It was quiet for a long time, and I jerked when I felt Lil ian’s hand on my arm. My eyes darted back and forth between the door and Bex, who was lying as stil as a statue in his bed.

Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from downstairs and I closed my eyes. My heart threatened to punch through my chest with every beat. Another crash came from a different area of the lower level and then two gun shots rang out. I heard scuffling, and then a male voice cried out, abruptly cutting off.

Bex remained in his bed. The room became clearer as my vision adjusted to the darkness. Unable to discern who was in the house, how many, and who was winning, I told myself that Jared was alive as long as I was.

In the next moment, a stranger dressed in black burst through the door. The bed lit up with the beam of a flashlight, and in the next moment the man charged, yanking Bex from his bed. I lunged forward when the man pressed cold metal against the boy’s temple.

“No!” I screamed. Lil ian grabbed my shoulders and jerked me against her chest.

Claire appeared in the door way, targeting the intruder with her handgun. She jerked her head up once, breathing heavily. “It’s been awhile, Crenshaw.”

Even in the darkness I could see a smug smile on Claire’s face, as if she had the upper hand. Crenshaw pressed the barrel of his gun against Bex’s head.

“Claire?” Bex said, sounding as terrified as I felt.

“It’s okay. Everything’s going to be al right,” Claire assured him.

“Just let me take her, and I’l go quietly. I’l leave the boy down the street,” the man growled, true fear underlying his demand.

“You know that’s not going to happen, Crenshaw. Just take your life and go,” Claire said, looking down the sights of her firearm.

Crenshaw tightened his grip on his gun. “I can’t go back without her—you know that. Hand Jack’s kid over and I’l leave the boy,” he rasped.

Bex’s head tilted from the pressure of the barrel pressing harder against his skin.

Claire’s expression was frightening, even in the darkness. “Do you know what I’l do to you if you leave a mark on him? Ease up on that barrel, Harry.”

“I’l go!” I said, desperate to end the standoff.

Crenshaw’s attention jerked toward me, then. “Nina?”

“I’l go with you. Just leave them alone,” I blurted out, a tear burning down my cheek.

Claire sighed in exasperation, keeping her eyes on Crenshaw. “I’m not going to trade one brother for another, Nina. Stay where you are.”

Crenshaw cocked his weapon and Claire took one hand off her gun and held it palm-out, toward Crenshaw. “Okay. Okay, Harry. I’m laying down my weapon. Easy does it,” she said, moving slowly to lay her gun flat on the floor.

Lil ian held her breath and her nails lightly dug into my shoulders.

“Your heart is racing, Crenshaw.” Claire said, standing up slowly with both hands in front of her.

“So?”

“So they warned you about us, didn’t they?”

“Yeah…so?” he sniffed.

“So, when they warned you about Jared and I, and they sent twelve of you to take on two of us, and you al came in here, guns blazing, knowing most of you wouldn’t make it out…,” she raised one eyebrow before getting to her point, “…did they warn you about Bex?”

Crenshaw’s head darted around to each side of him, unclear what Claire meant, but he looked terrified.

A smal hand slowly rose into the air. “Nice to meet you, Crenshaw. I’m Bex.”

In the same second Bex’s body blurred in movement, and Crenshaw’s dark form bent unnatural y as he cried out. I heard bones snap as the intruder’s gun fel to the floor. In the next moment, Bex stood over his assailant. In one swift jerk, Bex pul ed Crenshaw’s neck and a loud crack pierced the room.

Lil ian exhaled as Bex stood over Crenshaw’s broken body. Claire walked over to her slightly tal er, younger brother and hugged him.

“I underestimated you,” Claire said, smiling at the overgrown boy in her arms.

“And you said I wouldn’t be able to act scared enough,” he taunted.

“I admit it. I was total y wrong. There for a second I thought you were going to cry like a little girl. He didn’t see you coming for a second,” she said, pressing her fist against his jaw.

Bex playful y punched her in the arm and she ruffled his hair.

“Are you okay, Nina?” Bex asked, turning to me with a concerned expression.

