and so bright that I actually leapt a step backward, shocked, and turned to Cindy and Fred with wide, stunned eyes.

Fred shook his head and wore a tired grin. “Teleportation, one of the demon powers Julie’s been playing around with. Should come in handy at some point.”

I raised my eyebrows but didn’t say a word.

“They’re both married now to powerful alpha-type men, you know,” Cindy teased. “No flirting with them.”

I chuckled darkly and shook my head. “No worries there. Not exactly my type.”

She giggled and headed back to the car. I moved automatically to follow, but Fred stopped me short, grabbing my arm and pulling me back.

“Hey,” he said, his bright eyes searching mine, trying unsuccessfully to hide his concern, “are you really okay with all this?”

My knee-jerk reaction was to tell him of course I would, but it was no exaggeration when I yelled at Tabby back in the house. It was my fight, and if anyone was going to hunt down those Falcars until they actually were extinct, it was going to be me. I knew, though, that Fred meant a little more than that, and my shoulders fell with a sigh. How long have I been chasing this? How much has already been taken from me? How much more do I have left to give? I questioned myself before I quietly muttered, “I’ll be fine.”

He stared at me for a second more, obviously not fooled in the slightest, then nodded quickly and lowered his hand. Together, we walked across the wide lot, making our way to the car.

“Hey,” he said with forced cheer, “it could actually ending up being fun.”

I chuckled humorously, till my eyes locked on the dark trees just beyond. “Fun? Right.”

“Sure,” Fred said, his cheery disposition returning in a hurry. “Just think of it. A gargoyle, a wolf, a vampire, and two over-the-top witches walk into a bar and—”

“Don’t you mean they walk into a Falcar?” I retorted, not seeing the punchline in his silly joke.

“Sometimes, Logan, all we can do is laugh it off,” he said. “Now let’s go.”

I only wished there was something worth laughing about. Fred started to kiss Cindy and I really had second thoughts about going back home with them.

“Are you coming?” Cindy asked once they finally broke free from one another.

“Nah. How often do I get an invitation to stay in a mansion? I think I’m going to take up on it.”

“Okay, then. Goodnight.”

“Night.”

They didn’t even fight me on it, probably thankful for one night without me there. 

Cindy and Fred headed back to the townhouse for one final Logan-free night, presumably to fuck the hell out of each other before they packed for the trip, and Taylor and Julie vanished in their sorcerous puff of smoke to wherever it was they went when they weren’t perpetually bothering me. With all of them gone, I had a very private sleepover and free run of the place once Tabby walked me around and told me what and what not to do before she left. I wondered if it was a test. Could I stay the night and not burn down the place or destroy it?

I slowly paced the ornate corridors, impressed by nothing but interested in anything and everything I might be able to use to my advantage if the fight happened to come knocking at the door. Like wolves, the Falcars were hunters, and they sniffed out and followed their prey and enjoyed toying with it. Their attack on Cindy was just that, more mind games, and I knew from experience that it was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to those vile monsters.

An automatic cloud of darkness descended heavily upon me, but I deliberately shoved it deliberately away. Now is not the time to be all emo about it, to wallow in feelings of hopelessness and grief, I scolded myself. Thanks to my little jaunt to the library, a massive influx of fuel had been added to the fire, and now the inferno was bright enough that plenty of others could see it as well. No longer was it a matter of a rogue warrior, a lone ranger out for kamikaze-style revenge. Now there were believers and backers, people ready to join in on the cause, to fight for the common good.

A silent sigh humbled my shoulders, and I paused at a gothic-style window, gazing out to the darkened woods. For just a fleeting moment, I almost wished I was still alone in the fight. The greater the number of hunters, the greater the number of casualties there would inevitably be. It was really just more targets for the Falcars, more people they could potentially take from me, more guilt and regret they could heap upon me, and even if we did ultimately wipe every one of them out, it would only leave me more broken than before.

I pictured Fred and Cindy and even Julie and Taylor, lying dead on the ground, with Falcars sneering and laughing at their demise. As that horrible thought came to me, an unfamiliar knot of worry tightened in my stomach, crippling what should have been a happy night. If anything happens to any of them... No, it wouldn’t be my fault. Taylor’s actually right. The Falcars aren’t limited to targeting one species, not out for genocide. This is an immortal problem. That’s why the Council assigned an immortal taskforce to eliminate it. They would have gone after those supernatural fiends whether it involved me or not, I pondered, the pragmatist in me trying to talk down the wolf.

Being protective was common to wolves, an instinct we couldn’t possibly ignore. Of course our strongest bonds were with our pack, but I already considered Cindy and Fred to be family.

So you must protect them, that little voice assured me. Protect them and take down your enemies in the process. It’s a win-win.

I shook my head, not at all feeling victorious, then retreated upstairs to the bedroom. I draped my jacket over the doorknob of the room that afforded the best view. “Win-win, huh?” I asked the reflection in the dresser mirror. “I’m not sure everyone would see it that way. Hell, I’m not even sure I do.”

Chapter 11

I awoke the next morning to a scream, punctuated with a loud banging noise. There was another flash of green light, bright enough to illuminate my entire room from the crack beneath the door, and two more angry voices joined in the ear-shattering chorus.

And so the fun begins...

I stretched my arms, yawned, then grimaced as I swung my feet down onto the hardwood floor one by one. A rush of cold tingled the skin on my arms, and I was quick to yank my shirt back down over my head. Back in my glory days, waking up naked on a chilly New England morning wouldn’t have even registered, and now my teeth were chattering something awful. I shivered again and added socks, pants, and a pair of heavy boots to the equation.

Crash!

When another loud noise assaulted my ears from downstairs, I hesitantly stood from the bed, already bracing myself against whatever fresh madness I might encounter. A high-pitched shriek echoed off the stone walls, and I closed my eyes and shook my head as I headed to the door. “Witches,” I muttered under my breath. “Why did it have to be witches?”

By the time I descended the stairs, the kitchen was already in full swing, an all-out shouting match that threatened to turn into some kind of very violent melee any minute. For a second, I just leaned against the doorframe and watched, like some sort of pro wrestling fan, almost delighting in the heated exchanges. No one seemed to notice me at all, and I found it a rare blessing; for once, I wasn’t at the center of such altercations, and that brought a smile to my face.

From the looks of things, it had all started with some sort of faulty teleportation trick, one that had gone terribly wrong. I could tell, because Cindy was still half-implanted in the stone wall, Fred was threatening Julie with what looked like an egg-beater, and Taylor was working on a spell to get her out but it wasn’t working.

A sudden laugh escaped my lips, and in an instant, eight eyes were on me, faces in varying states of disorder and rage.

“Morning! I can see we’re all having a fine time already,” I said cheerfully, peeling myself off the wall and pulling a carton of orange juice out of the fridge. “OJ anyone?”

The girls just glared at me, but Fred took the opportunity to throw the egg-beater at me. “A little help here,” he said with a frustrated growl.

“I’m so sorry,” Julie apologized again, to no one in particular. “I warned you my aim isn’t that great yet. I just didn’t realize I could get anyone stuck inside an actual wall.”

Taylor patted her sympathetically on the shoulder, while I turned to Cindy with a little smirk. She alone hadn’t added to the clamor, beyond her initial shriek. Instead, she was looking at Fred with strained but rather calm impatience, considering she’d recently been added to the mansion furnishings.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Julie stopped by and teleported us here,” Fred said. “We all made it except Cindy.”

I tried not to laugh.

“Don’t worry, babe,” Fred quickly reassured her in the wake of her pressing stare. “I’ll get you outta there somehow. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!”

“Don’t you mean in a rock and a hard place?” she asked snidely, rolling her eyes at him. She let her arms hang limply over the sides of the stone, leaving only her chest sticking out, giving her the appearance of some kind of hunter’s prize wall mount. She would have been an excellent deterrent to anyone who sneaked down there to steal a midnight snack, and it was really everything I could do not to snap a picture with my phone.

Fred thought the exact same thing. “Can I Snapchat this, babe?”

“Fredrick!”

“Shouldn’t you be on a church roof, not guarding the kitchen?” I asked.

“Ha ha. I’m going to let that slide because I’ve made so many dog jokes about you.”

“You’re guarding the chocolate chip cookies, aren’t you? Because I know I would!”

“I will free myself from this, thank you very much,” she finally said, squirming uncomfortably. “I might make a little bit of a mess though.”

We all shared a nervous look but said nothing.

“Don’t worry,” Fred said. “We all know she can’t turn full gargoyle during the day. But if she’s stressed, scared, or surprised, her wings can definitely make an appearance, so don’t be surprised.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I saw that last night at her surprise party.” I peered at Cindy. “Gorgeous wings by the way.”

“Thank you.” She blew out a long breath. “Listen, I’m coming out. Everyone please back up.”

Fred considered her suggestion briefly, then shook his head and winced apologetically. “Honey, I know what you’re thinking, but there’s a chance it could take down half this mansion, if not level the whole damn place. The Council won’t look very kindly on that kind of structural damage.”

She glared at him with a look that could have killed the average man, but Fred was more than that.

He threw his hands in the air. “Please, babe.”

Her eyes narrowed, and her fingers clenched into little fists. “Then what would you suggest we do? Are you going to come to the rescue of the poor little gargoyle in distress?” she mocked.

“I swear I can fix it!” Julie quickly chimed in, still desperate to make amends. “I swear, if you just gimme a minute to figure out how I got you in there, I’m sure I can find a way to—”

“Just bust the hell out already,” I interjected.

The others turned and looked at me doubtfully, but Cindy flashed a grateful smile. “See?” She turned her gaze back to Fred. “Even Logan thinks I should.”

Fred shot a sympathetic smile in her direction. “So you’re gonna take advice from the resident hothead?” he said. He then shot a look at me. “No offense, buddy.”

“None taken.”

“Of course he thinks you should bust out. He’s Logan, babe. He’d probably enjoy demolishing the place whether you were trapped in the wall or not.”

“And yet,” I said, casually lifting the glass of juice to my lips and donning an innocent smile, “the so-called hothead is the only one who seems to have come to the kitchen with the harmless intent of finding breakfast.”

In a blur of speed, Fred smacked me upside the head with a big smile, then returned to his place beside Cindy before I could even blink. “You’re not helping, man.”

I laughed.

“The point is,” Cindy said, raising her voice a little, glancing down at the tips of her fingers that were beginning to turn blue, “I am trapped in the wall.” A sudden look of determination flashed across her face, and the corners of her eyes took on a crimson glow. “And I intend to remedy that situation right now!”

There were a few simple rules in the supernatural world, a couple basic points of order that immortals had to learn as children and follow by the letter from that point forward. One of those rules was quite poignant at the moment: When a gargoyle’s eyes turned red, it was time to run.

The Minute Maid went flying into the sink, but knowing the orange-sticky shards of glass would be the least of our worries in a moment, I was right on the heels of the other three as they bolted toward the main foyer. For a split second, I panicked, wondering if we were far enough away, but when Fred stopped moving, everyone seemed to trust his judgment. After all, he knew Cindy better than any of us did.

The girls took automatic cover, and even Fred angled himself cautiously to avoid any falling debris. Still, I couldn’t stave off my curiosity. I had only seen such an incident once or twice in my life, and it never failed to blow my fucking mind.

“Logan!” Fred called warily as I took a step forward. “Don’t—”

Sadly, his warning was too little, too late, and I likely would have ignored it anyway.

Ka-boom!

There was a sound like an exploding train, and the next thing we knew, giant chunks of ancient stone were rocketing through the air. The four of us hit the deck, covering our heads with our arms, but I couldn’t resist peeking through my fingers, even as the projectiles made little craters in the marble floor.

Amidst the rubble stood Cindy, grinning from ear to ear as the dust rained down on her, framed by a giant hole where that part of the wall used to be. The thing was, she wasn’t Cindy as I’d come to know her; this time, she was something else entirely. Her petite frame remained, as did her spirally blonde curls and ruffled designer jacket. Really, other than her glowing burgundy eyes, there was one little detail amiss, but somehow, it changed everything: Behind her, stretching out from her shoulder blades, was a pair of giant, powerful, stone-gray wings, so wide they almost spanned the room.

I shook my head in amazement as the filth and settled around us. I could only smile myself, in spite of the incriminating cavern that used to be the kitchen wall. I wondered how Fred felt the first time he saw that little trick of hers. Was he scared? Shocked? Repelled? Hell, he musta liked it. He pledged himself to her forever, for fuck’s sake, I realized, deciding that it was one of the things that turned him on. My lips turned up in an even bigger grin as I considered the fact that it was the kinky way their very unorthodox romance had blossomed.

Even I had to admit that there was something spellbinding about seeing Cindy like that. It was like a car accident, in a way; even if I wanted to, I couldn’t look away. The others must have had underlying ambulance-chaser tendencies as well, because I saw them stealing occasional peeks, even if Taylor and Julie covered their faces in perfect unison, feigning that frustrating ingrained caution I always associated with witches.

“Shit,” Taylor cursed under her breath, peering between her middle finger and her ring finger to survey the damage. “It’ll take a helluva spell to fix this.”

Julie seemed more forgiving, since it was her unfortunate magic that had gotten Cindy stuck in there to begin with. “It’ll be fine,” she said in deceivingly calming tones. “The important thing is that no one got hurt.”

“Not yet,” Taylor said, “but I’m sure that’ll change when Tabby comes back and sees the giant hole where the kitchen used to be. She isn’t gonna like this one bit.”

Fred, predictably, was staring at Cindy like she was his own personal sun. “Uh, why don’t we, um...get settled in upstairs?” he suggested, with an even more suggestible wink. “You need to shower, babe. You’ve got all that plaster in your hair.”

Cindy flashed him a rueful glare as her wings folded out of sight, and in an instant, her eyes softened and melted back to their usual sparkling green. “I suppose I could take a shower,” she said coyly, “with a little convincing.”

Without another word, Fred took it as an invitation and literally swept her off her feet like some sort of debonair Southern gentleman in an old movie, prepared to carry his Belle up the staircase, without so much as a “Fare thee well” for the rest of us.

Cindy smiled at Fred. “Why do I get the feeling you told me to do that just so that you could see my wings again?” she whispered conspiratorially, stretching seductively in Fred’s strong arms.

I shrugged stiffly as the two of them vanished up the staircase. A wolf, a vampire, a gargoyle, and two witches walk into a mansion... I silently mused. This might turn out to be a little fun after all, at least for Fred.

Chapter 12

The rest of the morning was spent on reparations and damage control. Taylor and Julie feverishly worked to restore the downstairs, and Fred gladly toiled away upstairs, trying to repair what was left of Cindy’s ego, along with a few other things.

I couldn’t do much to help either cause, so I stowed away in my room for a while. I covered my head with a pillow as another soft moan drifted through the walls. There were over ten bedrooms in the place, and I couldn’t understand why they insisted on occupying the one about three rooms from me. Damn this supernatural hearing...and damn them for having the worst timing in the whole world! Do they really think this is the time, while I’m resting right here and the girls are downstairs playing housemaid? Damn their supernatural libidos!

In an act of sheer exasperation, I hurled an antique-looking lamp against the shared wall, shattering it upon impact. There was a momentary pause before the creaking headboard on the other side picked up even more speed, almost out of spite more than passion, I was sure.

I ran my hands over my eyes, then leapt out the window without another thought.

The fifty-foot drop might have been considered dangerous to some, but it was nothing to me. I dusted the leaves from the shoulders of my jacket before making my way into the woods.

It was a journey I had made many times, the walkabout I took whenever my pent-up feelings required release. Whenever I felt like I was going to literally suffocate under the weight of everyone else’s leisurely speed and perpetual sunny smiles, the forest seemed to call out to me, reminding me of the soothing power of nature and solitude. It was more of a symbolic journey than anything else, I supposed, but there was simply no other place in the world that reminded me more of home, no other scenery that could ease my rapidly fraying nerves and allow me to catch my breath.

I tilted my head up to the slate-gray sky and inhaled deeply. Without making the conscious effort to do so, I closed my eyes and allowed my senses to range out around me, the way my father had taught me. I had never fully mastered it, at least not as well as he had, no matter how many times I tried, but it still felt great.

Breathe, Logan. Just breathe...

