It was the last night before Hadley and the other humans would leave the forest and descend the gorge. That was where the vampires and humans would part ways. In another week or so, Hadley and her friends would be on a boat heading to a floating city. A safe haven. A new home.

"You're mad at something that could have happened," Jamila said as they set up their bedroll in the tent before going to sleep. "Not something that did."

"Yeah, well, what if it did happen? What if I became a vampire? What if I had lost my child?"

"But it didn't happen."

"Okay, so, I'm mad at her intent. She wanted to make me a vampire even though I had made it clear more than a million times that I didn't want that!" Hadley retorted.

"Fine, let's unpack that," Jamila replied, sitting cross-legged on the bedroll. "Ruq saw that you were dying, knew it was her fault and wanted to prevent it any way that she could because she loves you and would have hated to see you dead, which is obvious because she could have just obeyed your wishes and let you die."

Hadley scoffed, sitting across from her. "Are you saying that I should forgive her?"

"For what? Wanting to give you a chance to live?" Jamila asked. "How horrible of her. Worst person ever."

"Ruq might not have succeeded in making me a vampire, but she messed with my body. Maybe with my daughter's too!" Hadley said, her tone serious. "And you're seriously suggesting that I shouldn't be mad at her for what she did?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Jamila clarified, trying to bring calm back to the situation. "Of course, you can be mad at her for attempting to turn you when sheclearly knew it would kill you in other ways if she succeeded. I'm just sayingthat it isn't that black and white."

"What are we talking about then? Because all that it came back to was me still being mad at her."

"Maybe I wanted you to be clear about what it was that you were mad at her for," Jamila said, getting frustrated. "It's not everything, like you want it to be."

"Why does that even matter? I'm never forgiving her!"

"Perhaps it was just luck that the process to Turn you didn't work, but look at what it's done to you, objectively," Jamila continued. Her gaze into Hadley's eyes turned solemn. ""

Hadley stayed silent for a while, not wanting to admit that she'd thought about that as well. More than once since she'd found out about the failed Turn.

"So, you are saying that I should forgive her." Hadley asked with a sigh. It was so much easier to hold on to the anger.

"Do you love her?" Jamila asked.

Another streak of anger flared in Hadley, and she grabbed at it!

"Then there's that!" Hadley said in triumphant exasperation. "She can get inside my head, Jay! Move my feelings around. I can't even trust how I feel about her!"

"You think she's making you love her?" Jamila asked, curiously.

"I don't know. Maybe?"

"You're basing that on a maybe?"

"Fine, so, maybe she said that's not exactly how it works," Hadley said wearily, knowing for a fact that it wasn't how it worked, especially now with how they were linked, but she was desperate to stay mad at the vampire! She had a right to be mad, didn't she?

Jamila sighed. "I love you both, but the two of you can be incredibly frustrating sometimes."

They heard steps outside their tent.

Ruq asked if she could come in. Jamila invited her in, and the flap opened to reveal the vampire.

"Oh," Ruq said, feigning surprise at seeingHadley. "Hadley. I didn't... expect..."

"Don't," Hadley said, rolling her eyes. "It's a tent. You don't need x-ray vision to know I'm in here too."

"Fine," the vampire replied, finding some space to sit. "You've been avoiding me, and I was hoping that maybe we could talk?"

Jamila didn't even skip a beat. "Hadley thinks you're manipulating her love for you."

Ruq chuckled and shook her head. "Manipulate love? No. I don't touch that emotion. Not anymore. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, one out of five stars, do not recommend."

"What?" Hadley asked, her arms crossed at her chest as she watched the vampire get comfortable.

"I made a vow never to influence a person's love. Fear? Any time. Desire? Every so often. But love? Not even if you paid me." Ruq said, finally settled down. She gave Jamila a side hug and a kiss to the temple. "That is how you get yourself a human who becomes irrationally obsessed with you, builds you a shrine, and then starts a cult that begins kidnapping local virgin cheerleaders for ritualistic blood offerings. It's kind of fun at the beginning, but then it gets a little dicey after that."

"Cheerleaders?" Hadley wondered. "What's that?"

"Yeah! This sounds like a story you can really sink your teeth into!" Jamila said with a laugh.