I could only lift the corners of my mouth for a second, grateful when Claire motioned for him to fol ow her downstairs. I recoiled as I watched Bex step over Harry Crenshaw’s body like he was a piece of furniture.

Jared came through the door moments later, and after surveying the scene, walked straight to me.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asked, pul ing me tightly into his arms.

I nodded. “Where were you?”

“I had to take care of a few things downstairs. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked again, holding my cheeks in his hands and scanning my face.

I nodded again, and then my knees buckled. Jared lifted me into his arms and carried me downstairs through the darkness.

“Should I get the lights?” Lil ian asked.

“Not yet,” Jared answered.

I heard Claire trot down the stairs and rummage through a cabinet in the bathroom. With a smal flashlight in her mouth, she turned to look at her back in the mirror as she flattened a pink Hel o Kitty band-aid against a deep cut on her shoulder.

Jared took me outside into the night air. “Take a few slow, deep breaths. You’l feel better soon.”

I felt a blanket surround me as Lil ian kissed my forehead. “I’m so sorry, Baby. We’l try again another night.”

I couldn’t reply. She acted as if she’d burned the pot roast, not that a group of men had broken into her home and assaulted her family to kidnap one of her guests.

“I need to take Nina home. Claire and Bex can clean up. Cal me if there is a problem,” Jared said.

Lil ian nodded and kissed her son.

“I am so sorry,” I choked, the guilt crushing me.

Jared’s mother cupped my cheek in her palm and stared at me with deep sympathy. “This is not your fault, Nina. It’s no one’s fault. It is what it is.”

She shrugged with a smal smile and I tried to return her expression, but I was afraid if I let the numbness escape me for even a moment, I would break down in front of everyone.

Once in the SUV, I asked Jared to take me to Andrews.

“Why?” he asked, genuinely surprised.

“I just want to go home,” I said, looking out the window.

Jared traced my fingers with his. “I’d feel better if you stayed with me tonight.”

“I think I…I just want to sleep in my bed,” I said, stumbling over my words. I had made the decision before I got in the car.

“If that’s what you want.” He sighed in resignation, and then turned down a road that led to Brown.

Jared slowly pul ed beside the curb and switched off the ignition. Without a word, I pul ed on the handle to let myself out.

“Nina?” Jared cal ed as he caught up with me. “I don’t think this is a good idea, you’re not in any condition to be alone.”

“Beth is there,” I said as I continued walking.

He stopped me just as I reached for the door. “You don’t want to be around me tonight, do you?”

I didn’t want to say it. I begged myself not to, but I had to say the words. The tears threatened to fal but I forced them back. “I can’t do this, Jared.”

He shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, shoving his hands in his pockets. “You can’t do what?”

“We have to go back to the way things used to be,” I said, trying to keep my voice from breaking.

I could see the clouds forming in his eyes. “What are you talking about?” he asked warily.

“I….” My lips pressed together, afraid to speak words that would be physical y painful to say, “I don’t think we should be together. I don’t see how it can work.”

Jared was instantly angry. “Don’t do this. You think what happened at Lil ian’s tonight is your fault.” He gripped my shoulders. “It’s not your fault, Nina.”

“They came to your mother’s house, Jared. For me. If I wasn’t there they wouldn’t have come. Quit saying it’s not my fault. It is.”

Jared’s eyes narrowed. “How do you think this is going to help, exactly? This isn’t the first time someone has been in our home. It’s not the first time Lil ian has been in danger. She was married to Jack Grey’s guardian angel, Nina. It sort of comes with the territory.” He relaxed a bit and pul ed me to him. “We can take care of ourselves, okay?”

I pul ed away from him, surprised at his casual demeanor. “You brought me to meet your family and you expect me not to care what happens to them?”

Jared grabbed my hands and sighed in frustration. I could see that he was desperate for me to see reason. “Nothing happened to them. I realize you were scared, but it was completely under control. You don’t think Bex has seen worse?”

