Chapter 163

• Ian’s POV
• Stepping out of the condo, I felt the familiar weight of responsibility settling on my shoulders. After everything that had happened in the vampire realm, a quiet moment back in the human world should have been a relief, but it wasn’t. Not really. There was too much lingering tension, too many unanswered questions. I had left Sophia with Jenny and Jacob for the afternoon, hoping they could help her relax. She needed the break—hell, we all did. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still off.
• Mike had been away for months during the height of the attacks, and even though he’d returned, I hadn’t had a chance to catch up with him properly. We just talked briefly about the situation in the vampire realm, but there was something about his demeanor that seemed different, distant even. We weren’t like before. Maybe it was just my nerves playing tricks on me, or maybe I was still trying to process everything that had happened.