Ruq raised her hands in surrender. "Hey, I don't kiss and tell."

"Oh really?" Jamila said, her voice dropping an octave. "You don't kiss and tell?"

"I don't," Ruq replied.

Jamila shuffled closer to Hadley, tilting her head at the vampire.

"Hadley and I can help with that." Jamila's voice took a playful tone.

"We can?" Hadley asked, uncrossing her arms, and letting Jamila snuggle up to her.

"Oh yeah," Jamila explained. "See, we could take care of the kissing part, and then all that's left is the telling. That's half the effort."

Hadley took a moment to think about it. She was in two minds about Ruqwik. Despite how mad she was with the vampire, Hadley couldn't deny that she had feelings for her. A longing. Desire. Not to mention the fact that this was the last night they would all be together. It wouldn't hurt to at least explore her desires before they parted ways forever.

She could still be mad at her after – while floating on a ship city thousands of miles away.

"It's not an unreasonable plan, Jay." Hadley finally said. She reached her left hand up into Jamila's hair, turned the golden eyed beauty towards her and kissed her, slow and sensual. She pulled away and sent a sultry look towards the vampire. "And we are pretty good at the kissing part."

Ruq was taking her clothes off in seconds. Hadley and Jamila joined her, pulling off their clothes as fast as they could.

Hadley suddenly stopped them, pinning her gaze on Ruq.

"Just to be clear, this doesn't mean that I'm not still mad at you!" Hadley said. "And I will be for a while."

Ruq smiled, nodded, then said, "I'm okay with that."

"Good." Hadley said.

Hadley reached for the back of the vampire's neck, pulled her close and kissed her, hard. Rough. Angry. At the same time, Jamila kissed Hadley's shoulder and explored Hadley's body with her hands. Hadley broke her kiss with Ruq and turned towards Jamila, kissing her again, and rearranging them so that Jamila was lying down between her and the vampire. Hadley trailed her kisses down Jamila's throat and clavicle, finally taking Jamila's right nipple into her mouth. Jamila's soft gasp was swallowed by Ruq's kiss as the two made out.

Hadley made her way down Jamila's body, reaching the nexus of her core, and raised her eyes to see Ruq sink her fangs into Jamila's neck at the exact same time that Hadley landed a soft kiss on Jamila's labia. Jamila's moan reverberated around the tent, stirring an insatiable lust in Hadley that almost overwhelmed her before she realised that the feeling wasn't all hers. Ruq's mind was open to hers and hers to Ruq's. The kaleidoscope of emotions colouring their shared minds added a whole new layer to the experience.

Then Hadley felt Ruq gently push further into her mind and turn everything up a notch!

This was going to be fun.

*

Hadley woke up spooning Jamila, who was hugging Hadley's hand against her chest. Hadley focussed on Jamila's heart beating against their clasped hands for a few minutes. Ruqwik was facing them both, asleep. Hadley didn't know vampires slept. She'd always imagined they didn't need to. Hadley nuzzled Jamila's neck and gave her a few kisses. Jamila's soft sighs roused Ruqwik, who'd just had her eyes closed. They were alert when they fell on Hadley, her gaze as soft as her smile.

"Mmm," Jamila hummed. "Will you two please make up?"

Ruqwik chuckled and gave Jamila's nose a light kiss. Then she looked up at Hadley, her gaze becoming solemn.

"I'm sorry, Hadley." The vampire said, while simultaneously flooding the shared mindscape with remorse and regret.

"What are you sorry for, Ruq?" Hadley demanded.

"Oh my god, I will strangle you both myself, if you keep this up." Jamila said, although she didn't sound very serious with her eyes closed and an irrepressible smile on her face.

"No, it's a fair question, Jay." The vampire reached over, gently touched Hadley's cheek and laid everything bare in the mindscape, making it impossible for Hadley to doubt the sincerity of her words. "Hadley, it was a stupid move, deciding to Turn you when I didn't know the first thing about turning a human, and it was dangerous to even try. I'm sorry I did. I could have altered your body in a far more terrible way, and it's only by chance that I didn't."

Hadley leaned into the vampire's caress.

