The car door opened and Alexis popped her head in. “They’ve gone, Principe. No sign of them at all.”

“Right, let’s get home, and we can work out what we do next.”

Just as the door shut, Byron heard her phone signal a text message. She took it out and tapped the messages icon.

“Victorija,” Byron spat.

I may have lost my bargaining chip, but I will never stop, Byron. I will be relentless until I get hold of my family birthright. Give me what I want or I will never stop. Remember 1850?

Byron felt all the blood drain from her face. “Alexis,” she shouted to the front of the car, “get us home, and fast.”

* * *

Byron looked around the entrance hall to her home with horror and simmering rage. All around her, loyal members of staff, attendants whose families had worked for her for decades, some for centuries, lay dead and bloody. Those vampires who had been left at the house were tending to the bodies with care.

As soon as Byron got that text she knew what would await her at home. Alexis ran in first, her memories surely making her relive the most painful time in her eternal life. Then they all followed and could only look on in shock.

Bhal checked the rest of the house, while they stayed in the entrance hall. Amelia began to weep at the sight before them. Sera walked around checking the bodies and shook her head to Byron.

Victorija had taken from her again. Had attacked at the heart of her clan, and killed the people under her protection. Alexis walked back from the other first floor rooms and shook her head. Her rage was palpable.

Byron watched Katie, who had been very quiet, walk forward and kneel by one of the bodies. His face was bloody.

“It’s Jack,” Katie gasped. “I—he helped me get ready. He loved doing nails and hair and…he’s gone.”

Alexis walked to her and said, “Katie, you can’t help him now. Stand up. You’re upsetting yourself too much.”

Katie looked up at Alexis and said, with tears rolling down her cheeks, “I would have been lying here with my throat ripped out if I hadn’t gone to The Sanctuary tonight.”

Byron could see the what-ifs running through Alexis’s mind as she stood there. Her jaw was tense, her rarely beating heart was thudding, and her knuckles were white she was clenching them so much.

Alexis had lost everything the last time the Dreds had attacked, and if Amelia was right that there was some sort of spark between her and Katie, she’d nearly lost someone she cared about again, and would have done if Katie had followed her instructions.

Alexis held out her arms to Katie, as if to offer comfort. Katie stared at her for a long moment, then turned and walked to Bhal, who took Katie in her arms and hugged her.