The following night, Avalon trailed along behind his parents as Elizabeth continued to rattle off the history of the garden. She took chances to glance over her shoulder at the three Mezdors, meeting Avalon's gaze each time for a short moment before turning to face forward again. Contessa walked next to him, nodding along to each statement Elizabeth recited. It was obvious the two had heard the speech about each and every rosebush and plant that had been added over the past thirty-something years that Seren or Kendall had no-doubtedly practiced on every visitor.

He looked up from checking out an engraved tile that read EAB '87 in its surface before meeting her eyes once more. He smiled, a snippet of last night replaying through his mind. He'd woken to find her gone, leaving him in her room alone with a note on the pillow that said, "see you later," across its surface. After dinner, she had invited him to walk the gardens with his parents. Contessa had decided to tag along last minute.

"And how long did it take Seren to talk them into the hedge-maze?" Ranelle asked ahead of her son. She had her arm looped through Logan's, enjoying the slow walk through the grounds.

"I think we were about four or five," Contessa answered. "It was supposed to be for grapes to make wine, but I don't think they ever took."

"Kendall didn't have the patience," Elizabeth supplied with a light grin.

"Sounds about right," Logan said, smirking. He remembered how much of a snob Kendall Winslow was centuries before; it sounded as though she hadn't changed, not even in the past twenty-something years since he last saw her.

The small group headed through the hedges to the back pasture's fence and Avalon inhaled a short breath of the fresh air.

"Yes, well, I'd be remiss to say that in front of Seren, if I were you," she answered Logan. "Best not to mention her at all, if you can."

Logan and Ranelle both laughed at the comment as the young coven commander hooked her hands behind her in an attempt to look aloof of how on-the-nose their statements were. At the end of the day, Kendall had also tutored the young coven council and instructed them in many ways of etiquette their mothers would have taught.

"I take it you don't like her much either," Logan said, still chuckling.

The woman turned to look at them and held back the need to react. She forced her face to conform to the practiced, bluffing expression she had developed. "It's not that."

"You're such a Scorpio," Contessa said with a giggle as she moved around Logan to come walk beside her. "We all know how everyone feels about her. No need to hide it."

"I'm just trying to be polite to our mentor, Tess," the woman said, smirking at her slightly shorter friend.

Avalon paused, looking at the woman again as the words replayed through his mind as if he had rewound the conversation. Scorpio, he thought, his blue eyes zooming in on the dark-haired woman. His tarot cards flashed back to the forefront of his mind, the three cards lying before him: the Six of Swords, the Three of Wands, and Death...

Death stands for Scorpio, his mind completed the thought.

Just as they moved out to the middle of the open ground of the backyard, between hedges and pasture fence, an alarm went off from inside the walls of the manor house behind them. A light began to flash above the barracks building off to the right.

Elizabeth turned around quickly. Her lavender eyes scanned the area as Contessa looked the opposite way, trained to clear the field. "Three-o-clock," the coven commander called out when movement caught her eye.

Logan pivoted in that direction, pulling Ranelle's body behind him as he turned himself into a human shield. His face smoothed over in shock at the scene before him.

"Logan," Ranelle breathed, drawing out his name in a sound of warning as she glimpsed what was closing in on them.

Six wolves the sizes of small ponies came loping into the space, their bodies moving on graceful long legs. Two were grey in color while a red and a blonde stood opposite of them. The last two moved in dark, black fur that rivaled the night itself. The largest of the pair came forward and changed in one fluid transformation to a tall man with black hair and purple eyes.

Avalon watched with alert and quizzical eyes as the man changed from the body of a wolf to human. He knew that lycanthropes existed, but he had never seen one himself. He hurriedly scanned the other five as they made quick work to circle the group. He turned his back towards his father and mother, covering their blind spot. He could hear the alarm bells continuing to go off to announce a threat. It would be a matter of minutes before the guards came for them.

"Werewolves," Logan said decisively, as if announcing the species that had surrounded him. He gripped onto Ranelle's arm tighter. "What do you want, Wolf?" he called to the man who had transformed.

"Dracula-blood is not welcome on American soil, so say the Alphas of the Cold Waves and Alpha-sons of the Western Meadows," the man responded. "Especially the Blood Warrior, for his crimes against the Hybrid."

Logan's brow furrowed as the familiar names rolled across the planes of his memories. Old scores had somehow found him centuries later. "That was generations ago. Your pack should forget their grudges. What do you want?"

"The new hybrid," the man said with a large grin. "The one with the blood of both species, in the name of the Cold Waves Alpha Njáll."

"He's dead," Logan snapped.

The wolf grinned again, showing his teeth. "But his second son is not. He's tasked Douglass D'Angelo with the fate for the new hybrid." He snapped his fingers and the five others moved in, stalking towards the group.

Logan hissed in between his teeth, making sure he kept Ranelle blocked off. He pulled his gun from the holster at his hip and held it up, trained on the wolf closest to them.

"Friends of yours?" Elizabeth asked as she turned to face the new enemy squarely.

"Not exactly," Logan answered her. "Avalon, stay back and keep away from them."

"Don't have to tell me twice," his son responded as he backed up to stand on the opposite side of his mother, making sure she was fully protected.

"I thought Wolves were supposed to stick to their territory," Elizabeth shot at their leader. "Winslow property is off-limits to wolfmen as of nineteen-eighty," she warned them.

"Not when there is a blood debt," Douglass D'Angelo responded. "Then the treaty is null." He melted forward as he went from man to wolf, his paws sinking to the ground in one seamless motion.

"Head's up!" Contessa called out. She crouched down onto one knee as the wolf in front of her leapt forward. She fired a gun from her ankle in one clean movement, dropping the werewolf to the ground.

