"William. . ." Dan breathed, his eyes widening with unmistakable horror. He pulled Zoe behind him and hissed, "Tom, get up."
Tom jumped to his feet and started towards Aneisha, pitching forward when a hand yanked her back, a strong arm pulling her against a tall body.
"William!" Dan shouted.
"What are you doing here?" Zoe asked.
Logan's eyes darted frantically between William and Dan. "Who is this guy?"
William's gaze travelled lazily to Matthew, crouched on the ground beside Logan. "You weren't supposed to save him."
"What do you mean?" Logan asked boldly.
William turned his gaze to Logan, almost amused. He shoved Aneisha away from him and she stumbled forward, almost tripping over the long grass. Tom wrapped her in his arms and Aneisha clung to him, her face pressed against the fabric of his shirt although her brown eyes followed William as he moved towards Logan and Matthew. Matthew glared at William over Logan's shoulder, but Logan met William's eyes defiantly as the Old One knelt down in front him, cocking his head to the side. "How interesting. Do you know how Zoe came to be the way she is?"
"No. All I know is that for some reason everyone's blaming Matt." Logan replied, his confusion overcoming his bravado.
"They're blaming him." William said, amused. "That's interesting."
"Just tell him, you son of a bitch." Matthew moaned, clutching his side. Zoe's gaze flicked nervously towards Aneisha and Tom, feeling Dan's arm wrap around her waist.
A smile tugged at William's mouth. "I compelled your Matthew to bring young Zoe to me. Then I waited until Daniel came for her. Then I fed her my blood and I killed her."
Logan turned to look at Matt, who looked away guiltily. "Logan . . ."
"You're lying." Logan said, turning back to William. He launched himself at the ancient vampire, but William just swatted him away like a fly. Logan was sent flying through the air to land heavily in the dirt on his back. He groaned and struggled to sit as Matthew got up and stumbled over to him.
Aneisha stepped out of Tom's embrace and swung her arm out. Immediately, it was as if William had been hit by an invisible force. He was thrown backwards almost ten metres and when he got up, he felt a stabbing pain in between his shoulder blades.
Snarling, William whirled and yanked the knife out of his back. He now found himself staring at a girl who appeared to be about fifteen, with straight brown hair and big, doe brown eyes.
"Get out of here, William." The girl said. "Before I cut your head off."
Zoe expected him to make a infuriating comment, but instead he turned to Zoe and said, "Vampires eat people," and took off, leaving only a cloud of dust and his words ringing in Zoe's head behind to prove that he was even there. Dan squeezed her hand gently before he shoved her behind him, his blue eyes completely focused on the brunette girl, who glanced at Aneisha with curiosity. "Sorceress."
Tom stepped in front of Aneisha, his brown eyes hard and the girl's mouth quirked into a smile before she turned to Dan, crossing her arms over her chest. "Daniel Morgan."
Dan tensed and Zoe wrapped her fingers around his arm as he said, "Who wants to know?"
"Skylar Plickett." The girl said. "Your cousin."
Dan stared at her. "I don't have any cousins. There's only three existing Old Ones. My parents and William. So you can't be Offspring."
"That's because I'm not. I'm dhampir – a half-human, half-Old One." Skylar said.
Aneisha turned on Dan. "You never mentioned anything about inter-species breeding!"
"That's because I didn't know about it!" Dan shot back. He turned to Skylar. "Get in the car. I need to go see my parents."
Tom drove Skylar, Aneisha, Matthew and Logan back to Dan's while Dan and Zoe walked. Skylar sat in the front beside Tom, while Matthew was lying across the backseat, his head in Logan's lap, while Aneisha crouched on the floor, trying her best to heal him. She was doing her best, but the Sorceress wasn't made for healing. She was made for keeping balance.
Aneisha felt fear tightening on her throat as Matthew's eyes opened to look into Logan's face. He was shivering violently, his arms locked around himself. Logan swallowed, pushing Matthew's hair out of his eyes. It struck him how cold Matthew's skin was, and he lifted his eyes to meet Aneisha's gaze.
"Tom!" Aneisha cried desperately.
"The heaters are on as high as I can get them and I'm breaking so many road laws I'd get my licence provoked. So just hang in there, we're nearly there." Tom replied.
Dan pulled out his phone, listening to it ring, until his father's voice answered. "Daniel?"
"Please tell me you and Mother are home." Dan said.
Thankfully, Ezekiel ignored Dan's sarcastic use of the word 'mother'. "Yes . . . Why?"
"Okay, so William tried to drown Matthew and this chick showed up saying that she's my cousin, but she's only half-vampire. You two have heaps of explaining to do." Dan said.
He heard his father sigh. "Get back here as fast as you can. We'll explain everything, I promise. Is Zoe with you?"
"Yeah."
"Is she okay? Did he hurt her?"
Dan chanced a glance over at Zoe, who looked shaken, but she was still standing. "She's okay. He didn't get near her."
"Good. Get back here as soon as possible." Ezekiel said, before he hung up and Dan sighed, shoving hi phone back into his pocket. Zoe looked over at him, resisting the urge to press her mouth against his. They had more pressing matters to deal with.
"Let's go." Dan told her and together, they took off, moving so fast they would be undetectable to the naked human eye.