Reg took the next line, his own performance not holding the weight of Poe’s, but carrying that same softness, meant not for the audience, but the boy next to him.

“‘And this weak and idle theme, no more yielding but a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend.’”

“‘And, as I am an honest Puck—’” Poe broke away from my brother’s gaze, to wave the script at the director. “See, I’m still Puck, not a player. It feels like the delivery should be . . .”

I tuned out while Poe and the director debated, my coffee craving now top of mind. The human need for coffee was not unlike the vampire need for blood. Going too long without either made me weak, tired, and cranky. Strange that a thing that defined us as vampire was not so inhuman after all.

A short while later, I was curled up in my favorite chair at All Hours, a cup of hot coffee cradled between my hands and Dexter present to keep Reg and Poe from excessive PDA. Of course, I wouldn’t have minded a little public display of affection from Dexter to me, but after the Halloween-store incident, I was actively fighting the urge to flirt. It didn’t matter how green his eyes were, how defined his muscles, how natural his charm—if he wasn’t interested enough to ask me out, there was clearly something wrong with him.

I tossed my hair and humphed a little.

“Problem?” Poe asked, catching my pout.

All three boys looked up at me, and I felt my face flush. Avoiding eye contact with Dexter, I stammered, “It’s just too quiet in here today. Isn’t it? Quieter than usual. Super quiet. Yeah. Huh.”

Reg and Poe exchanged looks, and Reg said, “It was quiet, anyway.”

Dexter sipped his latte, his face unreadable.

“Well, you’re right that it’s quiet here without Syd and Soph,” Poe said.

The twins had missed school to attend the funeral of an aunt who’d passed away a few days before. They kept saying it had been coming for some time but was still sudden, and everyone else nodded as if this made sense. Reg and I had asked Sal about it, but he couldn’t manage to effectively explain how death could be simultaneously expected and unexpected.

I actually had zero interest in learning the nuance of death and every intention of reclaiming my immortality as soon as possible. Still, I didn’t want to seem like an insensitive monster to my new friends, so I had googled something appropriate to say to Sydney and Sophia, and it seemed to work, since they hugged me and cried on my shoulder.