Chapter Text
“I can take care of my sons on my own, asshole!”
Lucy drove the crucifix into Max's heart.
For one suspended second, nothing happened.
Max stared down at her.
Lucy stared back.
Behind him, the living room looked like the aftermath of a natural disaster caused specifically by teenagers with access to holy water, wooden stakes, poorly secured chandeliers, and absolutely no sense of proportion. Furniture lay overturned. One window was shattered. The stereo-set had somehow survived everything despite Sam having used it as cover twice. Garlic littered the floor beside splintered wood. Nanook stood near the kitchen entrance with his fur raised, teeth bared.
Michael was bleeding.
Sam was bleeding.
Edgar was bleeding.
Alan was probably bleeding, although Lucy couldn't immediately tell because Alan had managed to get themself covered in what looked like dirt, vampire blood, and half the contents of Grandpa's pantry.
Star stood frozen beside the stairs.
And clustered farther back, looking considerably more alive than they had any right to after the evening's events, were four vampires Lucy had spent the last hour believing were trying to murder her children.
David's eyes were fixed on Max.
Dwayne's expression was unreadable.
Paul's mouth hung open.
Marko whispered, very distinctly, “Holy shit.”
Then Max screamed.
The sound ripped through the house.
Lucy flinched but did not let go.
Light erupted beneath Max's skin, bright enough that she saw the black shape of his bones beneath his face. He staggered backward, but Lucy followed him, both hands locked around the crucifix because she had not crossed 2 states, survived a nightmare of a marriage, worked double shifts, moved back in with her father, discovered vampires existed, and watched one of those vampires threaten her children just to lose this battle because her grip slipped.
Max's hands closed around her wrists.
“Lucy—”
“No.”
His expression changed.
Perhaps Max had expected terror.
Perhaps he had expected mercy.
Perhaps he had expected the sweet, exhausted woman from the video store who laughed at his jokes and accepted his invitations and wanted desperately enough to believe that somebody kind might want her that she had ignored the tiny alarms ringing in the back of her skull.
That Lucy had been real.
But she was not the only Lucy Emerson who existed.
There was also the Lucy who had stood between her husband and Michael when Michael was 14 and furious, and finally big enough to hit back.
There was the Lucy who had hidden money inside an empty detergent box for 11 months.
There was the Lucy who had packed a car before dawn.
There was the Lucy who had driven until Phoenix disappeared in the rearview mirror while Sam slept against the window and Michael pretended not to cry.
Max had mistaken kindness for weakness.
It was not an original mistake.
Lucy was getting very tired of men making it.
“No,” she repeated.
Max disintegrated.
One moment his hands were around her wrists.
The next there was a flash, a rush of heat, and a burst of ash that struck Lucy directly in the face.
Silence descended.
Lucy remained standing with the crucifix held in front of her.
A gray cloud drifted gently toward the carpet.
Paul coughed.
“Wow.”
Nobody answered him.
Paul looked around.
“Too soon?”
“Paul,” Dwayne murmured.
“Right. Shutting up.”
Lucy lowered the crucifix.
Her hands began shaking.
Not dramatically. She almost wished they would. Dramatic shaking seemed appropriate after killing a vampire with religious jewelry in her father's living room.
Instead, it was a small, irritating tremor, the same way her hands had shaken after signing the divorce papers.
She looked at Michael first.
Always Michael and Sam first.
“Michael.”
“I'm okay.”
He wasn't.
He was upright, which Lucy decided temporarily qualified.
Blood streaked his temple. His shirt was torn. There was a bruise forming along his jaw. The golden gleam in his eyes, that Lucy had spent the evening trying very hard not to think about, slowly faded away.
She looked at Sam.
“I'm fine too.”
His voice cracked halfway through.
Lucy pointed at the couch.
“Sit.”
“But—”
“Samuel.”
Sam sat.
Edgar immediately sat beside him.
Alan, apparently deciding the command applied universally to kids under 18, sat on Sam's other side.
Nanook trotted over and planted himself in front of them.
“Good,” Lucy said.
Then she turned.
Four vampires stared at her.
Lucy stared back.
She had met them before.
Of course she had.
She had seen them on the boardwalk, all leather and wild hair and loud music, laughing like young men convinced the world belonged to them. She had seen Max chase them away from the video store with an authority she had interpreted as irritation.
Now the memory felt different.
Max hadn't acted like a shopkeeper dealing with local troublemakers.
He had acted like a father disciplining unruly children.
David stood slightly ahead of the others.
Lucy remembered him most clearly.
Anyone would.
There was something almost theatrical about him even when he was doing absolutely nothing: shoulders back, chin lifted, pale hair catching the light. He wore confidence like armor.
At the moment, however, the armor had cracked.
He was staring at the ash on Lucy's carpet.
Not frightened.
Not grieving.
Lucy knew grief.
Whatever David felt, grief wasn't the whole of it.
“You,” she said.
David's gaze lifted.
Michael made a noise.
“Mom—”
“Not now.”
“Mom, seriously—”
“Michael Anthony Emerson.”
Michael closed his mouth.
David's eyebrows rose.
That, absurdly, almost made Lucy laugh.
Apparently ancient supernatural predators were also susceptible to full names.
Interesting.
Lucy pointed at David.
“Did you know?”
His expression became blank.
She recognized that too.
Her ex-husband used to go blank when somebody asked a question he did not want to answer. Not because he felt nothing, but because showing nothing allowed him time to decide which version of the truth would benefit him most.
Lucy's patience evaporated.
“Don't do that.”
David blinked.
“Do what?”
“That thing where you look at me like I'm stupid while deciding how much you're going to lie.”
Paul made a strangled noise.
Marko elbowed him.
David stared.
Michael actually covered his face.
