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“Wait, that’s actually a thing?”

Cas huffs a short, nearly silent laugh. “There are a few myths about vampires that unfortunately are indeed true.”

“Why the hell would he bother? This is all a hoax, isn’t it? It’s not like they should be expecting any actual vampires to crash the party.” Cas arches a brow, and I give him a soft elbow. “You know what I mean.”

“I do,” he says, then considers for a moment. “And I’m not certain why they’d bother, but I’d rather like to prevent that gun from going off anywhere near me.”

“Agreed.” I lean into him for a moment, and he melts right back into me. Another silent sign of trust, reassurance we’re in this together and seeing it through to whatever end may come.

Suddenly, Devin lunges forward and gets up in Haverstad’s face. Derham intervenes and shoves him away, the aide with the gun places his hand on the handle of the weapon, and the female aide falls back a few steps.

Smart girl. I’d be ready to fuck right off out of there, too.

“You won’t get away with this,” Devin shouts at Haverstad, and then it’s the mayor’s turn to get a swing in.

“Stop!” Derham yells, still playing interference as he steps in between the two of them before it turns into a brawl.

In all the chaos, a pause. It throws the graveyard back into a tense, waiting silence.

At least until, somewhere behind where Cas and I are peering over the top of a grave, a branch cracks like someone stepped on it.

With our dumb luck, it’s probably a stray dog with a stick or a squirrel that tested its luck on a limb that didn’t quite hold,but it draws the attention of the five people in the center of the graveyard.

“What the fuck?” Derham asks, rounding on Devin. “Did you tip someone off about this?”

Even from this distance, I can see the way the young man’s face goes pale, and hear the stutter in his words.

“No. I—I didn’t—it must just be—”

He makes a move like he’s going to leave. Derham grabs for him, and Cas tenses beside me.

“That’s it,” Cas says. “We’re not letting this kid get hurt.”

He starts to stand, and the next few moments seem to slow down somehow, every single bit of shaky instinct I possess narrowing down to singular, pinprick focus.

Cas’s movement draws the attention of the aide with the gun, and as he swings around and catches sight of Cas rising from behind the gravestone, he raises his weapon.

There’s only one single thought in my mind as he does.

Silver bullets.

Silver bullets that have a very real chance of doing some very real damage to the vampire beside me.

I move without thinking.

Lunging for Cas, I slam into his broad frame half a heartbeat before the crack of gunfire echoes through the night.

Whether it’s because I hit him harder than I thought I did, or he was too surprised to react and brace himself against my own far less superhuman strength, I’m not sure, but he goes sprawling on the ground, arms immediately banding around me. A loud crack of wood from somewhere behind us follows as the bullet lodges itself harmlessly in a tree.

It only takes a couple of seconds more for Cas to realize what just happened.

“Ophelia,” he says, aghast. “What did you—”

Chaos erupts in the cemetery.

Apparently Audra isn’t the only one Devin tipped off about this late night rendezvous, because as soon as the gun fires, two undercover agents—police, FBI, who the fuck knows—appear from the shadows with their own weapons drawn, shouting for everyone to freeze. They flash their badges and the aide drops his weapon.

From just up the block, red and blue flashing lights and sirens quickly approach the scene, and more agents or officers appear from the darkness and separate the group of four in the middle of the graveyard for questioning and detainment.