Chapter 2

Bogdan sees him almost the same moment I do. He silently gets to his feet and holds out his hand to silence me before I get a chance to speak. He crouches down and leans his ear towards the side of the tent. It's in his immortal genes to act as a predator, and even now it shows in true form. Every piece of him is designed as a graceful hunter.

His nostrils flare as he tries to pick up the scent of the traveler, and then he squints in frustration. With his eyes fixed to the side of the tent he leans towards me.

"Stay here. And stay silent."

I nod a single time. Bogdan unzips the door of the tent and steps outside soundlessly. Cold air follows in his wake, sneaking through the small openings of the wool blanket and seeping right into my skin. I wrap it around me tightly and watch Bogdan's shadow disappear from view.

At first it's silent. There's no footsteps or noise. No voices. When a few minutes pass, I start to get anxious. Even if the man was a vampire, it shouldn't take Bogdan this long to catch up with him. Right? Unless...what if the shadow man led Bogdan into the hands of more vampires? What if there is an entire vampire clan that's in the north and we didn't see them?

My mind spins wildly. All the endless possibilities stream through like a carnival of catalysts to nightmares that are yet to be brought to life. If someone gets Bogdan, I will be trapped here without a life vest. How will I save him? How will I –

Shadows interrupt my train of thought. Two shadows this time. I stare at them as they make their way across the side of the tent and to the front. The place where Bogdan unzipped the tent is still open, and I squint against the sun until Bogdan's face pops into view.

I immediately scan his features to try and gauge the situation. He doesn't look hurt. Then again, his face isn't exactly a canvas of human emotions. He leans forward and opens the tent door the rest of the way and pops his head into view. His voice becomes ice as he instructs me to put on a coat and join him outside.

"You have a visitor," he sneers.

A visitor? I frown, searching his gaze for more of an explanation, but he zips the tent closed a moment later. I shrug off the blanket and shuffle through the duffle bag in search of wool pants and my jacket that's two sizes too big. Even before the war it would have been at least a size too big.

Before Bogdan and I left the house in the north, he packed away as many clothes for me as he could find. I was always on the leaner side, but now I've moved to the thin spectrum. I slide my arms through the coat and clutch it to my torso. Out of habit I run my fingers through my hair which is now well past my eyes.

My bones creak with protest when I straighten my spine and unzip the door. I squint against the sunlight and raise my arm over my eyes until I locate the two masculine figures standing a good fifteen feet away from the tent. They're facing one another, and Bogdan is whispering something through pursed lips that is too quiet for me to hear.

I approach the two of them and shiver when a gust of wind dances around my torso. I pull up the hood of my coat and cross my arms over my chest. The man standing beside Bogdan has his hood pulled up as well, his hands stuffed into the front pockets of his sturdy jeans. He stands just a few inches shorter than Bogdan, and it's clear from his slightly slouched posture that he's mortal.

When I reach the two of them, Bogdan's words come to an abrupt halt. His gaze flickers to me for a brief moment before nodding to the man across from him. I take another step towards the man of shadows until I can finally catch a glimpse of the face beneath the hood. And when I do, all thoughts freeze. My breath becomes caught in my throat as I stare into familiar, light eyes.

It's Leo.

My gaze quickly studies his similar features that have changed so much. The clean-shaven, well-dressed professor almost looks like a completely different person. Just like myself, where he was lean before, he is overly thin now. His lips are beyond chapped. Various dirt marks cover the majority of his high cheek bones. A thick, scraggly beard now lines his jaw, too, indicating that he hasn't had the chance to shave in quite some time.

"Leo," I whisper aloud.

The name sounds foreign on my lips. Over the past few months, a multitude of emotions have surfaced regarding this man, but never once were they discussed in Bogdan's presence. A faint film of tears coats the surface of Leo's light eyes. Despite Bogdan standing dangerously close to my side, Leo lunges forward and wraps his arms around my shoulders.

The impact stirs up his scent into the cold air. Most of it is reminiscent of dirt and pungent laundry, but underneath the layers of grime I can smell that it's still him. His scent is still there. I swallow hard as I process the myriad of emotions flooding through me. Everything from anger to relief inundates my senses, and I tentatively reach up to hug him in return.

Bogdan stiffens beside me. To my surprise, however, he doesn't push Leo away. He simply stands beside me until I peel myself from Leo's embrace. A few tears melt away the dirt on his face and drop down to the bottom of his chin.

Out of habit I glance around the three of us and lower my voice. "Is there anyone else with you?"

The sudden realization sinks in that somehow, some way, Leo found Bogdan and me in this desolate town in the north. There's no way he could travel fast enough to keep up with us. And even if he could, Bogdan would have sensed him.