Lucy folded her arms.
“Did you know Max planned to turn me?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“David,” Star said quietly.
Lucy held up one finger without looking away from him.
“Did you know he planned to use my sons?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Michael dropped his hands.
“David.”
“It wasn't supposed to happen like this.”
Lucy laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
Every Lost Boy flinched.
“That's interesting.”
David's jaw tightened.
“What?”
“That's exactly what my ex-husband used to say.”
The room went utterly still.
Something shifted in David's face.
Tiny.
Almost invisible.
Lucy saw it anyway.
Good.
“Mom,” Michael said cautiously.
“No, sweetheart. I would like to hear this.”
David looked toward Michael.
Lucy stepped sideways and blocked his line of sight.
His gaze snapped back to her.
“This isn't about Michael,” Lucy said. “I'm asking you.”
David's posture changed.
Not much.
Enough.
Lucy realized suddenly that David was accustomed to fights.
He knew physical danger. He understood threats, challenges, dominance. He knew how to stand when somebody might strike him and how to smile when he wanted them afraid.
He had absolutely no idea what to do with an angry mother asking him to explain himself.
Excellent.
Lucy could work with that.
“Max wanted a family,” David said finally.
“A family.”
“Yes.”
“He threatened to kill my children unless I joined it.”
David's mouth tightened.
“I know.”
“He lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“He manipulated Michael.”
David glanced aside.
“Yes.”
“He controlled Star.”
Another silence.
Star's shoulders drew inward.
David noticed.
“So,” Lucy continued, “when you say Max wanted a family, what exactly do you think that word means?”
David looked at her sharply.
Nobody moved.
Even Grandpa, who had been standing unnoticed near the demolished front entrance holding what appeared to be the remains of a fence post, went quiet.
Lucy hadn't realized he was there.
She decided to deal with that later.
There were only so many ridiculous things she could process simultaneously.
“He made us,” David said.
It came out defensive.
Lucy waited.
“He made you vampires.”
“Yes.”
“That's not what I asked.”
David's expression hardened.
“He took us in.”
“From where?”
No answer.
Dwayne looked at David.
Paul stopped smiling.
Marko's eyes dropped.
Lucy felt anger rearrange itself inside her.
It had been hot before.
Now it became cold.
“Where did he take you in from?”
David said nothing.
Lucy looked at Dwayne.
He met her eyes for several seconds before saying, “Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because grown men don't usually collect teenage boys, turn them into vampires, control where they live, decide what they eat, use them to murder people, and then get to call themselves good fathers for giving them a roof.”
Nobody breathed.
Dwayne's face went completely still.
Marko looked at the floor.
Paul whispered, “Oh.”
David looked furious.
Not at Lucy.
That distinction mattered.
“You don't know anything about us,” he said.
“You're right.”
That seemed to surprise him.
Lucy gestured around the room.
“I know almost nothing. I met vampires approximately 5 minutes ago as far as my understanding of reality goes. I don't know how old you are. I don't know what Max told you. I don't know what happened before you met him. I don't even know whether you can eat regular food.”
“We can,” Paul offered.
Dwayne closed his eyes and pinched his nosebridge.
“What?” Paul demanded. “She said she didn't know.”
Lucy pointed at him.
“Thank you.”
Paul brightened.
“See?”
“No one was congratulating you,” David muttered.
“But here's what I do know,” Lucy continued. “Max tried to turn me into something I didn't consent to becoming. He threatened my sons to force me into a relationship with him. And judging by your faces, this isn't the first time he treated somebody's choices like an inconvenience.”
Star looked suddenly close to tears.
That answered more questions than Lucy wanted answered.
She turned toward her.
“Oh, honey.”
Star's face crumpled.
The transformation was immediate.
The strange, beautiful, distant girl Lucy had seen hovering around Michael vanished.
Underneath was someone young.
Painfully young.
Lucy crossed the room before thinking.
Star recoiled.
Lucy stopped.
There it was again.
That tiny movement.
Automatic.
Learned.
Lucy knew that movement too.
Her anger acquired another layer.
She held out her hand instead.
“You don't have to.”
Star stared at it.
“I almost killed Michael.”
“Well, apparently so did half the people in this room.”
“Hey,” Edgar objected.
Lucy looked at him.
Edgar reconsidered.
“Fair.”
Star gave a tiny, startled laugh that turned halfway into a sob.
Lucy waited.
After several seconds, Star stepped forward.
Lucy hugged her.
Star froze.
Then she broke.
Her arms wrapped around Lucy so suddenly Lucy nearly lost her balance. Star buried her face against her shoulder, trembling from head to foot.
Lucy held her tighter.
“Oh, sweetheart.”
“I didn't know what to do.”
“I know.”
“I tried to leave.”
“I know.”
“He always found us.”
Lucy's eyes opened.
Over Star's shoulder, she looked at David.
He was staring at them.
Not jealous.
Not angry.
Lost.
All 4 of them were.
Dwayne hid it best.
David turned it into defiance.
Marko's mouth had twisted into an uncertain frown.
Paul looked like someone had removed the floor beneath him.
Boys, Lucy thought.
They were boys.
Dangerous boys.
Murderous boys, potentially.
Undead boys who had terrorized Santa Carla and possibly eaten people.
But boys nonetheless.
This was becoming inconvenient.
Lucy stroked Star's hair.
“Max is gone.”
Star inhaled shakily.
“He's really dead?”
“Yes.”
A beat.
Grandpa leaned around the corner.
“Pretty damn dead.”
“Dad.”
“What? He is.”
Lucy stared at him.
Grandpa lowered the fence post.
“Continue.”
“No. Actually, we're going to discuss why you apparently knew vampires existed.”
“Eventually.”
“Tonight.”
“Seems crowded.”
