The bottom seemed to drop out of my world. I think I swayed, and only a sharp mental command from my head to my knees kept me standing.

Now I understood why Leon seemed so strangely familiar. How could I not have noticed it before? It was the eyes. Facially, Leon bore little resemblance to Caleb, but they shared the same eyes - the same icy blue, pitiless eyes that still haunted my nightmares even now Caleb was dead and rotting in the ground.

One month ago Caleb, a savage and fanatical hunter, had come after Luke. He'd come after me when he realised Luke was my boyfriend. His blind hatred of all vampires had led him to kill my friend, Sophie, and relentlessly hound Luke and his family until an equally savage vampire had finally taken him out. I'd thought I was rid of him. Now it was like his ghost was standing in front of me.

"Caleb never said he had a son." The words slipped out before I could stop them. If Leon's words hadn't thrown me so badly, I'd have considered whether it was a good idea to admit I'd known Caleb.

Leon's thin shoulders slumped, making him look shorter than he was. "He didn't...we didn't know each other."

Sadness softened the angles of his face. I'd have felt sorry for him if I didn't know firsthand what a monster his dear daddy had been.

"When I was about ten I finally tracked him down," Leon explained, "but I was too scared to confront him."

Understandable. Caleb had been a very scary man.

"Instead, I broke into his car and stole his journal," Leon continued. He didn't seem to think there was anything abnormal in telling all this to a complete stranger. "That was when I first learned about vampires."

I stiffened at the way he said the word, like it was poison in his mouth. That was how Caleb had sounded when he talked about vampires.

"I thought he was crazy, you know, but years passed and I started to get more intrigued by the possibility of vampires being real. I did some investigating and -" Leon shrugged and spread his palms.

He didn't need to say any more. He'd investigated, discovered vampires were real, and shouldered the savage and bloody mantle that had driven his father to indiscriminately kill.

Leon's face hardened. "It was their fault. My father couldn't be there for me because he was off hunting vampires, protecting the world. He was a hero."

I remembered the mad glitter of hate in Caleb's eyes. I remembered his machete plunging into Sophie's chest. Bile rose in my throat.

"How did you know he was here?" I said, stalling for time as I struggled to corral my scattered thoughts, and decide what to do about this unexpected - and unpleasant - development.

"I spent years looking for him, but I never found him again. Until recently." Leon blinked, his eyes gleaming with sudden tears. "When cancer took my mum a few months ago, I used all the money she left me to hire a private investigator. The PI tracked my father here to Dalwick, but..." A shudder rippled through his thin body. "He was dead. Murdered."

Hardly news to me. "So what are you still doing here?"

Leon lifted his eyebrows, surprised at my bluntness. "I told you, I'm going to avenge him."

"How? The police don't have a single lead." I'd kept up with local news after Caleb's death, following the police investigation from a distance. The police had found nothing and they never would. The vampire that killed Caleb was already dead, by my own hands no less. Maybe I should just have told him that, but the fanatical gleam in Leon's eyes mirrored his late father's. He didn't know that Caleb had been killed by a vampire and if I told him, it would only reinforce his hatred of them.

"I found my own leads." Leon looked proud of himself. "I learned about vampires from my father's old journal, so I knew his latest might shed some light on what happened to him."

If I'd known Caleb kept journals, I'd have ransacked his house for them. If I'd known he had a son who might come sniffing around after him, I'd have made sure that Caleb's body was never found. But I hadn't known.

"One name that my father mentioned a few times was Noah Morrow, so I tracked him down to see what he knew. Noah told me my father was killed by a vampire from a local clan, and that the clan was still in town."

Rage boiled through me and my hands curled into fists. That local clan was Luke's family - my family. Noah hated vampires, and he hated me for choosing them over him and his team. I knew all this, but I never imagined that he would betray me like this. There was no love lost between us, but it had honestly never occurred to me that he might want me dead.

