I can’t fall apart, not now, because I can hear Jay in the house, gagging through great broken sobs. So I suck my emotions back into myself, into that secret place where I can’t be harmed, and I let my autopilot take over. It’s not a healthy way to deal with a crisis, but it’s the only one I have.

Slowly I mount the steps and return to the carnage.

Jay is leaning against the wall, his head sagging.

“Do we need to call someone?” I ask calmly.

“Daisy,” he whimpers. “Daisy, my people.”

“I know. Give me your phone.”

“I should… I should be the one to—”

“You can’t call anyone, not in this state.” My fingers trace his spine, travel between his shoulder blades. “I can calm you down, if you want. I can make it hurt less, for now.”

“No.” He chokes on the word and repeats it, louder. “No. I need to feel it.”

“Any idea who could have done this? Maybe humans, afraid of what you guys are?”

“It’s possible, but we’ve been careful.”

“There’s no way word hasn’t started to travel around, though, with as many people as you’ve been turning.” Even as I say it, my cool, objective self knows that’s not the cause of this massacre. No mob of terrified humans did this. Vampires are stronger and faster, and if humans had been the attackers, Jay’s people would have fought them off or killed at least some of them. In that case there should be a few dead humans here too, but everybody I can see is wearing one of Jay’s special bracelets.

No, these vampires were killed by someone who knew exactly what they were, why they were meeting, and how to kill them. Brutal as the scene is, there’s a surgical precision to it, too.

“Who do you need to call, Jay?” I repeat.

“Cody first.” He swallows hard. Sweat films his forehead, and his lashes glimmer wetly. “Then the other group leaders. And my contacts with the police. They can help with this, create a cover story.”

“Serial killer or mass murderer is pretty much the only cover story at this point.” My knees are starting to tremble, pulling together like magnets. I want to sit down, but there are splatters and sprays of blood everywhere.

“We need to get out of here.” Gently I tug his elbow. “There’s nothing we can do for any of them. We’ll call from outside.”

The night air whisks cool across my face as we leave the house. Jay pauses on the porch, tilting his head slightly like he’s listening. “I don’t hear or smell anyone else around.” He sits heavily down on the steps.

I close the door and join him. He hands over his phone and I call Cody, who answers with a gruff “What?”

“Something’s happened.” My throat is sore from the acidic vomit, and my voice is starting to shake in spite of my superficial calm. I grip my kneecap painfully tight to steady myself. As I start to explain, Cody lets out a string of swears, tossing one in every time I take a breath, until I’ve finished telling him everything. “Jay is kind of overwhelmed,” I say. “What should I do?”

“I’ll call the police and the group leaders. You take care of my boy.” His voice is tight and hard.

“I will.”

“And then, when it’s cleaned up, we’re going to make somebody pay.”

“I’m with you on that.”

After ending the call, I set the phone on the step above us and move closer to Jay. “Cody is going to make some calls. Jay, who else knew about these meetings?”

“A lot of people,” he says helplessly. “Once you’re turned, you get access to the website with the group calendar and other info.”

“Could someone have hacked into your website? Or faked the credentials? Maybe stolen log-in information from another vampire? Or—”

He stares at me with red-rimmed eyes.

“I’m sorry. Too many questions.” My fingers tangle together, knuckles grinding hard and painful as I try to keep myself split, to keep the calm, logical Daisy at the surface, unaffected, while terrified, weeping Daisy stays deep inside. I have to be strong, for Jay. He’s been through so much in his twenty-four years—so much terror and pain. I want to soak all his grief and agony into myself so he doesn’t have to feel any more.

“My people,” he whispers.

These weren’t just clients to him. They were members of a family, a community he was building.

I cup his shoulder with my hand. “It’s Wolfsheim, isn’t it?” I murmur.

“No, he wouldn’t go this far. He wouldn’t resort to such drastic measures. Killing our own… It’s beyond anything I—” He shakes his head. “He would have come to me first. Confronted me in person, talked to me.”

“Really? Hasn’t he been confronting you and talking to you and Cody for weeks? Maybe he figured this was the next step. An unmistakable message.”

“That’s not a message,” he says through gritted teeth. “It’s terrorism.”

“I agree.”

“It can’t go unanswered. If it’s really him, we have to retaliate.”

We have to retaliate. He means himself and the other vampires. At least Cody is on the same page about that. They can rally their remaining vampires and—

A cold finger of dread runs the length of my spine.

“Jay,” I whisper. “Were any other support groups meeting tonight?”

“One, I think. Ewing’s group.”

“Call them.” I rise from the steps. “Call them now.”

Horror pools in his eyes. “You think—”

“Just call, Jay.”

He leaps up, too. “They aren’t due to meet for another half hour. We’re going there, right now.”

We race for his car and fling ourselves in. Jay tears down the mountain at a terrifying speed, his jaw rock-hard with tension. He uses hands-free mode to call the number of the support group leader, but no one answers.

“There must be someone else you can call,” I urge.

“The group we’re going to… Jordan was assigned to it.”

My stomach drops. I jab my thumb at her name on my screen and hold the phone to my ear, aching for her voice. Please, please pick up…

“Hey, babe,” she answers.