“Dad.”
“Fine.”
He shuffled toward the kitchen.
Nanook followed, paused, looked back at Sam, then apparently decided Lucy had the situation under control.
That made one of them.
Lucy released Star carefully.
“Sit down.”
Star sat beside Sam.
Sam immediately put an arm around her shoulders.
Edgar looked deeply suspicious about this but had apparently decided that challenging Lucy's seating arrangements was unwise.
Alan looked exhausted.
Lucy surveyed the remaining four.
“Are any of you injured?”
David's brows drew together.
“What?”
“Injured.”
They stared at her.
Lucy resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose.
“Did Max hurt any of you?”
“No,” David said.
Dwayne said, simultaneously, “Yes.”
David turned.
Dwayne stared back.
“What?” David asked.
“He threw you through a wall.”
“That doesn't count.”
Lucy shut her eyes.
There were moments in motherhood when the only available strategy was accepting that the universe hated you personally.
“He threw you through a wall.”
David shrugged.
“You've been thrown through walls enough that it doesn't count?”
Paul raised his hand.
Lucy looked at him.
“We heal fast.”
“That was not the concerning part of that sentence.”
“Oh.”
Marko snorted.
David shot him a glare.
“Sit down,” Lucy ordered.
David did not move.
“I don't take orders.”
Michael made another noise.
Lucy looked at her son.
He seemed to be fighting for his life against a smile.
Traitor.
Lucy turned back.
“Fine. Bleed standing up.”
David glanced down.
There was, in fact, blood running from beneath his jacket.
He looked mildly offended by the discovery.
Dwayne sighed.
“David.”
“I'm fine.”
“Wonderful,” Lucy said. “Michael says that too. He is usually lying.”
“Mom.”
“You are.”
“That's not the point.”
“Sit.”
Michael sat.
He had already been sitting.
But somehow he managed to sit more obediently.
Paul laughed.
David's mouth twitched.
Lucy saw it.
So did Michael.
Unfortunately, Michael looked at David with an expression Lucy recognized immediately.
Oh.
Oh, no.
Not Star.
David.
Lucy looked between them.
Michael became intensely interested in a piece of broken furniture.
David became intensely interested in not looking at Michael.
Lucy had raised two boys.
She was not stupid.
“Michael.”
“No.”
“I haven't asked anything.”
“Whatever you're about to ask, no.”
Sam perked up.
“Oh my God.”
“Sam.”
“You and David?”
“I said shut up.”
“You and David?”
“Sam!”
Edgar's head whipped around.
Alan's mouth opened.
Star blinked several times.
Paul shouted, “Finally!”
Everyone turned toward him.
Paul froze.
David slowly closed his eyes.
Dwayne looked toward the ceiling as though praying for sunlight.
Marko began laughing so hard he doubled over.
Lucy stared at Paul.
“Finally?”
Paul pointed at David.
“He's been unbearable.”
“I will kill you.”
“You've threatened that every day since 1979.”
Lucy stopped.
“Since when?”
Silence.
Paul's hand descended.
Marko stopped laughing.
Dwayne muttered something under his breath.
David opened his eyes.
Lucy counted backward from ten.
It didn't help.
“How old are you?”
Nobody answered.
“David.”
“Technically?”
Lucy made a sound.
Sam whispered, “He's dead.”
Michael elbowed him.
“No, seriously,” Lucy said. “How old?”
David shifted.
“I was 18...”
“When?”
“Mom.”
Lucy pointed at Michael without turning.
“You stay out of this.”
Paul seemed delighted.
“Can she come to the cave?”
“No,” David said.
“Why not?”
“Because I said no.”
Lucy turned her stare on him.
David hesitated.
Paul grinned.
“That's not gonna work anymore.”
David looked horrified.
Lucy was beginning to understand Paul's role in the group.
Every family had one child who survived entirely because homicide was illegal.
Apparently immortality had only encouraged this tendency.
“None of you answered my question.”
Dwayne finally spoke.
“It's complicated.”
“So explain it.”
“We stopped aging.”
“I gathered.”
“At different times.”
Lucy looked at David.
He folded his arms.
“1906...”
Michael choked.
Sam screamed.
Not metaphorically.
Actually screamed.
“You're almost 100 years old?!”
“Sam,” Michael snapped.
“He’s dating a grandpa!”
Grandpa shouted from the kitchen, “Watch it!”
Marko collapsed against Paul.
Paul was crying.
David looked like he wanted Max resurrected purely so he could die instead of participating in this conversation.
Michael's entire face had gone scarlet.
“We're not dating!”
David glanced at him.
Michael's head snapped around.
“What?”
David lifted an eyebrow.
“You heard me.”
Lucy stared at them.
Star quietly covered her mouth.
Dwayne murmured, “This is worse than Max.”
“It really isn't,” Alan said.
Everyone looked at Alan.
Alan shrugged.
“Objectively.”
“Thank you, Alan,” Lucy said.
He nodded solemnly.
Lucy returned her attention to David.
“You were 18 when Max turned you.”
His amusement vanished.
“Yes.”
“Were you dying?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
David's expression closed again.
Lucy let him.
There were doors you did not force open.
She knew that too.
“All right,” she said.
David looked suspicious.
“All right?”
“You don't have to tell me.”
His face did something strange.
Small.
Almost painful.
Lucy moved on before he could rebuild his defenses.
“Dwayne?”
“20.”
“When?”
“1914.”
“Paul?”
“19. 1967.”
“Marko?”
“18. 1976.”
Sam stared.
“So Paul is older than Marko?”
“I know,” Marko said bitterly.
Paul spread his arms.
“Respect your elders.”
“You have never acted older than 12.”
“Jealousy isn't attractive.”
“Neither is your hair.”
