“Thomas,” Samson murmured, clearly shocked.

Thomas lifted his hand. “I’m not finished. There’s more.” He filled his lungs with air. “The one who gave me this dark power is Kasper, or Keegan, as you know him. I’d hoped that his death would bring me peace, but it didn’t. He sired many protégés, and they all have the same dark power within them. And they’re using it for evil. They’re here, Samson, they’ve come to wreak havoc.”

“The newcomers?” Samson asked, understanding dawning in his eyes.

“Yes. It’s them. The vampires who bought up Al’s, the same ones who killed Sergio.

They’ve come to take over, and they want me to join them.”

Samson pushed away from the desk, his chest heaving. “You’re part of us, Thomas!”

Thomas squeezed his eyes shut. “Scanguards is my family. There’s no doubt about it. But there are things beyond my control. The more of them who are coming, the more their collective powers will lure my dark power to the surface. I felt it tonight when I confronted their leader.”

“You went in on your own? Are you crazy?” Samson raised his voice.

“I thought I could defeat him. His power had seemed so weak that I was convinced I could overpower him and take out his followers right after, but I’d miscalculated. His power was too strong. Stronger than mine. He must have learned to harness it better than I can.” He sighed. “I never honed my skills.” He’d always been too afraid of the outcome, afraid of growing too powerful and letting that power drug him and turn him into something he didn’t want to be. “I failed, Samson. That’s why I’m here. You can’t send a team in without knowing what you’re up against. They’ll annihilate us.”

Samson’s face had turned serious, concern etched in it, a frown on his forehead. “What do they want?”

“What Kasper tried before: to rule the vampire world. He tried, but perished in the process.

Now his followers are back. They’re taking over business after business, driving all good vampires out of town, building a stronghold. Once they control this city, they’ll expand.”

“We have to stop them before they even get that far.”

“I tried, Samson, but I’m too weak.”

Samson gripped Thomas’s shoulders and shook him. “You’re not weak, Thomas. You’re Keegan’s protégé. That means you have the power within you, just like those others do. You’re a strong man, and there’s no reason why you can’t hone the power inside you to get stronger than theirs. You have to try.”

What Samson was suggesting was too dangerous to contemplate. “I can’t, Samson. It’s not safe. It means releasing the power from its cage. I won’t be able to control it. It will automatically pull me toward them. It will make resisting them even more difficult.”

“We need you, Thomas,” Samson pleaded. “If they are as dangerous as you say, then our conventional weapons will have little-to-no impact. We’ll be hopelessly disadvantaged if they can fight us with mind control. There’s nobody apart from you who could offer any resistance.”

Thomas pulled free of Samson’s hold. “Don’t ask this of me! You don’t know what you’re conjuring up.” He balled his hands into fists and clenched his teeth. “Even now, I can feel the dark power rattling at the doors of its cage. I can feel it getting stronger. It’ll overpower me and force me to do things I don’t want to do. I’ve seen the evil it unleashes. What happened at Sergio’s could happen again. Only next time I could be the culprit. Don’t you see? I have to keep the power chained up. There’s no safe way to hone it.”

He pointed to the window, indicating the world outside, his mood turning grimmer by the second. “Those vampires were able to hone their skill because they weren’t concerned about who they hurt in the process. They don’t have families they care about. They don’t know what love is.”

Thomas’s thoughts instantly turned to Eddie. If he unleashed his dark power, he’d hurt Eddie, because his desire would drive him to force Eddie to fully surrender to him, whether he was ready for it or not. He’d break his trust and lose any chance he’d ever had at love.

“You have to prepare the others for what they’ll face. But I can’t be part of this. I have to stay away from Xander’s people. Just being in their presence awakens my dark power, and I don’t know how much longer I can control it.”