To say that we rushed to my sister's house would’ve been an understatement.

The guys heard my conversation with her and we were on the move in an instant.

“Somone tried to get into her house,” I managed dully as I stared at the phone.

Despite the fact that she’d reassured me a dozen times that she wasn’t hurt before her phone had gone dead, that hadn’t stopped my whole body from shaking and Cooper took my hand to steady me. The guys led me back to the elevator where Maddox did a swishy thing with his hand, which made more buttons appear, then he jammed the button for the garage.

The rest of the ride down was quiet, each of us lost to our own thoughts, with me silently praying that Melanie would still be all right until we got there.

The parking garage was pitch black, with lights only coming to life as we crossed it and flickering out again behind us. Everything about this motel seemed to be geared to keeping its entrances a secret, not surprising really, given their primary clientele.

The guys guided me to a midnight blue SUV with dark windows and we all piled in. Beckham held the door for me and waited for me to slide onto the backseat while Cooper rounded the car to get in on the other side. Jaeger swung himself into the passenger seat with a firm grip on the handrail. With Maddox behind the wheel, we went screeching out of the lot a few seconds later.

Once we were en route, Jaeger turned to face me, his eyes deadly serious. “We don’t know what we’re about to walk into. Is there any way I can convince you to stay in the car until we determine whether the area is safe?”

“Nope. Not a chance.” This was my sister we were talking about, if she was still in any kind of danger, I would be there to help.

“We don’t know that it had anything to do with the hunters yet,” Maddox said, glancing first at Jaeger and then at me, using the rearview mirror.

Beckham reached for my hand and I gladly clung to his, wishing that there was a way to tap into his strength.

“That would be a massive coincidence,” he pointed out. “I don’t believe in coincidences. Yesterday, Starling’s gets raided by the hunters and today something happens to her sister. It’s the hunters.”

I didn’t know if that made it better or worse, but the calmness of his voice and the determined set of his jaw made me beyond thankful that he was there. Cooper slung an arm around my shoulders, the blue in his eyes bright as he met mine.

“Whatever it is, we’ll be there. Okay?”

My mouth was so dry that I wasn’t sure I would be able to speak, so I nodded and all but held my breath until we made it to Melanie’s street a few minutes later. It was only once her house came into view that I released a loud sigh of relief as I slumped forward.

“She’s safe.”

For now.

My sister was sitting on her porch with a gun in her hands, her eyes wild and her posture tense. She jumped to her feet when we pulled up and I was climbing over massive male bodies to get out of the car even before we had fully stopped yet.

"What happened?"

I wasn't oblivious to the fact that Cooper had asked me that exact same question just that morning, Beckham definitely had a point with that whole coincidence thing. 

Melanie blinked at the guys climbing out of the car behind me, but then turned her attention to me. "Someone tried to break in. Luckily, I never got rid of Reggie’s gun when he moved out. I grabbed it from the closet in my bedroom, and I shot him in the ass."

“Thank god,” I cried, throwing my arms around her and pulling her in for a hug, my voice muffled by her hair. “I’m so glad you’re all right.”

Releasing her, I stepped back as she linked our hands and gave mine a quick squeeze.

Jaeger cleared his throat and came to stand beside me. Clearly, he’d run out of patience and wanted to get to work. I made quick introductions and then he was demanding answers.

“How many attackers were there?”

“Just the one,” she answered, curiously taking him in as he questioned her.

"The man who was trying to attack you, what did he look like?" Jaeger asked firmly.

Melanie's eyes grew wide and faraway as her brow furrowed in remembrance. "That’s why I called Starling and not the cops. He looked… kinda weird, actually."

"Yeah. We're going to need a little bit more than that if you can try and think,” Maddox said, murder in his eyes and a scowl pasted onto his gorgeous face. I would’ve felt sorry for whoever he was reserving the punishment in his blue eyes for, if it wasn’t for someone who had tried to harm my sister.

Melanie seemed a little dazed by everything that had happened the more detail she was asked for, not that I could blame her. "His face was all funny, as if it had been melted like candle wax or something.” Her brow furrowed and she shook her head. “And, this is going to sound super strange but, his hair grew only in these tiny patches and he wore these clothes that made him look like he was going to a renaissance fair. Like I said, weird.”

Her gaze narrowed on Maddox as she shot a glance back to me. “Does this have something to do with…them?” she asked point blank. “Is he one of those paranormal creatures you saw at the motel or something?”

Guilt hit me in the solar plexus as I opened my mouth to explain but Beckham cut me short.

“Did you happen to notice if he carried any weapons?” he asked, his expression grim.

She nodded quickly, scrunching her nose. “I know what this is going to sound like, honest to god, he had a sword and some kind of ball with spikes attached to it on a chain that he was slinging around like some psycho Viking marauder. I just assumed he was in some sort of costume or something."

