Sleep didn’t find them that night, thoughts heavy on their mind and almost screaming at them whenever they closed their eyes. By the time it was twelve o’clock and even Abigail was still awake they decided that it would be best to make what progress they could, they could always sleep during the day if they needed to.

Two hours later and they were on the road, Abigail sat securely in her baby seat and sleeping soundly, Skylar looking on dotingly. “She never sleeps when we’re still does she? Always when we’re on the move.”

Liam chuckled, tapping his fingers along the steering wheel. “I have a feeling that when she gets older we’re not going to be able to control her, she’s going to split off and go on her own adventures as soon as she can.”

“Well, she’ll definitely take after her father then. And I suppose after her mother, given how the last month has gone.” She reached back, running her hand softly through Abigail’s fast-growing hair, still marveling at how soft her skin was. “Our little adventurer.”

“We should keep a hold on her until she’s old enough for us to teach though. I’m all for her going off on her own but I’ll be damned if it happens without me teaching her everything I can.”

“That’s going to be hard, if she’s anything like her parents then patience isn’t going to be a strong suit of hers.”

Liam laughed, “I used to be patient, my job required it. But then I met you, and that just threw everything out the window. I can’t control myself around you, never could.”

“Well, looks like she’s going to be pretty responsible until she starts dating...” Skylar sighed, “Whoever she wants to be with is going to have their hands full, aren’t they?”

“Well, we’ve got years before that ever comes up. Right now, all we have to worry about is making sure that she’s happy, that’s what’s most important.”

“You’re right, that’s all we can do right now for her.” She smiled at him, weaving their hands together. “I still can’t believe that we finally have a family together, that we’re surrounded by people who love us.”

“I’m just sorry that we couldn’t protect you when you needed us, if we had been stronger… If I had been stronger your father would still be here.” Liam squeezed her hand, shaking his head sadly. “I’m so sorry Skylar.”

“It wasn’t your fault Liam, it wasn’t any of your fault.” She looked ahead at the road, her eyes not betraying any of the emotion that she felt burning through her veins. “It was one man’s fault, and we’re going to go and make sure that my father doesn’t go unavenged, to make sure that he can never cause anyone else that pain that we felt.”

“Never again.” Liam nodded, smiling to himself. “You don’t need me to tell you this but… I’m proud of you Skylar, for everything. You weren’t forced into this fight, you could have come and gotten the rest of us to handle everything. But that was never your style was it? When it comes to the people that you love nothing’s going to stand in your way, not even me.”

“You make it sound like I’m some sort of superhero… I’ve been scared every step of the way Liam, I’m really not made for this.”

“Being brave doesn’t mean not being scared, in fact it makes you even braver for being scared and still going through with all this.” He waved around him. “Look at what you’ve been doing for a month, you’ve been tracking one of the most dangerous men I’ve ever met across the country and having him terrified the entire way, what was I doing? Sitting sad in a corner and drinking myself into a stupor.”

“You were grieving Liam, no one can blame you for that.”

“You were grieving too, you had to leave behind the family that you’ve been looking forward to having for so long and go on a journey that absolutely terrified you, all to protect us. I chose to let my grief control me, and you chose to control yours.” Liam leaned over quickly, pressing his lips to her cheek and grinning. “Don’t doubt yourself Sky, you’re so much more amazing than you think you are. There’s a reason why I wanted to help you open your own business back in Boulder Junction.”

“Oh?” She smirked. “I thought it was so you could have somewhere to come have lunch when you got bored of your own work.”

“Well, let’s call that a happy little coincidence. You took to the negotiating game like a fish to water, and you have a real head for business. I refuse to let you just go along and have that little thought in the back of your mind that I just married you because you’re beautiful and you make me feel better.” He snapped his fingers. “What better way than to have you be in charge of your own business and be able to watch it succeed in front of you?”

“Well, it would have, not much chance of that now is there?” She pouted, blowing air through her lips. “Kind of shot myself in the foot with the ‘faking my death’ thing, doesn’t really leave much room for afterwards.”