I had no idea how long I stood there, but it had to be a long time. The sounds and smells of the forest came flooding back to me, as clear as if I was seeing them with my own eyes. I actually envisioned the squirrel in the tree a half-mile away, a flock of birds passing overhead, heading east, toward the falls. I also caught the unmistakable sound of quick footsteps, weaving toward me through the trees. “Are you finished servicing your mistress then?” I asked with my eyes still closed. “Can we please get on with the hunt?”

When I looked up, Fred was grinning back at me, but no matter how he tried to keep his expression light, his eyes told a different story. “That’s exactly what I came out here to talk to you about.”

My head snapped up to look at him, but my mouth turned down in a frown.

“Not that, man. It’s just...well, the hunt, as you call it.”

The sudden seriousness in his voice surprised me, and I cocked my head curiously to the side, wondering what the hell he was going on about. “Yeah? And?” His strange demeanor startled me, because hunting for the Falcars was nothing new. In fact, it was something we’d both done together many times before.

“Logan...” He paused, as if uncertain of how to continue. “This can’t be the way it was last time. You get that, right?”

I met his eyes for a moment, then sighed. It was exactly what I’d been afraid of, ever since Tabby and the rest of the Council assembled our team. No, it isn’t anything like it was last time. He and Cindy were a couple, and things had changed since he’d fallen in love and officially bound himself to the fate of another. Fred was not as reckless anymore, because he knew more than his own life was at stake. He would also be risking their happiness, their future, and their very lives. With so much on the line, that changed things, whether we liked it or not.

Taylor and Julie were the same way. I knew they were both happily married to wonderful immortals, and I thought one or both of them might even have a kid or two. They both had loved ones waiting for them at home, waiting for their safe return. Plans, tactics, and calculated risks would have to be carefully looked at, and the very notion of that tempered and softened the very things that were most important on a mission such as this. There was just one little problem though.

Unlike the others, I had no one waiting on me. I didn’t even have a home to go back to. The Falcars had stolen all that from me, and I intended to do whatever it took to put every last one of them in the ground.

“Logan?”

I glanced back up and saw Fred still watching me, almost nervous to hear my reply.

I hung my head and released a little sigh, knowing he wasn’t going to like what I was about to say. “Do whatever you have to, Fred...and so will I,” I finally blurted.

“Logan, that’s not what I—”

“I know what you meant,” I said quickly, roughly shoving my hands in my pockets and trying to act like the whole premise didn’t bother me. “Look, if it makes you feel any better, I wouldn’t have taken Cindy along to even half the places you and I have gone to over the last few months. It was far too dangerous, sometimes even stupid.”

He nodded slowly, more relieved than he was letting on. After all, boundaries, precautions, and limitations on the madness were good things, at least in Fred’s eyes. He just didn’t realize how blinded my rage against the Falcars had left me to all those things.

“Everyone has priorities. I get that,” I continued cautiously. I could tell he wanted me to stop there, but sudden feeling flashed in my eyes, and I was unable to let it go. “You already know mine, and they’re not gonna change, Council or team or not. I’ll try to cooperate, Fred, but I have my own agenda, and I intend to see it through.”

His face fell ever so slightly as he stared intently back at me. I felt a bit of pity for him, because he looked as imprisoned and helpless as Cindy had in that stone wall, caught in a perpetual unspoken battle between his best friend and the girl he secretly wanted to marry. “There are people counting on you, too, Logan,” he said quietly.

“I know, and like I said, I’ll do my best to work with the team, but—”

“That’s not what I mean. I know you’ll do your best to have everyone’s back.”

“What then?”

“There are people here who care what happens to you,” he said, cutting to the crux of the matter, “people who want you to live. There are people who need you.”

I rolled my eyes sarcastically and tried to play the whole thing off. “Well, then it’s a good thing I don’t plan to die,” I said, shooting him a grin. “In fact, I think you may have gotten a few key points backward—”

“Joke all you want,” he said. “But I’m serious. I can only imagine what this means for you.” His eyes drifted back to the mansion with visible reluctance.

“What it means?”

“Yes, to see your entire operation bankrolled by the Immortal Council itself.” His voice dropped to half-volume as he lowered his eyes. “I was almost sorry  they said yes, truth be told.”

“Sorry?” I spat, suddenly angry and rounding on him with a burst of passion. “How the hell can you even say that!? You know exactly what this means to me, and—”

“Yeah, I do,” he interrupted, “and I also know exactly how many times you almost got yourself killed trying to do it in the past!”

For a moment, both of us fell silent, just reliving, regrouping, and remembering. Fred and I had bonded like brothers, but we had our sibling rivalries, and we’d shared plenty of near-death experiences over the last few years. As I stood there, serenaded only by the sounds of the forest, I wondered just how much blood we’d spilled together.

“Logan, I know how much you need this, and I’ll do absolutely everything in my power to help you finish it.” His eyes practically shone with sincerity, but they demanded something greater, something more, something I wasn’t willing to do. “You have to promise me something though.”

As he paused, I took the bait and rose to the challenge. “Promise you what?” The question came out a lot sharper than I intended, but I wasn’t about to apologize for that.

Fred just stared at me silently for a moment before dropping his eyes. “Promise me you’ll act like you have people waiting for you too.”

That sentence alone stopped me where I stood, crushed the silent battle of wills before it could go any further.

At a glance, most would have considered me broken beyond repair. The tragedy that stained my past had left behind scars and angst and bitterness that had slowly consumed me, driving me forward with a vengeful momentum that was bound to get me killed. Most thought of me as a man already lost, assumed it would only be a matter of time before I self-destructed entirely. They thought I was a man who could no longer be reasoned with, a dangerous lunatic who was capable of almost anything because he thought he had nothing left to lose. Technically, I agreed with the greater majority, but Fred came at me from exactly the opposite angle, battling things like despondency and vengeful fire with the purest kind of familial love. I bowed my head for a moment as I considered his request. Even after all those years, he still managed to find ways to catch me off guard.

I took a deep breath, lifted my head again, and nodded firmly. “Fine. I promise.”

The very forest seemed to lighten as he beamed back at me with his radiant smile. Then, as quickly as I was able to do it myself, he shrugged it off with a casual nod. “Good.”

I rolled my eyes sarcastically.

“In that case,” he said, with a stupid grin on his face, “it’s time to head back inside. Taylor and Julie finished the kitchen, and they turned the library into some kind of war room. Let the plans commence!”

I followed him back through the trees, our feet barely making an imprint in the scattered leaves that carpeted the forest floor. Excitement brewed in my veins at the thought of taking down more Falcars, but for the first time, it was also tempered, with a dose of caution and a promise I intended to keep.

“Don’t you mean some sort of plan?” I corrected, quoting Taylor’s half-assed attempt at improvising last night on the fly. “We don’t wanna get too specific now.”

“No,” he said with a chuckle, marching up the cobblestone steps. “We never do.”

Chapter 13

The war room was exactly that, and it housed a vast collection of weapons, books, and supplies, the likes of which was enough even to impress me. I paused in the entryway as Fred continued inside; for the first time, I felt rather fortunate to have Council-trained witches on my side.

“It’s about time!” Julie said. “Just because we’re supposed to live forever doesn’t mean you have to make us wait forever!”

“Don’t be so hard on him, Jules,” Taylor murmured. “Wolves have deep-seated impulses. He was probably out in the garden chasing rabbits.”

Just like that, all my good feelings about witches were gone, and I thought it best to remain silent, as the words I wanted to say were certainly not very nice, one of which rhymed rather well with “witch.”

“Hey! You girls have a little wolf inside you too,” Cindy reminded them with a grin, then flashed me a protective smile that I answered with a roll of my eyes.

“We’re just having fun, that’s all. You almost got our husbands killed. So we’re yanking your chain. And yes, we’re wolf too. We come from the strongest wolf pack there is, the Ice Pack.”

I could throw in my royal lineage, but I didn’t. “Yeah, yeah, we know, the legendary guardians of all immortals. You’re very special. Can we just get started please?” I took a seat and gestured to the cluttered table before me. “Where are we?”

“Well,” Taylor began, “Cindy just took us through the events at the library one more time and was filling us in on everything the two of you learned in your time there.”

“We’ve learned a lot more than that,” Fred said with a slight frown. “Don’t forget that Logan and I have been tracking these things down for ages. We’re not exactly lacking intel here. We just have to figure out where to start.”

“Actually,” Cindy said in a small voice, “I have an idea about that. Instead of going back to the library and retracing our steps through the parking lot, and looking for any clues the Falcars might have left behind, clues I know we aren’t going to find...”

“They don’t make mistakes,” I interjected suddenly. “You won’t find any trail of breadcrumbs from Falcars. They went to the library for one reason and one reason only, to deliver a message. That’s it. There’s no point in going back.”

“Exactly. I have something else in mind.”

Taylor and Julie exchanged a quick glance before Julie tossed her long blonde hair back and looked at us speculatively. “Then what would you suggest?”

Instead of answering, I turned to Cindy. I had a sneaking suspicion she was well aware of what the next step should be on our journey.

“Well, there is one place no one has ever gone to look for the Falcars, a place even you and Fred chose to leave alone in all your travels.”

This time, Fred and I exchanged looks before turning our gazes back on her, our eyes filled with curiosity and panic at the same time.

“And what is this place, luv?” Fred asked.

Cindy grimaced apologetically before meekly lowering her eyes and muttering, “Rakenhall.”

Chapter 14

“Rakenhall?”

It was only one little word, but the effect it had on the houseful of immortals was like telling Chicken Little they sky actually was going to fall.

“What!? Are you out of your damn mind, girl?”

I wasn’t sure who even asked it, Taylor or Julie, and it might have even been Fred, because the shrieked pitch in which it came out left no guessing room for gender. For my part, I could do nothing but stare at Cindy, surprised by her answer and wondering about her train of thought, if not her sanity.

“I’m serious!” Julie shouted, thrown into a full-blown conniption fit, as if the name of that dreaded place was some kind of dark profanity, the kind that would make one flush and look around nervously, even when one was alone. “How can you possibly expect us to take that seriously? Have you officially lost your mind? Did you hit your head in that wall explosion?”

Meanwhile, Taylor rapidly shook her head, tapping the thick soles of her boots into a furious little storm on the floor. Fred bit his lip hard, pondering.

“Rakenhall?” I repeated, softer this time, training my eyes only on Cindy. “You think there’s a chance the Falcars are holing up there?”

“Possibly. Or we could get some valuable information that we can’t get around here.”

“They’re not really united with the rest of the night creatures,” I continued. “Rakenhall’s basically a community center for the dark and terrible. I don’t really see them being team players, up for any kind of community—”

“Like it matters,” Taylor said, squeezing her body between us, deliberately shattering our line of sight, as if that might end our conversation as well. “There’s no way in hell any of us are going to Rakenhall. In fact, that place is worse than hell.”

“She’s right,” Julie agreed. “There hasn’t been a single incursion for good against that fortress in over 400 years. Even then, it was a group of teenage witches who were high out of their minds, and they were ripped to pieces for doing it, literally. They were mailed back to their families a week later in a bunch of little boxes!”

“No one gets into Rakenhall alive,” Taylor finished, “let alone back out again...and it’s not even possible to spend any time inside that hellhole, looking for a group of the most dangerous creatures in the world. It’s a death sentence.”

“More than that...” Fred began, cautiously chiming in for the first time on the matter. Rather than admonishing his girlfriend, even though her mention of the place paled his complexion even whiter, he turned his aggravation one hundred percent on me, as if he knew I was the catalyst that could turn an idea into an action and make the whole thing go wrong. “It’s a suicide mission. It can be called nothing else.”

He and I locked eyes, and a silent communication passed between us, a silent demand, a silent reminder of the vow I made to him in the woods. Reluctantly, I lowered my gaze. I guess that’s what I get for making a promise...

Cindy turned to me for help, but I was no longer aligned with her. It wasn’t my choice, and it practically killed me to look away, but with me or without me, she had never been one to shy away from a fight, especially not when the fate of innocent lives hung in the balance.

“All right, I get that it sounds crazy. I really do,” she fired back, rallying to defend herself, “but it’s the only place that makes sense, the only place left. One of my connections said they were spotted there. Whether or not the Falcars are there is completely irrelevant. A group of supernaturals—any group of supernaturals—couldn’t resurrect their entire evil race without the creatures at Rakenhall talking about it. If witches were thought to die out and then made a sudden resurgence, there would be much conversation about that. I defy you to find a single immortal hangout that would be discussing about else but this shocking news.”

“But Cindy, it’s Rakenhall,” Fred said softly but effectively, so much so that even Taylor and Julie took a step back to give him the stage. “Even if you’re right, and even if it’s the only way of gathering credible intelligence, we still can’t go in there,” he said, as right as he was convincing. Fred had a way of accomplishing that, something that went beyond the normal hypnotic vampirical tone, a deep intensity in his voice that never failed to hit its mark.

The problem was that Cindy was right, too, and she knew it. “We have no other feasible starting point, Fred,” she urged him quietly. “We haven’t one solid clue. You said yourself that you and Logan have already chased every lead. It is time to think outside the crate.”

“The box,” Fred corrected softly.

“The box then. If we really want to find and defeat these Falcars, we must take some risks.”

“Some risks, yes, but...” He took her by the hand, holding it deceptively hard. “But not this.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because I won’t risk your life to satisfy a hunch.” His eyes flickered momentarily around the room, resting for the briefest of moments on mine. “I also forbid anyone else from doing so.”

The conversation ended as quickly as it had begun. Neither side gave an inch of ground, but with Fred and the witches dead set against Rakenhall, Cindy dead set for it, and me out of the running altogether, we were a hung jury. We could only retreat to separate corners of the mansion, like boxers needing to cool down and regroup. Meanwhile, we waited for official answers from the Council on what to do.

Cindy did challenge the other three to come up with anything better, with any competing plan that might actually garner results without wasting our precious time while the trail fell increasingly cold, while more and more immortals were at risk. They accepted the dare without a moment’s pause and vanished upstairs together to brainstorm and scheme.

We all planned on staying the night. Tabby thought it was best for us to keep working on a plan.

As hard as they tried to make it look good, they weren’t fooling anyone, and we all knew they wouldn’t find any alternative. As much as everyone hated to admit it and as much as they flat out refused to, Cindy was right. There was only one plan with any hope in it, even if it did have the approximate survival rate of a snowball in hell. Like it or not, Rakenhall was the answer. They knew it, Cindy knew it, I knew it, and I was sure Fred knew it as well.

There was something else I knew though: Unlike the others, I wasn’t strictly bound by the work ethics of the Council. I didn’t work for them, and my addition to the taskforce was in no way an official position. That meant I didn’t necessarily have to wait for a majority decision to do what I thought was best.

I was going, and nobody was going to stop me. Especially the Council.

I crawled out my top-story window and shimmied down the tree on the other side. The others were still holed up in various nooks and crannies of the mansion, trying desperately to come up with a plan that was never going to happen. The sun had long since set, and it was unofficially assumed that we wouldn’t reconvene until the next morning. I, however, would not be joining that meeting. I guess someone else will have to serve the orange juice, I silently joked with myself as I went on my way.

It was only a two-hour drive from the mansion to the rumored entrance of Rakenhall, a place lodged deep in the underground core of the Big Apple, in a magical dimension humans couldn’t even enter. I would go in, blend in, and get info. If I ran into a Falcar, I would hide and try not to attack one without backup. I was going in for information, not a fight with an army of Falcars. With any luck, I could get there and get in before anyone back at the mansion was any the wiser. The trouble was that luck was not often on my side.

“Logan!”

I about had a heart attack as I spun around with my hand on my chest. Yes, as a werewolf, I had superior sensory capability, but I was also a victim of tunnel-vision just as much as the next guy. I had been so focused on my covert mission that I hadn’t even heard Cindy sneaking up behind me. “What are you doing here?” I preempted, sure she was going to ask the same of me. “And where’s Fred?”

She cast a glance behind her, and she seemed to be as nervous and edgy as I was. “He’s still in the mansion with the others, trying to pull a magical solution out of the air.” She then quickly added, “Not literally,” in response to my expression. “An idea, Logan, not a spell.”

“Oh. Well, with witches, you can never be too sure.”

“Tell me about it,” she said. “I will never forget that wall trick of hers.”

My eyes flickered back to the mansion as well, before I started walking to my car at double-speed. “Well, good luck to them,” I threw over my shoulder. “I’m gonna go grab some dinner.”

“Logan, you—”

“Do you want anything?” I interrupted, in an effort to cover my tracks. “I was thinking Chinese, but if you’re in the mood for something different, I can always—”

“Logan, I want to come with you!”