“You take that back.”
Lucy clapped her hands once.
They stopped.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
She filed that away.
“And Star?”
Star's voice was quiet.
“17.”
“Recently?”
“Last year.”
Lucy felt ill.
“And Michael?”
“Mom.”
She turned.
Michael's expression was guarded.
“I'm still me.”
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
“I don't need you looking at me like—”
“Like what?”
Michael stopped.
Lucy sat beside him.
He looked away.
For a moment the room disappeared.
No vampires.
No shattered furniture.
No absurdity.
Just her eldest son, trying desperately to decide whether whatever had happened to him made him less recognizable to his mother.
Lucy touched his cheek.
He leaned into it before remembering he was supposedly too old for things like that.
“You are my son,” she said.
His eyes flickered toward hers.
“Whatever else you are, wherever this goes, whatever we have to figure out tomorrow, you're my son.”
Michael swallowed.
“Okay.”
“And if you ever drink blood from your brother, I will ground you until 1997.”
Sam pointed triumphantly.
“Thank you.”
Michael stared.
“Why would I drink Sam's blood?”
“I don't know. I've had a difficult evening.”
“That is disgusting.”
“Good. Then we agree.”
David laughed.
It escaped him.
One short, startled sound.
Everybody stared.
David immediately stopped.
Michael smiled at him.
There it was again.
That look.
Lucy sighed internally.
Of course.
Of course Michael couldn't choose somebody easy.
There were normal boys in California.
Hundreds of thousands of them.
Her son had apparently looked at a century-old vampire with a motorcycle, a criminal record Lucy could only imagine, and enough emotional repression to qualify as geological sediment and thought, “yes, that one.”
She would deal with that later.
Preferably after coffee.
Possibly after several years of coffee.
Lucy stood.
“All right.”
David immediately looked wary.
“You keep saying that.”
“I am trying to organize my thoughts.”
“Should we be worried?”
“Yes.”
Paul whispered, “I love her.”
Dwayne elbowed him.
Lucy paced.
Max wanted a family.
The thought made her stomach turn.
He had said it as though the word excused everything.
As though wanting belonged in the same category as loving.
Her ex-husband had wanted a family too.
He wanted dinner on the table.
He wanted sons who respected him.
He wanted a wife who didn't embarrass him by disagreeing in public.
He wanted Michael quieter.
Sam tougher.
Lucy smaller.
Wanting was easy.
Love was different.
Love was sleeping in a chair beside a feverish child.
Love was pretending not to notice when Michael left twenty dollars beside the electric bill because he'd overheard her worrying.
Love was Sam making her coffee so terrible she drank every drop because he'd looked proud.
Love was leaving.
Love was choosing someone else's safety over your own comfort.
Max hadn't wanted a family.
He'd wanted possessions who called him Father.
Lucy looked at David.
“Where are you going?”
His eyebrows rose.
“What?”
“Tonight.”
“To the cave.”
“The cave.”
“Yes.”
She looked at Star.
Star stared at her hands.
Lucy looked at the four boys.
The cave.
They were going back to a cave.
A group consisting of teenagers ranging from technically eighteen to technically more than a hundred, none of whom appeared emotionally older than twenty-five and several of whom appeared emotionally younger than Nanook.
After killing the man who had controlled them for decades.
To sit alone in a cave.
Absolutely not.
“No.”
David stared.
“No?”
“No.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“I mean you're not going.”
“This isn't exactly your decision.”
“It is now.”
Something dangerous flickered in his expression.
Lucy watched it arrive.
Watched him reach automatically for intimidation because intimidation was familiar.
His eyes shifted gold.
His teeth sharpened.
He straightened.
Behind him, Dwayne became alert.
Michael rose.
Lucy didn't move.
“Do not,” she said softly, “bare your teeth at me in my father's living room.”
David froze.
Paul physically turned away.
Marko bit his fist.
Sam whispered, “Oh, he's screwed.”
David's face returned to normal.
Slowly.
Lucy nodded.
“Thank you.”
“I wasn't—”
“You were.”
David inhaled.
“Lucy.”
“No.”
“You don't even know what I'm going to say.”
“You're going to tell me you don't need anybody.”
He stopped.
“You're going to say you've survived perfectly well without Max's help, even though 5 minutes ago you told me Max took you in. Then you're going to go somewhere awful and pretend everything is fine because admitting that you're not fine feels too much like giving someone power over you.”
David stared.
Lucy's throat tightened.
She hadn't meant to say that much.
Michael was staring too.
So was Star.
Dwayne looked away first.
Lucy exhaled.
“Yes,” she said. “I know the routine.”
David's voice, when it came, was quieter.
“You think we're like you.”
“No.”
That answer startled everyone.
Lucy folded her arms loosely.
“I think people can survive completely different things and learn some of the same bad habits.”
David said nothing.
“You don't trust me.”
“No.”
“Good.”
His brows lifted.
“You shouldn't. You barely know me. Trust isn't something people get to demand because they've decided they're helping you.”
Star's eyes filled again.
Lucy noticed.
David noticed that too.
Lucy continued.
“But I'm offering.”
“Offering what?”
“A place to stay.”
The silence was magnificent.
Grandpa chose that exact moment to walk out of the kitchen holding a beer.
He stopped.
“No.”
“Dad.”
“No vampires.”
“You knew about vampires.”
“Knowing about 'em doesn't mean I want ‘em using my bathroom.”
Paul raised his hand.
“We don't technically need bathrooms as often.”
Dwayne seized Paul's wrist and yanked him downward.
Grandpa stared.
Lucy stared.
Paul whispered, “Trying to help.”
“You aren't,” Dwayne said.
Grandpa pointed his beer toward them.
“4 vampires?”
“5,” Sam said.