He frowned, thinking silently for a moment before his eyes lit up. “Not necessarily. Everyone in town thinks you’re dead, sure, but we never actually said how it happened. We couldn’t, they’d throw us in a psychiatric ward for life, so we just kept silent on it.”

“So… You’re saying that I can just walk back into town, no questions asked and just go on with my business? I have a feeling it won’t be that easy.”

“Think about it, we have money, and we’re in love. What do rich lovestruck fools do? They buy boats and go sailing.” He drummed his fingers along the dashboard, the plan already forming in his head. “We were out celebrating Abigail’s birth off the coast when a storm hit and the boat capsized. I swam around for hours until Michael found me, but you were nowhere to be found.”

She laughed, thinking over the different possibilities for her disappearing. “And I washed up on an island somewhere, spending a month there living off the land until I made a raft and sailed back to the mainland. Oh! Or maybe I got kidnapped by pirates and only just narrowly escaped with my life to get back to you!”

Liam laughed, clamping a hand over his mouth so he didn’t wake Abigail. “I’ll let you come up with that part, it’s only fair considering you were the one who went through all of that.”

“I know, how did I ever make it through?” She chuckled, leaning into his side and squeezing his bicep. “I love you, you know that right?”

“I had a feeling you did.” His lips brushed the top of her head, his hand not leaving hers. “I love you too Skylar, don’t ever forget that.”

---

A few hours into their journey they showed no signs of stopping, deciding that they may as well make as much use of the time they had as they could. Of course, a few hours of sitting in a car would drive anyone insane, so after a quick discussion they decided to stop for a short break. Good thing too, given that Abigail had just woken up and was getting progressively more antsy the longer she stayed in her seat.

“There you go, all better now.” Skylar said, rocking Abigail back and forth and rubbing circles into her back. “My little traveler, even you have limits, don’t you?”

“She takes after her parents in being completely restless yeah?” Skylar looked over, seeing a nervous Iggy walking towards her. “Sorry I just… We haven’t gotten a chance to talk and I feel kinda bad about that. Especially considering your guy and his pal saved my ass a few days ago.”

“I haven’t exactly made an effort to get to know you either, I can’t blame you for anything there.”

“Yeah but you’ve had a whole bunch of shit to deal with, what with coming back from the dead and meeting your mystery mom.” Iggy held his hand out, trying to give the most winning smile he could in his nervous condition. “Name’s Ignatius, but for the love of god, call me Iggy please.”

She met his hand, giggling at his introduction. “I’m Skylar, but my friends usually call me Sky.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So, am I a Skylar, or am I a Sky?”

“Well, how about we start off with Skylar and move on to Sky after you tell me all about yourself?” She led him towards the car, taking a seat against one of the piles of bags that they had started to rearrange. “We can start off with you telling me where you were from.”

“Where I’m from?” He rubbed the back of his neck, tilting his head in thought. “I’m from Seattle originally, but I’ve been moving around since before I can remember. I was living in Vegas for a while but that wasn’t doing it for me, so I packed up my car and decided to go off the grid for a bit. I actually spent a month living at the Grand Canyon before I got back on the road and ended up getting turned.”

“Wait, you were living at the Grand Canyon? How did you manage to work that?”

“Well, it takes a bit of getting around. Park rangers start to figure out that you’re not just visiting for a night or two, they don’t like people sleeping on the big rocks for too long.” Iggy lay back on the back, arms crossed behind his head. “Eventually I got tired of having to keep one eye open when I was sleeping and headed on out, came down to Arizona and met my master.”

“Your master?”

“Oh sorry, the guy who turned me.” He perked his head up. “Do you know much about vampires?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. Honestly I’m still learning about a lot of things related to the paranormal.”

“Oh good! That makes two of us then!” He chuckled, “All I know is that I woke up one morning with fangs and hungry and given how broken up he was about the whole thing it would have been rude to just go off on my own. He was going to explain everything to me eventually but then he died, so here I am. On the run from a genocidal maniac, going about it very counterproductively by running towards the genocidal maniac, and I still don’t know my ass from my fangs.”