I froze mid-step, staring warily back at the gargoyle that was standing there with her hands on her hips, staring me up and down, not unlike the way Julie had looked at her earlier. “To the restaurant? It’s really no trouble for me to order carryout for you if...”

I was silenced by the scowl on her face.

“We both know you’re not going to a restaurant,” she said after an uneasy pause.

My pulse quickened, and I took another step back toward my car. There was no use lying to her; Cindy had a way of reading people just as well as Fred could, and it was going to take far more than a flimsy fortune cookie excuse to fool her. “Look, Cindy,” I said, “I’m not trying to make waves here, but you and I both know the only way to stop the Falcars is to start at Rakenhall.” I held up my hands peaceably. “Now, I respect the obligations and responsibilities you have to the Council, but I’m not under their authority, and...” I paused when something dawned on me. “Wait. You really wanna come with me, knowing where I’m headed?”

She nodded slowly, and the meaning clicked for the first time. My mouth fell slowly open as I raced for something to say. My first instinct was to be overjoyed, but I knew Fred was right. The odds of getting in and out of Rakenhall alive basically rendered it a suicide mission, and that was with all five of us. I didn’t even want to think about the odds of going in there by myself. Cindy would be an invaluable help, and she could just end up saving my life, but I didn’t want her to risk hers either.

As I pondered that, an echo of my conversation with Fred echoed back into my mind, and I found myself slowly shaking my head. “No,” I said quietly, unwilling to discuss it anymore. “There’s no way I can let you do that. I won’t let you do that to Fred or—”

“Won’t let me?” She laughed. “I am afraid it is not your decision to make, little pup,” she said sharply. Then she softened a bit and continued, “It isn’t Fred’s either. In a short time, the Falcars will gain enough strength to bring their fight right to our doorstep. Fred may not like it, but I am doing this for him and everyone, just as I know you are.”

Of course I had my own personal reasons, but I also felt some obligation to make the world a better place for everyone by ridding it of that foul race. Still, the fact remained that I didn’t want to put my best friend’s girl’s life in jeopardy. “I still can’t let you,” I said, shaking my head with firm resolution. I then continued toward the car, turning my back on her before she could say another word about it. “It would kill him if anything happened to you. He would not recover.”

There was a sudden rush of air, and before I knew it, a giant stone wing was smashing into the ground in front of me, barring my path to the driver seat. The force of the impact sent vibrations rocketing all the way up my legs, and I turned around in shock as a tinkling little laugh rang out in the night air.

“Oh, Logan, that’s adorable!” Cindy smiled sweetly, seemingly oblivious to her terrifying crimson eyes. In the next second, she was flying through the air, only to land on the other side of the car. She yanked open the passenger door with a little wink. “It’s as if you think you really have a choice.”

I remained frozen for a second, weighing my options before I turned my back on the mansion. I let out a disgruntled sigh as I slipped into the car. “Sorry again, Fred,” I muttered, flipping on the ignition.

The car shot off down the road, carrying two silent passengers, each focused entirely on what might lie ahead, each deliberately trying not to think of what we were leaving behind.

This is what I get for making a promise I can’t keep.

Chapter 15

Cindy’s plan to get into Rakenhall was as simple as it was dangerous. As a gargoyle, she was automatically more welcome there than me. Very few packs had actually crossed all the way over to the dark side, so to speak, and a strange wolf among wolves would definitely call attention and raise suspicions. Therefore, I had to accompany Cindy in a somewhat lesser role—or at least it would appear that way to any suspicious, prying eyes and snouts.

“Are you sure these are really necessary?” I asked, fidgeting with the silver handcuffs and flinching when they burned and sizzled against my skin. They were immortal handcuffs. If we wanted to look convincing, then I needed these.

The man standing in line behind me, trying to descend into the subway, shot me a sideways glance.

I cleared my throat and quickly backtracked. “Damn these costume parties of yours.” I flashed Cindy a painfully pointed grimace, shrugging off the man’s stare. “They’re gonna be the death of me.”

She glanced behind her and smiled sweetly, right in my face. As if the cuffs weren’t enough, she also decided it would make a more realistic impression if she roughed me up a bit, for authenticity’s sake, of course, and the result was as painful as it was obvious. “Oh, I think they are most necessary,” she said, then handed the man behind the counter enough money for two.

“I guess someone is having fun tonight,” a guy said to Logan. “I need a kinky girl in my life.”

“Can I show him my glowing eyes?” Cindy asked. “Pretty please.”

“No, honey. Not a good idea.”

“How about my wings?”

“Absolutely not.”

She then winked at the man. “I could eat you right up.”

He laughed, then walked away.

Together, the two of us made our way into the tunnel, looking every bit the captor and captive.

“After all, what kind of idiot jailor would I be if I didn’t take basic precautions with such a volatile prisoner?”

“Hmm. I don’t know,” I said, growling under my breath, cursing silently as my hands began to bleed. “Maybe you’d be the kind of jailor who doesn’t take sick pleasure in torturing her friends.”

She giggled and gave the chain between the cuffs a little tug.

“Hey! Stop that!”

“That is for the jab about my flowery curtains, you bad doggy you.”

I was about to make a scathing comeback, but we rounded a corner in the underground corridor, and the two of us fell silent at exactly the same time.

According to what little information the Council could glean about Rakenhall over the last few hundred years, the entrance was at the end of a deserted tunnel system beneath the pedestrian crossing just ahead. The old foundations of the subway rattled the fabric of the hall itself, and all we had to do to get there was slip away unnoticed from the rest of the oblivious humans and make our way to the secret passage below. It would have been an easy feat for any immortal or even a sewer rat, but in handcuffs, it was a whole other story.

“Just free me for one fucking second,” I hissed, eyeing the dark drop below with no small amount of trepidation. “You can put them right back on when we get there.”

“And risk someone seeing you walking around free? I don’t think so.” She, too, leaned over the hole and looked into the abandoned tunnel with visible fear on her face, not a usual look for her. When she finally pulled back, she flashed me a quick, forced smile. “In fact, you should probably go down first.” With that, she kicked me in the back of the legs and sent me careening into the darkness.

I plummeted a good twenty feet and landed face first. A second later, a tiny body tumbled into the center of my back. “That’s it,” I said between groans, pulling myself up to my feet while glaring at her with all my might. “Next time, you wear the handcuffs.”

“Fred loves when I do,” she teased lightly, gazing nervously into the dark.

“Lucky Fred,” I muttered as I followed her gaze and stifled a shudder.

“Actually, the less Fred knows about this whole thing, the better.”

“You got that right,” I had to agree with her.

It was dangerous enough to be down there in the first place, but to be down there without the use of my hands was ludicrous. Every instinct I had, wolf and otherwise, strained against the chains with the automatic desire to protect myself. What the hell am I supposed to do if the worst should happen and this whole thing goes sideways. Just fuckin’ hope the gargoyle has time and enough sense to throw me the damn key? I shook my head, trying not to think about it.

“Come on,” Cindy said bravely, trying to sound more confident than she felt. Slipping back into character, she then grabbed the chain that connected my hands and jerked me forward. “Let’s just get this the hell over with.”

* * *

IT ONLY TOOK ABOUT ten minutes of trudging through the wet, unlit tunnel before we heard the distant sounds of Rakenhall looming up ahead. Of course, that was ten minutes longer than Cindy or I wanted to endure it, but once we were near the entrance, we sincerely wished we were back in the safety of the tunnel.

From the second we pushed open the door, I knew the whole thing was a bad idea. It probably was the only way to get any kind of reliable lead on the Falcars, but honestly, I didn’t see any way how we could possibly make it out of that piteous pit alive. It was a fucking nightmare, one I feared we may never awake from.

A glass of something that resembled witch blood shattered against the wall above our heads, showering us both in a sea of crimson, and we didn’t make it more than three feet inside before we were accosted by a trio of some sort of serpentine humanoids.

“Nagas,” Cindy muttered under her breath, then steered us carefully away from their flashing, colorless eyes. “They are half-snake, half-human. In Hindu mythology, the Nagas are snake-shaped beings who live in the underworlds and are the keepers of mighty powers of consciousness. Nasty little buggers, let me tell you.”

I believed her and had no desire to find out for myself. In fact, as the edge of a forked tongue licked curiously up my arm, I resisted the urge to bolt for the door.

“What should we do, Logan?” she asked quietly, careful to keep me glued to her side. It was a bit too close to keep up the façade of a jailor with a catch, but at that moment, neither of us could bring ourselves to care about our poor performance. “Should we just start asking questions or—”

“Buy yourself a drink,” I instructed in a whisper, keeping my eyes on a group of drunken vampires, whose lethal game of darts was inching closer and closer to an oblivious shifter’s head.

Oh, for the use of my hands...

Cindy followed my advice and led me over to the counter.

A gargoyle and a handcuffed werewolf walked into a bar, I thought with a smirk.

The thing manning it looked like some sort of goblin hybrid, but he soon vanished and was replaced by the most promiscuous girl I’d ever met. After a second of open-mouthed gawking, I realized that sexually aggressive would have been a much better description for the succubus.

“What’ll it be?” she asked in a purr, leaning so far over the counter that both Cindy and I caught a full view all the way down her ripped, gaudy shirt. “Witch blood? Empest hien? Or maybe a shot of fairy tears? We’ve got a two-for-one special,” the sexy barkeep said.

Cindy blanched. “Uh, maybe just an espresso or—”

I shoved her hard in the back, trying to remind her of the script we hadn’t really written.

“Whiskey,” she quickly clarified. “Just whiskey will be fine...and please make it a double,” she added.

I closed my eyes in a painful grimace behind her.

The girl flashed us a smile and grabbed a bottle from beneath the counter. She overfilled Cindy’s glass as she kept her eyes glued on me.

I shifted uncomfortably on my feet, trying to keep my gaze on the counter. As a kid, I’d heard tales about all sorts of creatures, including her type. The succubus would likely be the best fuck of my life, but she was also guaranteed to be the last one if I let things go in that direction. It was a well-known fact that all lovers of such creatures didn’t live long enough to enjoy the afterglow or to kiss and tell; instead, they had a tendency to meet an immediate, grisly demise.

“What’s with the wolf?” she asked, pushing the glass across to Cindy.

Cindy took a steadying sip before casting a dismissive glance over her shoulder. “Him?”

“Yes, him,” the succubus said.

“I picked him up on the outskirts of the city a little over an hour ago. Turns out he’s wanted in several circles for displaying, shall we say, less-than-civilized behavior with a pack leader’s daughter. I’m extraditing him back to their pack right now, so justice can be served.”

It was a good, well-delivered story, and I had to admire Cindy for being so quick on her feet.

The girl looked me up and down with an almost wistful smile. “Shame. What a waste.” Her eyes dilated as she leaned across the bar. “I don’t suppose you’d let me have five minutes with him before you go—”

“Um...you may keep the change,” Cindy said quickly, laying a bill on the counter and steering the two of us hastily away.

We settled at a table in the corner, close enough to the center that we could still hear the conversations of the other patrons but close enough to the door that we at least had a shot of making a quick exit should the need arise.

My foot tapped nervously against the chair as I darted my eyes around and kept my ears open. Meanwhile, Cindy traced the edges of her whiskey glass, not bothering to drink a drop. All in all, we couldn’t have looked more out of place, even in a crowd as eclectic as that one. It wasn’t until I saw that same shifter from the darts game get ripped in half by what had to be a troll that I fully understood the need to blend in.

“Drink the whiskey,” I commanded, nudging her foot beneath the table, “and stop breathing so fast. You look like you’re gonna pass out.”

At once, Cindy’s defensive shackles came up, and she flashed me a cool glare as she downed half the liquor in one gulp. “Please don’t talk to me at all, Logan. You’re supposed to be a prisoner, remember? We shouldn’t appear to be having casual conversations. Just keep shooting me glares like you want to rip my head off. You know like when I wake you up late in the afternoon after you’ve been sleeping all day.”

“Like the day you took me to the crime scene and I was hungover?”

“Yeah! That one. Shoot me daggers like that.”

I stifled a grin and nodded obediently, already pleased with the shift in her performance. Gargoyles were a terrifying breed based solely on their strength. That was precisely why no one had bothered to come to our table and hassle us. It was also one of the only resources we had at our disposal to get out of that place alive if everything started to go south. Unfortunately, not everyone was so good at reading the warning signs as I was.

“Another drink,” said a gruff voice as a glass smashed down on the table, sending bits of whiskey spraying up in every direction, “for the most beautiful girl in Rakenhall tonight.”

Cindy and I looked up in alarm at a demon, flanked by three of his friends, conjured up a batch of chairs and plopped down at the table beside us. The smell of vodka practically hung over them, leaking from all their pores, and as I leaned warily away from the one nearest me, I could have sworn he snapped his teeth in my direction.

After a second of shock, Cindy was quick to recover. “Oh! Well, that’s... How very kind of you.” She took the glass with a polite smile and lifted it for a toast in their direction before setting it back down on the liquor-soaked wood. “You four out celebrating tonight?”

“We sure are.” The demon who bought her the drink leaned forward, wearing a wicked smile that revealed two sets of menacing teeth. “Me and the boys were out hunting when we came across a trio of young wolves, just teenagers, ripe for the takin’...and take we did!”

Three teenage wolves? I wondered, hoping beyond hope that I didn’t know who they were. My muscles stiffened, and a low growl began to churn deep within my chest.

Cindy flashed me a look, far too fast for any of them to see, then kicked me under the table.

“You know how wolves are,” the man said. “These put up quite a fight, but it didn’t turn out well for those furry little beasts in the end.”

“Noisy bastards,” the demon sitting beside me muttered.

“That’s right,” their leader exclaimed. “The screams! Sometimes you forget how loud the youngsters are, how much they wanna live. It’s pathetic, really, but it’s also...delicious.” He flashed a seductive smile at Cindy, as if he thought it was quite the endearing revelation. “Actually,” he said, looking at me and down at the cuffs, as if he suddenly noticed me for the first time, “they looked quite a bit like your wolf friend here. What’s his story?”

Every inch of my body tensed to the breaking point, ready to spring out of my chair and tear the vile thing from limb to limb.

Let’s see how much he likes wolves then, see how loudly he can scream!

It took everything in me to calm myself down, to remind myself that it wasn’t what we came for and that such a brash move was sure to get us killed. Instead, I flashed him a vicious glare, memorizing every inch of his face, then lowered my glowering eyes back to the table.

On the other side, Cindy smiled sweetly. “I’m afraid that’s none of your concern.” She shot me an impressive look of malice before returning to her drink. “This wolf and I have...unfinished business. Let’s leave it at that.”

The demons chuckled darkly and even more loudly when the one sitting beside me rattled my silver cuffs. My skin burned in protest and gave way, sending a spattering of blood over the table to mix with the spilled whiskey.

Cindy froze in horror, the glass halfway to her lips, when the demon sitting directly across from me lowered his head with a dark grin and slowly lapped up the blood.

I turned away so I wouldn’t have to watch, and I forced my expression to go blank, a trick I’d used when climbing up in the fighting rings in my old pack. You might be hurting, hurting like hell, but you never, ever let them see it. Fortunately, if not rather unfortunately, Cindy never received such a lesson.

Bang!

The table cracked down the middle, sending a thick splinter of wood straight into the offending demon’s mouth. When the sharp end buried in his gums, he let out a muffled howl. The others leapt back with a gasp, but Cindy and I didn’t move a muscle and just sat right where we were. In fact, I just stared down at the table with a scarcely concealed smile, and she continued glaring at the demon with a warning glow of crimson flickering in her eyes.

“I’ll thank you to keep your hands off my wolf,” Cindy said.

A collective shiver ran through the demons. They were bloodthirsty monsters, but they knew better than to mess with a gargoyle.

Next, she smiled sweetly at each one of them in turn and continued with her role-playing. “It cost me a bloody fortune to track him down, and I won’t lose this bounty. The pack demanded that he be returned in one piece.” She then turned that smile on me, and even though I knew she was lying, the same shiver rippled through my shoulders. “At least for now.”

The demons chuckled again, even the one who’d just pulled the wooden stake from his mouth, though he did so with a spray of blood. Violence of any sort was sport to them. That was why the Falcars were such a deadly combination, the blood of demons mixed with vampire DNA.

