Urgh. Wattpad hates me. I write in Word, then copy and paste across for the sake of a British spell checker. The problem is, it doesn't keep italic text. I have to go through, finding all the right words and changing them back to italic every. single. chapter. And it doesn't even do it first time. Oh no, I usually have to save three or four times before the damn things stay sloping. Anyway, rant over. How are we all? Exhausted after another week of school? I certainly am.

"Well, well, well," Miller smirked. "Look what we have here."

He motioned with one hand and six officers moved in with hot weapons. One of them pinned my hands behind my back while the other handcuffed them in place. Then they frisked me, stealing anything and everything remotely suspicious (which was quite a lot). To my left and right, Leo and Kara were receiving similar treatment.

Miller walked down his line of captives, humming an unfamiliar tune. It took every ounce of my control not to shift on the spot and let loose. My wolf was pissed, and that was putting it mildly. Displaced anger at the hunters had mixed with rage at Leo's father and a little bit of hatred for the authorities thrown in there. I mean, just look at their name. The authorities. There were few things that rogues despised more.

"You, I know," Miller said to me. Then he looked at Leo and Kara. "You're a new face, lad. And as for you ... well, you're an old face on a new body. Twins?"

"Twins," Kara agreed. "She's the evil one."

"Yeah, that's exactly what the evil twin would say," I replied smarmily.

Miller hauled me to my feet and frog-marched me away from the car. "Alright, smartass. All I'm going to say is that if you're the good twin, I dread to think what she's like."

They loaded us into a police van together. It was a very cramped space for three people, and there were no seatbelts to be seen. The minute we were left alone, Kara rounded on me with fury in her eyes. "You're wanted by the fricking secret service? Couldn't you have warned me? They're going to do me as an accomplice, aren't they?"

"Maybe," I admitted. "If it's any consolation, I happen to be very good at cards. Or at least ... cheating at cards. We can hustle the other prison inmates and live like royalty. They can smuggle in anything these days, you know."

The glare she gave me reminded me disturbingly of my own temper tantrums. Leo just shook his head, grinning. "Rhys was right. This is fun. It's like watching Skye argue with herself."

We ended up at the same police station as last time, except it had been thoroughly revamped. They had invested in one-way glass and secure holding cells, while practically doubling security. The improvements were no doubt on our account. The officers spilt us up to incarcerate us. Kara began fighting back when she saw bars. I didn't blame the girl, considering how she'd grown up.

I brushed against her mind, trying to calm her down. It didn't achieve very much, but the police managed to lock her up on their own, judging from the change in her mentality. The fear that had been rolling off her in waves turned to brooding anger. Fion would have been better at soothing the girl through the link. I missed her. My siblings were absent more often than not recently.

They had spared no expense to secure potential serial killers. I had my hands cuffed behind my back and my ankles chained to the floor. Not to mention the double set of cell bars between myself and the interrogators. Miller must have decided it wasn't safe to be in the same room as me after what had happened last time.

"We have been tracking you for nearly eight months, you know," Miller informed me casually. He was leaning against a brick wall, regarding his prisoners with malicious interest.

"That's a long time to find someone who only lives a few kilometres away and supposedly leaves trails of dead bodies in her wake," I snapped. "Couldn't you just follow the bloodstains?"

"You say that like you haven't left any." The female agent was there as well, and she wasn't playing good cop this time. The only game these two were playing was bad cop, worse cop. "We've got forensic proof you've killed at least two people. Nearly a dozen bodies were recovered from a warehouse earlier this week. A few were covered in your fingerprints."

Which they had from the last time I was arrested, of course. I wrenched at my handcuffs, causing both of them to take a hasty step back and reached for their guns. Good, they were scared of me. That would make this next part a lot easier.

"I don't think those two were your first, either. You've been at this a long time. Your brother too," Miller said. "Do you even know how many people you've killed?"

"People? None at all," I said. "But if we're counting monsters, the tally is getting quite high. Earlier this year, I would have said twenty-three. I kept a close count of how many I'd killed, mainly so I could lie awake and feel guilty about it, if you must know. I can't give you an exact number anymore, but it's in the hundreds now. And every single one of them was self-defence."

I watched the shock and disgust appear on their faces in quick succession. What was the matter? Had they never met a self-professed serial killer before?

