Izzy did not like the way Mia was looking at her. Leaning on the reception desk and staring intently, chewing on her lower lip, the vampire looked like she was searching for a reason to attack them. Izzy sat against the wall looking anywhere but at the vampire’s malignant gaze. Mia stared for a couple of minutes more before turning her menacing attention to Rik. Izzy knew that in just a minute or two those nasty eyes would swing back her way again. It reminded her of when she’d been in school and old creeps used to stare at her on the bus, but Mia had entirely different intentions. She hoped.

“I know I’m a work of art but didn’t your mother teach you that staring is uncouth?” Rik said. Izzy had no idea where he found the confidence for snark. Perhaps it was because he had an arsenal of magic at his disposal. All Izzy had was a can of silver nitrate in her bag and she doubted that could help her much. Then again, Ben had said that silver nitrate had made an absolute mess of Erin. She risked a glance at the bag by her side. Maybe if she could distract Mia for long enough then she would be able to get it out and then use it to escape.

But where would she escape to? Besides, Ben was still with Darius, any plan she concocted needed to involve his escape as well. Why Darius had taken Ben away Izzy did not know, but she was sure that it was not just for a private chat. Theo had turned up full of manners and charm and she remembered all too well how he’d turned out.

“If you say another word I’ll knock you out and you can stay unconscious until Darius gets back,” said Mia. The promise in her voice was clear.

Izzy inched her fingers toward her bag. The longer they stayed here with Mia the greater the chance of her attacking them was. Izzy got the impression that impulse control was not a skill Mia possessed and clearly she had not got over Rik’s magical attack from earlier.

Rik suddenly started coughing and Izzy drew her hands into her chest as she turned to him.

“What are you doing?” Mia demanded.

“Coughing,” Rik said, throwing her a look of utter exasperation.

Mia sighed and looked away. Rik turned to Izzy, his eyes darted to her bag and then back to her. He shook his head firmly. No. Clearly, he had more faith in Darius’ word than she did. Or he was just too scared.

“What are you two up to?” Mia stalked toward them, eyes glittering with suspicion.

Rik panicked and began spewing out those nonsensical magic words, but Mia was expecting it. She was on him in a flash and dashed his head against the wall hard enough to break the skin and send a spurt of blood spattering across the plaster.

Izzy needed no further encouragement. She dived into her bag, trying not to worry about how badly hurt Rik was. She pushed through the endless sea of items her bag contained. Why did she insist on cramming so many things into her bag? The items slipped through her sweaty grip as she rifled through them until finally, her fingers closed around the can.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Mia grabbed her shoulder and hauled her around. Izzy raised the can as she turned and pressed down on the nozzle.

She’d never seen silver in action against a vampire before and she was not prepared for the results.

Mia’s scream was glass-shattering. Tears streamed from her eyes as her skin sizzled and burned from the touch of silver. She backed up like a wounded spider scurrying for cover. Izzy pressed her advantage. She did not allow her a moment’s reprieve; she stood up and went after the vampire never once removing her finger from the can’s trigger. Mia swiped a hand at Izzy but in her weakened state, it was easy enough to dodge out of her reach.

“I am going to fuck—” Mia’s threat turned into an agonised wail as the silver sprayed straight into her mouth and turned her tongue into a putrid bubbling slug. She slammed down on her knees, both hands clawing at her throat as steam rose out of her wide-open mouth. She tried to issue more threats but the state of her mouth made it impossible to form words.

Izzy stepped away from the melting vampire, her spray can empty although she still clutched it as if it had some further use. Her arm was still trembling with the force of the adrenaline that was coursing through her body.

With a final groan, Mia fell forward and landed face down on the floor. Her entire head was steaming like a jumper fresh out of the dryer. The silver nitrate had been far more effective than she’d anticipated.

Izzy knew better than to believe Mia was dead. Ben had taught her that silver couldn’t kill a vampire it just hurt like hell. She ran to Rik who was lying unconscious on the ground. She grabbed his shoulders and tried to shake him awake but her efforts were futile. She pressed two fingers to his throat and felt his pulse beating slowly. He was still alive but in another world for the time being. She’d get no magical assistance.

