THE WORLD AROUND Sophie seemed to fade away into a jumbled mess of blurry colors. A fire crackled in the corner of the room, and someone drowned a glass of water. Several hunters shifted around in their seats, forks scraping against their plates of half-eaten food. Her stomach twisted into a bunch of tight knots; anxiety and shock gushed through her system like water pushing through a crack. Tears started to build and her gaze blurred over.

"Mom?" she repeated, bewildered.

The woman who stopped in front of her looked just as bewildered. Time seemed to stop entirely, and Sophie started to pick apart her appearance. Her mother looked the same, with the same almond shaped hazel eyes. Her lips were still stained a pale rose pink and her skin was smooth, ageless. It had been quite a few years since Sophie had seen her last, yet she looked just like she did the night she kissed Sophie's forehead goodbye.

The woman ran a hand through her hair, her expression bewildered. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

Sophie could hardly comprehend her words –she could hardly comprehend anything that was happening. A thousand emotions rushed through her all at once. Shock. Heartache. Anger.

"What are you doing here?" Sophie asked. Her voice broke, and betrayed the pain that brewed inside her chest.

The woman's gaze faltered. Her lips twitched and she reached out, fingers aimed to brush at Sophie's hair.

Sophie took a startled step back, her jaw clenched. Her eyes narrowed with anger. This woman, this stranger had no right to touch her. "Answer my question," she snapped.

The hunters around them watched the scene with varied expressions. Suspicion tainted some, as a few of the hunters twitched toward their weapons. The woman held up a hand and glanced at them, expression hard. "These two are welcome here. Please continue with your meal. Regular training will resume tomorrow morning," she announced.

Aubrey took a timid step toward Sophie as the room erupted with whispered gossip. Sophie watched with a scowl as the woman gestured for them to follow her. "This way," she said. "We need to talk. In private."

"Do we?" Sophie questioned.

"Sophie," Aubrey murmured, expression stern. "Please remember that we are surrounded by very skilled vampire hunters. I'd rather not die just yet."

Sophie didn't pay any attention to her and remained focused on her mother. Her hands clenched into tight fists when the woman started toward the door without another word, her cloak billowing out around her. "What?" she ground out through her teeth. "A wave of your hand and you expect us to just follow you?"

"Move it," a familiar voice sounded from behind them. Sophie whirled around and came face to face with Tadashi, the original hunter who had confronted them. His eyes were narrowed with suspicion and focused on Sophie.

"Why should I?"

The room fell silent again. Aubrey looked around and then started to tug on Sophie's arm nervously. Sophie wrenched her arm free and turned her glare against her friend. "Why should I?" she repeated again, more feverishly. She jabbed a finger at Aubrey's chest and hissed, "She abandoned me! She's the reason that my dad started to drink! She's the reason my dad dropped me off at that stupid academy. If she hadn't left...if she had been there...I wouldn't have been alone."

Sophie's voice cracked again. Her vision blurred with hot tears. "Why should I follow her? Why should I give her the chance to talk to me? She doesn't deserve shit!"

Aubrey frowned at her. "Sophie, please think rationally for a moment. We need to at least hear her out. You don't have to like her or talk to her. I'll talk to her. Right now, we just need to focus on surviving. And if following the woman with..." she paused, looked around the room, and then continued, "at least twenty-four vampire hunters at her disposal is what we need to do in order to survive...then come on."

"I can't," Sophie whispered. "Aubrey, I just can't. I don't want anything to do with her."

A hunter stood then, brandishing a razor sharp dagger. It was the scarred girl from earlier. "I could help," she sneered at Sophie. "You can move it along, cry-baby, and see what our leader wants. Or I could really give you something to cry about."

Sophie's blood boiled. She clenched her fists and snarled at the girl, prepared to rip out her throat. Aubrey's hand darted out and grasped Sophie's bicep. "Walk, now," she ordered, eyes flashing. Her claws dug into Sophie's skin as Aubrey dragged her out the door.

The door slammed shut behind them. A few moments later, Tadashi emerged, watching them carefully. He remained concealed within the shadows of the dining hall. The fresh air chilled Sophie's flushed face and the sunlight dulled her emotions.

Aubrey released her and then took a step back, expression wary. "Are you alright?" she asked.

Sophie stared at her. The watery glaze that blurred her vision started to dry. With each inhale, her anger started to dwindle until a sense of numbness settled deep within her bones. "No," she answered.

A frown marred Aubrey's expression. She moved closer, pulling Sophie into a warm hug. As Aubrey's hand started to rub her back, Sophie shattered. "She left us," she whimpered. "After all these years...and she isn't even bothered. Her daughter isn't even human anymore, and she doesn't care."

