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Leah nodded. “That’s a good place to start. We’ve been waiting for that clan to fuck up something, so we would have an excuse to take them out.”

The Black Horse Clan had moved to Providence shortly after I went through my Awakening, but they had agreed to stay out of our way. I hadn’t met any vampires from the clan, but Roland had a friend, Marcus, who was part of their “family.” Marcus never reported any mischief that went on within the clan. However, he promised they had changed theirquestionablebehavior after my Awakening. Some bullshit about how they were the good guys now, trying to make a difference within their world. As much as I wanted to believe Marcus, I wasn’t buying it.

The nightclub the clan built had broken ground this last spring and opened two weeks ago. Regardless of Marcus’s reports and assurances, we kept a careful eye on them, and we would especially pay much closer attention to the clan now. Their reputation preceded them, and a nightclub would be the perfect hideaway in which to commit shady vampire crimes. It was dark; the windows were hidden by black shades to keep the vampires safe from the daylight, and entry to the underground level was by exclusive invitation only.

“We haven’t had a body in months.” I tossed up a hand. “Then this happens. It’s perfect timing, don’t you think?”

Simon appeared from the bedroom, carrying a bag in his hand, and tossed it to the floor. “Are we assuming they’re after Mercy again, given that it happened a few minutes from us, and she knew the victim?”

“It is our hometown,” I said, facing Caleb. “This looks like something someone may do to get to me. Tippy’s was a place I frequented a lot in the past. What do you think?”

Caleb was focused only on his phone.

“Caleb?” Leah called.

He looked up and sighed. “Probably, but we still need to investigate before we call them out and demand justice. I’ll check it out, though. The last thing we need is to fuck this up and create a war after everything we built to form a peaceful agreement with them.”

“Let me do it.” The pitch of my voice climbed up a notch. “Sarah can come over tonight to help me. I just need to scope the place and leave. Once I see what we’re up against, we can devise a plan and discuss whether we should focus on them or somewhere else,” I explained. Still, I could already see Caleb shaking his head because he couldn’t help the control freak inside him. He hated it when I went undercover without him. “Quit shaking your head, Caleb. We aren’t making the same mistakes we did last year. I can do this.” His mouth formed a straight line, and he flared his nostrils. “Stop looking at me like that.”

Caleb rolled his eyes. “I’d feel safer if I were there with you, Mercy.”

“Absolutely not. The last time we investigated inside a bar, a vampire hit on me, and you beat the shit out of him and broke his nose.”

His jaw muscles tightened. “He healed.”

I huffed and shook my head as I kneeled to unzip the bag Simon had tossed onto the floor, ignoring Caleb’s bitter response. I grabbed five sets of hand wraps, tossed them over to everyone, and put them on my own.

“We’re sparring today. Leah, I’ll pair up with you. Caleb, you can be the attacker this time. Ezra, you’re the victim. Simon, you can help Leah if Caleb gets the upper hand.”

“I’m always the fucking victim,” Ezra whined. “Let Simon be the bait, and I’ll be the dumbass vampire.”

“You scream like a little girl, Ezra,” I teased. “You’re the perfect target.”

Ezra stuck out his tongue like a child, dragged his feet to the center of the mat, and laid down on his back. After a few more seconds of Ezra mumbling obscenities at us, he finally said, “Oh no. Is that a vampire?” His voice was flat, and he scrunched up his face at Caleb, who hovered over him.

Caleb pretended to show his fangs and dashed toward Ezra. Leah quickly leaped in his direction and pounced on his back like a tiger attacking her prey. She wrapped her arm around his neck and her legs around his waist. They struggled for a minute, with Caleb taking a few blows to the face from me, while Leah twisted her body and pulled his shoulder to the right. He lost his balance and fell to the floor. I quickly shoved my foot into his chest, keeping him pinned along with Leah, keeping her chokehold.

“Damn, Caleb. That was too easy,” Simon mocked. “I would have jumped in to help you, but Leah took you down too quickly.”

“I’m still not going to hit her,” Caleb said, “But great job, Leah.” He looked around at the coven. “We need to be able to fight with our hands and not rely on magic. The amount of training we’ve done this year has helped us more than simply practicing our magic all these years. Our physical strength will sometimes be our saving grace. But we still need more training.”

“Youneed more training,” Leah mocked and giggled to herself.

My phone rang, and I turned from the group. “Hey, Joel,” I answered. “I was going to call you after we finished training.”

“Lily told me what happened to Tippy,” he said. “What did you guys find out?”

I explained to Joel what Melissa had discovered about Tippy’s body and the recent updates on the Black Horse Clan, but I was only met with silence on the other end of the line.

“Joel?”

“Sorry. I’m thinking,” Joel said. I heard Derek in the background saying something, but I couldn’t make out what it was. “I’ll do some digging on my end, but don’t do anything until I find out more. Okay?”

“Sure. Got it,” I lied, knowing we were going to that club tonight.

After hanging up the phone, I turned to Caleb. “I need Sarah if I’m going to go to that club.” I took my gloves off and tossed them back into the bag. “You guys keep practicing. I’ll send her a text now.”

Caleb turned to the rest of the coven, and they paired up again. Ezra was more than happy to be the one attacking Leah this time, as he had no problem throwing a punch at her. I respected that he treated us as equals. We weren’t fragile girls; we were vampire hunters.

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