I didn’t have to wonder for too long as to what was happening between Melanie and my father. Jerrod steered me through the mansion until we reached my father’s study. Melanie sat at my father’s desk, her booted feet casually propped up on one corner. A wooden stake wound through her fingers like a baton as she stared at my father. He stood opposite her, wrapped in heavy silver chains, the ends of which were held by a pair of guards.

“Lacey!” my father said, surprised by my sudden appearance.

Melanie looked at me, her face a mix of disappointment and fury. “Oh, yes, the loyal daughter. Jerrod told me all about how helpful you’ve been since our last chat.”

“What you’re doing is wrong, Melanie. I get that you’re angry about what happened. It’s not like I was living in Club Med for the past five years. I paid a price for helping you get free and this is what you do? Have your people massacre the entire Court and give me over to whichever monster asks for me?” I jerked my head to indicate Jerrod who was still holding my wrists tightly behind my back. “You’re no different than the rest of them!”

“I gave you a chance at freedom, Lacey. You didn’t want it.”

“What was I supposed to do, Mel? Go back to Beechwood Harbor and pretend everything back home was just fine? Sitting around waiting for the news piece that gave a tally of the carnage?” I shook my head and scoffed. “Not an option.”

“Well, you made your choice and I’ve made mine. By tomorrow, the Eastern Court will no longer exist. I was just discussing the options with Father. He can either turn himself into the SPA and let them deal with him, or I can have him dealt with here and now.”

There was no doubt as to her meaning.

“Where’s Mother? Aunt Gemma and Uncle Kevin?”

Melanie waved the stake like she was batting away a mosquito.

My fangs slid down and I bore them at her.

Behind me, Jerrod went limp, releasing his grip on me. Melanie’s head lifted, her eyes wide, and I whirled around, one hand unsheathing my saber. A gasp ripped from me when I saw who’d dropped Jerrod.

Matthias was there, his eyes and face red from the silver dust smoke bomb. His chest was bared, red striations appearing where the silver had touched his skin. The distraction caught the guards holding my father and he didn’t waste a second of the opportunity. He ripped free of their grip, dropped the chains, and within a blink of an eye, had both men incapacitated, dropping them to the floor.

Melanie shot to her feet but he flew at her, a mad peal of laughter bursting from him. “You’ve been spending too much time with the humans, Melanie. You’ve gone soft!”

He hurled her back into the wall and the wooden stake in her hands fell to the floor.

I dove to the floor and grabbed the chains that had fallen from my father. With my gloves on, they didn’t hurt my skin. Lunging toward my father, I offered them to him. “Father! Here. Don’t kill her.”

“Why shouldn’t I?” he growled, looking down into Melanie’s wide eyes with pure rage. “She’s likely organized the slaughter of her entire Court!”

“Most of them ran,” Matthias said. “Her people were scared and untrained. They didn’t know how to corral them.”

Melanie’s fangs flashed at his assessment of her team.

“Let the SPA deal with her,” I said. “That’s what she was offering you.”

“Is that what you want, Melanie? To see what the SPA will do with you? I imagine they’ll lock you in a cage underground for the rest of your endless life.”

Melanie tensed her jaw, doing her best to hide the shudder that rippled through her.

My father laughed, the low chuckle loosing goosebumps up my arm. Matthias wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me close to his side.

“It’s for the best,” I said. “I’ll make the call right now.”

I was reaching for the phone on my father’s desk when Melanie jerked up and slammed her forehead into our father’s. He hesitated a fraction of a second, but that was all she needed. She wrenched free of his grip, slammed an elbow into the side of his head, and slid across the floor to retrieve her wooden stake.

“No!” Matthias barked, lunging for her just as she brought it down.

He was too late.

The stake plunged into my father’s back and a scream ripped from me.

Melanie cackled and then launched herself out the window, breaking the multi-paneled glass into a million pieces that rained down on the lingering fighters below.

“Father!” I screamed again, going to his side.

“She missed his heart,” Matthias said, examining the wound.

My father gasped as Matthias worked to remove the stake and I lunged for the phone and dialed with trembling fingers. A sleepy woman answered and I screamed into the phone, “Agent Bramble, this is Lacey Vaughn. I need help.”

* * *

The phone call lasted three minutes, but when I hung up the receiver, I nearly sank to the floor in a puddle of relief. The Supernatural Protection Agency was on the way. They had portals all over the havens and Agent Agatha Bramble assured me it would be mere minutes before a team arrived.

“They’re on the way,” I said. “They’ll have medics, Father. Are you okay?”

The wound was bleeding, but Matthias had torn off a sleeve of my father’s shirt to try to staunch it.

“Someone needs to go after Melanie,” my father wheezed out. I had no doubt the stake had punctured a lung. He would heal, but it would take time and the skills of a healer.

“She’s gone, Father. We’ll deal with her later.” I stepped over the two guards and went to stoop over Jerrod’s still body. As tempting as it was to give him a few well-placed kicks, I held back, choosing instead to bind him with the silver chain. Melanie’s other guards were human and had died from the injury my father inflicted in his attack, likely breaking their necks with lightning fast twists.