"Well?" Jamila whispered, her eyes still closed. She snuggled closer to Hadley. "Is she forgiven?"

Hadley chuckled, holding Jamila close. "For now."

"Forever." Jamila corrected. This time she opened her eyes, kissed Hadley, wriggled downwards a little and kissed Hadley's belly, and then came back up, turned, and kissed Ruqwik. "Let's go get some breakfast! I'm starving."

Ruq gave her a sly grin. "I'm not."

For the last day with the vampires, the humans used the transfusion kit made by Jael and Hadley, making sure the vampires were fully fed to help them survive the next leg of their travels. No one questioned why Hadley and Jamila didn't donate their blood or why Ruq didn't feed. Once Tristan, his lover Cruto, and the five other vampires were fed, the humans packed everything up, ready to go.

Ruq hugged Hadley. "Stay alive, Hadley."

"You're sure you're okay with this?" Hadley whispered into Ruq's ear. She still hadn't fully forgiven the vampire, and it was upsetting that the vampire wouldn't be around when, or if, she ever did, but Ruq couldn't join them on this journey. Besides, the vampire had to get back to her duties as Enclave Baron. Whatever they both felt, there was now a lot more at stake than their lives together as lovers. "We might never see each other again."

"As long as you keep your blood a secret and you stay out of trouble, I'm okay with this." Ruq replied. She pulled out of the hug, gently placed a palm on Hadley's belly, smiling at the resulting hard kick against the touch, then solemnly looked back up at Hadley. "That doesn't mean it hurts any less to say goodbye."

"I'll take care of her," Jamila said, placing her arm around Hadley's shoulder.

Ruqwik smiled and hugged Jamila as well. "Both of you, take care of each other."

Hadley gasped and hit her forehead with the heel of her palm.

"I can't believe I almost forgot this!" Hadley said. She turned to Ruq then back to Jamila. "I have something for you both."

Hadley reached into her pocket and pulled out the two Damascus steel rings that Brielle had taken her to get crafted by the swordsmiths. The only good thing to come out of The Caves. She took the ring with the teeny sculpture of squirrels asleep in each other's arms and slipped it on Jamila's left ring finger, then turned around and slipped the other ring with the plain, but still exquisite, tree bark design on Ruq's left ring finger.

Hadley looked up at Ruq and smiled. "To remember us by."

Then she turned to look at Jamila. "To know that I'll always love you."

The three came together in a group hug, holding on as tightly as they could.

Hadley found it surreal to know that this was finally the end of her very strange adventure beyond the Compound walls. But she was ready to take a break from vampire dogs, homicidal women in the woods and fanatical Wildlings who hated her for reasons completely out of her control. She was ready to finally have a home for her and her baby and these floating cities sounded like the ideal solution, although, after everything that had happened at Trisca's Settlement and The Caves, it was difficult to hold high hopes for yet another place promising to be the perfect answer to Hadley's search for a home. However, as long as Hadley had Jamila and the others by her side, she was determined to make this work.

It was becoming clearer to her that home wasn't a place to find, but rather a space to create.

The three finally pulled out of the hug. Hadley and Jamila kissed the vampire for the last time then walked over to their backpacks to finish packing to leave. Kade and Brielle had packed more than enough for their escape, and they still had plenty of supplies to hold them for several days, not just the day or two they would need to get to the Waypoint. Hadley was about to ask Jamila if she wanted to swap some snacks, to cover her weird cravings as they hiked, when the air exploded with the projection of Ruqwik's power!

Hadley's heart jumped, her head on a swivel as she searched for the source of danger.

A maniacal laugh came forth from the shadows of the forest, the owner of the voice walking over to the group.

"If vampires could throw up, I would."

Everyone turned to the voice.

She was one of the most gorgeous women that Hadley had ever laid her eyes on. Everything about her was theatrical, especially the makeup on her flawless rich black skin. Her dark eyebrows were incredibly dramatic, sensually drawn out to extend close to her temples, complimented splendidly by heavy, smoky, beautifully blended dark eyeshadow framing the crimson irises of her stunning almond shaped eyes with amazing thick lashes.

