Kane's breath caught in his burning lungs. That can't be true.

"I couldn't..." Sophia said shakily, tears falling from her green eyes. "The order saw it as an end to evil. They want this outcome. I believed in their doctrine for a long time. That was until I met Neil and realized vampires weren't evil.

"I had never met a man who was so good. They knew he was susceptible to fire and didn't give him a chance to get out of that car." She sniffed. "He's gone. He passed on a long time ago. I couldn't. Not until I saw you one last time."

Kane shuddered, not from the cold wind. "My father was a vampire?"

At Sophia's nod, he did the mental math and could only think, fuck. Most born vampires begin changing around thirty. He still has five years.

Does that mean he could start turning naturally, like Reid?

He hasn't felt any symptoms. Except he has been biting Reid and strangely liking it a lot. He assumed it was the companion bond. Now, he was questioning everything.

Kane said fiercely, "There has to be another way. Visions aren't resolute. I'll put the beast back to sleep or something. There's no fucking way that I'm killing all vampires. I'd rather leave the world burning."

There's no point to any of this if Reid is gone.

Sophia laughed, teary. "You're in love with a vampire, aren't you?"

Kane felt his cheeks redden, scoffing. "Yeah." He doesn't waste his breath telling her he's utterly, madly, foolishly in love with Reid, but not like she's implying.

"What's her name?"

"Hannah, and she's not a vampire. It's Reid who bites." Kane grumbled, "He's an idiot."

Sophia smiled fondly past her tears. "I believe that you can save him. I can see the fire in your eyes. You remind me so much of your father. You'll find a way, Evan."

Almost unconsciously, his hand raised, touching her face with his fingertips.

She laid her palm over the back of his hand, squeezing. "The order will come for you. They want to see the end of vampires. Do not trust them. They'll take your gift and give it to another, someone who follows their doctrine."

"How will I know who is with them?"

"They wear a symbol."

Kane's heart sank. "It's a golden triangle, isn't it?"

"You've met them," Sophia gasped, horrified.

Everyone has. This order is the Bureau of Magic.

If they're after him, he's fucked. Lucas has been running from them for years. He's always on the move, switching apartments and paranoid to the extreme.

Before Kane could tell her this, the deep roar shook the snowy ground at their feet.

"It's coming," Sophia gasped, shoving his shoulder. "You need to run!"

Kane's heart pounded against his chest. "Where?" He glanced over his shoulder. The trees rustled wildly. "You said there's no fucking portal!"

"Through the trees, that way. I'll guide you. Just go!"

With a curse, Kane ran.

He glanced back, but Sophia was gone. His heart hammering, he kept going forward. The deep snow made his thighs burn, but he didn't slow.

Entering the dark forest, he slapped low-hanging branches away. The ground shook like an earthquake, and he stumbled, nearly falling. There were no signs of life, only him and the beast gaining on him quickly.

Then, he had to stop.

There was nowhere else to go except towards a mountain, its peaks rising toward the stormy sky above. He could see a hole in the rock that led into blackness.

He looked over his shoulder. The trees swayed and cracked.

He was about to come face-to-face with Reid's ancestor, apparently his as well, and he wasn't interested in making acquaintances.

Suddenly, Sophia stood near the cavernous hole, holding a torch and gesturing to the darkness within.

"Fuck," Kane muttered and ran.

Once he reached her, Sophia shoved the torch into his hand. "Inside, Evan. Hurry."

Kane didn't have time to argue. Sophia was gone again. He held the torch before him and entered the hole in the mountain. The bright firelight danced across the shadowy stone walls.

As he hurried deeper down, at an incline, the air grew impossibly colder. He felt the flame's heat on his skin and could see his breath hanging as a white mist.

The roars stopped. The beast was huge. It wouldn't fit through the hole, but it might try if it was hungry enough to devour his soul and could bring this place down around him.

He needed to hurry.

He passed flanking passages ever so often. He swore he could hear movement and scraping, but the torch revealed nothing but dancing shadows and an eerie, resounding silence.

