We both knew what they were… vampires, not the kind you reasoned with, like Martin. These were killers. I saw it in their eyes. I looked at her, and I could see her heart hammering through the faint pulsing of her arteries in her neck. God, how did I let this happen? I should've noticed them sooner. I should've felt it. I was supposed to keep her safe. That was on me. I let myself get too distracted with her in the back seat.
I could protect her… I would. But I didn't know if I could do it without blowing everything wide open. If she saw what I really was… if they figured it out… I'd lose everything. My cover, my second chance, the Chasses… everything would be over. I couldn't lose them. I wouldn't.
I locked eyes with her, trying to stay calm, trying not to let the monster crack through. "Run," I said, tight and low.
She was already moving quickly. She whipped a small pouch from her pocket, then yanked out the silver blade strapped to her back. I barely had time to process it.
The bloodsuckers hissed at the sight, flinching back like the silver burned their eyes. They lunged, trying to close the distance fast, but something held them back. Not fear… but caution. They were testing us; testing the situation as they saw we had weapons.
Autumn backed away from the car fast, blade raised. I stuck close to her, every muscle in me screaming to shift, to rip and tear the moment they got too close. I kept one eye on the gap between us and them. Waiting for the moment. Waiting for the first move. The other was trained on Autumn.
She tore the pouch open and flung the contents into the air. It was silver dust, sharp and shining. It hit the space between us and the bloodsuckers like a flash of lightning. They all shrieked and pulled back, baring their fangs, eyes burning with fury. It formed a quick barrier… it surprisingly worked. It was holding, but not for long.
They backed off, snarling, pacing like wolves behind a fence, trying to find a way around the cloud of poison to where we stood defensively. We didn't wait for them to figure it out.
Autumn whipped around, shouting over her shoulder, "Now run!"
And we ran.
We took off on foot away from the vampires. We had to leave the car since it was on the other side of the silver cloud. I sprinted right behind Autumn, flanking her at the same pace. I stayed as close as possible to her. I couldn't let any of them get too close.
"Follow me!" She ordered as we ran down and out of another staircase in the parking garage. "They'll be more cautious on the street in front of the public. They won't follow us out in the open."
"Where are we going?" I asked in between my fake, exaggerated breaths.
"My dorm room…" she breathed heavily. "Parts of the campus are imbued with silver… We can lose them there… and get to my dorm…" She took in another deep breath. "We'll be safe there until morning."
We sprinted down sidewalks, flying past pedestrians who gave us wild stares, wondering why we were running like our lives depended on it. We stayed near the crowds of people, making sure there were eyes near us at all times. The vampires wouldn't do anything in front of so many people. The risk of exposure was apparently what got you hunted by the old monsters that hid beneath the city, like a pack of immortal hunters that were currently after me.
I could tell Autumn was getting tired; her speed fell, and her breathing was strained. She was fast and had more endurance than anyone I had ever met, but it was a long stretch for a dead sprint. Even for a hunter. The longer we ran, the more serious her fading body was showing.
"How much further?" I shouted at her as we ran.
"Turn right after this building," she said with a labored breath and pointed forward.
We passed a small brick building and then took an immediate right. She stumbled as we made the turn, her legs starting to fail. I grabbed her arm as she lost her footing, keeping her upright. She grabbed for my hand as it gripped her arm, keeping a grip on me until she was stable again. We were slowing down drastically.
"Fuck," I grunted under my breath.
She couldn't keep up her speed, she was done. She needed to stop, but she knew we couldn't. I could hear her racing pulse as we ran. Her heart sounded like a runaway engine on the verge of exploding from the effort.
"Autumn… stop, take a second," I barked at her.
"We can't stop… we have to make it to the warding… We'll lose them there," she struggled to speak.
We sprinted across a street and slipped between two buildings, out of sight from the civilians. The alley went all the way through to the other side of the block. I could see the exit. We were almost there.
"Just past this next street… then we'll be there…" she struggled.
Then, two shadows appeared at the end of the alley, standing like statues. We screeched to a halt. Autumn fell forward from trying to stop too fast with her drained legs. I held onto her again, keeping her upright. We turned around right as another shadow popped up behind us. We were trapped.
