Then CJ.
Then Bianca, who tried for one dignified second to remain composed before abandoning it completely and wrapping herself around me with startling force.
I sank to my knees and held them as tightly as I could without hurting them.
“You’re alive,” Billie sobbed into my shoulder.
“So are you.”
“You killed the bad vampire,” Billie said.
“I did.”
“With a stake,” CJ said, breathless and tearful and somehow already narrating. “Through the back. Classic reversal. Perfectly setup.”
I laughed shakily and kissed the top of his head. “You knew,” I whispered.
He pulled back, eyes puffy and red. “You said it on the phone. A twist is only as good as its setup.”
“You caught that?”
He smiled proudly. “Obviously.”
“You are brilliant,” I told him fiercely. “So brilliant.”
His face crumpled a little before he leaned back into me.
Bianca sniffed hard and wiped her face with her sleeve. “I knew the counting compulsion might not work. I wasn’t certain about the rice versus sand combination, but the multiple grain sizes created enough delay.”
“Very academic. I’m so proud of you,” I said through my tears.
Billie pulled back to look at me, her lower lip trembling. “I threw holy water balloons.”
“I saw.”
“Did I help?”
I cupped her messy little face. “You absolutely helped. You were so brave, and I’m extremely proud of you, little girl. I’m so proud of all of you.”
Conrad made a pained sound as he tried to stand.
“Don’t move,” I snapped.
He froze. “Still bossy, I see.”
“A five-hundred-year-old vampire nearly murdered you seven minutes ago.”
“Fair.”
The children shuffled aside enough for me to help him sit more comfortably against the wall. He was battered and exhausted, and his eyes were still slightly unfocused, but he watched me with something that made my undead heart stumble painfully.
“What the hell just happened?” he asked.
Despite everything, despite the dust on the floor that had once been my sire, despite the blood drying beneath my nose, despite the children crying into my sleeves, I laughed. Then I wiped my face with the back of my hand and said, “I have quite a lot to tell you about my past.”
Conrad looked at me for a long moment. Then his mouth curved faintly, even though it clearly hurt. “You can skip the part where you tell me you’re a vampire. I figured that one out.”
“We told him,” Billie said proudly.