Glancing over her shoulder she saw that the steam was gone and Mia was starting to heal. Her ruined face was shedding the sagging blobs of flesh and the wounds were knitting back together. If Izzy was still here when Mia woke up then she was dead. But she couldn’t leave without Rik and there was no way she’d be able to carry him.

She needed help and there was only one option available to her. It was a stupid idea and one that had the potential to blow up in her face, but it was the only thing she could think of and time was evaporating fast.

The can clinked on the floor as she dropped it and whilst the can rolled towards the front door she ran for the back. She had two deadly vampires to contend with and one vampire hunter who just needed to be let out of his cage. The hunter was her only shot at survival.

“I can smell that screaming bitch cooking from here,” Gideon said as Izzy burst through the door. “Did you cause her that much pain all by yourself?” He was standing in the middle of the room nodding in approval. Even in such a perilous situation the approval of a stranger ignited a sense of pride in her.

“I need your help,” Izzy said, panting from the run up the stairs.

“Why would I help you after you and your chums trapped me here?” he spoke so calmly as if there wasn’t a time bomb ticking just downstairs.

“It was an error in judgment. We’re not your enemies. The real enemies are here right now. Help us and I’ll let you out,” Izzy pleaded. If he wanted her to get down on her knees and beg then she would do it.

“You hate it, don’t you? Existing in this world now that you know how powerless you really are.” She was pleading for assistance and he was taking a moment to insult her.

“We don’t have time for this.”

She might as well not have spoken since Gideon carried on regardless. “You feel like you’re surrounded by enemies. I felt like that once too. Back when I was as ordinary as you are. I haven’t felt that way for a very long time.”

“Will you help me?” Izzy shouted, wishing she could reach into the invisible cage and slap him around the face.

Gideon was unaffected by her raised voice, she might as well have whispered for all the reaction she got. “I will hunt the bad guys. That’s what I do.”

Izzy was clever enough to read between the lines. “Ben is not one of the bad guys.”

His bushy eyebrows slid higher. “I beg to differ.”

“BITCH!” Mia screamed from downstairs. Izzy’s heart dropped into the dark depths of her abdomen. She was out of time.

“Please,” she whimpered.

Gideon nodded at one of the coffins that concealed the crystals powering his cage. “I promise nothing. However, if you don’t free me you will die and I’ll be forced to stand here and watch,” Gideon said impassively.

Mia’s footsteps plodded slowly up the stairs. She was enjoying the tension she was creating whilst unwittingly giving Izzy more time to make a decision.

“I’m going to peel your skin off you so you know how it feels!’ Mia shouted.

“You might have time to go out the window,” Gideon suggested with an unhelpful shrug.

If she released Gideon and he killed Ben, Izzy would never forgive herself. She’d carry the guilt for the rest of her life. But if she did nothing then she would die in the next few minutes and Ben would probably die not long after. If he wasn’t dead already.

“Clock’s ticking princess,” Gideon said. He folded his arms across his chest and stared intently at her.

She grabbed the nearest coffin and pulled up the lid. “Don’t ever call me that again,” Izzy growled.

She stared down at the glowing lump of rock that hummed in the cosy confines of the coffin.

“It won’t matter what I call you if you’re dead.”

Before she had any more time to talk herself out of it, she snatched up one of the crystals. The light in it died like a bulb fading out and then Mia appeared in the doorway.

The vampire’s malicious glare turned to one of confusion when she laid her eyes on Gideon. “Who the hell are you?” she demanded. Her face had almost completely healed and only a few soggy clumps of flesh dangled from her pink cheeks.

“Gideon Wittus, not so pleased to meet you,” he said before slamming his foot into her abdomen. Mia bent at the middle and yelped as she was kicked back through the doorway.

Izzy had never really considered just how adept at fighting Gideon might be. Now that she was seeing him in action he certainly lived up to the reverence Rik had given him.

Izzy followed slowly, making sure that she did not get caught up in the fighting. The crystal was still grasped in her hand as if it might have some further use. In the small hallway, Gideon and Mia were trading blows and flinging each other into the walls of the cramped space. Plaster cracked and paint flaked away. Gideon dodged and weaved expertly and to Izzy’s surprise, the hunter landed more blows than he took. As Mia’s frustration grew her attacks became more savage and less coordinated; she was like a beast growing more savage by the second.

