“Get them in cars,” I ordered. “Take them to at least three separate hospitals. They need blood.” I didn’t need a bunch of humans dying because of this naturi attack as well.

The nightwalkers jumped into motion, picking up the unconscious humans and carrying them out of the club while I turned my attention back to Knox and the dying Kevin.

“There’s nothing we can do without some medical help from the humans,” Knox admitted, rubbing his chin with one bloody hand. “His heart was nearly ripped from his chest. His wounds are too deep and too numerous. We can’t keep enough blood inside of him to get him to heal.”

In other words, Kevin would never survive the daylight hours. When the sun rose, his soul would fly from his body while the blood that Knox had fought to get into Kevin finished leaking out. When the sun set again, Kevin’s soul would be unable to find its way back to its body and he would be officially dead.

I didn’t bother to ask if there was any other way, or if Knox had tried everything. There was no reason to try to keep a steady stream of blood donors marching through the door until the sun finally peeked over the horizon. Both Knox and I had seen enough mortal wounds in our long lifetimes to know when the end was near and fighting it was futile.

Kevin didn’t stir on the blood-soaked sofa where he laid. I could feel the faint flutter of his soul within his fragile frame. His skin had already turned an ugly shade of gray under the coating of blood. Towels had been pressed to his chest and stomach to slow the blood, but they were already saturated. There was nothing we could do now but watch him die.

Shoving one hand through my hair in frustration, I paced away from this nightwalker to the opposite side of the room. Helplessness ate away at me, filling me with nervous energy. Not for the first time, I wondered if my return to Savannah had been a mistake.

Sitting in one of the chairs positioned near the sofa, I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. I would stay as long as I could. I would hold this death watch with Knox. Unfortunately, we couldn’t leave Kevin’s body laying around during the daylight hours. If someone broke into the Dark Room while we were sleeping and found the body, we would all be in trouble of discovery. If Kevin didn’t die within the next hour, I would have to finish the job so we’d have enough time to get his corpse to Archie before the sun rose. I would have to kill Kevin. It was my responsibility.

“You don’t have to stay,” Knox said, settling in the chair next to me.

“It’s the one place I belong tonight,” I murmured. “I will be the one to finish this if necessary.”

“He mentioned Tristan when he was still conscious. If Tristan was with them, I think you should be with him right now,” Knox said.

I frowned, looking at my bloodstained hands. “Tristan wasn’t wounded that badly. He’ll survive the morning with no trouble.” I paused and licked my lips, wondering how much Kevin had told him of the fight. I still didn’t know much, but there was potentially one piece of the puzzle that Knox was ignorant of. “Amanda was with them as well. She was taken by the naturi.”

“What do you mean ‘taken’?” he demanded, pushing to the edge of his chair.

“I mean taken. Kidnapped. Captured.”

Knox jumped to his feet and paced away from the chair to the opposite end of the room. His rage beat against me in that small room even though he never said a word. He was a smart guy. He knew that Amanda had been taken as bait to get at me. He also knew that I couldn’t risk my life for one nightwalker when I still had to go to the site of the sacrifice and save all nightwalkers from the threat of the naturi.

“I liked her,” he finally said into the air, his back still to me. There was the sound of defeat in his voice. “She was always a bit impulsive, but she was a good person, followed orders.”

“Don’t talk like that!” I snapped, getting him to jerk around to look at me. “She’s not dead yet. I plan to—”

A sharp knock at the door broke off my words. Before I could say anything else, the bartender poked his head into the room.

“Mira, Barrett is here to see you.”

Surprised by the lycanthrope’s unexpected appearance, I automatically did a quick scan of the bar to discover that he had not come alone. At least a dozen lycanthropes accompanied him. This wasn’t going to be pretty.

With a frown pulling at the corner of my lips, I rose and followed the bartender back into the main room with Knox close on my heels. The lycanthropes were spread out around the room, while Barrett stood in the center of the dance floor. Apparently, phone calls had been made and the pack called together. Nicolai stood off to one side, looking somewhat uncomfortable. I had a feeling that he was afraid he would be forced to choose between the pack he was now a part of and the debt he owed me for saving his life.

The nightwalkers that had been in the booths were on their feet and gathered on the opposite side of the room, looking just as aggressive as the lycans. No one was speaking. Even the music had been turned off, leaving the nightclub encased in an uncomfortable silence.

“Barrett,” I said with a nod of my head as I stepped onto the dance floor with him.

“We’ve come to escort you from the city,” he announced. “You’re the only reason why the naturi are here. You’re the reason that my people are dying. It’s time for this to stop.”

“I’m not leaving.”

As I spoke those three words, a growl rose from the shifters that lined two of the walls, while a matching hiss went up from the nightwalkers. Tension in the room spiked to mind-crushing levels, leaving us all balanced on the edge of a knife as we waited for someone to flinch first.

“Stop!” I shouted, holding out my open hands to both sides. “Going this route will also end in more deaths, and neither side can stand to lose another person. This is my home, Barrett. My people are here and I need to be here to protect them.”

“You being here is killing your people,” he barked at me.

“I’ll be leaving Savannah in a couple days. I have some business that needs to be taken care of first. One of mine has been kidnapped and I need to get her back,” I argued. My hands dropped back to my sides and tightened into fists. “When I leave for the sacrifice, the naturi should follow me.”

“It’s not soon enough. I want you out of town tonight and I want you to never return,” Barrett snarled.

A brittle smile lifted my lips as I looked at my shifter companion. I tried to remember that he had lost two brothers and was in pain. I tried to remember that he had lost a third of his pack to the naturi. I tried to remember that his people were helpless when the naturi attacked, but still, he was asking for the impossible.

“This is my home,” I calmly stated. “I will not be forced out.”

Barrett growled at me, his upper lips curling so I could see his fangs dropping into place. His deep brown eyes shifted to copper as the animal inside of him demanded control of his body.

“Do you really want to do this?” I asked. “You’re going to lose more of your pack, when I am willing to take the naturi with me in a couple days.”

“But you’ll be back and they will follow behind you until you’re finally dead. If necessary, we’ll finish the job for them and deliver your body.”

Mira! Knox shouted in my brain.

He doesn’t mean it like it sounds. He’s upset, I quickly replied. Barrett had made it sound like he was siding with the naturi, which was forbidden among the races. I knew him better than that. He would never side with the naturi. He was just looking for a way to get the naturi off his back, and the best way to protect his people was to get rid of me.

“If you want me dead,” I said, “then you do the deed. Don’t include the rest of your pack. They’ve lost enough.” A rumble went up around me as the lycans immediately opposed the arrangement.