If Daisy wasn’t suspicious before, she certainly was now. Every time she visited recently, Granny asked this question. “What is this all about? You encouraged me to go to London. I said I would get a job in tailoring up here, but you said go. Go and learn as much as you can, and enjoy the social life in London. Now, since…” Daisy tried to think about when her granny started to change her tune. Then it hit her. She snapped her fingers. “Since Byron Debrek came on the scene and started going out with Amelia, you want me to come home.”

“Don’t be silly. I just miss you, that’s all. Why would I care that your friend is going out with a banking billionaire?”

Daisy shook her head in frustration. “Nah, I don’t think so. I mean, I know you miss me—I miss you, too—but you’re still busy with work, and when you have free time, you jump on the plane to London to see me.”

Her granny looked down at her coffee and sighed.

“It is about Byron, isn’t it? You know about them, don’t you?”

Her granny looked up sharply. “Know about them? What do you mean?”

Daisy hesitated. She had become used to Amelia’s world and talking about vampires like they were completely normal, but saying it to her granny was a whole different thing. “That the Debreks are vampires. I heard you on the phone just now,” Daisy said.

The silence was deafening. “Yes.”

Daisy shook her head and felt anger course through her. She jumped out of her seat and started to pace. “I can’t believe it. All these years you made me feel silly for believing in the paranormal, for wanting to investigate it with my friends, and all the time you knew?”

“I’m sorry. I was trying to protect you.”

“Protect me how?” Daisy said angrily.

“To protect you from the same fate that befell your mum—and dad.”

Daisy’s anger abated, and instead a ball of worry grew in her stomach. She walked back to the seat and sat down. “Dad had a heart attack, and Mum was killed in a car accident.”

“I’m sorry, but they weren’t. They were killed by a vampire.”

Daisy’s legs turned to jelly. She grabbed the corner of the table for support and fell back into the chair. She tried to speak, but all she could manage was, “Why?”

“I understand you’re angry, but if you let me explain, you’ll see I was trying to protect you.”

“Tell me,” Daisy demanded.

After a few moments, her grandmother said, “Your mum and dad were tracking a vampire when your dad was killed, and then years later the same thing happened to your mum.”

“What? Why?” Daisy was completely confused.

“They were vampire hunters.”

“Vampire hunters?”