Mia flung herself at Gideon who took hold of her shirt and used her own momentum to throw her through the door, shattering the wood, and sending her cartwheeling into the office. She landed on the floor right in front of the towering bookcase. Before she had a chance to get up the bookcase tilted and tipped forward. Izzy gasped at the power Gideon was displaying and silently thanked whatever divine being that ran the universe that the hunter had not used his impressive powers against Ben. Yet.

Mia rolled out of the way as the bookcase hit the floor hard enough to send a tremor through the building. Loose pages flew out from the damaged books and scattered across the room.

Mia ran at Gideon again and he whipped up a swirling storm of all the scattered pages. The paper twister swarmed around her and stopped her from getting anywhere near Izzy. Izzy could make out flashes of movements within the white storm.

Izzy was unable to suppress her smile. Gideon, who had once been as human as she was, had been trained to hold his own in a fight against a vampire and here he was now, not just holding his own, but wiping the floor with one.

Mia erupted through the papers, her face covered in hundreds of cuts that healed in the blink of an eye. Gideon ducked under her attack and a few return blows sent her staggering back across the room. Breathing heavily, the vampire eyed Gideon, then turned to Izzy. Izzy raised her eyebrows in a challenge, daring her to try and get past the hunter. Mia curled her lip in frustration and then turned and fled down the stairs.

Gideon let out a contented sigh and then reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a finely carved stake that he’d put more effort into making than Izzy could imagine was necessary. “I think she’s had enough,” he muttered before going after her.

Gideon trudged down the stairs slowly. Each of his heavy footfalls was a drum beat in Mia’s death march. He walked leisurely, confident that he would catch her even though she could move faster than the eye could see.

Mia had not fled. She’d lain in wait and as soon as Gideon stepped onto the shop floor she pounced. Despite his skills, Gideon was unable to counter her attack. Mia took hold of him and slammed him down on the nearby desk with enough force to crack the object in two. Gideon groaned, sounding every bit the old man he looked, as he sunk beneath the two halves.

“What have you done?” Rik said, his voice a meek impression of his usual bluster. He was back on his feet now with no sign of the head injury he had sustained.

“I saved us,” Izzy replied.

Gideon reached out from the ruined desk and grabbed Mia down to the ground where the two of them fought like a pair of furious cats.

“I’m not so sure you did,” Rik said. His dismayed eyes were fixed on the fight. “Let’s see what I can do.” He brought his hands together and began that peculiar language again. He’d only managed three words when Mia tossed a clump of broken desk across the room and knocked him right off his feet, ending the spell before it had started.

Izzy rushed to his side, but Rik waved her away. “I’m fine,” he said, refusing her help and getting up by himself.

Gideon had stolen back the advantage while she was distracted and now straddled Mia’s stomach, the stake raised high above his head, ready to end the fight for good.

The door groaned as it swung open and Ben and Darius entered the shop.

🦇 🦇 🦇

Ben had mere seconds to take in the chaotic scene in front of him before Darius flew into action. He crossed the room in a blur and plucked Gideon off Mia like he was picking a flower. He tossed the hunter across the room and didn’t even bother to watch his journey. His attention was on his partner who he helped to her feet.

“This is unacceptable,” he said, checking over Mia’s condition as he spoke. When he was sure that she’d been dealt no wounds that wouldn’t heal he turned back to Gideon.

“Gideon, I presume?” Darius asked. “I was under the impression that you were incarcerated.”

“Somebody in this room has some sense,” Gideon replied. Ben noticed the ornate stake in his hand and wondered if he was good enough to use it. He’d been about to end Mia when they’d entered the shop, but Darius was another matter.

“The little bitch released him. She attacked me,” Mia spat.

“You attacked us first,” Rik said.

“I have no interest in this conversation,” said Gideon. He ran at Darius. As the hunter ran, several fragments of the shattered desk flew up off the floor and shot at Darius and Mia.

Mia went down as the wooden shards stuck into her skin, but Darius moved elegantly out of the way. He moved so fast that even Gideon didn’t see him go right by him. Grabbing the hunter by the back of the neck, he slammed him into the wall. Then he slammed him again. Then a third, fourth, and fifth time. On the sixth slam, Gideon dropped the stake. After the seventh slam, Darius dropped the hunter.