Once confirmed, I joined Matthias at the broken window. Only a few shards remained in place and the night air whipped into the room, scattering paperwork onto the floor.

“It looks like everyone’s scattered,” he said.

I couldn’t bring myself to ask if either of them had seen Athena or Jupiter or Aunt Gemma. All I could do was hope that those I loved had made it to safety.

A sob clogged my throat and Matthias clenched me tightly to his chest. He placed one hand on the back of my head and cradled me gently. “It’s over now, Lacey.”

I let my eyes close and tears slid down my cheeks. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you. I should have told you what we’d planned.”

“I should have told you.”

My father’s breathing was labored but evened out. He’d gone into a healing state—a vegetative, coma-like state to accelerate healing.

I stared at him, my cheek still against Matthias’s bare skin. “He’s going to be okay.”

“He is.”

“I wonder why I even care. I’m not sure that I should.”

Matthias didn’t question me. For some reason, that comforted me. He didn’t shrink away from what most would see as an ugly question. “Like it or not, this is the world we live in. People like your father and my mother are the ones setting the rules. But it won’t always be like that. We don’t have to wish for their deaths to wish for a better world.”

Loud voices startled us and we separated. A horde of SPA agents were on the scene, running with flashlights or orbs of magical light as they scoured the grounds, taking anyone they came across into custody. Another team swept in to start tending to those wounded on the ground.

“We need to get a healer up here,” I said, pulled away from Matthias’s embrace.

He wound an arm around my shoulders and we left the study. We went outside and surrendered ourselves to the SPA agents. Matthias went with one of the agents and Agent Bramble took me aside. “I didn’t expect to see you here, Lacey. When did you leave Beechwood Harbor?”

“A few weeks ago,” I told her. My gaze drifted over the unfolding scene and I sighed. “Just long enough to start World War III, it seems.”

“From what I can tell, it could have been a lot worse,” Agent Bramble said. “There are some casualties, but we’re working to help the injured and I imagine the majority of them will survive.”

I bobbed my head, my throat too thick to speak.

She asked me a series of questions and I helped her put the pieces together. Agent Bramble was a hawkish woman, in the best possible way. Not a detail escaped her notice and while she was far from warm and fuzzy, she still managed to put me at ease. We’d worked together on another vampire-related fiasco back when I’d lived in Beechwood Harbor. Prior to dressing for the evening, I’d slipped a piece of paper with her number on it into one of my gloves.

“We’ll be here working through most of the day. Will you be nearby, if we have more questions?”

I looked across the property, scanning the faces for Matthias. Dozens of vampires and humans were corralled by the SPA agents. Some getting medical attention, others being interrogated. As I searched for Matthias, I saw Melanie pass before the headlights of an SPA vehicle, her hands cuffed behind her. My heart jumped. She was still alive.

Agent Bramble noticed my sharp inhale. “That’s your sister, correct?”

I nodded. “What will happen to her?”

“We’re taking her to our New York headquarters.”

“I don’t know why she did this,” I said, not expecting a reply.

“In my experience, people who do things like this are usually after attention. From my understanding, your sister was publicly shamed and then shunned from your circles. I’d imagine part of her motive was revenge, but another part of it may have been her way of proving herself.”

I thanked Agent Bramble and told her I’d be staying in the haven, at the Poseidon. After the night we’d had, I figured neither of us would want to be alone.

Matthias was waiting for me near the front door of the mansion. His hands were in the pockets of a hooded sweatshirt bearing the SPA logo. “Your father is with the healers,” he told me, gesturing back at the house. “He’ll make a full recovery; it’s just a matter of time. But, I gave them your cell phone number to call for updates.”

“Thank you.”

He held out his hand and I took it. “I told the agents I would be staying at your building. I hope that’s all right.”

“Of course.”

Matthias held my hand tightly as we walked toward his SUV. “So, what happens now? I assume there will be a rematch since the fight got cancelled.”

I shook my head. “The tournament is done. In exchange for the information about Melanie and her friends, I bought myself eight years of freedom.”

“Eight years of blissful singleness, huh?” he teased, smiling for the first time all night. I ached at the spark of light in his eyes, not realizing just how much I’d missed it until it appeared again.

I returned his easy smile. “Something like that. I suppose I’ll need some time to plan the wedding. Oh, and ya know, find the right guy.”

“Got any candidates in mind? Or should I say suitors?”

“No. You absolutely should not.” I playfully narrowed my eyes, then smiled. “I figure I’ll start with some first dates. See where that takes me.”

He chuckled. “Well, in that case, do you have plans for tomorrow night?”

I grinned up at him. “I could probably move some things around.”

We stopped at the driver’s side door. Matthias backed me up against the car, away from prying eyes, and leaned down until his lips met mine. The kiss swallowed me whole, shining a floodlight on the dark and ugly night. I gave myself over to it and returned it with equal fervor.

We broke apart, breathless, our dark eyes fixated on one another.

“You know,” I started. “There’s a pretty good chance I’m free right now.”

“Best news I’ve heard all day.” He grinned and kissed me again.