In Martin’s parking lot, no one said a word. I was confused about what had just happened. Sam… our friend, and the most powerful supernatural being we had ever known, was just taken right in front of us. The swirling inferno wrapped them both up, and when it dissipated… they both vanished. Sam was gone.

  Autumn was the first to break her silence, “Sam!” She yelled through the parking lot for him. “Sam!” She stumbled to her knees across the asphalt as she ran to the place he had just been standing.

  All that remained of Sam or Peter was a few ashes that were taken away by the light breeze. It was like they had never been standing there in the first place.

  I ran to my daughter to get her under control. I was hurting too, we all were, but we had to maintain our composure in front of Charles and the two others who stood with him against Peter Grimwood. We had no clue what our interactions with Charles would be like this time, especially in front of his hunting party. I grabbed Autumn from her knees as she scrambled across the vacant area behind Martin’s bar.

  “Autumn, sweetie, you have to calm down,” I urged her. “We have to get out of here.”

  “Dad,” she bellowed through tears, “he’s gone! He was right here,” she dragged her hands through the charred gravel that was roasted by the heat of the hellfire. Trace smudges of ash still lingered amongst the asphalt, “He’s just gone…” Her tears were pouring from her face again, just like at the funeral.

  The only other time I could compare to what I was feeling was when we watched Eleanor pass right in front of us. From her reaction, I could tell Autumn’s connection with Sam was still strong, much deeper than I realized.

  Martin rushed to Charles without any introductions. “What happened to them?”

  “I do not know,” Charles spoke openly in a huff. “But we cannot speak here. Let me take care of my friends, and then we can meet on private ground.” Charles motioned towards his companions, who were cleaning themselves off after the surge of power from Peter right before he took Sam from us.

  “Carter,” Martin spoke to me, urgently, “let’s go. We can deal with this at your home. We cannot stay here.”

  He was right. Charles’ acquaintances would not be in the loop about our arrangements. We didn’t know, nor could we trust them.

  “Okay,” I agreed as I picked Autumn from her kneeling position and dragged her back to the Suburban. Her legs were like noodles as I carried her to our escape. Her eyes and mind were the only things actively operating, but they were empty. The rest of her body had just shut down. She was somewhere else.

  Eleanor trailed right behind us, silently. She eyed the place where Sam stood, waiting to see him reappear, but he wasn’t coming back… we all knew it. She was maintained better in the charged situation, but she was just as hurt as Autumn, maybe even more so. El had Sam’s life within her. That was the only reason she was alive, and I think she was wondering what it would have meant if Sam still had his own life within himself. Would he still be standing there with us? Could he have had a chance to avoid all this and be reunited with his wife and child?

  Autumn cried for him the whole way back to the house. She kept begging me to turn around, but I couldn’t do that. Eleanor contained Autumn’s panic and the urges to figure out what happened to Sam, even though there were other supernatural creatures with Charles that we had no intel on. Those two others with Charles were unknown variables in the equation, and we didn’t know how they'd react to hunters being in the same circles as Charles. Plus, Charles still had his own family and secret status to protect. So, we continued home.

  About an hour after we returned home, Frank and Clara arrived in the night. Wayland stayed home with Delilah, but he was there on speakerphone so he could hear everything that was happening. Martin and Alex appeared outside our home shortly after we arrived, and Charles came next. The silver-haired vampire came alone, thankfully shaking the two others he had in his company at the bar. After initial introductions and warm greetings, we all began with what we knew.

  “Where did they go? What happened to him?” Eleanor asked the quietly sitting Charles. My wife was visibly distraught for Sam. Fearing the worst.

  We knew that if he ever stood toe to toe against something, he would most likely always come out on top, but that’s not what happened. Sam was taken from us in an instant. They both disappeared in a pillar of flames.

  The old, grey-haired vampire shook his head apologetically. “Peter said that he was communing with someone from the other side, and those flames were unmistakable; it was hellfire… just like Mercy. I fear that he has taken Sam somewhere that we cannot follow, and there is no return from…”

  “Charles,” Martin cut in, “you don’t think Peter could actually have the ability to go from here to there, let alone take someone else by force… do you?” Martin seemed to be in disbelief.

  “I do, Martin. Unfortunately, this is how Peter has stayed off our radar for as long as he has. He can move between places, vanishing himself in and out of the living world to the… other place.”

  Alex spoke up next, “What are you saying? That Peter took Sam to hell?”

