Adante bowed to Lina in a bored way. “Thank you, Adelina, for your wisdom. May we always seek the counsel of our Ancients.”

The other four Elder leaders also bowed.

“However,” Adante said as he straightened. “While Ancients may counsel, it is the Elders who govern. And so, our decision has already been made.”

I knew it.

“That’s not fair,” I said, though it hardly mattered.

“No, it is likely not,” he said. “And I see now that it would have been better to wait to hear all you had to say tonight.”

Was that sarcasm? I felt my cheeks pink, knowing I had not impressed. Even if they had heard us out before making a decision, I was sure I had done very little to help our case.

Adante considered us a moment, thinking to himself, then said, “Yes, perhaps had we waited . . . Nevertheless, it’s done, and the answer is yes.”

“Wait!” I cried. “You can’t just—”

Just . . .

“Did you say . . . ?”

Yes?

“Yes?” Reg finished.

“Against our better judgment,” Adante said.

Yes!

“But we have a need,” he added.

“What need?” Reg asked.

I had the same question but was too breathless to speak.

“Tell them about the conditions,” the Elder girl said.

My shock, poised to spill over into excitement, now stuck in my throat like tar. I forced it down with a swallow. “Conditions?”

“A formality, really,” Adante said, straightening the sleeves of his robe. “We simply need your help procuring something.”

Well, that didn’t sound too bad. Reg and I could still be pretty stealthy, even without our immortal powers. As long as they didn’t want us to rob a bank or something, in which case . . . whatever, I would still figure it out. We were going home!

I flashed a smile at Reg, but his eyes were hooded. Of course he wasn’t happy. He wasn’t quite ready to return to our true lives, but it was now or never. He had to see that!

“What we need,” Adante went on, “is something you are uniquely positioned to help us acquire.”

“Anything,” I promised.

Adante actually smiled, the tips of his fangs just visible. “Lovely. Perhaps this will not be a mistake after all. Simply deliver the village of Nowhere, and you’ll once again be one of us.”

“Deliver the—”

“Nowhere?”

Reg and I talked on top of one another.

“The whole town?”

“How do you deliver a—”

“Exactly what would that entail—”

“The whole town?!”

Adante closed his eyes and touched a hand to his ear. “One at a time, please.”

“So noisy,” the Elder girl said. She looked at us as if observing animals in a zoo. “Were they also loud vampires, or is it a human-acquired condition?”

“You can study them later,” Lina snarled from behind us. “I want to hear the rest of this proposal.”

I felt her presence as she positioned herself at our shoulders, sensed a kind of angry heat radiating off her.