"Sam…" Autumn spoke. Her voice strained and scared, "I'm sorry. I don't know… how they knew…" She barely got out.
She thought that they were following her because she was a hunter. Somehow, they had discovered her family. But it didn't seem the case. This felt… random.
They all kept their distance from us, so Autumn couldn't tell, but they all had their eyes on me. Autumn was just a side note to them. They had no clue that she was a hunter, not until she had pulled her silver blade and used the silver dust. Now it was a point to kill us because they knew we were hunters.
Autumn pulled her blade back out of its sheath again. I mirrored her action, trying to maintain my human form. The fear ran through me, poisoning me with the feeling of the possible loss. A feeling that I hadn't felt in a long time. I knew that she was going to die if I didn't turn and kill them. But if I did turn, I would lose everything I had gained with Autumn and her family. I'd be the monster.
The single vampire nodded to the other two, signaling for their attack. They thought that they could take us by force in numbers. They were wrong. I looked back, and the two that blocked our path became blurs.
Autumn had pulled another small packet from her back pocket, pouring its contents into her hand during the passing moments before the initial attack. She threw the fistful of silver flakes in the path of the two blurring vampires, right as they attacked. Her timing was perfect, especially considering how tired her body was.
It was like they hit a wall in the alley, coming out of the rush of speed and stumbling around like they had been blinded by acid. The alley was filled with sharp hissing and screeches. I lunged forward through the silver cloud, not wasting any time, and stabbed my silver blade right through the top of one of their skulls. His screaming stopped immediately.
Then, I heard a thud behind me. The one who signaled the attack had rushed into Autumn, right as I went for his friend, shoving her through the alley. She flew into a dumpster, hitting the metal box with a loud thud. A body-sized dent appeared as she bounced off. She lay motionless on the ground.
"NO!" I growled.
I ran way faster than I should have and grabbed him by the throat. I pinned him to the wall with my bestial strength and then thrust my blade into his chest. Then again and again and again. I dropped him from the wall, and he flopped to the ground like a ragdoll, motionless and dead.
The third one was frozen like a deer in headlights. The vampire was starting to panic, still burning from the silver dust. He lunged forward a couple of times like he was about to attack, but then he restrained himself, stepping back again. Self-preservation was keeping him at bay. I had just killed his two friends in seconds, and he now knew that he didn't stand a chance. He was scared and confused.
Now I saw it. Their mode of attack was always so similar. They were like pack animals. Most of them joined together for strength and then trapped prey in alleys on opposing sides. Everything seemed so familiar, and then I remembered my other run-ins with the vampiric beasts. Three seemed to be the magic number, but it didn't matter to me. I ran them down every time. They could overpower a lot with a trio of vampires, but not me.
I looked over to Autumn. I could see her arms moving to try to get up, breathing just as hard as she was while running. I needed to get to her.
I looked back, and he was gone. I could hear heavy footsteps as he bolted into the night. Autumn was safe again.
I was at her side as soon as I saw the vampire had fled. I grabbed her by the shoulders and slowly helped her sit up.
"Autumn… are you okay?" I pleaded. The fear of losing her burned in me.
She nodded slowly, dazed, "Yeah… I'm good. I just hit my head." She tried to stand on her own, but I never let her go. "Where are they?" she asked, holding her aching head.
"I got two of them, the other ran," I said shortly, too concerned with listening to her vitals to explain.
She saw the two dead vampires in the damp, dark alley. Blood was pooling around their corpses.
"How did you…" She was still dazed from the knock she took. "You killed two…?"
"You got them pretty good with the dust," I hoped my compliment would distract her.
"Which way did the last one go?" she asked. It sounded like she wanted to track and kill him.
"Let's just get to your dorm room," I ordered, carrying her forward. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm fine. I've taken worse bumps than this. It's my legs. I can barely feel them; they're so tired," she said, stumbling beside me, clutching my arm to stay upright.
I clenched my arm around her tightly as I pulled her forward. She directed me where to go once we were out of the alley. We had almost made it. The campus was right across the road from the alley. We just had to cross a grassy opening and a small parking lot.
