I must have fallen asleep because I woke up on the bed.I sat up, alarmed. My heart started racing as fear clawed at me. I hated that I'd fallen asleep in a territory that I wasn't familiar with. Where was Xander?I allowed myself to relax when I realized that I wasn't in immediate danger. The bedroom door was closed, so I had no idea what was going on outside. I had to go check. I climbed out of bed and peered outside. I didn't see anything of notable significance. The corridor was dark and empty. It was also impossible to tell whether it was day or night, which meant that I had no idea how long I'd been out for. I was disoriented. Did I want to risk going downstairs and looking for Xander? What did I even want? I didn't know what I wanted to do. What was my plan here? Felix said I had to stay here because it was safer. I wouldn't doubt him because I now knew that he had the best intentions with me. He wouldn't have said that if he didn't actually believe that I was safe here. B

Xander still hadn’t said a word to me, and it was starting to make me feel really uneasy. I wished he’d say something. Then again, maybe I deserved the silence. I was taking him to a dangerous place all because I felt the need to save Felix (even when I’d been told that he didn’t want to be helped). He was risking his life here.We rode the subway to reach Konstantin’s neighborhood. I still recalled where it was, but honestly, I was starting to seriously doubt my plan. There was more than enough time to turn back, but something wouldn’t let me. Gratitude, perhaps. He’d saved me many times when I was in danger, and it only felt right to do the same thing for him. Besides, Cassian had to be stopped. Was I supposed to live my life looking over my shoulder for him? I would prefer it if we got rid of him permanently. And because only a vampire could kill another vampire (successfully), I’d need a vampire’s help. And Sven suggested Konstantin, so that was that. As we sat side by side,

The house where Linda and Benjamin lived with Landon was hard to find. We spent almost the whole night looking for it. I was sure that Konstantin probably found it by now, but we had no way of communicating and anyway, he never said that he’d take care of the situation tonight. We’d probably have to spend a day spying in order to get acquainted with the area. We successfully tracked their home thanks to one of the werewolves who were with Xander. He had a particularly sensitive nose, and he was a shifter, which meant that he could become a werewolf at any moment, unlike Xander, who had to wait for the full moon. Shifters were different kinds of werewolves. More powerful. Things between Xander and I weren’t as tense anymore. We were actually talking to each other now; granted, we never mentioned our relationship or any of the risks involved, but we were saying something to each other, which was a significant improvement to whatever was happening between us earlier on. “Your fathe

A few minutes passed by in absolute silence. Konstantin was dead. Cassian was dead. I guessed that the others were dead, too. Felix stared at his brother’s body unwaveringly. I wanted to go to him and offer him some kind of comfort. He’d tried to find a way out for him for centuries. And now that he was out, he was forced to kill him himself. Xander looked at me and said, “Jade, let’s go. Let’s get out of here.”I looked back and forth between him and Felix. I didn’t want to leave him; I didn’t come all the way here just to free him and then walk out of his life like nothing happened. I didn’t want things between us to end so abruptly. “Jade,” he said again, this time more firmly. I glanced over at him, then raised a hand, gesturing for him to wait for a bit. I went down the front steps and then slowly approached Felix, who was too busy looking down at his dead brother. He didn’t look up, even when I was just a few feet away from him.“Felix?” I said. Only then did he meet my g