Gideon fell to his hands and knees, blood drooling from his mouth. His whole body was quivering with shock and he was gasping and whimpering as he stared at the floor.

“I must say, I am underwhelmed. Your lot used to offer more of a challenge,” Darius said in disappointment. “Oh well.”

Darius reached down but the shadows swooped in from the corners of the room and snatched the hunter from sight. Darius froze with his hand outstretched. He blinked twice in confusion and then straightened up, a slight smirk alighting his face. He had admitted by the river that he loved a good fight and this must have been the closest he’d come to getting one for some time.

The door slammed at the front of the shop betraying Gideon’s departure. It seemed that the hunter had fled. Not so formidable after all.

Ben looked around at the wreckage of his shop. “What happened?” he asked his friends. He didn’t care about the destruction that had been caused; broken furniture could be replaced, but deals with ancient vampires were far less replaceable.

“That is exactly what I was thinking,” Darius said softly. “Somebody had better start explaining before I start killing.”

Mia needed no prompting. “That little bitch attacked me and then set that bloody hunter on me!” Mia snarled. She was still pulling the wooden shards from her body but that didn’t stop her from advancing on Izzy. Ben, Rik, and Darius blocked her path.

Darius gave the other two a look that warned them to step back at once and since neither of them fancied dying, they complied.

“Explain,” Darius said to his partner. He helped her to remove the wooden shards lodged in her flesh as she began her tale.

“I was watching them when the warlock tried to cast a spell on me—”

“She went for him first!” Izzy interrupted. In all the time Ben had known Izzy not once had she sat quietly and stomached a person’s lies.

“Izzy,” Ben whispered. He didn’t want her to hold the truth, just to wait until it was her turn to speak.

Darius looked at Izzy carefully, trying to read the truth through vision alone. Then he turned his scrutinising glare on Rik.

The warlock shrugged. “It’s true,” he said. “I thought she was going to attack us so I tried to protect us until you returned,” he elaborated. Ben hoped that he was telling the truth.

“Mia?” Darius asked.

The woman’s face soured like she’d swallowed bad milk. “Are you going to believe them over me?”

“You do have a history of spiteful viciousness and poor impulse control,” Darius reminded her. “But that does not explain the hunter’s involvement. Who would like to talk me through that little occurrence?”

Darius looked around the room, waiting for somebody to volunteer the information.

“I panicked,” Izzy said at last. “I thought Mia was going to kill us. Gideon was the closest weapon I had.” Izzy raised her hand, one of the crystals from upstairs held in it.

Darius strode around the room considering each person in turn. The whole time Mia stared hatefully at Izzy. No matter the outcome of this, Izzy had acquired a new enemy. Ben stepped closer to his friend, silently letting Mia know that he would stand in the way of any revenge plans.

“Izzy, is it?” Darius asked, narrowing his focus to her alone.

“Yes,” Izzy said, chin raised in defiance. Ben admired her spirit; he knew that she was trembling on the inside but she would never let Darius see that. “I was looking out for my friends and I’d do it again.”

“I don’t think that’s helping,” Ben whispered.

“Loyalty is a rare trait these days. You risked certain death for your friends.” Darius indicated Ben and Rik. “I wonder, would they do the same for you?”

“Without hesitation,” Ben said.

“Ben already did,” said Izzy. Ben knew she was talking about when he’d handed himself over to Theo to buy her safety. One of the few acts from the last few weeks that he had no regrets about.

“I want her dead!” Mia snarled.

Darius turned slowly to face her. “I gave my word that they would be safe with you. You’ve made me break that.”

Mia glared at Darius, nostrils flaring. “That warlock already attacked us once I wasn’t going to give him the chance to do it again. I was only going to knock them out. Now I want her dead.” She pointed a damning finger at Izzy who simply stared back at her.

“That is not going to happen,” said Darius. “I know that your emotions are running rampant because of the death of your father, but you must try to control yourself better.”

Mia kicked one of the broken desk halves and it flew into the rear wall and shattered even more. “We’ll see,” she snapped before storming out of the building.

