My life was over.

I stood on the street in front of the compound, taking in deep breaths as I sorted through my thoughts.

This was the end for me.

There was no way I’d survive on the streets. The vampires would eat me alive the second they found me. I might be able to avoid them for a night, maybe two, but I wouldn’t be able to keep that up.

No one survived on the street.

I made up my mind and nodded in determination. I wasn’t going to wait around for the vampires to find and cage me.

I only had one option—to somehow convince Gray to let me live.

He’d wanted me once. I could make him want me again.

Not with my magic; I’d never do that to him.

No matter what he’d done to me—no matter that that bastard had done the worst possible thing and thrown me into a fucking cage like I was a common animal...

I took a deep breath to steady myself. No, we weren’t going down that road again.

No matter what he’d done, he didn’t deserve to have his mind messed with.

I wasn’t going to do that to him, but there had to be something I could do to make him see me in the same light again.

OK, maybe not the same light, but a similar one. One where he knew what I was but chose to keep me anyway.

There had to be a way to do it, and damn it, I was going to figure it out.

He was the King; he could do whatever he wanted. If I could make him want me again, he could force the other vampires to put up with me.

Yeah. I could do this.

I walked away from the compound with slow steps, my hands clenched at my sides to keep them from trembling.

This was going to be hell, I knew, but I didn’t see any other option.

Gray might kill me the moment he laid eyes on me; that was a distinct possibility. There was no way the vampires didn’t know about my escape by now. Night had fallen, and they had to be moving around again.

One of the guards I’d touched would have figured out by now that something was wrong, would have worked it over and over in his head until he realized what must have happened. Gray would have alerted everyone to what I was, and the knee-jerk reaction to anything confusing would be that the blood mage had done it.

In this instance, that knee-jerk reaction would be right.

They’d go down to the pit, find that I wasn’t there, and then tell Gray.

He was going to kill me for running away again.

I didn’t know what they’d plan to do with me—really, I’d expected to be executed sooner—but I was grateful that I’d been given what time I had, because it had allowed me to find the strength in myself to get out.

But now, getting out had turned out to be the worst possible thing I could have done. Conall didn’t want me anymore, and Gray was going to see it as yet another betrayal...

I flinched, remembering the look on his face when he’d processed what I was. It had gone from pure hatred to so much pain that I didn’t know what to do with myself. I’d wanted to run to him and throw my arms around him, stroke his face, rain kisses down on him, anything to make that pain go away.

But I’d known—I was the source of that pain.

Nothing I could ever do would take that pain away, though, damn it, I was going to try.

I had to try. There was no hope if I didn’t try.

I stepped on a broken bottle and stumbled backwards, gasping. I hadn’t been paying attention, and now my foot was bleeding all over the place.

If any vampires were out, they’d find me even more quickly now.

Did that matter, though? I was going back to the castle one way or another. I doubted it would matter much whether I turned myself in or was brought in by the vampires.

Well, it might matter a bit.

Gray might be a little more forgiving if I turned myself in.

All I wanted was to see that warmth in his eyes again, feel the sense of safety that he always brought with him, and know that everything was going to be OK.

Nothing would ever be OK again. I knew that.

I’d ruined everything, just by existing.

It wasn’t like this could have turned out any differently, and it wasn’t like I’d wanted to stay, right?

I was never going to stay in the castle with the vampires, even if it hadn’t felt so bad after a while. I’d weeded out the bad vampires, the thralls had been so welcoming, and the other vampires had taken to me like moths to a flame.

They’d loved me.

I was startled when I thought about that.

Now, they all had to know what I really was. They’d hate me just for existing.

Just like you hated them.

The voice inside my mind cut through my thoughts, and I soured.

I still hated them, didn’t I?

Of course I did. Vampires were a disgusting breed of predators who didn’t care about the people they hurt.

There was no such thing as a good vampire.

Even Gray had proven himself. He didn’t care about me, not really. This had all been a game for him.

Someone who cared about me, really cared about me, wouldn’t have been able to act like that.

You couldn’t put someone you cared about in a cage and throw away the key.

He probably hated me too, come to think of it.