  None of us wanted to accept what the answer would be. Autumn stopped listening and walked out of sight of everyone else. Then she just broke down even harder. Kayla and Arthur were awake and fully caught up on what had happened. Kayla comforted and held Autumn for the first time since Zeke passed. Autumn had been there for Kayla almost every moment since Zeke had died, but now Kayla was there for my daughter.

  “Hell… I couldn’t tell you if that is what that place truly is; however, it is a place of no escape. Torment and suffering live in that dimension, and if Peter took Sam there, then I fear we will never see him again. There are things there that you cannot dream up in your worst nightmares. When someone reaches out to that place for more power, they are usually ended very swiftly. That place would kill you as soon as you entered,” Charles’ words were unfaltering.

  “Has anyone spoken to Annabelle?” Wayland buzzed through the phone. “She’ll need to know, and then she can see what’s coming. This has to be the most important thing we do next,” Wayland urged.

  He was absolutely right. We had to contact Annabelle.

  It was almost nine o’clock in the morning, and we were all still lingering inside the house. Charles, Martin, and Alex all hid within the shadows of our sprawling home as we waited for the gypsy family to arrive.

  When Annabelle, Shelta, and Patrick arrived, I felt a physical sigh of relief in the house. We needed to pick her brain and see what she could feel about Sam.

  Once they were all up to speed, Annabelle seemed under duress, “And you’re sure he’s gone?”

  “Yes… he just vanished with Peter,” Eleanor struggled to maintain her composure. She was staring at the wall of the living room as she spoke.

  Charles spoke up next, “We know that Peter has been in contact with something from the other side. Necromancy has ties to that dark dimension, and we know for certain that he has the ability to move… in and out of that place. The hellfire is unmistakable.”

  Annabelle nodded, “I have to agree with you. Mucia’s hellfire came from the same place… and she could…”

  Charles nodded, “Yes. She could move like that, portal in and out of different locations. That kind of power comes from there… in the unseen world.”

  I had questions, but they could wait. I just needed someone to say what we needed to do to get Sam back.

  “What does this mean?” Autumn cried quietly. “Where is he? Is he okay?” Her panic was slowing but still present.

  Charles spoke to my daughter, “My dear… I am sorry for what has happened. Yet, I do not think we will see him again.” Charles placed his hand on Autumn’s shoulder to comfort her growing tears. His words set her off again. “The little I know of that other place is enough to realize that not many beings come and go from there. If Peter is jumping between worlds, then he is being allowed to do so by someone much greater than he. I doubt they will let Sam have the same freedom.”

  “What about the one Sam talks about?” Eleanor cut in. “I felt that thing’s power when I was with him in the fields. Maybe it could help him…” Eleanor was grasping at straws, but I hoped she was right.

  “I still see him,” Annabelle assured. “I saw him standing beside me in a vision. It was the first time I had seen him with my abilities, but he was there, and he still is.”

  “How can you see him, Mom…” Shelta was at a loss. “I can’t see him. What changed for you to be able to see him like that?”

  Annabelle looked like she was holding something back as she answered her daughter, “Do not worry about the specifics, Shelta. Nothing has changed in what is to come. I have seen you assist in Peter's final death. We will not lose any more family against Peter… that is a promise. He will not kill anyone else!” Her words seemed reliable.

  “So, what are we supposed to do?” I asked her.

  “Wait…” Annabelle answered. “Time will reveal everything. If I see a change in the finality of the events, I will correct our course as needed.”

  “But what about Sam?” Autumn pleaded. “We can’t just sit around and forget about him… If he’s still out there, we have to do something…”

  “If there was something to do, Autumn, I fear we do not have the ability to do it,” Annabelle said. “Sam has always been interwoven with far greater powers than we realized. I do not know his ultimate fate, but I know that his fate is his own, and his future is going to be hard. There is nothing that we can do to help him. The only thing any of us can do is be there for him in his few moments of peace. His dark days have already begun, and they will continue for a very long time… until he finds rest.”

  “You sound like you know something, Annabelle,” Wayland spoke through the speaker again. “Is he still alive or not?”

  Wayland was always quicker to piece things together than the rest of us.

  “I feel like I have only a glimpse into Sam’s true nature. I don’t truly know what he is, but what I saw… is something I never thought a human being would ever endure.”

  At Annabel’s words, Autumn gritted her teeth and continued to cry silently. She kept trying to maintain her composure, but it was no use. Sam was gone, we all knew that, but the mystery and uncertainty around him and his status were not helping the situation. Was he alive? Was he dead? Would we ever see him again? Was he in hell? I think Autumn thought she’d have time to figure things out with him.

