“It’s your mate we’re after,” he snaps.
“I didn’t ask you to come.” I raise my chin and glower at Henry. “You can fucking go.”
“I’m better prepared for this than you are. I’ve been listening and learning for the past decade while you’ve been dicking off pretending that none of this is your responsibility or your birthright.”
“You sound jealous, brother,” I hiss, my lip twisting into a scowl.
“Boys,” my father interrupts us with a quiet warning.
“I don’t need his help,” I tell him. “This is mine and Diah’s fight. Not his or yours.”
“We are family, and this is a city matter, Ezra. It’s very much my fight. Now I need you to pull your head out of your ass because if any of us get hurt, I’ll have to answer to your mother.”
“Fine.”
“Henry is going to lead. He’s most familiar with their scent and their movement.”
“Fine,” I repeat.
“Only kill shots,” my father says, shrugging out of his jacket and tossing it on the hood of the car as we head toward the trees.
“Oh,” Diah says, his voice smooth as steel. “You don’t need to worry about that.”
The end of my story
It takes just under half an hour until I see it. A rundown looking house with peeling siding and tattered curtains. We stop, shielded by a few more feet of tree line, but I don’t see the point.
“They already know we’re here. Let’s just go.” I step out, and Henry grabs my arm, yanking me back.
“You’re an idiot,” he issues, pointing toward the ground where I was about to walk. I don’t see what he’s trying to show me, and he looks around then grabs a stick and reaches out with it, disturbing the layer of leaves on the ground. There’s an unnatural sounding snapping noise, and what looks like a silver net flies up into the trees. Declan was right, those assholes boobytrapped the fucking approach. After a shuffling noise, the lights in the house all turn off, and my father shoots a disapproving look at my brother.
“Good job, Henry. Now they know we’re here.”
“They already knew,” he says, exasperated. He throws the stick into the clearing. “They’re vampires. They can smell us. Just like we can smell them.”
“Any word from Declan?” Diah asks. He’s been so quiet, I keep forgetting he’s with us. I close my eyes and concentrate, but I’m met again with an uncomfortable silence where his thoughts should be.
“No.”
“I’m taking a vacation after this,” my father says.
“I know. Hawaii for the eclipse.”
“No, before then. I’m too old for this, Ezra.” He rolls his neck around his shoulders and gives me a sad little smile.
“I get it,” I whisper. In the dark of this clearing, everything snaps into crystal clear focus for me. He’s done wrangling rogue vampires and worrying about Wildemount and Carver County and every other township that falls under our watch. I’ve been slacking, and it’s time I step up. He deserves that from me, and so does my mother.
“I know you do.” He claps a hand on my back and squeezes my neck. “We need to be careful in there. I don’t know what sort of weapons they have. We don’t know what state Declan is in, but we know it’s not good.”
I bristle at the assumption, but the vacancy in my brain where he belongs is a reminder he’s right. Declan is hurt, probably severely, possibly beyond saving. He’s a vampire, but our ability to heal only goes so far. It doesn’t matter, though, because Franklin has signed his own death warrant and he’s never going to see another moonrise, whether Declan does or not.
“Watch for crossfire. The bullets in these guns could kill us, not just them,” he continues, and I try to listen, but my attention is focused on a small basement window that sits on the side of the house, just above the grass.
“The human is mine,” Diah says, and we all know who he’s talking about.
“His name is Jones,” I offer.
“Doesn’t matter.” Diah pulls out the gun and cocks it. “He’s not going to need it for much longer.”
