He ran out of the house, Hope going with him.

  Melinda looked at me in shock. “What the hell just happened?”

  Jade looked between the two of us. “I think Kane just went rogue.”

  Chapter 17: Kane

  Hope was passed out on the couch. We were at a house outside of town.

  Francesca came into the room and looked taken back. “What’s going on?”

  “I went to the Hale house to get one of the cures and this one was causing a scene.”

  “So you brought her here?”

  I shrugged. “Those idiots are going to get her killed. Our only shot is the spell.”

  “I wouldn’t have suggested it if I knew you were going to try to sacrifice yourself.”

  “Francesca, we need to put the sun spell back up if we want a fighting chance against James and Constance. We can’t fight them in the dark.”

  Francesca knew of a way to fix all of this. There was only one problem. The spell required a great amount of power. Power we didn’t have.

  There wasn’t going to be another bloodmoon any time soon, and we were running out of time.

  Our only option was a great sacrifice of someone very powerful.

  Someone like an ancient born vampire.

  Someone like me.

  My phone rang. I knew it was Hayden before even looking at the screen. “Hello, love.”

  “Where the hell did you take my sister?”

  “It is so nice to hear the sound of your voice.”

  “Kane, where are you? What are you doing?”

  “What needs to be done.”

  “What the hell kind of cryptic shit is that?”

  “Listen, Hayden, when all this is over, I’d like to take you out for dinner some time. If we all live, of course.”

  She paused for a moment, and when she spoke again her voice was shaky with worry. “Kane, what is going on?”

  “I have a way to fix our sun problem. I want you to know, I find you infuriating. And delightful, all at the same time. You’re an annoyance I didn’t realize I wanted in my life.”

  She scoffed. “Well, you’re one to talk. Kane, just tell me where you are. I’ll come to you. Alone.”

  “I can’t. I’ll fix all of this. This all started with my father. It’s time I make up for the sins of my family. And mine. I’ll see you on the other side.”

  “Kane wait…”

  I hung up the phone and turned it off.

  “I’m not letting you do this,” Francesca said. “We’ll find another way.”

  “Another way to do what?” Hope asked groggily. She sat up and looked around. “What happened? Did I kill someone else?”

  I grinned at her. “No. Don’t worry.”

  She stood up and looked around. “Where are we?” She touched the back of her neck.

  “I put more of the potion on your neck,” I said. “You should be good for a bit. But I don’t know how much longer you two have, so we need to do this quickly.”

  “What are we doing exactly?” Hope asked.

  “My idiot brother is about to sacrifice his life so that vampires can walk in the sun again.”

  Hope’s eyes shot to mine. “What?”

  “She’s being dramatic. I’ll wake up after. I’m taking the cure.”

  “You don’t know that you’ll wake up,” Francesca said. “That’s not how the cure works. Sacrificing your life will require actually killing you. Stake through the heart and all.”

  “I’m doing this, Francesca. Unfortunately, I can’t do magic, so you’re going to have to get on board.”

  “Francesca’s right,” Hope said. “You can’t do this. I won’t let you.”

  I laughed. “Let me? Hope Sinclair, you’re adorable. It’s been a pleasure watching you grow into the fiery witch you’ve become.”

  “Kane, we need you to be a vampire. We’re running low on those.”

  I shook my head. “Vampires aren’t who are going to win this fight. Witches are. You are. The two of you. You’re two of the most powerful witches this world has ever seen. You’ll stop your grandparents from bringing an end to vampires everywhere.”

  I grabbed the stake and handed it to Francesca. She shook her head. “I can’t kill you, Kane.”

  I smirked. “Come on. You know you’ve wanted to do it countless times before.”

  “No. I’ve been angry with you before, but I would never want you dead. I can’t kill you, Kane. I won’t.”

  “No one will,” Hope said.

  I turned to her. She put her hand up towards me.

  Chapter 18: Hope

  Kane fell to the floor, his neck snapped.

  I winced at the loud thud his body made when it collided with the wood. “Sorry, Kane.”

  Francesca’s mouth was dropped open. Her eyes darted between me and her brother on the floor. “What did you do that for?”

  “He was being crazy.”

  “Are you Hope?” she asked, a look of rage in her eyes as she raised her hand towards me.

  “Yes. I’m me. I couldn’t let him do that. Not when we have a much smarter answer standing right in front of us.”

  “What pray tell?”

  It was simple. Well, simple was putting it lightly. It was drastic, and crazy but it was exactly what I knew was going to happen. What was always meant to happen.

  “We do the sacrifice. But we don’t sacrifice Kane. We sacrifice me.”

  She furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you trying to get me killed? My brother, your boyfriends, your mother, everyone will want my head on a platter if I allow you to sacrifice yourself.”

  “It’s what was always going to happen. It makes sense. This was how this was supposed to happen. We need someone powerful to sacrifice. I’m a hybrid werewolf witch. I think I qualify. Plus, I don’t risk dying like Kane would. I become…”

  “A vampire, Hope.”

  “A tribrid.”

  “Hope, I don’t think you are fully grasping what this would mean. You don’t want this life.”