“Actually, I wasn’t too sure I should stop in here tonight,” Cindy continued conversationally, ignoring the broken table and the stunned stares in front of her. “I heard we might have some unexpected visitors.” She then lowered her voice dramatically. “Have you gentlemen heard any talk of...Falcars?” she asked.

In that instant, the entire bar went dead quiet, even the succubus, who was busy trying to entice a particularly gross-looking snake-person into bed.

It took a second for the conversations to start back up again, and every word seemed to be spoken in more hushed tones, more slowly and cautiously than before. Cindy and I did our best to keep the terror out of our eyes as the raucousness resumed.

Finally, when everyone seemed to be back to their old selves again, the loud-mouthed demon leaned back across what was left of the table. “You got a lot of nerve, girlie,” he said with a smile, then shared another snarling laugh with his cohorts before lowering his voice. His next words were spoken with great care and seriousness, which sounded strange coming from a demon. “Yeah, it’s true what they say. The Falcars are back. And they’re planning something huge.”

I knew it!

“Why do you ask, pretty gargoyle?” he begged to know, narrowing his eyes ever so slightly. “What’s it to you?”

Once again, Cindy kept her cool. “Like most, I just like to keep track of where they are. I believe it is best to put some fucking distance between certain beings.”

The demons seemed to relax, as if her cursing put them at ease, and Cindy joined in on their laughter.

“Well, all I know is, if you wanna find those foul bastards, you had better make it quick.” The demon in the middle glanced around the bar with shifty eyes. “Word on the street is that there’s a weapon out there, somethin’ that’ll wipe all of them out at the same time.”

My heart stopped in my chest, and the bar seemed to dim, as if I was suddenly caught in a dream. Did I just hear him right? A weapon of mass destruction for Falcars? Is that even possible? I shook my head, unable to fathom it after what I’d seen them do. “What is it?” I asked before I could stop myself, before I remembered that I was supposed to be a prisoner and should never speak under any circumstances, unless commanded to by my captor.

Under the table, Cindy kicked me once more, harder this time. “Shut the fuck up, mongrel,” she snapped, “before I let these four finish what they started. You are lucky you have a bounty on your shaggy head, or I’d remove it myself!” Her eyes flashed fire, but a second later, she turned back to the demon. “It is a good question though. What is this weapon you speak of?”

The demon shook his head, tracing his finger absentmindedly in the blood I’d spilled just a moment before. “Who knows? Ask those damn monks the Immortal Council keeps on their payroll. Rumor has it the Falcars have been going from temple to temple, never leaving anybody alive. Whatever the weapon is, they’re probably trying to keep it hidden till the time’s right.”

I found his remarks interesting, and I’d heard of the monks before. I knew they operated out of old Shaolin Temples, high in the Chinese mountains. Wouldn’t be too hard to get there, I thought, but I knew that before I could make any concrete plans, before I could even give Cindy a kick back, signaling that it was probably time to go, the door opened at the far end of the bar.

For the second time that night, the place fell instantly silent.

Cindy and I were the last to look, as our minds were over-occupied with the possibility of some miraculous new weapon. As a result, we found ourselves suddenly fenced in; the exit we were sitting next to was suddenly blocked.

As a shadow fell over what remained of our table, I lifted my eyes slowly and stared up into the face of a man, or at least, it looked like a man. After all those years, though, I knew better.

“Well, well, well! What do we have here?” he said.

Every muscle tightened as my bloody hands clenched into bloody fists. There, standing right before me, was all the evidence I needed that the Falcars had not died out. There, with his stare and his voice booming down at me was the Falcar of my nightmares, the Falcar I most wanted to kill.

Chapter 16

“Cindy,” I muttered under my breath, my eyes locking on the Falcar as his eyes locked on mine, “the cuffs.”

It seemed, though, that I was the only one who’d returned to my senses. Cindy and everyone else in the room was just staring at him and his friends in complete and utter shock, and the bar was absolutely quiet again. Both the succubus and the goblin hybrid tending the bar had completely disappeared. A couple vampires and the colossus I’d assumed to be some sort of cave troll had also silently slipped out via a side entrance. The rest of us weren’t so lucky.

The Falcars had positioned themselves casually but strategically; anyone who else who wanted to leave the room had to pass close enough to instigate conflict, an outcome no one in the bar seemed particularly eager to risk. Quite the contrary, they had all frozen in perfect unison, as if they’d been dosed with tranquilizers at the same time.

The Falcar only smiled.

“Cindy,” I said, a little louder this time, “the immortal handcuffs... Gimme the key.”

On the other side of the table, Cindy’s eyes shifted intermittently from green to red and even to hits of blue, ultimately settling on an uncertain shade of crimson. The demons at my side, however, shifted with sudden movement, turning to gawk at me as if I’d suddenly lost my mind.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, wolf?” murmured the one who’d sampled my blood. He actually cast an apologetic look at the Falcar, as if he was embarrassed that all of us weren’t playing our supposed roles. “You think she’s just gonna let you go?”

I ignored him, every muscle tightening as I braced myself for what was to come. “Cindy—”

Before I could even finish, a tiny silver key flew through the space between us, but even as the glint caught the corner of my eye, several things seemed to happen at once.

First, the key was swatted down by one of the Falcars. Then Cindy leapt backward, away from the table, and a set of serrated, demonic claws came streaking down upon me. I dodged them at the last second, dropping to the floor, but I left the chain that bound my hands stretched across what was left of the table. The claws came down right in the center with a deafening clang, unintentionally severing the silver and setting me free.

“Cindy!” I cried as I somersaulted away from the angry demons. “Run!”

The entire bar erupted, devoid of all sense, logic, or reason. It was complete and utter chaos and mayhem, as evil was privy to all the time. Vampires fought trolls. Trolls fought goblins. Goblins fought shifters. The succubus returned and began lobbing beer bottles from a sniper-like perch atop the counter. In the meantime, the Falcars splintered away, picking off creatures wherever they could, reveling in the dark, senseless bloodshed. In fact, only the Falcar standing before me seemed to have a specific target in mind, and as I slowly rose to my feet on the other side of the table, I realized our designs were one and the same.

We hadn’t broken eye contact since he’d first walked in. Part of me was worried that if I dared to look away, he wouldn’t be standing there when I turned back, that he would disappear into thin air and I would lose him again. I would also lose myself in the process.

“Logan, get out of there!” Cindy screamed, but she was immediately occupied with a dangerous-looking shifter. Her blonde hair whipped around as she spun into a low kick, barely missing the creature’s razor-sharp fangs.

Impossible as it was, it was the only thing that could have made me turn away. With the greatest effort in the world, I tore my eyes away from the Falcar, wanting to help my friend, but before I could take even two full steps, the Falcar flew suddenly forward, sending me crashing into to the bar on the far side of the room.

“Fuck!”

My eyes blinked slowly open and shut, stunned by the sheer force of the impact, before coming to rest in confusion upon the succubus. She was gazing down at me from her high perch, similarly startled by my sudden appearance. For a second, she raised a bottle out of sheer instinct, prepared to crash it down upon my face. She then cocked her head to the side and surveyed me with an almost sympathetic smile. “That guy’s really got it in for you,” she said, then made a little kissing sound and shook her head with regret. “Really is a shame.” Then, before I could say a word, she was back to throwing her lethal bottles. By now, she’d come up with the very clever notion of setting the ends of them on fire.

I rolled over with a painful crunch and pulled myself to my feet, my fingertips pushing off against a sea of broken glass. The entire bar was covered in it, and more was whizzing by with each passing second, picking up speed. I squinted and, through the deafening din of blood and mayhem, was able to pick out Cindy fighting against the far wall. Even from a distance, she was hard to miss.

Gone was the petite, blonde princess. Gone was the schmoozy French accent and the sweet, innocent smile. Cindy was in full-on gargoyle mode, and it was a terrifying thing to see. Her massive wings swept back and forth, elongating the faster they moved. Just one of them caught a trio of vampires in the chests and sent them crashing through the wall, while the other accidently whipped against the jukebox, firing up an ironic country music ballad to soundtrack the bloody little soiree.

She seemed to be doing well enough on her own, and for a moment, my automatic concern was pacified. That allowed me to focus on other things, to search for other deserving victims.

“I have to admit, I’m impressed.”

My head snapped up as a growl ripped through my chest. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.

The Falcar walked slowly toward me, as oblivious to the growing carnage as if he were taking a leisurely stroll through the park. The closer he got, the more my mind coiled in on itself, attacking me with memories I never knew I had. The pale tint of his skin, the harsh arc of his brow, the sinister curve of his lips when he pulled them up into a smile: I had forgotten all those things, lost them over time. Now, the reminders were right there before me, in living color.

With a ferocious roar, I launched myself in the air. As I flew toward him, my nails sharpened and elongated into claws. My muscles hardened, and my teeth sharpened as well, but I didn’t fully transform. Although it took an absurd amount of control to stop myself halfway, I simply couldn’t allow myself to go through with it. I wanted to be more aware, to bring the nasty creature down as a man.

Regardless, the sudden speed and strength of my attack caught him off guard. Though he lifted his hands to defend himself, the two of us went crashing backward. I came down hard upon his chest, but what happened next was a complete blur. It was quite like our first encounter back in the forest, when I was seventeen, only much, much bloodier.

My fists swung wildly through the air, smashing with all their might against every part of his face I could reach, striking without pause or deliberation. When he tried to push me off, I tightened my legs and opened my hands to rip at him with my claws. When he raised his fist to fight back, I sank my teeth deep into the side of his wrist, snarling with fury as I tasted his blood.

“Stupid fucking dog!” he wailed, then launched a powerful kick into my chest, stronger than anything I’d ever felt in my entire life, in spite of all my combat.

I flew into the air, my hair clouding around my face, only to land hard upon my back. A soft cracking noise came from one or more of my ribs, and for just a second, I just lay there, absolutely stunned, with the wind knocked out of me. How is that even possible? The question streaked wildly through my head as I struggled to catch my breath. How the fuck is he able to hit me that hard?

Before I could find an answer, two hands closed around the collar of my shirt, and I was lifted into the air. My boots dangled a foot or two off the ground as the Falcar sneered into my face, with a feral kind of fury darkening his eyes.

As certain as I was that I was about to die, I couldn’t help but feel a faint stab of pride. I wasn’t able to finish him off, but the Falcar would remember me; if nothing else, I could be sure of that. His face was a mess, a checkerboard of cuts and bruises that matched the exact dimension of my hands. A deep gash somewhere behind his ear sent a thick stream of blackish blood down his jawline, and one of the hands that was holding me so roughly in the air kept twitching involuntarily from my bite.

“You think this is funny, wolf?” the monster said with a snarl, glaring at my smile. “You think this will end well for you?”

A broken laugh rumbled up from deep inside me, quiet but cruel. “You had better get that bite taken care of,” I said, then flashed him an innocent smile, as my fangs slowly shrank to their original size. “You know what they say about werewolves.”

A shrieking growl tore through him, echoing off the ceiling and pulsing painfully behind my eyes. His fingers tightened upon my shirt, and I could see each of the tendons in his arm shift with sudden readiness, coiling and hardening for the final strike.

I kicked him in the gut and just as he went to punch me, I heard a familiar voice.

“You son-of-a-bitch!”

My eyes snapped open in complete and utter shock as the last person in the world I expected to see came streaking toward me through the air. Fred threw himself between me and my attacker, slamming the Falcar with enough force not only to release me but also to send the walking nightmare stumbling back into the broken remains of the bar.

I dropped to my feet with a gasp of surprise, hardly able to believe it. “Fred! What the...?”

“That’s right, you jackass,” he cursed, turning his back on me to face the oncoming Falcar instead. “Looks like you’re gonna have to save your suicide for another day.”

It was then I realized his “son-of-a-bitch” wasn’t meant for the Falcar after all but for me. “Fred, I—”

“Where’s Cindy?” he snapped, unable to take his eyes off the advancing enemy. “For your sake, Logan, she better be in perfect condition. If there’s so much as a scratch on her...”

My eyes spun hastily around the bar, resting for only a moment in the corner before returning back to him. “She’s fine, completely fine. I swear, but Fred, how did you—”

“Shut up,” he said with a growl, sinking down into a dangerous crouch. “Watch me rip this damn thing to pieces so you’ll see what you’re in for when we get back!”

It was rare that I got to see that side of him, especially not since we’d officially retired from our Falcars-hunting days and into the banal life of supernatural crime-fighting. In his own way, Fred was almost as terrifying as his girlfriend. Aside from wolves, vampires were the world’s most lethal predators, hunters in every way, evolved over thousands of years into perfect killing machines and refined with a deadly sort of grace. That said, Fred was not the average vampire.

Rather than waiting for the Falcar to reach him, he leapt into the air to close the distance between them, spinning with a speed that even my eyes had trouble following. The bottom of his shoe connected squarely with the Falcar’s chest, but rather than simply kicking him, Fred spun once more and came at him from the other side, striking the back of his neck with a devastating blow.

It would have been enough to destroy almost any other creature, but that one was a stubborn kill. No sooner did Fred land his blow than the Falcar whipped around himself to grab Fred by the throat and lift him into the air, just as he’d done with me.

A broken gasp cut through the rest of the clamor as the Falcar smiled, digging in his claws.

“How sweet,” he said, watching the steady drip of blood as it pooled on the floor. “Our little wolf has a friend.”

I dived forward without another thought: catching the Falcar around the waist and slamming him back into the bar. As Fred fell to the ground, coughing up blood, the two of us tangled, biting, kicking, punching, and clawing with everything we had.

The pain was excruciating, almost enough to make me stop or to black out right then and there, but each time my eyes threatened to dim, a different member of my pack floated through my mind. Those faces kept me going. Those familiar smiles gave strength to my fists.

“You fucking bastard,” I breathed out when the image of my father took its turn. I then seized the evil one by the neck and squeezed with everything I had left. “You have no idea what you’ve taken from me, no fucking idea!”

The man winced in pain, but even on the edge of his breath, he still managed to smile. “You talk about it like it’s already over. You could not be more wrong, little pup.”

My face tightened in confusion, pulling together as sweat and blood dripped down the sides of my neck. “What do you mean?”

He merely laughed again.

I gripped him with my other hand as well, crushing his windpipe beneath my fingers. “What does that—”

A flash of green light suddenly sent us all crashing to the floor. After another flash, the air was suddenly punctuated with dozens of screams. My eyes struggled to adjust as the room around me lit with neon fire, scorching everything and everyone in its path. At the center, Julie and Taylor were standing together, looking like they’d come from hell itself, as if they’d brought some of that hell with them.

“Logan...” Fred choked out.

My eyes flickered to where my friend was still collapsed on the floor. Clearly, the Falcar had done far more damage in those few seconds than I realized. Red rivers gushed freely from his neck, squeezing through his fingers no matter how tightly he clasped the wound. His already pale skin had lightened to an even more deathly hue, and though he was reaching desperately to where Cindy had now joined the other two in the center of the room, he seemed unable to get there himself.

I stared at him for a second more before whipping my head back around to where the Falcar had fallen beside me just moments earlier, but I was shocked to find that the animal was no longer there.

I lifted my head in wonder, darting my eyes around wildly. I finally spotted him, standing on the other side of the room. The columns of emerald fire shooting up the wall beside him danced wickedly in his eyes as he raised his hand with a parting smile.

“It means,” he said softly, knowing I could still hear him, “that there is far more to take.” With that, he vanished into the smoke and flames, into the darkest recesses of my mind, where I knew he would continue to haunt me till we met again.

“Logan...” Fred panted again, weaker this time.

My world snapped back into sharp focus, and I whirled around and flew over the scorched rubble of the bar to get to my friend. I lifted him carefully, pressing one of my hands down on his torn throat as well for good measure.

His eyes drifted in and out of focus as we dashed through the smoke, but they still managed to burn into mine with a silent promise as we made it back to the girls.

“I know,” I muttered, clamping a hand on Julie as the rest of the world vanished in a burst of magical green. “I know what it means, Fred. You’re gonna kill me too.”

Chapter 17

I had the dream again—or, perhaps more accurately, the dream had me. It was that same one I had when my pack was completely slaughtered.

I dreamt about the woman who saved me that horrible night.

Who was she?

In it, she leaned over me, so close that the curls at the ends of her hair brushed against my panting chest. The sounds of the battle raged on behind us, but we both knew by now that the war was lost. There was nothing left to do, no life left to save except one.