She had on a spiked, beaded head dress made of gold medallions and bedazzled with blue jewels, the headdress resting on a tight bun made from rounds of her midnight black, perfectly locced braids. Locs bedecked with tiny, intricately crafted golden cuffs, the uncoiled section of her hair falling down her back and over her clavicles, reaching her knees. On her neck was a gold chocker elaborately designed with intricate circles, swirls and spirals, extending down into a metallic chest-piece, the swirls and spirals only just preserving her modesty. The only other thing she wore was an ankle length, black wide skirt held up by a thick, gold belt resting on her hips and an apron of gold medallions with blue gems falling from the middle of the belt to her feet. Her bare feet.

"Sleritu!" Ruq said the word like she'd just stepped on something disgusting.

"Hello, Ruq," the vampire said, her voice elegant and composed. "I admire your consistency. Every woman you've loved after me just keeps getting worse. First Trisca, who I hear died painfully in your arms. Then that annoying scientist, Kitari, always whining for her right to Sire a Fledgling, when it's a miracle we still let her live."

She spat that last phrase and walked right up to Ruqwik before she turned to face Hadley and Jamila standing a few feet away.

"And now, as the final blow to whatever was left of your dignity," Sleritu sneered. "You're shacking up with livestock."

She turned back to Ruq.

"Speaking of the scientist, you had your pick of her litter, access to the best Progenies that whiny bitch could Frankenstein, yet you never found a decent one for yourself. And now you have a Fisher in the palm of your hand, but you're still too much of a feeble coward to Turn her!" she continued in her hateful drawl. Then she snickered. "We both know why, though, don't we?"

Ruq's mind surged, her rage was swirling and building to a crescendo, colouring everything blue. Venom blue. The dangerously gorgeous vampire from the forest was stoking it, riling Ruqwik to a fever pitch. Hadley's stomach churned, ice cold chills streaking down to her marrow! However, the strangest feeling by far was her daughter – the little one kicked furiously against Hadley's belly, a manic frenzy Hadley had to stop before she drowned in the burgeoning wave of excruciating pain!

She did something she'd been thinking about ever since she'd woken up from that fateful night at Mrs. Smith's cabin. She closed her eyes and focused on a single emotion, letting it fill her completely. She chose love. The unconditional kind. The one that uninhibitedly latched onto a soul, cared for it, and protected it from everything, including the owner of the soul itself. She gathered the feeling, held on tight, then barged into Ruqwik's mind, rushing in, and crashing through like the vampire had done to her mind that night she'd torn a human to shreds with her bare hands!

'Don't give her the satisfaction, Ruq,' Hadley projected into the vampire's mind as she barrelled through, pinging wildly, recklessly, against every surface, dissipating the thick blue smoke trying to fill every crevice of the vampire's mind.

When she finally came to a stop, Hadley watched in awe as the blue rage bled out of Ruqwik's mind, welcoming the calm that followed. She wasn't the only one surprised by what was happening. Ruqwik was unbalanced by Hadley's audacity – more so by the fact that it had worked – but the vampire wasn't angry. Far from it! Ruq showered the mindscape with unending gratitude as she worked to take back control of her mind from Hadley, who willingly surrendered it back to the vampire.

"I know what you're trying to do, Sleritu," Ruqwik finally said, walking up to the woman. "It won't work. Not anymore."

Hadley leant onto Jamila, a wave of exhaustion washing over her. She reached for her womb, relieved to feel her little one calm down and go silent, likely for a nap. That little telepathic episode had taken it out of them both. Hadley looked back up at the gorgeous, evil vampire who'd just tried to break Ruq.

Sleritu tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at Ruqwik, surprised.

"You really can control it. I was hoping I'd imagined it during the Enclave challenge, but the impossible is true, isn't it?" the woman said.

This vampire knew about Ruqwik's Venom!

And not just that. She'd tried to wield it like a weapon.

Like she'd done this before!

Rage and ire climbed Hadley's throat, blurring her vision. She wouldn't allow anyone the right to take advantage of Ruq like that.

"She needs to die." Hadley whispered.

"Agreed." Jamila whispered back.

But before they could do anything, an army of vampires followed Sleritu out of the forest.

But it wasn't just vampires.

Vampire dogs followed close behind.

