And I knew that I would eventually find her. I just couldn’t promise him that I would find her alive.

With Tristan settled, I set about adjusting the memories of the police, detectives, and emergency workers that flocked to the scene. I posed as a detective, giving orders and mental shoves where needed. It was the biggest massacre I had tried to cover up in recent years under the watchful gaze of so many humans. I was desperately trying to convince a horde of people that a group of teenagers had been attacked by a pack of rabid dogs. Lucky for me, these terrified humans were willing to believe anything that made more sense than things like nightwalkers and werewolves.

After close to an hour of work, my eyes finally fell on a familiar face: Archibald Deacon, coroner for the city of Savannah and the surrounding county. He would help me cover up this mess before someone started running blood tests.

“Why am I not surprised to find you in the middle of this nightmare?” Archibald said, running one hand over his balding head as he narrowed his dark brown eyes at me. I noticed a fine trembling to his fingers as he lowered his hand back down to his side. Savannah had never seen such destruction before, not since the days of the war.

“I wasn’t a part of this mess, but I will need your help cleaning it up. We need to get these bodies back to your morgue before anyone starts demanding tests and shipping the dead to the hospital.”

“No one is shipping anyone to the hospital who belongs in my morgue,” he said, his large round body seeming to puff up at the very notion of anyone invading his domain of the dead. “What about the police? The evidence?”

“I’ve adjusted memories where possible and I’ve already called Daniel. He’ll keep an eye on things for me,” I replied. Detective Daniel Crowley had worked with me in the past to settle small matters like the questionable death of a nightwalker or a lycanthrope that got to the police before reaching me or Barrett. But this was bigger than anything we had dealt with before, and it was going to take most of the night.

While Archie pulled his team together and got the bodies ushered off to the morgue as quickly as humanly possible, I finished up with the cops and any of the onlookers that had wandered too close for my liking. There was nothing I could do about the local news crews that were camped just beyond the perimeter. Their cameras caught every body bag and every ambulance and meat wagon that pulled away from the scene. I caught only snippets of what the media was being told, but by their tone, it didn’t sound as if the cops were completely buying the story of the roving pack of rabid dogs. I know it didn’t sound very believable, but it was the only thing I could think of that would account for the claw and fang marks slashed across the bodies.

Sunrise was only a few hours away when I finally reached the morgue with the last of the bodies. Archie got them settled in the examination room in the basement and sent all of his assistants home for the night with the promise that they would start the tests later that morning. I slid into one of the hard plastic chairs, resting my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands. It felt like my entire body was shaking from exhaustion. So many minds infiltrated and altered throughout the night, so many memories tweaked so that the carnage was blurred and the horror dulled. I wished I could forget about it all as well.

Six lycans and one nightwalker killed. A second nightwalker missing. Tristan wounded. It was only from a call from Knox while I was looking over the park that I discovered Kevin had made it the Dark Room, but there were still questions as to whether he would survive the next few hours.

“Mira, it’s late. You can go home. I’ll keep things under control here,” Archie said as he eased into a cushioned chair behind the battered desk to my right. He sighed heavily and then began shuffling around different sets of papers. The coroner would run the blood tests himself, using human blood he had in stock already so that no one would discover the true identity of the vampire and lycanthropes within his custody. As soon as it was possible, all seven of the bodies would go into the oven and be cremated.

“I wish I could,” I muttered. I still had one more meeting that night, and it wasn’t going to be pretty. In fact, he was already there, and I could sense his temperament before he even entered the basement. “It would be best if you left here for a little while.”

“I need to start these tests,” Archie argued.

I lifted my head and frowned at him. We were both exhausted and I could understand his desire to start what was going to be a long list of doctored tests just to protect the identity of my people and those of the lycanthropes. However, I knew it would be best if he was not around at the moment. “Barrett is here to identify the victims. You need to leave.”

“Oh,” he whispered, then pushed to his feet. Just before Archie could escape, the double doors exploded open and Barrett entered the room, his face a mask of barely contained fury. And I couldn’t blame him. During the past month, four members of his pack had been slaughtered by the naturi, including one of his own family members. And after tonight’s massacre, their numbers had been decimated.

“M-Mira will take the names,” Archie said in a low voice as he slid around Barrett and out the door.

Normally, Barrett was a calm, even-tempered werewolf. He was a good, strong leader, a steady protector of his people. But the recent deaths had shattered his control and left him snarling at anything that moved. I had called him on the ride over to the morgue. The conversation was brief simply because I knew we would have a longer one when he arrived.

Barrett walked from table to table, pulling back the bloodstained white sheets that covered each body. His fist grew tighter with each death he was forced to look in the face, their sightless eyes closed but still seeming to stare through us both. A low growl rumbled from his throat as he reached the final body. I had expected it. It was Will, the youngest of his three brothers and the second brother to die in the past two months.

I remained silent, watching him, wishing I could remain unnoticed while he inwardly grieved for his dead brother and the other members of his pack. He shoved both hands through his chocolate brown hair and sucked in a deep breath in an effort to regain control of his emotions. Reluctantly, he moved toward a covered table that was somewhat off to the side.

“That one doesn’t belong to you,” I said in a low voice, drawing his narrowed gaze to my face for the first time. I barely suppressed a shiver.

“So, you’ve finally lost one of your own,” he growled.

“One is dead, another lays dying, a third was severely injured, and still another was kidnapped and is most likely being tortured as we speak,” I replied, hating myself for being drawn into the argument. He was hurting from the deaths that had plagued his people recently.

“Two of my brothers have been slaughtered in as many months! A third of my pack has been decimated by nightwalkers. My own mother and sisters have been forced to hide in another city while we die at your hands!” he shouted, finally losing his temper.

“Your pack attacked us,” I said evenly. I wished I could show him more sympathy and compassion, but I had my own people to protect. I was afraid of saying something here and now in a moment of compassion that would only trap my people at a later date.

“Because we’ve been under the control of the naturi.”

“And what do you expect us to do? Let you kill us because it’s not your fault?”

“I thought you were supposed to be doing something about the naturi. I’ve talked to the other packs and not one has had the trouble we’ve had. Some lycans have gone missing, but the body count is nothing like what we’ve experienced.”