I walked home in a daze. My head felt swollen with confusion, my lungs stretched so tight with the struggle to clamp down my emotions, it was like I was underwater. I'd gone to Greylark to bag my first solo kill, and instead my world had been turned upside down. No, more than that. It was like something had thrown my world off axis, picked it up, violently shaken it and dropped it back down.

My house was in front of me before I knew it. The twenty odd minute walk from Greylark had felt like a second. I hesitated outside the front door. There was no way I could tell Noah or Ava what had happened tonight. If they knew about Luke, they'd go straight to Greylark to kill him. Luke was a vampire and I had been trained to hate his kind, but the thought of anything happening to him made me feel physically sick.

I sucked several deep breaths into my lungs, willing my breathing into a regular pattern. If I didn't want anyone to know what had happened tonight, I couldn't let them see how shaken I was.

Ethan wasn't fooled, despite my best efforts. He took one look at my face when I went into the kitchen, and said, "What's wrong?"

I shook my head, trying to force a smile to my lips. "Nothing."

The way he narrowed his eyes said he didn't believe me. I had to feed him a plausible story or he would start poking around.

"I met up with Riley after I finished my run, and there were a couple of guys with her. One of them was a little keen on me, that's all."

Ethan's face darkened. "I hope you told him you weren't interested."

"I made it very clear."

"Good."

I felt guilty about using Riley as my scapegoat, but it was the only lie I could think of on the spot that I knew Ethan would buy.

Sophie limped into the kitchen. Her blonde curls were scrunched into a messy bun on top of her head, something she only did when she at home. She always wore her hair down when she left the house so people couldn't see the mass of scar tissue on the right side of her throat, creeping up around her jaw-line. My own scars briefly throbbed with empathy. Sophie used to be a hunter, until a vicious vamp attack left her unable to walk without a bad limp. Now the best way for her to contribute to the team was as our nurse.

I noticed she was carrying a red-stained cloth and my throat closed up again.

"Don't worry, sweetie, it's not anything serious," Sophie said, reading my gaze. "Your father got a bit scraped up on the hunt, that's all."

I was heading towards the living room almost before the words were out of her mouth. I might resent Noah for his domineering ways and his lack of affection for me, but he was still my father.

He was sitting on a wooden-backed chair in the living room, a fresh cloth held to his left arm. Ava was slumped on the sofa. Her eyes were ringed with dark shadows, like bruises. Marc, Noah's best friend and the hunter that had been with us the longest, was using the mirror on the far wall to check out the sizeable bruise on his forehead.

None of them looked up as I came in. I might as well not even have existed. Hurt flashed through me. I told myself I should be used to it by now - they'd always been this way - but there was no getting used to being ignored by the people that were supposed to love you unconditionally.

"How did the hunt go?" I wasn't sure I actually wanted to know, but it was what I would normally say when they got back and I didn't want them knowing that anything had changed in my world.

"We got the vamp," Marc said, turning to face me. "And her friends."

"Friends?"

"Apparently she'd spotted us the first time we went hunting for her, so tonight she made sure she had backup. It wasn't enough though." Marc grinned and I smiled weakly back.

Any other day I'd have felt elated that the world was free of more bloodsuckers. Instead my stomach queasily knotted. What if lots of vampires didn't drink human blood? We hunters didn't exactly operate by following a trail of corpses. We followed tips given to us by other hunters, or the small network of regular humans who'd stumbled onto the existence of vamps by chance. It was entirely possible that none of the vamps we'd killed had ever hurt a human in their lives. Noah had raised me to believe vampires were monsters, pure evil at the core, but Luke was proof that Noah was wrong. And if he was wrong, if vampires weren't posing a threat to anyone, then they had as much right to live as we did.

I was so confused my head hurt. I couldn't stay in the living room anymore, not while Marc and Noah discussed the gory details of the night's hunt. Not when it might have been innocent vampires they'd killed.

My bed was a welcome haven from the outside world, and I crawled under the covers, cocooning myself. I'd barely shut my eyes when there was a knock at the door.

