“What happened in Santa Cruz?” asked Dimitri.

“A group of their young ones began stalking me. Trying to kill me.”

The rest of us exchanged glances. “So they do go after Moroi,” said Eddie. He actually moved closer to Jill.

Clarence shook his head. “Not usually. From what Marcus told me, they prefer Strigoi. These were young, undisciplined members of their order going off on their own, without the knowledge of their superiors. I assume it was the same type who killed Tamara.”

“Who’s Marcus?” I asked.

“Marcus Finch. He saved me from them a few years ago. Fended them off during an attack and later got in touch with their order to keep those ruffians away from me.” Clarence shivered at the memory. “Not that I stayed around after that. I took Lee and left. That was when we moved to Los Angeles for a while.”

“This Marcus,” I said. “Was he a guardian?”

“A human. He was about your age then. He knew all about the hunters.”

“I suppose he would if he got in touch with them,” Dimitri speculated. “But he must be friendly to Moroi if he helped you?”

“Oh, yes,” said Clarence. “Very much so.”

Dimitri looked over at me. “Do you think—”

“Yes,” I said, guessing his question. “I’ll see if we can find this Marcus guy. It’d be nice to get a source of info that’s not one of these crazy warriors. I’m also going to report on all of this, actually.”

“Me too,” said Dimitri.

Although Clarence wasn’t the expert on the hunters that this mysterious Marcus was, the old Moroi still had a surprising amount of info to share—info none of us had wanted to hear before. He verified what we’d already deduced, about the hunters’ “devotion to the light.” The group’s focus was Strigoi (for now), and all of their hunts were carefully planned and organized. They had a ritualized set of behaviors, particularly in regard to their younger members—which was why the rogue group harassing Clarence had been stopped. From what Clarence had gathered, the group was quite tough on their new recruits, emphasizing discipline and excellence.

With the clock ticking down on Angeline’s reprieve, we needed to wrap things up shortly thereafter. I was also in charge of taking Adrian home, since we figured it’d be best to eliminate any chance of Dimitri being followed back to Clarence’s. Besides, I could tell Dimitri was anxious to begin putting certain things in motion. He wanted to finalize Sonya’s departure and also confer with the guardians—in case Jill needed to be removed. Her face reflected what I felt about that possible outcome. We’d both become attached to Amberwood.

While he was giving some last-minute instructions to Eddie, I pulled Sonya aside for a quiet word. “I… I’ve been thinking about something,” I told her.

She studied me carefully, probably reading my aura and other body language. “What is it?” she asked.

“If you want… if you really want it, you can have some of my blood.”