"The fearsome Reaper, the final iteration of the Vampire Guard...

and the world's last remaining Berserker."

My blood ran cold as a shiver raced down my spine.

No.

I fiddled with the silver necklaces around my neck.

He had said they were to protect me.

From him?

My breath came in short gasps.

My head had become foggy, muddled by this Society man's claim.

Adam was a Vampire Hunter? A Berserker?

How?

He was once the Vampire Guard...

Wasn't he?

I stumbled from the door, gripping the cool surface of the sink to keep myself standing as my legs began to tremble beneath my weight.

The Society had given up on us.

They sent the Vampire Hunters.

Under my feet, at that very moment, sat both a Vampire Hunter and a Society member,

but only one of whom knew that I was hidden upstairs.

Adam could give me over to the Society at any moment.

But...

Adam wouldn't do that...

Would he?

I didn't know.

And I couldn't take the chance of waiting to find out.

I needed to leave.

To get as far as possible from both of these men.

As slowly as I could, I turned the lock on the door, the small clicks echoing in my ears as if counting down the seconds to being caught. They were quiet enough that the men couldn't hear, but loud enough for my heart to hammer louder at each small indication of my presence.

Once the door was unlocked, I slowly pulled open a small crack in the door.

"Oh, so I can stay alive because I was only a threat to Vampires, and now that they are all dead, I can just go on living? Like that whole part of my life never happened? A whole town sacrificed for the end of both our existences? And who gets to decide that?" Adam was growling, his voice restrained as if he had held himself back from shouting at the man before him. "They had lived peacefully beside Bezerkers for centuries."

"But not humans, neither Berserkers nor Vampires had. Which is why they were put in seclusion, and all the funds and supervision the Society had to spend to keep them alive in their small village weren't worth it in the end, Adam. It's best if Vampires were nothing more than a myth, Bezerkers too."

"But those people were born Vampires, Gary! They had no choice!" Adam suddenly yelled, his voice raw with anger, causing me to almost knock my head on the door in surprise over his outburst.

. "And the society made me— made all the Berserkers—with the idea that the right dosage would make Berserkers not deadly to Vampires, or that vampire blood's ability to create Berserkers would fade as Vampires stopped drinking human blood. All for what? To give up? Give up on a whole community of innocent people?"

Adam's anger seemed like a good distraction for my escape, and I slowly crept from the washroom, trying to keep my footsteps slow and measured, hoping their arguing might cover any squeaky floorboards' attempts to sabotage my passage down the hall.

"The Society didn't give up, Adam. President Leo decided to conduct one final experiment to prove the worth of the work they were doing, which is why he asked that, during this full moon, all previous Vampire Guards remove their silver armor to see if there had ever been a working dosage of vampire blood. A Beserker success we hadn't had the chance to observe, since we separated Guards and Vampires during the full moon. And there wasn't. Except you, Adam... Or so it seems—"

Adam let out a loud scoff.

"Wow! But it is all meaningless if they killed all the Vampires and Beserkers! What's left for them to protect? To advance? Did they find some other poor group of people they can take advantage of, only to toss them to the side like they were nothing? Those people were the only family I ever—"

Adam's rage halted, his breath hitched for a moment before he continued in a calmer tone. "That logic is a fraud, Gary, and you know it. The testing they do each year would have already proven that—"

"Adam. Stop." Gary finally snapped. "Do you want them to kill you, too? If you keep running your mouth against them, they will. They don't need to wait for the last Beserker to die out of old age; they could kill you right now. You're lucky the big men in charge are saying that you just had the lucky dosage, and not claiming you didn't follow the objective."

A brief silence from Adam before Gary continued.

"Besides, if you care so much, they don't think they killed all the vampires."

My body tensed in the shadows of the dark hall. My gaze snapped to the illuminated stairway behind me.

"What?" Adam hissed.

"One vampire girl's corpse was unaccounted for."

I nearly choked as a shudder wracked my body.

Everyone really was gone.

And what's more...

They knew I was the only one alive.

" And," Gary continued, "I came here with a mission from Society HQ. They want you to find her, alive, and bring her in. Okay? Happy now, Addy? Not all your beloved Vamps are gone."

Any hesitation I had towards my escape snapped.

I took swifter steps to reach the room I had been staying in, the window still wide open, the soft linen curtains still curling softly in the wind.

I swallowed my nerves.

Here was possibly my second chance at dying.

But at least it was on my terms....

Not at the hands of a Berserker,

A society member,

Or the man who was once my loyal guardian,

And was now my dispatched hunter.

My breath hitched in my throat, and I swallowed back any lingering doubts.

The house hadn't seemed that tall...

The ceilings were all pretty low.

So the ground wasn't that far.

The pain of my injuries was numbed by adrenaline,

So I wasn't going to hurt that badly.

And I needed to have a head start before that man left the Reaper's home after sharing the details of the mission.

Or before Adam brought him up the stairs, and flaunted his proactive capture.

So I needed to leave...

now.

Without a second thought, I grabbed the pillows from the bed and tossed them out the window...

After confirming that the two men were too focused on each other to notice the noise of something landing outside the house, I swiftly lifted my dress. I threw my legs over the window ledge.

And, heaving one last shaky breath, I refused to look down,

As I jumped.