"Kiara? Are you okay?" Ethan's voice was muffled through the wood.

I kept my eyes shut and concentrated on breathing, in and out. The familiar smell of my own sheets calmed the turbulence that raged through my brain. Ethan knocked a couple of times more, then I heard his footsteps moving away from the door.

Drawing my knees up to my chest, I wrapped my arms around myself, squeezing my body into a tight ball. Under these cotton covers I could pretend I was in my own world, one where no one lied to me or dropkicked my life out of balance, a world where I could be Phantom-Kiara, whose main concerns were clothes and boys. I fell asleep wishing I could be in that world, but the nightmares came as they always did, a brutal reminder that I could never escape my life.

It was clichéd to say there was a spring in his step as he walked home, but that was how Luke felt. Born a vampire, he'd never seen the sun, but he imagined it was bright golden and fierce with passion and energy. Kiara was like the sun, and she had burst into his shadowy world and thrown light into every dark corner. It was like a blindfold had finally been lifted from his eyes, but he'd never even known he was wearing it.

Just thinking about her brought a smile to his lips, and the smile brought a twinge to his jaw where she'd head-butted him. It was lucky he was a vampire, otherwise she could have done some serious damage. You wouldn't think it to look at her; small of stature and sweet-faced, but beneath that delicate façade was a fighter.

A hunter.

Luke's smile faded. It was all very well looking at Kiara through rose-coloured glasses, but he couldn't forget that she killed vampires. She could have killed him tonight. She had listened to him, otherwise he wasn't sure he'd still be standing, but he didn't know how much of it had sunk in. How much she'd actually believe.

He stepped off the pavement, heading down a narrow side-street. There were no street-lamps to light his way, but Luke didn't need them, not with his enhanced vision.

His house was at the far end of the street. A human would have had to squint to see it through the swathe of shadows. There was something secluded about it, tucked away in a corner by itself. That was why Samuel, the patriarch of Luke's clan, had chosen it when they moved to Dalwick seven months ago. Its location, at the end of a long street with few other houses around it, meant humans were less likely to be sniffing around. It was a little piece of Dalwick that the vampires had claimed for themselves, free from persecution.

When Luke got home, he found Elena and Samuel in the living room. Elena's shoes were off, her bare feet resting in Samuel's lap as they sat together on the plum-coloured sofa.

Luke paused in the doorway, watching the people he called parents. Samuel had discovered an orphaned Luke when he was just a boy, the only survivor of a brutal hunter attack. Not knowing what else to do with the vampire child, Samuel had brought him home to his wife who promptly decided they should raise Luke as their own. Luke owed them everything and he loved them for it.

Elena smiled up him, her honey hair tumbling over the arm of the sofa. "Good night?"

She and Samuel both knew that Luke sometimes mingled with human kids, sampling their carefree way of life. They trusted him to be cautious and not do anything that might draw undue attention. The whole clan liked living in Dalwick, and the last thing anyone wanted was to be driven out by hunters.

Luke didn't miss the irony that it was a hunter who'd put such a smile on his lips. "It was okay," he said, shrugging.

"You were careful?" Samuel questioned.

"As always." Except that he'd met and revealed himself to a hunter.

Samuel and Elena exchanged a glance, and Elena's lips pursed. It was a fraction of movement - most people wouldn't have noticed it - but Luke knew it meant something was wrong.

"What's happened?" he said.

"Vivian delivered our fresh supply of blood today."

There was nothing unusual about that. Samuel's clan relied on animal blood for survival, but hunting was out of the question as far as he was concerned. To avoid hunter detection they had to keep their heads as low to the ground as they could, and that meant no hunting. They weren't the only vampires who'd been pushed into this lifestyle. Secret vampire teams, scattered across the country, delivered bagged blood to those vampires who couldn't hunt. Vivian acted as delivery girl for Dalwick and its surrounding areas.

"She also reported there'd been an incident." Elena seemed to be choosing her words carefully.