I struggled to keep my eyes open, struggled to think of any option, any choice I had, anything I could say or do. Who is this woman? I wondered. Who is she, and why did she bother saving my life, out of all the lives that were doomed?

I jerked awake, drenched in a cold sweat, my fingers clenching the sheets as if someone had tried to rip me from the bed while I slept. My head was pounding like it had been bashed against the bar one too many times, which was not an unlikely scenario.

“Where am I?” I asked. I glanced around. I was back at the mansion. I sighed in relief.

There was a muffled skirmish, followed by an ominous crashing noise.

“Don’t tell me to calm down!” Fred thundered, leaving what sounded like a trail of wreckage behind him as he made his way up the stairs. His voice sounded hoarse and scratchy, and it soon became evident why. “I wouldn’t have even needed these stitches if not for the two of you!” he said. “One of those fiends threw some kinda blue smoke bomb at me, and now I can’t heal. I hope it’s only a temporary effect.”

“Julie, Taylor, do something!” Cindy pleaded.

They tried to talk to Fred. Taylor and Julie knew Fred before he became a vampire back in Big Bear Lake. Hopefully, they could talk some sense into him. 

Before I could even get out of bed, my door flew off its hinges and landed in the corner by the window. In the shattered entrance stood Fred, framed by a million jagged splinters of wood, and in that instant, I realized I was wrong. Nope. No one can possibly be as pissed off as he is.

“Fred, please,” Taylor said. “Calm down that vampire inside of you.”

“Hey buddy,” I began, trying to take a preemptive strike, swinging my body gingerly to the floor as I held up a pacifying hand between us. “Fred, listen. I just—”

“You!” he shouted, cutting me off and letting me know I might as well save the little breath I had left, if he had anything to say about it. “Why the fuck would you do that to me?” he demanded, storming across the room until the two of us were standing eye to eye. “I told you! Out there in those damn woods, I told you it can’t be like it was before, not with Cindy and the others in the picture. You promised me, Logan! You fuckin’ promised!”

“I know, and I’m sorry.” I lowered my voice strategically, trying my best to calm the storm as well as I could. As justified as his anger was, I didn’t want him to keep injuring himself by yelling about it. “I didn’t ask Cindy to come along. Hell, I even tried to stop her, but you know how...stubborn she can be,” I said. “We had a lead, Fred, a solid lead, and—”

“I don’t care! I’m not willing to lose the love of my life over a lead!”

By now, Cindy was standing behind him in the doorway, her eyes fixed upon the wooden splinters covering the floor. She had shadowed up behind him unnoticed and was watching the two of us with a stricken expression marring her delicate face, full of hurt, inside and out. It was not always easy to tell when she was in gargoyle form, but sure enough, she hadn’t left the fight unscathed. A nasty-looking bruise was already turning purple above her left eye, and two or three of her fingers were curled in, boasting rather serious-looking burns. All in all, though, she was in far better shape than either of us.

“I would never ask you to risk Cindy’s life or anyone else’s, Fred,” I said, pulling myself up to my full height and stifling a wince as my cracked ribs screamed in protest. “You two have already done more than enough. Wherever the next step leads, I think it’s best I go alone.”

There was a momentary pause, followed by a literal hiss of rage. “Are you serious right now?” Fred’s eyes sparkled with a livid kind of incredulity. “I can’t even tell.”

I hesitated, thrown off my game. “Serious? Of course I am.” I darted my eyes from him to Cindy and back again, not quite clear on what I’d said wrong. “I didn’t mean to put Cindy in danger this time, and I won’t risk your girlfriend’s—”

“Don’t you get it, Logan? Could you be more clueless? This isn’t just about my girlfriend!” Fred interrupted hastily, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation and entirely ignoring the blood-spill that movement caused. “This is about you, too, you imbecile! Why is that so impossible for you to understand?”

I shook my head blankly, unable to take my eyes off the dangerous pallor of his skin. “Listen, Fred, I know you’re pissed, but all this yelling isn’t doing any good. Why don’t you just sit down a second? We’ll talk this out like—”

“You promised,” he said again, softer this time but somehow even more intense. “You promised you wouldn’t run off and get yourself killed.”

Wait. That’s it? That’s what he’s so upset about? Little ol’ me? I thought, incredulous. “I-I...” I stuttered in response, since I honestly had no idea what to say. I was sure my face had taken on the exact same look as Cindy’s, that stricken, helpless demeanor, as I stuttered, “I really wasn’t trying to... I mean, I knew that place was dangerous, but I didn’t think it would come to—”

“We were all tasked with hunting the Falcars down,” Fred interrupted again, glaring in a way that cut me to the core. “I knew the risk when I signed on, and so did she. Lord knows she can take care of herself. The only thing I asked of you was to be careful, not to go off like some lone wolf on a quest, putting yourself in unnecessary danger like a damn fool. I can’t believe you took Cindy with you!”

He knew as well as I did that his gargoyle friend did whatever she wanted, regardless of what anyone had to say about it, but I knew it was my fault that she went; she was only following me after all. My head bowed to my chest in shame, and a flood of blushing humiliation tinted my cheeks. I’d come to expect Fred to always be right, but it still seemed to catch me off guard every time.

“We will kill every last one off those Falcars, Logan. I promise you that.” He lowered his voice as the heat in the room chilled to a sort of understanding. “Still, nowhere in our mission statement does it say we’re supposed to go rogue and let ourselves get killed doing it.”

Cindy glanced up from behind him and flashed me a hint of a smile.

“You’re part of a team now, dumbass.” He rolled his eyes and wiped a drip of blood from his chin with the back of his hand. “Start acting like it.”

A tiny grin curled the corner of my lips. I dropped my gaze quickly to hide it, nodding at the floor. “Sure. You got it, Fred,” I said, unable to make eye contact with him.

Seemingly satisfied, he spun on his heel to leave the room, with Cindy in tow. He was almost to the door when he turned around for one last, resounding message: “Oh, and Logan...”

“Yeah?”

“I think I owe you this.”

Then, from out of nowhere, the punch came hard and fast, knocking me into the wall with an excruciating crash. I knew I deserved it, and I could say nothing in response anyway, since he knocked the wind right out of me. I just slid to the floor under Fred’s indifferent gaze.

“That, Mr. Lone Wolf, is for my girlfriend.”

“Yeah, I totally deserved that,” I said.

Chapter 18

About a half-hour later, I ventured downstairs to the mini-war room that had been set up in the library. As was my rather antisocial custom, I took up my position along the fringe of the group, silently observing the chaos that was going on around me.

“A weapon?” Taylor asked Cindy, towering over her like some kind of attorney doing a cross-examination. “A weapon that can supposedly wipe out every Falcar on the planet in one fell swoop?”

Cindy nodded, absentmindedly rubbing the back of her head. I got the feeling she had already recited that same story several hundred times and was growing weary of the inquisition. She flashed me a quick smile as I settled against the wall, but aside from that, we were fixed on the matter at hand.

“And he didn’t give any sort of indication as to what it is?” Julie asked, her eyes narrowing speculatively as she flew through a list of mental possibilities.

“No,” Cindy answered, sounding tired. “He only said that if anyone knows any details about it, it is probably the Shaolin monks the Council used to employ.”

“Used to employ?” I interjected with a frown. “What happened?”

Taylor and Julie shifted uncomfortably and said nothing.

Cindy, on the other hand, graciously took the lead. “Apparently, the monks believe the immortal world is too fractured right now, and they do not wish to take sides. They give priority to harmony above all things, and they believe the Council no longer represents or even encourages that.”

I was no fan of the Immortal Council myself, but even I had to dispute that. “Well, yeah,” I said, shaking my head in confusion, “there is a pretty clear divide though. With all that good versus evil, you’d think the monks, of all people, would understand the dichotomy.”

Fred chuckled beneath his breath.

“They aren’t concerned with the lines between good and evil, Logan,” Taylor said, with a roll of her eyes. “They’re only concerned with the lines between good and...ethically questionable.”

“So they think the Council has pulled some questionable stunts. I would have to agree,” I said.

My laughter was met with a stoic silence.

I shook my head, still smiling. “Wow. I knew I liked the sound of these guys...”

“Well, then you can express your appreciation in person,” Cindy interrupted quickly, stopping the argument before I even really began. “We will pay them a visit this afternoon.”

“Really?” My smile faded, but the surprise remained. “That quick? You guys don’t need to run the decision through, like, a committee or something?”

“No,” Julie murmured, shaking her head. “If we learned one thing last night, it’s that time is of the essence here.”

As if they had rehearsed some kind of script, Taylor was quick to take her cue and continued, “The last thing we need is for something as basic as this to get bogged down in the red tape of a committee. This time, the Council’s just going to have to trust our judgment.”

Cindy and Fred nodded silently, but I couldn’t swallow such a large moral victory without at least one or two smug jabs thrown into mix. “Well,” I said, my face tightening seriously, “I have to say that I’m very proud of both of you,” I remarked.

At that, the meeting dispersed without another word. Cindy and Fred vanished to the reassembled kitchen before the witches could see their grins, and Julie and Taylor hurried back upstairs to start packing.

* * *

NEEDLESS TO SAY, THE subsequent teleportation to China was a smooth one. Except I landed on Julie.

“Logan, can you, please, uh, get off me?” she asked.

I helped her up. “Silence, witch,” I said, staring up at the thousands of stone stairs that led to the monastery entrance. “If I were you, I’d be more concerned with exuding a sense of unity while in the shadow of the Shaolin.”

She opened her mouth to argue but cast a nervous look up at the temple in spite of herself. As much as she despised the notion, she knew I had a point. The structure looming above the mist was daunting, and if only half the rumors about the monks were true, we all needed to be on our very best behavior.

“Not to complain,” Fred murmured, following her gaze, “but couldn’t you have teleported us to the top? Some of us have lost quite a bit of blood, you know.”

“Sorry,” Julie said, flashing him a sympathetic grin as she tightened the strap of her backpack.

“Why not? Afraid you’d get us stuck in the stairs?” I couldn’t resist teasing.

“Very funny, wolf,” she said. “Weren’t you just talking about unity?”

“Yeah, but—”

While Cindy sneaked a laugh at my jesting, Julie simply waved a dismissive hand and cut me off by explaining, “Teleportation is technically demonic magic, and there’s none of that allowed on the temple grounds. You’ll just have to tough it out.”

“I don’t think we have any magic on the grounds,” Taylor said.

“Right,” I added. “Anyway, it’ll build character...and a nice, tight ass.”

“Speaking of asses,” she said, “please be on your best behavior and no crazy stunts.”

“Promise not to be a b...I mean, witch and I’ll promise no crazy stunts.”

“Now play nice, kiddies,” Fred said, clapping me on the back with a sunny smile. “We’ll build that character together.”

Chapter 19

Two hours later, we had yet to make it to the top. All the teasing, bitching, and complaining had long since come to an end. The afternoon sun had broken through the mist and was mercilessly beating down upon us, each of us in various stages of pain and decay.

Julie and Cindy were blessed with powerful magic but had no access to their powers here to help them with the climb.

In was in that state of mutinous delirium that we first heard the distant clanging of the monastery bells. A shared look rippled between us, and despite our collective exhaustion, we found ourselves hurrying forward, propelled up the remainder of the mount by a sudden urgency.

“That’s it,” Taylor murmured once we could finally see the top. “There they are.”

Sure enough, a small welcome party had been sent forth to greet us. To be fair, it was a rather embarrassing contrast. The monks, standing in a serene line and watching our labored progression, wore matching, beatific smiles. On the contrary, we were all sweating and panting like we’d just ascended the world’s tallest peak.

“Y-Yumen Xing?” Taylor panted out hopefully.

The monk in the middle bowed his head in acknowledgment, but it was the tall man standing beside him who immediately pointed to me. Behind him, the other monks erupted in a flurry of hushed conversations.

Fred leaned over to me and offered a casual aside: “Logan, please tell me you haven’t done anything to piss these monks off,” he muttered in a low undertone. “No fires, no cavorting with their daughters, no—”

“No,” I hissed defensively, staring warily back at the group of men, “and I don’t think they know how to do the deed to make daughters.”

“Shh!” Cindy scolded, staring at them with wide eyes.

The monks’ excitement over me was palpable, but not for one second did I understand any of it.

“Man, the closest I’ve been to China is that takeout in white containers,” I said, shooting Fred a look.

“Welcome, all of you,” Yumen Xing said with a smile. “I know you are tired from your journey. I offer you—”

His hospitality was abruptly stopped as the man who’d pointed at me before bent over hastily and whispered something in his ear. I heard every word perfectly, but they spoke in Mandarin, and all I could do was watch with wary eyes as Xing’s expression changed completely. Losing his cursory welcoming smile, he widened his eyes in utter amazement, and, for a moment, gawked at me like the others.

“Logan, what the hell is going on?” Cindy muttered through her teeth.

“Did you fuck one of their daughters or something?” Julie demanded.

I whirled around in exasperation. “For the last time, no! Why the hell does everyone just assume I—”

“Because dogs are always humping everything,” Taylor spat.

“We must consult with the wolf.”

The whole lot of us stopped speaking at once and turned to stare at the robed man in open-mouthed shock.

Finally, when I could tolerate the awkward silence no longer, I shifted nervously on my feet and asked, “Me, or are you talking about them?” I pointed at Julie and Taylor in a futile attempt to pass the buck. “They’re actually both part-wolf, if—”

“Logan. The last royal werewolf prince.”

They bowed before me.

“Oh, um,” I said. “Nobody does that.”

Taylor looked at me. “You’re a royal prince?”

I nodded. “It’s a long story.”

The fact that he spoke my name stopped me cold, and I turned to share a quick glance with the others before stiffening and turning back to the man. “How do you know who I am?”

He only smiled. “We know a great many things from all times, all walks of life, things of the past, present, and even future. Your story, my son, has only just begun.”

Leaving me to stew in the unsettling proclamation that sounded far too much like what that horrible Falcar had said, he turned to the rest of them.

“You will find everything you need inside, including food and water.” His eyes sparkled as he turned them back on me. “As for you reason for coming here, we will speak only to the prince wolf and no other. Is this arrangement acceptable to you?”

I wanted to tell the old coot it most certainly was not, as I had no desire to be the point man. I was not some diplomat, sent to bridge the gap between two diverging groups of people. Not only did I lack the social graces required for such a role, but I wasn’t exactly a people person of any sort. I knew if I went into that meeting alone, the monks would be sending us packing within minutes, if they didn’t decide to bury us in their peaceful rose gardens first. 

I turned incredulously to Fred, but before I could share my concerns, Taylor bowed her head and took on a grateful smile, more sheepish of an expression than I’d ever seen her wear before. “That would be wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Xing,” she said, with more grace than I thought possible for her.

My voice dropped to a startled whisper as everyone else began to nonchalantly disperse, as if they didn’t care that the fate of our mission and possibly our very lives was being left to the likes of me. “What?” I said. “Wait! No! I can’t...” I shot my hand out to grab Fred. “Where the hell do you think you’re going? Don’t you dare leave me with these guys. I’ve got no idea what they—”

“Relax,” he said, then took one cautious step back before leaving to join the others. “They’re monks, Logan. What’s the worst that could happen?”

“Never trust a man in a bathrobe,” I muttered.

“Well, it’s about time you start trusting somebody,” he said, then sauntered off.

Chapter 20

“How is the robe, my son?”

Holy as he presumed himself to be, I couldn’t help shooting him a bitter glare as I fidgeted uncomfortably in the billowy gown. It was made of brown burlap and had a belt that I tied. I left the hood down. The power struggle as to whether or not I would be forced to wear it turned out to be a complete failure on my part, and I was hyperaware in that drafty corridor that I had been separated from my pants. Never trust a man in a bathrobe...and never put a wolf in one, I silently seethed. “Makes me want to join a devout order just to own one of these for myself,” I lied sweetly, even though my very sensitive nose picked up the stench of mildewed burlap in the garment.

The man actually chuckled loudly as he waved the others away, then led me down the hallway to a room carved out of the stone. He shut the door firmly behind us before gesturing me to sit at one of the two chairs positioned in the center of the floor. The door was really just a slab of thick stone, and something about the whole arrangement gave me the eerie feeling of being closed in a tomb.

Shit. Is there anything about this place that isn’t as creepy as hell? I wondered, looking at the two chairs with no desk or table between them. All that loomed between us as we sat were a fuck-ton of questions, but I was too unnerved to ask them.