Skylar watched him close his eyes, legs resting together and his body sagging in relaxation. He looked so peaceful, but what he had just described sounded so stressful…

“That must have been very hard on you.”

Iggy shrugged, his eyes staying closed but a lazy smile spreading across his face. “Nah, it’s not all bad. I got to meet you guys after all. Speaking of, what’s your story?” He snapped his fingers, pointing over to where Liam was sat with Cayden. “When did you get married to tall, dark and handsome over there?”

She looked back at him, surprised. “How do you know where he is? Your eyes are closed.”

“You all smell like a different kind of food, that’s the best way I can describe it. Now come on, tell me the story.”

“Alright, alright, be patient.” She shuffled closer, her heart already soaring as she recalled how Liam and her had met. “It all started when I came up from Florida...”

Iggy sat up, hanging on each of her words with an enthusiasm that she hadn’t expected. He laughed when she told him about their misadventures and couldn’t stop smiling when she recounted the day of their wedding and the birth of Abigail. His mood however plummeted just as hers did when she started to recall the fateful day of her disappearance, the day that she had lost her father.

“I’m sorry, I know you’ve probably heard this a lot by now but… I’m sorry about your dad. I didn’t really know mine, so I don’t know what it was like losing him but… When I lost my master, it felt like my soul had been torn out of my body, I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself after.”

“No that’s very nice of you to say, thank you.” Skylar rocked Abigail back and forth, the infant starting to fall asleep once more. “I’m sorry about your master, that’s a loss that no one should have to feel. We’ll make sure that it doesn’t happen to anyone else Iggy, I promise you that.”

“Thanks Skylar, you know you’re pretty cool, I can see why everyone likes you so much.”

She laughed, taking care not to wake her child. “Please Iggy, you can call me Sky from now on. I’d say we’re friends now, wouldn’t you?”

“Oh.” Iggy blushed, looking away from her. “Y-Yeah, that sounds really nice… Sky.”

From where they were sitting on the other car, Liam and Cayden had a clear view of the conversation, chuckling to themselves when Iggy couldn’t look at her any longer. “And she’s got another one,” Liam said, “It took a little longer than I thought it would, but there it is.”

“You know, I’m surprised at how well you’re taking this.” Cayden passed him a drink, opening his own and taking a sip. “I figured you’d be getting all jealous right around now, what happened to the big, bad Alpha that almost ripped my head off whenever I so much as looked at her?”

Liam shrugged. “I’ve grown up, it’s amazing how much I’ve improved as a person by just not wanting her to be disappointed in me.”

“Yeah, she has that effect on you huh? God, can you imagine actually being a disappointment to her? I can’t even imagine what her face would look like.”

“The shock of it would probably kill you.”

“Still though,” Cayden said, “Even if you aren’t as much of a dick as you used to be it’s still pretty surprising. I mean, what if he starts to fall head over heels for her?”

“Let’s be completely honest Cayden, more or less everyone in this group is in love with her a little bit. It’s impossible to meet her and not have that happen.”

Cayden clicked his tongue, conceding the point. “I guess you’re right there.”

Skylar for her part hadn’t noticed the way Iggy couldn’t maintain eye contact, speaking more about her past and asking him questions which got little half answers in response. She was in the middle of telling a story of her father coming home having lost his socks in a bet when Iggy shot up, his back going straight as a rod and his nose sniffing at the air.

“Iggy?” She reached out slowly, cautiously placing her hand on his shoulder. “Iggy is everything alright?”

When he looked at her she almost yelped in surprise, his eyes black as the darkest of night and swirling like the lightest of smoke. “I can smell them, they’re close.”

“Who can you smell? Who’s coming?”

“Hunters. A lot of hunters.” He grinned, his teeth starting to lengthen and his voice lowering to a growl. “And I smell blood.”

