“Surprise!” came a chorus of voices from the front of the church, and I spun, heart pounding. “Happy birthday!”

I stared, my mouth hanging open and my hands in fists as the pint of Choco-Chunk rolled to Ivy’s feet. She was actually smiling, and I slowly stood straight. My heart was still hammering away, and Jenks was making darting loops from me to her, shedding a brilliant gold.

“We got her!” he was shouting, and what looked like all his kids took up the refrain, filling the air with color and sound. “We got her good, Ivy. Look at her. Not a clue!”

Shocked, I fumbled for the bags. David, Keasley, and Ceri were at the couch, and Ivy was standing by the far light switch. Everyone was smiling, but then, as Jenks had said, they’d gotten me good.

There were no vampires here other than Ivy, and the only drink I could see were the three two-liters of soda on the coffee table. The smell of vampire, cigarettes, and old beer was coming from the battered pool table now set up to one side of the sanctuary. It hadn’t been there when I had left. Seeing it, I felt my throat close up. It had been Kisten’s. “But my birthday was last month,” I said, still confused.

Ceri came forward. There was a cone hat on her head, but she somehow made it look more dignified than one had any right to expect. “We didn’t forget,” she said, giving me a quick hug. “We were distracted. Happy birthday, Rachel.”

I honestly didn’t know what to say. Keasley had on a hat, too, and when he saw me look at him, he took it off. The pixies, though, kept theirs on, darting about like mad.

My gaze went to the pool table, and tears pricked at my eyes. From there I looked to the surrounding faces. Under their smiles they were pleading, almost desperate for me to pretend everything was normal. That life was getting back to what it should be. That I wasn’t missing a huge piece of myself. That there was one person that should be here who wasn’t, and never would be again.

So I smiled.

“Wow,” I said, coming to take the ice cream Ivy had picked up off the floor. “This is great! And yeah, I’m surprised.” I let the bags of groceries slip to the couch and took off my coat. “I really don’t believe this. Thanks, guys.”

Ceri gave my upper arm a squeeze in support, and then her expression blanked. “I forgot the cake!” she exclaimed, green eyes going wide. “I left it on my table!”

“There’s cake?” I said, wincing when Jenks flicked on the stereo and Marilyn Manson’s “Personal Jesus” blared out before he turned it down. Ceri must have made it, because we’d thrown the old one out. I hadn’t been able to eat it while Kisten lay in the morgue, and now that he was cremated and in Ivy’s room, I felt no different. But tonight other people’s feelings were involved, and I realized I was going to have to eat Ceri’s cake or risk hurting her feelings.