“Call your father to come pick you up please, tell him it’s an emergency,” Darci said to Destiny.

“Mom what’s going on.”

“Not now, just tell him. Please.”

Destiny eyed her in worry before going upstairs to call her dad.

Joan stabbed a knife into her arm and let the blood pour into Lyssa’s mouth. Lyssa jolted awake, drinking the blood and letting it heal her. She licked Joan’s wound to let it heal up faster. Lyssa got up and walked to the kitchen sink to wash off her face and hands of blood.

She stared at the running water for a long moment before sighing and running a wet hand through her long black hair.

“Start talking, what exactly is going on.” Aron demanded.

Lyssa looked up at everyone and sighed again before turning the water off and walking over to join them in standing around the kitchen. She undid her hair from a ponytail before putting it in a new neater ponytail. She slipped out of her shirt, now only in a muscle shirt which was bloody but not as dirty as her outer shirt.

“I’m sorry I brought this here, it was not my intention to make this place ground zero.” Lyssa started.

“It never is, is it.” Joan snarked.

“Never,” Lyssa said sullenly.

“What exactly did you bring here? Why are they after you?” Mike asked.

“This battle has been one years in the making. Ever since the day I turned Rebecca this day was coming. Everything was peaceful, at first. It’s started slow, just us offering stray vampires homes and a new pack to turn to. There was always opposition, but it was small, manageable. We believed in what we were doing. We taught them the ways of peace and prosperity. Rebecca finished high school, enrolled in online college. We were up in Ontario for a while. When we came back here, the first time, for Joan, and Nora. Things had started to get tense. Word was getting out about us, about how we offered vampires a new chance, a better life. Vampires were abandoning their packs in large quantities. We had drawn the wrong kind of attention. The higher council ordered the assassination of Rebecca and I then.”

“So even all the way back then they were trying to kill you?” Darci asked.

Lyssa nodded.

“You’ve been running ever since?” Annalee asked.

“Yes. When the accident happened, and they came for us while we had Nora, and we were forced to leave here we headed south. We met up with some of our pack members in Texas. Then all of us decided to go even further south to Mexico. We stayed there for a few years, knowing the higher council's reach didn’t quite reach that far yet. All the while more and more joined us. So much so that I had to break our pack into separate factions. Those factions decided it would be safer if we all separated, that way the council wouldn’t know where Rebecca and I were, they would have to hunt down each faction one by one before finding out. It was a ruse to buy us time. One went to New Zealand. Another came back to the states, Georgia. A third went to Japan. And the last group went to Wales. The main group, stayed in south America, moving to Brazil.”

“Did your plan work?” Rooney asked.

“For a while it did, it bought us time. A moment of peace. For a moment everything was fine again. Rebecca learned Spanish, we found some new members for our pack. Things were going well. But they had gotten smart. They realized their efforts were futile. Because when they would find one faction the others would move again. They were dogs chasing their tails. They had enough and decided to flush us out by coming back here to Thorndale and taunting Rebecca with her family. They started with her brother. Attacked him to make it look like an accident, just to show us they weren’t playing around. Rebecca and I came back, alone. Just to verify their claims. When we saw how serious they were our main group joined us and helped take Rebecca’s sister into hiding. Our mistake was when Rebecca and I went to see her brother at the hospital. They had someone watching him, waiting for us to show.”

“You were back in Thorndale and didn’t say anything!?” Joan said.

“We knew it wasn’t our place, we left as soon as we could. Which was our second mistake. They wanted us here. Wanted us where they could see us. After leaving, they went after Rebecca’s parents. They… killed them and sent the proof to Rebecca.”

Lyssa had to close her eyes and shake her head to get the image out of her head.

“Oh god,” Darci said in horror.

“It was too much for Rebecca. She went into a rage. Unable to control herself. She went after the one who killed her parents, alone. His name was Demetris. He was tasked with dealing with Rebecca and I and decide to target Rebecca as the weak link in our armor. All his efforts were focused on making her suffer, on luring her out to put us all in danger. It worked. I alone was the only one who could track Rebecca down and bring her to her senses because of our bond. It took me a month to find her. Then weeks to calm her down back to normal. Even that isn’t for certain. Ever since she’s been constantly shifting between being in a rage and not. She’s been suffering to no end and it kills me to know I can’t do anything to stop her pain. I brought Rebecca back before they could capture her, Demetris knew he had messed up. He had played with her too much and lost his chance to end this. To try and avoid the wrath of the council he took drastic measures. Recruited demons and succubus to work for him. Then he promised he would hunt down all of those Rebecca loved one by one until they were all dead. Starting with Nora. Somehow, he found out she was still alive, and he came here to get her. We had no choice but to follow him here to try and prevent that from happening. This brings us back to now. The council is tired of waiting and tired of relying on Demetris, so they decided to bring an army to snuff us out once and for all.”

A heavy silence fell onto the room.