I smiled without amusement. "So ... that reminds me. I need to ask something. It's easy to forget the finer details of the law, but isn't self-defence perfectly legal?"

Miller opened his mouth furiously. "You really expect us to believe that—"

"Frankly, I don't care what you believe. I'm done talking. If you want anything else out of me, I suggest you bring my friends in here. Otherwise, I'll lawyer up before you can blink."

It was an empty threat. I wouldn't have been able to bear five minutes of silence, especially while some middle-aged leech whispered in my ear. But they didn't know that.

"You know that's not possible," the female agent said instantly.

I smiled innocently up at her. "Of course it is. You just unlock their cells and move them in here. Easy peasy."

The two of them exchanged a sceptical look. Miller grimaced. "If we put you all in the same room — and that's a big if — you'll answer our questions honestly?"

"Yes. I'm a reasonable person."

He somehow turned a scoff into a cough. "What guarantee do I have that you won't try anything? Last time you broke out within minutes of being left alone with your brother."

"That's not all we broke," I said dryly. "But Rhys isn't here. Don't worry about Leo. I'm actually more likely to behave myself with him."

The pair glanced at each other again, this time with more conviction. Evidently, they hadn't learned their lesson from last time. The female agent took a single step closer to the bars of my cage. She said seriously, "I want all that in writing."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course you do."

It took them ten minutes to draw up the necessary document. After reading through tediously slowly — it had been a while since I had read anything much at all — I got the essence of it. In exchange for my cooperation, they would facilitate my demands for company. Fancy words for 'I'll talk as long as my friends are there.'

My signature was scrawled in an unpractised, childlike handwriting. It didn't matter, though, the act itself of signing was the important thing, not the product.

The female agent scrutinised it. "Llewellyn? You're from a Welsh family, then."

"You're not saying it right," I muttered. I was allowed to be sloppy about the pronunciation, but strangers were not. "Llew - el - lin. Take it you're from across the border?"

"Yes..."

Miller tried unsuccessfully to hide his smile. "Well then, Skye Llewellyn, I suppose we have a deal."

He knew exactly how to say it. Double 'l' and all. He wasn't English. That was plus a hundred brownie points for him, which brought his total to somewhere in the minus twenties. The man managed to grow a backbone while he was at it and unlocked my cage himself, daring to bring me out without an officer holding a gun to my head.

I didn't snap his neck for his efforts. I hadn't been lying when I said I only killed people who were trying to kill me. I revelled in the feeling of open space as I was led across the corridor. Just as Miller was about to open up Leo's cell, the front door of the station swung open with a creaking groan.

A familiar scent blindsided me. Two men stood in the doorway. One was looking around the police station with his hands in his pockets. The other made a beeline for the receptionist with a faint smile on his lips. Rhys and Rhodric. In seconds, they had half of the guns in the room pointed at them as the officers recognised Rhys from the wanted list, but neither of them so much as blinked. Rhodric leant against the front desk.

"I'm here for a pair of delinquents," he said. "My daughter and son-in-law seem to have found themselves on the wrong side of the law. It's all a misunderstanding, of course. Be a dear and let them go. Skye's a sweet little thing. Wouldn't hurt a fly."

No, but I'd hurt plenty of werewolves.

The receptionist gaped openly. "We ... we can't just release prisoners."

"Sure you can. Just ring up Andy and check with him. It'll be fine."

"Andy?" her voice shook a little.

Rhodric nodded. "Yes, Andy. He is your boss, isn't he?"

I found myself smirking. Miller gave me a curious look, but the female agent strode over, her jaw set. She ignored Rhys's dangerous grin in favour of challenging my father.

"I'll deal with this," she told the receptionist. Then, to Rhodric, "You have no authority here. And as it happens, we'll be arresting you too. We have reason to believe you were involved in a series of murders."

Rhodric turned to face her fully. He was still smiling. His undivided attention was not something that anyone had ever been able to handle, but the effect on the woman seemed ... extreme. Her eyes went vacant and glazed, all of a sudden.

"Are you sure? I don't think I'm the person you're looking for," he said.

A strange frown crossed her lips. Slowly, she repeated, "No, you're right. I'm not sure. I don't think you're the person I'm looking for."

Rhodric nodded along, as if it was all obvious. "See, that's what I thought. And you are going to release the kids, aren't you? You know they haven't done anything."