Ten vampires and ten vampire dogs. Exactly like Hadley's experience with the man who'd attacked Brielle and her people in the forest, but ten times worse! Each dog stood beside a vampire, calm and controlled – an eerie, intimidating sight. The vampires and vampire dogs surrounded Hadley and the others, creating an impenetrable ring around them. As if they had practiced for this moment, Ruq, Tristan, Cruto and the other vampires formed their own ring around the humans and, following suit, Hadley, Jamila, Kade, Brielle and the older humans surrounded the youngest in the middle, although Jael and Yuvan fell in and joined Drew and Brownie in the centre.

"I'll only say this once, Sleritu," Ruqwik said. "Order your vampires to leave, let us kill these dogs to save every vampire and human in this Enclave and then we can settle this thing between us, once and for all. And when I win, I take your Enclave."

Sleritu laughed.

"I knew that you had become weak over time Ruqwik," Sleritu said, petting the dog that had walked up to her side. "But to treat humans as if they mattered, as if they had a power over you? That's a new low."

"I'm going to enjoy beating you to a pulp and drinking your blood from my boot," Ruqwik replied in the calmest, matter of fact tone, but the words were infused with so much menace it raised the hair on Hadley's neck. But before she could even process that feeling, she was suddenly drowning in a new explosion of Ruqwik's power projecting into the air around them.

The current situation was bad, but Ruq's new projection meant that it was about to get much worse.

Sleritu gave a slow, lazy grin. "I'd like to see you try."

With those words, more dogs walked up behind the others, six to seven behind each of the ten that stood next to their masters. Hadley's stomach dropped, her heart raced, her mouth went dry, and her palms became drenched in sweat. Pushing past the fear, Hadley pulled out the hunting knife Kade had put in her bag and unsheathed it. She discreetly cut her palm, lacing the blade with her poisonous blood, and letting the wound heal. Beside her, Brielle unlatched the axe strapped to her back, Jamila unsheathed a machete, Kade pulled out his sword with a loud swish, and Jael reached into her bag and, with the help of Yuvan, started snapping together some kind of strange weapon that Hadley didn't recognise.

There were a few seconds when everything stopped. An instant when everyone was taking in the import of exactly what was about to happen. A moment that was broken by the strangest sound Hadley had ever heard.

A deep, stodgy umph!

Hadley watched the head of one of the vampires standing next to the one called Sleritu explode, bits of brain flying everywhere.

Hadley turned to look at Jael – the source of what had just happened.

"Is that a potato gun?" Ruqwik asked in disbelief.

Hadley didn't know what a potato gun was, but whatever this weapon was, it was fucking dangerous.

And she absolutely loved it!

"Ran out of potatoes. Beanbag capsules with shards of metal soaked in dead blood will have to do, I guess," Jael replied with a grin and a shrug. She stood tall, wielding the weapon over her shoulder.

"Whatever it is, do that again!" Kade yelled, just as Sleritu, her vampires and the dogs attacked!

Ruqwik and her vampire army took on Sleritu and her vampirearmy while the older humans took on the vampire dogs. Hadley and the othersworked as a tightknit team, keeping jaws and teeth at bay as they mowed down thedogs. Jael's weapon continued to blow holes through both the dogs and vampires– holes that didn't heal once acquired – while Drew handed Jael more ammunitionfrom her bag so she could keep firing the weapon continuously and Brownie keptanything from getting close to the boy and their highly effective artillery.

As Hadley and Brielle struck down another dog, two other canines flanked them. These dogs weren't alone.

"You!" Brielle spat.

It was the vampire who had attacked Brielle, Max and Chasina in the rainforest. He turned to Hadley and smiled, his fangs hanging low.

"You know, it was you who gave me this idea," he said to Hadley, looking around at the chaos. "When I saw you and that child controlling that mutt, I asked myself, 'if children can do this, what would it look like if an Enclave's Baron did?'. And now, fate has brought you to me once again, to show you what happens to prey in the presence of a true apex predator!"

The man raised his hands in triumph, sweeping them to point out the mayhem around them.

"Isn't this glorious!" He yelled. Then he called out to his dogs – the two that had escaped that clearing all those months ago. "Apollo! Delta! Avenge your brother! Attack!"