Leon clenched his own fist, gazing down at it as if imagining a blade clutched between his fingers. "I know the vampire responsible for killing my father is dead, but the clan she came from are still very much alive." He smiled at me and it was Caleb's ghastly smile. "And I'm going to hunt them all down."

So even though Noah had told Leon about the clan, he hadn't told them that I'd killed Madeleine, the vampire responsible for Caleb's death. Worse than that, he hadn't told them that Luke's clan had cast Madeleine out the second they realised she had been killing people. He'd kept quiet about the important stuff so Leon would think Luke's family had played a part in Caleb's death.

The rage burning inside me solidified into a black ball of hatred. I went through hell when Caleb was alive and now, thanks to Noah, I had Caleb Junior on my tail.

Leon shook his head, still staring at me. "I can't believe Noah didn't tell you about this."

My chest pulsed with fury. That bastard. Luke's clan had protected me, taken care of me, and joined forces with Noah's team to fight off Madeleine's band of bloodthirsty rogue vampires - and Noah had still turned them over to the next hunter that came sniffing around. Even if Luke's clan hadn't been completely innocent in any part of Caleb's death, they were people I cared about. People I loved. Noah knew that and he'd still done this.

My eyes flicked back to the poor dead man. I didn't know who he was or who had killed him. I should have called the police and let them know there was a body here. I should have done something, but all those should-haves faded to white noise in my head.

Noah had betrayed me. That was all I could think about. When Caleb was alive, Noah had let him run wild, to kill and stalk and harass as he saw fit. And now he was doing the same with Caleb's son.

I spun on my heel and started walking away. Part of me registered feeling awful about leaving the body for some unsuspecting soul to find, but the living were more important than the dead. The people I cared about were in danger and that was something I would not stand for.

"Hey," Leon called after me. "Where are you going?"

I didn't even look back at him. Rage was turning the blood to fire in my veins. There was something I needed to do and it didn't involve Leon.

"I'm going home."

I stood on the corner of Gilmont Avenue, staring up at my old house. It looked just as I remembered, a nondescript four-bedroom building with a shabby slate roof and a concrete garage tacked onto the side like some great grey tumour.

When I'd moved out four weeks ago, I'd hoped to never come back. I'd hoped it would be a distant memory, something unpleasant that I could consign to the back of my mind. That was how it should have been.

My teeth ground together with frustration. Why couldn't Noah just leave us alone? Why did his selfishness and his hatred have to bring me back here?

I marched up the path and hammered my fist on the front door. Much as I hated this place, it felt weird to knock. But I'd thrown away my key the day - or rather night - I moved in with Luke.

The door opened and a tall shape filled the doorway - Marc, Noah's second-in-command, and the closest thing my father had to a friend. His face creased in surprise when he saw me standing there.

"Kiara?" he said. "What are you doing here?"

I shoved past him, storming into the house. Brown carpets and garish floral wallpaper greeted me, the previous owners' hideous décor that Noah hadn't allowed anyone to change.

"Where's Noah?" I demanded.

I didn't wait for an answer, instead heading straight for the kitchen where I could hear the harsh scrape of someone sharpening a knife. Kicking open the door, I found Noah sitting at the kitchen table, honing a knife blade to a savage edge on a whetstone. His head snapped up when I stormed in, and astonishment lit his eyes behind his glasses. It was gone as soon as I saw it, Noah rearranging his face into the cold, blank lines that I knew so well.

"What are you doing here?" he said.

I stopped a couple of paces back from the table. "How could you?"

Noah laid his knife on the table and fixed me with the look that used to make me feel about five inches tall. Now it just fuelled my anger. "What are you talking about, Kiara?"

"Leon." My voice was a furious hiss.

Noah's blank mask slipped for a brief moment, but he didn't say anything. Marc hovered awkwardly behind me.

"You told him everything. You set a hunter on Luke's clan - the people I care about."