  Everyone was a wreck. Shelta and Annabelle both look frazzled in a way that I hadn’t seen except for maybe one other time. When Michael died, Annabelle’s husband, they had a similar look as if they had lost something and weren’t sure what to do next. I hoped that we would see our friend again, but I was scared to put too much hope into that thought. Other dimensions and planes of existence were beyond me. I fought physical beings and protected innocent human beings on the streets from flesh-and-blood monsters. I understood the basics of what we were talking about, but I had to admit that all of this was above my scope.

  All three vampires were stuck within our home and could not escape until nightfall. We spent much of the rest of the day catching up with Charles, who was just as welcoming and humble as I remembered. We told him everything that had happened with Sam since he left after Mercy and Phineas’ defeat. He talked about his own family for a while. Then he spoke of the two other supernaturals that were sent with him from the eldest beings of the pits below the city. We all had many questions for him as the day and the information continued to play out.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  About halfway through the day, Shelta and Annabelle left the house to prepare for something that Annabelle wouldn’t inform us about. I wanted her to let me know, but I let them go since she could see beyond what I could.

  Patrick stayed with us for the time being. He helped Kayla calm and support Autumn, who was losing her composure to such an extent that it had me start worrying. Eleanor was right there with our daughter, and I wanted to be. Still, Frank, Clara, and I needed to prepare for an upcoming fight against this dimension-hopping dickhead that had taken our family from us.

  We had no mystical abilities like the Wicklows, but we had our tools, equipment, and skills. That’s when I got an idea. We had been thinking of a way to kill Peter Grimwood, but what if the key to beating him wasn’t killing? What if containment was what we needed? Frank, Clara, and I started formulating a plan.

  Later that day, we had our plan, and we had our equipment. Peter Grimwood was looking for our family; we knew that. We knew that he had a deep-seated hatred for our families from the history and records that the Grimwoods kept.

  The plan was simple, yet complex. We had many wards and protections for our property against any sort of supernatural entity. The Wicklows helped us over the years to gain an impenetrable and mystifying barrier against the creatures of the night. However, we had been playing with the idea of lowering our guard. What if, by reducing our barriers, we could draw in our threats and trap them? If we brought them in close, we could entangle them with the same wards that kept them out. We could close them back on top of the threats that were aimed at us, keeping them within our property, rather than outside.

  We had an idea, and it started with a question: why hasn't Peter come to our house yet? Peter had reached out and touched us in unknown locations. If he could find us at Cliff Cave, the Lemp Brewery, again in that alley, and then find Martin just to draw us out…why hasn't he come to our house?

  The more we thought about it, the more we realized the history of our home. Our home was originally built back in 1900. At the turn of the century, our amalgamation of families decided to build a massive residence for the three bloodlines. It was to be a place that we could all call home. In the very beginning, when the families came over from the other side of the ocean, we lived separately for a while, mainly the Talbots. However, after a few years of living in a new country, fighting monsters and demons they had never seen, our conglomerate family wanted to pool resources and join back as they used to in times of old. A mansion was erected and slowly expanded upon to create the modern home where my family resides.

  It only took a few decades for the families to split again; the Wicklows needed space from the rest of us to live as they saw fit, and the Talbots left again for obvious reasons. So, the mansion and all of its benefits fell to my family, the Chasses.

  However, through the years and many generations of Wicklows, Talbots, and Chasses, the home and property were so heavily warded that it became an impenetrable fortress to anything looking to cause us harm; keeping out all kinds of threats, and allowing our inhuman allies access all at the same time. The warding almost seemed… alive.

  The Talbots had their supernatural strength of the wolf to protect them, so they did not care to retain the property. The Wicklows were close, having their supernatural abilities to create even more warding, so they were never worried that they couldn't recreate what we had here. So, it fell to my family to maintain the massive structure that became our family's inherited home.

  The warding was thick and complex. Nothing had ever gotten through the unseen barriers to cause us harm. Over the years, our families created protections of all kinds. There were double and triple redundancies set all around the property. We had outer barriers that were backed by inner barriers that were supported by our inner warding. Supernaturals such as Jane, Martin, and Sam could come through. No creature could ever find our house unless they had previously been there and did not want to cause us harm. Only those that were human, family, or welcomed could pass through the barriers.