“You don’t know why we called you here,” he said, not a question at all. “You are not aware of why you were summoned by name.”

I tucked the floaty material firmly beneath my legs and sat up a little straighter. I appreciated that he was straightforward, because I didn’t have the balls to say anything without being prompted. “I don’t know why a lot of things have happened over the last few years,” I said seriously, leaning forward in my chair. “As to you... Well, I have no idea how you know me or what all that was about on the landing out there. The one thing I do know is that we haven’t the slightest bit of time to play games,” I said, with more surety than I thought possible in that moment. “You promised me answers, and I need you to tell me everything you know about this weapon, the one that can defeat the Falcars.”

The man stared at me, unblinking. The stare endured for so long that I was sure I had broken some ancient code and would be sentenced to be hurled from the top of their tower. Finally, though, after a few pregnant minutes of silence, his voice gave birth to a compliment. His wrinkled face broke into a smile as he uttered, “That fire, that strength... Yes, I can see why she likes you.”

She? She who? I wondered, raising my eyebrows slowly and wondering what the old man had been growing in his garden and smoking for far too long. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know who you’re—”

“Rest assured, my son, that we are as concerned with the urgency as you are. I will gladly share all I know about the weapon, but I fear you will not like what you hear.”

A chill ran up and down my spine, and I gritted my teeth in preparation. “Try me,” I said. “Tell me what this weapon is.”

He smiled again, showing me every one of his pearly teeth. “Well, first, the weapon isn’t a what.”

I blinked and looked at the rocky wall, as if I might find a better explanation there. “Okay,” I said, blinking again. “Go on.”

His eyes twinkled as he crossed the room to a shelf carved in the ancient wall and withdrew an old piece of parchment from it, such a relic that it looked like it might crumble to powder any minute. “The weapon, my son, is...a who.”

* * *

THREE HOURS LATER, I was released to the patio and the rest of my friends. I hoped to find them trapped in religious robes like I was, but they were all left in their normal garb. To make matters worse, they had apparently been fed and watered at some point, because they all looked sickeningly satisfied.

“And the prodigal son returns,” Fred joked, pushing up to his feet.

The others followed his lead, brushing crumbs of some exquisite-smelling bread off their clothes as they did so.

“Well? Did they tell you anything about the weapon? Do you have any leads?” Cindy impatiently inquired.

“You could say that.” I nodded at the floor before squinting back up at them. “Have you ever heard of Ankh witches?”

Chapter 21

After spending the last few months at Fred’s place and then in the mansion, I was beginning to feel afflicted by some sort of geographical whiplash. One night, we were in New York City, and the next afternoon, we were off to China. Now, our happy little band of oddball supernaturals and hybrids found ourselves in a quaint little town, smack dab in the middle of rural Pennsylvania. It was really more of a ghost-town tourist attraction than anything else, and, coincidentally it was also the last-known location of the last-known Ankh witches.

The mere mention of them at the monks’ temple had drummed up a massive reaction from the rest of the gang. Taylor’s and Julie’s mouths dropped open at exactly the same time, giving them an almost cartoonish look of surprise. Cindy’s eyes immediately went blank, the way they always did when she was mentally reviewing one of the ancient informational texts she was so obsessed with. Fred, on the other hand, was basically as confused as I was.

“Ankh witches?” he repeated. “What the hell is that?”

Cindy smacked him on the arm, while Taylor and Julie exchanged a pained expression. “Are you serious?” the gargoyle demanded. “You’re half-witch yourself, Fred. How is it that you know nothing of the Ankh bloodline?”

“Yeah, Fred,” I muttered, equally in the dark but eager to shift the blame.

“Gee, I don’t know,” he said in a joking manner. “Maybe because I’m not in it. Maybe because I haven’t been in the supernatural world all that long. Please just tell me.”

I turned to Cindy for an explanation, but it was Taylor who started talking. A strange look lit her face, a kind of awe I’d never seen before as she offered, “Ankh witches were an incredibly powerful bloodline.” Her eyes grew distant as she recalled the stories she’d been told. “They were the oldest of all witches, an ancient lineage.”

“They were known to be powerful necromancers,” Julie added, similarly excited by the mere prospect of the modern-day existence of any Ankh. “It was said that some of the elders could raise the dead.”

Fred and I exchanged a matching grin; it was precisely the kind of powerful magic we needed to take down the Falcars.

“Brilliant!” he said brightly. “In fact, I’m sure I can think of one or two people we’d like to yank outta the ground if they have a little spare time once they’re done with the Falcars.”

Cindy rolled her eyes but was too excited to even chide him. “It isn’t just the age of their lineage or their necromancy. They are said to have been the most powerful witches of all time. As a part-witch yourself, you should know that,” she scolded. “Do read a book once in a while, luv?”

At that, both Julie and Taylor seemed to lose steam. They were petal witches, incredibly powerful in their own right, but compared to the Ankh witches, they were just sideshows.

“Yeah, well, that’s up for debate,” Julie said with a chuckle.

“Plus, there’s just one little problem,” Taylor chimed in, with her hands on her hips. “They were a powerful bloodline, as in past-tense. There are no more Ankh witches, Logan, no matter what those stuffy old monks told you. They were wiped out by the Falcars years ago, specifically targeted for extinction.”

Fred shook his head blankly. “Why though? I’ve always taken the Falcars to be equal-opportunity haters, with no regard for good or evil. You saw them in Rakenhall last night. They even killed their own...and seemed to enjoy every minute of it, the sick fuckers.”

Cindy shook her head. “It was not about playing favorites. It was about self-preservation. The Falcars had to kill the Ankh witches.”

“Why?” I asked, completely intrigued but also doubtful.

“Because only Ankh witches can truly destroy Falcars. I should have realized that when we heard about this so-called weapon,” she said, shaking her head.

“That’s not true,” I disagreed fiercely. “We’ve killed tons of Falcars. Over the years, Fred and I have put at least twenty in the ground. Granted, they almost took us out in the process, but we destroyed them, and neither of us are Ankh.”

“You might have put them in the ground,” Taylor said seriously, “but I guarantee it was only a matter of time before they came back up.”

“Huh? Are you suggesting they’re some kind of zombies?”

“You can kill the vampire side of a Falcar with a stake to the heart, fire, or decapitation,” Cindy explained, unintentionally gesturing to Fred as she did so.

He stifled a shiver.

“The demon side, though, must be banished back to hell by a very certain kind of magic, the kind that only the Ankh witches have ever been able to achieve.”

“What!?” I spat, outraged that no one had ever bothered to fill me in on that little detail. We had staked and buried many Falcars, and now I had to wonder why we even bothered.

Fred was similarly upset, and he audibly echoed my thoughts. “Then what the hell were we doing all those years? If I’da known they’d just pop right back up again, we could have devised some sort of containment system or—”

“They don’t just pop up again,” Cindy assured him quickly, laying her hand on his arm. “It takes months for them to resurrect. You two can be...violent and brutal. I would venture to say some of your victims stayed down for at least a year, but that’s not our problem.”

“Right,” Fred murmured, still pouting just a bit. “The problem is that there are no Ankh witches left, right?”

“Right,” Taylor said, shaking her head and looking thoroughly depressed. “If there were, the Council would have brought them in years ago and protected them at all costs. The last two Ankh witches died about seventeen years ago. They were burned at the stake.”

“How...cliché,” I said.

“They were a couple,” Julie continued, “Eric and Marilyn Dash. They took out almost an entire army of Falcars before they died, but ultimately, they didn’t survive.” She and Taylor shared a depressed look. “I wish there was some miraculous Ankh weapon, because I want to take out the Falcars as much as the next witch, but there just aren’t any of them left. The Falcars saw to that long ago.”

The words of the monk echoed in my ear, and I pulled in a deep breath. “Actually, I think you’ll find that’s not entirely true.”

“What? Why? Did that monk tell you something you haven’t shared with us?”

I grinned and nodded.

“Spill it,” Fred said with a smile

“I was about to,” I said. “There were apparently twins, girls, daughters of the aforementioned heroes. They were smuggled away seventeen years ago, shortly after they were born, cloaked in protective spells until their own magic could come alive on the night of their 18th birthdays. That’s what Xing said anyway.”

“Whoa,” Fred muttered.

“He said there is a chance the girls aren’t even aware of their history, of who they are. They were handed off to a priest and folded into the Massachusetts adoption system so as to mask any trace of their rather extraordinary origins. False birth certificates were forged, new identifies created. As long as they remained under the guise of humanity, innocent in their ignorance, they remained safe.”

“And now?” Julie asked, sounding a bit suspicious of the tale.

“Well, according to Xing, their 18th birthdays are less than a week away. At the stroke of midnight, every Falcar in the western hemisphere will zero in on their newfound magic, like sharks to blood, and they will gather to eliminate the Ankh race and ensure their own survival once and for all. Of course the one thing Xing doesn’t know, coincidentally, is the most important thing.”

“And that is?” Taylor questioned.

“Where these twins are. It makes perfect sense, right? I mean, why the hell wouldn’t the Immortal Council have bothered to keep up with their whereabouts over the years? It’s not like it might turn out to be important,” I said with a roll of my eyes.

In the end of that conversation, we determined to go to the little Pennsylvania ghost town, the town where Eric and Marilyn Dash had made their final brave stand, the town where two immortal lives were lost, as another two were saved.

“Are you sure this is it?” I asked, feeling thoroughly unimpressed.

After all the hype I’d heard over the last twenty-four hours, I was expecting flashing lights and towering skyscrapers, or maybe some sort of ancient ruins, complete with magical carvings etched in stone. At the very least, I thought the general population would be walking around in pointed hats and capes, but it was really just some shitty little hole that didn’t even earn a red dot on the map.

“This is it,” Taylor murmured. “There’s an ancient magic in this place.”

Julie closed her eyes. “I’m having a vision.”

We all waited, and then she opened her eyes. “I know the direction.”

“Can we at least find a hospital or something, before you two start in with the candles and the chanting? I’m starving. The monks didn’t have any blood at the temple, and—” His whining broke off suddenly, shielding his eyes as he stared in Julie’s direction. “Uh...Julie?” he called. “Where do you think you’re... Hey! Julie!”

She ran out of the car and I started to follow her.

I heard the others running up behind me, heard the sound of their light footfalls and quick, shallow breathing, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop. A strange feeling had come over me, an impulse I couldn’t control. I had no idea what it was and I’d never felt anything like it before. All I knew was that when Julie’s eyes locked on a post at the edge of the woods, her feet had to follow. The next thing I knew, she was leaving the group behind, making a beeline for one specific spot.

We caught up with her right as she reached that strange destination, and we stared down together at it, each of us as shocked as the others by what we found.

“I-I don’t believe it,” Taylor breathed out in amazement. “This is it, Logan, this spot right here.” Her eyes grew wide as she took it all in. “This is where they died. I can feel it.”

It was a simple enough scene: a burned-out tree, with what looked like years and years of ash piled beneath it. The wind had already knocked most of it away, and the winter rain had taken care of most of the rest, but a close look revealed what used to be there. The burn patter on the post was quite telling and deliberate, a clear sign that someone had planned the fire. We could see the scorched chains, glinting dully in the soft ground, and when we listened, we could almost hear the screams of agony and grief.

“Shit,” Fred said softly. For once, even he was subdued. “This is just...terrible.” He stared a moment before his eyes flicked over to Julie. “I can’t believe you found this place.”

“It’s so sad,” Taylor said.

Ignoring the others, I knelt down on one knee and ran my hands slowly through the ash. I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for or what I’d find, but suddenly, my fingers skimmed something cold. Without even stopping to think, I pulled it up to the surface, then blew on it softly before holding it out in the open palm of my hand.

“What is it?” Cindy asked, crowding in to get a better look.

“It’s...a necklace,” I murmured, holding it up to the light to better examine it. Despite its size, the little pendant felt heavy in my hand. It was a symbol I’d never seen before, but somehow, I recognized all at the same time: a kind of cross with a looping teardrop at the top. Even scorched and worn by time and neglect, it shone with an inner radiance I couldn’t explain, tingling my skin and sending a cascade of warm shivers running down my spine. For a moment, all I could do was stare. Then, with that same sudden focus I couldn’t explain, Julie found herself on her feet once again. This time, she was angled for the town church, and walked directly inside before any of us could make heads or tails of it.

“Julie!” I heard Fred call again. “Did you get another vision? Where are you going?”

The five of us ran at full speed into a priest. There was practically a screeching halt as we froze in perfect unison, with Fred’s ill-timed profanity ringing guiltily in the air between us.

The priest only smiled. “In answer to your question, young man,” he said, his eyes sparkling as they rested on Fred’s apologetic face before traveling to mine, “your friend was headed into the house of our... Good Lord!” He stopped just as suddenly as we did, and the smile froze on his face. His wrinkled eyes widened and locked on the necklace I was still gripping tightly in my hand. “Where did you...?” He started to reach out but stopped himself. A flash of shock washed over his face, and he simply stared instead. “Where did you get that?”

My heart leapt in my chest as I broke out of my momentary trance and zeroed in on the old man with supernatural intensity. “You know what this is?” I held it out between us so he could get a better look. “You recognize this pendant?”

“Nobody is supposed to find it. Only the chosen one.”

“Chosen?”

“To help one of the twins, the one you’re destined to marry.”

“No, marriage isn’t my thing.”

“Maybe not now, but soon it will be. And you’ll save an entire race of immortals with your blessed union.”

“No, I’m not here for some predestined mate. I’m here for a weapon. And yes, I want to save the entire immortal race by killing the Falcars...but with a weapon, not a marriage. I’m talking about an ankh witch.”

He stared at the pendant.

“Please, Father. Do you recognize this necklace?”

“Do I recognize it!?” His eyes fastened on me before widening even more, totally eliminating his deep crows’ feet. The wrinkles around his mouth deepened, and his mouth fell open in surprise. “Young man, let’s take a walk.”

Chapter 22

For the second time in two days, my friends were to be left behind as I took the next steps of our journey by myself; and, for the second time in two days.

“It still doesn’t make any sense,” Fred added softly. He was forever on my side but just as confused as the rest of us. “How did you find that necklace?”

I chuckled. “Didn’t you hear him? I’m the chosen one.”

“You think it’s funny. But it could be true. How did you find it?”

I didn’t answer him because I couldn’t. I was just as baffled by the bizarre turn of events as they were. Xing didn’t even bother to tell me how he knew my name, nor did he explain why he and his robed colleagues seemed to be expecting me. Despite how far we’d traveled to get to that tiny Pennsylvania town, I had no what compelled me to stick my hand in those ashes. Yet there we were, and since time really was of the essence, none of us were exactly in a position to complain.

“What’s your name, son?” the priest asked quietly as we strolled side by side.

The others were left in a confused huddle at the entrance of the church while the two of us made our way outside to the garden. The scent of fresh pine and wildflowers hung heavily in the air, and for a moment, I almost forgot where I was, almost forgot the tragic turn of events that had brought me to that place. For just a blink of time, I almost felt like I was back in the forest, back at home.

Suddenly, I realized with a start that he had asked me a question, and I hastily cleared my throat to answer him. “Logan,” I said, glad he didn’t already know it, too, because that would have only creeped me out further. “My name is Logan.” Too many people had been calling me ‘son” lately, and I didn’t like it; it sounded too formal and too familiar all at the same time, almost condescending. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I didn’t like people treating me like some clueless little pup.

“Logan.” The old man smiled, a serene sort of grin that warmed his aged eyes. “Well, Logan, do you mind telling me how you came by this necklace?”

For a moment, I was tempted to lie, even though he was wearing a righteous collar. I didn’t exactly know the policy of pilfering magical artifacts from a secret execution site that everyone else thought was just a particularly run-down telephone pole, but ultimately, I decided the karmic ramifications of fibbing to a clergyman were likely something I didn’t want to deal with. All I could really do was play it cautious and dodge his question with one of my own: “So you’ve seen it before?”

He hesitated to answer and just kept walking.

“I know you recognize it. I can see it in your eyes, Father,” I pressed.

He paused another moment before flashing me that same, beaming smile. “Yes, Logan, I most certainly have seen it before.”

Now that he knew my name, he seemed to be overusing it, as if he’d been waiting forever to see who would come blustering into his church. To be honest, it freaked me out, reminding me of Xing in a weird déjà vu I didn’t exactly appreciate, couldn’t explain, and wanted nothing to do with.

