Eventually, I spotted Dexter across the field, holding up his mom, who looked exhausted. Not far away, the tall boy from school, still holding his red cup, sank to his knees as a vampire finished with him. The humans were tiring. The vampires would not.

At opposite ends of the field, Sal and Lina were the only two still fighting with any stamina, and soon, they would be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The one thing the humans had on their side was that, at nearly one thousand strong, they at least outnumbered their attackers in the beginning, but between this unforeseen trick of the Elders calling in backup and the fact that the football field was now carpeted in coma victims, prospects were looking grim.

And where was Reg? Poe? The twins?

Were they flopped on the ground with the rest?

My heart skipped a beat.

I chose the wrong side.

By encouraging Nowhere to fight back, I had only delayed the inevitable and given everyone a night full of fear when they could have simply been put to sleep. And now my former kin were paying the ultimate price for my betrayal.

As I spun in the center of the field, surrounded by familiar immortal faces, I felt the full, crushing weight of it. Every wisp of smoke winding upward was hundreds or even thousands of years of life lost. Many of those smoky remains belonged to immortals who still believed their methods were humane, that fear was temporary and easily erased to prevent long term trauma. They probably saw tonight as a simple acquisition of a new home and not a bloodbath. Most of them probably didn’t even know what they were even here for—just following Elder orders like good immortal soldiers. The Elders had this coming, and maybe the Bloods too, but the rest? They were dying for nothing.

In that instant, looking out over a field of humans falling down and vampires floating up, I felt certain that there were no winners in this arena.

My shoulders sagged, and the stakes slid from my slackened grip. When a hand gripped the back of my neck, I closed my eyes, ready to give in. It was as much as I deserved. With any luck, they’d erase the memory of this disaster as a small kindness.

But then the hand turned into an arm . . . two arms . . . wrapped all the way around me in a rough hug.

Sal.

I sank into him with a ragged, sobbing breath.

“It was an ambush,” he said, his voice like gravel in my ear. “We’ve lost.”

“This is all my fault,” I mumbled into his flannel shirt.

“Yep.”

I pulled back, swiping the tears from my cheeks. “Excuse me?”

“You could’ve stopped it, could’ve warned everyone. Instead, you made your deal. Traded away this whole town for your chance at forever.”

“I didn’t mean for—”