15. Daylight
DAYLIGHT
Reign could smell the cookout from three blocks away—charcoal, lighter fluid, barbecue sauce mixing with the late afternoon heat.
He sat in the Hellcat with the windows cracked, parked under the thick canopy of oak trees at the park's edge, watching the crowd gather.
The sun was still high enough to be dangerous, but the shade gave him just enough cover to stay without burning.
He couldn't get out. Couldn't walk into the light. Not without Arissa's serum.
But he had to see this.
The park was packed. Folding tables lined the basketball courts, covered in aluminum trays of mac and cheese, fried chicken, potato salad, greens.
Someone had set up a grill, smoke rising into the blue sky.
Kids ran around playing tag while their mamas stood in clusters, arms crossed, faces tight with grief and exhaustion.
In the center of it all were two poster boards propped on easels.
One had a picture of Kove—smiling, young, alive. The other showed a girl Reign recognized from After Dark. Her name was Imani. Twenty-three. Bottle girl on weekends. She'd been found two nights ago in an alley off Broad Street, drained just like Kove.
Noctis's crew wasn't being subtle anymore.
Reign's jaw clenched as he watched people gather around the posters, laying down flowers, candles, teddy bears. Real grief. Real loss. These weren't just bodies in a turf war—they were somebody's daughter, somebody's homie, somebody's people.
And he was part of the reason they were dead.
"You see what I see?" Soleil's voice crackled through his phone. She was parked on the opposite side of the park, watching from her own vantage point.
"Yeah," Reign said quietly. "I see it."
Because walking through the crowd, moving freely in the full afternoon sun without a single piece of protective gear, were vampires.
Reign recognized three of them immediately.
Auren was there, wearing a black sundress and sandals, her locs pulled back in a high ponytail. She moved through the crowd with ease, hugging people, accepting condolences, looking completely human. Completely normal.
No sunglasses. No long sleeves. No burns.
She'd taken the serum.
Two others—vampires Reign knew from the extended network, half-bloods who usually only came out after dark—were standing by the grill, talking and laughing like it was just another Saturday cookout.
The serum worked.
And if Reign could see it, that meant Noctis could too.
"This change everything," Soleil said, her voice tight. "If they moving in daylight now, we can't protect our spots. Can't rest. Can't do nothing."
"I know."
"Cairo want that chemist tonight, Reign. Not tomorrow. Tonight."
Reign didn't respond. His eyes were locked on the crowd, searching.
And then he saw her.
Soreya.
She was standing near the poster boards, wearing jeans and a simple black tank top, her hair pulled back in a bun. She looked exhausted—dark circles under her eyes, shoulders slumped, arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to hold herself together.
She was talking to another girl, someone Reign didn't recognize. They were both crying.
Reign's chest tightened.
Soreya had known Imani. They'd probably worked together, gone out together, been friends. And now Imani was dead, and Soreya was standing in the sun mourning her, not knowing the real reason she was gone.
Not knowing that the man she loved was part of the world that had killed her.
Reign watched as Soreya wiped her eyes, said something to the other girl, then turned away from the crowd. She walked toward the edge of the park, toward the trees, her head down.
Toward him.
Reign's hand tightened on the steering wheel. He should leave. Should drive away before she saw him. But he couldn't move.
Soreya stopped about twenty feet from the Hellcat, standing in a patch of sunlight that Reign couldn't reach. She looked up, and their eyes met.
For a long moment, neither of them moved.
Then Soreya walked closer, stopping just outside the shade of the trees. Close enough to talk. Far enough that he couldn't touch her.
"You came," she said, her voice flat.
"I had to."
"Why?" Soreya's eyes were red, swollen from crying. "You knew her? You knew Kove?"
"Yeah. I knew them."
"And you couldn't even come out here and pay your respects like everybody else?" Her voice cracked. "You gotta sit in your car in the shade like you hiding from something?"
Reign didn't answer.
Soreya laughed bitterly, shaking her head. "You know what? I don't even care no more. I'm tired, Reign. I'm so tired of not knowing what's going on. I'm tired of girls dying. I'm tired of you disappearing. I'm tired of feeling like I'm going crazy."
"Soreya—"
"Imani was my friend." Tears spilled down her cheeks. "We used to get our nails done together. She was saving up to go back to school. And now she dead, Reign. Drained. That's what they saying—she was drained. What the fuck does that even mean?"
Reign's hands curled into fists. He wanted to get out of the car, wanted to pull her into his arms, wanted to tell her everything. But the sun was still too high, and he couldn't risk it.
"I can't explain it right now," he said quietly.
"Then when?" Soreya's voice rose. "When you gonna stop lying to me? When you gonna tell me what the hell is going on?"
"Tonight. I promise. Tonight I'll tell you everything."
"I don't believe you."
"Soreya—"
"People are dying, Reign!" She was shouting now, tears streaming down her face. "And I know—I know—it got something to do with you. With your clubs. With whatever the fuck you really doing out here. And you just keep lying to me like I'm stupid!"
Reign opened his mouth to respond, but movement in the crowd caught his eye.
Auren was watching them. So was one of the other serum-enhanced vampires.
And standing at the far edge of the park, partially hidden behind a group of mourners, was someone Reign didn't recognize. A woman. Tall, dark-skinned, wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket despite the heat.
She was staring directly at him.
Reign's blood ran cold.
Noctis's crew.
"Soreya, you need to go," Reign said, his voice urgent.
"What?"
"Go home. Right now. Don't go nowhere else. Just go straight home and lock your doors."
"Reign, what?—"
"Please." His eyes met hers, and for the first time, she saw real fear in them. "Please just trust me. Go home."
Soreya stared at him for a long moment, her expression torn between anger and confusion. Then she shook her head, backing away.
"I can't do this no more," she said, her voice breaking. "I can't."
She turned and walked back toward the parking lot, disappearing into the crowd.
Reign watched her go, his jaw clenched so tight it ached. He wanted to follow her. Wanted to make sure she got to her car safely. But he couldn't leave the shade. Couldn't step into the sunlight without burning.
He was trapped.
The woman in the leather jacket was gone when he looked back.
Reign's phone buzzed.
Cairo (2:47 PM): You see what I see?
Reign (2:47 PM): Yeah.
Cairo (2:48 PM): Then you know what you gotta do. Get the chemist. Tonight. By any means necessary. We don't get that serum, we lose everything.
Reign stared at the message, then looked back at the vigil. At the people mourning. At Auren moving freely in the daylight. At the empty space where Soreya had been standing.
The sun was starting to dip lower, but it would be another two hours before he could move safely.
Two hours while Noctis's crew was already out there, hunting in broad daylight.
Two hours while Soreya drove home alone, angry and heartbroken and completely unprotected.
Two hours to figure out how to get Arissa Sterling to cooperate before this war burned everything he loved to the ground.
Reign put the Hellcat in gear and pulled out slowly, staying in the shade of the trees as long as he could.
By the time the sun set, he'd have his answer.
One way or another.