"Where am I going?" I asked, basically carrying her across the small lot.
"Just keep going this way, you'll see it in a second. There's a sign, it's called the Village Apartments," she said, her breathing slowing.
After another couple of minutes, I came into another parking lot, slammed with vehicles that had a small blue sign that said, Student Village Apartments. We finally made it to her front door. She was slowly gaining strength back in her lower half and was standing on her own again.
"Hold on one second," she said as she unlocked the door and slowly wobbled inside. "Sarah… Sarah, are you home?" I heard her ask as she opened doors and staggered through her dorm. Then the door opened, and the lights clicked on. "Come on, my roommate isn't here."
It didn't seem like a dorm room to me, more like a small apartment. They shared a living and kitchen area, but they had separate bedrooms. It was quaint. Everything smelled clean and cozy.
Autumn eased over to the large, dark couch that sectioned off the living room. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, breathing a few times very deeply. I noticed as she sprawled out that she had some scrapes on her arms and a few nicks that trailed the edge of her hairline on the side of her head.
"Do you have a first aid kit?"
"Yeah…" she said, too frazzled to think clearly, "um… It's in the bathroom, under the sink, I think." She pointed to a hallway, "It's the second door on the left."
I rushed in and grabbed the small white box from under her sink. I quickly came back to her side, sitting just next to her on the couch. She was shaking, even in the smallest of movements. Her muscles quivered and failed her with almost every attempt to adjust herself.
"Are you okay?" I asked, the stress obvious in my voice.
She didn't answer for a second. She just sat there; her forehead creased into lines. "I'm fine…" She went silent again, examining herself. She lifted her arm in front of me, showing me the constant quake in her muscles. "My whole body feels like this. My legs are even worse. I can barely move them."
I grabbed her arm out of the air and pulled it towards me. I cleaned up all of her cuts and scrapes on both her arms. Then I went to work on her head.
"Let me look at these," I said, grabbing and adjusting her face to see the cuts. They didn't look too deep, just enough to break the surface. I grabbed the small penlight out of her med kit, waved it in front of both her eyes, and watched them dilate. "We should really get you to the hospital. Just to make sure nothing's wrong," I urged her. My medical experience was pretty limited. She needed someone who knew what they were doing.
"I'll be fine, really. We need to stay here until someone can come to get us. This entire area is warded, so nothing will be able to track our scents past the barrier's perimeter," she assured me. "I'll call my dad and see if he can come to pick us up." She reached down to her pocket, feeling for her phone, "Shit…"
"What?"
"My phone's in my jacket pocket… and it's still in the back of my car."
"I'll call," I said, reaching into my jacket. I put my hand inside my coat pocket, where it usually was, but found nothing. I jabbed my hands in every pocket I was wearing. It was nowhere to be found.
"It's in my car too…" she sighed with frustration as she closed her eyes and fell back into the crack of the cushions. "I saw it on the seat when we were back there."
The memories of it all flooded back into my brain. The way she kissed me, the smell of her skin, the weight of her body on top of mine. I wanted it all again. I shook the thoughts out of my mind for the moment. She barely had enough energy to move, let alone jump my bones again. I pushed the thoughts away.
"What are we gonna do?" I asked quickly.
"Stay here… until the sun comes up. That way, the last vampire won't be able to find us. Then in the morning, we'll get back to my car and head home," she thought aloud.
He wouldn't be looking. I saw in his eyes what he planned on doing, and that was running. He looked like he never wanted to meet me again after seeing what I did to his friends in mere seconds.
"Everyone's going to be so worried…" she sighed. "I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up here looking for me."
"Hopefully, they will," I wished. Then we could get her looked at.
"I'm so exhausted," she said, her voice sounding raspy and dry.
I was out of the kitchen with a cup of water before she even opened her eyes again.
"Drink this…" I handed her the glass.
She leaned forward and grabbed the glass with two shaky hands. She downed it in seconds.
She was shaking her head, "We should never have made it out of that alley…"
"What are you talking about?"
"The vampires, there were three of them. We weren't prepared. They should have killed us. If they wanted to, they could have killed us before we even had time to use the dust."