"What's happened?" Luke repeated, unease pooling in his stomach.

"There have been some killings," Samuel took over. He squeezed Elena's hand and she smiled at him, though her eyes remained troubled.

Luke's throat constricted, something akin to fear curling round his airway. "Human?"

Samuel shook his head. "Vampires. Vivian received a report from a vampire in Emsworth that there might be hunters in the area. Yesterday she told Vivian she was going to round up some friends to stand against the hunters if needs be." His eyes burned into Luke, a confliction of anger and sadness. "They're all dead."

Some emotion surged through Luke that he couldn't put a name to. There had been a time when he loathed hunters with every fibre of his being. After all, they were the ones who'd made him an orphan, the ones who'd left him stranded in blood and fire. Samuel's guidance had helped him cope with his anger, and taught him to run when hunters darkened their door. But every time he heard about innocent vampires cut down, his blood burned with the need to fight. It should have been burning tonight except . . . he couldn't shake Kiara's face from his mind, the way she'd looked when he'd told her the truth. She had believed that all vampires were evil, just as Luke had once believed that all hunters were evil. But maybe they were just misguided. He wasn't sure how much anger he could justifiably direct towards people who genuinely might not know what they were doing.

"Luke?" Samuel studied his adopted son and Luke realised his troubled emotions must be showing on his face.

"Are we in danger?"

Samuel blinked. He must have been expecting Luke to react with a little more anger. "I don't think so. Vivian says the vampires slipped up and got themselves noticed. We're not that sloppy."

Luke tamped down the rising tide of relief. He might only have just met Kiara, but she was a puzzle he wanted to solve. He couldn't do that if Samuel was planning to uproot the family and move them away.

"I guess we'll just have to be extra-careful watching our backs," he said.

Elena smiled approvingly at him. "That's exactly what I said."

"Great. Did you say Vivian dropped our supply off?"

"It's in the fridge."

Luke nodded. "Thanks."

His step faltered as he made his way to the kitchen. It was all very well hanging out with human teenagers and pretending he was one of them, but as soon as he got home he was reminded of what he truly was. He hadn't asked to be born a vampire, hadn't asked for a life of persecution for something that was beyond his control. Before meeting Kiara, it had been two years since he'd last seen a vampire hunter, but in that time, Samuel had moved the family three times to avoid detection. Every time Luke thought they'd found somewhere to settle, someone got too close and they were forced to move. That was what made him regret being what he was. His life was all about keeping his head down and not drawing attention to himself. There was a whole world out there, a world of brightness and sunshine, and he wished he could explore that.

Luke opened the fridge. The shelves were filled with bags of blood. None of it was labelled so he could only guess at what animal it came from. The vampire organisation that supplied food to them weren't always able to procure the better qualities of cow and horse, and Luke was sure some vampires would have turned their noses up at a bag labelled Rat. Not labelling the bags meant no one could make a fuss.

He emptied a bag into a large mug and stuck it in the microwave. Kiara flashed through his mind again, and he paused with his finger on the microwave keypad. He'd never had any qualms about blood-drinking, though he'd encountered vampires in the past that believed their dependence on it made them monsters. But he couldn't help wondering what Kiara would make of it. She knew he drank blood, but knowing it in a hypothetical sense and actually seeing it were two completely different things. The thought of her lovely eyes darkening in disgust if she ever saw him do what he had to in order to survive, made something twist low inside him.

He dialled up a couple of minutes on the microwave, but he wasn't hungry anymore.

Footsteps scraped on the linoleum floor behind him and he half-turned. Alice was standing behind him, her hands fidgeting. "Hi," she said.

Luke just nodded at her. Alice and her mother Anna had joined Samuel's clan just before they moved to Dalwick. Right from the start, Alice had made it clear that she liked Luke, and the older vampires had made it clear they thought Luke and Alice made a perfect match. Luke thought otherwise, especially since Kiara had blazed into his life.

Alice gestured towards the microwave. "You mind heating some of that up for me?"