"Yes. I know they haven't done anything. We'll release them right away. You have my apologies for the inconvenience. Jones, would you see to it, please?"

One of the police officers came towards me, looking confused as hell but already reaching for his keys. They were so fussy about the chain of command that it didn't even occur to him to question the weirdness of it all. From his cell, Leo gave me a baffled but pleased shrug. He was sat with his legs stretched out. Not overly bothered. Kara, on the other hand, was craning her neck at the bars, desperately trying to see what was going on.

"Hang on," Miller spluttered. "No. What? We're not releasing them."

Rhodric turned those piercing hazel eyes onto him instead. This time, he didn't say anything, but I watched as a strange change rippled over Miller. His muscles went slack, and his forehead creased.

"Let them go, Jones," he said hesitantly. "This has all been one big mistake. I understand now."

Goddess, this was ... I didn't even know what it was. Rhys looked as weirded out as I was, but he wasn't questioning it. He came over to mess up my hair as the officer turned the key in my handcuffs. They turned my mate and my twin loose next.

"Hey, little sister," Rhys said. "Miss me?"

I snorted. "It's been half a day, idiot. And how do you always forget that I'm three months older than you?"

"Easy to do when you're an entire foot shorter," Rhys teased.

"Keep poking fun at my height and I might just take off your head. Then you'd be as short as I am."

"Kids, enough bickering," Rhodric scolded. "The adults are trying to have a conversation here. Officers, I suggest you devote the full force of the law to investigating this address. Illegal stockpile of weaponry and all that. Call it an anonymous tip."

He handed a scrap of paper to Miller, who took it readily. "Of course. We'll do it right away. You should know — we arrested these three on an anonymous tip."

"Oh, I know. And it's no longer anonymous. I had the phone call traced just to be sure. Spencer and Ella Morgan will live to regret it when I next have a few hours to spare. Anyway, we must be going. Give my regards to your boss."

He led the way back out. Kara and Leo were just a few steps behind us. Rhodric didn't waste any time jumping into the car we had abandoned. They must have already retrieved it. While I was settled in the back seat, he tossed me the silver switchblade I had dropped in New Dawn.

"You have Jace to thank for the speedy rescue. He sounded genuinely concerned on the phone," Rhodric informed me as the others strapped themselves in. Before all the doors were even closed, he slammed down on the foot pedal and we shot onto the main road. I heard Rhys swearing as he wrestled to close the side door without falling onto the road.

"Hello, Kara. Nice to see you again. Sorry it's under these circumstances."

Kara's scowl was thunderous, and her voice was dangerously quiet. "You're the one who left me to be a lab rat for those monsters?"

Rhodric nodded mildly. "My bad."

She sat back, dumfounded. The car accelerated even more, if that was even possible. We rushed down the road at breakneck speed.

"What's the rush?" I demanded.

Rhodric grinned then. "Well, I was going to leave you all to rot for a week or two, just to teach you a lesson about caution."

"He really was," Rhys confirmed. "He suggested as much to Jace."

The old rogue narrowed his eyes. "Let me finish, boy. Your sister has gone into labour. She wants you there for the birth. I always had a soft spot for Fion, so I thought now was as good a time as any to spring you."

My heart stopped in my chest. Labour? That meant she was about to bring my little niece or nephew into the world, right? Holy Goddess...

"Just one question," I said slowly. "How did you do it? That was the trippiest shit I've ever seen. They were acting like they were all hypnotised."

I could see Rhodric smiling in the rearview mirror. "There's no point telling you how I did it. You wouldn't be able to do it, and that's all you need to know."

We all took a moment to absorb that in annoyed silence. Of course he wouldn't just answer. That would be too easy, wouldn't it? But I had to admit, I was so impressed and relieved to have escaped so easily that it almost outweighed the annoyance. Meanwhile, Leo was tactful enough to find a simple yes or no question that even my bastard of a father would be inclined to answer.

"You gave them Malcolm's address, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yep. I want him on the back foot when we come calling, and nothing's as likely to put him off his game as a police raid. It's like you said, Skye. We're going to plan this properly and survive it. I want to live long enough to know my grandchildren."

Rhys looked as nervous as he ever got. "You won't have to live long then. Fion's about an hour away from delivering the first one."