“I’m sorry for bringing this here, but now you all understand we had no choice. But you should all know it will end soon. I’m going to surrender myself for Nora. With Rebecca and I dead, they will leave.”

“You can’t be serious.” Aron said.

“I am very serious. Rebecca understands what has to happen to save all of you. She knows we are out of options. She’s okay with this.”

“Lyssa no, we can figure something out.” Darci said.

Lyssa shook her head no, staring down at the floor with a cold hard look on her face.

“So that’s it then?” Joan asked.

“It has to be. I’ll tell my pack to scatter, abandon me and the cause to save themselves, then I’ll go to her.”

“So… this is the last time we will ever see you?” Mike said.

Lyssa looked up and everyone and nodded.

“Shut up! We aren’t going to let that happen!” Rooney shouted at her.

“It’s me or Nora,” Lyssa said.

Rooney clenched her jaw and looked away in pain, tears clouding her eyes.

“We don’t want any more bloodshed for us. Let us do this.” Lyssa said.

“That’s not fair,” Joan sobbed, covering her eyes to hide her tears. “You and Rebecca are supposed to live forever. You are supposed to always be there. You can’t… you can’t do this to me.” Joan sobbed.

“I’m sorry things got so strained between us. But you need to be here, for Nora. I’ll save her.” Lyssa moved to leave.

Joan grabbed her by the shoulder before pulling Lyssa in her arms, crying into Lyssa’s shoulder. Darci ran in next, engulfing the two of them in a hug. Then Mike, the Aron, then Annalee, and lastly Rooney.

Lyssa cried into them, accepting her fate.

When they finally let go Lyssa took a shaky breath before moving to leave, when she opened the door Jaden was about to knock.

“Lyssa!?” He said in shock.

“Hey,” she gave him a light hug. “I got to go.” She said before vanishing into the night.

“Are we just going to accept this!?” Mike said.

“He’s right! We have to do something.” Darci said.

“What can we do!? We try anything and they kill Nora.” Rooney said.

“What is going on?” Jaden asked.

“Dad!” Destiny ran into his arms, burying her head into her chest.

“There might still be a way,” Aron said.

They all turned to him.

“We mount a surprise attack. At the moment they are about to do the switch off, we swoop in and save Nora. Giving Lyssa a chance to escape.” He said.

“How, they have an army. What do we have?” Joan asked.

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” Jaden asked.

“Come here,” Darci grabbed his hand and led him to the side where she quickly began to explain everything to him.

“I’ll help,” Ross spoke up.

“No,” Aron said sternly.

“I can help, my magic is just as good as yours. Two magic users are always better than one.”

“I’ll help too,” Garret said.

“No son,” Annalee said.

“Me too,” Juelz said.

“Kids we appreciate it but—”

“Nora is our friend; we want to help,” Destiny spoke up.

They nodded in agreement.

“Jesus,” Joan said softly.

“Let them help,” Rooney said.

They looked at her.

“We are going to need everyone to pull this off.”

“We will be putting them in grave danger, we can’t.” Aron said.

“We can do this; we’ve taught them well right? Let them help.”

“Let us help! Let us help! Let us help!” The kids began to chant.

Rooney smiled proudly at them.

“Fine, but it’s up to your parents. I say let them help.” Joan relented.

“Dad, come on. I’ve been training for this day.” Ross said.

“Please uncle Aron. Ross and I both know how to use magic. Let us help.”

“Your moms are going to kill me, fine.” He sighed.

“Yes!” Ross whooped.

“Mom come on, let me help.” Garret pleaded.

“Garret—”

“Dad taught me how to fight.”

“You did what!?” Annalee turned to Mike.

“Hehe, did I forget to mention?”

“Michael!” she pinched him.

“Ow! I’m sorry.”

Garret laughed.

“Traitor,” Mike pouted at his son.

“Please mom, I promise to stick close to you at all times.”

“Fine.” Annalee relented.

“Oh yeah!” Garret and Ross high-fived.

“Destiny you’re going with your Dad.” Darci walked over to them.

“No way! Nora is my best friend. I have to help.”

“You don’t know anything about any of this. You’ll only get hurt and get in the way. Your father will take you somewhere safe.”

“No! Nora would do it for me.”

“This isn’t up for debate!”

“Dad!?”

“Destiny, your mom has a point. You don’t know what is going on. You need to stay behind. How mad would Nora be if you got hurt trying to save her?” he kneeled down a little to get eye level with her.

“I have to, I have to help.” Destiny pleaded.

“No sweety. You can’t.”

She hung her head in defeat.

“Nora will be back in no time. Promise.” He rubbed her shoulder.

She pushed his hand away before running upstairs to Nora’s room.

He sighed and stared after her.

“Okay, now that, that, is settled. What’s the plan?” Joan looked at Aron.

“First this is first using a locator spell to find Nora.”

Destiny stayed at the top of the stairs, narrowing her eyes as she listened to find out where Nora is. She was going to go help her, with or without permission.