My first shift at the Waffle House ran like clockwork. There'd been a time when I didn't like dealing with people, too afraid that they'd see past my normal façade and into my scarred soul, but I seemed to have shed those fears now. A private smile warmed my lips. I had the feeling Luke was to thank for that. When he'd shown me a different way of life to the one I was accustomed to, he changed a lot of things about me.

I got one or two orders wrong, but the customers seemed to realise it was my first day and they were surprisingly accommodating.

For all her other faults, Georgia proved a very competent teacher. I'd expected her to try and mess with me, maybe show me how to do everything wrong so I'd screw up and get fired, but she didn't. It almost made me feel bad for thinking so little of her. Almost, but not quite. After all, my low opinion was based on all the vile things she'd said to me over the months that we'd shared college.

Once or twice I caught a glimpse of familiar dislike flashing through her eyes, and expected the usual venom to spew from her tongue, but she stayed strangely silent. I'd never known why Georgia had taken such a vehement and unwarranted dislike to me. We'd never even spoken before she formed an opinion of me, and it had only got worse after Luke and I got together. Georgia had fruitlessly pursued Luke in the past and she seemed to blame me for the fact that he wasn't interested, never mind that he hadn't been interested in her long before he met me.

Things had reached a head a few weeks ago. It was just after Sophie's death, and I was strung out on grief over her loss, anger at Caleb for having caused it, and fear that he was going to find Luke and finish what he'd started with that crossbow. Georgia had got in my face once too often, and I responded by slamming her into a wall and threatening her. I wouldn't say I was exactly proud of that moment, but it seemed to have had a lasting effect on my nemesis. She showed me how to work the till, how best to address customers, how everything worked in the kitchen, and dozens of other things I needed to know, but she refrained from slipping in her usual snarky comments, and she made sure never to stand too close to me.

Once Georgia had made me feel like a freak, an outcast. Now I simply didn't care what she thought of me.

The afternoon sped past, and the sky outside the huge window-front opposite the counter darkened to slate-grey dusk. Luke would probably just be waking up. Thinking of him in bed, just starting to stir, or maybe sitting up and stretching, made me tingle all over. I couldn't wait to get home to him.

As I wiped down a sticky patch on the countertop where someone had spilled their milkshake, I couldn't help pondering about the fact that I had college tomorrow. Arthur had already offered me another shift in the morning and I'd accepted it, regardless of my college hours. The two wouldn't overlap, but I'd have to go straight to college after I finished at the Waffle House. The hard work didn't bother me - I was no stranger to that - but I was starting to wonder if it was worth continuing with college. I'd fought tooth and nail to be allowed to go, back when I was living with the team, determined to carve out a tiny slice of normality for myself, but now my life had taken a turn I could never have anticipated. I just couldn't see how college was going to benefit me now. I wouldn't drop out without giving it some serious thought, but I could work more hours and earn more money if my time wasn't taken up with college classes.

Of course I needed to be realistic about the whole situation. Arthur would be paying me above minimum wage, but I still wouldn't earn enough to support myself, let alone Luke. Even once he found his own job and started contributing to our savings, we wouldn't be getting a property any time soon.

I firmly told myself that that was all in the future anyway. I couldn't solve everything at once - one problem at a time.

"Excuse me? Can I get a banana milkshake?" called a pretty blonde woman, leaning half over the counter to get my attention.

I realised I'd been zoning out, and gave myself a little shake to get my head back where it was supposed to be. "Sorry," I said, as I rushed to take the woman's order.

She smiled at me. "Don't worry about it."

I rung up her order, made the milkshake as fast as I could, handed it over to the woman with my brightest smile, and turned to the next customer.

My smile died.

Leon stood on the other side of the counter. He looked even worse than he had yesterday, his eyes bloodshot, and his hair sticking on end like he'd jammed his finger in a plug socket.

Tension coiled in my muscles, my hands itching with the need to curl into fists and slug him in his face. I forced myself to keep calm. I couldn't pick a fight with him here, and, looking at the whole situation objectively, it didn't make sense that Leon was responsible for the skewered rat. That didn't mean I trusted him further than I could throw him.

"I need to talk to you," Leon said, his hands twitching on the counter.

"I'm working," I told him, silently willing him not to make a scene. After a good performance today, I was confident I had secured a proper place at the Waffle House, and if Leon jeopardised that...I didn't really know what I'd do.