Footsteps hurried down the hallway and I spun round as two women came into the kitchen. Ava, my mother, put her hands over her mouth when she saw me. Our relationship had always been a cold and distant one, much like the relationship I shared with Noah, but on the night I'd left the team Ava had professed that, in spite of everything, she did love me and she didn't want me to go. I'd thought that was the first step towards trying to build the sort of relationship other mothers and daughters shared, but since then I'd heard nothing from her.

Clara stood beside Ava, her face unreadable. She wasn't a member of my birth family but, like Marc, another hunter that made up Noah's team. I'd lived under the same roof as her for a year and I still didn't really know her. Not that it mattered now.

Ava's eyes flicked from me to Noah. "What's going on?" Her voice was softer than I expected. When I'd lived here, Ava's idea of communicating with me was to issue firm commands and expect me to obey them.

"Your bastard husband betrayed my clan," I snapped. I couldn't even say his name, I was so angry, and I certainly couldn't think of him as my father in that moment.

Ava winced slightly when I said 'my clan'. I didn't know if it was because they were vampires or because I'd chosen them over her.

Clara lifted a blonde eyebrow. "Noah?"

I spun back to him.

Noah started to rise, then sank back into his chair. "Leon came to me because he thought I might be able to shed some light on Caleb's murder. I told him the truth - that Caleb was killed by a vampire from a local clan."

"And that even though his killer was dead, the clan still lives in town," I snapped. That was what got me. Noah could have told Leon that Madeleine had killed Caleb and then I had killed Madeleine. But he hadn't. He'd deliberately told Leon about Luke's clan, knowing that Leon would go after them since he couldn't go after Madeleine.

Noah's shoulders stiffened. "I didn't tell him about your defection, Kiara, or the bloodsucker you call a boyfriend." His lip curled.

He said it like I should be grateful, like I should thank him for keeping quiet about Luke even though he'd sold out Luke's whole family. Never mind that Luke's family had fought side by side by Noah's team against enemy vampires. Never mind that Samuel, Luke's father, had actually protected Noah from a vampire attack. Never mind that these people were my family now.

Rage exploded through me, racing like magma through my veins. Drawing back my fist, I punched Noah square in the face. He rocked back on his chair, his glasses dangling from one ear.

Marc sprang forward, grabbing me and pulling me away, but I furiously shrugged him off.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Kiara, but picking fights among ourselves doesn't help anyone," he said, standing between me and Noah.

"I'm not one of you," I spat, my hands still coiled in tight fists.

Ava flinched.

Clara put a hand on her hip, shifting her weight to one foot. Her expression was as unruffled as ever, but a small frown formed a crease between her eyebrows. Calmly she asked, "What exactly is going on?"

I told her.

Clara's gaze moved to Noah and a strange look flickered through her eyes, something I couldn't decipher and was too angry to care about.

Breathing heavily through the fury that threatened to overwhelm me, I glared round at my former team. Noah glared back at me, and I noted with satisfaction that his eye was starting to swell. I'd waited a long time for that. Ava started to say something, then clasped a hand to her mouth. She didn't make a move towards me or Noah.

How had I ever thought these people were family? How had I ever been able to bear living under the same roof as them?

A cry of pure disgust escaped my lips. I stormed from the kitchen, pushing between Ava and Clara. I had to get out of this horrible house and the vile people inside it. I wrenched open the front door, hurling it against the wall hard enough to leave a dent. A dent to match the bruise on Noah's face.

I was halfway down the street when a voice called my name. It was a female voice and for a moment I thought it was Ava, before registering that the pitch and timbre was all wrong. The tiny flare of hope died inside me as soon as it had sparked to life. Of course it wasn't Ava; she'd already shown that she didn't care. I looked over my shoulder.

Clara jogged after me, her short blonde hair blowing back off her face. She came to a stop in front of me. Warily I eyed her. I'd never known what made Clara tick or what sort of person she was, but there'd always been something about her that scared me - a combination of the coldness in her eyes, the scars that traced her muscled arms, and the collection of vampire fangs she kept in a jar in her room, trophies from all the people she'd killed. Usually a grim necklace of fangs hung around her neck, though I noticed she wasn't wearing it today.