Darius watched the door close and then sighed heavily. “Such dramatics. I tried to make her in my image, but she only absorbed the very worst of me. I apologise for her behaviour. When I gave my word I meant to keep it. As far as I’m concerned our deal still stands. Do you share my sentiments?”

Ben couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Despite Izzy’s catastrophic lapse in judgment, the rug was not going to be pulled out from under them. But there was one niggling problem. “What about Mia?”

“She’s angry and even when she’s calmed down she will not forget this. She holds a grudge like nobody I’ve ever met. Well, Erin could give her a run for her money.”

“That’s Mia Castling, isn’t it?” Ben said, finally piecing together who she was. The daughter Trevor Castling had been trying to find or avenge for so long.

“Very astute,” Darius said with a confirmatory nod. “I had thought that learning Theo was responsible for her father’s death would negate some of her anger, but apparently it has only made it worse. As long as our deal remains intact, I will make sure no harm comes to Izzy from Mia’s hand. As long as our deal remains,” he emphasised the point carefully.

Ben nodded. “And you’ll still take care of Gideon?”

“Take care of. Why dress your words up so fancily? Whilst our deal remains intact I will not allow any harm to come to you or your two delightful friends. Should Gideon resurface and do anything to hinder our aims, I will kill him. How does that sound?”

Ben nodded again. “That sounds perfect.”

“Excellent. I have other things to do so I will return soon to check in on you. All you need to do for now is make new vampires.” He strode across the shop and opened the front door. “Well, boys and girls, get to work.” And then he was gone.

The shop seemed strangely empty now that it was just the three of them. All of the uninvited guests had gone and they’d left quite a mess in their wake. Ben looked around at the destruction and wondered what Malcolm was going to say when he saw it all. The old man would probably shrug it off with that stiff British upper lip. He seemed like a paragon of days gone by.

“I’m so sorry, Ben,” Izzy said. Ben hated the fear that he heard in her voice.

“Don’t apologise,” Ben snapped and she flinched. “Sorry, I’m not angry at you. I just don’t like how scared you sound right now.” Izzy was the last person he ever wanted to frighten.

She shook her head quickly to dispel his thought. “I am scared but not of you. I’m scared of that woman who wants to kill me.”

“You don’t need to worry about her. Darius won’t let her do anything to you. He knows if anything happens to you the deal’s off.”

“About that,” said Rik. “Was making a deal with him the best idea?”

“It was the only idea. Teremun will come for me eventually. Darius has given me the best chance at survival.” All Ben seemed to be doing was making deals these days. He felt like he was being slowly backed into a corner by witches and vampires and they were going to pick him to the bone and leave nothing.

“I’ll get somebody to fix all this in the morning,” Rik offered, swirling his finger at the mess around them.

“Yeah. Give Malcolm the day off, I don’t want him seeing all this and being too scared to come back.”

“You can just mesmerise him to forget.” Rik stared at Ben like he was an idiot.

“I’d rather not do that,” Ben admitted. Something about being forced into all the horrible situations he had been lately made him loathe to steal another’s free will.

“What is the deal then?” said Izzy, though it was obvious from her hunched posture and cautious expression that she was wary of the answer.

“Oh, the usual. Build an army worthy of Mordor,” Ben joked. When it was clear that his joke had fallen on deaf ears he opted for more detail. “He wants me to make more vampires so my power grows. Apparently, that’s how it works for progenitors. Then when I’m more powerful and have many vampires at my disposal, he’ll lure Teremun out here and we’ll kill him. Then we all get to go our separate ways.”

“Why would he want to kill Teremun?” Rik asked.

“It turns out nobody really likes Teremun. Darius wants the entire Veil torn to pieces so he can go back to the days of doing whatever he wanted.”

“Do you trust him?” Izzy asked.

Ben shrugged after a moment’s consideration. “I don’t have a choice at the moment.” He wasn’t up for a debate on how trustworthy Darius was so he quickly changed the topic. “We should get home. It’s been a hell of a night and I, for one, could use a drink. Izzy, you can stay at mine tonight.”

She shook her head immediately. “I’d rather go home. My house is perfectly protected, and, to be honest, trouble tends to gravitate to you, so being at yours is probably more dangerous.”