“Where?” I asked carefully, trying to hold back my exaggerated curiosity. “I mean... Who was wearing it?”

The priest stopped in his tracks, so quickly that for a split second, I thought I’d said something to offend him. When he turned to me a moment later, though, he was smiling, but his eyes were peering into me, almost like an X-ray looking through me. “Logan, I believe you must be referring to Marilyn Dash.”

That stopped me cold in my tracks. The man was a mortal; I knew because I could smell it on him right from the moment we intruded on his holy ground. It wasn’t that odd that he knew Marilyn’s name, since she could have grown up there and even attended his parish, but I was sure he couldn’t possibly have known what she was. There’s no way in heaven or hell this priest had any idea he was that close to a witch!

“Uh...” I stalled for time, glancing back to where my friends were waiting and wishing like hell they were with me. “I don’t know. I mean, we never met.”

He laughed, a friendly sound that put me at ease in spite of myself. “No, of course you haven’t. You would have been only a few years old when she died, far too young to remember even such an extraordinary woman.”

So he knows she was extraordinary? I thought, amazed by how quickly it was all spinning off the rails. He obviously knew she had died, but I didn’t know if he knew how or why or if that fiery death happened just a stone’s throw away from his church.

“Come with me, child.” He took me suddenly by the arm and led me down a path through the bushes, one that led further out to the woods. “There is something I want you to see.”

With more than a little hesitation, I followed the old man to the forest, so far off the beaten path that if anyone came looking, they couldn’t possibly find us. Finally, just when I began to grow nervous that we’d left all semblance of civilization behind, he came to another sudden stop, and we both gazed out over a breathtaking vista.

“This was her favorite spot,” he murmured, his voice crackling with both sadness and age. “When she was a little girl, she played here, and as she grew up, she came out here to think. Why, she used sneak off in the middle of my Sunday school lectures.” He chuckled briefly before gazing once more at the necklace still clutched tightly in my hand.

“Heh,” I offered, a half-hearted laugh at the thought of a witch sitting in Sunday school.

“That was why I came here when she gave me the girls. We waited here till the danger passed, just as she said we should. I had to hide those little angels here till it was safe to go back inside, till those foul beasts left my church alone.”

My eyes dilated with abnormal focus, and I realized I’d stopped breathing. All my weight was centered in the tips of my toes, causing me to lean forward to hear every syllable of the rest of his tale.

“She told me you’d come.” The tears left his eyes and flowed freely down his face as the old man clenched a fist and held it over his heart. “She said a man would come one day,” he said, finally resting his gaze on mine, “a man who would love her daughter enough to save the whole world.”

I froze, a tear dripped down his face, time passed, and we both stared over the vista.

Finally, when all of that had gone on as long as it could, I shot him a look from the corner of my eye. “You got all that from a necklace?” I asked doubtfully.

“All that and then some, Logan,” he said with a wink.

Chapter 23

A man who will love her daughter enough to save the whole world? Who the hell says that to someone they don’t even know? What kind of boundary-less, necklace-loving, churchgoing manic thinks, Hey, I know what’ll really fuck with his head. I’m gonna tell him that and see what happens.

“Logan?”

And what the hell is that supposed to mean anyway? What’s loving some witch have to do with saving the whole damn world? Maybe that old priest has been dipping into Xing’s stash of God knows what, or maybe somebody spiked his holy water. Anyway, no pressure, right? Just fall in love and save the whole world. Second, the woman had twins, so unless I’m in store for some delightful sister shit, I’m pretty sure something got lost in translation over the last seventeen years. And third, who the hell’s to say I’m even that guy?

Okay, so I walked over to the post where the witches were burned like I had magnets stuck to the bottom of my shoes. That doesn’t prove a thing. I probably smelled something, with my wolf instincts and all. Naturally, I’d have to investigate that. Fred acts the same way around blood banks and hospitals all the time, and no one ever accused him of being destined to fall in love with a bag of A-positive!

Sure, I picked up that necklace after digging around in the ash, I thought. Who cares? Something shiny caught my eye. I’m basically a millennial, you know! We do that sort of thing. We lack attention spans by design, and we gravitate toward anything that sparkles. Everyone knows this, and I’m not going to let some outdated, interfering old priest tell me different. As a matter of fact—

“Logan!”

A wadded-up burger wrapper hit me in the face, and I blinked back to the present. Fred was watching me with that look of tired impatience, the one he always had when he was bored and I was too caught up in something else to be paying attention.

“What?” I asked defensively, peeling a stray French fry from my face. Shit. How long did I space out anyway? Wasn’t everyone eating just a second ago?

He gestured to the wasteland of empty fast food containers between us, now donning a rather self-righteous expression. A second later, his eyes tightened like those of a martyr as he shot a glare at the locked door the three girls had disappeared behind. “See what she does to me?” he asked.

I could only give him a blank look.

“Cindy, stupid,” he responded, then picked up an empty soda can with the tips of his fingers and crushed it in his hands. “She knows how much I miss this greasy, salty shit, yet she insists on gobbling it up right in front of me. They all do.” He threw the can at me as well, just for good measure. “What the fuck? I’d never do that to them.”

It took me a second to redirect my line of thought. “You’re talking about fast food right now? Sorry, Fred. I guess we’ve all got our problems today.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” he said, sulking and slumping in his chair as he petulantly bit the corner off a blood bag and took a gulp of its bright red contents. “You have no idea what it’s like, being a complete slave to the whims of someone else.”

I had a vague flashback of him dragging me across state lines to see Alien Versus Predator for the third time, but I decided to let that go. I seriously wished at that time that I would choke on my popcorn, but I had no such luck. “You’re right,” I agreed, staring down at my hands, “I’ve got absolutely no idea.”

He shook his head sagely at the window, not buying my automatic acceptance for even an instant. “I’m serious, Logan. You’re so lucky you’ve never been in love. It fucking sucks.”

My head snapped up, and I stared at him in alarm. In love? Am I being that obvious? Did I accidentally say something out loud? What the fuck is going on around here anyway?

Fred was lost in his own world, though, practically drowning in self-pity as he stared at a withered fry, wearing a look of nostalgia.

Without thinking, I snatched up the deep-fried potato and popped it in my mouth.

“Are you serious right now?” he asked in disgust. “Your hands were in ashes.”

Quickly, I wiped my hands on my shirt. “I washed my hands in the bathroom.”

Whatever his rebuke was going to be, I was spared from it when the three girls came bursting back into the room, with looks of supreme triumph on their faces.

“Well, I did it!” Julie announced with excitement. “Just got off the phone, and it’s done.”

“What’d you do?” Fred asked glumly, still playing with an empty wrapper and sniffing it, as if to torture himself further. “Make someone else feel like shit about his life?”

“Aw, Jules,” I said seriously, “you’re gonna love rehab. Way to make the call.”

She froze where she stood, wilting a little as we stole the wind right out of her sails.

“We found the girls, both of them,” Taylor said.

That got our attention immediately. Fred and I both sat up in our chairs, gazing between the witches with sudden interest as the next phase of our plan began to slowly take shape.

“How?” I asked incredulously. “If the monks couldn’t track the down through their—”

“Through what? Their magical monk connection?” Julie snapped, still smarting from my joke. “They might be as wise as they come in Shaolin, but they don’t know shit about the Massachusetts adoption system...or Google.” She shot Cindy and Taylor a gleeful look. “Fortunately, thanks to a handy little spell and a tiny little intervention from the internet—”

“And an even handier Southern accent,” Cindy drawled with a smile.

“Well, thanks to all that, we scored addresses on both girls,” Taylor finished triumphantly.

A sudden tingling sensation started in the base of my skull and radiated down to my fingers as Fred leapt to his feet to offer the girls his congratulations. I wanted to join him; I really did. It was a job well done, and they certainly deserved it, but the longer I sat there, the more my mind could focus on only one question: Does that mean I’m destined to fall in love with one of them?

“Logan?”

For the second time in less than five minutes, I looked up again to see all eyes in the room on me. I had obviously been asked another question, and I quickly leapt to my feet as well, in an effort to make up for any lost conversation I might have missed. “Great job, guys...er, gals,” I said hastily. “Really impressive. I mean it.”

The two witches shared a quick glance.

Cindy tried to stifle a smile. “Uh, thanks for that. We were sorta saying something else, but it’s good to know you’re still with us, little doggie.” She tossed back her blonde curls and shared a little grin. “Honestly, what the hell’s going on with you? You’ve been acting strangely ever since we got back from that little town.”

Fred’s face grew suddenly pale as he tried to interject. “Uh...guys...”

“Seriously!” Taylor snorted, looking lighthearted as she joined in on the fun. “You find some magical necklace, then don’t say more than ten words to us on the entire drive home. What the hell happened to you out there in the woods?”

“Guys, seriously, I think we—”

“Don’t give Logan a hard time,” Julie leapt in with a sly sparkle in her eyes. “So he fell in love with the priest. What’s the problem? The two of them can always text, exchange letters—”

“Guys!”

The four of us turned to Fred with a start. It wasn’t often that he got upset, but he certainly sounded that way all of the sudden. Sure enough, there was a darkness to his usually sunny face, and it looked completely out of place, a tension that raised the hair on the back of my neck.

“I think we’ve got a little problem,” Fred said as his hooded eyes met mine, creased with a worry I was only beginning to understand. “You said there are two girls, right? And only five of us?”

“Right,” I said, and just as it occurred to me, a sudden chill descended upon the room. I didn’t know how we could have been so stupid. At the most, we were an army of seven. The Falcars, on the other hand, would come after the Ankh girls with an entire cruel army, ready to wield every bit of strength and magic they had, with the aim of annihilation. Even worse, as far as we knew, the young Ankh twins were clueless that they were even in danger, if they even knew they were witches at all. There was only one weapon almighty enough to destroy the vile race, and that weapon had no idea that a war was coming. Gee, thanks, Fate. How nice of you to have our backs! I silently raged.

The Falcars were murderous monsters, the most despicable, depraved criminals on the planet. They killed my entire pack, shredded them to pieces simply because we operated on a hierarchy of royalty, even though my pack hadn’t ruled for centuries. We were just innocently living out our lives until those Falcars stormed in. For that reason, I was desperate for payback, and all Fate could give me was a couple of naïve, orphaned witches, girls who didn’t even know about their powers or how to use them. Why not give me some ancient, glorious artifact? A magic Egyptian stake or staff that would turn the Falcars into sawdust? Why does it have to be teenage girls? I seethed, but then something else dawned on me: Teenage girls are pretty darn annoying. Maybe they are the best weapon after all, especially if they’re the chosen ones. We’ll just have to deprive them of Midol and Justin Bieber videos, and they’ll be ready to take out a whole Falcar army in no time.

In reality, though, even if the two of them lived close, about an hour away, we still couldn’t afford to split up our very limited resources. We couldn’t possibly stand half a chance of rescuing either one of them if we did that. Getting even one of them out alive would require all of us, and even then, it wouldn’t be enough. 

Cindy shook her head, looking suddenly sick. “Can’t we... Surely the Council can dedicate more people to the effort. Can’t we just call them and request reinforcements, now that we’ve located the Ankh witches?”

Taylor seemed to agree and just shook her head, looking as downcast as I’d ever seen her. She stared despondently down at the addresses still scribbled victoriously on her hand. “I mean, I’m glad we know where they are, but now that I’m looking at this, it’s clear they live on opposite ends of the state. There’s no way we’ll get to both of them in time. They turn eighteen in less than two days. We need to call this in and get some immortal backup ASAP. Let’s call all the other Falcar task teams and get them on board.”

“They’re all checking out leads around the United States. There is one team that is a state away that could probably make it if we told them now. But I can’t guarantee it,” Fred said in desperation. “Can we call the girls?”

“And what are we supposed to say, Fred?” Taylor said, shaking her head.

“Anything we can think of to get them out of town,” he answered with a shrug.

“Like what?” Looking every bit as defeated as her best friend, Julie sank onto the couch. A second later, her frustration took the form of anger on her face, and she looked as if she was ready to light the entire place on fire. “They think they’re human, for goodness sake. They don’t even know magic exists, let alone that an army of demonic monsters is headed there right now to kill them. What can we possibly say to convince them to leave? They’ll have us reported to the local authorities for stalking or making prank calls.”

Fred’s face fell, and he sank down beside her. “You’re right. Why doesn’t Julie go teleport one sister and Taylor the other?”

“Because the Council said not to touch them. Only to observe. We have to wait for orders.”

“They can’t sit on this. Two lives are on the line! I say we make a judgment call and just snatch them up.”

“Not without official orders,” Cindy said.

“We’ve broken the rules before. Like when we acted on a lead and didn’t inform them what was going on.”

“This is way more serious!”

“You’re right! Way more serious. Because two innocent lives are on the line.”

“Maybe the Falcars won’t find them. It was hard for us to dig up these addresses, and we had to use every human idiosyncrasy in the book. Maybe they—”

“The fate of their entire species is at stake, and the Council wants to sit on this. No way.”

Cindy shook her head, looking as sad as I’ve ever seen her.

Julie ran her fingers through her hair, and sure enough, the tips had started smoking. “Then what options do we have?” she asked. “It’s our only chance to stop them. For all we know, the fate of our entire species could be at stake! If we split up, nobody will win. We need to pick one girl and save her. We’ll send the other task force closest to us over to the other sister. We need those girls to take down the Falcars, so what the hell are we supposed to do?”

I sucked in a deep breath, then reached into my pocket with a sigh. The quarter I pulled out clattered onto the table between us, echoing on each of our faces with an identical look of grief. “Heads or tails, folks? We have to pick one and go after her. Heads for Sophia, and tails for Eve.”

“And what about the other?”

“We’ll cross our fingers for her, I guess. Let’s hope the other team gets there fast.”

Chapter 24

I doubt more than five words had been spoken between the lot of us as we piled into the car and headed south. Our destination was a little town called Hallowood Heights, so small it was even less of a dot on the map than the ghost town in Pennsylvania. With that simple coin toss, it was decided that Sophia would get our help and her sister would be left on her own, likely to die before she ever saw her next birthday, all based on the decision of strangers, via a coin toss she didn’t even see, made by two men she’d never even know. I’d never felt more sick about anything in my entire life, and I wasn’t alone in that thinking.

The girls were so uneasy about it that they couldn’t even remain in the room. All three of them left even before heads came up on the table, with Taylor muttering a hoarse, “We’ll be in the car,” over her shoulder as they disappeared.

Fred stayed with me, just so I wouldn’t have to do it alone. “Just do it, Logan,” he said softly, keeping his eyes trained on the wall. “I can’t take the suspense.”

I hurled it into the air, feeling as though I might never forgive myself the second it came back down, yet while that quarter was flipping through the air, spinning from George Washington to an eagle and back to the founding father again, I couldn’t help but think about the old priest’s words. They echoed through my head with every slow-motion rotation, quickening my heartbeat and stealing my breath. Am I really destined to fall in love with one of these women? Is that even possible? And if I am, am I about to condemn my destined love to death? At the very least, my pocket change will be responsible for her sister’s death. How am I supposed to live with that? Damn all this fate and destiny, magic and immortal bullshit! Why can’t we just be normal?

After what felt like an eternity, it came down hard on my hand, seemingly much heavier than any average quarter, as if the coin itself knew the weight it carried for the fate of a young girl. I flipped it over onto the top of my other hand, moving robotically with nothing more than muscle memory.

“Well? What is it?” Fred asked in a hush, still unable to look for himself.  “Or I guess... Who is it?”

I glanced down but only for a split second. In that tiny speck of time, fate was already sealed for two girls I didn’t even know. “It’s heads,” I said, “Sophia.”

Fred glanced up at me as I haphazardly let the fortune-telling quarter to the floor; I refused to ever touch it again, and it would not be going with us for the remainder of our travels. “Heads,” he repeated.

Sophia, Sophia, Sophia... I thought again and again, and the chant continued in my mind for the duration of our ten-hour road trip. I simply couldn’t get her name out of my head, no matter how hard I tried. It was as if it had somehow burned into my brain, made a permanent home for itself in my thoughts, without my consent or permission. Would it have been the same with Eve? I couldn’t help but wonder as we pulled into the miniscule little town. Would I be thinking her name right now if that coin toss had gone differently, or would my mind still be on Sophia? How can I even know, without knowing either of the sisters?

