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the enemy.”
    Will sighed and raked his hands
through his hair, looking completely flustered. “It’s not a clear-cut issue.
Yeah, he was born there, but he’s not one of them.”
    “Oh really?” I shoved my dagger
back into the sheath, my hands trembling with anger, annoyance, and yes, even
fear. Traitors , I wanted to scream at
them. They’d dishonored the memory of the dead by merely being near him. “Because
I think it’s pretty clear. He’s a beautiful one, therefore he’s the enemy. He’s
watched plenty of people die. Who knows, maybe he hasn’t killed them, but he
certainly didn’t do anything to stop them.”
    “Because I don’t want him to!”
Will snapped in frustration.
    Stunned, I merely stared at him.
Surely he didn’t mean what he’d said. Or maybe I’d misheard him. “I don’t
understand.”
    Tony snickered as if he expected
nothing less of me. I ignored him.  
    “He’s our inside source.”
    I threw my arms wide. “And so
innocent people die, and it doesn’t matter to you?”
    Will frowned. “Don’t be stupid.”
    His words hurt, not that I would
admit as much.
    “That enemy saved your life,”
Kelly said, looking just as upset by my unwillingness to accept Thanatos. Was I
the only one who saw the blood drinker for what he truly was? “He brought you
to us.”
    “So what?” I wanted to laugh at
the absurdity of it all. They were friends with a beautiful one. They trusted
him. Slowly, I looked around the group, studying their sincere faces, trying to
make sense of the situation, and realization hit…they were actually taking his
side over mine.
    “He’s a blood drinker. A
murderer. He’s one of them,” I hissed. “He let my friends die, people I cared
about.” I could feel the burn of tears in my eyes, but I refused to cry in
front of them. I’d looked weak enough in the past two weeks. But what I blamed
him for most of all was that when I’d wanted to help Sally, he’d forced me to
leave. I would never forgive him for the guilt I carried.
    Still, they remained by his
side. And Thanatos held no expression what so ever on his beautiful face. He
didn’t even had the decency to mock me. Damn him. He was the reason I had been
chosen, the reason Sally had died. He, and his people, were the reason we were
hunted down like animals, killed without second thought. He himself had torn
the head from his friends without showing an ounce of remorse. What sort of man
could do such a thing? What sort of man could stand by year after year,
pointing out people for slaughter and then watching as they were murdered,
drained of life?
    A monster. He was a monster.
    “As far as I’m concerned he’s
the enemy and I won’t stay here with him.”
    “Thane is our friend, Jane,”
Will said softly, but leaving no room for argument. “He helps us, risks his
life for us. We won’t kick him out of the group.”
    “Fine.” There was one thing they
didn’t know about me, I was stubborn. Very stubborn. “Then I’m leaving.”
    With that said, I spun around
and started back toward the camp to get my bag. I didn’t need them anyway.
After all, we had different agendas, and would eventually part. We were merely separating
sooner than I’d hoped. They were here to survive, I was here to protect my
family and friends, no matter what the cost. And the only way to protect them
was to kill the beautiful ones.  
    “Jane!” Will called out, the
shock in his voice annoyed me. How, exactly, had he expected me to respond? They
seemed to think I was the one acting irrationally, when they were the ones
befriending a blood drinker. I ignored his call. I ignored Kelly’s cry, begging
me to return. I shoved aside a low-hanging branch and found the trail back to
camp.
    Yeah, maybe I’d die out there on
my own.
    But I’d rather die alone than
work with a beautiful one.

 
 
    Chapter
5

 
 
    I knew I was being watched.
    Not that I heard the intruder.
No, it was more of a sensation: the