Ben laughed. Nothing that she had said had been particularly funny and yet it made him laugh all the same. “Fair point.”

They dropped Izzy off at her house and after giving the place a once over, they headed home themselves. 🦇 🦇 🦇

Even after Ben and Rik had left, Izzy still felt compelled to go around her entire house to make sure that all the windows were locked. She knew the locks were pretty useless against vampires but they gave her the illusion of security. Every handle on every door and window was shaken to make sure there was no chance the lock might come loose, not that such a thing had ever happened in the past.

She took an almost scalding shower to burn away the events of the night, and after climbing into her comfy pyjamas, she curled up on the sofa with a bottle of red. Each sip of the exquisite elixir helped her forget the terror that she’d been put through.

She couldn’t even comprehend how her perfectly ordinary life had gone from 0 to 500 in the space of a few short weeks. One day she was making medicine in routine and repetitive ways, and the next she was dodging fangs and hiding behind magic spells. She was going to wake up any minute now and realise she’d accidentally ingested some of the medicine she was making and had inadvertently put herself into a wacky coma.

If only.

Maybe she could move away. It wouldn’t be hard to find pharmacy work elsewhere, it wasn’t like there was a shortage of hospitals to work at. She could even work at a small high street pharmacy. She’d have to sell her house which had a certain sentimental value since it had belonged to her Gran. But it might be worth it if it meant a fresh start and a life without vampires. A life where she didn’t have to look over her shoulder whenever the sun went down.

Of course, she’d lose Ben. She knew that he wouldn’t hold it against her either. He’d encourage her to go just so he could live with the assurance that she was safe. But no matter where she moved to she’d always worry about him. He might have chosen this life for himself but that didn’t stop her from worrying about the consequences of his choice.

She couldn’t leave. Despite feeling utterly powerless in every situation so far, she would not leave Ben alone in a sea of monsters, even if it was a sea he had chosen to set sail in.

She grabbed the bottle to top up her wine and was flummoxed to find that it was empty. It had been half full when she’d brought it in from the kitchen and she only remembered topping her glass up one time. She stood up, intending to collect another bottle from the kitchen, and the room wobbled.

“Maybe I’ll just head straight to bed instead,” she told herself as the room steadied itself. She wasn’t drunk, just tipsy, but any more wine and she’d be drunk enough to feel it in the morning. She was getting to the age where the hangovers weren’t worth the night that caused them.

She flicked the switch on the lamp behind the sofa and plunged the living room into darkness. With the reflections gone, she could now see clearly through the window into her back garden. And she saw the shape slip behind one of the bushes.

Frozen in place, she stared through the window at the dark shapes of her garden shrubbery. Everything was still, not a single leaf swayed in the wind. Her eyes clung to the shape she knew to be the Aronia bush that her gran had been so fond of. That was where she’d seen the movement. Or maybe she hadn’t seen anything. Maybe she’d just had a little too much wine. A night with a vicious vampire and too much wine was not a good combination. And yet she still could not steady her breathing.

She grabbed her phone off the sofa, eager to get to bed and fall into the safety of her dreams. As soon as she moved her gaze something moved from the corner of her eye. Her gaze shot back to the window but the garden was still again.

She was not imagining it. Someone or something was in her garden.

It was her. That female vampire who she’d sprayed with silver. Mia.

She unlocked her phone to call Ben. A loud crack was followed by a blast of brilliant white light and a dark figure went flying down the length of the garden, thrown off the back door. The light vanished and the intruder was swallowed by darkness. Now that she’d seen the person they were far easier to make out even in the darkness. The skinny shape of the person in the garden pushed themself to their feet and Izzy heard the pained groan that escaped their lips. It wasn’t Mia, it was a man.

“Excellent defences,” he said just loud enough for her to hear. It was Gideon. Izzy’s thumb hovered above Ben’s name, ready to call. Gideon raised his hands in surrender. “I just want to talk.”

Izzy wondered how stupid she’d have to be to listen to anything he had to say, but at the same time, she was curious to know what he wanted. Instead of going after any of the many vampires who were now in town, he had come to talk to her.