"Don't worry about that part. We made it," I said.
She ignored my statement, "And you killed two of them… you're still standing straight after all that running and fighting. You look completely unaffected… it's crazy," she said in disbelief. "Frank isn't going to believe this," she chuckled weakly. "Neither is my dad…"
"It's not that hard to believe, is it? You weakened them with the dust… And the rest is just… adrenaline." It was a very weak excuse. I knew that, but I didn't have much else to say in the moment.
"Yeah, but it shouldn't have affected them to the point of not defending themselves. It should have only dampened their senses, kept them back, not taken their strength completely." She looked inquisitive, "How did you get both of them? I saw you go for the first one, but that's all I remember."
I thought quickly about how I could explain it away, "I got the first one and then right as the other pushed you across the alley, I ran up to him. I guess he thought the other was coming for me… so his full attention was on you."
She looked like she was accepting this answer, "But what was the other one doing? Why wasn't he attacking?"
"I don't know; maybe he saw that we were hunters, and we got lucky with the first two, so he didn't want to take his chances."
She shook her head again, "Even if they knew beforehand… that wouldn't have stopped them. It doesn't make sense."
She seemed to be backing off the specifics for the time being. "Let's worry about it later. You need to rest, and if we're not going anywhere, then we should try and get some sleep. We just sprinted over a mile to get here and fought for our lives out there. My whole body hurts," I lied, acting a little more exhausted than I had been. It was a hard lie to maintain while I was so worried about her.
She grinned, "I haven't run that hard since we fought that howler last year." She smiled as she relived the memory.
"Howler?" I asked. I hadn't come across that in my reading yet. Plus, it seemed like a good distraction from the current conversation.
"Kind of like werewolves, except they only feed on the dead, and they don't live in packs. They're gross; they look half dead themselves," she added.
"Why'd you have to run?" I asked through my theatrical breathing.
"It knocked Uncle Frank on his ass," she smirked, "and was getting away. I followed it into a clearing and took it out with my bow. Running with all my gear on was no treat, but this," she compared in her mind. "I'd take the howler again," she concluded.
We sat there for a few minutes. I lowered the rate of my breaths to match hers as she came down from the exhaustion.
"I need a shower," she said. She slowly got up and made her way to the hallway. It took her twice as long as usual, but she was taking steady steps. She veered into her room and got some clean clothes, and then she disappeared into the bathroom. She stayed in there for about half an hour, moving carefully so as not to slip in her weakened state. I stayed on the couch, halfway from the front door and her room, listening carefully for anyone who might approach. I also heard her in the shower. I never let her movements, her heartbeat, or breathing out of my focus. I already allowed her to get hurt once, I wouldn't again.
Finally, she came back out to the living room. I tried to look busy. I was in the kitchen trying to scrub the small speckles of blood that had splashed my hands when I gutted the one vampire. She wore sweatpants that had been chopped down into a pair of tiny sleeping shorts and a very thin tank top. She came up to me as she brushed her wet hair out with a small green hairbrush.
"I think Sarah may have some of her boyfriend's clothes in her room. I can get you some if you want to shower."
I actually didn't want to. I tried to stay ready just in case. But I knew we were protected by the warding at the moment, and it would be what a normal person would probably do.
"Yeah, sure," I agreed. I'd just make it quick.
She got me a change of clothes and a towel, and then I closed myself into her bathroom. I could hear her out there over the sound of the shower. I was so worried that it was hard to do anything else but continuously monitor her.
Before I got in, I looked into the mirror at my reflection. I made my eyes go black, so I could see the monster within. "What did you do?" I spoke quietly to myself. "This is your fault, you let her get hurt!" I berated myself for a few moments, disgusted with the thing that I was and with what it brought for those around me.
I showered robotically, staying in my own head. I should've transformed. I could have ended all three of them without Autumn getting hurt. I would have been outed, but I would have protected her and killed all three. Now, there was another survivor out there who had seen my face. Not only had he noticed me, but he saw Autumn with me. He saw me trying to protect her. I hoped that I was right, that he would flee and not return to whoever had sent them. I couldn't let anyone hurt any of the Chasses. If that vampire made it back to the safety of his kind, he would surely tell the tale.