Leon leaned further forwards, something like desperation shining in his eyes. "Please, just...hear me out," he pleaded.

I shot a glance at Georgia who was eyeing us with equal parts suspicion and curiosity. "I'm working," I repeated, lowering my voice so she couldn't hear.

"After work then," Leon said. "Please."

I mentally weighed up my options. Leon wasn't stupid enough to try anything in front of so many witnesses, especially when I'd put him on his backside twice now. He knew where I worked now so even if I refused him an audience today, there was nothing to keep him from coming back every day until I agreed to speak with him. Maybe it was better to just get this thing over with. Whatever this was.

"Fine," I whisper-snapped.

For a moment I thought Leon was going to clasp my hand, and I stepped back, putting more distance between us. He wasn't doing anything hostile, but I didn't trust him to touch me.

Leon ordered a Coke and headed over to an empty booth in the furthest corner of the diner. There he patiently waited until my shift came to an end and I reluctantly approached his table.

He'd only half-finished his Coke, and condensation dribbled down the glass, forming a circle on the tabletop. When he saw me coming over, he half-got up, but I gestured for him to sit back down. The less attention paid to us, the better.

I slid into the booth opposite Leon, making sure my hand stayed close to the pot filled with knives, forks, and spoons - all potential weapons if he turned nasty.

"Can I get you a drink?" he asked.

I shook my head. I wasn't here for a friendly chat. "What do you want, Leon?"

He looked down at the table, rubbing his thumb up the side of his glass and letting droplets of condensation gather on his nail. "Tell me about Luke."

I narrowed my eyes, my protective instincts flaring to life. "What's that got to do with anything?"

Leon shook the droplet off his thumbnail, and caught another one as it trickled down the glass. "You're a vampire hunter. He's a vampire." He spread his palms. "You understand my confusion."

"What I don't understand is why you think this is any of your business," I said.

"I'm just trying to get my head around how something like this could happen." He made it sound like my relationship with Luke was some huge accident, a tragedy that could have been avoided.

I clenched my teeth. "It happened when I opened my eyes and realised that vampires aren't all evil. It happened when I realised Luke was just a person like me."

"But he's not like you. He's a vampire - he drinks blood."

I rolled my eyes. "And humans eat rare steak and blood pudding. Is that really so different?"

Leon watched a water droplet roll down his thumb. It looked like he wasn't bothering to give me his full attention, but I thought it was more likely that this was his way of coping with what was going on in his head.

"I've been hunting vampires for a while now, and I never thought I'd say this...but I...I don't know what to feel."

Some part of me still wondered if Leon wasn't somehow connected to the rat issue, but another continued to point out that the timeline was all wrong; Leon couldn't have done it. And if he wasn't responsible, then he still hadn't done anything wrong. He was still worth saving.

"I'll clear it up for you," I said. "Luke is a vampire. I love him and he loves me. He is a good person." I leaned forward slightly, my voice hardening. "And if anyone threatens him, they'll have me to deal with."

Leon pushed his drink away and reached for the salt shaker, rolling the small plastic column between his fingers. "I owe you a great debt, Kiara. I even feel like I owe you loyalty, but your boyfriend is a vampire and that's where my loyalties became divided." He tapped his forefinger on the shaker. "See, on one hand, you killed the vampire who murdered my father. That's why I owe you. That's why I really don't want to make an enemy of you."

Prudently I didn't point out that if Madeleine hadn't killed Caleb, I would have done.

"On the other hand," Leon continued, "vampires are monsters and you're on their side."

My hands tightened on the edges of the table. "You've got this whole thing messed up. There don't have to be sides, can't you see that? The only sides in this are good versus evil. Humans and vampires alike occupy both of those sides."

Leon shook his head. "No. I'm sorry, Kiara, but you're wrong. Vampires are killers."

"You know that for a fact?" My fingers were starting to hurt where they clutched the table edge. "Where have you been getting your information?"

Even as the words left my mouth, I knew. Leon's next words only confirmed it.

"My father's journal. He wrote about what monsters vampires are, wrote about their crimes and bloodlust."

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Madeleine had been a bitch of the biggest kind, but she wasn't evil like Caleb. Caleb had been a monster.

"Right, and your dad was never wrong, was he?" Scorn infused my words.