Everyone turned toward Michael.
Michael looked betrayed.
“Maybe.” Sam shrugged
“Samuel.”
“Right.”
Grandpa squinted at Star.
“She staying too?”
“Yes.”
Star's head jerked up.
Lucy looked at her.
“If you want.”
Star's lips parted.
“No conditions?”
Lucy understood immediately what she meant.
The room chilled.
“No conditions,” Lucy said.
Star looked down quickly.
Grandpa's expression changed.
Very little.
But enough.
He scratched his beard.
“Roof leaks over the back room.”
“I'll fix it.”
“Water heater hates more than three people.”
“We'll manage.”
“Not enough beds.”
“They apparently sleep upside down.”
“We do,” David said.
Paul shrugged.
“I have. It’s comfortable.”
“You were drunk the first time.”
“Still comfortable.”
Grandpa took a long drink.
“Food costs money.”
“The ones who eat people can contribute.”
Marko's eyebrows shot upward.
Lucy pointed at him.
“Not by eating people.”
“Oh.”
He sounded genuinely disappointed.
“No murder,” Lucy said.
David laughed incredulously.
“You're setting house rules?”
“Yes.”
“We are vampires.”
“And?”
“We kill people.”
“Not if you're living here.”
“Lucy—”
“No murder. No feeding on unwilling people. No attacking anybody inside this house. No hypnotizing anybody inside this house.”
David's expression changed.
Lucy caught it.
“No hypnotizing anybody outside the house either.”
Paul sighed.
“You're good.”
“I had to raise Michael.”
“Hey.”
“Truth hurts.”
Grandpa scratched Nanook's ears.
Nanook gazed toward the vampires.
“Dog gets final say.”
“Dad.”
“My house.”
Lucy looked at Nanook.
Nanook walked forward.
The vampires watched him.
He approached Dwayne first.
Sniffed his boots.
Dwayne remained perfectly still.
Nanook moved to Paul.
Paul crouched.
“Hey, buddy.”
Nanook licked his face.
Paul gasped.
“I've been chosen.”
“He eats dead fish,” Grandpa said.
“Chosen!”
Nanook inspected Marko, sneezed on his coat, then approached David.
The room quieted.
David looked down.
Nanook sniffed one boot.
Then the other.
He circled him once.
David didn't move.
Finally Nanook sat directly on David's foot.
Sam burst out laughing.
Grandpa nodded.
“Fine.”
David looked appalled.
“That's it?”
“Dog likes you.”
“You're basing this on the dog?”
“Better judge of character than most people.”
Nanook wagged his tail.
David looked down at him.
Something in his face softened.
He reached very slowly toward Nanook's head.
Nanook allowed one scratch behind his ear.
Paul looked deeply offended.
“He likes David more?”
“He has taste,” Michael said.
Everyone looked at him.
Michael froze.
David's mouth curved.
Sam gagged dramatically.
“Oh, come on.”
“Samuel.”
“Mom, they're flirting over the dog.”
“I'm aware.”
“That's disgusting.”
“You were trying to get Michael and Star together yesterday.”
“That was before I knew my brother's actual type was homicidal Billy Idol.”
Marko fell against the wall.
Paul dropped to the floor.
Even Dwayne laughed.
David looked personally wounded.
“Billy Idol?”
Sam realized his mistake.
“Oh no.”
David stepped forward.
“You think I look like Billy Idol?”
“I have a stake.”
“David,” Lucy warned.
“I'm just asking.”
“You look like Billy Idol's evil understudy.”
“Sam,” Michael said, laughing now.
“Run,” Alan advised.
Sam ran.
David went after him.
“Inside the house!” Lucy shouted.
The chase stopped.
David turned.
She pointed toward the floor.
“No attacking people inside the house.”
“I wasn't attacking him.”
“You were vampire-speeding.”
“He insulted my hair.”
“Welcome to having more brothers.”
David's expression went blank.
Not the defensive blankness from before.
Something else.
He looked toward Dwayne.
Then Paul.
Then Marko.
Lucy saw the moment the sentence landed.
Welcome to having more brothers.
Not followers.
Not members of a gang.
Not Max's boys.
Brothers.
Paul stopped laughing first.
Marko straightened.
Dwayne's eyes met Lucy's.
David looked suddenly furious again.
This time she understood.
Lucy knew what it was like when kindness hurt.
She softened her voice.
“You don't have to decide anything permanent tonight.”
“We have a home,” David said.
“I know.”
“The cave is ours.”
“I know.”
“We don't need you to rescue us.”
“I know.”
His jaw tightened.
“Stop saying that.”
“Then stop arguing against things I didn't say.”
Michael covered a laugh with a cough.
David shot him a glare.
Michael smiled.
The glare weakened.
Hopeless, Lucy thought.
Both of them.
Absolutely hopeless.
“I'm not rescuing you,” she said. “I'm inviting you to stay somewhere that isn't full of memories of the man I just killed.”
That reached him.
David's shoulders lowered.
Barely.
“Just tonight?”
“If that's what you want.”
“And tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow we figure out tomorrow.”
Paul raised his hand again.
“Yes, Paul?”
“Breakfast?”
Lucy stared at him.
“What about it?”
“Will there be breakfast?”
“Do vampires eat pancakes?”
Paul looked scandalized.
“We aren't animals.”
Marko nodded seriously.
“Paul once ate 19.”
“21, actually.”
“You threw up at 19.”
“I continued afterward.”
Lucy looked at Dwayne.
“Is he always like this?”
“Yes.”
“Tragically,” David added.
Paul grinned.
Lucy found herself smiling back.
“Then yes. There will be pancakes.”
Paul clasped both hands dramatically over his heart.
“I knew killing Max was the right choice.”
“Paul,” three voices snapped.