I’d seen the venom in his eyes, the hatred that lay there.

But then he’d shown me the broken side of himself, as if I’d actually hurt him.

How do you hurt someone when they didn’t care about you to begin with?

I shook my head, trying to make sense of things but coming up empty.

None of this made sense, and it probably never would. That was just the way things played out.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I hadn’t realized how far I’d walked. I was halfway through the woods to the castle now.

Looking around, I blinked, a little disconcerted.

The woods were empty, when I would have thought they’d be crawling with a search team.

I slowed to a gentle walk as I continued through the woods, not quite ready to be back at the castle. It was my only option, but that didn’t mean I was looking forward to the ‘welcome’ I’d receive when I arrived.

I let my imagination run wild as to what they’d do with me after they caught sight of me.

I imagined chains would be the first thing. No, wait, they’d have to go and get the chains first. So, they’d probably begin with what, tackling me to the ground? Hm… I’d definitely be grabbed, and then someone would probably go and fetch one of the iron collars.

I had no idea how that would affect me now. I hadn’t been aware of my magic when I was first collared as a child, but now that I’d lived with a collar, had felt it become almost a piece of me...

What would it feel like to have that stolen away?

I shuddered. I didn’t want to find out.

I frowned as I continued to think about it, until at last I had to shove the thoughts away. They were too horrible. They made me feel things I wasn’t ready to acknowledge. Not yet.

I’d deal with it when the time came—which would be in just a few minutes now, if I had my bearings right.

The rest of the walk continued without incident. I still didn’t see hide nor hair of a vampire in the woods, when they really should have been out hunting me.

What was up with that?

I shook my head. I’d find out soon.

At last, I broke through the tree line and caught sight of the castle—and the battle raging in front of it.

My breath caught in my throat as I took it all in.

There were hundreds of creatures like the one I’d torn in two the other night, and they were decimating the vampires. It was a ten-to-one fight, and the vampires didn’t stand a chance.

I didn’t hesitate. I raced forward and joined the fray.

I called on my magic, filling my body with it, and then sent it snaking out into the midst of the battle, seeking out the creatures that should have never been born.

It wasn’t hard to find them and separate them in my mind from the vampires. They were all monsters, but there was something distinctly wrong with the biorhythm of the creatures.

Something wrong, and yet familiar.

Because I’d touched one before?

No, it was more than that. It was...

I didn’t have time to think about that. All I could do was focus on the battle at hand.

I tore down creature after creature, rending them in two, boiling their blood, until my breath came hot and fast and sweat was pouring down my back.

I stumbled to the side, bumping into one of the vampires, and as if by reflex, he reached out and steadied me.

Wide eyes met mine. “Nina?”

It was Alex.

“Hey,” I said, my voice soft and cautious. Now wasn’t the time for a reunion, or a fight, but I couldn’t help but want to see how he’d react to me.

“What are you doing here?”

Before I could answer, one of the creatures launched itself at us. Alex swung wide, claws having replaced his fingernails, and slashed at the monster.

Without hesitation, I threw my magic at the beast, narrowing my eyes as I visualized its blood boiling.

With a howl, it fell to its knees—were those knees? They were bent wrong—and tore into its own skin in an attempt to extinguish the fire raging within.

My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest, but I kept up the spell, chanting so fast that it was a miracle I didn’t stumble.

“Holy shit,” Alex said when the beast was dead.

I whirled to face him. “What?”

“You’re...you’re just...shit.”

Fear tightened my chest for a moment before I recognized the emotion in his normally guarded eyes.

Admiration.

A corner of my lips turned up. “You think so?”

“I’ve never seen someone do anything like that. I’m glad you’re playing for our team.” He grinned at me.

Now a full smile stretched across my face. “Yeah. Me, too.”

And I was. I was glad to be batting for the vampire team, at least at the moment, because it meant protecting Gray. Somewhere in this fight, he was a part of things. I could sense him nearby, which meant he was alive.

Alive and being an idiot, most likely.

There’d be time later on to sort out what he’d done to me, but we wouldn’t have that time if he didn’t make it out of this alive.

“Where’s your boy?” I asked.