Claire reached over to her seat, picking up her pistol and firing two shots at the already retreating car. She thought that she had bought herself some time, only realizing what was happening when they swerved to the side, the back of her car crumpling under the assault and spinning her to the side, the tires losing traction as they left the road and continued down the hill. Her seatbelt was the only thing that kept her alive, the car spinning into a rock and flipping, the front windshield switching views between the ground and the sky before she could have time to process either.

The car finally came to a stop at the bottom of the hill, the roof almost fully caved in as it finally rested on its top, oil and brake fluid leaking onto the ground and burning Claire’s nostrils. She couldn’t move, her body not obeying her wishes to unclip herself and get moving, every muscle screaming at her for rest, to let the journey just be over and done with already. Blood was rushing to her head, her vision still fading out but sheer will be keeping her from falling in.

“Not today...” She groaned, reaching towards her hip against her body’s protestations. “I’m not… Going to die… Like this.”

Sliding her knife out of its sheath she grabbed a handful of the seatbelt, sawing slowly through the material and bracing herself for a very sudden descent. As the last thread was severed she closed her eyes, body falling through the air and impacting with the crumpled metal underneath. Laying there for a few more seconds was all she could give herself, sliding the knife back into its sheath and dragging her arms along the roof, paying no mind to the shards of glass biting into her skin.

Crawling out of the totaled car she noticed flecks of water starting to fall onto her hand, slowly increasing until there was a steady downpour falling on her and chilling her to the bone. “Oh great, all the pain isn’t enough, now I’m going to die cold.”

Gun in hand, she picked herself up, feet dragging through the mud with every step she took to get deeper into the forest. Up the hill she had tumbled down she heard a commotion, car loads of hunters unloading to pursue her. Distantly she wondered if she should consider this a compliment, considering that they needed dozens of people to even have a chance of stopping her.

“If this is a compliment then they can keep it.” Claire braced herself against a tree, aiming carefully and squeezing off a shot, one of the hunters’ chests spouting blood and their body tumbling down the hill towards her. “I’d sure hate to be insulted by them.”

Turning and running as best she could into the forest, she weaved in between trees to avoid their enraged shots, flecks of wood splintering off and showering into her hair. One by one, hunters started chasing in after her, guns at the ready and tempers high. Behind all of them, still at the top of the hill with a bandage pressed to his neck stood their leader, a tight grip on the handle of his rifle and a sadistic smile on his face.

“You can’t run forever girl, you can try but you’ll have to stop eventually. Fuck what Christian said he wanted to do to you,” He spat onto the ground, “You’re mine.”

---

“She’s over there! She’s-” Their announcement cut off with a pained gurgle, dropping to the ground lifelessly under the sound of the gunshot.

“Jesus, I never noticed how annoying that is before.” Claire fell back against the nearest tree, hand at her shoulder and gasping in pain. “Never thought I’d ever be the one being hunted, guess I can consider this a lesson in humility.”

Distantly, she heard a scream followed by obviously panicked shots, the commotion falling silent in seconds and leaving only the faint echoes of death on the air. Claire raised an eyebrow, cautiously poking her head out before pulling back quickly, rifle fire disintegrating the bark where she had just been. “Fine, whatever’s going on over there doesn’t mean shit if people are still shooting at me!”

Steeling herself, she pushed off with her feet and propelled herself to the side as hard as she could, feet pounding into the ground with every step and pushing her forward as best she could. Arm outstretched, barely aimed shots arced through the air towards her attacker, the hunter barely dropping to the ground in time to avoid the onslaught of bullets.

“Try and catch me you assholes! I’m right here!” Firing more shots behind her to force their heads down, Claire ran as fast as she could, ignoring the screams that were growing louder by the minute and the growing fatigue in her body. Her movements were getting sluggish fast, her legs feeling like jelly and vision blurred, but still she pressed on. She had learned many things in her time as a hunter, many of which she would spend the rest of her days trying to forget, but one that had been ingrained in her very being was the knowledge that you just. Couldn’t. Give up.

