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“Please…” he begs. “We don’t care about all of this.”

“Funny, because if I hadn’t shown up, you would have killed my girl.”

It’s them or us.

Running on pure adrenaline, I slide my blade through his neck. He’s dead before his body hits the ground. Remy jolts forward and grabs a second one around his neck and does the same, blood spewing out of his mouth.

The other two try to run, but Remy chases them and grabs them before they can get away. I can hear them struggling. Remy guts them before they can scream for help, tossing the torches to the ground right before they die. I don’t know what happens next; I can’t focus. Panic bubbles up into my throat at the realization that I just killed someone, and Remy just killed three people in a matter of seconds.

My entire existence turns fuzzy, then razor-sharp when I realize Didi still hasn’t moved.

Remy walks back from the darkness, blood all over his face and hands, barely recognizable. He grabs Didi and pulls her into his arms. I’m still standing frozen in place, blood dripping from my knife and hands.

“Tommy, man. Pull yourself together. We have to move.”

Suddenly a twig snaps in the bushes, followed by a gasp, and we twist our heads to see Didi’s friend Tina hiding in the bushes. We both freeze.

No witnesses.

“Please don’t kill me,” she whispers, covering her face. “I…I have no idea what’s going on.”

Remy places a trembling Didi in my arms, then circles Tina like a hawk. “What did you see here tonight?”

She stares up at him in confusion. “What?”

“What happened here, Tina?”

She chokes on her words, and it dawns on her what Remy is saying. “Nothing…I saw and heard nothing.”

Remy reaches down and helps her to her feet, a juxtaposition from the vicious murder he just committed. “You saw nothing, because you weren’t here. Do you understand?” She nods carefully and wraps her arms around herself. “Now get out of here before anyone sees this. If you tell anyone it was us, I will hunt you down and kill you.”

She scrambles into the forest, leaving Remy and me alone with the bodies and Didi, who still hasn’t moved.

He picks up one of the burning torches, stomping on the fire that’s taken hold on some dead leaves.

“You left a witness…” I remind him. “Talia said no witnesses.”

His eyes flicker up at me. “Someone will eventually need to tell the story. That’s what Talia ultimately wants.”

Didi stirs in my arms, and she finally makes eye contact with me, a flash of recognition over her lifeless face. I barely recognize her…blood splattered everywhere. Like the first slaps of paint on a white canvas.

“Tommy,” she whispers with tears in her white eyes. “They were going to kill me.”

I wrap my arms around her. “I know, firefly…I know. I’m sorry I wasn’t here.”

Fucking hell. She’s shaking.

I wipe the blood from her and realize I am soaked in it from the seven people we just slaughtered. An entire generation, a false bloodline.

“We need to get away from here, firefly, before anyone sees us. Okay?”

“And where do you think you’re going?” Talia’s voice cuts through the night, and I turn to face her.

“Holy hell, man,” Bax drawls, and a third figure, Stephen Garcia, steps up beside them. “Bax, I need you to stand back and keep watch,” Talia says, and he retreats into the shadows, listening to her order like a good soldier.

Remy takes Didi from my arms because all I see is red. “Motherfucker.” I lunge at him, but Talia jumps in my way.

“Tommy, enough,” Talia snaps. “He’s on our side.”