Once done, I put on the new clothes, which fit surprisingly well. I came back to the living room, and Autumn was putting away some food. There were also some pillows and blankets in a stack on the couch.
"You can have whatever you want from the fridge, just make yourself at home," she offered towards the kitchen. "I'm going to lie down. I can barely stand as it is. I got you some stuff to sleep on. I hope you'll be comfortable," she seemed torn as she spoke, like she didn't want me to sleep on the couch, but part of her was sensing that was the best plan, for right then.
She almost walked past me, but stopped. She turned back slowly and looked me in the eyes, "Sam… I don't know how you did it, but… You saved me tonight. You saved us tonight. We should have died out there. No one survives a vampire attack when they're outnumbered. We basically had no weapons…" She stared blankly for a moment. "I still don't understand what happened, but thank you," she said, leaning in to give me a slow kiss on the cheek.
Feeling her lips on my skin again was horrible because I wanted to do so many things to her, and the monster was burning away my insides to do it. I had to physically lock my muscles in place so I wouldn't make a move on her. She was hurt and needed rest. She didn't say anything about what happened between us, and she had only kissed me on the cheek. Maybe she was second-guessing what had happened in her back seat. A part of me thought that was a better option than continuing with what I was doing with her. It wasn't right.
"Goodnight, Sam…" she smiled.
"Goodnight, Autumn. Get some rest," I said.
She pulled her bedroom door shut with a soft click, and the light bleeding through the edges blinked out a moment later, swallowed by darkness.
I stayed where I was, planted in the old armchair a few feet from the front door. My back ached from how rigid I'd been all night, but I didn't dare move. I couldn't. Not while she was asleep. Not after what happened.
I wasn't tired… sleep didn't really mean much to me anymore. Not since the change. It was just something I sometimes did to forget things for a while. But tonight? Tonight I wasn't even tempted. I had one job. One thought spinning around and around in my skull: Protect her.
I sat there, still and silent, staring through the dim apartment. My ears were tuned to every creak of the walls, every groan of the pipes, every shift in the wind outside. My skin prickled constantly, like I was waiting for claws to rake through the door at any second.
Every flicker of shadow under the doorframe made my stomach twist. Every gust of wind down the hall made me brace. The vampire had run off, but that didn't mean he was gone. They didn't just disappear. They waited. They circled. They watched.
I listened hard for anything; any footstep, any brush of fabric, any unnatural sound cutting through the stillness. But all I could hear besides the mundane was Autumn.
Her breathing was soft but steady behind the door, and it anchored me. I caught the occasional squeak of her bedsprings as she rolled over. Restless, but still asleep. Safe, for now.
Every hour felt like a slow drip of ice down my spine. I kept glancing toward the windows, toward the corners where the shadows gathered thickest. My fingers twitched more than once, ready to shift, to murder, if anything came through. But nothing did. It was just the dark, me, and the monster skimming beneath the surface.
Then, finally… finally, light started to creep through the blinds, slanting pale gold lines across the floor. Dawn had arrived.
A while later, her door creaked open. I didn't move, but I tracked every step as she padded softly down the hall. I heard the faucet turn, the toothbrush scrape gently against her teeth, and the swish of mouthwash. She smelled minty fresh when she walked out again. Like the night before hadn't happened. But I hadn't stopped watching the door. Not for a second.
"Morning…" I said from the chair at the door.
"Morning," she smiled. "How long have you been up?" she asked with a pitiful look towards the couch.
"I never went to sleep," I said.
"Are you serious? You must be exhausted…"
"I couldn't sleep. It's fine."
"Did you sit by the door all night?"
"Yeah," I answered honestly.
She didn't say anything for a few seconds as she realized I was out there protecting her all night. "Thank you."
I barely smiled back at her.
She kept her distance, standing across the living room as we talked. I wondered if what happened had put a halt to everything between us. My insides ached for that not to be accurate, but I went numb and made myself believe that was the right thing to do. I couldn't keep her safe if I were around her like that. The immortals who were after me would come for her eventually if she were tied to me like that. They'd come for all of them.