So that’s what she was doing, even if her blood felt like it was acid and her head was fit to explode, she wouldn’t stop until she dropped dead. Anything less was just pathetic in her opinion, and for all the faults she saw in herself pathetic and a coward were not included.

Checking her magazine again, she grimaced when she saw it was empty, only one bullet still left in the chamber for her to use. “You know, if this is some sort of sign for what you want me to do next...” She looked up, pointing at the bullet. “I’m going to just ignore it.”

Tossing the empty magazine to the side and sliding the pistol into the front of her waistband, she knelt low to the ground, quieting her footsteps and keeping an ear out for anyone approaching. Surely enough breathless pants and heavy boots echoed through the forest around her, Claire slinking back and hiding in the bushes.

“Where the fuck is she?” The lead hunter said, looking around the trees before turning back to her partner. “She ran this way, right?”

“Yeah, I had to get on the ground when she was shooting at me, but she went this way!” He turned, just in time to see the rock seconds before it impacted with his nose. His head snapped back, his weapon dropping from his hands instinctively to protect his face.

Exactly what Claire was hoping for.

With a roar she charged out of the forest, leaping into the air and thrusting her knee into the leader’s chin, grabbing her hair on the way down and slamming her into the ground. Picking up the nearby rifle by the barrel, she stood quickly, swinging with all her might and crushing her jaw under the heavy metal and wood. “Stay! Down! God! Dammit!” Each word was punctuated with a swing of the rapidly deteriorating rifle, making absolutely sure she wasn’t going to get up again any time soon.

Hearing a shuffling behind her, she threw the rifle into the air and spinning around, catching it by the grip and bracing herself on her knee. Three shots fired before the ruined weapon jammed completely, just enough to take down the last hunter once and for all.

“Jesus...” She panted to herself, stars dancing in front of her vision while she dropped the gun. “How many of you were there?”

Silence was her answer, the screams from elsewhere finally ceasing and leaving her alone with her thoughts. If ever there was a chance that she was going to be welcomed back with open arms that was well and truly gone, what hunters she hadn’t killed laying broken and bruised on the road and the grass around her. Most of her was proud of that fact, but she still couldn’t deny that there had been friends, lovers among that number. She wasn’t sure what broke her heart more, the fact that she had to end their lives, or that they had no hesitation in attempting to end hers.

“Well fuck them then,” She said, “If it was that easy then I never meant anything to them anyway.”

She heard the snap of the branch before anything else, turning and throwing a fist out on pure instinct and catching her attacker in the cheek, remembering his face the second she saw him. “Oh, for fu- Why can’t you just die!”

He grinned, backing off and spitting out a mouthful of blood. “That’s no way to greet me girl, especially after that show at the hotel don’t you think?”

“Yeah? How many innocent people did you kill trying to get to me?” She clenched her fist, keeping an eye on his hands. “Do you even care about them?”

“Not really. They got in the way, I don’t like people getting in the way of my targets.” He pointed to the wound in his neck. “Don’t really appreciate you doing this by the way, that pushed you from catch to kill if I’m being honest.”

He looked down at her stomach, seeing how pale she was. He smirked, saying, “But from the look of you I’m not gonna have to do much to finish you off am I? You’re basically dead on your feet already.”

“Yeah? You wanna see if that’s true or you wanna sit around and talk all night?” Claire brought her arms up, clenching her fists tightly. “Only one of us is walking away from this, let’s just get it over with.”

“You got some spunk kid, I’ll give you that. Just a shame you had to be an idiot about this whole thing.” Cracking his neck, he stepped forward. “Doesn’t feel right killing you without knowing who I am, I’m-”

“I don’t give a fuck what your name is. You’re shit underneath my shoe, I’m gonna forget about you as soon as I see the life drain out of your eyes.”

He sighed, “Like I said, you’ve got spunk. But you’re an idiot.”

Darting forward before she could even blink, he threw his arm out and caught her in the stomach, knocking her backwards and winding her. He threw a hook into her temple, sweeping her leg out at the same time and letting her fall to the ground in a brief daze.

