With trembling hands, I finally steered my car into the street where not only ours, but also the Adams' house was.

When I saw the flickering lantern, my heart stopped beating for a moment.

I braked hard, causing the tires to squeal loudly.

I had hoped that I was imagining it all. A bad dream. But of course, I wasn't dreaming.

How could you, Julian? How could you still think you were dreaming, in Blairville?

The reality was different. It lay in front of me on the pavement under a flickering lantern surrounded by menacing darkness and fucking ravens.

I pulled myself out of my state of shock and got out of the car to rush to the motionless girl on the stone path.

The ravens shot up into the air, screaming.

I fell to my knees, trying to feel her heartbeat. Panicked, I reached for her wrist, only to feel nothing but my own heart racing.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The pain didn't subside.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Bayla did not move. She was freezing cold.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Painfully, I forced myself to touch her neck, which was the only thing that was warm. Warm and wet. Smeared with blood. The thick, dark liquid stained my hands and the sleeves of my hoodie.

“Julian, her neck!” Emely suddenly screamed in panic, trying to press her jacket onto the area to stop the bleeding.

I, meanwhile, did the first thing I could think of and placed my lips on hers. They were so cold and dry, but I didn't let that stop me. Instead, I gave her my air and then pressed my hands onto her chest with pressure.

“Shit, what's wrong with her? Why is she lying here?!” I heard Mia, who then disappeared into our house. I distantly noticed how she woke our father in a panic.

I pressed my lips to Bayla's again. This time more intensely, more shaking and paralyzed.

“Come on!” I shouted loudly, pushing my hands onto her chest again and again. “Come on! Come on!”

A rage sparked inside me that was even stronger than the pain I could feel in the marrow of my bones. Bloody hell, I was angry with myself for not getting it right. I couldn't let her die. I couldn't just let her go like that.

“Larissa... She's gone!” Emely turned in a helpless circle as if she could find the girl anywhere. “Shit, Julian! They've taken her!”

“Could you please focus on Bay?” I snapped at her, perhaps a little too harshly, and I saw her startled expression for a split second.

“Come on!” I pressed again. Without success.

“What am I supposed to do?” Emely asked, uncertain and confused.

“I don't know. Call an ambulance, anyone!” I pressed out impatiently before pressing my lips to Bayla's again. But nothing happened. Bayla Adams was as cold as ice, motionless, like a corpse.

“God, son, what happened?” I saw my father and Mia return.

“The Ruisangors...” I gasped, then continued.

“Bayla?” I looked up at Diana Adams, who was rushing through the front yard, dressed in pajamas and a jacket, to reach us. “Bayla! My little girl!”

Her face contorted in shock. She dropped to her knees in front of her daughter and shook her hard before touching her hand.

“Why is she so cold?! Why is she lying here?!” She looked at me. “What's wrong with her, Julian?!” She shook her daughter harder now, but that didn't help either.

“What have you done to my daughter?!” she screamed with a disturbed look on her face and burst into tears.

I pulled back.

“What have you done?!” she screamed again; this time directed at Emely.

My father rushed to Diana and pulled her aside.

“No! My daughter!” Diana continued to scream and crawled back to Bay.

“It was the Ruisangors...” Emely said quietly, almost barely audible.

Then everything happened far too quickly. A shadow flitted past us and came to a halt right next to me.

“Move aside,” the man in the suit I had last seen with Adrian on campus demanded.

I stood in front of him, ready to fight.

“Move away boy! I can help her!”

I looked into his gray eyes, which were beginning to glow reddish.

“Who can guarantee you won't kill her outright like your offspring did to the other girl?”

I felt my transformation kick in, and my veins stood out.

“He took her to safety,” the man in front of me said, unimpressed yet tense. Then he shot past me and bent down to Bayla to take the jacket off her neck.

Diana Adams stared at him in shock, as if she knew him, but she didn't interrupt him, even though Quatura and Ruisangors hated each other as much as Senseque and Quatura did.

However, everyone was now staring at the bloody wound that the man was shining a flashlight on, clearly showing us a bite mark.

“What are you doing here, Bastien?” we heard from the street, where Alarik got out of a car and hurried over to us.

I looked at Emely.

Had she called him?