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The hunter grins wider. ‘Drawing you out.’

I look at the girl again and this time, I notice how sickly she’s becoming. My heart twists as my eyes trace across her blackening veins and greying skin, her body trembling. She was never meant to survive this.

‘You poisoned her just to lure us here?’ I ask.

He shrugs. ‘You bloodsuckers are like roaches. There’s always a group of you that crawl out when you hear about us. All we had to do was wait.’

Theo takes a step forward, and it’s enough to send a wave of pressure through the room. His eyes darken, fangs sliding out slowly in a controlled, dangerous way. The hunter raises the gun again, face twitching slightly as he keeps his composure.

‘You have no idea what kind of mistake you’ve just made,’ Theo says darkly.

The second man shifts beside the leader, uncertain now. The woman grips her stake tighter. They’re doing a good job of appearing confident, but I can taste their apprehension in the air, and the sweat dotting over their skin.

‘We should go,’ the human woman mutters, flicking her eyes to the lead hunter. ‘Now.’

‘Too late,’ Raya says coldly, standing now, the vampire next to her sagging in exhaustion.

Levelling my arrow to the hunter with trained speed and precision, I fire. The arrow hits the leader square in the shoulder, knocking him back against the wall with a grunt of pain. Theo’s already moving.

The room explodes with movement. I duck when a silver blade spins toward me, and my leg shoots out, kicking the other male hunter hard enough to crack his ribs. Theo grabs the gun and drives it up under the leader’s jaw, breaking it clean, the crack of bone rattling through the room.

Hunter tackles the second man, twisting his neck with the flick of his hand. The woman tries to run, but Raya is at the exit, fangs bared, eyes darker than the night sky.

‘You wanted vampires?’ I say, walking toward her as she cries in fear, unable to escape. ‘Congratulations. You got them.’

It’s over quickly and when the bodies are down, I wait to feel everything rush into me at once, but I don’t feel anything. I look to the poisoned vampire, my stomach sinking when I see her eyes directed to the ceiling, unblinking.

‘Oh,’ Raya says softly, her face falling. ‘We’re too late.’

‘She was never going to make it,’ Cora sighs, a little bluntly, but we all know she’s right.

The hairs on the back of my neck lift. A crawling sensation snakes down my spine, the one every vampire knows to trust. Someone’s here. Theo stiffens, instantly alert, the same instinct coiling through him.

A new figure emerges through the door. She has long dark hair, crimson lips and eyes as sharp as razors. Beautiful but in an unsettling way. The corners of her lips curve upward, revealing sharp fangs as she smiles. Her eyes are familiar, though I can’t place why at first.

‘Quite the mess you’ve made,’ she says, voice as smooth as silk and laced with something darker underneath.

Theo and Hunter straighten their spines, glancing between themselves.

The woman stops in front of us, looking around at the dead bodies, before her eyes sweep over me and the girls.

My voice is the first to break the silence, my words barely more than a whisper. ‘It’s you.’

The woman’s smile widens, her eyes flicking from me, to Raya, then to Cora. ‘My girls,’ she says, like it’s a toast. ‘Look at you.’

‘Who are you?’ Theo asks, voice steady as he meets her gaze.

She turns those sharp, familiar eyes on me and smiles like she’s been waiting centuries to be asked.

‘I’m their mother,’ she says simply. ‘I think it’s time we caught up.’

She’s sitting in front of us.

My mother.

My eyes dart to Raya and Cora.

Our mother.