“Come on girl, don’t tell me you’re done already. I didn’t chase you halfway across the country just to let you off that easy.”

Shaking her head, she got to her feet slowly, weighing up her options. He was heavier than her, if they were to get into a raw strength competition she would lose hands down. He was fast, but once she got over the shock of his first movement he wasn’t overly so. He wasn’t an unconquerable monster, he was just a hunter, and a wounded one at that.

And she was not going to go quietly.

She fainted to the left, ducking underneath his wild haymaker and jabbing her fingers into his ribs, darting around and sinking her nails into the wound on his neck. Two nails dug into muscle, the cut opening even further and drenching his shirt immediately. Howling in pain, he threw his elbow out, Claire only just jumping away from it and flicking the blood off her hand.

He growled in anger, seeing red as he looked towards her and charged. Uncontrolled punched flowed from him, Claire having to use every ounce of her focus to avoid each one in its unrecognizable pattern, pure anger pushing each fist towards her. She backed up until she felt bark at her back, ducking underneath a furious straight and wincing when she heard his knuckles break against the wood.

Grabbing his wrist and pulling him towards her, she dragged his arm over a nearby branch, his eyes widening as she dropped to her knees and snapped his elbow over the wood.

He threw his foot out on pure instinct, Claire not able to move in time to avoid the boot sailing into her temple and knocking her onto her back. Her vision swam, head pounding and her body suddenly not obeying her. Dimly, she was aware that he had straightened up, barely registering the boot that planted in her side until she flipped onto her front, the dirt cool against her cheek.

“You little fuck!” He grabbed her by the scruff of her jacket, dragging her back into the open and tossing her to the ground. “You know I’ve really gotta hand it to you, it’s been a long time since I faced off against such a gigantic pain in my ass.” Another boot planted in her stomach, flipping her over onto her back. Slowly, he slid his knife out of the sheath, admiring the shine in the night before he knelt down, legs on either side of her hips.

“I’m gonna enjoy this.” He thrust his knife down, her hand catching his wrist just in time to stop it doing more than cutting her cheek.

“Still fighting huh?” He grunted, pressing down as much as he could with his one good arm. “I can’t believe this.”

As quickly as she could, fighting her body’s urges to give up every step of the way, Claire snaked her hand down, pulling the handgun out of her waistband and pressing it to his stomach. “Believe it you piece of shit!”

The gunshot was muffled between their bodies, a dull thud and a fountain of blood erupting from his back in the bullets wake. He screamed wordlessly, in so much pain he couldn’t even work his throat properly. Claire ducked her head to the side, letting go of his hand and hearing the knife sink into the dirt next to her ear. Holding his hand there and throwing the empty gun to the side, she drew her own knife and swung it towards his neck.

The blade sunk in to the hilt, his mouth hanging open in shock and pain as he shook on top of her, trying desperately to get his own hand out of her grip to no avail.

Claire pulled him in, growling in his face while his blood started to drip onto hers, “How about that? Do I have enough spunk for you now?”

He gasped in response, eyes bulging out of his head in pain. His body was losing what little strength it still had, his feet capable of doing nothing but digging fruitlessly into the dirt and dragging small tracks. Slowly, he started to fall forward, the only thing keeping him from collapsing completely was the knife still embedded in his neck.

Claire pulled it out, blood immediately drenching her as he fell forward lifelessly, small twitches the only movement his body could still do. She let her head fall back, spitting out blood that was belonged to both herself and her opponent, the knife falling from her hand as she finally let herself relax.

“Who’s the idiot now huh? Heh, guess it’s still me isn’t it?”

The sound of approaching footsteps made her head fall to the side, seeing a group of people staring at her with looks that measured between hostility and confusion, before she locked eyes with one person in particular.

“Claire?” Cayden stepped forward, looking around the scene in front of him. “What the hell happened here?”

Ignoring the pain in every part of her body, Claire tilted her head back and laughed, tears spilling from her eyes as she finally started to slip into unconsciousness.

“Hey Cayden, long time no see.”