"What do you want?" I asked, not bothering to keep the hostility out of my voice.

"To know how you're doing," Clara replied. "How are the vampires treating you?"

I crossed my arms and glared at her. "Better than my own parents ever did."

Clara ran a hand through her hair. It fluffed up her severe bob and softened the hard lines of her face. "I must admit to some...confusion."

I'd never thought I'd hear her say that. Clara had always seemed as rigid as Noah in her loathing of vampire-kind, and since leaving the team I'd dismissed her as another mindless hunter who would never change. Then again, she hadn't hesitated in joining the team to save me from Madeleine, and she'd helped track me down when she mistakenly thought I'd been kidnapped by vampires.

"I've always thought that vampires were evil. It's the whole reason I've spent so long hunting them." Clara reached for her fang necklace, then seemed to remember she wasn't wearing it; her fingers stopped just before touching her collarbone. "But what I've seen recently..." She trailed off and shrugged. "I don't know what to believe any more."

I don't know what I'd expected when I turned to see Clara running after me, but it wasn't this. She'd always seemed so confident and so sure of herself, and now, seeing her like this, was like I was meeting her for the first time all over again.

"When I first heard about you and Luke, I thought he was evil," Clara said. "I thought he'd brainwashed you somehow. And when you went to live with his clan, I thought they had some plan for you, some twisted thing I couldn't even guess at." Clara dropped her gaze. "But I was wrong."

"Yes, you were."

She ran a hand through her hair again, exposing a long white scar on the underside of her arm. "That night when we went up against Madeleine, the clan helped us. They fought side by side with us."

"Not exactly the monsters you thought they were." My voice was softer that time.

"It's not just everything the clan did to help us and everything they're doing to take care of you now that swayed me," Clara went on. "It's Sophie."

My throat constricted at the sound of my dead friend's name.

"It was Caleb's blind hatred that led to her death, the same blind hatred that drives this team." Clara shook her head. "I used to hunt vampires because I thought I was protecting innocent people from them. But it's not as simple as that, is it?"

"It never was," I told her. Yes, some vampires were evil, same as some humans were, but an entire race couldn't be judged by the actions of a few. I hadn't realised that until I met Luke. Until then, I'd been convinced that vampires were pure evil, monsters that needed to be wiped off the face of the earth. I had Noah to thank for drilling those lies into me.

Clara reached for her absent necklace again and, again, she stopped. "I've realised it's time to re-evaluate everything I thought I knew."

The stark honesty in her admission took me by surprise. During the time I'd lived with her, she hadn't exactly been an open book. Whatever was going on in her head, she'd never shared it with the rest of the team. She'd never really bonded with anyone, and had just been another soldier to bolster the ranks. It felt strange to have this muscular, battle-scarred woman with hard eyes open up to me about anything. I didn't know what to say in return, but I didn't have time to rack my brains for anything.

I needed to get home so I could warn the clan about Leon.

"Kiara," Clara said when I turned to go. "Be careful."

Irritation sparked inside me. "I thought you said you were re-evaluating."

"I don't mean be careful of the clan." Her eyes bored into me. "I mean be careful of Leon. Right now he thinks that you're still a part of Noah's team. But he's after the clan. Human or not, you're one of them, and that puts you in danger. You need to watch your back."

The earnestness in her warning chilled my skin. I'd already beaten Leon in hand-to-hand combat, but that didn't mean he didn't have other nasty tricks up his sleeve. Physically, Caleb hadn't looked like much, but he'd come close to killing Luke, he'd beaten me more than once, and he'd killed Sophie. I wasn't making the mistake of underestimating his son.

I opened my mouth, though I wasn't sure what I was going to say, but Clara had already turned on her heel and was walking back to the house. There was a part of me that wanted to go after her and thank her for having shown the slightest concern for what happened to me. But I didn't have time.

There was a new hunter in town and my family was in danger. I had to warn them.