“What?”
Lucy laughed.
She didn't mean to.
It simply happened.
A strange, exhausted laugh that began somewhere under her ribs and escaped before she could stop it.
Michael started laughing next.
Then Sam.
Star's laughter came watery and breathless.
Alan tried to remain solemn for approximately four seconds.
Edgar lasted two seconds longer.
Marko gave up immediately.
Paul never seemed to have started trying.
Even Dwayne smiled.
Grandpa shook his head and returned to the kitchen.
David stood in the middle of all of it.
For a moment he looked baffled.
Then Michael reached for him.
It wasn't dramatic.
He simply extended a hand.
David stared at it.
Lucy saw hesitation.
Saw fear.
Saw the instinct to make some joke, turn the moment sharp, refuse before acceptance could become dangerous.
Then David took Michael's hand.
Michael pulled him down onto the arm of the couch.
David let him.
Sam noticed.
Sam opened his mouth.
Lucy pointed at him.
“Don't.”
“But—”
“Let your brother have 5 minutes.”
Sam considered.
“Can I make fun of him after?”
“Yes.”
Michael groaned.
“Mom.”
“I have another child to consider.”
David smiled.
A real smile this time.
It transformed his face.
He looked young.
Not 18, exactly.
But close enough that Lucy's chest hurt.
She looked at Dwayne.
He had moved toward the broken window, habitually putting himself between the room and whatever might approach from outside.
“Dwayne.”
He glanced back.
“You're staying.”
It wasn't a question.
His gaze traveled across the others.
Paul was examining Grandpa's record collection without permission.
Marko had begun arguing with Edgar about whether a stake counted as a concealed weapon.
Star sat tucked beneath Sam's offered blanket, Nanook resting his head on her lap, tail wagging.
David was still holding Michael's hand.
Dwayne's face softened.
“Looks like it.”
“Good.”
He inclined his head.
There was a gravity to him Lucy liked.
“You should sit down too.”
“I'm fine.”
She narrowed her eyes.
Dwayne paused.
Then smiled faintly.
“Michael says that?”
“All the time.”
“Right.”
He sat.
Lucy looked at Marko and Paul.
“You two.”
They snapped upright.
“No touching anything else tonight.”
Paul slowly withdrew his hand from a decorative ceramic rooster.
“Got it.”
Marko put Edgar's stake back.
Edgar immediately picked it up and clutched it protectively.
Lucy sighed.
“And you two.”
Edgar and Alan turned.
“Where are your parents?”
The Frog brothers exchanged a look.
Lucy did not like that look.
“The comic store,” Edgar said.
“That is not an answer.”
“We stay there.”
“Where do your parents stay?”
Another look.
Lucy closed her eyes.
“No.”
Sam grinned.
“Oh, this is incredible.”
“What's incredible?”
“You're doing the thing.”
“What thing?”
“The stray thing.”
“I don't have a stray thing.”
Michael laughed.
“Mom, you absolutely have a stray thing.”
“I do not.”
“You fed a possum for 6 months.”
“It was hungry.”
“You gave my jacket to that guy outside the grocery store.”
“He was cold.”
“You let Star stay.”
“She needs somewhere safe.”
“You just invited 4 vampires to move into Grandpa's house.”
“For one night.”
Paul raised his hand.
“Potentially longer?”
Lucy pointed without looking.
“Do not push your luck.”
His hand vanished.
Sam folded his arms triumphantly.
“You collect strays.”
Lucy looked around.
At Star.
At Edgar and Alan.
At 4 vampires pretending they weren't listening.
At her sons.
At Nanook, who had fallen asleep with his head on Star’s lap.
Then at the pile of Max's ashes ruining Grandpa's carpet.
“This is not collecting strays.”
“What is it?”
“Crisis management.”
Sam snorted.
Grandpa called from the kitchen, “Your mother has always collected strays!”
Lucy shouted, “You are not helping!”
“Didn't intend to!”
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
Michael stood.
“Mom.”
His voice had changed.
Softer.
Lucy dropped her hand.
He crossed the room and hugged her.
For one second she couldn't move.
Then her arms went around him.
He was taller than she was now.
When had that happened?
She remembered carrying him, half-asleep, out of the car.
She remembered scraped knees.
First days of school.
Doors slammed during arguments.
The awful night in Phoenix when he'd stood between her and his father and looked more frightened by his own anger than by anything else.
Now there was vampire blood on his hands.
His boyfriend—apparently—was born sometime during the 19th century.
Nothing about his future looked like anything Lucy had imagined.
But he was alive.
She tightened her arms.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Sam launched himself into them from the side.
Michael grunted.
“Sam!”
“What? Family moment.”
“You nearly broke my ribs.”
“You're a vampire. Heal.”
Lucy grabbed Sam and pulled him in.
He laughed against her shoulder.
For several seconds, everything else disappeared.
Her boys.
Alive.
Together.
Safe.
That was enough.
Then Lucy opened her eyes.
Seven additional faces were watching.
Star looked wistful.
Alan looked uncomfortable.
Edgar pretended to inspect his stake.
Paul smiled without his usual mischief.
Marko had gone strangely quiet.
Dwayne looked toward the window.
David stared at Michael.
Lucy knew that look too.
Not romance.
Something underneath it.
Longing, maybe.
Not for Michael alone.
For what Michael had.
Lucy released her sons.
“Okay.”
Michael immediately groaned.
“What?”
“You have your voice.”
“What voice?”
“Your deciding-things voice.”
“I don't have a deciding-things voice.”
“You do,” Sam said.
Grandpa shouted, “She does!”
“Dad!”
Lucy ignored them.
“It's almost morning.”
Four vampires immediately looked toward the windows.
That settled something else.
“We need curtains.”