“Most people who just want to talk knock on the front door,” Izzy told him.

“I didn’t know how many people might be watching the front door. I’d rather talk to you privately.”

“About what?”

“Will you invite me inside?” he asked.

Izzy reached out and pushed open the window just a crack, enough to stop Gideon’s voice from being muffled. “We can talk like this. What do you want?”

“Fair enough.” He lowered his hands. “Thank you for freeing me.”

“I didn’t have much choice.”

“There’s always a choice.”

He was right and Izzy had to wonder if she’d made the right one. Could she have held out against Mia until Ben returned with Darius? Probably not.

“In you I saw the same thing that once existed in me, that insatiable need to protect yourself and the people you care about. The burning desire for a strength you don’t currently possess.”

“My friend needs protecting from you,” she bit back. She locked her phone and dropped it on the sofa, no longer feeling like she needed backup. She’d seen Rik’s defences in action now and she felt quite secure.

“Your friend is getting into bed with a shark and I think you know how that’s going to end for him. That’s why you turned to me.”

“I turned to you because you were the closest person who could help.” She couldn’t deny her reticence about Ben’s deal with Darius. It looked to her like the ancient vampire was using Ben as bait and nothing more.

“Wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t need to turn to anybody? Wouldn’t you rather be able to take care of yourself? You saw me go toe-to-toe with that bitch vampire and you saw who had the upper hand. Imagine being able to do that yourself. Imagine it.”

She thought back to the way he’d kicked Mia through the doorway; her body had folded and flown like she’d weighed little more than a bag of feathers. He’d moved bookcases with this mind alone. She remembered the swirling tornado of pages. Izzy did exactly as Gideon said and imagined herself in his position, she imagined herself wielding such incredible power. She hadn’t even noticed that she was smiling until Gideon chuckled plucking her out of her fantasy.

She wiped her expression clean.

“You like the idea, don’t you? I can train you. I can make you strong,” he said softly, seductively.

“Why?” He wasn’t offering out of benevolence. She might not be the best at reading people, but she could tell easily enough that he was not the sort to do something out of kindness. He was pragmatic. If he offered something like this then there was something in it for him.

“It’s been a while since I had an apprentice. And maybe while I’m training you you can convince me not to kill Benny the friendly vampire.”

Not for one second did she believe that she would be able to convince him of anything, and neither did she accept his answer. “Why do you want to train me? What’s in it for you?”

He rubbed at his forehead as if he had a headache and his eyes seemed to shrink. “I can’t take Darius on my own. I need assistance.”

“And I’m your first choice?” she said in disbelief.

He shrugged. “It’s not like I’m surrounded by possibilities and even a barely trained apprentice can distract Darius long enough for me to drive a stake through his back.”

Izzy chewed the inside of her lip as she tried to figure out what Gideon was not saying. “Why don’t you just call some more hunters in to help you?”

“I can’t.” His voice was low, ashamed.

“Why?”

“I just can’t. It’s not an available option. You are the best option available to me. So, you can either let me give you the strength to defend yourself, or you can stay pathetic and weak. What’s it going to be?”

She wanted to accept his offer. She wanted more than anything to possess the strength that he did. But she didn’t trust him and there was no way she was going to put herself in his hands unless that changed.

“Tell me why you hate vampires so much. Give me some reason to trust you or the answer’s no.”

He glanced over his shoulder contemplating walking away. The answer was clearly intimate and not something he wanted to share. She wondered if he’d ever shared it with anyone. Somebody in his order of hunters must know. Whoever trained him perhaps.

When he finally spoke his voice was quiet, a scratch on the outside of a window. “When vampires first came into my life I was as unprepared as you are now. I stayed that way and I lost everything I ever cared about. Vampires took it all and left me with nothing. This is your one and only chance to stop the same from happening to you.”

He hadn’t answered the question but he had said the right words to convince her. Slowly, hesitantly, she nodded her head. She felt like Judas when he made the deal with the priests and sold out his friend. She hoped that she was taking steps that would help her friend rather than betraying him. Maybe Judas had thought the same thing.

Gideon did not smile or show any signs of happiness at her acceptance. He simply looked at her with that same grim determination that he always wore. “We start in the morning,” he said. And then he was gone.