  Warding can be a simple but powerful seal that can be created using a multitude of methods. The most common we currently use is a silver base imbued with the ancient glyphs taught to us by our ancestors. The glyphs are a language associated with the Grimwood and Wicklow families and their supernatural power. Using the written words of the Attuned history alongside a supernatural material like silver, we can create a closed loop that will protect the area inside. The same glyphs are always associated with the warding, no matter the materials used. Still, the materials are interchangeable, along with the specific effect you wish to create. Angel oak timbers, buried foxgloves, and blazing star are just to name a few different materials used in older times. The most potent warding we built on our property is Angel Oak timbers that were cut and buried beneath the soil around the foundation of our home. They were carved and strutted with silver to enhance the concentric circles that were built with them to protect us. Circular builds are the easiest and most effective style of warding that our ancestors came to understand. Every single ward that covers my family home is of the same shape.

  Needless to say, the house was so protected from any possible threat, from years of careful thought and construction, that nothing could get to us. Peter was no different. Eleanor and I spoke about the belief that he had not come directly to us because we were in our safest location most of the time. And, if we could keep him out, what if we could keep him in?

  After a few hours of talking and planning amongst my family, we thought we had a plan that would give us the edge against Peter and his unnatural abilities. We felt that we could break our two outer wards to bring him in close, and then seal it back behind him. If we could get him inside and trapped, maybe Shelta and Annabelle could come in and do whatever they needed to end all of this. Maybe we could also figure out something about Sam.

  Autumn cried silently in the house after Peter and Sam both disappeared in that pillar of flame. But when we all got together to plan, she was as cold as ice. When we began talking about the warding, and possibly trapping Peter, she was on board from the moment the idea was conceived. She made little comments here and there about being the one to hurt Peter. Once he was trapped, she wanted to hone her sights on him and make him suffer the same way she was suffering. She wasn't showing it on the outside, but she was secretly in a pain that I don't think even she understood. Autumn felt very strongly about Sam; we all knew that, but 99.9% of the time, Sam needed nothing from us. He could protect himself and our whole family better than anyone. But now it was him that needed help, and Autumn had this look in her eye like she would kill anyone who got in her way to get him back. She was dangerous… reckless.

  We called Shelta, but there was no answer. We called Annabelle, and there was no answer. We definitely needed their power once we had Peter in his cage, but we couldn’t wait. Eleanor, Autumn, and I also felt very strongly that the longer we waited, the more of a chance Sam would forever be out of our reach. Yet, I think our biggest fear was that we’d clear our wards and Peter wouldn't come. Then we'd be at a loss with no hope of finding Sam.

  It was the middle of the afternoon, the day after we had regrouped at our house, when Sam was taken from us. You'd think we were scrambling, but we had thought this out very thoroughly. Everyone had a place, and everyone had a position. We planned for many different scenarios; the wards wouldn’t seal back after they were broken, Peter wouldn't be contained, he'd be too strong for us to handle at all, or he wouldn't show at all. We would all be spread out and in position for him and whoever came with him.

  Frank had something he’d been working on with Wayland, a little secret side project. It was an old canopy tent… at least that’s what started it. Frank says he got the idea when he was trying to put one up or take it down on the beach a few years ago. It kept falling down on him, and the trusses of the thing kept collapsing and folding down on him like a cage that squeezed and tangled limbs. He said he was snagged, tripping over, and trying to escape the trusses for an embarrassingly long amount of time. So naturally, Frank engineered the shit out of one, then replicated it with a silver alloy, complete with different ward script for various effects. Over time, working on it, the idea took different forms as they improved it. Eventually, it turned into something that already existed. It was called a Hoberman sphere, except Frank and Wayland’s was a collapsing metal prison of supernatural effects.

  They had even made a crude method of quick deployment that I honestly didn’t think would work. It was a launcher that literally hurled it forward about fifty yards with some spin to make it expand open before it hit something; then it would lose the centrifugal force that caused it to open and trap whatever was unlucky enough to be caught in its weighty form as the metal slats closed down. I was hesitant… but it did make an appearance in our plans. If Peter got close and the wards didn’t seal, or he overpowered us, we would launch Frank's strange collapsing skeletal ball on Peter and pray it held. Wayland had high hopes for it and had an uncharacteristic enthusiasm he didn’t usually show. Frank and Wayland tried to hide it in the moment, but I could tell they were excited to see their invention in action.

  When the sun was at its peak in the sky, Frank and I walked out past the border of trees that surrounded the property of our massive home. We entered the shade of the trees with shovels, wrenches, and a blowtorch to where we knew the wardings were buried underground. The outermost barrier was made of our modern silver-steel alloy that CWT Construction had formulated over the last few decades. The pieces were fabricated in our secure warehouse, and the glyphs were laser etched onto them with one of our CNC machines. Once assembled, they formed a physical circle that encompassed our property and stretched a quarter mile in diameter. When it was set in place initially, Martin said his thoughts and senses were so scrambled that he could not find the house. Whenever he would walk in one direction, he would be flipped and spun in his orientation to lose all sense of self-awareness. The warding was so powerful that it surprised my family and our inhuman friends. None of us expected it to be as effective as it was.

