grand plan were at last falling into place.
His name was Dragos, and soon every man, woman, and child - Breed and human alike - would bow to him as their overlord and king.
Everything had changed.
That was the thought that had been drumming around in Corinne's head from the moment she and Hunter arrived in Detroit the next evening.
Decades of imprisonment in Dragos's laboratories had left her struggling to adapt to countless new changes and advancements in the world she once knew, from the way people talked and dressed, to how they lived and worked and traveled. From the moment of her release, Corinne had felt like she'd somehow drifted into another plane of reality, a stranger lost in a strange future world.
But nothing had struck so close to the bone as the feeling she had as she and Hunter left the airport in a car provided by the Order and made the drive into the city to her parents'
Darkhaven. The vibrant downtown she remembered was no more. Along the river, land that had been open spaces was now crowded with buildings - some sleekly modern, lights glowing from high-rise offices; other structures appearing long vacant, derelict and broken. Only a handful of people strolled the streets, shuffling quickly along the main avenue, past the lightless corridors of neglect.
Even in the dark, the dichotomy of the Detroit landscape was shocking, unbelievable. Block by block, it looked as if progress had smiled on one lot of land while spitting on another. She didn't realize how worried she was until Hunter brought the large black sedan to a stop in front of the moonlit Darkhaven estate she once called home.
"My God," she whispered from her seat beside him in the car as relief washed over her.
"It's still here. I'm finally home ..."
But even the Darkhaven looked different from what she recalled. Corinne fumbled to unclasp her confining seat belt, anxious now, and more than ready to be free of the uncomfortable restraints that Hunter had insisted she wear for the duration of the drive. She leaned forward, peering out the dark-tinted passenger window. Her breath left her on a hitching sigh as she looked past the heavy wrought-iron entry gate and perimeter fence, neither of which had been there when she was last home.
Was it merely a sign of dangerous times for all of the city, or had her disappearance made her indomitable father feel so vulnerable that he would wall himself and the rest of his family behind a prison of their own? Whatever the cause, guilt and sadness clenched her heart to see the ugly barrier surrounding such once-peaceful grounds.
Beyond the fortresslike entrance sat the stately red brick manor whose many curtained windows glowed with soft light at the end of the long, cobblestone drive. The tall oak trees flanking the driveway had matured and thickened in her absence, their naked winter boughs reaching across to one another high over the pavement like a canopy of sheltering arms. Ahead, halfway up the wide lawn that spread out in front of the large Greek Revival house, the limestone fountain and wishing pool where she and her younger adopted sister, Charlotte, used to play in the heat of the summer as little girls had at some time been replaced with decorative boulders and a collection of burlap-shrouded topiary.
How vast the grounds had seemed when she was a child living here. How magical this private, special world had seemed to her back then.
How terribly she had taken it all for granted just a few years later, as a young headstrong woman who couldn't seem to get far enough away fast enough.
Now she wanted back inside with a need that was nothing short of desperate. Corinne brought her fingers up to her mouth, a small sob catching in the back of her throat. "I can't believe I'm actually here. I can't believe I'm home."
Impulse had her grabbing for the door handle, ignoring the low growl of her stoic companion beside her in the driver's seat. Corinne climbed out of the vehicle and walked a few paces up the private drive toward the iron gate. A gust of cold wind blew across the snowy landscape in front of her, chilling her face and making her burrow a bit deeper into her thick wool coat.
At her back, she felt a sudden heat emanating toward her and knew that Hunter was there now. She hadn't even heard him get out of the car to follow her, he