“Because you wanted to be taken care of!” Jack’s words became a howl, half-drowned in the crash of lightning. She whipped her glasses off, squinting at her sister. “You wanted someone to pet you, and pamper you, and—and let you be fragile for a while! And I didn’t! I was done being fragile. I wanted to have an adventure, I wanted to learn things and do things and not just be someone’s precious trinket! Neither of us had any choices, Jill, we never got to be sure of anything! So I left you, because if I didn’t choose to go, we were going to keep not choosing anything. I’m sorry. I failed to be your sister. I didn’t realize you needed me. But that doesn’t make it right for you to take whatever you want and act like no one else matters. People matter. I matter.”

“Not for long, little spare,” growled a voice.

Jack didn’t turn. Kade and Sumi did. There, behind them in the entryway, loomed a tall, black-haired man in a red-lined velvet cloak. His shirt and teeth were almost blinding in their brightness. He smiled, showing the wicked points of those same teeth, and he lunged for Kade, hissing.

Sumi’s baling hook caught him in the throat before he could reach the boy. “Naughty vampire,” she said, hauling backward, piercing his trachea. “It’s not nice to bite people you don’t know. It sends the wrong message.”

Kade yelped and scrambled backward, away from the Master’s grasping hands. He stumbled over a chunk of broken masonry. Stooping, he grabbed it and slung it as hard as he could at the Master’s face, hitting him squarely in the mouth. The Master howled. Sumi hauled on her baling hook again, keeping him from recovering his balance, while Kade grabbed more pieces of masonry and flung them, one after the other, like he thought he could win a prize if he hit the bullseye enough times. Cora rolled the largest chunks of stone she could find toward him, positioning them perfectly for his hand.

“This is fun,” Sumi chirped. “I could do this all day.”

“Father!” shrieked Jill, and ran toward the struggling vampire.

Jack stomped on the edge of her nightgown, jerking her to a sudden stop. Jill hissed and whirled around, reaching for her sister as the thunder rolled. Jack’s body was stronger and faster, and Jill nearly had her hands around her sister’s throat when Christopher’s skeletons came boiling over the walls and swarmed the pair, grabbing only for Jill, dragging her back without dragging her away.

In the noise and chaos, it was understandable that the small, simple sound of Jack’s glasses snapping in two went overlooked. She grabbed Jill’s hand, tangling it in her carefully positioned cravat, until they were solidly tied together.

“I did love you,” she whispered. “Please believe that much, if you can.”