  The alloy beams were approximately 4 ft below ground, so it took about five minutes for Frank and me to unearth the targeted pieces. The pieces were all bolted together at each end, and the bolts were sealed with a silver solder that filled any space between the threads and holes that might cause the warding to fail or become ineffective. We only needed to remove one piece. Once the seal was broken, the entire warding would fail, and Peter could walk right past it.

  Next, we made our way back out into the sunlight halfway through our backyard. This ward was formed by an older generation of our family that used planks carved from an angel oak tree. The planks were not straight; they were curved and wavy pieces of wood that were joined together using older techniques. The glyphs wear the same as they always were, just as they were carved into every blade of silver that my family possessed. The silver held natural effects that weakened most creatures, but imbuing our weapons with the same glyphs gave our weapons an added bonus against the beasts of the night. Everything became more effective when using the Atuned’s ancient language. Yet, the angel oak wood was some of the rarest warding material any of our families had come across. We had to separate the pieces we dug up in the backyard very carefully not to damage the aged wood. Once it was separated, we left it lying in position, so all we had to do was place it back together, but the joints would not hold anymore. We had a plan for that, as we already had fabricated silver spikes that we could use to repair older wards like these. Once Peter was inside that circle, Kayla would be in this position with a sledgehammer waiting to slam the silver spike through the wooden beams and recover our older ward.

  Our last barrier was the oldest and most fragile of the wards. Our best-case scenario was that our innermost ward would keep the home safe from Peter and whatever force he brought with him. This barrier was very specific and less physical than the other brute force barriers we had created. We knew where it was located around the outer edge of our house walls, but no one dared touch it or try and dig it up. I was told by my father, who was told by his father before, that it was made from a unique plant that has been grown in place, plucked from the earth at maturity, and then inverted in the ground where it was buried. My dad told me that the plants continue to grow beneath the surface and, over time, create the barrier that initially protected our home. This warding was not built; it was developed, and there were no glyphs to speak of. Even the modern Wicklow family members were not sure how our ancestors knew how to make it. It wasn’t written down anywhere; it was just passed down through words from our family.

  We had our plan, we prepared for it, and now we were waiting. I kept calling the Wicklows, but there was no answer from anyone. Not even Patrick was answering his phone after he had left our house with his mother. We needed Shelta and Annabelle after we had Peter trapped, but we had already set things in motion.

  “What will we do if your plan doesn't work, Carter?” Charles asked. The eldest vampire returned to help out the family, yet again.

  “If the warding plan fails… then we kill him. If we kill him, then we at least buy ourselves more time until he comes back again,” I reasoned.

  “Trap him with the big ole’ ball!” Frank barked excitedly.

  Autumn never said a word, only cycling the action on her rifle as she prepared her weapon for extensive use. She hoped we’d kill him.

  “Annabelle said that we wouldn’t lose anyone else to him,” Eleanor reminded.

  “So that means we have nothing to lose,” Autumn said emotionless from behind her sights. She moved robotically and kept honing her weapon to cause as much pain and death as she could.

  “Even so,” I added, “sometimes death isn’t as bad as living on. Dying is mercy sometimes,” I said to everyone, speaking more to Autumn. “Everyone needs to be careful in their positions. Anything could happen.”

  Everyone agreed after I spoke the words. Autumn was the only one to stay silent. I wish I knew what was going on in her mind. She was the only one of our entire extended family that I was actively worried about during this upcoming battle.

  “We have to watch her,” I told my wife.

  “I’ll be with her, Carter. I won’t let her do anything that will get her hurt. If I have to, I’ll knock her out and get her to safety.” Eleanor wanted to do whatever it took to get Sam back as well, but she would not risk her own daughter to do so.

  The two outer wards were broken, and now we were playing the waiting game. There were a lot of players hidden around our property, but that made me feel good. I trusted in Annabelle’s words that we wouldn’t lose anyone else against Peter, but part of me was scared. I felt like I could feel something creeping up on us. I had this feeling that something was coming… something none of us had ever faced before. Something that none of our ancestors had ever encountered in their long lives of fighting against the darkest evils in the world.

  I had a small moment with Autumn, Eleanor, Frank, Clara, and Wayland. We all hugged and told each other how much we all meant to one another. This was our family… and we were fighting for each other. This enemy wanted nothing more than to kill us, and we knew what we were fighting for.