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“Please…” The desperation in my voice catches me off guard. She must hear it too because she turns back around.

The words are there, but I can’t find the right order. “It wasn’t a mistake.”

She waits for the rest of it. A surge of need rushes forward, and I have to lock my hands at my sides to stop myself from crossing this driveway to wrap my arms around her. But the longer we stand here, the farther she drifts from me. She presses her eyes closed, and when she opens them again, they glisten.

“I know there’s a ‘but’ coming, Nick. Just get it over with. Please.”

“But I shouldn’t have let it happen when you don’t know what you’d be choosing.”

She twists the silver ring on her middle finger, around and around.

“You think I’d kiss you if I was questioning what kind of man you are?” She shoves her hands in her coat pockets. “So tell me. What would I be choosing?”

I open my mouth. Nothing comes out.

“That’s what I thought. It doesn’t matter.”

Conversation over, she gets in the truck, buckles her seat belt, and waits for me to drive her home.

It takes a minute for it to sink in, before I have enough composure to get in too. I search the dash for a way to undo it all.

She folds her arms. “Can we go, please?”

Mom’s front door swings open as I start the engine. Dustin and Luca come rushing out, pulling on their jackets. I shut it off and meet them by Dustin’s SUV.

“What’s wrong?”

“Something attacked Monroe’s goats.” Dustin’s opening the back of his car. “Took out half the herd. I’m going over to see if I can save any of the injured.”

Luca has already worked out what that means. So have I.

“I’ll come with you. Can you drive Ellery home?”

Luca nods, and I toss him the keys. I find Ellery watching me, painfully aware I opened this wound between us, and I’m leaving it raw. Any apology or explanation I give her now would be rushed and woefully inadequate. Dustin’s waiting, and she turns away like she already knows I’m not getting back in that truck.

Tomorrow. I’ll go to her tomorrow, take her down to the gazebo by the creek, and tell her what I am, tell her everything. Then I’ll call Roslyn and let her file whatever she needs to file, and deal with the fallout later.

“I’ll get her home, okay?” Luca says. “Go take care of this.”

Monroe’s farm is only ten minutes from Mom’s place. I smell the blood a half mile out. The headlights swing onto the dirt road that leads up to the main house.

Dustin grabs his medical bag, and we find Monroe in a field. The gate’s open, and he has a coil of rope over one shoulder, like he came out here to do a job and can’t remember what.

“I’ve never seen anything like it.” His voice is hollow. “Whatever did this…it wasn’t about feeding. It was something else.”

Dozens of goats lie still across the pasture, dark stains spreading on the frozen ground. I make myself stop counting.

The scent is thick and fresh. This was no bloodline vampire. We have more control. Our genetics prepare us for the change, and our families teach us how to feed responsibly.

I’ve only seen carnage like it once, as a kid, on a trip with Dad and Sebastian to the Northwest Territories. A newly made vampire, someone’s mistake, got loose before they could decide if they’d try to integrate it into the clan or kill it. It tore through everything in its path before they put it down.

Council permission is required to turn any human without a clan bloodline, and even then, it’s rare. There are very few vampires in Ravenslight that don’t belong to the Valzera, Renard, or Lund families, so this made vampire is likely the responsibility of another clan. Or someone messed up.

Dustin checks all the fallen animals for any that he can save. Monroe moves the few that survived into the barn to recover.

“I’ll call Anna,” Dustin says as he packs up his bag. “Get her out here to process the rest of the scene.” He heads out to the car.

“Have you noticed anything prowling around before now?” I ask Monroe, as he stands by the barn door assessing what’s left of his herd.