"I'm alone," Leo says with a ragged breath. "I promise."

"Then why are you here?"

Leo takes a small step back and runs a hand down his worn face. "Because I want to help you."

I slowly turn my gaze to Bogdan whose expression is dripping with disdain. He raises his brow slightly, his face silently asking if I can believe the nerve of this guy. If I wasn't so rattled with nerves I might laugh. Instead I take a step back and nod for him to explain further.

Leo adjusts the small backpack around his shoulders and sways slightly beneath his weight. A sliver of guilt swells within me at the sight. Months ago I might have offered him to sit in the tent so we could continue our discussion. After being betrayed by Fiona, however, my level of trust has plummeted. I promised myself I'd never become jaded. But maybe I already am.

"I supported this war," Leo begins softly, "because I believed in my heart that humans deserved their freedom. I was so blinded by that belief that I didn't realize my view of vampires was becoming unjust. Just like humans, vampires aren't all evil."

His gaze flickers over to Bogdan whose expression remains unchanging. I can't say I blame him. Before the war began, Leo was one of the extremists who viewed the entire vampire species as vile. Unneeded. Unwanted.

He even went so far as to extract poison in the hopes to destroy as many vampires as possible. His message to those standing behind him became lost in the shuffle, though. It stopped being about the freedom of humans and it morphed into the destruction of immortals.

Needless to say, Bogdan isn't particularly fond of him. To make matters worse, Leo and I were a pseudo-couple before the war began. That's just icing on the cake of contempt.

"You said you wanted to help us," I say slowly. "Now tell us how."

Leo's light eyes stare into mine. There's so much sadness in them. So much regret. The last time I looked into his eyes this closely was the night I saved Fiona. It's a moment that burned into my memory, because in that moment I realized that somewhere inside of me I still wanted him. How is it possible so much has changed since then?

"I've been wearing night goggles," Leo explains. "And have been wearing a scent masker so Bogdan couldn't detected me. But I've stayed close enough to follow the two of you. I have wanted to make my presence known sooner than....well, now. But I didn't know how."

"You didn't answer the question," Bogdan says evenly.

Leo scratches at his scraggly beard and nods, dropping his gaze to the frozen earth beneath his feet. A puff of air pushes past his chapped lips. It creates a halo of frozen air around his mouth.

"I left the camp shortly after Fiona returned," he explains slowly. "She announced that you two were planning on finding the Secondaries. Now they're trying to find them, too."

My blood runs thin at the thought of Fiona and Mark finding the Secondary population before us. What if they already have? We'd be walking in to a trap.

"They'll just continue to destroy and brainwash," Leo continues. "And I just. I couldn't make them see reason. So I left and promised myself I wouldn't stop until I found you."

Leo swallows hard and raises his gaze to meet mine again. This time when our eyes collide, I'm taken back to a year ago when I walked into his classroom for the first time. Kelly and Fiona flanked my sides as we traveled through the college auditorium. It was our first day of history class, and I was bored before it even began.

But then Professor Adams walked to the front of the classroom. He was wearing a form-fitting blue suit with a silver tie that shimmered every time he moved. He perused the classroom, glancing at all the new people trying to find their choice of seat. Somewhere during his search his eyes fell on me. I shamelessly held his gaze, and in that moment he took my breath away.

"I want to help you get to them first, Finn," Leo confesses, stealing me out of my hazy moment of the past. "And I think we can...if you'll have me."

Bogdan hums under his breath. "Or we could just kill you."

Leo almost seems to be expecting this response. He swallows down whatever response is ready to fly from his lips. I've never known him to be able to keep from speaking what's on his mind, but this time he does. Maybe it's because he knows his life is on the line.

Even though Bogdan's suggestion is a bit extreme, it's not without warrant. For months Leo was on the side of the enemy. He was the enemy. Sure, the two of us have a past, but we both parted ways knowing where the other stood.

"He saved me once," I whisper under my breath. "We should do the same for him."

Bogdan grunts. "He saved you as a means to an end, human. It was all a part of the plan to get the woman to spy on us."

Leo's head snaps up, and a hint of pink nips at the tips of his ghostly pale cheeks. "I had no idea about their plan," he argues, and the passion I once remember in his voice shows itself for a brief moment. "I saved Finn because I knew what Mark would do. What he will do if he gets his hands on him."

Bogdan narrows his gaze at the rebuttal. The three of us stand in silence, but only two of us create small puffs of chilled air every time we breathe. Eventually Bogdan leans forward and closes the distance between him and Leo.

"This is your one and only chance," he warns, and his voice drops to a menacing whisper. "Prove yourself useful."

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A/N: So what do you think?  Can Leo be trusted?

Thank you for reading!