"So, what's your plan?" I asked.
She spoke with purpose, "Get back to my car. We need to call my parents, they're probably worried sick." she shook her head. "Once we get there, we'll make our way back. We should be fine since the sun is up, but we'll take a long way home, through the wards."
"Sounds good," I agreed.
She went back into her room for a minute to change. She came back out in jeans and a zip-up sweater. She had all of our bloodied clothes in a plastic bag.
"Don't want to leave these here. Sarah would start asking questions. Better to avoid that."
There were no signs of the struggle anywhere on the path back to her car. It was like it never happened. There were a few wisps of ash floating across the alley where I had slaughtered those two vampires. The sun must have just finished boiling them from the inside out.
After a mostly silent walk back to the parking garage, we got inside the small black car, which was still parked on the second level of the parking garage. Autumn seemed stuck in her head the whole walk back, probably reliving the previous night's events.
She reached back and grabbed her black jacket off the floor, still where she had dropped it in our heated moment. She grabbed for it, quickly glancing at me. Her cheeks went red for a moment as she searched her pockets for the cell phone. Mine was just as Autumn had remembered, sitting on the back seat. I grabbed it and looked at all of the notifications.
Carter, Eleanor, and most of the other Chasses had called, texted, and left messages on both our phones. They were all frantic, stress oozing from every word in their urges for us to call them back. They begged us to answer them, to let them know that we were safe. More specifically, that Autumn was safe.
Autumn sped through the light traffic of the early morning, passing through warded locations. She called her parents as soon as she could fumble a call through on her dial pad. They answered after the first ring, probably sitting up all night, worried about the safety of their only child.
"Autumn?" Eleanor yelled into the phone.
"Mom, everything's okay. I'm fine, I'm safe," she tried to say above the rush of questions from her mother.
"Where are you? What happened?"
"Mom, hold on a second… hold on," she urged. Eleanor bit back her bombardment of questions. "We're almost home now. I'll fill you in when we get there."
We pulled in a few minutes later, parked half in the yard near the front of the driveway where the car usually rested. Then we bounded through the yard to the front door. Autumn was rushing like we were still running from something. I think she was more shaken from what had happened than I realized. Autumn wanted to see her family again after the attack. She kept saying that we shouldn't have survived the attack. She noted that hunters don't win in outnumbered scenarios. She must have been expecting to die as soon as she grasped our situation in the parking garage. I guess this was a reunion she thought she would never have. I could see it in her face… read it in the scent of emotions rolling off her. I sensed a relief that could not be put into words.
Autumn burst through the door and practically collapsed into the room, barely catching herself as she stumbled forward. The moment they saw her, her family rushed in like a wave. It was chaos, but not the bad kind. It was messy, breathless, desperate love.
Carter grabbed her first, locking her in a fierce embrace. "Are you okay?" His voice was strained, like he hadn't breathed in hours.
Clara was right behind him. "What happened?" She sounded exhausted. They all did. Worn thin from fear.
Their eyes quickly found the cuts along Autumn's head and arms, along with faint blood, dirt, and bruises. The things they hadn't been able to stop from imagining since she'd gone missing.
"We got attacked last night… vampires," she said, her voice wobbling on the edge of relief and overwhelming emotion. She was trying to stay strong, but her hands were shaking.
"Vampires attacked you?" Carter repeated, his eyes sharpening. "How many?"
"Three…"
"What happened?" Wayland's voice was low, tense.
I was still standing in the doorway, watching them. I didn't want to step in. I didn't deserve to step in. This was their moment, the family reunion I would never get to have. I should have been invisible, silent. But I couldn't look away.
Watching them hold her, seeing their faces twist with worry and relief… it hit me harder than I expected. I didn't just understand what they felt. I ached with it. Because I saw Caydee in Autumn. I saw a father's fear in Carter's arms. And I saw everything I lost… and everything I'd never have again.
Then Autumn looked toward me. "Sam saved us."
They all turned, eyes full of stunned silence. I felt exposed—like she'd pulled back the curtain on a secret I'd been trying to keep quiet, even from myself.
