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at them and greeted them all by name, each one extending his hand, which Quin used as an excuse to pull them into a man-hug. I smiled and nodded at them each in greeting. I knew Matyas and Dimitri, but the older blond was new to me. Matyas introduced him as Viktor.  
    Matyas led things. “We have something of a problem. There are two hellhounds loose in the city, and a horde of shades. We're only three, we cannot remove them alone."
    I remembered what Elise had said, and said firmly, “We will deal with the hounds, you deal with the shades."
    Quin looked at me questioningly, but I held Matyas' gaze and dared him to push back against me. His mouth tightened and his eyes flicked to Viktor but he finally nodded and took a big drink of his beer. I couldn’t risk them dealing with the hellhounds. Elise had been adamant that I had to keep the one that had dared form a bond with me safe. That would be far more difficult if the hunters were doing what they did best: hunting.
    Dimitri leaned a little closer to me and said, “What happened to that hound earlier, Evelyn?"
    I knew the line of inquiry was coming. I’d run the possibilities through my head on the journey over. I didn't like the way my name sounded coming from him, he toyed with the syllables, somehow adding a slime to the word. A desire… or a threat, perhaps. I allowed my mouth to form a small smirk as I took a long deep breath and relaxed my muscles into a practised look of mild boredom.  
    I shrugged and said, “You tell me, you're the ones who ran after him."
    He narrowed his eyes at me, small creases formed at the corners.  
    Matyas said, “You looked as if you spoke to it."
    I gave Matyas a dark look; I was not going to be pushed around. I couldn’t afford to allow him to start down that line of questioning or insinuation.  
    “He ran into me then took off down the road. There was no talking," I said sharply.
    Viktor made a quiet rumbling sound of dissent, but no one acknowledged him.  
    Quin said, “We have been hunters our whole lives, are you questioning our position here?"
    Matyas leaned back and put his hands up appeasingly. "No, no, of course not. We couldn't find the hound, was all."
    I raised an eyebrow.  
    “And you thought, what, I spoke some magic words and stuffed in my pocket?” I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Well, it doesn't matter now, they're our problem," I said.
    There was a rivalry between the hunters. We were united in our hate of the creatures, and our desire to protect the innocents, but there was a lot of money to be made, too. Quin and I had worked very hard to carve out a good reputation, and we weren't going to back down and risk losing that.  
    Quin pushed his chair back and said, “If we get anything on the shades, we'll let you know."
    I fought to hold down a victorious smirk; it was good to have my twin on my side. We’d done what we needed to do without allowing them to ask too many awkward questions.
    Matyas said, “Of course, of course. We will do the same with the hounds."
    I said in the sweetest tone I could muster, "Thank you all; a pleasure, as always."
    I could feel Quin's tension as he walked out of the pub in front of me. The hunters barely waited for us to leave the room before they began whispering again. There were too many questions. My hands were trembling again. I was walking a fine line.
    Quin hissed, “Want to tell me what happened, sis?"
    I growled back, “When we're home, away from eavesdroppers."
    The ride back home was tense. I didn't like hiding something from Quin. I didn’t know how I was supposed to break it to him. I knew he was my brother, he would stand by me, but it was bigger than anything we’d faced before. We didn't have secrets, we couldn't afford them. They would be too easy to manipulate, and we needed each other. I reminded myself that we were a team.  
    The trees were beginning to show signs of spring proper, bright green buds spreading along the branches of the trees