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“Likewise,” he said. “Sorry I woke you up. Or are you still recuperating?”
Vic was talking about the pajamas I still wore. Apparently the coral bracelet couldn’t do anything about them. “It’s kind of a long story. Also a weird story.”
“Come on.” Vic straightened his trucker cap on his head, like he was getting ready for serious business. “How much weirder could our story get?”
“You’d be surprised,” I said weakly.
Ranulf straightened, and his gaze shifted from friendliness to wariness. “Vic,” he said, “something is very different about Bianca.”
“Huh?” Vic looked between me and Ranulf, not getting it.
“She feels a little clammy, but that’s about it.”
“Her very nature is changed.” Ranulf’s eyes narrowed. For the first time, he did not look like an innocent; I caught a glimpse of the fiercer man he must have been long ago. “I do not think she is still a vampire.”
“What?” Vic grinned. “All human now? Bianca, that’s awesome.”
“That’s not quite how it went,” I said. “Can you guys come inside? We really need to talk, and you have to find Lucas.”
Vic started to follow me inside; Ranulf, still suspicious, came along, too, but hung back several steps. “What’s wrong with Lucas?” Vic asked. “Where did he go?”
“He left with Balthazar.”
“Balthazar? Your ex?” Vic’s eyebrows rose so high they vanished beneath the brim of his hat. “Okay, this is getting good.”
“Let’s just get inside, okay?” As I gestured toward the door, the bracelet slipped from my fingers. The moment that happened, I disappeared—or almost disappeared, since a blue, smoky image remained where my arm had just been.
Vic jumped back so fast he nearly fell over. “What the what?”
“She is no longer a vampire,” Ranulf said, steadying himself like he expected a fight. “She is a wraith.”
“A wraith? You mean, a ghost? Bianca’s a ghost? That’s impossible.”
Concentrating hard, I managed to close my hand around the bracelet again and will my form back into being. Vic and Ranulf stared at me, slack jawed, the whole time. Neither of them spoke a word.
Once I had my shape back, I said, “It’s possible. I’m a wraith now. And, no, Ranulf, I’m not going to hurt you. The old war between ghosts and vampires—as far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t have anything to do with me and the people I love.”
Ranulf didn’t look touched, but he didn’t turn away, either.
I asked, “Now are you going to let me explain?”
Vic swallowed hard and nodded. “I think you’d better.”
Half an hour later, as the sky outside darkened, Vic, Ranulf, and I sat around the little table while they took in what I’d just told them. Ranulf, who naturally understood more about the strange rules that governed the undead, seemed to be taking it in. Vic, on the other hand, looked completely flummoxed.
“Okay,” Vic said, “let me see if I have this straight. You died.”
“Yes.” That was never going to get easier to admit, I thought.
“Balthazar showed up, and he and Lucas buried you in the backyard.”
“Right.”
“So there’s a dead body in my backyard, which I have to explain to my parents somehow.”
“I don’t think they’ll find it—it’s behind the grounds, kind of—and, anyway, isn’t that kind of beside the point?”
“Not really,” Vic said. “Don’t get me wrong. Compared to the rest of what’s going on, it’s not that big a deal. I understand that you’re having a way, way worse week than I am. Okay? But that doesn’t make it any easier for me to explain to my parents about the dead body in the backyard.”
