The next time the monster showed up at my door, I was prepared. A gentle hand on my shoulder woke me up, shaking me lightly. I pried open bleary eyes and peered up at Tao through the shadows. There was only a candle to fend off the darkness, and his face was tense in its flickering light.

“Jongin,” he said, whisper-soft. “I hear something… He’s coming.”

My heart fluttered in my throat. I scrambled out of bed, then stood in the center of the room, tense and fearful and uncertain what to do. Tao pressed a cloth-wrapped bundle into my hands. I open it and it was the golden necklace. I remembered Tao’s words, the night convinced me to make this stand.  And gold; it burns us.

I swallowed hard and tightened my hand around the gold, my only defense against the monster.

Tao pulled on a pair of black gloves and took up a weapon of his own—a long, sharp dagger whose edge gleamed golden. It made me nervous, though I couldn’t explain why. I my lips and returned my attention on the window.

He was fast; I give him that much. One moment, the view at the window was empty for the vast expanse of stars in the heavens. I blinked, and suddenly he’s there, halfway through the window.

He was startled when he saw us, awake and prepared. His growl lifted his lip off his teeth, baring his sharp fangs. I couldn’t repress the shudder that ran through me at the sight. He leapt at me with little attention spared for Tao. I expected it, and still it came as a shock. I fell back with a cry, driven by his weight, and my back came up against a wall. He pinned me there, leering at me with his bloody smile, and leaned in toward my throat.

There was no time for thoughts, no time for planning. I brought the cross up between our bodies and press it to the bared skin of his neck. Even with Tao’s demonstration the night he returned the necklace to me, I didn’t expect much to happen. I was unprepared for the violence of his reaction.

He screamed a sound like a cat’s yowl and threw me from him. I couldn’t get my feet under me. I fell, and my head hit hard against the bed’s corner post, snapping sharply to its pointy side. Something cracked and I crumpled to the floor as a wave of numbness rolled over me.

I heard Tao’s desperate screams, but I couldn’t move to help him. From the edge of my vision, I saw him his dagger to the hilt into the monster’s chest. He crumpled and Tao tossed him aside and rushed to me.<