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breathe. “B-but… wh-what…” I couldn’t get the words out.
    “No, not the way you’re thinking,” Aquinas said. “Although it would be no small mercy to put the poor girl out of her misery.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “What’s not to understand?” Aquinas snapped. “Eva the monster hunter is dead. We’re left with Eva the vampire, a creature not quite dead but not fully alive either.”
    I breathed a little easier, understanding now that Eva was still safe. “You weren’t able to do anything for her?”
    Aquinas shook her head and fell silent for a long time. I had the sense that she was angry with me, so I waited, knowing better than to pepper her with questions. Finally, she said, “The blood in her is strong.”
    “You’ve seen this blood before,” I said. “In Gregor.”
    Aquinas flinched. I wondered if she suspected how much I knew. “So you met the old fool,” she said.
    “I watched him die,” I said.
    She didn’t react at all, and that said more than anything. She was holding herself in such complete control against emotion that it was almost hard to watch.
    “Did he die well?”
    “He died a hunter of the Black Guard,” I replied. “Battling the Creach to cover our escape. Without him we wouldn’t have found the Lord of the Vampires and recovered the Jerusalem Stone.”
    I pulled the stone from my jacket pocket. It was nondescript, no different than a river stone, a little smaller than a tennis ball. Looking at it, I had a hard time imagining it held incredible power.
    “I’d like you to hold it for me,” I said, handing it to her.
    Aquinas cradled it in her hands for a moment and then slid it into a hidden pocket in her clothing.
    “He was a good hunter,” she said.
    “He was a vampire with Shakra’s blood in his veins. The same blood flowing through Eva’s right now,” I said. “How did he do it? How did he control it?”
    Aquinas reached out to Saladin, and the horse nuzzled into her chest as if feeling her troubled thoughts.
    “Gregor was strong. A leader of men even before he was turned.”
    “You know Eva is just as strong,” I said. “As a child she sawed off her own hand to escape Ren Lucre’s prison so she could avenge her family. She’s braver than any other hunter we have. How can you –”
    “Don’t you think I know all that?” Aquinas raged, her eyes bright with anger. “You dare to lecture me? I raised her. Trained her to become the weapon she is. I know her ten times better than you.”
    “Then you know how powerful she can be,” I begged.
    Her face softened as she saw the pain in mine. “But don’t you see? I know exactly how powerful she can be, and that’s exactly what makes her so dangerous.”
    “But she –”
    “She could destroy this entire camp if she chose,” Aquinas said. “Or at least most of it before one of the hunters got a lucky shot on her from a distance. We wouldn’t be able to stop her.”
    “She would never –”
    “Eva of the Black Guard would never harm us,” Aquinas whispered. “But Eva the vampire may not be able to control what she does.”
    She looked away, and the next words she said were barely audible. “And that’s why she must be destroyed.”

Chapter 6
    I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. For a second I assumed Aquinas had spoken so softly that I’d misunderstood her. But when she turned to look at me, I could see I’d heard just fine.
    “You can’t mean that,” I said.
    “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, Jack. You know this.”
    “There has to be another way. Gregor is proof –”
    “Gregor was one out of thousands. Do you really think Eva is the first to be transformed? Sometimes it happens in battle. Sometimes the draw of immortality is too strong for a hunter to resist as they age. I’d be lying if I said I had not been tempted myself.”
    “With Gregor?” I guessed, recalling how the old vampire had spoken of Aquinas with fondness, and his comments