"You're supposed to be dead."

Your heart hammered against your ribs as you stared at him through the doorway. Four months since that hellish night at the Juke Joint. Four months of telling Lisa that Daddy wasn't coming home.

But there he stood on your porch—the same angular jawline, the same calloused hands. But his skin held an unnatural pallor in the moonlight, and those brown eyes you'd once lost yourself in now reflected light like a predator's.

"Death ain't quite the permanent condition I thought it was, darlin'." Bo's honeyed drawl carried something darker underneath.

"Still so beautiful." His smile was achingly familiar, but his teeth were too sharp. He stayed on the threshold, gripping the frame. "I've been searchin' for a way back to y'all. Keep comin' back to the same truth—I need my girls."

"We ain't yours anymore," you managed.

"Oh, really?" His smile turned cruel. "Did you know she's been dreamin' about me? Callin' out in her sleep?" Your blood ran cold. Lisa had been having nightmares, crying for Daddy in the dark.

"The bond between father and child runs deeper than death, darlin'." He studied you with those too-bright eyes. "I came back for a reason."

"I'd rather die human than live as a monster."

"Monster?" He laughed, sharp and bitter. "I can smell your fear from here. Could move faster than you can blink, break every bone in your body without breakin' a sweat. But I'm standin' here, talkin', because I love you." His expression softened into something almost genuine.

His voice turned cold, calculating. "You think I don't know what's out there? The things that hunt in the dark? You're stubborn as hell, sugar, but is your pride worth her life?" He gestured toward the house where Lisa slept. "When something comes for her—and it will—what then? You gonna fight it off with your bare hands?"

"Don't." Your voice cracked. "Don't use her against me."

"I ain't usin' her—I'm protectin' her. We could be a family again, stronger, faster, together forever." He leaned closer to the threshold, that metallic scent rolling off him in waves. "All you gotta do is say the words. Let me in, and I'll keep you both safe forever."