Alex’s expression dimmed. “I lost track of him a while ago.”

“Find him and keep him safe.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “Glad to see your priorities are still in line.” And then he turned and loped off to find Gray, deftly dodging blows as he went.

With a deep breath, I steadied myself and focused on the task at hand: destroying these creatures.

I had to handle the fight on my own, because the vampires didn’t stand a chance without me. I could see that now. They needed me in a way that no one had ever needed me before, and if I was honest with myself, I’d admit that I took a certain pleasure in being needed.

It was nice.

One of the creatures leapt at me. I lifted my hands, palms out, chanting. The creature froze in midair for a moment before I flung my hands to the side, sending the creature crashing to the ground in the direction my hands had gone.

I stalked over to the creature and planted a foot on its chest as I clenched one hand into a fist.

It gasped, clawing at its chest.

“Traitor,” it said, more of a gasping sound than anything, before it lost the ability to speak.

I’d restricted its heart so it wouldn’t beat again, taking away the life-giving blood running through the creature.

I flinched at the word it had spoken, not understanding.

What did it mean, traitor? I didn’t know these creatures. I didn’t owe them any allegiance. They were nothing to me.

With a fierce frown, I reached down to lay a hand on its chest, throwing my free hand up and away from me. I began a new chant, keeping up a spell really far too big for me to attempt, but…well, desperate times and all that. I was actively turning the other creatures away from me so I might focus on the one lying in front of me.

I inhaled deeply as I sent my magic deep inside its body.

It was familiar to me, and it had called me traitor. There had to be something here that would tell me exactly what it meant. I searched and searched, growing frustrated when I came up empty, until I reached the part of its genetic code that would tell me what I needed.

Hybrid.

I stumbled backwards, all the air driven from my lungs as I stared down at the creature with wide eyes.

Hybrid. Half-vampire, half-werewolf.

That couldn’t be. No hybrids had ever existed, and it wasn’t like there hadn’t been Romeo-and-Juliet-style romances now and again. Vampires and werewolves had mated, but it wasn’t possible to produce a child from such a mating.

This was something else. Dark magic had created these monstrosities.

Traitor.

The word rang in my head as I tried to figure it out.

It knew me.

But I didn’t have long to think about that. The spell had died on my lips the moment I’d discovered what the creature was, and now there were several hybrids rushing at me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I whirled, raising my hands high above my head and, took up a different chant.

It was really quite simple, an easy enough spell to keep up, so why I was I shaking? Why did I feel like I might break apart any second now?

I was launching the supernatural migraine spell on a grand scale, focusing it in on the hybrids now that I knew their genetic code so it wouldn’t affect the vampires.

That shouldn’t leave me weak.

But I’d used so much magic already...

The hybrids fell to the ground, writhing screaming as the vampires made short work of them, decapitating them and yanking hearts out left and right.

My vision started to fade in and out, and I swayed on my feet, but I caught glimpses of Gray’s mother gliding gracefully through the lines, as vicious in her destruction as any of the other vampires, and yet somehow managing to make it look beautiful.

That pleased me. She’d been a favorite of mine.

I felt resistance pushing at me from some of the hybrids and I stumbled forward, fighting against them. I had to keep them down long enough for the vampires to finish this fight.

It was almost over. We’d almost won.

My vision blacked out fully, and my head was pounding. I fell to my knees with a shriek.

The spell broke.

I yanked my head up in time to see the few remaining hybrids launch to their feet, but they were outmatched now.

The vampires could handle it. I could rest now, couldn’t I?

I squinted, trying to get back up, willing my limbs to work, but they wouldn’t move.

Nothing would happen.

Then I saw a hybrid break free of the ranks and head right towards Gray’s mother.

“No!” I shouted, launching myself to my feet with energy I hadn’t been able to summon before.

Time seemed to slow down as I raced through the crowd to reach her. I just had to get to her.

I could save her. I could!

The hybrid leaped, and I knew I was out of time.

I threw myself into the air, barely managing to put myself in front of her. I hit her full-force, grabbing her shoulders, and felt the fire open up on my skin.

Claws raked into my back, something sharp and horrible bit into my shoulder, and—

The world went black.