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“Why not? She’s my best friend!” Hannah said, already flustered from her conversation downstairs.

Ethan shook his head. “She
used
to be your best friend. Now it’s up in the air on whether she’ll be your dorkasaurus rex or a really nasty T-Rex – complete with wanting to rip out your throat.”

“What do you mean?”

I put my hand on her shoulder and eased her back toward me. “Hannah, look, Owen bit her. We didn’t know it, but he’s a Hunter. When a Hunter bites a human, the human will become a Hunter most of the time.”

“Most of the time? What happens otherwise?”

“Well, she could fight it out and be fine, but it’s not common. The other option is she’ll just die. I’m so sorry, Hannah. I didn’t mean for this to happen. We didn’t know that –”

She cut me off by trying to claw at Ethan. “YOU! This is YOUR fault! You’re supposed to protect her! Why weren’t you there? You’ve killed her! You’ve done this!”

Mrs. Gordon knocked on the door. “Hannah? What are you yelling about?”

I let her go and got in the closet myself. We were a motley crew; a Guard, Guardian, a Transitioner, and a potential Hunter all stuffed in a tiny closet. What could go wrong with that?

Hannah’s door opened and we all sucked in a collective breath. Mrs. Gordon’s words became louder, which only meant she was getting closer. “Hannah, honey, listen to me. Your father is upset about everything right now, but we really don’t dislike Levi. It’s just, well, he seems different. Are you sure you know enough about him to be dating him?”

Angie began to stir again at the sound of Hannah’s voice. “Yes, Mom, for the thousandth time. I know him. If you had him over for dinner or something sometime, you’d see he’s a good guy. We just got out of hand today. He didn’t mean for anything to happen. I’m really sorry.”

“Well, I just don’t understand why you thought grilling in the garage was a good idea to begin with!”

Reina pointed to Angie frantically as she began to move her head from side to side, shaking off the unconsciousness. Ethan looked between us, then looked over to me. “This is bad. This is really bad. There are two humans out there. If she’s becoming a Hunter –”

There wasn’t time to finish the sentence. Angie’s eyes flew open to reveal crimson irises. Reina pinned Angie down, but not before she let out an unearthly scream of outrage.

Both Hannah and Mrs. Gordon screamed. Ethan jumped on top of Reina as well and held down Angie’s arms. I blocked the door with my body, keeping it shut just in case Hannah or her mom had no sense and decided to investigate the noise.

“Get off of me!” Screamed Angie. “Ethan, you’ve never been there for me, so quit trying to stop me now! I sense them! I need them!”

Those weren’t words that would come out of a human’s mouth. Angie had turned. This was very, very bad.

There was a bunch of scuffling outside, but then the door slammed, so I assumed Hannah took her mom downstairs, either voluntarily or by force. Reina hadn’t moved, but then Ethan looked at me and gave the strangest look.

All of a sudden he heaved himself off of Angie, leaving Reina alone to keep her down. Angie bucked Reina off and sent her flying in a rack of clothes. Folded laundry on the shelves above rained down and littered the floor in hoodies. Ethan grabbed Angie’s shoulders and surprisingly enough, Angie stopped her attack on Reina. “Angie, listen to me,” Ethan said earnestly, “You’ve changed. It’s not your fault. It’s mine. For that I am so, so sorry,” the tone of his voice made me believe him. “Now listen. You can control this. You’ve changed, but you don’t have to be damned like me. Choose the light. Listen to Reina and Levi. Choose to be the kind soul that you really are. You can do this.”

Angie’s wild eyes ranged between all of us, frantically trying to figure out what had happened. She twitched, unable to stay completely still. She focused on Ethan once more. “I’m like you now?”

“Well, kind of. You’re different, but you’re not on the right side, I can tell you that,” he said. He quickly continued before she could get mad. “But it doesn’t have to be that way. You’re not destined for this. You’re good. You’re not like me.”

Angie gritted her teeth, the frustration sinking in. She grasped the sides of her head with her hands and let out a frustrated wail. “It hurts!”

“I know it does. It will for a while. But you have to be strong. You can do this!”

She closed her eyes and howled again. When she reopened them, they burned with fury. “You’re wrong. I’m a Hunter now. I’m Owen’s Hunter.”

Before Ethan could say anything, Angie slapped him across his face and sent him flying into the pile of clothes by Reina. I stood at the door like a deer stuck in headlights. This would not end well for me.

Angie turned on me and grinned hatefully. “Do you really want to do that? Don’t you know your place?”

“I’m in it – keeping you away from Hannah.”

Her snarl faltered for a moment. “Hannah? Why would you keep me away from her?”

“Because you’ll kill her.”

She seemed genuinely startled by the news. “Why would I kill my best friend?”

“You’re Owen’s Hunter, right? What do you think he created you for? Your first job will be to kill Hannah. I’m not letting you do that.”

Angie screamed in frustration once more. Her feral ways were in overdrive right now. She lunged at me and I dodged her attack. The door buckled under the pressure and Angie went flying into the bedroom. I ran out and grabbed her foot before she could get to the door to go downstairs. “You want Hannah to live, right?”

She clawed the carpet frantically. Her head whipped around at the mention of Hannah, though. “Of course I do!”

“Then go away. Go away and never come back.”