Autumn tried to explain what happened. Her words came fast, breathy and emotional, trying to paint the picture: the ambush in the parking garage, the silver dust, the alley, the panic. Her voice cracked slightly when she said she blacked out. And when she said my name again, that I had been the one who pulled her back to her feet, that I'd stayed...
Her eyes caught mine. And something inside me buckled.
She remembered everything, and she still trusted me. Somehow, through all this… she still saw me as a good guy. If only she knew…
I tried not to let my own internal disgust show.
They were all staring at me now. Eleanor crossed the room without hesitation, and before I could stop her, before I could even think, she wrapped her arms around me and held me tightly.
"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you so much."
I stiffened. My hands didn't know what to do. I wasn't built for this anymore. I wasn't meant for it. I couldn't remember the last time anyone had touched me like that and meant it.
Carter followed, placing a hand firmly on my shoulder. "Sam," he said, voice thick with emotion. "You saved my daughter's life. We'll never be able to repay you."
I wanted to say something. Anything. But I couldn't, because this… this was what I'd craved in the darkest corners of the nights I sat alone in the factory; not revenge, not blood. I just wanted to belong.
This situation, though… it terrified me. Because the thing inside me, the monster, stirred beneath my skin. It didn't understand this moment. It didn't fit here. And I could feel it coiling, confused and resentful, pushing at my ribs like it didn't want me getting too comfortable.
I swallowed it down. Pushed it deeper. "I just got lucky," I finally said, my voice low, trying to keep it steady. "Autumn's the real hero. She threw the dust. Without it, they would've torn me apart."
Autumn shook her head. "Yeah, but you killed them."
Eleanor pulled me into the living room with them, and Carter gently closed the front door behind us. The air felt heavier inside now, warmer, but realer. Like I'd been pulled into something I didn't know how to survive.
"You took out two vampires by yourself?" Frank asked, stunned. "No guns? No plan?"
"I told you he wouldn't believe it," Autumn said with a shaky laugh, her voice still tight with emotion.
Carter looked at me like I was something impossible. "Seriously, Sam. That's not normal. We never go into fights without a plan. Without backup. And all you had was a knife."
I gave a small shrug. "I just moved fast. When the dust hit them, I didn't think… I just went. Got the first one down, then the one that hit Autumn. It was just… instinct. Any one of you would've done it."
"No," Carter said, quietly but firmly. "Not anyone. You did."
He squeezed my shoulder again. "You never cease to impress, Sam. Thank you."
I nodded faintly, looking down, trying not to let them see what was actually in my eyes. Because all I could think was: Don't get used to this. Don't believe this is yours. They'll never really know what you are.
And still, some small, selfish part of me wanted to believe I could stay. That maybe, just maybe, I wasn't the monster I kept fighting back.
All of the family gave Autumn and me multiple hugs, and thanked me for protecting her, and tried to figure out how the vampires had found us. They all talked about the possibility of it being a coincidence, but Carter didn't believe that. Not with all that was happening in the monster world. He was going to contact Martin and see what he could find out.
I stayed for about an hour after we got back, replaying the scenario for them a few more times and watching Autumn, making sure she was okay. She didn't last much longer after we had arrived. She was still worn out and passed out on the couch in the living room. She finally looked peaceful and not in a state of hypervigilance.
"You should stay with us tonight. Once the sun sets, they'll be back out. Until we know what exactly led them to you two last night, it isn't safe," Carter said.
"I'll be fine. I've been warding off my apartment for the last few weeks, so nothing's getting in," I lied.
"Well, if anything happens, or you even get a strange feeling, call me. You can come back here in a heartbeat. Or we can come get you," he assured.
"Thanks, Carter."
I closed one of the large wooden doors behind me as I left them to themselves. I felt I should give them space after everything that had almost happened with Autumn. I couldn't believe that he offered me the option to stay in their house. They were too kind to me. If only they knew the truth and could see what I was. They wouldn't be so kind.
I mounted my motorcycle and cranked the starter until it roared to life. I sped away from the home I wanted and toward the industrial side of town. Towards the monster's den.