David stood.
“We can go.”
“No.”
“Lucy—”
“The cave is farther away than wherever you can safely hide here.”
“The windows—”
“Basement,” Grandpa called.
Everyone turned.
Grandpa emerged carrying an armful of blankets.
“Basement doesn't have windows.”
Lucy stared at him.
“What?”
He shrugged.
“Dog likes 'em.”
That apparently explained everything.
Grandpa tossed the blankets at Dwayne.
Dwayne caught them automatically.
“Don't touch my tools. Don't touch my freezer. Don't touch anything covered by a sheet.”
Paul frowned.
“Why?”
“Because it's covered by a sheet.”
“What is it?”
“Paul,” David warned.
Paul squinted toward Grandpa.
Grandpa squinted back.
Paul grinned.
“I like him.”
“Poor judgment,” Grandpa said.
“Gets that a lot,” Marko replied.
Grandpa pointed toward the hallway.
“Basement.”
The four vampires moved.
Star stood uncertainly.
“You too,” Lucy said.
Star's eyes widened.
“I can sleep upstairs?”
“Of course.”
“I don't need to be invited?”
Lucy paused.
“Is that a vampire rule?”
David stopped.
“Humans don't need invitations.”
Star looked down.
Lucy's heart broke a little.
“Well,” she said, “I'm inviting you anyway.”
Star looked at her.
“You are welcome here.”
Her eyes filled.
Again.
Lucy suspected there would be a lot of that over the coming weeks.
“Thank you.”
“You can use the guest room.”
Sam gasped.
“My room is the guest room.”
“You have a sleeping bag.”
“Betrayal.”
“Survival.”
“Where am I sleeping?”
“With the Frogs.”
All three kids shouted at once.
“No!”
Lucy smiled.
“Figure it out.”
She turned toward David.
He had stopped beside Michael.
Neither seemed willing to acknowledge that their hands had drifted together again.
Lucy pointed between them.
“Separate sleeping arrangements.”
Michael nearly combusted.
“Mom!”
Paul howled.
Marko slapped the wall.
Dwayne looked delighted in the quiet way of somebody who had waited decades to see David humiliated properly.
David, to his credit, merely lifted an eyebrow.
“I don't sleep.”
“Convenient.”
“I mean vampires don't actually need much—”
“Separate.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
Silence.
David looked horrified at the automatic response.
Paul fell down.
Lucy smiled sweetly.
“Goodnight, David.”
He stared at her.
Michael was laughing too hard to help.
Eventually David muttered, “Goodnight.”
The vampires disappeared downstairs.
Star followed Lucy toward the guest room.
Edgar, Alan, and Sam began arguing over floor space.
Grandpa turned off the remaining lamps.
Michael lingered.
Lucy noticed.
“Go.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“You want to say goodnight.”
“To who?”
She stared at him.
His face reddened.
“I hate this family.”
“No, you don't.”
Michael glanced toward the basement door.
“No.”
He smiled.
“I really don't.”
“Five minutes.”
“Mom.”
“Three.”
“You just said five!”
“Two.”
Michael vanished toward the basement.
Lucy smiled.
Then she saw the ash.
Her smile disappeared.
Max.
She stared at what remained of him.
For weeks, she'd thought he was kind.
For weeks she'd questioned whether she was imagining things whenever his attention became too intense, whenever his questions about Michael felt too personal, whenever he spoke about protecting her as though protection required permission.
She had almost dismissed herself again.
That frightened her more than vampires.
Star touched her arm.
“You killed him.”
Lucy looked at her.
Star's gaze rested on the ash.
“He thought you wouldn't.”
“Probably.”
“He thought wanting you made you his.”
Lucy's throat tightened.
“Yes.”
Star nodded as though confirming something privately.
“David used to say Max didn't love anybody.”
Lucy looked toward the basement.
“David seems like he says a lot of things.”
“He does.”
Star smiled faintly.
“He's usually trying not to say the thing he actually means.”
Lucy considered that.
“That sounds exhausting.”
“It is.”
They shared a smile.
Then Star whispered, “He loved us.”
Lucy looked at her.
“David?”
“All of us. Dwayne. Paul. Marko. Me, I think. Even when he was terrible at it.”
Her gaze drifted toward where Michael had disappeared.
“He thought Max was the reason we were a family.”
Lucy understood.
“And now?”
Star's eyes moved to Lucy.
“Now he doesn't know.”
Lucy took her hand.
“Families survive losing the person who tried to own them.”
Star stared at her.
Lucy squeezed gently.
“Sometimes that's when they finally get to become one.”
A noise came from downstairs.
“OW!”
Lucy closed her eyes.
Michael shouted, “David!”
David shouted something incomprehensible.
Paul yelled, “I didn't do anything!”
Marko yelled, “For once, he's telling the truth!”
Dwayne shouted, “Stop touching that!”
Grandpa thundered from the kitchen, “I SAID DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING COVERED BY A SHEET!”
Then came an enormous crash.
Lucy opened her eyes.
Star covered her mouth.
They stared at each other.
Another crash.
Sam ran into the hallway.
“Mom!”
“What?”
“Nanook stole Edgar's stake!”
Edgar sprinted after him.
“GET BACK HERE, HOUND!”
Nanook rocketed through the living room carrying a wooden stake proudly between his teeth.
Alan followed.
“Don't chase him! He thinks it's a game!”
“It is not a game!”
Nanook jumped onto the couch.
Sam lunged.
Nanook escaped.
Edgar tripped over Sam.
Alan tripped over Edgar.
Paul erupted from the basement.
“What happened?”
“Nanook's armed!” Sam shouted.
Paul's entire face lit up.
“Awesome.”
“No!” Lucy yelled.
Paul chased the dog.
Marko appeared.
