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“Do it.”

It wasn’t like watching vampires on the television, watching Isabel. Without hesitation, she put her thumb to her sharp canine and bit down, a large bead of blood welling up from the tiny cut she made. She didn’t ask further permission before she smeared it across my mouth, and without thinking I licked the sparse, metallic liquid from my lips. No more than that.

“Will it be enough?” Adam asked.

“It will have to be,” Isabel responded, pulling her hood more tightly around her head. “We must go now, before the clouds part.”

There was a coolness in my throat where I’d swallowed her blood, and I could almost visualise the flesh knitting together across my stomach. The sensation rippled through me like ice melting into fire, fading quickly but leaving my skin itchy and hot. The worst of the pain subsided to a dull throb in seconds, enough that I could move without screaming. At first, with Adam supporting me, but after a few steps, I stumbled alone – though he kept his arm outstretched in case I fell. I had to admit, a drop from Isabel was a hell of a lot more effective than Tom’s butterfly stitches and a couple of aspirin.

Isabel remained in the shelter until we had climbed the few steps to ground level. The farmhouse was a hundred metres or so away, the two barns behind it nearer still. I recognised where we were as soon as we were in the daylight, but it was an impossible distance to get to the road beyond at the speed I was going. Thunder rumbled, loud and ominous overhead.

“Where’s Tom?” I asked, glancing back at Isabel.

She frowned but shook her head under her hood. “With Nick.” Her tone brooked no further questions.

Slowly, we made our way across the yard and to the largest of the barns. Isabel flitted ahead to the cover of the huge wooden doorframe. The wind and rain still hammered down, but I couldn’t bring myself to be annoyed by it – it was refreshing after being confined for so long.

The clouds broke for a moment as I reached Isabel, pausingto catch my breath. She backed deeper into the shade of the barn to avoid the sunlight that broke through and momentarily brightened the hills of the Peaks, disappearing into the shadows.

The sun was lower in the sky than I’d expected – it must have been the middle of the afternoon at least, which didn’t seem right at all. Adam squinted into the gloom where Isabel hid, his hand shading his eyes.

“Perhaps it would be faster for you to carry her to the car?” he asked, stepping into the protection of the doorway and shaking out his wet hair. The sun went in as quickly as it had appeared, followed immediately by a flash of lightning that lit up the interior of the barn, thunder rolling seconds later.

Isabel didn’t reply, and I glanced at Adam before taking a tentative step into the shadows. The building, long disused, still smelled of mouldering hay and rotting wood. Light filtered through gaps in the roof above, creating pools of gold across the dirt floor. The cavernous space stretched up two stories, ancient hay lofts and rotting beams crisscrossing the shadowy upper level. In the far corner, a small table with trays of withered violets sat beneath dark grow lights – their purple blooms frost-edged and half-dead.

Adam threw out an arm to stop me from going any further, seeing something I hadn’t. Too late, my mouth filled with the taste of copper.

A blurred shape swung down from above, missing me, but hitting Adam squarely in the hip and sending him flying backwards into the rain. I called out, ready to go after him, but had to duck and dodge the returning swing. It was an enormousbeam of splintered wood, a fraying rope supporting it precariously from the upper storey. Searing pain coursed through my middle as I fell back and scrambled out of the way, though the skin didn’t break, thanks to Isabel’s blood.

Curled on the ground as the beam continued to swing with abandon, my eyes adjusted enough to spot my vampire ally at the back of the barn. She appeared to be resisting the urge to struggle under Émilie, who had her mutilated arm wrapped tightly about her. Both of Isabel’s arms were pinned to her sides, her movement restricted by the cloak that had been intended to protect her. I froze as my gaze fell upon a familiar flannel shirt a few feet away.

Tom lay face down in the hay, dust settled undisturbed on his shoulders. His right arm was twisted beneath him at an angle that made me blanch. I waited for the rise and fall of his breathing, for any sign of life, but his chest was still.

No no no no no!

Panic and adrenaline exploded through me all at once, burning through my veins as I dragged myself upright, never taking my eyes from Émilie. My friend, my one remaining lifeline to normalcy… I couldn’t think about it. Not now.

I still held the scalpel from her toolbox in my right hand, its weight a promise – but her silence was worrying. Despite the initial flood of copper in my mouth, I could barely sense Émilie or Alistair – if he was even nearby. Glancing back, Adam lay motionless in the long grass. I was on my own.

“Alistair?” I called out, trying to steady my voice. “Why don’t you come out here and show yourself?”

“Erin—” Isabel warned.

Before I could blink, something was thrown from the upper storey of the barn. Alistair landed, catlike, beside the crumpled form, hauling Nicholas up by the throat and onto his knees.

My heart stopped. Blood matted his dark waves from a deep gash at his hairline, splattered across his beautiful features. But his eyes – those gold-flecked emerald eyes I loved – found mine with fierce intensity. For a split second, I saw him again as he’d been in the lodge, that first night – his gentle touch and crooked half-smile.

“Erin…” he managed through gritted teeth. “Run.”

My face slackened at the sight of him. Alistair sneered, pulling Nicholas up by the collar of his shirt, so that he knelt awkwardly beside him, his hands bound with rope.

“I don’t think she will, Nick.” He waited. “Like I once did, I think she will stay with you. Won’t you,ma petite chasseuse?”

“Get away from him.” My voice was emotionless as I tried to stay on my feet. I refused to let the bastard see how weak I was. He couldn’t know the true extent of the damage Émilie had caused.

“Do not worry, Erin. His death is for you, not I.Tu ne te rappelles pas de notre petite conversation?” He smiled cruelly. “Perhaps you might learn that loyalty to this particular vampire will bring you nothing but pain. Trust me, I would know.”

I stepped forward and winced, stopping short. “How many times do I have to say it? I won’t hurt him for you. I’m ahunter, not a murderer.”