The last thing I wanted to do was stare through the window at the face of some girl whose family I’d just murdered with a piece of change. I didn’t think I’d ever touch a quarter again, but luckily, things turned in my favor. The Council contacted Julie and informed her that they would send a team to help Eve after all. I felt a little better when I heard that, and we could finally focus all our attention on the lucky witch who had George Washington to thank.

No, I shouldn’t think that way. The other task team had been called in and was in route to the other sister, Eve. They had double the team members we did. Another task team from two states away was also flying over to Eve. Eve had a good shot of surviving if they reached her in time. 

“This is it,” Taylor said, speaking for the first time since we left the house, gesturing to the main road. “Hallowood Heights. We made it.”

It seemed we got there just in time, too, at a momentous moment, because the sisters would turn eighteen at the very stroke of midnight.

“Julie and I will set up a perimeter around her house,” Taylor said, glancing down at the map, then gesturing in the general direction of where the home might be. “You three go check us into the motel, the only one in town. When you’re finished, Cindy should stay put to keep an eye on things. Logan and Fred, you two need to do a constant perimeter sweep of the town. Stay out of sight and keep to the shadows. We need to know what we’ll be up against, but we don’t want them to know we know. We need the element of surprise on our side.”

I nodded mutely, as did Fred. Truth be told, I wished they would’ve asked me to stake out the house with Julie and her, because I didn’t want to be that close to Sophia, the complete stranger whose name was flying through my head like it had wings, the girl some priest had practically already betrothed me to, before I even met her. I was never getting married or settling down. That was just not my style.

“Yeah, that sounds good.” Fred nodded again and got out of the car, then silently circled around to climb in the driver seat when Taylor got out. “We need to keep in touch. Call us if you run into any trouble.”

She nodded. “Likewise.”

Then, in a most surprisingly twist of events, she took a deep breath and pulled open the back door of the car. I stared at her from inside, wondering what the hell was going through her head as she suddenly ducked in and did the last thing in the world I would have ever expected Taylor to do. She actually hugged me.

My entire body stiffened as I was suddenly lost in a cloud of her dark hair. I didn’t move, didn’t even take a breath. I just stared at Fred, who appeared to be just as shocked as I was at her odd behavior.

“Thank you,” Taylor murmured when she finally pulled away, looking uncharacteristically off balance.

“Uh...for what?”

“For doing what you did, for making the tough call.” She exchanged a quick look with Julie, who hung her head in agreement. “I couldn’t have done it myself, but it had to be done.” She pulled in another shaking breath, then tossed her hair quickly over her shoulder.

As if things weren’t odd enough, the second Taylor finished her display of gratitude and emotion, Julie stepped forward. She didn’t hug me, and I was sure something might have exploded inside her if she had even tried, but she did nod stiffly and say, “She’s right, Logan. Thanks.” 

I shook my head, trying to be as casual and dismissive as I could. “Eve has lots of immortals going to help her. I think she’s going to be just fine.”

“That makes me feel a whole lot better.”

“So our main focus is Sophia.”

“Right. And that poor girl has no idea what’s happening.”

“She’s going to be in for a big shock.”

“Just like me and Taylor. We’d been raised as normal humans. It was a huge shock for us to learn that we were witches and being hunted. So I know what she’s going through firsthand.”

“How did you handle it?”

“One day at a time,” Julie said.

“When you learn you’re part of something bigger, you’re blown away,” Taylor chimed in. “Your life isn’t normal anymore.”

“I was born into the supernatural community so it was never a shocker for me. It’s just always who I’ve been.”

“I envy that,” Julie said. “I wished I would’ve known about my heritage.”

“But they tried to sacrifice you and Taylor.”

“Maybe we would’ve been ready or more prepared.”

“They would’ve brainwashed you. Fed you all that bullshit about how you were the chosen ones to be sacrificed. I think you not knowing saved your life. It made you fight harder. The other brainwashed ones went like lambs to the slaughter, brainwashed from birth.”

“You’re right. But we stopped the ceremony. Couldn’t have done it without Tabby. And we’re friends with the witches now.”

“So it’s all water under the bridge?”

“Something like that.”

“Do you ever want a normal life again?” I asked.

“Hmmm. Well, I think normal is overrated.”

We all chuckled. 

“It feels good to laugh, if even for a moment,” I said. “I’ve been under so much stress.”

Julie met my gaze and flashed me a warm smile. “Hey, just look at it this way. We’re saving a life, and that feels wonderful.”

I had to agree, and for the first time in ten hours, I felt like I was coming up to breathe for the first time.

It was awkwardly quiet, until Fred called over his shoulder, “Hey, are you guys gonna make out or something? If not, can we please get on with this?”

Julie rolled her eyes and hit the top of the cab to send us on our way. “I’m not into bestiality anyway!” she hollered, even though she had a few canine tendencies herself.

I laughed. Maybe Julie wasn’t so bad after all.

A half-hour later, we were checked into the motel, and the real waiting game began.

While Cindy hovered anxiously by the window of the motel room with her cellphone at the ready, practically glued to her hand, Fred and I prowled about the darkened streets. We kept to the shadows, like Taylor said.

“Damn. There must be at least twenty of them here already,” Fred said in a whisper, pulling up his collar like the proverbial vampire, then dropping his gaze to avoid the attention of a passing pedestrian.

The streets had long since gone dark, and the air was filled with a chilly October mist. That, however, had served as more of an invitation to the creatures of the night, and it had done absolutely nothing to dissuade the sudden influx of real, live monsters that had descended upon the little town, the kind that didn’t need costumes or fake fangs.

In all fairness, I doubted the good people of Hallowood Heights had any idea they were there, because they stuck to the edges of town, just like we did, cloaking themselves in darkness, camouflaged in shadows. In fact, if it wasn’t for our extensive experience and training, we might have been outed ourselves in just a matter of minutes. As it stood, we took up position beneath a tree in the middle of a deserted courtyard. From there, we had a great view of the main street, but we were far enough away that we wouldn’t be noticed.

I nudged him discreetly as another trio of what looked like Falcars stalked past us into the dark, so frenzied by the excitement of the hunt that they didn’t realize that they, themselves, had become the prey. “Make that twenty-three.”

“This is crazy.” He shook his head while whipping out his phone. “It’s way too dangerous for this girl to stay out in the open. We need to pull her out now.”

I was about to vehemently agree, but just as he lifted his finger to speed-dial the others, the gadget exploded in his hand with an incriminating ringtone. “Really?” I asked sarcastically, raising my eyebrows as he quickly pressed the mute button. “’In a New York Minute’? Tell me you’re not getting sentimental on me, Fred. That Cindy’s turning you into a big pile of goo.”

“I know,” he said with a growl, coming to his own defense. “She’s always reprogramming the damn thing. She thinks it’s hilarious. At least it’s in English, rather than that French pop shit she had on there before.” He clicked the line open and held it to his ear. “Hello?”

I was still grinning, in one hundred percent agreement with Cindy about the hilarity of a grown man having such a ringtone, but my smile faded when I saw the look on his face. Like one of those characters in a flipbook, his expression instantly transformed, switching between a myriad of emotions in less than a second. First came surprise, then confusion, then fear, and finally, anger.

“Well what the fuck are the rest of us supposed to do?” he hissed, cupping his other hand over the receiver so the sound wouldn’t carry. “Eve has two task teams helping her. We only have one, and now we’re down a man, er woman....” He trailed off, and from the look on his face and the high-pitched voice screeching through the other end, it sounded like he was getting an earful. I shot him an impatient look, but he simply ground his teeth together and rolled his eyes. In the end, he simply said, “Well, I guess we’ll just have to make do then, won’t we?” With that, he hung up before the voice had a chance to reply.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded, my eyes darting around nervously for people.

“Taylor’s gone,” he answered shortly. “Eve was about to be kidnapped and no teams have gotten there yet, so she had Julie teleport her there on the spot. They found her and Taylor has her. Julie came back, but that’s one less for our damn team, like we can afford to lose anyone.”

Utterly exasperated, I threw up my hands and looked away. “So what the hell are we supposed to do?” I asked.

“At least one sister is safe. Now it’s up to us to save the other one. I swear to you we’re going to save Sophia. Nothing is going to happen to her.” He thought about it for a moment before abruptly making up his mind. “We’ve gotta split up. You stay here and watch the town, and I’ll go meet Julie at the girl’s house. If the Falcars are anything like me, they won’t be able to get inside without an invitation, but that will make her all the easier to protect until morning.” He paused, planning on the fly and clearly basing those plans upon the fact that neither one of us would be getting any sleep. “It’s a weekday, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding.

“Okay. Well, in the morning, you head over to her school. There’s only the one in town, so she shouldn’t be hard to spot. Stay in the shadows and watch her until the bell rings, and then Cindy and I will take over.”

I nodded in approval while simultaneously coming up with the obvious question. “That’s all fine and dandy, Fred, but why don’t we just take her right now? Why should we risk going out in the open? You might not be able to get into her house, but wolves and gargoyles don’t have to RSVP. Why don’t we just snatch the little witch from her beauty sleep and take her someplace safe?”

“And where would that place be?” he answered.

“I don’t know, but—”

“Look, Logan, I get your point, but I’ve also got direct orders to just watch her. I have to do what I’m told. The Council doesn’t want us to flee with her just yet, and I’m sure they have their reasons. For one thing, it’s probably dangerous. We planned to escort her to the closest immortal sanctuary, but from what Julie just told me, they’re all at risk of Falcar attack. The best we could do would be some random hotel somewhere, unprotected and vulnerable. We’d have to find some isolated place, and if we did and the Falcars found out, it’d be simple for them to pick us off there.” He shook his head firmly. “Right now, she’s in a town full of mortal witnesses. Even if the Falcars do need her dead, they don’t wanna risk exposure any more than we do. She’s safest here,” he said, shaking his head, “at least for now.”

Once again, Fred was right, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. “Fine. Whatever. You have fun camping outside her house tonight. Meanwhile, I’m gonna go ingratiate myself with this town.”

He chuckled darkly and started to walk away. It wasn’t until he was halfway down the road that he spun back around, with a caustic grin stretching from ear to ear. “Logan, school starts at eight. Don’t be tardy!”

Chapter 25

Demons and darkness closed in from every side, with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance, and I was headed to someone’s homeroom. Something about it seemed so silly, but then again, little about my very atypical life made much sense at all most of the time. 

I gritted my teeth and tried to appear as normal as possible as I lingered on the front steps of the school. I had spent the entire night prowling about the town, and I even took out two Falcars when we literally almost ran into each other outside a convenience store. They had to be silenced, so I made quick work of that, then quietly buried them by the pond, knowing full well that it would be a temporary resting place at best. There was something highly frustrating in knowing that every enemy we defeated was going to resurface sooner or later, so I tried to guarantee later by unleashing as much fury on them as I could.

Now, I was tired, cold, and hungry, and the last place I wanted to be was standing in the middle of a high school campus. When I saw her, though, I suddenly found my resolve.

Sophia was angled with her back to me, standing under a huge display of red balloons in celebration of her birthday. The high-flying, bouncing, helium-filled globes and shiny Mylar ones may as well have been a giant bull’s-eye, a dinner bell for onlooking Falcars, but I knew she didn’t know that. She was intently listening to a very talkative friend, so she didn’t see me standing just a few feet behind her. Surprisingly, there was enough of a crowd to hide me, even in that small town. In fact, it wasn’t until she turned slightly, laughing as she tossed back her hair, that I was able to put a face to the name.

Sophia? Yes, there you are.

She was absolutely gorgeous and took my breath away with her long, dark hair and pretty eyes. I was instantly mesmerized by the beauty before me. Sadly, she had no idea who she was or how important she was to everyone on the planet. There really was only one truth: Sophia would end the Falcar bloodline once and for all. That was the truth, and we were eventually going to have to break the news to the pretty, laughing angel unaware. That broke my heart as I gazed at her smile, like glowing sunshine, instantly warming and brightening up my day. I could have sworn there were actual stars in her eyes beneath those perfectly arched, slim brows. I had never been one for the whole arranged-marriage thing, and I frankly expected her to be somewhat of a dog, but now I felt like one for ever thinking such a horrible thing about such an amazingly spectacular being.

I knew it was stupid even as I did it, because I was supposed to simply observe, to keep watch like some sort of undercover Secret Service, to lurk in the shadows, seeing without being seen. Before I even knew what was happening, I was walking toward her, circling around to the side so she wouldn’t see me until it was too late.

“Ouch.”

My lips curved up into an automatic smile as I turned around to face her. She was still rubbing the spot on her shoulder where we had collided, tilting her face up with a glare until her eyes came to a sudden rest upon mine.

I knew I would never be able to fully explain what happened in that moment. As cheesy as it sounded, it was as if the entire world just fell away, just melted and left us behind. The other students and teachers who were milling around, the nasty creatures that inhabited the shadowy alleys and corners, and the problems bearing down on us didn’t seem to matter anymore. None of that seemed to exist. It was just her, just me, and not even the balloons could pull my attention off that glorious face. The fact that we were standing together in that random little town, looking at each other for the first time, was a miracle all its own.

Something about my expression must have offended her, because she blinked several times very quickly before jutting up her chin and wearing a rather defiant expression. A slow smile stretched across her lips. “Watch where you’re going, why don’t you?” she said in a playful voice.

I had never seen or heard anything more adorable in my entire life. The fate of the entire magical race rested on those shoulders of that one girl. Danger was closing in on all sides, yet there she was, chiding me for what she presumed to be clumsiness. It took everything I had in me not to laugh right there on the spot. Instead, I simply flashed her a quick smile with an apology. “My mistake,” I said, then turned to walk away.

It was an abrupt departure, but I felt I had to leave before that strange pull inside my body, the one that made me want to stand a little too close, forced me to do something I would later regret. I had to leave before I snatched her away. I was already ready to give my life to protect her, ready to pay any cost. With that hanging heavy on my heart and in my head, I left her blinking in amazement on the steps behind me, with no idea whatsoever that her entire life was about to change.

“Sophia...” As I said the name once more, a little smile danced across my lips, one that told me I would be saying it many, many more times to come, and for the first time, I realized it was something I could quite easily get used to. Already, I wanted to see her again, needed to see her again. She was pretty, and I was undeniably attracted to her, but an ache grew within me as I told myself, No, you have to...remain professional. You have a job to do. She’s a mark and nothing more, a means to an end. In reality, or at least in mine, my job was to keep her safe so she could save us all, so I could have my revenge.

That angered me a little. The key to defeating that evil race was a naïve, innocent girl with no training, one who had no idea about her heritage. We needed her to put down the Falcars once and for all, and even though the prophecy swore she could do it, but I had my doubts. Even still, I was unable to get that girl out of my head and not even sure I wanted to.

My cell rang and it was Taylor.

“Logan,” she said in a defeated voice.

“Yeah?”

“Julie and I got Eve outta there. I met up with the other task teams, so Julie thought we were all safe. A Falcar threw some magic sphere at Julie and wounded her arm during the fight. She couldn’t teleport anyone from the team to help you. Only herself. I guess it’s a temporary side effect. So I told her to go, that we were safe now. I would get Eve somewhere safe. After she left, the Falcar came in like a hurricane and took Eve. They killed both teams except for me and one werewolf. And he’s barely hanging on. He was flown to the immortal sanctuary.”

“I’m so sorry. Do you know where they took Eve?”

“No, and I’m not getting a single vision.” She paused and then continued. “You have less people than we did. I’m scared. If they took us out...be careful.”

“Don’t worry. We’re going to get to Sophia before the Falcar do.”

“I don’t get why the Council isn’t doing anything. It’s like they want the girls to die, like they’re siding with the Falcars.”

“That’s an awful thought.”

“If it’s true, then you need to ignore what they say and just whisk Sophia the hell out of there. The Falcars already got her twin sister and Sophia is next...”

“You want me to break the rules?”

“Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. Do whatever you have to do to save Sophia. Another task team just arrived a few minutes ago. We’re going to look for Sophia. We’ve got a lead that they’re going to sacrifice her. And they plan to do the same thing to Sophia.”

“The clock is ticking. You’ve got to find Eve. You’ve got to save her!”

“And you’ve got to save Sophia.”

I gripped the phone tightly. “And I will. Nobody’s dying on my watch.”

To be continued...

Continue this series in book two, Faith & Love.

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Bonus Book 2  – Eternal Vows

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