The man followed behind the charging canines. Hadley swivelled her blood-stained hunting knife, tensing her muscles for the onslaught.

But she wasn't too worried. As the vampire and vampire dog rushed to attack her, she slit her palm and let her blood thickly coat her blade again. Apollo, Delta, and their master were about to learn what happens when the "apex predators" chose the wrong type of prey!

Despite being ridiculously outnumbered, the fight was favouring Ruq, her team and Hadley's friends. Frustrated by trying to stay discreet, Hadley was openly using her blood as a weapon. As they fought, she danced and swivelled around and past her opponents, continuously lacing her knife, Jamila's machete, Brielle's axe and Kade's sword with her blood, which helped them kill most of the dogs. It was slow, and she was pushing her body to its limits, but they were winning.

Hadley was even beginning to think about how this was the perfect way to say goodbye to her old life – with the most epic victory ever against pure evil!

And then everything changed!

An arrow suddenly hit one of Ruq's Freelancer vampires who'd come over to help Hadley fight Apollo and Delta as Brielle fought their Master. The Freelancer vampire froze mid-strike! Then he staggered backwards as black lines began drawing themselves on his skin, reaching out from where the arrow had hit him in the chest, up his neck, down his arms and eventually covering his face. Like he was burning from the inside through every blood vessel! Even Apollo paused to watch, even as Delta lay dead at their feet. The Freelancer vampire fell, his eyes lifeless!

Hadley stabbed Apollo in the neck and pulled the knife out, watching the dog fall.

Her head snapped up as a rain of arrows whizzed past her, flying into the clearing and dealing the Freelancers fate to every other vampire and vampire dog they embedded themselves in.

"Don't hit the humans and, for god's sake, don't hit the hybrid! She's the only other hybrid we know of!" a voice yelled.

Hadley instantly recognized the voice.

Anette!

The Healer with the eyepatch!

The Wildling and Scavenger double agent.

"And can someone please find me Hadley!" Anette screamed.

Scavengers were pouring into the clearing on hovering vehicles – the floating monsters – reloading cross bows with their deadly arrows and wildly firing into the clearing. Vampires were dropping like flies all around them, both humans and dogs. The Scavengers were covered from head to toe in fitting clothing without seams. Their gloves and boots were connected to the clothes. And their heads were covered in helmets with mirrored visors, which fully hid their faces.

Someone tackled Hadley to the ground – helping her dodge an arrow destined for her sternum – then they began to drag her away from the fight.

"What the hell are you doing, Ruq? We need to get back! They need us!" Hadley screamed at her.

"You need to go, Hadley! Now!" Ruq's voice was insistent. And scared. She pulled at Hadley's arm. "You need to get out of here!"

"Ruq! We can still win!" Hadley said, trying to resist her hold. "We'll just have to kill the Scavengers too!"

Ruq stopped and got right in her face, spitting out her next words. "Your blood, Hadley! Don't think I haven't caught its scent! Haven't seen you coating every weapon here. And it's not just you! Their arrows have it too. That's your dead blood killing my people!"

Suddenly, Hadley was tackled to the ground by the vampire that she had been fighting – Apollo and Delta's master. As Hadley tousled with the man, only one question came to mind.

What had happened to Brielle?

"Where do you think you're going?" the man yelled, punching Hadley in the face hard enough to smash her left eye socket. Before he landed another blow, Ruq reached down, grabbed the vampire, and pulled him off Hadley like he was a ragdoll, throwing him back into the seething mass of violence.

"I'm not leaving the others to die!" Hadley said, looking up at Ruq with her one good eye – her other eye already healing – then standing up, picking up her hunting knife, coating it with her blood and then trying to push past Ruq and back into the war-torn clearing to find her cousin.

Ruq became solemn as she spoke her next words, her hand on Hadley's forearm, holding her back.

"Your blood will change this world, Hadley. It already has, can't you see that? Right now, you decide who wields it. But if you get captured by any of them, Sleritu or the Scavengers, it won't be your decision anymore!" Ruq said.

The vampire looked back at the chaos then back at Hadley.

"Stay and save your friends or run and save the world. Your choice!"