Leon just looked at me, something childishly vulnerable in his eyes. His body was adult, but in his heart he was just a boy who'd never had a father, and couldn't comprehend that the man he wanted so much to look up to could possibly be fallible.

"Leon, your father hated vampires. Hated them. Where they were concerned, he couldn't be talked to and he definitely couldn't be reasoned with. He was a fanatic, and he refused to see the truth right up until the day he died."

Anger sparked in Leon's eyes. I was walking a fine line here, but I pressed on anyway. "Caleb's hatred devoured him."

"My father was a good man." Leon's voice was soft.

"You didn't even know him!"

Several people glanced our way and I lowered my voice. "You didn't know him, Leon, and that means you don't know what he was capable of."

Leon's hand clenched around the salt shaker. "And whose fault is that?"

"His, for leaving you."

"He didn't have a choice."

I couldn't help a snort of disbelief. "You can't seriously believe that. He always had a choice, and he chose to leave you."

Leon flinched like I'd dealt him a physical blow. "My father loved me," he whispered.

"I'm not saying he didn't" - though I was thinking it very loudly - "but he still chose to leave you and your mum so he could carry on killing vampires. You cannot blame anyone else for that."

"He was trying to make the world a better place."

Yeah, well, he was doing a lousy job of it. I held my tongue, struggling to control my temper. Letting this turn into a slanging match wasn't going to help anyone. I had to keep calm and reasonable if I ever wanted to get through to Leon.

"Your father was misinformed. He developed an incorrect view of vampires and then he used that view to justify murdering them."

Leon slammed the salt shaker down on the table. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Georgia's head jerk in my direction. She'd been watching us sporadically throughout the entire exchange, but she wasn't close enough to eavesdrop.

"My father was a hero."

"Your father was a killer." This time I couldn't keep the anger from my voice.

Leon shook his head again. "I know you must think that because of how you feel about -" He broke off as if even saying Luke's name again was too distasteful. "I don't know how these vampires have managed to brainwash you, Kiara, but somehow they have. But they are monsters. You have to remember that." Sadness filled his eyes. "I have no quarrel with you, but vampires are a cancer on the face of the earth. They have to be wiped out."

Anger trembled through me, my heart slamming painfully against my ribs. "I am not. Talking. About. Vampires." My voice was little more than a snarl. For all my efforts to keep my temper, I couldn't sit here and listen to Leon sing Caleb's praises. Not when I knew what he'd done. Not when my friend was dead and buried in the ground.

Confusion crossed Leon's face. "I don't understand."

"When your dear daddy realised that I was in love with Luke, he tried to kill me."

Leon opened his mouth to speak and I slashed my hand through the air, commanding silence.

"When he couldn't get to me, he murdered my friend, Sophie." Weeks had passed since her death, but saying her name still drove fresh spikes of pain into my heart.

Leon's face softened. "I know you think vampires are people, but they're not, Kiara. It's not murder when they're not human."

My hands shook so badly I had to shove them under the table so I wouldn't leap across it and claw that revoltingly sympathetic look from Leon's face.

"Sophie was human."

"What...I don't..." Leon's voice petered away as he struggled to digest what I was telling him.

"Sophie was a human being, a member of Noah's team. She got in Caleb's way and he killed her."

Leon started to shake his head. "No, he wouldn't have done -"

"I was there, Leon. I was right next to her when he stabbed her in the chest with a machete. Don't you dare tell me that Caleb wouldn't do something like that." My hands still shook and I resorted to sitting on them. "He was a monster, an ice-cold, black-hearted monster who hunted innocent vampires under the guise of justice. He enjoyed killing them. He enjoyed making people suffer. I know you've got this rose-tinted view of your father - I know you put him on a pedestal and treat him as a saint - but the truth is he was an unhinged killer. He didn't care who or what got in his way. He knew nothing about what vampires are really like, and now he's passed that ignorance onto you."

Leon's lips trembled; he pressed them together and turned his head away, but not before I saw the shimmer of pain in his eyes.

"Caleb was killed by a vampire - I'm not denying that - but it was his anger and his hatred that drove him to that point." I leaned back in the booth and fixed Leon with a steady look. "Don't let that happen to you."

Because it would. If I couldn't reach Leon, if I couldn't make him see the world for what it really was, then he would continue to be a threat to the people I loved. And I wouldn't allow that. I'd told myself that I would kill Caleb and, if Leon continued down this path, he might leave me no choice but to kill him.