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“I’ve wondered before you know, what you’d do when you have time to stop and think about morality. About killing vamps, and if they’re all as bad as each other.” Tom hesitated. “I don’t want to tell you what to do either way, but you’ve had genuine conversations with these people – and I suppose that’s it, isn’t it?” He waited for me to acknowledge his words, but I kept quiet. “They’ve become people to you, not just monsters. It’s going to make it a lot harder to do what has to be done.”

“I know,” I mumbled, my words blending together. Wow,my head was fuzzy. “I wish I’d just killed them in the first place, before I bothered to think about it.”

Tom snorted quietly. “It’s not like you had the opportunity to, Erin,” he pointed out. “Besides, it’s about justice as well. I dunno about you, but I want to be sure. I mean, I want to look them in the eye andknow.” He glowered and tugged at a tuft of black hair sticking out at the back of his neck.

“Unless this whole thing turns out to be an elaborate plot by someone else, we’ll never know. I could kill them – or die trying – and there might be someone else already lined up for a faux-suicide next week anyway,” I laughed bitterly.

“Don’t say stuff like that. We won’t let it happen again. We can’t.” I noticed his glass was still full. “We’ll sort it like we always do.”

Tom took the bottle from the table and put it back in the cupboard where he’d found it, shooting me a regretful look.

“I have to get going, Erin. I’ve got the landlord coming at six for an inspection.” He pulled his khaki jacket from the rack and fished his car keys out of the pocket. “Are you going to be alright getting home? I didn’t drink much. I can give you a lift.”

“I knew you were just trying to get me to talk,” I laughed. He was right though, the Jäger had gone straight to my head. “I’m fine, I’ll get a taxi or walk or something.” Finishing the glass, I put it back down with a clatter and stood. To my surprise, I was quite steady. “I have a few things to do around here first.”

For a moment, he gave me such a knowing look I thought I’d said something I shouldn’t have. The booze probably didn’t help my paranoia.

“Fine,” he said finally. “I’ll see you later tonight, maybe? I’ll let you know.”

I didn’t watch him leave, but sat back down and closed my eyes, resting my head on the table. I rarely drank anymore, but this was twice in a matter of days and my body wasn’t as young and sprightly as it used to be. That didn’t mean I could wallow, though.

I stood up and stared blankly at the blue wall for a moment – the exact colour of a summer sky. That was it, then. I’d said the words out loud to Tom, and it may as well have been a commitment signed in blood – I had to follow through. Last night in the bar had been a brutal reminder of what I’d forgotten lately – it was my job to kill vampires. The thing was, I’d never hated the idea before.

Tom was right. Murray and Wyatt were people to me now, and I wasn’t sure I could kill real people. Stab the broken soldier I was so irrationally drawn to? Even Isabel – I could have sworn she’d shown genuine remorse. And now I had to, what, cut her head off? Set her on fire?

I unlocked my phone, dismissed more pointless notifications about my overflowing email inbox, and opened up my taxi app. Some bits of spam were meant to be ignored, especially with a pounding headache.

Jonathan and Maggie were still dead, and who knew how many others? So I’d fight them, like a good little hunter. And if I survived – and that was a big if – I’d spend the rest of my life knowing I’d killed the only man I’d ever truly cared for.

???

That night, I dreamed I was painting. My canvas loomed bright white in the dark attic, but each stroke I made was smeared with startling crimson, far too vivid in the shadows. The sticky substance coated my hands to the elbows, and as it ran down my arms and dripped into my lap, I knew it wasn’t paint.

I fell back onto the floor. The ceiling dissolved above me, revealing stars of impossible clarity. A thousand pinpricks of light watched me, their white radiance shifting to glorious emerald before they fell like rain. They sizzled against my fiery skin as a voice whispered, and I jerked awake, shivering despite the phantom burn.

The window was open, letting in a freezing draft. I stumbled over to close it, my dream already fading – leaving only impressions of green light and golden fire. As I burrowed back under my duvet, I realised the shiver that had woken me wasn’t from the cold or the dream. I shot up, searching the darkness for the source.

Izzie Misery was standing calmly under the attic hatch.

“What the—?” I sputtered.

“Forgive the intrusion, Erin.” She crossed the short distance to the bed and perched lightly on the end. The mattress barely shifted. “I had thought a gradual revelation would prove most delicate. Evidently, I was incorrect.”

“How did you get in?” I scrambled to pull on some pyjamas over the pants I slept in.

Moron, Erin. Of course, vampires don’t need an invitation. Maggie was at home, remember?

Isabel tilted her head toward the window, which I’d thoughtwas painted shut.

“What do you want?” The resigned understanding in her eyes shouldn’t have given me pause, but it did. I glanced at my weapons chest across the room, and she caught me looking. “You know it’s the middle of the night for us mere mortals, right?”

She nodded. “I spoke to Adam this evening. He informs me he met with Cole.” Her mouth turned down delicately. “Sorry, Nicholas.”

“Oh.”

Something about her phrasing made me wonder what she was holding back, but then everything with her so far had been a game of cat and mouse. I didn’t want her to know I already knew about Adam and Murray either, but as I watched, something came over her eerily lovely face. It was clear she was upset – which meant she wasn’t really here to listen to anything I had to say.

Damn her.I didn’t like to think of her as being capable of actual emotion, especially now I’d come to my own conclusions about what I had to do to her. Which made her showing up in my room… well, awkward.