A yelp cried out as bullet met creature.

"Logan!" Ranelle shouted as a second lunged towards them.

The Blood Warrior fired his gun and then shot at the wolf who had moved on Elizabeth as the woman took up a position to take a hit.

Avalon tried to call out when the canine moved from him towards his father, but he couldn't get the full word out of his lungs as the wolf lunged for the gun. He watched just long enough to see the two collide, wolf and man-made weapon, as the werewolf knocked the firearm to the ground. Logan yelled out in a curse word as he dove for the gun.

Just as the son tried to take his father's place to protect his mother, the large black wolf that made Douglass D'Angelo leapt at him. His four-legged form took Avalon to the ground. He hollered in pain as jaws clamped onto his shoulder and bit down hard. He reached up and shoved at the werewolf with vampire strength, feeling his flesh tear as the teeth were ripped from his skin. He grasped his shoulder with his free hand the minute the animal was pulled free and he gripped down on the muscles as the trauma shot through him. His fingers went numb as the wound tingled and throbbed with heat that burned.

"Avalon!" Ranelle screamed, and Logan turned his head as she went for their eldest son. He turned quickly to shoot at the two remaining wolves as Contessa shot at another. He heard one screech in pain as they took off into the pastures by jumping the fence, disappearing into the night.

"The hybrid is made. This is your punishment, Blood Warrior," the canine D'Angelo growled, his words barely understood from his wolf lips. Before Logan could take another shot, the dark wolf disappeared into the night, taking the remaining wolf with him.

Avalon hollered as Ranelle tried to grip his arm and apply pressure, careful to crouch so as not to upset her baby bump. He clenched his jaw and made another noise of pain as his whole body seemed to turn into liquid fire beneath his skin.

"Damn it!" Logan snarled in anger as he quickly holstered his weapon and turned to get to Avalon. Just as he got down onto his knees to hold the man down, Ranelle administered pressure so he wouldn't bleed out. He glanced up just in time to see Malcolm, Marcus, and Nathaniel arrive with a group of guards.

"What the hell happened?" Nathaniel asked as he moved in to help, his medical training taking over.

"Werewolves," Elizabeth breathed as she watched the forms of the animals disappear through the tree line. She heard the horses whinnying in warning from the opposite pasture, sensing the predators.

"You okay?" Marcus asked, suddenly next to her. He ran his hands over her shoulders, holding her steady as she continued to shake.

"He bit him," she answered, voice soft as her lavender eyes trained over to the Mezdor son while he continued to growl in pain on the ground.

"Avalon, take a deep breath, you're okay," Nathaniel said, pressing his palm into the open wound once Ranelle switched places with him.

The man nodded, trying to stifle his pain as he inhaled through his nose and grunted when the pressure increased. He looked up when he saw his mother take the jacket from one of the guards and turn it into a bandage once she ripped the sleeve from the shoulder. Sweat broke out on his brow and back, dripping down to mix with his skin and the cotton of his shirt. He felt his temperature climb, making him hot and feverish. He shivered, his hand gripping his mother's when she held his fingers.

"Just a bad bite. We'll get you bandaged and healed up in no time," Nathaniel promised as he and Logan pulled the man up to his feet.

Logan held onto Avalon's opposite shoulder, staring at his son. Fear ran through him in heavy pulses. The Wolf named Niall had been after him for years when he was first turned into a vampire, back when the modern world was still young. And his other son... The hybrid vampire-werewolf that he thought died centuries before couldn't have ordered this.

"We need to get him to the infirmary now," Nathaniel ordered.

Elizabeth watched as three guards from the team moved forward to help her father and Lord and Lady Mezdor get Avalon inside. She nodded when she heard Contessa remark she would take the rest of the team on a perimeter scout, barely noticing as one handed her his reserve pistol. She waited for them to take off before she broke away from Marcus and hurried after the Mezdors and her father.

"Elizabeth, where are you going?" Marcus called after her.

She didn't answer, only thinking about the younger Mezdor when she heard him continue to make noises of pain as he was transported to the infirmary inside. She could smell blood and the earthy scent of wolf musk, filling her nose. Panic thundered through her as the night before played through her mind, now colored in black and white and blood.

She followed them down the corridor for the hospital room in the ground floor wing of the manor. She noticed her mother standing outside the door with Logan as Ranelle and her father disappeared inside.

"How bad?" she asked. She heard the door close behind her from the patio in the back of the house. A moment later, Marcus was in her shadow.

Logan turned to look at the young woman. "Just a bite," he answered. "He'll live."

"What did he mean?" she asked. "Why on earth would Wolves come here and attack your family?" she continued, her voice hard.

"I don't know," Logan replied. "Those are names I have not heard in hundreds of years."

"How did they know you were here?" Kearran asked. "Wolves are a rare species in these times. They don't mix with other supernaturals for fun."

"I don't know," Logan repeated, turning to look through the windows on the doors to the hospital. His past swam behind his eyes as he tried to rationalize the situation, mixing with his memories.

"There has to be a reason," the American commander snapped. "I don't ever have werewolves come through my backyard without an invitation."

"Dad!" came the sound of Eris's voice as she rushed down the hall, Thaddeus just behind her. "What's going on?"

Elizabeth shot a cold glance at Logan before she looked at the girl. But it was Kearran who spoke: "There was an attack, and your brother was injured. But Nathaniel and your mother are fixing him up right now."

Logan looked over at his daughter. "He'll be okay, Eris."

"Liz," Marcus warned when Elizabeth pulled away from him, making her pause. She looked at him with a look of remorse before she nodded to Eris and went in. She couldn't just stand there and wait...