“I’m afraid so, dear.” The mistress of the manor touched the girl’s cheek with surprising tenderness, a gesture belied by the fact that she licked her tears from her fingertips. Mortal sorrow, tastier than werewolf blood. “But you have the makings of a fine acolyte, and you may return to take your place among us when you’re of age.” She shifted her gaze, now markedly cooler, to me. “I trust tonight’s outcome is satisfactory, Hel’s liaison?”

That wasn’t exactly the word I would have chosen, but at least we’d gotten what we came for.

Still . . .

“You played a dangerous game for your own amusement, my lady,” I said in a low voice. “If it had gone the other way, I’d be trying to convince the chief of police not to return at sunrise with a search warrant and a battering ram.”

Lady Eris lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. “That would be very ill-advised for all concerned.”

“I know.” Whatever the outcome, I suspected it would result in a bloodbath that would shatter the tenuous peace Hel’s order maintained between eldritch and mundane communities. “I’m just saying.”

“Very well. If you’re done ‘just saying,’ you have my leave to depart,” her ladyship said pointedly.

“Come on, Daisy.” Cody took me by the elbow, steering me toward the grand staircase, his other hand resting on Heather Simkus’s shoulder. “Let’s go. We’ve got anxious parents waiting.”

On the second-floor landing, Heather pulled away from him to cast one last, longing glance toward the top of the staircase, where Bethany and Geoffrey were standing to watch her departure. He had his arm wrapped around her waist, and there were what appeared to be genuine looks of remorse and regret on their faces. I couldn’t tell if the vibe was sexual or parental or cultish, or a combination of the three.

One thing was for sure—it was creepy.

Outside, Heather slumped morosely in the backseat of the police cruiser while Cody radioed in to report that she’d been found.

“Look,” I said softly to her, “I know high school sucks. But it gets better.”

“Easy for you to say,” she murmured. “You were probably a cheerleader.”

Beside me, Cody overhead the comment and snorted into the radio handset. “Um, yeah, not so much,” I said to Heather. “I just mean . . . I know you thought that’s what you wanted, but it’s a very, very dangerous choice. Vampires in real life aren’t like the ones in the movies. They weren’t going to be playing baseball in a thunderstorm.”

She gave me an anguished look. “You don’t understand anything. I know what it was like! I was there! With people who care about art and music, real art and real music, and history and poetry, and . . . and languages, languages like Greek and Latin, and everything everyone I know thinks is stupid . . .”