  “And if need be I can take the cure. Right now, we need to fix the mess my family created. We need to put the sun spell back up so that we all have a fighting chance. Besides, this will kill two birds with one stone.”

  “How do you figure?”

  “I need to be strong enough to stop my grandparents. If I become a tribrid, there’s no way I can’t stop them.”

  She sighed and looked down at Kane. “He’s going to be pissed at me for letting you do this.”

  I shrugged. “At least he’ll be alive to be pissed.”

  “Fine. Are you sure, Hope?”

  “I’m positive.”

  Chapter 19: Hayden

  “What the hell did he say?” Wyatt asked.

  “Nothing that will help us,” I said.

  I had a feeling Kane was going to something stupid. And Hope was going to do something reckless to stop him. If she was even Hope at all right now. And if she wasn’t herself he was going to get himself killed.

  “We have to go find him,” Melinda said. She was already getting to work on a tracking spell. With any luck Hope wasn’t being cloaked and we’d be able to find her that way. We didn’t have anything that belonged to Kane so we couldn’t use him as the target of the spell.

  “The sun’s coming up,” Christian said. “Me, Jade, and Elizabeth will be stuck here.”

  There was that. Unless Kane was travelling underground he was going to have to stay put too for the time being.

  “Your stupid boyfriend is getting on my last nerve,” Wyatt said.

  “First of all, don’t take a tone with me. I want to find Hope as much as anyone. And second, he’s not my boyfriend.”

  Wyatt scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, and I’m not in love with Hope. Please, Hayden.”

  Jade nodded her head. “Yeah, it’s kind of obvious.”

  Christian nodded too. “Yeah.”

  “Definitely,” Melinda said.

  Elizabeth suddenly shot up. She glared at Wyatt and Christian. “I swear. Your girlfriend will be the death of me.”

  “You and I both,” I said.

  I loved Hope, but my sister was really a lightning rod for trouble. I had a feeling I’d be spending the rest of our lives waiting for the next shoe to drop with her.

  “I got her,” Melinda said excitedly. “They’re just outside of town.”

  “Who exactly?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Kane took Hope,” Jade said. “We don’t know why.”

  Knight suddenly let out an agonizing scream. He fell to the floor in pain, clutching his stomach.

  “Knight,” Jade said, taking a spot beside him.

  He sat back in pain, looking up at me.

  I looked into his eyes. “What is it?”

  His eyes glistened with tears. He shook his head. “Hope. Something’s happening to Hope.”

  “He’s right,” Melinda said solemnly. “The mark on the map. It’s disappearing.”

  “What does that mean?” Wyatt asked.

  I think we all knew what it meant. It was just that none of us wanted to say it out loud.

  Melinda took a deep breath. “It means she’s dying.”

  “No,” Elizabeth said.

  We all looked at her.

  “It means she’s transitioning.”

  Chapter 20: Kane

  I woke up to the sound of chanting.

  It was Francesca.

  I shot up, my head pounding. Hope.

  I snarled. She snapped my neck.

  If I wasn’t so keen on keeping her alive I’d give her a taste of her own medicine.

  I went into the study where Francesca was chanting.

  I stopped at the sight of terror before me. Hope was laying on the couch. She wasn’t moving. Looking at her closely, I could tell she wasn’t breathing either.

  Francesca stopped and looked at me.

  I glared at her. “Francesca, what have you done?”

  “She asked me to.”

  “If she asked you to jump off a bloody bridge, would you have asked which fucking bridge?”

  I ran to Hope and checked her. I released a breath. Her neck was broken. There was no going back from that. I couldn’t try to bring her back.

  It was over.

  Hope was now in transition.

  Soon, she’d be just like me.

  This wasn’t the life I wanted for her. The young girl I watched over. This wasn’t where I wanted her to end up.

  I wanted far better than this for her.

  I could only hope she would still be the Hope we all knew and loved when she awoke.

  “It was her choice, Kane.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t try to stop her.”

  “Yes, I did!”

  She sounded hurt by the accusation. “Francesca, I didn’t want her to become like us.”

  “And she won’t. Hope will never have to know the bad side of being a vampire. She’s strong and good. She’s the most caring person I've come across on this planet. And she has you. You won’t let her stray towards the darkness we were raised in.”

  I would always be there for Hope. But even I had my moments in the dark. Jade was unliving proof of that.

  “I’m not the best example.”

  She shrugged. “Well, maybe now Hope will keep you on the straight and narrow as they say.”

  I heard the others arriving.

  I closed my eyes, looking down at Hope’s body.

  The sight alone was going to set her mother into despair.

  I bent down and grabbed Hope’s body, cradling her in my arms.

  “What are you doing?” Francesca asked.

  “Bringing her home. The others are here, and I’m quite certain they’ll want your head for this. Stay here and finish the spell.”

  I walked out into the foyer, bracing myself for what came next.

  Four pairs of eyes bore into mine. I looked down at Hope. She looked like she was sleeping. Like she was at peace.

  “What the hell did you do?” Knight said, a menacing look directed at me.

  “She snapped my neck. I couldn’t stop her.”

