I called Crawford as we sped down Raeven’s Road, then left a message when he was unavailable. He was probably in the basement torturing the hell out of Gordon Gray.

I didn’t want to think about that, so I switched my thoughts to Angus. He was an obnoxious asshole, but I could admit to myself that I cared about him.

Maybe a little too much.

“Did you try his phone?” Shane asked.

“Twice. Went to voicemail.”

“He’ll be heading home,” Shane said. “All that matters to him is keeping his brood safe.”

“Drive faster,” I told him.

Lights from police cars swirled, coloring the darkness over Bay Town, and I had a moment to wonder how it’d gotten bad so quickly. Then Shane skidded to a halt and I jumped from the truck almost before it’d completely stopped.

We raced toward Angus’ house, but kept to the shadows. All around us were police cars, lights pulsing, screams, shouts, and barking dogs.

They’d taken over Bay Town.

For a second I was transported back in time, drifting in and out of consciousness as I was carted away from my sister’s house. I hadn’t known Amias then. Hadn’t known his name or his life or that he was a master.

I knew only that he was a vampire—and there were a lot of those.

The police assumed he’d died from whatever had been ailing him when he’d attacked me. I’d assumed the same.

When I saw him again, he’d been secretly watching me for God knows how long, and I was his obsession. The rage had exploded inside me and I’d wanted nothing more in life than to kill him. To hurt him.

I hadn’t understood the pain that had ripped through me when I’d gone after him, death in my heart and rage in my brain. I’d thought it was some phantom pain from the trauma I’d experienced at his hands.

Little did I know he’d made himself my master.

Someday I would kill him, but right then, I wished he were there, helping me find Angus.

Shane grabbed my arm and pulled me into the shadows. Across the street, the police were dragging a screaming couple from their home. I pressed my fist hard against my teeth and stayed silent as bones cracked and blood sprayed.

“Wolves,” Shane whispered.

I nodded. Bay Town was full of supernaturals. None of them were safe, and many of them would die that night. “Let’s go,” I whispered, when finally the cops threw the wolves into the back of a cruiser and sped off, siren wailing.

The humans were scared, and they were angry.

They were dying.

And supernaturals would suffer for that.

Ten minutes later we arrived at Angus’s house. I was nearly certain he wouldn’t be there—surely he’d hide with his children. Angus would know how to avoid the human police.

But he was beside his front door, and he wasn’t alone.

He had Derry pressed up against the wall behind him, and he used himself as a shield while the police advanced, screaming, shotguns aimed.

I’d seen those guns before. The police didn’t bring the usual human weapons to Bay Town. The shotguns fired long-range electroshock projectiles, powerful enough to take down a shifted supernatural.

“He’s dead,” Shane said. “We need to go. There’s nothing we can do for him now, Trinity.”

“I’m not leaving,” I whispered, fiercely. “Don’t fight them, Angus. Don’t fight.”

But he was Angus, he was a bull, and he was protecting his kid. He was going to fight.

He began to shift, as did his daughter, and he was fast. His animal was impressive—enormous and black with long, sharp horns and massive hooves. And he was mad.

He charged the cops. He stomped one and gored another, then rammed his huge body into the third. The cop flew through the air and landed with a bone-crunching thud, as though he’d been hit with a truck.

Two dozen cops came running. They surrounded him, and every single one of them began to shoot.

It was torture to watch. I wanted to look away. I needed to.

But I wouldn’t.

Derry had abandoned her shift and crouched against the wall, her arms over her head, screaming.

“God,” I murmured.

“Trinity, let’s go. We can’t save him. If we kill the demon, maybe we can—”

“Shut up,” I cried. “No!”

Angus went down, his body jerking from the electricity they hit him with, and when he was on the ground, they rushed him. Yelling, vicious, mean. Bloodlust had taken them, and they began kicking the shit out of him. Beating him with the butts of their shotguns. Killing him.

“Oh, you bastards.” And before Shane could stop me, I began running.

Not for Angus. I wasn’t stupid. I couldn’t help him.

I headed for Derry. I would save his child.

The cops were busy brutalizing her dad, and they weren’t even thinking of the young girl cowering against the house.

I grabbed her arm, yanked her up, and ran back the way I’d come. She sobbed, but she ran with me.

“Trinity,” she cried. “They’re hurting him.”

I didn’t try to tell her he’d be okay. I didn’t believe he would be, and neither did she. Supernaturals were well versed in the ways of the human world in which they lived.

Even if some of the younger ones had never been hurt by the violence of a human, they’d been born beneath the constant threat of it. That never went away. They knew what could happen to them. They saw what could happen to them.

So Derry didn’t flinch when she had the chance to flee. She held my hand with a strength that nearly broke my fingers, and she flew over the ground so fast that in the end, she was pulling me along.

Shane followed behind us.

We watched as more cops, dressed in riot gear, marched down the streets, broke down doors, dragged out screaming, crying, begging supernaturals. Most of the residents didn’t even try to put up a fight. They knew better.

When two cops stepped out in front of us and demanded that we stop and get down on the ground, Amias appeared suddenly behind them and ripped out their throats before they even realized what had happened.

He glanced at me, then at Shane. “Get her to the woods.”

“Doing my best,” Shane said, then shoved me away when I would have stood there staring down at the cops, frozen.

“We’re almost there,” he said, but to himself, as though he didn’t believe we’d actually make it.

But we did.

With Derry between us, we sped away from the death and destruction, grim and shocked, with the girl’s soft sobs sporadically breaking the silence.

Finally, I squeezed her hand. “Derry, where are the children?”

“They went into the tunnels with their nannies,” she whispered. “But I saw my dad running, and I didn’t want him to be alone. I wanted him to come with us.”

“Tunnels are under the house?” I asked.

She nodded. “I should’ve told you.”

“No, Derry.” I put my arm around her and drew her close. “You shouldn’t have.”

“Your dad will be okay,” Shane said, surprising me. “He’s strong.”

“The human women,” she murmured. “Things were shaky because of the women getting killed, and then when they found a pile of them, we knew what was coming. But it came so fast…”

“A demon is killing them,” I told her. “We’re going to end him tonight. Then everything will be okay.”

“No,” she said. “Nothing will ever be okay.”

I didn’t argue, because she was right.

But I was going to make sure that I helped make things as okay as I could.

Hang on, Angus.

Hang on.