When Alexis disabled all but two of the vampires, the Debrek vampires burst onto the scene. The two remaining vampires ran, leaving the injured ones on the ground. Alexis was breathing heavily and shouted to her people, “Get these vampires out of here before they heal.”

Then Alexis turned her head to Katie and, with blood-red eyes, winked at her. There was such passion and heat in that look that if there had been no one else about, Katie would have run out from the trees and leapt on Alexis. She wanted her.

It was the first time since being attacked that she had felt such aching need, such hunger and passion for someone—okay, Alexis. It had always been Alexis.

* * *

“Why didn’t you tell me what I wanted to know? Instead of letting me find my parents like that?” Amelia paced up and down inside Sybil’s cabin.

Byron and Amelia had come straight to Sybil on their return.

“I never expected them to be attacked, Amelia. I’m sorry you had to see that.”

There was a short silence, and then Sybil said, “I’ll make some tea.”

Sybil stood up slowly with the aid of her walking stick and Amelia said, “Why always tea? I don’t want any bloody tea.”

Byron tried to comfort her, but she pushed her hand away.

Sybil didn’t bat an eyelid and walked over to her cooker to put on her kettle.

Amelia immediately felt guilty and covered her face with her hands. “I’m sorry—it’s just been too much. I don’t know what to think, to feel, to say. I ran away from Mum and Dad at my first opportunity. Their religion and beliefs were suffocating, but compared to the lives some people have, I was privileged. I never worried about money or where my next meal was coming from. Everything I needed, they gave me. They didn’t deserve their fate.”

“People seldom do, my dear. They might not have been the perfect parents emotionally, but they were the parents you needed. Religiously we might have differed violently, but when it came to you, we were in wholehearted agreement.”

“Why do you say that?” Amelia asked.

Sybil poured out the tea and asked Amelia to carry it over to the table. When they sat down, Sybil said, “We needed you away from this paranormal world, away from those who would wish you harm.”

“Who would wish me harm? I’m just an ordinary woman,” Amelia said.

“Sometimes the most ordinary people do extraordinary things, my dear. The Honey family has a long history with the witches here.”

“I know they used to take a group from the church to witch hunt and break up any meetings of new women here in the forest. They made me terrified of what they called the evil occult,” Amelia said.