He nearly had a heart attack when Sophia poofed into existence behind him and whispered, "Keep going straight down."

"Fuck," Kane grumbled. "You should wear a bell."

Sophia chuckled, following closely behind him. "The portal doesn't exist anymore. There's a place that's rife with magic here. You should be able to get through to the other world if you awaken your magic while entering."

Kane inhaled. "I don't have a choice."

He held his torch at an angle, the flame far away from his face, and kept moving forward. He shivered from the cold that seemed to seep into his bones.

He had an unsettling sensation that he shouldn't be here.

There was a soft whisper from the darkness.

He jerked his torch to his right, and the firelight illuminated a narrow passage.

There was nothing.

He had thought that he'd heard a voice.

Sophia gripped his wrist and moved his torch away.

"Careful," she whispered, her green eyes darting to the quiet passage. "They're asleep."

"They?"

"There's creatures that live in the between," Sophia revealed. "They linger in the dark, drawn to death and carnage. Don't let them see your light." She pushed his shoulder, not allowing her unsettling words to settle fully. "Evan. Hurry."

He held the torch with new tension and continued down.

"I heard a voice just now," Kane said after a silent moment.

"A voice?"

"I couldn't understand..." The torchlight flickered across the stone walls eerily.

"That's not possible," Sophia whispered grimly.

"Why not?"

"They're connected to the beast. They only speak to vampires."

"I'm not a vampire." He heard a voice again. He couldn't understand it, as if coming from a distance, but he swore it said his name. "Maybe... I was close when I died."

"Shit, Evan. Because of your father, vampire blood will take you that much quicker. Never drink it unless you want to be turned."

Kane exhaled shakily. That's a major fucking vulnerability. He wondered how Sophia would react if she knew he'd been drinking it daily since that bathtub incident.

His boots scuffed the dirt, descending. "You know a lot about this place. How?"

"My order had information from their sources. Seers. Prophecies. Visions."

"Do you know anything about vampires?"

"Neil was interested in learning about their origins. I know a little. Why?"

The whispers reminded him of something that had nagged him since that bathroom a few days ago. "Have you ever heard of a vampire hearing voices?" Kane kept his gaze locked on the narrow passages they passed. He clarified, "Whispers."

Sophia didn't answer long enough that Kane grew irritated and glanced over his shoulder.

She looked stricken, and, finally, as his stomach pooled with dread, she said, "You're talking about him."

Him?

"Yeah..." Kane focused on not tripping over loose stones as he continued to descend. His head was aching as if trying to make sense of the whispered words coming from the dark and failing. "Tell me about him."

"He's just a story."

"Tell me."

"A vampire that died a long time ago."

"Who was he?"

"Gawen Wymond," Sophia whispered. "He was powerful. In vampire covens, to speak his name is an ill omen."

Kane glanced over his shoulder.

Sophia looked deadly serious.

He turned his eyes forward, swallowing nervously. The flickering flame of the torch warmed his face. "How powerful was this guy?"

"He was superior in every way."

Gabriel's voice echoed in Kane's mind: 'Walking early during infancy does not attribute to gaining strength decades before your time.'

Sophia continued, hushed, "They say he could control other vampires, not just humans, with a mere word."

Kane tried not to let Gabriel return to his mind to sow doubt but failed. 'I'll take your eyes if you ever attempt that again.'

It was pretty clear that Reid could do shit that other vampires couldn't. He needed to know more. It could give him insight into how to get rid of the voices Reid was hearing. But still, a weak part of him didn't want to hear more.

"What happened to him?" Kane asked tightly.

"He was burned to ash, after leaving a massacre in his wake. He heard whispers—ravings. They say he did horrific deeds that ensured he could never pass on peacefully.

"He was their king, and they've never had another. Neil told me that there had been rumours of vampires born with the same power since, but they are always killed."

"Why was he different than the others?"