A muscle in Maddox's jaw twitched. Cooper released a long breath and his fists clenched at his sides while Beckham’s eyes glinted dangerously dark. Jaeger rolled his head back, eyes on the sky for just a second before they refocused on Melanie’s.

They didn't say anything, but all the guys seemed to have recognized the description Melanie gave and none of them looked too happy about it. I’d seen Jaeger literally kill a man and I’d never seen him look so dangerous as he did in that moment. The same thing could be said for the others.

What the fuck is going on?

I made a mental note to ask the guys about it when we were alone again, but I just knew that Melanie’s attack hadn’t been random. My heart felt like it was caving in on itself, devastated that I'd put my sister in danger regardless of my efforts not to. But there was something else growing there, too.

Anger was taking root inside me for someone coming after my sister when she was innocent and had nothing to do with any of this. I didn’t care what this vampire hunter nut job thought justified his actions, it wasn’t like Mel would’ve been hiding the guys under her bed. What he was doing was just wrong. Plain and simple.

“Let’s go inside and get out of the chill,” I said softly.

Mel nodded and led us inside and into the living room. I gently pried the gun from her hands and set it on the table.

While I was throwing my little pity party over what happened, the guys kept questioning Melanie, but I could see that she was getting overwhelmed. I also really wanted to be alone with the guys so they could fill me in on who this maniac was and what we were going to do about him.

Given what she had already been through, and now rehashing the ordeal, I didn’t want to get into it in front of her. Dragging her deeper into the mess I’d caused her was out of the question. She still looked shaken and distraught and the sight made my stomach turn.

"Mel, why don't you go take a bath and try to calm down, okay? In the meantime, me and the guys will figure this out?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as they met mine. She knew I was trying to get rid of her, but she must have seen how serious I was because she didn't argue. She excused herself with a nod.

It was only once I heard the bathwater running that I turned to the vampires.

"Okay, boys. Spill it. Who is this maniac? I thought I was protecting my sister by coming to the motel instead of staying with her, but here we are."

Jaeger shared a look with each one of them, then he sighed and came to stand in front of me. "It sounds like Horvath the Bold, but we can't be sure. It can't really be him."

I blinked. "Horvath the—Who the hell is that?"

"He was a hunter that lived about seven hundred years ago. Back when there were still five of us in our coven. Before Bradley was…" Beckham started, the pain in his eyes so raw that it was as if whatever had happened to Bradley had only happened a few minutes ago.

Turning to look out of my sister’s window, Maddox picked up from Beckham. "He was our brother, in a manner of speaking. Same as we all are to each other. Lazarus’s last remaining five sons."

"What happened to him?" I whispered, needing to hear the words even though I was quite sure that I already knew.

Cooper swallowed before continuing. "There was a great battle. We fought hard, but it wasn't enough."

Jaeger took over from Cooper, no light in his eyes. "We were younger then. We were all newly turned and we didn't know our power like we do now. Eventually, we won against Horvath, but not without our own losses. Bradley was one of them."

Grief and pain permeated the room as they spoke about Bradley, their fallen comrade, their lost brother. It might have been a long time ago, but it was clear that they weren't over the pain caused by his loss. Although, I would never have recovered if anything were to happen to Melanie—no matter how many centuries passed without her.

"What happened to Horvath?"

"Right now, that seems to be the million-dollar question," Jaeger said, confusion furrowing his brow. "He's supposed to be long dead. We pushed him into a fire seven hundred years ago and killed him dead…or so we thought."

"From what your sister said, though, the melted face would make sense if it was him. The chain mace—the links with the spiked ball on the end—was his weapon of choice. We just don't know how he could’ve come back so many years after that happened." Beckham looked lost in memory as he spoke. “But what we do know is that a gunshot won’t stop him for long. Honestly, he’d probably come on a recon mission if he came alone. It was likely the noise and commotion that had him retreating as much as the bullet. But he’ll be back. Of that I have no doubt.”

"You said you've dealt with lots of vampire hunters before, why is this one any different?” Their expressions were grim and I couldn't help but wonder why they’d seemed so confident before, and now…

Silence fell on Melanie's living room before Cooper answered. "We have. We expect that they have always and will always be around, but none has ever been as cruel or as dogged as Horvath was. He’s ruthless. A monster who craves the pain and suffering of others."

"You've defeated him once before, you can do it again."

"We can, yes," Maddox said without hesitation. "But we need to get you back to the hotel and we need to get you back there now."

A burst of incredulous laughter escaped me. "I'm not going back to the hotel. You need me."

"Oh yeah? I'm not saying that we don't, but in this context, what exactly do we need you for?" Maddox asked.

I took a deep breath, knowing that they weren't going to like what they were about to hear.

"Bait."