“In his home? In his room? Your eleven year old brother broke a man’s neck in his bedroom, Jared. That’s not normal….”

“We’re not normal!” He took a deep breath to keep his voice calm. “Bex just got home from training with the Marines, Nina. You’re not saving him by doing this. It’s who we are. What do you think you’l accomplish by pushing me away?” He shook his head and looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.

But I was resolved.

“It’s going to keep them focused on me and out of your mother’s house.”

Jared’s eyes darkened and a grave expression shadowed his face. “So we won’t go back there. If that’s what you want, we’l stay away from her house.” Jared reached for me, but I moved away.

I shook my head. “They already know who you are. They know where your mother lives. They know about Bex, now. The damage is done, Jared.”

“You’re being unreasonable. This doesn’t make any sense,” he said in a strangled tone.

I looked to the sidewalk. “Don’t make this harder—,”

“Than it already is? Original,” he snapped. “How are we supposed to go about this, Nina? I’m no longer al owed to speak to you or touch you? You expect me to go through that again?”

His pointed question sent a new bolt of guilt shooting through me, and I struggled to keep his pain from overriding the guilt that I felt at Lil ian’s.

“I don’t know what I expect, I just know this is too hard…it’s too…I’m going to get your family kil ed! Don’t you care about that?”

He rol ed his eyes. “You’re not going to get them kil ed. Three out of four of us are Half-breeds, Nina. Twelve wel -trained humans couldn’t make it out of our house alive, tonight. You don’t have to do this!”

“Hybrids,” I insisted. “Don’t fight me on this. You know I’m right. They know they can get at one of us with the other.”

“So we’l solve the problem, not run from it. I can’t believe you’re saying this,” he seethed. “You of al people, who stood in the freezing rain for fifteen minutes because you didn’t want to wait a few more days for me to appease your mother! Who sliced open your hand and nearly broke your arm because you had to talk to me! Two days ago we decided where our wedding wil be, Nina! You’re just going to walk away from everything we’ve been fighting for?”

I couldn’t argue, so I simply nodded my head.

Jared grabbed my shoulders. “I don’t believe you.”

“You said I needed normal.” I hesitated; my next words would cut him. “I can’t have a normal life with you.”

Jared’s eyes turned a midnight blue. “Don’t lie to me, Nina. You want out because you’re afraid something wil happen to my family if we stay together. I’m tel ing you, nothing’s going to happen. I’m asking you to trust me.”

I reached my hand up to touch his cheek; his jaws tensed under his skin. “Something wil happen. I don’t know what else to do, Jared. We both have to have some sort of a life.”

“I can’t have a life without you. I don’t want a life without you.” He swal owed hard. His face was locked in an agonizing expression.

I pressed my lips together, determined to make him believe the lie. “This isn’t how I want to live. The fear, the guilt, the looking over my shoulder. We can’t even be intimate.”

Jared took my hand and pressed his lips against my knuckles, closing his eyes tight. “Please…please don’t do this. I can’t go back to that.”

I almost gave in. I wanted to, but I stayed focused on the guilt I felt as I told Lil ian goodbye. “You have to go.” I placed the loft key in his palm.

“Nina…,” he choked, looking down at his hand as if I had placed a hot coal there.

I reached down to pul his ring from my finger and he grabbed both of my hands. His face crumpled as if he had taken al he could stand. “Don’t break your promise.”

I relaxed my hands down to my sides. He was right, I had promised.

Jared pul ed me into him by my shoulders and kissed me deeply—and I let him. I returned his kiss with the same sadness and fear. He held me so tightly I found it hard to breathe, but I didn’t care. I let him hold me and kiss me however he wanted. It would be our last night together.

He abruptly pul ed back, just a few inches, but kept me tightly in his arms. “I’l do what I have to do, Nina. If you want to go away, we’l go. If you need intimacy, I’l make love to you. I’l give you whatever you want. I’l give up everything I have. I’l give up my family. We can get in the car right now and just drive— I won’t even look back. Just don’t ask me to do this. I can’t do it. I can’t…,” he choked.