Saw Paul.
Saw Nanook.
Immediately joined.
Dwayne emerged afterward, took in the situation, and slowly leaned against the wall.
“I give up.”
David appeared last.
His hair was disheveled.
Michael was behind him.
Lucy's eyes narrowed.
Michael pointed downstairs.
“Paul threw something at us.”
“I did not!” Paul shouted while pursuing Nanook around the couch.
“What broke?”
Grandpa demanded.
Nobody answered.
“What broke?”
Marko yelled, “Nothing important!”
Grandpa went pale.
“THE LAMP?”
Everybody froze.
Nanook froze too.
The stake dropped from his mouth.
Paul stopped mid-stride.
Marko looked toward the basement.
Grandpa's expression became terrible.
“My lamp.”
“What lamp?” Lucy asked.
“The lamp.”
“What lamp?”
“The lamp I told them not to touch.”
Paul whispered, “Oh.”
Grandpa advanced.
The Lost Boys backed away.
Lucy folded her arms.
“Dad.”
“No.”
“They're guests.”
“One hour.”
“Dad.”
“One hour! They've been here one hour!”
“Technically,” Sam said, “they were already here during the murder attempt.”
Grandpa turned.
Sam hid behind Lucy.
Coward.
Grandpa pointed toward the basement.
“Who's responsible?”
Paul and Marko immediately pointed at David.
David stared at them.
“You traitors.”
“Family,” Paul said brightly.
“That is not what family means!”
Lucy began laughing.
She couldn't help it.
Star laughed beside her.
Then Michael.
Sam joined.
Alan surrendered next.
Even Edgar eventually cracked.
Dwayne slid down the wall, shoulders shaking.
Paul and Marko were helpless.
Grandpa remained furious for another ten seconds before his mouth twitched.
David looked around at all of them.
At the crowded, demolished house.
At the dog holding vampire-hunting equipment.
At the woman who had murdered his sire and immediately started making him follow household rules.
At Michael.
Something changed.
Not dramatically.
No grand declaration.
No sudden healing.
Just one tiny surrender.
David laughed.
Outside, dawn began painting Santa Carla pink.
Inside, Lucy Emerson surveyed the wreckage of her father's house and the impossible collection of people filling it.
2 sons.
1 father.
1 dog.
1 girl who needed somewhere safe.
2 teenage vampire hunters who apparently had nowhere sensible to go.
4 immortal disasters in leather.
And, unless Lucy was very much mistaken, one developing relationship that was going to give her a migraine.
This was not the fresh start she had imagined.
There would be practical problems.
Food.
Money.
Sleeping arrangements.
School.
Blood.
Explaining why four men who looked twenty hadn't aged when the neighbors inevitably noticed.
Convincing Edgar that garlic did not need to be hung above every doorway.
Convincing Paul to stop touching things.
Convincing Marko that daggars did not belong on the kitchen table.
Convincing David that accepting help did not constitute defeat.
Convincing Michael that dating someone born in the late 1800’s required more than shrugging and saying it was complicated.
There would be arguments.
There would be nightmares.
There would be questions none of them knew how to answer.
Max was dead, but the things he had done would not disappear with him.
Neither would the things Lucy's ex-husband had done.
Families were not magic.
Love did not erase damage.
But maybe it could give people somewhere safe enough to start repairing it.
Lucy looked around the room.
“Everybody.”
Slowly, the laughter faded.
9 faces turned toward her.
Grandpa leaned against the doorway.
Nanook sat proudly beside her feet.
Lucy took a breath.
“House rules start tomorrow.”
Groans erupted.
“Tomorrow?” Paul cried.
“We have rules tonight?”
“You already have one.”
“No murder,” Marko recited.
“No murder,” Lucy confirmed.
Edgar raised his hand.
“What about self-defense?”
“Obviously self-defense is different.”
“What about suspected vampires?”
“No.”
“What if they hiss first?”
“No.”
“What if—”
“Edgar.”
He lowered his hand.
David tilted his head.
“And if somebody breaks the rules?”
Lucy smiled.
Michael immediately backed away.
He recognized that smile.
Sam recognized it too.
“Oh, man.”
David, foolishly, did not.
“What are you going to do?”
Lucy looked directly at him.
“Parent you.”
The Lost Boys stared.
Michael covered his face.
Sam began laughing again.
Grandpa lifted his beer in salute.
Star smiled.
Dwayne looked genuinely intrigued.
Marko whispered, “What's that mean?”
Paul whispered back, “I don't know.”
David stared at Lucy Emerson, slayer of Max, mother of Michael and Sam, distributor of pancakes, enforcer of sleeping arrangements, and apparently self-appointed guardian of every supernatural disaster unfortunate enough to wander through her front door.
For perhaps the first time in more than a century, David looked afraid.
Lucy smiled wider.
“Breakfast at 6pm.”
Paul's fear vanished.
“Pancakes?”
“Yes, Paul.”
He punched the air.
Lucy shook her head.
Outside, the sun rose over Santa Carla.
Inside, the vampires fled to the basement, the humans found somewhere to sleep, Grandpa mourned his lamp, Nanook stole Edgar's stake again, and Michael disappeared downstairs for considerably longer than the 2 minutes Lucy had authorized.
Lucy noticed.
Of course she noticed.
She decided not to say anything.
For tonight.
She closed the curtains.
Locked the door.
Turned off the lights.
And, for the first time since leaving Phoenix, Lucy Emerson stood inside a house overflowing with people and did not feel trapped.
The house was loud.
It was damaged.
It was overcrowded.
It contained at least 4 people who had probably committed felonies before she was even born.
But nobody inside owned anybody else.
Nobody's love came with a threat.
Nobody was required to stay.
That was enough.
For now, that was family.