"I don't know. Neil thought that vampires were like werewolves. They need an alpha to govern them. Vampires born stronger are meant to be their rulers, but they kill them. It's a death sentence."

The silken whispers were distant and beckoning. He nearly turned down a side passage in search of the source.

He stopped himself from walking into the shadows with gritted teeth.

"Reid," Kane rasped. "He hears—"

He couldn't finish because every passage began to come alive with growls and screeches.

"Evan," Sophia snarled. "Run."

He didn't need to be told twice.

He ran.

The torch flicked over the passing stone. He was shivering from the unnatural cold that clung to him like a shroud of death.

Every passing passage was filled with pulsing shadows that growled and called out to him incoherently.

He didn't know if he was hearing them because he was turning when he died, the companion bond, or his father's blood that had been infecting him for years without his knowledge. But the reason didn't matter because either way, the moving darkness was coming for him and with it, an unnatural coldness of death.

Sophia was shouting at him to hurry.

He reached the end of the passage, stopping just in time before tumbling over the steep edge of a hole into murky, black water. Foggy smoke hovered on the surface. He could feel the tingles of magic dance across his cold skin.

"Jump," Sophia said.

It's too far. "I won't make it."

"Awaken your magic and have faith."

"Fuck off," Kane snapped, glancing over his shoulder.

The pulsing shadows hadn't stopped, the torchlight doing nothing to stop them, and they filled the passage where he'd come. In moments, he'd be swallowed up in darkness.

"Evan," Sophia said, gripping his shaking fingers. She took the torch and smiled warmly. "They're waiting for you, aren't they?"

Kane stared at her and realized, with a sinking in his heart, that this would be the first and last time he'd ever meet his mother. "I don't know why I can't remember you. I..." He gripped her wrist. "Jump with me."

"My body has been gone for a long time," Sophia said, tears falling. "I saw you one last time. That's all I wanted. Move on, Kane, for me."

"Let me save you."

She smiled.

Then she shoved him off the ledge.

He didn't have time to curse, falling. His stomach swooped. The fall was long enough for him to feel every second that he was airborne.

Seconds before he hit the surface of the smoky, black water, he awakened his magic.

The water was freezing. He was certain he'd drown. He kicked out desperately, but it was of no use.

He was sinking, weighed down impossibly.

Then his ears popped, and a bright light blinded him.

He felt his world shift. Then he felt vertigo, nausea, and intense pain—every sensation that he'd learned to attribute to his soul being returned to his body.

But this was one hundred times worse.

He took a deep breath that rattled in his chest, filling his wanting lungs that he could feel had been working valiantly, albeit weakly, for a while now.

His senses sharpened gradually. He heard muffled sounds of chirping birds, and the aroma of food being cooked reached his nose, clenching his stomach. He was starving.

He opened his eyes and hazily blinked up at a white ceiling.

He slowly took in the person sitting on the edge of the bed and smiled so widely that his cheeks tingled.

With shaking fingers, he grasped the slender hand that rested on his chest and squeezed gently.

"Hi," Hannah whispered, brown eyes glistening with tears.

She wore a lacy black dress that had ridden up where she bent a knee on the mattress, giving a glimpse of her creamy thigh. Her dark hair was pulled back, and some stray pieces had escaped their tie and grazed her ears. Sunlight streamed from a window above his resting head and danced across her ivory skin.

He was taken with how beautiful she was.

"Hey," Kane rasped, running his tongue along his upper teeth. Thank fuck. There were no fangs to ruin his wake-up.

Hannah sniffed, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. "You were late."

She didn't give him time to reply, throwing her arms around his neck.

He embraced her with shaky arms. The rise and fall of her chest against his and the rapid melody of her heart that he could feel through the thin sheet that covered his body nearly broke him. He resisted the burn in his eyes, gasping softly and holding her tighter.

She heaved sobs against his shoulder.

He pressed his face against her hair and breathed in the smell of cinnamon that clung to her. He knew the battle wasn't over. Not by a long shot, but for now, he held the woman he loved and felt at peace.