“It was an accident,” I explained, my gaze falling once again to where Solos lay. “Things got out of control and he fed on me, stopping before I even knew what was happening. It was right before you guys came here. I didn’t know until . . . an hour ago.” Had it only been an hour? Felt like days. “It wasn’t on purpose.” I felt the need to reiterate that. “Doesn’t change what he did, but I think . . . I know he’s been struggling.”

“Damn,” Aiden muttered. It looked like he wanted to say more, but changed his mind. “Right now we need to do something with Seth.” Aiden was moving to Seth’s head. “Before he wakes up.”

“I have . . . there’s a panic room in the basement.” Gable had returned with the boys. I hadn’t even heard them. “It’s not a hundred percent ready, but it’s got walls and a reinforced steel door that will lock.”

“That’ll work for now.” Aiden turned to Hercules. “Grab his feet.”

“What about Solos?” Deacon’s red-rimmed eyes flicked over to the blanket-shrouded figure. “We need to bury him.”

“We will.” Luke wrapped an arm around his neck. “But we’ve got to secure Seth first.”

I stepped forward. “Wait. This doesn’t feel right.”

“I get that it doesn’t, especially to you, but we have to do this.” Alex looked me straight in the eye. “We really don’t know what we’re going to be facing when he wakes up, and I hope—no, I pray—that he’s fine, but we can’t take that risk.”

I didn’t like it.

But I did understand it. Pressing my lips together, I nodded curtly. Everything that happened over that next hour was surreal. I felt oddly detached from it all.

Gable led us down to a semi-finished basement. He’d walked to what appeared to be a normal wall, but hit his hand on the center. A section of the wall separated, swinging open, revealing a room . . . with another room inside of it.

“My mom’s husband put a mattress in here to see if it will fit,” Gable explained as Seth was carried over and placed on a thin mattress. “I guess they plan on doing this room up also. Bathroom isn’t finished, though and . . . none of that matters.”

A hand folded around mine, startling me. Luke held my hand. “Come with me.”

I dug my feet in.

“I know it’s hard.” His voice was low. “But we’ve got to leave him here, at least for right now.”

“It doesn’t feel right,” I told him. “I should be here when he wakes up.”

“And if he wakes up not in the right mind, and he does something to accidentally hurt you, what do you think that’ll do to him?” Luke reasoned. “It’ll make everything worse.”