The microwave pinged and Luke wordlessly handed the mug to Alice. He fetched another bag for himself.

Alice sidled up next to him until she was so close he had no choice but to look at her. She'd done something different with her hair, made it all wavy with curling tongs or straightening tongs, or whatever it was girls used. She looked at him, brightly expectant, and he realised he was supposed to compliment her new look. He should have done it just to cheer her up, but the words stuck in his throat.

The hope died in Alice's eyes and she quickly looked away from him, concentrating on her mug. "So . . . I suppose Samuel told you about the hunters?" she said after a minute's awkward silence had passed.

"He said they got sloppy, drew attention to themselves."

"Is that what you think?"

Luke shrugged. "That's usually why hunters catch up to us."

"They were innocent."

"Probably," Luke agreed.

Alice's lower lip trembled, and in that moment she looked much younger than her fifteen years. "Do you think they'll come after us?"

They. The word reverberated through Luke's mind and a horrible thought wriggled through his brain, one he'd been trying very hard not to consider. Kiara couldn't be more than sixteen. Luke had never heard of a hunter that young working alone. It just wasn't practical. He knew plenty of vampire hunters raised their children to follow in their bloody footsteps, breeding entire new generations of hunters. Samuel had often warned him these hunters were usually the most dangerous of all, raised on a diet of violence and vampire-hatred. They simply didn't understand any other way of life. Kiara seemed like she fit that bill to a tee. It had to mean she was a hunter-child. It had to mean she was returning to a family that had taught her to hate and kill. Worse, Vivian had mentioned hunters, plural. Emsworth wasn't so far from Dalwick. It wasn't far-fetched to wonder whether or not Kiara's family had been the ones responsible for the deaths of those vampires.

Luke stared down at his mug, at the rich, thick blood inside. His stomach was twisted too tightly in knots to drink.

"Luke?" said Alice softly and he blinked, having forgotten she was standing there. "Do you think they'll come after us?"

"No. They don't even know we're here." It wasn't quite a lie but it was pretty far from the truth. Kiara was a hunter and she lived here in town. If she did, then her hunter family did too. Which meant death was much closer to Samuel's clan than anyone but Luke realised.

He knew he should say something. He'd already admitted to himself that he didn't know how much of the truth Kiara had accepted, which meant he didn't know whether or not she'd go straight home and tell the other hunters about him. His gut told him she wouldn't do that, and he desperately wanted to believe it. Kiara wanted answers and she wouldn't get them by getting him killed. But even if she kept quiet about him, Luke couldn't bring himself to tell Samuel. The second he did, Samuel would have them all on the road, running for the far horizon with Dalwick at their backs.

And Luke would never see Kiara again. It surprised him how much that prospect hurt. It was like being offered a glimpse of the sun and then being told you could never look at it again. Luke had never seen the sun, but Kiara was a sunbeam and he didn't want to risk losing her. Not yet.

A light touch on his shoulder startled him back to reality. "Are you okay?" Alice said. "You seem distracted." Her hand was still resting on his shoulder.

"I'm fine, just tired."

"Is there anything you want to talk about?" Alice's eyes were bright with hope again.

"I said I'm fine." Luke set his untouched mug of blood on the side and walked out of the kitchen. He could practically taste Alice's hurt drifting after him, but there was little he could to assuage that without giving her the wrong impression. Besides, he had more important things to worry about than Alice's inability to take a hint.

Kiara could have killed him tonight, but she hadn't because he'd persuaded her to listen. If she, someone who'd likely been raised to hate his kind, could be reached then maybe other hunters could too. Vampires and hunters had been at each other's throats since the Dark Ages, but what if they were fighting because no one had shown them there was another way? What if Luke and Kiara could show them that way?

Luke flopped into bed without bothering to undress. He closed his eyes, but it was as if Kiara's face, angry and passionate, had been tattooed on his eyelids. She was all he could think about. He wasn't sure what had happened between them at Greylark, but he knew one thing.

It was far from over.

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