"You didn't give her the chance to," Aubrey said softly. She released Sophie and stepped back, squeezing her shoulders. "I'm sure that she's upset. She wanted to talk to you in private, probably to talk to you about all this. I doubt she wanted to say anything so personal in front of the others."

A deep breath stopped Sophie's hiccups. She wiped at her eyes and then squared her shoulders. "You're right," she said. "I overreacted. Okay, I've got this."

"You had every right to react the way you did, Sophie," Aubrey reassured her. "It's okay. Let's go see what she wants. And then once we are free to go, you can curse her to the wind and burn the camp down. Hell, I'll help you find some gasoline even."

That made Sophie smile.

"If you two are ready then," Tadashi said, stepping out of the shadows. He arched an eyebrow at Sophie, his expression mildly interested.

Sophie and Aubrey exchanged a look.

Both followed Tadashi across the camp, into a smaller log cabin. Inside was a heated room with a flickering fire and heavy darkened curtains covered the windows. Sophie examined the room as she stepped inside. It was quaint, and hardly decorated. A simple bed covered in dull red sheets was pressed against the corner, partially concealed behind a folded divider. Her mother stood just opposite of the door, leaning against a massive wooden desk. A massive map was spread across one entire wall, marked with a giant X where the academy was located.

"Tadashi, you are dismissed," the woman said when the door shut behind them.

Tadashi seemed to vanish from the cabin. An awkward silence washed over them, and Sophie folded her arms across her chest. She kept her gaze focused on the ground, stomach twisting with nerves.

Her mother let out a soft sigh. "To answer your earlier question, Sophie, I am here because this is where I am needed the most. As I'm sure you've noticed, we are in the middle of a war right now. And the other creatures needed to know how to fight a vampire, and I was the only one able to teach them."

"Why is that? What makes you so special?"

"Because I'm the only vampire that's on their side," she answered calmly. "And in order to kill a vampire, you need experience fighting one. Otherwise this resistance effort would be like the blind leading the blind."

Sophie supposed she should be surprised. As she looked up, her jaw clenched tightly and her thoughts drifted back to the games. Eli had told her that Sophie was half-vampire, and then a hunter had confirmed it. She had never been able to imagine her dad as a vampire; it just didn't suit him. It definitely made sense that it was her mother.

"Why didn't you just tell us?" she pressed. Her voice wavered again, and Sophie clenched her hands into tight fists. "Why did you have to leave us like that?"

Her mother grimaced. "I didn't want to leave you, Sophie, please believe me. But I had to. You don't understand, but I have to stop him."

Sophie stared at her. "Who? Who do you have to stop?"

A shaky sigh escaped the woman in front of her. "My brother. I have to stop him. If we don't, the other races will be obliterated, including humans. Which, at the time, included you. I had to protect you and your father."

Confusion flooded Sophie. Her eyebrows furrowed as she watched the woman in front of her start to pace in front of the desk. From the corners of her eyes, she watched Aubrey straighten and turn toward Sophie, her eyes wide. "Your brother? I didn't know you had a brother."

"Of course not," her mother let out a sharp laugh. "I never wanted you to meet him. He's evil. A twisted, demented asshole. And if I hadn't disowned you, he would have attempted to kidnap you –or at least forced you into his stupid academy."

Shocked, Sophie stared at her mother as if the woman had just grown a curly pig's tail. "What are you talking about?"

"The Headmaster's your brother," Aubrey summarized.

The woman that turned to face them hardly looked human. Her eyes blazed with fiery anger and hatred. Her hands curled into tight fists, claws scratching at the heels of her palms. Her lips pulled back over her teeth, revealing a set of razor sharp fangs.

"You know him?" Her words came out forced, whispered.

Chills of terror raced up and down Sophie's spine. She had never seen anything look so terrifying before. Aubrey answered with a sharp nod, and then a gestured toward them both. "We both just escaped from the academy," she said.

The anger dwindled from her mother's eyes, and then twisted into pure horror. She stared at Sophie and placed a hand over her mouth. "He turned you, didn't he?"

Sophie couldn't answer.

"Yes. Sophie came to the academy as a half-vampire. But she and my brother were attacked by a hunter, and..." Aubrey's expression twisted with regret. 

"And I was badly injured," Sophie finished for her. "He changed me into a full vampire so I wouldn't die." 

Aubrey nodded in agreement. "Then he tried to turn us into soldiers," she explained. "He also has my...well, our close friend locked up in a torture chamber and my brother hidden away somewhere within the castle."

"Then we need to rescue them," Sophie's mother murmured almost absently. "Knowing my brother, it won't be long before he attempts to brainwash them and use them against us."

Sophie let out a shaky breath. "Well, at least we agree on something," she said.