  “And who snapped hers?” Wyatt asked. “Francesca?”

  “She was doing as she was told.”

  “Where is she?” he said. There was an edge to his voice that told me I did right by keeping her out of their sight.

  “She’s working on the sun spell.”

  “I want to see her.”

  “No.”

  “Kane!”

  “I said no! I will not allow you to interrupt her. Hope’s sacrifice will not be for nothing. We needed a sacrifice of great power. Hope sacrificed herself instead of me. I won’t allow her death to be meaningless. Back off, Wyatt. Take her home.”

  The new human was about to argue with me when Hayden spoke up. “He’s right. We should get her home before she wakes up.”

  Tears pooled Hayden’s eyes. I wanted to offer her some form of comfort, but given the circumstances there was nothing I could offer that would make this any better.

  Melinda still hadn’t said a word. She just looked at Hope. No doubt thinking of the events that led up to today. Her part. My part.

  We were both in some ways responsible for the way Hope’s life turned out. I could have tried harder to look out for her. I could have saved her long ago if I had stood up to my father and struck him down.

  Hope’s blood was on my hands. And Melinda felt that same pang in her chest.

  Knight came over to me and looked at Hope. He gulped, holding his arms out for the soon to be tribrid.

  I’m so sorry, Hope.

  I placed Hope into Knight’s arms with one final look at the girl Hope was.

  “Let me know when she wakes,” I said.

  Hayden smiled a sad smile and nodded. “Yeah. We will.”

  “Let us know when your sister finishes the spell,” Wyatt said. “There’s still work that needs to be done. When Hope wakes up, she needs to be able to walk in the sun. If she isn’t, and the spell doesn’t work, I’ll come here and kill your sister myself. Whatever it takes.”

  Chapter 21: Wyatt

  I meant every word. I was going to kill Francesca if this didn’t work. If Hope became a monster for nothing, there was going to be hell to pay.

  I couldn’t leave her side.

  We brought her back to our house so everyone could be here for her when she woke up.

  I wanted her to be surrounded by the people she loved. She had to know that everything was going to be fine. That even though so much was going to change for her, our love for her wouldn’t.

  We were all here for her and nothing would ever change that. She could get through this.

  I pushed a piece of brown hair out of her face and looked at her carefully. She didn’t look like herself. Even when Hope slept, she always had this tense look on her face. That was gone.

  I hated not seeing her chest rise and fall. It felt like she was gone.

  I just wanted to see her beautiful, big brown eyes staring back at me.

  Come on Hope. Wake up.

  “Stubborn until the end,” Hayden said from the doorway. “She’s even got to keep us in suspense with this.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, she’s insufferable.”

  She was completely maddening, but I wouldn’t change that about her. I wouldn’t change a thing about Hope Sinclair.

  She was perfect in every sense of the word. Perfect to me. Stubborn as hell, but only when it came to protecting the people she loved. Her heart was too big for her own good.

  That’s why not being able to feel it beating was driving me crazy.

  Hayden came to sit by Hope.

  “How’s Melinda?”

  “Gemma’s with her now,” Hayden said. “She’ll be fine once she sees that Hope is alright.”

  Melinda couldn’t be in here. She hated seeing her daughter in this state. She hadn’t said much since she saw Hope’s body.

  Was she going to be alright? She’d been out for a while now.

  “Francesca did it,” she said a moment later.

  “It worked?”

  “Yeah, Christian just bit the bullet and double checked. Vampires can walk in the sun again.”

  At least the good for nothing witch did something right. It’s too bad she had to kill the love of my life to do it.

  “When she wakes up, nothing will have changed. She’ll be able to go outside and get back to living her life.”

  “If she wakes up.”

  She let out a sigh. “Wyatt, she will wake up.”

  “She hasn’t yet. It’s been hours. She should have woken up.”

  “She’s not the typical vampire. Maybe it’s different for her.”

  “Or what if Francesca was wrong and she wasn’t even a born vampire?”

  Hayden opened her mouth to speak, but stayed quiet. The thought had crossed her mind too.

  We were basing everything on the word of people we didn’t trust.

  What if Francesca was wrong? What if we didn’t get her back?

  “What if she dies?” I said tearfully.

  “Stop it! You’re being emotional. Hope needs us to be strong for her. She will wake up.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Yes I do. I haven’t known Hope as long as I should have, but I know my sister. Hope survives. She’s survived a lot. She’ll survive this too.”

  We both looked towards the hallway when a crash happened downstairs. It was followed by a loud scream and yelling.

  Someone was in the house. My guess, Grandpa and Grandma Sinclair.

  “What now,” Hayden said.

  “I think it’s the Sinclairs.”

  “They must know about the sun spell.”

  “And they’re here for Nathaniel.”

  We had to help them.

  It’s what Hope would want.

  “Come on,” I said. “They need our help.”

  “You should stay put.”

  “No. I’m not standing by and letting them win. Not after everything they’ve taken from us. This ends today.”

  Even if I ended too.

  I bent down and kissed Hope’s forehead. I brushed her hair back. “I love you, Hope. I’ll be right back.”

 

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