"Hello?" The tribrid mumbles, answering the phone.
"Hope," the person on the other end of the line says, "I need you to come down to the school."
"What? Who is this?" The auburn-haired girls asks, still half-asleep.
"It's Dr. Saltzman. Listen, I'm sorry I woke you up," he apologises, "but we need you at the school."
"Why? What's happened?" Hope rubs the sleep from her eyes.
"Some of the wolves got loose," Dr. Saltzman reveals.
"Can you not just wait until it's morning, when they've turned back?" She whines.
"I would, but MG and Kaleb are missing, and we need to find them before something happens," the teacher explains.
"Okay, I'll be right there," Hope hangs up, now fully awake.
"Everything okay?" Lizzie asks, propping herself up onto her elbow.
"MG and Kaleb are missing, and some wolves got out, your dad needs me to help find them," Hope explains, running her hands through her hair as she talks.
"You're going now?" Landon questions, now more awake.
"I have to, if MG or Kaleb get bitten, they'll die, or one of the wolves could get hurt," Hope stands from her place on the floor. "I'm gonna grab my boots and go. I'm not sure how long I'll be."
"I'm coming with you," Josie declares.
"Me too," Landon sits up.
"Yeah, I'm not letting you guys play hero without me," Lizzie throws the blanket off her.
"No, you're not, Dr Saltzman will kill me," Hope says before turning to Landon, "he can't even know we're dating."
"Shut up," Lizzie tells the tribrid, "we're coming with you if you like it or not."
"Fine, we leave in five."
Hope stands and leaves the room to grab her boots and leather jacket from her bedroom, when Landon gets there, he finds his girlfriend sat in one of the armchairs, her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands.
"You okay?" He asks softly as he approaches her.
"If you're serious about coming with me, I need you to promise that you'll be careful," Hope looks up at Landon her eyes filled with worry, "werewolves are dangerous, they don't know what they're doing and they can't control themselves and if anything happened to you because of me, I don't know what I'd do."
"Nothing is going to happen to me," Landon sits on the table in front of Hope and takes her hands in his.
"You don't know that," Hope tells him. "My parents were supposed to be immortal and they still died. Now, promise me you'll be careful."
"I will, as long as you promise me, you'll be careful too."
"I promise."
"Then I promise too," Landon presses a kiss to Hope's forehead. The two of them stay like that for a moment, until Lizzie walks into the room and announces that her and Josie are both ready to leave.
"We better go then," Hope says softly.
Landon stands from his seat and holds his hand out for Hope, on her way out the tribrid grabs her leather jacket and slips it on, she locks the front door behind the four of them and climbs into her car.
"Are you okay?" Josie asks, noticing that Hope's knuckles had turned white from gripping the steering wheel so hard.
"I'm fine," Hope lies, "I just want to find MG and Kaleb so I can get back to sleep."
Landon and the twins see right through the girl's lie but decide to leave it alone. When Hope parks her car in front of the main entrance to the school, she notices Dr Saltzman and Sheriff Donovan stood by the door. "Great, just what I need to deal with," she mutters as she climbs out of the car.
"No! You two can get inside right now," Dr Saltzman says to the twins, when he sees them get out of the car.
"You too," Matt tells Landon, sternly, "they have magic you don't. You shouldn't be here."
"I tried to get them to stay at the house, they wouldn't listen to me," Hope explains.
"We're not letting her do this alone," Josie declares.
"She's not alone, Matt and I are here," Alaric tries to assure his daughters.
"You have crossbows and guns with wooden bullets," Lizzie scoffs, "Josie and I have magic; three witches are better than one.
"Fine," Alaric reluctantly agrees, "but you stay close to Hope."
"You're staying here with Dorian and Emma," Matt tells his foster son.
"No, I'm going with them," Landon announces. "I've already promised Hope I'll be careful."
After a lot of back and forth, Matt gives into Landon and hands over a gun filled with wooden bullets "just in case."
"Matt and I are gonna go this way, you four go that way," Alaric points in two different directions, "please be careful."
"We will," Hope nods and leads the other three in the direction Dr Saltzman had pointed them to. After about twenty minutes of following the path, none of them talking and Hope using her enhanced hearing to try and find the missing wolves or MG and Kaleb. They all had their phones out, using their flashlights so they could see where they were going, since the only other source of light they had was the full moon shining above them.
"Do you think MG's okay?" Lizzie asks quietly, the fear and worry obvious in her voice.
"I'm sure he's fine Liz," Josie tries to assure her sister.
"I hope you're right."
"Stop!" Hope announces suddenly, her steps halting, a look of concern crossing her face.
"What's wrong?" Landon questions.
Hope remains silent and unmoving with her eyes closed, straining to be able to hear further away. "Kaleb or MG are this way," she makes a right turn and heads further into the woods.
"How do you know?" Josie asks, holding onto her twin.
"I heard footsteps," the tribrid responds, still waking in the direction she heard the movement coming from. After another ten minutes of walking pass by, they take a break to stop Lizzie's whining.
"It's cold and my feet hurt," the blonde complains as she leans against a tree. "It's the middle of summer, why is it cold?"
"Because it's 3am and the sun's gone down," Hope rolls her eyes. "Now, can we please get moving aga-"
Hope's question is interrupted when she feels a gush of wind against one side of her body, she turns quickly and notices that Landon's no longer stood where he was a moment ago, instead MG has him pressed against a tree, the veins underneath his eyes on full display.
"MG stop," Hope tries to sound threatening, but her voice breaks making it sound more like begging. When the vampire doesn't let go, the tribrid's eyes flash a dangerous shade of yellow and she feels the magic just beneath the surface of her skin ready to burst. She starts walking towards him, a look of anger across her face, but before she can stop him, MG uses his enhanced strength to push her away and she goes flying into a tree.
"Hope!" Both twins run and crouch down next to the auburn-haired girl, making sure she's okay.
Hope ignores their worrying and shouts out a weak "Landon" as she watches MG bite into his neck. She attempts to push herself up off the ground, but her vision goes blurry and her arms give way underneath her "help him," she whispers to twins, as her head throbs from the pain of hitting the tree.
Hope feels the heat and the gentle sting of the twins siphoning magic from her and hears MG hiss in pain as they inflict a brain aneurysm on him. She hears the sound of Landon's limp body fall to the ground unconscious next, then a werewolf come out from behind the trees and bite into MG's arm and drag him off.
So... the next chapter will be the last one, unless people are still wanting a sequel.