She bore her teeth at me, but then stopped fighting. I let go of her and crouched, ready to attack once more if need be. She stood up; she seemed to be struggling to keep herself collected. After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she looked at me once more. Her eyes weren’t quite as red, but they still smoldered with the anger and pain I’d felt for the past century. “I’ll be back,” she said, then pointed at Ethan. “If not to see Hannah, then to kill you, Ethan.”

“Looking forward to it,” Ethan said with a broken smile.

With that, Angie kicked me in the nose and dove out of the window, disappearing in the hazy smoke still billowing into the wind from the front yard.

TWENTY-FOUR

“Your nose looks great, Bro. Real character added into it now,” Ethan said with less enthusiasm than usual as he walked toward the window where I now stood. “Stand still and I’ll pop it back into place.”

I waved him off and faced away from him. “No, no, I got it. Thanks.” The audible crack that accompanied the flash of pain was disgusting. I shook my head and turned to Ethan and Reina. “So what are we going to do now?”

Reina shrugged. “You’re going to need your own team of Guardians to keep Hannah and her family safe, watch out for Angie and Owen, and find out what is going to happen now that the sides have evened out. Maybe they’ll let things go.”

Ethan looked nonplussed. “How have they evened out?”

Reina jabbed a finger toward the window violently. “Uh, your Call just became a Hunter. Did you forget everything that just happened? A Hunter evens the score. The only reason the Fallen were after Hannah and Angie to my knowledge was that they threw the balance off for good. With Angie on their side, it’s even again. Is there anything you haven’t told me? Otherwise, you should be okay now. Ethan, you probably won’t even get in trouble since it evened the playing field. You may get to remain a Guard.”

“Joy of joys,” Ethan mumbled.

“I’m going back to the house and contacting some other Guardians I know. Maybe we’ll figure something out,” Reina said, eyeing Ethan the whole time. “Levi, Ethan, you two stay with Hannah. Keep her close. Nothing should happen to her if there’s two of you with her.”

There wasn’t much to say. I just nodded numbly, completely taken aback from everything that had just transpired. Angie was a Hunter. She would come for Hannah. I would have to kill her somehow. Owen said Hunters couldn’t be killed. There had to be a way to kill them, right?

We weren’t going to figure anything out standing aimlessly in Hannah’s room though, so I shook Ethan’s shoulder. He had stood still since Reina’s minor outburst. “E, we gotta move. I’m gonna get Hannah and we need to find Owen’s dad. Sandusky isn’t that far away for us, maybe an hour at most if we fly.”

Ethan nodded halfheartedly. “I don’t think you want me anywhere near your Call, Levi.”

“Why’s that?”

He looked at me as though he’d been shot. “I can’t even keep mine human! It’s one thing for her to die. She was supposed to die. It’s another for her to become a Hunter. I failed. Why would you want me anywhere near Hannah? What if something happens? I should have never said I’d try harder. It was better when I wasn’t trying.”

I had never in my existence seen Ethan be remorseful. It was beyond him. It was beyond all Guards, really, but him especially. He took his fist and lightly rapped himself on the forehead. “I gotta get it together, don’t I?” he asked pathetically.

“Kind of, yeah.”

He shook his head. “Okay. Owen’s dad. Sandusky. Take care of Hannah. Got it. What’s your plan?”

“Can you change her parents’ memories a bit? The fire was actually her dad’s fault somehow, not mine. Hannah is gone for the day with school on a field trip. She’ll be home late tonight. Sound good?”

“I got it. I’ll go around to the front. You get Hannah.”

Ethan hopped out the window and I cautiously opened Hannah’s door. No one was there, but I could hear the family’s voices downstairs. Her little brother was crying.

They were all sitting on the couch as I crept down the stairs. I waited for Ethan to ring the doorbell, and two seconds later, there it was. Mr. Gordon got up and walked out, then a few minutes later called for Mrs. Gordon as well. With Nick distracted by his own tears, I tapped Hannah lightly on the shoulder. She jumped.

“It’s just me. We need to go.”

She didn’t look behind, but covered her face with her hands, pretending to rub away the day’s terrors. “If you hadn’t noticed, I can’t really go anywhere.”

“Sure you can,” Ethan said lightly as he bounded into the room and smiled at Nick innocently. “Memories are modified. We need to go.”

Nick’s eyes slid out of focus for a moment, then an amused grin crossed his face. Ethan presented him as though he were a game show hostess revealing a grand prize. “See? Time to go.”

Hannah shot daggers at Ethan, then turned to look at me. “He’s coming with us?”

I understood why she felt the way she did, but there wasn’t time to explain. “Do you trust me, Hannah?”

“With my life.”

“Then trust that Ethan is going to help me take care of you. You’re important. We need all the help we can get.”

“And Reina?”

“She’s staying here.”

This seemed to mollify her a bit. Hannah nodded and stood up. “Alright. Where are we headed?”

I looked at Ethan to jump in with a comment, but his fallen mood continued. I almost felt bad for him. He stood with his arms behind his back, simply waiting on the next instructions. My gaze returned to Hannah. “We’re going to Sandusky to find Owen’s dad. He’s a Guardian, and we think he can help us. We’re flying, so it’ll be quick. Is that okay?”